Podcasts about Jethro Tull

J'espère que vous aimez le saxophone ! A l'occasion de la présence de l'excellent JOHN HELLIWELL, LE saxophoniste de SUPERTRAMP durant tout ce week-end à Blain (44) dans le cadre du festival MOVIES ON THE ROCKS, la 1ère partie de ce numéro est consacré au Maître de Cérémonie des super clochards. Sans doute l'ultime occasion de voir cette légende dans la région !  A L'origine de ce festival, le nantais ALAN SIMON entre autres cordes à son arc, auteur-compositeur et réalisateur. Donc bien légitime pour organiser cet évènement alliant 7ème Art et rock ! L'occasion de vous faire quelques toiles (dès ce vendredi soir avec "Woodstock") et d'assister à des concerts, notamment de notre John et son "Big Tramp" qui reprendra les grands standards de Supertramp à la sauce jazz, mais aussi CALI et pour la fin en apothéose dimanche soir : Excalibur, le fameux concert mythique (5 albums au compteur depuis sa création par Alan en 1998, qui a réuni autour de la Table Ronde un grand nombre de Ladies et Chevaliers souvent issus de la scène progressive et souvent entendus dans cette émission ! ).  Durant la première demi-heure de cet épisode d'Amarok on retrouve donc John et son instrument sur un extrait live (histoire de vous mettre dans l'ambiance ! ) de SUPERTRAMP, le fameux enregistrement au Pavillon de Paris en 1979 avec un titre vocalement interprété par le regretté Rick Davies, le co-fondateur de la formation qui nous a quittés il y a quelques mois (je vous renvoie au replay du numéro d'Amarok du 11/09/2025, 2ème numéro de la saison qui lui était en grande partie consacrée.). Puis John avec sa formation jazz pour une reprise du répertoire de ses anciens collègues sur l'album "JOHN HELLIWELL' Supertramp Big Tramp" paru l'année dernière. Depuis plusieurs années, John se produit et sort des albums de jazz, avec un son tout à son image sereine, flegmatique à l'anglaise et pour l'avoir rencontré à quelques reprises, charmant et accessible. Bref, il ressemble à sa façon de jouer !  Je ne pouvais pas évoquer ce festival organisé par ALAN SIMON et qui se terminera dimanche soir par des extraits de sa fameuse saga Excalibur, sans vous en proposer un bel exemple ! J'ai choisi un titre issu de l'album le plus récent de l'épopée, le volume V : "Moves, Cry, Act, Clash!" sorti en 2021. Sur cet extrait, John, of course, mais aussi Jesse Siebenberg au chant (le fils du batteur de Supertramp Bob Siebenberg et qui avait rejoint le groupe aux côtés de son père il y a quelques années). Enfin, le magicien de la six cordes , ex-Genesis : STEVE HACKETT himself !  Cette première partie se termine avec PINK FLOYD, dont le guitariste David Gilmour avait été invité sur le titre éponyme de l'album "Brother Where You Bound" de Supertramp paru en 1985. Une fresque déjà incroyable mais que Gilmour avait sublimée ! Le nouveau patron du Floyd invitera à son tour John pour le nouvel album du Floyd "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" en 1987 et qu'on retrouve donc encore ici. A notez pour l'anecdote que ces deux albums évoqués sont particuliers pour chaque groupe : premier disque sans Roger Hodgon pour l'un et sans Roger Waters pour l'autre …  Laissons John reprendre son souffle pour le festival de Blain.  Mais le dernier titre de cette première partie de l'émission est encore du PINK FLOYD (veinards ! ). Cela dit j'aurais préféré me passer d'avoir à rendre cet hommage. En effet, vendredi dernier, le 22 mai, Dick Parry s'en est allé… Les fans du Floyd savent la contribution que ce saxophoniste a pu apporter sur quelques uns de leurs albums et concerts des 70's : "Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" et son retour sur l'album "The Divison Bell" en 1994 ainsi que sur le live consécutif "Pulse". J'ai eu la chance d'assister à l'un de ces concerts de 1994, quoi qu'on en dise sur le Floyd post-Waters, c'était fabuleux !  Et puis pour clore cette partie saxo de l'émission, sachez qu'un grand musicien nous a quittés cette semaine : SONNY Rollins (qui s'était illustré aux côtés et entre autres de Miles Davis, Charlie Parker ou encre John Coltrane, nous a quitté ce lundi à l'âge vénérable de 95 ans (le souffle ça conserve !)    Pour la seconde partie de l'émission, on commence avec une plongée les 70's avec CAMEL, vu les températures, voilà un groupe de circonstances, hydratez vous !! A ces fins, je vous ai choisi un extrait de "Rain Dances" de 1977 et l'occasion d'évoquer encore un peu l'instrument guest de la 1ère partie de l'émission puisque cet album est marqué par l'arrivée de Mel Collins au saxo, qui pour expérience sur son CV, peut s'enorgueillir d'y inscrire King Crimson. Collins qu'on retrouvera notamment chez Alan Parsons Project dans les 80's et qui surtout sera demandé par tous les plus grands. On le retrouvera alors dans une liste de collaborations plus grandes que mon bras, et pourtant j'ai le bras long !! L'exploration de l'excellent "Out Of Step" des non moins talentueux ESTHESIS se poursuit avec cette fois, un instrumental, titre de clôture de l'album. Et si Aurélien Goude est à l'origine du projet Esthesis, son auteur-compositeur, ce titre a la particularité d'être co-signé avec ses musiciens talentueux qui font partie de l'esthétique sonore du groupe. Bravo à Arnaud (batterie), Marc (basse), Rémi (guitare) et Mathilde (vocaux) car Aurélien, outre ses capacités d'écriture, a aussi ce talent de réunir les gens compétent nécessaires pour faire fonctionner son projet, comme je vous incite à le constater le 26 septembre prochain à l'Alhambra de Paris 1ère partie des cultissimes IQ  ! Avertissement pour le titre suivant : SUNO est à la manœuvre. Normalement pour moi c'est un gros mot ! Il s'agit en effet du célèbre logiciel de création par IA. Et par principe j'évite d'en diffuser. Toutefois, l'histoire de DICK DER HEIJDE est particulière. Né en 1963, ce musicien néerlandais fut victime d'un AVC à l'âge de 28. Totalement paralysé, cet amateur de rock progressif ne pourra s'exprimer que par clignement de l'œil pour communiquer puis interagir avec un ordinateur. Il deviendra critique musical ayant ,de fait, du renoncer à la pratique musicale.  Mais la technologie apportée par l'IA vient de lui changer la vie en lui permettant par un usage intelligent (humainement), d'exprimer musicalement ses émotions et notamment son syndrome d'enfermement. Alors oui, la production, les instruments et même le chant sont crées artificiellement, mais l'émotion exprimée est bien humaine. Alors après réflexion j'ai décidé de diffuser un extrait de son 1er album, fort justement intitulé  "Locked In". Je n'encourage pas dans Amarok l'usage de l'IA aux fins de création mais dans ce contexte bien précis et touché par l'histoire de Dick,  j'avais à cœur de relayer les émotions qu'il à légitimement souhaité (et je pense réussi) à y véhiculer. Savez-vous que la Lorraine est hardie !! Je sais elle est facile ! En revanche le musicien suivant qui en est originaire est exigent et compétent ! Dans tous les domaines :  production, ingé-son, multi-instrumentiste (même si la guitare reste son jouet de prédilection),  ayant collaboré avec nombre d'artistes tels que Aurore Reichert (Mira Cetii), Ange (et aussi l'ex-Ange Caroline Crozat). D'ailleurs séraphin Palméri,  le nouveau claviériste de la formation qui m'est chère, à participé aux synthés sur le nouvel album de JEAN-PASCAL BOFFO : "Inner World'". Comme sur le précédent opus, Fred Kempf était également de la partie. Encore une très belle réussite de Jean-Pascal que j'ai grand plaisir à vous recommander !  Pour terminer ce dernier numéro du mois, retour sur le JETHRO TULL des années 70, plus précisément en 1971 avec "Aqualung", ici dans sa version dépoussiérée par un savant remixage opéré par Steven Wilson. Si Ian Anderson a relancé l'entreprise il y a quelques années avec de nouveaux musiciens, on a plaisir ici à retrouver un Martin Barre en forme à la six cordes, Maître du barré qui fût d'ailleurs l'un des fameux chevaliers de la Table Ronde de la saga Excalibur d'Alan Simon évoqué en début d'émission ! Ayons tout de même une pensée pour Mick Abrahams, décédé fin 2025. Il était le guitariste d'origine mais ne joua que sur le 1er album du groupe ("This Was" en 1968). AMAROK, chaque jeudi, à 20h

