Over Our Garden Wall

We have now recorded around 20 episodes of Live Music & Me, and every one of them has been very enjoyable. However, we were extra excited for this one, as our guest was the musician and singer/songwriter Robert Howard ( we have been Blow Monkeys fans for a long time) It was also the first time we had attempted a pan European podcast with a time difference ( Robert lives in Spain now) ,and thankfully the technology passed the test ( and the time difference) We never know where the guests will take us with their musical memories. Robert took us from Kings Lynn, Norfolk to Sydney, Australia with his first answer! ( If you want a good trivia question, ask a friend what Jethro Tull & Marc Bolan have in common) We also found out that Robert actually wanted The Blow Monkeys to be like The Birthday Party, that you are never too old to say no to a guest gig pass from a good friend ( Mr Weller), and that Robert thinks there is more than one live album we should all own a copy of.... And, if you stick to your beliefs and values by making a political statement on the stage at Wembley Stadium you will upset a lot of Rod Stewart fans ( and Paula Yates too !) We are really pleased with this one - our 30 minute chat flew in. Big thanks to Robert, both for the podcast chat and for The Blow Monkeys giving us 40 years of great music.

Although we love having guests from some of our favourite bands on the Live Music & Me podcast, its extra special when we welcome an actor as a guest. And, even more so, when the actor is the Scottish legend Colin McCredie. Colin is well known for his acting prowess - however, from an early age, music has been an integral part of his world. Therefore, the discussion we had on his gig memories was full of cracking bands that he saw, and some brilliant stories connected to them. From a first gig seeing Hipsway in their prime at the cultural metropolis that is Perth City Hall in 1987, to being pleasantly surprised at how good Paul MacCartney was in Glasgow, to sneaking in under-age to see Texas at Fat Sams Dundee, ( we think we were at the same concert!) - Colin was in very fine form . He was also the first guest that managed to give the same answer to 3 different questions ( a gig that he had a ticket to but missed, gig he travelled the furthest to see, and one Live Album we should all own a copy of!) - and also the first guest to reference the same band for a bucket gig in the past he missed, and one that he still hopes to go to! And to top all that, Colin also managed to somehow secure a ticket to the opening launch night at King Tuts in Glasgow in 1990! It was an absolute pleasure to host this podcast with Colin, and hope you enjoy watching it as much as we did making it! Enjoy, and stay safe

In 2023, we spent 12 months reviewing the Rolling Stone magazine 100 Greatest Albums list. After 20 podcasts, we had agreed that 66 of these albums were worthy of inclusion on our own 100 Album list. So....we then decided to get nominations from our podcast panel and our music friends, and held 20 Voting Party's on Twitter/X that voted on circa 100 more albums. ( they were very good fun, thanks to everyone who took part in them) When that was done, we had voted another 40 albums onto our list. This is course meant that we now had 106 albums on our list. This podcast tackled the 106 challenge head on and, as per normal, our panel weren't backwards at coming forwards. And, at the end of our 30 minute discussion, we had reduced the list, but not to 100! ( and we still have to decide what the final Top 10 will be too) Confused, you will be.... Enjoy, and as ever, stay safe. PS If we have now voted an album off the list that your really really love, then we suggest you start your own music podcast....

If you have been lucky enough to see/hear our guest Paul Simpson in other conversations, you will know that he is very good value for money ( and why his book Revolutionary Spirit is so well loved!) No surprise then that our podcast conversation about his live gigs covered a lot of ground! In between Paul telling us about how his first gig actually wasn’t his first gig ( and also how he managed to ‘invest’ the bob-a-job money he had been keeping for his scout troop) – we were also treated to wonderful stories involving The Jam & Sting, and also why he set his dad’s shirt on fire. No, really... When we got round to actually talking about his gigs, Paul covered everything from Roy Orbison to Hawkwind to The Fall to The Bathers ( and a must-see ‘gig that he had a ticket to but missed’ that beggars belief). Oh, and he also proved conclusively that, back in the day, Glasgow was indeed a bit ' tasty'. Paul was great company and the time that we chatted literally flew in. We hope you enjoy this one as much as we did recording it. Stay safe

