Podcasts about A Clockwork Orange

Movie of the Year: 1971The Finale, Part IIThe 1971 Film Finale Podcast: One Champion RemainsThe 1971 film finale podcast brings the Taste Buds' most ambitious bracket season to its definitive conclusion. Ryan, Mike, and Greg have debated, dismissed, and championed their way through a remarkable field — and now eight films remain. In this episode, four Elite Eight matchups collapse into a single champion, and five major awards close out the season before the final verdict arrives.Furthermore, this finale caps a season that has included some of the most provocative, challenging, and enduring films ever made. From Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange to William Friedkin's The French Connection, the 1971 bracket has consistently rewarded listeners willing to sit with difficult, boundary-pushing work. The season also covered Straw Dogs, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, and Dirty Harry — each one generating strong arguments before falling short of the Elite Eight.Additionally, five competitive award categories — Best Sex, Best Violence, Musical Moment, Best Actor, and Best Actress — draw nominees from across the full season. Consequently, this episode stands as the richest and most content-dense installment of the year.ContentsThe Elite Eight MatchupsThe 1971 AwardsWhy the 1971 Film Finale Podcast Still MattersRelated EpisodesFAQThe Elite Eight MatchupsEight films enter. One leaves as the 1971 champion. The Taste Buds structured the Elite Eight around four head-to-head matchups, and each one forces a different kind of critical argument.A Clockwork Orange vs. The DevilsTwo of the year's most transgressive films meet in the first matchup. A Clockwork Orange arrived as a season-long frontrunner — a Kubrick film operating at the height of his formal powers, one that the Taste Buds covered in depth on their dedicated episode. Ken Russell's The Devils, meanwhile, delivers a fever dream of religious hysteria and state violence that stands as one of the most divisive films the Taste Buds have discussed all season. Moreover, this matchup poses a pointed question: which film earns its provocation more honestly? Both demand something from the viewer. However, only one advances.Harold and Maude vs. McCabe and Mrs. MillerHarold and Maude represents the season's most warmly beloved film — a dark comedy about love, death, and radical living that generated some of the most enthusiastic podcast discussion of the year. By contrast, Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller offers a revisionist Western suffused with melancholy and moral exhaustion, its beauty inseparable from its grief. Both films carry passionate advocates among the Taste Buds. Consequently, this matchup ranks among the tightest and most personal bracket debates of the entire season. Above all, it asks whether warmth or ache makes the stronger lasting impression.Wanda vs. The ConformistBarbara Loden's Wanda — a micro-budget American independent masterwork — faces Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist, a visually ravishing Italian political drama. Notably, both films center on characters adrift in systems designed to diminish them. Nevertheless, they arrive at very different emotional endpoints: Wanda drifts, the Conformist spirals. The Taste Buds' arguments in this matchup reveal as much about their own critical values as about the films themselves. In practice, this is the bracket's most purely cinephile debate.The French Connection vs. The Last Picture ShowThe bracket's most commercially dominant film — The French Connection, winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture — faces Peter Bogdanovich's elegiac The Last Picture Show. In practice, this matchup pits Hollywood's muscular genre filmmaking against its more introspective New Wave ambitions. As a result, the debate cuts to the heart of what 1971 cinema actually achieved. Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle and the dusty streets of Anarene, Texas, represent two entirely different ideas of what a great film should do — and the Taste Buds have strong opinions on which idea wins.The 1971 AwardsBefore the bracket champion is named, the Taste Buds present five awards covering the full sweep of the season. This Movie of the Year 1971 podcast segment features each host nominating the moments they found most memorable, daring, or essential — and the resulting field spans an extraordinary range of films and tones.Best SexThe nominees range from the tender to the violent to the surreal, drawing from three different films and three distinct registers of human sexuality.Jacy and Abilene — The Last Picture ShowThe Pool Party — The Last Picture ShowThe Rape of Christ — The DevilsThe Sex Duel with the Biker Gang — Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss SongYoung Sweetback and the Sex Worker — Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss SongBest ViolenceThe nominees span the full tonal range of 1971 action filmmaking — from Dirty Harry's iconic bank robbery standoff to the slow, aching finality of McCabe dying alone in the snow.The Car Chase — The French ConnectionHarry Foils a Bank Robbery — Dirty HarryThe Kid Kills the Cowboy — McCabe and Mrs. MillerThe Ludovico Technique — A Clockwork OrangeMcCabe Dies Alone in the Snow — McCabe and Mrs. MillerMusical MomentThe nominees here demonstrate just how varied 1971's soundtrack was — Cat Stevens, Beethoven, and Gene Wilder all make the shortlist.Maude Sings "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" — Harold and MaudeOpening Funeral March — A Clockwork Orange"Pure Imagination" — Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"Singin' in the Rain" — A Clockwork OrangeThe Tango — The ConformistBest Actor The five nominees represent the full range of 1971 male performance — from Hackman's coiled rage to Wilder's heartbreaking wonder. Additionally, this category generated some of the most contested debates in the entire 1971 film podcast season.Warren Beatty — McCabe and Mrs. MillerGene Hackman — The French ConnectionOliver Reed — The DevilsJean-Louis Trintignant — The ConformistGene Wilder —

Send us Fan MailPrepare for immediate transport to the golden era as you enter the Retro Wave Zone with the Back in Time Brothers. This week, Lou and DJ Paulie are blasting off into the great unknown to explore the "Space Jams"—a cosmic mix of space-themed music, cinematic masterpieces, and chilling UFO encounters.The Countdown: Top 10 Space TracksDJ Britt leads us through a stellar countdown of tracks that defined our obsession with the final frontier.The Heavy Hitters: From the improvisational 1972 anthem "Space Trucking" by Deep Purple to the funky hip-hop transmissions of the Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic".Atmospheric Voyages: Dive into the "spacey" vibes of Radiohead's "Subterranean Homesick Alien" and the high-energy reflection of Switchfoot's "Stars".The Legends: Experience Elton John's lonely journey in "Rocket Man" and the spiritual poetry of The Beatles' "Across the Universe".The Major Tom Connection: We follow the character's evolution from Peter Schilling's synth-pop hit "Major Tom" to the ultimate double-shot from the "Man Who Fell to Earth," David Bowie, with "Starman" and "Space Oddity".The Silver Screen & The Small ScreenThe brothers break down the greatest sci-fi franchises and series of all time:Cinematic Giants: A countdown featuring the physics-bending visuals of Interstellar , the survival grit of The Martian , and the undisputed king of space opera, Star Wars.TV Classics: From the 80s nostalgia of Stranger Things and the truth-seeking of The X-Files to the legendary, mind-bending marathons of The Twilight Zone.Screen Talk: The Dark Side of Sci-FiTodd Snyder joins the show for a special "Screen Talk" segment, uncovering the deadly and dystopian side of the genre. He explores the tragic onset accident of Twilight Zone: The Movie , the global bans of A Clockwork Orange , and the bizarre production disasters of The Island of Dr. Moreau.UFO Files: Encounters of the Retro KindLou and Paulie dive into ten of the most compelling UFO stories in history. They discuss the Roswell incident , the mass sighting of the Phoenix Lights in Arizona , and the terrifying abduction story of Travis Walton.Don't forget to tune in!Check out all our episodes at www.backintimebrothers.com or find us on iTunes and Spotify. It's time to rock and roll through the cosmos!Support the showThanks for listening.  Join us each Monday at 1pm Central at www.urlradio.net and follow us on Facebook!

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Movie of the Year: 1971The Finale, Part IIThe 1971 Film Bracket Podcast Reaches the Elite EightThis 1971 film bracket podcast returns with its most dramatic episode yet. Ryan, Mike, and Greg — the Taste Buds — work through the bottom half of the Sweet 16, producing four matchups that nobody saw coming. Furthermore, the episode hands out two major awards: Comedic Performance and Biggest Shithead. The results set the stage for Part III, where the Elite Eight will be whittled down to a single 1971 champion.If you missed Part I of the finale, start there first. The bracket has been full of upsets throughout the season. Consequently, no outcome here should be taken for granted.The Sweet 16: Bottom Half of the 1971 Film BracketThe bottom half of the 1971 Sweet 16 is stacked. These four matchups pit some of the most beloved and argued-over films in the entire bracket against one another. Moreover, the range of cinema on display — from Hollywood blockbusters to European art films to New Hollywood grit — illustrates exactly why 1971 is one of the most fertile film years ever put to a bracket.The Taste Buds debate each matchup using their standard evaluative framework: craft, cultural impact, rewatchability, and gut feeling. Above all, they trust their instincts — and their instincts have produced surprises at every turn this season. Tune in to find out which four films advance to the Elite Eight.Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory vs. WandaThis matchup pits one of cinema's most beloved fantasies against one of its most criminally underseen gems. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory needs little introduction — Gene Wilder's performance alone has kept it in the cultural conversation for over fifty years. Nevertheless, Wanda is no pushover. Barbara Loden's Wanda (1971) is a raw, naturalistic landmark of American independent cinema, and its inclusion in the bracket has been a point of pride for whoever seeded it.This is a clash of tone, scale, and intention. One film is a spectacle engineered for maximum delight. The other strips cinema down to its bones. However, the Taste Buds must pick one — and the pick will tell you something about where their tastes landed by the time the 1971 season reached its final stretch.The French Connection vs. Brian's SongTwo films that defined what mainstream American cinema could do with raw emotional and procedural intensity. The French Connection won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1971. It features one of the most celebrated car chases in film history and a career-defining performance from Gene Hackman as the relentless, morally compromised Popeye Doyle. Additionally, William Friedkin's direction remains a masterclass in gritty, kinetic storytelling.Brian's Song, meanwhile, hit American living rooms as a TV movie and destroyed everyone who watched it. The story of Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo remains one of the most emotionally devastating sports films ever made. Notably, the Taste Buds covered both films earlier this season — so this rematch in the 1971 film bracket carries the weight of all those prior arguments.The Last Picture Show vs. KluteTwo of New Hollywood's most enduring films square off here, and neither one will go quietly. The Last Picture Show is Peter Bogdanovich's elegiac black-and-white portrait of a dying Texas town — a film the American Film Institute has called one of the greatest ever made. Furthermore, its ensemble cast, including Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, and Ben Johnson, delivers some of the finest performances in the bracket.Klute, however, has Jane Fonda. Her performance as Bree Daniels earned her the first of her two Academy Awards, and it remains one of the most psychologically intricate portrayals of a woman in crisis in American cinema. Alan J. Pakula's direction is coiled and paranoid in all the right ways. Consequently, this matchup may be the most difficult call in the entire bracket.The Conformist vs. The Panic in Needle ParkThe final Sweet 16 matchup is the most arthouse of the four — and arguably the most fascinating. Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist is a landmark of European cinema. Vittorio Storaro's cinematography is among the most studied in film school history, and the film's meditation on fascism, identity, and moral cowardice has only grown richer with time. You can read more about the film at Roger Ebert's review on RogerEbert.com.The Panic in Needle Park, by contrast, is bracingly American — a gritty, unglamorous portrait of heroin addiction on the streets of New York. It introduced Al Pacino to mainstream audiences. Moreover, Jerry Schatzberg's unflinching direction makes the film feel almost documentary in its honesty. These two films represent opposite ends of world cinema in 1971, and the Taste Buds must choose one.Award: Best Comedic Performance — 1971 Film Bracket PodcastThe Taste Buds hand out individual performance awards throughout the season, and the Comedic Performance category drew a fascinating and eclectic field of nominees. The 1971 bracket is not short on laughs — from the anarchic fantasy of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory to the dark comedy of Harold and Maude. Furthermore, the nominees represent a range of comic registers, from broad physical performance to pitch-black wit.The nominees are:David Battley — Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mike's pick)Julie Dawn Cole — Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Greg's pick)Bud Cort — Harold and Maude (Mike's pick)Michael Gothard — The Devils (Ryan's pick)Gene Wilder — Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Greg's pick)David Battley's turn as the hapless Mr. Turkentine in Willy Wonka is a masterwork of bewildered reaction comedy. Julie Dawn Cole's Veruca Salt is a full-throttle comic creation — spoiled, relentless, and somehow sympathetic. Additionally, Bud Cort's Harold is a genuinely difficult comic achievement: deadpan to the point of catatonia, yet somehow enormously warm.Michael Gothard's Father Barre in The Devils is Ryan's wild-card choice — a performance of manic, committed intensity that functions as dark comedy whether or not Ken Russell intended it. Meanwhile, Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka remains one of cinema's great comic performances — menacing, whimsical, and deeply strange all at once. The winner is waiting for you in the episode.Award: Biggest Shithead of 1971One of the Taste Buds' most beloved recurring awards, the Biggest Shithead category recognizes the most memorably awful person — or entity — in the bracket. Notably, this award rewards commitment. Nominees do not simply do bad things. They do bad things with style, conviction, and a complete lack of self-awareness.The nominees are:Baron de Laubardemont — The Devils (Greg's pick)The Lady at Snakearama — Duel (Ryan's pick)The Motorcycle Cop — Harold and Maude (Greg's pick)Mr. Deltoid — A Clockwork Orange (Mike's pick)Veruca Salt — Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Mike's pick)Baron de Laubardemont, the cold bureaucratic villain of The Devils, brings state-sanctioned cruelty to the category. The Lady at Snakearama from Duel is Ryan's inspired choice — a brief but indelible portrait of someone who simply should not be in this movie. Furthermore, Harold and Maude's Motorcycle Cop is a monument to institutional pettiness.Mr. Deltoid from A Clockwork Orange is a sweaty, oleaginous masterpiece of ineffectual authority — Mike's nomination is well-argued. Veruca Salt, however, may be the category's most pure entry: a child who has elevated wanting things to an art form. The winner, as always, is in the episode.Why This 1971 Film Bracket Podcast Still MattersThe Sweet 16 is where bracket tournaments reveal their true character. By this stage, the obvious candidates are mostly gone. What remains are the films that survived not on reputation alone but on genuine argument. Moreover, the bottom half of the 1971 Sweet 16 contains some of the season's most debated films — which means every matchup result carries real emotional weight.The year 1971 is one of the most remarkable in cinema history. New Hollywood was hitting its stride. European art cinema was pushing form to its limits. Genre filmmaking was getting stranger, darker, and more personal. Consequently, any bracket drawn from this year produces matchups that feel genuinely impossible to call. The Taste Buds do not pretend otherwise — they argue, they agonize, and they vote.Part III is coming. The Elite Eight will determine the Movie of the Year: 1971 champion. Above all, this episode is the last chance to see which films survive before the final reckoning. Subscribe to PopFilter and follow along — the 1971 film...

Hosts Josh and Jamie and special guest film critic and author Willow Catelyn Maclay discuss the iconic pioneering funk, rock and pop musician (and androgenous sex symbol) Prince with a double feature of his screen debut in the quasi-autobiographical rock opera/concert musical PURPLE RAIN (1984) + his directorial debut UNDER THE CHERRY MOON (1986), a strange post-modern pastiche of Old Hollywood rom-coms and European art films. Next week's episode is a patron-exclusive bonus episode on British juvenile delinquents: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) + SCUM (1979), you can get access to that episode (and all past + future bonus episodes) by subscribing to our $5 tier on Patreon: www.patreon.com/sleazoidspodcast Intro // 00:00-09:02 PURPLE RAIN // 09:02-1:22:14 UNDER THE CHERRY MOON // 1:22:14-2:27:27 Outro // 2:27:27-2:31:08 NEW SLEAZOIDS SHIRT + HAT: https://blackbeltcinema.ca/search?q=sleazoids&options%5Bprefix%5D=last WEBSITE: www.sleazoidspodcast.com/ Pod Twitter: twitter.com/sleazoidspod Pod Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/SLEAZOIDS/ Josh's Twitter: twitter.com/thejoshl Josh's Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/thejoshl Jamie's Twitter: twitter.com/jamiemilleracas Jamie's Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/jamiemiller

The latest Tin Foil Hat episode with the Paranoid American packs a rapid-fire mix of conspiracies, linking secret societies, the pineal gland, and modern myths like Frazzledrip to alleged mind control programs such as MK-ULTRA and trauma-based conditioning. It dives into darker themes—Satanic Panic, ritual abuse, and ancient deities—while tying in pop culture touchpoints like A Clockwork Orange and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as potential symbols of hidden influence. Blending historical experiments, fringe science, and internet lore, the episode presents a fast-moving narrative that blurs the line between documented events and modern conspiracy culture. Please subscribe to the new Tin Foil Hat youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@TinFoilHatYoutube Sam Tripoli's 5th Crowd Work Special "Hero Live From Batavia" Drops May 2nd On Youtube.com/SamTripoliComedy Grab your copy of the 2nd issue of the Chaos Twins now and join the Army Of Chaos: https://bit.ly/415fDfY Check out Sam "DoomScrollin with Sam Tripoli and Midnight Mike" Every Tuesday At 4pm pst on Youtube, X Twitter, Rumble and Rokfin! Join the WolfPack at Wise Wolf Gold and Silver and start hedging your financial position by investing in precious metals now! Go to https://www.samtripoli.gold/ and use the promo code "TinFoil" and we thank Tony for supporting our show. CopyMyCrypto.com: The 'Copy my Crypto' membership site shows you the coins that the youtuber 'James McMahon' personally holds - and allows you to copy him. So if you'd like to join the 1300 members who copy James, then stop what you're doing and head over to: https://copymycrypto.com/tinfoilhat/ You'll not only find proof of everything I've said - but my listeners get full access for just $1 Grab Tickets To Sam Tripoli's Live Shows At SamTripoli.com: Austin, TX: (Live Taping Of My New Comedy Special) 5/22 Albuquerque, NM: 6/12-6/13 Austin, TX: The 100th Episode Of Tin Foil Hat 6/18 Lawerence, KS: 9/17-9/19 Tulsa, OK: 10/9-10/10 Austin, TX: 12/11-12/13   Please check out Word War Debate and the WordWarDebate Contenders Series: https://wordwardebate.com   Please check out Paranoid American's internet: Website: https://paranoidamerican.com Twitter: https://x.com/ParanoidAmerica Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paranoidamerican/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ParanoidAmerican   Please check out Sam Tripoli's internet: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/samtripoli Sam Tripoli's Stand Up Youtube Page: https://www.youtube.com/@SamTripoliComedy  Sam Tripoli's Comedy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samtripolicomedy/%20P Sam Tripoli's Podcast Clip Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samtripolispodcastclips/ Please support our sponsors: BlueChew Gold: Is the newest innovation from the #1 chewable ED brand. This ain't your grandpa's little blue pill — this is the 4-in-1 beast that's setting the Gold Standard for performance. We're talking two ingredients for blood flow to keep that rocket pumping, mixed with Apomorphine and Oxytocin to turn up the arousal and connection in your brain and body. And we've got a special deal for our listeners: Get 10% off your first month of BlueChew Gold with code TINFOIL. That's promo code TINFOIL. Visit BlueChew.com for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast. 1-800-Flowers:  Flowers are the #1 gift to give for Mother's Day, but it can be hard to know which ones will show Mom how much she means to you. For 50 years, 1-800-Flowers has been helping people send beautiful bouquets Mom will love and express the all the gratitude you have for everything she does.  Mother's Day is Sunday, May 10th and bouquets are selling out fast. Trust me, don't wait. To claim your Double Roses offer before they're gone, visit 1 800 Flowers dot com slash TINFOIL. That's 1 800 Flowers dot com slash TINFOIL. 1 800 Flowers dot com slash TINFOIL.    

