Podcasts about BBC Radio

A writer seeking solitude in a quiet village rumored to have a vampire is enchanted by a beautiful woman.A writer retreats to a quiet town rumored to be haunted by a vampiric presence residing in the local château. While roaming the castle grounds, he crosses paths with a seductive and mysterious woman who just might be the undead legend herself. Hear the tale from Hall of Fantasy!| #RetroRadio EP0464Join the DARKNESS SYNDICATE: https://weirddarkness.com/syndicateCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Men With The Magic Fingers” (July 22, 1976)00:45:36.269 = Hall of Fantasy, “Marquis of Death” (June 22, 1953)01:09:09.619 = Dark Venture, “Pursuit” (July 31, 1945) ***WD01:38:55.364 = The Weird Circle, “Evil Eye” (October 01, 1944) ***WD02:06:18.806 = The Whistler, “Death Demands Payment” (December 19, 1943)02:35:56.465 = Witch's Tale, “Spirits of the Lake” (January 02, 1933)03:05:58.922 = X Minus One, “Jaywalker” (April 17, 1956)03:32:53.306 = The Zero Hour, “The Princess Stakes Murder, Part 1” (November 26, 1973) ***WD04:02:19.568 = The Zero Hour, “The Princess Stakes Murder, Part 2” (November 27, 1973) ***WD04:32:22.760 = The Zero Hour, “The Princess Stakes Murder, Part 3” (November 28, 1973) ***WD05:02:26.814 = The Zero Hour, “The Princess Stakes Murder, Part 4” (November 29, 1973) ***WD05:31:29.930 = The Zero Hour, “The Princess Stakes Murder, Part 5” (November 30, 1973) ***WD06:01:35.512 = ABC Mystery Time, “The Tale” (1956-1957)06:25:03.246 = Strange Adventure, “The Borigo Ring” (1945) ***WD06:28:18.923 = Appointment With Fear, “Pit And The Pendulum” (September 18, 1943) ***WD06:55:26.357 = BBC Radio 4, “Murders In The Rue Morgue” (January 22, 2000)07:51:37.093 = Beyond The Green Door, “Harwell And The Matland Indians” (1966) ***WD07:55:06.934 = The Black Book, “My Favorite Corpse” (February 24, 1952) ***WD08:09:34.274 = The Avenger, “The Ghost Murder” (January 13, 1946)08:39:32.835 = Box 13, “Design For Danger” (June 05, 1949)09:06:02.699 = CBC Mystery Theater, “Mr. Higginbothom's Catastrophe” (1967) ***WD09:34:58.046 = Chet Chetter's Tales From The Morgue, “Return of the Master Constipator” (1990) ***WD09:58:33.191 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music LibraryABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.= = = = =CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0464

A brilliant but unhinged scientist turns unsuspecting trespassers into unwilling test subjects in a chilling experiment that blurs the line between genius and madness. | #RetroRadio EP0463Join the DARKNESS SYNDICATE: https://weirddarkness.com/syndicateCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “Future Eye” (July 19, 1976)00:46:14.019 = Mr. And Mrs. North, “Charles Wyatt Murder” (January 30, 1951)01:11:08.819 = Obsession, “Surrender Is Farewell” (January 29, 1951)01:34:22.579 = Origin of Superstition, “Kissing Under Mistletoe” (1935) ***WD01:48:34.043 = Molle' Mystery Playhouse, “Challenge To Listener” (July 04, 1947) ***WD02:13:33.704 = Philip Morris Playhouse, “Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse” (September 18, 1951)02:43:06.034 = The Price of Fear, “Out of the Mouths” (June 20, 1983)03:10:31.327 = The Adventures of Ellery Queen, “Circus Train” (March 27, 1943) ***WD03:35:52.349 = Quiet Please, “Wahine Tahiti” (July 05, 1948)04:00:24.088 = Radio City Playhouse, “Deadline” (February 28, 1949) ***WD04:29:56.710 = Mercer McCloud: The Man With Story, “Blood On The Doorstep” (1947)04:44:07.884 = Ripley's Believe It Or Not, “Exploding Casket” (1930) ***WD04:45:06.261 = Sam Spade, “Cheesecake Caper” (November 06, 1949)05:09:21.775 = The Shadow, “The Return of Carnation Charlie” (February 04, 1940)05:32:32.851 = BBC Radio 4, “Eat Your Heart Out” (October 20, 2007)05:46:22.996 = Strange Wills, “Girl From Shadowland” (August 10, 1946)06:15:44.538 = Strange, “Hillbilly Feud” (1955) ***WD06:30:02.316 = Suspense, “Fountain Plays” (August 10, 1943)07:00:25.838 = Tales of the Frightened, “Chung Ling Soo” (December 16, 1957) ***WD07:04:45.887 = The Saint, “Young Detective” (December 03, 1950)07:34:24.067 = Theater Five, “Justice Is An Uncertain Thing” (October 08, 1964) ***WD07:55:24.109 = Theater 1030, “Trespassers Will Be Experimented Upon” (1968-1971) ***WD08:25:59.993 = 2000 Plus, “Worlds Apart” (November 29, 1950) ***WD08:54:42.586 = The Unexpected, “Finale” (1948)09:09:25.390 = Unit 99, “Riding With Residential Patrol Car” (April 18, 1958)09:32:28.728 = Unsolved Mysteries, “Rue Morgue Mystery” (June 17, 1942) ***WD09:47:22.421 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.Weird Darkness theme by Alibi Music LibraryABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.= = = = =CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0463

“Big, bouncy, and fat.” That’s how BBC Radio 6 Music’s Craig Charles describes the Bristol-based funk duo the Allergies. Formed by DJ Moneyshot and Rackabeat, the pair have celebrated hit after hit– and not just singles, but full albums — an especially impressive feat in the streaming era. Not to be confused with neo-soul and […] The post The Allergies: “So Real” appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

"Americans have a long history of taking British things and ballsing them up. They took football and added helmets and cheerleaders; they took ice lollies and called them popsicles; and they took James Corden and then sent him back here."Among Ashley's more unusual hyperfixations is a life-long love of professional wrestling. This special interest was first developed on Saturday afternoons at his grandparents' house watching Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks and Kendo Nagasaki. It continued through the 1980s when Britain was invaded by Hulk Hogan and his colleagues from the then WWF (before they lost a court case to the World Wildlife Fund), and Ashley was fortunate enough to be in attendance at the legendary Summerslam show at Wembley Stadium in 1992, which so many British wrestlers have cited as the day that cemented their love of the grunt and grapple business. This undeniably extraordinary spectacle is sometimes called ‘sports entertainment' - for many people it is neither!When Ashley Blaker was diagnosed with autism and ADHD, one of the most significant aspects of his diagnosis is his propensity for hyperfixation in special interests, which he now realises has entirely shaped his past and which he uses to mine comedy for this new series.It's no exaggeration to say Ashley's life has been driven by obsessions. He has variously been a schoolboy with a love of Star Wars and Doctor Who, a wannabe comedian who performed on the London comedy circuit at 16, a trivia nerd who appeared on University Challenge, a history PhD candidate at Cambridge, a BBC producer of hit comedy shows including Little Britain, a fanatical football fan who saw Liverpool play across England and Europe, a strictly Orthodox Jew who went to synagogue three times a day for over ten years, a father of six, and latterly, a heavily tattooed renegade in hiding from his former community.In this series, Ashley takes a comedic look at each of his obsessions in turn, merging personal memoir with a delve into subjects which have yet to be covered in stand-up comedy shows. The result is a series which, while based on the broader topic of neurodiversity, covers it with the lightest of touches and is focused more on Ashley's individual hyperfixations, lifting the lid on many of the different worlds he's inhabited.Written and performed by Ashley Blaker co-starring Rosie Holt and Kieran HodgsonScript Editor: Steve Hall Recording engineers: Jerry Peal and Jon Calver Producer: Steve Doherty A Giddy Goat production for BBC Radio 4

