The CAT Club (Classic Album Thursdays‪)‬ The CAT Club (Classic Album Thursdays)

JOHN LENNON/PLASTIC ONO BAND with special guest Philip Norman.

John Lennon’s stunning debut album is quite rightly regarded as his best. Bleak, exhilarating and soulful, ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’ is a true classic album.

Legendary author & journalist, Philip Norman wrote 'Shout! The True Story Of The Beatles,' the multi million seller biography that was published in 1981. 'John Lennon: The Life' was published in 2008.

In a classic conversation with Jason Barnard, PHILIP NORMAN reels off stories about the Fabs, Yoko, Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor, Margo Fontaine and David Bailey just to name a few. It’s a funny, sad, poignant and riveting interview that had the sold-audience captivated throughout.

If you would like to learn more about Philip’s extraordinary life we highly recommend his memoir, ‘We Danced On Our Desks.’

Philip’s new blog, ‘Read Me Do’ can be found at:https://open.substack.com/pub/philipnorman/p/the-man-who-made-the-beatles?r=2uoo5g&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

JASON BARNARD was in the interviewer's chair.

This event took place on 25th April 2024 in the Pigeon Loft at The Robin Hood, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

To find out more about the CAT Club please visit: www.thecatclub.co.uk

This podcast has been edited for content and for copyright reasons.

Happy Trails.

BUZZCOCKS – A DIFFERENT KIND OF TENSION with special guest, Paul Hanley.

Buzzcocks’ 1979 album, 'A Different Kind of Tension' may have been released the same year as ‘Singles Going Steady,’ but it is a different shape of beast to ‘Singles.' For a start it was recorded intentionally as an album rather than cobbled together by a naive U.S. label in search of punk dollar. Track three is “You Say You Don’t Love Me” which automatically rates the album a straight 10, but there are other objects d’interest up in this sweet, sweet bastard of a record.

By this point, on their third studio album proper, Pete Shelley was firmly entrenched as the band’s driving creative force—yet songs by Steve Diggle like “Sitting Round at Home” and “You Know You Can’t Help It” are rough-hewn gems in the catalogue worth seeking out. For the most part, as for majority of their output, the songs are short, sharp, punk-pop shocks that electrify and energize—and while their formula may have been perceived by some as tired by this point, the band would continue on in various incarnations right up until the present day. Even now, with Shelley gone, Diggle has chosen to keep pushing Buzzcocks into the future. The eternal teenagers somehow continue their path, unswerving, and it’s a beautiful thing to both reflect on and behold.

With special guest PAUL HANLEY

Man of letters and former Fall drummer, Paul Hanley has written a book on Buzzcocks called ‘Sixteen Again: How Pete Shelley & Buzzcocks Changed Manchester Music (And Me),’ to give it its full title. The book mixes together biography, interview, critique and social history to create a full picture of the legendary Manchester group, equally beloved of fans of punk, post punk and indie.

Route Publishing – who have also published Hanley's ‘Leave The Capital: A History Of Manchester Music In 13 Recordings’ and the masterful ‘Have A Bleedin Guess: The Story Of Hex Enduction Hour’ – have the following to say: "Paul Hanley's obsession with Buzzcocks peaked between the ages of 14 and 16, exactly the age when ‘favourite band’ actually means something important. An essential part of the charm of Buzzcocks to him were their proximity and approachability."

Paul Hanley is also one half of the drumming duo who power recent Q Album Of The Year, House Of All, and co-host of the Oh! Brother podcast with kin Steve Hanley,

JASON BARNARD of Strange Brew podcasts was in the interviewer’s chair.

This podcast in association with Strange Brew podcasts.

This event took place on 21st March 2024 in the Pigeon Loft at The Robin Hood, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

To find out more about the CAT Club please visit: www.thecatclub.co.uk

This podcast has been edited for content and for copyright reasons.

Happy Trails.

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD – DUSTY IN MEMPHIS with special guest LUCY O'BRIEN

Surprisingly unsuccessful at the time, the album has thankfully become a monument to the unique soulfulness of one of Britain’s finest-ever voices.

The record that’s widely held to be the greatest album in the distinguished catalogue of Dusty Springfield – in fact, for many, one of the greatest albums, period – was released on March 31, 1969. Despite being surprisingly unsuccessful at the time, Dusty In Memphis has thankfully become a monument to the unique soulfulness of one of Britain’s finest-ever voices.

The album was Dusty’s fifth, some five years into her hitmaking career. It marked a new era, as it was the first time that she had recorded an LP outside the UK. Masterfully overseen by three of the all-time giants of American soul and rock music production, Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, and Tom Dowd, it had a famously difficult birth. Happily, what endures is the brilliant quality of the songs and performances.

Our special guest, LUCY O'BRIEN launched the paperback version of her updated & definitive biography, Dusty. Lucy has written critically acclaimed books about Karen Carpenter, Madonna, Annie Lennox as well as 'She Bop: The Definitive History Of Women In Popular Music.'
IAN CLAYTON was in the interviewer's chair.

This event took place on 29th February 2024 in the Pigeon Loft at The Robin Hood, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

To find out more about the CAT Club please visit: www.thecatclub.co.uk

This podcast has been edited for content and for copyright reasons.

