Pop Episodes

I have a virtual girls nights in with one of life’s true survivors. Award-winning singer-songwriter Hazel O’Connor rose to fame over forty years ago starring in the ground-breaking film Breaking Glass. Hits and eye-catching appearances followed including Will You, Big Brother, Monsters in Disgui…

There are stars and then there are superstars. And my guest today is nothing short of a superstar.  Petula Clark is one of the most successful British female recording artist of all time. She established herself as a child performer during the Second World War and went on to achieve major succes…

Evolving from The Housemartins, whose impressive catalogue would keep any chart-watcher busy, The Beautiful South was almost ever-present in the charts from the late 80’s with hits like Song For Whoever, A Little Time, Perfect 10, Rotterdam, and Don't Marry Her. After they split up in 2006, foun…

My guest today is one of music’s octogenarians. Music icon and MBE, Marty Wilde has just made headlines around the world for being the first person in the entertainment industry to receive the COVID vaccine but he is better known for being the first British artist to achieve the incredibly rare fea…

Winning the hearts of a million teenagers in the 80s as the lead singer of synth-pop group Kajagoogoo, Limahl wowed us with debut smash-hit single Too Shy. Two more Top 20 hits quickly followed but after producing only one enormously successful album, he was unceremoniously sacked by his band mates…

Multi-platinum award winning Right Said Fred are one of the UK’s most enduring pop exports.  Brothers Fred and Richard Fairbrass have a list of achievements to their credit including number 1 hits in 70 countries, global sales total 30 million, and over 100 million plays on Spotify. The first…

Badfinger is a band that has had more than its fair share of drama and tragedy over the years, to say the least!  With a history that is more suited to a Tarantino film, Badfinger has been dogged with law suits and suicides but has risen from the ashes with its latest incarnation lead by long-te…

I’m Walking On Sunshine today with the musician who’s had a worldwide hit that that catapulted Katrina & The Waves to the forefront of the music industry in 1985 with over 2.5 million plays on US Radio and was the soundtrack of a host of films. But for many, Grammy nominated Katrina will be the …

In 1977 when singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke signed to Elton John’s Rocket label, she couldn’t imagine that over 40 years later she would still be performing. Her biggest success came a couple of years later with album Welcome to the Cruise with her single Stay With Me Till Dawn reaching number 16 in…

Once the biggest selling girl groups in the world, the Nolan Sisters performed in stadiums internationally, were the opening act for Frank Sinatra, sold over 30 million records and even won the Japanese equivalent of a Grammy.  It wasn’t all a bed of roses, though, as Anne, the eldest of the sib…

In this edition, I call stateside to catch up with the fabulous, one and only, Chesney Hawkes. Chesney shot to fame when he won the lead role in the film Buddy's Song, alongside Roger Daltrey, but it was when he found himself to be one of the first teenagers in pop history to bag the Number One …

He’s the self-confessed Ronnie Corbett of the bass-playing world and, with a career in the music industry spanning almost 40 years, Grammy-winning Guy Pratt has a few stories to tell! The chosen bassist for many of the world's elite musicians, he’s played on countless hit records with Madonna, M…

In this edition I catch up with Sandy Newman, lead-singer and guitarist of pop sensation of the 60/70s The Marmalade. The Marmalade may be best known for hits such as Reflections of My Life, Rainbow, Falling Apart At The Seams and Lennon/McCartney’s Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, but Sandy Newman is a whole…

It’s exactly 40 years since John Otway’s now legendary appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test with Wild Willy Barrett with gymnastic antics to ‘Really Free’. It was this performance that shot John to fame but despite a financial backing of £2m, in today’s figures, from Polydor Records it was a …

The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential British groups of all time, with millions of record sales and countless awards and accolades to their name. In this edition, I catch up with keyboard player Ian Gibbons who, as well as being a long-term member of the band, als…