Banned Biographies

10/08/2024

12/07/2024

By the way, I’m not dead. I’ve been too busy to be able to write, record and edit the podcast recently. But I thought it might be a good idea to remind you I’m here and tell you about the thing that’s inspired me to post this; the new Eminem album ‘The Death of Slim Shady’ is an incredible concept album with a stellar track called ‘Guilty Conscience 2’.

Also, as if all the pop punk bands from my past releasing brilliant new albums this year wasn’t enough to transport me back to the early 00s, D-12 also released a new album this week that I’m partway through and also really enjoying.

What are you listening to today?

26/03/2024

This is why grassroots music venues are so important and why we need to get out there and attend gigs before they all get turned into flats. Without them there is no music industry.

The Reading & Leeds festival lineup poster, minus any artists who launched their careers in Grassroots Music Venues.

Today's festival headliners can only sell thousands of tickets because of the essential role played by these venues in their development. Nurtured in grassroots music venues, they built their audiences from tens to hundreds, laying the foundation for their success on the grand stages of festivals like Reading & Leeds.



Find out more by tuning into Parliament Live and the CMS YouTube channel on 26th March to hear more from Music Venue Trust and those affected by the Grassroots Music Venues crisis: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/8227/grassroots-music-venues/

07/02/2024

Ouch! Kerrang didn’t hold back, did they?!

02/02/2024

Ugh. Carl Weathers AND Wayne Kramer on the same day?? 😢😢😭

20/01/2024

Want to hear me wax lyrical about a wonderful film about obsessiveness and drumming? Subscribe to The Stinking Pause podcast now!

The Stinking Pause Podcast - bringing you classic movies since 2013...some good, some not so good. 2023 marked the 10th anniversary of the Stinking Pause podcast. To celebrate, this year we are looking back at some of the movies already reviewed over the past 10 years and inviting fellow podcaste....

07/01/2024

This episode is a chat with Jason Potbelly, the co-lead vocalist, guitarist and driving force behind Washington-based punk band Potbelly. The band has been around and touring since 1995 and has built up quite the community by producing split EPs and compilation albums with a plethora of well-known and unsigned bands over the years as well as relentlessly touring around North America. In fact, they’ve released over 100 recordings over the years, so many that even Jason can’t remember the names of them all, as you’ll hear!

Jason has so many stories from seeing the cream of the Seattle grunge scene play tiny venues and house parties in the 80s and 90s to insights about the political environment of the US and the crazy goings on in his area during covid, as well as booking tours and touring in the days before the internet when you had to use maps and phone books!

https://pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/E74G3E/traffic.megaphone.fm/PAN8011324306.mp3?updated=1704653338

Pantheon Podcasts PIG Records

05/01/2024

Some great new songs got dropped in the last 24 hours:

No Thank You For The Music by Frank Turner
One Eyed Bastard by Green Day
Dream Big by Bob Vylan
Versions Of You by Alkaline Trio

2024’s gonna be a great year for punk fans!

03/01/2024

18/12/2023

07/12/2023

This evening the podcast will be featured on Leo Ulph’s BBC Upload show on BBC Radio Berkshire, BBC Radio Kent, BBC Radio Surrey, BBC Radio Oxford & BBC Radio Sussex from 6pm. The clip in question will be about the one and only ‘Our House’ by Madness & may even feature an interview with yours truly about the podcast, music & all sorts. Tune in live or on BBC Sounds!

06/12/2023

And there I was thinking they’d simply incorporate younger covers bands to be ‘KISS UK’, KISS Japan’, etc and pull the money in that way… why bother when you can go the ABBA route?! 😆

Kiss’ avatars will rock and roll into eternity.

01/12/2023

The latest episode of the Banned Biographies podcast is an interview with Pete Trainor, a designer, technologist, massive music fan & author. Of the book, ‘Calling All The Dreamers‘. The remarkable true story about a band called Electrasy who got to high places in the record industry, but were ultimately halted by technology and shifting human-behaviour.

In this conversation we not only talk about the book and the career of Electrasy, we also get into what drives fandom, life in provincial towns, the pros and cons of technology in life (let alone the music industry) and Pete’s role as a technologist and professional speaker, which goes deep.

‘Calling All The Dreamers’ is now available in paperback & Electrasy’s debut album, ‘Beautiful Insane’ has been re-released under the title ‘Calling All The Dreamers’ using AI technology from the original studio demos from 1998. So be sure to visit electrasy.co.uk where you can buy their music, merch & Pete’s book 'Calling All The Dreamers', alternatively, you could visit Pete’s website trainor.fyi to buy any of his books, see some of his amazing work and watch his various talks, they’re well worth it.





https://pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/E74G3E/traffic.megaphone.fm/PAN7809382105.mp3?updated=1701267328

30/11/2023

We genuinely love seeing everyone’s Spotify wrapped and Apple Music lists. We discover great bands from these lists and it’s great to see bands we love and know getting so much love. BUT!

