Podcast · Music

Rock's Backpages

by Barney Hoskyns, Jasper Murison-Bowie, William Pike · English · Music

Tales from the world's largest archive of music journalism: entertaining interviews with luminaries such as Neil Tennant, Billy Bragg, Pamela Des Barres, Gary Kemp, Vashti Bunyan, Midge Ure, Nick Hornby and Robyn Hitchcock. Thoughtful and informative conversations about all aspects of popular music

New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 1 hr 16 min
Latest: 12 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 35 minNew

E237: Tonya Pendleton on Prince + Lil' Kim + D'Angelo + Amy Winehouse

In this new episode we invite the splendid Tonya Pendleton to join us online from her adopted Philadelphia – in her own words "the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection". The former Vibe scribe turned Philly radio host tells us about growing up in New York City and listening to WBLS legend Frankie Crocker and, later, DJ Red Alert. She also remembers the internship that led to her becoming music director at WILD in Boston, where she befriended New Edition and New Kids On The Block! After recalling her stints at Def Jam and Arista Records in New York, Tonya talks about her move from…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E236 · 28 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 18 min
E236: Nik Cohn and Ben Ratliff on Corner Boy + Awopbopaloobop
For this episode we invite the legendary Nik Cohn to join us from upstate New York to discuss his extraordinary career and his brilliant new book Corner Boy. Also joining us — from New York City — is the book's editor Ben Ratliff, himself the author of an acclaimed 2007 biography of John Coltrane. We start by asking Nik about the epiphanic teenage moment he discovered rock'n'roll in Derry, Northern Ireland, before jumping forward to his early pop writing for Queen in the mid-'60s. Along the way, Ben explains Corner Boy's conception and the book's collaborative process. Inevitably we revisit…
E235 · 14 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 16 min
E235: Tony Fletcher on Jamming! + The Jam + U2 audio interview
For this episode we're joined in Hammersmith by the much-travelled Tony Fletcher as he returns to his homeland to promote his new book POW! When UK Punk Went Pop, 1980–84. We begin by asking our guest about Jamming!, the fondly-remembered fanzine he launched in South London at the tender age of 13. He recalls the huge impact of the Jam on his adolescent life and the friendship with Paul Weller that grew out of his passion for the band. After discussing how Jamming! evolved into a proper monthly magazine — scooping early '80s interviews with Paul McCartney, Morrissey and U2 along the way — we…
E234 · 1 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 13 min
E234: Mitchell Cohen on Dolly Parton + The Lovin' Spoonful + The Blues Project
For this episode we're joined by veteran music scribe and A&R man Mitchell Cohen to discuss his long career and his brand-new book. We start in the Bronx of Mitchell's youth and hear about the impact on him of local hero Dion DiMucci. From there we take the D train down to mid-'60s Greenwich Village and relive our guest's discovery of the scene he chronicles in Wake Me, Shake: New York City, the '60s & the Pop-Rock Youthquake. After celebrating the beloved Lovin' Spoonful we turn our attention to their fellow Village denizens the Blues Project, listening to clips from Sam Williams' 2022…
E233 · 17 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 23 min
E233: Brian Cullman on Sandy Denny + John Martyn + Big Joe Turner
In this episode, we invite the marvellous Brian Cullman to join us onscreen from a French farmhouse in the Dordogne. The author of How to Prepare for the Past talks us through his fascinating "travels in music and time" from New York City to North Africa via his writing for Crawdaddy, Musician and The Paris Review. Beginning with his boyhood in midtown Manhattan, Brian recalls his ecstatic discovery of pop radio and WBAI's Bob Fass; his befriending of the late Lillian Roxon; and his teenage immersion in the Max's Kansas City scene. The core of our conversation concerns the period our guest…
E232 · 3 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
E232: Tim Page on his Pulitzer Prize + Judee Sill + Stephin Merritt
