C86 Show - Indie Pop

Graeme Revell in conversation with David Eastaugh  Soundtrack composer, experimental musician and author. Born in Auckland, New Zealand on 23 October 1955. Moved to Australia where he founded the legendary industrial band SPK in 1978. After 3 records of extreme noise assaults and controversial subjects, SPK turned toward synth-pop, consisting of just Revell and his then wife Sinan Leong. In the mid 1980s Revell started the Musique Brut label to release some solo recordings in the fields of ambient and experimental music. He then evolved into composing soundtracks for a lot of mid and high-budget Hollywood productions, becoming very succesful at it.

Barry Blue in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://barryblue.co.uk/home English singer, producer, and songwriter. As an artist, he is best known for his hit songs "Dancin' (on a Saturday Night)" and "Do You Wanna Dance" (both 1973). Blue has also been a prolific songwriter and producer for many artists and has had over forty worldwide hits, including those by Andrea Bocelli, Diana Ross, Celine Dion, The Saturdays, The Wanted, and Pixie Lott. In film and television, Blue has provided soundtracks and/or themes for productions including Eyes of Laura Mars, The Long Good Friday, and Escape to Athena.

Alfie Agnew in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://professorandthemadman.bandcamp.com/ https://professorandthemadman.com/ American mathematician, singer, musician and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Agnew is best known for being a member of the punk bands the Adolescents and D.I. as well as the group Professor and the Madman. Alfie's brothers Rikk Agnew and Frank Agnew are also former Adolescents guitarists.

John L Williams in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heatwave-Summer-Britain-Boiling-Point/dp/1800961715 With temperatures soaring to 35ºC, severe water shortages and a sunburned population queuing at the standpipes, the summer of 1976 was always remembered as Britain's hottest. But the wave that hit the UK that year was also cultural and political, with upheaval on the streets, in parliament, on the cricket pitch and on the radios and TV sets of a nation at a crossroads. Before this blistering summer, Britain seemed stuck in the post-war era, a country where people were all in it together - as long as you were white, male and straight. In July, Tom Robinson writes a song called Glad to be Gay, and by August bank holiday, Black youth are making the police run for their lives in the almighty riot at the Notting Hill Carnival. But with the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson suddenly quitting, the pound sinking and the economy tanking, a restless immigrant population and increasing dissatisfaction in the old world order, the weather seemed to boil up the country to the point where the lid blows off. Weaving a rich tapestry of the news stories of the year, with social commentary and dozens of first-person interviews with those that were there at the time, Williams's reappraisal of the summer of '76 is an evocative, sometimes nostalgic but always an unflinching read. Heatwave takes us back to relive the events of that summer and asks - have we really moved on as much as we would have liked?

Ian Prowse in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://amsterdam-music.com/ Singer-songwriter, currently frontman of Amsterdam and previously of Pele.    

David Kilgour in conversation with David Eastaugh https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean-Dreamlife-Need-Rubber-Soul/dp/1627311831 The Clean was a New Zealand indie rock band formed in Dunedin in 1978. They have been described as the most influential band to come from the Flying Nun label, which recorded many artists associated with the "Dunedin sound", and one of the first bands to be described as "indie rock". Led by brothers Hamish and David Kilgour, the band rotated through a number of musicians before settling on their well-known and longest running line-up with Robert Scott. Their name comes from a character from the movie Free Ride called Mr. Clean.

Jesse Rifkin in conversation with David Eastaugh https://walkonthewildsidenyc.com/about https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Must-Be-Place-Community/dp/1335449329 Take a walk through almost any neighborhood in Manhattan and you'll likely pass some of the most significant clubs in American music history. But you won't know it--almost all of these venues have been demolished or repurposed, leaving no record of what they were, how they shaped music scenes or their impact on the neighborhoods around them. Traditional music history tells us that famous scenes are created by brilliant, singular artists. But dig deeper and you'll find that they're actually created by cheap rent, empty space and other unglamorous factors that allow artistic communities to flourish. The 1960s folk scene would have never existed without access to Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park. If the city hadn't gone bankrupt in 1975, there would have been no punk rock. Brooklyn indie rock of the 2000s was only able to come together because of the borough's many empty warehouse spaces. But these scenes are more than just moments of artistic genius--they're also part of the urban gentrification cycle, one that often displaces other communities and, eventually, the musicians themselves. Drawing from over a hundred exclusive interviews with a wide range of musicians, deejays and scenesters (including members of Peter, Paul and Mary; White Zombie; Moldy Peaches; Sonic Youth; Treacherous Three; Cro-Mags; Sun Ra Arkestra; and Suicide), writer, historian and tour guide Jesse Rifkin painstakingly reconstructs the physical history of numerous classic New York music scenes. This Must Be the Place examines how these scenes came together and fell apart--and shows how these communal artistic experiences are not just for rarefied geniuses but available to us all.

