C86 Show - Indie Pop

John Porter special - The Smiths, Roxy Music & much more

John Porter special - The Smiths, Roxy Music & much more - talking about his life in music with David Eastaugh

Porter met singer Bryan Ferry, and was part of his fledgling band The Gas Board. Ferry's later band Roxy Music had achieved success in the early 1970s, but having had some troubles with bass players, Ferry invited Porter on board to record the 1973 album For Your Pleasure. Porter went on to serve as a record producer for many later albums for Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry. Porter is credited with the production of Liverpool's Watt 4 album at Matrix Studios in 1979.

He has since produced for The Smiths, Billy Bragg, The Blades, Microdisney, School of Fish, B. B. King, Los Lonely Boys, Buddy Guy, Ryan Adams, Missy Higgins and numerous other bands. 

 

The Nivens from Northumberland with Peter Martin

The Nivens from Northumberland special with Peter Martin with David Eastaugh 

The Nivens from Northumberland existed between 1987 to 1990. Recording for the excellent Woosh label, Their debut 'Yesterday' hit the indie top ten in January 1989.

Indie pop band from Cramlington, Northumberland, UK. Not to be confused with The Nivens from Norwich, UK who recorded at the same time for the French Danceteria label.

Basti & Globo special with Steve Appleton

Basti & Globo special with Steve Appleton in conversation with David Eastaugh

Basti was formed in the late 1980s by members of The Herman Herd and Eva Valve. The two bands used to share a rehearsal space and were both very active in the Norwich Venue Campaign at around that time. Most of the members were also involved in The Waterfront. When Basti split up in 1993, four of the members went on to form Globo.

Thea Gilmore also known as Afterlight - in conversation

Thea Gilmore also known as Afterlight -  in conversation with David Eastaugh 

Thea Eve Gilmore  also known as Afterlight, is an English singer-songwriter. She has released more than twenty albums since her 1998 debut Burning Dorothy. She has had three Top 40 entries on the UK Albums Chart and one on the UK Singles Chart. Her first album as Afterlight will be released in 2021.

Gilmore has announced two albums to be released in September 2021: The Emancipation of Eva Grey and Afterlight. According to Gilmore's website, "[the two albums'] songs share the same subject matter", with Emancipation being the last album to be produced under the name "Thea Gilmore", and Afterlight being the first produced by the "newly personified Afterlight".

Blueboy special with Paul Stewart

Blueboy special with Paul Stewart in conversation with David Eastaugh

 

Blueboy formed around 1989 and initially consisted of Keith Girdler (on vocals) and Paul Stewart (on guitars), formerly of little-known band Feverfew. They soon signed to Sarah Records, releasing the home-recorded single "Clearer" in 1991, and took on more members, including singer/cellist Gemma Townley and second guitarist Harvey Williams (of The Field Mice/Another Sunny Day).

"Clearer" was followed by several singles and two albums on Sarah, If Wishes Were Horses and Unisex. In October 1994, Blueboy recorded a session for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show.^[3] Their final release, The Bank of England, was released in 1998 on Sarah head Matt Haynes' new label, Shinkansen Recordings. By then, Girdler and Stewart were the only original members of the band. Girdler and Stewart were also involved in two other bands, Arabesque and Beaumont,^[1] and Girdler also recorded with Lovejoy. Townley later joined Trembling Blue Stars, as did Williams.

Power of Dreams special with Craig Walker

Power of Dreams special with Craig Walker in conversation with David Eastaugh

Power of Dreams released their critically acclaimed first EP A Little Piece of God,^[1] on Keith Cullen's London-based Setanta Records in 1989, while Walker was still at school. Following a six-figure bidding war between rival record labels, the band signed a deal with Polydor Records. In December 1989, the British music magazine NME picked Power of Dreams, along with others such as Carter USM and the Charlatans, as their "stars of tomorrow".

Blue Orchids & The Fall special with Martin Bramah

Blue Orchids & The Fall with Martin Bramah 

 

Blue Orchids are an English post-punk band formed in Manchester in 1979, when Martin Bramah decided to quit The Fall after playing on the band's debut album Live at the Witch Trials. Christened by Salford-based punk poet John Cooper Clarke the band recorded for Rough Trade and acted as backing band for the Velvet Underground's Nico before a 25-year period of intermittent activity and alternative identities.

