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Version Excursion are a five piece band, who've just played at Bramstock, with great skill, infectious energy and humour - focusing on the best of British Music. They describe themselves as having the beat of the Spencer Davis Group, the swagger of the Stones, the quirkiness of Bowie, the swing of Dexys, the energy of The Jam and the hedonism of the Faces. Mark Simpson met Mez Meyrick and Simon Rushie Rush in their Liphook studio as they were rehearsing "all killer, no filler" for their comeback gig.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frances Wilson has written biographies of Dorothy Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, D.H. Lawrence, and, most recently, Muriel Spark. I thought Electric Spark was excellent. In my review, I wrote: “Wilson has done far more than string the facts together. She has created a strange and vivid portrait of one of the most curious of twentieth century novelists.” In this interview, we covered questions like why Thomas De Quincey is more widely read, why D.H. Lawrence's best books aren't his novels, Frances's conversion to spookiness, what she thinks about a whole range of modern biographers, literature and parasocial relationships, Elizabeth Bowen, George Meredith, and plenty about Muriel Spark.Here are two brief extracts. There is a full transcript below.Henry: De Quincey and Lawrence were the people you wrote about before Muriel Spark, and even though they seem like three very different people, but in their own way, they're all a little bit mad, aren't they?Frances: Yes, that is, I think, something that they have in common. It's something that I'm drawn to. I like writing about difficult people. I don't think I could write about anyone who wasn't difficult. I like difficult people in general. I like the fact that they pose a puzzle and they're hard to crack, and that their difficulty is laid out in their work and as a code. I like tackling really, really stubborn personalities as well. Yes, they were all a bit mad. The madness was what fuelled their journeys without doubt.Henry: This must make it very hard as a biographer. Is there always a code to be cracked, or are you sometimes dealing with someone who is slippery and protean and uncrackable?And.Henry: People listening will be able to tell that Spark is a very spooky person in several different ways. She had what I suppose we would call spiritual beliefs to do with ghosts and other sorts of things. You had a sort of conversion of your own while writing this book, didn't you?Frances: Yes, I did. [laughs] Every time I write a biography, I become very, very, very immersed in who I'm writing about. I learned this from Richard Holmes, who I see as a method biographer. He Footsteps his subjects. He becomes his subjects. I think I recognized when I first read Holmes's Coleridge, when I was a student, that this was how I also wanted to live. I wanted to live inside the minds of the people that I wrote about, because it was very preferable to live inside my own mind. Why not live inside the mind of someone really, really exciting, one with genius?What I felt with Spark wasn't so much that I was immersed by-- I wasn't immersed by her. I felt actually possessed by her. I think this is the Spark effect. I think a lot of her friends felt like this. I think that her lovers possibly felt like this. There is an extraordinary force to her character, which absolutely lives on, even though she's dead, but only recently dead. The conversion I felt, I think, was that I have always been a very enlightenment thinker, very rational, very scientific, very Freudian in my approach to-- I will acknowledge the unconscious but no more.By the time I finished with Spark, I'm pure woo-woo now.TranscriptHenry: Today, I am talking to Frances Wilson. Frances is a biographer. Her latest book, Electric Spark, is a biography of the novelist Muriel Spark, but she has also written about Dorothy Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, DH Lawrence and others. Frances, welcome.Frances Wilson: Thank you so much for having me on.Henry: Why don't more people read Thomas De Quincey's work?Frances: [laughs] Oh, God. We're going right into the deep end.[laughter]Frances: I think because there's too much of it. When I chose to write about Thomas De Quincey, I just followed one thread in his writing because Thomas De Quincey was an addict. One of the things he was addicted to was writing. He wrote far, far, far too much. He was a professional hack. He was a transcendental hack, if you like, because all of his writing he did while on opium, which made the sentences too long and too high and very, very hard to read.When I wrote about him, I just followed his interest in murder. He was fascinated by murder as a fine art. The title of one of his best essays is On Murder as One of the Fine Arts. I was also interested in his relationship with Wordsworth. I twinned those together, which meant cutting out about 97% of the rest of his work. I think people do read his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. I think that's a cult text. It was the memoir, if you want to call it a memoir, that kick-started the whole pharmaceutical memoir business on drugs.It was also the first addict's memoir and the first recovery memoir, and I'd say also the first misery memoir. He's very much at the root of English literary culture. We're all De Quincey-an without knowing it, is my argument.Henry: Oh, no, I fully agree. That's what surprises me, that they don't read him more often.Frances: I know it's a shame, isn't it? Of all the Romantic Circle, he's the one who's the most exciting to read. Also, Lamb is wonderfully exciting to read as well, but Lamb's a tiny little bit more grounded than De Quincey, who was literally not grounded. He's floating in an opium haze above you.[laughter]Henry: What I liked about your book was the way you emphasized the book addiction, not just the opium addiction. It is shocking the way he piled up chests full of books and notebooks, and couldn't get into the room because there were too many books in there. He was [crosstalk].Frances: Yes. He had this in common with Muriel Spark. He was a hoarder, but in a much more chaotic way than Spark, because, as you say, he piled up rooms with papers and books until he couldn't get into the room, and so just rented another room. He was someone who had no money at all. The no money he had went on paying rent for rooms, storing what we would be giving to Oxfam, or putting in the recycling bin. Then he'd forget that he was paying rent on all these rooms filled with his mountains of paper. The man was chaos.Henry: What is D.H. Lawrence's best book?Frances: Oh, my argument about Lawrence is that we've gone very badly wrong in our reading of him, in seeing him primarily as a novelist and only secondarily as an essayist and critic and short story writer, and poet. This is because of F.R. Leavis writing that celebration of him called D.H. Lawrence: Novelist, because novels are not the best of Lawrence. I think the best of his novels is absolutely, without doubt, Sons and Lovers. I think we should put the novels in the margins and put in the centre, the poems, travel writing.Absolutely at the centre of the centre should be his studies in classic American literature. His criticism was- We still haven't come to terms with it. It was so good. We haven't heard all of Lawrence's various voices yet. When Lawrence was writing, contemporaries didn't think of Lawrence as a novelist at all. It was anyone's guess what he was going to come out with next. Sometimes it was a novel [laughs] and it was usually a rant about-- sometimes it was a prophecy. Posterity has not treated Lawrence well in any way, but I think where we've been most savage to him is in marginalizing his best writing.Henry: The short fiction is truly extraordinary.Frances: Isn't it?Henry: I always thought Lawrence was someone I didn't want to read, and then I read the short fiction, and I was just obsessed.Frances: It's because in the short fiction, he doesn't have time to go wrong. I think brevity was his perfect length. Give him too much space, and you know he's going to get on his soapbox and start ranting, start mansplaining. He was a terrible mansplainer. Mansplaining his versions of what had gone wrong in the world. It is like a drunk at the end of a too-long dinner party, and you really want to just bundle him out. Give him only a tiny bit of space, and he comes out with the perfection that is his writing.Henry: De Quincey and Lawrence were the people you wrote about before Muriel Spark, and even though they seem like three very different people, but in their own way, they're all a little bit mad, aren't they?Frances: Yes, that is, I think, something that they have in common. It's something that I'm drawn to. I like writing about difficult people. I don't think I could write about anyone who wasn't difficult. I like difficult people in general. I like the fact that they pose a puzzle and they're hard to crack, and that their difficulty is laid out in their work and as a code. I like tackling really, really stubborn personalities as well. Yes, they were all a bit mad. The madness was what fuelled their journeys without doubt.Henry: This must make it very hard as a biographer. Is there always a code to be cracked, or are you sometimes dealing with someone who is slippery and protean and uncrackable?Frances: I think that the way I approach biography is that there is a code to crack, but I'm not necessarily concerned with whether I crack it or not. I think it's just recognizing that there's a hell of a lot going on in the writing and that, in certain cases and not in every case at all, the best way of exploring the psyche of the writer and the complexity of the life is through the writing, which is a argument for psycho biography, which isn't something I necessarily would argue for, because it can be very, very crude.I think with the writers I choose, there is no option. Muriel Spark argued for this as well. She said in her own work as a biographer, which was really very, very strong. She was a biographer before she became a novelist. She thought hard about biography and absolutely in advance of anyone else who thought about biography, she said, "Of course, the only way we can approach the minds of writers is through their work, and the writer's life is encoded in the concerns of their work."When I was writing about Muriel Spark, I followed, as much as I could, to the letter, her own theories of biography, believing that that was part of the code that she left. She said very, very strong and very definitive things about what biography was about and how to write a biography. I tried to follow those rules.Henry: Can we play a little game where I say the names of some biographers and you tell me what you think of them?Frances: Oh my goodness. Okay.Henry: We're not trying to get you into trouble. We just want some quick opinions. A.N. Wilson.Frances: I think he's wonderful as a biographer. I think he's unzipped and he's enthusiastic and he's unpredictable and he's often off the rails. I think his Goethe biography-- Have you read the Goethe biography?Henry: Yes, I thought that was great.Frances: It's just great, isn't it? It's so exciting. I like the way that when he writes about someone, it's almost as if he's memorized the whole of their work.Henry: Yes.Frances: You don't imagine him sitting at a desk piled with books and having to score through his marginalia. It sits in his head, and he just pours it down on a page. I'm always excited by an A.N. Wilson biography. He is one of the few biographers who I would read regardless of who the subject was.Henry: Yes.Frances: I just want to read him.Henry: He does have good range.Frances: He absolutely does have good range.Henry: Selina Hastings.Frances: I was thinking about Selina Hastings this morning, funnily enough, because I had been talking to people over the weekend about her Sybil Bedford biography and why that hadn't lifted. She wrote a very excitingly good life of Nancy Mitford and then a very unexcitingly not good life of Sybil Bedford. I was interested in why the Sybil Bedford simply hadn't worked. I met people this weekend who were saying the same thing, that she was a very good biographer who had just failed [laughs] to give us anything about Sybil Bedford.I think what went wrong in that biography was that she just could not give us her opinions. It's as if she just withdrew from her subject as if she was writing a Wikipedia entry. There were no opinions at all. What the friends I was talking to said was that she just fell out with her subject during the book. That's what happened. She stopped being interested in her. She fell out with her and therefore couldn't be bothered. That's what went wrong.Henry: Interesting. I think her Evelyn Waugh biography is superb.Frances: Yes, I absolutely agree. She was on fire until this last one.Henry: That's one of the best books on Waugh, I think.Frances: Yes.Henry: Absolutely magical.Frances: I also remember, it's a very rare thing, of reading a review of it by Hilary Mantel saying that she had not read a biography that had been as good, ever, as Selina Hastings' on Evelyn Waugh. My goodness, that's high praise, isn't it?Henry: Yes, it is. It is. I'm always trying to push that book on people. Richard Holmes.Frances: He's my favourite. He's the reason that I'm a biographer at all. I think his Coleridge, especially the first volume of the two-volume Coleridge, is one of the great books. It left me breathless when I read it. It was devastating. I also think that his Johnson and Savage book is one of the great books. I love Footsteps as well, his account of the books he didn't write in Footsteps. I think he has a strange magic. When Muriel Spark talked about certain writers and critics having a sixth literary sense, which meant that they tuned into language and thought in a way that the rest of us don't, I think that Richard Holmes does have that. I think he absolutely has it in relation to Coleridge. I'm longing for his Tennyson to come out.Henry: Oh, I know. I know.Frances: Oh, I just can't wait. I'm holding off on reading Tennyson until I've got Holmes to help me read him. Yes, he is quite extraordinary.Henry: I would have given my finger to write the Johnson and Savage book.Frances: Yes, I know. I agree. How often do you return to it?Henry: Oh, all the time. All the time.Frances: Me too.Henry: Michael Holroyd.Frances: Oh, that's interesting, Michael Holroyd, because I think he's one of the great unreads. I think he's in this strange position of being known as a greatest living biographer, but nobody's read him on Augustus John. [laughs] I haven't read his biographies cover to cover because they're too long and it's not in my subject area, but I do look in them, and they're novelistic in their wit and complexity. His sentences are very, very, very entertaining, and there's a lot of freight in each paragraph. I hope that he keeps selling.I love his essays as well, and also, I think that he has been a wonderful ambassador for biography. He's very, very supportive of younger biographers, which not every biographer is, but I know he's been very supportive of younger biographers and is incredibly approachable.Henry: Let's do a few Muriel Spark questions. Why was the Book of Job so important to Muriel Spark?Frances: I think she liked it because it was rogue, because it was the only book of the Bible that wasn't based on any evidence, it wasn't based on any truth. It was a fictional book, and she liked fiction sitting in the middle of fact. That was one of her main things, as all Spark lovers know. She liked the fact that there was this work of pure imagination and extraordinarily powerful imagination sitting in the middle of the Old Testament, and also, she thought it was an absolutely magnificent poem.She saw herself primarily as a poet, and she responded to it as a poem, which, of course, it is. Also, she liked God in it. She described Him as the Incredible Hulk [laughs] and she liked His boastfulness. She enjoyed, as I do, difficult personalities, and she liked the fact that God had such an incredibly difficult personality. She liked the fact that God boasted and boasted and boasted, "I made this and I made that," to Job, but also I think she liked the fact that you hear God's voice.She was much more interested in voices than she was in faces. The fact that God's voice comes out of the burning bush, I think it was an image for her of early radio, this voice speaking, and she liked the fact that what the voice said was tricksy and touchy and impossibly arrogant. He gives Moses all these instructions to lead the Israelites, and Moses says, "But who shall I say sent me? Who are you?" He says, "I am who I am." [laughs] She thought that was completely wonderful. She quotes that all the time about herself. She says, "I know it's a bit large quoting God, but I am who I am." [laughs]Henry: That disembodied voice is very important to her fiction.Frances: Yes.Henry: It's the telephone in Memento Mori.Frances: Yes.Henry: Also, to some extent, tell me what you think of this, the narrator often acts like that.Frances: Like this disembodied voice?Henry: Yes, like you're supposed to feel like you're not quite sure who's telling you this or where you're being told it from. That's why it gets, like in The Ballad of Peckham Rye or something, very weird.Frances: Yes. I'm waiting for the PhD on Muriel Sparks' narrators. Maybe it's being done as we speak, but she's very, very interested in narrators and the difference between first-person and third-person. She was very keen on not having warm narrators, to put it mildly. She makes a strong argument throughout her work for the absence of the seductive narrative. Her narratives are, as we know, unbelievably seductive, but not because we are being flattered as readers and not because the narrator makes herself or himself pretty. The narrator says what they feel like saying, withholds most of what you would like them to say, plays with us, like in a Spark expression, describing her ideal narrator like a cat with a bird [laughs].Henry: I like that. Could she have been a novelist if she had not become a Catholic?Frances: No, she couldn't. The two things happened at the same time. I wonder, actually, whether she became a Catholic in order to become a novelist. It wasn't that becoming a novelist was an accidental effect of being a Catholic. The conversion was, I think, from being a biographer to a novelist rather than from being an Anglican to a Catholic. What happened is a tremendous interest. I think it's the most interesting moment in any life that I've ever written about is the moment of Sparks' conversion because it did break her life in two.She converted when she was in her mid-30s, and several things happened at once. She converted to Catholicism, she became a Catholic, she became a novelist, but she also had this breakdown. The breakdown was very much part of that conversion package. The breakdown was brought on, she says, by taking Dexys. There was slimming pills, amphetamines. She wanted to lose weight. She put on weight very easily, and her weight went up and down throughout her life.She wanted to take these diet pills, but I think she was also taking the pills because she needed to do all-nighters, because she never, ever, ever stopped working. She was addicted to writing, but also she was impoverished and she had to sell her work, and she worked all night. She was in a rush to get her writing done because she'd wasted so much of her life in her early 20s, in a bad marriage trapped in Africa. She needed to buy herself time. She was on these pills, which have terrible side effects, one of which is hallucinations.I think there were other reasons for her breakdown as well. She was very, very sensitive and I think psychologically fragile. Her mother lived in a state of mental fragility, too. She had a crash when she finished her book. She became depressed. Of course, a breakdown isn't the same as depression, but what happened to her in her breakdown was a paranoid attack rather than a breakdown. She didn't crack into nothing and then have to rebuild herself. She just became very paranoid. That paranoia was always there.Again, it's what's exciting about her writing. She was drawn to paranoia in other writers. She liked Cardinal Newman's paranoia. She liked Charlotte Brontë's paranoia, and she had paranoia. During her paranoid attack, she felt very, very interestingly, because nothing that happened in her life was not interesting, that T.S. Eliot was sending her coded messages. He was encoding these messages in his play, The Confidential Clerk, in the program notes to the play, but also in the blurbs he wrote for Faber and Faber, where he was an editor. These messages were very malign and they were encoded in anagrams.The word lived, for example, became devil. I wonder whether one of the things that happened during her breakdown wasn't that she discovered God, but that she met the devil. I don't think that that's unusual as a conversion experience. In fact, the only conversion experience she ever describes, you'll remember, is in The Girls of Slender Means, when she's describing Nicholas Farrington's conversion. That's the only conversion experience she ever describes. She says that his conversion is when he sees one of the girls leaving the burning building, holding a Schiaparelli dress. Suddenly, he's converted because he's seen a vision of evil.She says, "Conversion can be as a result of a recognition of evil, rather than a recognition of good." I think that what might have happened in this big cocktail of things that happened to her during her breakdown/conversion, is that a writer whom she had idolized, T.S. Eliot, who taught her everything that she needed to know about the impersonality of art. Her narrative coldness comes from Eliot, who thought that emotions had no place in art because they were messy, and art should be clean.I think a writer whom she had idolized, she suddenly felt was her enemy because she was converting from his church, because he was an Anglo-Catholic. He was a high Anglican, and she was leaving Anglo-Catholicism to go through the Rubicon, to cross the Rubicon into Catholicism. She felt very strongly that that is something he would not have approved of.Henry: She's also leaving poetry to become a prose writer.Frances: She was leaving his world of poetry. That's absolutely right.Henry: This is a very curious parallel because the same thing exactly happens to De Quincey with his worship of Wordsworth.Frances: You're right.Henry: They have the same obsessive mania. Then this, as you say, not quite a breakdown, but a kind of explosive mania in the break. De Quincey goes out and destroys that mossy hut or whatever it is in the orchard, doesn't he?Frances: Yes, that disgusting hut in the orchard. Yes, you're completely right. What fascinated me about De Quincey, and this was at the heart of the De Quincey book, was how he had been guided his whole life by Wordsworth. He discovered Wordsworth as a boy when he read We Are Seven, that very creepy poem about a little girl sitting on her sibling's grave, describing the sibling as still alive. For De Quincey, who had lost his very adored sister, he felt that Wordsworth had seen into his soul and that Wordsworth was his mentor and his lodestar.He worshipped Wordsworth as someone who understood him and stalked Wordsworth, pursued and stalked him. When he met him, what he discovered was a man without any redeeming qualities at all. He thought he was a dry monster, but it didn't stop him loving the work. In fact, he loved the work more and more. What threw De Quincey completely was that there was such a difference between Wordsworth, the man who had no genius, and Wordsworth, the poet who had nothing but.Eliot described it, the difference between the man who suffers and the mind which creates. What De Quincey was trying to deal with was the fact that he adulated the work, but was absolutely appalled by the man. Yes, you're right, this same experience happened to spark when she began to feel that T.S. Eliot, whom she had never met, was a malign person, but the work was still not only of immense importance to her, but the work had formed her.Henry: You see the Wasteland all over her own work and the shared Dante obsession.Frances: Yes.Henry: It's remarkably strong. She got to the point of thinking that T.S. Eliot was breaking into her house.Frances: Yes. As I said, she had this paranoid imagination, but also what fired her imagination and what repeated itself again and again in the imaginative scenarios that recur in her fiction and nonfiction is the idea of the intruder. It was the image of someone rifling around in cupboards, drawers, looking at manuscripts. This image, you first find it in a piece she wrote about finding herself completely coincidentally, staying the night during the war in the poet Louis MacNeice's house. She didn't know it was Louis MacNeice's house, but he was a poet who was very, very important to her.Spark's coming back from visiting her parents in Edinburgh in 1944. She gets talking to an au pair on the train. By the time they pull into Houston, there's an air raid, and the au pair says, "Come and spend the night at mine. My employers are away and they live nearby in St. John's Wood." Spark goes to this house and sees it's packed with books and papers, and she's fascinated by the quality of the material she finds there.She looks in all the books. She goes into the attic, and she looks at all the papers, and she asks the au pair whose house it is, and the au pair said, "Oh, he's a professor called Professor Louis MacNeice." Spark had just been reading Whitney. He's one of her favourite poets. She retells this story four times in four different forms, as non-fiction, as fiction, as a broadcast, as reflections, but the image that keeps coming back, what she can't get rid of, is the idea of herself as snooping around in this poet's study.She describes herself, in one of the versions, as trying to draw from his papers his power as a writer. She says she sniffs his pens, she puts her hands over his papers, telling herself, "I must become a writer. I must become a writer." Then she makes this weird anonymous phone call. She loved the phone because it was the most strange form of electrical device. She makes a weird anonymous phone call to an agent, saying, "I'm ringing from Louis MacNeice's house, would you like to see my manuscript?" She doesn't give her name, and the agent says yes.Now I don't believe this phone call took place. I think it's part of Sparks' imagination. This idea of someone snooping around in someone else's room was very, very powerful to her. Then she transposed it in her paranoid attack about T.S. Eliot. She transposed the image that Eliot was now in her house, but not going through her papers, but going through her food cupboards. [laughs] In her food cupboards, all she actually had was baked beans because she was a terrible cook. Part of her unwellness at that point was malnutrition. No, she thought that T.S. Eliot was spying on her. She was obsessed with spies. Spies, snoopers, blackmailers.Henry: T.S. Eliot is Stealing My Baked Beans would have been a very good title for a memoir.Frances: It actually would, wouldn't it?Henry: Yes, it'd be great.[laughter]Henry: People listening will be able to tell that Spark is a very spooky person in several different ways. She had what I suppose we would call spiritual beliefs to do with ghosts and other sorts of things. You had a sort of conversion of your own while writing this book, didn't you?Frances: Yes, I did. [laughs] Every time I write a biography, I become very, very, very immersed in who I'm writing about. I learned this from Richard Holmes, who I see as a method biographer. He Footsteps his subjects. He becomes his subjects. I think I recognized when I first read Holmes's Coleridge, when I was a student, that this was how I also wanted to live. I wanted to live inside the minds of the people that I wrote about, because it was very preferable to live inside my own mind. Why not live inside the mind of someone really, really exciting, one with genius?What I felt with Spark wasn't so much that I was immersed by-- I wasn't immersed by her. I felt actually possessed by her. I think this is the Spark effect. I think a lot of her friends felt like this. I think that her lovers possibly felt like this. There is an extraordinary force to her character, which absolutely lives on, even though she's dead, but only recently dead. The conversion I felt, I think, was that I have always been a very enlightenment thinker, very rational, very scientific, very Freudian in my approach to-- I will acknowledge the unconscious but no more.By the time I finished with Spark, I'm pure woo-woo now. Anything can happen. This is one of the reasons Spark was attracted to Catholicism because anything can happen, because it legitimizes the supernatural. I felt so strongly that the supernatural experiences that Spark had were real, that what Spark was describing as the spookiness of our own life were things that actually happened.One of the things I found very, very unsettling about her was that everything that happened to her, she had written about first. She didn't describe her experiences in retrospect. She described them as in foresight. For example, her first single authored published book, because she wrote for a while in collaboration with her lover, Derek Stanford, but her first single authored book was a biography of Mary Shelley.Henry: Great book.Frances: An absolutely wonderful book, which really should be better than any of the other Mary Shelley biographies. She completely got to Mary Shelley. Everything she described in Mary Shelley's life would then happen to Spark. For example, she described Mary Shelley as having her love letters sold. Her lover sold Mary Shelley's love letters, and Mary Shelley was then blackmailed by the person who bought them. This happened to Spark. She described Mary Shelley's closest friends all becoming incredibly jealous of her literary talent. This happened to Spark. She described trusting people who betrayed her. This happened to Spark.Spark was the first person to write about Frankenstein seriously, to treat Frankenstein as a masterpiece rather than as a one-off weird novel that is actually just the screenplay for a Hammer Horror film. This was 1951, remember. Everything she described in Frankenstein as its power is a hybrid text, described the powerful hybrid text that she would later write about. What fascinated her in Frankenstein was the relationship between the creator and the monster, and which one was the monster. This is exactly the story of her own life. I think where she is. She was really interested in art monsters and in the fact that the only powerful writers out there, the only writers who make a dent, are monsters.If you're not a monster, you're just not competing. I think Spark has always spoken about as having a monster-like quality. She says at the end of one of her short stories, Bang-bang You're Dead, "Am I an intellectual woman, or am I a monster?" It's the question that is frequently asked of Spark. I think she worked so hard to monsterize herself. Again, she learnt this from Elliot. She learnt her coldness from Elliot. She learnt indifference from Elliot. There's a very good letter where she's writing to a friend, Shirley Hazzard, in New York.It's after she discovers that her lover, Derek Stanford, has sold her love letters, 70 love letters, which describe two very, very painfully raw, very tender love letters. She describes to Shirley Hazzard this terrible betrayal. She says, "But, I'm over it. I'm over it now. Now I'm just going to be indifferent." She's telling herself to just be indifferent about this. You watch her tutoring herself into the indifference that she needed in order to become the artist that she knew she was.Henry: Is this why she's attracted to mediocrities, because she can possess them and monsterize them, and they're good feeding for her artistic programme?Frances: Her attraction to mediocrities is completely baffling, and it makes writing her biography, a comedy, because the men she was surrounded by were so speck-like. Saw themselves as so important, but were, in fact, so speck-like that you have to laugh, and it was one after another after another. I'd never come across, in my life, so many men I'd never heard of. This was the literary world that she was surrounded by. It's odd, I don't know whether, at the time, she knew how mediocre these mediocrities were.She certainly recognised it in her novels where they're all put together into one corporate personality called the pisseur de copie in A Far Cry from Kensington, where every single literary mediocrity is in that critic who she describes as pissing and vomiting out copy. With Derek Stanford, who was obviously no one's ever heard of now, because he wrote nothing that was memorable, he was her partner from the end of the 40s until-- They ceased their sexual relationship when she started to be interested in becoming a Catholic in 1953, but she was devoted to him up until 1958. She seemed to be completely incapable of recognising that she had the genius and he had none.Her letters to him deferred to him, all the time, as having literary powers that she hadn't got, as having insights that she hadn't got, he's better read than she was. She was such an amazingly good critic. Why could she not see when she looked at his baggy, bad prose that it wasn't good enough? She rated him so highly. When she was co-authoring books with him, which was how she started her literary career, they would occasionally write alternative sentences. Some of her sentences are always absolutely-- they're sharp, lean, sparkling, and witty, and his are way too long and really baggy and they don't say anything. Obviously, you can see that she's irritated by it.She still doesn't say, "Look, I'm going now." It was only when she became a novelist that she said, "I want my mind to myself." She puts, "I want my mind to myself." She didn't want to be in a double act with him. Doubles were important to her. She didn't want to be in a double act with him anymore. He obviously had bought into her adulation of him and hadn't recognised that she had this terrifying power as a writer. It was now his turn to have the breakdown. Spark had the mental breakdown in 1950, '45. When her first novel came out in 1957, it was Stanford who had the breakdown because he couldn't take on board who she was as a novelist.What he didn't know about her as a novelist was her comic sense, how that would fuel the fiction, but also, he didn't recognize because he reviewed her books badly. He didn't recognise that the woman who had been so tender, vulnerable, and loving with him could be this novelist who had nothing to say about tenderness or love. In his reviews, he says, "Why are her characters so cold?" because he thought that she should be writing from the core of her as a human being rather than the core of her as an intellect.Henry: What are her best novels?Frances: Every one I read, I think this has to be the best.