C86 Show - Indie Pop

The Armoires - Christina & Rex

Christina Bulbenko & Rex Broome in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://bigstirrecords.com/the-armoires

https://thearmoires.bandcamp.com/

The new record from the Burbank, CA indie pop quintet represents both a fresh start and the distillation of the potential inherent in their unique sound – somewhere between the sunshine pop of the '60s, the college rock jangle of the '80s and the Sarah Records/C86 chamber pop aesthetic of the '90s – and a lyrical approach that's always felt untethered to any one era or place. They've even put a name to the soundscape they inhabit: Octoberland, both the title of their forthcoming album (appropriately due on October 11, 2024) and a destination frequently referenced in its songs.

Leah Kardos - Kate Bush 'Hounds of Love'

Leah Kardos in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.leahkardos.com/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kate-Bushs-Hounds-Love-33/dp/B0CYP75PF3

Hounds Of Love invites you to not only listen, but to cross the boundaries of sensory experience into realms of imagination and possibility. Side A spawned four Top 40 hit singles in the UK, ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)’, ‘Cloudbusting’, ‘Hounds of Love’ and ‘The Big Sky’, some of the best-loved and most enduring compositions in Bush’s catalogue. On side B, a hallucinatory seven-part song cycle called The Ninth Wave broke away from the pop conventions of the era by using strange and vivid production techniques that plunge the listener into the psychological centre of a near-death experience. Poised and accessible, yet still experimental and complex, with Hounds Of Love Bush mastered the art of her studio-based songcraft, finally achieving full control of her creative process. When it came out in 1985, she was only 27 years old.
This book charts the emergence of Kate Bush in the early-to-mid-1980s as a courageous experimentalist, a singularly expressive recording artist and a visionary music producer. Track-by-track commentaries focus on the experience of the album from the listener’s point of view, drawing attention to the art and craft of Bush’s songwriting, production and sound design. It considers the vast impact and influence that Hounds Of Love has had on music cultures and creative practices through the years, underlining the artist’s importance as a barrier-smashing, template-defying, business-smart, record-breaking, never-compromising role model for artists everywhere.
This book charts the emergence of Kate Bush in the early-to-mid-1980s as a courageous experimentalist, a singularly expressive recording artist and a visionary music producer. Track-by-track commentaries focus on the experience of the album from the listener’s point of view, drawing attention to the art and craft of Bush’s songwriting and sound design. It considers the vast impact and influence that Hounds Of Love has had on music cultures and creative practices through the years, underlining the artist’s importance as a barrier-smashing, template-defying, business-smart, record-breaking, never-compromising role model for artists everywhere.

Dan Synge - Whatever Happened to the Teenage Dream?: Postcards from the edge of '80s pop

Dan Synge in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1068530812

https://open.spotify.com/track/546BO0xumtrdTs9FMiqbvb?si=eb83d941dd2c41ce

 

https://rosavillemusic.bandcamp.com/album/soundtrack-of-our-lives

 

www.dansyngeauthor.com

Anyone can start a band. Anyone can be famous. Not everyone can wait a lifetime.
From hammering it with the ‘gods of rock’ to heroin diaries, white line fevers and the inevitable ghost written My Story, it would seem that every gnarled old pop star has had a crack at the rock and roll memoir. Wrong-side-of-the-tracks childhood? Check. Abusive stepdad? Check. Salvation with the band followed by booze, sex, acrimonious rows, near death experiences, sobriety and, eventually, religion. Yeah, I think we get the picture.
But what about rock’s also rans? The no hopers. The ones who never even got as far as a record deal. Shouldn’t these less-feted performers with their doomed musical adventures and dashed hopes of super stardom be allowed to tell their tale too?
So here’s a real rock memoir. An honest, warts and all portrayal of what it’s like to fall in love with music and start your own teenage band (or indeed several bands) spanning the eras of glam, punk, new wave and 80s pop, right up to the so-called ‘second summer of love’ in 1988.
Whatever happened to the teenage dream?
Find out by joining guitarist and songwriter Dan with his band Stranger Than Paradise as they chart their rise to the top alongside a cast of outrageous characters and oh, so many disapproving grown-ups. Get ready for a no holds barred, tragi-comic ride through the euphoric triumphs and near misses of raw creativity and joyous music making.

