Show 33 – John Lydon
Continuing in our series of having extra-special guests to co-host our weekly podcast/ radio show/ Facebook Live cast/ omni-directional brain dump, this week John Doran is joined by none-other than Mr John Lydon of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. On the release of his limited edition box set of collected lyrics, Mr Rotten’s Songbook, we joined him on the balcony of his Chelsea Harbour hotel to talk about taking a holiday in Berlin with the Pistols where he heard the first stirrings of techno and the more personal and traumatic nature of PiL. On top of this, the pair talked about the music he has made with Time Zone and Leftfield, while Lydon holds court about his relationship with his mum and dad, how he will miss the Queen when she’s gone, the idea of Calexit, why it’s time for Arsene Wenger to take an extended holiday in the sun and why he still hates his teachers.
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Show 32 – 16/03/2017
A combination of consumptive illness, the psychedelic mania brought on by a zero carb diet and a case of the giddy aunts triggered by the reappearance of the sun means that Luke Turner and John Doran’s chat is even less passable and coherent than normal. Their gibbering careens through a bizarre landscape populated by the mad black magic monks of Tilburg, why a turd in an icecream cone is not necessarily art and the bum dungeon/underlit dancefloor split… the finest of all the splits. They also ask the question that everyone’s been thinking but not dared voice: which music magazine has the hardest writers. Thankfully the show features great new music by the likes of Jane Weaver, Darren Hayman, Cairo Liberation Front ft. Al Lover, Fixmer/McCarthy, Desperate Journalist, Oxbow, Umoja and the Magnetic Fields. We were also blessed by the diva-like panting of Todd The Dog. (With apologies to everyone John insulted because he was carb-deprived and thanks to producer Mighty Seb White.)
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Show 31 – 09/03/2017
We hope you’ll forgive us for neglecting the airwaves for a while – science might say that you can’t pass germs through technology, but we’d not have wanted to put you at risk from whatever vulgar little virus it was that knocked John and Luke sideways for weeks. In The Quietus Hour episode 31 we’ll make up for our absence with some of our favourite music including Spoek Mathambo, Jane Weaver, HMLTD, Sleaford Mods and $hit & $hine, not to mention a world exclusive by Father John Misty plus a look back at this weekend’s celebrations of the 60th birthday of Mark E Smith. We also cast a gimlet eye over the pressing news issues of the day and ask have you seen anything weirder in 2017 than a pig having sex with a tree?
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Show 30 – David Keenan
Today’s guest on this special edition of The Quietus Hour podcast is writer David Keenan.
David has been, at various times, an independent record label boss, a contributor to The Wire and Melody Maker, the author of England’s Hidden Reverse, a musician, a record store owner and a published poet. Well, he can now add novelist to the list, as this week sees the publication of his debut for Faber, This Is Memorial Device.
It is a singular novel – and one of the best we’ve read at TQHQ in the last year. It’s frequently hilarious and touching, while also being an uncomfortably precise portrait of the often inward looking world of underground music fandom, that has its own distinct voice while also echoing David Foster Wallace, the Irvine Welsh of Trainspotting and Alan Warner.
The action of the novel is set in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, in the early 80s and is told from the point of view of several characters in and around the mythical post punk band, Memorial Device.
David talks about the genesis of his novel, the problems of forming a band with only mannequins as members and gives us the insider’s view of the night his former band 18 Wheeler supported Oasis at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in 1993. But not only that he picks all of the music which stretches from Felt to Whitehouse via an Italian punk band called Tampax.