Simon Reynolds in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/products/still-in-a-dream Twenty years after his acclaimed postpunk best-seller, Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds tells the tale of what happened next: the underground explosion of noisepop, shoegaze, slacker rock and grunge that reverberated through the mid-Eighties into the early Nineties. Capturing the musical exhilaration of the era along with the alienation of youth during a period of ascendant conservative politics and glitzy mainstream pop, Still in a Dream celebrates a golden age of guitar reinvention, a second psychedelia of mind-blowing sounds pioneered by bands like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. In Britain, groups like Cocteau Twins and Slowdive escaped into shimmering dreamworlds while American underground rockers like Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement blended apathy and urgency into thrilling noise. A propulsive and personal account from a journalist who covered this music in real time from the frontlines, Still in a Dream vividly recreates a period that was the last blast for the analogue culture of vinyl records and music papers, before the Internet changed everything.  

Robert Rotifer in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.robertrotifer.co.uk/ https://robertrotifer.bandcamp.com/album/radical-friendship-theory https://robertrotifer.bandcamp.com/album/not-your-door Growing up in Vienna. In the 1980s he began his musical career as a singer and guitarist in several Vienna Britpop bands. This was followed by the founding of the mod band Electric Eels, after which he released his first recording as Rotifer. After moving to England in 1997, first to London, later to Canterbury he concentrated on his journalistic work for several years, until he recorded the album A Different Cup of Fish in 2001, which was followed by five more albums in the following years. The video for The Frankfurt Kitchen from the album Coach Number 12 of 11 (2008)

Trevor Johnson in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://the15thband.bandcamp.com/album/inside-out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPgWkLb-DEU&t=1s An underground indie & jangle pop single from 1989 that has never really seen the light of day, “Inside Out” B/w “Rumours Of Rain” although both sides are regarded as A sides. These recordings were initially recorded as demos for the purpose of a label to hear them & then sign us, so we could record it professionally & then we could release it, but no interest, I think labels were looking for a more polished sound at that time, the recording was sadly let down by the recording studio who weren't really interested & didn't know how to record that type of music as they were more focused on jazz & blues, also the fact the drummer wasn't actually apart of the band he was just hanging around the studio at the time so we got him in to drum on the single last minute, it was Andy & Trev who wrote the song. This was recorded at Northern Recording Studio in Delves Lane Consett In early 1988 & later released in January 1989, a self released private press with pink & white plain labels although some copies were both white, around about 300 copies in total were pressed with various different homemade diy sleeves, only a handful of actual photocopied sleeves exist, some of the labels have been written on but the majority of them remain blank, in fact the only reason this got pressed in the first place is because Trev wrote to The Prince's Trust asking them for help as we were a young band that could never afford to press our own records, but we didn't think they would actually help, so it's a miracle this record even exists in the first place, if only this was sent to the right label or better promoted back in 89 but for now this remains an underground indie pop single/release.

Stephen Hunking in conversation with David Eastaugh https://hypnolovewheel1.bandcamp.com/album/parallel-universe Hypnolovewheel was an American indie rock band from Long Island. Despite positive critical reviews, the band's albums were never particularly successful, and they split in 1993. Band's members include Stephen Hunking (guitar and vocals) Dan Cuddy (bass and vocals), Peter Walsh (drums and vocals) Dave Ramirez (guitar and vocals). 

Rachel Carns in conversation with David Eastaugh https://drawingroomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/this-being-the-ballad-of-kicking-giant-halo-nyc-olympia-1989-1993 American musician, composer, artist and performer living in Olympia, Washington, U.S. Raised in small-town Wisconsin, she went on to study painting and drawing at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, where she completed her B.F.A. in 1991. Carns began her career as drummer for Kicking Giant, later collaborating with several bands, including The Need. She is a celebrated graphic designer, working under the name System Lux, and plays drums and percussion with experimental performance art group Cloud Eye Control.

Tae Won You in conversation with David Eastaugh https://kickinggiant.bandcamp.com/album/alien-i-d-klp034 Rachel Carns' first band was Kicking Giant with fellow Cooper Union student Tae Won Yu, with whom she played drums and sang from 1990–1995. Their first show was in the storefront window of a Brooklyn junk shop; Carns stood up and played just one drum, a floor tom. Kicking Giant played around New York City and the northeast with bands like Codeine, Uncle Wiggly, and fellow "love-rockers" Sleepyhead; Carns continued to expand her stand-up kit, building around the central floor tom, anchor to Yu's whirling guitar and bedrock of their unique sound. Live, their largely improvised mash of punk, free jazz, sugar-candy pop, and pure poetry meant that Kicking Giant never played the same set, or even the same song, twice.  

