In this episode we invite James "Midge" Ure to talk us through his wonderfully convoluted career in a conversation that stretches from Slik to Visage — via the Rich Kids, the Blitz club and Live Aid — to his present-day Backstage Lockdown Club. With a special focus on the New Romantics, RBP's hosts ask Midge about Ultravox, whose classic Vienna album is 40 years old this week, and touch on the "manifesto" that Sounds' Betty Page put together with Spandau Ballet in that same year. Midge also pitc...
Oct 12, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 84
In this week's episode, we welcome the wonderful Jude Rogers into RBP's very own Gridworld. Live from her native Wales, the far-from-obscure Jude reviews her career as a music scribe from The Llanelli Star to The Word, revisiting interviews with megastar-in-the-making Adele Atkins and wholly reformed cocaine fiend Tony Bennett. Jude also reflects on a 2008 thinkpiece about the Beach Boys' influence on Fleet Foxes, the latter having just "dropped" a rather fine new album, Shore, with minimum fanf...
Sep 28, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 84
In this week's episode, we invite cult meta-comedian and out-there-music connoisseur Stewart Lee to discuss the new documentary he's made about Prefects/Nightingales legend Robert Lloyd. Stewart also pitches in on RBP's new audio interview, a 1991 conversation 'twixt the late Andy Gill and everyone's favourite choirboy-voiced Commie Robert Wyatt. In addition we consider the week's featured RBP writer Caitlin Moran, with especial attention to her hair-raising 1994 encounter with Courtney Love. Pl...
Sep 14, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 83
In this week's episode, Mark and Jasper are joined by the fabulous Vicki Wickham to chat all things pop and beyond, starting with her experiences as producer of TV show Ready, Steady, Go! in swinging sixties London, when Vicki became good friends with Dusty Springfield, through writing for Fabulous and Melody Maker to managing Labelle in the 70s and much else besides. Vicki talks about how she got her foot in the door of television and reminisces about writing lyrics for Dusty, then tells the st...
Aug 31, 2020•54 min•Ep. 82
In this episode, Barney & Jasper welcome the legendary Alan McGee into RBP's virtual cupboard. The Creation Records founder talks us through his storied career, from his school days in Glasgow to the Creation 23 label of the 21st century. Reminiscing about the early '80s Living Room gigs he put on in London, Alan describes the signings of Oasis, the Jesus and Mary Chain another great Creation acts. He also explains how Primal Scream got from Sonic Flower Groove to Screamadelica; how he almos...
Aug 17, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 81
In this episode we welcome the wonderful Mary Harron, director of cult movies I Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho. After a brief digression on dating Tony Blair at Oxford, the Canadian relives her memories of the punk rock scene at New York's CBGB club, including her interviews with the Ramones and Talking Heads for John Holmstrom & Legs McNeil's pioneering Punk magazine. Mary also talks about her friendship with ZE's Michael Zilkha and her long fascination with Warhol and the Factory. Al...
Aug 03, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 80
In this episode we are joined by self-professed "failed musician" and pasta-sauce mogul Loyd Grossman, OBE, to wax nostalgic about the most important years of his illustrious career: those he spent as a contributor to Fusion, Rolling Stone and other American music papers. Loyd reminisces very amusingly about seminal late '60s shows at the Boston tea party, before explaining how he moved to London and reinvented himself as a British national treasure on TV and in every kitchen in the country. He ...
Jul 20, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 79
In this week's episode, we welcome former Face editor Sheryl Garratt into RBP's Zoomworld to ask her about rave and club culture – and how we got from disco to acid house to 2020's quarantine raves. Sheryl discusses her newly-reissued/revised 1999 classic Adventures in Wonderland and looks back on her journey from the NME to The Observer. Mark, Barney & Jasper ask her about her seminal 1986 Face piece on Chicago's House scene – and about Ecstasy and 1988's "second summer of love". Clips from...
Jul 06, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 78
In this week's episode, we welcome legendary Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis into RBP's virtual cupboard. Averse to nostalgia though he is, Geoff looks back on the musical odyssey that took him from suburban north London to San Francisco's City Lights bookstore — and then back to Notting Hill Gate, where the Rough Trade story started in 1976. Mark and Barney ask him about the label's many remarkable artists (from the Fall to the Smiths), the Cartel distribution network he set up, and the compan...
Jun 22, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 77
In this week's episode, Mark, Barney and Jasper discuss the role music has played in expressing the pain and rage of Black Americans. Touching on such seminal figures as Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield and the Last Poets, they listen to clips from a 1976 audio interview with the late Gil Scott-Heron, assessing his militant poetics and the albums he made with Brian Jackson. From there, the RBP team considers interviews with Public Enemy's Chuck D in 1992 and, from 2015, Kendrick Lamar. They also dis...
