Podrophenia - a Beard Special with The British Beard Club

It's a hair-bear affair for the latest Podrophenia. As our guests David Dade and Charlie Saville from The British Beard Club join us with: beard-husbandry tips for beginners, freestyle beard competitions *a cross between Miss World and Crufts* and beard heroes.. 

There's insider info on Peel Sessions from former BBC sound engineer David with a session CV featuring - The Banshees, The Bad Seeds, Joy Division and The Damned… Plus Piley's puns, beard quiz and a playlist featuring new tunes from T Bitch Invaders and Vix20 Dig in and

 DL here ..

Bongophenia: Podrophenia Meets The Bongolian

A double whammy celebration wherein we tip our collective hats to The Railway Hotel, (RIP) with Piley, Mondo and Lord Hastings spinning in a selection of Railway faves they've played from the pulpit... 

 

And buckle up as two of the most blazing players ever to fizz-up a gig at The Railway - Trev and Nasser of Big Boss Man and The Bongolian, talk us through tracks from the new Bongolian album - Harlem Hipshake, plus provide a primer on best Latin and reggae albums for newbies, remember the lively nights at Blow Up club and demo Hammond and percussive techniques for beginners

All this in two hours - tune in and chow down

Stream below or DL here

Podrophenia Hits 150 with a Blow Up Special

Buckle up Pod-pals as we bring you a fully loaded 150th edition of Podrophenia.. We've a trio of exclusives (David Woodcock Leo Leo and Steve Hooker). Special guests Joe and James Michael Clarke from Stackfest Central about the due soon gig And Paul Tunkin from Blow Up, bringing us the background on tracks from the label's catalogue..and the Blow Up Easter Special at The Railway 20th April..

Dig in download here...or via iTunes

And feel free to  go full stream ahead

Podrophenia - Ninth Anniversary edition with Chris Senner live in session

The ninth anniversary edition of Podrophenia is up for download. Our special guest is Chris Senner playing live, doing a spectacular Morrisey impression and choosing some inspirational tunes.. We've got: a Lennon number 9 quiz, new tunes from Alfa 9 and Comfortable Sauvage, and a run of heatwave puns... All here for your listening ears

Stream


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iTunes

Podrophenia The Magic Edition

The Prog Chorus - Podrophenia and SFOB with Rick Wakeman and Dylan Howe

For our brand new edition of Podrophenia we take you on a magical mystery tour of rock and pop prestidigitation: Soul, country, funk, indie, rock 'n' roll - it's all in the cauldron of our 'Magic' themed show.

We've got an appearance from Pellicci legend Juke Box Jimmy, a fourtieth anniversary track selected by Pete from Fives Records, all the news from Fives 40th birthday celebrations,

We also reveal John Medd's tip off on a Wetherspoons secret and what is Swede Face with record sleeves..





AND the world exclusive airing of The Bongolians new single I'm a Bigger Badder Bro Than Any Game Of Thrones Dig and download here..

Podrophenia Magic 

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Podrophenia salutes ten years of The Railway..

Pretty much around the same time I started this blog - The Railway in Southend opened it's doors with new owner installed Dave Dulake . It's a three storey, ex hotel - that's since gone on to become one of the most celebrated boozers in southern England - if not the entire country..

Film crews, TV broadcasters and Sunday supplement scribblers all have made their way Southend Central-wards to capture the music and magic of the venue. And Wilko Johnson is such a regular - his boat-race has ended up on the Pub's banner.

Podrophenia has been broadcasting from The Railway for four years, putting on live nights their for five, While I've been  quacking on about it since this...

So for the latest Podrophenia Piley and self celebrate 10 years of Southend's most musical and vegan foodie boozer - The Railway. There's a beautiful acoustic set from Dave Woodcock (with news on his second Blow Up album). Fi Dulake is in for a chat about the history of and future plans for the pub..

And we bring you tracks from some fave bands and gigs that have taken place over the last ten years at The Railway including a track from the due soon Steve West Weston album

Plus  a pop quiz: what is the live Wilko tune played and which artiste gets on the playlist twice in TWO diff turns

Screen test: spot the Mondo blogging bass player and Fi Dulake on drums...


All here and all free...

Stream

Download

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Podrophenia best of 2016

The latest Podrophenia is up for download and features Piley and m'selfs fave finds of 2016, plus - an interview with Paul Fleming of Baltic Fleet on the new album (some of the tunes you may recognise from Top Gear and Grand Tour). We've Star Wars songs contributed by the Podrophonic Massive, a stage invasion from some SFOB chums, news on a Southend themed wallaper- and an unreleased Howling Black Soul rarity- grab your copy hereabouts

 Download here

 Stream

Or via itunes here

David Woodcock new single: Vote once, vote twice, vote thrice....

