Can I Pod With Madness - Kerrang, Metal Hammer and Rock in the 80s

Can I Psych With Madness Revisited!

It's the Return of the Psychedelic Warlords: Taking another detour back into the Age of Psychedelia, I’m once again joined by my pal of many years to talk some shit about the sixties (and the nineties, which is when we were mostly obsessed with the sixties). Carping about the sound quality of early Small Faces CD reissues, seeking out Donovan rarities and yet another link between Jefferson Airplane and Star Wars.

The phrase "British Sex Comedy" rightly fills most people with a sense of grim foreboding, but in this episode, we're finally getting around to talking about the finest movie of 1968, Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, featuring Mind Your Language’s Barry Evans, All Creatures Great and Small’s Christopher Timothy and a gaggle of squeaky voiced groovy sixties babes. Even though we were 25 years removed from that milieu, we somehow related hard to this slice of Psych-adjacent Brit Cheese.

We uncover a T. Rex connection, and also manage to crowbar Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, and a definitive rating of the Grunge superhunks into the conversation.

PWM79 recorded August 23, 2026

It's April 1989, it's Kerrang 247, so we're sifting through the dying embers of the 1980s. In this episode!

The Moscow Music Peace Festival!

Top Gun vs Iron Eagle!

Cycle Sluts from Hell!

Chainmail stockings!

Boyzone torture!

Suicidal Tendencies vs Rick Astley!

Hard n Heavy volume 2!

Batman vs Iron Man!

A punk anecdote that one of us finds extremely distressing!

Decorating Desires!

Halloween plans gone awry!

Kerrang 247, April 16 1989 - PWM78 recorded August 23, 2026

Are you sure these aren’t Terry Scott’s winners?

No Kerrang (again), but check this out, we played D&D in a castle!* After inexplicably winning in a Comic Relief prize draw, we were off for a weekend of nerdy fun, and have prepared a full report for you.

Massive thanks to @ComicRelief @Walworth_Castle @Kynren, @DnDWizards and most of all our fantastic Dungeon Master David Knight of @NoSmallRolls and @SupportingMythicMinds for running a fantastic game, bringing the whole thing to life, and, crucially, not making our non nerdy friends run for the hills.

*Not, I hasten to add “D&D in a Castle” - an actual thing where you go on a 4 day retreat and pay a phenomenal amount of money to nerd out surrounded by halberds and butteresses and such-  although we *were* in the castle they do D&D in a Castle in! 

Incidentally if @DnDinaCastle want to give us some complimentary tickets in return for a completely impartial review HIT US UP!

PWM 77 Recorded 4th September 2026

*While we did *not* hear Nickelback in the new Spider-Man movie, we can confirm the presence of St. Elmo's Fire by Brian Eno, from Another Green World, for about 3 seconds.

Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you, especially if you remember the heady days of October 1982. John Cougar/Mellencamp is getting chippy about”real” Rock n’ Roll and Lee Aaron is BEING SEXUALLY PROVOCATIVE which may or may not involve shadow puppets.

Neil Young might be patient zero of grunge, but in ‘82 he was all about modern technology - we examine whether this was influenced by his encounters with the indigenous population of Tatooine. In other news Aerosmith are well and truly in their Wilderness Years, and the comeback is several years off, but Steven Tyler is still full of piss and vinegar. Mostly piss.

Elsewhere there's a report on the Genesis Reunion concert and that means once again I'm trying to educate Mrs PWM on the idiosyncrasies of progressive rock. Peter Gabriel may be once again donning the flower, but Phil Collins is overworking himself to the point that we question whether he has a problem saying no to stuff. 

We also get into Klassifieds and endless mentions of Denim, and there's Kommunication asking whether leather is essential to rockin’. 

Be warned, the full unexpurgated splurge of this conversation is available over on the Patreon so if you want to hear some more recommendations, reviews and listener mail, plus Bowie, Big Brother and our Queen of Hearts, Kinga, get over there and sign up!

Kerrang 27 Oct 21st - Nov 3rd 1982 - PWM75 recorded 17th July 2026

Because we’re a 90s bitch, we’re checking out Kerrang from October ‘91. Extreme - are NOT on the cover but Nuno Bettencourt is. Don’t relax, girls, he looks pretty much the same now. Guns N’ Roses are going through some right shenanigans at the moment, Izzy’s about to leave and they’ve just put out Get in the Ring so if *that* doesn’t silence their critics I don’t know what will! We follow up our investigation into Poison’s I Want Action lawsuit from about a million podcasts ago - and the outcome is pretty much what you’d expect.

We note a SHOCKING connection between Mötley Crüe and Jethro Tull, dig up a Bad News cover version and read some very angry Kommunikations

A Bee Gees deep dive, reappraisals of Sex and The City and Cry Baby, and we’re going on about Rock of Love yet again. Homina Homina!

