Wright on the Nail

In this week’s News Roundtable episode, Chris Wright is joined  in the debate by the wonderful professor of European Politics, and Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration at the National University of Ireland Maynooth, John O’Brennan, Conservative political commentator, Lee Harris and Labour NEC member, Jess Barnard.

The conversation kicks off with the latest Conservative Party scandals of Peter Bone and Crispin Blunt. Is this the final nail in the coffin for the government? The conversation opens up a broader discussion on those who are accused and tried and found guilty on social media and on the front page of the papers before they are tried by the court of law. However, there is clearly a deep sickness in Westminster involving the abuse of power. While country-wide, just 5% of rapes that were given an outcome by the police in the year ending December 2021 resulted in a charge.

Then they move on to the upcoming Financial Statement, and whether Sunak should sack Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor, or even Suella Braverman as Home Secretary. Is the economy or immigration the most important issue for voters? Who could be the next Chancellor? Well, it’s likely Rachael Reeves will be there in the not-too-distant future. The panel analysed her standing from giving a great speech at the Labour Party Conference a few weeks ago to recently being accused of serious plagiarism in her new book. 

The second half of the conversation focuses on the elephant in the room. Israel-Gaza. Keir Starmer has come into some very hot water over his comments that endorsed Israel’s “right to defend itself” and Israel’s war crimes on Palestinians. The panellists analyse the conflict, significantly, the domestic and international response to it. Jess Barnard speaks of her visit to Palestine last year giving a firsthand account of the treatment of Palestinians by Israel and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This is a very emotive topic to debate and that was certainly the case here… We hope you enjoy this longer episode which we believe the length is backed up by the depth of discussion. 

 
We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!

Yours faithfully,

 WOTN Team

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co

This episode was produced by Tom Platts

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com

This week we are reflecting on some of our best interview episodes with giants of the music industry and, specifically, when they talked about how the megastars they’ve worked with became successful. The special guests in this episode include:

 -        Emma Banks: The representative for some of the world’s top artists, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Florence And The Machine, Katy Perry, System of a Down, Muse, Kraftwerk and many more. (full episode 17 Aug 2022)

-        Carl Leighton-Pope: Starting out in the music industry at a similar time to host Chris Wright of Chrysalis Records, Carl has been a manager, promoter, and agent for some of the biggest names in music over the decades, including Van Morrison, Bryan Adams, Billy Ocean, and Michael Bublé. (full episode 7 Jul 2023)

-        Sir Robin Millar: One of the most successful music producers in the world whose career ignited when he produced Sade's debut album "Diamond Life". (full episode 8 Sep 2023)

-        Miles Copland: Former manager of the Police and Sting. In 1979, he founded the I.R.S. Records label, producing R.E.M., the Bangles, Berlin, the Cramps, Dead Kennedys, the Alarm, and the Go-Go's, to mention just a few. (full episode 27 Aug 2021)

In this segment about Sting, Chris fondly remembers having Jerry Moss, co-founder of A&M Records, over for dinner shortly before the time of recording. Sadly, Moss passed away on the 15th of August this year aged 88. Sting has paid tribute by expressing how big an impact he had on his life and career. (full episode 27 Aug 2021)

We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!

Yours faithfully

WOTN Team

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co

This episode was produced by Tom Platts

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com

In this week’s News Roundtable episode, Chris Wright is joined by former Political Editor of the Sunday Mirror, Nigel Nelson, writer and broadcaster, Christina Patterson, and Labour Councillor and Cabinet Member for Environment and Community Safety at Preston Council, Freddie Bailey.

The topics they discuss:

-        Who had the best 2023 conference – the Conservatives or Labour?

-        Was Sunak trying to be more of a president than a prime minister?

-        What was Farage doing at the Tory Party Conference?

-        The war between Israel and Gaza: the polarisation of debate on the crisis, and how            it impacted the Labour conference.   

-        The leaders’ performances: Sunak vs Starmer, Hunt vs Reeves. 

-        Did Labour send the right message to help secure the general election win?  

 
We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!