In this episode we're joined by special guest Tim Page to trace the arc of his career from reviewing James Chance & the Contortions to winning the Pulitzer Prize. In a conversation that's as entertaining as it is erudite, Tim recalls his teenage discovery of Rolling Stone and the subsequent influence of rock criticism on his singular brand of classical music reviewing. After touching on the 1967 documentary A Day with Timmy Page, we hear about his journey as a critic from New York Rocker to the Washington Post via the New York Times. With reference to the 2002 collection Tim Page on Music,…
E231 · 20 Jul 2026 · 48 min
Episode 231: Geoffrey Cannon on the '60s + the Guardian + Jack Bruce audio
In this episode we invite the pioneering Geoffrey Cannon to reminisce about his stint as The Guardian's rock critic between 1968 and 1972. Commencing with the pop baptism of his first hearing Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers in a Horsham record booth in 1956, our guest talks us through his early work for New Society and The Listener — including his prescient reviews of albums by the Velvet Underground and the Mothers of Invention. He also explains how the 1969 Granada film Johnny Cash at San Quentin came about. Geoffrey then recounts how he pitched a weekly rock column to Guardian editor Peter…
E230 · 22 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 11 min
E230: Simon Reynolds on shoegaze + dream pop + Jay-Z audio
Acclaimed author Simon Reynolds joins us in Hammersmith to discuss his latest book. A journey through the many bands and scenes he wrote about between 1984 and 1994, Still in a Dream gives us a chance to ask our guest about shoegaze, C86 and the book's autobiographical threads. Clips from an early 2000 Jay-Z audio interview by Dorian Lynskey prompt a general discussion of the hip hop superstar whose debut album Reasonable Doubt turns 30 this week. Jasper and William then wrap up the episode with their highlights among new additions to the RBP library, including pieces about LL Cool J (1986),…
E229 · 8 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 16 min
E229: Funk special with Lloyd Bradley + Betty Davis audio
In this episode we welcome Lloyd Bradley back to Hammersmith to discuss his monumental new tome Funk Is Its Own Reward. We ask our guest about what he describes as "Black America's second great cultural revolution" before learning of his own first awareness of funk as a new musical form. After we consider the parts played in the movement's evolution by James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire and Kool & the Gang, we get to George Clinton's Parliament-Funkadelic, whose mind-blowing "P-Funk Earth Tour" of America celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Clips from a rare audio interview with Betty…
E228 · 26 May 2026 · 1 hr 23 min
E228: Maureen O'Grady on Rave + Pet Sounds + Miles Davis audio
In this episode we're joined by a legend of '60s pop journalism to discuss her days at Rave magazine and her friendships with the stars of that swinging decade. Maureen O'Grady talks about the lucky break that brought her to Boyfriend magazine and her long friendship with the great Penny Valentine. She recalls her early interviews with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones before we digress into the role the UK played in hailing the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds as a game-changing masterpiece. Plus we ask our guest about Rave and its groundbreaking 1967 issue featuring Jimi Hendrix on its over. The…
E227 · 11 May 2026 · 1 hr 15 min
E227: An LGBTQ special with Barry Walters + a Grace Jones audio interview
For this episode we're joined all the way from San Francisco by Barry Walters to discuss his new history of LGBTQ music. And in our first recording since the retirement of Mark Pringle, William Pike becomes an official co-host of the RBP podcast... Barry reflects on his upbringing in Rochester, N.Y., his move to New York City, and his early writing for the Village Voice. We then hear about his years as pop critic for the San Francisco Examiner and the inspiration of gay disco icon Sylvester. Along the way our guest touches on some of the other artists he writes about in Mighty Real,…
E226 · 13 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 14 min
E226: A Liverpool special with Penny Kiley and Paul Du Noyer
For this episode we're joined by not one but two very special guests to talk about one of the great music cities. Penny Kiley is the former pop columnist for the Liverpool Echo, contributed regularly to Melody Maker and has just published the superb memoir Atypical Girl. Paul Du Noyer, meanwhile, wrote beautifully for the NME in its glory years and edited both Q and MOJO; he is also the author of 2002's exceptional Liverpool: Wondrous Place. We ask our guests about everything from the Beatles to Frankie Goes to Hollywood via Eric's, the Real Thing and the "crucial three" of Pete Wylie,…
