Sending Signals

Phil Manzanera has had a remarkable life. Best known as the lead guitarist in Roxy Music, he’s also worked as a writer, producer and/or performer with the likes of David Gilmour, Steve Winwood, Nico, Brian Eno and many more. He’s just released a mammoth box set of his solo work which dates back to 1975’s “Diamond Head” album.

The box, entitled “50 Years Of Music”, comes at a time of reflection for Manzanera. He recently released a memoir, in which he detailed his childhood in Cuba at the time of Batista’s overthrow in 1959, and his suspicion that his Dad, who ostensibly worked for BOAC airlines, was actually a spy. Manzanera lived in different parts of the Americas as a child and later went to boarding school at Dulwich College in London. Phil went on to explore his Latin American roots in his music, and another bizarre twist occurred in 2011 when Kanye West and Jay-Z sampled a guitar part from his 1978 “K-Scope” album for their track “No Church In The Wild”. Manzanera has claimed this one sample earned him more money than his entire time in Roxy Music.

Anyway, I was sure Phil would have great stories to share and I hope you enjoy our conversation.
 

Visit Manzanera.com for more information on the box set.

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Released on the 9th June 1978, “Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds” went on to sell an estimated 15 million copies. As you likely know, the album features an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic sci-fi story, narrated by actor Richard Burton set to music, with vocal performances from the likes of David Essex, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott, Chris Thompson, and Julie Covington.

A single, “Forever Autumn”, reached number 5 on the UK singles chart, and has become an enduring classic.

In 2006, the album was brought to life as a touring stage show. It’s has had several revival tours since, including a London West End run in 2016. Jeff Wayne is picking up the baton again for the 2025 arena tour featuring Max George and Maisie Smith.

Jeff Wayne was born in 1943 and wrote around 3000 advertising jingles which appeared on TV in the 1970s, as well as various television themes. He’s also been a professional tennis player. He joined me from his home studio in Hertfordshire for our chat.
 

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The last time Genesis keyboard player extraordinaire Tony Banks came on the show was a few years ago, and we discussed a box set of his solo albums. Since then there has been a final Genesis tour, “The Last Domino?”, which I got to see the opening and closing nights of, and Tony now has a new boxset compiling his three classical albums “7”, “6”, and “5”.

The first half of the interview we take a deep dive into that process which I hope you’ll find interesting. Creating classical music isn’t something we’ve really explored on the podcast before. In the second half of the interview Tony shares details of an upcoming boxset of “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway”, and he also confirms details of a reissue of their 60’s debut album “From Genesis To Revelation”, which in the past has been ignored from official Genesis reissue campaigns. We talk about how he feels he is perceived by Genesis fans, and whether he’s tempted to emulate the very successful touring approach of former Genesis bandmate Steve Hackett, who incidentally he also clarifies his feeling about during our chat. I think this conversation is quite something.

Hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.
 

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Gemma Hayes is a singer-songwriter from Ireland, and after a 10 year gap she is about to release her 7th album “Blind Faith” and, spoiler alert, it’s really, really good.

We discuss the album’s long gestation, balancing motherhood and creativity, and I was also keen to dig into her debut album, the Dave Friedman produced “Night On My Side” from 2002, which made such a deep impression on me as a teenager.

It was such a lovely, unhurried conversation, and I hope you enjoy it.
 

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Steve Howe is a guitarist best known for his work with Yes, who of course are a cornerstone of progressive rock. The albums “Close To The Edge”, “Fragile”, and “The Yes Album” are essential listening, as far as I’m concerned.

Steve had a period of time out of Yes in the 80s and early 90s but had success with another band, Asia, before rejoining Yes and sticking with them up to the present day. Last year they released their 23rd album “Mirror To The Sky”. They’ve been out on tour this year too. But Steve is about to release a new solo instrumental album called “Guitarscape”, and he joined me on to tell me about the process of making it, why Yes shelved their advertised “Relayer” tour, and whether the massive success of Yes without him in the mid-80s was difficult for him.

Hope you enjoy.

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What to say about REM? It might actually be hard for teenagers today, or even 20-somethings, to appreciate how big R.E.M. were in the 90s. For a while, even when they were reinventing themselves, or tackling themes not especially conducive to pop hits, they just seemed to keep getting bigger. They signed the most expensive record deal in history in 1996. They are one of the biggest selling bands of all time, having shifted something like 90 million albums. 
 

Formed in 1980 in Athens, Georgia, they released 15 studio albums (only one of which I don’t like), before retiring with dignity in 2011. I respect them for their decision, but as a fan, would I love them to tour again? Yeah, of course I would. They have been, and still are, adamant it won’t happen, but they recently reunited to perform one song for the Songwriters Hall Of Fame, which they were inducted into earlier this year. I of course ask Mike about that decision and whether they may have talked themselves into a corner over the band’s future prospects. 
 