Frank Secich & Jim Kendor in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.facebook.com/fsecich https://peppermintrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dinner-at-mr-billys DINNER AT MR. BILLY'S During 1971 and 1972, the classic Blue Ash line-up of David Evans, Jim Kendzor, Bill "Cupid" Bartolin and Frank Secich played more than quite a bit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It seemed like we were playing "The Burgh" 4-5 nights a week. At the time, we had two booking agencies in Pittsburgh, Go Attractions (Rich Engler and Paul St. John) and Fly By Night Productions owned by Joe Riccelli. One time back then we were driving on Rt. 51 south of Pittsburgh to a gig in Clarion. Cupid looked out the window of the car and saw a big sign for a restaurant called "Mr Billy's”. He said to all of us as he pointed to the sign, "If we ever get to make an album, we should call it "Dinner At Mr. Billy's". We all laughed. I thought it was a hilarious idea. Cupid and I even wrote a song right after that called "Dinner At Mr. Billy's", then we promptly forgot about the whole idea. While going through the vaults recently at Peppermint Productions, we found the tape of the song "Dinner At Mr. Billy's" and in honor of Cupid, Mr. Billy has now finally made it out of oblivion and on to an album. 

Andrea Reid in conversation with David Eastaugh https://www.facebook.com/wilderness.children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f79Th-VwMAc Indie rock band from Dundee, Scotland         

Annette Simons in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.facebook.com/baerchenunddiemilchbubis https://www.facebook.com/annette.simons.18 Founded in Hanover in 1979 by Annette Grotkasten, Rudolf Grimm , Andreas Kühne, and Martin Fuchs, Bärchen und die Milchbubis played their first concert in Offenburg in early 1980. From mid-1980 onward, they regularly performed as the opening act for Hans-A-Plast . In 1980, they released the EP "Jung kaputt spart Altersheime" on No Fun Records . The title track was the most played single on Bavarian Radio 's youth radio station that year . Afterward, bassist and songwriter Martin Fuchs left the band and was replaced by Kai Nungesser.  

Peter Guralnick in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://store.whiterabbitbooks.co.uk/products/the-colonel-and-the-king In early 1955, Colonel Tom Parker discovered a teenage Elvis Presley and declared him destined for greatness. What followed was one of the most extraordinary partnerships in music history and the creation of a bond built on loyalty, ambition and an unshakeable belief in each other. From the meteoric rise that reshaped popular culture to the struggles that shadowed their final years, this concluding volume of Peter Guralnick's acclaimed trilogy reveals the full complexity of their relationship. Drawing on previously unpublished letters and telegrams from Parker's own archives, it offers an intimate, unflinching portrait of two American originals: the visionary manager who invented the modern superstar and the artist who became one. Brilliant, flawed and inseparable, Elvis and the Colonel changed the music world forever.

Anthony Moore in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://halfcatmusic.com/ British experimental music composer, performer and producer. He was a founding member of the band Slapp Happy, worked with Henry Cow and has made a number of solo albums, including Flying Doesn't Help (1979) and World Service (1981). As a lyricist, Moore has collaborated with Pink Floyd on two of their albums: A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), and contributed music to the instrumental "Calling" from The Endless River (2014). He contributed lyrics to Richard Wright's Broken China (1996), worked with Kevin Ayers on various projects and also contributed lyrics to Trevor Rabin's Can't Look Away (1989) and Julian Lennon's Help Yourself (1991).

Myke Scavone in conversation with David Eastaugh  Following the disbandment of the Doughboys, Scavone began a career as a session drummer throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was performing on demos for producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz when he joined the newly formed Ram Jam, led by guitarist Bill Bartlett, in 1977. The band had found success with a cover of the Lead Belly song "Black Betty". Scavone performed on both of the band's albums, Ram Jam and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ram before the band disbanded in 1978. He did not perform on the band's only hit, "Black Betty", as it had been recorded by Bill Bartlett's former band Starstruck and credited to Ram Jam following Starstruck's disbandment.

