The Strange Brew - artist stories behind the greatest music ever recorded

Anthony 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

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Podcasts also available: Anthony Phillips (2019), Tony Banks (2024),  Tony Banks (2019), Steve Hackett (2022), Steve Hackett (2020), Bill Bruford, Chester Thompson

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John 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

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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 .

John 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

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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

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Boz 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

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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 .

Mark 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

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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 .