Send us Fan MailHere in Episode 274 of the No Name Music Cast, it is Joy's turn to pick the topic and she chooses to test Tim on music trivia, from the wide world of music as well as music discussed on previous episodes.We cover Kiss, Jethro Tull and The Kinks to name only a few.We also cover Sweden, Extreme, The Clash and Rocket 88!Support the showEmail the show: nonamemusiccast@gmail.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nonamemusiccastpodcast/https://nonamemusiccast.com/

This week the people demanded it, and we complied! Therefore, we give you “Grave Mistake: ZEBRA Shoulda Been Huge!!!”. This is our celebration of an amazing power trio from New Orleans / Long Island that has been largely forgotten in the pantheon of rock n' roll. They also happen to be very musically proficient, with a bona fide guitar god in the band that rarely gets the praise he deserves!  This episode is rooted in our Should Have Been category. This is a band that Captain Content casually mentioned a few weeks ago and our socials lit up like a Christmas tree. While their first album went gold in the US, they have been largely forgotten in the hard rock world today. We think they should be remembered as titans of rock alongside the likes of RUSH and TRIUMPH! Songs this week include: Zebra - “Tell Me What You Want” from Zebra (1983) Zebra - “As I Said Before” from Zebra (1983) Zebra - “No Tellin' Lies” from No Tellin' Lies (1984) Zebra - “Drive Me Crazy” from No Tellin' Lies (1984) Zebra - “Better Not Call” from 3.V (1986) Zebra - “Wait Until The Summer's Gone” from Zebra Live (1990) Zebra - “K.K. Is Hiding” from IV (2003) Zebra - “Walk With You” from Live At City Winery (Boston, MA 10/11/25) (2025) Zebra - “Who's Behind The Door” from Zebra Live (1990) Please subscribe everywhere that you listen to podcasts! Visit us: https://inobscuria.com/ https://www.facebook.com/InObscuria https://twitter.com/inobscuria https://www.instagram.com/inobscuria/ Buy cool stuff with our logo on it: InObscuria Store Check out Robert's amazing fire sculptures and metal workings here: http://flamewerx.com/ If you'd like to check out Kevin's band THE SWEAR, take a listen on all streaming services or pick up a digital copy of their latest release here: https://theswear.bandcamp.com/ If you want to hear Robert and Kevin's band from the late 90s – early 00s BIG JACK PNEUMATIC, check it out here: https://bigjackpnuematic.bandcamp.com/

The more music you collect - digitally, physically or in a combination - the more you have to keep up with. And let's face it: Most of us aren't as organized as we'd like to be. So if you just keep accumulating music and the years keep rolling by, you can easily lose track of your collection and get disconnected from your memories. This week on "How We Heard It," your hosts take another dive into their collections and turn up near-forgotten acts ... and even completely forgotten acts (who even were those people?). This episode brings up everyone from Jethro Tull to Britney Spears, Mott the Hoople to Beck, Blondie to Radiohead and The Roches to Daft Punk.  Meanwhile, the music your hosts found this week prompts impromptu conversations about how collectibles often just end up gathering dust, collaborations between stars can go terribly wrong, and tribute artists can sound better than the original artists. And what's up with all the "greatest hits" collections from one-hit wonders? If you haven't looked over your collection in a while, maybe it's time to take a nostalgia trip.

In this episode, we examine "Hymn 43" by Jethro Tull—a controversial track from the 1971 album Aqualung.

In this episode, we examine "Hymn 43" by Jethro Tull—a controversial track from the 1971 album Aqualung.

Subscribe to Dostcast Clips:https://www.youtube.com/@dostcastclips?sub_confirmation=1Listen to Dostcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/70vrbHeSvrcXyOeISTyBSy?si=be05dbdd564245d9Join the Dostcast Janta Party on WhatsApp for regular updates: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbAZwo5D8SDs5kf94N3TWant to suggest a guest?Fill this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ft_-1QDs7XpsSWnaPOeF21yUlhk9bzKvwHSyh4hHfBU/edit?usp=drivesdk====================================================================Atul Khatri was selling computers before most of today's comedians were born.Before he became one of India's most loved stand-ups, he spent decades inside the Indian IT industry — the real Rocket Singh life, minus the Bollywood polish. He told me the actual story of how computers entered Mumbai, when fax machines died, and what the analog-to-digital transition really felt like from the inside.But this conversation went way beyond his career.We talked about marriage — whether it genuinely gets boring, why Indian parents obsess over their children's weddings, and the quiet comedy of hen-pecked husbands. We talked about his worst rejection, his love for rock music, his brush with Jethro Tull, and the 90s scene of LP cassette piracy and booking movie tickets by hand.We got into the business of comedy too — how clubs are designed, what Indian comedy looked like before stand-up existed, and why startups keep trying to gamify human connection.And we didn't stop there. Modi's larger-than-life image, Soho House networking, the builder-politician nexus in Maharashtra, pressure on kids, education abroad, cultural diversity — Atul had takes on all of it.I also shared a farewell story from my own life that I've never told on the podcast before.Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:14 - Agencies vs Artists08:39 - Hen Pecker Husbands?11:24 - Does Marriage Get Boring?14:34 - Indian Parents Obsessed with Children's Marriage17:39 - Is Rocket Singh Based on Reality?21:17 - How He Got Into Computer Industry28:02 - Atul's Worst Rejection29:44 - Analog India vs Digital India32:18 - When Did Fax Machines Go?33:41 - Computer Adoption in Mumbai37:19 - Startups Gamifying Human Connection39:58 - His Love for Rock42:32 - Vinamre's Podcast with Roger Waters?45:03 - Atul Meeting Jethro Tull47:55 - LP Cassettes Piracy in 90s50:34 - Booking Movie Tickets in 90s53:34 - How are Comedy Clubs Designed55:19 - Comedy in India before Stand Ups58:56 - End of Modi's Larger Than Life Perception?1:02:41 - How Atul Looks So Young?1:04:51 - Meeting People at Soho House1:12:22 - Politicians and Builders in Maharashtra1:14:13 - Vinamre's INSANE Farewell Story1:19:14 - The Shrink and The Nut1:25:34 - Pressure on Kids, Education Abroad & Cultural Diversity1:41:01 - Conclusion​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​====================================================================Vinamre Kasanaa is a writer at heart, podcaster and entrepreneur by craft.He spends a significant part of his time reading and researching.With over 500 podcasts under his belt, he's interviewed everyone—from HNIs and industry leaders to everyday superheroes.Follow Vinamre:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinamre-kasanaa-b8524496/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vinamrekasanaa/Twitter: https://twitter.com/VinamreKasanaaDostcast: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dostcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/dostcast====================================================================Contact Us:For business inquiries: dostcast@egiplay.com

Nueva entrega de Música de Contrabando, semanario de actualidad musical de Onda Regional Murcia (09/04/2026)Noticias: U2 celebra el Viernes Santo publicando el EP 'Easter Lily' por sorpresa. Ringo Starr presenta “Choose love”, con St. Vincent en los coros, como segundo adelanto de su disco Long long road, que de nuevo producido por T Bone Burnett. Jethro Tull anuncian Under wraps: The unwrapped edition – Walk into the light, una caja de cinco cedés y un Blu-ray en la que se reeditan juntos el álbum Under wraps, de 1984, y el disco de debut en solitario de Ian Anderson Walk into the light, de 1983. Chrysalis Records publicará Under wraps: The unwrapped edition el 15 de mayo. Bob Dylan ha abierto una cuenta en Patreon, la plataforma de suscripción que permite aVcreadores de contenido recibir ingresos recurrentes .Cherry Red anuncia la reedición de Just as I am, el disco con el que en 1971 debutó Bill Withers. El álbum, uno de los clásicos del soul . The Strokes han levantado la liebre sobre lo que será un nuevo trabajo del grupo. De momento solamente han lanzado el título, "Reality Awaits". Sisters Of Mercy grabarán disco por primera vez ¡en treinta y seis años!. La próxima edición del festival Viña Rock ha completado su cartel con una larga lista de nombres tanto nacionales como internacionales. A la cabeza están Sex Pistols feat. Frank Carter, Turbonegro o Skindred, entre muchos otros.Bilbao BBK Live anuncia la programación especial de su vigésimo aniversario, que se suma al cartel del festival que se celebrará los días 9, 10 y 11 de julio. Weezer ofrecieron un concierto sorpresa en una azotea de Los Ángeles como parte de la “semana de iniciación” de su próxima gira.Thom Yorke Live At Sydney Opera House», ya al completo en YouTube. Bon Iver lanza un recopilatorio con temas grabados en vivo («VOLUMES: ONE»)Novedades musicales:U2, Ringo Starr, Kneecap, Jack White, Triángulo de Amor Bizarro, Metric, Marinero, Dry Cleaning, Bruce Hornsby, Ted Lucas, Slift, The New Pornographers, Lifeguard, Beth Orton, Mouse on Mars, Greg Méndez, Philine Sonny, Terror, Rikas, Flea ft Nick Cave, Aja Monet, Vermú, Dowtown Boys, Al Dual, Los Romeos y Samantha Hudson, Compro Oro, maria greep y Mundo Prestigio, Estela Gris, Los Rotundos, Sheken, Malva, Raúl Querido, Minibús Intergalactic, Niña Polaca, Cristalino, Biodramina Mood, The Delines, Wasia Project, Gia Margaret, Rostam, Agenda de conciertos:Primavera Rio( Walls, Rata, Maldita Nerea) , Antioxidante (Soziedad Alkoholika), Diego Torres, Tremendo Road, Asere, Shakira Martínez, Lady Tatoo, Brath...