We love The Pearlfishers, and therefore were absolutely delighted that Davy Scott agreed to join us for this latest recording of Live Music & Me. Davy was honest enough to admit that some of the first gigs he went to was nothing to be proud of ( eg Clapton) - however we all did stuff when we were young we later regret! We quickly moved on - and Davy then took us through his gig memories, talking with fondness about Macca/Wings ( Davy played a small part in him having a US No1 single) , the Scottish folk club circuit, and the same artist that most surprised him, good and bad! He also told us what you should spend your student grant on ( gig tickets for you and your partner) , and finished off telling us all we must own a live album recorded in 1993/94 but not released in 2002 ( it's rather lovely) It was a 45 minute chat that flew in - and as expected Davy was a wonderful guest Enjoy, and stay safe

The guest for our latest live music podcast was the singer, songwriter, musician & producer, our friend Daniel Wylie. Daniel took us on a very varied musical journey, from Nana Mouskouri to Elvis Costello, and pretty much everything in between! We also had Daniel giving us a rendition of the Stripper tune ( but not the dance) and name-checked a whole bunch of his musical pals along the way. In between the name-checks, Daniel talked about the time he NEARLY met the Thin White Duke in 1978 at Glasgow Apollo And to finish, Daniel gave us three live albums we should all own a copy of (all are mighty fine, and one of them was a definite curve ball). As ever, we can't thank Daniel enough for taking the time to talk through his gig memories. We also had a great off air chat about the Cosmic Rough Riders supporting Paul Weller, however, that's in the archive vaults... Enjoy, and stay safe

The great thing about doing Live Music & Me podcasts is that every guest we have on always takes us down their own personal musical memory lane. Going down this episode's lane was the Scottish singer/songwriter/musician & producer Martin Metcalfe, and he was on top form. Martin's musical memories started in 1977, with the Rezillos at the mighty Glasgow Apollo, who supported The Ramones (and were better!) This started a run of Fay Fife/Rezillos/Revillos references, so much so that we feel obliged to give Fay a podcast co-credit! We also got a couple of Martin's favourites name-checked ( Nick Cave & Iggy to the fore), and some wistful memories from the time that Goodbye Mr Mackenzie supported the icon that is Debbie Harry/Blondie. Oh, and we had Martin comparing The Rezillos & The Ramones as curries. No, really... And to finish, Martin's nominated favourite Live Album was from the left-field ( but all the better for it). Big thanks to Martin, was a very enjoyable 30 minutes! If Carlsberg made music podcast guests, they would all be Live Music & Me participants. Enjoy and stay safe.

When we started this podcast over 12 months ago, we weren't entirely sure if we would ever be able to podcast review the top 100 albums from the latest Rolling Stone magazine. Therefore, our podcast panel was especially happy on this recording to be reviewing the final 5 on the Rolling Stone list. And, as luck would have it, this coincided with our podcast Xmas party - cue lots of parallel conversations and wine consumption ( just like any Xmas party) Somewhere in amongst all of the fun - we did manage to discuss, debate and vote on the albums voted No's 5-1 on the list, which were : The Beatles - Abbey Rd Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life Joni Mitchell - Blue The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds Marvin Gaye - What's Going On Our Twitter/X polls voted all 5 of these big boys onto the final list - would the Xmas cheer help our panel to do likewise? It was great to have Lisa, George & John all join us for this one - and even better that we managed ( after a year of trying) to get the Scottish author/playwright Julie Rea to join us as well. She was well worth the wait. After completing this podcast, we now have around 70 albums voted onto our ' final' list, which of course means we still have some work to do before we can get to our definitive list of the 100 Greatest Albums ever. We have some plans on how to plug the gap ( which will also involve our friends who watch and vote on each podcast). However, all that's for another day. So, for the last time this year, strap yourself in and enjoy the ride. Special thanks to Lisa, George, John & Stephen for helping us to get this far, and of course to all our amazing guests for adding the va va voom. Merry Xmas, and a Happy New Year. Stay safe

A momentous day in the life of our podcast - when we finally got to the Top 10 albums on the Rolling Stone's list! Being the top ten - we expected, and got some' big' albums to discuss from: Lauryn Hill Bob Dylan Prince Fleetwood Mac Nirvana We proved by voting out Thriller on our last episode that reputation counts for nothing with our podcast panel & guests. And this episode maintained that tradition - when another 'iconic' album didn't make the cut. As well as having John & Lisa on, we were joined again by our friend Ian Smith from the wonderful Last Night From Glasgow record label. All three knocked it out the park - therefore it was real shame that we lost Ian towards the end when Virgin Glasgow had a major broadband outage (which quickly moved to Inverclyde) - however we managed to scramble through these issues like the good pro's we are :-) And, at the end of all of that - we have ended up with 63/95 ( or 66%) of the albums now voted onto our 'final' list, with one more podcast still to come, - hopefully before Santa brings his presents. Once that''s done and dusted - we will then start to have some fun filling in the gaps.... Enjoy, and stay safe

