Podcasts - The Strange Brew

In the first of a two-part interview, Paul Jones reflects on his formative years, from singing in cathedral choirs and discovering jazz, to forming a skiffle group and falling in love with the blues. Speaking live at The Cat Club, Paul offers sharp and often funny insights into his early career: turning down a young Brian Jones’s offer to front what would become the Rolling Stones, joining Manfred Mann, and helping take the group to the top of the charts with hits like ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ and ‘Pretty Flamingo.’ But as the music grew increasingly pop-driven, Paul made the bold decision to walk away and pursue a solo path, one that proved even harder to control.

Recorded live at The CAT Club, Pontefract 19 June 2025

themanfreds.com

Podcasts also available: Paul Jones (2022), Mike Vickers, Tom McGuinness, Mike d’Abo,

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

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The post Becoming Paul Jones: Early Influences, Manfred Mann and Making It appeared first on The Strange Brew .

As the voice and driving force of The Swinging Blue Jeans, Ray Ennis helped shape the sound of Merseybeat, blending trad jazz and beat music into hits including ‘Hippy Hippy Shake’ and ‘You’re No Good.’ Ray reflects on the Cavern Club days, where The Beatles supported them, the group’s Hamburg education, and the missed chances that might have made them transatlantic giants. Even today, Ray remains wry, clear-eyed, and passionate about music. This is a rare insight into an artist who was at the centre of Britain’s 1960s pop revolution.

The Swinging Blue Jeans – Hippy Hippy Shake! by Peter Checksfield

Ray Ennis podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: Mike McCartney’s Early Liverpool, Mike Pender – The Searchers, Tony Hazzard, Tony Waddington

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

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post Ray Ennis – The Swinging Blue Jeans appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Few musicians of Mike Batt’s vintage are still pushing creative boundaries with the same fervour that defined their youth. In a career-spanning conversation, Mike discusses his Kickstarter campaign for his Ukraine Symphony; a four-movement orchestral work shaped by war, hope, and human resilience. The interview touches on everything from his self-taught mastery of orchestration, early work with Family and Jeff Lynne’s The Idle Race, to writing ‘Bright Eyes’ and orchestrating XTC. He speaks candidly about the realities of funding new classical music in the streaming era and why, no matter what, this symphony will be completed.

Mike Batt (photo by Claire Williams)

Mike Batt: A Symphony – The Kickstarter Campaign ends on 28 July

Podcasts also available: Mike Batt (2020), Roger Chapman – Family, Jeff Wayne, Allan Clarke (2023)

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

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post Mike Batt on songwriting and his symphony appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett discusses his new live album The Lamb Stands Up Live At The Royal Albert Hall. Steve reflects on reimagining Genesis classics from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, his pioneering guitar techniques, and the tensions created by releasing solo material whilst still in the group. He also shares insights into his creative process, from incorporating 1950s British cultural references into performances to his innovative two-hand tapping technique inspired by Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue” – a method that became fundamental to modern rock guitar playing.

The Lamb Stands Up Live At The Royal Albert Hall by Steve Hackett

Steve Hackett: The Lamb Stands Up podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: Steve Hackett (2022), Steve Hackett (2020), Tony Banks (2024), Tony Banks (2019), Anthony Phillips, Bill Bruford, Chester Thompson

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

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post Steve Hackett: The Lamb Stands Up appeared first on The Strange Brew .

What do you get when you mix a band of power pop visionaries into the jaws of crooked management and catastrophic misfortune. You get Head First, Badfinger’s great lost album, a masterpiece taped in 11 days, buried for half a century, and finally exhumed by Bob Jackson, the last man standing. Jackson lays it all out: the betrayal, the lawsuits, and the heartbreak, but also the defiance, the friendship, and the songs. It’s a tale so tragic it makes Let It Be look like a garden party, and yet Jackson is still here, championing the greatness of Pete Ham, Tom Evans and Mike Gibbins.