E225 · 30 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 7 min
E225: Adele Bertei on New York's No Wave scene
In this episode we welcome back the marvellous Adele Bertei — five years after she first guested on our show — to talk about her amazing new book No New York. Beginning with a definition of the postpunk sub-genre "No Wave", the former Contortion recalls her experience of living in Manhattan's perilous East Village in the late '70s and playing organ behind the unhinged James Chance. She also pays tribute to the many fearless women who "shaped the scene", first and foremost the formidable Lydia Lunch. Our guest recalls working as a go-fer for Brian Eno and then being a crucial part of the No…
E224 · 16 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
E224: Jimmy McDonough on Neil Young + Gary Stewart + Al Green audio
For this episode we invite the very entertaining Jimmy McDonough to join us — all the way from Portland, Oregon — and discuss his career as "the king of the crazy biographers". Our guest explains how he moved (back) to New York from Indiana in the '80s and how he got his foot in the door at the Village Voice with a 1988 profile of country singer Gary Stewart, the subject of his new book. We then hear about the long and painful saga of his extraordinary Neil Young biography Shakey (2002) — and his singular approach to the biographical trade. Clips from Amy Linden's 1995 audio interview with…
E223 · 2 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
E223: AOR Special with Paul Rees + Boston audio interview
For this episode we welcome former Q/Kerrang! editor-in-chief Paul Rees to RBP Towers to discuss his riveting new book Raised on Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine & Payola. An oral history of AOR (or Album-Oriented Rock), Raised on Radio gives us an eagerly-awaited chance to enthuse about an oft-maligned genre we all happen to adore. The conversation takes in most of AOR's major practitioners, from Kansas and Toto to Journey and Survivor, and incorporates clips from John Tobler's 1979 audio interview with Tom Scholz and Brad Delp of Boston. After we've exhausted these guilty-till-proved-innocent…
E222 · 16 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 18 min
E222: Jeff Walker & Kim Gottlieb on Tom Waits + Gram Parsons
For this episode we're joined — all the way from Laurel Canyon — by the husband-and-wife tag team that is Jeff Walker and Kim Gottlieb(-Walker). Married for 53 years, Jeff and Kim have worked in diverse capacities in the music business and talk about their experiences over those five-plus decades. We start with the couple's work together on monthly freesheet Music World, focusing on their 1973 encounters with Tom Waits and Gram Parsons (plus a 15-year-old Cameron Crowe tagging along). After audio clips of both Waits and Parsons, we hear a 1987 clip of Gram's great singing partner Emmylou…
E221 · 2 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
E221: Phast Phreddie Patterson on the world's biggest record collection
In this episode, we talk to Fred Patterson, aka Phast Phreddie, about his work at the ARChive of Contemporary Music, plus his own magazine Back Door Man and his band Thee Precisions. Beginning with his early musical life teaching classes with Don Waller at UCLA's Experimental College, we hear about how he named Back Door Man after a Howlin Wolf song and wanted to cover "hard core rock n roll". Phreddie remembers how different it was working with R. Meltzer compared to Lester Bangs, who both contributed to the mag. Next, we hear about where Thee Precisions got their name and how they were…
E220 · 19 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
E220: Bob Stanley on Saint Etienne + Connie Francis + Bob Weir R.I.P.
Content warning: This episode contains discussion of rape (40:37–42:20). In this episode we ask Bob Stanley about his career as a writer and member of the beloved Saint Etienne, whose swansong year this is. We start with Caff, the '80s fanzine which set out the eclectic pop aesthetic that underpinned Saint Etienne, proceeding from there to Bob's memories of life on Melody Maker in the late '80s and early '90s. A clip of our guest's erstwhile MM colleague Simon Reynolds talking about Saint Etienne in 2021 is the cue for a general discussion of the trio's evolution over the last 35 years – and…