Dominic Mohan in conversation with David Eastaugh https://www.amazon.co.uk/1996-Backstage-Wildest-Britains-must-read/dp/0008767130 https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2026/event/1996-a-celebration-of-the-wildest-year-of-britains-wildest 1996. Britpop ruled the airwaves. The tabloids framed reality long before Instagram.Football was finally coming home. Tony Blair was learning to play rock star – and rock stars were learning they could play politics. Everyone was partying hard, and Britain was the coolest place on earth. Showbiz reporter Dominic Mohan wasn't watching the party from afar – he was in the room. Backstage at Knebworth with Oasis. In strip clubs with Robbie Williams. On the phone to Bowie. On the receiving end of Spice Girls gossip, Gallagher gobbiness and tabloid-era chaos. From Euro '96 euphoria to Brit Awards anarchy, from rave culture to New Labour, Mohan witnessed the moment the UK went from scruffy indie island to global cultural powerhouse. Part memoir, part cultural autopsy and part riotous tour through the 90s and its greatest year, 1996 is a jaw-dropping front-row seat to the madness, the music, the football, and the politics that reshaped Britain – and created legends along the way. Three decades on, Mohan returns to the year everything peaked, and asks: what the hell happened, why did it matter, and can it ever happen again?

Alex Newport in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.alexnewport.com/ https://fudgetunnel.bandcamp.com/music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb232BkAe6A   Fudge Tunnel formed in 1989. They released their debut EP on Pigboy/Vinyl Solution in 1989, Fudge Tunnel. Although marketed as an EP, due to its short length, it was named "Single of the Week" in NME magazine in January 1990, with NME declaring "Absolutely and totally the best single ever to be released in 1990. Total nine guitar attack-rock". The band followed up with their second EP, The Sweet Sound of Excess, in 1990, again on Pigboy/Vinyl Solution. Fudge Tunnel also found support via DJ John Peel as they recorded a Peel Session in 1990. They then signed to Nottingham's Earache Records. Their full-length debut album was 1991's Hate Songs in E Minor, which attracted a large amount of press interest after the original album artwork was confiscated by the Nottingham Vice Squad

Neil Howson in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://preciousrecordingsoflondon.bandcamp.com/album/prelp-8-age-of-chance-bbc-sessions-85-87 A stunning mix of Northern Soul, machine-like beats, electroclash, slogans and agitpop, Age of Chance were unquestionably one of the most exciting groups to emerge during the C86 era. They certainly didn't sound like anybody else, that's for sure. An uncompromising live act, Age of Chance were frantic and frenetic – and they even dallied with the mainstream via their version of Prince's Kiss. Janglepop this is not. Now, not before time, their three sessions for BBC Radio 1 are collected by Precious Recordings of London as part of the label's ongoing series. And for good measure, we've included both sides of their first two incredible ground-breaking singles – Motorcity and Bible Of The Beats, both unavailable in any form for decades. Limited edition (500 copies worldwide) comes with unseen pics, sleeve essay by close associate John F Power. and download codes. Includes unlimited streaming of PRELP 8: Age of Chance BBC sessions 85-87 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Neil Taylor in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.roughtrade.com/en-de/product/neil-taylor/document-and-eyewitness-an-intimate-history-of-rough-trade Rough Trade is practically a byword for the history of independent music over the last thirty years. DOCUMENT AND EYEWITNESS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF ROUGH TRADE tells the story from the inside of a phenomenally influential record label, through the voices of Geoff Travis, Jarvis Cocker, Robert Wyatt, Green Gartside and many many more. From the early records of Cabaret Voltaire, Kleenex and the Swell Maps, through to groundbreaking releases by The Fall, The Smiths and Scritti Pollitti, on through the collapse of the independent collective and the rebirth of Rough Trade at the turn of the century, this is the definitive, essential account for any serious music fan.

Julia Round in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.juliaround.com/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gothic-Girls-Misty-British-Comics/dp/1496824466 Award-winning writer and independent scholar. She is one of the founders and editors of the academic journal Studies in Comics (Intellect Books) and of the book series Encapsulations: Critical Comics Studies (University of Nebraska Press). Today fans still remember and love the British girls' comic Misty for its bold visuals and narrative complexities. Yet its unique history has drawn little critical attention. Bridging this scholarly gap, Julia Round presents a comprehensive cultural history and detailed discussion of the comic, preserving both the inception and development of this important publication as well as its stories. Misty ran for 101 issues as a stand-alone publication between 1978 and 1980 and then four more years as part of Tammy. It was a hugely successful anthology comic containing one-shot and serialized stories of supernatural horror and fantasy aimed at girls and young women and featuring work by writers and artists who dominated British comics such as Pat Mills, Malcolm Shaw, and John Armstrong, as well as celebrated European artists. To this day, Misty remains notable for its daring and sophisticated stories, strong female characters, innovative page layouts, and big visuals.

