PODCAST · music
Music Maps Podcast
by Rock n Roll Book Club
Each episode we use a place as a jumping off point for a conversation about music - anywhere from the obvious to the obscure. Join us as we build our music map of the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
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Gary Stewart, Nashville & The Texas Honky Tonks with Jimmy McDonough
Jimmy McDonough joins us this week to tell us about his new book Gary Stewart: I Am From The Honky Tonks. The book is available in the UK & also in the US. While not a household name Gary Stewart became a hugely influential singer described as ‘too country for country and too rock for rock’.…
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The Farm with Roy Boulter
Roy Boulter joins us to talk about his time in The Farm & also his new film Algorithm Party starring PJ Smith, which marks Roy’s directorial debut. The idea came from a football game, Roy’s band The Farm had played an informal football game on Fridays in Birkenhead for over 20 years. One day PJ...
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The Early Days of The Jam + Rick Buckler Tribute with Steve Brookes & Holly Buckler
This week we present an episode in 2 parts - in part 1 we welcome Holly Buckler daughter of The Jam drummer Rick Buckler. Holly has organised a tribute gig to her Dad who passed away in February 2025. The gig will take place at Woking Theatre on October 12th 2026 & you can buy any remaining…
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Black Sabbath & Ozzy Osbourne
Black Sabbath & Ozzy Osbourne is our focus this week as Keith Kahn-Harris joins us to mark the release of his book The Beautiful Death of Ozzy Osborne - How Metal Teaches Us To Live. Out now in the US & the UK. Our journey starts in Aston, a suburb of Birmingham where a young Ozzy Osbourne grows...
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The Strokes - Is This It with Steven Hyden
Join us to go back 25 years to the release of The Strokes debut album Is This It. Steven’s new book Is This It: The Never-Ending Rise and Fall of the Strokes is out now in the US & also here in the UK. The story begins when future Stroke frontman Julian Casablancas meets future bassist Nikolai...
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Adam & The Ants with Marco Pirroni
Marco Pirroni joins us to talk us through his huge success with Adam & The Ants - Marco’s new book Your Money Or Your Life is out now. It all starts with a note through Marco’s door which simply says ‘Call Me, Adam’. The next day Marco & Adam Ant meet & before long they are recording together at...
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When UK Punk Went Pop - The Jam, Madness, Fanzines, The Face & more
Tony Fletcher joins us to talk about his new book POW!: When UK Punk Went Pop, 1980-84. Starting with his Jammin’ fanzine at age 13, by the time he is 14 Tony writes a letter to Paul Weller & receives a reply. He is invited to RAK Studios in London whereThe Jam are making what becomes All Mod…
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Elliott Smith with Jamie Fisher
Elliott Smith is our focus this week & we are joined by Jamie Fisher whose new book - Nobody Broke Your Heart: An Intimate Biography of Elliott Smith is out now in the UK & the US. What differentiates Jamie’s book from others about Elliott Smith is the people who she spoke to when writing it…
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Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young with Rolling Stone's David Browne
Our first episode focusing on Crosby, Stills Nash & Young with Rolling Stone’s David Browne. David’s book is out now or on audio if you prefer. David also has a regularly updated substack you can subscribe to with lots of his music writing. CSNY comes together after David Crosby, Stephen Stills &...
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129 - Pub Rock, Ian Dury, Joe Strummer, The Sex Pistols, Dr. Feelgood, Nick Lowe & more with Mark Wilkerson
In the early 1970s the music scene is dominated by prog rock concept pieces, synth solos & overblown tours. The societal backdrop in Great Britain is one of labour & coal strikes, riding inflation & unemployment & a struggling economy. In the background of this upheaval an American band named…
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Jimi Hendrix with Jimi's roadie Eric Barrett
Our first episode about Jimi Hendrix & we are joined by Jimi’s former roadie Eric Barrett. Eric ran into Mitch Mitchell & Noel Redding, bassist & drummer in The Jimi Hendrix Experience in a club & received a phone call shortly after asking him to fly to Milan to work his first gig with Jimi. Eric...
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127 - Raised On Radio - Power Ballads, Cocaine & Payola: The AOR Glory Years 1976-1986 with Paul Rees
This week we take a deep dive into the AOR scene of the 1980s, re-appraising some often overlooked bands & music. We start with the story of Boston, where an MIT graduate named Tom Scholz spends 7 years practicing & making demos before coming up with ‘More Than a Feeling’ & achieving huge…
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126 - Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska with Warren Zanes
Join us for a deep dive into Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska with writer Warren Zanes, author of Deliver Me From Nowhere which was recently made into a Hollywood movie. In late 1981 Bruce Springsteen is coming off his biggest success to date with The River album & tour plus his first hit single,...
