We're back!  It's been a long old wait - but for the best of reasons.  Joel has been taking his GCSEs.  That's all over now and what better way to celebrate than to listen to a somewhat polarising band - U2.

Together as a band for over 45 years with no line changes or departures ever - U2 can lay claim to the Pride of being the most stable band in rock history.

This is a trawl through their career up to the controversial Songs Of Innocence and that particular i-Tunes shaped can of worms does get talked about but do we get stuck in a moment we can't get out of?

Joel has his revenge and there is a shock involved!

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In this episode Joel and Neil listen to the music of Genesis and solo tracks from Phil Collins, Mike and the Mechanics and Peter Gabriel.

Genesis aren't exactly a favourite of Neil - the greatest hits are OK and maybe an album or two.  Peter Gabriel, however...

Joel gets his usual revenge and it's.... fine!

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It's the first of the occasional bonus series of Generation Mix: Role Reversal, where Joel gets to introduce Dad to an entire CD of one of his favourite artists.  This time it's Demi Lovato.

There are tracks from her entire career and, in Dad's opinion, something of a mixed bag.

Dad get's his turn to do a revenge and picks a track from his favourite album of 2023.

(replacement for previous version)

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A sharp left turn for this e[isode where we indulge, not in an artist nor theme, but in a whole genre of music - namely classical.

Where else would Mozart, Beethoven, Elgar, Joplin and John Finnemore(?) rub shoulders but in a podcast such as this.

Joel has a revenge and it's totally in keeping with the whole podcast.  Joel's Music GCSE really starts to show his musical understanding and he probably knows more than Dad now!

One thing mentioned in the podcast is this - go watch it - it's brilliant.  If you have no patience, you might want to jump to 3:50.

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Season 3 continues with an episode on Coldplay.  This was... tricky.  Neither Neil nor Joel enjoyed the music of Coldplay, so how did the CD come about?  Well, they are a hugely successful band of the last 20 years and a friend made a suggested playlist, Neil made the CD and... well this was the result.

Listening back was something of a trial but not without the occasional up moment - Joel's revenge is pretty good!

Anyway - if you love Coldplay probably best skip this one - there may be a few minor expletives too.  But, if you loathe Coldplay - enjoy it!

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Season 3 already (and only a month after the conclusion of season 2) and we turn our attention to the dance music artist Avicii.

Avicii's real name was Tim Bergling and he was a Swedish musician and DJ.  His songs involved vocal contributions from a wide range of artists from pop, rock and country. As you may know his story ends tragically in 2018 after 2 albums, a string of hits and a battle with depression.

His music lives on, and whilst Neil is no fan of dance music there's something about this fellow that goes way beyond that genre.

The original CD compilation was built from a position of ignorance from Neil and so there's a certain ammount of discovery involved for both Neil and Joel, and Joel decides on a nice revenge.

The next episode might be more a challenge though for both of them.

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In this much delayed episode we turn our attention to the music of Dire Straits.  It's a been a loooooooooong time coming and indeed we had recorded this much earlier but the sound was rubbish.  We are so committed to quality listening here on Generation Mix that we didn't want to put out something that was hard to listen to due to the audio quality.  

A trawl through all 6 studio albums, taking in a live track and a little extra bonus non-straits piece (which they played at all their gigs after it's release anyway).

Joel has a revenge and has some future plans.

And this concludes season 2 (finally).  We really will step up the release schedule for season 3.

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Well it was bound to happen one day - we broke the hour barrier.  Admittedly we have 25 different songs included in this episode (if you include the revenge) so there is a fair bit.

As we trawl our way through The Smiths we end up referencing a certain CBBC television show several times - honestly if you've never seen it click the link and thank us later!

Horrible Histories Charles Dickens Song - YouTube

Joel's revenge is actually pretty good and his enthusiasm for the podcast may be returning thanks to recent design work experience. 

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OK - it took longer than planned and we couldn't pull off the guest but we turn our attention to the greatest Heavy Metal band in the world - Iron Maiden.

They've been going over 45 years since their formation in 1975, hitting the big time in 1980 and with a hiccup or two, are still going very strong now (latest album Senjustsu is not represented in this podcast as the CD compilation was made well before its release).

There is vocalist discussion, bass discussion, Alfred Lord Tennyson makes a cameo along with a Samuel Taylor Coleridge namecheck and a cult 1970s horror flick.

Joel's revenge is fitting but, on this podcast, short - as the original version is sweary and we intend staying PG friendly.

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