The Massive Attack Podcast

The A to Z of Massive Attack rolls on, and this episode we look at the letter J and go back to everyone’s favourite animated girl group, Josie and the Pussycats.

We look at their origins in the “Archie” comics of the 60’s, the cartoon series from the early 70’s and it’s outer space spin-off , the 2001 feature that was a box office bomb, and their brief return to the small screen in the new series, “Riverdale”.

Mitch also goes on a little tangent about “Archie” in general too.

This episode we look at the letter I with Indiana Jones.

We look at the four films with Harrison Ford playing the iconic archaeologist adventurer - where it all began in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, with Kate Capshaw as the annoying Willie Scott in “Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom”, the addition of Sean Connery as Henry Jones Snr. in “Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade” and Shia LaBeouf as Mutt in “Indiana Jones & The Crystal Skull”.

We also briefly discuss the spin-off comic from the early 80’s “The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones” and the TV series “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”.

Plus Mitch really doesn’t like magnets.

It’s H this episode, and due to Mitch’s excitement stemming from the comic “Future Quest”, we chose the 1967 Hanna-Barbera classic, “The Herculoids”.

Set on a far-off planet, this team of heroes protect their world from alien invaders. Sure, there was a lot of nostalgia in re-watching these old cartoons, but Joe found it hard to get passed as little something missing that neither of us realised back when we were kids.

The A to Z rolls on, and seeing as we’ve reached G this episode, we look at the most majestic of all apes, gorillas.

Well, gorilla films to be more specific. From the classics tale of the giant ape in “King Kong” and it’s various sequels, to both versions of “Mighty Joe Young” and the crazy accents and bad acting that pop up in “Congo”, we have the gorilla genre well and truly covered. We even have time to look at some gorillas in cartoons and comics along the way too.

What happens when one host makes a suggestion for a letter “F” topic and the other host doesn’t pick up on the sarcasm? Well, you get an episode dedicated to one of the world’s most popular fast foods, Fried Chicken!

We originally thought we could discuss the sci-fi action film “Freejack” but after almost losing the will to live watching it, we instead look at this tasty treat. The origins, our fond memories of drumsticks of the past, and the use of fried chicken in music.

There is a bit of movie talk in the ep too, as we make the slightly tenuous link and have a chat about the 70’s sketch comedy film “The Kentucky Fried Movie” that helped launch the careers of John Landis, Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers.

E is the next letter in our A to Z of Massive Attack, so this time around we look at the sci-fi cult classic “Escape From New York”.

Set in the dystopian future of 1997, well it was the future when John Carpenter made this film, Kurt Russell and his sweet mullet enter the island of Manhattan which has become a prison to rescue the President before time runs out.

Cast your mind back to the late 70’s or early 80’s. Was it a time for muscle cars and girls in short shorts? Well, it was if you were in Hazzard county.

This episode we look at D, and the redneck romp that is “The Dukes of Hazzard”, including the original TV series, the movie reunions and remakes and the little known cartoon spin off “The Dukes” and the even less known “Trollkins”.

Mitch also discusses the movie “Moonrunners” that was the inspiration for the Dukes as well, and gives us a little bit of history about moonshine.

The Massive Attack A to Z rolls on, with this episode covering the letter C and the 1994 gothic action film, The Crow, directed by Alex Proyas, and staring Brandon Lee in is final performance.

We have a bit of a chat about where we were in ’94, our initial reactions to the film, what it was like re-watching it after all these years.

Plus as a special treat Mitch digs up his “Goth Box” to reveal a prized possession from his past.

For the second in our new A to Z series, this episode we look at the iconic 1985 time travel adventure, "Back To The Future", staring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.

Mitch and Joe both agree this is a near perfect film, so we disect what makes it so good, look back at where we were when we first saw it, and then touch on the sequels and other media in the "Back To The Future" universe.

For a bit of a shake-up, we've decided that 2017 we will be going through the A to Z of Massive Attack. Each fortnight Mitch and Joe will pick two suggestions each per letter, pop them in a hat and draw one out to be the discussion topic for the episode.

So, starting with the letter A, as it seemed like the best place to start, this time we cover Atari. We watch the documentary "Atari: Game Over" that looks at the urban legend that a surplus of "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" cartridges were buried in the New Mexico desert following the video game crash of 1983, and the archaeological dig 30 years later to find the truth, as well as the history of Atari the company, and the lives of the designers behind the games.

We also look back at our own experiences with the iconic Atari 2600 console and reminisce of a simpler time in gaming when all you needed was a joystick and a single red button.