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Stevie Nicks & Fleetwood Mac with Rachel Brodsky
We are joined by author Rachel Brodsky to talk about the life & career of Stevie Nicks. Rachel’s new book Lessons & Lace is out now. Stevie Nicks was born in Phoenix & moved around a lot as a child, finally settling in Los Angeles. Her grandfather AJ Nicks was a country singer who would take her…
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Simon Reynolds on Shoegaze, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Sonic Youth, Pavement & more
Simon Reynolds joins us to talk about his new book Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984–1994. Against a backdrop of Margaret Thatcher’s third term in Downing Street & Stock, Aitken & Waterman’s domination of the pop charts a new scene begins to emerge. Starting...
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123 - Dolly Mixture, The Jam, Captain Sensible with Debsey Wykes
Join us for a live recording with Debsey Wykes about her book Teenage Daydream: We Are The Girls Who Play In A Band. Debsey’s early musical experiences were centred around Cambridge & her early interests included The Bay City Rollers, Queen & David Bowie. Punk arrived soon after & her tastes...
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Elvis Presley & Colonel Tom Parker with Peter Guralnick
We welcome legendary music writer Peter Guralnick as we take a deep dive into the fascinating relationship between Elvis Presley & his manager Colonel Tom Parker. Peter first gained access to Parker’s archives in the mid 1990s & what he found may change your view of Tom Parker & his relationship...
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The Birth of British Rock & Roll with Brian Bennett (The Shadows) & Clem Cattini (The Tornados)
An episode we have wanted to bring you since before we recorded our first episode - the birth of British rock & roll with 2 legendary drummers, Brian Bennett from The Shadows & Clem Cattini of The Tornados. It starts at the 2i’s Coffee Bar at 59 Old Compton Street, Soho in London. Opened by 2...
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The History of the Velvet Underground with Richie Unterberger
We turn our attention to one of the most influential bands of all time, The Velvet Underground for the first time with biographer Richie Unterberger. Lou Reed grew up in suburban Freeport, Long Island listening to the first wave of rock & roll. Later at Syracuse University Reed began to write...
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119 - Yoko Ono & the Avante-Garde Diaspora with Paul Morley
Join us & Paul Morley to hear all about Yoko Ono & the Avant-Garde Diaspora. We hear about her early years in Tokyo, born into an almost aristocratic background via her banker father, before her eventual relocation to New York to enter the art world. Once in New York Yoko goes on to create…
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Glasgow Barrowlands with Alison Irvine
Join us for a deep dive into an iconic gig venue, the legendary Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom. The building was first opened by Maggie McIver on Christmas Eve 1934 & hosts dances for the East End of Glasgow for decades, however once the big band era passes the venue begins to decline & loses...
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117 - Ringo Starr & The Beatles with Tom Doyle
So today we take a deep dive into the early life of Ringo Starr, how he joined the Beatles & their subsequent unprecedented success. After overcoming various serious Illnesses as a child, a young Ringo first develops an interest in drumming while in hospital recovering. His first arrives courtesy...
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116 - The Coral with James Skelly, Nick Power & James Slater (Hoylake)
Join us for a very special live episode to mark the release of Dreaming Of You - The Making of the Coral - the new documentary available now to rent or buy. Our starting point is the faded seaside town of Hoylake, on the Wirral Peninsula near Liverpool, where The Coral meet & come together to…
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115 - John Altman on Monty Python, Prince, Muddy Waters, Amy Winehouse & more
Altman John’s Uncles Sid Phillips & Wolf Phillips were big band conductors at the London Palladium so John grew up around the likes of Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong & Jack Benny. At a young age he played with the likes of Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, John Martyn, Nick Drake…
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Inside The Gang Of Four with Jon King (Leeds)
Jon King joins us to talk about the early years & formation of the Gang of Four - formed at Leeds University while Jon studied art. Jon was born in South London but moved to a village near Sevenoaks in Kent & while the King household rarely featured music, Jon grew up listening to Motown & Trojan...
