The Strange Brew - artist stories behind the greatest music ever recorded

Dónal Gallagher knew Rory better than anyone, as his brother and a close companion throughout his career. In Edged in Blue: A Rock ’n’ Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher, he draws on a lifetime of memories, from their childhood in Ireland and Rory’s years with Taste to his solo career, the night he went to Rotterdam to audition for the Rolling Stones, and the punishing schedule that took its toll on his health. Dónal talks to Jason Barnard about the man behind the guitar, Rory’s career highlights and his place in Irish music and rock history.

Further information

Edged in Blue: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher

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Podcasts also available: Michael Schenker, Pete Briquette – The Boomtown Rats, Steve Howe on Dylan, Hendrix & YES, Marquee: The Story of the World’s Greatest Music Venue

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

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Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent of The Zombies join Jason Barnard ahead of the Begin Here Festival in St. Albans, which starts on Friday 30 October. It will be Rod’s first time playing live in over two years.

They also look back at meeting at 15, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame night, how She’s Not There came together, and George Harrison’s verdict on Juke Box Jury. Colin gives details of Continue Here, out on 31 October on Beechwood Park Records, and a fourth archive collection planned to capture the end of The Zombies and beginning of Colin Blunstone and Argent’s music.

Further information

Begin Here Festival

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Podcasts also available: Chris White – The Zombies – Inside The Vaults, Hugh Grundy – The Zombies, Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, Russ Ballard

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

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Doctor and the Medics had one of the unlikeliest number ones of the 1980s thanks in part to an ambulance their record company sent to Radio 1 and then it spent the next forty years refusing to disappear. Jason Barnard talks to frontman Doctor, Reverend Dr. Clive Jackson, about new album The Optimal Mystic and about pretty much everything else: the A&R man who wrecked Andy Partridge’s snare sound on Miracle of the Age, writing lyrics for The Damned, the failed Welsh snail farm, and getting left off Liverpool’s number one list and putting that right.

Further information

This episode features early mixes of ‘Forever and Ever’ and ‘Dancing In My Hand’ from new album The Optimal Mystic. It is free to mailing-list subscribers via doctorandthemedics.com

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Podcasts also available: John Leckie on XTC and The Dukes of Stratosphear, Matt Piucci – Rain Parade, The Vapors, Paul Cook – Sex Pistols

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

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The Residents don’t give interviews, so when they have something to say, Homer Flynn says it for them. He is their art director, their spokesperson and part of the Cryptic Corporation that has looked after them since 1976. Eskimo is currently on the road. The 1979 album, with its invented vocals and wind treated as seriously as music, reaches the stage this autumn with inflatable icebergs, projections and five new songs.

Homer tells me how a 20-minute slot at a San Francisco event grew into a full production. He explains why the first costume idea, a giant silver Christmas ornament with a top hat, was talked out of existence by costume makers, and how the eyeball that replaced it became The Residents’ symbol. We also get into the Mole Show and the Emulator sampler, the Freak Show comic and CD-ROM, the 100 archive boxes Hardy Fox kept, and The Lonely Wound, the new Residents album Homer says is in its final stages.

Further information

The Residents website, Eskimo Live

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Podcasts also available: Wolfgang Flür – Kraftwerk, Robin Scott – M, Rat Scabies (The Damned) and Chris Constantinou (Adam Ant), Tim Arnold and Kevin Godley

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

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Fairport Convention made a £5 profit from their first gig, at St Michael’s Church Hall in Golders Green on 27 May 1967. About 30 or 40 people turned up, and the band had printed the tickets and hired the hall themselves. Simon Nicol, whose house gave the group its name, was a professional musician at the age of 16.

Here Simon talks as Fairport embark on their autumn 2026 UK tour, a seated acoustic run that includes village halls and social clubs, and for the 60th anniversary shows in May 2027.

Nicol grew up in North London, where Ashley Hutchings lived just down the road and his father was Pete Quaife’s doctor. He saw the Kinks play their last gig as the Ravens and their first as the Kinks two weeks later. Fairport’s own break came when Joe Boyd watched them support Pink Floyd at UFO and signed them, though their debut single, “If I Had a Ribbon Bow”, sank without trace. Judy Dyble then left and Sandy Denny arrived, and Nicol says she “made a huge impression musically and personally”. The band made What We Did on Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking and Liege & Lief within 11 months, a stretch that also included the May 1969 motorway crash that killed Martin Lamble. Reflecting on those 60 years, Nicol explains why Fairport have remained active while “not a tribute band to ourselves”.

Further information

Tour dates and tickets from fairportconvention.com

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Podcasts also available: Simon Nicol (2023), Ric Sanders, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Chris Leslie, Iain Matthews 

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

The post Simon Nicol – Fairport Convention’s Early Years appeared first on The Strange Brew .