Jun 08, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 76
In this week's episode, we welcome the great Jonh Ingham into RBP's "virtual cupboard". In a fascinating conversation, he revisits the peripatetic childhood that took him to California in the '60s – and to San Francisco's Fillmore West, where in 1971 he reviewed a famous Aretha Franklin show for Creem magazine. Mark & Barney ask him about his return to the UK, where he wrote for NME and then Sounds, championing London's nascent punk scene in early '76 and conducting the first interview with ...
Jun 01, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 75
In this week's episode, Mark, Barney & Jasper talk extensively about one of the great record labels — a hallowed home to such groundbreaking acts as Jimmy Cliff, Nick Drake, Roxy Music, (Bob Marley and) the Wailers and, yes, U2. Listening to clips from John Tobler's 1989 audio interview with Island founder Chris Blackwell, RBP's power trio reflect on what made the label such a powerhouse for non-mainstream genres like folk and reggae. Blackwell talks of its transformation after 1967, as well...
May 25, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 74
In this week's episode, we welcome special guest James Fox, author of 1982's bestselling White Mischief and the man who, ten years ago, made Keith Richards' Life one of rock's outstanding autobiographies. James talks us through his long and distinguished career as a journalist in Africa, and as a features writer during the golden era of The Sunday Times Magazine. He describes how his friendship with "Keef" was cemented by the pieces he wrote for that publication about the Rolling Stones in 1973 ...
May 18, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 73
In this week's episode of the RBP podcast, we pay tribute to Kraftwerk cofounder Florian Schneider, along with Afrobeat linchpin Tony Allen and Stranglers keyboardist Dave Greenfield. The excellent Simon Witter joins us to offer essential expertise on Schneider's vital part in making Kraftwerk the hugely influential group they were, with discussion revolving around our guest's epic MOJO retrospective on the electronica godfathers. RBP's regular triumvirate consider pieces by the week's featured ...
May 11, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 72
In this week's episode, RBP's very own Terrible Trio are joined by the legendary Jill Furmanovsky for a free-ranging conversation about her long career – and about rock photography in general. Jill describes her lucky 1972 break at London's Rainbow Theatre, talks about shooting Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan, and namechecks fellow snappers Pennie Smith and Barrie Wentzell. Discussion follows about free pieces (on Henry Diltz, Dennis Morris, and Barry Feinstein) by Observer photography critic Sean O'Ha...
May 04, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 71
Content warning: This episode contains discussion of assault (1:02:28–1:05:20) that some listeners may find distressing. In the 70th episode of our podcast, RBP's Zooming triumvirate talk about the Who's Live at Leeds — "the greatest live album ever made," in many people's H.O. — as it reaches its half-century. Referencing Geoffrey Cannon's unabridged Guardian review from May 1970, Mark & Barney relive memories of seeing the Who live and — with Jasper — explore what made the band such a uniq...
Apr 27, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 70
In this week's episode, your regular co-hosts are joined for the second time by RBP's original co-founder Martin Colyer, beamed in from Leyton, to offer his invaluable thoughts on Lucinda Williams and Greil Marcus' classic Mystery Train. Williams prompts near-rapturous approval for her 1998 masterpiece Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, with Mark and Barney similarly admiring its southern poetics and Americana-defining country soul. Conversation flows seamlessly into the impact of Marcus' 1975 game-ch...
Apr 20, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 69
In this week's podcast – the second to be recorded remotely under the lockdown — Mark, Barney & Jasper are joined by special guest Paul Gorman to discuss his long and multi-faceted career — and his epic new biography of Malcolm McLaren. We also hear clips from the week's new audio interview: a 1989 conversation with "Malcy" himself, wherein the former Sex Pistols manager and professional provocateur voices his disdain for the music industry, his becoming an artist in his own right… and his d...
Apr 13, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 68
After its enforced break, the RBP podcast returns for its first remotely-recorded episode. Mark, Barney & Jasper — all splendidly self-isolated, if not entirely locked down — are reunited online to run through everything that's new or free on Rock's Backpages. Noting the sad losses of Cristina, Manu Dibango and Fountains Of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger — all recent victims of the virus – RBP's troika discuss the week's new audio interview, a 2000 conversation with a supremely droll Warren Zevon,...
Apr 06, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 67
In this week's episode, RBP's self-styled "power trio" pay tribute to the late Charlie Gillett, without whose seminal 1970 book The Sound Of The City Rock's Backpages probably wouldn't exist. It is a decade since we lost Charlie – one of the first RBP writers to come on board, back in 2000 – so we wanted to do justice to the enduring influence of The Sound, as well as to his wonderful "Honky Tonk" radio show, his Oval Records label and his passionate championing of African and other "world" musi...