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Paul McCartney in the 70s & the end of The Beatles with Tom Doyle
Take a deep dive with us into the end of the Beatles, Paul McCartney in the 70s, Wings Over America, Mary Had a Little Lamb, feuding with John Lennon & more with writer Tom Doyle whose McCartney biography Man On The Run is out now. The Beatles come to an end & Paul takes refuge at High Park Farm…
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Melissa Auf der Maur on Hole, Smashing Pumpkins & more (Montreal)
This week we welcome Melissa Auf der Maur to hear about her new book Even The Good Girls Cry - out now on Atlantic Books. Our starting point is Montreal as Melissa recounts growing up listening to The Cure & The Smiths, studying photography & seeing Hole & Smashing Pumpkins in one week in 1991 -...
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Nirvana with Everett True
Join us for our first episode on one of the seminal bands of the 90s - Nirvana with legendary music writer Everett True. His book Nirvana - The True Story is out now. Kurt Cobain & Krist Novoselic meet in Aberdeen, Washington but it’s in Tacoma & Olympia where the band really comes together. We...
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110 - 50 Years of The Undertones with Damian O'Neill Undertones (Derry)
This week we celebrate 50 years of The Undertones with guitar player Damian O’Neill. Damien kept diaries during the early years of the band & reads extracts for us throughout & he tells us about joining the band age 15 & their first gig at a local scout hall. From there The Undertones honed their...
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109 - The Ramones with Everett True (Forest Hills, New York)
This week we travel to Forest Hills, Queens, New York to trace the origins of the legendary punk band The Ramones. While Joey Ramone is actually the only Ramone born in Forest Hills, it is this conversation suburb of New York which creates one of the iconic bands in the history of NYC. The bands...
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108 - Music Maps LIVE with Amy Rigby & Kathy Valentine
This week we bring you a very special conversation between singer/songwriter Amy Rigby & Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go’s) to mark the publication of Amy’s brand new book Girl To Country. Amy Rigby has established herself as one of America’s enduring underground/cult/indie artists, combining the...
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The Beatles in the Phillippines
In July of 1966 the biggest band in the world touched down in Manila in the Philippines to play 2 shows at the Rizal Memorial Stadium - and we are joined by David Guerrero whose book You Won't See Me - When The Beatles Ghosted Imelda is out now on Penguin. Why did the Beatles choose to play in…
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Carole King - Tapestry, The Brill Building & more with Jane Eisner
This week we start in Brooklyn to chart the life & career of Carole King - from her beginnings as part of a local Doo Woo group through to the unprecedented success of Tapestry via New York’s Brill Building. Carole King & Gerry Goffin’s big break came when they are asked to write a hit for girl...
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The Stranglers with Baz Warne
Baz Warne frontman of The Stranglers joins us this week to talk us through his new book & to tell us a little about his recent tour & his history with The Stranglers, the Toy Dolls & more. Baz was born in Sunderland but it was while briefly living in Vancouver he first discovered the guitar. Upon...
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104 - Faith No More with Roddy Bottum
Roddy Bottum is best known as the keyboard player in Faith No More & his new book The Royal We is out now on Akashic Books. Roddy moves to San Francisco from L.A. in 1981 & a l;ittle while later he joins what was originally known as Faith No Man. After a few lineup changes (including a brief…
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103 - The Undertones, Teenage Kicks & John Peel with Mickey Bradley
This week we celebrate 50 years of The Undertones with the one & only Mickey Bradley - our starting point is Derry in the late 1970s as we trace the formation of the band at the O’Neill house on Beechwood Avenue. Although the initial idea for the Undertones was a folk band playing Mandolins -...
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102 - Paul Weller- The Oral History with Steve Brookes, Eddie Piller & Dan Jennings
This week we are joined by an all-star panel comprising founder member of The Jam, Steve Brookes, Acid Jazz founder Eddie Piller & Dan Jennings, author of Paul Weller - The Oral History. We retrace the early years of The Jam from Steve & Paul playing in Paul’s bedroom on Stanley Road in Woking,...
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101 - The Blitz with Robert Elms
This week esteemed writer & broadcaster Robert Elms joins us to tell us about the legendary Blitz nightclub in London’s Convent Garden. Back then Central London looked very different to today - back then it was an empty & desolate wasteland of abandoned buildings & crumbling blocks. But from this...
