E144: Pamela Des Barres on the GTOs + Peter Asher audio + Jeff Beck R.I.P.

In this episode we welcome novelist and screenwriter John Niven to "RBP Towers" to ask him about his career and his acclaimed novels. We start with the Wishing Stones, the post-C86 combo for whom John played guitar in the late '80s, and progress swiftly to the subject of his caustic 2008 classic Kill Your Friends — the UK's drug-riddled music industry, in which he toiled through the '90s. After John talks about his uncanny 2005 novella Music from Big Pink – inspired by the Band album of the same name — we switch to the week's featured artist (and vocal inspiration to The Band's Richard Manuel) Bobby "Blue" Bland. We then pivot to the sublime writing of Deep Blues author and New York Times pop critic Robert Palmer, who would have turned 80 this summer. We mark the 50th anniversary of the deeply unloved Metal Machine Music by listening to — and discussing clips from — a 1996 audio interview with the inimitably supercilious Lou Reed. Finally, we return to our guest's fiction and ask him about his brand-new novel The Fathers. Many thanks to special guest John Niven. His new novel The Fathers is published by Canongate and available now from all good bookshops. John Niven's Music from Big Pink: A Foreword, Bobby Blue Bland: Arrival!, Bobby Bland: This Time He's Here for Good, A Tribute To Bobby "Blue" Bland, Articles, interviews and reviews from Robert Palmer, Etta James: The Comeback of a Fifties R&B Star, The Sun King: Sam Phillips, Robert Palmer: Recording the Blues in North Mississippi, Steely Dan: Disaster and triumph in the Custerdome, Lou Reed audio, "Jellybean" Benitez and Arthur Baker: The Producers and George Shearing, 1919–2011.

In this episode we welcome the great soul scribe Tony Cummings to Hammersmith to discuss the subject of his classic 1975 book The Sound of Philadelphia. Tony travelled all the way down from his adopted Stoke-on-Trent to answer our questions about his earliest musical passions in his native Plymouth and the launch of his pioneering '60s fanzines Soul, Soul Music and Shout. He goes on to talk about his contributions to (and editorship of) Black Music magazine – and his deep immersion in the "Philly Soul" sound patented by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell. We hear about the extraordinary stable of musicians who performed on timeless hits by acts such as the O'Jays, the Three Degrees and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. Clips from audio interviews with Kenny Gamble and – from 1976 – the Stylistics' Herb Murrell prompt reflections on the lavish sound and sophistication of R&B classics by everyone from the Delfonics and Jerry Butler to Teddy Pendergrass and McFadden & Whitehead. Many thanks to special guest Tony Cummings. Pieces discussed: Inside the Philly Sound, MFSB, TCB, The Stylistics, Gamble-Huff, Thom Bell and the Philly Groove, Hit Producer Thom Bell: Philly Soul & the R&B Flugelhorn, "Philadelphia was the party with a tormented soul", Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff audio, The Stylistics' Herb Murrell audio, Why are we so hard on our music press? and Linkin Park.

