Yammer Of The Gods

This month Wes joins Thom to discuss The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall by Steve Hanley and Hazel’s been checking out Spiders: Tales From Behind The Web by Andy Roe, the story of Hull’s legendary alternative nightclub.

Matthew joins Hazel and Thom to chat about Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011 by Lizzy Goodman, the new oral history of NYC music in the early 2000s. We also celebrate the 50th anniversary of Radio 1 and Radio 2 by taking a look at ‘whispering’ Bob Harris autobiography The Whispering Years.

Mark Sturdy joins Hazel and Thom this month for a Pulp special. Up for discussion are Mark’s 2003 Pulp biography Truth and Beauty: the Story of Pulp and Freak Out the Squares: Life in a band called Pulp by Russell Senior.

Being the mother of a musician is one of this month’s topics, as Hazel and Thom discuss the recently published book From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars by Virginia Hanlon Grohl (that’s Dave Grohl’s mum to you). And it's back to the mid-nineties with A Year With Swollen Appendices: The Diary of Brian Eno also up for discussion.

Novels by musicians is the theme of this month’s Yammer of the Gods. Thom and Hazel discuss The Big Wheel by Bruce Thomas (former bass player of Elvis Costello & the Attractions), Steve Earle’s I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive, Mountain Goats songwriter John Darnielle’s latest novel Universal Harvester, and the 2015 Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award-winning List of the Lost by Morrissey.

This month it's a Yammer of the Gods festival special. Hazel and Thom discuss Tomorrow's People by Jeremy Sandford and Ron Reid, which looks at music festivals in the Age of Aquarius, and Festivals: A Survival Guide by Jo Hoare, a more millennial take on the festival experience.

This month Thom and Hazel are joined by Matthew Evans to discuss two books from the 33 1/3 series, both on epic '90s albums; Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson and Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion I and II by Eric Weisbard.

This month Wes joins Thom for a close reading of XS All Areas: The Status Quo Autobiography, and Hazel and Thom discuss Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, and Jumpin' Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock 'n' Roll Underworld by Keiron Pim.

This month Hazel and Thom chat about Ghosts of Country Music: Tales of Haunted Honky Tonks & Legendary Spectres by Matthew L. Swayne, The Sick Bag Song by Nick Cave, and Vinyl Freak: Love Letters to a Dying Medium by John Corbett.