Podcast
The Strange Brew - artist stories behind the greatest music ever recorded
Hosted by Jason Barnard · EN
Rock music from the mid 60s onwards - podcasts, features and much more
30episodes
Episodes
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Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles
6d ago00:34:33Tap to summarizePhilip Norman returns to talk about Mr. Moonlight, his first book devoted entirely to Brian Epstein, and what emerges from decades of Beatles research focused through a single lens is a portrait more complex than the one most people think they know. Norman reveals the extraordinary story of how the Kray twins plotted to exploit Brian’s gambling addiction and seize control of The Beatles, the antisemitism and homophobia Brian faced even at the peak of his success, and new evidence around the circumstances of his death that raises serious questions about the official verdict. Philip also covers areas that too often gets overlooked: Brian’s family history, his time in the army and at drama school, his instinct for a hit record, and the way he shielded The Beatles from a fame that might otherwise have consumed them. The question Norman keeps returning to is the one that still stings: why, given everything he did, does Brian Epstein undervalued? Further information Philip Norman — Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Philip Norman on the Beatles, Philip Norman on John Lennon, Ray Ennis – The Swinging Blue Jeans, Mike McCartney’s Early Liverpool This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles appeared first on The Strange Brew .
Transcribe →Martin Barre – live in conversation
2w ago01:20:23Tap to summarizeMartin Barre is already playing when the evening begins. Recorded live at The CAT Club in December 2025, this is Barre in conversation with Jason Barnard. Hendrix turns up, and Jimmy Page, and a French chateau that put Jethro Tull in the bathroom for a week. So does a Grammy, won at home because the record label wouldn’t pay for flights. He also talks about his autobiography – wrote it four times. The first version was, by his own description, full of scores to settle. But he took all of it out. Further information martinbarre.com Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Martin Barre – 50 Years of Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson, Greg Spawton – Big Big Train, Dave Pegg – Fairport Convention This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Martin Barre – live in conversation appeared first on The Strange Brew .
Transcribe →Otis Williams – The Temptations
3w ago00:24:56Tap to summarizeOtis Williams discusses over six decades of The Temptations and their upcoming UK tour. Williams talks about moving from Texas to Detroit as a kid, catching Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers at the Fox Theater, and getting spotted by Berry Gordy at a record hop. He remembers the strings going onto ‘My Girl’ in 1964 and knowing straight away it would be a hit, a hunch confirmed by telegrams from The Beatles, The Supremes and Berry Gordy. He looks back on their first UK dates in the mid-60s on the Tamla Motown package tour and how hits were chosen at Motown. There’s also a look at the shift to psychedelic soul with ‘Cloud Nine’ in 1968, plus his thoughts on keeping the group together through nearly thirty line-up changes. Further information The Temptations Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Dion, Bettye LaVette, Steve Cropper, PP Arnold This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Otis Williams – The Temptations appeared first on The Strange Brew .
Transcribe →Anthony Phillips, Genesis, A Life In Music
4w ago01:27:07Tap to summarizeAnthony Phillips, founding Genesis guitarist, joins Jason Barnard to talk about the formation of Genesis, his departure, and his latest album, Gemini – Pieces For Piano. He traces the Genesis story back to Charterhouse and the summer of 1967, when he first heard a 12-string guitar. Peter Gabriel’s theatrical stage persona came about through necessity, filling dead time while Phillips and Mike Rutherford fought with temperamental instruments. The jump from From Genesis To Revelation to Trespass has always looked abrupt; Phillips explains it simply: he and Rutherford spent the eight months between recording and release writing constantly, with ‘Dusk,’ ‘White Mountain’ and ‘Stagnation’ sketched out before the debut had even flopped. Then there’s the stage fright. Not ordinary nerves but sudden mid-performance blanks that came on after glandular fever. He was eighteen and never told anyone. There’s also a brief exchange with Nick Drake, playing the same indifferent university crowds. When Drake learned Phillips had written ‘Let Us Now Make Love,’ he said one word back: “Dangerous.” The conversation also covers his classical studies, the troubled release of The Geese and the Ghost, and writing the title track of Gemini. Further information Anthony Phillips website, Gemini – Pieces For Piano Podcasts also available: Anthony Phillips (2019), Tony Banks (2024), Tony Banks (2019), Steve Hackett (2022), Steve Hackett (2020), Bill Bruford, Chester Thompson This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi The post Anthony Phillips, Genesis, A Life In Music appeared first on The Strange Brew .
Transcribe →John Leckie on Be Bop Deluxe and the Making of Sunburst Finish
Jun 601:07:37Tap to summarizeJohn Leckie is one of British rock’s greatest producers, who started out as a tape operator at Abbey Road in 1970, thrown immediately into sessions for George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band. This interview, conducted live at The CAT Club in September 2025, focuses on Sunburst Finish, the Be Bop Deluxe album that gave Leckie his first official production credit, and covers both the making of the album and his creative partnership with Bill Nelson. Additionally, Leckie gives a first-hand account of Syd Barrett’s unannounced appearance during the Wish You Were Here sessions, an encounter he stumbled into while raiding Pink Floyd’s beer fridge, only for Roger Waters to stop the tape and ask who the stranger standing next to him was. The Q&A session draws out further stories about working with The La’s, the Stone Roses’ debut, and how XTC – who idolised Bill Nelson, led Leckie to leave EMI and go independent. Further information Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Bill Nelson – Be Bop Deluxe, Rob Chapman on Syd Barrett, Ken Scott on The Beatles, Bowie, Alan Parsons This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi The post John Leckie on Be Bop Deluxe and the Making of Sunburst Finish appeared first on The Strange Brew .