[laughter]This is particularly the case in the early novels, where I'm dazzled by The Comforters and think there cannot have been a better first novel of the 20th century or even the 21st century so far. The Comforters. Then read Robinson, her second novel, and think, "Oh God, no, that is her best novel. Then Memento Mori, I think, "Actually, that must be the best novel of the 20th century." [laughs] Then you move on to The Ballad of Peckham Rye, I think, "No, that's even better."The novels landed. It's one of the strange things about her; it took her so long to become a novelist. When she had become one, the novels just landed. Once in one year, two novels landed. In 1959, she had, it was The Bachelors and The Ballad of Peckham Rye, both just completely extraordinary. The novels had been the storing up, and then they just fell on the page. They're different, but samey. They're samey in as much as they're very, very, very clever. They're clever about Catholicism, and they have the same narrative wit. My God, do the plots work in different ways. She was wonderful at plots. She was a great plotter. She liked plots in both senses of the world.She liked the idea of plotting against someone, also laying a plot. She was, at the same time, absolutely horrified by being caught inside someone's plot. That's what The Comforters is about, a young writer called Caroline Rose, who has a breakdown, it's a dramatisation of Sparks' own breakdown, who has a breakdown, and believes that she is caught inside someone else's story. She is a typewriter repeating all of her thoughts. Typewriter and a chorus repeating all of her thoughts.What people say about The Comforters is that Caroline Rose thought she is a heroine of a novel who finds herself trapped in a novel. Actually, if you read what Caroline Rose says in the novel, she doesn't think she's trapped in a novel; she thinks she's trapped in a biography. "There is a typewriter typing the story of our lives," she says to her boyfriend. "Of our lives." Muriel Sparks' first book was about being trapped in a biography, which is, of course, what she brought on herself when she decided to trap herself in a biography. [laughs]Henry: I think I would vote for Loitering with Intent, The Girls of Slender Means as my favourites. I can see that Memento Mori is a good book, but I don't love it, actually.Frances: Really? Interesting. Okay. I completely agree with you about-- I think Loitering with Intent is my overall favourite. Don't you find every time you read it, it's a different book? There are about 12 books I've discovered so far in that book. She loved books inside books, but every time I read it, I think, "Oh my God, it's changed shape again. It's a shape-shifting novel."Henry: We all now need the Frances Wilson essay about the 12 books inside Loitering with Intent.Frances: I know.[laughter]Henry: A few more general questions to close. Did Thomas De Quincey waste his talents?Frances: I wouldn't have said so. I think that's because every single day of his life, he was on opium.Henry: I think the argument is a combination of too much opium and also too much magazine work and not enough "real serious" philosophy, big poems, whatever.Frances: I think the best of his work went into Blackwood's, so the magazine work. When he was taken on by Blackwood's, the razor-sharp Edinburgh magazine, then the best of his work took place. I think that had he only written the murder essays, that would have been enough for me, On Murder as a Fine Art.That was enough. I don't need any more of De Quincey. I think Confessions of an English Opium-Eater is also enough in as much as it's the great memoir of addiction. We don't need any more memoirs of addiction, just read that. It's not just a memoir of being addicted to opium. It's about being addicted to what's what. It's about being a super fan and addicted to writing. He was addicted to everything. If he was in AA now, they'd say, apparently, there are 12 addictions, he had all of them. [laughs]Henry: Yes. People talk a lot about parasocial relationships online, where you read someone online or you follow them, and you have this strange idea in your head that you know them in some way, even though they're just this disembodied online person. You sometimes see people say, "Oh, we should understand this more." I think, "Well, read the history of literature, parasocial relationships everywhere."Frances: That's completely true. I hadn't heard that term before. The history of literature, a parasocial relationship. That's your next book.Henry: There we go. I think what I want from De Quincey is more about Shakespeare, because I think the Macbeth essay is superb.Frances: Absolutely brilliant. On Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth.Henry: Yes, and then you think, "Wait, where's the rest of this book? There should be an essay about every play."Frances: That's an absolutely brilliant example of microhistory, isn't it? Just taking a moment in a play, just the knocking at the gate, the morning after the murders, and blowing that moment up, so it becomes the whole play. Oh, my God, it's good. You're right.Henry: It's so good. What is, I think, "important about it", is that in the 20th century, critics started saying or scholars started saying a lot, "We can't just look at the words on the page. We've got to think about the dramaturgy. We've got to really, really think about how it plays out." De Quincey was an absolute master of that. It's really brilliant.Frances: Yes.Henry: What's your favourite modern novel or novelist?Frances: Oh, Hilary Mantel, without doubt, I think. I think we were lucky enough to live alongside a great, great, great novelist. I think the Wolf Hall trilogy is absolutely the greatest piece of narrative fiction that's come out of the 21st century. I also love her. I love her work as an essayist. I love her. She's spooky like Spark. She was inspired.Henry: Yes, she is. Yes.Frances: She learnt a lot of her cunning from Spark, I think. She's written a very spooky memoir. In fact, the only women novelists who acknowledge Spark as their influencer are Ali Smith and Hilary Mantel, although you can see Spark in William Boyd all the time. I think we're pretty lucky to live alongside William Boyd as well. Looking for real, real greatness, I think there's no one to compare with Mantel. Do you agree?Henry: I don't like the third volume of the trilogy.Frances: Okay. Right.Henry: Yes, in general, I do agree. Yes. I think some people don't like historical fiction for a variety of reasons. It may take some time for her to get it. I think she's acknowledged as being really good. I don't know that she's yet acknowledged at the level that you're saying.Frances: Yes.Henry: I think that will take a little bit longer. Maybe as and when there's a biography that will help with that, which I'm sure there will be a biography.Frances: I think they need to wait. I do think it's important to wait for a reputation to settle before starting the biography. Her biography will be very interesting because she married the same man twice. Her growth as a novelist was so extraordinary. Spark, she spent time in Africa. She had this terrible, terrible illness. She knew something. I think what I love about Mantel is, as with Spark, she knew something. She knew something, and she didn't quite know what it was that she knew. She had to write because of this knowledge. When you read her, you know that she's on a different level of understanding.Henry: You specialise in slightly neglected figures of English literature. Who else among the canonical writers deserves a bit more attention?Frances: Oh, that's interesting. I love minor characters. I think Spark was very witty about describing herself as a minor novelist or a writer of minor novels when she was evidently major. She always saw the comedy in being a minor. All the minor writers interest me. Elizabeth Bowen, Henry Green. No, they have heard Elizabeth Bowen has been treated well by Hermione Lee and Henry Green has been treated well by Jeremy Treglown.Why are they not up there yet? They're so much better than most of their contemporaries. I am mystified and fascinated by why it is that the most powerful writers tend to be kicked into the long grass. It's dazzling. When you read a Henry Green novel, you think, "But this is what it's all about. He's understood everything about what the novel can do. Why has no one heard of him?"Henry: I think Elizabeth Bowen's problem is that she's so concise, dense, and well-structured, and everything really plays its part in the pattern of the whole that it's not breezy reading.Frances: No, it's absolutely not.Henry: I think that probably holds her back in some way, even though when I have pushed it on people, most of the time they've said, "Gosh, she's a genius."Frances: Yes.Henry: It's not an easy genius. Whereas Dickens, the pages sort of fly along, something like that.Frances: Yes. One of the really interesting things about Spark is that she really, really is easy reading. At the same time, there's so much freight in those books. There's so much intellectual weight and so many games being played. There's so many books inside the books. Yet you can just read them for the pleasure. You can just read them for the plot. You can read one in an afternoon and think that you've been lost inside a book for 10 years. You don't get that from Elizabeth Bowen. That's true. The novels, you feel the weight, don't you?Henry: Yes.Frances: She's Jamesian. She's more Jamesian, I think, than Spark is.Henry: Something like A World of Love, it requires quite a lot of you.Frances: Yes, it does. Yes, it's not bedtime reading.Henry: No, exactly.Frances: Sitting up in a library.Henry: Yes. Now, you mentioned James. You're a Henry James expert.Frances: I did my PhD on Henry James.Henry: Yes. Will you ever write about him?Frances: I have, actually. Just a little plug. I've just done a selection of James's short stories, three volumes, which are coming out, I think, later this year for Riverrun with a separate introduction for each volume. I think that's all the writing I'm going to do on James. When I was an academic, I did some academic essays on him for collections and things. No, I've never felt, ever, ready to write on James because he's too complicated. I can only take tiny, tiny bits of James and home in on them.Henry: He's a great one for trying to crack the code.Frances: He really is. In fact, I was struck all the way through writing Electric Spark by James's understanding of the comedy of biography, which is described in the figure in the carpet. Remember that wonderful story where there's a writer called Verica who explains to a young critic that none of the critics have understood what his work's about. Everything that's written about him, it's fine, but it's absolutely missed his main point, his beautiful point. He said that in order to understand what the work's about, you have to look for The Figure in the Carpet. It's The Figure in the CarpetIt's the string on which my pearls are strung. A couple of critics become completely obsessed with looking for this Figure in the Carpet. Of course, Spark loved James's short stories. You feel James's short stories playing inside her own short stories. I think that one of the games she left for her biographers was the idea of The Figure in the Carpet. Go on, find it then. Find it. [laughs] The string on which my pearls are strung.Henry: Why did you leave academia? We should say that you did this before it became the thing that everyone's doing.Frances: Is everyone leaving now?Henry: A lot of people are leaving now.Frances: Oh, I didn't know. I was ahead of the curve. I left 20 years ago because I wasn't able to write the books I wanted to write. I left when I'd written two books as an academic. My first was Literary Seductions, and my second was a biography of a blackmailing courtesan called Harriet Wilson, and the book was called The Courtesan's Revenge. My department was sniffy about the books because they were published by Faber and not by OUP, and suggested that somehow I was lowering the tone of the department.This is what things were like 20 years ago. Then I got a contract to write The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth, my third book, again with Faber. I didn't want to write the book with my head of department in the back of my mind saying, "Make this into an academic tome and put footnotes in." I decided then that I would leave, and I left very suddenly. Now, I said I'm leaving sort of now, and I've got books to write, and felt completely liberated. Then for The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth, I decided not to have footnotes. It's the only book I've ever written without footnotes, simply as a celebration of no longer being in academia.Then the things I loved about being in academia, I loved teaching, and I loved being immersed in literature, but I really couldn't be around colleagues and couldn't be around the ridiculous rules of what was seen as okay. In fact, the university I left, then asked me to come back on a 0.5 basis when they realised that it was now fashionable to have someone who was a trade author. They asked me to come back, which I did not want to do. I wanted to spend days where I didn't see people rather than days where I had to talk to colleagues all the time. I think that academia is very unhappy. The department I was in was incredibly unhappy.Since then, I took up a job very briefly in another English department where I taught creative writing part-time. That was also incredibly unhappy. I don't know whether other French departments or engineering departments are happier places than English departments, but English departments are the most unhappy places I think I've ever seen.[laughter]Henry: What do you admire about the work of George Meredith?Frances: Oh, I love George Meredith. [laughs] Yes. I think Modern Love, his first novel, Modern Love, in a strange sonnet form, where it's not 14 lines, but 16 lines. By the time you get to the bottom two lines, the novel, the sonnet has become hysterical. Modern Love hasn't been properly recognised. It's an account of the breakdown of his marriage. His wife, who was the daughter of the romantic, minor novelist, Thomas Love Peacock. His wife had an affair with the artist who painted the famous Death of Chatterton. Meredith was the model for Chatterton, the dead poet in his purple silks, with his hand falling on the ground. There's a lot of mythology around Meredith.I think, as with Elizabeth Bowen and Henry Green, he's difficult. He's difficult. The other week, I tried to reread Diana of the Crossways, which was a really important novel, and I still love it. I really recognise that it's not an easy read. He doesn't try, in any way, to seduce his readers. They absolutely have to crawl inside each book to sit inside his mind and see the world as he's seeing it.Henry: Can you tell us what you will do next?Frances: At the moment, I'm testing some ideas out. I feel, at the end of every biography, you need a writer. You need to cleanse your palate. Otherwise, there's a danger of writing the same book again. I need this time, I think, to write about, to move century and move genders. I want to go back, I think, to the 19th century. I want to write about a male writer for a moment, and possibly not a novelist as well, because after being immersed in Muriel Sparks' novels, no other novel is going to seem good enough. I'm testing 19th-century men who didn't write novels, and it will probably be a minor character.Henry: Whatever it is, I look forward to reading it. Frances Wilson, thank you very much.Frances: Thank you so much, Henry. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