Andrew Adams returns to The Dark Mind Podcast to discuss his new Cemetery Dance Publications novel, Crossroads, Inc.The book is set in the dying backwoods town of Glanton, where the air is toxic, the water is undrinkable, and the people have been forgotten.When a life insurance company called Crossroads, Inc. rolls into town offering cash advances on policies repaid in severed body parts, what begins as desperation quickly becomes compliance, addiction, and the normalization of the unthinkable.At the center of the story is thirteen year old Hannah Cassady, the skeptic of her family and the one who sees the lie before the adults do.At the center of the company is Samuel Sterling, a smooth talking CEO in a purple suit with pearly white veneers who never needs to raise his voice to get what he wants.Andrew and Vincent dig into the seed of the premise, the Faustian roots of the title, and the way the novel layers body horror on top of addiction, economic collapse, and manufactured hope.They talk about Hannah as the moral compass of the story, the Cassady siblings as a single unit splintering under pressure, and the slow normalization of mutilation inside a community that has run out of options.They also get into the real world echoes behind the brew, the opiate crisis, legalized vice, and the way desperate people respond to anyone who finally acknowledges their suffering.Beyond the book, Andrew opens up about his path from welder and aerospace engineer to writing sixteen books in under four years, the grind of the indie horror world, and what it meant to land at Cemetery Dance Publications.He talks about his literary influences from Cormac McCarthy and A Clockwork Orange to Hunter S. Thompson and Ronald Malfi, his friendships with writers like Duncan Ralston, Emma E. Murray, and Jyl Glenn, and the daily reality of writing at night around a full time job and a family.This is a conversation about bodies as currency, hope as a trap, and the quiet horror of watching a town talk itself into giving up a piece of itself one finger at a time.Website: https://www.symposiumofthereaper.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew_adams_author/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrew_adams_authorThreads: https://www.threads.net/@andrew_adams_authorGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/567299.Andrew_AdamsBuy Crossroads, Inc. from Cemetery Dance Publications: https://www.cemeterydance.com/CrossroadsInc.htmlCrossroads, Inc. on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GPYZJYSL/Andrew Adams books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Andrew+Adams+horror&i=stripbooksAndrew Adams on Audible: https://www.audible.com/author/Andrew-Adams/B0BYD1LQXYAndrew Adams on Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/andrew+adams+horrorAndrew Adams on Godless: https://godless.com/products/andrew-adamsSupport The Dark Mind Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/c/thedarkmindpodcast

Movie of the Year: 1971Straw Dogs (feat. Erik from the Cradle to the Grave pod!)The Straw Dogs Podcast: Peckinpah's Most Dangerous FilmThe Straw Dogs podcast episode of Movie of the Year confronts one of 1971's most debated, disturbing, and relentlessly provocative films — Sam Peckinpah's psychological siege thriller starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George. Ryan, Mike, and Greg are joined by Erik Hanson of the Cradle to the Grave podcast. Together, they examine the film's violence, its contested rape scene, and the gender dynamics at the heart of Peckinpah's vision. Consequently, no other episode this season demands more from its hosts — or from its audience.Moreover, the 1971 film Straw Dogs arrived in remarkable company. A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Harry, and The French Connection all hit theaters the same year — forming a cluster of films that fundamentally altered what Hollywood was willing to show. Furthermore, Straw Dogs distinguished itself from all of them. Filmed entirely in a Cornish village, it replaced the city's noise with something quieter and more suffocating. Ultimately, it is a film that has never stopped demanding conversation — and that is exactly what the Taste Buds deliver.About the FilmSam Peckinpah directed Straw Dogs (1971), starring Dustin Hoffman as David Sumner, a mild-mannered American mathematician who relocates with his English wife Amy (Susan George) to her rural hometown in Cornwall. David hires local men to repair their farmhouse. Almost immediately, however, the couple faces escalating harassment, intimidation, and violence from the villagers — including Amy's former boyfriend Charlie (Del Henney).Peckinpah and screenwriter David Zelag Goodman adapted the film from Gordon M. Williams's 1969 novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm. Peckinpah famously dismissed the source material. The film builds to a harrowing siege in which David, pushed past every limit, defends his home with escalating brutality. Additionally, the title derives from the Tao Te Ching, which describes straw dogs as ceremonial objects — used briefly, then discarded without feeling. The Criterion Collection edition includes a discussion of this symbolism in its supplemental materials.Released theatrically in the UK in November 1971, the film earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. It was later issued as a Criterion Collection release featuring new critical scholarship. The British Film Institute also maintains an entry on the film. The British Board of Film Classification banned it for home video release for years after its UK theatrical run.Guest Panelist: Erik HansonJoining the Taste Buds for this Sam Peckinpah film discussion is Erik Hanson, the creator and host of Cradle to the Grave — a horror movie podcast built around a distinctive structural premise. Starting with 1971, his own birth year, Erik ranks and discusses his Top 10 horror films from every year of his life, covering each in depth with rotating guests. The show has developed a devoted following for Erik's knowledgeable, laid-back, and genuinely funny approach to the genre.In addition to podcasting, Erik is the author of Death Machine, a debut horror novel set in 1987 Northern California that reimagines the Zodiac Killer returning to terrorize a group of kids. Based in Sacramento, California, Erik is also a musician. His work across fiction and podcasting reflects a lifelong relationship with horror that goes well beyond fandom and into genuine craft. Notably, the fact that Cradle to the Grave begins precisely with 1971 makes Erik an especially fitting guest for a deep dive into one of that year's most unsettling films. You can pick up Death Machine on Amazon.Peckinpah and Violence: A Director Pushed to the EdgeBy 1971, Sam Peckinpah had already established himself as Hollywood's most uncompromising chronicler of violence. The Wild Bunch (1969) had rewritten the grammar of the Western, deploying slow-motion carnage in a way that made violence impossible to process cleanly. Straw Dogs, however, moved in a very different direction. Furthermore, Warner Bros. had effectively exiled Peckinpah from Hollywood following a chaotic falling out, which is why he filmed this Straw Dogs 1971 production entirely in England, far from his natural terrain.The violence in Straw Dogs is not operatic like The Wild Bunch. Instead, it is domestic, intimate, and deeply uncomfortable. Peckinpah builds menace through accumulation — small humiliations, loaded glances, minor intrusions — before releasing it all in the siege. Additionally, the film implicates the audience in David's rampage by making it feel, at least in the moment, cathartic. That troubling catharsis is entirely the point. As a result, the Straw Dogs podcast discussion centers on Peckinpah's central question: whether violence is ever truly civilized, or whether it simply waits beneath the surface of every man who believes he is better than it. Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1971, gave the film two stars and called it a film committed to the pornography of violence while laying on moral outrage with a shovel — a dissent worth hearing even for those who disagree.The Rape Scene: Context, Controversy, and CriticismNo discussion of Straw Dogs is complete without addressing its most contested sequence. Charlie, her former boyfriend, first assaults Amy — then a second attacker follows. What makes the scene so difficult to analyze is the way Peckinpah films the first assault. Many critics interpreted Amy's shifting emotional response during the rape as suggesting consent or complicity. That reading fueled decades of fierce feminist criticism of the Sam Peckinpah film.Moreover, the British Board of Film Classification rejected the film for home video release for years, specifically over this content. The studio cut the scene for the US release to secure an R rating. Susan George has spoken in interviews about her complex relationship to the role and the sequence. Notably, film scholar Linda Williams frames the film within the longer history of misogynistic representation in cinema. Her analysis appears in the Criterion Collection release. She argues that Straw Dogs belongs in conversation with works that are technically significant but ethically compromised. Consequently, the scene is not a matter of simple condemnation or simple defense. It is the central wound around which the entire film's meaning turns, and the Taste Buds treat it accordingly.David, Amy, and Gender in Straw Dogs 1971At its core, Straw Dogs is a film about masculinity in crisis. David Sumner is an intellectual — passive, avoidant, and seemingly incapable of the physical authority the Cornish village treats as natural male behavior. The film, however, refuses to position his bookishness as a virtue. Dustin Hoffman understood his character as a man who unconsciously provokes the violence around him — a pacifist whose repressed aggression the siege finally unlocks.Amy occupies an equally impossible position. The film's gaze codes her as provocative — bare feet, no bra, conspicuous in the village — while simultaneously punishing her for that very visibility. Nevertheless, Susan George's performance introduces ambiguity and depth that the script does not always earn on its own. The dynamic between David and Amy is as much a source of tension as the men gathering outside. They seem genuinely ill-suited and miscommunicate constantly. Above all, Straw Dogs asks what gender roles cost everyone involved. Specifically, the film suggests that masculinity, however dormant, will ultimately assert itself through violence. That is Peckinpah's most unsettling argument — and one that the A Clockwork Orange episode of Movie of the Year covers from a very different angle.Career Retrospective: Dustin HoffmanBy the time the Straw Dogs podcast era film was released in 1971, Dustin Hoffman had already fundamentally changed what a movie star could look like. His breakthrough in The Graduate (1967) — neurotic, unhandsome, deeply searching — made him a voice for a generation that distrusted certainty. Midnight Cowboy (1969) proved he could disappear entirely into character, earning his first Academy Award nomination. Little Big Man (1970) demonstrated his ability to age through an entire life on screen. Straw Dogs, therefore, marks something different in his catalog: not charm or pathos, but something colder and harder to forgive.Hoffman's Career After...

Undiagnosed ADHD. DJ culture. Ibiza. And decades of cocaine use hidden behind success.In this episode of Coming Clean With Me, addiction specialist Elliott Wald sits down with Andy Manston, co-founder of Clockwork Orange, to unpack how a childhood shaped by undiagnosed ADHD and a lifelong relationship with music quietly evolved into decades of alcohol, speed, and cocaine use.Andy grew up in Walthamstow, East London, an only child who struggled at school with concentration, impulsivity, and constant disruption — issues that were never recognised as ADHD at the time. Music became the one place his mind settled. From his father's vinyl collection to learning guitar, mixing tapes on an Amstrad stereo, pirate radio, and early raves, music gave Andy structure long before it became a career.That path eventually led to Clockwork Orange, which exploded in Ibiza during the 1990s. After appearing on Ibiza Uncovered, crowds doubled, money flowed, and the lifestyle intensified. Andy explains how alcohol and stimulant use — which began socially in rave culture — became embedded in DJ life, escalating as success and access increased.After Clockwork Orange began to decline in the early 2000s, Andy explains how the loss of structure, income, and identity pushed his drug use into a more isolated phase — using at home, often alone, to escape financial stress and emotional collapse. By the time Clockwork relaunched in 2010, his business partner Danny Gould was clean and sober — but Andy was not.The darkest period came during lockdown. Living alone, drinking wine, using cocaine, and sleeping irregularly, Andy describes severe cocaine-induced paranoia: checking cupboards, scanning rooms, pacing stairs all night, listening for noises, driving around the block for hours convinced people were in the house.Elliott Wald is a British psychologist, hypnosis expert, and behavioural analyst with over 30 years of clinical experience. He specialises exclusively in the treatment of cocaine addiction via nasal use (snorting) — a form of stimulant addiction that is frequently misunderstood and poorly treated by generic recovery models.Alongside his formal clinical training, Elliott also brings direct lived experience. He maintained a daily cocaine addiction for 15 years, when he was publicly visible and appearing as an expert on national television. This combination of clinical expertise and first-hand experience allows Elliott to understand stimulant addiction from both a neuropsychological and human perspective — without ideology, moral judgement, or surface-level explanations.Elliott's work focuses on the psychological, behavioural, and neurobiological mechanisms that drive cocaine addiction, including dopamine dysregulation, compulsive habit loops, impulsivity, identity reinforcement, and relapse conditioning. His approach is highly individualised, evidence-informed, and fundamentally different from generic coaching, peer-led advice, or one-size-fits-all recovery programmes based on someone else's story.He has appeared as an addiction expert across major UK broadcasters including ITV, BBC, Sky News, and Sky Living, and is a published author in the field of addiction.Over 90% of Elliott's patients work with him online, meaning private, one-to-one treatment is accessible to clients across the United States and worldwide, without the need for travel.If you'd like to watch a video explaining how Elliott's one-to-one programme works, or to enquire about private treatment, send a WhatsApp: UK: 07875 751960 International: +44 7875 751960Find out more on Elliott's website: https://www.hypnosis-expert.com/ADDICTION/

From Essex tower blocks to Ibiza superstardom — and into full-blown cocaine psychosis.In this episode of Coming Clean With Me, addiction specialist Elliott Wald sits down with Danny Gould, co-founder of Clockwork Orange and one of the defining figures of British club culture in the 1990s.Danny describes growing up in Essex with an alcoholic mother, no father present, long periods of neglect, poverty, and emotional absence. He explains being left alone from a young age, struggling at school, and learning to survive rather than being cared for — experiences he later connects to emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, and substance use.As Clockwork Orange grew, so did the excess. Danny recounts taking the brand to Ibiza in 1994, the explosion in popularity after Ibiza Uncovered, record-breaking crowds at Space, and an environment of constant money, access, and seven-night-a-week partying.He speaks in detail about cocaine-induced psychosis: hallucinations, extreme fear, carrying weapons, believing people were coming for him, and shared delusions with others during heavy use. Danny uses a metaphor that later stayed with him: comparing cocaine addiction to Gollum's ring — describing the obsession, possession, and fear of life without it.Despite losing money, status, and stability, Danny explains he believed he would always drink and take drugs. The turning point came in 2003 after a period of intense emotional pain, alcohol use, and relapse attempts. He describes waking up one morning and knowing it was over.Danny has now been 22 years clean and sober. He speaks about stopping alcohol first, later testing cocaine once and immediately recognising it no longer had a hold over him. He explains attending Alcoholics Anonymous, finding identification in the room, and using meetings as support rather than prescription.Elliott Wald is a British psychologist, hypnosis expert, and behavioural analyst with over 30 years of clinical experience. He specialises exclusively in the treatment of cocaine addiction via nasal use (snorting) — a form of stimulant addiction that is frequently misunderstood and poorly treated by generic recovery models.Alongside his formal clinical training, Elliott also brings direct lived experience. He maintained a daily cocaine addiction for 15 years, when he was publicly visible and appearing as an expert on national television. This combination of clinical expertise and first-hand experience allows Elliott to understand stimulant addiction from both a neuropsychological and human perspective — without ideology, moral judgement, or surface-level explanations.Elliott's work focuses on the psychological, behavioural, and neurobiological mechanisms that drive cocaine addiction, including dopamine dysregulation, compulsive habit loops, impulsivity, identity reinforcement, and relapse conditioning. His approach is highly individualised, evidence-informed, and fundamentally different from generic coaching, peer-led advice, or one-size-fits-all recovery programmes based on someone else's story.He has appeared as an addiction expert across major UK broadcasters including ITV, BBC, Sky News, and Sky Living, and is a published author in the field of addiction.Over 90% of Elliott's patients work with him online, meaning private, one-to-one treatment is accessible to clients across the United States and worldwide, without the need for travel.If you'd like to watch a video explaining how Elliott's one-to-one programme works, or to enquire about private treatment, send a WhatsApp:UK: 07875 751960 International: +44 7875 751960Find out more on Elliott's website: https://www.hypnosis-expert.com/ADDICTION/