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100 - Dexys Midnight Runners with Kevin Rowland
Join us to celebrate 100 episodes of Music Maps with the mighty Kevin Rowland to discuss hew recent memory Bless Me Father & the story of Dexys Midnight Runners. We start with Kevin’s early years in Wolverhampton, the families relocation to the London suburbs & how he ended up attending the 1966...
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99 - Ringo Starr & The Beatles with Tom Doyle
Our starting point is the breakup of The Beatles as writer Tom Doyle joins us to talk through the life of Ringo Starr, his biography is out now. His debut album Sentimental Journey arrives in March of 1970 & is quickly followed up with Beaucoup of Blues, a set of country standards. Ringo has also...
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98 - A Certain Ratio - Live At Hurrah 1980
Join us for a live conversation linked to the recent release of ACR:NYC - Live at Hurrah 1980, with A Certain Ratio, director Merrill Aldighieri - moderated by Dave Haslam. 45 years after A Certain Ratio’s first performance in the US (at Hurrah, NYC in September 1980) the band premiere a film of...
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97 - Pulp with Mark Webber (Sheffield)
Join us to hear all about Pulp with Mark Webber - Mark found his way into the band by way of running the fan club (Pulp People) before eventually joining full time in 1995. Mark's wonderful new book 'I'm With Pulp Are You' traces the band's history in forensic detail via the many bits of Pulp...
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96 - 1995 with Anna Doble
Join us to round out 2025 by travelling back 30 years to 1995 with writer Anna Doble. Among much more we discuss the battle of Britpop with Blur v Oasis, the disappearance of Richie Edwards & the return of the Manic Street Preachers, the emergence of Supergrass, the joy of making tapes, our...
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David Bowie - The Early Years with Paul Morley
This week we are joined by music writer Paul Morley to guide us through the early years of David Bowie - from his early life in Brixton & Bromley through to his formative experiences in Soho, his early bands & his original desire to be a saxophone player. We find out what led to his rebranding of...
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del Amitri with Justin Currie
This week we welcome Del Amitri frontman Justin Currie to talk us through the history of the band - starting in Glasgow in the early 1980s following in the footsteps of the success of the Sound Of Young Scotland on Postcard Records. The bands first releases appear to significant fanfare after...
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The Beach Boys & Brian Wilson with Peter Doggett
The story of the Beach Boys begins in Hawthorne, California in the late 1950s as the band come together led by Brian Wilson, originally as The Pendletones & Dennis Wilson suggests they focus on surfing themed material. They sign with Capitol Records in 1961 & soon have chart success with Surfin’...
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Confessions of a Groupie with Pamela Des Barres
Join us to discuss a music book classic ‘I’m With The Band - Confessions of a Groupie’ with Pamela Des Barres. Pamela’s first touchstone in music was the Beatles & she became on obsessive Beatlemaniac after the Fab Four arrive on US soil in early 1964. The following year she met Captain Beefheart…
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91 - Pink Floyd with Mark Blake
Join us & writer Mark Blake to hear about the formation & early years of Pink Floyd - from their beginnings in Cambridge, ultimately relocating to London where the band gets going. Syd Barrett's songwriting develops quickly & before long the band are playing iconic gigs & 'happenings' at UFO, the...
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90 - Ride with Steve Queralt (Oxford)
This week we are joined by Ride bassist Steve Queralt to discuss his new album Swallow - which is out now on Sonic Cathedral featuring contributions from Emma Anderson (Lush) & Verity Susman (Memorials). We also delve into the history of Ride starting in Oxford in the late 1980s where Steve met...
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89 - Live 8 with Paul Vallely
This week we travel back 20 years to 2005 with writer Paul Vallely to hear about Live 8, the G8 summit, Bob Geldof & Bono & more. So it starts in 1997 with the landslide general election win for Tony Blair & New Labour. The government will ultimately be sympathetic to the issues of debt & aid…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Each episode we use a place as a jumping off point for a conversation about music - anywhere from the obvious to the obscure.
Join us as we build our music map of the world.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
HOSTED BY
Rock n Roll Book Club
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Music Maps Podcast have?
Music Maps Podcast currently has 139 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Music Maps Podcast about?
Each episode we use a place as a jumping off point for a conversation about music - anywhere from the obvious to the obscure. Join us as we build our music map of the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How often does Music Maps Podcast release new episodes?
Music Maps Podcast publishes regularly with 139 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Music Maps Podcast?
You can listen to Music Maps Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Music Maps Podcast?
Music Maps Podcast is created and hosted by Rock n Roll Book Club.
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