Welcoming special guest, featured writer and hilarious raconteur Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, hosts Mark Pringle and Barney Hoskyns hear stories of Jennifer's days in the record business, including the time her car broke down with Kurt Cobain in it... as well as her subsequent decision to give it all up to write a PhD on Joy Division. Having moved to a rat-infested flat in London's New Cross, Jennifer's initial thought was: "My god, what have I done?" She has since gone from strength to strength as the queen of rockademia and global music ambassador for BIMM. Her books Joy Devotion and Why Vinyl Matters serve as the springboard for discussion before talk turns to her biography-in-progress of the doomed Nico. Mark, Barney and Dr. Bickerdike then listen to 1986 audio of Alex Chilton talking about cult Memphis band Big Star and about his decline into alcoholism in the mid-'70s. Barney's attempts to sing the praises of Prefab Sprout are met with unbridled disdain by both Mark and Jennifer, who shut him down in order to move on to the subjects of P. J. Proby's ripped trousers, Van Halen's David Lee Roth and much, much more... Visit Jennifer's website at https://www.jenniferotterbickerdike.com and buy Why Vinyl Matters and Joy Devotion on Amazon. Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: Why Vinyl Matters with Henry Rollins, Lars Ulrich and Fat Mike, Alex Chilton, Prefab Sprout, Andromeda Heights, Paddy McAloon audio,  P. J. Proby, David Bowie, Van Halen, Madonna @ Wembley, Kylie Minogue, EMF and Paul Oakenfold

Hailing 'Ghost Town' as "one of the great British records", RBP podcast hosts Mark Pringle and Barney Hoskyns consider The Specials and their politically conscious combination of punk and ska. They then pay tribute to Dave Laing and reflect on his role in the influential Let It Rock magazine, presenting pieces of Dave's on John Martyn, a Bill Monroe live show in a Scottish monastery and singer-songwriters from Jim Croce to John Denver. The week’s audio interview sees Juliana Hatfield in conversation with Ira Robbins about not wanting to get pigeonholed as the Lemonheads' bassist and her subsequent solo album Hey Babe. Beyond all of that, Mark and Barney somehow find time to discuss an early Beatles piece, get confused about Dawn James interviewing her sister Twinkle and berate Robert Fripp for his lack of self-awareness... Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: The Specials, The Specialer, The Specialest, John Martyn, Bill Monroe, the evolution of the singer-songwriter, The Beatles, Twinkle, Hot Chocolate's Errol Brown, Morrissey on the New York Dolls, Robert Fripp, Mark Eitzel, Oasis' fan letters, Nik Cohn's Triksta, Van Dyke Parks, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page

Joined by special guest Mark Sinker, RBP's Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle discuss A Hidden Landscape Once A Week, an anthology on the "unruly curiosity" of the UK's music press from the late '60s to the '80s. Moving on to the week's free feature, goth-punks the Flesh Eaters and their contemporaries the Gun Club spark a discussion of the L.A. scene in the early '80s. The tres hombres then talk about Earth, Wind & Fire's metaphysical funk and the philosophical ramblings of mainman Maurice White (as heard in clips from a 1979 interview by Cliff – no relation – White). Further topics include Liverpool's legendary Cavern club, the Temptations dissing Motown, "pop's public intellectual" Brian Eno and Millie Jackson's self-proclaimed status as "one of the rudest b****** around". Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: UK Music Press in the '70s, the Flesh Eaters, the Gun Club, Earth, Wind & Fire's Maurice White, the Beatles @ the Cavern, Scott Walker, Sonny Sharrock, Lou Reed, the Temptations, Brian Eno, Millie Jackson, Noel Harrison and Queen

Chatting about Bros and how appallingly they come out of the After the Screaming Stops doc, RBP podcast hosts Mark & Barney agree that Matt Goss is a "grotesque parody of overweening ego". Moving seamlessly on to Kenny Rogers, the duo hear a clip from John Tobler's 1989 audio interview with the man and discuss his uneasy status as a country icon and his true roots in rhythm & blues. Your hosts then pay tribute to RAM founder/editor Anthony O'Grady, who died in December, and discuss his writing on Australian rock from AC/DC to Radio Birdman. They also consider Paul McCartney & Wings, legendary jazz drummer Elvin Jones and Ecstasy's role in the Second Summer of Love. Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: Bros, Brosser, Brossest, Kenny Rogers, Anthony O'Grady, AC/DC, Radio Birdman, Paul McCartney & Wings, Elvin Jones, Dolly Parton, Electro, Ecstasy, Blur, Arcade Fire, Mickey Newbury and Whitney Houston.