bob Bert in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://therealbobbert.bandcamp.com/album/beach-bongo-bloodbath Many music gourmandizers know the name “Bob Bert” from his stint as drummer for Sonic Youth in their formative years. He also beat car gas tanks for Pussy Galore. In the years since, Bob has recorded albums and toured the world with Bewitched, Action Swingers, Chrome Cranks, Knoxville Girls, Five Dollar Priest, and in more recent times Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, coming full circle playing metal percussion with fellow Pussy Galore alumnus Jon Spencer in his HITmakers.  With Beach Bongo Bloodbath Bob finally steps out under his own name with his first true solo album. For this outing he mixes original material with extensive re-workings of a number of covers to create a veritable soundtrack for the B-movie of his life.  Surprisingly for a guy who has slammed away for some very noisy guitar outfits, this album has absolutely NO guitars; once you hear his beat-centric take on Mountain's "Mississippi Queen," you will never hear that song the same way again. Bob creates a new world of sound utilizing a variety of drums and percussion as well as a diverse array of keyboards and theremin. The results suggest Sandy Nelson playing with the Flying Lizards on their greatest hits collection of Kraut Rock influenced Cramps covers!  The six originals and eight covers play to his love of campy teenage horror flicks, art damaged punk fuk-u-ness and Warholian underground groover vibes. In fact, let's cue up some tracks from the album to help tell the Bob Bert story. 

Monica Queen & Johnny Smillie in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.firerecords.com/thrum-announce-rifferama-reissued-reimagined-along-with-new-uk-tour-dates/ TOUR DATES 07 Jul: The Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, UK 08 Jul: Central Bar, Gateshead, UK 09 Jul: Lending Room, Leeds, UK 10 Jul: Just Dropped in Records, Coventry, UK 11 Jul: Betsy Trotwood, London, UK 12 Jul: The Jacaranda Club, Liverpool, UK 13 Jul: Cottiers, Glasgow, UK

Jimmy Eadie in conversation with David Eastaugh  Into Paradise were an Irish indie rock group from Dublin, whose influences included Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen. They formed in 1986 as Backwards into Paradise, and released their debut EP, Blue Light, in 1989 on the independent record label, Setanta. Soon after came the EP Change, and the band's first album, Under the Water. Their most successful album and major record label debut, was the Adrian Borland-produced Churchtown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N_j7s1Ahjo

Anthony Reynolds in conversation with David Eastaugh https://anthonyreynolds.bandcamp.com/ n 1993, Reynolds moved to London, where he formed the group Jack, on lead vocals, signing a music publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music as well as a record deal with independent label Too Pure. Jack released three full-length albums, the first two of which – Pioneer Soundtracks (1996) and The Jazz Age (1998) – garnered excellent reviews and placed highly in critics' end-of-year polls. Despite the overwhelmingly positive critical reaction and extensive UK and European touring, sales for both records although respectable, were ultimately disappointing, and no Jack record would ever make the UK Top 40 singles or albums charts. The third album, The End of the Way It's Always Been, was released on the Les Disques du Crépuscule label. The record featured collaborations with writer/musician Kirk Lake and American poet and novelist/screenwriter Dan Fante (son of John Fante). An extensive European tour promoted the record. The critical reaction in the UK to the album was less positive than for the first two Jack albums, but the album was markedly successful in France.

Janet Housden in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.facebook.com/janet.housden A fixture in the earliest days of the LA area punk scene, Janet Housden played drums with Redd Kross and was a member of several other bands, while also appearing in classic cult films.  Janet Housden has been a creative force for decades in Southern California's punk scene. She grew up alongside many of the South Bay scene's iconic punk pioneers, including members of Black Flag, the Descendents and Minutemen, and played drums in the renowned Redd Kross (1982-83) and was a multi-instrumentalist in several other rock & roll bands. (Quote from Please Kill Me) 

Alister Parker in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://bailterspace.bandcamp.com/ New Zealand shoegaze and noise rock band that formed in Christchurch in 1987 as Nelsh Bailter Space; they had previously recorded as the Gordons. Its members are Alister Parker (guitar, bass), John Halvorsen (bass, guitar), and Brent McLachlan (drums/percussion, samples). After releasing seven studio albums, numerous EPs/singles and a career retrospective compilation, Bailter Space went on an extended hiatus in 2004. They returned in August 2008 to play the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan.