Known for his remarkable achievements from a young age, Corbin Billings began his career as a motivational speaker at 9 years old when he led a campaign to plant over 280,000 trees across the U.S., France, & Canada. At age 11, he co-authored “The ABCs of Becoming Great.” A graduate of USC Film School, he directed the award-winning Netflix documentary "Bite Size,” which explored the American childhood obesity epidemic. His work has been featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, Fox, BBC Radio, People Magazine, The Huffington Post, & The Daily Beast. Product Website:www.thecolormatrix.comBook Website:book.thecolormatrix.comSocial Handles:Linktree: linktr.ee/thecolormatrixInsta: @thecolormatrixFacebook: facebook.com/thecolormatrixYoutube: @thecolormatrixTik-Tok: @thecolormatrixX: @thecolormatrixLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/thecolormatrixConnect With Cody: https://linktr.ee/cjones803 #podcast #purewisdompodcast #personalgrowth #motivation #mindset #facingfears #selfidentity #inspiration #selfimprovement #psychology #entrepreneurship #fitness #fitnessmotivation #business #career #dating #relationships #lifecoach #healthandwellness #workout #coaching Disclaimer: Any information discussed in this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to act as a substitute for professional, medical, legal, educational, or financial advice. The following views and opinions are those of the individual and are not representative views or opinions of their company or organization. The views and opinions shared are intended only to inform, and discretion and professional assistance should be utilized when attempting any of the ideas discussed. Pure Wisdom Podcast, LLC, its host, its guest, or any company participating in advertising through this podcast is not responsible for comments generated by viewers which may be offensive or otherwise distasteful. Any content or conversation in this podcast is completely original and not inspired by any other platform or content creator. Any resemblance to another platform or content creator is purely coincidental and unintentional. No content or topics discussed in this podcast are intended to be offensive or hurtful. Pure Wisdom Podcast, LLC, its host, its guest, or any company participating in advertising through this podcast is not responsible for any misuse of this content.

Matthew Bannister onLord Tebbit, who as Norman Tebbit was a member of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet, introducing trade union reform and privatisation. Daphne Boden, the harpist who played for the Queen and taught for more than fifty years at the Royal College of Music. James Leprino who built a multi-billion-dollar business by supplying cheese to pizza chains. And the former Astronomer Royal, Sir Francis Graham-Smith, who helped to transform our understanding of the origins of the universe.Interviewee: John Sergeant Interviewee: Lord Deben Interviewee: Geraldine McMahon Interviewee: Sally Pryce Interviewee: Chloe Sorvino Interviewee: Professor Andrew LyneProducer: Gareth Nelson-DaviesArchive used: Lord Tebbit interview, A Life in Politics: Jo Coburn with leading politicians, BBC; Lord Tebbit, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 04/12/1992; Profile of Employment Secretary Norman Tebbit, BBC News, 26/01/1982; Norman Tebbit speech, Conservative Party Conference, BBC News, 1981; Brighton Bomb news report, BBC Television 12/10/1984; Lord Tebbit interview, BBC News, 24/09/2019; Daphne Boden interview, Meet the Stars, The Harp Channel, Uploaded to YouTube 25/06/2020; A Drive Through Time — A Leprino Foods Origin Story, Leprino Foods, https://vimeo.com/648650074, Vimeo uploaded 2024; Sir Francis Graham-Smith at 100, Science Cafe, BBC Radio Wales, 23/05/2023; Francis Graham-Smith appearance on The Sky at Night, BBC Television, 06/12/1992;

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode celebrate 25 years of In The Mood For Love - director Wong Kar Wai's acclaimed romantic drama starring Maggie Cheung as Mrs Chan and Tony Leung as Mr Chow - two neighbours in 1960s Hong Kong, bonded by a revelation about their respective spouses.Critically beloved on its first release back in 2000, the film is now reaching an entirely new generation of young film fans, thanks in part to its popularity on social media sites like Letterboxd and TikTok. Mark speaks to critic and sometime filmmaker Tony Rayns, who was a key part of Wong Kar-Wai's team for many years, working closely with the director on the English subtitles for his films. Tony gives Mark the inside story of the production of In The Mood For Love, as well as some insight into the enigmatic director's sometimes chaotic working methods. Ellen takes a trip to The Prince Charles Cinema in London's Leicester Square - where film fans in their early 20s have been packing screenings of In The Mood For Love - to try to get a sense of why Wong Kar Wai's modern masterpiece has developed such a devoted fanbase. And she speaks to Paul Vickery - Head of Programming at the Prince Charles - about the film's continuing popularity with audiences. And Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young tells Mark how he fell in love with the work of Wong Kar-Wai - and why he thinks In The Mood For Love is still resonating with young viewers a quarter century on. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

The story of the CIA, told from the inside out by veteran agent Eloise Page. Starring Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris and Johnny Flynn.As Egypt's Nasser seizes the Suez Canal, global powers scramble. The British want control back. The Soviets move in. And the CIA races to keep Egypt from slipping behind the Iron Curtain. In the shadow games of empire, Eloise Page watches the balance of power shift.Cast: Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall Allen Dulles..........Ed Harris Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn Frank Wisner..........Geoffrey Arend Young Eloise Page..........Elena Delia Richard Bissell..........Ian Porter Clover Dulles..........Laurel Lefkow James Jesus Angleton..........Philip Desmeules President Eisenhower..........Kerry Shale John Foster Dulles..........Nathan Osgood Addy Hawkins..........Carlyss Peer Prime Minister Eden..........Rufus Wright Elizabeth..........Laurel Lefkow Queen Frederika..........Marina KoemAll other parts played by the castOriginal music by Sacha PuttnamWritten by Greg Haddrick, who created the series with Jeremy Fox Sound Designers & Editors: John Scott Dryden, Adam Woodhams, Martha Littlehailes & Andreina Gomez Casanova Script Consultant: Misha Kawnel Script Supervisor: Alex Lynch Trails: Jack Soper Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Paul Clark & Paul Clark Sonica Runner: Flynn Hallman Marc Graue Sound Engineers, LA: Juan Martin del Campo & Tony DiazDirector: John Scott Dryden Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott DrydenA Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4

Season 5, Episode 8 is a dramatic one! For exciting news and to suggest topics for us to chat about: SIGN UP HERE! Now you've done that, we can carry on. Name that soap theme tune...dum-tee-dum-tee-dum-tee-dum!  This week's guest LUCY SPEED plays talented farm manager, Stella Pryor in BBC Radio 4's THE ARCHERS - the world's longest running (and best - not biased at all here

In this episode of The Grove Podcast, Tabs and Ian (aka. @ArseCannonPics) continue their “Community Cast” series with a very special guest – the iconic Amanda, also known as Princess Gooner from the Same Old Arsenal Podcast and BBC Radio contributor.Amanda is more than just a lifelong Arsenal fan – she's literally part of the fabric of the club, with her face featured on the Emirates Stadium mural. She shares her journey from being taken to Highbury at age 4 by her Gooner dad, to attending that magical Anfield ‘89 night, to co-hosting one of the most beloved fan-led Arsenal podcasts.We talk about:Growing up Arsenal and what it meant in her familyHer role in the Same Old Arsenal Podcast and how it came to beMemories of Anfield 1989 and other historic momentsHer media appearances and staying groundedHer beautiful friendship with the late, great Kevin Campbell ❤️Being immortalized on the Emirates Stadium muralHow football fandom has evolved—and how she keeps it realThis episode is full of nostalgia, emotion, and pure Arsenal heart. A must-listen for any Gooner.COME ON YOU GUNNERS!@ The Grove Everyone is Welcome!Follow Amanda / Princess Gooner:Socials: @GoonerGirl1969Podcast: Same Old ArsenalFollow us:Bluesky, Threads and YouTube: @thegroveafcEmail us here: thegrovepodcast@outlook.comListen to previous Community Cast episodes with Ruth Beck, North Banksy, SheWore, Goner Dave, Poz and Elliot from the ArsenalVision podcast and many others in the back catalogue!

