Peter Hook, bold pioneer of the high, clambering, tune-filled bassline, is touring this autumn with Peter Hook & the Light. We talk to him in Prestatyn - about to deejay at mate’s birthday - about the first gigs he ever saw and played, heavy-handed club owners, tough crowds on dance floors, the world audience for his two old bands and few key moments of a long life onstage, which involves …

… why you should never read your reviews.

… how Ian Curtis was precisely the opposite of how people imagined him.

... why deejaying is “the loneliest job in the world” and three tunes to play when it all goes wrong - “and I don’t play Blue Monday for obvious reasons”.

… seeing the Nolans at Salford Rugby Club, aged 15.

… his bell bottoms, clogs and Heavy Metal phase.

… seeing Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols the same week – “the Pistols were so bad they were relatable. I thought I could do that!”

… Stiff Kittens’ first gig: “a third-rate punk band aping all the others”.

… how DJs need to be “belligerent” and why people find them hard to love – and the book he’s writing, ‘How Not To Be A DJ’.

… how Ian Curtis’s vision of an international Joy Division following has finally been realised – “and with three generations in the crowd”.

… radiogram-wrecking early adventures in bass guitar.

… and the reasons he wanted to leave New Order and the thrill of maintaining their legacy.

Peter Hook & The Light tickets here: https://peterhookandthelight.live/

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A 40th anniversary special with two of its presenters (Hepworth and Ellen) and old pal and TV critic Boyd Hilton who watched on the day aged 18 (“young, pretentious, idiotic”) and reviews the new BBC documentary. We look back at …

… the ways Live Aid changed television – “not about music but spectacle and scale”.

… would the idea of staging it have ever come about in the world of social media?

… being in the room for the Geldof F-Bomb.

… Ian Astbury smoking on live TV, the concrete mausoleum of the old Wembley Stadium, Concorde, Status Quo and other things that now seem so 1985.

… how Live Aid was the death of the New Romantics – “they don’t work in daylight” – and why Boy George turned it down.

… the footage set to the Cars’ video, the emotional pivot of the day, and the interview with the Ethiopian girl Birhan Woldu in the new documentary.

… how the thin sound of ’80s acts like the Style Council and Ultravox didn’t have the impact of old-school guitar/bass/drums.

… was Live Aid the first live televised rock concert event?

…and fragments of our fading memories – the U2 drama, Adam Ant, Sade, the lost link to Ian Botham, Billy Connolly in tears, acts unwisely playing new singles, Noel Edmonds’ helicopter shuttle, the BBC insisting it “mustn’t feel like a Telethon” – and all achieved without mobile phones.

Plus the return of Oasis, the BBC’s tangle with Neil Young at Glastonbury and the fall-out from the Bob Vylan broadcast.

… and a few Glastonbury moments - Rod Stewart’s cocktail-dress cabaret girls and the 1975’s Matt Healy stumbling on with a fag and a pint of Guinness.

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Ian Anderson is touring again in 2026 and talks to us here about tweed stage-wear, an audience of four, his teenage heroes and the first shows he ever saw and played. There’s all sorts within, including …

… playing his first gig to Catholic schoolgirls at the Holy Family Youth Club in Blackpool – “we emptied the room”.

… queues round the block at the Marquee in 1968 – “the moment I knew we’d arrived.”

… how Joe Cocker nicked his breakfast.

… seeing Cliff at the ABC in Blackpool – “he was our Elvis.”

… guitarists who played “nicely”– Hank Marvin, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Ritchie Blackmore. “Precise, accurate, they sang melodies.”

… the ceremonial christening of Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond.

… exotic clothes, stage names and parallels with Beefheart’s Magic Band.

… recording Feel Like Makin’ Love with the 90-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck.

… learning Guitar Tango by the Shadows - “not blues or rock and roll - progressive pop!”

… the fine art of dressing up: Jethro Tull in America – tweeds and deerstalkers v check shirts and denim.

… fund-raising shows for imperilled cathedrals.

… the allure of touring by train – “I’m Michael Portillo with a flute”.

… the three songs Jethro Tull always play.

Tickets for the Curiosity Tour 2026 here: jethrotull.com

Ian Anderson presents Christmas With Jethro Tull:

Thursday 18 December 2025 - Bath Abbey

Friday 19 December 2025 - Peterborough Cathedral

Saturday 20 December 2025 - Southwark Cathedral

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It’s Happy Hour in the Rock and Roll Lounge of News and we’re working our way through anything over 40 per cent proof. Which means ice, a slice and ….

… how the F-Bomb lost its impact.

… Mick Ralphs and Lalo Schifrin RIP – and chapeau to "There's A Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin' On’.

… the Blush-o-meter! Album sleeves that’d get you lynched in the 21st Century – and that means you Roxy, UFO, BowWowWow, Blind Faith, Tom Waits and Supertramp!

… why the TV comedy W1A was the last record of the world before Covid.

… Irresistible song titles – eg Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, Misty Morning Albert Bridge, Jeannie Needs A Shooter.

… where was Instagram when Roxy Music started?!

… the genius of Sabrina Carpenter’s publicity machine.

… “The oldest used to have the power. Now it’s the youngest.”

… Jeff Bezos v a canal full of inflatable crocodiles.

… I’m Getting Buried in the Morning, Paintball’s Coming Home … the eternal joy of Half Man Half Biscuit.