As heard on a recent Podrophenia, our boy David Woodcock is a contender for the 6Music Rebel Playlist with his new single 'Relatively Single Man'. Voting closes at midnight this Sunday (October 12th) , weigh in with your click-power and get behind Dave Woodcock.. For triple whammy wallop, vote on a home PC/work PC/ mobile - and give your pals a nudge...



Click us a winner here.... Scroll down until you see the image below..

  

Radio Podrophenia - Dave Woodock debut album edition..

 

The Podrophenia David Woodcock Debut Album Special is now up for download, and yours to fill up on for free. 

What a peach of a treat we had as Dave joined us live in the studio for salty stories (fish and chip horrors) and nimbly-fingered spectacular tracks from the album, as well as playing some listener requests.. 

And joy of joys - Ma Woodcock joined us by phone for tech advice, and to choose her fave Dave W tune. All this and a pop up appearance from Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions.

It's yours to grab here for free...

MP3

iTunes

Radio Podrophenia: Dave Woodcock debut album special and live session tonight

What a furiously busy few days for the Boy Woodcock: open mic night and album released Monday, starring on Steve Lamacq yesterday as the Favourite New Band (listen again here) - and to top off the week an album launch gig at the Bussey Building this Saturday...

But, between his tour from one end of the Thames to the other, Dave is stopping (or having a comfort break you could say) from whipping around like a whirling dervish to join Piley and the other one for live session of tunes, chat and natter for tonight's Podrophenia.

We've a run of songs fitted around variations on 'Woodcock' - and a few live renditions of album tracks and getting the back-story on the tracklist....

And as a bonus - we've also managed to nip in an exclusive pop up appearance from Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions to talk us through a selection from his Spliced Krispies ..

Set your dials for 8pm Southend Central time tonight on Ship Full of Bombs

David, Essex.....

For three years now - (first posted here) at PM and over at Podrophenia HQ, we've been saluting and supporting the sprawling songbook of Southend maestro and multi-instrumentalist David Woodcock. Today boys. girls, bloggers and rollers - Dave's debut release is officially unveiled and brought to you by Blow Up Records

Order a pint, pull up a bar stool and settle in as Southend's hardest-working export entertains you for the next fourty-odd minutes, thundering through a set of uptempo tear-ups, misty-eyed memories and home-brewed belters. Updating the Thames Delta traditions of hi-octane rock and salty sing-alongs with a nippy contemporary twist.

Dave Woodcock's Lennon-esque time changes and fidget-hipped tunes are like a late-hours lock in (with pint mugs on the piano) - while Ronnie Lane, Mickey Jupp and Suggs go heads together on boozy, crowd rousing choruses of high times, heartbreak and hometowns. All captured with a Ray Davies-style snipers-eye for the everyday details  - and topped off with a boisterous production polish that gives the album the full-bodied bounce of a new wave knees up.

So, raise a glass to the debut album from the spectacularly talented David Woodock.

To collect your copy (early orders come with a free signed postcard) wing your way to David Woodcock.com

For a preview, tune into the third single Open Secret below, catch Dave on Steve Lamacq this Wednesday - or live on Podrophenia this Thursday...or for the album launch at The Bussey Building on Saturday

Podrophenia: a Five Year Mission to to explore strange new sounds

This evening Piley and I celebrate and mark our fifth Podrophonic Anniversary! Five years that started with us parked up at Piley HQ playing records and a ball-pit, to tonight where we'll be broadcasting live music from The Railway's ballroom

During however many shows it is! (I haven't kept count) we've migrated from as-'n'-when podcasts to regular live radio run-outs. Had sessions from a scrolling rollcall of southend talent:. David Woodcock, Darren Jones, Roman jugg, Andy Gallagher, Syd Moore, Hannah Marsh, Tom Burgess, Philious Williams Steve Hooker and the Glass Brides

Been lucky enough to bring in a gallery of guests for chats and natters. And were on to our 8th live night at the last count, Podrophenia (and sometimes Retroman team-ups) always superbly shot by Paul Hughes, that have included storming performances from the Len Price 3, Bif Bam Pow, TV Smith, Dick Yorke, Swindle, Andy Gallagher, Thee Faction and - Eight Rounds Rapid, the rising rockers who became our first release on the Podrophenia label

Random Podro moments: a flashmob review from the listeners on this single. A stage invasion at our TV Smith night, being bootlegged by Russian sites. Although of all the hot-spots and highlights - getting the offical endorsment and approval of David Bowie will be hard to beat..

A magical, and musical mystery tour that has taken Piley and I to places and people, we couldn't have in anyway expected when we chuckled and bumbled our way through that first sixty minutes of tunes and chatter in July 2009

If you've ever listened live,downloaded a podcast, chipped in, appeared in, commented, suggested a tune, bought a single, shaken a leg at live night - we'd love it if you could swing by for a listen in tonight

Or if you're local pop down to the Railway for our indoor/outdoor broadcast of a live session from Southend's chippies nippiest band The Ends




A huge thank you is due to everyone who's ever done any of the above

You can listen live from 8pm Southend Sentral Time here at Ship Full of Bombs and chip in at Chatwing...

