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

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 *

SIXTY NINE, DUDES! Yes it’s the pod you’ve all been waiting for, although the promised raunch content is pretty limited. There’s some BIG NEWS buried away somewhere in here and it has to be said we don’t talk about the magazine very much  - there is some stuff about a psych rock classic from 1968, though.

We introduce The PWM Megaplaylist - and resign ourselves to the fact that we’re unlikely to be sponsored by Sky, which is a shame because we review some movies we recently watched and argue about a certain Sasquatch based 80s favourite - in fact we talk a lot about slightly naff 80s classics like Short Circuit, so they could do something with that, surely? Oh, and having sex with a duck - I guess it *was* a pretty sexy episode after all.

PWM69 Recorded 7th March 2026

Adventures in Remote Recording!

In a special side episode, I'm temporarily leaving behind the world of 80s (and 90s) hard rock and exploring the distant galaxy of late 60s psychedelia. To do this I've roped in my old college buddy, so if you ever felt the world needed another podcast where two middle aged men reminisce about music that was made before they were born, look no further. 

As a very flimsy twig to hang this thing on we've both been reading the NME from December 16th, 1967, and even though most of that paper is filled with an appreciation of Englebert Humperdink, we're drilling down and finding all the good stuff about Donovan, Procol Harum and Simon Dupree and The Big Sound. 

Various psychedelic compilations are brought up and we get into The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, Cream, King Crimson and many more. There's also a lot of rambling reminiscences about being at college during the time of grunge and britpop but still listening to Tim Buckley and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

Stay tuned for more of these intermittent sidetrack episodes, depending on whether we can get the remote recording aspect sorted out!

Special note: our AMAZING theme music this week is by our pal Ol of @nithered_music - which it always is of course, but for this one, on a whim I asked him to do "something psychedelic" and he immediately knocked out this MASTERPIECE!

PWM68 Recorded 1st March,  2026

Note: As usual there's a longer version of this on the Patreon, as well as our test recording where we get into more PSYCH MADNESS (and loads of reminscing about being young bucks at college!)

As “promised” very early on in the history of this podcast, we've had a look at the BBC Arts programme Arena's Heavy Metal documentary, from April 1989. Mick Wall and Jon Hotten of Kerrang were NOT IMPRESSED with the programme, and neither were any of the people that wrote in about it. Featured are Ozzy and Geezer, Bruce Dickinson going for the presenting gig, Ax Rose at his most Ax Rose, David “LeRoth”, and loads of thrash. 

It all adds up to not much but to a dopey 17 year old at the time it was a fun watch. BBC4's Heavy Metal Britannia from 2010 was a lot better.

In addition we've got complaints about Guns n Roses’ tardiness, Spinal Tap II review, Metal documentaries we have loved and Napalm Death on Craig Charles' What's That Noise,.

A note on Heavy Metal Heaven:

At the end of ‘89 year the BBC repeated the documentary alongside some related shows- among others they showed The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2, a Def Leppard doc,and live concerts by Ozzy, Metallica, and that black and white Led Zeppelin TV performance from Denmark. This was all under the banner of Heavy Metal Heaven and presented by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (sample quote “tonight I've got a couple of biggies for you... no, not *those*”). That's all on YouTube so, go crazy.

Special note: our AMAZING theme music this week is by our pal Ol of @nithered_music - it really annoys me that the BBC in '89 completely failed to do THE OBVIOUS THING for a metal documentary on Arena, namely a metal version of Brian Eno's Another Green World, but we have fully rectified that terrible oversight.

Special Special Note: Full unexpurgated version of this pod is on our Patreon - lots of Red Dwarf talk, for some reason.

PWM67 ARENA recorded Feb 20th 2026

It's 1988 once again and our cover star is Robert Plant, looking to regain his crown as THE prime hard rock frontman  (it says here). To be honest he's just back with a new album that's a bit more Zeppelin than his definitely not Zeppelin no sir! recorded output from the early 80s. Most of this is about their famously disastrous Live Aid performance, but there's a bit of slagging off David Coverdale for good measure. 

There's an Ozzy interview that's suspiciously similar to one from Metal Hammer that we covered in an early episode, but I'm sure no one remembers that so I think we can get away with it. 

Meanwhile Nikki Sixx is simultaneously both dead and alive, like Schrodinger’s Cat on smack. Warfare have the best song titles! Cher impersonations aplenty! We review Wonder Man and take a deep dive into M. Night Shyamalan's plant-based shitfest The Happening. 

Also: Belinda Carlisle, Pepsi and Shirlie, Screaming Marionettes, Bastard Head, Malicious Mercenaries and, er, Impotent Society. Plus all the baking cork updates you could possibly want. 

Note that this episode appears in (mostly) unedited form on our Patreon, the shorter version is here on the main podcast feed (so if you're pushed for time, listen to this one!)