Also! Talkin’ Pointz on MCR’s Common People, Skywalkers, Mary Magdalene’s skull and postal feces. And some HOT recommendations from our recent viewing. And we give our final verdict on racism (it sucks).

Kerrang 361 Oct 1991 - PWM74 recorded 4th July 2026

Rock ‘n’ Roll Slut!

It’s a Maiden Month at Kerrang, in which Steve Harris gets low key insulted on the cover, but the mag is talking up Seventh Son of a Seventh Son like nobody’s business, so that’s all right. Prog metal puffery, and some ludicrous statements by Bruce Dickinson aside, we’ve got a Kommunicae from Nikki Sixx, Rush on tour, Judas Priest’s brush with Hollywood, and an introduction to the most panties-removingest bands from LA this month. And what’s Tiny Tim up to these days?

In addition there’s stuff about pigs, scary theatre, sexy drummers, yuppie rock and giant dandelions. Also (on the extended Patreon edition) we’ve got another AMAZING Can I Pod With Madness Quiz which, if you play along, you’re sure to do better than we did.

Tales of Terror!

If you LOVE Can I Pod With Madness but hate all the Kerrang stuff, have I got the podcast for you. Yes we don't get to the magazine this week, so, y'know, it's one of *those*. 

Fresh off a deep dive into the Shudder portfolio we've got some reviews (of the “trying to remember what happened in this one” variety) which leads us into true life tales of mystery and terror. Or at least childhood fears. 

A new Mandela Effect/Parallel Universe/False Memory has dropped and we're here to investigate. Are we going to buy an EVP recorder and become full time ghost hunters? Or just sit around and jibber jabber about pop culture nonsense? Not only that but we have a genuinely scary tale of elephant based terror.

In other news we saw Michael: a series of fake noses, and recall MJ's disappointing floating statue. Also: Labyrinth in Concert - several Jareths, a handful of worms but surprisingly more glitter and Junk Ladies than we remembered. And some Bucks Fizz appreciation!

Keep it para!

PWM72 recorded 7 May 2026

Watering can news! When we're not giving you the excruciating details about our garden, we're looking at Kerrang 619 from October 1996. It's the most downery, cancelled motherfuckers filled issue we've had yet BUT we're still keeping it light!

Helloween almost get Deep Kutz status AND we realise Coachella is probably not as good as Donnington ‘88.

Korn are our cover stars but never mind that, there's a FREE TAPE which has a succession of the most 90s ass rockers imaginable. Imperial Drag takes us back to a mix CD from the early days of our relationship and we recall a time before Reef were the “It's Your Letters” guys.

Nine Inch Nails’ Quake soundtrack is fondly remembered along with Command and Conquer and Force Commander. Only 90s gamer kids will understand. 

Also! Aerosmith in therapy! Alice in Chains on hiatus! Twelve Monkeys confusion! Pat Boone goes RAWK! Also the astonishing revelation of the reason why one of us likes impenetrable Prog metallers Tool.

We end on some Patreon shoutouts and a feature that *would* be a great ongoing strand. But probably won't, for the obvious reason.

PWM71 recorded 20th April 2026

Nobody Reads in That Band, Dude!

Here’s another BONUS POD (Or if you’re not a Patreon - a PREVIEW of a BONUS POD) and we’re returning to Metal Hammer 256, from May 2014. Fear not though, we’re not touching on modern music (from 12 years ago)  - most of this issue is centred around a celebration of 1984, and our guides are Steel Panther, so you know, you can imagine what *that’s* gonna be like. Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, Dio, Maiden - all the stuff we usually cover, it’s just now “Classic Rock”. In addition we’ve got Cradle of Filth, fondly looking back over their glittering, splattered in faeces career, and Zakk Wylde who “outs himself as an unlikely feminist”.

We delve into the best videos of 1984, ponder the future of music, and ask if it’s possible to release a concept album about a Disney character and not get sued. 

All this and the usual stuff: hamster updates, arguments about the rules of Battleships, Buffy talk, spot the mystery quote, and our new obsession, the Amazon adjacent horror streaming service Shudder. This is now a Shudder fan podcast.

PWM70 Recorded 29th March 2026

Full tracklist for the Patreon version:

Shudder Shills

Battleships Battle 5.20

Halloween 14.22 

Back To Metal Hammer 16.05 *

The Crue in ‘84 20.05 *

Disney lawsuit ahoy 21.00 + Disney News

The Howling Wind 25.50

The best videos of 1984 30.05 *

The Future of Music 36.20 *

Cradle of Filth 38.27 *

Zakk Wylde isn’t his real name 40.00 *