The Gig Stories Podcast (gigstoriespod)

Ralph Rolle is a drumming legend - the beating heart with Chic/Nile Rodgers and for 12 years, drummer on ‘It’s Showtime At The Apollo’, He's worked with everyone, including Sting, Bette Midler, Bono, Queen Latifah, Paul Simon and Elvis Costello.

Chris and Alex caught up with Ralph just before he went on stage with Nile Rodgers and Chic at the Warehouse Project in Manchester. 

Sarah Blackwood chats to us about all things Dubstar, Client and Technique - in particular touring with Depeche Mode in 2002. Her choices of music are absolutely knockout, so check out the playlist.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Andy “Fletch” Fletcher.

Go well, Fletch.

Anna Doble is a journalist, writer and DJ, and currently digital editor for the BBC World Service. During the BIG lockdown, she decided to listen to all of her 300 albums (and eventually all her singles) - and document her thoughts on each vinyl on her website.

The resulting journey takes us from Mozart’s piano concertos, through Bowie and Kate Bush, to her beloved Saint Etienne and beyond. It’s a wonderful website which illustrates just what makes music special - and what makes record collections special. This is a lovely chat with a fascinating and passionate guest. And the accompanying playlist was curated (urgh, did we just use the word curated?) by Anna herself. It’s a banger. Enjoy!

Here’s a bit of a special episode for you - Alex and Chris travelled to Kendal Calling and recorded a live episode in the woods with Trampolene’s wonderful Jack Jones.

We chat about Pink Floyd, Pete Doherty, Dylan - and nicking a car to go and see Leonard Cohen play live. There are also some short clips from Alex and Chris in the fields. Make sure you check out Chris’s gallery from this special festival…

A compilation of our favourite bits from episodes 11-20. Featured guests are:

Mat Fraser

Magic Mod

Johnny Kalsi

Nick Heyward

Chris Hawkins

Shell Zenner

Graft

Mike Batt

Tommy Smith

James Atkin

Pat Nevin played football for Chelsea, Everton, Kilmarnock, Tranmere, Clyde and Motherwell - earning 28 caps for Scotland in the process. The nippy midfielder now graces our radiowaves as one of BBC 5Live’s most respected pundits. His latest book, “The Accidental Footballer” details his career throughout the 80s and 90s, as well as his lifelong love of music.

We chat to him about Cocteau Twins, Camera Obscura, Belle & Sebastian, New Order, The Durutti Column and Thin Lizzy. ABBA even get a look in...

Our chat with Nick Heyward was a beautiful thing. Some amazing early gig memories (including a first gig which will be hard to beat), we also talke about Haircut 100, the music scene in the early 80s, songwriting, and much much more.

Saxophonist, composer, arranger and band leader Tommy Smith is one of the most influential British jazz musicians of the past thirty years. Alex and Chris chat to Tommy about his journey from Wester Hailes in Edinburgh to Berklee College of Music in Boston, his first trip to New York (where he ended up playing with Jaco Pastorius) and talk about memorable gigs and favourite venues.

Pete Paphides is a journalist, broadcaster and author of the wonderful autobiography “Broken Greek”.

In our conversation, we chat about Aztec Camera, going to Live Aid and the time Crowded House came round for tea.

This is our first interview with Pete - seeing as we only just scratched the surface, it will certainly not be the last…

The first episode! Chris and Alex chat about early memories of going to gigs, favourite venues and their plans for future episodes.

They discuss the Barrowlands Ballroom in Glasgow, Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff, live disappointments, bootlegs and their loudest gigs.

Alex's live track is Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye" (recorded on July 4, 1995. Olympia, Paris) from the live compilation album "Mystery White Boy". 

Theme tune written and performed by James Holt - check out his amazing work here. 

Also special thanks to our lads, George Winters and Gabe Payne, who created our incidental music. Cheers fellas!

Chris is joined by singer, songwriter and founder member of Dodgy, Nigel Clark in a special live episode recorded at the North of England Centre for Music & Arts in the beautiful Yorkshire town of Marsden. It's a new arts centre on the canalside just next to the Standedge Tunnel.