 
WOTN Team

 
'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co

 
This episode was produced by Tom Platts

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com

This week, Chris Wright interviews Lisa Gordon. Lisa has been a top business executive for over 25 years. As a technology specialist, she has surfed the wave of the technological revolution from the infancy of the internet to this day where she is Chairman of Cavendish, the merger of Cenkos and FinnCap, a non-Exec at Alpha Group Intl - one of the fastest growth of companies listed on the UK Stock Exchange, as well as holding several other major non-Exec and advisory positions. 

The conversation starts with Chris and Lisa’s work together at Chrysalis where they were at the forefront of technological change in the industry. They shine a light on what personal attributes caused their huge business success, and what led to their occasional failures. The second half turns to the country at large where Lisa provides some fascinating observations from her perspective as a business insider. They tackle the issue of sexism and all kinds of discrimination in the workplace, what can be done to ensure diversity and why it’s so important for business as well as social mobility.

The topics are:

-           How Chris gave Lisa her biggest career break

-           How Lisa and Chris could have been Google, and why it all went wrong

-           How technology has impacted the business of music

-           The power and limitations of the City of London

-           What’s wrong with business today and how to fix it

-           The key guidelines for being successful in business

-           How to foster gender diversity in the workplace and the importance of childcare

-           Politics and Britain’s position on the world stage

-           What Sunak should have done with HS2

-           Meeting Gordon Brown and how he stays hopeful about politics

  We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!

Yours faithfully,

 WOTN Team

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co

This episode was produced by Tom Platts 

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com

In this week’s News Roundtable episode, Chris Wright is joined by the presenter of Times Radio Early Breakfast show, Rosie Wright, UK and US political commentator, Edward Hardy, and former LibDem parliamentary candidate for Cotswolds and founder of Save British Farming, Liz Webster.

The starting gun has been fired for the next general election. What can the Tories do to turn around the opinion polls? Is Labour’s strategy of holding back on publishing hard policy working? Could Rishi Sunak call the general election as soon as October this year?

The panel discuss how the Tories are just as lost Labour on their political identity. They look globally to where our relations with our European neighbours stand.  Liz tells us the Liberal Democrat’s true position on Brexit.

They then discuss the prospect of the Tories scrapping inheritance tax and HS2, whilst Sunak told the North this week that they’ll sort out the potholes first. That’d be something! The panel discuss why Britain is so bad at big infrastructure projects.

We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!


Yours faithfully,

WOTN Team

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co

This episode was produced by Tom Platts

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com

This week Chris Wright sat down with Loraine Burgon to discuss her life, as described in her recently released book Magical Highs – Alvin Lee & Me. Loraine was the longtime partner of Alvin Lee through his rise to fame as the lead singer and guitarist of Ten Years After, and Chris Wright was the band’s manager in the same period. This is a highly unique conversation between two people from the heart of the Woodstock era of Rock’n’roll, exposing what really went on among the stars. Loraine’s experience brings home what it was like to be a woman in this time and among individuals like Beatle George Harrison -  it wasn’t plain sailing that’s for sure!


Grab yourself a copy of Magical Highs – Alvin Lee & Me by Loraine Burgon


Topics of the conversation:

-        Coming from Nottingham 

-        Being the longtime partner of Alvin Lee, leader of Ten Years After 

-        Woodstock 1969 

-        Led Zeppelin

-        Life on tour

-        Sexual misconduct in the music and fashion industries

-        George Harrison’s entitlement

-        Magical Highs and life unravelling


We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!


Thanks for listening,


WOTN Team

 
'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co

This episode was produced by Tom Platts

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com

In this week’s News Roundtable episode, Chris Wright is joined by GBNews broadcaster and columnist Emily Carver, former Corbyn advisor and co-founder of Momentum James Schneider, and writer and broadcaster Christina Patterson.

The panel kick-off by discussing the record of the current and previous governments on their spending priorities. Whilst public spending is high, it is not going to the right places as we see schools physically crumbling and NHS waiting lists in England at the record high of 7.68 million people. Is Keir Starmer laying out an alternative approach that will make a positive difference to this deterioration? 