David Whitaker in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJlsU1DVu30 Music For Pleasure was formed in Leeds, England in 1979, comprising David Whitaker - synths and keyboards, Mark Copson - vocals, Ivor Roberts - bass and Chris Oldroyd - drums. They released several 7'' singles and two albums ("Into The Rain" and "Blacklands"). They were heavily influenced by Punk and Krautrock and are still seen as a very much underrated band of the 80's. "Madness At The Mission" comes from their first 7'' single "The Human Factor    

John Watts in conversation with David Eastaugh https://fischer-z.com/ https://www.cherryred.co.uk/fischer-z-word-paradise-the-united-artists-records-liberty-recordings-3cd-digipack Fischer-Z are a British rock group and main creative project of singer, guitarist and poet John Watts. In 1982 Watts temporarily dissolved Fischer-Z and started a solo career under his own name. John Watts has gone on to release both solo and Fischer-Z projects. The original line-up consisted of Watts, Steve Skolnik, David Graham and Steve Liddle. Fischer-Z found success across Europe and sold more than two million albums. Joint recordings were made with Peter Gabriel, Steve Cropper and Dexys Midnight Runners. Fischer-Z performed alongside James Brown in East Berlin and toured with The Police and Dire Straits. They also toured the US and Canada and were on the bill with Bob Marley on his last festival tour of Europe. John Watts has released 26 albums and played around 4,000 concerts. Fischer-Z have continued to release new music and tour.

Geoff Taylor in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://preciousrecordingsoflondon.bandcamp.com/album/prelp-8-age-of-chance-bbc-sessions-85-87 Age of Chance were a British alternative rock-dance crossover band from Leeds, England, active from 1983 to 1991. They were perhaps most known for their mutant metallic cover of Prince's "Kiss" which topped the UK Indie Chart in 1986, and peaked at No. 50 on the UK Singles Chart in January the following year. Despite signing for major label Virgin, and being favourites with the UK music press, they never enjoyed a major hit in the UK, although "Don't Get Mad… Get Even" reached No. 8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play chart Musically they were a mixture of punk, hip hop, industrial rock and Northern soul. Steven E provided a distinctive strident nasal vocal style, often employing a megaphone. Striking cover art visuals were a collaboration between the group and The Designers Republic, who would go on to graphic design fame. They were the first band to be remixed by Public Enemy - a.k.a. Hank Shocklee and Carl Ryder, who remixed "Take It" from 1000 Years of Trouble (1988). 

Tim Blake in conversation with David Eastaugh  http://moonweed.free.fr/ English keyboardist, vocalist, and composer, who is known for working with Gong, Hawkwind and his synthesizer and light performances as Crystal Machine, with the French Light artist Patrice Warrener. Blake met Daevid Allen at Marquee Studios, where the latter was recording his first solo album Banana Moon in 1971. At the end of the sessions, Allen had invited Blake to be Gong's sound mixer, but Blake preferred to work on his own music. He eventually joined Gong full-time in September 1972 as the band's synthesizer player, being among the first to bring the synthesizer out of the studio and on to the stage. He appears on all three albums of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy; Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg, and You, in fact Blake is the only composer, apart from the Allen/Smyth partnership, to have written for all three of the "Trilogy" Albums, making him one of Gong's most important composers. He left Gong in early 1975.

Jim Shepherd in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://preciousrecordingsoflondon.bandcamp.com/album/prelp-12-be-careful-what-you-wish-for https://www.facebook.com/thejasmineminks/?locale=en_GB Alongside his pals, Jasmine Minks front man Jim Shepherd has produced his masterpiece. Okay, I guess we might have to call them a 'Creation supergroup' because the Pillars of Creation features a band of mainly former label stalwarts who bring Shepherd's epic to life. Dave Morgan from the Loft (and many others!) is on drumming, mixing and production duties, for example, with Frank Sweeney and Arash Torabi from the June Brides also on the team. (OK, the June Brides never released a record on Creation but let's not quibble here … and Frank is indeed on any number of records by the likes of Primal Scream and Felt etc). Ruth Tidmarsh and Innes Mackintosh complete the crew. They've produced a brilliantly memorable album – not far off a concept album of sorts, albeit with the title track as the lead digital single (released on Friday). It's distinctive and unique and you won't want to miss it. Includes unlimited streaming of PRELP 12: Be Careful What You Wish For via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.  

Phillip Johnston in conversation with David Eastaugh https://phillipjohnston.com/ American saxophonist, composer, and author. He came to prominence in the 1980s as co-founder of The Microscopic Septet and went on to write extensively for films, particularly new scores for classic silent films from the early 20th Century.  

Tracey Belland in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.voiceofthebeehive.com/ The group featured Californian lead vocalist sisters Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brooke Belland (daughters of The Four Preps singer Bruce Belland). They teamed with British musicians Mike Jones, Martin Brett, and Daniel Woodgate – a former member of Madness. The band took their name from the Greek meaning of the name Melissa, meaning honey bee.  