Lo Strillone Rock (News) P.ta 135 Nuovo episodio de “Lo Strillone Rock (News)” l'appuntamento settimanale con le notizie dal mondo della musica Internazionale e Nazionale. Cuffie alle orecchie, Ark Speaker e MarComiX vi aspettano! LA PLAY LIST Verdena – Miglioramento Matteo Mancuso & Antoine Boyer – Isla Feliz Joe Bonamassa – Walk On Hot Coals (Live) Kasabian – GREAT PRETENDER The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 1) Jethro Tull – Lap of Luxury (The Bruce Soord 2026 Remix) Beck – Where It's At The Rolling Stones – Don't Stop Jack White – G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs Tenacious D – …Baby One More Time (from Kung Fu Panda 4) Red Hot Chili Peppers – Scar Tissue LE NOTIZIE DA ASCOLTARE Verdena: la prima foto senza Roberta Sammarelli; Matteo Mancuso: parte da Catania il suo tour europeo; Kasabian esce l'album “Act III”. Fuori il singolo “Great pretender”; Jethro Tull, esce il cofanetto Under Wraps: The Unwrapped Edition; Rolling Stones, misteriosi poster a Londra: annuncio in arrivo; Jack White pubblica due inediti in vista del “SNL” con Jack Black; Il documentario su Hillel Slovak ha riempito il cuore di Flea. I PROSSIMI EVENTI LIVE IN ITALIA Dogstar: luglio 2026 Mumford & Sons: luglio 2026 Skunk Anansie: luglio 2026 Kasabian: luglio 2026 (Unica data in Italia) Evanescence: settembre 2026; Simple Plan: ottobre 2026; Placebo: novembre 2026 Ascolta la puntata per saperne di più.

2026-04-05_DSOM

Con Johnny Jenkins, Jethro Tull, Neil Diamond, Judy Collins, Crosby, Still & Nash, Gal Costa E Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé, Bossa Río, Califato y Andrés de Jeréz y Gino Paoli.

Cocinamos un caldo sonoro que se alimenta de grandes álbumes lanzados en 1971 escuchando las canciones que abrían esos discos hoy clásicos.Playlist;(sintonía) PINK FLOYD “One of these days” (Meddle)JETHRO TULL “Aqualung” (Aqualung)BLACK SABBATH “Sweet leaf” (Master of reality)LED ZEPPELIN “Black dog” (IV)ALICE COOPER “Caught in a dream” (Love it to death)ALICE COOPER “Under my wheels” (Killer)JAMES GANG “Walk away” (Thirds)THE HOLLIES “What a live I’ve led” (Distant lightFLEETWOOD MAC “Woman of a 1000 years” (Future games)BYRDS “Glory Glory” (Byrdmaniax)CAN “Paper house” (Tago Mago)Escuchar audio

Once upon a time, there was an indie wrestling company in Texas called WrestleCircus. It had a circus theme with appropriately named events and championships. It also booked a whole lot of prominent indie names who would later become regulars in AEW and WWE. But like many indie companies, it went the way of the dodo. Returning guest Erin Quinn went to several WrestleCircus shows back in the day, making her the ideal guest for this episode. Andrew and Erin go under the big top and play songs that have animals in the title. Artists played include Jethro Tull, Namoli Brennet, Lou Reed, The HU, Was (Not Was), Matthew Sweet, Kate Bush, Geggy Tah, and more. No animals were harmed in the making of this episode (just the host's patience when listening to that Lou Reed song).Theme song: "Hemispheres" by Silent PartnerTwitter: @MsErinQuinnBluesky: @MusicoftheMat / @justandrew / @erinquinnAll VOW podcasts, articles, previews, and reviews: VoicesofWrestling.comJoin the VOW Discord to discuss Music of the Mat and other shows/topics: VoicesofWrestling.com/DiscordDonate to Music of the Mat and other VOW podcasts: VoicesofWrestling.com/DonateAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

One TV host with a stiff posture and a sharp instinct helped rewrite the map of American pop culture. We're talking about The Ed Sullivan Show, the variety powerhouse that ran from 1948 to March 28, 1971 and acted like a weekly national stage for music, comedy, Broadway, and everything in between. When Ed thought you had talent, he put you in front of the country, and millions of people trusted his taste because there weren't a hundred other places to look. We walk through why that kind of platform mattered, including how the show opened doors for artists who couldn't get booked elsewhere, and how a single appearance could change record sales and career trajectories overnight. Then we hit the seismic moment: the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the audience size, and the “I want to start a band” shockwave that followed. We also get into the messier side of live TV, where censorship and control collide with artists who refuse to play along, with stories that bring The Doors, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan into the same conversation. From there we shift into pure music history joy: why Beatles Anthology 2 is such a rewarding listen, how “Real Love” landed, and what demos, takes, and studio chatter reveal about the band's growth. We keep the momentum going with Jethro Tull's Aqualung era, then jump through chart-tied milestones from Blondie's “Rapture” to Rush's “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight,” plus Joan Jett's “I Love Rock and Roll.” Jimmy's segment spotlights Guided by Voices and the art of making a big studio sound intentionally lo-fi, before we cap things off with more '90s rock favorites. Learn Something New orRemember Something OldPlease like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pagesReach out to us at musicinmyshoes@gmail.comSend us a one-way message. We can't answer you back directly, but it could be part of a future Music In My Shoes Mailbag!!!

¿Los Beatles son en realidad un grupo de heavy metal? Máximo Pradera nos propone un viaje por esas rarezas del rock en las que músicos nada metaleros decidieron sonar más duros que nadie. De los Beatles incendiando estudios con Helter Skelter a Jethro Tull ganando un Grammy de metal con una flauta, el programa repasa momentos en los que el rock suave se volvió salvaje. Entre distorsiones improvisadas, rifs inesperados y baladas que estallan en electricidad, descubrimos que el heavy nació, sin querer, en manos de quienes menos lo esperábamos. El amigo secreto completa el homenaje con un cover de Whiplash, recordando que Lemmy negaba ser heavy mientras hacía temblar el género.

This week the boys sit down with everyone in Sustayn and talk about rock n' roll, Indiana, Ribfest, Madonna, Frequency Within, SoCal Indie Musicians, Jethro Tull, Hard Truths, Boyfriend Auditions, and much much more!