For people of a certain age, the Essential Selection on BBC Radio 1 was the start to their weekend. Headed up by Pete Tong, it showcased the best tunes around at the time, had a show from Cafe Mambo and had various djs on every week. I remember older people telling us it wasnt as good as it used to be, but we loved it. Simon has trawled through the tracklistings of all of them (ChatGPT wouldnt do it) and this is part 1 of his efforts. ESSENTIAL is the new concept from Ravers In Dubai. "Last Saturday was pure magic. A room full of real ravers, no phones, just vibes — deep in the groove all night long. You lot brought the energy, and we're still buzzing. So… let's do it again." Saturday 9th August

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the evolution of lungs and of the first breaths, which can be traced back 400 million years to when animal life spread from rock pools and swamps onto land, as some fish found an evolutionary advantage in getting their oxygen from air rather than water. Breathing with lungs may have started with fish filling their mouths with air and forcing it down into sacs in their chests, like the buccal pumping that frogs do now, and slowly their swimming muscles adapted to work their lungs like bellows. While lungs developed in different ways, there are astonishing continuities: for example, the distinct breathing system that helps tiny birds fly thousands of miles now is also the one that once allowed some dinosaurs to become huge; our hiccups are vestiges of the flight reaction in fish needing more oxygen; and we still breathe through our skins, just not enough to meet our needs.With:Steve Brusatte Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of EdinburghEmily Rayfield Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of BristolAndJonathan Codd Professor of Integrative Zoology at the University of ManchesterProducer: Simon Tillotson Reading list:Roger B. J. Benson, Richard J. Butler, Matthew T. Carrano and Patrick M. O'Connor, ‘Air-filled postcranial bones in theropod dinosaurs: physiological implications and the ‘reptile'–bird transition' (Biological Reviews: Cambridge Philosophical Society, July 2011)Steve Brusatte, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World (Mariner Books, 2018)Jennifer A. Clack, Gaining Ground: The Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods (2nd edition, Indiana University Press, 2012)Camila Cupello et al, ‘Lung Evolution in vertebrates and the water-to-land transition' (eLife, July 2022)Andrew Davies and Carl Moore, The Respiratory System (Elsevier, 2010) Kenneth Kardong, Vertebrates: Comparative Anatomy, Function, Evolution (8th edition, McGraw-Hill Education, 2018)Ye Li et al, ‘Origin and stepwise evolution of vertebrate lungs' (Nature Ecology & Evolution, Feb 2025) P. Martin Sander and Marcus Clauss, ‘Sauropod Gigantism' (Science, Oct 2008)Goran Nilsson, Respiratory Physiology of Vertebrates: Life With and Without Oxygen (Cambridge University Press, 2010)Steven F. Perry et al, ‘What came first, the lung or the breath?' (Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A: Molecular & Integrative Biology, May 2001)Michael J. Stephen, Breath Taking: The Power, Fragility, and Future of Our Extraordinary Lungs (Grove/Atlantic, 2022)Mathew J. Wedel, ‘The evolution of vertebral pneumaticity in sauropod dinosaurs' (Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Aug 2010)In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio ProductionSpanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Melvyn Bragg and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

Macau–onetime Portuguese colony, now casino hotspot–has long captured the imaginations of travelers, reporters, artists and writers. The city served as the only gateway to China for centuries; then, after the rise of Hong Kong, its slightly seedier vibe made it a popular setting for books, articles and movies exploring the more criminal elements of society. Paul French joins us, once again, to talk about his new book Destination Macao (Blacksmith Books: 2024) the latest book in his Destination series. We chat about colonies and casinos, but also some of the lesser-known parts of Macau's history, like an aborted British attempt to invade Macau in 1808; furious media rumors in 1935 about Japan's interest in buying the colony, and the city's brief time as an aviation hub for the Pan Am Clipper. Paul French was born in London and lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. His book Midnight in Peking was a New York Times Bestseller and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. He received the Mystery Writers' of America Edgar award for Best Fact Crime and a Crime Writers' Association (UK) Dagger award for non-fiction. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Destination Macao. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at@nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Macau–onetime Portuguese colony, now casino hotspot–has long captured the imaginations of travelers, reporters, artists and writers. The city served as the only gateway to China for centuries; then, after the rise of Hong Kong, its slightly seedier vibe made it a popular setting for books, articles and movies exploring the more criminal elements of society. Paul French joins us, once again, to talk about his new book Destination Macao (Blacksmith Books: 2024) the latest book in his Destination series. We chat about colonies and casinos, but also some of the lesser-known parts of Macau's history, like an aborted British attempt to invade Macau in 1808; furious media rumors in 1935 about Japan's interest in buying the colony, and the city's brief time as an aviation hub for the Pan Am Clipper. Paul French was born in London and lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. His book Midnight in Peking was a New York Times Bestseller and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. He received the Mystery Writers' of America Edgar award for Best Fact Crime and a Crime Writers' Association (UK) Dagger award for non-fiction. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Destination Macao. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at@nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Comedian Scott Bennett can be seen on Live at the Apollo, BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz, The Now Show, The Likely Dads, Elephant in the Room with Sarah Millican, The Summer Festival with Daliso Chaponda and The Comedy Club with Arthur Smith. Scott is also a prolific writer for shows including The Chris Ramsey Show, First and Last with Jason Manford, and Little Mix – The Search hosted by Chris Ramsey. He is one of the UK's most exciting stand-up comedians, described by the Evening Standard as “live comedy's best kept secret.” He's toured with Rob Brydon, John Bishop and Jason Manford, and is currently performing two acclaimed live shows: Stuff and Blood Sugar Baby, heading to the Edinburgh Festival this summer. He also co-hosts the popular podcast Brew With the Bennetts, recorded in his garden shed with his wife, Jemma .Scott Bennett is our guest in episode 507 of My Time Capsule and chats to Michael Fenton Stevens about the five things he'd like to put in a time capsule; four he'd like to preserve and one he'd like to bury and never have to think about again .For Scott Bennett's tour tickets, visit - https://scottbennettcomedy.co.uk .Get ickets for Scott's Edinburgh show, here - https://www.thestand.co.uk/performance/19103/scott-bennett-stuff/20260329/edinburgh .Follow Scott Bennett on Instagram & Twitter/X: @scottbcomedyuk .Follow My Time Capsule on Instagram: @mytimecapsulepodcast & Twitter/X & Facebook: @MyTCpod .Follow Michael Fenton Stevens on Twitter/X: @fentonstevens & Instagram @mikefentonstevens .Produced and edited by John Fenton-Stevens for Cast Off Productions .Music by Pass The Peas Music .Artwork by matthewboxall.com .This podcast is proud to be associated with the charity Viva! Providing theatrical opportunities for hundreds of young people .To support this podcast, get all episodes ad-free and a bonus episode every Wednesday of "My Time Capsule The Debrief', please sign up here - https://mytimecapsule.supercast.com. All money goes straight into the making of the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's official. BBC Sounds will close to listeners overseas on 21st July. Andrea Catherwood puts your questions about the proposed alternatives to Director of BBC Sounds, Jonathan Wall. And the BBC's Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet's recent reports from Tehran struck a real chord with listeners. Lyse joins Andrea in the studio to explain the challenges of working under Iran's reporting restrictions.Presenter: Andrea Catherwood Producer: Rebecca Guthrie Assistant Producer: Liza Greig Executive Producer: David PrestA Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

The singer, songwriter and political activist Billy Bragg thinks there's a crisis of accountability in politics (23:51). To fix it, he says we need to reform the House of Lords (27:55) and redefine what liberty means in the age of social media (25:17).A socialist and anti-racism campaigner who grew up in a community where the main employer was the local Ford car factory (3:35), Billy talks to Amol about class in modern Britain (15:47) and sets out the challenges facing democracy today (20:38).He also argues that there's a link between Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage (31:37), warns that Keir Starmer's Labour Party is in danger of losing the working class (31:14) and offers his advice to young musicians (39:12).GET IN TOUCH* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480* Email: radical@bbc.co.ukAmol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Mike Regaard and Chris Ablakwa. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

BBC Radio presenter and author Spencer Leigh joins Frank Mackay on this episode of The Frank Mackay Show!

