173 episodes

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 history, interspersed with clips from exclusive audio interviews that date back to the mid-'60s.
The RBP podcast is hosted by Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle and co-hosted & produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie. We're a proud part of Pantheon — the podcast network for music lovers.

Rock's Backpages Barney Hoskyns, Mark Pringle, Jasper Murison-Bowie

    • Music
    • 4.3 • 70 Ratings

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 history, interspersed with clips from exclusive audio interviews that date back to the mid-'60s.
The RBP podcast is hosted by Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle and co-hosted & produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie. We're a proud part of Pantheon — the podcast network for music lovers.

    Ira Robbins on Trouser Press + Anglophilia + Nick Lowe audio

    Ira Robbins on Trouser Press + Anglophilia + Nick Lowe audio

    In this episode we welcome long-time RBP contributor Ira Robbins as he celebrates the 50th anniversary of the launch of his beloved Trouser Press.
    Ira tells us about the musical Anglophilia that began for him with the Beatles but surged with the 1968 release of The Who Sell Out.  He then recounts the beginning of his friendship with schoolmate Dave Schulps and explains how it led to a shared obsession with the British music press.
    The story of the 1974 launch of Anglophile fanzine Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press, in partnership with the late Karen Rose, is accompanied by quotes from a 2001 interview Ira gave to RockCritics.com. He talks about the years that followed the dropping of the "Trans-Oceanic" prefix, and about some of the contributors – more than a few female – who made Trouser Press such essential '70s reading.
    After playing a clip from a 1975 audio interview Ira did with Cockney Rebel's late frontman Steve Harley – who died after this episode was recorded – we turn our attention to his more recent encounter with the rather more genial Nick Lowe. Clips from this 2007 conversation prompt a general appreciation of the Jesus of Cool's career from Kippington Lodge to Little Village via Elvis Costello and Johnny Cash.
    After we've paid tribute to the departed Eric Carmen – with our guest disputing that (the) Raspberries were authentically "power pop" – Mark talks us out with quotes from the pieces he's most enjoyed adding to the RBP library over the preceding fortnight.
    Many thanks to special guest Ira Robbins. Zip It Up! The Best of Trouser Press Magazine 1974–1984 is published by Trouser Press Books and available now via trouserpressbooks.com. 
    Pieces discussed: Ira Robbins articles, The Story behind Trouser Press, Ira interviewed on RockCritics.com, Steve Harley audio, The New Wave Washes Out, Nick Lowe audio, Eric Carmen: Rock's Rejuvenated Raspberry, World Party, Charlie Watts, Was (Not Was), Rhythm and Blues and Kiss.

    • 57 min
    Alan Light on Vibe + Prince + Taylor Swift + Townes Van Zandt

    Alan Light on Vibe + Prince + Taylor Swift + Townes Van Zandt

    In this episode we welcome esteemed writer and editor Alan Light and ask him about the years he spent at Rolling Stone, Vibe and Spin — plus his close encounters with Prince, Taylor Swift and Townes Van Zandt.
    Vibe is the particular focus of interest for Alan's hosts, hence we hear about the magazine's inception, its co-founder Quincy Jones, our guest's long interview(s) with The Artist No Longer Known As Prince... and the problem with being a white editor of an essentially Black publication. Not to mention being at the helm when the East vs. West Coast rap wars kicked off and led to the killings of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.. Alan's 1999 move to alternative-rock bastion Spin prompts questions about managing music magazines and nurturing their writers. He talks proudly of Spin's coverage of the infamous Woodstock '99 festival.
    Our guest's return to full-time writing meant that he went on to interview many of music's biggest stars — none bigger than Taylor Swift, about whom he speaks with the greatest respect. The singer's 2014 switch from country to pop with the 1989 album triggers a fascinating conversation about the Swift phenomenon.
    What would have been the "late great" Townes Van Zandt's 80th birthday provides the perfect excuse to hear clips from John Tobler's 1987 audio interview with the tragically self-destructive Texan. Alan recalls a couple of "long evenings" with the singer-songwriter who died in 1997 — and tells Townes' funniest joke in the process.
    After Mark quotes from recently-added library articles about Loverboy and Warren Zevon, Jasper wraps matters up with his thoughts on Papa Roach and Françoise Hardy.
    Many thanks to special guest Alan Light. Find all his books, including Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain and The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of Hallelujah, at all good bookshops. To listen to his podcast, visit sounduppod.com. 
    Pieces discussed: Vibe: the Hip Hop Years, R.I.P. Vibe, The Demise of Vibe and the Future of Criticism, Prince breaks the silence, Taylor Swift on writing her own rules, Taylor Swift at CMA Fest, Townes Van Zandt audio, Loverboy, Warren Zevon, Papa Roach and Françoise Hardy.

