Public Address Podcast

STEVE WINWOOD

Public Address puts the Spotlight on STEVE WINWOOD

Singer-songwriter, legendary vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, mandolin player, producer, Grammy-award winner and music industry icon Steve Winwood has sold over 50 million records in the course of his five-decade career. Throughout this time Steve Winwood has remained a primary figure in rock music - a respected innovator who has helped to create some of the genre’s most celebrated achievements. His skills as a composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist have developed an impressive catalogue of popular music.

Here as part of this edition of Public Address we celebrate his extraordinary career in music by listening back to some of his earlier work as well as more recent output throughout this enthralling career.

Written Produced and Presented by THOM MCKEOWN © 2022

SLOW SESSION

Public Address SLOW SESSION

Two blissful hours of laid-back, chill-out and relaxing slower-groove music

Produced and Presented by THOM MCKEOWN © 2022

TENUOUS LINK

Public Address TENUOUS LINK

Starting with a random track, then the circuitous connections begin, as we link each subsequent piece of music with a distinct, occasionally obscure or even extremely tenuous association - until we connect back to the track we began with!

Written Produced and Presented by THOM MCKEOWN © 2020

PUNK!

PUNK!

Relating the story of punk in anything less than about 4,000 songs is pretty much impossible. From The Addicts and Angelic Upstarts to Zounds and The Zeros, most lists only cover around 100 punk bands, so they’re woefully incomplete, omitting outfits such as Defcon Zero, Vortex, Sick On The Bus, The Satellites and many more. Further selecting the definitive song by each band is an equally thankless task. It's easy enough with bands like Menace or Cult Maniax but what about The Lurkers, Subhumans, or 999 who each had several classics to their name? What about Anti-Nowhere League, Wire, and The Mob? All of them punk, but all very, very different. Added to that - what began simply as punk rock rapidly diverged into multiple subcategories – from hardcore and crust to anarcho-punk, pop punk, street punk, horror punk and numerous other variations. And that's before punk and metal hopped into bed together and started producing their own obnoxious offspring! And then there's the fact that a lot of people can't seem to agree about what punk actually is, but will happily bicker about what it isn't. It's fast and aggressive – except when it isn't. The songs are short and political – except when they're not. You've got to have spiky hair and a studded leather jacket – except when you don't. There are rules, but there are no rules…

So basically we're messed up before we even get started – but despite all of that, to celebrate this singular DIY spirit, on this special programme I’ll present you with some outstanding punk tracks which stick it to the man in style. We’ll begin with a stack of the more familiar before moving on to the much less so.

Written Produced and Presented by THOM MCKEOWN © 2022

VALENTINES 2022

VALENTINES 2022 Love Songs

A Valentines Day Public Address special of listeners' dedications and requests for their loved ones, featuring a diverse range of music including Ann Peebles, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Tom Waits, Fleetwood Mac and Guy Garvey amongst many others.

Produced and presented by Thom McKeown © 2022

STRAIGHT OUT OF GLASGOW

Public Address: STRAIGHT OUT OF GLASGOW

Music from bands, beat groups, duos and soloists from the capital of the world - Glasgow, Scotland. 
Including Belle & Sebastian, Frankie Miller, Orange Juice, Frank Isherwood, John Martyn, Telstar Ponies, Stoics, House of Lords, Mankind Vindicated, Primal Scream + more.

Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown

LISTEN UP

LISTEN UP

A selection of stimulating contemporary music tracks

Produced and Presented by THOM MCKEOWN © 2022

AMERICANA

AMERICANA

A Public Address Americana Music Special – a chance to listen to and enjoy some contemporary music that emanates from and incorporates elements of various American roots music styles. Americana is an amalgam of American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos of the USA, specifically those sounds that emerged from the Southern States such as folk, gospel, blues, country, jazz, rhythm & blues, rock'n'roll, bluegrass, delta and other externall influences.