Macau–onetime Portuguese colony, now casino hotspot–has long captured the imaginations of travelers, reporters, artists and writers. The city served as the only gateway to China for centuries; then, after the rise of Hong Kong, its slightly seedier vibe made it a popular setting for books, articles and movies exploring the more criminal elements of society. Paul French joins us, once again, to talk about his new book Destination Macao (Blacksmith Books: 2024) the latest book in his Destination series. We chat about colonies and casinos, but also some of the lesser-known parts of Macau's history, like an aborted British attempt to invade Macau in 1808; furious media rumors in 1935 about Japan's interest in buying the colony, and the city's brief time as an aviation hub for the Pan Am Clipper. Paul French was born in London and lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. His book Midnight in Peking was a New York Times Bestseller and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. He received the Mystery Writers' of America Edgar award for Best Fact Crime and a Crime Writers' Association (UK) Dagger award for non-fiction. You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books, including its review of Destination Macao. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at@nickrigordon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-review

In episode 425 of "Smashing Security", Graham reveals how "Call of Duty: WWII" has been weaponised - allowing hackers to hijack your entire PC during online matches, thanks to ancient code and Microsoft's Game Pass. Meanwhile, Carole digs into a con targeting the recently incarcerated, with scammers impersonating bail bond agents to fleece desperate families.All this and more is discussed in the latest edition of the "Smashing Security" podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault.Warning: This podcast may contain nuts, adult themes, and rude language.Episode links:Call of Duty: WWII trailer - YouTube.Warning: Do NOT Play COD WWII on PC Gamepass - YouTube.2017 Wichita swatting - Wikipedia.Call of Duty: WW2 on PC Game Pass yanked offline amid reports security exploits are leaving players with screens full of smut - Eurogamer.Common Bail Bond Scams and How to Avoid Them - US Attorneys.Can I Check out Another Person's Criminal Record? - Nolo. Belton Bail Bond Testimonials.‘They know everything': Families of inmates at Sumner County Jail targeted in bail scam - Nashville WKRN.Latest scam targets NJ families of those who were recently arrested, demanding bail - New Jersey 1050.John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie review – let it be the new gold standard in Beatles studies - The Guardian.Introducing 'John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs' - Ian Leslie.Charles Paris mysteries - BBC Radio 4.Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)Sponsored by:Adaptive Security - request a custom demo featuring a real CEO deepfake simulation today from adaptivesecurity.com.Drata - The world's most advanced Trust Management platform – making risk and compliance management accessible, continuous, and 10x more automated than ever before.

In episode 374 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his garage reflecting on the small and big things that impact on the everyday engagement we all have with photography. Dr.Grant Scott After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby's, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018. Scott's book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is now on sale. © Grant Scott 2025

Welcome to the first episode of season 9 of The British Food History Podcast!Today I am talking with Matthew Cockin and Grant Harper of Fruit Pig – the last remaining commercial craft producer of fresh blood black puddings in the UK.We talk about how and why they started up Fruit Pig, battling squeamishness, why it's so difficult to make fresh blood black puddings, and serving suggestions – amongst many other thingsFruit Pig are sponsoring the 9th season of the podcast and Grant and Matthew are very kindly giving listeners to the podcast a unique special offer 10% off your order until the end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout at their online shop, www.fruitpig.co.uk.If you can, support the podcast and blogs by becoming a £3 monthly subscriber, and unlock lots of premium content, including bonus blog posts and recipes, access to the easter eggs and the secret podcast, or treat me to a one-off virtual pint or coffee: click here.This episode was mixed and engineered by Thomas Ntinas of the Delicious Legacy podcast.Things mentioned in today's episodeThe Fruit Pig websiteFruit Pig on Jamie & Jimmy's Friday Night FeastFruit Pig on BBC Radio 4's The Food ProgrammeNeil's appearance on Comfortably Hungry discussing black/blood puddingMuseum of Royal Worcester project wins a British Library Food Season AwardCatch up on the latest posts and recipes on Neil's blogFollow Serve it Forth on Instagram at @serveitforthfestMy YouTube channelPodcast episodes pertinent to today's episodeThe Philosophy of Puddings with Neil Buttery, Peter Gilchrist & Lindsay Middleton18th Century Female Cookery Writers with The Delicious LegacyNeil's blogs:‘British Food: a History' ‘Neil Cooks Grigson' Neil's books:Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England's Most Influential HousekeeperA Dark History of Sugar...

In the intervening four years since Olly Knights first joined me, the band has been on something of a creative roll; two fine albums, a successful acoustic tour and something of a collective raising of the game. To my mind, this is how established bands of longevity should operate; to hell with the mainstream and gatekeepers, just do the very best work you can and keep those fans happy. The new Turin Brakes album Spacehopper saw the band going back to the start - recording the album at Konk, the recording studio founded by The Kinks in 1973 and where Turin Brakes recorded their classic debut The Optimist. This of course, was in contrast to the homely recording of post-pandemic Wide Eyed Nowhere, still a fine record but very different in character to Spacehopper. This time around too, the lead single from the new album, “The Message”, had some much deserved radio play on BBC Radio 2. But still, no hits to speak of, and the album reached the UK chart for just a fleeting moment. A hit would be nice for this band, but Ollie Knights remains more philosophical than ever:“You take the wins where you can. Our happiness levels are less influenced by “success” in the mainstream areas. We've finally learned after decades of smashing up against the wall. We get over it very quickly if something is disappointing in the mainstream realm. That's the bit you were not thinking about when you were dreaming about a career in music as a kid”. Indeed. For bands of Quiet Legend, still making excellent records and blowing the roof off venues live - it's time to build your own momentum. There's a lot to learn from Turin Brakes. To be contrarian for a moment though, this band may still get their moment. When you consider that those early classic hits (remember “Pain Killer” was a top five UK hit in the summer of 2003, whilst the band's first chart single “The Underdog (Save Me)” has become an evergreen classic) are still relatively understreamed. The band's biggest song on Spotify remains the 2016 ballad Save You with just over seven million streams. Sooner or later, that is bound to change, but until it does, the band continues to thrive organically, with or without the accolades. Their momentum is such that they are back in a place where it's still exciting after 25 years. “There is always something on the workbench. The chemistry between me and Gale and between the four of us - without those relationships, forget it. We look forward to getting together and playing, we're excited about it. And when people come to see us live it's as if they want to come and watch the relationships happen”. Turin Brakes are the indie folk band that rocks. Good luck to them.Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

Rick Flynn Presents, now on our 240th Episode, proudly rolls out the red carpet for our distinguished friend from the UK MICHAEL ARMSTRONG. Appearing in promotion of his brand-new album entitled "10" and his brand-new Lennon/McCartney composed single "Getting Better" now available for all on his website www.MichaelArmstrongMusic.co.uk for a limited number of signed copies and available unsigned wherever records and music is sold.Michael has had 2 USA Top 3 hits, including a 4-week run at No. 1 in the autumn of 2021 with his self-penned song 'Each Others Eyes'. In addition, the late great Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2 was the first to champion his music on radio and a whole host of other radio stations have since and continue to support him. In the genre of podcasting, Rick Flynn Presents has been promoting Michael for years and is proud to continue to do so. Michael has performed on global stages and worked alongside many of his musical heroes including Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Cliff Richard, Chris de Burgh, Glenn Fry (Eagles), Russell Watson, Suzi Quatro and he has even met Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the now King Charles and Queen Camilla! 