Movie of the Year: 1971Dirty Harry (feat. Conor Kilpatrick from iFanboy!)The Dirty Harry podcast arrives this week on Movie of the Year: 1971, as the Taste Buds take on one of the most influential and contested crime films ever made. Don Siegel's thriller introduced the world to Inspector Harry Callahan — a San Francisco cop who operates on instinct, fury, and a very large handgun. Moreover, the film sparked a debate about justice, civil liberties, and the price of order that has never fully quieted. The Taste Buds are joined by Conor Kilpatrick of iFanboy for this Don Siegel Dirty Harry analysis, and they also cover 1971 ProStars and a special segment on the year in comic books.Episode Show Notes: What We CoverThis Dirty Harry 1971 film discussion covers a lot of ground. Below is a summary of the key talking points from the episode — a roadmap for listeners and a reference for anyone who wants to dig deeper after the fact.On Harry Callahan as a character: The panel opens by asking whether Harry is actually a hero or whether the film simply frames him as one. Conor argues that Eastwood's performance is so controlled and interior that the audience does the work of making Harry sympathetic — the film barely has to try. Ryan pushes back: Harry's righteousness is earned on screen because he is always right in his read of a situation, even when he is wrong in his methods. Mike lands somewhere in between, pointing out that Harry's body count by the end of the first film is genuinely troubling if you stop and count.On politics and the law: The Taste Buds spend significant time on Pauline Kael's famous "fascist" critique and whether it holds up. The consensus is that the film is more ambiguous than Kael allowed — but that the ambiguity is doing real work, and not always in a reassuring direction. The legal system in Dirty Harry is not just flawed; it is portrayed as an active obstacle to justice. That framing has consequences.On San Francisco: The panel discusses how Don Siegel uses the city as a visual argument — the geography of the chase scenes, the specific choice of Kezar Stadium as a set piece, and what it means to set this particular story in the city that had been the symbolic capital of American idealism just four years earlier.On 1971 in comics: Conor breaks down the Marvel vs. DC landscape of the year, the significance of the Spider-Man drug arc, and why Jack Kirby's Fourth World still does not get the mainstream recognition it deserves. Additionally, he and the Taste Buds find real thematic overlap between the comics and the film: both are grappling with institutions that have failed and individuals who step into the void.About the FilmDirty Harry (1971) was directed by Don Siegel and stars Clint Eastwood as Inspector Harry Callahan of the San Francisco Police Department. The film follows Callahan as he hunts the Scorpio Killer — a sadistic serial murderer loosely inspired by the real-life Zodiac Killer — while clashing repeatedly with a city bureaucracy unwilling to bend the rules. Harry has no such hesitation. Andrew Robinson plays Scorpio with chilling, unhinged intensity. The film's cat-and-mouse structure keeps the tension taut from its rooftop opening shot through its iconic waterfront finale.Furthermore, Dirty Harry arrived at a fraught cultural moment. Crime rates in major American cities were rising sharply. Public trust in government and police was eroding. Consequently, the film's portrait of a cop who gets results by any means necessary struck a powerful nerve. For more context alongside this Dirty Harry podcast, explore the full production history on the film's IMDb page.Produced by Warner Bros. and Malpaso Productions, the film features a propulsive score by Lalo Schifrin. Dirty Harry launched a five-film franchise and cemented Clint Eastwood as one of cinema's defining icons of controlled menace. It remains among the most debated American films of its era — a movie that means different things depending entirely on who is watching it. Listeners who enjoy this Dirty Harry podcast episode might also want to revisit our discussion of The French Connection, another 1971 film that wrestles with law enforcement, moral ambiguity, and the limits of the justice system.Guest Panelist: Conor Kilpatrick of iFanboyJoining the Taste Buds this week is Conor Kilpatrick, co-founder and longtime host at iFanboy — one of the most enduring comics media platforms on the internet. Conor co-founded iFanboy around 2000 alongside Josh Flanagan and Ron Richards, originally as a college email chain where friends traded weekly comic reviews. That chain became a website, then a podcast, then a 25-year institution in the comics world. Known as the "DC Guy" of iFanboy, Conor has spent decades explaining infinite Earths, multiple reboots, and the craft of visual storytelling with genuine enthusiasm and expertise. He brings that same depth of knowledge to the Dirty Harry podcast discussion this week.He is also the co-host of the Goodfellas Minute podcast and a co-founder of Great Northern Media. Moreover, his deep knowledge of 1971 comics makes him the ideal guest for this episode's special segment. His perspective on the cultural landscape of 1971 — what was happening in comics while Dirty Harry was in theaters — adds a dimension to this Dirty Harry 1971 film discussion that no other guest could bring. Welcome to Movie of the Year, Conor.Harry Callahan: The Dirty Harry Podcast's Central DebateHarry Callahan is one of American cinema's most complicated figures. On the surface, he is a blunt instrument — a man who solves problems with a .44 Magnum and withering silence. However, Siegel and Eastwood invest him with something far more ambiguous. Harry is genuinely competent, even brilliant, at what he does. The tragedy is that the system he serves refuses to reward competence over politics.Eastwood's performance is famously economical. He does not grandstand or seek sympathy. Notably, that restraint is precisely what makes Harry magnetic — audiences fill in the emotional gaps themselves, projecting onto a man who reveals almost nothing voluntarily. The Taste Buds discuss whether Harry reads as a hero, an antihero, or something the film itself cannot quite name. For contrast, consider how Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle in The French Connection presents a similarly brutal cop — but one the film regards with considerably more irony.The "Do you feel lucky, punk?" monologue is among the most quoted speeches in 1970s cinema. Nevertheless, it is more than a catchphrase. It is a masterclass in character — Harry performing certainty he may not entirely feel, using psychology as a weapon when firepower is temporarily unavailable. Above all, it reveals a man who understands power in all its forms and deploys it with surgical precision.Politics, Justice, and the Law: A Don Siegel Dirty Harry AnalysisFew films from 1971 generated more critical controversy than Dirty Harry. Pauline Kael famously called it a fascist work of art in her widely-discussed review. Others defended it as a frank reckoning with a legal system too broken to protect its own citizens. Consequently, the film sits at the center of a political argument that has never fully resolved itself.The film's central tension is not, ultimately, between Harry and Scorpio. It is between Harry and the law itself. Time and again the legal system fails — releasing Scorpio on procedural grounds, blocking the investigation, prioritizing process over lives. Harry's response is to act outside those constraints entirely. Moreover, the film frames him as righteous for doing so, and that is precisely what troubled critics at the time.However, the Taste Buds push on this carefully. Does Dirty Harry endorse vigilantism, or does it simply portray it with unflinching honesty? The ending — Harry throwing his badge into the water — complicates any easy reading. Therefore, rather than celebrating his methods without reservation, the film may ultimately acknowledge that Harry's approach destroys him even as it saves others. This Don Siegel Dirty Harry analysis explores that tension without settling for easy answers. Listeners interested in how 1971 cinema handled political disillusionment should also visit our episode on A Clockwork Orange, which confronts similar questions from a radically different angle.San Francisco: A City in the WestSan Francisco is not merely a backdrop in Dirty Harry. It is a character. Don Siegel shoots the city with documentary precision — rooftops, construction sites, Kezar Stadium, winding streets, and the cold grey of the bay. As a result, San Francisco's geography becomes an extension of the film's moral landscape: beautiful, treacherous, and full of places the law cannot easily reach.The city of 1971 was in deep transition. The Summer of...

My real life "Seth Rogan in The Studio" dilemma. What the shits, Fitz? I'm scrambling to find a job in my late 40s, yaaay. I hate people that constantly begin a thought/observation with "look" or "listen," I went to see A Clockwork Orange and realized I really don't like Stanley Kubrick very much. This Week In Burger King Incompetence. Scott Vogel (Terr') on Jake Converge's podcast got a ni**a going down memory lane, n sheeit. I went to the Virzi's house party, and fit in about as well as your high school principal hanging out there. I broke down and saw Project Hail Mary, and mostly wish I hadn't.

#realconversations #horror #thriller #comedy #trauma#TheShining #Kubrick #NYUTisch #Oregon #comicbooksCONVERSATIONS WITH CALVIN — WE THE SPECIESHosted by Calvin SchwartzMeetVINCENT MORANO (Writer, director, producer), ADAM GREENE (Co-writer) ‘Night isfor Screaming “. I keep repeating to myself how much I love the Garden StateFilm Festival. It offers wondrous opportunities to get to know and interviewforces of creativity, imagination, and excellence in filmmaking. Welcome,Vincent and Adam. Theirfilm blends horror, comedy (yes), and thriller. I've been around the block. Thefilm's hook is so unique. They are unique. Lifetime journey. Their passionexudes. I like Vincent's childhood. He prayed for rainy days so he could go tothe movie theater. They make movies about his life journey. Adamrevealed his backdrop. Keys to unlimited imagination. Comic books. Eisner's.Vincent, a Jersey guy, summered in Ocean City, where he saw ET, The Natural.Adam, an Ohio State Buckeye fan. Yes, I was at home and comfortable. Now Iswitch to words and thoughts. To induce. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.Anthony Burgess, who wrote A Clockwork Orange. Tonal influences. The Shining.Kubrick. 2001. Vincent watches films with his 14-year-old daughter. Sophie'sChoice. Yes, human horror. Cult psychology. Trauma. Challenges bringing ‘Nightis For Screaming' to Life. Money. We're all indies. I marvel at Vincent, Adam.Their passion, brilliance, grasp, devotion to craft, and their humor. Iscreamed inwardly. Please come back,” Calvin

Movie of the Year: 1971Willy Wonka and the Chocolate FactoryWilly Wonka and the Chocolate Factory podcast fans, this one is for you. Ryan, Mike, and Greg are joined by special guest Matt Singer of ScreenCrush to revisit one of 1971's most beloved and most debated films on Movie of the Year. In addition, Mel Stuart's musical fantasy has frightened and delighted children and adults in equal measure for over fifty years. This episode also features Movie Trivia and a PopFilter Hall of Fame: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory induction.About the FilmRoald Dahl based the film on his 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The story follows young Charlie Bucket, who wins a golden ticket and tours the mysterious factory of the eccentric Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. Notably, Dahl wrote the screenplay himself — and then disowned the finished film. He objected to the liberties the production took with his story and his vision for the character. As a result, that tension between author and adaptation makes this a particularly rich film to revisit.Before diving in, check out our recent episodes on The Last Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange, and The French Connection for more from the Movie of the Year 1971 series.Guest Panelist: Matt Singer of ScreenCrushMatt Singer joins the Taste Buds for this episode. He serves as editor and film critic at ScreenCrush and holds membership in the New York Film Critics Circle. Singer spent five years as the on-air host of IFC News on the Independent Film Channel. He has also contributed to CBS This Morning Saturday, Ebert Presents at the Movies, The Village Voice, and The Dissolve. Furthermore, he won a Webby Award for his work on IFC.com and authored Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever.Matt Singer's New Book: Funny BusinessHis latest book is Funny Business, out in October. It covers the comedy films of the 2000s — Old School, Zoolander, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, The Hangover, and more. Pre-order it now. Moreover, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ranks among Singer's four all-time favorite films on Letterboxd. Consequently, this is not just any guest — Singer has thought deeply about this film for a very long time.Willy Wonka 1971 Podcast Discussion: Genre and ToneThe first major topic of this Willy Wonka 1971 podcast discussion is the question that has divided audiences since opening day: what kind of film is this, exactly? The studio marketed it as a children's musical fantasy. In practice, however, it delivers something far stranger and more unsettling. The boat tunnel sequence alone has scared generations of young viewers. Moreover, the tone shifts without warning from whimsical to genuinely threatening. Gene Wilder's performance keeps the audience perpetually off-balance throughout.Ryan, Mike, Greg, and Matt Singer dig into how Mel Stuart navigated the tension between studio ambitions and the source material. They also examine the complicated role of Roald Dahl as screenwriter — a man who shaped the film's darkest edges and then rejected the result. For more on the film's production history on IMDB, the details prove just as strange as the movie itself.What Gene Wilder Brings to Willy WonkaAbove all, the panel examines what Gene Wilder brings to the role that no other actor has replicated. His Wonka radiates warmth that sits one beat away from menace — and a menace that sits one beat away from warmth. No other performer has threaded that needle. For a full look at Wilder's career, therefore, visit his IMDB page.Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: Kids vs. AdultsOne of the central questions of this episode is who Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory actually targets. On the surface, it presents itself as a children's film. In practice, though, it rewards adult viewing in ways that most children's films never attempt. The satire cuts deep, the darkness feels genuine, and Wonka makes much more sense to a viewer who no longer roots for Charlie as a pure hero.The panel explores the film through both lenses. As children, most of them fell for the candy and feared the tunnel. As adults, by contrast, they find something else entirely — a film about power, punishment, and the thin line between a visionary and a tyrant. Additionally, they discuss how the film shifts meaning depending on which version of yourself sits in the audience, and why that quality remains so rare.Capitalism, Conformity, and Other -Isms in Willy Wonka 1971Beneath the chocolate and the Oompa Loompas, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory has a great deal to say about the world. The children who fail Wonka's tests are not simply bad kids. Instead, they embody consumer culture, class anxiety, and parental failure. Augustus Gloop represents excess. Violet Beauregarde embodies competitive ambition. Veruca Salt carries unchecked privilege. Meanwhile, Mike Teavee absorbs media saturation. Each child faces punishment not for being a child, but for playing the role of a particular kind of adult in miniature.Ryan, Mike, Greg, and Matt Singer examine what the film says about capitalism, conformity, and the systems that shape children before they can question them. In addition, they take on the troubling labor politics of the Oompa Loompas — workers paid in cacao beans, housed inside their employer's factory, and sent out to deliver moral lectures on demand. It is a lot to unpack. Nevertheless, this episode unpacks all of it.For more critical context on the film's themes, visit RogerEbert.com.Movie Trivia: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory EditionThis episode features a special Movie Trivia segment. Did you know that Gene Wilder agreed to play Wonka only if the character could limp — so audiences could never fully trust him? Or that the chocolate river used real chocolate and cream, and quickly turned rancid on set? Or that Roald Dahl refused to authorize a sequel after the studio ignored his objections to the first film?As a result, the Taste Buds and Matt Singer test their full knowledge of the film. They cover casting history, behind-the-scenes stories, and the many ways the finished film diverged from Dahl's original vision. Even devoted fans will likely learn something new.PopFilter Hall of Fame: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate FactoryThis episode also features a PopFilter Hall of Fame: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory induction. The panel makes their case for which element of the film deserves permanent enshrinement — whether that is Gene Wilder's performance, a specific scene, a song, or something else entirely. Tune in to find out what makes the cut.Why the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Podcast Discussion Still MattersMore than fifty years after its release, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory stands as one of the most enduring and genuinely strange films in the American canon. It grows with you. Specifically, it means something different at seven, at seventeen, and at forty-seven. Few films can make that claim.Ultimately, this Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory podcast episode revisits the film not just as a 1971 classic, but as a living text that continues to reward close attention. With Matt Singer in the mix, expect sharp criticism, genuine passion, and at least one strong opinion about the Fizzy Lifting Drinks scene.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 1971If you enjoyed this episode, check out the rest of the Movie of the Year 1971 series:The Last Picture Show — Bogdanovich, nostalgia, and a dying Texas townA Clockwork Orange — Kubrick, free will, and the limits of the stateThe French Connection — Friedkin,

One Rick went to see “The Bone Temple,” the other cosplayed as part of an F1 pit crew. Both bring you their unique brand of news and views from the intersection of marketing, media, tech & pop culture. This time out: The unusual collab from Liquid Death and Spotify, BK's new burger bot, Kraft Mac & Cheese's real-time marketing stunt, and more.

This week's French Connection podcast episode covers one of the most thrilling and morally complicated films of 1971. Ryan, Mike, and Greg revisit The French Connection on Movie of the Year. William Friedkin's Best Picture winner changed what American cinema thought a hero could look like. In addition, this episode features a special Gene Hackman career retrospective.Released in 1971, the film follows New York City detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle — based on real NYPD detective Eddie Egan, with partner Sonny Grosso inspiring the character of Russo. Doyle pursues a massive heroin operation with little regard for the law or the people around him. As a result, the film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. It remains one of the defining films of the New Hollywood era.This Movie of the Year podcast episode is one of the most anticipated of the 1971 season. Before diving in, check out our recent episodes on The Last Picture Show and A Clockwork Orange.Joining the Taste Buds for this episode is special guest C. Craig Patterson A screenwriter, director, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. An alum of Columbia University, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Patterson brings serious cinematic credentials to the table. His short film Fathead won the Cannes Film Festival Best Student Short Award and earned an NAACP Image Award nomination. His scripts have been recognized by the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, The Black List, and the Academy's Nicholl Fellowship. Patterson also directed the critically acclaimed Roy Wood Jr. comedy special Imperfect Messenger for Paramount+. With projects currently in development at Paramount and Epic Games, he is one of the most exciting emerging filmmakers working today — and exactly the kind of guest who makes a film like The French Connection worth revisiting.The French Connection 1971 Podcast: Popeye Doyle — Hero, Antihero, or Something Worse?The central tension of this French Connection 1971 podcast discussion is what to make of Popeye Doyle. Gene Hackman plays him as a force of nature — relentless, racist, reckless, and completely compelling. He is not a good man, and he is barely a good cop. Nevertheless, the film frames his obsession as heroic, his instincts as genius, and his victory as worth celebrating.Ryan, Mike, and Greg dig into what Friedkin and screenwriter Ernest Tidyman were doing with Doyle. Is the film a critique of the kind of law enforcement he represents? Or is it simply in love with him? The answer is probably both. Ultimately, that ambiguity is what makes the character so difficult and so fascinating fifty years later.The Real Detectives Behind the StoryThe real detectives, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, consulted on the film and even appear in small roles. Consequently, knowing the story is grounded in a real investigation makes Doyle's behavior harder to dismiss. These were not fictional excesses invented for dramatic effect, and the panel takes that seriously.Gene Hackman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for this role, beating out Peter Finch, Walter Matthau, George C. Scott, and Topol. Furthermore, it remains one of the most celebrated performances of the 1970s. The panel uses this episode to look back at Hackman's broader career and make the case for where he stands in the pantheon.For more on Gene Hackman's career, visit the Internet Movie Database.William Friedkin and the New Hollywood Crime FilmDirector William Friedkin approached The French Connection as a documentary-style thriller. He shot on location in New York City with handheld cameras and natural light, refusing to glamorize either the city or its characters. As a result, the film feels unlike almost anything else from 1971 — raw, kinetic, and deeply uncomfortable.The Taste Buds explore how Friedkin's direction shaped the film's identity. Most notably, the legendary car chase under the elevated train tracks in Brooklyn is widely considered one of the greatest action sequences ever filmed. Friedkin shot it on live New York City streets without fully stopping traffic, with a camera mounted to the front of the car. For critical analysis of the chase, the Criterion Collection offers essential reading.Friedkin After The French ConnectionJust two years later, Friedkin directed The Exorcist, cementing his place as one of the defining filmmakers of the decade. The panel discusses what the two films share and what The French Connection reveals about Friedkin's sensibility. In both cases, his camera feels like it is barely keeping up with reality — and that is entirely by design.For more on Friedkin's influence on American cinema, visit the American Film Institute.The French Connection Podcast Discussion: Justice and Its LimitsAt its core, The French Connection is about the gap between justice and the law. Popeye Doyle operates outside the rules, endangers civilians, shoots an unarmed man in the back, and ultimately fails to bring the main target to justice. Despite all of this, the film presents his pursuit not as tragedy but as the cost of doing business.Ryan, Mike, and Greg examine what the film says about the American justice system in 1971 — a moment of profound national disillusionment. Vietnam, the civil rights movement, and the early signs of Watergate were all in the air. Meanwhile, the "good guys" in this film are not good, the "bad guys" are not caught, and the audience is asked to root for the pursuit anyway.Race and Policing in The French ConnectionMoreover, the film's racial politics are impossible to ignore. Doyle's racism is presented as character texture rather than moral failing, and the film never fully grapples with the implications of the policing it depicts. That discomfort is an important part of the conversation this week.For historical context on the real case, visit the DEA's history of the French Connection.Gene Hackman Best Performances: A Career RetrospectiveThis episode includes a special segment on Gene Hackman's best performances. The Taste Buds make their case for the defining Hackman roles and debate his greatest work. In particular, they discuss what made him such an unusual screen presence: his everyman quality, his capacity for rage, and his refusal to tell the audience how to feel about his characters.His breakthrough came in Bonnie and Clyde in 1967, and his Oscar followed here in The French Connection. Subsequently, classics like The Conversation, Mississippi Burning, Unforgiven, and The Royal Tenenbaums cemented one of the most extraordinary bodies of work in American cinema. This segment celebrates an actor who never got quite enough credit for how good he really was.Why The French Connection 1971 Still MattersMore than fifty years later, The French Connection remains essential viewing. Beyond its technical achievements, it functions as a moral document — capturing a specific American mood: exhausted, suspicious, and uncertain about its own institutions.Ultimately, this French Connection podcast episode revisits the film as a living argument about power, obsession, and the stories we tell about law enforcement. It asks hard questions, and this episode doesn't let them off the hook.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 1971If you enjoyed this episode, check out the rest of the Movie of the Year 1971 series:The Last Picture Show — Bogdanovich, nostalgia, and a dying Texas townA Clockwork Orange — Kubrick, free will, and the limits of the stateBrowse all Movie of the Year episodesFAQ: The French Connection Podcast and FilmWhat is The French Connection podcast episode about?Ryan, Mike, and Greg discuss William Friedkin's 1971 Best Picture winner. Topics include Popeye Doyle, Friedkin's direction, justice, and a Gene Hackman career retrospective.What is The French Connection about?It follows NYPD detective Popeye Doyle, based on real detective Eddie Egan, as he pursues a massive heroin smuggling operation using methods that are often illegal and always reckless.Who directed The French Connection?William Friedkin directed the 1971...