Mar 16, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 66
In this week's episode, Mark & Barney are joined by a not-so-"Anonymous" Michael Watts, who regales his hosts with tales of life as the Walsall Observer's "Mick" Watts before reminiscing about his halcyon days as one of Melody Maker's star '70s scribes. Watts waxes poetic – not to mention humorous – about his encounters with David Bowie, Bob Dylan, the Sex Pistols and others, and about the Maker's rivalry with the N(ew) M(usical) E(xpress). Mark & Barney grill him on the MM's response to...
Mar 09, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 65
In this week's episode, RBP's original "house band" pays homage to New Orleans funkmeisters the Meters, enjoys Frances Morgan's 2004 interview with the 22-year-old Joanna Newsom, and listens to the late Buzzy Linhart telling Steve Roeser about Lenny Bruce's 1964 bust at New York's Café au Go Go. Road-weary veterans Mark & Barney saddle up with hip young gunslinger Jasper to explore the Meters' close involvement with Crescent City maestro Allen Toussaint – and the unique grooves of funk class...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 64
In this week's episode, Mark & Barney invite the ever-entertaining Neil Tennant to look back on his time at Smash Hits magazine — and on how he became pop's ultimate poacher-turned-gamekeeper. Neil talks about mid-'70s London and about interviewing a pudgy Marc Bolan for Marvel UK. He recalls the laughter and irreverence of his 1982-85 stint at Smash Hits before the Pet Shop Boys shot to No. 1 in Britain and then America. After hearing clips of himself speaking to Steven Daly in 1996, he att...
Feb 21, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 63
In this week's episode, RBP's power trio reforms to talk about all that's new – and everything that's free – on the site this week. Los tres hombres start with the solo Bryan Ferry, a.k.a. "Byron Ferrari", a.k.a. "Friern Barnet", revisiting the Roxy Music frontman's makeover as a dinner-jacketed lounge lizard and aspiring country gentleman. They then mark the publication of Mike Barnes' Prog-Rock magnum opus A New Day Yesterday with a free-ranging chinwag about the pros and cons of said genre – ...
Feb 14, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 62
In this week's episode, Mark and Barney are joined by the delightful Colleen "Cosmo" Murphy to mark the 50th anniversary of David Mancuso's legendary first Loft party in New York City. Colleen talks about her friendship with Mancuso and about her own musical journey as a revered DJ (not to mention host of Classic Album Sundays). Barney notes the week's featured writer Daryl Easlea — and specifically his pieces on Elvis Presley the movie star and (tying in with this week's reissue of his excellen...
Feb 07, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 61
In this week's episode, we wave a sad goodbye to the EU with the aid of Dorian Lynskey, Guardian contributor, author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute and The Ministry Of Truth, and host of the excellent Remainiacs podcast. Dorian talks Mark, Barney & Jasper through his stellar career in music writing, focusing on his interviews with German superstar Paul van Dyk and French electro-House robots Daft Punk. Dorian also discusses Remainiacs on the eve of the Brexit countdown, and the four remoaners ...
Jan 31, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 60
In this week's episode, Mark & Barney welcome the wonderful Laura Barton and learn all about her career as a star Guardian writer – and as an author and broadcaster. Laura talks about her travels in America, and about working with photographer Sarah Lee on the newly-published collection West Of West. The hosts ask her about her pieces on Bon Iver, Daniel Johnston and Riot Grrrl power – and more generally about her deeply personal approach to music writing. A new Sam Cooke box set prompts a c...
Jan 17, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 59
In the first episode of 2020, Mark, Barney & Jasper celebrate the 40th birthday of James Blood Ulmer's startling Are You Glad to be in America? Pringle waxes lyrical about seeing Ulmer live and about the man's influence on his own guitar-playing – and then, with his colleagues, discusses the "punk-jazz" scene that coalesced around JBU, James Chance, Defunkt and others. RBP's power trio then considers amusing interviews with Billy Idol, Gerry [and the Pacemakers] Marsden and Solomon Burke by ...
Jan 10, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 58
In this week's episode – the last of 2019 – Mark, Barney & "Jazzbo" see out the year by celebrating the sheer majesty of Aretha Franklin and the posthumously-released Amazing Grace documentary. Featured writer Tom Cox provides the perfect segue: a 1999 piece about the Queen Of Soul and her Atlantic Records producer/mentor Jerry Wexler. Your hosts also enjoy a chuckle as they revisit Tom's 2004 piece on Apple's new GarageBand "workstation". Attention then turns to a 2007 audio interview with ...
Dec 20, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 57
On the day after the UK's Tory landslide, Mark & Barney ask the legendary Kris Needs to look back at the legacy of ultimate agit-rockers the Clash on the 40th anniversary of their classic London Calling. Needs reminisces about key music venue Friar's in Aylesbury and his involvement with (and subsequent stewardship of) Pete Frame's seminal ZigZag magazine. His hosts ask about Just a Shot Away, Part 1 of his memoir of the pivotal rock year of 1969, and then discuss his integral involvement wi...
Dec 13, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 56