We tend to like leaders to appear calm and in control. But we also want them to be human. The problem is, when they show genuine emotion, they often get slated for it - branded as 'weak' or an 'embarrassment'.This week, David Yelland and Simon Lewis look at how people in public life are judged for letting the mask slip - and reveal how much effort goes in to preparing people to show more or less emotion. They'll also examine whether suppressing emotion is the only way to get to the top in business.Also, on the extended edition on BBC Sounds, David and Simon look at a huge fan hitter in the business world that you may not even have heard of - but one that goes to the very heart of reputational risk.And never let the truth get in the way of a good story. It appears the much-loved book and now film, The Salt Path may not be quite what it seems. Does it matter? And if so, who is this a crisis for? Producer: Duncan Middleton Editor: Sarah Teasdale Executive Producer: Eve Streeter Music by Eclectic Sounds A Raconteur Studios production for BBC Radio 4

What if uncertainty wasn't something to fear, but your greatest creative ally?Dr. Margaret Heffernan—author, entrepreneur, and TED speaker—on how artists and writers thrive in chaotic times. We also talk about embracing the unknown, navigating AI-driven anxiety, and staying creatively resilient in a world that rewards certainty.We discuss:Margaret's early creative life and career across TV, tech & writingWhat artists can teach us about navigating uncertaintyWhy AI can't replicate the human imaginationHow writers manage doubt, income & purposeThe danger of over-planning and the value of wanderingLessons from writing Embracing Uncertainty under deadlineMaking peace with the chapter that always fights backThe creative power of soft focus & soaking up the world About Margaret HeffernanMargaret Heffernan is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, and former BBC producer. She has written seven books, including Willful Blindness—named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times—and her latest, Embracing Uncertainty. Her TED Talks have over 15 million views, and she writes regularly for the Financial Times and BBC Radio 4. She is Professor of Practice at the University of Bath and mentors leaders around the world.Resources and Links:

Presenter Rick Edwards is familiar to many on the radio as the co-host of BBC Radio 5 Live's Breakfast programme but for those with a proclivity for day-time TV you'll know him as the host of the gameshow Impossible! Rick's career has been incredibly varied from hosting Channel 4's 2012 Paralympics coverage to becoming the poster boy of mid-noughties teenage telly on T4. He even has a book on the science behind our much loved films. He shares the music that has shaped his life. Inherited: Sweet Child O Mine - Guns n' Roses Pass on: Witness - Roots ManuvaProducer: Lowri Morgan & Gareth Nelson-Davies

As music festival season takes hold of the summer, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at festival films from Woodstock to Summer of Soul. Can you really capture the spirit of a music festival on screen?Mark speaks to legendary editor Thelma Schoonmaker about her era-defining, Academy Award-nominated work on the documentary film Woodstock. He then talks to maverick British director Julien Temple about filming Glastonbury - his very personal film about the history of the English music festival. Ellen talks to music journalist Shaad D'Souza about the relationship between festivals and screen culture in the 21st century, from Bridget Jones to Beyonce at Coachella. And she also speaks to director Jamie Crawford, whose 2022 documentary series Trainwreck: Woodstock 99 showed - in some detail - what can happen when the festival dream gets torn down and trampled underfoot. Producer: Jane Long A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

The story of the CIA, told from the inside out by veteran agent Eloise Page. Starring Kim Cattrall, Ed Harris and Johnny Flynn.In Episode 2.3… 1956. Stalin is dead, and Khrushchev is breaking ranks. As whispers of a bold speech ripple through Soviet circles, Eisenhower gives CIA chief Allen Dulles one mission: get the speech - at any cost. Cast: Eloise Page..........Kim Cattrall Allen Dulles..........Ed Harris Richard Helms..........Johnny Flynn Frank Wisner..........Geoffrey Arend Young Eloise Page..........Elena Delia Richard Bissell..........Ian Porter Clover Dulles..........Laurel Lefkow James Jesus Angleton..........Philip Desmeules President Eisenhower..........Kerry Shale John Foster Dulles..........Nathan Osgood General Mike O'Daniel..........Ian Porter Koca Popovic..........Branko Tomović Blokhintsev..........Phillipe BosherAll other parts played by the castOriginal music by Sacha PuttnamWritten by Greg Haddrick, who created the series with Jeremy Fox Sound Designers & Editors: John Scott Dryden, Adam Woodhams, Martha Littlehailes & Andreina Gomez Casanova Script Consultant: Misha Kawnel Script Supervisor: Alex Lynch Trails: Jack Soper Sonica Studio Sound Engineers: Paul Clark & Paul Clark Sonica Runner: Flynn Hallman Marc Graue Sound Engineers, LA: Juan Martin del Campo & Tony DiazDirector: John Scott Dryden Producer & Casting Director: Emma Hearn Executive Producers: Howard Stringer, Jeremy Fox, Greg Haddrick and John Scott DrydenA Goldhawk production for BBC Radio 4

Radio 4 has a new health and wellness offering, What's Up Docs? It's a weekly podcast helmed by twin brothers Dr Chris and Dr Xand Van Tulleken, covering everything from low testosterone to creaky knees. But has its chatty style been a hit with listeners? and how are they getting on with a podcast being transmitted as part of the Radio 4 schedule? Presenter Andrea Catherwood puts your thoughts to Rhian Roberts, Head Commissioner for Podcasts and Formats.In an unstable world, you might want to distance yourself from busy news schedules by taking a trip to somewhere else. That's what The Patch has been doing on BBC Radio 4 for the last few years, by generating a random UK postcode and then telling a unique or unheard story from the area. Two listeners from places featured on The Patch enter our VoxBox to give their views on the series. Andrea follows up with the programme's presenter and producer Polly Weston to hear her take on their discussion.And one listener was so moved by the 100th episode of Add to Playlist that she pulled over to the side of the road to send us a message - we'll hear it in full here.Presenter: Andrea Catherwood Producer: Pauline Moore Assistant Producer: Rebecca Guthrie Executive Producer: David PrestA Whistledown Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4

The Feedback inbox has been full of comments on the band Bob Vylan's chanting against the Israel Defense Forces at Glastonbury, with some listeners wondering if the BBC gives stories about itself undue prominence. BBC Sounds Commissioning Editor Rhian Roberts returns to give listeners a wide-lens view of the podcast landscape. And The Today Podcast recently became yesterday's news, replaced by Radical with Amol Rajan. Andrea speaks to Senior News Editor Sam Bonham about the recent changes and asks if the informal tone of news podcasts is influencing the presentation style on linear programmes.Presenter: Andrea Catherwood Producer: Rebecca Guthrie Assistant Producer: Liza Greig Executive Producer: David PrestA Whistledown Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

This week on the BBC Introducing in Oxfordshire and Berkshire podcast, Dave catches up with Bethany Weimers to hear about her new EP - The Story I Breathe. Plus, Nightshift Music Magazine Editor Ronan Munro recommends a track from Girl Like That, we've a little bit of Glastonbury magic with Supergrass live on the Pyramid stage, Lunar Kites tell us about their upcoming Doctor Who-themed gig, there's tips from Jess and Alyx and BBC Radio 1.. and all the latest new music from Oxfordshire and Berkshire!Here's this week's track list: • Allegra - Wildfire Ryan Burns - Runaway  Cameron Hayes - Lover, Please Stay Mount St. Helen - Helpless Cereal For Dinner - Wonderful Problem DRZ - Losing It Wilderness States - Eden V.I.C - Can't Take No More Michy Tree - Crash  Supergrass - Caught By The Fuzz (live at Glastonbury Festival 2025) Girl Like That - Bad Boys in Bands Emmeline - Blue Caged Bird San Demas - All In On Me  (feat. Shoot To Kill) Bethany Weimers - Tabula Rasa Bethany Weimers - The Story I Breathe Brielle - Grown Up Jess Tuthill - The Machine Lunar Kites - Interstellar Shout Coraland - Somehow  (feat. Slamusix) Woken Balance - Vitana   The Rattlebacks - Behind You JoJo Blyth - Thought Train • If you're making music in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, send us your tunes with the BBC Introducing Uploader: https://www.bbc.co.uk/introducing/uploader

