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PODCAST

Rock"s Backpages

Barney Hoskyns, Mark Pringle, Jasper Murison-Bowie

Tales from the world"s largest archive of music journalism: entertaining interviews with luminaries such as Neil Tennant, Billy Bragg, Pamela Des Barres, Gary Kemp, Vashti Bunyan, Midge Ure, Nick Hornby and Robyn Hitchcock. Thoughtful and informative conversations about all aspects of popular music history, interspersed with clips from exclusive audio interviews that date back to the mid-"60s. The RBP podcast is hosted by Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle and co-hosted & produced by Jasper

music music history

All Episodes

76:11

E199: Phil Sutcliffe on Sounds + Gang of Four + Eric...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2025/04/07

For this episode we're joined by veteran music scribe Phil Sutcliffe to discuss his years on Sounds, Q and MOJO.We start by hearing about our guest's Beatles-obsessed adolescence in the North London suburb of Barnet, then follow him up to Manchester University and his subsequent apprenticeship on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle. Phil explains how he got his foot in the door at Sounds in 1974, initially reviewing gigs on Tyneside before moving back to London to become one of the weekly magazine's

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69:39

E198: Havelock Nelson on Hip Hop + Missy Elliott +...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2025/03/24

For this episode we're joined all the way from Harlem in New York City by venerable hip hop writer Havelock Nelson.The first rap editor at industry bible Billboard talks about his early years in his birthplace Guyana and his love of marching bands in the country's capital Georgetown. From there we hear about his family's move to Brooklyn in 1973 and his early exposure to rap and breakbeat tapes in high school. Havelock recalls the pioneering hip hop fanzines Word Up! and Black Beat – plus the

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77:11

E197: Siân Pattenden on Select + the Bangles + David...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2025/03/10

For this episode we're joined in person by the delightful Siân Pattenden, author of the Agatha Bilke and Magical Peppers children's book series.We start by asking our guest about her early years as a child actor and teenage playwright before she describes the fanzines she published with her pal Nicky Fijalkowska. We hear how these helped to get her foot in the door at Smash Hits, the million-selling pop bi-weekly she joined in 1989. Quotes from classic Hits pieces she wrote are interspersed with

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75:44

E196: Daniel Wolff & Danny Alexander on Dave Marsh +...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2025/02/24

In this episode we welcome not one but two guests and ask them to talk about their long-time friend and mentor Dave Marsh.Daniel Wolff and Danny Alexander co-edited 2023's Marsh anthology Kick Out the Jams: on the eve of his 75th birthday they reflect on his powerful writing, his impassioned politics and his career from Creem and Rolling Stone to the Rock & Roll (subsequently Rock & Rap) Confidential newsletter he launched in 1983. An audio clip of Dave being interviewed by Daniel for the Rock &

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78:59

E195: Danny Goldberg on Led Zeppelin + Nirvana + Gil...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2025/02/10

In this episode we're joined by music-biz legend Danny Goldberg to discuss his dealings with Led Zeppelin and Kurt Cobain — and the school days he spent with the great Gil Scott-Heron.Danny takes us back to his short-lived stint at Berkeley and his first port of call on returning to his native New York: clerking at trade bible Billboard, a job that led to the publication of his report on 1969's Woodstock festival. From there we jump to the three years our guest spent working for Led Zep — first as

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57:47

E194: Gene Sculatti on San Francisco + the Band's...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2025/01/27

In this episode, we invite the excellent Gene Sculatti to talk us through his career from Crawdaddy! magazine to the Atomic Cocktail radio show he still hosts at Luxuria Music.Commencing in San Francisco in the summer of 1960 — when Gene first heard Dion's 'Lonely Teenager' — we ask our guest about his lifelong love of surf music and the Beach Boys. From there we jump to his mid-'60s radio show "Blues and Such", then on to the first stirrings of the Haight-Ashbury scene he captured in a landmark

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72:07

E193: Michael Goldberg on photography + Taj Mahal +...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2025/01/13

For the first episode of 2025, former Rolling Stone staffer and Bay Area photographer Michael Goldberg joins us to reminisce about his music journalism and discuss his new book Jukebox.We start by asking our guest about the influences of San Franciscan "shooters" from Herb Greene to Annie Liebowitz, with special emphasis on Jim Marshall and Baron Wolman. Michael then recounts the story of how — as a 17-year-old living in Mill Valley — he came to interview the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia in 1970

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74:30

E192: Pat Kane on Hue & Cry + Sinatra + Chic + '80s...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/12/23

For the final episode of 2024 we're joined by the formidable Pat Kane, who answers our questions about his dual career as a musician and writer with what co-host Martin Colyer describes as "an almost frightening eloquence".Commencing with the formative memories of his late father singing Frank Sinatra songs to him at bedtime — and his lifelong fixation with Ol' Blue Eyes — Pat talks about Hue and Cry, the R&B-infused pop group he formed with his brother Greg in 1983. Reflections on the success of

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67:23

E191: Chris Charlesworth on Melody Maker in the '70s

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/12/10

For this episode we're joined by Chris Charlesworth, mainstay of Melody Maker in its '70s pomp and subsequently editorial director of music imprint Omnibus Books. Starting out at Skipton's Craven Herald & Pioneer in his native Yorkshire, Chris talks us through key moments in the Maker years he documents in recent memoir Just Backdated.Paying particular attention to his stints as a '70s correspondent from L.A. and New York, we also ask Chris about MM colleagues such as Max Jones, Richard