Peter Kelly - Beerjacket

Peter Kelly in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://beerjacket.bandcamp.com/

Beerjacket is Scottish singer/songwriter, Peter Kelly, who has opened for The National, St Vincent, Kristin Hersh & Frightened Rabbit.

In 2018, Scottish Fiction released album/book of songs & short stories, Silver Cords, leading to an appearance at Edinburgh International Book Festival, a sold-out show with Cairn String Quartet at Celtic Connections, & radio play from BBC Radio 6 Music and KEXP.

Kazuko Hohki - Frank Chickens

Kazuko Hohki in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.kazukohohki.com/

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/frank-chickens?srsltid=AfmBOooDDNlbGuF-rplim_W0Q1z4FFliWJ_ehN3sGCtlLFB0W4kpAGNM

Frank Chickens are a Japanese musical group based in London, who have performed songs mainly in English since 1982.

They were nominated for the 1984 Edinburgh Comedy Award for their performance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In the same year, their single "Blue Canary" was number 42 in BBC DJ John Peel's Festive Fifty, a poll of his listeners' favourite tracks of the year. The band recorded 28 songs over five sessions for Peel between 1983 and 1989.

In 1989 they hosted a television chat show on Channel 4 entitled Kazuko's Karaoke Klub.

One of the founders of the group, Kazuko Hohki performs as a theatre artist and performance artist. She also sang with the group Kahondo Style who released 'My Heart’s In Motion' (1985) and 'Green Tea and Crocodiles' (1987). She is married to record producer Grant Showbiz.

Jonathon Grasse - Jazz Revolutionary: The Life & Music Of Eric Dolphy

Jonathon Grasse in conversation with David Eastaugh

http://jawbonepress.com/jazz-revolutionary/

Jazz Revolutionary is the first full biography of Eric Dolphy, passionately tracing his creative life from Los Angeles clubs of the late 1940s and 50s, to New York in the early 1960s, and on to Paris, where sixty years ago he died from the complications of undiagnosed diabetes. It presents an engaging examination of this innovative musician and composer, from his family background to posthumous memorials, and provides insight into his recordings both as sideman and leader.

Joe McKechnie - The Passage, Benny Profane, Modern Eon, Blue Orchids

Joe McKecknie in conversation with David Eastaugh

The Passage were a post-punk band from Manchester, England, who appeared on several record labels including Object Music, Cherry Red Records, and their own label Night & Day, a subsidiary label to Virgin Records.

https://ra.co/dj/joemckechnie/biography

Kristi Callan - Wednesday Week, David Gray, Wondermints, Cruzados, Dave Davies, The Ventures, Big Soul, Lucky

Kristi Callan in conversation with David Eastaugh

Vocalist and rhythm guitarist originally from Texas. Kristi Callan has performed with Wednesday Week, David Gray, Wondermints, Cruzados, Dave Davies, The Ventures, Big Soul, Lucky, The Roswell Sisters and others. 

Founders of the band were the sisters Kristi and Kelly Callan—daughters of actress K Callan. The sisters formed their first group, The Undeclared, in 1979. The duo evolved into a trio, Goat Deity, in 1980, when they were joined by Steve Wynn. Wynn left to concentrate on his other band, The Dream Syndicate, and Kjehl Johansen (of The Urinals) joined on bass guitar, with the band name changing again to Narrow Adventure. With David Provost replacing Johansen in 1983, the band became Wednesday Week (named after the Undertones song), and they released their debut EP, Betsy's House, later that year.^[1][2] Further lineup changes followed, with Provost being replaced by Heidi Rodewald at the end of 1983, and Tom Alford joining on lead guitar in early 1984. In 1985, David Nolte (of The Last) replaced Alford, giving the band its most stable lineup.

Katell Keineg

Katell Keineg in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://katell.keineg.com/news

https://westhampsteadarts.com/nightery_event/katell-keineg/

Katell Keineg was born in Brittany and was brought up first there and then in Wales.  After graduating from the London School of Economics she moved to Ireland and started gigging, before re-locating to New York in 1992.  She was quickly embraced by the scene around St Mark’s Place’s now legendary Sin-é, building her reputation for ‘conveying a nearly beatific sense of joy in performance’ (Los Angeles Times).  In 1993 she released a seven-inch single, ‘Hestia’ – ‘arcane and beautiful, one of the most extraordinary songs’ (Mojo) – on Bob Mould’s SOL Records label.  That same year, Keineg sang on Iggy Pop’s American Caesar.  He passed a copy of ‘Hestia’ on to Elektra Records, which led to a deal with the label and the release of her acclaimed debut album Ô Seasons Ô Castles in 1994.  