Question. What do you do when you have recorded a great guest interview on Zoom but the video is buffering throughout? Answer. Convert the file to audio and put it out without the visuals! So, in yet another first for us, on audio only.....we welcome our guest for this episode, the Scottish singer/songwriter/musician John Douglas. Probably best known as a member of the wonderful Trashcan Sinatras, however John has also recently released his self-titled debut solo album, and a mighty fine record it is too. John had plenty of cracking gigs to talk through. It's understandable that time can challenge the memory at times - therefore what John remembers as his first gig ( Numan Glasgow Apollo), was actually Still Little Fingers ( Glasgow Apollo) earlier in the same summer! John also shared his Reading Festival tent sharing exploits ( he's not a big festival fan), missing an early The Smiths gig even although he had a ticket, and also his big regret choosing not to go see Sinatra gig at Ibrox in 1990. On the plus side, he did manage to meet Willie Nelson in his own hotel room ( no, really) , and get the chance to play a gig at the iconic CBGB's New York. We packed a lot into this one, and even on audio only, I am sure you will agree it was worth the effort! Thanks again John. Top man.

When we ran our Twitter/X polls for this episode, it was the first time that all 5 albums were voted as a yes! So the big question was - would our podcast panel also go for the full house?! The artists on this episode were all strong enough to easily support the idea that their album is one of the best 100 ever, with albums reviewed from :Public Enemy The Rolling Stones Aretha Franklin Michael JacksonThe BeatlesHowever, even allowing for this heavyweight line up, one of them didn't make the cut! We have had a number of firsts on our podcasts - and this one was the first time that we have had two guests on the same episode. Caroline Binnie was back for a second visit ( thank you!) and all the way from Sheffield, Jack Davidson also joined us and a) lowered the average panel age by 20 years and b) demonstrated a depth of musical knowledge for one so young ( must have had great parents :-) ) No technical issues, and because John & George couldn't make this recording, no over 18s language to navigate through the YouTube censors! Mind you, we did manage to get the phrase ' Cocksucker Blues' into the chat - will see how the algarithm deals with that. Big thanks to Caroline, Jack and of course Lisa. And when we next speak to you, we will be in the Top 10! Enjoy, and stay safe Brian

Our last podcast episode was all about surviving the logistical challenges from Storm Babet. Nothing as biblical as that when we recorded Episode 17 of our 100 Greatest Albums music podcast. However, the recording didn't go as planned.... For this Episode we had reached the Top 20 of the Rolling Stone Magazine Top 100 list - and it did give us a super-eclectic list to get our teeth into. Over 90 minutes we discussed/debated and voted on albums from Radiohead ( second one on list) Kendrick Lamar Bob Dylan ( second one on list) Kayne West ( second one on list) The Clash At least one of these was our panellist John's favourite ever ( double) album which he understandably effused over, and at least one of them wasn't. We also had Lisa explaining, with great care attention and warmth, the concept, story and flow behind To Pimp A Butterfly. Overall, one of our better episodes, if we don't say so ourselves! Therefore, it was with a heavy heart that we found out that the recording had corrupted after approximately 20 mns ( the Zoom recording link failed!) - and other than John taking with passion about how average Kid A is, nothing else survived. So what to do? We didn't have the time, patience or energy to re-record all the lost content. No problem - we reconvened the panel a couple of days later and over 30 mins reviewed all 5 albums again. Lean and mean, all killer no filler - with the added bonus of welcoming back our friend George Paterson to the podcast discussion! We also had another first - when George's son Mike joined us for the Kendrick/Kayne discussions, and of course he totally nailed it ( he loves both albums btw, and quite right too!) And by the wonder of video editing - we have manage to splice together the original 20 mns from part 1 to the follow up discussion on part 2. After all that, we ended up voting yes to three of the albums going onto the final 100 list ( but possibly not the three you might think) , which means we now have 55 albums on our ' final' 100 albums list. Therefore, we are now 'only' looking for 45 more wonderful albums to get us to 100, with just 15 albums from the Rolling Stone list to review. Don't worry, we have a Baldrick-esque cunning plan currently under wraps. As ever, enjoy, and stay safe PS One day, people might talk in hushed tones about the ' lost episode' of Nothing Else Mattress from November 1st 2023 , in the same way that the original tapes from The Beatles only ever live performance on TOTP are revered. ( 16th June 1966 if you're interested). Well, they might...... PPS. On Spotify, we have a Nothing Else Mattress playlist, with a song from every album voted onto the final list on there. 55 songs now - it's a beautiful thing https://open.spotify.com/playlist/29Twz8NUhVl4Ezmy4dMDwZ?si=43b84db9ff6045d9