In 1897, Gustav Klimt led a group of radical artists to break free from the cultural establishment of Vienna and found a movement that became known as the Vienna Secession. In the vibrant atmosphere of coffee houses, Freudian psychoanalysis and the music of Wagner and Mahler, the Secession sought to bring together fine art and music with applied arts such as architecture and design. The movement was characterized by Klimt's stylised paintings, richly decorated with gold leaf, and the art nouveau buildings that began to appear in the city, most notably the Secession Building, which housed influential exhibitions of avant-garde art and was a prototype of the modern art gallery. The Secessionists themselves were pioneers in their philosophy and way of life, aiming to immerse audiences in unified artistic experiences that brought together visual arts, design, and architecture. With:Mark Berry, Professor of Music and Intellectual History at Royal Holloway, University of LondonLeslie Topp, Professor Emerita in History of Architecture at Birkbeck, University of LondonAndDiane Silverthorne, art historian and 'Vienna 1900' scholarProducer: Eliane GlaserReading list:Mark Berry, Arnold Schoenberg: Critical Lives (Reaktion Books, 2018)Gemma Blackshaw, Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 (National Gallery Company, 2013)Elizabeth Clegg, Art, Design and Architecture in Central Europe, 1890-1920 (Yale University Press, 2006)Richard Cockett, Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World (Yale University Press, 2023)Stephen Downes, Gustav Mahler (Reaktion Books, 2025)Peter Gay, Freud, Jews, and Other Germans: Masters and Victims in Modernist Culture (Oxford University Press, 1979)Tag Gronberg, Vienna: City of Modernity, 1890-1914 (Peter Lang, 2007)Allan S. Janik and Hans Veigl, Wittgenstein in Vienna: A Biographical Excursion Through the City and its History (Springer/Wien, 1998)Jill Lloyd and Christian Witt-Dörring (eds.), Vienna 1900: Style and Identity (Hirmer Verlag, 2011)William J. McGrath, Dionysian Art and Populist Politics in Austria (Yale University Press, 1974)Tobias Natter and Christoph Grunenberg (eds.), Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern Life (Tate, 2008)Carl E. Schorske, Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture (Vintage, 1979)Elana Shapira, Style and Seduction: Jewish Patrons, Architecture and Design in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna (Brandeis University Press, 2016)Diane V Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds and Megan Brandow-Faller, Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902-1911 (Letterform Archive, 2023)Edward Timms, Karl Kraus: Apocalyptic Satirist: Culture & Catastrophe in Habsburg Vienna (Yale University Press, 1989)Leslie Topp, Architecture and Truth in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna (Cambridge University Press, 2004)Peter Vergo, Art in Vienna, 1898-1918: Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele and Their Contemporaries (4th ed., Phaidon, 2015)Hans-Peter Wipplinger (ed.), Vienna 1900: Birth of Modernism (Walther & Franz König, 2019)Hans-Peter Wipplinger (ed.), Masterpieces from the Leopold Museum (Walther & Franz König)Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday: An Autobiography (University of Nebraska Press, 1964)In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio ProductionSpanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Melvyn Bragg and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

This year's Budapest Pride was banned in March under the Orbán government's contentious “child protection” law. Demonstrators were threatened with hefty fines for participating, and the government said it would employ facial-recognition technology to identify and potentially prosecute those who turned out to take part at the march on 28 June. Did the ban work? Not in the slightest. In fact, more people than ever in the 30-year history of Budapest Pride showed up to celebrate their rights as LGBTQ+ human beings.  The massive Pride march brought a glimmer of hope to some Hungarian citizens, including this week's guest, writer Krisztián Marton. We spoke with Krisztián about the lead-up to the event, the thrill of being on the ground last Saturday, and what might be next for Hungary, now that Viktor Orbán finally has a formidable challenger in Péter Magyar. We also chatted with Dominic's husband, Thomas Lamers, a philosopher and dramaturg who hit the streets for us, mic in hand. (Thanks, Thomas, we owe you!) Krisztián Marton is a screenwriter and novelist. You can follow him on Instagram here and read an excerpt in English of his Margó Prize-nominated novel Crybaby here. You can donate to Thomas's fundraiser to pay some of the fines that may be incurred by Pride attendees here.  This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news. But it's contributions from listeners that truly make it all possible—we could not do it without you. If you like what we do, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (in many different currencies!), or you can gift a donation to a superfan. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast. We think two feels like a reasonable number. This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: the recent episode of Zakia Sewell's Radio 6 series Dream Time, “Solstice selections…with Zakia,” and the Ukrainian band The Sixsters, winners of the European Emerging Bands Contest. 00:00:46 A sweltering hello and a tick PSA 00:03:44 Bad Week: Venetians overrun by billionaire wedding 00:11:45 Good Week: Owners of Danish faces (and their copyrights) 00:21:13 Interview: Thomas Lamers on Budapest Pride and Krisztián Marton on the present and future for LGBTQ+ people in Hungary 00:49:57 The Inspiration Station: the BBC Radio 6 Dream Time episode “Solstice selections…with Zakia” and the Ukrainian band The Sixsters. 00:53:12 Happy Ending: Cannes caps cruise-ship tourism Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | hello@europeanspodcast.com

Homebase was once one of our leading home improvement chains so, why did it have to close all of its stores?The BBC Business journalist Sean Farrington investigates.Alongside him is the entrepreneur Sam White, who at the end of the show has to reach her own conclusions, based only on what she has heard and her own business acumen.Homebase was established by the supermarket chain Sainsbury's and a Belgian retailer which was already running a DIY business in Europe and America. The first Homebase store opened in Croydon in 1981 and it had to be temporarily closed by the police after visiting crowds caused a traffic jam. The chain expanded across the UK and had more than 300 stores. It went through some highs, and some serious lows, with various owners but what ultimately caused the closure of its shops?Sean and Sam hear from expert guests including:- Allison Foster, curator of the Sainsbury Archive, which is based at London Museum Docklands- Dave Elliott, a former Trading Director then later Commercial Director at Homebase under different owners- Matt Walton, senior data analyst at GlobalDataWhile Homebase's standalone stores are toast, the brand continues to trade online under new ownership. Homebase garden centres and products are also being included within branches of The Range. Produced by Jon Douglas, Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.ukFeel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.

Homebase was once one of our leading home improvement chains so, why did it have to close all of its stores?The BBC Business journalist Sean Farrington investigates.Alongside him is the entrepreneur Sam White, who at the end of the show has to reach her own conclusions, based only on what she has heard and her own business acumen.Homebase was established by the supermarket chain Sainsbury's and a Belgian retailer which was already running a DIY business in Europe and America. The first Homebase store opened in Croydon in 1981 and it had to be temporarily closed by the police after visiting crowds caused a traffic jam. The chain expanded across the UK and had more than 300 stores. It went through some highs, and some serious lows, with various owners but what ultimately caused the closure of its shops?Sean and Sam hear from expert guests including:- Allison Foster, curator of the Sainsbury Archive, which is based at London Museum Docklands- Dave Elliott, a former Trading Director then later Commercial Director at Homebase under different owners- Matt Walton, senior data analyst at GlobalDataWhile Homebase's standalone stores are toast, the brand continues to trade online under new ownership. Homebase garden centres and products are also being included within branches of The Range. Produced by Jon Douglas, Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.ukFeel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.