We're back to discuss the past, present, and future of rock with another issue of DBG Times! Rockstar Deathdays include Andrew Wood, Chuck Berry, AJ Pero, Dave Brockie, Taylor Hawkins, Randy Castillo, and Randy Rhoads. Album anniversaries this week include 5 years of Now & Then from Paul Stanley's Soul Station, 20 years of Rob Zombie's Educated Horses, 25 years of Just Push Play by Aerosmith, Every Six Seconds by Saliva, and Time Bomb by Buckcherry. Turning 30 is KISS Unplugged. Turning 40 are Metallica's Master of Puppets, Van Halen's 5150, Great White's Shot in the Dark, and Ted Nugent's Little Miss Dangerous. At 50 years, Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny, Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak, and KISS Destroyer all hit major milestones. Turning 55 are Black Oak Arkansas' debut, Jethro Tull's Aqualung, and Humble Pie's Rock On. New music covered this week includes releases from Black Stone Cherry, Gotthard, The Black Crowes, Exodus, Axel Rudi Pell, Tyketto, Black Label Society, Flea, Suzi Quatro, Lou Gramm, and Devil Electric. All that covered with a lot of laughs, thoughts, and opinions for good measure. We hope you enjoy DBG Times - Ep664 and SHARE with a friend! Decibel Geek is a proud member of the Pantheon Podcasts family. Contact Us! Rate, Review, and Subscribe in iTunes Join the Facebook Fan Page Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram E-mail Us Subscribe to our Youtube channel! Support Us! Buy a T-Shirt! Donate to the show! Stream Us! Stitcher Radio Spreaker TuneIn Become a VIP Subscriber! Click HERE for more info! Comment Below Direct Download  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back to discuss the past, present, and future of rock with another issue of DBG Times! Rockstar Deathdays include Andrew Wood, Chuck Berry, AJ Pero, Dave Brockie, Taylor Hawkins, Randy Castillo, and Randy Rhoads. Album anniversaries this week include 5 years of Now & Then from Paul Stanley's Soul Station, 20 years of Rob Zombie's Educated Horses, 25 years of Just Push Play by Aerosmith, Every Six Seconds by Saliva, and Time Bomb by Buckcherry. Turning 30 is KISS Unplugged. Turning 40 are Metallica's Master of Puppets, Van Halen's 5150, Great White's Shot in the Dark, and Ted Nugent's Little Miss Dangerous. At 50 years, Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny, Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak, and KISS Destroyer all hit major milestones. Turning 55 are Black Oak Arkansas' debut, Jethro Tull's Aqualung, and Humble Pie's Rock On. New music covered this week includes releases from Black Stone Cherry, Gotthard, The Black Crowes, Exodus, Axel Rudi Pell, Tyketto, Black Label Society, Flea, Suzi Quatro, Lou Gramm, and Devil Electric. All that covered with a lot of laughs, thoughts, and opinions for good measure. We hope you enjoy DBG Times - Ep664 and SHARE with a friend! Decibel Geek is a proud member of the Pantheon Podcasts family. Contact Us! Rate, Review, and Subscribe in iTunes Join the Facebook Fan Page Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram E-mail Us Subscribe to our Youtube channel! Support Us! Buy a T-Shirt! Donate to the show! Stream Us! Stitcher Radio Spreaker TuneIn Become a VIP Subscriber! Click HERE for more info! Comment Below Direct Download  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to Hawk Rock Talk: Classic AlbumsGeoff “The Actual Man” Garlock and Jason Gore go deep on one of the most CLASSIC albums in CLASSIC rock history.This week: the 1971 masterpiece that launched Jethro Tull into the stratosphere - "Aqualung."British blues-flute-rock.Concept-adjacent theology.Acoustic guitars in weird time signatures.And yes, a completely irresponsible number of Ian Anderson flute grunts.How many flute grunts will happen over the course of this episode?Many.Guaranteed.Pull up a pew. Dust off your codpiece. Kick one leg up on your other leg. And let's talk about “Aqualung.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we discuss the history and appeal of concept albums with Bill Kopp, author of What's the Big Idea: 30 Great Concept Albums (HoZac Books). Music has always been a vehicle for telling stories – of love and heartbreak, of history and fantasy, and much more. Sometimes the stories can be related in a tuneful single lasting under three minutes. In other cases, beginning in the late ‘60s, these stories could unfold across a dozen interconnected songs, an audio movie or novel on four or more sides of vinyl. In time, these bodacious pieces would become a genre unto themselves – Concept Albums -- some beloved, some the object of seemingly endless ridicule. Kopp's book chronicles a wide range, from early entries like Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick and The Turtle Battle of the Bands to William Shatner's Ponder the Mystery and Drive-By Trucker's Southern Rock Opera. More info can be found in my earlier review here: https://nysmusic.com/2025/12/31/musics-big-idea-the-concept-album-chronicled-in-new-book/ "Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. Occasionally, the host is joined by notable musicians who have written about their careers. Recent guests have included eccentric British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, Traffic co-founder Dave Mason, and Moon Zappa. Expect a great conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it.Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, the jazz ensemble Hari Karaoke Trio of Doom and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.

On today's show, a singer survives a plane crash & MTV revives The Monkees.For more music history, subscribe to my Spotify Channel or subscribe to the audio version of my music history podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts fromALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST NETWORK LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytodayChapters: 00:00 Intro 00:32 What happened on this date in music history03:18 Music award ceremonies that were held on this date in music history04:47 Albums released on this date in music history 05:28 Singles released on this date in music history 06:22 Birthdays of music artists on this date in music history 07:12 Passings of music artists on this date in music history 08:59 What's on tomorrow's episode

Max Pradera parte de la falsa obertura renacentista que Rod Stewart coló en “Maggie May” para demostrar que el pop siempre ha bebido de la Edad Media y el Renacimiento. De “Scarborough Fair”, rescatada por Martin Carthy y popularizada por Simon & Garfunkel, a “The House of the Rising Sun”, electrificada por The Animals; pasando por la falsa antigüedad de Maria del Mar Bonet y el medievalismo progresivo de Jethro Tull. 

Joe Escalante's weekly poking of the business end of the showbiz bear... This week: The Grammy's are happening as we do the show live, and Joe is confused... How is it that the Sublime (the band Joe manages) had the biggest song of the year, yet not get any Grammy love? Joe explains the impact of being an independent band on getting Grammy consideration. Joe also explains why he is puzzled by the fact that a punk rock band won the award for best Metal act. Punk is not metal, but it's not like the Grammy's actually care about accurate musical categories... just ask Jethro Tull! Also, Joe complains about AI getting everything wrong (again), and then he goes into the laws surrounding the use of the term Super Bowl, discussing when you can and when you can't use the term... Hey, the NFL sued a church over the use of the term, I'm guessing we're gonna need to change the name of this podcast at some point... Consider this a legal experiment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time Arist Title Duration Album Year Composer Label Listeners 0:00:00 Public Service Broadcasting Go! 4:02 The Race for Space 28 0:04:01 1127 1:10 34 0:05:11 Renaissance Forever Changing (2022 Remix) 4:33 Azure D’Or (2022 Remix) 2022 Esoteric Recordings 37 0:07:01 Renaissance Forever Changing (2022 Remix) 4:33 Azure D’Or (2022 Remix) 2022 Esoteric Recordings 40 0:11:35 Fearful Symmetry I_ve Started So I_ll Finish – 6. The Dance of the Ghillie Dhu 5:35 36 0:17:10 GALAHAD Seize the Day 7:05 Alive at Loreley 2025 36 0:27:54 Soen Primal 4:28 Reliance 2026 36 0:32:22 Shadow Gallery Alaska 5:12 Carved in Stone 1995 Carl Cadden-James Magna Carta 36 0:37:34 Oddleaf Life 11:09 Where Ideal and Denial Collide 2024 37 0:51:30 Rush Lakeside Park 5:03 All the World’s a Stage (1997 Remaster) 1976 34 0:56:33 Soen Unbound 4:33 Reliance 2026 34 1:00:59 Leprous From the Flame 3:46 Malina 31 1:04:45 Soen Discordia 3:55 Reliance 2026 32 1:08:15 Soen Discordia 3:49 Reliance 2026 33 1:12:04 Within Temptation Caged 5:19 An Acoustic Night At The Theatre 2009 Sharon den Adel Sony Bmg European Services 34 1:17:23 The Blackheart Orchestra 13. The Flood 8:57 Hotel Utopia 2022 36 1:28:46 Sonus Umbra Blood and Diamonds 8:52 Beyond the Panopticon 2015 32 1:37:38 Jethro Tull 08 – JETHRO TULL – Hymn 43 (2025 Remaster) 4:18 Aqualung Live (Remaster 2025) 34 1:44:56 Galahad Omega Lights 9:58 The Last Great Adventurer 2022 33 1:54:54 Soen Indifferent 3:24 Reliance 2026 37 1:58:18 OSTURA Duality 12:02 The Room 37 2:10:19 OSTURA Exit the Room 1:42 The Room 2018 29 2:12:01 Pure Reason Revolution New Obsession 5:07 Eupnea 2020 29 2:12:03 Pure Reason Revolution Silent Genesis 10:13 Eupnea 2020 29 2:13:29 Pure Reason Revolution New Obsession 5:07 Eupnea 2020 29 2:18:36 Pure Reason Revolution Silent Genesis 10:13 Eupnea 2020 33 2:28:50 Soen Draconian 4:29 Reliance 2026 28 2:33:19 Tribe3 Last Encore 6:40 Life Amongst Strangers 29 2:43:35 Lesoir Modern Goddess 4:12 Latitude 2017 29 2:47:48 The Gentle Storm Endless Sea (Storm) 5:45 The Diary 28 2:53:33 Soen Vellichor 4:27 Reliance 2026 30

Christopher Isherwood's own stories of pre-War Berlin; remembering Renee Nicole Good; U.S. top court hears trans student sports ban cases, a new survey confirms pediatric transgender healthcare can be life-saving, Malaysian authorities shut down an empty “gay friendly” hotel, the latest Human Rights Campaign U.S. queer quality of life poll finds deterioration under Trump, and billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donates 45 million dollars to the queer youth crisis intervention and suicide prevention group The Trevor Project. All that and more this week when you discover “This Way Out”. Hosted this week by Lucia Chappelle and produced with Greg Gordon. “NewsWrap” reported this week by Michael Taylor Gray and Nico Raquel and produced by Brian DeShazor. Christopher Isherwood feature produced by Brian DeShazor with thanks to the Pacifica Radio Archives. Thanks also to Ann Northrup and Andy Humm of GayUSATV.org. Theme music: Kim Wilson. Additional music: Jethro Tull; Joel Grey; Bronski Beat. In our 38th year satisfying your weekly minimum requirement of LGBTQ news and culture!