Quentin Budworth in conversation

Quentin Budworth in conversation with David Eastaugh

Quentin Budworth is famous for playing Hurdy-Gurdy with Celtarabia and recently collaborated with Lou Duffy-Howard of the Red Guitars to form Agent Startling, their  debut album, European Howl was released May 2021

Agent Starling are Quentin Budworth hurdy-gurdy and Lou Loudhailer voices & other instruments. Recorded in the first three months of 2021, European Howl also features Dexter Duffy-Howard on violin and cello. Recorded in Yorkshire UK by Agent Starling, the album was mastered in Oregon by Kevin Carafa.

The album is influenced by musical traditions from nations across Europe. A mix of instrumental pieces, spoken word and songs, themes range from a miscellany of Greek Tales (Wine Dark Sea), an elegy by a dying lover (Requiem) to Helicopter Arms, inspired by the glorious gurdy tune at the heart of the song.

The Three O'Clock special with Michael Quercio

The Three O'Clock special with Michael Quercio in conversation with David Eastaugh

The Three O'Clock is an American alternative rock group associated with the Los Angeles 1980s Paisley Underground scene. Lead singer and bassist Michael Quercio is credited with coining the term "Paisley Underground" to describe a subset of the 1980s L.A. music scene which included bands such as Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green on Red, the Long Ryders and the Bangles.

The Bevis Frond special with Nick Saloman

The Bevis Frond special with Nick Saloman in conversation with David Eastaugh

Saloman was originally in a band known as the Bevis Frond Museum in the late 1960s, and in the 1970s, whilst at college, he played guitar with a duo called Oddsocks. They released one album, Men of the Moment. In 1979 he formed a band called the Von Trap Family, who released the first single on his own Woronzow Records label. The early Von Trap Family recordings, comprising three sessions, were released on the Bevis Frond Bandcamp site for the first time in May 2010. The next release on Woronzow was in 1982, a 12" single by Room 13 with Saloman on guitar and future Bevis Frond drummer Martin Crowley. After Room 13 reached the end of its natural life, Nick Saloman had a bad motorbike accident that left him with a constriction of movement in his left arm. True to form, he had the arm set so that he could continue playing guitar.

Gallon Drunk, The Flaming Stars & Nikki Sudden special with Max Décharné

 

Gallon Drunk, The Flaming Stars & Nikki Sudden special with Max Décharné in conversation with David Eastaugh

In his musical career, Décharné has released eleven albums and something in the region of twenty singles since 1989. He played drums with his friend Nikki Sudden before joining Gallon Drunk in 1991, with whom he toured the world. Since 1994, he has been the singer and principal songwriter with The Flaming Stars. In a long and varied career in the music business, he has also recorded nine John Peel Sessions and played shows all across the US, Canada, virtually every country in Europe and also in Japan. One of his songs made the 1995 John Peel Festive Fifty (Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by The Flaming Stars), then two more of his songs were in the 1996 John Peel Festive Fifty (Ten Feet Tall and The Face On The Bar Room Floor, both by The Flaming Stars).

The Erasers with David Ebony

The Erasers with David Ebony  in conversation with David Eastaugh

The Erasers were part of the ‘70s CBGB art-punk scene that included Television and Richard Hell, and though they made a brief appearance on a (long out-of-print) 1982 ROIR compilation, their music and history were lost for decades to everyone outside of a very small circle of critics, collectors, and old punks. But their one excellent, off-kilter single (“Funny/I Won’t Give Up”) is one of the standouts on Numero Group’s comprehensive, painstakingly curated Ork Records: New York, New York box set, which was released to well-deserved acclaim late last year.

The Erasers began around 1974, the brainchild of artists Susan Springfield (guitar, vocals) and Jane Fire (drums), who both saw the fine art world they were embedded in as too economically exclusive. “I wanted to do something in a more populist way,” Springfield says. “Fine art as I was doing it – you know, making paintings – you spend so much time on them that you can’t just sell them cheaply, and so at the end of the day I felt like if I continued to pursue [an] art career, I would only be able to sell it to rich people, because I would have to get enough money to support myself. Music, on the other hand – you can make that available – it was more immediate, and at that time the shows were, like, two bucks.” Fire calls their philosophy as a band “the dematerialization of art in the extreme.”

Global Village Trucking Company special with James Lascelles

Global Village Trucking Company with James Lascelles in conversation with David Eastaugh

Lascelles was a co-founder of the Global Village Trucking Company, known to its fans as "The Globs", in the early 1970s. The band, the road crew and their families all lived together in a commune in an old farmhouse in Sotherton, Suffolk,^[2][3] and undertook numerous benefit concerts and free festivals, playing extended free-form jams,^[4] making them a well known UK live act. The band shunned record companies, but played on the Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall benefit album at Dingwalls in 1973, and in November 1974 they recorded an eponymous album at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales.