Dexys, Madness, Bon Jovi, GNR, Dire Straits, Police, Marillion, Kim Wilde, Status Quo, The Communards and a lot more.

Another two hours of great nusic from Dexys, Madness, Bon Jovi, Dire Straits, Madonna, Kim Wilde, Status Quo, The Communards and loads more ! 

Retomamos en esta nueva temporada nuestros Vientos Metales para alegrar el principio de cada semana. Cositas de ahora, canciones que no se olvidan, soul meteórico, canciones olvidadas… Adoramos a Santero y Los Muchachos Y ¿Wonder 45? ¿Los Gatos Negros? Dedicado a Martín Alcanda, el ángel que vino a salvarme.CLO PROMO UPDISCO 1 GENTLE NATURE Auras (GOLDEN RULES - 14)DISCO 2 VAN MORRISON You Gotta Make It Through The World (ESCA)DISCO 3 DR. JOHN & ANGELA McCLUKEY Anything But Love (WILD COLONIALS - 4)SEP MARTÍN X (TWITER) + Lunes RÁINERDISCO 4 WONDER 45 Nothing’s Gonna Change (8)DISCO 5 LULU Move To My Rhythm (CD 1 - 19)DISCO 6 LOS GATOS NEGROS  Hey Hey Bunny (LE BEAT BESPOKÉ - 15)CLO LUCAS Podcast + LUNES ELENADISCO 7 JOHNNY BURGOS Our Walls (6)DISCO 8 DEXYS The One That Loves You (ESCA)DISCO 9 SANTERO Y LOS MUCHACHOS Complicado (3)DISCO 10 JOHN MAYALL Going To Take My time (3)INDI MÚSICA ELIAS + SEP MARTÍN X (TWITTER)DISCO 11 C’AMMAFUNK Funkshovit (7)DISCO 12 TheEEs & Julie Ada Mother Earth (1)DISCO 13 NAIMA BOCK Gentle (14)Escuchar audio

Me encanta verte sonreír. Siento plenitud dándote el cariño que te hace más y más bella. Aceptando lo que no se puede cambiar, abrazando la vida, preparando canciones para que te gusten los lunes, los jueves o cualquier día del año. Sí, con vientos y metales que ensalzan voces maravillosas, composiciones magistrales de Raul Malo, Bill Withers, Junie, Ankli, Carole KIng o Randy Newman.  DISCO 1 RANDY NEWMAN Introduction/I Love To see You Smile (Cara 1 Corte 1) DISCO 2 ANKLI Home (1)  DISCO 3 VALERIE JUNE Friendship (feat. Carla Thomas & Stax Music Academy) (ESCA) DISCO 4 DANNY TOEMAN Feel My Soul (ESCA) DISCO 5 CAROLE KING Hard Rock Café ( ) DISCO 6 THE CAT EMPIRE Thunder Rumbles (ESCA) DISCO 7 THE MAVERICKS Live Close By [with Nicole Atkins] (ESCA) DISCO 8 HIATUS KAIYOTE Everything’s Beautiful (ESCA) DISCO 9 THE FEMININE DRIVE The One That Loves You (ESCA) DEXYS 2022 DISCO 10 JOSÉ JAMES Just The Two of Us (ESCA)  DISCO 11 THE O'JAYS Now That We Found Love (ESCA) DISCO 12 JUNIE What am I gonna do (ESCA) SUZIE SUPER GROUPIE DISCO 13 (Bob Mintzer Big Band) MICHAEL FRANKS My Foolish Heart (ESCA)Escuchar audio