Badfinger – Head First is out now

Bob Jackson podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: Joey Molland, Jeff Wayne, Steve Harley, Ian Hunter 

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

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post Bob Jackson – Badfinger appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Al Jardine reflects on the life and legacy of Brian Wilson and his own musical path. In the wake of Wilson’s passing, Jardine speaks about the emotional weight of touring with the Pet Sounds Band, his new EP Islands In The Sun, the group dynamics of The Beach Boys, and why he still sees himself as a student of the “Brian Wilson school of music.”

Al Jardine – Islands In The Sun EP

Al Jardine and the Pet Sounds Band tour dates

Al Jardine podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: David Marks, Gerry Beckley – America, Russ Giguere – The Association

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

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

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Dylan Jones has long been one of British journalism’s more discerning cultural archaeologists, whether digging into David Bowie’s legacy or chronicling the evolution of British style. In 1975: The Year the World Forgot, he turns his attention to what he sees as an unfairly overlooked moment in musical history, a year caught between the idealism of the 60s and the insurgency of punk. Jones speaks with Jason Barnard about rescuing 1975 from the “bowels of anonymity,” reflecting on a year where sophistication, soul, krautrock and the singer-songwriter tradition converged in rich and sometimes unfashionable ways. Together, they reassess forgotten classics, cocaine-fuelled creativity, and why Steely Dan may still be the guiltiest of pleasures.

Dylan Jones – 1975: The Year the World Forgot

Podcasts also available: Phil Manzanera – Revolución to Roxy, Main Course: Bob Stanley on the Bee Gees’ Reinvention, British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1974, Davey Johnstone – The Elton John Band

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

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

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Don Powell revisits the defining moments of Slade’s rise, from their rough-edged Black Country beginnings and Chas Chandler’s inspired management, to sold-out tours, tragic loss, and their unlikely Christmas immortality. Along the way, he discusses Don and the Dreamers and the enduring thrill of playing music with friends who remember where it all began.

Don & The Dreamers, ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’ is out now

Don Powell interview – YouTube version

Don Powell podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: Jim Lea – Part 1, Jim Lea – Part 2, Ian Hunter – Mott the Hoople, Andy Bown – Status Quo

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

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post Don Powell – Slade appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Once dismissed as maudlin hitmakers and later scapegoated for the death of disco, the Bee Gees were always far more musically inventive. In this episode, we talk to pop oracle Bob Stanley about Main Course, the 1975 album that didn’t just save their career, it rewired it. With Arif Mardin behind the desk and Miami heat in their lungs, the Brothers Gibb found falsetto, R&B, and a future they hadn’t dared imagine. But this is also the story of perennial outsiders who outwrote, out-sang, and outlasted their critics.

Recorded in June 2023 at The CAT Club

Bee Gees: Children of the World by Bob Stanley – paperback out now

Bee Gees – Main Course podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: Geoff Bridgford, Colin Petersen, Blue Weaver, Vince Melouney

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

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post Main Course: Bob Stanley on the Bee Gees’ Reinvention appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Jack Bruce was never just the bass player, he was Cream’s secret weapon: the rare musician who could make virtuosity feel like raw emotion. His son Malcolm, a formidable artist in his own right, talks about his legacy: familial and musical. As the tape rolls, Malcolm recalls Fresh Cream not just as a debut album, but as a domestic artifact. He speaks of socialist grandmothers, Ginger Baker’s combativeness, and the band whose dynamic was equal parts power trio and powder keg. Along the way, we get a clearer sense of how Cream happened, and why it couldn’t have lasted. The anecdotes are rich, the history is alive, and their music still reverberates.

Recorded in January 2024 at The CAT Club

malcolmbruce.com

Fresh Cream Revisited tracks

Podcasts also available: Pete Brown, Bernie Marsden, Mo Foster, Leslie Mandoki

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

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

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