C86 Show - Indie Pop

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.

The Church - Steve Kilbey

Steve Kilbey in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.thechurchband.com/

https://kilbeykennedy.bandcamp.com/

https://stevekilbey.bandcamp.com/

https://easyaction.co.uk/product/the-church-eros-zeta-the-perfumed-guitars-cd/

Richard King - Arthur Russell

Richard King in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571379668-travels-over-feeling/

An icon of New York’s downtown music scene is brought vividly to life in this tapestry of archive and oral history’ Guardian

The music of Arthur Russell defies classification. Across a twenty-year career he created a body of work which ranged from his pioneering compositions as part of the New York avant-garde alongside artists including Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg, to his genre-expanding disco and art pop productions, to his posthumously released folk songs.

Travels Over Feeling is the result of extensive research by author Richard King, curating the ephemera and documentation found in both Arthur’s and other private archives, and consists of hand-written scores, lyrics, photos, letters and drawings. Throughout, King has conducted wide-ranging original interviews with Arthur’s collaborators, contemporaries, family and friends. The resulting book reveals a true picture of one of the most distinctive artists of the last fifty years.

 

Micky Greaney

Micky Greaney in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://mickygreaney.bandcamp.com/album/and-now-its-all-this

'Lost' album from Birmingham singer-songwriter Micky Greaney, originally recorded 1995-6, and now finally getting a release with all the loving care that we have come to expect from midlands independent label Seventeen Records. Elegantly arranged folk-rock that reminds us of Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake and the Kinks. 

 

Blowzabella - Chris Gunstone

Chris Gunstone in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://orkestargrupapecalbari.bandcamp.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawE9yq5leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZDm_3cVz11MGq5Cl4V4A9WTzbFiU5-ifB_lYJCBT3RfOJPnN8wUwgt5tA_aem_avFXoze_4IGrhh50EjqT_Q

Blowzabella was formed in Whitechapel, London in 1978 by original members Bill O'Toole, Jon Swayne, Chris Gunstone,Dave Armitage and Juan Wijngaard. When the band first formed, Swayne, O'Toole, and Armitage were studying woodwind instrument making at the London College of Furniture, while Sam Palmer (joined Blowzabella in May 1979) had recently finished the course and had already began a career making hurdy-gurdies.

Marco Pirroni - Adam & The Ants, Rema-Rema, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Models & The Wolfmen

Marco Pirroni in conversation with David Eastaugh

Pirroni was lead guitarist and co-songwriter in the second incarnation of Adam and the Ants, co-penning two UK number ones and a further four 10 hits, with Ant. The two albums he co-wrote for Adam and the Ants, Kings of the Wild Frontier and Prince Charming, both made the Top 10 in the ("Kings" number 1; "Prince Charming" number 2).

When Adam and the Ants disbanded in 1982, Pirroni was retained as Adam Ant's co-writer and studio guitarist; they produced another number-one single ("Goody Two Shoes") and an album (Friend or Foe), followed by four more Top 20 hits. Ant and Pirroni won two shared Ivor Novello Awards for "Stand and Deliver".

 

Peter Prescott - Mission Of Burma, The Molls, Volcano Suns, Kustomized & Minibeast

Peter Prescott in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://minibeast.bandcamp.com/

American post-punk band from Boston, Massachusetts. The group formed in 1979 with Roger Miller on guitar, Clint Conley on bass, Peter Prescott on drums, and Martin Swope contributing audiotape manipulation and acting as the band’s sound engineer. In this initial lineup, Miller, Conley, and Prescott all shared singing and songwriting duties.

Happydeadmen - Magnus Karlsson

Magnus Karlsson in conversation with David Eastaugh

Happydeadmen were one of the first Swedish acts to have been given credit for inspiring the '90s explosion of pop acts. With the thank-you list that includes The Cardigans and Popsicle, Happydeadmen's melody of charming indie glee debuted in 1988. With their first full-length, "Eleven Pop Songs" (1990), and "Game, Set, Match" (1993) independently released, Happydeadmen would spend a part of 1995 touring Japan before their follow-up album, "Bullfights Every Sunday", came out two years later. After settling down the line-up in 1997 with Jan Hedin (vocals/guitar), Magnus Karlsson (guitar), Roger Kjellgren (bass), and Thomas Kristoffersson (drums), SummerSound Recordings eventually compiled a Happydeadmen best-of album to celebrate their ten-year existence. The fittingly titled "Happydeadmen Classics: A Decade in Pop" was released in January of 1999. ~ Mike DaRonco, Rovi