Featuring exclusive clips of an increasingly intoxicated Keith Richards during a 2002 interview by Adam Sweeting, this week's RBP podcast could be described as a Rolling Stones special if there weren't so many other things being discussed. Lauding Keef as the band's heart and soul and asking "how has this man made it to 75", Mark Pringle and Barney Hoskyns wax lyrical about the brilliant Performance. Directed by the late Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell – with a Jack Nitzsche soundtrack Barney describes as one of the "creepiest, weirdest, but most mesmerising" he's ever heard, Performance sums up the transition from '60s flower power to something altogether darker and spookier, with the Stones themselves at "the centre of a vortex of social change". Other topics under consideration include Elvis Presley, the Beastie Boys, Paul Weller, Fleetwood Mac, Ice Cube and Gary Barlow's envy of of Robbie Williams... Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: Keef gets drunk, Nic Roeg's Performance, Performance reviewed, Jack Nitzsche on Performance's soundtrack, 2018's best music journalism, Beastie Boys, the self-professed 'Dean of Rock Critics', Brenda Lee, Elvis Presley, The Jam, Fleetwood Mac, Ice Cube and Gary Barlow.

In this week's podcast, hear Be-Bop Deluxe's Bill Nelson reminiscing (in February 1978) with Ian Ravendale about starting bands in school and working on the Futurama album with Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker... followed by your hosts Mark Pringle and Barney Hoskyns discussing Staten Island hip hop collective the Wu-Tang Clan. Attention then turns to featured writer Tim Cooper and his Heathen-era interview with David Bowie. New library pieces under the spotlight include a 1962 letter to Record Mirror from Frank Sinatra fan Fred Dellar; Paul Morley's 1977 NME live review of Little Feat; the return of jazz giant Dexter Gordon; and an unsavoury encounter with the Prodigy. Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: Be-Bop Deluxe audio, Wu-Tang Clan, Phantoms of the Hip-hopera, Ol' Dirty Bastard, David Bowie, Beach House, The Who's Quadrophenia, Frank Sinatra, Hank Ballard, The Who, Diana Ross, Little Feat, Dexter Gordon, Rickie Lee James, the Prodigy, Old and New Prog and the influence of Bobby "Blue" Bland on Americana.

Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music talks about interpreting the music of others, resents being called a country gent and loves vinyl. Your hosts Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle debate whether For Your Pleasure or Stranded is the better album, contemplate country and Americana and explore featured writer's Susin Shapiro's New York escapades, which include an interview with Patti Smith about Horses. Next, Barney and Mark consider Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved a Man, recorded at Muscle Shoals, and Joe Zawinul of Weather Report, probably their favourite 'fusion' band. Returning to New York, they reflect on New Wave in response to Robert Duncan's piece describing Television as being 'possessed of all the manners of an oyster', before rounding off with discussions of punk vs. prog, the rise of female sexuality in pop music, and the infamous Kim Fowley. Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: Bryan Ferry, Uncle Tupelo, Alt Country, Wilco, Patti Smith, The Ramones, Lou Reed, Marianne Faithfull, Aretha Franklin, Grand Funk Railroad, Weather Report, Robert Duncan hates New Wave,  Rock Returns to Holy Rolling, Boy Toy Rock and Kim Fowley

