Mastertapes

Following on from the A-side of this two-part programme, the audience ask Noel Gallagher about High Flying Birds', his first studio album since leaving Oasis,

Noel also performs acoustic live versions of some of the tracks from the album and looks forward to his next musical project "Chasing Yesterday".

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.

'Noel Gallagher's discusses his album High Flying Birds.

Series in which leading performers and songwriters talk about the album that made them or changed them.

Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios, each edition includes two episodes - the A-side and B-side.

In the A-side, Noel talks to John Wilson.

In 2009, Noel Gallagher left Oasis – one of the seminal bands of the Britpop era with seven multi-platinum albums including: 'Definitely Maybe', '(What's The Story) Morning Glory?' and 'Be Here Now' – which became the fastest selling album in UK chart history.

Two years later Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds also went to Number 1 in the UK with tracks like "Everybody's On the Run", "AKA... What A Life!" and "The Death of You and Me". Praised for its psychedelic tinges and eternal themes of love, loss and hope, it's been described as the best collection of songs "since his Morning Glory days".

With tracks inspired by New Orleans ragtime rhythms and Ennio Morricone-like strings, it put paid to rumours that its creator entered into a state of inertia after the end of Oasis.

Noel Gallagher said of the album: "I won't criticize anything about Oasis because I loved being in that band and I was in charge of it, but there was always the feeling: how will this go down in Wembley, with 70,000 people braying for good times? This time I didn't have to think about that. I've got a guy playing wine glasses on one song, a saw on another. This is not Oasis."

In the B-side of the programme, it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions.

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.

Manic Street Preachers talk about their third, career-defining, 1994 album The Holy Bible.

Series in which leading performers and songwriters talk about the album that made them or changed them.

Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios, each edition includes two episodes - the A-side and B-side.

In the A-side, Manic Street Preachers - Sean Moore, James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire.- talk to John Wilson.

Released a mere five months before the disappearance of main lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards, The Holy Bible reflects his fragile mental state.

On its release, Q said "even a cursory glance at the titles will confirm that this is not the new Gloria Estefan album". And with tracks like "Yes", "Of Walking Abortion", "Mausoleum" and "4st 7lb", the lyrics deal with everything from prostitution and serial killers to the Holocaust and self-starvation.

In the B-side of the programme, it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions.

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Angélique Kidjo, the "Queen of African music" discusses her 1994 breakthrough album, 'Ayé'.

Series in which leading performers and songwriters talk about the album that made them or changed them.

Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios, each edition includes two episodes - the A-side and B-side.

In the A-side, the Grammy nominated singer-songwriter and activist from Benin talks to John Wilson.

She also performs exclusive versions of key tracks, including "Agolo," "Adouma" and "Djan-Djan".

The album has been described as "a spellbinding one-world statement" where "Kidjo treats her voice like it's a percussion instrument".

One of ten children, Angélique Kidjo grew up in Benin in West Africa. But in the 1980s she moved to Paris to escape the communist regime and began synthesising the music of her native country with rock, funk, electronica and Euro-pop.

Kidjo has collaborated with artists as diverse as Alicia Keys, Philip Glass, the Kronos Quartet and Peter Gabriel and been declared as the "the undisputed Queen of African Music." Her albums regularly top the World Albums Charts and her gift is said to be "to pour what could so easily be anger and frustration into songs that uplift and inspire us."

Producer: Clare Walker

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Following on from the A-side of this two-part programme, the audience ask Manic Street Preachers - James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore - questions about their 1994 album, 'The Holy Bible’.

With John Wilson at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios in London.

The band also performs acoustic live versions of some to the tracks from the album.

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

John Wilson chats to Rufus Wainwright about his life-changing album, 2003's Want One. Rufus tells the stories behind some of those songs, and sings and performs solo piano. As Rufus says himself, he has no filter. The two meet in a stylishly transformed Maida Vale Studio.

Rufus also sings a cappella a song he composed after the death of his mother, the singer Kate McGarrigle.

The programme features footage from a young Rufus' first ever song recording, as part of a Canadian children's film.

Singer-songwriter-composer Rufus Wainwright talks about his breakthrough 2003 album, ‘Want One’.

Series in which leading performers and songwriters talk about the album that made them or changed them.

Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios, each edition includes two episodes - the A-side and B-side.

In the A-side, Rufus talks to John Wilson.

The son of folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, Rufus began playing the piano at the age of 6 and touring at 13. Before he had even reached voting age, he had been nominated for Best Original Song and Most Promising Male Vocalist awards.

But it would be another 14 years before he released the album that has been variously described as "obscenely lush"... a "gorgeous meditation on emotional displacement" and "a three-hankie weepie". The first part of what was intended to be a double album, Want One is full of songs about love, loss, family, addiction and popular culture, including 'I Don't Know What It Is', 'Go Or Go Ahead' and 'Dinner At Eight'.

Not only does he play exclusive versions of some of these songs, in a frank and no-punches-pulled interview, Rufus also reveals what part drugs, sex, near-death experiences and extended arguments with his father played in the making of this remarkable album

Producer: Paul Kobrak

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Following on from the A-side of this two-part programme, the audience ask Jazzie B and Caron Wheeler questions about Soul II Soul's debut 1989 album, 'Club Classics Vol 1'.

With John Wilson at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios in London.

Jazzie talks more about his own roots as a musician and Soul II Soul perform live versions of tracks from the album.

Producer: Helen Lennard

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.

Jazzie B and Caron Wheeler discuss Soul II Soul's 1989 debut album, 'Club Classics Vol 1', which included the global hit 'Back to Life'.

Series in which leading performers and songwriters talk about the album that made them or changed them.

Recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic Maida Vale Studios, each edition includes two episodes - the A-side and B-side.

In the A-side, Jazzie B and Caron talk to John Wilson.

Soul II Soul is one of the most successful British black groups of all time.

Their ethos of 'a happy face, a thumping bass for a loving race' and the sound of their debut album, released in 1989, defined a time and place in the UK's musical history. Featuring the huge hits 'Back To Life' and 'Keep On Moving' the album took London's multicultural underground club culture into the mainstream and achieved worldwide success. 'Club Classics' mixed the sounds of a burgeoning DJ scene with Jazzie B's distinctly British take on rap and the colossal vocal talents of Caron Wheeler.

In the B-side of the programme, it's the turn of the audience to ask the questions.

Producer: Helen Lennard

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.