Among the logs tossed on the conversational bonfire this week to combat mid-June's British winter you'll find …… ‘I Managed Van Morrison' and other films screaming to be made. … how it feels to watch someone play from the best seat in the house.… Françoise Hardy, her unsmiling photos and legions of besotted male admirers (ie us and everyone else). … the time she met Dylan and Nick Drake. … Juliette Greco, Edith Piaf and the handful of French stars who made it across the Channel.… the joy of small venues: “the bigger the gig, the smaller a component of the experience the actual performance is”. … Elvis Costello's photographic memory. … Maria Muldaur with Earl Palmer and Amos Garrett. … why Twenty Twelve says more about British life than any other TV show. ... the terrible jokes of Ronnie Scott.… “Kate Bush grew up in a world without sarcasm.” … Siobhan Sharpe, Bertie Wooster, the Artful Dodger, Basil Fawlty, Edina & Patsy and other deathless British fictional stereotypes. … plus birthday guest Paul Thompson and books tracking down people who've played with Dexys and Dylan. And who should be next – Hawkwind, Van Morrison?Find out more about how to help us keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Among the logs tossed on the conversational bonfire this week to combat mid-June's British winter you'll find …… ‘I Managed Van Morrison' and other films screaming to be made. … how it feels to watch someone play from the best seat in the house.… Françoise Hardy, her unsmiling photos and legions of besotted male admirers (ie us and everyone else). … the time she met Dylan and Nick Drake. … Juliette Greco, Edith Piaf and the handful of French stars who made it across the Channel.… the joy of small venues: “the bigger the gig, the smaller a component of the experience the actual performance is”. … Elvis Costello's photographic memory. … Maria Muldaur with Earl Palmer and Amos Garrett. … why Twenty Twelve says more about British life than any other TV show. ... the terrible jokes of Ronnie Scott.… “Kate Bush grew up in a world without sarcasm.” … Siobhan Sharpe, Bertie Wooster, the Artful Dodger, Basil Fawlty, Edina & Patsy and other deathless British fictional stereotypes. … plus birthday guest Paul Thompson and books tracking down people who've played with Dexys and Dylan. And who should be next – Hawkwind, Van Morrison?Find out more about how to help us keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Among the logs tossed on the conversational bonfire this week to combat mid-June's British winter you'll find …… ‘I Managed Van Morrison' and other films screaming to be made. … how it feels to watch someone play from the best seat in the house.… Françoise Hardy, her unsmiling photos and legions of besotted male admirers (ie us and everyone else). … the time she met Dylan and Nick Drake. … Juliette Greco, Edith Piaf and the handful of French stars who made it across the Channel.… the joy of small venues: “the bigger the gig, the smaller a component of the experience the actual performance is”. … Elvis Costello's photographic memory. … Maria Muldaur with Earl Palmer and Amos Garrett. … why Twenty Twelve says more about British life than any other TV show. ... the terrible jokes of Ronnie Scott.… “Kate Bush grew up in a world without sarcasm.” … Siobhan Sharpe, Bertie Wooster, the Artful Dodger, Basil Fawlty, Edina & Patsy and other deathless British fictional stereotypes. … plus birthday guest Paul Thompson and books tracking down people who've played with Dexys and Dylan. And who should be next – Hawkwind, Van Morrison?Find out more about how to help us keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stewart Lee – beloved writer, columnist and stand-up - was on the podcast in 2022 talking about the first records he bought, immensely funny and fascinating, and we've been praying for an excuse to get him back since. And it's here! - he's on tour again and his ‘Basic Lee' show is on Sky/Now TV on July 20. This covers his first memories of live entertainment - in the audience and as a performer – and the people who influenced him and stops off at the following stations … … why the Wombles were just like Crass. … how he writes and tests new material. … why Ted Chippington inspired his stand-up career. … television comedy is now “two-screen TV” as the viewer's always watching something else at the same time. … how Lockdown made audiences forget how to behave. … “Comedian In Bum Phone Fury”: how he stopped people filming his gigs. … deliberately using negative reaction shots in his TV edits.   … improvisation in music and comedy and why every night should be unique. … the tense protocol of comedians at other comedians' gigs. … Mark E Smith doing things “out of necessity irrespective of how they were received” and his reaction to seeing Stewart in his audience. … why festival crowds are a challenge. … the Drifters, the Applejacks and Napalm Death and how they are related. … the music playing when his son was born. … arriving in full early Dexys rig - donkey jacket, woolly hat - to find they were now the “raggle-taggle gypsies”. … the sole performance of Peter Richardson's Mexican bandit act. … Daniel Kitson, “the world's greatest living stand-up”. … plus the Nightingales, Chris Spedding, Clem Cattini, Kirk Brandon, the Bevis Frond, Geddy Lee, Throbbing Gristle and Brighton Psych Fest's Secluded Bronte – “is it music or are they just moving furniture around?”------------ All information about Stewart Lee tour dates here …https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/ ‘Basic Lee' is on Sky/Now TV on July 20.Find out more about how to help us keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stewart Lee – beloved writer, columnist and stand-up - was on the podcast in 2022 talking about the first records he bought, immensely funny and fascinating, and we've been praying for an excuse to get him back since. And it's here! - he's on tour again and his ‘Basic Lee' show is on Sky/Now TV on July 20. This covers his first memories of live entertainment - in the audience and as a performer – and the people who influenced him and stops off at the following stations … … why the Wombles were just like Crass. … how he writes and tests new material. … why Ted Chippington inspired his stand-up career. … television comedy is now “two-screen TV” as the viewer's always watching something else at the same time. … how Lockdown made audiences forget how to behave. … “Comedian In Bum Phone Fury”: how he stopped people filming his gigs. … deliberately using negative reaction shots in his TV edits.   … improvisation in music and comedy and why every night should be unique. … the tense protocol of comedians at other comedians' gigs. … Mark E Smith doing things “out of necessity irrespective of how they were received” and his reaction to seeing Stewart in his audience. … why festival crowds are a challenge. … the Drifters, the Applejacks and Napalm Death and how they are related. … the music playing when his son was born. … arriving in full early Dexys rig - donkey jacket, woolly hat - to find they were now the “raggle-taggle gypsies”. … the sole performance of Peter Richardson's Mexican bandit act. … Daniel Kitson, “the world's greatest living stand-up”. … plus the Nightingales, Chris Spedding, Clem Cattini, Kirk Brandon, the Bevis Frond, Geddy Lee, Throbbing Gristle and Brighton Psych Fest's Secluded Bronte – “is it music or are they just moving furniture around?”------------ All information about Stewart Lee tour dates here …https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/ ‘Basic Lee' is on Sky/Now TV on July 20.Find out more about how to help us keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stewart Lee – beloved writer, columnist and stand-up - was on the podcast in 2022 talking about the first records he bought, immensely funny and fascinating, and we've been praying for an excuse to get him back since. And it's here! - he's on tour again and his ‘Basic Lee' show is on Sky/Now TV on July 20. This covers his first memories of live entertainment - in the audience and as a performer – and the people who influenced him and stops off at the following stations … … why the Wombles were just like Crass. … how he writes and tests new material. … why Ted Chippington inspired his stand-up career. … television comedy is now “two-screen TV” as the viewer's always watching something else at the same time. … how Lockdown made audiences forget how to behave. … “Comedian In Bum Phone Fury”: how he stopped people filming his gigs. … deliberately using negative reaction shots in his TV edits.   … improvisation in music and comedy and why every night should be unique. … the tense protocol of comedians at other comedians' gigs. … Mark E Smith doing things “out of necessity irrespective of how they were received” and his reaction to seeing Stewart in his audience. … why festival crowds are a challenge. … the Drifters, the Applejacks and Napalm Death and how they are related. … the music playing when his son was born. … arriving in full early Dexys rig - donkey jacket, woolly hat - to find they were now the “raggle-taggle gypsies”. … the sole performance of Peter Richardson's Mexican bandit act. … Daniel Kitson, “the world's greatest living stand-up”. … plus the Nightingales, Chris Spedding, Clem Cattini, Kirk Brandon, the Bevis Frond, Geddy Lee, Throbbing Gristle and Brighton Psych Fest's Secluded Bronte – “is it music or are they just moving furniture around?”------------ All information about Stewart Lee tour dates here …https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/ ‘Basic Lee' is on Sky/Now TV on July 20.Find out more about how to help us keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a series of best-selling books focussing on girls and women Caitlin Moran turns her attention to the lads in ‘What About Men?'. Find out if comedian Laura Smyth is indeed living her best life on the ‘Living My Best Life' tour and Alex Lowe tells us what makes his Clinton Baptise character so popular. John Hopkins on playing Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady at the Leeds Playhouse and we have music from Dexys - formely Dexy's Midnight Runners. Presenter: Stuart Maconie Producer: Jessica Treen

Nige Tassell used to go to school in full donkey-jacket-and-woolly-hat ensemble to express his boundless devotion to Dexys Midnight Runners. Forty years later he set out to find and interview everyone who'd ever been a member. For some, their time in the ranks was a joyful, career-launching delight. Others felt it was like a slightly chilly and controlling cult. They all took a while to recover and they all had extraordinary stories to tell in his latest book ‘Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners'. Here's a flavour of what gets discussed … … ‘No drugs or alcohol! No smiling! No eye contact with the audience!' and other unsettling Dexys mantras. … examples of Kevin Rowland ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory'. … the many ways the band made themselves deliberately different'. … the event supporting Bowie that got their power cut onstage in Paris and had them thrown off the tour. ... the heavy-handed recruitment of Helen O'Hara. … Geno Washington and other strands of the Dexys DNA. … the ad they took in the NME that soured their relationship with the music press. … and how Rowland's approach today remains resolutely unchanged.   Order Nige's book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-Dexys-Midnight-Runners-Tassell/dp/178512059XSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nige Tassell used to go to school in full donkey-jacket-and-woolly-hat ensemble to express his boundless devotion to Dexys Midnight Runners. Forty years later he set out to find and interview everyone who'd ever been a member. For some, their time in the ranks was a joyful, career-launching delight. Others felt it was like a slightly chilly and controlling cult. They all took a while to recover and they all had extraordinary stories to tell in his latest book ‘Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners'. Here's a flavour of what gets discussed … … ‘No drugs or alcohol! No smiling! No eye contact with the audience!' and other unsettling Dexys mantras. … examples of Kevin Rowland ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory'. … the many ways the band made themselves deliberately different'. … the event supporting Bowie that got their power cut onstage in Paris and had them thrown off the tour. ... the heavy-handed recruitment of Helen O'Hara. … Geno Washington and other strands of the Dexys DNA. … the ad they took in the NME that soured their relationship with the music press. … and how Rowland's approach today remains resolutely unchanged.   Order Nige's book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-Dexys-Midnight-Runners-Tassell/dp/178512059XSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nige Tassell used to go to school in full donkey-jacket-and-woolly-hat ensemble to express his boundless devotion to Dexys Midnight Runners. Forty years later he set out to find and interview everyone who'd ever been a member. For some, their time in the ranks was a joyful, career-launching delight. Others felt it was like a slightly chilly and controlling cult. They all took a while to recover and they all had extraordinary stories to tell in his latest book ‘Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners'. Here's a flavour of what gets discussed … … ‘No drugs or alcohol! No smiling! No eye contact with the audience!' and other unsettling Dexys mantras. … examples of Kevin Rowland ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory'. … the many ways the band made themselves deliberately different'. … the event supporting Bowie that got their power cut onstage in Paris and had them thrown off the tour. ... the heavy-handed recruitment of Helen O'Hara. … Geno Washington and other strands of the Dexys DNA. … the ad they took in the NME that soured their relationship with the music press. … and how Rowland's approach today remains resolutely unchanged.   Order Nige's book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-Dexys-Midnight-Runners-Tassell/dp/178512059XSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month we're back to the BC era (Before Colin), where we'll be discussing our favourite songs of 1980, inlcuding lashings of nuclear paranoia, a brace of classic metal, and a nice healthy dollop of goth.We've each chosen our 10 favourite songs of the year and sent them over to Colin's wife Helen, who put the playlists together and distributed them so we were each given a playlist of the 20 songs from the other two hosts, along with our own 10. We then ranked the playlists in order of preference and sent them back to Helen, who totalled up the points and worked out the order.She also joined us on the episode to read out the countdown, which we found out as we recorded so all reactions are genuine.Now, admittedly, in parts we're a little bit brutal to some of the songs in the list as we're three separate people with differing music tastes, but please remember that to be in this episode at all the songs have to have been in one of our top 10's of that year. Bands featured in this episode include (In alphabetical order, no spoilers here!) - AC/DC, Bauhaus, The Beat, David Bowie, Kate Bush, Cabaret Voltaire, Comsat Angels, The Clash, The Cramps, The Cure, Dead Kennedys, Devo, Dexys Midnight Runners, Diamond Head, Iron Maiden, Japan, Nic Jones, Journey, Joy Division, Judas Priest, Killing Joke, Motorhead, The Only Ones, Orchestral Manouvres In The Dark, Ozzy Osbourne, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Specials, Stiff Little Fingers, Talking Heads, & Visage.Find all songs in alphabetical order here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1kij98NJCpKCK24D6GsvRG?si=cf71849309184fa9Find our We Dig Music Pollwinners Party playlist (featuring all of the winning songs up until now) here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/45zfDHo8zm6VqrvoEQSt3z?si=Ivt0oMj6SmitimvumYfFrQIf you want to listen to megalength playlists of all the songs we've individually picked since we started doing best of the year episodes, you can listen to Colin's here – https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5x3Vy5Jry2IxG9JNOtabRT?si=HhcVKRCtRhWCK1KucyrDdg Ian's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2H0hnxe6WX50QNQdlfRH5T?si=XmEjnRqISNqDwi30p1uLqA and Tracey's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2p3K0n8dKhjHb2nKBSYnKi?si=7a-cyDvSSuugdV1m5md9Nw The playlist of 20 songs from the other two hosts was scored as usual, our favourite song got 20 points, counting down incrementally to our least favourite which got 1 point. The scoring of our own list of 10 is now slightly more complicated in order to give a truer level of points to our own favourites. So rather than them only being able to score as many points as our 10th favourite in the other list, the points in our own list were distributed as follows -1st place - 20 points2nd place - 18 points3rd place – 16 points4th place – 14 points5th place – 12 points6th place – 9 points7th place – 7 points8th place – 5 points9th place – 3 points10th place -1 pointHosts - Ian Clarke, Colin Jackson-Brown & Tracey BGuest starring Helen Jackson-Brown.Playlist compiling/distributing – Helen Jackson-BrownRecorded/Edited/Mixed/Original Music by Colin Jackson-Brown for We Dig PodcastsThanks to Peter Latimer for help with the scoring system.Say hello at www.facebook.com/wedigmusicpcast or tweet us at http://twitter.com/wedigmusicpcast or look at shiny pictures on Instagram at http://instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast Part of the We Made This podcast network. https://twitter.com/wmt_network You can also find all the We Dig Music & Free With This Months Issue episodes at www.wedigpodcasts.com