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Show 29 – 02/02/2017
Jings, crivens and help ma Boab! It’s horrible in London and it’s horrible in the rest of the world, so John and Luke attempt to take your mind off things with some awesome music and (admittedly) inane chatter. This week’s hot topics are whether John’s plan to wax himself all over so he looks as slick as an eel is hot or horrible; the deleterious gravitational and atmospheric effects the Calder Valley has on one’s poached egg game; why beef rather than drugs is the required fuel for a floatation tank visit; nostalgia for the days when a man could wear a lustrous beard with no moral qualms; and the mathematical madness of the doomed Donald Crowhurst. The fine, fine music this week comes from the Honeydrippers, Rose Elinor Dougall, Les Amazones d’Afrique, Duke Garwood, ADULT., Anohni, PINS, Roger Robinson, Moonlandingz and Jakuzi. Thanks to Mighty Seb White, Todd The Dog and Maria, not forgetting Ben, Adele, Amy, Mal and everyone in Hebden.
IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT!
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Show 28 – 26/01/2017
Back once again like renegade mummers, John and Luke slump into your shell likes with passable chat and red hot new music. And this week’s pressing topics for our hapless pair are albums that make you pull a mucky face, the problems of going to watch a band with a rude name when your parents ask, uncanny valleys in the South Downs and the ongoing issue of the pair’s lusty and sonorous snoring. But most importantly it is now time for John to visit a clothes shop to buy a new outfit, something he only undertakes once every other year. Please advise him on what his clothes, shoes and hat for the 2017/2018 period should look like by leaving suggestions in the comments section below. Please be aware that his budget is more St Helens Tontine Market than Saville Row. Featuring the best in new (and old) music from Moonlandingz, Childish Gambino, Aquaserge, Pinch & Sherwood, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Ibibio Sound Machine, Can, Wire and GNOD.
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Show 25 – Shirley Collins
Last week Quietus co-editor Luke Turner had the great pleasure of travelling down to the ancient town of Lewes, East Sussex to speak to the great Shirley Collins for a Quietus Hour Special. We visited Shirley’s cottage to have a brew (she makes an excellent brew) and discuss and listen to nine songs of her choosing. In her front room, recently used to record 2016-highlight album Lodestar, we talked about that record and her return to song, why Morris dancing and the English folk tradition are derided and neglected at our peril, her friendship with Lodestar-collaborators Cyclobe and some of the musicians she’s picked, the racism she encountered in the American south while collecting music with Alan Lomax and her fears for the future.
We also talked about the wonderful landscape of the Sussex Downs and the uncanny presence that lurks within its folds, the great Sussex folk hero Bob Copper, and why songs are always good when sung by a handsome man.
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Show 24 – Matmos
Recently when Luke and John were in Krakow for Unsound, NTS radio kindly invited them to present their show The Quietus Hour live from the festival. When asked who, among all of the musicians, DJs and producers appearing that week, they would like to interview for the show, Matmos were top of their wish list.
Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt are already responsible for one of tQ’s favourite albums of the year in the shape of Ultimate Care II, which came out on Thrill Jockey and is based on the cycle of a washing machine using just samples from their own appliance. But the couple were in Krakow to perform three ‘episodes’ from Robert Ashley’s “opera for TV”, Perfect Lives, which was a clear highlight of the week, in a festival packed to the brim with intelligent and exciting programming.
Martin and Drew came in to talk about this fascinating show and kindly tolerated Luke and John’s pork and caffeine-addled gibbering and sub-par line of questioning… and they also brought in a fine selection of musical oddities for your sonic delectation.
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Show 23 – 03/11/2016
In this edition of our radio programme we’ve got a Middle Eastern stormer from Kalbata to open up before great tracks by Solange, Membranes remixed by the Manics, Shirley Collins, Betty Harris, Mutado Pintado, Zsa Zsa Sapien and Admirals Hard interspersed with John and Luke making themselves look preposterously out of touch and old as they chat about their younger years wearing ladies’ blouses, how awful the Home Counties were in the 1990s, the joy of Southend, the awful idiocy of #properindieforthelads and Liam Gallagher, Simon Cowell flashing his tiny todger but the far bigger and better ones we’ve seen in rock PLUS exclusives from Bon Iver and the aforementioned Liam G. AND! Will we play someone a track of their dreams for THE PERSUADER?!