Written Produced and Presented by THOM MCKEOWN © 2022

 

MUSIC FOR PLEASURE

MUSIC FOR PLEASURE - a Public Address Programme with Thom McKeown

Two hours of the best in new and contemporary music

Presented & Produced by Thom McKeown

© Public Address 2022

 

CRUSH

CRUSH (An audio drama)

 

MAGGIE JOYCE as Sandra McNamara, a teenage student

NOEL FRANSON as Robert Duffy, a much older history teacher

As the play opens, it is midday in an Irish secondary school. Robert Duffy is sitting at his desk in the classroom. His mind is obviously on something else. He has no class scheduled during this period and the classroom is empty. We hear a knock at the door and a student, Sandra McNamara comes in.

Written Edited and Directed by THOM MCKEOWN

© Screenstage Studios for Public Address 2021

 

GUILTY PLEASURES

GUILTY PLEASURES

The term "guilty pleasure" is often used to describe music that is supposedly so bad that people feel "embarrassed" by admitting publicly that they secretly enjoy it. But on this edition of Public Address, you’ll get the chance to grin or grimace at a selection of the songs chosen by many listeners – but very few of course have given me permission to reveal their identity – so they’ll all pretty much remain Secret and Guilty Pleasures!

Written Produced and Presented by THOM MCKEOWN

© Public Address 2022

BOXING DAY

BOXING DAY: NEW & CONTEMPORARY

A two-hour session of new and contemporary music from all around the world

Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2021

NOW HEAR THIS

NOW HEAR THIS

An eclectic collection of new, contemporary and some vintage tracks from 1952 to 2022 including The Cure, Bobby Gillespie & Jehnny Beth, Bill Drummond, The Electric Chairs, Alma Cogan, Avalon Emerson, Joni Mitchell, The Guitaraculas, Bicep, Bjork and Bet Lynch's Legs.

Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown 

DAMON ALBARN

DAMON ALBARN – His Life In Music

Damon Albarn has immeasurably moved on from being the knowing, ambitious rock frontman he was in the early days of Blur. He has revealed himself to be one of British music's most ­invigorating renaissance men. As well as his further ­involvement in Gorillaz, Rocket Juice and the Moon, in soundtracking Monkey Journey to the West, Dr Dee, the Good, the Bad and the Queen, his solo work and producing/remixing - the Honest Jon's label he co-founded has brought African, Caribbean and obscure black music to younger and indeed older audiences, and his experiments in opera are helping dismantle the barriers between high and low art.

This enthralling two-hour music documentary on his musical career from the first Blur album 'Leisure' to his current solo work on 'The Nearer The Mountain More Pure the Stream Flows' plus tracks from all his recorded work in between, together with intriguing spoken insights from Albarn himself, will astonish the listener at the hugely varied output from this enormously talented musician.

Edited Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2021

BEYOND THE DREAMS OF AVARICE

BEYOND THE DREAMS OF AVARICE (Spoken Word)

A spoken word piece on the combined dangers of greed, curiosity and fear.

Written Edited and Read by THOM MCKEOWN

© Screenstage Studios/Public Address 

DAVID BOWIE

DAVID BOWIE: His Life and Music

David Bowie, original name David Robert Jones (1947-2016) was a British singer, songwriter and actor who was best known for his shifting personae and musical genre hopping. In this two-hour Public Address Special - hear the story of his astonishing life and exemplary career - and of course his outstanding music.

Written and Presented by THOM MCKEOWN

©™ Public Address/Thom McKeown 2021

ROBIN HOOD

ROBIN HOOD: Audio Pantomime

Devilishly dastardly deeds! Dashing derring-do! Clashes! Confrontations! Romance! Thrills! Chills! Spills! Laughter!

An audio version of the traditional pantomime tale of Sherwood Forest's legendary sword wielder/archer-extraordinaire - hero to the poor and nemesis of the rich! The nasty Sheriff of Nottingham, with sycophantic support and encouragement from his assistant Denchman the Henchman, battles with The Prince of Thieves over the hand of the beautiful Maid Marian!

An entertaining tale which features an array of familiar, and some not so familiar characters, plus groan-inducing jokes and some music too!