Dexys frontman Kevin Rowland joins CURVA MUNDIAL to chat about his love of Wolverhampton and the so-called punk attitude supporting the Wolves. Rowland also talks about his band's new record, "The Feminine Divine." --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/curva-mundial/support

Helen O'Hara is a talented violinist best known for her contributions to British band Dexys Midnight Runners. Born in London, Helens musical journey began at an early age. She exhibited a natural affinity for the violin, showcasing both technical prowess and a deep emotional connection to the instrument. Her early training and dedication to mastering the violin set the stage for her later success with Dexy's Midnight Runners. She had met the charismatic Kevin Rowland in the late 70s and joined the band in the early 1980s, during a crucial period of the band's evolution. Her introduction added a distinctive and soulful dimension to the band's sound, creating a unique blend of rock, soul, and folk elements that set Dexy's apart in the music scene. Dexys Midnight Runners, originally formed in 1978 in Birmingham, England, by Kevin Rowland, emerged as a prominent force in the New Wave and post-punk movements. The band was characterised by its eclectic musical style, combining elements of soul, pop, and Celtic folk, and was widely recognized for its energetic live performances. The band achieved commercial success with their second album, "Too-Rye-Ay," released in 1982. This album featured some of Dexy's most iconic tracks, including the chart-topping hit "Come On Eileen." The distinctive sound of the album, marked by the prominent use of strings and horns, showcased the influence of Helen O'Hara's violin and contributed significantly to the band's success. After the release of "Too-Rye-Ay," Dexys Midnight Runners underwent a significant transformation. In 1985, Kevin Rowland decided to disband Dexys Midnight Runners and subsequently reformed the group under the simplified name "Dexys." This change reflected Rowland's desire to move away from the Midnight Runners' image and to emphasize a new musical direction. Under the moniker Dexys, the band continued to explore various musical genres and experiment with their sound. While the lineup underwent changes over the years, Helen O'Hara remained a key member, contributing her violin expertise to the evolving Dexy's sound. Despite various challenges and lineup changes, Dexys (formerly Dexys Midnight Runners) continued to release music and tour, leaving an indelible mark on the music industry. The band's legacy endures not only for their chart-topping hits but also for their willingness to push musical boundaries and embrace diverse influences, with Helen O'Hara's violin playing a crucial role in shaping their distinctive sound. The extremely talented and humble Helen O'Hara joins us today as our guest to unravel the story of Dexys, to tell us about her personal journey and to share details of her recently released memoir 'What's She Like.' If you'd like to know more about Helen head for her website: https://www.helenohara-violin.com/biog If you'd like to suggest a guest for a future episode send me a message through my website https:www.abreathoffreshair.com.au

This week, Pete concludes his round-up of all that he liked from 2023's releases, focusing on albums from the past 12 months. Hear tracks from DJ Tron, Lack Of Afro, The Bamboos, Dexys, The Sextones, Bobby Harden plus loads more of that good stuff. Tune into new broadcasts of the Superfly Funk & Soul Show, LIVE, Friday from 10 AM - 12 PM EST / 3 - 5 PM GMT.For more info visit: https://thefaceradio.com/superfly-funk-and-soul-show///Dig this show? Please consider supporting The Face Radio: http://support.thefaceradio.com Support The Face Radio with PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/thefaceradio. Join the family at https://plus.acast.com/s/thefaceradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Die musikalischen Jahresrückblicke sind zurück. Und zum Auftakt 2023 hat Andreas Renner (DAZN) im musikradio360 Ulf Nordwich (GFL-TV) zu Gast. Und damit auch Fachkräfte wie Prince, Joy Oladokun, Dexys, Tristan Brusch and many more ...

In this episode Ellis recalls some more memories, and I talk about my trip to Bath to see Dexys

Let's make this one precious: Kevin Rowland joins the MOJO Record Club to discuss Dexys past and present and the enduring genius of Van Morrison. Plus Andrew Male and Chris Catchpole tackle new releases by Tinariwen and BC Camplight... “It ain't why, why, why, it just is!”Tracklisting: 1. I'm Going to Get Free, written by Kevin Rowland and released on the 100 Percent label2. Caravan, written by Van Morrison and performed live at at the Troubadour, Los Angeles, Californian May 1973 with The Caledonia Soul Orchestra and released on Warner Bros records3. Tenere Den, by Tinariwen, written by Touhami Ag Alhassane and Eyadou Ag Leche and released on Wedge Records4. The Last Rotation Of Earth, written by Brian Christinzio and released on Bella Union Records

On this episode of the Banned Biographies podcast your host, Tom Austin-Morgan, thanks Brompton Jackson from Wilmette for his time on last months' episode, and what you can expect from the next episode which will be out soon. The news this month concerns: The continuing allegations against Justin Sane of Anti-Flag, the passing of Sinéad O'Connor, Jamie Reid and Steve Harwell, Descendents, Devo, Billy Idol, GBH, The Bronx, The Damned, Ben Weasel from Screaching Weasel's new book, Bob Vylan, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Fishbone and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan touring together, former Lostprophets frontman and convicted peadophile, Ian Watkins getting stabbed in prison, Madball, Chris Flippin, Paramore, Glenn Danzig, TV Smith, Dexys, Green Day, Fat Mike, Lars Fredericksen, Amyl and the Sniffers, Bouncing Souls, L7, Flogging Molly, Bad Religion, and The Rolling Stones. Tom reviews the singles by Pretenders, The Coral, Holly Humberstone, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Teenage Fanclub, Fat Mike, Corey Taylor, The Streets, Soft Play, Ash, Mondo Generator, The Gaslight Anthem, Molotov Jukebox, Dream Nails, and The Rolling Stones. The albums reviewed this month are: The Female Divine by Dexys, Smile by Skindred, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons by The Hives, A Call to the Void by Hot Milk, Road by Alice Cooper, and Back to The Water Below by Royal Blood. Merch: https://my-store-cfdac5.creator-spring.com Contact Twitter: @BannedBiogs Facebook: @BannedBiographies Instagram: @bannedbiographies E-mail: bannedbiographies@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the Banned Biographies podcast your host, Tom Austin-Morgan, thanks Brompton Jackson from Wilmette for his time on last months' episode, and what you can expect from the next episode which will be out soon. The news this month concerns: The continuing allegations against Justin Sane of Anti-Flag, the passing of Sinéad O'Connor, Jamie Reid and Steve Harwell, Descendents, Devo, Billy Idol, GBH, The Bronx, The Damned, Ben Weasel from Screaching Weasel's new book, Bob Vylan, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Fishbone and GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan touring together, former Lostprophets frontman and convicted peadophile, Ian Watkins getting stabbed in prison, Madball, Chris Flippin, Paramore, Glenn Danzig, TV Smith, Dexys, Green Day, Fat Mike, Lars Fredericksen, Amyl and the Sniffers, Bouncing Souls, L7, Flogging Molly, Bad Religion, and The Rolling Stones. Tom reviews the singles by Pretenders, The Coral, Holly Humberstone, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Teenage Fanclub, Fat Mike, Corey Taylor, The Streets, Soft Play, Ash, Mondo Generator, The Gaslight Anthem, Molotov Jukebox, Dream Nails, and The Rolling Stones. The albums reviewed this month are: The Female Divine by Dexys, Smile by Skindred, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons by The Hives, A Call to the Void by Hot Milk, Road by Alice Cooper, and Back to The Water Below by Royal Blood. Merch: https://my-store-cfdac5.creator-spring.com Contact Twitter: @BannedBiogs Facebook: @BannedBiographies Instagram: @bannedbiographies E-mail: bannedbiographies@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Rowland joins Simon and Brian to discuss his creative process and the writing of the new Dexys record The Feminine Divine. The acclaimed singer and songwriter talks about where inspiration comes from, the importance of trust when co-writing, and why he likes to write notes on his lyric sheets.

In episode #143 of The XS Noize Podcast, Mark Millar meets Joel Stoker, frontman of The Rifles, to discuss his debut solo album 'The Undertow.' As frontman of The Rifles, Joel Stoker has released many acclaimed albums, playing numerous riotous sold-out tours and picking up famous fans, including Paul Weller, Madness and Ian Broudie. Now, Joel introduces an entirely different side of his creativity with the release of his debut solo album, The Undertow. The Undertow sees Joel raising his artistic bar to a whole new level. Both effortlessly melodic and unflinchingly honest, its eleven tracks see him entering completely new sonic territory, the '70s funk-flecked grooves, festival bangers and fiddle-assisted stomps reflecting touchstones ranging from Bob Marley and Fleetwood Mac to Dexys through to Arcade Fire and Michael Kiwanuka. Thematically, Joel's lyrics hold nothing back as he reveals his experiences with anxiety and mental health issues, his overwhelming struggles with OCD dating back to childhood. In this interview, Joel Stoker talks about writing and recording The Undertow, supporting Liam Gallagher, upcoming live shows and what's next for The Rifles. Listen to episode #143 of The XS Noize Podcast with Joel Stoker – BELOW: Previous XS Noize Podcast guests have been John Lydon, Matt Goss, Billy Nomates, Tom Meighan, Toyah Wilcox, Midge Ure, Travis, New Order, The Killers, Tito Jackson, Simple Minds, Divine Comedy, Shaun Ryder, Gary Numan, Sleaford Mods, and Nik Kershaw. Listen via YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS – Find The XS Noize Music Podcast's complete Archive of episodes here.