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86:28

E190: Simon Garfield on Cher + Beyoncé + Luther Vandross

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/11/25

In this episode we ask the former Time Out editor and acclaimed author of fascinating studies of fonts, maps and encyclopaedias about his long writing career; we also discuss semi-colons and listen to clips from audio interviews with Cher and Luther Vandross. Our guest reflects on Expensive Habits — his 1986 investigation of the music industry's "dark side" — and revisits two of his many great pieces: a hilarious 1987 encounter with Guns N' Roses and a 2003 interview with the newly-solo Beyoncé for

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75:52

E189: Beverley Glick a.k.a. Betty Page on New...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/11/11

In this episode — recorded on the somewhat sombre Wednesday after the U.S. elections — we welcome the wonderful Beverley Glick to our Hammersmith lair and ask her about her New Romantic nom de plume Betty Page.Beverley tells us about her early days on Sounds, where she started out as editor Alan Lewis' secretary, and talks us through her seminal 1980 encounters with Spandau Ballet and Steve Strange. Her subsequent early interview with Duran Duran leads us to clips from David Keeps' 1993 audio

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72:17

E188: Chris Salewicz on the NME + Supertramp + Amy...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/10/28

In this episode we're joined by NME legend Chris Salewicz, author of acclaimed books about Bob Marley, Joe Strummer and others.We hear about our guest's boyhood in Yorkshire — and about the first gig he ever saw: the Beatles in Leeds in 1963 (followed in rapid succession by the Rolling Stones — plus a young David Bowie — in Huddersfield). Chris then describes how a move to London in the early '70s led to getting his foot in the door at Let It Rock and then, in 1974, at the indispensable New Musical

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82:17

E187: Simon Raymonde on Cocteau Twins + Dusty...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/10/14

For this episode we're joined by the admirable Simon Raymonde, sometime Cocteau Twin, head honcho at Bella Union Records and author of the autobiographical In One Ear. We commence by asking our guest about growing up as the son of the legendary Ivor Raymonde, string arranger on umpteen hits by pop idols from Billy Fury to the Walker Brothers. We hear clips from Ira Robbins' 1989 audio interview with Raymonde Sr.'s most famous client Dusty Springfield — and discuss a Ray Connolly piece from 1970 in

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72:34

E186: Robert Hilburn on L.A. + his Randy Newman...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/09/30

For this episode we're joined – all the way from sunny Southern California – by L.A. Times legend Robert Hilburn.Bob beams in to discuss his new biography of the peerless Randy Newman, but we start by asking him about the early childhood memories (of his native Louisiana) that he shares with Randy himself. From there he takes us from the Eureka moment of hearing a then-unknown Elvis Presley on the radio for the first time – through his teen years in suburban SoCal – to his early freelance pieces

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78:13

E185: Andrew Smith on A.I. + Björk + The Notorious...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/09/16

For this episode we're joined by the Brooklyn-based Andrew Smith, author of the bestselling Moondust, the "dotcom swindle" saga Totally Wired and the brand-new Devil in the Stack. We start by asking Andrew about the peripatetic childhood that took him from Greenwich Village to Hastings via San Francisco's summer of love. A riveting account of auditioning to replace Mick Jones in the Clash leads us to our guest's recollections of writing in the '80s and '90s for Melody Maker and The Face — and

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77:09

E184: Joe Boyd on Global Music + Kate & Anna McGarrigle

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/09/02

For this episode we're joined by a living musical legend whose career as an A&R man, manager, producer, label-owner and writer spans over 60 extraordinary years.On the day his monumental "journey through Global Music" And the Roots of Rhythm Remain is published, the peerless Joe Boyd visits RBP's Hammersmith HQ to talk about the book — and the 17+ years it took to write the follow-up to 2006's acclaimed memoir White Bicycles. After we hear about the 1987 meeting that led to the adoption of the

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63:54

E183: Darrell M. McNeill on the Isley Brothers +...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/08/19

Joining us all the way from Santa Barbara for this episode is Darrell M. McNeill, director of operations at the Black Rock Coalition and author of a new 33 1/3 study of the Isley Brothers' mighty 1973 album 3 + 3.We start by asking our guest about his '90s contributions to the Village Voice and his involvement with the B.R.C.. Crediting his dad for his own childhood love of the Isleys, Darrell tells us how he came to write about the band. We discuss their unique history across six-plus decades,

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78:43

E182: Joe "Mr. C" McEwen on soul music + alt.country...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/08/05

In this episode we're joined by the esteemed Joe "Mr. C" McEwen, who Zooms in from L.A. to reminisce about his storied career as a writer, DJ and A&R man.We begin in our guest's native Philadelphia, where his teenage mind was blown by a James Brown show in 1966, and follow him up to his adopted Boston. He recalls his early reviews for The Boston Phoenix and revisits his 1975 homage to Sam Cooke for The Real Paper. His 1977 encounter with a 19-year-old Michael Jackson prompts discussion of

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70:26

E181: Mark Williams on Knebworth '74 + the...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/07/22

In this episode the marvellous Mark Williams Zooms in from mid-Wales to regale us with tales from the heyday of the UK's underground press and his later involvement with the L.A. punk scene.We start in mid-'60s Newcastle – where our guest drummed with beat combo the Jailbirds – and move on to his days at the Birmingham Arts Lab via a flat above London's hallowed 2i's coffee bar. A return to the capital in late '68 brings Mark to the offices of leading underground paper International

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83:29

E180: David Toop on Dr. John + Collusion + Scott...

Rock"s Backpages ·

2024/07/11

In this episode we welcome the esteemed David Toop to Hammersmith – on the UK's General Election day – to discuss his extraordinary new book about (and around) Dr. John's 1968 album Gris-Gris.First we revisit the short-lived but splendidly eclectic Collusion magazine our guest co-founded in 1981: we hear about its inception and mission, as manifest in groundbreaking pieces about rap, surf, salsa, exotica and "paranoid sex in '60s soul". We touch on key points along the journey of David's

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219 results

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