Music Talks Terry Smith

My guest in this episode is award winning author and playwright Gabriel Bergmoser. 
Gabriel is one of my youngest guests at 32 but, as you will hear, he has packed a lot into those years and he describes himself as ‘crime author, playwright, podcaster, actor, dog lover and massive Springsteen fan’. 


He was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia when he was a few months old and that has been home over since. He now lives in Melbourne but does a great job of painting a picture of what growing up in rural Australia was like for a creative, non-sporty boy who was an aggressively average student (his phrase not mine!) 


A visit to the cinema to see ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ lit his creative spark and it has stayed with him ever since. A quick glance at his Wiki page (Gabriel Bergmoser - Wikipedia) will show how prodigious and successful he has been over the past 10 years. 


Highlights include winning the Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award in 2015 and four years later signing a two-book deal with Harper Collins. The first of the books was ‘The Hunted’ which was a worldwide success and resulted in a book deal with Faber in the UK and a subsequent film deal. 


Despite all that success Gabriel is clear eyed about the reality of being a creative in 2023 and the fact that there will always be ups and downs whoever you are. Similarly, he delivers a strong message about hard work and application being more important than talent and the need at times to ‘Just Do It’. 


As you would expect he tells a great story around each of his song selection which were: 


90’s        Kiss Me                                Sixpence None the Richer
00’s        Mr. Brightside                  The Killers
10’s        Unbelievers                       Vampire Weekend
20’s        Dorothea                            Taylor Swift


If you would like to be on the show then please contact me at musictalkspod@outlook.com

Please follow and like Music Talks on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/musictalkspod .

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My guest in this episode is Paul Webb who comes to the show via an introduction from a previous guest Nick Sheppard (Ep.53) – Many thanks Nick. 


Paul is a self-confessed ‘Music Talks Junkie’ and I love the fact that he listens to the episodes on his journey to and from Fly Fishing. Originally from the UK he’s lived in the U.S for over 30 years and now has the joy of living in Bend, Oregon which I am very jealous of having had a couple of delightful holidays there and at one point we seriously considered retiring there. 


Music is a clear passion for Paul, both listening but also playing guitar. He describes himself disparagingly as ‘a hack’ but I hardly think that’s fair particularly given he’s a left hander who plays right-handed. His musical passion is complemented by several others including:
·        Family – his wife Talley and their two children Ellis & Dylan.
·        Climbing – Paul shares several fun, inspirational stories about climbing as well as one about climbing the Royal Arches in Yosemite and almost not making it down. 
·        Cycling – with three friends he did The Race Across America, which is 3200 miles in 7 days. This was the inspiration for one of his song choices and the title of the episode. 


He also shares openly and movingly about the challenges his son Ellis faced with addiction and how he came very close to death. I’m delighted to say that Ellis is now well into his recovery and in Paul’s own words is thriving. 


Paul finishes his song selections with a performance of an original song by himself and his younger child Dylan. There’s a great story behind it and the performance is just exquisite. 


Paul’s song selections are: 
60’s -     Moon River                                                                   Audrey Hepburn
70’s -     Carillon                                                                            Sky
80’s -     Love Is A Stranger                                                     Eurythmics
90’s -     Signe                                                                                 Eric Clapton
00’s -     Fix You                                                                             Coldplay
10’s -     Catch & Release (Deepend Remix)                 Matt Summers
20’s -     Made It Out of Clay                                                  Dylan Webb 



If you would like to be on the show then please contact me at musictalkspod@outlook.com

Please follow and like Music Talks on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/musictalkspod .

You can also find me on Twitter @musictalkspod .

My guest in this episode is Giorgos Gavriil who generously allowed me to use his English name of ‘George’ through our chat. 


Born in 1975 in the port city of Piraeus in Greater Athens, George continues to live in Greece but has moved to the mountains from the sea where he lives with wife and his two young children.


He was a late bloomer in terms of music but when things clicked in his late teens there was no looking back. He describes himself as ‘compulsive’ and ‘obsessive’ and this has driven a lifelong passion that’s produced a deep love and an encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music. In recent years those same characteristics have driven his learning to play guitar which he impressively practices an hour a day! 


George was good enough to provide me with his list of 101 Favourite Albums and it makes for fascinating reading.  We tale about some of those albums during the episode but if anyone would like to see the full list, please email me at musictalkspod@outlook.com


There is a strong theme of passion and emotion that runs through all of George’s song selections and it’s a list I really love. His song selections were: 


70’s        Mind Power                                                                   James Brown
80’s        Tango Till They’re Sore                                            Tom Waits
90’s        Love You Should’ve Come Over                         Jeff Buckley 
00’s        A Thousand Kisses Deep                                        Leonard Cohen 
10’s        Conversation 16                                                          The National
20’s        Love Is The Main Thing                                             Fontaines D.C. 

Enjoy :-) 


If you would like to be on the show then please contact me at musictalkspod@outlook.com

Please follow and like Music Talks on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/musictalkspod .

You can also find me on Twitter @musictalkspod .