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Show 22 – Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds is generally held to be one of the world’s best music writers – not least by us at the Quietus – so we’re very happy that he’s the special guest on our radio show/ podcast this week. Following on from such great books as Energy Flash and Rip It Up And Start Again he has written Shock And Awe: Glam Rock And It’s Legacy which is out on Faber & Faber.
Simon joined John Doran at tQHQ yesterday morning for a breakfast chat about the genre – a chat which turned out to be very enjoyable and informative despite the very early hour occasionally playing havoc with the presenter’s higher brain functionality. (Who the hell is Oliver Wilde when he’s at home?) The former Melody Maker heavyweight, who now lives and works in the US, selected all the music for the show – a mix of deep cuts by famous bands, all out bangers and junk shop glam rarities; and the pair discussed such artists as David Bowie, Gary Glitter, Suzi Quatro, Lady Gaga, Marc Bolan, Japan and Roxy Music, as well as class, gender and Brian Eno’s collapsed lung.
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Show 21 – 29/09/2016
“BACK. We knew we shouldn’ta left you. Without some strong chat to step to…”
John and Luke are back together at tQHQ and are blazing a trail across the sky like nuclear powered trifle of chat blasted from a cannon of despondency and insomnia. Today, the notionally dynamic duo play tracks by Cakes Da Killa, Peaches, Grumbling Fur, NOMEANSNO, Laughing Len Cohen, Skinny Girl Diet, Innercity Ensemble, Rats On Rafts, Acid Arab, Sleaford Mods and much much more. Emboldened by coffee the pair talk about the woes of being a door to door vacuum cleaner salesman, Richard Foster’s mum’s recipe for corned beef hash, why Michel Houellebecq is the Morrissey of literature and the joys of the Russian and Turkish saunas in York Hall, Bethnal Green.
Fancy choosing a tune for next week’s show? Phone up our Persuader hotline on 020 33 93 63 95
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Show 20 – Karl ‘Regis’ O’Connor
Karl O’Connor had to ring up before coming on The Quietus Hour to check that it was OK to wear shorts on the hottest September day for decades. We said that was fine, as Luke Turner was in his best EBM cut-offs and DM boots look to go with Regis’ musical choices: nine incredibly formative tracks from his teenage years in the West Midlands during the early 80s. To a soundtrack of Nitzer Ebb, Foetus, Cabaret Voltaire, Matt Johnson, DAF, Dave Ball with Genesis P*Orridge, Nikki Sudden, Einsturzende Neubauten and the wonderful Fad Gadget they indulge in passable chat about how techno never made sense until Karl heard Jeff Mills, doing things your own way, Thee Temple Of Psychick Youth, and listening to German records with spanking grot mags in a tiny bedroom lit by nicked traffic lights.
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BONUS: Green Man Festival (Sunday)
Luke and John broadcasted from a boggy field in the beautiful Brecon Beacons in Wales on Green Man Festival radio. This is Sunday’s show (2 of 2).
BONUS: Green Man Festival (Saturday)
Luke and John broadcasted from a boggy field in the beautiful Brecon Beacons in Wales on Green Man Festival radio. This is Saturday’s show.
Show 19 – 25/08/2016
After a triumphant weekend at Green Man Festival together, John and Luke are back for the first time since June. Talking about Green Man and the future – the question of the day is: On a hot day, does ice cream make you hotter or colder?
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Show 18 – 11/08/2016
It’s a double banger of a Quietus Hour week to celebrate our eight birthday and launch of the new podcast version of our weekly selection of the best new music accompanied by passable chat. We’ve had the special edition where Stewart Lee came in to speak to John Doran about new book Content Provider, some of the music he’s listening to currently, and The Fall (obvs).
On the second Quietus Hour of the week, Luke Turner is joined by William Doyle, FKA East India Youth, to play choice new and slightly less new belters from the likes of Katie Gately, a Rick Holland collaboration with Chrononautz, the Kamaru Celina Band, Death In Vegas rejiggled by Chris & Cosey, Jenny Hval, The Comet Is Coming, Piano Wire, Gaika, Blanck Mass and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. PLUS! Who is this stranger ringing from across the borders in The Persuader?!
