Advertise on podcast: The Strange Brew - artist stories behind the greatest music ever recorded

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 a letter asking her to tea. It went unanswered. The following decade, after they had become friends, she told him she had moved the couch while clearing out her Laurel Canyon house and found the letter, and asked if he would still like to go. Webb wrote ‘Simile’ for her. He tells that story in a conversation I recorded in February 2022, ahead of live dates in the UK. Elsewhere he describes the organ sound in the fade of ‘Wichita Lineman’, which he calls “a stroke of pure luck”, sessions with Richard Harris on ‘MacArthur Park’ that ran until the Pimm’s was gone, and a paper aeroplane contest with George Martin. This episode was one of those that did not transfer when my website failed. I have re-edited it and put it back online under the Second Brew series. Further information jimmywebb.com Jimmy Webb – Second Brew – Podcast tracks Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Dan Penn, Michelle Phillips, Melanie (Safka), Judy Collins This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms 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 early 1980s, including Uptown Uptempo Woman and Concrete and Clay. The Carpenters recorded his songs and took him on tour, and his records found an audience in the UK that he hadn’t found in America. Then his career took a different turn. After working his way into film scoring, Twins led to a long run of Hollywood films including Ghostbusters II, Kindergarten Cop, Gettysburg and The Last of the Mohicans. Randy spent two decades concentrating on film music and didn’t write a song during that time. He’s now making records and performing again, with a new album, Green Park. We talked about his early records, his connection with London, The Carpenters, the move into film, and why he returned to songwriting. Further information randyedelman.com Randy Edelman – Green Park Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Dean Friedman, Rick Wakeman, Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms 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 and Pink Floyd’s The Endless River, few musicians have moved through as many worlds as Youth (Martin Glover). In this conversation with Jason Barnard, Youth discusses the CHANT Artist Collective’s new release, Relics Of Tree Worship In Dub (Gaudi & Don Letts Roots Dub Plates), and explains why he still calls dub “an endless river” of reinvention. He goes back to Gooseberry Sound Studios and the John Lydon-produced 4″ Be 2″ session that set him on a path into music, his departure from Killing Joke, the birth of The Orb and “Little Fluffy Clouds,” and what pulled him into the studio with Kate Bush, James, Crowded House, Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd. Further information Relics Of Tree Worship In Dub (Gaudi & Don Letts Roots Dub Plates) Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Trevor Horn, Dave Ball – Soft Cell, Andy Gill – Gang of Four, Glen Matlock This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms 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. He left the group, came back, then left again, and along the way his voice carried the group through four decades. Jason Barnard sat down with Allan again to talk through his new single “Walking On Still Waters,” a decades-long search through faith, the stroke he’s been recovering from, his wife Jenny who got him through the hardest years, and what the future holds for The Hollies and their legacy. Clarke also explains how “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” came together with Roger Cook in half an hour, why he’s glad Carl Wayne was first to front The Hollies after he left, and how he ended up singing lead on tracks for Steve Howe, Alan Parsons, and Carla Olson. Further information “Walking On Still Waters” by Allan Clarke is out now Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Allan Clarke – The Hollies (2023), Allan Clarke (2014) – Part 1, Allan Clarke (2014) – Part 2, Bobby Elliot – The Hollies, Mikael Rikfors – The Hollies, Roger Cook This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms 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 of a young XTC through to the new Dolby Atmos edition of the complete Dukes recordings. Leckie was the Abbey Road staff engineer who cut XTC’s 3D EP in three days, then White Music at the Manor, then Go 2 and the dub experiments released as Take Away / The Lure of Salvage under Andy Partridge’s Mr Partridge alias (later gathered on the Explode Together compilation). He explains how that dub habit of pulling a mix apart and rebuilding it shaped his production work and the Dukes sound years later. He talks through the years between, freelancing after leaving Abbey Road in 1978, work with Simple Minds and Bill Nelson, the Lost Jockey orchestral project, a spell in the Rajneesh commune, and how a collapsed Mary Margaret O’Hara session left Andy Partridge with six spare weeks of studio time, which became 25 O’Clock. Leckie recalls the Chapel in Hampton Bishop, the sound effects tape run live during mixing so nobody knew what would come up when a fader was raised, and the move two years on to Psonic Psunspot at the boat-access-only Sawmills in Cornwall. Further information Psurroundabout Ride (Dolby Atmos) Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: John Leckie on producing Be Bop Deluxe, Terry Chambers, Colin Moulding – Part 1, Colin Moulding – Part 2, Dave Mattacks This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post John Leckie on XTC and The Dukes of Stratosphear appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Steve Hackett and Steve Rothery discuss their joint album The Roaring Waves. They explore creative process behind it, their individual artistic histories in Genesis and Marillion, and their respective plans for future work. The conversation ranged from the nautical themes of the album and how it was assembled, to the broader philosophy of progressive music, the influence of early prog and blues-rock guitar heroes, and the personal and professional circumstances that shaped their life in music. Further information The Roaring Waves Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Steve Hackett – The Lamb Stands Up interview, Steve Hackett on Genesis Revisited and Hackett Highlights, Steve Hackett – on solo career and Genesis, Steve Rothery – Marillion This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Steve Hackett & Steve Rothery appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Mari Wilson was the beehived voice behind “Just What I Always Wanted”, the Neasden Queen of Soul who fronted the Wilsations, supported Roxy Music and appeared on Top of the Pops. Then a second album stalled, and she could see where pop stardom was heading: cabaret, built around a medley of her hits. So she turned her back on it and walked away, into jazz clubs, Ronnie Scott’s, the West End stage, and eventually a solo career that has outlasted the pop machine she left behind. Four decades on, Mari joins Jason Barnard to talk about Girl About Town, her first full album of original songs since 2008, written with longtime collaborator Adrian York. They trace that reinvention from Top of the Pops to Ronnie Scott’s, with Mari talking openly about being pigeonholed by the beehive and why she still believes leaving pop at that time was the right call. Further information mariwilson.co.uk Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Judie Tzuke, Kiki Dee, Dave Ball – Soft Cell, Martin Fry – ABC This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Mari Wilson appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Ten years on, Jeremy Clyde is back. Chad Stuart left behind decades of unfinished Chad & Jeremy recordings. The post Jeremy Clyde – Chad & Jeremy appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Devo co-founder Gerald V. Casale joins us for a career spanning conversation, starting with his new protest single The post Gerald V Casale – Devo appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Arthur Brown joins Jason Barnard, alongside his partner and collaborator Claire Waller, to talk through his new album The post Arthur Brown appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Robin Scott’s career spans from acoustic songs on the 1960s folk circuit to the sequenced synth-pop of ‘Pop The post Robin Scott – M appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Over fifty years ago, a teenager from Cleveland got talked into playing “Maggot Brain” at an after party, The post Michael Hampton – Parliament/Funkadelic appeared first on The Strange Brew .