My guest in this episode is Craig Colby, a master storyteller with a successful 30-year award winning career in television working for The Sports Network and the Discovery Channel amongst others. 
In 2017, the opportunity of losing his job presented itself and he set up his own story telling company Colbyvision. He now spends his time helping production companies broadcasters and business owners make top-notch programs & tell their stories. 
 
He also has one of my favourite Lockdown stories. Craig connected with people over Facebook by wearing a different hat each day for 125 days and people then shared their hats in the comments. At the behest of his mother this then became his first book ‘ALL CAPS: Stories That Justify an Outrageous Hat Collection’ which won the Non-Fiction Category at The Canadian Book Awards in 2022. 


Craig comes to Music Talks via my dear friend Jesse Jackson from the Set Lusting Bruce Podcast. Jesse’s intro mail included the great line ‘Craig’s book is Music Talks with hats!’ – how could I resist. The book is available on Amazon but if you are in the UK and want a physical copy it currently ships from the U.S. but believe me its worth the wait! 


It’s no surprise that Craig has a compelling story to tell with lots of great insights and observations. He also put a lot of work into making song selections that have a personal connection but also have a connection to what was going on in the wider world.  


Craig’s song selections were: 


60’s      -           Love Child                                         -           Diana Ross & The Supremes 
70’s      -           Don’t Take Away The Music   -           Tavares
80’s      -           Modern Love                                   -           David Bowie
90’s      -           Fumbling Towards Ectasy        -           Sarah McLachlan
00’s      -           Lonesome Day                                -           Bruce Springsteen
10’s      -           Tightrope                                           -           Janelle Monae
20’s      -           As It Was                                             -           Harry Styles 

Enjoy :-)


If you would like to be on the show then please contact me at musictalkspod@outlook.com

Please follow and like Music Talks on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/musictalkspod .

You can also find me on Twitter @musictalkspod .

My guest in this episode is Marian Jago, Senior Lecturer in Popular Music and Jazz Studies at the University of Edinburgh. 
Marian comes to Music Talks through the miracle and wonder of social media and a shared love of the music of Bruce Springsteen. I saw a post in a fan group on Facebook that said, ‘my course on Bruce Springsteen’ and that was Marian. We got into a dialogue and to my amazement she was teaching her course ‘Three Minute Records’ at my local university in Edinburgh.  


Inevitably we talk about Bruce and the course, but we cover a lot more ground than that in this episode.


Prior to becoming an academic Marian was a Producer of Live Concerts and Events before dedicating herself to becoming a Jazz Saxophonist. 


It’s a remarkable story of commitment and determination where she gets to meet, and is consistently helped by, a host of jazz luminaries from Canada and the US, and this culminates in Lee Konitz the composer and saxophonist being her tutor for eight years. 


Like many people I have a very romantic view of the life of a professional musician and Marian does a great job of painting a picture of the harsh reality whilst also saying ‘this was the happiest time of my life’. 


Though now living in Edinburgh Marian is Canadian and that is a theme that runs through our conversation and not just in terms of some of her choices. 

Regarding choices Marian is transparent about her dislike of rules and authority and so she submitted two sets of song choices to me for the episode – ‘The Rule Abiding List’ and ‘The Alternative List’. You will need to listen to get the full story but here is the ‘Rule Abiding List’. 


70’s - Another Brick in The Wall  -               Pink Floyd
80’s - Down in The Bottom              -               Colin James
90’s - The Obvious Child                   -               Paul Simon 
00’s - It’s Alright with Me                  -               Murley-Bickert-Wallace  
10’s - At Transformation                    -               The Tragically Hip 
20’s – If I Was The Priest                    -               Bruce Springsteen 
Outro – Welcome to Hard Times  -               Charley Crockett 


Enjoy 😊



If you would like to be on the show then please contact me at musictalkspod@outlook.com

Please follow and like Music Talks on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/musictalkspod .

You can also find me on Twitter @musictalkspod .

My guest in this episode is Brian MacKay who was introduced to Music Talks by Roy Sharples my guest in Episode 61. (Thanks Roy!) 


Bryan is just 50 and works in a third sector charity.  He lives in Peterhead, a large fishing port in Aberdeenshire, with his wife, 4 children and a Cockapoo acquired during Covid. Like me Bryan is the youngest in his family but in his case, he had three older sisters and on his own admittance was spoilt rotten as a child. 


Since 2015 he has been a keen runner and next month, he will run his first Marathon and an Ultra Marathon is the eventual goal. 


That sort of commitment and determination can also be seen in Bryan’s obsessive love of bands and music, and he has some great stories to tell, including how Lana Del ray made him late for work.!. His musical taste is genuinely wide ranging, and I can’t wait to pull together the Playlist for this episode as he touched on so many great artists in our chat. 


Bryan’s song choices are: 


70’s -     Please Mr. Postman -                                  Carpenters
80’s -     Waterfall -                                                        The Stone Roses
90’s -     Dead Flag Blues -                                         Godspeed You! Black Emperor    
00’s -     Slow Show                                                       The National
10’s -     Video Games                                                  Lana Del Rey 
20’s -     Death Is Not The End                                Embrace        

                                                   
If you would like to be on the show then please contact me at musictalkspod@outlook.com

Please follow and like Music Talks on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/musictalkspod .

You can also find me on Twitter @musictalkspod .