Streaming companies operate in a way that means your favourite bands are getting ripped off and working to make a corporation rich. We all can combat this but buying a T-shirt, vinyl, print, sticker or show ticket from a band we love, or buy their music from band camp or directly from the band.
Streaming is great for discovery and for access but we all need to try our best to offset where we can.

And if you can’t afford to support your favourites then why not post about them, share them with a friend or just send them a dm and let them know you love them.

30/11/2023

A true one off. Rest in peace, Shane. Thank you for the music.

27/11/2023

Hmmm, what do we all think of this? Personally, I wouldn’t have Green Day on there, and I feel like The Clash’s first album is more seminal than London Calling. I’d also put The Damned’s first or second album. Ultimately though, music is so subjective it’s hard to make a definitive list, especially boiling down a 50 year old genre to 5 albums.

https://www.altpress.com/fan-poll-best-punk-albums/?fbclid=IwAR2nQqK9fERIBJjPoXEUv9TTj1as70HUdj8YCm9jFqExM1m4-r68aH93ALU_aem_Aem1E8Y2dsXSfNGM5DReNYBEYIOVTgOKJRYOB7-EU1NJUSA1f6XU_QoZOBOO87Ww1fk

See which artists made the list.

08/11/2023

What's a perfect album that came out when you were 16?

26/10/2023

Tonight the podcast will be featured on Leo Ulph’s BBC Upload show tonight going on on BBC Radio Kent, Berkshire, Solent and Oxfordshire between 6-8pm and then the same; including Sussex and Surrey for a repeat on Saturday 28th at the same time.

This excerpt is about the Madness song Michael Caine, an overlooked gem in my humble opinion! Tune in!

29/09/2023

Don Letts’ debut album "Outta Sync" is a heady cocktail of dubbed out bass heavy rhythms, island vibes & spoken word juxtaposed with melodic hooks & harmonies: i.e. exactly what you’d expect a Don Letts project to sound!

Featuring eleven mostly self-written tracks produced with dub producer Gaudi, after Youth from Killing Joke suggested the pair work together, ‘Outta Sync’ reflects Letts' myriad tastes and interests, as well as his unique worldview.

It also features an array of guests: the legendary Terry Hall of The Specials, The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, lovers rock queen Hollie Cook, Zoe Devlin Love - previously of Alabama 3, and Letts' daughter, Honor.

Letts says of the album: “For better or worse this is me, although I ain't saying I've got it down, as the lyrics in the single’s chorus readily acknowledges. Ultimately the album’s a soundtrack to my mind with some cool bass lines, mirroring the sum total of my cultural journey and reflecting the duality of my existence, which is Black and British.”

It's an interesting and certainly eclectic listen, so why not give it a spin & let me know what you think?

29/09/2023

Kurt Baker is someone I was supposed to have on the show to talk about his music during the summer, but I was in the middle of a lot of stuff and I messed up my chance by confusing my time zones, which was a real shame because I instantly became a fan of his music which is a modern take on Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and 60s garage punk. I hope to catch up with him again someday.

Anyway, Kurt released his latest album, Rock n Roll Club today, and it shows a certain expansion of sound which sometimes boarders on Oasis style swagging rock n rolling mixed with the Attractions augmented by a hint of T.Rex style glam rock stomp and a soupçon of disco funk for good measure (chug-a-choo-choo indeed!).

Baker makes fun music to have a good time to and "Rock 'n' Roll Club" is no exception, it’s really worth a listen, as is his whole back catalogue.

26/09/2023

The absolute legend that is Michael Winslow shredding Led Zeppelin’s While Lotta Love on a Norwegian talk show without even touching a guitar!

Watch when Michael Winslow and folk pop-musician Odd Nordstoga performed «Whole lotta love» on the Norwegian talkshow «Senkveld - med Thomas og Harald» on TV...

21/09/2023

So, a snippet from my latest episode of Madness was featured on Leo Ulph’s BBC Upload show this evening on BBC Radio Kent, BBC Radio Solent, BBC Radio Solent , BBC Radio Oxford today between 6-8pm.

But if, like me, you missed it you can still hear it on BBC Sounds or hear it replayed on those stations as well as BBC Radio Sussex and BBC Radio Surrey on Saturday, again between 6-8pm… lummy!

14/09/2023

John Peel celebrated his 40th birthday in 1979 by playing his all time favourite forty records…

13/09/2023

12/09/2023

How have I never made this connection?!

11/09/2023

Finally, the new episode is out now: The Rise And Fall And Rise Again: A Brief History of (Part 1)




https://pdst.fm/e/p.podderapp.com/1394819820/chrt.fm/track/E74G3E/traffic.megaphone.fm/PAN3517623421.mp3?updated=1694447618