In 1973 the BBC made a documentary about Global Village Trucking Company, their communal living and their aim to make it without a record company. The BBC updated the documentary for the What Happened Next series, shown in May 2008, which included their first gig in 30 years.^[5] This re-union led to other Global Village gigs at Glastonbury 2008 and other festivals.

Keith Christmas in conversation

Keith Christmas  in conversation with David Eastaugh

English singer and songwriter. In 1969, his first album, Stimulus, was released. Christmas played acoustic guitar on David Bowie's Space Oddity album, and appeared at the first Glastonbury Festival in 1970.

Through the 1970s he released four more albums, Fable Of The Wings, Pigmy, Brighter Day and Stories From The Human Zoo, while touring with and supporting bands such as The Who, King Crimson, Ten Years After, Frank Zappa, Roxy Music, Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart and The Kinks.

Breathless with Dominic Appleton

Breathless with Dominic Appleton in conversation with David Eastaugh

English band formed in 1983 by Dominic Appleton (vocals, keyboards), Gary Mundy (guitar), Ari Neufeld (bass) and Tristram Latimer Sayer (drums). Across nearly four decades, Breathless have released seven studio albums, one compilation album and 13 singles and EPs, all on their own label, Tenor Vossa Records.

Their music has been described as "melancholic", with AllMusic's Ned Raggett calling the band "underappreciated" and saying "the majority of Breathless' work has squarely fit into a lush vein of haunting, epic music unafraid of a moody theatricality".

Daisy Chainsaw & Queenadreena special with Crispin Gary

Daisy Chainsaw & Queenadreena special with Crispin Gary in conversation with David Eastaugh

English guitarist and songwriter. Best known for his bands Daisy Chainsaw and Queenadreena,^[1][2] Gray has also played with Dizzy Q Viper, Vapid Dolly and The Dogbones. He is currently a member of Starsha Lee. His great uncle was British poet John Gray, allegedly the inspiration for Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Currently recording with Starsha Lee

 

Jerry Rubin special with Pat Thomas

Pat Thomas talking about the life of Jerry Rubin & his book Did It! with David Eastaugh

First biography of the infamous and ubiquitous Jerry Rubin- ”co-founder of the Yippies, Anti-Vietnam War activist, Chicago 8 defendant, social-networking pioneer, and a proponent of the Yuppie era”but a visual retrospective, with countless candid photos, personal diaries, and lost newspaper clippings. It includes correspondence with Abbie Hoffman, Norman Mailer, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Eldridge Cleaver, the Weathermen etc

The Bevis Frond with Nick Saloman

The Bevis Frond with Nick Saloman in conversation with David Eastaugh

The Bevis Frond is an English rock band formed in 1986 in London, England. The band is fronted by Nick Saloman and has recorded many singles and albums on various independent labels.

Saloman was originally in a band known as the Bevis Frond Museum in the late 1960s, and in the 1970s, whilst at college, he played guitar with a duo called Oddsocks. They released one album, Men of the Moment. In 1979 he formed a band called the Von Trap Family, who released the first single on his own Woronzow Records label. The early Von Trap Family recordings, comprising three sessions, were released on the Bevis Frond Bandcamp site for the first time in May 2010.

Barney Hoskyns

Barney Hoskyns in conversation talking about his life in music and new book God is in the Radio with David Eastaugh 

 

Barney Hoskyns is the co-founder and editorial director of Rock's Backpages, the online library of pop writing and journalism. He began writing for NME in the early '80s and is a former contributing editor at British Vogue and U.S. correspondent for MOJO

Country Teasers with Ben Wallers

Country Teasers with Ben Wallers in conversation with David Eastaugh

Country Teasers were an art punk band formed in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1993. Frontman Ben Wallers also performs solo as The Rebel. He plays live shows with a Gameboy backing-track or accompanied by Country Teasers bassist Sophie Politowicz on drums. Long-time members of Country Teasers include songwriter B.R. Wallers (vocals, guitar), Leighton Crook (drums), Robert McNeill (guitar, synth), Alastair MacKinven (guitar), Sophie Politowicz (bass guitar, drums). Original members of the band include playwright Simon Stephens (bass guitar), Alan Crichton (guitar), Eck King (drums), Lawrence Worthington (drums).

Wallers has been releasing music under various guises since 1995. He is best known for being part of the group Country Teasers, formed in Scotland in the mid 1990s.

 Country Teasers bassist Sophie Politowicz plays drums in live performances and features on various Rebel recordings. The pair also play together in the band The Devil.