    • 1 hr 31 min
    Kimberly Mack on Living Colour + Greg Tate + The Black Rock Coalition

    Kimberly Mack on Living Colour + Greg Tate + The Black Rock Coalition

    In this episode the writer and academic Kimberly Mack joins us from Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to discuss the subject of "Black rock" in the context of her 33 1/3 study of Living Colour's Time's Up.
    We start by asking our guest about her childhood as the daughter of a rock-obsessed Black mother – and her experience of seeing Cheap Trick when theirs were the only Black faces in the Radio City Music Hall audience. She then discusses the "fictional categories (with real-world consequences)" of (white) rock and (Black) funk and R&B, from the earliest marketing of "race records" to the continuing genre segregation of the present day.
    We trace the line from Jimi Hendrix to Bad Brains – and the racist barriers they encountered. This culminates in Kimberly's recollection of seeing Living Colour on Showtime at the Apollo in 1988 – and how itled eventually to the writing of last year's book about Time's Up.
    Mark introduces clips from a 1988 audio interview with Living Colour's Vernon Reid. These lead in turn to a conversation about the late Greg Tate, mentor and inspiration to Kimberly and so many others – and the writer who co-founded the Black Rock Coalition with Reid. After namechecks for female rock icons from Labelle to Tracy Chapman, Kimberly talks about the "untold history" of marginalised American rock critics, a book about which she is currently researching.
    After tributes to MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Can frontman Damo Suzuki and Melody Maker/Quietus scribe Neil Kulkarni, Mark quotes from newly-added RBP library articles about David Bowie (1967), Bill Withers (1972), Alice Cooper (1975) and Porter Wagoner (1978). Jasper then wraps matters up with his thoughts about Frank Owen's 2003 report on the slaying of Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay and – from last year – Steve Pafford's account of the making of Gloria Gaynor's immortal disco anthem 'I Will Survive'.
    Many thanks to special guest Kimberly Mack. Living Colour's Time's Up is published by Bloomsbury and available now. Visit Kimberly's website at kimberlymack.com.
    Pieces discussed: Johnny Rotten, My Mom and Me, Living Colour's Time's Up (excerpt), Q&A with Jack White, David Toop on Black Rock, RJ Smith on Black Rock & Roll, Michael A. Gonzales' Tribute to Black Rock Coalition, Vernon Reid audio

    • 1 hr 8 min
    A Tom Hibbert special!! with Mark Ellen and Sylvia Patterson

    A Tom Hibbert special!! with Mark Ellen and Sylvia Patterson

    In this extra-special episode we welcome into the RBP lair not one but two legends of music journalism. Former Smash Hits/Q/MOJO supremo Mark Ellen and Sylvia (I'm Not With The Band) Patterson join us to pay tribute to their late friend and colleague upon the publication of our book Phew, Eh Readers? The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert – the single funniest music journalist who ever lived.
    Both guests recount their initial and unforgettable encounters with "Hibbs" – Mark's at New Music News in 1980; Sylvia's at Smash Hits in 1986 — before we look back at Tom's early years, his marriage to the marvellous Allyce Tessier and his pop passions from the Byrds to Big Star (via Moby Grape and the 13th Floor Elevators).
    Interspersing the conversation with quotes from the classic Hibbert pieces collected in Phew, Eh Readers? and the tributes to Tom we commissioned for the book — plus clips from audio interviews with Jon Bon Jovi, Vivien Stanshall and Tom's Smash Hits colleague Neil Tennant — we follow our hero's path through his brilliant career.
    Stops along the way include his entirely made-up letters to New Music News, his 1987 audience with Margaret Thatcher, his infamous "Who the Hell" interviews for Q and his hilariously irreverent columns for The Observer and the Mail On Sunday. Not forgetting the Love Trousers, the neo-psychedelic covers band he formed with Mr. Ellen...
    The pathos of Tom's twilight years, following his 1997 hospitalisation with pneumonia and pancreatitis — is touched upon before we wrap up with a fond nod to his old pal "Juggins". We shall not read his like again.
    Phew, Eh Readers?: The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert is published by Nine Eight Books on 1st February, 2024.
    Pieces discussed: Tom Hibbert articles on Rock's Backpages, Billy Idol on Majorca, Jon Bon Jovi audio, Neil Tennant on the RBP podcast, Just Like Gene Autry, the Margaret Thatcher interview??!, Who the hell does Ringo Starr think he is? and Who the hell does Roger Waters think he is?

