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An AWOL soldier from Vietnam sat down in Love’s booth at a San Francisco club, placed his gun on the table and told a tale which became ‘A House Is Not a Motel’ for Arthur Lee. Love have reunited ahead of their 60th anniversary tour of Forever Changes in the UK in May 2027. They lived next to Frank Zappa in Laurel Canyon so they wanted to capture the whole decade in one place. It wasn’t all straightforward. Elektra said they couldn’t afford to do a double album. The Wrecking Crew didn’t sound like them and Neil Young turned up in the studio to try and produce them. They still managed to complete most of the album. David Angel did the orchestrations. His trumpet solo on ‘Alone Again Or’ was written as Johnny would play his guitar as a warm-up after lunch. Ken Forssi wrote ‘You Set the Scene’ from three different pieces. The photo on the back cover was irrelevant. Someone knocked over a vase and Arthur picked it up. The rest of the interview starts from the beginning. He played his classmates Harmony Sovereign guitar at Show and Tell. He had a school friend called Billy Preston. He couldn’t get into a gig with James Brown because he was too young. He had a pedal for a distorted bass and a tremolo box which made ‘Seven and Seven Is’ sound completely different. Why they signed to Elektra. How they split after Forever Changes. Why they reunited but it didn’t work. Why the track ‘Revelation’ doesn’t sound as good on the album as it does live. And the tour which will be going around the UK and other parts of mainland Europe. Further information Love With Johnny Echols Forever Changes 60th Anniversary 2027 UK Tour Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Johnny Echols – Love (2018 interview), Jorma Kaukonen – Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, Al Jardine – The Beach Boys, The American Sounds of 1967 This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Johnny Echols of Love: Forever Changes at 60 appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Around 1989, as Colin Moulding remembers it, David Gilmour invited him down to the studio to play with Pink Floyd ahead of a world tour that would have taken the best part of a year. Colin thanked him and said no. Touring and writing do not mix for him, and he knew XTC had another album in them. That story arrives late. He explains how the title track of his new single Want It Bad (The Pep Talks and Playing Fields of Old England) began with a line he said to his granddaughter in the kitchen, and how b-side Something About the Boy came out of his wish to write a Bond theme. From there the conversation goes back through XTC: the Dukes of Stratosphear records with John Leckie, Skylarking with Todd Rundgren, and the packaging deduction that led to the strike. Colin says XTC was past its sell-by date by the time Wasp Star was finished. He also looks back on TC&I with Terry Chambers, which drew a live response so big he lost sleep for weeks, and on the two years he spent watching telly before Billy Sherwood called. He closes with Scatter Me, which he calls a gothic love song, and explains why he would rather release one song at a time than release an album. Further information Want It Bad (The Pep Talks and Playing Fields of Old England) Colin Moulding podcast tracks Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: John Leckie on XTC and The Dukes of Stratosphear, Terry Chambers, Colin Moulding, 2018 – Part 1, Colin Moulding, 2018 – Part 2, Dave Mattacks, Billy Sherwood This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Colin Moulding appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Gerry McAvoy thought Rory Gallagher and his brother Donal were just supporting a couple of fellow Irishmen when they came to see Deep Joy play in London. He realised eventually that Rory may have been sizing up him and the drummer as a rhythm section. Gerry was 19 when he joined, and he played with Rory until 1991. He tells Jason Barnard about being called back to the studio at half past one in the morning after a gig, Roger Glover objecting to the band’s beer before sessions on Calling Card, and, in his telling, Rory going back to a three-piece after seeing the Sex Pistols in San Francisco. He also explains why nobody in Band of Friends tries to play Rory’s solos note for note. This is a new edit of a 2022 interview reinstated under the Second Brew series. Further information Band of Friends Gerry McAvoy podcast tracks Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Dónal Gallagher, Jimmy Webb, Martin Barre – Jethro Tull – live in conversation, John Steel on 60 years of The Animals This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Gerry McAvoy on Rory Gallagher appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Dónal Gallagher knew Rory better than anyone, as his brother and a close companion throughout his career. In Edged in Blue: A Rock ’n’ Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher, he draws on a lifetime of memories, from their childhood in Ireland and Rory’s years with Taste to his solo career, the night he went to Rotterdam to audition for the Rolling Stones, and the punishing schedule that took its toll on his health. Dónal talks to Jason Barnard about the man behind the guitar, Rory’s career highlights and his place in Irish music and rock history. Further information Edged in Blue: A Rock ‘N’ Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Michael Schenker, Pete Briquette – The Boomtown Rats, Steve Howe on Dylan, Hendrix & YES, Marquee: The Story of the World’s Greatest Music Venue This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Dónal Gallagher on Rory Gallagher appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent of The Zombies join Jason Barnard ahead of the Begin Here Festival in St. Albans, which starts on Friday 30 October. It will be Rod’s first time playing live in over two years. They also look back at meeting at 15, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame night, how She’s Not There came together, and George Harrison’s verdict on Juke Box Jury. Colin gives details of Continue Here, out on 31 October on Beechwood Park Records, and a fourth archive collection planned to capture the end of The Zombies and beginning of Colin Blunstone and Argent’s music. Further information Begin Here Festival Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Chris White – The Zombies – Inside The Vaults, Hugh Grundy – The Zombies, Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, Russ Ballard This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Doctor and the Medics had one of the unlikeliest number ones of the 1980s thanks in part to an ambulance their record company sent to Radio 1 and then it spent the next forty years refusing to disappear. Jason Barnard talks to frontman Doctor, Reverend Dr. Clive Jackson, about new album The Optimal Mystic and about pretty much everything else: the A&R man who wrecked Andy Partridge’s snare sound on Miracle of the Age, writing lyrics for The Damned, the failed Welsh snail farm, and getting left off Liverpool’s number one list and putting that right. Further information This episode features early mixes of ‘Forever and Ever’ and ‘Dancing In My Hand’ from new album The Optimal Mystic. It is free to mailing-list subscribers via doctorandthemedics.com Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: John Leckie on XTC and The Dukes of Stratosphear, Matt Piucci – Rain Parade, The Vapors, Paul Cook – Sex Pistols This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Doctor and the Medics appeared first on The Strange Brew .