This week we're sharing a series of episodes that capture one of our favorite themes on Second Act Stories: the moment when life changes key. These Key Changes episodes feature people whose lives have been shaped by music: some who left it behind for something new; others who found their way to it later than expected. Together, they're the stories we return to when we want to show how reinvention really works, not as a clean break, but as a shift in rhythm, perspective, and purpose. Whether you're a longtime listener or just discovering the show, these episodes reflect the heart of the podcast: bold pivots, unexpected harmony, and second acts that still have plenty to say. Tom Forst was 57 years old. He was a regional vice president with Cox Media, a huge communications company. He was jetting around the country on private planes. He had an army of people reporting to him. He was making a hefty salary. That was 10 years ago. He decided to quit his corporate gig to pursue a life-long passion – music. He put out his first blues-rock album as Tom "The Suit" Forst. He did a month-long tour of China as the headlining act. And now he's back in the studio now working on his next album. You can check out his music at www.TomTheSuitForst.com. He also launched the "Chasing The Blues" podcast which is well worth a listen. As the Jethro Tull song concludes, "You're never too old to rock n' roll." ******* If you enjoy Second Act Stories, please leave us a review here. We may read your review on a future episode! Subscribe to the Second Act stories Substack. Check out the Second Act Stories YouTube channel. Follow Second Act Stories on social media: Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Second Act Stories theme music: "Between 1 and 3 am" by Echoes.

Time Arist Title Duration Album Year Composer Label Listeners 0:00:00 Airbag Dysphoria 10:53 Dysphoria (Live in the Netherlands) 2025 41 0:10:54 1126 1:10 39 0:16:49 Discipline When She Dreams She Dreams in Color 12:11 This One’s For England 2014 39 0:29:00 Valerie Gracious, Steve Unruh, Phideaux Xavier One Star 5:25 71319 (Live At Monforti Manor) 2020 Bloodfish Music 38 0:34:25 Airbag Dysphoria 10:53 Dysphoria (Live in the Netherlands) 2025 36 0:38:06 Echolyn Water in Our Hands, Pts. 1-4 28:39:00 Time Silent Radio II 2025 36 1:09:13 Gazpacho 8-Ball 3:03 Magic 8-Ball 2025 35 1:13:27 Bader Nana Star Born 5:34 Wormwood 2 2021 35 1:19:01 Echolyn Boulders on Hills 6:38 Time Silent Radio VII 2025 36 1:25:39 IAmTheMorning Sleeping Pills 3:24 Live at St. Matthias 2025 36 1:29:03 IQ Far from Here 12:38 Dominion 2025 35 1:43:52 Echolyn Radio Waves 6:58 Time Silent Radio VII 2025 36 1:50:50 Chroma Key Astronaut Down 4:51 You Go Now 2000 Kevin Moore Fight Evil 37 1:55:41 Planet P Project Saw a Satellite 4:06 Levittown 2008 Tony Carey Renaissance Records 36 1:59:47 Anima Mundi Sanctuary 5:10 Jagannath Orbit 2000 33 2:04:57 ‘Pure Reason Revolution’ ‘2. New Kind Of Evil’ 8:29 ‘Above Cirrus’ 33 2:15:36 Echolyn Tiny Star 8:23 Time Silent Radio VII 2025 33 2:23:59 Bullet Height No Atonement 3:35 No Atonement 2017 Superball 37 2:27:34 Henning Pauly Radio Sucks 5:26 Credit Where Credit Is Due 2006 T. Woolfolk Prog Rock Records 37 2:35:46 Jethro Tull 10 – JETHRO TULL – Locomotive Breath (2025 Remaster) 5:14 Aqualung Live (Remaster 2025) 31 2:41:00 Project Creation The Floating World 7:09 Floating World 2006 Prog Rock Records 28 2:51:38 Echolyn As The World 4:46 As The World 1994 Brett Kull/Echolyn/Raymond Weston echolyn 27

Happy 2026! Join us and start the year off right with some of the best progressive rock produced last year, as we begin our Prog-Watch and The Progressive Aspect collaboration on the Best of 2025! This year's contributors include Alex Driessen, David Edwards, Rob Fisher, John Giordano, Jane Lee, Magnus Moar, Rick Peuser, Ian Paul Sharp, Graham Thomas, and Leo Trimming! In this first part of our collaboration we will hear fabulous music from Rick Wakeman, The Wood Demons, Whispers of Granite, Steven Wilson, IQ, Jethro Tull, Jakko M. Jakszyk, Spriggan Mist, Nick Fletcher, Lunatic Soul, and Dave Bainbridge! Part 2 will follow in two weeks!  

Ever wanted to see Jean-Luc rock a flute like he was the lead singer in Jethro Tull? Well good news for you then because that's exactly what happens in “The Inner Light”! It's an all-new episode of ST:TNGeez, Not Another Star Trek Podcast, and it's coming at you right about . . . NOW!We've spent the last four seasons of Star Trek the Next Generation watching our intrepid crew get there asses zapped and this time it's John Luc Picard's turn! Seems the Enterprise is connected with a mysterious satellite or probe or object thingy that sends a ray of blip-blab right into our Captain, knocking his ass out! Picard wakes up on a planet where he's known as Kamen. Seems Kamen is an every man in the village of Ressik and he has a wife! At first JLP believes he's a prisoner -- This is not my beautiful house, this is not my beautiful wife! Same as it ever was, same as it ever was… Oh, sorry. After some exploring, and questioning, and trying to escape he eventually, eventually (after five years) accepts his wife, his new community, and his new self as Kamen, but uh oh, Kaman's Planet, Kataan is dying and as Jean Luc-Kamen gets older, he has to come to terms with all that this life has to offer including, raising children, the death of his beloved wife, and the knowledge that his grandchild won't get to live a full life -- Kaman's doomed and this whole thing is a simulation, man! And in this life, you're on your own -- and when the elevator tries to break you down, go crazy… Wait, where was I? Will Picard find a way back to his U.S.S. Enterprise -- does he even want to return? Will the Crew of the Enterprise be able to un zap there Captain's zapped ass? IS this the greatest episode of Trek, ever? Find out on this all new re-watch episode of STTNGeeeeeeeeez! Not another Star Trek Podcast!Even more available at: https://tngeez.com

On this episode of Reelin' In The Years... The Featured Five Theme is "Goals": Songs that mention some sort of Goal in the lyrics... A Beatles song that's essentially a reworking of Del Shannon's "Runaway"... A song written for Aretha Franklin, but first recorded by Dusty Springfield... The lead single from Chuck Berry's twentieth and final studio album... Robert Plant talks about playing in Iceland in 1970 and how it inspired "Immigrant Song"... New music from John Butler, Spoon, and Los Straitjackets. Plus deep tracks from Jethro Tull,My Morning Jacket, CCR, Albert King, Procol Harum, and much more! For more info on the show, visit reelinwithryan.com

This week, part 2 of our celebration of 2025 releases! It's been another amazing year for new music from legacy artists, current artists, and new artists. Join Kevin as he's on his own once again for our end-of-year celebration and recognition of all of the awesome, recorded output in rock n' punk n' metal during 2025! What is it we do here at InObscuria? Every show, Kevin opens the crypt to exhume and dissect from his personal collection; an artist, album, or grouping of tunes from the broad spectrum of rock, punk, and metal. This week, we look back on another amazing year for the world of rock n' punk n' metal. In celebration of the New Year, we wanted to find some nuggets of joy from the last 12-months. We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and that you can take some time to kick back and rock with us! Happy New Year, everyone!Songs this week include:Danko Jones - “Everyday Is Saturday Night” from Leo Rising (2025)Howling Giant - “Hunter's Mark” from Crucible & Ruin (2025)Propaghandi - “Rented P.a.” from At Peace (2025)The Elven - “Far Beyond” from Solstice (2025)Castle Rat - “SERPENT” from The Beastiary (2025)Witchrider - “Sound Of The Presidents” from Metamorph - EP (2025)Inglorious - “Say What You Wanna Say” from V (2025)Paralyzed - “Railroad” from Rumble & Roar (2025)Jason Bieler & The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra - “Violent Creatures” from The Escapologist (2025)Seikima II - “老害ロック” from Season II (2025)Girlschool - “Auld Lang Syne” from We Wish You A Metal Xmas And A Headbanging New Year (2008)Visit us: https://inobscuria.com/https://www.facebook.com/InObscuriahttps://twitter.com/inobscuriahttps://www.instagram.com/inobscuria/Buy cool stuff with our logo on it: InObscuria StoreIf you want to hear Robert and Kevin's band from the late 90s – early 00s BIG JACK PNEUMATIC, check it out here: https://bigjackpnuematic.bandcamp.com/If you'd like to check out Kevin's band THE SWEAR, take a listen on all streaming services or pick up a digital copy of their latest release here: https://theswear.bandcamp.com/Check out Robert's amazing fire sculptures and metal workings here: http://flamewerx.com/