    • 1 hr 18 min
    Penelope Spheeris on filming punk and metal + Wayne's World

    Penelope Spheeris on filming punk and metal + Wayne's World

    In this episode we welcome the legendary Penelope Spheeris and invite her to talk us through her extraordinary life and brilliant career.
    Barney wastes little time in asking the Louisiana-born filmmaker about the shocking traumas of her childhood and teenage years. We hear about her alcoholic mother's multiple marriages and the family's move to Southern California that led to Penelope putting herself through film school before graduating from UCLA.
    Along with the Saturday Night Live shorts she made with actor/comic Albert Brooks, Penelope talks about the pioneering Rock 'n' Reel production company that made '70s videos for everyone from Funkadelic to Fleetwood Mac. We also learn about her conversion to punk rock via Brendan Mullen's Masque club, where she shot SoCal hardcore bands like X, Fear, the Germs and Black Flag, the footage winding up in 1981's thrilling Decline of Western Civilization.
    From the first Decline we jump forward seven years to Decline II — and to a discussion of the '80s glam-metal scene that exploded on West Hollywood's Sunset Strip via bands such as W.A.S.P. and Poison. In addition we hear clips from Mat Snow's 1989 audio interview with all-girl quartet Vixen, sparking a discussion of rampant misogyny on the big-hair metal scene.
    With Decline II: The Metal Years being our guest's de facto passport to directing 1992's enormo-grossing Wayne's World, we ask Spheeris to recall her not-altogether- felicitous experience of working on the hit Saturday Night Live spinoff with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey. We also consider how the week's featured writer "Metal Mike" Saunders bridged the gulf between metal and punk, tracing his maverick career from a 1971 Creem review of Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom Come to the 1978 formation of SoCal hardcore band Angry Samoans.
    After Mark offers quotes from recently-added library pieces about electro-pop duo Erasure, rapper Schoolly D and, yes, Penelope Spheeris, Jasper closes out the episode with remarks on articles about El Paso's At the Drive-In and David Bowie.
    Many thanks to special guest Penelope Spheeris. Visit her website at penelopespheeris.com.
    Pieces discussed: The Decline of Western Civilization, Penelope Spheeris: The "Mad Surgeon" of Film, Vixen audio, Sir Lord Baltimore, A Brief Survey of the State of Metal Music Today, Metal Mike Saunders, Angry Samoans, Annie Nightingale, Erasure, Penelope Spheeris interviewed by Richard Harrington, Schoolly D, At the Drive-In and David Bowie.

    • 1 hr 15 min
    Andy Schwartz on CBGB + New York Rocker + Mink DeVille

    Andy Schwartz on CBGB + New York Rocker + Mink DeVille

    In the new episode of the Rock's Backpages podcast we welcome the admirable Andy Schwartz, who Zooms in from upstate New York to reminisce about New York Rocker, the much-missed monthly magazine he edited from 1977 to 1982.
    We hear about Andy's early years in suburban Westchester County and his first experiences of live music in Manhattan, which included historic gigs by the Doors, the Dead and Jimi Hendrix. We also learn about Oar Folkjokeopus, the Minneapolis record store where he worked as a student in the mid-'70s, and the local Minnesota publications for whom he wrote his first reviews.
    Much of our discussion is taken up with Andy's recollections of New York Rocker founder Alan Betrock, and of his own years at the helm of that essential guide to the CBGB scene that spawned Blondie, Television, Patti Smith, the Ramones and Talking Heads... not to mention Mink DeVille. Clips from Mark "Radio Pete" Bliesener's 1977 audio interview with Willy DeVille include the Mink man's caustic thoughts on the downtown scene and the rock critics who chronicled it.
    After our guest recalls his stint as the manager of Smithereens and Beat Rodeo, we hear about his days at Epic Records' Director of Editorial Services and his involvements with artists as diametrically different as Celine Dion and the Allman Brothers. He also reflects on his early involvement with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and assesses its problematic standing in today's music industry.
    The episode concludes with Mark's quotes from newly-added library interviews with Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry and Carly Simon, followed by Jasper's thoughts on pieces about Scissor Sisters and Bootsy Collins.
    Pieces discussed: Andy Schwartz pays tribute to Alan Betrock, Mink DeVille live in NYC, Willy DeVille audio, Ray Davies to Maureen Cleave, John McLaughlin to Dave Marsh, The Eagles' Hotel California, Carly Simon to James Hunter, Bryan Ferry to Jim Farber, Scissor Sisters and Bootsy Collins' Baker's Dozen.

    • 1 hr 4 min

Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5
70 Ratings

70 Ratings

splinno ,

Always entertaining

Experts with amateurs’ enthusiasm. Really good fun

stumpyarms ,

Essential listening

I’m ashamed to say I only caught on to this podcast about a year ago but I’ve listened to about thirty episodes and just think the whole thing is superb. Just listened to the Robert Greenfield show and thought it the best so far. So informative and a really worthy archive. I don’t understand why anyone would leave a bad review - it’s so much better than any other music pod I’ve heard and the presenters are so likeable. Hooked!

Dining Demon ,

Captivating Podcast for the Music Enthusiast

Having spent my teens and early twenties devouring the NME every week I was delighted to discover that one of my favourite writers hosts this superb podcast. It is frequently an absorbing listen and has become my favourite amongst the nine podcasts I currently subscribe to.

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