Is there a better way to handle divorce and family separation in the courts? Lady Hale thinks there is. The former president of the UK's Supreme Court explains why there needs to be a more streamlined approach and how cuts to legal aid have impacted the family justice system (14:37). She also talks to Amol about the rise of authoritarianism (27:42), assisted dying (31:39) and whether lawyers should still wear wigs (42:47). GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480* Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent. Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

In this monthly conversation series Grant Scott speaks with editor, writer and curator of photography Bill Shapiro. In an informal conversation each month Grant and Bill comment on the photographic environment as they see it. This month they reflect on street photography. Bill Shapiro Bill Shapiro served as the Editor-in-Chief of LIFE, the legendary photo magazine; LIFE's relaunch in 2004 was the largest in Time Inc. history. Later, he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of LIFE.com, which won the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital photography. Shapiro is the author of several books, among them Gus & Me, a children's book he co-wrote with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards and, What We Keep, which looks at the objects in our life that hold the most emotional significance. A fine-art photography curator for New York galleries and a consultant to photographers, Shapiro is also a Contributing Editor to the Leica Conversations series. He has written about photography for the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, Vogue, and Esquire, among others. Every Friday — more or less — he posts about under-the-radar photographers on his Instagram feed, where he's @billshapiro. Dr.Grant Scott After fifteen years art directing photography books and magazines such as Elle and Tatler, Scott began to work as a photographer for a number of advertising and editorial clients in 2000. Alongside his photographic career Scott has art directed numerous advertising campaigns, worked as a creative director at Sotheby's, art directed foto8magazine, founded his own photographic gallery, edited Professional Photographer magazine and launched his own title for photographers and filmmakers Hungry Eye. He founded the United Nations of Photography in 2012, and is now a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and a BBC Radio contributor. Scott is the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019), and What Does Photography Mean To You? (Bluecoat Press 2020). His photography has been published in At Home With The Makers of Style (Thames & Hudson 2006) and Crash Happy: A Night at The Bangers (Cafe Royal Books 2012). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was premiered in 2018. Scott's book Inside Vogue House: One building, seven magazines, sixty years of stories, Orphans Publishing, is on sale now wherever you buy your books. Image: Ave Pildas Mentioned in this episode: Jennifer Schlesinger, Obscura Gallery:  IG: @obscuragallerysfGallery Site Alex Harris: @ourstrangenewland and site: https://alex-harris.com/publications/our-strange-new-land Joseph Michael Lopez: @josephmlopez and site Ave Pildas: @avepildas and site https://www.joelmeyerowitz.com https://juliehrudova.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_Evans © Grant Scott 2025

Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini is the author of Muscovado, Little Miss Burden, and the Olivier-award-winning Sleepova. Ibini is the recipient of the Inevitable Foundation x Loreen Arbus Elevate Collective Award (2024), a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright (2023), and an Alfred Fagon Audience Award (2015), among other honors. They have written across a variety of mediums including children's books, for the screen, and audio dramas for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, and Audible. Ibini lives in East London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sir Keir Starmer says Rachel Reeves will remain Chancellor of the Exchequer "for a very long time to come" after she could be seen crying during Prime Minister's Questions earlier. Speaking to Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking podcast, the Prime Minister backed the Chancellor and said Reeves' tears were to do with a personal issue and not a result of politics. The government is struggling to maintain its authority after a bruising week in which it climbed down on major welfare reforms.The Pentagon has halted weapons shipments to Ukraine including artillery shells and Patriot air defence missiles. We ask what it'll mean for Ukaine's defences.And as a French astronaut hires a Michelin-starred chef to prepare her meals before she blasts off to the International Space Station, we look at the challenges of eating well in outer space.

Hallo! Before we begin, please FOLLOW Limited Time Only on your chosen podcast app - it's a little thing that makes a huge difference to us. Thank you! We love you. Esther loves lounging with a broadsheet on the weekend. Susie can't remember the last time she read a newspaper that wasn't left by someone else on the tube. So to make Susie feel better about her lack of lounging and perusal of long-form articles, Esther asks her 10 questions Stephanie Beacham was asked in one of said broadsheets. Let no one say we are not highbrow. You can play along - let us know your answers! Hope you enjoy this week's mini episode. And please do sign up to be in the LTO Community - it's purely an infrequent newsletter of manageable length, and the chance to suggest future LTO BRIEF topics. Huzzah! SIGN UP HERE!  Love from Susie & Esther xx Please do share this episode with anyone you think would enjoy it. And if you haven't already rated and reviewed LTO, we would be eternally grateful if you would! Thank you so much! Next week: we're joined by the brilliant and versatile actress, LUCY SPEED. A familiar face on our screens since she was just a nipper, Lucy can turn her hand to any role. Well-known for playing Natalie in Eastenders, she is now a firm fixture in another iconic British soap, BBC Radio 4's THE ARCHERS in which she plays no-nonsense farm manager, Stella Pryor. Our chat with Lucy is expansive, entertaining and inspiring. We're sure you're going to love listening to her. See you then! Instagram @limitedtimeonlypodcast Facebook Limited Time Only Podcast Email: limitedtimepodcast@gmail.com   LTO is created & written by, produced, edited & hosted by: SUSIE RIDDELL & ESTHER STANFORD It is a Limited Time Only Production LOGO designed by: IAN STANFORD THEME TUNE composed by: JOEL WHITE ADDITIONAL SOUND:  https://freesound.org

As the countdown to Wimbledon begins, Princess Kate remains hopeful she'll attend both finals—despite a jam-packed royal schedule that includes the French state visit. Meanwhile, animal rights activists blast the Prince and Princess of Wales for breeding their cocker spaniel, accusing the couple of being “staggeringly out of touch.” Plus: William surprises BBC Radio 2 listeners with a message in an Australian accent, and the Royal Family goes viral for a cheeky response to a palace dance video.Get ready for our new series Crown and Controversy coming July 13th. Follow now.  The full Season 1 is available now for premium subscribers. To become a premium subscriber (no ads and no feed drops) visit caloroga.com/plus.   For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which seays UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. You also get 25+ other shows on the network ad-free!    Subscribe to Deep Crown's free newsletter at https://deepcrown.substack.com

A deep-dive into the new generation of get-rich-quick gurus and the social media smoke and mirrors some use to shield themselves from criticism. This investigation uncovers the tactics used by some TikTok landlords and online ‘finfluencers' who use the promise of property riches to sell advice and training to people hungry to make fast money and break free of the rat race.Thriving in a largely unregulated social media ecosystem, it highlights the intersection of disinformation, influencer culture and power dynamics, showing how unchecked behaviour has far-reaching implications for society and democracy.When journalist Will Coldwell wrote a long form article about his investigation into property trainer Samuel Leeds, he had hoped that highlighting some of what he saw as the guru's hard sell tactics and sharing the stories of some of his unhappy customers might lead to him having to change his methods.But Samuel Leeds, ever keen to tell his own story, co-opted the article and claimed it as a victory - amplifying his own name and brand further.The report incorporates a full response from Samuel Leeds - who strenuously denies using hard sell tactics or that he seeks to suppress criticism – and maintains that his methods are legitimate and work for his many happy customers.This is the story of the immersive power of the influencer ecosystem and the invincibility of the personalities that dominate it. It is a story about the limitations of traditional journalism to cut through the content. It is a story about why this investigation isn't going to work.Producer: Louise Orchard Presenter: Will Coldwell An ITN production for BBC Radio 4

With Glastonbury in full swing this weekend from the Sommerset countryside and across the BBC on Sounds and iPlayer... who better than 6 Music's Nick Grimshaw, to share his Inheritance Tracks. Born and brought up in Oldham, the music scene of Manchester has always been his veins. Renowned for his infectious energy, wit and authenticity, Grimmy, rose to fame as the host of BBC Radio 1's Breakfast Show and earlier this year he officially took up the reigns of the 6 Music breakfast show from Lauren Laverne. His Inheritance Tracks are sure to be a musical education... Inherited: Joy Division - She's Lost Control Pass On: David Bowie - SubterraneansProducer: Jesse Edwards