You can subscribe to The Quietus Hour podcast via iTunes here.
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Show 17 – Stewart Lee
This week The Quietus is celebrating its eighth birthday as a fully independent music and culture website…. Cheers! Luke will have a pint of flat, room temperature Thadeus Marsh-Hermit’s Brain Cleaver porter in a pewter tankard poured by a gender fluid bar person naked bar for a roll of clingfilm and John would gladly take a well-mashed mug of rooibos and barrel-aged goat sweat tea poured straight from the hollowed out skull of Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There hasn’t been any time for celebrating for anyone who works at tQHQ however as we’re all preparing for the big changes which are afoot here… but more on that before the end of the year.
In the meantime we’re very happy to be launching a new podcast for The Quietus Hour, with the first special bonus episode featuring the one and only Stewart Lee. When the comedian and writer visited tQHQ recently we only gave him one instruction: ‘Pick nine songs – no theme, no rationale, doesn’t matter how obscure, how popular or how radio unfriendly, the choice is entirely yours.’ Between the clutch of tracks that he chose – which range from a 1950s field recording of a Roma child singing about boats to a live recording of The Fall playing heavier and more frenziedly than The Stooges – Lee talks at length to tQ editor John Doran.
The pair discuss his new prose anthology for Faber Content Provider, getting spiked with acid at a mid-80s Cornish rock festival, his relationship with Shirley Collins, what it feels like to have your writing critiqued by operatives for Communist regimes, his new Brexit-inspired stand up show, what the meaning of vitriol of under the line commentary really signifies, destroying Simple Minds LPs with power tools, releasing Edward Lear-inspired drone poetry on vinyl and how free jazz makes his children cry.
If you want to listen to the show with full versions of the songs intact, you can do via Mixcloud.
Thanks as always to producer Seb White.
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Show 16 – 28/07/2016
This show of chat and new music has been brought to you by sleep deprivation and coconut water.
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Show 15 – 21/07/2016
Brilliant brand new music and Threads-grade chat from Natalie Sharp and John Doran.
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Show 14 – 14/07/2016
Luke Turner is on a saturnine sabbatical so Lone Taxidermist Natalie Sharp steps into his comfortable brogues to co-present an hour of new music and, frankly, barely passable chat with John Doran. Exclusives from Gazelle Twin and Noura Mint Seymali, not to mention new music from Melt Yourself Down, Islam Chipsy and Pearson Sound.
PERSUADE US to play your current favourite song. Leave a voicemail on 020 33 93 63 95. (Remember to say who you are, what song you want and WHY. Calls charged at your normal access rate.)
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Show 13 – John Doran’s 45 45’s, 45th Birthday Special (Part 2)
Quietus Editor John Doran continues to celebrate his 45th birthday with the second of two shows’ worth of music on 45rpm 7″ singles. From 80s synth pop to Turkish psych via doom metal, post punk and rocksteady.
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Show 12 – John Doran’s 45 45’s, 45th Birthday Special (Part 1)
Quietus Editor John Doran celebrates his 45th birthday by recording two shows’ worth of music on 45rpm 7″ singles. From 80s synth pop to Turkish psych via doom metal, post punk and rocksteady.
This is Part 1. Part 2 will be released next Thursday.
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Show 11 – 23/06/2016
Watch out, people, John’s back on the coffee and we recorded this show after a double-barrelled-cafetiere staff meeting. AIEEEE! So the chat is, it’s fair to say, a lot more chaotic than our usual ribald, reasoned discourse as we get stuck into important issues like bat hunting, moving house, mouse piss, going on tour with thirsty rock groups and the EU referendum. Along the way we even save a popular arts cinema from vandalism by agreeing to someone’s PERSUADER request. All that and music by Grumbling Fur, Molly Nilsson, Bruxa Maria, Arab Strap and Metamono PLUS we’ve got two exclusive bangers by Flowdan and Factory Floor. OOOOF!