Chris Musto in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.facebook.com/chris.musto.12 British drummer, designer, production and stage manager from London. Creative director from 2009 to 2011 at The Mustard Laboratory  

Richard Langston in conversation with David Eastaugh https://feralhouse.com/the-clean/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clean-Dreamlife-Need-Rubber-Soul/ In 1978 in Dunedin , New Zealand, the Kilgour brothers, Hamish and David, and their schoolfriend Peter Gutteridge, got together to form a band called The Clean. When Robert Scott joined in 1980, the band found a combination that endured for nearly forty years. The Clean profoundly changed alternative music: hitting the New Zealand charts for months with a single made for 50 dollars, 'Tally Ho!'; helping establish Flying Nun and a music scene independent of the big labels; pioneering a low-fi, do-it-yourself approach to rock music; and touring internationally to influence bands like Pavement and Yo La Tengo. Raw and immediate, this is the story as told by members of The Clean and their inner circle - fellow musicians such as Chris Knox, Martin Phillipps, Graeme Downes and Ira Kaplan, friends and family, pub promoters and sound engineers, and their good friend, Richard Langston. From teenagers in a Dunedin practice room to New York City on 9/11 - this is the band's history as it unfolds.

Gina Volpe in conversation with David Eastaugh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbZBwi0Y3Ao https://www.lunachicks.com/ Theo Kogan, Gina Volpe, and Sydney "Squid" Silver were students at New York City's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts when they decided to form a band. Sindi Benezra, an acquaintance of Silver, was asked to join shortly after. They rehearsed and wrote material in Gina's bedroom for about a year. Their first composition, the lengthy "Theme Song", was about killing Kogan's and Silver's English teacher. The band played their first show in 1988 with Theo's then-boyfriend Mike on the drums.

Juno Reactor  in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://junoreactor.bandcamp.com/album/mona-lisa-overdrive-reaky-reakson-remix https://www.junoreactor.com/ In a powerful convergence of cinematic legacy and contemporary electronic music artistry, Juno Reactor (aka Ben Watkins) have released a stunning new remix of their iconic track ‘Mona Lisa Overdrive' as a single today. Originally composed and scored for the 2003 movie ‘The Matrix Reloaded', it has now been reimagined by the Slovenian DJ and producer Reaky Reakson.  

Nikki Corvette in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.facebook.com/nikki.corvette/ This Detroit punk-pop outfit – formed in 1977 – was led by the Nikki Corvette and guitarist Peter James. They had a sound somewhere between The Go-Go's and The Ramones, with bubblegum teenage libido maxed out with a dose of The Shangri La's. Led by a “new wave Betty Boop,” to quote one review, this group offered great sounds and sex appeal. Combining those undeniable elements of energy and enthusiasm. The group disbanded in 1981, though Nikki returned in the 21st century as Nikki Corvette & The Stingrays – a band incorporating Travis Ramin on guitar, Georgia Peach on bass and Johnny O'Halloran on drums.  

Anne Richmond Boston in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://annerichmondboston.bandcamp.com/album/i-should-be-happy Back in the late 70s Anne Richmond Boston was a part of a then up-and-coming, young new-wave band called The Swimming Pool Q's—a band that would find a spiritual home alongside contemporaries like fellow Georgians The B-52s and R.E.M. In 2026 Boston is still (bar a few years when she had moved on from the band) playing shows as a member of the band. Indeed The Swimming Pool Q's have some shows coming up this May, information for which you can get here from their website. But there's another story to be told here. The story of how Boston set out to record the follow up to her debut solo record The Big House Of Time, only for that album (I Should Be Happy) to remain unfinished and unreleased for more than 30 years on from its original recording sessions.

Gary Lachman in conversation with David Eastaugh https://www.amazon.co.uk/Touched-Presence-Blondies-Bowery-Occult/dp/B0DSV388DQ https://www.gary-lachman.com/ https://garylachman.co.uk/ In this memoir, Lachman recounts how he went from being a successful rock and roller to a writer on consciousness and the Western inner tradition. He shares encounters with rockers such as the Ramones, New York Dolls, Patti Smith, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and Iggy Pop and also his time with Timothy Leary, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg. Living with Blondie's Debbie Harry and Chris Stein on New York's Bowery, a block from CBGB, the birthplace of punk rock, Lachman discovered occultism via a follower of Aleister Crowley. Post rock and roll, Lachman's occult studies brought him to the Golden Dawn, Manly P. Hall, Gnosticism, and a stint in Crowley's O.T.O. He details his time in the Fourth Way, including a visit to the site of Gurdjieff 's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in France, and his years studying philosophy and literature and working as a science writer while managing a famous metaphysical bookshop at the height of the New Age movement. Excursions to Stonehenge, Avebury, and Glastonbury in search of ley lines and pilgrimages to Colin Wilson's home in Cornwall are a few of the highlights of this introspective, often humorous account of a nascent writer's struggle from rock and roll to individuation.