What is stunting the growth of my Japanese maple tree? My red tip Photinia keep falling and dying, what's causing this? What's the best way to get rid of moss from a pond?Peter Gibbs and the GQT panel take root in the historic grounds of Belvoir Castle, a site steeped in history since the Norman Conquest of 1066.Joining Peter are garden designer Bunny Guinness, horticulturist Matthew Wilson, and Belvoir Castle's Head Gardener, Andy Tudbury. Together, they tackle a thorny selection of questions from the GQT postbag.This week, the panel shares expert advice on safely transplanting roses, taming an unruly Potentilla, and uncovering the reasons why some flowers lose their scent over time.Senior Producer: Daniel Cocker Junior Producer: Rahnee Prescod Executive Producer: Carly MaileA Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.Plant List Questions and timecodes are below. Where applicable, plant names have been provided. Q – My garden is filled with roses, but they've lost their scent, why is this? (03'31”) Q – What's the best way to transplant and plant from one environment to another? (06'24”) Q – My garden has been completely taken over by Potentilla, how do I control it without using chemicals? (09'31”) Q – My red tip Photinia keep falling and dying, what's causing this? (11'49”) Q – What is the problem with my Japanese maple tree? (17'40”) Q – My 10-year-old rainwater pot pond in a black plastic barrel has become overgrown with moss – What's the best way to get rid of it? (21'22”)Q – Is it possible to cover the base of a 175-year-old copper beach tree with fallen moss? (24'19”) Q – Can I use sawdust as a mulch? (25'49”) Q – My mature Mahonia has flowered and ripened at two different time this year – what's the reason for this? (31'20”) Q – We have recently moved into a new property. We would like advice, please on where to position a new greenhouse. (35'11”) Q – Could the panel suggest a way to keep our Melia azedarach whilst we're away on holiday? (38'28”)

FHM was the men's magazine that sold vastly more copies than any of its competitors but still ended up toast. So, why did its publishers stop printing it while other men's magazines survived? The BBC Business journalist, Sean Farrington, charts its highs and lows in the company of four of FHM's former editors.Alongside them is the entrepreneur, Sam White, who has to use her business acumen to reach her own conclusions based upon what she has heard. Featuring in the show are: - Eric Musgrave - the original editor of 'For Him Magazine' as it was known when it launched in 1985- Mike Soutar - the FHM editor who took sales to over half-a-million a month in the late 1990s- Piers Hernu - FHM's editor-at-large who took to the airwaves to defend lads' mags against accusations of sexism - Joe Barnes - who edited the magazine for four years until shortly before its print publication ceasedProduced by Jon Douglas, Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.You can email the programme at toast@bbc.co.ukFeel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.

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

A flourishing garden starts with healthy soil, a living ecosystem teeming with life. In her new book, Start with Soil: Simple Steps for a Thriving Garden, garden designer and educator Juliet Sargeant explores why soil should be every gardener's first step. In this conversation with Jacques, she shares practical advice on improving soil health and explains how paying attention to local conditions leads to a more resilient, thriving garden. Connect with Juliet Sargeant: Juliet is a garden designer, educator, and founder of the Sussex Garden School, where she shares her unique approach to landscape and well-being. A former hospital doctor, she brings a deep understanding of the links between health and nature to her work. Her award-winning Modern Slavery Garden at the 2016 RHS Chelsea Flower Show marked a powerful intersection of design and social impact. Among her many accolades, Juliet is also a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers and a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time. Find more from Juliet at Sussex Garden School: https://www.sussexgardenschool.com/ Find more from Juliet on her website: https://www.julietsargeant.com/  Find more Juliet on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julietsargeant/  Support The Beet: → Shop: https://growepic.co/shop  → Seeds: https://growepic.co/botanicalinterests  Learn More: → All Our Channels: https://growepic.co/youtube  → Blog: https://growepic.co/blog  → Podcast: https://growepic.co/podcasts  → Discord: https://growepic.co/discord  → Instagram: https://growepic.co/insta  → TikTok: https://growepic.co/tiktok  → Pinterest: https://growepic.co/pinterest  → Twitter: https://growepic.co/twitter  → Facebook: https://growepic.co/facebook  → Facebook Group: https://growepic.co/fbgroup → Love our products? Become an Epic affiliate! https://growepic.co/3FjQXqV Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matthew Syed is the author of Rebel Ideas, Columnist for The Times & The Sunday Times, as well as a presenter on BBC Radio 4's Sideways. | Follow Matthew on X: https://x.com/matthewsyed Footage from "The untold story of the Iran-Iraq war's frontline children - BBC World Service Documentaries": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHZRvpuW8QM The IAEA report - https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/25/06/gov2025-24.pdf SPONSOR. Sponsored by Venice AI: Enjoy private, uncensored AI with our sponsor https://venice.ai/triggernometry - use code TRIGGERNOMETRY to get 20% off a pro plan SPONSOR. Try Evening Being by Verso. Get 15% with code TRIGGER at https://ver.so Join our exclusive TRIGGERnometry community on Substack! https://triggernometry.substack.com/ OR Support TRIGGERnometry Here: Bitcoin: bc1qm6vvhduc6s3rvy8u76sllmrfpynfv94qw8p8d5 Shop Merch here - https://www.triggerpod.co.uk/shop/ Advertise on TRIGGERnometry: marketing@triggerpod.co.uk Find TRIGGERnometry on Social Media: https://twitter.com/triggerpod https://www.facebook.com/triggerpod/ https://www.instagram.com/triggerpod/ About TRIGGERnometry: Stand-up comedians Konstantin Kisin (@konstantinkisin) and Francis Foster (@francisjfoster) make sense of politics, economics, free speech, AI, drug policy and WW3 with the help of presidential advisors, renowned economists, award-winning journalists, controversial writers, leading scientists and notorious comedians. 00:00 Introduction 06:39 Is This Just Like Iraq? 13:25 There Was Always Going To Be Conflict Between Iran and Israel 20:32 What Happens To Iran When You Get Rid Of The Regime? 24:36 Is There Potential For This To Start WW3? 30:07 How Many Young People Are Willing To Fight For The US And UK? 37:50 Is Israel Going Too Far In Gaza? 01:00:06 The Rabid Hate Of Jews Across The Arab World Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Liz and Sarah discuss how writing the third draft of their pilot has made them realize there’s no right way to do something creative. There are MANY right ways. In Take Two, they revisit “whimsy” and share listener suggestions of whimsical items that bring joy. This week’s tip in The Craft (& Fain) makes a scene better AND shorter — lop off the first few lines and/or the last few lines. Then they share a summer travel Hollywood Hack: buy your airplane snacks before you go to the airport. Finally, Sarah recommends the Gardeners’ Question Time podcast from BBC Radio 4. Sign up for Liz and Sarah’s free weekly newsletter at https://happierinhollywoodpod.substack.com. Get in touch on Instagram: @Sfain & @LizCraft Get in touch on Threads: @Sfain & @LizCraft Visit our website: https://happierinhollywood.com Join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/HappierinHollywood/ Happier in Hollywood is part of ‘The Onward Project,’ a family of podcasts brought together by Gretchen Rubin—all about how to make your life better. Check out the other Onward Project podcasts—Happier with Gretchen Rubin, andSide Hustle School . If you liked this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and tell your friends! Note: Go to the Happier In Hollywood Facebook Group for Liz and Sarah’s extensive Teens/Tweens Gift Guide. Thanks to listeners for such great ideas! Link below. https://www.facebook.com/groups/903150719832696/permalink/3081705578643855/ LINKS: Midori paper clips: https://amzn.to/3FZBIEr Potato Clips: https://amzn.to/4kTtHAg Shreve, Crump, & Low Original Gurgling Cod https://shrevecrumpandlow.com/product/large-greige-gurgling-cod?srsltid=AfmBOoo72ZMQ0EGNLm6Ri31vzTtU8aq58tIa24Cai-JwRfndEQ1mXJGx Rifle Paper Co. https://riflepaperco.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopT7dL2l8LH74MEpruph9iwSsI1uHQfkPL_XcofXDbpGv5BWXS8 Calliope Paperie: https://calliopepaperie.com/ DAISO: https://daisous.com/?srsltid=AfmBOop4KFVfceNijVQnSoOQsL4FRff-2UMwTgMaEYZwJK4fdyRQBsS6 Kawaii Pen Shop: https://kawaiipenshop.com/search?q=Toaster+light Gardeners’ Question Time podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/perton-staffs-used-compost-angry-peonies-and-ant-tics/id325945259?i=1000712751136 Photo by Unsplash+ on Unsplash See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.