… “Meeting a man from the motor trade - like a line from a TS Eliot poem.”

And birthday guest Guy Constant on the value of lyrics - plus ‘grollies, ‘70 supergroups and Theresa May swearing.

Here’s the link set up by Jon Hotten to help the rock writer (and former podcast guest) Mick Wall after he’d suffered a heart attack: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jon-hotten-2

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Bobby Bluebell remembers the “cuddly duffle-coat friendship” of Glasgow bands in the early ‘80s and the Bluebells’ second act rebooted by the Volkswagen ad. The band are touring again and an even bigger part of the city’s thriving musical community, and he looks back here at the first gigs he ever saw and played, along with …

… singing “When I’m Dead And Gone’ in an old folks home.

… on the town with Siobhan Fahey, her sisters and boyfriends Kevin Rowland and Gary Crowley.

… buying Rocket Man and Wee Neil Reid’s Mother Of Mine, aged 13. And Elton John at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.

… his side project The Golden Tree (with Grahame Skinner of Hipsway) playing ‘Scottish’ songs by Marmalade, Strawberry Switchblade, Ewan MacColl, Coldplay, the Easybeats, Talking Heads and the Bay City Rollers.

… “Glasgow had six gangs. You had to choose your route home carefully if wearing Kickers.”

… Clare Grogan’s sister’s part in the Bluebells’ fortunes.

… Edwyn Collins and Alan Horne holding HIT and MISS signs in the front row of an Oxfam Warriors gig.

… “A cuddly duffle-coat friendship”: the Glasgow bands of the early ‘80s and memories of Altered Images and Peter Capaldi’s Dream Boys.

… why Dolly Parton was ditched and ‘Young At Heart’ chosen for the Volkswagen ad.

… playing the Old Grey Whistle Test with the Psychedelic Furs.

… “the best way to get an audience to stop talking is to entertain them.”

… “All hits are luck”.

… his Golden Rule when playing festivals.

The Bluebells tickets here: https://www.songkick.com/artists/315250-bluebells/calendar

The Golden Tree: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HO0TGE0vgPgwDoaBUMAJF?si=LUsXAtrURVWYjEkzDpI0mQ&nd=1&dlsi=65dddbf6bf6c45e4

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Dennis Bovell has worked his dub magic on everyone from Janet Kaye to the Slits, the Pop Group, Jarvis Cocker and Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood – and his own band Matumbi. He talks here about the thrill and freedom of making dub records, his new album Wise Music In Dub – which reworks ‘Pass The Dutchie’, Minnie Riperton and the Stylistics – and how the phone never stops ringing with requests for an echo-filled clattery sonic re-boot. And about spending lockdown in a “dub bubble”, how recording has changed since his days with a one-track Phillips tape-machine, and recruiting Swizz The Panist (“who plays steel pans like a classical piano”) and Duke Baysee, the harmonica-playing Routemaster bus conductor.

Pre-order Wise Music In Dub here: https://wiserecords.bandcamp.com/

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Rick Wakeman was onstage from the age of five and looks back with us here on a life of live performance – jazz and blues bands, the Strawbs, Yes – and ahead to this autumn’s tour performing King Arthur and the Six Wives of Henry the Eighth. “I wake up every morning, throw off the duvet and – if nothing else has fallen off – have a great day!” There’s more …

... how it feels when the rock press call you ‘Tomorrow’s Superstar!’ at the age of 24.

… the contract he once had to sign that said “Mister Wakeman will wear at least one of his capes during the performance”.

… seeing the Bonzos in 1965, “Viv Stanshall so paralytic he sang the entire set lying down”.

… being on a packed tube to Gants Hill and suddenly realising he was on the cover of the Melody Maker he was reading.

… Mrs Symes, his piano teacher, who launched his career (aged five).

… his teenage band Atlantic Blues “who ended Wipe Out eight times faster than it started”.

… the day his Strawbs’ Hammond organ solos were applauded by the Telegraph and Times.

… early piano sessions for Cat Stevens, Ralph McTell and Al Stewart.

… aspects of touring that prove “financially non-viable”.

… and how Wolf Hall rebooted the legend of Henry the Eighth.

Plus Atomic Rooster, Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Brown, green PVC trousers and a cape collection that includes “four originals”.

Buy tickets here: https://www.rwcc.com/live.php#ere2025

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Chasing the shade and applying Factor 50 in the wilting heat of this week’s rock and roll news turns the conversation to …

… Kneecap v the Prime Minister.

… will any openly anti-Trump musician find it hard to tour the States?

… the girl who’s listening to all 10,000 of her late father’s albums, one 60-second Instagram reel at a time.

… a bottle of Snoop Dogg rosé, anyone?

… why Carol Kaye turned down the Hall Of Fame.

… Hollywood and “the genius of the system” v the current vogue for applauding individual genius.

… Lottie Golden, Laurie Styvers, Jeannie Piersol and our love for High Moon Records, the Virago of the record business.

… why self-sabotage is a British institution.

… Nick Cave Unisex Clogs? Pet Shop Boys chrome pepper-grinder? Brave new frontiers in pop merchandise.

… Genya Ravan’s I Won’t Sleep On The Wet Spot No More.

… Beau Dommage, Dragon’s Breath, Two Left Feet … Canadian band or voguish craft ale?

Also in the mix … Dawn French, Phoebe Snow, Humphrey Ocean, Alan Bennett and Bridget St John.

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