They chat about Nigel's childhood memories of live music, a cracking first ever gig, the early days of Dodgy, and the story behind King Monkey...

Grant Nicholas is frontman of Feeder and, despite being massively under the weather, he joined us for a chat about festivals, Tom Petty, Radiohead, and the band's new album "Torpedo".

Catch Feeder on tour in April 2022.

Our guest on next weeks episode is the mighty Rick McMurray, drummer and founder member of Ash.

We chat to Rick about Bowie, The Cramps, Ash’s role during the 1998 Good Friday referendum campaign, Bono, and a whole lot more.

Our guest this week is poet, journalist and author Adelle Stripe. Her latest book "Ten Thousand Apologies" is a biography of Fat White Family, co-written with lead singer Lias Saoudi. We chat about Fat White Family, Hebden Bridge Trades Club, that time she managed a band (caution, the C-Bomb is unavoidable here, so please avert young ears) and her love for The Doors. Check out her episode page on our website for loads of video links and a gallery of Fat White Family on the NME tour 2015, photographed by Chris...

Dr Susan Rogers is a sound engineer and record producer best known for being Prince’s studio engineer during his commercial peak - think Purple Rain, Parade, Sign O' The Times. She is also the author of "This is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You" - a book which will make you think about why you love the music you love. It's also a book which will make you love music you either didn't think you'd love, or didn't even know existed.

Chris and Alex talk to Susan about Prince, Miles Davis, Paul McCartney and loads more. 

Episode 36 is with Blue Peter presenter #38, Richie Driss! We chat to Richie about Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Michael Jackson and Hans Zimmer. It's a beaut (and suitable for ALL the family)!

Also, if you go to our page at Podchaser.com and give us a quick review between now and the end of April, Podchaser and their partners Alitu will donate $1 to World Central Kitchen and their initiative #Chefs4Ukraine, which provides hot meals for those either caught up in the Ukraine conflict within the country or fleeing across the borders to safety. 

It'll take you a couple of minutes and would mean a massive amount. #Reviews4Good

Our latest episode is with founding member of Elbow, drummer Richard Jupp. We chat about U2, Elbow's iconic performance at Glastonbury in 2014, how the band came about, and strange exchanges with audiences at stadium gigs. 

Please note: this episode contains a couple of sweary moments - mainly Jupp, the potty-mouth.

Please like, subscribe and leave us a review - it always helps us to reach a wider audience, and puts a little spring in our steps...

Merry Christmas!

Sophie Williams is a music journalist currently writing for the NME. Chris and Alex talk to Sophie about mosh-pits, interviews, and of course, her beloved Arctic Monkeys.

Leeds-based artist Graft has been performing since his mid-teens, but it was winning series two of BBC Rap Game UK that really brought him to our attention. We chat about the grime scene, early gigs and discuss potential future collaborations.

Mat Fraser is an actor, writer, presenter, performance artist and drummer. In 2012 he drummed at the 2012 Paralympic Games closing ceremony with Coldplay and in the 80s and 90s he performed with several bands including Fear of Sex, The Reasonable Strollers, Joyride, The Grateful Dub and Living in Texas.

He’s just been nominated for a BAFTA for Crip Tales on BBC, and recently appeared in the huge BBC adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”.

We chat to Mat about his punk days, panto, performing with Coldplay - and we all geek out about drumming in general. 

Andrew Paresi was the drummer on Morrissey's first three solo albums - "Viva Hate", "Bona Drag" (alongside Mike Joyce) and "Kill Uncle". We chat to him here about all things Morrissey, Sham 69, Frank Zappa and Paul Simon.

Check out Andrew's documentary, "I Was Morrissey's Drummer", here. 

Check out Chris's interview with Andrew, concentrating more on the drumming, here. 

A missing episode! We thought we'd lost this conversation with Boo Radleys founder member Martin Carr, but turns out it was down the back of the settee with some loose change and the telly remote.

So, this chat took place over a year ago and it's an absolute cracker, where we chat about The Boo Radleys, supporting Sugar in the US, seaside radio roadshows and Jimmy Webb. Enjoy!