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Eleven arrested over mass shooting in South Africa tavern Catherine and Charlotte perform Christmas carol service piano duet US denies visas to ex EU commissioner and others over social media rules Why Ill need earplugs to get through Christmas dinner Latest peace plan offers possible Ukrainian withdrawal from east, Zelensky says British boy, 13, fatally stabbed in central Portugal Officials discover a million more documents potentially related to Epstein case Boat stranded on edge of giant hole in Whitchurch canal pulled to safety Jethro Tull founding member Mick Abrahams dies aged 82 Some South West festive swims cancelled due to wind warning

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Boat stranded on edge of giant hole in Whitchurch canal pulled to safety Why Ill need earplugs to get through Christmas dinner British boy, 13, fatally stabbed in central Portugal Catherine and Charlotte perform Christmas carol service piano duet Some South West festive swims cancelled due to wind warning Eleven arrested over mass shooting in South Africa tavern Latest peace plan offers possible Ukrainian withdrawal from east, Zelensky says Officials discover a million more documents potentially related to Epstein case Jethro Tull founding member Mick Abrahams dies aged 82 US denies visas to ex EU commissioner and others over social media rules

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv British boy, 13, fatally stabbed in central Portugal Some South West festive swims cancelled due to wind warning Catherine and Charlotte perform Christmas carol service piano duet Why Ill need earplugs to get through Christmas dinner Eleven arrested over mass shooting in South Africa tavern Jethro Tull founding member Mick Abrahams dies aged 82 Officials discover a million more documents potentially related to Epstein case Boat stranded on edge of giant hole in Whitchurch canal pulled to safety US denies visas to ex EU commissioner and others over social media rules Latest peace plan offers possible Ukrainian withdrawal from east, Zelensky says

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Latest peace plan offers possible Ukrainian withdrawal from east, Zelensky says US denies visas to ex EU commissioner and others over social media rules British boy, 13, fatally stabbed in central Portugal Why Ill need earplugs to get through Christmas dinner Eleven arrested over mass shooting in South Africa tavern Jethro Tull founding member Mick Abrahams dies aged 82 Some South West festive swims cancelled due to wind warning Boat stranded on edge of giant hole in Whitchurch canal pulled to safety Officials discover a million more documents potentially related to Epstein case Catherine and Charlotte perform Christmas carol service piano duet

On the December 20 edition of the Music History Today podcast, Elvis gets his draft notice, Jethro Tull forms, Dreamgirls premieres, & happy birthday to Alan Parsons & JoJo For more music history, subscribe to my Spotify Channel or subscribe to the audio version of my music history podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts fromALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST NETWORK LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytoday Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:16 What happened on this date in music history02:24 Albums released on this date in music history 03:09 Singles released on this date in music history 03:24 Podcast advertisement 03:43 Birthdays of music artists on this date in music history 04:34 Passings of music artists on this date in music history 05:33 What's on tomorrow's episode

On this week's episode, we look at the case for putting Mariah Carey into next year's class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.For more music history, subscribe to my Spotify Channel or subscribe to the audio version of my music history podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts fromALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST NETWORK LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytodayChapters:00:00 Intro 00:17 Jethro Tull History02:09 Jethro Tull Commercial Success03:27 Jethro Tull Awards04:30 Who Jethro Tull Influenced05:05 Why Jethro Tull Should Be Inducted05:40 Why Jethro Tull Shouldn't Be Inducted07:34 Would You Want Jethro Tull To Come Back07:49 Outro

“I don't think I'm smart enough to listen to this…”   As with the many legendary concept albums that have come before, masterpieces such as King Diamond's Abigail, Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime, and Dream Theater's Scenes From A Memory, THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT, the latest offering from OPETH, is one of the finest examples of storytelling ever captured in audio form and is their first proper “concept album” to date.    “They cram so much into such a small space…”   Chronicling the reading of the will of a wealthy patriarch (and featuring Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull as the patriarch in question), THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT perfectly represents the culmination of the various components that have established OPETH as a progressive metal force to be reckoned with for more than 30 years.    “I realize this is not y'all's favorite flavor of the month…”   With a seamless blending of their early progressive and melodic death metal period through their more eclectic, 70's prog rock infused progressive metal period of the 2010's, OPETH is akin to a “haunted house version of Dream Theater”, loaded with a wide  variety of sonic textures, top tier instrumental prowess, and vivid lyrical imagery, all of which are covered in a thin drapery of darkness.    “Have they ever done anything ‘hooky'?”   JOIN US as we take on what is arguably one of the finest progressive metal concept albums in existence (and most certainly a top contender for “Album Of The Year”) and quite possibly the greatest OPETH album of all time, THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.   Visit www.metalnerdery.com/podcast for more on this episode Help Support Metal Nerdery https://www.patreon.com/metalnerderypodcast Leave us a Voicemail to be played on a future episode: 980-666-8182 Metal Nerdery Tees and Hoodies – metalnerdery.com/merch and kindly leave us a review and/or rating on your favorite Podcast app Follow us on the Socials: Facebook - Instagram - TikTok Email: metalnerdery@gmail.com Can't be LOUD Enough Playlist on Spotify Metal Nerdery Munchies on YouTube @metalnerderypodcast Show Notes: (00:01): “I would like to take this moment to say…AND…” / #GeorgiaBulldogs / “Dangole sports ball dawgs…” / #Natty / “Speaking of Athens…my only thought was…R.E.M. must have written this song…”/ #WeBuiltThisCityASMR / “That's when they dropped the Jefferson…”/ “As long as there's a bend in the wrist, you're fine…”/ #markthetime / ***WARNING: #listenerdiscretionisadvised *** / #waitforit #markthetime / “And I screamed like a little girl…not one footstep did I hear…”/ ***WELCOME BACK TO THE METAL NERDERY PODCAST!!!*** / #strangerinthetub #jackoffhand / “Like a chimpanzee?”    (06:06): PATREON US at www.patreon.com/metalnerderypodcast  / “Who knows? Santa might bring a shirt…” / MERCH US at www.metalnerdery.com/merch / SOCIAL MEDIA US at #FaceBook #InstaGram #YouTube #TikTok at #metalnerderypodcast / EMAIL US at metalnerdery@gmail.com / VOICEMAIL US AT 980-666-8182!!! / CASTLE RAT –WIZARD (The Bestiary – 2025) / “It's like Pat Benatar in a stoner band…she's got swords dude!” / “That dude's hard to look at…his mouth is weird…”/ #markthetime / “That'll be the shittah not that other shittah…”   (12:50): #TheDocket METAL NERDERY PODCAST PRESENTS: OPETH – THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT / “It's an oopsie that's a fun oopsie…”/ #educationalpodcast / #Opeth #TheLastWillAndTestament / “It's their very first concept album…” / “I like to think of them like haunted house #DreamTheater …”/ “The first album with the return of the death growl vocals (aka ‘screams') in 13 years…”/ “I've got room now, dude…”/ Released November 22, 2024 / “This is cool because it's new and it's old at the same time…”/ Featuring Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull / “Subsection…not SS…in case you're wondering…”   (17:00): §1 / “Is this good with relaxers?” / “Draped in death…the howl of lore…” / “Let's do backroads…maybe some dirt roads…” / §2 / “Isn't that a creepy, haunted sound?”/ “Until his return…” / #useyourheadphones / “It's kinda not necessarily all over the place but it's all over the place…”/ “It's got a weird, haunted 70's feel to it for the modern age…”/ “Every album is different but they're all uniquely different…”/ #Oldpeth / “Have they ever done anything ‘hooky'?”   (26:47): §3 / “Reminds me of #Rush …”/ #onmicburp / “He's looking for the big hit single…” / “He's talking about…the hook…”/ §4 / “No! No! No!” / #harpsolo / “This is music nerd music…” / §5 / “He does that one vocal part that sounds like #Forbidden to me…”/ “It's all head…”/ #markthetime / “Where'd that come from?”/  Death growls vs Screams / “I realize this is probably not y'all's favorite flavor of the month…this is right up there with #Coroner for #AOTY …”/ “They cram so much into such a small space…” / “There's tons of coke lines…”   (39:17): §6 / “He's an octopus genius…” / #drumvirtuoso / “This is like #Rainbow on steroids…70's prog…” / “It's almost comical it's so awesome…”/ “Is this one all in 7's?” / #towardsthelater / §7 / “I like the flute, I do…I never thought I'd say that…”/ “They should get the guy who made #HeavyMetal (the movie) …animate this album…like a concept album movie…but with a lot of tits” / “It's hereditary ropes, bruh…”/ A STORY NEVER TOLD / “This is the most consistent…”/ “Bless y'all for at least giving it a shot…”/ #urgent / #moodmusic / “I got into them when the #Damnation album came out (2003)…you might like that…it's more like #PinkFloyd …”/ THANK YOU FOR JOINING US!!! / #untilthenext #outroreel 

