Post by Perfect Pseudonym on Sept 17, 2022 17:12:30 GMT
Heyup you pop crazed youngsters!
Sorry, that's a blatant nick of the opening line uttered in this splendid cast for your pod.
It was touched on in my welcoming myself back to the forum thread, so I figured it probably deserves its own thread, even though as far as all available evidence suggests, only Lord Emsworth and myself are aware of its existence. Maybe there are others.
And as I've just come back from the live show of it at the Podcast Festival and thoroughly enjoyed it, maybe it's time to spread the word.
It's basically a thorough look and critique of a random (although a bit of cherry picking is done as well) episode of Top Of The Pops. There are no restrictions to which era is covered, the earliest show discussed was from 1969, the latest from 2003, although there is a bias towards late-70s to mid-80s shows which generally reflects the age range of the majority of the participants.
The podcast is the brainchild of the constant host, Al Needham, a mid-50s Nottinghamonian who seems to have had quite a varied past life, notably in porn journalism working for Dickie Desmond!
He is joined by two others, who are rotated from a pool of 5 ex-Melody Maker journalists -
David Stubbs (the senior elder statesman of the group, was behind MM's Mr Agreeble column if anybody remembers that)
Taylor Parkes (self-described as Eeyore, has a somewhat curmudgeonly persona which does little to disguise the fact that he is usually responsible for the biggest amount of belly laughs during the course of an episode, also a great devotee of little known 70s/80s TV shows and actors, and would be a perfect contributor to this forum)
Simon Price (likeable and knowledgable Welshman, with possibly a slight leaning towards the 90s, but has a great love of 70s & 80s)
Neil Kulkarni (Coventry native of Indian descent, very proud of his city and not surprisingly a lover of Two-Tone, can be a bit serious, but does have an infectious laugh)
Sarah Bee (token female, and token youngest of the group, but holds her own extremely well and with a nice line in dry humour)
Not including the live one today (which will be released eventually to Patreons) there have so far been 67 episodes released, plus 3 bonus Patreon episodes.
As to be expected it has had something of an organic growth, starting out as about hour and a half long, it has gradually grown to more behemoth 6 - 7 hours an episode, as the pre-amble chat has increased more and more. This does now mean the early episodes sound a bit stilted and have a more pedestrian feel to them. It takes a few episodes to start getting into a stride.
I think it's a magical thing, and has been a great tonic for me over the last couple of years, but it may not be for all. Although clips from the discussed TOTP are dropped in, the songs are not played in full, only the intros and outros with presenter dialogue. It is very talky, but there's a lot interesting insight given, and it's from people who have a great love for pop music, not a sneering contempt for it. It is also very sweary.
Although DLT episodes have been covered, any episode presented by Sir Elephant In The Room OBE has yet to be. It's not been stated if they never will or will.
I'm not on Facebook or Twitter (well I am the latter, but never use it!) so I don't know how they can be found that way, but just google chartmusiccouk (no dots) and the main site will be the first hit.
If you want to dip a toe in, I recommend:
Ep5 - Watch Yer Backs!
Ep 18 - Dave Lee Travis Stamping On A Human Face, Forever
Ep 20 - Not My Favourite DJ Of All Times
Ep 23 - Soul Rail Replacement Service
Ep 27 - We Form Like Voltron And KGA Is The Head
Ep 36 - Welcome, Welcome, Welcome Home To Chart Music
Ep 39 - Grill Equals Fanny
Ep 48 - Imagine If Charles Manson Had Heard This
Ep 51 - Guys 'N' Dolls Get Ready To Bomb Iraq
Ep 58 - Top Of The Gear
That'll do for starters!
Sorry, that's a blatant nick of the opening line uttered in this splendid cast for your pod.
It was touched on in my welcoming myself back to the forum thread, so I figured it probably deserves its own thread, even though as far as all available evidence suggests, only Lord Emsworth and myself are aware of its existence. Maybe there are others.
And as I've just come back from the live show of it at the Podcast Festival and thoroughly enjoyed it, maybe it's time to spread the word.
It's basically a thorough look and critique of a random (although a bit of cherry picking is done as well) episode of Top Of The Pops. There are no restrictions to which era is covered, the earliest show discussed was from 1969, the latest from 2003, although there is a bias towards late-70s to mid-80s shows which generally reflects the age range of the majority of the participants.
The podcast is the brainchild of the constant host, Al Needham, a mid-50s Nottinghamonian who seems to have had quite a varied past life, notably in porn journalism working for Dickie Desmond!
He is joined by two others, who are rotated from a pool of 5 ex-Melody Maker journalists -
David Stubbs (the senior elder statesman of the group, was behind MM's Mr Agreeble column if anybody remembers that)
Taylor Parkes (self-described as Eeyore, has a somewhat curmudgeonly persona which does little to disguise the fact that he is usually responsible for the biggest amount of belly laughs during the course of an episode, also a great devotee of little known 70s/80s TV shows and actors, and would be a perfect contributor to this forum)
Simon Price (likeable and knowledgable Welshman, with possibly a slight leaning towards the 90s, but has a great love of 70s & 80s)
Neil Kulkarni (Coventry native of Indian descent, very proud of his city and not surprisingly a lover of Two-Tone, can be a bit serious, but does have an infectious laugh)
Sarah Bee (token female, and token youngest of the group, but holds her own extremely well and with a nice line in dry humour)
Not including the live one today (which will be released eventually to Patreons) there have so far been 67 episodes released, plus 3 bonus Patreon episodes.
As to be expected it has had something of an organic growth, starting out as about hour and a half long, it has gradually grown to more behemoth 6 - 7 hours an episode, as the pre-amble chat has increased more and more. This does now mean the early episodes sound a bit stilted and have a more pedestrian feel to them. It takes a few episodes to start getting into a stride.
I think it's a magical thing, and has been a great tonic for me over the last couple of years, but it may not be for all. Although clips from the discussed TOTP are dropped in, the songs are not played in full, only the intros and outros with presenter dialogue. It is very talky, but there's a lot interesting insight given, and it's from people who have a great love for pop music, not a sneering contempt for it. It is also very sweary.
Although DLT episodes have been covered, any episode presented by Sir Elephant In The Room OBE has yet to be. It's not been stated if they never will or will.
I'm not on Facebook or Twitter (well I am the latter, but never use it!) so I don't know how they can be found that way, but just google chartmusiccouk (no dots) and the main site will be the first hit.
If you want to dip a toe in, I recommend:
Ep5 - Watch Yer Backs!
Ep 18 - Dave Lee Travis Stamping On A Human Face, Forever
Ep 20 - Not My Favourite DJ Of All Times
Ep 23 - Soul Rail Replacement Service
Ep 27 - We Form Like Voltron And KGA Is The Head
Ep 36 - Welcome, Welcome, Welcome Home To Chart Music
Ep 39 - Grill Equals Fanny
Ep 48 - Imagine If Charles Manson Had Heard This
Ep 51 - Guys 'N' Dolls Get Ready To Bomb Iraq
Ep 58 - Top Of The Gear
That'll do for starters!
Tempted to start with the Guys and Dolls.. episode just for the title alone.