This is not just music...

Dexys, formerly known as Dexys Midnight Runners, is a pop rock band from England that made quite an impact during the 80s, most notably with the singles "Come On Eileen" and "Geno".  Although the band broke up at the end of the 80s, singer, songwriter and frontman Kevin Rowland reformed Dexys in 2003 and followed up with new music almost a decade later. Their latest release is 'The Feminine Divine' (2023) and we spoke with Rowland about the album, his restricted upbringing, the creative process, having something to say, changing his views on women, and a lot more! Interview by: Robin HignellSupport the showThank you for listening! For more interviews with your favorite artists visit the FaceCulture YouTube channel.

Frank Skinner's on Absolute Radio every Saturday morning and you can enjoy the show's podcast right here. The Radio Academy Award winning gang bring you a show which is like joining your mates for a coffee... So, put the kettle on, sit down and enjoy UK commercial radio's most popular podcast. This week Frank and Emily are joined by Steve Hall. Frank has been to a wedding, Steve has been to see Dexys and the team discuss the 85th Anniversary of the Beano.

On this episode of the Banned Biographies podcast your host, Tom Austin-Morgan, thanks David Green from Moonraker for his time on last months' episode, and what you can expect from the next episode which will be out soon. The news this month concerns: L7, The Slackers, Paramore, Bob Vylan, Fall Out Boy, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, David Vanian and the Phantom Chords, Finch, MxPx, Ozzy Osbourne, Decsendents, Green Day, The Dollyrots, Alkaline Trio, and - of course - Anti-Flag. Tom reviews the singles Antichrist/Room Service by Holly Humberstone, The One by Taking Back Sunday, Taking Up Sports by Cherym, My Submission by Dexys, Subculture Rock n Roll/Pleaser split by The Drowns/The Last Gang, Foreign Land and Tired Of Being Alone by Teenage Fanclub, Rigor Mortis Radio by The Hives, Post Traumatic Blues by Corey Taylor, BLOODSTREAM by Hot Milk, Troubled Waters by The Streets, Pull Me Through by Royal Blood, Unstoppable by Skindred, Like A God by Ash, Shoebox Memories by Lucky Hit, Childhood Eyes EP by Yellowcard, Fuck Day Six (String Version) by Fat Mike, I'm Alice and White Line Frankenstein by Alice Cooper, Positive Charge and History Books by The Gaslight Anthem, and Get It by The Sewer Cats. The albums reviewed this month are Chaos For The Fly by Grian Chatten, Caesar Salad Days by Adolescents, and Dream Big, Live Large, Play Hard by RudeGRL + CC. Merch: https://my-store-cfdac5.creator-spring.com Contact Twitter: @BannedBiogs Facebook: @BannedBiographies Instagram: @bannedbiographies E-mail: bannedbiographies@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zum Schluss der Sounds!-Woche gibt's die brandneuen Alben. Heute mit Travis Scotts erster LP seit der «Astroworld»-Tragödie, träumerischem Indie Pop von The Clientele («I Am Not There Anymore») und den unvergänglichen Dexys (ehemals Midnight Runners). Happy Wochenende, y'all!

This episodes special guest is the amazing Kevin Rowland of Dexys!I met with Kevin and we had a wonderful chat, talking about growing up, school, creativity, clubbing, Dexys and so much moreHope you enjoy this chat and if you do please feel free to support the podcast herehttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/stuwhiffenorhttps://supporter.acast.com/offthebeatandtrack orwww.patreon.com/offthebeatandtrackPlease also subscribe and follow the podcast on the social media links belowOff The Beat & Trackwww.offthebeatandtrackpodcast.comhttps://twitter.com/beatandtrackpodhttps://www.facebook.com/offthebeatandtrackpodcast/Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/offthebeatandtrack. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/offthebeatandtrack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the Banned Biographies podcast your host, Tom Austin-Morgan, thanks David Green from Moonraker for his time on last months' episode, and what you can expect from the next episode which will be out soon. The news this month concerns: L7, The Slackers, Paramore, Bob Vylan, Fall Out Boy, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, David Vanian and the Phantom Chords, Finch, MxPx, Ozzy Osbourne, Decsendents, Green Day, The Dollyrots, Alkaline Trio, and - of course - Anti-Flag. Tom reviews the singles Antichrist/Room Service by Holly Humberstone, The One by Taking Back Sunday, Taking Up Sports by Cherym, My Submission by Dexys, Subculture Rock n Roll/Pleaser split by The Drowns/The Last Gang, Foreign Land and Tired Of Being Alone by Teenage Fanclub, Rigor Mortis Radio by The Hives, Post Traumatic Blues by Corey Taylor, BLOODSTREAM by Hot Milk, Troubled Waters by The Streets, Pull Me Through by Royal Blood, Unstoppable by Skindred, Like A God by Ash, Shoebox Memories by Lucky Hit, Childhood Eyes EP by Yellowcard, Fuck Day Six (String Version) by Fat Mike, I'm Alice and White Line Frankenstein by Alice Cooper, Positive Charge and History Books by The Gaslight Anthem, and Get It by The Sewer Cats. The albums reviewed this month are Chaos For The Fly by Grian Chatten, Caesar Salad Days by Adolescents, and Dream Big, Live Large, Play Hard by RudeGRL + CC. Merch: https://my-store-cfdac5.creator-spring.com Contact Twitter: @BannedBiogs Facebook: @BannedBiographies Instagram: @bannedbiographies E-mail: bannedbiographies@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dexys - Glass Menagerie - Stephen Curry Documentary

Lost and Sound meets Kevin Rowland, singer, musician and the frontman of Dexys Midnight Runners, now shortened to simply Dexys.  A true pop maverick - from early 40 hour a week rehearsals and  a band name taken from the Northern Soul drug Dexadrine to those seismic 80s pop moments like Geno and Come On Eileen and the stone cold classic Searching For The Young Soul Rebels album, Kevin has flown in and out of favour, regenerating a bit like a post punk soul tinged Doctor Who. On the eve of the release of the 6th Dexys album, The Feminine Divine, Kevin talks to Paul about creativity, life, Roxy Music and the feminine awakening at the heart of the new music. Lost and Sound is proudly sponsored by Audio-TechnicaThe new Dexys album The Feminine Divine is available  from 28th July 2023Paul's debut book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culture Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins

Kevin Rowland of Dexys shares stories of his early days with records, "The Killjoys" single, forming "Dexy's Midnight Runners", the making of "Geno", "Come On Eileen", his new LP "The Feminine Divine" and more. Topics include: Kevin doesn't have a record player Buying records as a kid Elvis & The Beatles were a big influence Joining his brother's cover band Discovering punk, forming “The Killjoys” Making the 7” single “Johnny Won't Get To Heaven” Kevin and band still haven't seen a penny for that record Disintegrating “The Killjoys”, forming "Dexy's Midnight Runners" Alternative names for “Dexy's Midnight Runners” Involvement with Bernard Rhodes 2 single deal Oddball records via EMI The story of “Dance Stance” single and mix Multiple mixes of “Geno”, switching to the band favoured mix Recognizing the popularity of “Geno” Parlophone missed the option making Dexy's free to move labels The pressure going into “Too-Rye-Ay” Memories of the making of “Come On Eileen” Recent remix of “Too Rye-Ay (As It Should Have Sounded)” Remastering of “Don't Stand Me Down” Dexy's appearance on “The Young Ones” Recent burst of Dexys in recent years The new album “The Feminine Divine” is a personal album Kevin's journey and revisiting learnings from his youth Some people aren't comfortable with the evolution of Dexys Kevin has always bucked trends in the music industry Interview wrap up Extended, High-resolution & Commercial Free version of this interview available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/2Y6ORU0 Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/36qhlc8

This album is a treat from beginning to end...

We all remember Dexys Midnight Runners in the early 80s with "Come On Eileen" as an epic tune that you always smile when it comes across the airwaves on the nostalgia station. Dexys (the current name) have been making music for 40 years, and if you missed out on it, there was some wonderful music made by these guys. There was a moment when Kevin Rowland was trying to make some changes in his live and get sober, that some major changes happened in his image and his approach to things. With the release of an album "My Beauty" that had him dressed in some fine women's attire, he went on to embrace his "Sexy Feminine" side. The press wasn't very kind to him, and somehow took more of an issue with it, and so much was lost there than what the music had to offer. I have been a fan of all of the music, and didn't really think much of what the point was that Kevin Rowland was trying to make, until now. Dexys has released an album called "The Feminine Divine", and there is so much in this album you will have to go through it several times. It is a musical "Fiction" presentation of Kevin's journey out of toxic masculinity, and finding his whole self. Nothing wrong with that, I bless anyone with the kudos to make it that far and in one piece. Enjoy #kevinrowland #dexys #dexysmidnightrunners #toxicmasculinity #gonzomusicjournalism website facebook instagram twitter youtube tiktok

Kevin Rowland is the lead singer for Dexys Midnight Runners. (Now called Dexys.) They are an English pop rock band from Birmingham, with soul influences, who achieved major commercial success in the early to mid-1980s. They are best known in the UK for their songs Come on Eileen and Geno, both of which peaked at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, as well as six other top-20 singles. Come On Eileen also topped the US Billboard Hot 100, and with extensive airplay on MTV they are associated with the second British Invasion.