Line-up:
Jan Hedin - Vocals and acoustic guitar
Magnus Karlsson - Electric guitar
Roger Kjellgren - Bass
Thomas Kristoffersson - Drums
Patrik Jonsfjord - Electric guitar (1994-97)

Peter Crowley - Max's Kansas City

Peter Crowley in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-at-Maxs-Peter-Crowley/dp/B0D7QR4F6Y

https://www.farwestpress.com/far-west-books/p/down-at-maxs-peter-crowley

Peter Crowley, the music curator of Max's Kansas City, tells it like it is in his first volume of stories. A teenage runaway from Vermont who has seen it all from the West Village in the 1960s to the color sound of California to managing and booking bands during the punk explosion of the 1970s. Like a beer for a breakfast, a reflection on what it was really like to be there (you know where). From someone who was.

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Don Pyle

Don Pyle in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://shadowymen.bandcamp.com/album/dim-the-lights-chill-the-ham

Pyle's first group was a punk band called Crash Kills Five, which was active from 1979 to 1981. Crash Kills Five released one EP in 1980, titled What Do You Do At Night?. It was in this four piece band that Pyle first played with two members, Reid Diamond and Brian Connelly, who would later become his bandmates in Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet were together for eleven years; during this time, they recorded three LPs and thirteen EPs and became widely known when the song "Having An Average Weekend" became the theme for the Canadian sketch comedy television series The Kids in the Hall.

Michael Alago

Michael Alago in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.michaelalago.com/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Am-Michael-Alago-Breathing-Metallica/dp/1617137251

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgTBj2Zbr0w

Musician, nightlife impresario, record label executive, photographer, and author, Michael Alago takes readers through this amazing journey that is his life. Alago grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in a large, spirited, and devoted Puerto Rican family. Through his early passion for music, art, theater, and photography, he soon found himself rubbing elbows with many downtown NYC scene makers, from Stiv Bators to Jean Michel Basquiat, Cherry Vanilla and Wayne County to Deborah Harry and Robert Mapplethorpe. As an underage teenager going to Max's Kansas City, CBGB, and various art galleries, Alago also began running The Dead Boys fan club. A few years later, he became the assistant music director for legendary nightclubs the Ritz and the Red Parrot. At age twenty-four, he began a storied career as an A&R executive at Elektra Records that started with signing Metallica in the summer of 1984, changing the entire landscape of rock 'n' roll and heavy metal. Alago continued to work in A&R for both Palm Pictures and Geffen Records. He was thrilled to executive-produce albums by Cyndi Lauper, Public Image Ltd, White Zombie, and Nina Simone. 

The March Violets - Tom Ashton & Mat Thorpe

Tom Ashton & Mat Thorpe in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.marchvioletsband.com/

https://marchvioletsband.bandcamp.com/album/crocodile-promises

Crocodile Promises, the all new album from legendary post-punk/goth rock act The March Violets builds upon the band's 40 year legacy. Founding members Rosie Garland and Tom Ashton are now joined by bassist Mat Thorpe. Crocodile Promises finds the March Violets in top form, creating a reinvigorated take on it's trademark boundary-shredding goth-tinged post punk.

Laura Davis-Chanin - Student Teachers

Laura Davis-Chanin in conversation with David Eastaugh

http://backbeatbooks.com/books/9781617136870

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Infinite-Dreams-Life-Alan-Vega/dp/149307248X

Winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award for Excellence in Writing and named in Billboard's top 10 Music books of 2018 for her book, "The Girl in the Back," Laura is pursuing her second love, writing. Her first love, her daughters, bring her eternal sunshine everyday. Her second book, "I am Michael Alago," about the unique and remarkable person who brought Metallica to the world as well as Nina Simone's last album, was released in 2020 on Backbeat Books.

Just completed a biography of Alan Vega, front man for the band, Suicide, entitled "Infinite Dreams: The Life of Alan Vega" - released August 2024, while she finishes her novel based on true events entitled "A Finished Noise".