If you’d like to request a song for the next show, please leave a voicemail on 020 33 93 63 95 and try to persuade us to play your favourite song.
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Show 10 – 16/06/2016
Orange juice drinking contests at pre-school parties, Keith Chegwin in the sauna, why England has transcended useful satire, Orville The Chicken and other issues are discussed alongside brilliant new music from around the globe.
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Show 9 – 09/06/2016
John arrived at this week’s Quietus Hour recording with a bag of coffee so high-end it came in a packaging made of two eco-friendly materials. With that in mind, we decided to go for a two coffee show and opened with a pair of appropriately momentous bangers by Sex Swing and Robert Hood’s Floorplan. OOOF!
As well as more new music by Jenny Hval, Denis Sulta and The Invisible we’ve got a classic overlooked track by The Units, some Family Atlantica and some Adrian Sherwood, not to mention our usual look at the important music news of the day and The Persuader. Plus, Stone Roses fans – a real treat for you in an exclusive live clip from their recent surprise show in Halifax.
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Show 8 – 02/06/2016
This week The Quietus Hour begins with a John Doran who isn’t quite as he seems. What is that high-pitched voice, the sound of innocence? On this week’s programme we bring you some of our favourite new music from Darren Hayman, Factory Floor, Nails, Loose Meat, Cats Eyes, Warmduscher, Novelist, Miss Red and Cats Eyes, as well as the usual look at the pertinent news reports of the moment AND The Persuader.
Plus corned-beef-grade chat about the things that might lurk behind that mysterious third door that always seems to be in rooms in budget hotel chains. Remember that we’re now live streaming the recording of these programmes via The Quietus’ facebook page – go and like that to have us appearing in your lives every Wednesday around lunchtime, whether you want us there or not.
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Show 7 – 26/05/2016
We’re back once again with The Quietus Hour of the best new music and the chat in between. As you’ll be able to tell by LISTENING IN we’re now broadcasting the show live via Facebook via, which you can find on the official Quietus page. Here you get a warts and all behind the scenes nothing hidden view of tQHQ as we record the programme and decide what to waffle on about between the songs.
This week we’ve new things from Flowdan, ABC, Die Krupps, Zyna Hel, DVA, Wild Beasts, Jessy Lanza, Goat and 47SOUL so basically everything from noisy grime to industrial and R&B via Scandi prog, Palestinian Dabke and randy lads from Kendal. Don’t say we’re not good to you…
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Show 6 – 19/05/2016
We’re back with another episode of The Quietus Hour, John Doran and Luke Turner’s new programme showcasing the best in new music interspersed with what our social media wizard Karl Smith tweets is “passable chat”. We did a live stream of the show via The Quietus’ Facebook (we’ll be doing this every show now so do go and like our page to watch) but here’s the full HQ version on Mixcloud.
This week we discuss hair like the pair of vain eejits we are, and bring you music from the Super Furry Animals, Meatraffle, Happy Meals, Skepta, My Disco, Apothek, Marissa Nadler, Odio Sem Valor and Beyond The Wizards Sleeve. We also look at the pertinent music news of the day and THE PERSUADER… will some one have called 020 33 93 63 95 and convinced us to play them a tune? Remember, next week that could be you. Ring in! Ding ding!
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Show 5 – 12/05/2016
Now then. That’ll teach us to be cocky, won’t it? Just when we though that The Quietus Hour was gliding forth smoothly with a four week run of programmes everything went to hell in pieces on a handcart. Our producer Seb was violently attacked by a bus and both Luke and John got ill, which means we missed a week. Apologies. To make up for this cock-up we’ve hit on the idea of live streaming every episode of The Quietus Hour via our Facebook page. We did this yesterday, with 100s tuning in to watch the show in real time and low quality, extra chat between the songs.