Welcoming special guest and featured writer John Mendelssohn, RBP's Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle present an excerpt from an interview with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and discuss the finer points of rock criticism with John, including the glamour of being threatened by Led Zeppelin from the stage at one of their gigs. Ahead of the publication of a new book of Kate Bush's lyrics, the three of them consider Wuthering Heights (John liked it, Barney didn't, and Mark hated it so much that he didn't listen to her music again for two decades) and discuss Mendelssohn's own book on the singer, Waiting for Kate Bush. Their guest also regales Barney and Mark with tales of finding David Bowie 'really pretty' and how 'deeply appalling' he thinks Richard Meltzer is. Find John's own podcast at bit.ly/john_mendelssohn, his blog at johnmendelssohn.blogspot.com and visit his band's website at www.freudiansluts.co.uk. Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: Led Zeppelin's Page and Plant, David Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World, Jefferson Airplane, Ashbone Wish, Kate Bush is Dreaming, Kate Bush takes charge, Kate Bush would rather be sophisticated, Manfred Mann, Giorgio Gomelsky, Leon Huff, Blue Öyster Cult and Motörhead, Kate McGarrigle, The Temptations and Massive Attack in Jamaica

Etta James considers her life in RnB up to 1978—'Roll With Me Henry', Johnny Otis, Chess Records and working with Rick Hall. Your hosts Mark Pringle and Barney Hoskyns in turn consider her impact on singers from Janis Joplin to Adele and discuss featured writer Rob Partridge, raunchy and/or art-rock Royal Trux, and Jobriath. Their attentions then turn to Burl Ives, Marc Bolan and the joy of seeing Willie Nelson live, before they start disagreeing about Portishead as well as The Fugees, with Barney stubbornly refusing to be snobbish about their album The Score.  Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed:  Etta James, Royal Trux, Royaler Trux, Royalest Trux, Professor Longhair, Jobriath, Tammy Wynette, Burl Ives, Marc Bolan, Willie Nelson, Fogerty—Self Plagiarism?, Portishead, The Fugees, Julian Cope

Berating "idiot" Malcolm McLaren and "poxy" Vivienne Westwood, Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious hold forth, slagging off everyone under the sun, or at least everyone they can think of, in a 1977 interview with John Tobler. RBP podcast hosts Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle do some holding forth of their own, about the Sex Pistols (naturally) but also about Chic, featured writer David Hepworth, Nico, Gene Clark and Luther Vandross. Hailing Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards as "two of the greatest players of any musical instrument in any musical medium", Barney and Mark enthuse about disco, discuss the state of electronic music in the 1980s and question whether or not music can enact political change (spoiler: it can't).  Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: Interview with Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, Chic, more Chic, Sandie Shaw, Nico, Lou Reed, Gene Clark, The Concise NME Guide to Electronic Music, Luther Vandross, Marianne Faithfull, Neil Young and Neil Younger

"Massive Attack [...] bores me to tears", says Mark Pringle ahead of their 20th-anniversary tour of Mezzanine. Following some discussion of the Bristol Scene, he and Barney Hoskyns consider this week's featured writer Terry Staunton. They then present an excerpt from a 2014 interview with Roseanne Cash in which she talks to Adam Sweeting about revisiting the south of the USA, which plays at the end of the podcast. Talk then turns to Joan Baez, Steve Marriott of The Small Faces and Marianne Faithfull, the latter of which turns out to be the starting point for a conversation about addiction and drug abuse, further fuelled by Susin Shapiro's withering review of Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers. Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: Massive Attack and their album Mezzanine, Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser, Rosanne Cash, Joan Baez,  The Small Faces' Steve Marriott, Marianne Faithfull, Geoffrey Cannon on the arts in society, Kraftwerk, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, Suede, Nine Inch Nails, Fictitious bands from films, Lydia Lunch, Cherry Vanilla and a YouTube interview between Nick Cave and Marianne Faithfull

Hear an excerpt from a 1976 interview between Freddie Mercury and Robert Duncan of Creem about 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (among other things). Your hosts Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle then consider this week's additions to the Rock's Backpages archive, including pieces on Joni Mitchell, Lionel Richie, Randy Newman and the Rolling Stones at the height of their devilish mythology. While discussing Neil Kulkarni's rave review of Wu-Tang Clan's Forever, Barney and Mark recall the time they met Wu-Tang's U-God at San Francisco airport. Produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie Pieces discussed: Queen's Freddie Mercury, Keith Moon, Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, The Runaways, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Randy Newman, Wu-Tang Clan, Boybands, Larry Leblanc with Toby Mamis