Salut and here's to another 5

x

Podrophenia the Food edition - in two flavours

Come On in Our Kitchen...

Behold the latest Podrophenia is now up for download.

We've got Steve from Steve's Salt Beef bar in giving us the history of this brisket based treat, a pop in from sharp-shooting photographer - Paul Hughes and 12 food themed tunes that are so more-ish you'll come back for seconds... But how two flavours? Piley provides you with a meat-feast menu, while I offer a veggie option..

It's available for free as an mp3 DL here, from the SFOB site, or via iTunes

And, you can even stream below...

Radio Podrophenia: live tonight - S is for sessions, ships and 'sclusives...

Calling all Southenders, out-of-towners and internet wireless types – tonight the February edition of Radio Podrophenia is brought to you by the Letter S from the Podrophonic alphabet.

Expect - shimmying, shaking, something from Sue Records by way of Guy Stevens – and a surprise appearance from Pellicci legend Jukebox Jimmy.

For our first live session of 2014, Southend’s Nu Trip-Hoppers - the Glass Brides, will be bringing their widescreen beats and cinematic soundtracking to the Shipful of Bombs studio. But behold – exclusive news as the Brides are revealing an exclusive freshly pressed tune (Seven Part II) never before aired *anywhere* in the entire known universe..

The official page for this Thursday night shindig – is here

Feel free to chip in and natter away with us via Chatwing

Rewire your dials from 8pm tonight and SFOB , for Glass Bombs on Shipful of Brides, or is it the other way round... Salut and see you hereabouts



Glass Brides on Soundcloud

Glass Brides FB page

Radio Podrophenia - Blow Up 20th Anniversary Special

In October 1993 Southender, Paul Tunkin hosted his first Blow Up night at The Laurel Tree, Camden. An event, that after two decades of hard graft and consistently hi-quality output has developed into a globally known identity - with Blow Up events in Japan. Europe and the US - becoming the coolest indie label in Britain, and the source of chicest vintage beats and hippest new musical finds.

Paul cut his clubbing teeth locally with a DJ residency at the Pink Toothbrush alongside running a series of self-promoted nights at shifting scenes and locations (The Monkey House, The Wasp Factory and The Periphery) eventually moving and settling into the London scene with Blow Up, debuting at the Laurel Tree, Camden. A move that in a moment of musical synchronicity caught the upswing of the Britpop explosion. Blow Up later relocated to the Wag Club in Wardour Street and became the clubhouse and HQ for all ace faces of the indigenous music scene -Blur, Pulp, and Oasis.

Fast forward. to February 2013 and Blow Up celebrates its twentieth anniversary as a record label, with the Southend circle (or roundel) becoming complete as  man-about-the-Southend-music scene David Woodcock has become Blow Up's latest signing, sitting alongside established acts such as Big Boss Man, The Bongolian and the Yoko-endorsed Baltic Fleet.

A prolific songwriter and performer, with a pacy workrate of new material and gigs, Woodcock is possibly the hardest working man is showbiz since James Brown. Dave's self-penned songbook is both instantly accessible and equally broad-ranging enough to entertain salty British Legion boozers or Brick Lane's swishy-set. .

Within a week of his debut single Same Things being released last summer, hipster site Brandish described the song as ‘a distillation of everything that is great about quirky English pop music’ while it’s also been receiving plays on XFM, Radio London and spins on BBC 6Music. A strong start for a first single - Dave’s take..

The second single Beggars Can't Be Choosers/Tease - has been getting some hefty nods from Steve Lamacq.

For a listen to both sides of the new single,  the low-down on twenty years of Blow Up the club and label, a run through on some rarities, new releases - and a chat with Blow Up's Big Boss Man, Paul Tunkin tune into the latest Podrophenia

Radio Podrophenia - Blow Up Special




Or via iTunes

The Planet Mondo Annual 2013

Boys, girls, inbetweeners and whatnots - here for your listening ears and grooving legs is the Planet Mondo Annual 2013, prepared for the festive Sadlads CD meetup of Piley, E F Rice, Jack Gestures, Paul Glasses and self. To recap on the rules....

1. Circulate to everyone a CD no longer than 80 minutes in length, containing tracks for new groups you have either got into for the first time this year or established artists you have perhaps picked up an old track/album for this year.

2. You may have more than one track for an artist on the CD (although 80 mins of Springsteen would be pushing it)

3. You supply all those taking part with a CD including a full track listing.

So what has 2013 pitched into my PM playlist?