Storm Babet tried it's hardest, however our podcast friends are a hardy bunch! And, after having to re-arrange our recording on two separate occasions, Episode 16 is now available in all its glory! Episode 15 was an all male affair. Episode 16 on the other hand brings together one of our resident panellists Lisa with our special guest, the PR expert, music loving, fanatical gig going, Velvet Underground superfan, Caroline Binnie. As it happened we had the Velvets debut album on our 5 album review list which was handy, as well as albums from The Beatles ( 3rd time) , Carole King, Notorious BIG and Bruce Springsteen ( 2nd time lucky ?!) Caroline and Lisa were on great form, and managed to form an alliance on pretty much every album reviewed ( and some big hitters were given a pretty hard time) Of these, 4 were voted onto our ' final 100 ' list ( although a couple were very borderline) - which means that we have now voted yes to 52/80 albums from the original Rolling Stone list. ( link below if you want a nosey at that list too) Of all the Episodes we have published so far, this one probably has more chat about the actual albums/artists than most of the others, which kind of makes sense for a music podcast! However, Caroline did mention post-recording that the cat that sits on the cover of the Tapestry album is called Telemachus, after the character in Homer's Odyssey! We also ask our guests for an album nomination to add to the final 100 list - and Caroline gave us an absolute corker from 1985 to get our ears around. NB We also found out that Bat Out Of Hell is one of Caroline's Guilty Pleasures! Big thanks to Lisa and especially Caroline for making sure that we actually ended up with a recording we could publish :-) . Top 20 next.... Enjoy, and stay safe https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/the-band-music-from-big-pink-2-1063133/

For our latest episode of Live Music & Me - our guest was the cultural commentator and host of the cracking Scots Whay Hae podcast, Alistair Braidwood. Alistair is normally the one asking the questions, therefore it was really good fun to have him using the old grey matter recollecting his own musical memories! From a stellar first gig at Ibrox 1986 ( a sold out stadium gig that had lots of room down the front!) , to Grace Jones walking down a staircase at the Barrowland, to missing an early U2 gig because he had prelims the next day, Alistair was on great form. We also managed to talk about Pulp playing in a forest, and Alistair travelling hundreds of miles across Australia for a music festival ( that included one of our musical heroes Billy Bragg) - and we managed to name-check a band called Bingo Wings who supported Big Country. No, really.... And to top it all, we also pay homage to Mr Bowie. As ever, we end up covering a lot of musical ground in around 30 minutes . Big thanks to Alistair for both his time and his musical anecdotes. Enjoy, & stay safe

Our latest guest on our occasional series of podcasts on live music memories was the singer/songwriter/musician from The Bluebells & The McCluskey Brothers - Ken McCluskey. Ken's live gig chat ranged from The Damned at the height of punk, to the Young Fathers in Brighton, to U2 in Dublin. There was also chat about playing to 300,000 people in Barcelona with The Bluebells, getting arrested trying to buy a fish supper, and his brother David getting his tent ate by a cow at a festival. Oh, and why Glen Daly is a legend.... We have so much fun doing these - and this one was no different ( even with a little bit of video buffering!) Enjoy, and stay safe.