Ben Taylor, aka Magic Mod, is as much associated with music as he is with magic. He’s supported Paul Weller, The Libertines, Pete Doherty and Reverend & The Makers - and his Magic Mod Mondays over on Twitter have been a real treat over lockdowns.

In this episode we chat about, well, magic obviously, Madness, Weller, Bad Manners and bad reviews…

We talked to Clint about auditioning singers for the Inspiral Carpets, Noel Gallagher and the beginnings of Oasis, an early love of Showaddywaddy and a drunken meeting with R.E.M. 

His favourite live track was R.E.M.'s MTV-Unplugged version of "Love Is All Around".

What Shell Zenner doesn’t know about current bands and the UK music scene isn’t worth knowing - so it was a real treat to chat to her about how she got into radio, her early days of gig-going, and what she thinks makes a gig special.

She also throws a bunch of new bands our way which we are now in the process of checking out - and you can too, in the playlist and videos on our website: 

Rhodri Marsden is a musician (playing keyboards in Scritti Politti and TV theme tune covers band Dream Themes) and writer - who in recent years has become associated with Christmas through the #DuvetKnowItsChristmas hashtag on Twitter, where people send pics of their temporary sleeping arrangements over Christmas. 

Chris and Alex chat to Rhodri about joining Scritti Politti, playing in the Arctic Circle with half of R.E.M., being a member of Frank Sidebottom's band and loads more.

Merry Christmas! 

If you enjoy this episode or Rhodri's #DuvetKnowItsChristmas, please consider making a donation to Centrepoint this Christmas...

Episode six is with multi-instrumentalist Sophie Galpin. Sophie was a founder member of PINS and has more recently been playing with the likes of Tom Grennan, SOAK and Self Esteem. It would seem that Sophie has been on tour for most of the past decade or more, and we talk about this, about trying to maintain your personal and musical identity during lockdown. We chat about touring, favourite venues, and discuss the music of the Zingzillas and Rastamouse.

Founder of the Dhol Foundation, Johnny Kalsi has played with Transglobal Underground, Afro Celt Sound System, Asian Dub Foundation and many many more.

We chat to him about festivals, touring, and THE UNIVERSE...

Renowned actor, director and writer Denis Lawson is probably best known for his appearances in classic films such as Bill Forsyth's "Local Hero" and the original "Star Wars" trilogy, but he has years of experience in the West End as a musical theatre actor, nominated for Olivier Awards for "Pal Joey" (1980) and "Le Cage Aux Folles" (2009), and winning in 1983 for his performance in "Mr Cinders", 

He chats to us about his love of jazz, and Ronnie Scott's in particular, and about seeing some of the absolute legends of jazz, from Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie, to Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan and Chick Corea.

And in an exciting development, Denis joined us for a second time to chat about musical theatre, seeing Rod Stewart with the Faces at The Roundhouse, and his somewhat unexpected choice of first post-lockdown gig.

We chat to Salford singer-songwriter Ren Harvieu about collaborating with The Magic Numbers, that difficult second album, overcoming pre-performance nerves, and talk Rufus Wainwright, Fiona Apple, Judee Sill and The Lemon Twigs.

It's a busy episode, this one. It's a great interview with Chris's father-in-law Howard, who had his first professional gig as a jazz saxophonist on New Year's Eve 1959. We talk about the appearance and subsequent domination of rock & roll over traditional jazz, performing across Europe, and his love of the jazz and blues clubs of New Orleans.

If THAT wasn't enough, Chris and Alex discuss the recent NHS gig at Gorilla by The Charlatans, dignity-stripping encounters with famous people, and an exclusive interview with James and Ian from EMF - not to mention a chat about the upcoming live episode with Tony Walsh and James Holt at The Deaf Institute as part of Tim Burgess's Vinyl Adventures Mcr on Sunday 5th December.

Phew! 

Kathryn Williams is a Mercury Music Prize nominated singer, songwriter - and now novelist, with her debut novel “The Ormering Tide” being published in March 2021. Chris and Alex talk to Kathryn about the unexpected benefits of performing online gigs during lockdown, dealing with pre-gig nerves, being managed by Alan McGee, and, for the second episode in a row, Showaddywaddy.

Kathryn's favourite live album is “Carrie and Lowell Live” by Sufjan Stevens. 