For this episode we're joined in our Hammersmith lair by the highly respected Chris Bohn, known better these days by his alias Biba Kopf (cue a nod to Berlin Alexanderplatz author Alfred Döblin...) The veteran NME contributor and sometime editor-in-chief of The Wire talks about his long career as a Europhile connoisseur of extreme and out-there music. We start by asking our guest about his mother's experience as a teenage refugee fleeing her native Silesia after the advance of the Red Army in 1945 – and her subsequent settling in the English Midlands. We learn about Chris' journalistic training on the Sutton Coldfield News and his subsequent travels around Europe, where he reconnected with relatives in West (and East) Germany. Chris reminisces about his first London job as a press officer for Polydor Records, for whom he chaperoned Siouxsie & the Banshees to tapings of Top of the Pops. He then talks us through his writing career from Melody Maker and NME to decades-long association with The Wire. Among the articles mentioned are his 1979 live review of Joy Division, his groundbreaking 1981 on-the-road piece "Trans-Europe Express", and his interviews with Nina Hagen (1979) and Einstürzende Neubauten (1983). Discussion of The Wire leads us into clips from an audio interview with Wire icon Ornette Coleman … by Wire mainstay David Toop. We conclude the episode by paying heartfelt tribute to two Californian geniuses who left us this week: Family Stone funk pioneer Sly Stone and the Beach Boys' "pocket symphonist" Brian Wilson. We shall not see – or hear – their like again. Many thanks to special guest Chris Bohn a.k.a. Biba Kopf. Visit the Wire's website at thewire.co.uk to subscribe digitally and in print.  Pieces discussed: Nina Hagen: West Is Best, Einstürzende Neubauten: Let's Hear It For The Untergang Show, Ornette Coleman (1995), Sly & The Family Stone: Sly Buries Underground And Has Fun!, Not Only Sly, But Sometimes Just Plain Damn Evasive, Sly Stone's Higher Power, Some Producers' Hints From Beach Boy Brian, Brian Wilson, Brian Wilson: Beach Boy, Pop Visionary, Wounded Soul, The Devil and Jerry Lee Lewis and  Group Home: Supa Group.

For this episode we're joined – all the way from Brooklyn – by acclaimed author and sometime drummer Jonathan Gould. The native New Yorker recalls his early musical epiphanies, his introduction to the drums and his studying under famed jazz drummer Alan Dawson in mid-'70s Boston. He also reminisces about his years in Woodstock, N.Y., and his association with The Band's Richard Manuel. Our very personable guest explains his conversion to writing about music and the long gestation of his epic Beatles book Can't Buy Me Love (2007). From there we jump to 2017's equally praised Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life, an excuse not just to talk about The Big O but to hear clips from audio interviews with Stax Records/Booker T. & the M.G.'s legends Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper. Finally, we get to the subjects of his latest enormo-tome Burning Down the House: Talking Heads. Jonathan talks about his experience of writing the book, the band's unique brilliance and internal frictions, and their complicated relationship with producer/"collaborator" Brian Eno. After we've paid our respects to beloved EMAP Metro writer-publisher Barry McIlheney and to fomrer McCoy/Johnny and Edgar Winter sideman/All-American Boy Rick(y) Derringer, Jasper talks us out with his thoughts on pop's most misunderstood songs.

In this episode we welcome the great Paul Gambaccini into RBP's world and ask him about his 50+ years as one of Britain's best-loved broadcasters. "The Great Gambo" tells us about his early radio days at Dartmouth College's WDCR station and explains how he slipped his foot in the door at Rolling Stone in 1970. He then recounts his first meeting with "underground deejay" John Peel (plus his BBC producer John Walters) while still an Oxford postgraduate fleeing Richard Nixon's America, We ask our guest about his famous Stone interviews with Elton John (and Bernie Taupin) and Paul McCartney, then hear about his Radio 1 debut in 1974. Paul discusses his sexuality, his winding up on the Beeb's "Christmas tree" list, and his nightmare year of being witch-hunted without evidence by the sleuths of Operation Yewtree. After offering his thoughts on the constitutional crisis in his homeland, our guest expresses his approval of Beyoncé ahead of her "Cowboy Carter" tour's London leg in June. We listen to clips from a 2003 audio interview with "Queen Bey" by The Observer Music Monthly's Simon Garfield. After Mark quotes from newly-added interviews with Elvis Presley (1969) and Roxy Music's (Brian) Eno (1973), Jasper talks us out with his thoughts on pieces about the Roots (2005) and Beyoncé's sister Solange (2007). Many thanks to special guest Paul Gambaccini. Hear his radio shows on the air, including the Paul Gambaccini Collection on BBC Radio 2. Pieces discussed: Paul Gambaccini's writer's page on RBP, The Rolling Stone Interview: Elton John, Paul McCartney, Beyoncé audio, Elvis the Husband talks about Elvis the Pelvis, The Strange World of Roxy Music, The Roots: Growing Underground, Romanthony: A Prince Among Men and Why Solange Matters.