E219 · 2 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 27 min
E219: Thurston Moore on free jazz + Sonic Youth + Derek Bailey
For this episode we're joined by Sonic Youth legend Thurston Moore to discuss his new book Now Jazz Now: 100 Essential Free Jazz and Improvisation Recordings, 1960-80. We start by recapping on the story our guest told in his acclaimed 2023 memoir Sonic Life. In the course of the conversation about his early musical life in Florida and Connecticut we hear a clip from Steve Roeser's 1994 audio interview with him. Discussion of early influences such as the Stooges takes us back to Thurston's stint in the late J.D. King's New York band the Coachmen – and then on to Sonic Youth itself. Our…
E218 · 15 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 39 min
E218: James Brown on Sounds + NME + Loaded + the KLF
For this episode we're joined in our Hammersmith HQ by James ("The Hardest Working Man In Show Business") Brown. The former NME star and founder of "lads' mag" progenitor loaded takes us back to his Yorkshire boyhood in Headingley. He recalls his parents' record collection, the first gigs he attended as the class "smart-arse" at Lawnswood School... and his acclaimed '80s fanzine Attack On Bzag! Our guest's account of how he came to contribute to Sounds leads to clips from the late Andy Gill's 1991 audio interview with the KLF, the maverick duo of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty whom James…
E217 · 2 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 19 min
E217: Susan Compo & Derek Ridgers on punks, goths and new romantics
In this episode we welcome not one but two wonderful guests to RBP Towers. Susan Compo and Derek Ridgers have been trans-Atlantic pals for decades and first met on a FourFourTwo assignment to interview and photograph the L.A.-expats "soccer" team Hollywood United. Starting with Susan's punk years in Southern California, we hear about her memories of seeing the Sex Pistols live in Dallas and Tulsa in January 1978. She also talks about her trip to London the year before, prompting Derek's recall of the punk scene he began photographing at clubs such as Vortex and the Roxy. Derek then rewinds…
E216 · 17 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 31 min
E216: Pete Paphides on ABBA + Stevie Wonder + Broken Greek
In this episode we're joined by Pete Paphides, former rock critic for the London Times and author of 2020's acclaimed memoir Broken Greek. We start with our guest's unique "'Starman' moment" – seeing the Brotherhood of Man lip-sync to the ghastly 'Save Your Kisses for Me' on Top of the Pops in 1976 – and then plunge straight into a celebration of his favourite pop group ABBA. We hear about his love of the Swedes' countless classic songs; his interviews with Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson; and how the quartet was indirectly responsible for his marriage to fellow scribe Caitlin Moran. Pete…
E215 · 3 Nov 2025 · 1 hr 31 min
E215: Simon Price on Melody Maker + Manics + Radiohead audio
For this episode — the first to feature RBP's editorial co-ordinator William Pike — we're joined by Melody Maker legend Simon Price for a discussion of his career, his championing of Manic Street Preachers, and Radiohead's first tour since 2018. Beginning in the South Wales town of Barry, we hear about Simon's boyhood, his formative pop passions and the first of his distinctive sartorial metamorphoses. He recalls his late '80s move to London and the years at Melody Maker that took in his first interviews with fellow Welshmen the Manics and his integral involvement in the Neo-glam sub-genre…
E214 · 20 Oct 2025 · 1 hr 20 min
E214: Lisa Verrico on Vox + Oasis + Billie Eilish + My Bloody Valentine
In this episode we invite the highly entertaining Lisa Verrico to join us from her native Glasgow and talk us through her career from IPC's Vox magazine to The Times. Commencing with her memory of first hearing Prince's 'Little Red Corvette' as a kid on holiday in Spain, our guest recalls her days of raving (and working in radio) before describing how she got her foot in the door at Vox. Hair-raising Mancunian encounters with Happy Mondays and Mark E. Smith serve as preludes to Lisa's hilarious 1994 interview with Oasis. We hear her "bootleg recording" of the Gallagher brothers' competing…
E213 · 6 Oct 2025 · 1 hr 16 min
E213: Michael A. Gonzales on TLC + The Source + DJ Kool Herc
