In 1987, Steve Kilbey and Karin Jansson were living together, and armed with a joint and a piano, one night they came up with the bones of Under The Milky Way. It became a hit for The Church as part of their fifth studio album, Starfish, and since then it’s featured in almost every list of great Australian rock songs (and a fair few car ads too). On Cover Story, Andy is joined by poet, singer-songwriter and academic Kate Fagan, and Youth Group member, singer-songwriter, academic Toby Martin to analyse the song’s wide – and wild – range of versions.

Music details:

Under the Milky WayComposed by Steve Kilbey and Karin JanssonOriginally recorded by The Church for the album Starfish (1988) on Mushroom Records

Covers by:

Emily Barker, Lukas Drinkwater, Fanny Lumdsen - Room 822 (2022)The James Valentine Quartet- The Power and the Passion (2011)George - Special Ones (2001)The Cherry Pickers - Hand Picked (2016) John Kane & Ian Simpson - Banjo Australis (2013)Strawpeople - Broadcast (1994)Jimmy Little - Messenger (1999)The Church and the George Ellis Orchestra - Live at the Sydney Opera House (2014)

Kate Fagan's latest book is Song in the Grass (Giramondo 2024), and she's doing an author event talk at Megalong Books in Leura on 5 March. 

Toby Martin's latest album is Dang Lan and Toby Martin, 'Song Khúc Lượn Bay (Two Sounds Gliding) (ABC Music). 

The Music Show is made on Gadigal and Gundungurra Country. Technical Production by Hamish Camilleri and Bethany Stewart

Sisters Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes have been making music as Charm of Finches since they were children. Now seasoned touring artists with four albums under their belts, they swing by The Music Show studio to play live and tell Andy about the joy of singing in unison, and why they’re drawn to really dark stories. 

Comprised of five female musicians The Cloud Maker transports listeners through song, using cello, drums, clarinet and Taonga Pūoro (Maori Singing Treasures) to channel the power of breath, collaboration and the energy of the moon. Taking inspiration from folkloric takes and their relationship to music, the Cloud Maker celebrates goddesses across Maori, Filipino, Jewish and Irish cultures with an eerie, and at times fierce, musical performance.

Andrew Ford speaks to Te Kahureremoa Taumata, Aviva Andean and Freya Schack-Arnott following a performance at Judith Neilson’s Phoenix Central Park.

In 1985, Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love album made a moderate showing in the pop charts. In 2022, the single Running Up That Hill burst back into the charts after a particularly impactful needle-drop in the Netflix show Stranger Things. So perhaps it’s no surprise that there are dozens of cover versions from around 2022 - as well as a handful from earlier in the song’s 40 year lifespan. Cover Story this week looks at some of the best, worst and weirdest, with singer and producer June Jones, and opera artist Jane Sheldon.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that this program contains the name and voice of someone who has died. 

Written from the small shed on his allotment in Northern England, the lyrics on Richard Dawson’s new album End of the Middle are filled with small observations and rich characters. He's a prolific and verbose songwriter, likening his habit of jamming too many syllables into the end of lines with "putting too many clothes in a suitcase". Rich's record is replete with his unusual guitar tunings and arresting singing voice. 

Bidjigal Elder and musician Vic Simms had a six-decade career, starting as an 11 year old touring with Col Joye and The Joy Boys. In an interview with Andrew Ford from 2016, Vic recounts the incredible story of writing and recording his debut album The Loner from Bathurst prison, and the concerts he got special leave to play - including at Sydney Opera House and shopping malls. When he decided he didn't want to play these concerts anymore, he was put in solitary confinement and the album was all but forgotten. The album has since been remastered, recreated and is widely celebrated, including by Luke Daniel Peacock who also joins this interview. Vic Simms died last week at the age of 78. 

“This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch”, said Neil Young about his only major hit, Heart of Gold, from the 1972 album Harvest. 

Whether or not the dozens of artists who’ve covered it since consider it “middle of the road”, they’ve certainly taken it right off the beaten track. Andy’s guest analysts in this second edition of our new Cover Story series are singer-songwriters and broadcasters Henry Wagons and Georgia Mooney.

Music details:

Heart of GoldComposed by Neil YoungOriginally performed by Neil Young for the album Harvest (1972) on Reprise Records

Covers by:

Johnny CashWillie NelsonMidnight ShineTori AmosBettye LaVetteBoney M.OndaraNeil Young & Stray Gators (live in Tuscaloosa)

Technical production by Harvey O’Sullivan and Bethany Stewart.

The Music Show is made on Gadigal and Gundungurra Country 

Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra has more of an ethos than a sound. A twenty five piece indie band with constantly evolving membership, it began as a solo project by Matt Hsu, whose values and “punk-trained” composition shine through on not one but two new albums released on the same day: Noodle, and Forest Party.

Opera for the Dead (祭歌) is a "contemporary Chinese cyber opera" that explores cultural practices around death and grieving. Guzheng player and in-demand collaborator Mindy Meng Wang and sound artist and composer Monica Lim have teamed up to create a work which features four instrumentalists, a countertenor, electronics and cutting-edge visuals. Andy chats to them about how rituals, improvisation and friendship inform the performance.

Metal, marimbas, vampires and EDM: ABBA’s Lay All Your Love On Me as you’ve never heard it before, with producer Paul Mac and composer Alice Chance.

This is the first episode of Cover Story, a new series from The Music Show in which Andy and his guests take songs of the popular music canon and examine their cover versions, for better, worse, and weirder. 