Penny Slinger

Penny Slinger in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://pennyslinger.com/

British-born American artist and author based in California. As an artist, she has worked in different mediums, including photography, film and sculpture. Her work has been described as being in the genres of surrealism and feminist surrealism. Her work explores the nature of the self, the feminine and the erotic

The Man from Delmonte - Mike West

Mike West in conversation with David Eastaugh

The band members had little in common with most Manchester bands. Goody was a graduate of Winchester School of Art. Vincent had been an art critic and painter. Seal, a Glaswegian, was a classically trained musician who had run an art gallery. And West, who wrote the songs, was the Australian-born son of the author Morris West.

The band played many gigs at the Boardwalk club, in Manchester, where they recorded their Big Noise live album in 1989.

West moved to New Orleans to pursue a solo career in the early 1990s.

Jakko Jakszyk - Level 42, King Crimson,

Jakko Jakszyk in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://kingmakerpublishing.com/jakko-m-jakszyk/

Jakko M. Jaksyzk is an award-winning, world-renowned musician, best known for having been a member of Level 42, but most recently, for the past 13 years, lead singer and guitarist with progressive rock founding fathers King Crimson.

Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? is, at first glance,  a traditional rock’n’roll memoir, charting Jakko’s long and varied musical career, packed with eyebrow-raising and hilarious anecdotes about his encounters with everyone from Michael Jackson to Kate Bush and Gene Simmons, Uri Geller, Cliff Richard and the Dali Lama.  Dig a little deeper, however, and it soon becomes clear that this autobiography is much more than that.

Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? is an almanac of entertaining tales from the mid-20th century rock’n’roll, theatre and alternative comedy trenches, all told with great wit and charm.

This is a book about origins, identity and who we become.   It tells the story of an abandoned child who became lost in dreams of becoming a musician and who, with determination, talent and a slice of luck,  ended up working with their childhood heroes. 

Bill Leeb - Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly & Delirium

Bill Leeb in conversation with David Eastaugh

http://www.mindphaser.com/

https://frontlineassembly.bandcamp.com/album/model-kollapse

Electronic musician and record producer. He is best known for being a founding member of the industrial music group Front Line Assembly and Delerium.

Leeb began his musical career with industrial band Skinny Puppy in 1985 under the pseudonym Wilhelm Schroeder, contributing bass synth and occasional backing vocals to a few of their recordings and concerts. He left in 1986 and formed his own industrial project Front Line Assembly with Michael Balch, and later Rhys Fulber and Chris Peterson.

Ian Christie - Khartomb

Ian Christie  in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://khartomb.bandcamp.com/album/swahili-lullaby-teekon-warriors-daisy-high-before-i-die-edition

https://www.khartomb.com/

https://www.youtube.com/khartomb

Khartomb were an English reggae-influenced independent group inspired by The Slits, among other widely-varying sounds of the era, who started up in the 1981 timeframe and featured songwriters Ian Christie (guitar) and Caroline Clayton (bass, vocals, flute), as well as originally Simon (General Gordon) on drums (later on percussion), augmented by Ali Barnes, and Paula Crolla and Karen (surname undisclosed) on vocals. Their only release was a 7 inch on Whaaam! Records, a label run by Dan Treacy of Television Personalities (Swahili Lullaby b/w Teekon Warriors) with Caroline on vocals for Swahili Lullaby, and Paula singing Teekon Warriors. After having been dormant since the early 1980s, Ian and Caroline reformed in the mid-2010s, up through 2019.

Chris Sullivan - Blue Rondo à la Turk

Chris Sullivan in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.thesullivan.net/home

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/blue-rondo-bees-knees-and-chicken-elbows-expanded-2cd-edition?srsltid=AfmBOop68rFMyboq_cMuXbKfDxStVOacJIeB2YGuD-iZUNlgpTsdKf9E

Blue Rondo à la Turk was a floating collective of jazz and salsa oriented musicians, created by singer/lyricist Chris Sullivan who arrived in London from Merthyr Tydfil in the mid 1970s. His stated goal for the band was "to bring back show biz".