Aston Villa's Europa League last sixteen first leg against Lille on Thursday arrives at a critical moment in the season. With Villa sitting seventeenth in the Premier League form table over the last six games, the show discusses whether the Europa League now represents the most realistic route back to the Champions League, and whether the Lille tie can do for this season what the Bologna win did back in October.The show discusses the injury latest, with McGinn edging closer to a return, the squad selection dilemma for Thursday given the trip to Old Trafford follows days later, and whether Emery should rotate or go strong in France.Also discussed: Opta's supercomputer gives Villa an 80% chance of finishing top four, while the Bud 3000 is considerably less optimistic. The Tammy Abraham situation and Emery's Clockwork Orange-style process. Filipe Luís's remarkable and abruptly ended reign at Flamengo, and what it has in common with Ron Saunders. KSI's stake in Dagenham and Redbridge. The FIFA registration block on Brian Maggio. And lessons from Lincoln City in League One that Villa's current squad would do well to absorb.UTVCheck out the best current deals on Aston Villa MerchandiseGET AD-FREE SHOWS and JOIN MATCH CLUBGet ad-free shows and extra shows, and join My Old Man Said's 24/7 Villa community, Match Club.For more details and to become a member, click here: Become a MOMS MemberJoin the show's listener facebook group The Mad Few.Credits:David Michael - @myoldmansaid Chris Budd - @BUDD_musicPhillip Shaw - @prsgameMy Old Man Said - https://www.myoldmansaid.comThis Podcast has been created and uploaded by My Old Man Said. The views in this Podcast are not necessarily the views of talkSPORTBecome a MOMS Member for ad-free & extra shows - MOMS MembershipJoin the show's listener Facebook group The Mad Few.Credits:David Michael - @myoldmansaid | Chris Budd - @BUDD_music / Phillip Shaw - @prsgameThis Podcast has been created and uploaded by My Old Man Said. The views in this Podcast are not necessarily the views of talkSPORT Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matt is back and we're joined by a longtime friend of the show, Carmelita Valdez McKoy to discuss Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971).CMP on Instagram and BlueskyCarmelita on Bluesky, and LetterboxdMatt on Instagram, Bluesky, and LetterboxdAnthony on Instagram, Bluesky, and Letterboxd

Few films in the history of cinema have provoked as much discomfort — and as much genuine philosophical debate — as A Clockwork Orange. Stanley Kubrick's 1971 adaptation of Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel arrives like a punch to the temple: stylized, brazen, and engineered to make you complicit in its protagonist's point of view before you've had a chance to object.Alex DeLarge, played by Malcolm McDowell with an almost seductive ferocity, is not an antihero in the conventional sense. He's a rapist and murderer who narrates his own crimes with lyrical delight. And yet Kubrick frames him with such wit, such visual command, that discomfort becomes almost pleasurable — which is, of course, entirely the point.On this episode of Movie of the Year, we engage with the three central tensions that make the film impossible to dismiss: the philosophical minefield of morality and free will, the sheer sensory experience of watching it, and the film's deeply troubled relationship with women and sexuality.

On the 505th episode of Piecing It Together, Nick Roth joins me to talk about 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The shockingly good sequel to last year's legacy sequel to the classic zombie film absolutely bombed in theaters, leaving the future of the franchise in doubt... But it is fantastic. Watch it. Puzzle pieces include Alien: Covenant, A Clockwork Orange, Rosemary's Baby and Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny.As always, SPOILER ALERT for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and the movies we discuss!Written by Alex GarlandDirected by Nia DeCostaStarring Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-ParryColumbia PictureNick Roth is a filmmaker and writer.Follow him on Instagram and TikTok @theonetruenickrothAnd check him out on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-rothMy latest David Rosen album MISSING PIECES: 2018-2024 is a compilation album that fills in the gaps in unreleased music made during the sessions for 2018's A Different Kind Of Dream, 2020's David Rosen, 2022's MORE CONTENT and 2025's upcoming And Other Unexplained Phenomena. Find it on Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify and everywhere else you can find music.You can also find more about all of my music on my website https://www.bydavidrosen.comMy latest music video is “Shaking" which you can watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzm8s4nuqlAMake sure to “Like” Piecing It Together on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/PiecingPodAnd “Follow” us on Twitter @PiecingPodAnd Join the Conversation in our Facebook Group, Piecing It Together – A Movie Discussion Group.And check out https://www.piecingpod.com for more about our show!And if you want to SUPPORT THE SHOW, you can now sign up for our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosenYou can also support the show by checking out our Dashery store to buy shirts and more featuring Piecing It Together logos, movie designs, and artwork for my various music projects at https://bydavidrosen.dashery.com/Share the episode, comment and give us feedback! And of course, SUBSCRIBE!And of course, don't forget to leave us a 5 star review on Goodpods, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Podchaser!And most important of all… Keep going to the theater to see new movies!

MARTY SUPREME writer/director Josh Safdie unpacks his favorite movies with podcast hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante. Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode Abigail's Party (1977) Marty Supreme (2025) Burying the Ex (2015) Uncut Gems (2019) Dazed and Confused (1993) King of New York (1990) Bad Lieutenant (1992) The Funerals (1996) The Addiction (1995) 4:44 Last Day On Earth (2011) Tomasso (2019) The Driller Killer (1979) Ms .45 (1981) Go Go Tales (2007) The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) A Woman Under the Influence *Kramer vs Kramer (1979) Hero (1992) Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979) The Brood (1979) *Fire in the Sky (1993) *Matinee (1993) *A Clockwork Orange (1971) The Lost Boys (1987) *Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) *E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982) *The Shining (1980) *Misery (1990) Popeye (1980) The Leprechaun (1992) Mandy (2018) The Princess Bride (1987) This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Barry Lyndon (1975) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Full Metal Jacket (1987) *The 400 Blows (1959) *Pulp Fiction (1994) The Breakfast Club (1985) *The Red Balloon (1956) White Mane (1953) Gremlins (1984) *The Running Man (1987) The Terminator (1984) The King of Comedy (1983) Total Recall (1990) Robocop (1987) *Above The Rim (1994) Rocky (1976) Rocky II (1979) *Rocky III (1982) Rocky IV (1985) Rocky V (1990) Masters of the Universe (1987) Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) *Saturday Night Fever (1977) Stayin' Alive (1983) Carrie (1976) Other Notable Items Our Patreon!  The Hollywood Food Coalition The battle of Jericho Josh Mostel G.I. Joe Anton Yelchin Anagrams  Mike Leigh Abel Ferrera Willem Dafoe Odessa A'zion Clint Eastwood James Cagney The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Kevin Garnett Ronald Bronstein Timothee Chalamet Tyler, the Creator Gwyneth Paltrow IFC Films Zohran Mamdani Mira Nair Dustin Hoffman Meryl Streep Eric Clapton Stephen Frears Geena Davis Andy Garcia Chevy Chase David Cronenberg Robert Benton A Nightmare on Elm Street series Wendy Carlos John Candy John Goodman The Cuban Missile Crisis 4DX William Castle Smell-O-Vision Shelley Duvall The Shining novel by Stephen King (1977) Stanley Kubrick TFH Guru Mick Garris The Shining miniseries (1997) Jack Nicholson The Beatles Our Panos Cosmatos podcast episode Johan Johansson Gramaphone Records Kathy Bates James Caan Rob Reiner Alfred Hitchcock Scatman Crothers Vivian Kubrick Jean-Pierre Léaud Benny Safdie John Lennon John Hughes Chris Columbus Chicago The Ramones Richard Edson Jim Jarmusch The History of Bones: A Memoir book by John Lurie (2021) Bob Hope Bing Crosby Mel Brooks Matthew Broderick Albert Lamorisse  The Fleischer Brothers Tex Avery Harold Faltermeyer Arnold Schwarzenegger Oneohtrix Point Never  Richard Dawson Jerry Lewis Paul Verhoeven The New York Knicks Queen Onyx Bernie Mac 2Pac Dolph Lundgren Sylvester Stallone John Travolta Welcome Back, Kotter TV series (1975-78) The Bee Gees Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Janet shares her journey from photographer to bookstore owner, highlighting the shop's 32,000-title collection, unique programs like "Blind Date with a Book," and her support for local authors. The conversation captures the warmth and character of Grayslake, celebrating community connections, the joy of reading, and the importance of supporting local businesses. Listeners are invited to stop by, explore the store's treasures, and experience firsthand the hometown charm that makes Grayslake special. Unexpected Beginnings: Janet's journey from a 20-year career in commercial photography to owning a bookstore is nothing short of inspiring. She took over "This Old Book" 13 years ago to keep its doors open, and she hasn't looked back since. A Treasure Trove of Books: With around 32,000 titles, "This Old Book" is a haven for book lovers. From books dating back to the 1600s to the latest releases, there's something for everyone. Most books come from local patrons who trade their collections for store credit, keeping the inventory fresh and diverse. Supporting Local Authors: Jeanette proudly supports local writers by selling their books on commission. This dedicated section features a variety of genres, from mystery to politics, and she's excited about reviving book signings to celebrate local talent. Blind Date with a Book: One of the store's most creative offerings is the "Blind Date with a Book" program. Books are wrapped in paper with intriguing clues about their genre or theme, making for a delightful surprise. These are especially popular around holidays and come with themed gifts like bookmarks and stickers. Hidden Gems: Janet's loves the treasure hunt aspect of her business. She's discovered fascinating items like a 19th-century math book with a heartfelt note and a rare set of Oscar Wilde's works with a personal letter from Wilde himself. Community Connection: Janet's emphasizes the nostalgic and sensory experience of visiting a physical bookstore. The smell of aging paper, the joy of browsing shelves, and the personal connections formed with customers make "This Old Book" a cherished part of Grayslake's cultural fabric. Puzzle Swap: A unique monthly event where people bring in old puzzles and take new ones. It's a fun and free way to engage the community and attract visitors from near and far. Book Recommendations: Janet's go-to recommendations vary based on the reader's interests. From graphic novels for reluctant young readers to classics like Frankenstein and A Clockwork Orange for teens, she has a knack for finding the perfect book for everyone. Fun Facts and Curiosities: Weirdest Donation: A book entirely about bile from the 1940s. Surprisingly, it sold quickly! Favorite Authors: Jeanette enjoys a wide range, from the classics like Homer and Jane Austen to modern horror. Hidden Talents: Jeanette's superpower? Sarcasm! And if she could have any superpower, it'd be invisibility. Community Announcements: Bachelorette Auction: Join us on the 27th for our Bachelorette Auction, with all proceeds going to a wonderful family in need. Whether you buy a ticket, donate, or just spread the word, your support makes a difference. Random Acts of Kindness: Let's spread kindness like wildfire. Hold the door, smile, and be a good human. It's the little things that make our community stronger. Thank you for being a part of our Grayslake family. Tune in to the "Discovering Grayslake" podcast every Tuesday to meet more amazing people from our community. And don't forget to stop by "This Old Book" and say hi to Jeanette—let her know you heard about the store on the podcast! Stay curious and kind, David Wool P.S. Subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. Let's keep discovering Grayslake together! Are you happy with the results?          

Bill Maher sits down with actor Cary Elwes for a freewheeling conversation that starts with hair jokes and quickly becomes a masterclass in craft, including the moment Al Pacino changed Cary's life with a simple “work the muscle” speech. They take on Hollywood's gun obsession, Olivier vs. Brando, Kubrick's genius (and excess), whether 2001 is transcendent or a sedative, and why A Clockwork Orange still ignites debate decades later. Along the way: Braveheart, Scarface tattoos, and Catholic guilt. They cancel hell, roast John Wick, and somehow land on the idea of Pacino as God in Purgatory. Support our Advertisers: -Try ZipRecruiter for free at https://www.ziprecruiter.com/random  -Get 15% off OneSkin with the code RANDOM at https://www.oneskin.co/RANDOM #oneskinpod #ad -Head to https://www.superpower.com and use code RANDOM at checkout for $20 off your membership. Live up to your 100-Year potential. #superpowerpod #ad Subscribe to the Club Random YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/clubrandompodcast?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch episodes ad-free – subscribe to Bill Maher's Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://billmaher.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you listen: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/ClubRandom⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Buy Club Random Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clubrandom.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices ABOUT CLUB RANDOM Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did in television in this series of one on one, hour long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests in the undisclosed location called Club Random. There's a whole big world out there that isn't about politics and Bill and his guests—from Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld to Jordan Peterson, Quentin Tarantino and Neil DeGrasse Tyson—talk about all of it.  For advertising opportunities please email: PodcastPartnerships@Studio71us.com ABOUT BILL MAHER Bill Maher was the host of “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC) from 1993-2002, and for the last fourteen years on HBO's “Real Time,” Maher's combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 40 Emmy nominations. Maher won his first Emmy in 2014 as executive producer for the HBO series, “VICE.” In October of 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher's uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion, “Religulous.” Maher has written five bestsellers: “True Story,” “Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? Politically Incorrect's Greatest Hits,” “When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden,” “New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer,” and most recently, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.” FOLLOW CLUB RANDOM https://www.clubrandom.com https://www.facebook.com/Club-Random-101776489118185 https://twitter.com/clubrandom_ https://www.instagram.com/clubrandompodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@clubrandompodcast FOLLOW BILL MAHER https://www.billmaher.com https://twitter.com/billmaher https://www.instagram.com/billmaher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're back! And we're talking about the value of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) with Tom Robins and Leigh Fairbrother of Switchee.Their business is POE for landlords that's intended to improve the quality of life for the residents that they rely on. Capturing sensor data, analysing it, and synthesising that into something their clients can use.Essentially, this means validating the quality of fabric, the impact of retrofit works, and anticipating car crashes—metaphorical ones.We get a really helpful explanation of Awaab's Law around 25–30 minutes in, too. (Thank you Leigh.)Notes from the showTom Robins on LinkedInLeigh Fairbrother on LinkedIn The Switchee website (sign up in the footer)Switchee on LinkedInPH+ coverage of that early work in Thamesmead (the Clockwork Orange estate) **SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this podcast, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn page (we still don't have a proper website)Jeff and Dan about Zero Ambitions Partners (the consultancy) for help with positioning and communications strategy, customer/user research and engagement strategy, carbon calculations and EPDs – we're up to all sortsSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd Alter's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Retrofit Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

Have you seen Class of 1984? No? Well, it doesn't matter in the science fiction sequel to an 80's cult classic drama... I'm not saying this follow-up is better... but boy oh boy is it fun!DISCLAIMER: Language and Spoilers!CLASS OF 1999dir. Mark L. Lesterstarring: Bradley Gregg; Malcolm McDowell; Patrick Kilpatrick

The Rebel News podcasts features free audio-only versions of select RebelNews+ content and other Rebel News long-form videos, livestreams, and interviews. Monday to Friday enjoy the audio version of Ezra Levant's daily TV-style show, The Ezra Levant Show, where Ezra gives you his contrarian and conservative take on free speech, politics, and foreign policy through in-depth commentary and interviews. Wednesday evenings you can listen to the audio version of The Gunn Show with Sheila Gunn Reid the Chief Reporter of Rebel News. Sheila brings a western sensibility to Canadian news. With one foot in the oil patch and one foot in agriculture, Sheila challenges mainstream media narratives and stands up for Albertans. If you want to watch the video versions of these podcasts, make sure to begin your free RebelNewsPlus trial by subscribing at http://www.RebelNewsPlus.com

Listing Joe Boyd’s most significant accomplishments as a producer, label owner, and music historian is a tall order. A short list of artists he’s worked with includes Nick Drake (heard here), Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, The Incredible String Band, R.E.M., Vashti Bunyan, Billy Bragg, and 10,000 Maniacs. Additionally, he was the founder of Hannibal Records, the label responsible for bringing the term “world music” into the lexicon, as well as serving as a music producer for Warner Bros., where he collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the soundtrack of A Clockwork Orange and 1972’s Deliverance. His most recent work is as the author of White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s, as well as And the Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music, which came out in 2024. On this episode, hear how songs by Fats Domino, Fairport Convention, and Carlos Gardel shaped his sensibilities. Boyd will be a part of this year’s Big Ears Festival taking place in Knoxville, TN in March of 2026.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The definitive biography of the creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange, presenting the most in-depth portrait yet of the groundbreaking filmmaker. The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Kubrick: An Odyssey (Pegasus Books, 2024) fills that gap. This definitive book is based on access to the latest research, especially Kubrick's archive at the University of the Arts, London, as well as other private papers plus new interviews with family members and those who worked with him. It offers comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Kubrick's personal, private, public, and working life. Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey investigates not only the making of Kubrick's films, but also about those he wanted (but failed) to make like Burning Secret, Napoleon, Aryan Papers, and A.I. This immersive biography will puncture the controversial myths about the reclusive filmmaker who created some of the most important works of art of the twentieth century. Robert P. Kolker, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, taught cinema studies for almost fifty years. He is the author of A Cinema of Loneliness and The Extraordinary Image: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and the Reimagining of Cinema; editor of 2001: A Space Odyssey: New Essays and The Oxford Handbook of Film and Media Studies; and co-author of Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of his Final Film. Nathan Abrams is a professor in film at Bangor University in Wales. He is a founding co-editor of Jewish Film and New Media: An International Journal, as well as the author of The New Jew in Film: Exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema, and Stanley Kubrick: New York Jewish Intellectual, and co-author of Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of his Final Film. Daniel Moran earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in History from Drew University. The author of Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers and articles on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford, he teaches research and writing at Rutgers and co-hosts the podcast Fifteen-Minute Film Fanatics, found here on the New Books Network and on X. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/performing-arts