Transcribe →John Helliwell – Supertramp
May 2900:31:38Tap to summarizeJohn Helliwell of Supertramp returns to talk about Crime of the Century, the newly restored 1975 concert film shot at Hammersmith Odeon, and the years in which the band went from complete obscurity to one of the biggest acts in the world. He discusses the creative relationship between Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, and how the tensions between them eventually broke the classic line-up apart. Helliwell also covers life after Supertramp, and what it means to keep performing as you get older. Further information Supertramp – Crime Of The Century: In Concert At Hammersmith Odeon – 1975 John Helliwell website Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: John Helliwell – 2019, Leslie Mandoki, Ken Scott, Jeff Wayne This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Google apps and all usual platforms The post John Helliwell – Supertramp appeared first on The Strange Brew .
Transcribe →Boz Boorer – The Polecats to Morrissey
May 2200:30:54Tap to summarizeBoz Boorer talks about his life in music, from his earliest memories of Marc Bolan and T. Rex to punk shows in London in the late 70s, The Polecats, and eventually decades on the road and in the studio with Morrissey. Boz talks about touring with Dave Edmunds, working alongside Tony Visconti, Mick Ronson and Steve Lillywhite, and the stories behind some of Morrissey’s most beloved songs: ‘Jack The Ripper’, ‘Speedway’, ‘Scandinavia’, ‘Istanbul’ and ‘I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris’ among them. He gets into the making of Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I, the stage invasions on those early tours, and why recording a chainsaw made perfect sense for ‘Speedway’. There’s also his recent collaborations with Paul Roland and Andy Ellison, digging through old archive tapes, and life running a record shop in Portugal. Further information bozboorer.com Morrissey Reimagined I Was A Teenage Zombie…& Other Children’s Party Favourites by Paul Roland, Andy Ellison & Boz Boorer Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Andy Ellison, Paul Roland, Mark Nevin, Kevin Armstrong, Morrissey – the music that shaped his life This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Boz Boorer – The Polecats to Morrissey appeared first on The Strange Brew .
Transcribe →Mark Webber – Pulp
May 1801:19:17Tap to summarizeMark Webber has been with Pulp for so long that his story and the group’s are almost the same thing. He started out as a teenager in Chesterfield with a fanzine called Cosmic Pig, booked Pulp at the local Conservative Club in 1986, became their tour manager with his dad’s old briefcase, and eventually found himself on stage with a Stylophone. Jason Barnard takes him through it all: the years of playing to twenty people outside Sheffield, the last minute Glastonbury headline, the Brit Awards controversy, recording Different Class,This Is Hardcore, Scott Walker producing We Love Life, and the chilly end in Rotherham in December 2002. Then there’s the return. The 2023 shows that were supposed to be just fourteen nights, More recorded in three weeks on a tight budget, and Mark’s daughter finally getting to see him play. Recorded live at The CAT Club on 23 October 2025. The audio is recovered and a bit muddy, but worth the effort. Further information I’m With Pulp, Are You? – Soft Cover welovepulp.info Support The Strange Brew Podcasts also available: Nick Banks – Pulp, Bee Gees’ Main Course with Bob Stanley, The Making of The Human League’s Dare, Stephen Street – producer, Artmagic: Richard Oakes of Suede and Sean McGhee This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi The post Mark Webber – Pulp appeared first on The Strange Brew .
Transcribe →Michael Weston King
May 1601:37:13Tap to summarizeSinger-songwriter Michael Weston King picks tracks from across his career, a conversation bookended by his new solo album Nothing Can Hurt Me Anymore, shaped by the Southport attacks of summer 2024 and the loss of his granddaughter, Bebe. King recalls Fragile Friends, who put out singles through Probe Records in early 80s Liverpool. After their split he found country music and formed The Good Sons, touring and recording with Townes Van Zandt. Solo albums followed, including collaborations with Jackie Leven, and with Chris Hillman and Herb Pederson. With his wife Lou Dalgleish he formed My Darling Clementine, enjoying critical success, their most recent project recording Elvis Costello songs with Steve Nieve.
Transcribe →Dan Penn
May 900:59:05Tap to summarizeHe wrote some of the greatest songs in American music, Dark End of the Street, Do Right Woman, I’m Your Puppet, and now, at 84, Dan Penn is back with an excellent new album, Smoke Filled Room. Penn got his first chart record while still a junior in high school, went on to produce The Box Tops, was in the room when Otis Redding recorded You Left the Water Running, and co-wrote Do Right Woman over a guitar in Chips Moman’s front room, only to watch Aretha Franklin walk out of the Muscle Shoals session, before Jerry Wexler finished it in New York. And that falsetto at the end of the James Carr recording of Dark End of the Street? That was him too. He still performs, occasionally writes, and picks up the phone to Jason Barnard. Further information Dan Penn – Smoke Filled Room Support The Strange Brew Dan Penn podcast tracks Podcasts also available: Steve Cropper, John Paul White, Bettye LaVette, John Mayall, Rita Coolidge This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Google apps and all usual platforms The post Dan Penn appeared first on The Strange Brew .
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