“Who headlined a 2012 show in France with The Darkness and Lady Starlight as openers?” That's just one of the brain-busting questions in this unforgettable episode of The Ben and Skin Show, featuring hosts Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray.The crew dives headfirst into Name That Headliner, a fast-paced, hilarious music trivia game that spans decades—from the Motown magic of the '60s to the indie anthems of the 2010s. Expect wild guesses, shocking reveals, and plenty of laugh-out-loud banter.Key Highlights:KT introduces the game and immediately sparks chaos with rules no one can agree on.Skin dominates early, but not before Krystina nails a surprise Coldplay clue.Legendary lineups revealed: Jethro Tull at Red Rocks, Jay-Z with DMX and Method Man, and the jaw-dropping Whitesnake show that had ZZ Top opening.Plus, the crew reminisces about concerts they'd kill to attend and drops some killer music knowledge along the way.

Send us a textWelcome to Guess the Year! This is an interactive, competitive podcast series where you will be able to play along and compete against your fellow listeners. Here is how the scoring works:10 points: Get the year dead on!7 points: 1-2 years off4 points: 3-5 years off1 point: 6-10 years offGuesses can be emailed to drandrewmay@gmail.com or texted using the link at the top of the show notes (please leave your name).I will read your scores out before the next episode, along with the scores of your fellow listeners! Please email your guesses to Andrew no later than 12pm EST on the day the next episode posts if you want them read out on the episode (e.g., if an episode releases on Monday, then I need your guesses by 12pm EST on Wednesday; if an episode releases on Friday, then I need your guesses by 12 pm EST on Monday). Note: If you don't get your scores in on time, they will still be added to the overall scores I am keeping. So they will count for the final scores - in other words, you can catch up if you get behind, you just won't have your scores read out on the released episode. All I need is your guesses (e.g., Song 1 - 19xx, Song 2 - 20xx, Song 3 - 19xx, etc.). Please be honest with your guesses! Best of luck!!The answers to today's ten songs can be found below. If you are playing along, don't scroll down until you have made your guesses. Have you made your guesses yet? If so, you can scroll down and look at the answers.Okay, answers coming. Don't peek if you haven't made your guesses yet!Intro song: 21st Century Schizoid Man by King Crimson (1969)Song 1: Thick as a Brick (Pt. 1) by Jethro Tull (1972)Song 2: The Miracle (of Joey Ramone) by U2 (2014)Song 3: More Bounce to the Ounce by Zapp & Roger (1980)Song 4: Suburban Home by Descendants (1982)Song 5: Miracles by Jefferson Starship (1975)Song 6: Overture - The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber (1986/2004)Song 7: Raid by MF Doom (feat. MED) (2004)Song 8: Miracle Drug by A.C. Newman (2004)Song 9: The Next Episode by Dr. Dre (feat. Snoop Dogg) (1999)Song 10: Parkbench Chameleon by Cat's Pajamas (2024)

In this episode, retail strategist Leon Nicholas—VP of Retail Insights & Solutions at Smurfit WestRock—breaks down the forces reshaping modern commerce. Leon explains why smart packaging, AI, automation, and shifting consumer behavior are transforming everything from supply chains to in-store experiences. He reveals how retailers can stay relevant, why “everything will be tagged,” and how small chains can now punch above their weight. A fast, insightful look at retail's future.Leon's Top 3 Songs:“Aqualung” by Jethro Tull: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4zPu3ISCGs“Copacabana” by Barry Manilow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYvyzg3KtpY“Endless Love” by Diana Ross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubrfaD9DIusMister Beacon is hosted by Steve Statler, CEO of ambientChat.ai — Using AI to connect people with places and products with an app that puts you in control of YOUR data.Our sponsor is Identiv https://www.identiv.com, whose IoT solutions create digital identities for physical objects, enhancing global connectivity for businesses, people, and the planet. We are also sponsored by Blecon http://www.blecon.net. Blecon enables physical products to communicate with cloud applications using Bluetooth Low Energy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ANNE LEIGHTON RETURNS (WITH MORE ROCK LEGENDS) She's back! After an incredible conversation in Episode 90, newly minted "Honorary Derringer" Anne Leighton rejoins Team Derringer at the table for Part 2. As a veteran music publicist, artist representative, poet, and public speaker, Anne (of Leighton Media, Music Services, Motivation) has championed some of the most respected names in music. In this episode, Anne pulls the curtain back even further, sharing insights and personal stories about three more artists from her rock and roll stable... including the namesake of this very podcast! IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL HEAR: Rick Derringer: The Namesake | We finally do it. We're talking about the man himself, the namesake for Team Derringer, the legendary Rick Derringer. While Anne didn't formally publicize Rick, she shares her notable personal connection to the rock icon who gave us "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo." We trace his career from the #1 hit "Hang On Sloopy" with The McCoys to his production work for Edgar Winter ("Frankenstein") and even "Weird Al" Yankovic's Grammy-winning hits. Renaissance: The Annie Haslam Era | Next, Anne discusses the symphonic-rock legends Renaissance. We clarify the connection to the original Yardbirds-era lineup (featuring Jim McCarty) and dive into the iconic version of the band fronted by the ethereal vocals of Annie Haslam. Anne shares her work with the group responsible for prog-rock classic "Carpet of the Sun." Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius: The Future of Prog | To cap it off, Anne introduces us to an artist who has been called "The Jimi Hendrix of the electric violin." Joe Deninzon is a force of nature who leads the progressive rock quartet Stratospheerius. We discuss his incredible journey, which has recently led him to his biggest gig yet: joining the legendary rock band Kansas as their new violinist, bringing his energy to timeless classics like "Carry on Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind." DON'T MISS ANNE LEIGHTON'S FREE MUSIC & CATS SYMPOSIUM Anne invites listeners to her two-day online symposium that explores the melodic and mysterious bond between musicians and cats. The event features segments on Jethro Tull, Renaissance, and Grand Funk Railroad's cat rescue projects. Register for free at: www.eventbrite.de/e/music-and-cats-online-symposium-tickets-1595714708649?aff=oddtdtcreator PLAYLISTS As promised: Spotify's Billons Club playist! Check out the Derringer Discoveries playlist for this episode: Anne Leighton Rocks. WHERE TO LISTEN & CONNECT More info & show notes: www.derringerdiscoveries.com/091 Website: www.derringerdiscoveries.com Theme Song: Your Sister's Room by Ho Jo Fro. Episodes: www.derringerdiscoveries.com/episodes. Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, and BlueSky. Newsletter: Stay up to date by signing up for our newsletter.  Thank you for listening to Derringer Discoveries! 