Deanna _ Mia in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://frightwig.org/ Frightwig is an all-female punk rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1982 by Deanna Mitchell and Mia d'Bruzzi. The current lineup of Frightwig consists of Deanna Mitchell, Mia d'Bruzzi, Tina Fagnani, and Rebecca Sevrin.

Joan Wasser in conversation with David Eastaugh https://www.joanaspolicewoman.com/ Renowned NYC artist Joan As Police Woman announces her new album “Real Life Evolution”, out June 12 via UK independent Reveal Records -- on CD, Limited Edition exclusive red marble vinyl and digitally. Exactly 20 years since releasing her much-loved debut album "Real Life", she has re-recorded and imagined the album in full with guests including Iggy Pop and Krystle Warren.  Joan Wasser, known professionally as Joan As Police Woman since 2004, is a critically acclaimed musician and producer, dubbed “the coolest woman in pop” (The Times) and “one of the 21st century's best musicians” (The Economist). As a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, her music defies easy categorization, crafting her own sound that blends various genres. She has released ten albums of original material, two cover albums, and an anthology. Twenty years in the making, this record was developed through countless nights on stage. These new arrangements are brought to life by the musical brilliance of the players who helped define their sound. In order of appearance, it features contributions by Will Graefe, Jeremy Gustin, Tony Scherr, Parker Kindred, Danny Blume, Krystle Warren, Oren Bloedow, Thomas Bartlett and Iggy Pop.

Alistair Jackson in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef0Cw6j70H4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXMB0fZMhxw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeiRflHxuCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYyl_FDTE94&t=374s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJGp--gpTOQ A Riot Of Colour were an indie pop band from Swiss Cottage, North London, originally consisting of: Alex Osman (drums) Alistair Jackson (guitar) Dominic Blaazer (bass, vocals, guitar) The band released several singles in the 80's and a compilation album of their work in 2015.    

Andy Allan in conversation with David Eastaugh https://www.facebook.com/andy.allan.1232 https://www.facebook.com/hankdogsband Hank Dogs are an acoustic folk band from South London. The band members are Piano Pace, her ex-husband Andy Allan (formerly of Lightning Raiders and The Professionals), and his daughter Lily Ramona. Their music is considered to be in the English folk tradition. They started out in 1992 at an acoustic club in South London. In 1998 they traveled to Seattle with producer Jon Kertzer and played at the Bumbershoot Festival there. Their first album Bareback, produced by Joe Boyd, was well received and was named Record of the Month for WXPN in Philadelphia. Their third album Fiveways was recorded in 2010 but remained unreleased until 2024 following the break up of the band. The band reunited to celebrate the release.

Mikey Georgeson in conversation with David Eastaugh https://vimeo.com/1160773241?share=copy&fl=cl&fe=ci https://themiddlepeople.bandcamp.com/ With three albums under their collective belt since Mikey Georgeson (David Devant & His Spirit Wife) & António Olaio (Repórter Estrábico) first met in 2024, it is high time for a Best Of The Middle People compilation. Gathering tracks from Revenge Of The Killjoys,Dogmatists In Disguise, and even one from last year's Christmas With The Middle People holiday album, Can You Feel The Moment: Best Of The Middle People also adds a trio of new songs to bring more ‘Art-Pop Joy'.     Introduced through a mutual friend when Olaio was performing in a play in London, the two soon exchanged drawings. Georgeson sending him one titled ‘Losing My Virginity to Time Itself', which ‘sort of set the tone.' “We are both visual artists,” Olaio explains, “both used to putting things together in weird ways. I then asked Mikey to play on a song for an album I was going to make, and we became a band. It was very quick. We do everything very quickly.” The duo's first song, ‘Hello John', was their way of saying hello to each other. “It's not a very nice song,” Georgeson laughs. “It's about two twin brothers that hate each other. But it did feel like a conversation through music. That ambiguity is quite middle. We navigate both good and bad.” 

Steve Nieve in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://events.liveit.io/west-hampstead-arts-club/steve-nieve-kessada/ https://www.stevenieve.com/solo-albums  Musician and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Nieve has been a member of Elvis Costello's backing bands the Attractions and the Imposters, as well as Madness. He has also experienced success as a prolific session musician, featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Elvis Costello and the Attractions.

Andy Prince  in conversation with David Eastaugh  https://soundcloud.com/andrew-prince https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dna3ykpRUyY https://www.facebook.com/andyprincemusic/?locale=en_GB Experienced bassist and composer Andy Prince writes and performs evocative instrumentals on the Chapman stick. During his musical career, Andy has played bass with many well known bands and solo artists, including Sham 69, Toyah Wilcox, Damo Suzuki, Classix Nouveaux, Rikki and the Last Days of Earth, Jimmy Edwards and the Profile, Random Hold.