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

From the dub sound systems of 1970s Ladbroke Grove to Killing Joke, The Orb, Paul McCartney’s Fireman project and Pink Floyd’s The Endless River, few musicians have moved through as many worlds as Youth (Martin Glover). In this conversation with Jason Barnard, Youth discusses the CHANT Artist Collective’s new release, Relics Of Tree Worship In Dub (Gaudi & Don Letts Roots Dub Plates), and explains why he still calls dub “an endless river” of reinvention.

He goes back to Gooseberry Sound Studios and the John Lydon-produced 4″ Be 2″ session that set him on a path into music, his departure from Killing Joke, the birth of The Orb and “Little Fluffy Clouds,” and what pulled him into the studio with Kate Bush, James, Crowded House, Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd.

Further information

Relics Of Tree Worship In Dub (Gaudi & Don Letts Roots Dub Plates)

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Podcasts also available: Trevor Horn, Dave Ball – Soft Cell, Andy Gill – Gang of Four, Glen Matlock

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

The post Youth: From Dub and Killing Joke to The Orb, Paul McCartney & Pink Floyd appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Allan Clarke started The Hollies with Graham Nash as a teenager, copying other people’s records at Abbey Road. He left the group, came back, then left again, and along the way his voice carried the group through four decades.

Jason Barnard sat down with Allan again to talk through his new single “Walking On Still Waters,” a decades-long search through faith, the stroke he’s been recovering from, his wife Jenny who got him through the hardest years, and what the future holds for The Hollies and their legacy. Clarke also explains how “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” came together with Roger Cook in half an hour, why he’s glad Carl Wayne was first to front The Hollies after he left, and how he ended up singing lead on tracks for Steve Howe, Alan Parsons, and Carla Olson.

Further information

“Walking On Still Waters” by Allan Clarke is out now

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Podcasts also available: Allan Clarke – The Hollies (2023), Allan Clarke (2014) – Part 1, Allan Clarke (2014) – Part 2, Bobby Elliot – The Hollies, Mikael Rikfors – The Hollies, Roger Cook

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

The post Allan Clarke appeared first on The Strange Brew .

John Leckie joins The Strange Brew to talk through the Dukes of Stratosphear story, from his first sight of a young XTC through to the new Dolby Atmos edition of the complete Dukes recordings.

Leckie was the Abbey Road staff engineer who cut XTC’s 3D EP in three days, then White Music at the Manor, then Go 2 and the dub experiments released as Take Away / The Lure of Salvage under Andy Partridge’s Mr Partridge alias (later gathered on the Explode Together compilation). He explains how that dub habit of pulling a mix apart and rebuilding it shaped his production work and the Dukes sound years later.

He talks through the years between, freelancing after leaving Abbey Road in 1978, work with Simple Minds and Bill Nelson, the Lost Jockey orchestral project, a spell in the Rajneesh commune, and how a collapsed Mary Margaret O’Hara session left Andy Partridge with six spare weeks of studio time, which became 25 O’Clock. Leckie recalls the Chapel in Hampton Bishop, the sound effects tape run live during mixing so nobody knew what would come up when a fader was raised, and the move two years on to Psonic Psunspot at the boat-access-only Sawmills in Cornwall.

Further information

Psurroundabout Ride (Dolby Atmos)

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Podcasts also available: John Leckie on producing Be Bop Deluxe, Terry Chambers, Colin Moulding – Part 1, Colin Moulding – Part 2, Dave Mattacks

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

The post John Leckie on XTC and The Dukes of Stratosphear appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Steve Hackett and Steve Rothery discuss their joint album The Roaring Waves. They explore creative process behind it, their individual artistic histories in Genesis and Marillion, and their respective plans for future work. The conversation ranged from the nautical themes of the album and how it was assembled, to the broader philosophy of progressive music, the influence of early prog and blues-rock guitar heroes, and the personal and professional circumstances that shaped their life in music.

Further information

The Roaring Waves

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Podcasts also available: Steve Hackett – The Lamb Stands Up interview, Steve Hackett on Genesis Revisited and Hackett Highlights, Steve Hackett – on solo career and Genesis, Steve Rothery – Marillion

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

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Mari Wilson was the beehived voice behind “Just What I Always Wanted”, the Neasden Queen of Soul who fronted the Wilsations, supported Roxy Music and appeared on Top of the Pops. Then a second album stalled, and she could see where pop stardom was heading: cabaret, built around a medley of her hits. So she turned her back on it and walked away, into jazz clubs, Ronnie Scott’s, the West End stage, and eventually a solo career that has outlasted the pop machine she left behind.

Four decades on, Mari joins Jason Barnard to talk about Girl About Town, her first full album of original songs since 2008, written with longtime collaborator Adrian York. They trace that reinvention from Top of the Pops to Ronnie Scott’s, with Mari talking openly about being pigeonholed by the beehive and why she still believes leaving pop at that time was the right call.

Further information

mariwilson.co.uk

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Podcasts also available: Judie Tzuke, Kiki Dee, Dave Ball – Soft Cell, Martin Fry – ABC

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

The post Mari Wilson appeared first on The Strange Brew .