PWM66 recorded 6th Feb 2026

We’re looking at Kerrang from Aug ‘86, so as usual there’s news of another forthcoming Alice Cooper album, and Iron Maiden have a single out (one of their best although we are arguing about that one). Elsewhere we delve into the world of Madam X, and our main feature this week finds Run DMC colliding with Aerosmith, for one of the most bulletproof stone cold classics of the 80s. That’s not a hot take, I know, everyone likes that song. And the video’s even better.

There’s plenty of distractions in terms of ranking the Spice Girls solo jams, movie reviews, run ins with horror icons and talkin’ Tolkien. Also another digression into the world of The KLF.

Note that this episode appears in (mostly) unedited form on our Patreon, so if you want to listen to us going on about a shaved Bill Oddie, Garage Days, and Tusk, that’s THE PLACE TO BE.

PWM65 recorded January 26th 2026

Kerrang 233, Apr 89

Come with us as we take a fun nostalgic trawl through the minutiae of the late 80s rock scene, in order to distract from the continuing awfulness of the modern world. Our topic today is Kerrang from April 1989. What were you up to?

Black Sabbath (actually just Tony Iommi) is on the cover and we have yet another New Alice Cooper Album nugget. We’ve missed the birthday of Ray Phillips from Budgie but someone in Kommunication is here to put things right, and from the looks of it both Extreme and Dream Theater get their first notices in this very issue. A review of The Cult’s Sonic Temple leads us to consider our short lived career as drummers, however we’re far more interested in this article about Lawnmower Deth, those lads sound like a laugh.

Along the way we’ve got hamster updates, meme reminiscences, tattoo stuff and a DEEP KUTZ from a very well known band that one of us has never heard of, even though they’ve been mentioned many times on this podcast.

Note that this episode appears in (mostly) unedited form on our Patreon, so if you want to listen to us going on about Lawnmower Man, seemingly endless scrolling through YouTube, and moaning about AI, get your ass signed up to our exclusive band of sickos.

PWM64 recorded 16th January 2026

It's the Nineties again, and two veteran swordmasters return to the field of battle. Yes, violin bows at the ready, Coverdale Page have embraced their destiny to team up for an album of uh... hoary old blues rock. Meanwhile shock news, Bruce Dickinson has left Iron Maiden, and ‘Arry and the lads are “surprised, to say the least”. I think we all would have been surprised if, as Kerrang suggest, his replacement had been Paul Di'Anno. 

Also in this edition: 2 Tribes, Infectious Grooves, Blind Melon, Fish, and Jon Bon Jovi’s wang.

Along the way, the usual digressions and nonsense on Michael Bolton, East 17, Lego, Labyrinth and the Stranger Things finale. .

Note that this episode appears in (mostly) unedited form on our Patreon. I cut out a lot of the extraneous waffle here - imagine that - BUT if you want to listen to us going on in excruciating detail about hamsters, Jane McDonald and the difficulty of obtaining signed Whitesnake albums from eBay, that’s where you need to go!

PWM63 recorded 10th Jan 2026

We're back for another year of metal memories and deep digressions - taking a look this week at Kerrang, Nov 87. Great White are on the cover but we're far more concerned with this Wolfsbane interview. This leads us to discussing Home Star Runner, whether Wolfsbane does actually repel werewolves and we learn what constitutes "Scram Metal"

Apart from that we've got our Christmas Roundup, ASMR spectacular, Karaoke report and like every other basic bitch on the planet we've been watching Stranger Things. Who's our favourite, least annoying character? You'll find out in PWM62!

PWM62 recorded 4th January 2026

Here's a preview of our second Patreon exclusive Pod. 

Our Christmas BONUS pod calls for something unprecedented so we’re unveiling our amazing CHRISTMAS QUIZ which hasn’t got a name, but needs to be heard to be believed.

We watched Krampus and have OPINIONS - and we also reveal our YouTube Wrapped (like Spotify Wrapped but from a company that’s slightly less despicable).

Our feature presentation is a look at Metal Hammer from the wildly futuristic year 2014! What’s the rock press like in the age of streaming and social media, other than loads of stuff about bands I’ve never heard of? We discover Babymetal 11 years after everyone else, and elsewhere we go through Taylor Momsen’s favourite records. And then go through ours.

We’re not entirely out of our comfort zone as a big chunk of this mag is dedicated to a look back at 1984, although we don’t even get to that part, so we’ll be picking it up in a future episode.

Want to get an insight into some of Can I Pod With Madness’ deepest, darkest secrets - and overhear us practically have a domestic over a certain Batman related song? Then our Patreon is for you! In addition to the bonus pods, you also get access to the PWM digital archive where you can read along with us, early episode access and we'll even send you our old, used Kerrangs! 

PWM61 recorded 17th December 2025