30 Something

Our 40th episode. Paul offers Tone Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine's rip-roaring second album. Was the early 90s a strange musical hinterland between Madchester and Britpop? Or a period of rich and underrated music, occasionally reflecting the last days of Thatcherism? What was 'grebo' and why did it not become a movement? And what's the connection with Pop Will Eat Itself (the band and the phrase)?To find out...please try listening.

A special edition as Tone and Paul welcome broadcasting legend Alex Lester to the Turntable. Alex offers the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's second album for consideration.Hear tales of how he came to discovered the band; glamorous venues in Walsall and Wolverhampton; finding his tribe amid a cloud of "patchouli oil and BO"; and the terrifying experience of staring into the eyes of a guitarist-cum-killer-clown.What on God's green earth will Tone and Paul make of all this? To find out...please try listening.Spoiler alert: the answer to the bog snorkelling question is 'no'.

Inside the mind of Mark Hollis we go as Tone sets Paul Talk Talk's 1986 album as homework. Over a year in the making. More experimental than their earlier output and more poppy than their future work. Plenty of respected musicians who were afforded "spontaneity and freedom" to create a "very textured arrangement".What will Paul make of it all? To find out...please try listening.

Mercurial and influential, Television's 1977 album gets a spin on the Turntable. Avant-garde? Certainly. Prog? Possibly. Punk? Not on your Nelly.Which of Tone's favourite bands led him to discover Tom Verlaine and friends? What was the deal with nicking members of Blondie? And how much will Paul enjoy all this glorious madness?For the answers...please try listening. 

A very special episode as we welcome author David to the show. Together, we look at his new book - You Won't See Me - which documents the Beatles' ill-fated visit to the Philippines in 1966. It was just a couple of weeks before the release of Revolver. But why was their live set so markedly different from their studio work? What was the story of the then-biggest pop concert in history? And what were the consequences of the band's supposed snub of Imelda Marcos.To find out...please try listening.

In the words of Jayne Middlemiss on Top of the Pops, "Mel, Shaz, Nicki and Nat are gonna sing for wuh". What will Paul make of Tone's offering? Why were there so many producers on the album? How did media attention and intra-group relationships affect the band's trajectory? And what was the All Saints-related incident that prompted Madonna to drop William Orbit (RIP)?For the answers to at least several of these questions...please try listening.

Tone offers up Belle & Sebastian's 1996 album for consideration at The Turntable. What will Paul make of the inner workings of Stuart Murdoch's mind? How did Murdoch's chronic fatigue syndrome affect the music? And what kind of 'pop' is it anyway: 'baroque', 'chamber', 'twee'?To find out the answers to at least some of these questions...please try listening.

Tone asks Paul to consider arguably the most rock 'n' roll figure in history. Is it possible to appreciate the full-throttle excitement of Mr Penniman's debut album? The moral panic it must've inspired among authorities? The sheer wonder of music the like of which no one had ever heard before?To see if the chaps can answer some of these questions...please try listening.

Tone offers up Leonard Cohen's 1988 album. What will Paul make of Cohen's commitment to synth? What do the vocals of Jennifer Warnes bring to the party? Can we expect a call from the Jazz Police? And what's a persecuted Spanish poet got to do with all of this? For the answers to at least some of these questions, please try listening.

Tone brings Harry Nilsson's 1971 album to the Turntable. Why was he so friendly with the Beatles (Nilsson not Tone)? Which song invented the power ballad? And why does Paul keep getting future echoes of Rufus Wainwright?For the answers to these - and possibly fewer - questions, please try listening.