The Residents don’t give interviews, so when they have something to say, Homer Flynn says it for them. He is their art director, their spokesperson and part of the Cryptic Corporation that has looked after them since 1976. Eskimo is currently on the road. The 1979 album, with its invented vocals and wind treated as seriously as music, reaches the stage this autumn with inflatable icebergs, projections and five new songs. Homer tells me how a 20-minute slot at a San Francisco event grew into a full production. He explains why the first costume idea, a giant silver Christmas ornament with a top hat, was talked out of existence by costume makers, and how the eyeball that replaced it became The Residents’ symbol. We also get into the Mole Show and the Emulator sampler, the Freak Show comic and CD-ROM, the 100 archive boxes Hardy Fox kept, and The Lonely Wound, the new Residents album Homer says is in its final stages. Further information The Residents website, Eskimo Live Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Wolfgang Flür – Kraftwerk, Robin Scott – M, Rat Scabies (The Damned) and Chris Constantinou (Adam Ant), Tim Arnold and Kevin Godley This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Homer Flynn – The Residents appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Fairport Convention made a £5 profit from their first gig, at St Michael’s Church Hall in Golders Green on 27 May 1967. About 30 or 40 people turned up, and the band had printed the tickets and hired the hall themselves. Simon Nicol, whose house gave the group its name, was a professional musician at the age of 16. Here Simon talks as Fairport embark on their autumn 2026 UK tour, a seated acoustic run that includes village halls and social clubs, and for the 60th anniversary shows in May 2027. Nicol grew up in North London, where Ashley Hutchings lived just down the road and his father was Pete Quaife’s doctor. He saw the Kinks play their last gig as the Ravens and their first as the Kinks two weeks later. Fairport’s own break came when Joe Boyd watched them support Pink Floyd at UFO and signed them, though their debut single, “If I Had a Ribbon Bow”, sank without trace. Judy Dyble then left and Sandy Denny arrived, and Nicol says she “made a huge impression musically and personally”. The band made What We Did on Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking and Liege & Lief within 11 months, a stretch that also included the May 1969 motorway crash that killed Martin Lamble. Reflecting on those 60 years, Nicol explains why Fairport have remained active while “not a tribute band to ourselves”. Further information Tour dates and tickets from fairportconvention.com Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Simon Nicol (2023), Ric Sanders, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Chris Leslie, Iain Matthews  This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Simon Nicol – Fairport Convention’s Early Years appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Geoff Downes and Chris Braide talk about Trauma, the new Downes Braide Association album, and how the project has evolved since the first DBA record in 2012. They discuss the difficult circumstances behind the record and the hope that runs through it. They also trace how DBA began, and how bringing in Dave Bainbridge (guitars), Andy Hodge (bass) and Ash Soan (drums) has expanded their sound. They explain why making the records they wanted, with no A&R department steering them, has been essential, and how Roger Dean’s artwork has shaped their identity. Along the way, they cover the David Longdon recordings drawn from the archive for Trauma and other collaborators, including Marc Almond and Andy Partridge. They also discuss how DBA sits alongside Geoff’s work with Yes and Asia and Chris’s songwriting and production career. Further information Downes Braide Association – Trauma Downes Braide Association website A dinner for David Longdon with Geoff Downes in London, 6 November 2026 DBA podcast tracks Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Annie Haslam & Jim McCarty: The Story of Renaissance, Inside Kate Bush’s Never For Ever, Alan Parsons on Pyramid, The Beatles and Pink Floyd This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Downes Braide Association appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Deep Purple play their last show of this run on 19 December in Mexico City. After two weeks at home for Christmas, Gillan goes straight back into work with the band, before leaving their Nashville sessions three days early to rehearse for a twenty five date speaking tour built around the practice that gives it its name: filling gaps with nonsense words until the real lyrics catch up. Gillan covers The Javelins, Episode Six’s German club circuit, joining Deep Purple, the new album SPLAT!, Jesus Christ Superstar, the Ian Gillan Band and a year with Black Sabbath he still calls the longest party he ever went to. He also describes Ritchie Blackmore rejoining the band on stage for Smoke on the Water, and how a broken guitar string at the Lyceum turned into a stage habit he still uses today. Further information Talking Gib’rish tour Deep Purple official siteIan Gillan online Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Nick Simper – Deep Purple, Chris Slade – AC/DC, John Coghlan – Status Quo, Michael Schenker This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Ian Gillan – Deep Purple appeared first on The Strange Brew .

When Jimmy Webb first saw Joni Mitchell at the Troubadour, he sent roses to her dressing room with The post Jimmy Webb appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Randy Edelman is probably best known to British listeners for the records he made in the 1970s and The post Randy Edelman appeared first on The Strange Brew .

From the dub sound systems of 1970s Ladbroke Grove to Killing Joke, The Orb, Paul McCartney’s Fireman project The post Youth: From Dub and Killing Joke to The Orb, Paul McCartney & Pink Floyd appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Allan Clarke started The Hollies with Graham Nash as a teenager, copying other people’s records at Abbey Road. The post Allan Clarke appeared first on The Strange Brew .

John Leckie joins The Strange Brew to talk through the Dukes of Stratosphear story, from his first sight The post John Leckie on XTC and The Dukes of Stratosphear appeared first on The Strange Brew .