Kevin Rowland from Dexys (formerly Dexys Midnight Runners) joins Ugly Phil for a chat.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the Banned Biographies podcast your host, Tom Austin-Morgan, thanks Christopher Swinney for his time on last months' episode, and talks about his experience at the Rancid show a couple of weeks ago, and what you can expect from the next episode which will be out soon. The news this month concerns: Social Distortion's Mike Ness, Poli Van Dam, Alkaline Trio, Generations Sex, Devo, Alice Cooper, NOFX's Fat Mike, T.S.O.L., X, The Hives, Cro-Mags, Billy Idol, and The Offspring. Tom reviews the singles Mountains At Midnight by Royal Blood (and talks about THAT Radio 1's Big Weekend performance), Childhood Eyes by Yellowcard, Telepath by Jimmy Eat World, Countdown To Shutdown by The Hives, Good Guy by Dream Nails, Race The Night by Ash, Coming Home by Dexys, I Think About You Daily by Pretenders, Happy Complaining EP by Smile Wide, Algorithms by Kasabian, and The Score, Last Time Every Time Forever, and Fairlies by Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten. The albums reviewed this month are Paradise by Indian pop punk band Sages From The Future, In Times New Roman by Queens Of The Stone Age and Born Rude by South Korean street punk band Rumkicks. Merch: https://my-store-cfdac5.creator-spring.com Contact Twitter: @BannedBiogs Facebook: @BannedBiographies Instagram: @bannedbiographies E-mail: bannedbiographies@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the Banned Biographies podcast your host, Tom Austin-Morgan, thanks Christopher Swinney for his time on last months' episode, and talks about his experience at the Rancid show a couple of weeks ago, and what you can expect from the next episode which will be out soon. The news this month concerns: Social Distortion's Mike Ness, Poli Van Dam, Alkaline Trio, Generations Sex, Devo, Alice Cooper, NOFX's Fat Mike, T.S.O.L., X, The Hives, Cro-Mags, Billy Idol, and The Offspring. Tom reviews the singles Mountains At Midnight by Royal Blood (and talks about THAT Radio 1's Big Weekend performance), Childhood Eyes by Yellowcard, Telepath by Jimmy Eat World, Countdown To Shutdown by The Hives, Good Guy by Dream Nails, Race The Night by Ash, Coming Home by Dexys, I Think About You Daily by Pretenders, Happy Complaining EP by Smile Wide, Algorithms by Kasabian, and The Score, Last Time Every Time Forever, and Fairlies by Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten. The albums reviewed this month are Paradise by Indian pop punk band Sages From The Future, In Times New Roman by Queens Of The Stone Age and Born Rude by South Korean street punk band Rumkicks. Merch: https://my-store-cfdac5.creator-spring.com Contact Twitter: @BannedBiogs Facebook: @BannedBiographies Instagram: @bannedbiographies E-mail: bannedbiographies@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may have noticed a distinct lack of social media stuff and episodes being put out in the last few months. I got quite sick during almost the whole of March and into May after working hard professionally as well as on the High Frequency EP and the shows to support its release. I'd like to thank Ant and Corky for coming on the last episode to talk about the history of our band and the recording of our new EP ‘Some Songs You May Have Heard… But Not Like This!' which I hope you've listened to and enjoyed. I'd also like to thank the handful of listeners who checked in on me while I was away, I really appreciate it. I'm OK now and looking forward to getting back to work on the podcast. On this episode I cover the news from the last four months which concerns The Sisters of Mercy, The Mad Caddies, Moby, U.K. Subs, Yellowcard, Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, Danzig, Weezer, BGH, Blink-182, Less Than Jake, The Cure, Amyl And The Sniffers, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Circle Jerks, Public Image Limited, vinyl sales, The Misfits, Devo, Doom Generator, Descendents, Adolescents, Dead Kennedys, Lektron, Flogging Molly, X, Siouxie Sioux, Crass, Alice Cooper, Social Distortion, Laura Jane Grace, The Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame, The Distillers, Sum 41, Rancid, The Hives, Dropkick Murphys, Stiff Little Fingers and Steve Jones, The Toy Dolls, Foo Fighters, Bowling For Soup, Lagwagon. Single reviews include Bone Church by Slipknot, Over by Chvrches, 'Til The Anarchy's Restored by Flogging Molly, Raid by Doom Generator, Set Fazers, If I Could and L.O.V.E. (Smile Please) by Skindred, I'm Going To Get Free and The Feminine Divine by Dexys, HORROR SHOW and PARTY ON MY DEATHBED by Hot Milk, Shine and Reasons by Smile Wide, Lost EP by Pet Shop Boys, First In, Last Out by Death Of Guitar Pop, Bogus Operandi by The Hives, Emotion Sickness and Carnavoyeur by Queens Of The Stone Age, Obvious Sucker by Lucky Hit, Let The Sun Come In by The Pretenders, Video Games and Wicked Game by Tenacious D, Beyond by Corey Taylor, United Strike Back by Gogol Bordello and Friends, and Halo by Pendulum and Bullet For My Valentine. Album reviews include This Is Why by Paramore, Grade 2 by Grade 2, Broken Britain Pt.2 EP by The Meffs, One In A Thousand by Obey Robots, From Nothing To A Little Bit More by The Lathums, UK GRIM by Sleaford Mods, Memento Mori by Depeche Mode, The Cup Of Pestilence by Frenzal Rhomb, 72 Seasons by Metallica, Finally!!! by Swampstomper, Headstone Horrors by Headstone Horrors, Darkadelic by The Damned, Red October by Daniel Son, Okemah Rising by Dropkick Murphys, Human Algebra by The Selecter, But Here We are by Foo Fighter,s and Tomorrow Never Comes by Rancid. Merch: https://my-store-cfdac5.creator-spring.com Contact Twitter: @BannedBiogs Facebook: @BannedBiographies Instagram: @bannedbiographies E-mail: bannedbiographies@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may have noticed a distinct lack of social media stuff and episodes being put out in the last few months. I got quite sick during almost the whole of March and into May after working hard professionally as well as on the High Frequency EP and the shows to support its release. I'd like to thank Ant and Corky for coming on the last episode to talk about the history of our band and the recording of our new EP ‘Some Songs You May Have Heard… But Not Like This!' which I hope you've listened to and enjoyed. I'd also like to thank the handful of listeners who checked in on me while I was away, I really appreciate it. I'm OK now and looking forward to getting back to work on the podcast. On this episode I cover the news from the last four months which concerns The Sisters of Mercy, The Mad Caddies, Moby, U.K. Subs, Yellowcard, Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, Danzig, Weezer, BGH, Blink-182, Less Than Jake, The Cure, Amyl And The Sniffers, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Circle Jerks, Public Image Limited, vinyl sales, The Misfits, Devo, Doom Generator, Descendents, Adolescents, Dead Kennedys, Lektron, Flogging Molly, X, Siouxie Sioux, Crass, Alice Cooper, Social Distortion, Laura Jane Grace, The Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame, The Distillers, Sum 41, Rancid, The Hives, Dropkick Murphys, Stiff Little Fingers and Steve Jones, The Toy Dolls, Foo Fighters, Bowling For Soup, Lagwagon.   Single reviews include Bone Church by Slipknot, Over by Chvrches, 'Til The Anarchy's Restored by Flogging Molly, Raid by Doom Generator, Set Fazers, If I Could and L.O.V.E. (Smile Please) by Skindred, I'm Going To Get Free and The Feminine Divine by Dexys, HORROR SHOW and PARTY ON MY DEATHBED by Hot Milk, Shine and Reasons by Smile Wide, Lost EP by Pet Shop Boys, First In, Last Out by Death Of Guitar Pop, Bogus Operandi by The Hives, Emotion Sickness and Carnavoyeur by Queens Of The Stone Age, Obvious Sucker by Lucky Hit, Let The Sun Come In by The Pretenders, Video Games and Wicked Game by Tenacious D, Beyond by Corey Taylor, United Strike Back by Gogol Bordello and Friends, and Halo by Pendulum and Bullet For My Valentine. Album reviews include This Is Why by Paramore, Grade 2 by Grade 2, Broken Britain Pt.2 EP by The Meffs, One In A Thousand by Obey Robots, From Nothing To A Little Bit More by The Lathums, UK GRIM by Sleaford Mods, Memento Mori by Depeche Mode, The Cup Of Pestilence by Frenzal Rhomb, 72 Seasons by Metallica, Finally!!! by Swampstomper, Headstone Horrors by Headstone Horrors, Darkadelic by The Damned, Red October by Daniel Son, Okemah Rising by Dropkick Murphys, Human Algebra by The Selecter, But Here We are by Foo Fighter,s and Tomorrow Never Comes by Rancid. Merch: https://my-store-cfdac5.creator-spring.com Contact Twitter: @BannedBiogs Facebook: @BannedBiographies Instagram: @bannedbiographies E-mail: bannedbiographies@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

NEW YORK COMEBACK - Lucinda Williams w/Springsteen LEON - Baxter Drury, JGreyy, Madelaine Hart 2009 - Pynch DIRT DIAMOND - Generationals BIRD HAS FLOWN - Connections ROOM AT THE TOP - Galen (Ayers) & Paul (Simonon) YOU CAN'T PUT YOUR ARMS AROUND A MEMORY - Johnny Thunders/The Courettes THE LAST ROTATION OF EARTH - BC Camplight PARIS TO MARSEILLES - Keyside SPOOKED BY THE KOOKS - Toby Leaman BADI SABAH OLMADAN - Altin Gun I THINK I THOUGHT FOREVER PROOF - Mike Viola INITIATIVE - The Murlocs LET IT RUST - Jonny Polonsky TV IN THE GAS PUMP - Wednesday FOR A WHILE - Whitney THE MODEL - Josh Rouse I'M GOING TO GET FREE- Dexys Midnight Runners  

Jeden Mittwoch sammeln wir in der «Sounds! Top 5»-Playlist unsere fünf musikalischen Favoriten der letzten sieben Tage. Diese Woche u. a. mit einer grossartig entschleunigenden Single von Sirens of Lesbos, einem tollen Featuring von Beck und dem Comeback der immer famosen Dexys (ehemals Dexys Midnight Runners). Zum Abonnieren gibt's die wöchentliche Playlist zum Musikentdecken hier .

From our guest on today's episode and our good friend Mike Shina: "I heard this album from my friend Tal Bayer, he turned me on to Dexys but this record changed everything. It's soul and gospel and spiritual. I met Tom Cheshire, he was living in Tal's laundry room. We were discovering so many things and discovering us and becoming artists ourselves. This record was the soundtrack of all of it. It's beautiful and religious and flawed and perfect."

Helen O'Hara - Dexys Midnight Runners & Tanita Tikaram - in conversation with David Eastaugh https://www.helenohara-violin.com/biog She was a member and violinist of Dexys Midnight Runners from 1982 to 1987, including performing on songs such as "Come on Eileen", and in 2021 rejoined the band. She was offered a place with Rowland's new line-up of Dexys—the result of a session she and two other violinists from the university had carried out as part of Rowland's decision to revamp the band's sound and image. Rowland has said that he saw O'Hara standing at a bus stop with her violin case and stopped to meet her. The more prosaic truth is that of the three violinists at the session she was the only one with any rock and roll experience, and therefore the only one to be able to play a solo by feel. This she did well enough to be immediately drafted into Dexys. To fit in with Dexys' Celtic image, she took the stage last name of "O'Hara". Within months she was touring the UK, followed by the US, as "Come On Eileen" reached #1 in the charts in both countries

In this episode we welcome the legendary Pete Wingfield to Hammersmith to discuss his career as a keyboard player, record producer and music journalist.We start by asking Pete about Soulbeat, the fanzine he started at Wellington College, and about the network of R&B fans in mid-'60s Britain. From there we learn about Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label (and Chipping Norton studio); about Pete's 1967 trip to America, where he met Otis Redding at Stax studios; and about the Breakfast Special album that produced his big 1975 hit 'Eighteen with a Bullet'.Fast-forwarding to 1981, Pete tells Barney, Mark & Jasper about Sylvia Robinson, the Sugarhill Gang, and cutting Mel Brooks' rap hit 'It's Good to be the King' in a basement studio in Mortlake — the same place where he produced Dexys Midnight Runners' No. 1 hit 'Geno'. A brief discussion of Dexys and Searching for the Young Soul Rebels leads into recollections of touring with the reunited Everly Brothers, producing the Proclaimers' '500 Miles' and playing on Paul McCartney's 1999 covers album Run Devil Run.Clips from Cliff White's 1980 audio interview with New Orleans great Lee Dorsey provide the perfect excuse to express our abiding love of Lee and of Allen Toussaint's Crescent City soul sound. Staying in a southern vein, we mark the passing of country-soul king Joe Simon, who died in December. We also bid a sad farewell to beloved Radio 1 deejay Janice Long.Mark talks us out with quotes from pieces about Kathy Kirby, Van Dyke Parks, Prince's Controversy and Shelby Lynne, while Jasper brings us up to date with his thoughts on Taku Sugimoto, Wolf Alice and Sampa the Great.Pieces discussed: Pete Wingfield, Twenty Essential Soul Records, The Sugarhill Gang, Dexys Midnight Runners, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, Lee Dorsey audio, Wingfield on Toussaint, Joe Simon, Janice Long, George Harrison and Eric Clapton, The Band, Prince's Controversy, Kathy Kirby, Van Dyke Parks, Shelby Lynne, Taku Sugimoto, Wolf Alice and Sampa the Great.