It would be great if all our podcast friends and guests lived on the same street in the same town. However, when they don't, you need technology to be your friend, and so far it has played a blinder. The panel this week was all about quality over quantity. In addition to John Welsh, our guest was Ian Smith, who has been working wonders at our favourite record label, Last Night From Glasgow for a number of years. We reviewed 5 more albums on this episode from Jimi Hendrix ( 3rd album on list) The Beatles ( 2nd album on list, with more to come!) D'Angelo Wu Tang Clan Patti Smith Three of these were voted in, but only after plenty of chat, opinion, some disagreement and a few laughs along the way. ( and a fair bit of musical knowledge!) As we do with every guest, Ian also got to nominate an album that he thinks deserves a place on the 100 list - and It's an absolute belter. That's 15 Episodes completed - and we have 48 albums now on the ' final' 100 list. Enjoy, and stay safe PS. The technology did get its own back a little on this episode - big thanks to John & Ian for sticking with it to the end (class is permanent)

We have been close to voting in 5 albums out of 5 on previous podcasts ( but didn't) The roll call on this one was very strong... The Beatles - Rubber Soul ( first time on the list) Stevie Wonder - Innervisions Amy Winehouse - Back To Black Beyonce - Lemonade Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue Our guest on this episode was the singer/songwriter/musician Jack ( check out his songs released under the solo project 'Goliath' ) - who brought remarkable knowledge to the chat for one so young! As well as the usual musical trivia and anecdotes - we also had George & Lisa talk emotionally about their love for Amy ( George actually spoke to her briefly a couple of weeks before her passing) So would the panel, including Jack - manage to overcome previous aversions to modern R&B/Soul and more importantly, Jazz, to vote in a full house? As ever, the only way to know is to hit the play button. ( or read our Twitter threads...) We have also put a video link at the end to a killer album track from one of the voted in albums Thanks again for watching/listening - and of course let us know your thoughts on how we're doing. Enjoy & stay safe

Welcome to the latest of our occasional video shorts, where we get some of our friends to talk about their Live Music memories. Our guest for this episode was the writer & musician Chris Thomson from The Bathers. ( who we love!) We covered a wide range of bands, artists & venues with Chris, ranging from first gig recollections ( Bowie at The Glasgow Apollo, cool or what?!) - to most surprised gig ( Van The Man in a stookie) to the bucket gig artist he is still waiting to see ( Dylan) Along the way, we also talked about buying gig tickets by postal order, Argentina World Cup '78, and when Chris met one of his heroes, David Byrne. Oh, and he also mentioned in passing how much one of his friends loved Rush. No, really... As ever, Chris was in top form, and our chat flew in. It's one beer/coffee length, unless you drink quicker than average - plus a link at the end to a song from his favourite ever gig.... Enjoy, and stay safe.

It's Top 40 time! On this episode we reviewed albums 40-36 from the Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Albums list. Its a pretty stellar line up too, with albums discussed from David Bowie, Talking Heads, Bob Dylan, Dr Dre & Michael Jackson. We love having guests join us - and for this episode we are joined by the main man from, amongst others Goodbye Mr MacKenzie & The Filthy Tongues, Martin Metcalfe. Martin is a self confessed Bowie fan, and therefore led the Ziggy discussion. However, he was also pretty vocal when we discussed the other albums too ( and not always feeling the love) We voted 4/5 of the albums yes - therefore keeping up our run of never having voted all 5 albums yes on any single episode. We've still got 35 more to review, maybe one day... As ever, the team were on top form, and in general there was plenty of warmth towards the albums discussed. But that doesn't mean we agreed when it came to vote. Where would the fun in that be! The birth of punk rock in 1972 , hip hop/post punk in 1980, Robert Palmer as a backing singer, white socks as a fashion accessory and llamas all big talking points over the course of the chat. If variety is the spice of life, it's bottled on our podcasts. Enjoy, and stay safe

12 Episodes in, so would this be the podcast where the panel finally votes in all 5 albums we discuss on an episode? Of course it wasn't.... We reviewed albums 45-41 from the Rolling Stone Greatest Album list - with Prince, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Radiohead & The Rolling Stones all getting some serious chat time. All albums discussed felt a fair bit of love, but only three of them were voted onto our final list. As well as our core panel of podcast friends - we had the pleasure of being joined by our special guest, the editor, author & member of Artisan and Vulture Party ( both favs of ours) - Dickson Telfer. Dickson more than held his own during the album discussions - especially when discussing the lyrics from Sign Of The Times ( he's not the biggest fan!) Speak of SOTT - John Welsh also declared that the track Hot Thing was written for him, and that Mrs John would vouch for that. No, really.... Dickson also nominated the album he thinks should be added to the final 100 list, and it's a belter. ( and like the other guests so far, not one we saw coming!) Even for us, this episode has a fairly chunky running time - so we would recommend watching/listening to it in bit size chunks! Enjoy, and stay safe.