In this episode, the great R&B/hip hop writer Michael A. Gonzales joins us online from Baltimore to look back on his long career. We start with our guest's formative musical memories, from hearing Isaac Hayes' 'Theme from Shaft' and meeting Little Anthony & the Imperials to seeing the Jackson Five live at Radio City Music Hall in February 1975. His earliest inklings of New York's rap scene take us back to his 2008 piece about the trailblazing DJ Kool Herc playing block parties in the Bronx of the early '70s. We hear about Michael's first pieces for The Source, arguably the most important hip…
E212 · 22 Sep 2025 · 1 hr 10 min
E212: Greil Marcus on Mystery Train + Sex Pistols + Jamie Reid
In this episode, we ask one of the greatest music writers of the rock and roll era to talk about Mystery Train as he celebrates its 50th anniversary with a brand-new edition of his classic book. Talking to us from Oakland, 6,000 miles away in his native Northern California, Greil Marcus looks back on the pivotal moments that led to his starting work on Mystery Train in the fall of 1972: his experiences as a student at Berkeley, his discovery of film critic Pauline Kael and his early writing for Rolling Stone. From there we focus on the book's extraordinary chapters about Sly Stone and Elvis…
E211 · 12 Sep 2025 · 34 min
This Episode Goes 2 11: A Spinal Tap special with Alexis Petridis
For this special "bonus" episode of the Rock's Backpages podcast — fittingly number 211 (geddit?) — we're joined once again by The Guardian's Alexis Petridis for a discussion of timeless rock mockumentary This is Spinal Tap and its breathlessly-awaited sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues... With reference to A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever, the newly-published "story of Spinal Tap" told by Rob "Marty DiBergi" Reiner — with help from our good friend David Kamp (an excellent podcast guest back in 2021) – we reflect on what made the original 1984 film so special and what challenges…
E210 · 8 Sep 2025 · 1 hr 14 min
E210: Alexis Petridis on Acid House + The Guardian + CMAT + KISS
For this episode we're joined by the immensely respected Alexis Petridis, The Guardian's principal pop critic since September 2001. Our guest tells us about his childhood in Yorkshire, his teenage years in Buckinghamshire and his initiation into the Acid House scene while at Cambridge University. Work experience at MixMag in the mid-'90s led to his becoming that dance/clubbing monthly's Features Editor – and then to a slightly less felicitous eight months as editor of Select. A short digression on "Britpop nostalgia" leads us to discussion of the changing role of music journalism and to our…
E209 · 26 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 19 min
E209: David Nathan on Dionne Warwick + the Bee Gees + Michael Lydon R.I.P.
In this episode we invite David Nathan to look back on his illustrious 60 years as "the British Ambassador of Soul". Our guest commences by recalling his gateway into Black American music: the covers of Shirelles and Miracles classics included on the first two Beatles albums. He furthermore describes the thrill of seeing Motown star Mary Wells supporting the Fab Four at Kilburn's State Cinema in October 1964, followed by his founding of the Nina Simone Appreciation Society. We hear about the Soul City record store David ran with the legendary Dave Godin – and about John Abbey's trailblazing…
E208 · 11 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 24 min
E208: Byron Coley on Beefheart + Lydia Lunch + Terry Reid R.I.P.
For this episode we're joined online from northwest Massachusetts by the legendary Byron Coley, champion of all things weird and non-mainstream. After describing his somewhat peripatetic childhood, our guest explains – very amusingly – why as a teenager he hated the Beatles and what led him eventually to the more subversive sounds of the Mothers of Invention and their ilk. A digression on the Grateful Dead – whose Jerry Garcia we lost 30 years ago this month – is followed by Byron's memories of first reading R. Meltzer and Nick Tosches in Crawdaddy! and Creem... and how a teaching assistant…

About Rock's Backpages

Rock's Backpages is a English music podcast from Barney Hoskyns, Jasper Murison-Bowie, William Pike. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Barney Hoskyns, Jasper Murison-Bowie, William Pike
Language: English
Category: Music
New episodes: Every two weeks
Typical length: 1 hr 16 min
Latest episode: 12 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1441099644

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