Written and Edited by THOM MCKEOWN

Co-directed by NOEL FRANSON and THOM MCKEOWN

Cast

NOEL FRANSON as Sheriff of Nottingham and Friar Tuck

OLAF OLAFSEN as Will Scarlett

MARGARET DAVIDSON as Little Meghan and Juliet

ANDREW MARTIN as Robin Hood

THOM MCKEOWN as Denchman the Henchman, King Richard and Leafworm the Talking Tree

JOE SZREDER as Mystic Reg

PENNI WEBB as Dame Dora

MAGGIE JOYCE as Maid Marian

AENEAS FEGGANS as Alan a Dale

 

SCOTT WALKER

SCOTT WALKER: ICONOCLAST/TROUBADOUR

We all experienced to some degree, lockdown in covid-pandemic purgatory, with only a cloak of loneliness to provide some degree of comfort, if only for a little while. This will make us familiar with Scott Walker’s unique brand of lugubrious gloom. His is an intellectual form of melancholy.

Scott Walker went from experiencing fame, of proportions not entirely dissimilar to that of Beatlemania in the 1960s, with the Walker Brothers — to becoming the English version of the Belgian troubadour, Jacques Brel. His first solo effort Scott, released 6 months after The Walker Brothers’ last 1960s album Images, featured the translated Brel songs, ‘Amsterdam’, ‘Mathilde’, and ‘My Death’. Let’s not forget though, that the early recordings of The Walker Brothers were magnificent in their own right. Featuring a "wall of sound" similar to the one that Phil Spector created.

Brian Eno said of Walker: “He was a real and serious artist, a conscious artist, who really thought about the medium he worked in.” Eno was serious with his compliments of Walker too: “He took music to a place where it hasn’t been since.” Scott Walker’s music and legacy will live on for generations to come, of that there is no doubt. And while his more avant-garde records may not be fully embraced in the imminent near period, there’s certainly a future where they will be revered as heroic moments of soothsaying success. As artificial intelligence grows and civilisation continues to eat itself, it’s easy to see how Walker’s compositions could soundtrack the dystopian future that looms in the news headlines of our nightmares. The fact is, whether Scott Walker was a pop maestro or an experimental troubadour, he was always laying down a vision of the future.

Written and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2021

THE CHANDRASEKHAR LIMIT

THE CHANDRASEKHAR LIMIT

JOHNNY ARCULARIS AND THE GOOD SHIP VENUS

1. THE JAPES OF WRATH (2.56)

2. THERE IS NO PLANET B (5.17)

3. IMMINENT APPROACH (2.52)

4. TWELVE INCH VENTS (2.45)

5. KAKOSTA BALOVARR (3.47)

6. DATANATE (5.43)

7. SWIMMING IN A JAM JAR (3.30)

8. PAPASTOUR DANCING (3.51)

9. BASELINER (Mankind Vindicated & Johnny Arcularis and the Good Ship Venus) (3.51)

© Written Performed and Produced by Thom McKeown 2021

AVANT GARDE

AVANT GARDE

Imagine the scene. It's 1952 and you are very excited to be attending a concert of new music. Firstly, there are some pieces by Stravinsky and Milhaud, which are enjoyable. Next on the programme is something called 4minutes 33seconds by John Cage. Curious, you pay close attention. To your utter surprise, no one plays a note. The entire piece is complete and utter silence. The audience is outraged. Some even boo. How could this be music? Welcome to the world of the avant garde!

Avant-garde, a French phrase meaning "vanguard" or (literally, "advance guard"), describes movements or individuals at the forefront of innovation and experimentation in their fields. Implicit in the term are the rejection of the status quo, a critique of popular convention and taste, and a striving for originality that can be intentionally provocative or alienating. There is considerable academic debate about the origins of its application to the arts, but in popular understanding, it usually refers to anything that general audiences might consider outrageous, such as Erik Satie's 1893 Vexations, which instructs the performer to play a theme 840 times, or Pauline Oliveros' 1964 Duo, scored for accordion and bandoneon players riding a seesaw, with optional mynah bird obbligato.

But on this programme I’ve selected 10 pieces of music which although not quite as extreme as John Cage, could be described as challenging, unorthodox, creative and stimulating. You won’t hear any of this music bothering too many youtubers or spotifyers and it’s unlikely to be found on the playlists of conventional pop enthusiasts – but it’s certainly worth hearing and it may even lead you into further exploration of more inventive music.

Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2021