Music details:

Lay All Your Love On MeComposed by Benny Andersson & Björn UlvaeusOriginally recorded by ABBA for the album Super Trouper (1980) on Atlantic Records

Covers by:

ErasureBrian David GilbertBentley RoblesAmberian DawnPale HoneySiv JakobsenCaroline Shaw & So Percussion

Paul Mac’s Tekno Train: The Album is out now. 

German vocal ensemble Sjaella perform works by Alice Chance in July:

Hobart Festival of Voices 1/7/25, 2/7/25Ballina 6/7/25Brisbane - QPAC 10/7/25Sydney - Utzon Room 13/7/25Adelaide - Ukaria 19/7/25, 20/7/25Canberra 23/7/25Melbourne Recital Centre 25/7/25

The Music Show is made on Gadigal and Gundungurra Country. Technical Production by John Jacobs and Bethany Stewart

British singer and songwriter Marianne Faithfull has died at the age of 78. In 1996, Andy spoke to her about finding her true voice, why she was drawn to the music of Kurt Weill and the Weimar Republic, and why she was wrong about The Rolling Stones.

Armed with homemade instruments and a larrikin spirit, Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band were mainstays of Melbourne's alternative music scene in the 1970s. Brothers and founding members Jim and Mic Conway are the subjects of a new documentary film by Fiona Cochrane called Whoopee Blues. Mic and Fiona are on The Music Show to reflect on band's clowning, costumes and chaos, and how it helped shaped the blues, rock and children's music that came after.

“Ships become obsolete; fine furs are ravaged by moths, faded by the sun, worn by rubbing against show cases; garments go out of style; the gold watch grandfather handed down is replaced by a thin one. Change and decay is all around—except in violins. Death rarely comes to the violin.” 

So wrote Arland Weeks in 1929, in The Scientific Monthly.

Dr Laura Case gives Andy a potted history of the violin in Australia, from 1788 to 1914 – and beyond. It's a history of class and gender lines in the colony but it's also about how the violin has been an instrument of both assimilation and resistance by First Nations violinists.

Music at the start of the show:

Title: Etude No. 1Composer: Rodolphe KreutzerArtist: Elizabeth WallfischAlbum: 40 EtudesLabel: CPO

Title: Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23; No. 3; i. PrestoComposer: Ludwig Van BeethovenArtist: Elizabeth Wallfisch, David BreitmanAlbum: Beethoven: The Sonatas for violin & fortepiano Nos. 1-5Label: Nimbus

Title: The Highlandman SetComposer: trad.Artist: Chris DuncanAlbum: Fyvie’s EmbraceLabel: ANC Music

Title: Was There Anything I Could Do? Composer: The Go-BetweensArtist: The Go-BetweensAlbum: 16 Lovers LaneLabel: Mushroom

Title: Biamanga Juxtaposed, Sound of Past with Future; ii. Ancient ImprovComposer: Eric AveryArtist: Eric Avery, Ensemble OffspringAlbum: Biamanga JuxtaposedLabel: ABC Classic

Music in the interview with Laura:

Title: Duos Op. 64; No. 1; B.509 – iii. Adagio - CantabileComposer: Ignaz Josef Pleyel Artist: Indira Gonzalez, Emmanuel SiffertAlbum: 6 Duos, Op. 64Label: VDE-Gallo

Title: High Road to LintonComposer: TradArtist: Sharon ShannonAlbum: The Winkles TapesLabel: Kata Songs

Title: Maritana, Act 1: Opening ChorusComposer: William Vincent WallaceArtist: RTE Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Proinnsias O DuinnAlbum: MaritanaLabel: Naxos

Title: Violin Sonata No. 8 in G major; Op. 30, No. 3; iii. Allegro vivaceComposer: Ludwig Van BeethovenArtist: Anne-Sophie MutterAlbum: Beethoven: The Violin SonatasLabel: Deutsche Grammophon

Title: Hermit of Killarney & The Black Cat Piddled in the White Cat’s EyePerformed live in studio by Dr Laura Case

Title: Biamanga Juxtaposed, Sound of Past and Future; iii. Eagle and CrowComposer: Eric AveryArtist: Eric Avery, Ensemble OffspringAlbum: Biamanga JuxtaposedLabel: ABC Classic

Music at the end of the show: 

Title: Go To Sleep (The Legend Of Ŋamini Baŋ’ Baŋ’)Artist: Andrew Gurruwiwi BandAlbum: Sing Your Own SongLabel: Independent release

Technical production by Nathan Turnbull. 

The Music Show is made on Gadigal and Gundungurra Country.

Country singer songwriter Andy Golledge cut his teeth in Sydney’s Inner West band scene before returning to his hometown of Tamworth a local hero. He and his band have racked up thousands of kilometres of touring, and whether it’s in the back room of a country pub or in the biggest concert hall in town, they put on one hell of a show. Andy is our ears on the ground at Tamworth Country Music Festival which ends this weekend, and he’s up for two Golden Guitar Awards for his latest album Young, Dumb & Wild.

Pianist Lisa Moore and clarinettist Lloyd Van’t Hoff are two Australian musicians who’ve spent much of their lives overseas. Their new album My Place brings together Australian and American composers works either written or arranged for piano and clarinet. Lisa and Lloyd join Andy to talk about how a nation finds its sound – or doesn’t.

Andy Golledge performs at Tamworth Country Music Festival on Saturday 25 January at 9pm.