The Hustle

We all remember when Frankie Goes to Hollywood burst on the scene with their provocative songs like "Relax" and "Two Tribes" and even more provocative persona. They put sex and homosexuality front and center at a time when such topic were only whispered about. Unfortunately, despite burning bright, they flamed out quickly and followed up their massive debut album, 1984's Welcome to the Pleasuredome with the half-hearted Liverpool in 1986 and then called it quits. Here, guitarist Brian Nash discusses how they broke big and what brought the band down, his issues with producer Trevor Horn, and his lovely solo career as Nasher. He's also written an excellent book on it all called Nasher Says Relax. He's one of the most honest, straight-shooting guests we've ever had!

https://www.facebook.com/Nasher-105270312871476/

Britain's The Outfield broke out in a big way in 1985 when their debut album Play Deep sold three million units and scored hits as enduring as "Your Love" and "Say It Isn't So". While subsequent albums didn't sell as much, their place as pop/rock craftsmen was cemented forever. They tapered off in the 90s, but never really went away, even releasing two of their strongest albums in 2006 and 2011. Unfortunately, guitarist and song-writer John Spinks died in 2014 of liver cancer leaving lead singer Tony Lewis to do some serious soul searching. The result is Tony's decision to reluctantly carry on as a solo artist, releasing his first solo album Out of the Darkness on 6/29. Here we talk about how he finally decided to keep going and his former band's wild ride. John Spinks will always be missed, but we still have Tony's voice and a near perfect legacy to enjoy.

https://www.tonylewismusic.com/

Here's part two of Jon's appearance on the Permanent Record podcast. Brian, Sarah, Colby and Jon bring some of their favorite new wave songs to the table for a lively discussion. What tune is your favorite? And subscribe to these guys already!

http://www.permanentrecordpodcast.com/

Wang Chung scored some of the biggest, and most ubiquitous, hits of the 80s with seminal songs like "Dance Hall Days," "Let's Go," and, the mother of all 80s hits, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight". Though Blender magazine may have ranked that hit the 3rd worst song of all time, it's never gone away and is as well known today as it was 30 years ago. Jack and I talk about how that song came to be and how it's affected his life. We also go deep on the rest of his career, his relationship to touring, his many side projects, his upcoming solo album, and his soundtrack work for To Live and Die in L.A. and the Breakfast Club. Hopefully, you'll learn some things you didn't know before!

http://www.wangchung.com/

Jon was recently honored to be a guest on one of his favorite music podcasts Permanent Record. Husband and wife co-hosts Brian and Sarah Linnen do an excellent job deep diving the benchmark New Wave albums of the 80s featuring artists like Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears, Erasure and a-ha. If you haven't checked them out yet and you like that genre, get on it! For this we each picked a song we love to discuss for a Summer Mix Tape episode. I hope you enjoy it! Part two will be out next week. 

http://www.permanentrecordpodcast.com/

The Alarm were one of the great bands of the Big Music movement of the 80s that included other seminal groups like U2, Big Country and Simple Minds. But, despite recording some of the best anthems of the era ("Sixty Eight Guns," "Strength," and "The Stand" etc), they never completely crossed over to the mainstream Top 40. It was perhaps the stress of this that caused frontman Mike Peters to famously leave the band abruptly in the early 90s, bringing an end of the classic Alarm line-up. This week we talk with original bassist and co-songwriter Eddie MacDonald about how they went about writing those anthems, what brought the band to an end, and why a full-fledged reunion has never happened. He's a very animated guy with some great stories. He also talks about his very successful second career as a photographer and his new band Smalltown Glory, which is an excellent new venue for his talents. 

http://thealarm.com/eddie-macdonald-and-small-town-glory/

http://eddiemacdonald.co.uk/menu.php

Last year music documentary filmmaker Jon Brewer released the excellent doc "Beside Bowie", which brought much-deserved attention to the life and contributions of David Bowie's original guitarist Mick Ronson. If you haven't seen it, the film is currently streaming on Hulu and is a must watch. On June 8th, a companion soundtrack to the film will be released featuring several Ronson highlights from the movie including solo tracks, live performances from the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert, and of course a couple Bowie classics. Jon and I discuss his motivation for making the movie, what he felt "Ronno" brought to Bowie,  and how the songs were selected for the soundtrack. Bowie fans will love it!

Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story

Sananda Maitreya has quite a story to tell. After scoring a bunch of hit songs ("Wishing Well", "Sign Your Name", "Delicate") and hit records with his former persona Terence Trent D'Arby, in 1995 he moved to Europe, changed his name and embarked on a career in "post-millennium rock", which is the title he gives to the many records he's put out since then under the Sananda Maitreya moniker. Last year he released the expansive, three-disc set Prometheus & Pandora and has recently released another excellent single from it called "The Birds Are Singing". We go very deep in this conversation about the name change, his thoughts on the deaths of many of his friends like Prince and Tom Petty, and how he may finally be warming to merging the music of his early career with what he's done the last 23 years. He's also about the embark on an Italian tour (and possibly more). Here's the full story!

http://www.sanandamaitreya.com

Drummer Richie Fontana has led an eventful life. He started out in the mid-70s with the killer rock band Piper. Today, they are probably best known as the launchpad for frontman Billy Squier. Piper was managed by Bill Aucoin, which led to Richie also working and touring with Kiss and playing on Paul Stanley's 1978 solo album. Piper's second album, Can't Wait, was produced by KISS mastermind/Aucoin Vice President Sean Delaney, which provided the bridge to Richie's second band the Skatt Bros. The Delaney fronted disco-rock band managed two albums before calling it quits, but Richie landed on his feet again when he was hired by the late Laura Branigan to be her touring drummer through the mid-80s. Unfortunately, MS has slowed him down a little, but not much. He's still very active musically and released a solo album a few years ago called Steady on the Steel. Today he's enjoying life with his long time girlfriend, Lydia Criss. We get the details on what life was like in the orbit of luminaries like Billy, Aucoin, Kiss and Laura. Enjoy!

http://www.richiefontana.com

Few artists formed the culture of the 80s more than filmmaker John Hughes. And a huge ingredient in those films was the music. This week we talk with Tarquin Gotch who served as Hughes' music supervisor on classics like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, She's Having a Baby, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. He also went on to co-produce films like Home Alone and Uncle Buck. Before working with Hughes, he did many other things in the music industry including A&R man for Warner Bros. where he discovered bands like Wang Chung and the Stray Cats. Today he manages artists like former guest Ranking Roger and AC/DC's Brian Johnson (we talk about what really happened with Brian's departure from the band). Tarquin's life has been one full of music and passion and we talk about what that life has been like. Enjoy!