The definitive biography of the creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange, presenting the most in-depth portrait yet of the groundbreaking filmmaker. The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Kubrick: An Odyssey (Pegasus Books, 2024) fills that gap. This definitive book is based on access to the latest research, especially Kubrick's archive at the University of the Arts, London, as well as other private papers plus new interviews with family members and those who worked with him. It offers comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Kubrick's personal, private, public, and working life. Stanley Kubrick: An Odyssey investigates not only the making of Kubrick's films, but also about those he wanted (but failed) to make like Burning Secret, Napoleon, Aryan Papers, and A.I. This immersive biography will puncture the controversial myths about the reclusive filmmaker who created some of the most important works of art of the twentieth century. Robert P. Kolker, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, taught cinema studies for almost fifty years. He is the author of A Cinema of Loneliness and The Extraordinary Image: Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and the Reimagining of Cinema; editor of 2001: A Space Odyssey: New Essays and The Oxford Handbook of Film and Media Studies; and co-author of Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of his Final Film. Nathan Abrams is a professor in film at Bangor University in Wales. He is a founding co-editor of Jewish Film and New Media: An International Journal, as well as the author of The New Jew in Film: Exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema, and Stanley Kubrick: New York Jewish Intellectual, and co-author of Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of his Final Film. Daniel Moran earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in History from Drew University. The author of Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers and articles on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford, he teaches research and writing at Rutgers and co-hosts the podcast Fifteen-Minute Film Fanatics, found here on the New Books Network and on X. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture

Join screenwriter Stuart Wright as he dives into movies that changed your life with UK director and producer Neil Thompson, in this engaging episode of 3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life. Explore Imitation Of Life's impact, Clockwork Orange analysis, and Gone Girl' influence on his personal growth and cinema's transformative power. Neil Thompson also discusses next steps in the development of IDEALISTS, a film projects on his Fat Pictures slate. Movies That Changed Your Life   Find out about Neil Thompson's film project IDEALISTS  and the lasting impact of cinema with Stuart Wright on his movie podcast.   [1:40] Neil Thompson talks about next steps in the development of IDEALISTS. 3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life Imitation Of Life impact  [11:45] Neil Thompson says Imitation Of Life was a monster hit at the time. He got into it when he was a teenager and has loved it ever since. He watches it regularly, and introduced his daughter to it too. He guarantees you will be in floods of tears. It makes everyone cry.   Clockwork Orange analysis [18:30] Neil Thompson says that he saw Clockwork Orange when it first came out in a west London cinema. During the movie there were fights. Outside there was massive fight at the bus stop that spread on to the bus. This movie exploded on to the streets and, ignoring the second half of movie, made everyone want to fight.   Gone Girl Influence   [24:15] Neil Thompson talks about his constant love of really good, psychological thrillers, and Gone Girl is a really good example of a modern one. It's prime neo-noir featuring a femme fatale. Instead of being punished for their lawbreaking like they would be in the past, they now get away with it. Neil also enthuses about his love of David Fincher: “Never put a foot wrong.” Key Take Aways:   Discover how movies that changed your life shape personal and professional growth. Learn about Neil Thompson's approach to developing films for the Fat Pictures slate. Understand cinema's transformative power through Imitation Of Life (1959), Clockwork Orange (1971), Gone Girl (2014) About the Guest:   Neil Thompson is a director, producer and owner of Fat Pictures. He is an experienced owner with a demonstrated history of working in the entertainment industry. Strong business development professional, skilled in Finance, Production and Post. Specialised script development experience and known for championing new talent. In addition, consults on Company Structure and Finance/Investment for a range of companies and clients. Find out more Neil's company and slate at https://fatpictures.co.uk/  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts for more movies that impacted your life!  Share your favourite movies that impacted your life on X (@leytonrocks) and leave a 5-star review and tell us which 3 films impacted your adult life. Best ones get read out on the podcast. Credits:   Intro/Outro music: *Rocking The Stew* by Tokyo Dragons (https://www.instagram.com/slomaxster/)  Written, produced, and hosted by Stuart Wright for [Britflicks.com](https://www.britflicks.com/britflicks-podcast/)   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What a treat for the start of the year! We held Carl Tart's eyes open Clockwork Orange style and forced him to watch Clipped! The dramatized retelling of the Donald and Shelly Sterling scandal that resulted in him being forced to sell the LA Clippers. Is Carl arguably the most notable Clippers fan in the world? Yes. Did we make him watch potentially the worst thing to happen in his entire fandom of the franchise… welp now that I'm writing it… also yes. But was he a good sport about it? Absolutely!We chat Clippers history, his Carl's personal fandom story, sports scandals and how they are depicted in general, if V. Stiviano is a sports folk hero, the performances, Lavar Burton and of course… the casting of the Clippers players.Catch Carl as a writer on Saturday Night Live (am I spelling that right? We haven't heard of it) and also as a cohost of Hollywood Handbook, XoXo Bada Bings Sopranos Podcast and of course on stage at UCB in NYC and LA!Hosts Carl TartGeoff Kerbis Max SingerRich Inman

Kimball Farley is the future. His breakthrough role in "Hippo," the critically acclaimed dark comedy that RogerEbert.com called "an unholy fusion of A Clockwork Orange and Napoleon Dynamite" established him as a talented, chameleon-like actor to watch, then his performance in "The Righteous Gemstones," opposite Bradley Cooper, displayed his range. And now 2026 is shaping up to be a big year for him, with upcoming releases from filmmakers like Tim Sutton, Mark H. Rapaport, and Henry Chaisson showcasing more of what he can do. On this episode, he details his "outside-in" approach to character work, and why changing his appearance is of prime importance with each role. He talks about how writing contributes to his preparation process in beneficial ways, why he believes in the law of attraction, what makes Al Warren and Bradley Cooper great scene partners, why following in the footsteps of his heroes is so important to him, and much more. Back To One is the in-depth, no-nonsense, actors-on-acting podcast from  Filmmaker Magazine. In each episode, host Peter Rinaldi invites one working actor to do a deep dive into their unique process, psychology, and approach to the craft.  Follow Back To One on Instagram

So sorry for the delay! Holidays are crazy! But oh-my-my, she's worth the wait! We're here now: Will is just waking up, Nelson is stoned, we're ready to celebrate the holidays with you, and maybe most importantly give you something to listen to while heading to your festive family destinations! The Notes: Astrophysics! Will is concerned by the Anti-Bang! Mornings are not for science! We need a speed-dial scientist! Are you a scientist and do you want to be OUR scientist!? Will's the bad cop this episode! Dot-matrix printers are the platonic ideal of Geordi no to the utility vs Geordi yes to the aesthetics! Printers 2: Judgement Day! Nelson knows when an old gray mare ain't what she used to be! It's a metaphor for everything, but in a printing way! Nelson is canonically pro-robot, but these killer printers have him buggin'! Ghost guns and wobble legs are a deadly combo! That's how they Clockwork Orange these printers into Terminators! How to embarrass a printer! Shaq's gonna get those nuclear codes! Taekwondo and Red Lobster with Shaq! Nelson finally reveals his long history with Shaq! I was like what Harry Potter does for his sport, but with basketball, and with a knife! The Big Continuous! Horse and Wine! A lot of people confuse Shaq and Ed Parker, aka White Shaq! Ding ding ding, bonus points! Christmas Lightning Round! Chimney magic is just chimney science we don't understand yet! Have you ever heard of sharks, bro!? #SantaScience! Contact Us! Follow Us! Love Us! Email: doubledeucepod@gmail.com Twitter & Instagram: @doubledeucepod Bluesky: @doubledeucepod.bsky.social Facebook: www.facebook.com/DoubleDeucePod/ Patreon: patreon.com/DoubleDeucePod Also, please subscribe/rate/review/share us! We're on Apple, Android, Libsyn, Stitcher, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Radio.com, RadioPublic, pretty much anywhere they got podcasts, you can find the Deuce! Podcast logo art by Jason Keezer! Find his art online at Keezograms! Intro & Outro featuring Rob Schulte! Check out his many podcasts! Brought to you in part by sponsorship from Courtney Shipley, Official Superfans Stefan Rider, Amber Fraley, Nate Copt, and listeners like you! Join a tier on our Patreon! Advertise with us! If you want that good, all-natural focus and energy, our DOUBLEDEUCE20 code still works at www.magicmind.com/doubledeuce for 20% off all purchases and subscriptions. Check out the Lawrence Times's 785 Collective at https://lawrencekstimes.com/785collective/ for a list of local LFK podcasts including this one!  

Episode 73: Extreme Horror Iceberg Volume Six This episode was recorded on October 10, 2025 and posted on December 13, 2025.  Content Warning: Light vulgarity and discussions of extreme horror content.  Introduction Welcome to No Bodies Episode 73 Introductions to your Ghost Hosts with the Most - Lonely of Lonely Horror Club and Suzie aka Projectile Varmint Introductions to our guest - longtime listener and real life doctor, Kenan Alibegovic, D.O. Today's Topic: Extreme Horror Iceberg Volume Six Revisiting Extreme Horror Our guest's experiences with extreme horror The Iceberg Tier 1 examples include Psycho and The Exorcist Tier 2 examples include Hereditary and Hostel Tier 3 examples include Last House on the Left and The House that Jack Built Tier 4 examples include Antichrist and Mai-Chan's Daily Life Tier 5 examples include Salo and Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood Tier 6 examples include Black Metal Veins and Tumbling Doll of Flesh Media Discussion Wrong Turn (2003) - Tier 1 A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Tier 2 Eraserhead (1977) - Tier 3 Life & Death of a Porno Gang (Zivot I Smrt Porno Bande) (2009) - Tier 4 In a Glass Cage (1986) - Tier 5 Black Metal Veins (2012) - Tier 6 Closing Thoughts Would you move any of these films to another tier? Is there a film you would add to the list? Thank you to our guest! Check out Kenan's Healthline discussions on YouTube here and here.  Keep Up with Your Hosts Check out our instagram antics and drop a follow @nobodieshorrorpodcast.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel for exclusive video episodes coming soon! Take part in our audience engagement challenge - The Coroner's Report! Comment, share, or interact with any Coroner's Report post on our socials to be featured in an upcoming episode.  Projectile Varmint - keep up with Suzie's film musings on Instagram @projectile__varmint Lonely - read more from Lonely and keep up with her filmstagram chaos @lonelyhorrorclub on Instagram and www.lonelyhorrorclub.com. Original No Bodies Theme music by Jacob Pini. Need music? Find Jacob on Instagram at @jacob.pini for rates and tell him No Bodies sent you!  Leave us a message at (617) 431-4322‬ and we just might answer you on the show! Sources An actual watchable disturbing movie Iceberg (no mixtapes, no porn, no snuff). (2021). Reddit. Retrieved April 30, 2025, from https://www.reddit.com/r/IcebergCharts/comments/o88280/an_actual_watchable_disturbing_movie_iceberg_no/  PSPA Editorial Staff. (n.d.). The Iceberg Theory. Private Security Professionals of America. Retrieved April 30, 2025, from https://www.mypspa.org/article/more/the-iceberg-theory  Spool, A. (2025, April 29). Iceberg Charts. Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/iceberg-charts

Movie of the Year: 1971Action Figure Draft, Part 2The Chaos Continues in the Action Figure Draft 1971In this week's Movie of the Year, Ryan, Greg, Mike, and Taylor conclude the most brutal, strategic, and downright unhinged draft of the season: the Action Figure Draft 1971.Every Taste Bud continues to choose characters from 1971 movies (or TV productions), imagining them as highly posable, battle-ready action figures. These figures must then be assigned to six RPG-inspired roles: bard, cleric, druid, fighter, wizard, and wild card.The goal?Build a team capable of winning an all-out fight against the other rosters.And the twist that changes everything:Once a character is drafted from a movie, no one else can draft anyone else from that same movie.No backups. No consolation picks. Once it's gone, it's GONE.If you thought last season's drafts were chaotic…you ain't heard 1971.The Draft Rules: One Year, One Movie Per Pick, Zero MercyTo keep this battle as ruthless as possible, the Taste Buds lock in the following rules:Snake Draft FormatThe order reverses each round, forcing careful planning and last-second gambits.Draft RolesEach team must fill:Bard – charm, chaos, charismaCleric – healer, protector, mystical weirdoDruid – nature, magic, unpredictable energyFighter – the bruiser, tank, or martial artistWizard – supernatural, cerebral, or ranged powerhouseWild Card – whatever you dare unleashEligibility: 1971 Movies (and TV Productions) [and Musicians probably] OnlyIf it hit screens in 1971 (big screen, small screen, arthouse, grindhouse), it's fair game.The Killer Rule: One Character Per MovieAs soon as a player drafts any character from a movie or TV title, that entire production is locked out forever.Pick a character from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? The rest of Wonka's weirdos vanish.Choose someone from A Clockwork Orange? Say goodbye to Alex's droogs.Reach into The French Connection? No detective backup for anyone.This rule transforms the draft into a battlefield where stealing a movie is every bit as important as drafting the right character.The ObjectiveCreate a team of 1971 action figures capable of absolutely wrecking the others in a hypothetical battle royale.Selecting the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Wizard, and Wild CardThe Taste Buds dive deep into the weird, violent, soulful, experimental year that is 1971 cinema. With each category requiring a different kind of fighter, strategy becomes key:A bard might be a charming con artist, a manipulative cult leader, or someone who just screams enough to cause psychic damage.A cleric might heal, preach, or haunt.A druid might commune with nature or be a chaos gremlin.A fighter is your tank — your blunt instrument of violence.A wizard could be supernatural…or simply smarter and more dangerous than anyone else.And...

It's exactly half a century since Stanley Kubrick followed A Clockwork Orange with his stately, painterly picture Barry Lyndon. But will we be impressed by its languid pace and artistic aspirations? Presented by J.R. Southall, with Jon Arnold, Matt Barber, Steve Hatcher and Luke Molloy

Movie of the Year: 1971Action Figure Draft, Part 1The Chaos Begins in the Action Figure Draft 1971In this week's Movie of the Year, Ryan, Greg, Mike, and Taylor enter the arena for the most brutal, strategic, and downright unhinged draft of the season: the Action Figure Draft 1971.Every Taste Bud must choose characters from 1971 movies (or TV productions), imagining them as highly posable, battle-ready action figures. These figures must then be assigned to six RPG-inspired roles: bard, cleric, druid, fighter, wizard, and wild card.The goal?Build a team capable of winning an all-out fight against the other rosters.And the twist that changes everything:Once a character is drafted from a movie, no one else can draft anyone else from that same movie.No backups. No consolation picks. Once it's gone, it's GONE.If you thought last season's drafts were chaotic…welcome to 1971.The Draft Rules: One Year, One Movie Per Pick, Zero MercyTo keep this battle as ruthless as possible, the Taste Buds lock in the following rules:Snake Draft FormatThe order reverses each round, forcing careful planning and last-second gambits.Draft RolesEach team must fill:Bard – charm, chaos, charismaCleric – healer, protector, mystical weirdoDruid – nature, magic, unpredictable energyFighter – the bruiser, tank, or martial artistWizard – supernatural, cerebral, or ranged powerhouseWild Card – whatever you dare unleashEligibility: 1971 Movies (and TV Productions) OnlyIf it hit screens in 1971 (big screen, small screen, arthouse, grindhouse), it's fair game.The Killer Rule: One Character Per MovieAs soon as a player drafts any character from a movie or TV title, that entire production is locked out forever.Pick a character from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? The rest of Wonka's weirdos vanish.Choose someone from A Clockwork Orange? Say goodbye to Alex's droogs.Reach into The French Connection? No detective backup for anyone.This rule transforms the draft into a battlefield where stealing a movie is every bit as important as drafting the right character.The ObjectiveCreate a team of 1971 action figures capable of absolutely wrecking the others in a hypothetical battle royale.Selecting the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Wizard, and Wild CardThe Taste Buds dive deep into the weird, violent, soulful, experimental year that is 1971 cinema. With each category requiring a different kind of fighter, strategy becomes key:A bard might be a charming con artist, a manipulative cult leader, or someone who just screams enough to cause psychic damage.A cleric might heal, preach, or haunt.A druid might commune with nature or be a chaos gremlin.A fighter is your tank — your blunt instrument of violence.A wizard could be supernatural…or simply smarter and more dangerous than anyone else.And the wild card?Well, 1971 produced some bizarre characters. Anything can happen here.And because each movie gets only one character drafted, every pick is a race to snatch a film before someone else steals it out from under...

Join this channel to get access to perks: EARLY Access, EXCLUSIVE Episodes & Much More! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpeD7roEp99UANH0HVZ3dOA/joinWhat's Your Story - Malcolm McDowell & James Marquand? #122Today we have two guests -The first has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame best know for Iconic performance in ‘Clockwork Orange' Actor Malcolm McDowell The second is a Writer / Director on the rise & James Marquand son of Director Richard Marquand (Star Wars - Return of the Jed)Malcolm's Credits Include - A Clockwork Orange / If / Caligula / Halloween / Star Trek Generations / O Lucky Man / Gangster No.1 / Thelma / Book of Eli / Bombshell etc.... James's Credits Include - Beautiful Devils / Dead man's Cards / The Partisan / I Against I / Dog & Bull etc...-----------------------------Host - Actor/Writer ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elliot James Langridge⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Please contact (Scott Marshall Partners) -----------------------------Our SponsorsMoviePosters.com is the #1 place for movie posters old and new! use our affiliate link https://www.movieposters.com/?sca_ref=8773240.c977RvLKKpL& Get 10% off with code LIFEINFILM10⁠⁠⁠⁠BetterHelp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ provides you with access to the largest online therapy service in the world. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get 10% off⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ your first month at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠betterhelp.com/lifeinfilm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-----------------------------'The Partisan' is out now on digital and DVD from the 15th December-----------------------------Thank you to Our guest's Malcolm & James & Thank you Debbie and the team at Aim PublicityAs always thank you to our sponsors movieposters.com and betterhelp-----------------------------If you enjoyed this episode, please review and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You Tube ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠etc and please share. It makes a huge difference. -----------------------------Join us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tik Tok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, @LIFEINFILMpod. Check out the ⁠Patreon⁠ at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/Lifeinfilmpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & Join this channel to get access to perks: EARLY Access, EXCLUSIVE Episodes & Much More! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpeD7roEp99UANH0HVZ3dOA/join-----------------------------Please don't forget to⁠ LIKE & SUBSCRIBE⁠! ╔═╦╗╔╦╗╔═╦═╦╦╦╦╗╔═╗ ║╚╣║║║╚╣╚╣╔╣╔╣║╚╣═╣ ╠╗║╚╝║║╠╗║╚╣║║║║║═╣ ╚═╩══╩═╩═╩═╩╝╚╩═╩═╝Thanks for watching this episode ... Like, Subscribe & Join our YouTube Channel!

Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi dystopian noir Blade Runner where a disillusionedd private eye/cop/robot hunter Harrison Ford tracks down and falls in love with "Replicants" or robot cyborgs made to look like humans is a pinnacle of the sci-fi dystopian genre. Blade Runner presents a disturbing, overpopulated, megalopolis Los Angeles and explores sci-fi questions of what it means to be human, to exist, to live.  Dystopia movies like Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men, Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, Mike Judge's Idiocracy, show humanity and society hanging on but everything falling apart. These are movies just before the apocalypse. Secret Movie Club founder.programmer Craig Hammill takes a look at many of these movies and how years like 1971 and 2006 when the US was at war both internally and internationally produced dystopia sci-fi classics that mirrored our own anxiety and worry. 

This week on Movie Mistrial, we dive into the dystopian delirium of Stanley Kubrick's most controversial film: A Clockwork Orange.A Clockwork Orange is a fearless, visually striking exploration of free will, violence, and state control. With its unsettling mix of classical music, surreal production design, and Malcolm McDowell's chilling yet magnetic performance as Alex, the film continues to provoke debate and challenge moral comfort zones decades after its release.Though hailed as a masterpiece by some, others view A Clockwork Orange as a film that relishes its disturbing imagery too much. Its graphic violence and stylized approach can be deeply unsettling—raising questions about whether its critique of brutality crosses the line into indulgence.Join us as we unpack the legacy, the controversy, and the ethics of A Clockwork Orange. Is it a visionary warning—or a cinematic provocation without restraint?Connect with us and share your thoughts:Twitter: http://tiny.cc/MistrialTwitterFacebook: http://tiny.cc/MistrialFBInstagram: http://tiny.cc/MistrialInstaVisit our website, www.moviemistrial.com, for more captivating episodes and to stay up-to-date with all things movies.

To kick off our next series (24th!) -- we are looking into an overlooked sci-fi action film from one of the 90's genre favorites, Roland Emmerich. Set upon a 44th Moon Mining Colony and starring that guy from Fright Night, this film has so many prop helicopters and packs of cigarettes it would make your father proud. DISCLAIMER: LANGUAGE AND SPOILERS!CW/TW: MOVIE CONTAINS SAMOON 44dir. Roland Emmerichstarring: Michael Pare; Dean Devlin, Malcolm McDowell

We're celebrating someone's birthday with something they never asked for, so happy birthday to Alan Jordan, we guess? Host segments: Devori is the cheese, and the cheese stands alone; Hawk is not committed to the bit; Palance-ing all over the place; if not uncle, why uncle-shaped?; the illustrious role of "woman,"; Jeff needs to write down what he watches; Clockwork Orange-ed by the Swamp of Sadness; #AshIsABetterHawk; winsome nums.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/damagereport and get on your way to being your best self. Trump rambles about magnets. Trump plans to send more than the National Guard to cities. Pete Hegseth only wants to meet with clean-shaven troops. Trump brags about his brain and a “perfect” MRI. Republicans want to deport Mamdani. Anti-trans culture wars have failed in one state. ICE officials are being replaced as they become more aggressive. Host: John Iadarola (@johniadarola) ***** SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE TIKTOK  ☞        https://www.tiktok.com/@thedamagereport INSTAGRAM  ☞   https://www.instagram.com/thedamagereport TWITTER  ☞         https://twitter.com/TheDamageReport FACEBOOK  ☞     https://www.facebook.com/TheDamageReportTYT

Disney Discussions is back with a comparison between 1959's Sleeping Beauty & 2014's Maleficent! Sleeping Beauty may be a classic but it's a movie Mike had never seen; tune in to hear his thoughts as well as the other's on this 65 year old movie and the 11 year old prequel/retelling from the villain's perspective. Dan, Megan, Mike & Ria also talk about the transition from animation to live-action, Angelina Jolie's performance, the changed aspects between movies, Sharlto Copley's bizarre rendition of Stefan, the fairies, legacy and of course; Mr Chanterelle! The previous episode of Disney Discussions where our gang spoke about Lilo & Stitch 1 & 2 with special guest Natalie! https://tinyurl.com/2bs7kker For the other Disney Discussions, check GCC episodes; 155, 163, 176, 180, 192, 198, 207, 218, 223, 239 & 247 while their 3rd, 8th, 12th & 15th discussions are on Spider-Dan & The Secret Bores' podcast in late Sept 2022, August 2023, May 2024 & April 2025, or you find every DD episode on this YouTube playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcO1Ib_BGD8ajqsEDJPAYC0DSuIUqa26e  Ria's Instagram: @RiaCarrogan, @TheRomantasyCoven & @FemmeOnCollective – The Femme On Collective is found on any podcast feed and here: https://femmeon.show and Romantasy Coven is found here: https://podfollow.com/1799664171   You can find Spider-Dan's show, Patreon & further information on his website https://spiderdanandthesecretbores.com or follow him on Instagram: @Spiderdansecretbores Find Megan on Instagram: @GrittsGetsFit or at https://Patreon.com/GenuineChitChat Find all of Mike's social media & other links at https://linktr.ee/GenuineChitChat All supporters of Mike on Patreon have been receiving bonus episodes, including reviews on A Clockwork Orange, Thunderbolts, Venom 3 and more, as well as early access! Support at www.patreon.com/GenuineChitChat or https://ko-fi.com/GenuineChitChat If you're a Star Wars fan, check out Star Wars Chit-Chat for Mike's in-depth reviews, breakdowns & things you missed episodes for Andor, The Clone Wars and more, on any podcast app or on YouTube: https://podfollow.com/starwarschitchat & https://youtube.com/@starwarschitchat Guest Spots: Mike went on the 20th Century Geek podcast to talk about Child's Play, here: https://pod.fo/e/32462c Spider-Dan was on 20th Century Geek to talk about Child's Play 2: https://pod.fo/e/32c749 Megan & Ria were on Back To The Filmography, talking How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3k9F02YfZnZQgeJ2g3QM1E?si=jlZVQXpfSH-d1MJ0LeHiGw Please review/rate, subscribe and share – it helps the show out an incredible amount!

Welcome to the Celestial Insights Podcast, the show that brings the stars down to Earth! Each week, astrologer, coach, and intuitive Celeste Brooks of Astrology by Celeste will be your guide. Her website is astrologybyceleste.com.  

Gaming & fatherhood are the main topics this week with the amazing Dan Belgrave! Dan & Mike have collaborated in the past on GCC, the podcast Superheroes For Dummies and more, but this week they're honing-in on two incredibly important aspects of Dan's life; being a dad and video games! In their discussion, they talk about the challenges of fatherhood and the balancing of time one must adhere to, while also talking about the many incredible things that come along with it. After talking about Dan's son, the duo move into video-game-territory in more detail, including early memories of gaming, why they love it, Ghosts of Tsushima, and so much more – this is one for the gamers and the dads! Find Dan on IG @dark_ronin84 and @black_blur84 or on TikTok @manlikedan84. Dan is involved in a new collaborative podcast project, which will be launching very soon, so keep your eyes & ears peeled! Dan was last on GCC all the way back on episode 115, so dive into the back catalogue to listen! Previous episodes of GCC have included Tony (A.R.) Farina talking about his Sense & Sensibility adaptation, Seth Singleton talking about Comics Lit, celebrating Where I'm From 200 with Alyson Shelton, interviews & reviews from the Forbidden Worlds Film Festival and discussing The Intergalactic Empire Of Wakanda novel with its author, Suyi Davies Okungbowa! All Patreon supporters have been receiving bonus episodes, including reviews on A Clockwork Orange, Thunderbolts, Venom 3 and more, as well as early access! Support at www.patreon.com/GenuineChitChat or https://ko-fi.com/GenuineChitChat If you're a Star Wars fan, check out Star Wars Chit-Chat for Mike's in-depth reviews, breakdowns & things you missed episodes for Andor, The Clone Wars and more, on any podcast app or on YouTube: https://podfollow.com/starwarschitchat & https://youtube.com/@starwarschitchat Guest Spots: Talking Child's Play, after watching it for the first time, on the 20th Century Geek: https://pod.fo/e/32462c Another episode of Disney Discussions is out where Mike & Dan spoke about Lilo & Stitch 1 & 2 with Megan, Ria & guest Natalie! https://tinyurl.com/2bs7kker Mike has been on the 20th Century Geek podcast, reviewing Superman '78, Superman II, the Super/Man documentary and Superman 2025! https://pod.fo/e/2bea07 Find all of Mike's social media & other links at https://linktr.ee/GenuineChitChat Please review/rate, subscribe and share – it helps the show out an incredible amount!

