The Strange Brew - artist stories behind the greatest music ever recorded

Steve Tilston joins Jason Barnard for a tour through six decades of songwriting, picking thirteen tracks from across his career and talking through the stories behind them. Along the way he covers his early days on the London folk circuit, the frustrating experience of his second album on Transatlantic Records, and the decision to put out a record himself in 1976 when very few people were doing it. He also talks about the famous John Lennon letter, written by Lennon in 1971 after Tilston mused in a ZigZag magazine interview that fame and fortune might damage his songwriting, never delivered, and not seen by Tilston until decades later. The story eventually inspired the 2015 Hollywood film Danny Collins, with Al Pacino in the lead role. Plus collaborations with John Renbourn and Maggie Boyle, and his Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Original Song.

Further information

stevetilston.com / Bandcamp

Steve Tilston podcast tracks

Support The Strange Brew

Podcasts also available: Ashley Hutchings, Terry Reid, Tom Paxton, Martin Carthy, Peggy Seeger, Nick Drake: The Life

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

The post Steve Tilston appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Philip Norman returns to talk about Mr. Moonlight, his first book devoted entirely to Brian Epstein, and what emerges from decades of Beatles research focused through a single lens is a portrait more complex than the one most people think they know. Norman reveals the extraordinary story of how the Kray twins plotted to exploit Brian’s gambling addiction and seize control of The Beatles, the antisemitism and homophobia Brian faced even at the peak of his success, and new evidence around the circumstances of his death that raises serious questions about the official verdict.

Philip also covers areas that too often gets overlooked: Brian’s family history, his time in the army and at drama school, his instinct for a hit record, and the way he shielded The Beatles from a fame that might otherwise have consumed them. The question Norman keeps returning to is the one that still stings: why, given everything he did, does Brian Epstein undervalued?

Further information

Philip Norman — Mr. Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles

Support The Strange Brew

Podcasts also available: Philip Norman on the Beatles, Philip Norman on John Lennon, Ray Ennis – The Swinging Blue Jeans, Mike McCartney’s Early Liverpool

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

The post Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Martin Barre is already playing when the evening begins. Recorded live at The CAT Club in December 2025, this is Barre in conversation with Jason Barnard. Hendrix turns up, and Jimmy Page, and a French chateau that put Jethro Tull in the bathroom for a week. So does a Grammy, won at home because the record label wouldn’t pay for flights. He also talks about his autobiography – wrote it four times. The first version was, by his own description, full of scores to settle. But he took all of it out.

Further information

martinbarre.com

Support The Strange Brew

Podcasts also available: Martin Barre – 50 Years of Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson, Greg Spawton – Big Big Train, Dave Pegg – Fairport Convention

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

The post Martin Barre – live in conversation appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Otis Williams discusses over six decades of The Temptations and their upcoming UK tour. Williams talks about moving from Texas to Detroit as a kid, catching Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers at the Fox Theater, and getting spotted by Berry Gordy at a record hop. He remembers the strings going onto ‘My Girl’ in 1964 and knowing straight away it would be a hit, a hunch confirmed by telegrams from The Beatles, The Supremes and Berry Gordy. He looks back on their first UK dates in the mid-60s on the Tamla Motown package tour and how hits were chosen at Motown. There’s also a look at the shift to psychedelic soul with ‘Cloud Nine’ in 1968, plus his thoughts on keeping the group together through nearly thirty line-up changes.

Further information

The Temptations

Support The Strange Brew

Podcasts also available: Dion, Bettye LaVette, Steve Cropper, PP Arnold

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

The post Otis Williams – The Temptations appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Anthony Phillips, founding Genesis guitarist, joins Jason Barnard to talk about the formation of Genesis, his departure, and his latest album, Gemini – Pieces For Piano. He traces the Genesis story back to Charterhouse and the summer of 1967, when he first heard a 12-string guitar. Peter Gabriel’s theatrical stage persona came about through necessity, filling dead time while Phillips and Mike Rutherford fought with temperamental instruments. The jump from From Genesis To Revelation to Trespass has always looked abrupt; Phillips explains it simply: he and Rutherford spent the eight months between recording and release writing constantly, with ‘Dusk,’ ‘White Mountain’ and ‘Stagnation’ sketched out before the debut had even flopped.

Then there’s the stage fright. Not ordinary nerves but sudden mid-performance blanks that came on after glandular fever. He was eighteen and never told anyone. There’s also a brief exchange with Nick Drake, playing the same indifferent university crowds. When Drake learned Phillips had written ‘Let Us Now Make Love,’ he said one word back: “Dangerous.” The conversation also covers his classical studies, the troubled release of The Geese and the Ghost, and writing the title track of Gemini.

Further information

Anthony Phillips website, Gemini – Pieces For Piano

Podcasts also available: Anthony Phillips (2019), Tony Banks (2024), Tony Banks (2019), Steve Hackett (2022), Steve Hackett (2020), Bill Bruford, Chester Thompson

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post Anthony Phillips, Genesis, A Life In Music appeared first on The Strange Brew .