In the band’s first interview, Sullivan said of their sound: “Call it Latin American jazz with funk and African leanings – plus a few others because all of us have adventurous musical tastes.” Sullivan co-wrote most of the band's original material; he also painted the distinctive cubist art that adorned most of the band's releases.

 

Mike Batt - Wombles, Art Garfunkel, George Harrison, Cliff Richard, Andrew Lloyd-Webber & Katie Melua

Mike Batt in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.mikebatt.com/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Closest-Thing-Crazy-Musical-Adventures/dp/1785120840

Described variously as a 'polymath', a 'renaissance man' and 'one of the most colourful characters in the music business', Mike Batt has led an extraordinarily vibrant and challenging life that has been full of both glorious victories and bitter failures.

For better or for worse, he is a man who has always lived life on his own terms. Idiosyncratic but mainstream, complicated but compassionate, steadfastly maverick in spirit but avowedly commercial in outlook. He is a man of great contradictions, but even greater talent.

After starting out in the music business as a teenager, Batt shot to fame in the early 1970s for his part in the creation of the Wombles pop group. But this success proved to be just the beginning as he then went on to work with various artists as a songwriter, composer and producer, including Art Garfunkel, George Harrison, Cliff Richard, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Katie Melua.

Featuring cameos from some of the biggest stars in the business from Paul McCartney to Prince, The Closest Thing to Crazy takes us not only on the rocky (and classical) journey of Mike Batt's life but also on a tour around the inside of his mind.

Mumps - Paul Rutner

Paul Rutner in conversation with David Eastaugh

Mumps were a popular band at clubs such as Max's Kansas City and CBGB. They also performed at Irving Plaza and Maxwell's (Hoboken, New Jersey), and opened for the Ramones at Hurrah in August 1978. Their concerts were lively and featured energetic, expressive performances from Lance Loud and other band members on songs like "We're Americans", "I Believe In Anyone But You", "Strange Seed", "Brain Massage", "Scream and Scream Again".

Their first 45 record single was "I Like To Be Clean", backed by "Crocodile Tears" on Bomp Records. Their second was "Rock & Roll This & That" with two B-sides: "Muscleboys" and "That Fatal Charm". The recorded version of "Rock & Roll This & That" interpolated a short guitar riff from the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", but in live performances, they would interpolate other riffs such as David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel". In spite of these two independently produced singles, they failed to secure a contract with a major record label, notably being told "'We don’t want ‘the gay band'" by A&M

David Bash - International Pop Overthrow

David Bash in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://internationalpopoverthrow.com/

The festival is dedicated to bring classic pop music to the public, and is run by CEO and founder David Bash and Rina Bardfield. Although the festival has over the years featured several major label acts, such as Phantom Planet, Maroon 5 (under their previous incarnation, Kara's Flowers), and The Click Five, Bash tries to maintain the grassroots feel of the festival by featuring primarily unsigned bands, and presenting them in a festival platform with similar minded artists.

Jez Willis - Utah Saints, MDMA, Surfin Dave And The Absent Legends, The Cassandra Complex,

Jez Willis in conversation with David Eastaugh

http://utahsaints.com/

Utah Saints were described as "the first true stadium house band" by the KLF's Bill Drummond, though their music is difficult to place into one genre. The dance group originally met as music promoters and DJs for the Mix Nightclub in Harrogate in the early 1990s. They began as MDMA, featuring two former The Cassandra Complex members Jez Willis and Keith Langley, along with Bobby Rae and guitarist Martin Scott. Willis started The Utah Saints with the addition of Tim Garbutt

Raymond Watts aka PIG, The Hit Parade, Clones & Schwein

Raymond Watts in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.pigindustries.com/

Following hot on the heels of his new album ‘Red Room’ (released in May 2024), industrial rock mainstay Raymond Watts aka PIG has today reissued a fully remastered version of his seminal mid-‘90s album ‘Sinsation’ via Metropolis Records (CD, digital) and Armalyte Industries (deluxe 2xLP vinyl). Out of print for almost three decades, it makes a timely reappearance just ahead of a North American tour.

'Sinsation' was originally released in 1995 on Nothing Records, the label established by Nine Inch Nails kingpin Trent Reznor, and not long after PIG had opened for NIN at a number of shows. Nothing was an influential and commercially successful label with a cult underground following that also issued records by Marilyn Manson, Squarepusher, Autechre, Meat Beat Manifesto, Pop Will Eat Itself, Einstürzende Neubauten and Plaid, as well as NIN themselves.