I also wanted to ask about the status of the band’s reissue campaign. They’ve gradually been reissuing their back-catalogue with additional material. 1997’s “Up” was the latest to get the anniversary treatment, and I was curious if 2001’s “Reveal” was going to be next up. Anyway, R.E.M. are one of my favourite bands and I’m so glad this happened.

In addition to R.E.M. stuff we touch on Mike’s recent tour with The Baseball Project, a band in which he plays alongside last episode’s guest, Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate. Mike also tours with Big Star drummer Jody Stephens, another previous guest, and so we talk about their plans to perform Big Star’s incredible second album “Radio City”.

Let me know what you think.

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Steve Wynn is a founding member of The Dream Syndicate, a key band in the so-called Paisley Underground scene of the early 1980’s. Their debut album “The Days Of Wine And Roses” was recorded in three overnight sessions and released in 1982. It’s one of the great indie-rock touchstones and a phenomenal debut. The band had high-profile support slots with the likes of U2 and REM, but the rest of the 1980’s saw them struggling to capitalise on their potential, and by the end of the decade they had disbanded.

Steve continued to have a prolific solo career, as well as side-projects such as The Baseball Project, a supergroup featuring Mike Mills and Peter Buck of REM, who only write and perform songs about baseball.

The Dream Syndicate reformed and released the first of several comeback albums in 2017. They remain an ongoing concern, but for now Steve is about to release an autobiography, charting his fascinating childhood in California, and the rise and fall of The Dream Syndicate. It’s a story of record stores, college radio, tour buses, major label shenanigans, told with warmth, humour and honesty.

It’s also accompanied by a new solo album entitled “Make It Right”, released on the same day as, and intrinsically linked to, the book.

I’ve probably said this a lot, but this was genuinely one of my favourite conversations I’ve had for the podcast. I really hope you enjoy it.
 

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Paul Carrack is a singer, songwriter, and musician, and he’s heading out on tour in celebration of the 50th anniversary of classic song “How Long”, a hit he had with his band Ace.

Paul has had an incredibly varied career since then. He was a member of Squeeze replacing Jools Holland on keyboards, and playing on their much-loved album “East Side Story”, even providing lead vocals for one of the bands most enduring songs, “Tempted”. He was a songwriter and vocalist in Mike Rutherford’s band Mike + The Mechanics from 1985 to 2004, and has been a session player for Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, and The Smiths amongst others, as well as building up a considerable solo back catalogue.  

I hope you enjoy our wide-ranging chat!
 

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Bill Oakley, along with his best friend and writing partner Josh Weinstein, wrote various episodes of The Simpsons during it’s glory days including “Marge Gets A Job”, “Bart vs Australia”, and the legendary 2-part season-straddling “Who Shot Mr Burns”, and they were appointed executive producers and showrunners for the 7th and 8th seasons of the show, where they continued to push the envelope of what the show could be, bowing out while the show was still on a high.

One of Bill’s greatest claims to fame is having written the “Steamed Hams” scene from the 1996 episode “22 Short Films About Springfield”.

The scene has taken on a life of its own with various memes and recontextualizing videos springing up on the internet.

Bill and Josh also created the short lived Mission Hill, and were consulting producers on Futurama. Bill has also worked on shows like Portlandia and The Cleveland Show.

In 2018 Bill started to produce short Instagram videos of himself reviewing fast food items from American outlets. These videos have become a serious concern for Oakley, and he created the annual Steamie Awards, in reference to the steamed hams sketch of course.

If you’re a big Simpsons fan I hope you get something out of this, but if you’re more of a casual viewer I hope you’ll find it interesting to learn how a show like this gets made.
 

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It’s been five years! Yes, it’s 5th anniversary extravaganza episode of Sending Signals!

I’m delighted that Dan Wilson agreed to come back on for a catch-up. He’s one of my favourite ever guests on the show and he didn’t disappoint. We talk about his recent Grammy win, the role of embarrassment in songwriter, as well as the story behind the Semisonic classic “Singing In My Sleep”. Chris has written songs with the likes of Taylor Swift, Adele, Mitski, Chris Stapleton and on and on…

British singer-songwriter Sheila Lord also joins me for a chat and a heart-stopping live performance.

I’m also happy that Rhys Edwards, AKA Astrel K, joined me from Stockholm to talk about his new album “The Foreign Department”, which is one of the loveliest albums of the year.

As if that wasn’t enough, I’m joined by my friend, podcaster Luke Bligh who co-hosts “Star Wars Sessions” amongst other things. You can hear some of our conversation peppered throughout the episode.

Wow. What a packed episode! It was a lot to put together, and I really hope you enjoy it. Thanks to all the guests on this episode, and indeed, over the past 5 years, and thank YOU for listening. It really means a lot.

Matt

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