Beard Rock - Kadaver

Nu Blues - The Strypes. Barrence Whitfield & the Savages

Local talent - Eight Rounds Rapid, David Woodcock. Plantman, The Glass Brides

Newly sifted Soul gems - Lonnie Lester, The Dells. The Precisons

The full list is below, rendered as a screen shot to avoid those pesky DMCA types... click on the pic for the complete t-list

Planet Mondo Annual 2013



During the 70-ish minute mix - listen out for appearances from Steve Lamacq, Edith Bowman and Courtney Taylor-Taylor. The PM Annual back issues can be collected hereabouts - except the 2012 edition, which will be wing-dinging its way to us soon-ish

So until then have yourselves a rocking New Year, and perhaps use this mix for prepping music should you be Hootanannying or Hogmanaying it up tonight...

PS one on the subs bench - a Breaking Bad related beauty

Autumn interlude... part 4: Gone to Ground

Alfa 9 drifted onto my listening post around October last year, when a promo copy of their second album Gone to Ground landed on my Plectrum The Cultural Pick review pile. Originally scheduled for an autumn/winter release,  but, as album launches often do - the date slipped with GtG  dropping into the pop-o-sphere in early 2013. And splaining  the 2012 references in my review and Vive Le Rock end of year round-up..

There is a theory that in sixties Britain, a geographic divide developed between the song-writing of northern and southern musicians.

Groups below the Watford Gap were Thames based blues-beaters, reworking Mississippi and Chicago influences into the slab-handed riffing and pentatonic rolling of the Stones, The Who and The Yardbirds,
Whereas in the north - Country and Western albums, imported through the docks informed the niftily fingered arpeggios of The Beatles, The Hollies then later The Smiths, Stone Roses and The La's.

The source of Gone to Ground's ringing chordal peels are firmly rooted in the northern hemisphere, but warmed by a gulf stream of blue-sky, tie-dyed harmonies breezing across the Atlantic from Laurel Canyon.

Alfa 9 describe their sound as 'Dreamy psychedelia' and 'Spaghetti psychedelic country' - to these ears it's Syd Barret and The Byrds in nudie suits singing songs for swingers shoegazers. An album that would have David Crosby applying approving strokes to his walrus moustache, and wouldn't appear out of place alongside any of Island's (poppier) pink label era releases.

Winging in Myles Clarke (The Who/Pete Townsend) to oversee the mix brings an air of authentic hand-stitching to the project. With its union of two country styles: Nashville, and nature (repeat references to seeds, grass, rain and sunshine weave through the lyrics) I've no doubt, when 2012 closes out, Gone to Ground's joyous, jangling and ringing will be my album of the year, where every track is a pot of gold spilling rainbows in its trail

This review first appeared in PTCP issue 14

Radio Podrophenia: tonight Shipful of Bombs Blows Up

 

People of Podrophenia, tonight we bring you the October edition of Podrophenia, wherein we celebrate twenty years of Blow Up -  the club, the label and the bands. A club with it's roots in the Southend Scene  - starting at the Monkey House, Croc's. and The Periphery

Piley and I will be joined by Blow Up's Generalissimo Paul Tunkin for some, natter chatter and tunes covering the club's back catalogue, current releases and at some point, hope to reveal a world exclusive on a new tune...

Kick off's 8pm Southend Central Time at Ship Full of Bombs, swing by and join us - or park up at our all new chat room (holding up to 7000 chatterboxes) to chip in...

Spot the sample - what was Herbie's bassline borrowed for?

Pirate Radio Podrophenia....

What was the tracklist for this outboard obscurity - all here

Just over a week ago Pouchy Paul, Kate Johnston and myself parked up at SFOB for the September edition of Radio Podrophenia..

Assembling a crew of tunes threading together secret bands, new music and funky covers ( Mae West doing John Lee Hooker!) fitted around the theme of ships, sailing and bombs.



Between these twelve tracks we had ourselves a run out on Fracking songs, 'made-up' nautical slang and bands you get confused.

Should you fancy the Listen Again experience fill your waders below..

Radio Podrophenia - Ships, Sailing and Bombs

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Hey, that's me on the Lamacq Show.....(for 7 days only)

Good Day/ Bad Day caller - that's me that is!

Scuse the brevity of the blog-post pals, but it's one handed typing all the way at the mo..

How about this. After a nippy tweet from me to the Lamacq Show last week - they were looking for guests for the Good Day/ Bad Day feature - I was booked in for a spot yesterday's show.

Which way did I choose? Tune in below at 50 minutes in for the reveal...as well as first singles, gigs and album info.

Steve Lamacq - 6 Music 29th August

Do you know I can feel a Pop-Master revisit calling

The Quinn Martin style epilogue - Pal Lamacq gave me a 'callback' as they say - an unprompted shout and dedication on tonight's show.too at 2hr 34 mins...

Steve Lamacq - 6 Music 30th August

All will become clear