For those who haven't heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a two-episode look at the song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” by Fairport Convention, and the intertwining careers of Joe Boyd, Sandy Denny, and Richard Thompson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-one-minute bonus episode available, on Judy Collins’ version of this song. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by editing, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Erratum For about an hour this was uploaded with the wrong Elton John clip in place of “Saturday Sun”. This has now been fixed. Resources Because of the increasing problems with Mixcloud’s restrictions, I have decided to start sharing streaming playlists of the songs used in episodes instead of Mixcloud ones. This Tunemymusic link will let you listen to the playlist I created on your streaming platform of choice — however please note that not all the songs excerpted are currently available on streaming. The songs missing from the Tidal version are “Shanten Bells” by the Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” by A.L. Lloyd, two by Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, three by Elton John & Linda Peters, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow” by Sandy Denny and “You Never Know” by Charlie Drake, but the other fifty-nine are there. Other songs may be missing from other services. The main books I used on Fairport Convention as a whole were Patrick Humphries' Meet On The Ledge, Clinton Heylin's What We Did Instead of Holidays, and Kevan Furbank's Fairport Convention on Track. Rob Young's Electric Eden is the most important book on the British folk-rock movement. Information on Richard Thompson comes from Patrick Humphries' Richard Thompson: Strange Affair and Thompson's own autobiography Beeswing.  Information on Sandy Denny comes from Clinton Heylin's No More Sad Refrains and Mick Houghton's I've Always Kept a Unicorn. I also used Joe Boyd's autobiography White Bicycles and Chris Blackwell's The Islander.  And this three-CD set is the best introduction to Fairport's music currently in print. Transcript Before we begin, this episode contains reference to alcohol and cocaine abuse and medical neglect leading to death. It also starts with some discussion of the fatal car accident that ended last episode. There’s also some mention of child neglect and spousal violence. If that’s likely to upset you, you might want to skip this episode or read the transcript. One of the inspirations for this podcast when I started it back in 2018 was a project by Richard Thompson, which appears (like many things in Thompson’s life) to have started out of sheer bloody-mindedness. In 1999 Playboy magazine asked various people to list their “songs of the Millennium”, and most of them, understanding the brief, chose a handful of songs from the latter half of the twentieth century. But Thompson determined that he was going to list his favourite songs *of the millennium*. He didn’t quite manage that, but he did cover seven hundred and forty years, and when Playboy chose not to publish it, he decided to turn it into a touring show, in which he covered all his favourite songs from “Sumer Is Icumen In” from 1260: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Sumer is Icumen In”] Through numerous traditional folk songs, union songs like “Blackleg Miner”, pieces by early-modern composers, Victorian and Edwardian music hall songs, and songs by the Beatles, the Ink Spots, the Kinks, and the Who, all the way to “Oops! I Did It Again”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Oops! I Did it Again”] And to finish the show, and to show how all this music actually ties together, he would play what he described as a “medieval tune from Brittany”, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”] We have said many times in this podcast that there is no first anything, but there’s a reason that Liege and Lief, Fairport Convention’s third album of 1969, and the album other than Unhalfbricking on which their reputation largely rests, was advertised with the slogan “The first (literally) British folk rock album ever”. Folk-rock, as the term had come to be known, and as it is still usually used today, had very little to do with traditional folk music. Rather, the records of bands like The Byrds or Simon and Garfunkel were essentially taking the sounds of British beat groups of the early sixties, particularly the Searchers, and applying those sounds to material by contemporary singer-songwriters. People like Paul Simon and Bob Dylan had come up through folk clubs, and their songs were called folk music because of that, but they weren’t what folk music had meant up to that point — songs that had been collected after being handed down through the folk process, changed by each individual singer, with no single identifiable author. They were authored songs by very idiosyncratic writers. But over their last few albums, Fairport Convention had done one or two tracks per album that weren’t like that, that were instead recordings of traditional folk songs, but arranged with rock instrumentation. They were not necessarily the first band to try traditional folk music with electric instruments — around the same time that Fairport started experimenting with the idea, so did an Irish band named Sweeney’s Men, who brought in a young electric guitarist named Henry McCullough briefly. But they do seem to have been the first to have fully embraced the idea. They had done so to an extent with “A Sailor’s Life” on Unhalfbricking, but now they were going to go much further: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves” (from about 4:30)] There had been some doubt as to whether Fairport Convention would even continue to exist — by the time Unhalfbricking, their second album of the year, was released, they had been through the terrible car accident that had killed Martin Lamble, the band’s drummer, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson’s girlfriend. Most of the rest of the band had been seriously injured, and they had made a conscious decision not to discuss the future of the band until they were all out of hospital. Ashley Hutchings was hospitalised the longest, and Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, and Sandy Denny, the other three surviving members of the band, flew over to LA with their producer and manager, Joe Boyd, to recuperate there and get to know the American music scene. When they came back, the group all met up in the flat belonging to Denny’s boyfriend Trevor Lucas, and decided that they were going to continue the band. They made a few decisions then — they needed a new drummer, and as well as a drummer they wanted to get in Dave Swarbrick. Swarbrick had played violin on several tracks on Unhalfbricking as a session player, and they had all been thrilled to work with him. Swarbrick was one of the most experienced musicians on the British folk circuit. He had started out in the fifties playing guitar with Beryl Marriott’s Ceilidh Band before switching to fiddle, and in 1963, long before Fairport had formed, he had already appeared on TV with the Ian Campbell Folk Group, led by Ian Campbell, the father of Ali and Robin Campbell, later of UB40: [Excerpt: The Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Shanten Bells (medley on Hullaballoo!)”] He’d sung with Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd: [Excerpt: A.L. Lloyd, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” ] And he’d formed his hugely successful duo with Martin Carthy, releasing records like “Byker Hill” which are often considered among the best British folk music of all time: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, “Byker Hill”] By the time Fairport had invited him to play on Unhalfbricking, Swarbrick had already performed on twenty albums as a core band member, plus dozens more EPs, singles, and odd tracks on compilations. They had no reason to think they could actually get him to join their band. But they had three advantages. The first was that Swarbrick was sick of the traditional folk scene at the time, saying later “I didn’t like seven-eighths of the people involved in it, and it was extremely opportune to leave. I was suddenly presented with the possibilities of exploring the dramatic content of the songs to the full.” The second was that he was hugely excited to be playing with Richard Thompson, who was one of the most innovative guitarists of his generation, and Martin Carthy remembers him raving about Thompson after their initial sessions. (Carthy himself was and is no slouch on the guitar of course, and there was even talk of getting him to join the band at this point, though they decided against it — much to the relief of rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol, who is a perfectly fine player himself but didn’t want to be outclassed by *two* of the best guitarists in Britain at the same time). And the third was that Joe Boyd told him that Fairport were doing so well — they had a single just about to hit the charts with “Si Tu Dois Partir” — that he would only have to play a dozen gigs with Fairport in order to retire. As it turned out, Swarbrick would play with the group for a decade, and would never retire — I saw him on his last tour in 2015, only eight months before he died. The drummer the group picked was also a far more experienced musician than any of the rest, though in a very different genre. Dave Mattacks had no knowledge at all of the kind of music they played, having previously been a player in dance bands. When asked by Hutchings if he wanted to join the band, Mattacks’ response was “I don’t know anything about the music. I don’t understand it… I can’t tell one tune from another, they all sound the same… but if you want me to join the group, fine, because I really like it. I’m enjoying myself musically.” Mattacks brought a new level of professionalism to the band, thanks to his different background. Nicol said of him later “He was dilligent, clean, used to taking three white shirts to a gig… The application he could bring to his playing was amazing. With us, you only played well when you were feeling well.” This distinction applied to his playing as well. Nicol would later describe the difference between Mattacks’ drumming and Lamble’s by saying “Martin’s strength was as an imaginative drummer. DM came in with a strongly developed sense of rhythm, through keeping a big band of drunken saxophone players in order. A great time-keeper.” With this new line-up and a new sense of purpose, the group did as many of their contemporaries were doing and “got their heads together in the country”. Joe Boyd rented the group a mansion, Farley House, in Farley Chamberlayne, Hampshire, and they stayed there together for three months. At the start, the group seem to have thought that they were going to make another record like Unhalfbricking, with some originals, some songs by American songwriters, and a few traditional songs. Even after their stay in Farley Chamberlayne, in fact, they recorded a few of the American songs they’d rehearsed at the start of the process, Richard Farina’s “Quiet Joys of Brotherhood” and Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn’s “Ballad of Easy Rider”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Ballad of Easy Rider”] Indeed, the whole idea of “getting our heads together in the country” (as the cliche quickly became in the late sixties as half of the bands in Britain went through much the same kind of process as Fairport were doing — but usually for reasons more to do with drug burnout or trend following than recovering from serious life-changing trauma) seems to have been inspired by Bob Dylan and the Band getting together in Big Pink. But very quickly they decided to follow the lead of Ashley Hutchings, who had had something of a Damascene conversion to the cause of traditional English folk music. They were listening mostly to Music From Big Pink by the Band, and to the first album by Sweeney’s Men: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “The Handsome Cabin Boy”] And they decided that they were going to make something that was as English as those records were North American and Irish (though in the event there were also a few Scottish songs included on the record). Hutchings in particular was becoming something of a scholar of traditional music, regularly visiting Cecil Sharp House and having long conversations with A.L. Lloyd, discovering versions of different traditional songs he’d never encountered before. This was both amusing and bemusing Sandy Denny, who had joined a rock group in part to get away from traditional music; but she was comfortable singing the material, and knew a lot of it and could make a lot of suggestions herself. Swarbrick obviously knew the repertoire intimately, and Nicol was amenable, while Mattacks was utterly clueless about the folk tradition at this point but knew this was the music he wanted to make. Thompson knew very little about traditional music, and of all the band members except Denny he was the one who has shown the least interest in the genre in his subsequent career — but as we heard at the beginning, showing the least interest in the genre is a relative thing, and while Thompson was not hugely familiar with the genre, he *was* able to work with it, and was also more than capable of writing songs that fit in with the genre. Of the eleven songs on the album, which was titled Liege and Lief (which means, roughly, Lord and Loyalty), there were no cover versions of singer-songwriters. Eight were traditional songs, and three were originals, all written in the style of traditional songs. The album opened with “Come All Ye”, an introduction written by Denny and Hutchings (the only time the two would ever write together): [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Come All Ye”] The other two originals were songs where Thompson had written new lyrics to traditional melodies. On “Crazy Man Michael”, Swarbrick had said to Thompson that the tune to which he had set his new words was weaker than the lyrics, to which Thompson had replied that if Swarbrick felt that way he should feel free to write a new melody. He did, and it became the first of the small number of Thompson/Swarbrick collaborations: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Crazy Man Michael”] Thompson and Swarbrick would become a brief songwriting team, but as much as anything else it was down to proximity — the two respected each other as musicians, but never got on very well. In 1981 Swarbrick would say “Richard and I never got on in the early days of FC… we thought we did, but we never did. We composed some bloody good songs together, but it was purely on a basis of “you write that and I’ll write this, and we’ll put it together.” But we never sat down and had real good chats.” The third original on the album, and by far the most affecting, is another song where Thompson put lyrics to a traditional tune. In this case he thought he was putting the lyrics to the tune of “Willie O'Winsbury”, but he was basing it on a recording by Sweeney’s Men. The problem was that Sweeney’s Men had accidentally sung the lyrics of “Willie O'Winsbury'” to the tune of a totally different song, “Fause Foodrage”: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “Willie O’Winsbury”] Thompson took that melody, and set to it lyrics about loss and separation. Thompson has never been one to discuss the meanings of his lyrics in any great detail, and in the case of this one has said “I really don't know what it means. This song came out of a dream, and I pretty much wrote it as I dreamt it (it was the sixties), and didn't spend very long analyzing it. So interpret as you wish – or replace with your own lines.” But in the context of the traffic accident that had killed his tailor girlfriend and a bandmate, and injured most of his other bandmates, the lyrics about lonely travellers, the winding road, bruised and beaten sons, saying goodbye, and never cutting cloth, seem fairly self-explanatory: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Farewell, Farewell”] The rest of the album, though, was taken up by traditional tunes. There was a long medley of four different fiddle reels; a version of “Reynardine” (a song about a seductive man — or is he a fox? Or perhaps both — which had been recorded by Swarbrick and Carthy on their most recent album); a 19th century song about a deserter saved from the firing squad by Prince Albert; and a long take on “Tam Lin”, one of the most famous pieces in the Scottish folk music canon, a song that has been adapted in different ways by everyone from the experimental noise band Current 93 to the dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah to the comics writer Grant Morrison: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Tam Lin”] And “Matty Groves”, a song about a man killing his cheating wife and her lover, which actually has a surprisingly similar story to that of “1921” from another great concept album from that year, the Who’s Tommy. “Matty Groves” became an excuse for long solos and shows of instrumental virtuosity: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves”] The album was recorded in September 1969, after their return from their break in the country and a triumphal performance at the Royal Festival Hall, headlining over fellow Witchseason artists John and Beverly Martyn and Nick Drake. It became a classic of the traditional folk genre — arguably *the* classic of the traditional folk genre. In 2007 BBC Radio 2’s Folk Music Awards gave it an award for most influential folk album of all time, and while such things are hard to measure, I doubt there’s anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of British folk and folk-rock music who would not at least consider that a reasonable claim. But once again, by the time the album came out in November, the band had changed lineups yet again. There was a fundamental split in the band – on one side were Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, whose stance was, roughly, that Liege and Lief was a great experiment and a fun thing to do once, but really the band had two first-rate songwriters in themselves, and that they should be concentrating on their own new material, not doing these old songs, good as they were. They wanted to take the form of the traditional songs and use that form for new material — they wanted to make British folk-rock, but with the emphasis on the rock side of things. Hutchings, on the other hand, was equally sure that he wanted to make traditional music and go further down the rabbit hole of antiquity. With the zeal of the convert he had gone in a couple of years from being the leader of a band who were labelled “the British Jefferson Airplane” to becoming a serious scholar of traditional folk music. Denny was tired of touring, as well — she wanted to spend more time at home with Trevor Lucas, who was sleeping with other women when she was away and making her insecure. When the time came for the group to go on a tour of Denmark, Denny decided she couldn’t make it, and Hutchings was jubilant — he decided he was going to get A.L. Lloyd into the band in her place and become a *real* folk group. Then Denny reconsidered, and Hutchings was crushed. He realised that while he had always been the leader, he wasn’t going to be able to lead the band any further in the traditionalist direction, and quit the group — but not before he was delegated by the other band members to fire Denny. Until the publication of Richard Thompson’s autobiography in 2022, every book on the group or its members said that Denny quit the band again, which was presumably a polite fiction that the band agreed, but according to Thompson “Before we flew home, we decided to fire Sandy. I don't remember who asked her to leave – it was probably Ashley, who usually did the dirty work. She was reportedly shocked that we would take that step. She may have been fragile beneath the confident facade, but she still knew her worth.” Thompson goes on to explain that the reasons for kicking her out were that “I suppose we felt that in her mind she had already left” and that “We were probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, though there wasn't a name for it back then.” They had considered inviting Trevor Lucas to join the band to make Denny more comfortable, but came to the (probably correct) conclusion that while he was someone they got on well with personally, he would be another big ego in a band that already had several, and that being around Denny and Lucas’ volatile relationship would, in Thompson’s phrasing, “have not always given one a feeling of peace and stability.” Hutchings originally decided he was going to join Sweeney’s Men, but that group were falling apart, and their first rehearsal with Hutchings would also be their last as a group, with only Hutchings and guitarist and mandolin player Terry Woods left in the band. They added Woods’ wife Gay, and another couple, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, and formed a group called Steeleye Span, a name given them by Martin Carthy. That group, like Fairport, went to “get their heads together in the country” for three months and recorded an album of electric versions of traditional songs, Hark the Village Wait, on which Mattacks and another drummer, Gerry Conway, guested as Steeleye Span didn’t at the time have their own drummer: [Excerpt: Steeleye Span, “Blackleg Miner”] Steeleye Span would go on to have a moderately successful chart career in the seventies, but by that time most of the original lineup, including Hutchings, had left — Hutchings stayed with them for a few albums, then went on to form the first of a series of bands, all called the Albion Band or variations on that name, which continue to this day. And this is something that needs to be pointed out at this point — it is impossible to follow every single individual in this narrative as they move between bands. There is enough material in the history of the British folk-rock scene that someone could do a 500 Songs-style podcast just on that, and every time someone left Fairport, or Steeleye Span, or the Albion Band, or Matthews’ Southern Comfort, or any of the other bands we have mentioned or will mention, they would go off and form another band which would then fission, and some of its members would often join one of those other bands. There was a point in the mid-1970s where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport Convention while Fairport Convention had none. So just in order to keep the narrative anything like wieldy, I’m going to keep the narrative concentrated on the two figures from Fairport — Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson — whose work outside the group has had the most influence on the wider world of rock music more broadly, and only deal with the other members when, as they often did, their careers intersected with those two. That doesn’t mean the other members are not themselves hugely important musicians, just that their importance has been primarily to the folk side of the folk-rock genre, and so somewhat outside the scope of this podcast. While Hutchings decided to form a band that would allow him to go deeper and deeper into traditional folk music, Sandy Denny’s next venture was rather different. For a long time she had been writing far more songs than she had ever played for her bandmates, like “Nothing More”, a song that many have suggested is about Thompson: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Nothing More”] When Joe Boyd heard that Denny was leaving Fairport Convention, he was at first elated. Fairport’s records were being distributed by A&M in the US at that point, but Island Records was in the process of opening up a new US subsidiary which would then release all future Fairport product — *but*, as far as A&M were concerned, Sandy Denny *was* Fairport Convention. They were only interested in her. Boyd, on the other hand, loved Denny’s work intensely, but from his point of view *Richard Thompson* was Fairport Convention. If he could get Denny signed directly to A&M as a solo artist before Island started its US operations, Witchseason could get a huge advance on her first solo record, while Fairport could continue making records for Island — he’d have two lucrative acts, on different labels. Boyd went over and spoke to A&M and got an agreement in principle that they would give Denny a forty-thousand-dollar advance on her first solo album — twice what they were paying for Fairport albums. The problem was that Denny didn’t want to be a solo act. She wanted to be the lead singer of a band. She gave many reasons for this — the one she gave to many journalists was that she had seen a Judy Collins show and been impressed, but noticed that Collins’ band were definitely a “backing group”, and as she put it “But that's all they were – a backing group. I suddenly thought, If you're playing together on a stage you might as well be TOGETHER.” Most other people in her life, though, say that the main reason for her wanting to be in a band was her desire to be with her boyfriend, Trevor Lucas. Partly this was due to a genuine desire to spend more time with someone with whom she was very much in love, partly it was a fear that he would cheat on her if she was away from him for long periods of time, and part of it seems to have been Lucas’ dislike of being *too* overshadowed by his talented girlfriend — he didn’t mind acknowledging that she was a major talent, but he wanted to be thought of as at least a minor one. So instead of going solo, Denny formed Fotheringay, named after the song she had written for Fairport. This new band consisted at first of Denny on vocals and occasional piano, Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Lucas’ old Eclection bandmate Gerry Conway on drums. For a lead guitarist, they asked Richard Thompson who the best guitarist in Britain was, and he told them Albert Lee. Lee in turn brought in bass player Pat Donaldson, but this lineup of the band barely survived a fortnight. Lee *was* arguably the best guitarist in Britain, certainly a reasonable candidate if you could ever have a singular best (as indeed was Thompson himself), but he was the best *country* guitarist in Britain, and his style simply didn’t fit with Fotheringay’s folk-influenced songs. He was replaced by American guitarist Jerry Donahue, who was not anything like as proficient as Lee, but who was still very good, and fit the band’s style much better. The new group rehearsed together for a few weeks, did a quick tour, and then went into the recording studio to record their debut, self-titled, album. Joe Boyd produced the album, but admitted himself that he only paid attention to those songs he considered worthwhile — the album contained one song by Lucas, “The Ballad of Ned Kelly”, and two cover versions of American singer-songwriter material with Lucas singing lead. But everyone knew that the songs that actually *mattered* were Sandy Denny’s, and Boyd was far more interested in them, particularly the songs “The Sea” and “The Pond and the Stream”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “The Pond and the Stream”] Fotheringay almost immediately hit financial problems, though. While other Witchseason acts were used to touring on the cheap, all packed together in the back of a Transit van with inexpensive equipment, Trevor Lucas had ambitions of being a rock star and wanted to put together a touring production to match, with expensive transport and equipment, including a speaker system that got nicknamed “Stonehenge” — but at the same time, Denny was unhappy being on the road, and didn’t play many gigs. As well as the band itself, the Fotheringay album also featured backing vocals from a couple of other people, including Denny’s friend Linda Peters. Peters was another singer from the folk clubs, and a good one, though less well-known than Denny — at this point she had only released a couple of singles, and those singles seemed to have been as much as anything else released as a novelty. The first of those, a version of Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” had been released as by “Paul McNeill and Linda Peters”: [Excerpt: Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”] But their second single, a version of John D. Loudermilk’s “You’re Taking My Bag”, was released on the tiny Page One label, owned by Larry Page, and was released under the name “Paul and Linda”, clearly with the intent of confusing particularly gullible members of the record-buying public into thinking this was the McCartneys: [Excerpt: Paul and Linda, “You’re Taking My Bag”] Peters was though more financially successful than almost anyone else in this story, as she was making a great deal of money as a session singer. She actually did another session involving most of Fotheringay around this time. Witchseason had a number of excellent songwriters on its roster, and had had some success getting covers by people like Judy Collins, but Joe Boyd thought that they might possibly do better at getting cover versions if they were performed in less idiosyncratic arrangements. Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway went into the studio to record backing tracks, and vocals were added by Peters and another session singer, who according to some sources also provided piano. They cut songs by Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “You Get Brighter”] Ed Carter, formerly of The New Nadir but by this time firmly ensconced in the Beach Boys’ touring band where he would remain for the next quarter-century: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “I Don’t Mind”] John and Beverly Martyn, and Nick Drake: [Excerpt: Elton John, “Saturday Sun”] There are different lineups of musicians credited for those sessions in different sources, but I tend to believe that it’s mostly Fotheringay for the simple reason that Donahue says it was him, Donaldson and Conway who talked Lucas and Denny into the mistake that destroyed Fotheringay because of these sessions. Fotheringay were in financial trouble already, spending far more money than they were bringing in, but their album made the top twenty and they were getting respect both from critics and from the public — in September, Sandy Denny was voted best British female singer by the readers of Melody Maker in their annual poll, which led to shocked headlines in the tabloids about how this “unknown” could have beaten such big names as Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black. Only a couple of weeks after that, they were due to headline at the Albert Hall. It should have been a triumph. But Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway had asked that singing pianist to be their support act. As Donahue said later “That was a terrible miscast. It was our fault. He asked if [he] could do it. Actually Pat, Gerry and I had to talk Sandy and Trevor into [it]… We'd done these demos and the way he was playing – he was a wonderful piano player – he was sensitive enough. We knew very little about his stage-show. We thought he'd be a really good opener for us.” Unfortunately, Elton John was rather *too* good. As Donahue continued “we had no idea what he had in mind, that he was going to do the most incredible rock & roll show ever. He pretty much blew us off the stage before we even got on the stage.” To make matters worse, Fotheringay’s set, which was mostly comprised of new material, was underrehearsed and sloppy, and from that point on no matter what they did people were counting the hours until the band split up. They struggled along for a while though, and started working on a second record, with Boyd again producing, though as Boyd later said “I probably shouldn't have been producing the record. My lack of respect for the group was clear, and couldn't have helped the atmosphere. We'd put out a record that had sold disappointingly, A&M was unhappy. Sandy's tracks on the first record are among the best things she ever did – the rest of it, who cares? And the artwork, Trevor's sister, was terrible. It would have been one thing if I'd been unhappy with it and it sold, and the group was working all the time, making money, but that wasn't the case … I knew what Sandy was capable of, and it was very upsetting to me.” The record would not be released for thirty-eight years: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Wild Mountain Thyme”] Witchseason was going badly into debt. Given all the fissioning of bands that we’ve already been talking about, Boyd had been stretched thin — he produced sixteen albums in 1970, and almost all of them lost money for the company. And he was getting more and more disillusioned with the people he was producing. He loved Beverly Martyn’s work, but had little time for her abusive husband John, who was dominating her recording and life more and more and would soon become a solo artist while making her stay at home (and stealing her ideas without giving her songwriting credit). The Incredible String Band were great, but they had recently converted to Scientology, which Boyd found annoying, and while he was working with all sorts of exciting artists like Vashti Bunyan and Nico, he was finding himself less and less important to the artists he mentored. Fairport Convention were a good example of this. After Denny and Hutchings had left the group, they’d decided to carry on as an electric folk group, performing an equal mix of originals by the Swarbrick and Thompson songwriting team and arrangements of traditional songs. The group were now far enough away from the “British Jefferson Airplane” label that they decided they didn’t need a female vocalist — and more realistically, while they’d been able to replace Judy Dyble, nobody was going to replace Sandy Denny. Though it’s rather surprising when one considers Thompson’s subsequent career that nobody seems to have thought of bringing in Denny’s friend Linda Peters, who was dating Joe Boyd at the time (as Denny had been before she met Lucas) as Denny’s replacement. Instead, they decided that Swarbrick and Thompson were going to share the vocals between them. They did, though, need a bass player to replace Hutchings. Swarbrick wanted to bring in Dave Pegg, with whom he had played in the Ian Campbell Folk Group, but the other band members initially thought the idea was a bad one. At the time, while they respected Swarbrick as a musician, they didn’t think he fully understood rock and roll yet, and they thought the idea of getting in a folkie who had played double bass rather than an electric rock bassist ridiculous. But they auditioned him to mollify Swarbrick, and found that he was exactly what they needed. As Joe Boyd later said “All those bass lines were great, Ashley invented them all, but he never could play them that well. He thought of them, but he was technically not a terrific bass player. He was a very inventive, melodic, bass player, but not a very powerful one technically. But having had the part explained to him once, Pegg was playing it better than Ashley had ever played it… In some rock bands, I think, ultimately, the bands that sound great, you can generally trace it to the bass player… it was at that point they became a great band, when they had Pegg.” The new lineup of Fairport decided to move in together, and found a former pub called the Angel, into which all the band members moved, along with their partners and children (Thompson was the only one who was single at this point) and their roadies. The group lived together quite happily, and one gets the impression that this was the period when they were most comfortable with each other, even though by this point they were a disparate group with disparate tastes, in music as in everything else. Several people have said that the only music all the band members could agree they liked at this point was the first two albums by The Band. With the departure of Hutchings from the band, Swarbrick and Thompson, as the strongest personalities and soloists, became in effect the joint leaders of the group, and they became collaborators as songwriters, trying to write new songs that were inspired by traditional music. Thompson described the process as “let’s take one line of this reel and slow it down and move it up a minor third and see what that does to it; let’s take one line of this ballad and make a whole song out of it. Chopping up the tradition to find new things to do… like a collage.” Generally speaking, Swarbrick and Thompson would sit by the fire and Swarbrick would play a melody he’d been working on, the two would work on it for a while, and Thompson would then go away and write the lyrics. This is how the two came up with songs like the nine-minute “Sloth”, a highlight of the next album, Full House, and one that would remain in Fairport’s live set for much of their career: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth”] “Sloth” was titled that way because Thompson and Swarbrick were working on two tunes, a slow one and a fast one, and they jokingly named them “Sloth” and “Fasth”, but the latter got renamed to “Walk Awhile”, while “Sloth” kept its working title. But by this point, Boyd and Thompson were having a lot of conflict in the studio. Boyd was never the most technical of producers — he was one of those producers whose job is to gently guide the artists in the studio and create a space for the music to flourish, rather than the Joe Meek type with an intimate technical knowledge of the studio — and as the artists he was working with gained confidence in their own work they felt they had less and less need of him. During the making of the Full House album, Thompson and Boyd, according to Boyd, clashed on everything — every time Boyd thought Thompson had done a good solo, Thompson would say to erase it and let him have another go, while every time Boyd thought Thompson could do better, Thompson would say that was the take to keep. One of their biggest clashes was over Thompson’s song “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”, which was originally intended for release on the album, and is included in current reissues of it: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”] Thompson had written that song inspired by what he thought was the unjust treatment of Alex Bramham, the driver in Fairport’s fatal car crash, by the courts — Bramham had been given a prison sentence of a few months for dangerous driving, while the group members thought he had not been at fault. Boyd thought it was one of the best things recorded for the album, but Thompson wasn’t happy with his vocal — there was one note at the top of the melody that he couldn’t quite hit — and insisted it be kept off the record, even though that meant it would be a shorter album than normal. He did this at such a late stage that early copies of the album actually had the title printed on the sleeve, but then blacked out. He now says in his autobiography “I could have persevered, double-tracked the voice, warmed up for longer – anything. It was a good track, and the record was lacking without it. When the album was re-released, the track was restored with a more confident vocal, and it has stayed there ever since.” During the sessions for Full House the group also recorded one non-album single, Thompson and Swarbrick’s “Now Be Thankful”: [Excerpt, Fairport Convention, “Now Be Thankful”] The B-side to that was a medley of two traditional tunes plus a Swarbrick original, but was given the deliberately ridiculous title “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”] The B. McKenzie in the title was a reference to the comic-strip character Barry McKenzie, a stereotype drunk Australian created for Private Eye magazine by the comedian Barry Humphries (later to become better known for his Dame Edna Everage character) but the title was chosen for one reason only — to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the song with the longest title. Which they did, though they were later displaced by the industrial band Test Dept, and their song “Long Live British Democracy Which Flourishes and Is Constantly Perfected Under the Immaculate Guidance of the Great, Honourable, Generous and Correct Margaret Hilda Thatcher. She Is the Blue Sky in the Hearts of All Nations. Our People Pay Homage and Bow in Deep Respect and Gratitude to Her. The Milk of Human Kindness”. Full House got excellent reviews in the music press, with Rolling Stone saying “The music shows that England has finally gotten her own equivalent to The Band… By calling Fairport an English equivalent of the Band, I meant that they have soaked up enough of the tradition of their countryfolk that it begins to show all over, while they maintain their roots in rock.” Off the back of this, the group went on their first US tour, culminating in a series of shows at the Troubadour in LA, on the same bill as Rick Nelson, which were recorded and later released as a live album: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth (live)”] The Troubadour was one of the hippest venues at the time, and over their residency there the group got seen by many celebrities, some of whom joined them on stage. The first was Linda Ronstadt, who initially demurred, saying she didn’t know any of their songs. On being told they knew all of hers, she joined in with a rendition of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”. Thompson was later asked to join Ronstadt’s backing band, who would go on to become the Eagles, but he said later of this offer “I would have hated it. I’d have hated being on the road with four or five miserable Americans — they always seem miserable. And if you see them now, they still look miserable on stage — like they don’t want to be there and they don’t like each other.” The group were also joined on stage at the Troubadour on one memorable night by some former bandmates of Pegg’s. Before joining the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Pegg had played around the Birmingham beat scene, and had been in bands with John Bonham and Robert Plant, who turned up to the Troubadour with their Led Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page (reports differ on whether the fourth member of Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, also came along). They all got up on stage together and jammed on songs like “Hey Joe”, “Louie Louie”, and various old Elvis tunes. The show was recorded, and the tapes are apparently still in the possession of Joe Boyd, who has said he refuses to release them in case he is murdered by the ghost of Peter Grant. According to Thompson, that night ended in a three-way drinking contest between Pegg, Bonham, and Janis Joplin, and it’s testament to how strong the drinking culture is around Fairport and the British folk scene in general that Pegg outdrank both of them. According to Thompson, Bonham was found naked by a swimming pool two days later, having missed two gigs. For all their hard rock image, Led Zeppelin were admirers of a lot of the British folk and folk-rock scene, and a few months later Sandy Denny would become the only outside vocalist ever to appear on a Led Zeppelin record when she duetted with Plant on “The Battle of Evermore” on the group’s fourth album: [Excerpt: Led Zeppelin, “The Battle of Evermore”] Denny would never actually get paid for her appearance on one of the best-selling albums of all time. That was, incidentally, not the only session that Denny was involved in around this time — she also sang on the soundtrack to a soft porn film titled Swedish Fly Girls, whose soundtrack was produced by Manfred Mann: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow?”] Shortly after Fairport’s trip to America, Joe Boyd decided he was giving up on Witchseason. The company was now losing money, and he was finding himself having to produce work for more and more acts as the various bands fissioned. The only ones he really cared about were Richard Thompson, who he was finding it more and more difficult to work with, Nick Drake, who wanted to do his next album with just an acoustic guitar anyway, Sandy Denny, who he felt was wasting her talents in Fotheringay, and Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band, who was more distant since his conversion to Scientology. Boyd did make some attempts to keep the company going. On a trip to Sweden, he negotiated an agreement with the manager and publisher of a Swedish band whose songs he’d found intriguing, the Hep Stars. Boyd was going to publish their songs in the UK, and in return that publisher, Stig Anderson, would get the rights to Witchseason’s catalogue in Scandinavia — a straight swap, with no money changing hands. But before Boyd could get round to signing the paperwork, he got a better offer from Mo Ostin of Warners — Ostin wanted Boyd to come over to LA and head up Warners’ new film music department. Boyd sold Witchseason to Island Records and moved to LA with his fiancee Linda Peters, spending the next few years working on music for films like Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange, as well as making his own documentary about Jimi Hendrix, and thus missed out on getting the UK publishing rights for ABBA, and all the income that would have brought him, for no money. And it was that decision that led to the breakup of Fotheringay. Just before Christmas 1970, Fotheringay were having a difficult session, recording the track “John the Gun”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “John the Gun”] Boyd got frustrated and kicked everyone out of the session, and went for a meal and several drinks with Denny. He kept insisting that she should dump the band and just go solo, and then something happened that the two of them would always describe differently. She asked him if he would continue to produce her records if she went solo, and he said he would. According to Boyd’s recollection of the events, he meant that he would fly back from California at some point to produce her records. According to Denny, he told her that if she went solo he would stay in Britain and not take the job in LA. This miscommunication was only discovered after Denny told the rest of Fotheringay after the Christmas break that she was splitting the band. Jerry Donahue has described that as the worst moment of his life, and Denny felt very guilty about breaking up a band with some of her closest friends in — and then when Boyd went over to the US anyway she felt a profound betrayal. Two days before Fotheringay’s final concert, in January 1971, Sandy Denny signed a solo deal with Island records, but her first solo album would not end up produced by Joe Boyd. Instead, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens was co-produced by Denny, John Wood — the engineer who had worked with Boyd on pretty much everything he’d produced, and Richard Thompson, who had just quit Fairport Convention, though he continued living with them at the Angel, at least until a truck crashed into the building in February 1971, destroying its entire front wall and forcing them to relocate. The songs chosen for The North Star Grassman and the Ravens reflected the kind of choices Denny would make on her future albums, and her eclectic taste in music. There was, of course, the obligatory Dylan cover, and the traditional folk ballad “Blackwaterside”, but there was also a cover version of Brenda Lee’s “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”] Most of the album, though, was made up of originals about various people in Denny’s life, like “Next Time Around”, about her ex-boyfriend Jackson C Frank: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Next Time Around”] The album made the top forty in the UK — Denny’s only solo album to do so — and led to her once again winning the “best female singer” award in Melody Maker’s readers’ poll that year — the male singer award was won by Rod Stewart. Both Stewart and Denny appeared the next year on the London Symphony Orchestra’s all-star version of The Who’s Tommy, which had originally been intended as a vehicle for Stewart before Roger Daltrey got involved. Stewart’s role was reduced to a single song, “Pinball Wizard”, while Denny sang on “It’s a Boy”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “It’s a Boy”] While Fotheringay had split up, all the band members play on The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. Guitarists Donahue and Lucas only play on a couple of the tracks, with Richard Thompson playing most of the guitar on the record. But Fotheringay’s rhythm section of Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway play on almost every track. Another musician on the album, Ian Whiteman, would possibly have a profound effect on the future direction of Richard Thompson’s career and life. Whiteman was the former keyboard player for the mod band The Action, having joined them just before they became the blues-rock band Mighty Baby. But Mighty Baby had split up when all of the band except the lead singer had converted to Islam. Richard Thompson was on his own spiritual journey at this point, and became a Sufi – the same branch of Islam as Whiteman – soon after the session, though Thompson has said that his conversion was independent of Whiteman’s. The two did become very close and work together a lot in the mid-seventies though. Thompson had supposedly left Fairport because he was writing material that wasn’t suited to the band, but he spent more than a year after quitting the group working on sessions rather than doing anything with his own material, and these sessions tended to involve the same core group of musicians. One of the more unusual was a folk-rock supergroup called The Bunch, put together by Trevor Lucas. Richard Branson had recently bought a recording studio, and wanted a band to test it out before opening it up for commercial customers, so with this free studio time Lucas decided to record a set of fifties rock and roll covers. He gathered together Thompson, Denny, Whiteman, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Pat Donaldson, Gerry Conway, pianist Tony Cox, the horn section that would later form the core of the Average White Band, and Linda Peters, who had now split up with Joe Boyd and returned to the UK, and who had started dating Thompson. They recorded an album of covers of songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Otis and others: [Excerpt: The Bunch, “Willie and the Hand Jive”] The early seventies was a hugely productive time for this group of musicians, as they all continued playing on each other’s projects. One notable album was No Roses by Shirley Collins, which featured Thompson, Mattacks, Whiteman, Simon Nicol, Lal and Mike Waterson, and Ashley Hutchings, who was at that point married to Collins, as well as some more unusual musicians like the free jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill: [Excerpt: Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band, “Claudy Banks”] Collins was at the time the most respected female singer in British traditional music, and already had a substantial career including a series of important records made with her sister Dolly, work with guitarists like Davey Graham, and time spent in the 1950s collecting folk songs in the Southern US with her then partner Alan Lomax – according to Collins she did much of the actual work, but Lomax only mentioned her in a single sentence in his book on this work. Some of the same group of musicians went on to work on an album of traditional Morris dancing tunes, titled Morris On, credited to “Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield”, with Collins singing lead on two tracks: [Excerpt: Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield with Shirley Collins, “The Willow Tree”] Thompson thought that that album was the best of the various side projects he was involved in at the time, comparing it favourably to Rock On, which he thought was rather slight, saying later “Conceptually, Fairport, Ashley and myself and Sandy were developing a more fragile style of music that nobody else was particularly interested in, a British Folk Rock idea that had a logical development to it, although we all presented it our own way. Morris On was rather more true to what we were doing. Rock On was rather a retro step. I'm not sure it was lasting enough as a record but Sandy did sing really well on the Buddy Holly songs.” Hutchings used the musicians on No Roses and Morris On as the basis for his band the Albion Band, which continues to this day. Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks both quit Fairport to join the Albion Band, though Mattacks soon returned. Nicol would not return to Fairport for several years, though, and for a long period in the mid-seventies Fairport Convention had no original members. Unfortunately, while Collins was involved in the Albion Band early on, she and Hutchings ended up divorcing, and the stress from the divorce led to Collins developing spasmodic dysphonia, a stress-related illness which makes it impossible for the sufferer to sing. She did eventually regain her vocal ability, but between 1978 and 2016 she was unable to perform at all, and lost decades of her career. Richard Thompson occasionally performed with the Albion Band early on, but he was getting stretched a little thin with all these sessions. Linda Peters said later of him “When I came back from America, he was working in Sandy’s band, and doing sessions by the score. Always with Pat Donaldson and Dave Mattacks. Richard would turn up with his guitar, one day he went along to do a session with one of those folkie lady singers — and there were Pat and DM. They all cracked. Richard smashed his amp and said “Right! No more sessions!” In 1972 he got round to releasing his first solo album, Henry the Human Fly, which featured guest appearances by Linda Peters and Sandy Denny among others: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away”] Unfortunately, while that album has later become regarded as one of the classics of its genre, at the time it was absolutely slated by the music press. The review in Melody Maker, for example, read in part “Some of Richard Thompson’s ideas sound great – which is really the saving grace of this album, because most of the music doesn’t. The tragedy is that Thompson’s “British rock music” is such an unconvincing concoction… Even the songs that do integrate rock and traditional styles of electric guitar rhythms and accordion and fiddle decoration – and also include explicit, meaningful lyrics are marred by bottle-up vocals, uninspiring guitar phrases and a general lack of conviction in performance.” Henry the Human Fly was released in the US by Warners, who had a reciprocal licensing deal with Island (and for whom Joe Boyd was working at the time, which may have had something to do with that) but according to Thompson it became the lowest-selling record that Warners ever put out (though I’ve also seen that claim made about Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, another album that has later been rediscovered). Thompson was hugely depressed by this reaction, and blamed his own singing. Happily, though, by this point he and Linda had become a couple — they would marry in 1972 — and they started playing folk clubs as a duo, or sometimes in a trio with Simon Nicol. Thompson was also playing with Sandy Denny’s backing band at this point, and played on every track on her second solo album, Sandy. This album was meant to be her big commercial breakthrough, with a glamorous cover photo by David Bailey, and with a more American sound, including steel guitar by Sneaky Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers (whose overdubs were supervised in LA by Joe Boyd): [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Tomorrow is a Long Time”] The album was given a big marketing push by Island, and “Listen, Listen” was made single of the week on the Radio 1 Breakfast show: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Listen, Listen”] But it did even worse than the previous album, sending her into something of a depression. Linda Thompson (as the former Linda Peters now was) said of this period “After the Sandy album, it got her down that her popularity didn't suddenly increase in leaps and bounds, and that was the start of her really fretting about the way her career was going. Things only escalated after that. People like me or Martin Carthy or Norma Waterson would think, ‘What are you on about? This is folk music.'” After Sandy’s release, Denny realised she could no longer afford to tour with a band, and so went back to performing just acoustically or on piano. The only new music to be released by either of these ex-members of Fairport Convention in 1973 was, oddly, on an album by the band they were no longer members of. After Thompson had left Fairport, the group had managed to release two whole albums with the same lineup — Swarbrick, Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks. But then Nicol and Mattacks had both quit the band to join the Albion Band with their former bandmate Ashley Hutchings, leading to a situation where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport plus their longtime drummer while Fairport Convention itself had no original members and was down to just Swarbrick and Pegg. Needing to fulfil their contracts, they then recruited three former members of Fotheringay — Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, Donahue on lead guitar, and Conway on drums. Conway was only a session player at the time, and Mattacks soon returned to the band, but Lucas and Donahue became full-time members. This new lineup of Fairport Convention released two albums in 1973, widely regarded as the group’s most inconsistent records, and on the title track of the first, “Rosie”, Richard Thompson guested on guitar, with Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Rosie”] Neither Sandy Denny nor Richard Thompson released a record themselves in 1973, but in neither case was this through the artists’ choice. The record industry was changing in the early 1970s, as we’ll see in later episodes, and was less inclined to throw good money after bad in the pursuit of art. Island Records prided itself on being a home for great artists, but it was still a business, and needed to make money. We’ll talk about the OPEC oil crisis and its effect on the music industry much more when the podcast gets to 1973, but in brief, the production of oil by the US peaked in 1970 and started to decrease, leading to them importing more and more oil from the Middle East. As a result of this, oil prices rose slowly between 1971 and 1973, then very quickly towards the end of 1973 as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict that year. As vinyl is made of oil, suddenly producing records became much more expensive, and in this period a lot of labels decided not to release already-completed albums, until what they hoped would be a brief period of shortages passed. Both Denny and Thompson recorded albums at this point that got put to one side by Island. In the case of Thompson, it was the first album by Richard and Linda as a duo, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Today, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and as one of the two masterpieces that bookended Richard and Linda’s career as a duo and their marriage. But when they recorded the album, full of Richard’s dark songs, it was the opposite of commercial. Even a song that’s more or less a boy-girl song, like “Has He Got a Friend for Me?” has lyrics like “He wouldn’t notice me passing by/I could be in the gutter, or dangling down from a tree” [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “Has He got a Friend For Me?”] While something like “The Calvary Cross” is oblique and haunted, and seems to cast a pall over the entire album: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “The Calvary Cross”] The album itself had been cheap to make — it had been recorded in only a week, with Thompson bringing in musicians he knew well and had worked with a lot previously to cut the tracks as-live in only a handful of takes — but Island didn’t think it was worth releasing. The record stayed on the shelf for nearly a year after recording, until Island got a new head of A&R, Richard Williams. Williams said of the album’s release “Muff Winwood had been doing A&R, but he was more interested in production… I had a conversation with Muff as soon as I got there, and he said there are a few hangovers, some outstanding problems. And one of them was Richard Thompson. He said there’s this album we gave him the money to make — which was I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — and nobody’s very interested in it. Henry the Human Fly had been a bit of a commercial disappointment, and although Island was altruistic and independent and known for only recording good stuff, success was important… Either a record had to do well or somebody had to believe in it a lot. And it seemed as if neither of those things were true at that point of Richard.” Williams, though, was hugely impressed when he listened to the album. He compared Richard Thompson’s guitar playing to John Coltrane’s sax, and called Thompson “the folk poet of the rainy streets”, but also said “Linda brightened it, made it more commercial. and I thought that “Bright Lights” itself seemed a really commercial song.” The rest of the management at Island got caught up in Williams’ enthusiasm, and even decided to release the title track as a single: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Neither single nor album charted — indeed it would not be until 1991 that Richard Thompson would make a record that made the top forty in the UK — but the album got enough critical respect that Richard and Linda released two albums the year after. The first of these, Hokey Pokey, is a much more upbeat record than their previous one — Richard Thompson has called it “quite a music-hall influenced record” and cited the influence of George Formby and Harry Lauder. For once, the claim of music hall influence is audible in the music. Usually when a British musician is claimed to have a music ha