For those of you listening to this HQ Mixcloud version, you get the full fat new music music. We’ve also got The Persuader – will someone who’s called 020 3393 6395 be able to persuade us to play a song? (ring for next week) a look at the important music news, and will we have found another cover of D’ya Think I’m Sexy?
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Show 4 – 27/04/2016
The Quietus’ Hour radio programme reaches four weeks as John and Luke bring you some of their favourite new music, along with something old in the form of the great, departed Prince. There’s music from the Fire! Orchestra, Anonhi, Patience, Vanishing Twin, Theodore Nemy and Young Greatness PLUS Grindmother, your finest in pensioner grindcore. Plus!
We explore the pertinent issues in music news, such as what happens to Donald Trump’s hair in the event of an anaconda face-sitting, ask which song can be played at both a 40 and a five-year-old’s birthday party, discuss the strange home and collection of of Charles Paget Wade, recall our JAZZ SHAME, and see if anyone has managed to persuade us to play them a song.
Next week, this could be you – just dial 020 3393 6395 and persuade John and Luke to play you a tune. A TUNE, we say.
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Show 3 – 21/04/2016
On this week’s The Quietus hour we’ve a new slot called Persuasion, whereby we want YOU to get in touch with us to cajole us into playing a song you’re particularly loving at the moment. Full details if you listen in, but if you’re a lazy swine here’s the basics – you can call 020 3393 6395 and leave a message persuading us to play a song of your choice on the next show.
John gives details of what is and isn’t expecting on the show, along with a new analysis of the latest in music news and our first film review slot.
There’s also the best new music from Daniel Patrick Quinn, Selvhenter, Gaika, Eva Bowen, Xiu Xiu doing Twin Peaks and Marissa Nadler, plus a new life-saver Velvet Underground cover by Brian Eno, ANOTHER cover of Do You Think I’m Sexy, Coil and Barıs Manco & Kurtalan Ekspre.
That’s not to mention the chat you love on Luke’s battles with woodpeckers in Epping Forest, England’s Hidden Reverse, brutal piratical death methods and Spencer’s new record shop in Margate.
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Show 2 – 13/04/2016
Could it be? COULD IT BE? We have made two consecutive episodes of The Quietus Radio Hour with nothing going wrong? Electromagnetic pulse detonation between typing this and the show going live notwithstanding, it seems we might have. On this week’s programme we play new music from Tom Cohen, Underworld and PJ Harvey’s stunning new album (this week’s Lead Review) alongside tracks from Jackie Lynn, Fumaça Preta, Yossarians and Susso.
We’ve also got a 1980 Turkish disco cover of ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’! AND speaking of having the horn, Luke discusses a weekend spent blowing Celtic instruments up in Scotland and why Romans hate free jazz, and there’s more sausage-plated chat on John’s failing memory, Laibach, and Wayne The Fireman’s four course pizza meal.
Oh yeah, and we reveal the modern-day ‘Stairway To Heaven’.
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Show 1 – 07/04/2016
As has become an annual tradition at tQHQ, we have decided to start a weekly radio show, called The Quietus Hour, dedicated to bringing you the best in new music. Thanks to the organisational skills of our former producer the Noble Paul Noble and the liquid skills of our current producer, Seb White, here is our first show of this year, with *crosses both fingers behind back, faces north and stands on one leg* each consecutive show to go out live on a Wednesday afternoon.
Quietus editors John Doran and Luke Turner surf a cresting wave of liquid chat for sixty minutes peppered with new music by ILL, Arabrot, Anna Meredith, Kiran Leonard, Jessy Lanza, Zayn and Fat White Family; not to mention copper bottomed exclusives by Billy Childish, Knifeworld and the first ever airing of the Gary Numan/John Foxx collaboration ‘Talk (Are You Listening To Me?)’.
Pour yourself a cup of chai and pull up a pouffe – it’s going to be luxurious.