The conversation progresses to the issue of competence in government whilst ministers are rotated like rolling substitutes in a football team. They discuss the systemic conditions like the toxic media landscape that creates a situation where we have a relatively incompetent bunch of politicians who cannot stay in their jobs long enough to make any meaningful progress in their ministerial departments. 

Chris then turns the talk to international politics with the issue of Joe Biden’s age, and then the new developments in Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin’s relationship and what all this means for the world.


We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!

 
Thanks for listening,

 
WOTN Team

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co

This episode was produced by Tom Platts

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com

This week Chris Wright is joined by one of the most successful music producers in the world whose career ignited when he produced Sade's debut album "Diamond Life". Sir Robin Millar is also a highly successful businessman, and he is the Chair of Scope UK, the national charity representing the 16 million disabled people in the UK.

The conversation jumps straight into the deep end of things with the problems of cancel culture and the issues caused when people in business, and life, hold grudges against you. They then explore the significance of Robin having a West Indian mother and how this impacted his outlook and life experiences.

They then discuss the painful subject of Robin’s blindness and the difference between being born blind and developing blindness like Robin did. Chris then asks about the formative years of his career that led him to the vast success he has enjoyed for several decades, including his breakthrough in getting a job at the Château d'Hérouville recording studio in the Northwest of Paris. Robin tells his story of Sade. Producing on Diamond Life with her was what took Robin from being a successful producer to the stratosphere of being sought after around the globe.

This then opens up a fascinating discussion about the two-tone music of the late 70s/early 80s that Chris Wright was instrumental in reviving, having signed record deals with bands like the Specials (famous for the song ‘Ghost Town’ among many others). They return to Sade where Robin explains how she became a hit in America and then what it entails for an artist and their records to become mega-famous. They finally talk in-depth about the business of music including the ins and outs of their business partnership at Chrysalis and a possible new venture together!

We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!

Thanks for listening,

 WOTN Team

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co

This episode was produced by Tom Platts

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com

In this week’s News Roundtable episode, Chris Wright is joined by award-winning I journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, US and UK political commentator Edward Hardy, and commentator and communications officer for the Institute of Economic Affairs Reem Ibrahim.

The conversation starts off with the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s recent expansion of ULEZ as a public health and environmental measure. The panel discuss if it is the right policy in view of its benefits and the short-term impact on individuals.

Chris then asks whether Labour are doing the right thing in allowing their political image to seem little different to the Conservatives’.

They then discuss the country at large and how the North has once again been neglected. Would Labour truly invest in economic infrastructure outside of London?

The conversation then delves into an honest discussion on whether the ethnicity of our current and recent leaders Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, and Priti Patel has politically enabled them to take a crueller stance on migrants than white ministers have historically – and Yasmin explains another reason why this might be.

They then discuss whether it is right for the UK to welcome Mohammed bin Salman of human rights abusing Saudi Arabia to its shores, as well as, whether Putin killed the late head of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin?

We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!

Thanks for listening,

WOTN Team


This episode was produced by Tom Platts

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com

In this ‘Nailed It!’ episode we look back on two episodes in which, it’s fair to say, Chris and his guests touched on more revolutionary political theories than they usually do. In Lockdown Regret, Starmer's Betrayal - is socialism dead? (March 2023) Nima Tavallaey Roodsari explains that the current Labour Party is really a liberal party, calling for the formation of a truly socialist party. He had a particular leader in mind…

Panellists Nima, David Osland, and Reem Ibrahim discuss whether Keir Starmer was right to kick Jeremy Corbyn out of the Labour Party. Is a broad church of liberals and socialists in the Labour Party a functional marriage? They discuss the rising age of retirement and dispute the amount of tax workers pay towards pensions compared to the rest of Europe. Is our system socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor?

The final excerpt is taken from Chris’s conversation with James Schneider, How the Left Can Win by 2030, and Why They Must.

We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at [email protected], or get in touch if you just want to say hi!

Thanks for listening,

WOTN Team


Our Bloc: How We Win by James Schnieder

 'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co


This episode was produced by Tom Platts

'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner. 

© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.

Rock around the clock productions AB.

www.rockaroundtheclock.co 

This episode was produced by Sound Sapien

Soundsapien.com