An Audience with TORIA GARBUTT

The CAT Club's 'Sunday Showdown' presented the extraordinary ‘High Priestess of The Spoken Word,’ TORIA GARBUTT in a brutally honest conversation, followed by a stunning performance.

Gary ‘Guestlist’ Lethbridge was in the interviewers’ chair.

Since bursting onto the scene in 2014, Toria Garbutt has been a regular tour support for Dr John Cooper Clarke, most recently on his ‘Luckiest Guy Alive' tour on which Toria performed extensively at venues across the UK and Europe.  

In 2016, Toria released her début album 'Hot Plastic Moon’ with spoken word label Nymphs and Thugs and in 2018 her début poetry collection ‘The Universe and Me' was published by Wrecking ball press.

Toria's second collection 'Another Time in Space' was published in December 2022.

Toria’s words have also been featured in Not Too Tame’s Northern Souls show at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, and recently in The Guardian for their feature on The Rise and Rise of the New Poets.  In September 2021, Toria featured on the front cover and centrefold of The Big Issue North. 

She was recently interviewed by Chis Hawkins on Radio 6 for National Poetry Day, and appeared on Radio 3's The Verb, with Ian McMillan and Radio 4's Front Row with Nick Ahad, as part of BBC's Contains Strong Language festival.  

Toria is currently writing Funerals for Birds, a radio drama about her experience of addiction.

“Toria Garbutt is Saturday Night Sunday Morning in one woman and in our lifetime, we are lucky to have her. Glorious, brutal, sharp, and tender. She has written an extraordinary love letter to us all.” Salena Godden

“Toria Garbutt is a beacon of a poet whose work draws us all together, closer to safety. Political, irreverent, warm, and necessary her performances are the stuff of legend. Superb.” Joelle Taylor

“Joan Jett and Patti Smith’s better-looking kid sister.” John Cooper Clarke

“Powerful, accessible, intelligent, and musical. Just about all the things I love in a poet.” Benjamin Zephaniah

“Toria has a unique skill of wrapping an audience up in her arms and making them feel that everything is gunna be alright.” Mike Garry

"A sage and a seer." Ian McMillan

This event took place on 21st January 2024 in the Pigeon Loft at The Robin Hood, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

To find out more about the CAT Club please visit: www.thecatclub.co.uk

This podcast has been edited for content and for copyright reasons.

Happy Trails.

CREAM – FRESH CREAM with special guest MALCOLM BRUCE

Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker formed Cream and released their stunning blues based debut album in 1966.

‘Fresh Cream' represents so many different firsts, it's difficult to keep count. Cream, of course, were the first supergroup, but their first album not only gave birth to the power trio, it also was instrumental in the birth of heavy metal and the birth of jam rock.

Our special guest offered some other unique insights into one of the great debut offerings from the fertile sixties. Like his father Jack, Malcolm Bruce is not only steeped in the blues, but also in the classical & jazz traditions. He is the co-executive producer, arranger and performer for 'Heavenly Cream,' a project headed by Cream lyricist Pete Brown. The album was released in late 2023 to critical acclaim.

Malcolm Bruce’s new album is ‘Fake Humans And Real Dolls.’

Jason Barnard was in the interviewer's chair.

This event took place on 11th January 2024 in the Pigeon Loft at The Robin Hood, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

To find out more about the CAT Club please visit: www.thecatclub.co.uk

This podcast has been edited for content and for copyright reasons.

Happy Trails.

TELEVISION – MARQUEE MOON with special guest Will Sergeant.

This interview took place before and after we listened to the vinyl album.

'Marquee Moon' is a revolutionary album, but it's a subtle, understated revolution. Without question, it is a guitar rock album – it's astonishing to hear the interplay between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, but it is a guitar rock album unlike any other.

Where their predecessors in the New York punk scene, most notably the Velvet Underground, had fused blues structures with avant-garde flourishes, Television completely strip away any sense of swing or groove, even when they are playing standard three-chord changes. Marquee Moon is comprised entirely of tense garage rockers that spiral into heady intellectual territory, which is achieved through the group's long, interweaving instrumental sections, not through Verlaine's words. That alone made Marquee Moon a trailblazing album – it's impossible to imagine post-punk soundscapes without it.

Of course, it wouldn't have had such an impact if Verlaine hadn't written an excellent set of songs that conveyed a fractured urban mythology unlike any of his contemporaries. From the nervy opener, "See No Evil," to the majestic title track, there is simply not a bad song on the entire record. And what has kept 'Marquee Moon' fresh over the years is how Television flesh out Verlaine's poetry into sweeping sonic epics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine.

 With special guest WILL SERGEANTWill is best known for his work as songwriter and guitarist with Echo & The Bunnymen with whom he has recorded and performed world-wide for thirty years. He also has long-term ties with the experimental side of life, in the fields of performance, recording and the visual arts.

Here he talks about his life as a Bunnyman and more besides before waxing lyrical about his favourite album – Television’s ‘Marquee Moon.’

Ryan Walker was in the interviewer's chair.

This event took place on 14th December 2023 in the Pigeon Loft at The Robin Hood, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

To find out more about the CAT Club please visit: www.thecatclub.co.uk

This podcast has been edited for content and for copyright reasons.

Happy Trails.