Chris Hawkins was there at the start of BBC 6 Music and 2022 will mark his twentieth year at the station. We talk Bowie, Sister Sledge, Transvision Vamp and a whole lot more...

We're (nearly) back! We've been sorting out a PLETHORA of interviews to bring you in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, here's our third compilation of favourite bits including Eddi Reader, Ren Harvieu, Manda Rin, Ralph Rolle, Anna Doble, Howard Murray, Tony Walsh, Rhodri Marsden and James Walsh.

We chat about Night & Day Cafe, Soweto Gospel Choir, Manchester Collective, Kendrick Lamarr, The Lemonheads and a whole bunch more.

Eddi Reader is a three time Brit Award Winner, an MBE and has been awarded four university doctorates. She scored a UK number one with "Perfect", Fairground Attraction's debut single, and has subsequently released over a dozen albums. 

We chat about Morrissey, touring with Gang Of Four, busking and loads more...

Happy Mondays drummer Gaz Whelan joins us to chat about how the band got its name, an important early gig they almost didn't play, an encounter with a soul superstar and getting drunk under the table by some unlikely 1980s bands.

Rather than write a bit of blurb about our guest, DJ Paulette, here's what it says on the back cover of her fantastic new book, "Welcome To The Club - The Life and Lessons of a Black Woman DJ".

"One of the Hacienda's first female DJs, DJ Paulette has scaled the heights of the music industry, playing to crowds of thousands all around the world. Here she tells her story, offering a remarkable view of the music industry from a Black woman's perspective. Behind the core values of peace, love, unity and respect, dance music is a world of exclusion, misogyny, racism and classism. But, as Paulette reveals, it is also a space bursting at the seams with powerful women".

We chat to Paulette about her route into the DJ world, and some of the blinding gigs she experienced along the way.

**Warning - there is a contextual use of three homophobic slurs around one hour into the interview, lasting no more than a few seconds**

Our eighteenth episode is a chat with Mike Batt - singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, you name it...

We talk Art Garfunkel, Harry Nillson, Katie Melua - and we even get an impromptu performance from the man himself.

It's a New Year treat! Here are some of the best bits from our first ten episodes, featuring Clint Boon, Kathryn Williams, Rick McMurray, Andy Day, Sophie Galpin, Rick Witter, Denis Lawson, Sophie Williams and Gaz Whelan.

ENJOY!!!!

Our penultimate episode of this year is a great chat with poet Tony Walsh as part of Tim Burgess's Vinyl Adventures Mcr Day on December 5th 2021. We recorded it live at The Deaf Institute and we cover punk, reggae, metal - the lot. 

Check out Tony's website for signed copies of his book, "Sex & Love & Rock & Roll"- and his page on our site, which features some blinding videos and a Spotify playlist to end them all.

Episode 7 is a chat with Shed Seven’s Rick Witter, where we talk about the bands he was in before the Sheds, about a failed publicity stunt in a supermarket car park, Shedcember, and the release of their recent live album “Another Night, Another Town”.

Chesney Hawkes burst onto our screens and radios in 1991, starring with Roger Daltrey in “Buddy’s Song” and topping the UK charts for five weeks with “The One And Only”. We chatted to Chesney about auditioning for “Buddy’s Song”, learning to play piano on John Lennon’s piano, and a whole lot more.

Chesney’s based in LA now, but is heading to the UK for his first headline gig since the late 90s - on May 31st 2024 at the O2 Forum, Kentish Town.

Get. On. It.

James Walsh joins us for a great chat about gigging with Starsailor, his musical influences (including Babylon Zoo) and what it was like working with Phil Spector.

EMF exploded onto the music scene at the beginning of the 90s with the huge hit single "Unbelievable" followed by their debut album "Schubert Dip". We chat to lead singer James Atkin about his musical influences, about how the band came about, and hear about some hair-raising escapades on tour in the US.

This weeks guest is CBeebies legend Andy Day. Of course, Alex and Andy go WAAAY back so they chat about Glastonbury appearances, Andy And The Odd Socks, what makes a Glasto headline set special, and loads more.

No swears in this one - so the young 'uns can listen too!