ANNE LEIGHTON RETURNS (WITH MORE ROCK LEGENDS) She's back! After an incredible conversation in Episode 90, newly minted "Honorary Derringer" Anne Leighton rejoins Team Derringer at the table for Part 2. As a veteran music publicist, artist representative, poet, and public speaker, Anne (of Leighton Media, Music Services, Motivation) has championed some of the most respected names in music. In this episode, Anne pulls the curtain back even further, sharing insights and personal stories about three more artists from her rock and roll stable... including the namesake of this very podcast! IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL HEAR: Rick Derringer: The Namesake | We finally do it. We're talking about the man himself, the namesake for Team Derringer, the legendary Rick Derringer. While Anne didn't formally publicize Rick, she shares her notable personal connection to the rock icon who gave us "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo." We trace his career from the #1 hit "Hang On Sloopy" with The McCoys to his production work for Edgar Winter ("Frankenstein") and even "Weird Al" Yankovic's Grammy-winning hits. Renaissance: The Annie Haslam Era | Next, Anne discusses the symphonic-rock legends Renaissance. We clarify the connection to the original Yardbirds-era lineup (featuring Jim McCarty) and dive into the iconic version of the band fronted by the ethereal vocals of Annie Haslam. Anne shares her work with the group responsible for prog-rock classic "Carpet of the Sun." Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius: The Future of Prog | To cap it off, Anne introduces us to an artist who has been called "The Jimi Hendrix of the electric violin." Joe Deninzon is a force of nature who leads the progressive rock quartet Stratospheerius. We discuss his incredible journey, which has recently led him to his biggest gig yet: joining the legendary rock band Kansas as their new violinist, bringing his energy to timeless classics like "Carry on Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind." DON'T MISS ANNE LEIGHTON'S FREE MUSIC & CATS SYMPOSIUM Anne invites listeners to her two-day online symposium that explores the melodic and mysterious bond between musicians and cats. The event features segments on Jethro Tull, Renaissance, and Grand Funk Railroad's cat rescue projects. Register for free at: www.eventbrite.de/e/music-and-cats-online-symposium-tickets-1595714708649?aff=oddtdtcreator PLAYLISTS As promised: Spotify's Billons Club playist! Check out the Derringer Discoveries playlist for this episode: Anne Leighton Rocks. WHERE TO LISTEN & CONNECT More info & show notes: www.derringerdiscoveries.com/091 Website: www.derringerdiscoveries.com Theme Song: Your Sister's Room by Ho Jo Fro. Episodes: www.derringerdiscoveries.com/episodes. Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, and BlueSky. Newsletter: Stay up to date by signing up for our newsletter.  Thank you for listening to Derringer Discoveries! 

Double, double, toil and trouble… This week, we put a spell on you and invite you to participate in our craft. On this 3rd week of Gothtober, we bring you witches from the world of rock n' punk n' metal. These are bands named after broomstick ridin', pointy hat wearin', green-skinned cacklin' ladies of the coven. Step up to our cauldron and have some brew!What is it we do here at InObscuria? Every show, Kevin opens the crypt to exhume and dissect from his personal collection, an artist, album, or collection of tunes from the broad spectrum of rock, punk, and metal. Robert is forced to test his endurance and provide feedback, as he has no idea what he will be subjected to every week. Our hope is that we turn you on to something that was lost on your ears, or something you've simply forgotten about, or that (in our opinion) should have been the next big thing. Oh, and we also want your soul.Songs this week include:All Them Witches – “Heavy / Like A Witch” from Our Mother Electricity (2012)Margarita Witch Cult – “Crawl Home To Your Coffin” from Strung Out In Hell (2025) Wytch Hazel – “The Demon Within” from V:Lamentations (2025)Two Witches – “The Angel Of Pain” from Bites (1995)Witchrider – “Wake Me Up” from Metamorph - EP (2025)Witch – “Soul Of Fire” from Witch (2006)Angel Witch – “Straight From Hell” from Frontal Assault (1986)Visit us: https://inobscuria.com/https://www.facebook.com/InObscuriahttps://www.instagram.com/inobscuria/https://x.com/inobscuriahttps://www.instagram.com/inobscuria/Buy cool stuff with our logo on it: InObscuria StoreIf you'd like to check out Kevin's band THE SWEAR, take a listen on all streaming services or pick up a digital copy of their latest release here: https://theswear.bandcamp.com/If you want to hear Robert and Kevin's band from the late 90s – early 00s BIG JACK PNEUMATIC, check it out here: https://bigjackpnuematic.bandcamp.com/Check out Robert's amazing fire sculptures and metal workings here: http://flamewerx.com/

Escucha el episodio de esta semana con Alfonso Cardenal y Fernando Neira. 

Ever wonder who helps legendary musicians share their stories with the world? In this episode, Team Derringer (Laura, Alton, and Paul) chats with the incredible Anne Leighton, a top-tier music publicist, artist representative, poet, and public speaker from NYC. Anne pulls back the curtain on her fascinating career and gives us the inside scoop on what it's like to work with some of the biggest names in music. She also shares tales of writing for top music mags and the art -- and heart -- of championing artists from every corner of rock and pop.  The group unpacks what a publicist actually does (think equal parts strategist, storyteller, and stubbornness), how long promoter-artist relationships can last, and why publicity is marathon work dressed up like a sprint. The hosts keep it snappy with playful banter and music snippets that prove the point. Get ready for a walk through rock and roll history! Anne shares stories about her work with the iconic Jethro Tull and its flute-wielding frontman, Ian Anderson, the masterminds behind classics like "Aqualung" and the jaw-droppingly long 43-minute song, "Thick as a Brick." Then we groove to the 70s with tales of the band Orleans, who gave us the timeless hits "Dance with Me" and "Still the One." Plus, you'll hear some amazing trivia, like how Orleans' leader, John Hall, took a detour from music to serve in the U.S. Congress. We cap it off with the brilliant, Grammy-winning trio, The String Revolution, and discuss their stunning instrumental covers of hits like Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" and Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train." This conversation was so good, we had to make it a two-parter! After accepting the title of Honorary Derringer, Anne agreed to come back in a few weeks to talk about three more amazing artists! WHERE TO LISTEN & CONNECT More info & show notes: www.derringerdiscoveries.com/090 Website: www.derringerdiscoveries.com Theme Song: Your Sister's Room by Ho Jo Fro. Episodes: www.derringerdiscoveries.com/episodes. Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, and BlueSky. Newsletter: Stay up to date by signing up for our newsletter.  Thank you for listening to Derringer Discoveries!   

Ever wonder who helps legendary musicians share their stories with the world? In this episode, Team Derringer (Laura, Alton, and Paul) chats with the incredible Anne Leighton, a top-tier music publicist, artist representative, poet, and public speaker from NYC. Anne pulls back the curtain on her fascinating career and gives us the inside scoop on what it's like to work with some of the biggest names in music. She also shares tales of writing for top music mags and the art -- and heart -- of championing artists from every corner of rock and pop.  The group unpacks what a publicist actually does (think equal parts strategist, storyteller, and stubbornness), how long promoter-artist relationships can last, and why publicity is marathon work dressed up like a sprint. The hosts keep it snappy with playful banter and music snippets that prove the point. Get ready for a walk through rock and roll history! Anne shares stories about her work with the iconic Jethro Tull and its flute-wielding frontman, Ian Anderson, the masterminds behind classics like "Aqualung" and the jaw-droppingly long 43-minute song, "Thick as a Brick." Then we groove to the 70s with tales of the band Orleans, who gave us the timeless hits "Dance with Me" and "Still the One." Plus, you'll hear some amazing trivia, like how Orleans' leader, John Hall, took a detour from music to serve in the U.S. Congress. We cap it off with the brilliant, Grammy-winning trio, The String Revolution, and discuss their stunning instrumental covers of hits like Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" and Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train." This conversation was so good, we had to make it a two-parter! After accepting the title of Honorary Derringer, Anne agreed to come back in a few weeks to talk about three more amazing artists! WHERE TO LISTEN & CONNECT More info & show notes: www.derringerdiscoveries.com/090 Website: www.derringerdiscoveries.com Theme Song: Your Sister's Room by Ho Jo Fro. Episodes: www.derringerdiscoveries.com/episodes. Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, and BlueSky. Newsletter: Stay up to date by signing up for our newsletter.  Thank you for listening to Derringer Discoveries!   

Classic Hawk: Val Verde Pet Rescue with John GemberlingOriginally Aired: 7/11/22Whisp Turlington and Geoff “The Angry Man” Garlock welcome a very special guest: Simon Corunne, the frazzled owner of Val Verde Pet Rescue (played by John Gemberling). Simon's got some big problems on his hands—and he's hoping The Hawk can help.Meanwhile, Jason Gore checks in live from the grand opening of Buster Poindexter's Hot Hot Hot Springs. Keanu Reeves swings by to promote his latest romantic comedy, Hey Girl, It's Me. And yes, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson treats listeners to a preview of brand-new Tull material.But that's not all—because we've got one burning question for you: Who is Mark Davidson, and who hit him? Hit play and FIND OUT.Guest StarringJohn Gemberling (Broad City, Fat Guy Stuck In Internet, The Phoney and Call-y Show) Support Val Verde's Second Choice for Rock – 108.9 The HawkSubscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your shows.Visit our website & join the mailing list: 1089thehawk.comGet early access & bonus shows on Patreon: patreon.com/1089thehawkSubscribe to our YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@1089thehawkFollow us on social: Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Facebook, Threads Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is part of Pledge Week 2025. For five days this week, I will be posting old Patreon bonus episodes to the main feed to encourage people to subscribe to my Patreon. If you want more of these, and only if you can afford it, subscribe for $1 a month at patreon.com/andrewhickey . Whether you do or not, I hope you enjoy this one. (more…)

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