This one was a wee bit special - with our guest none other than the award-winning writer ( and musician!) Ian Rankin. Ian's CV as a writer is very impressive. However, his gig CV is a bit more mixed! From a first gig where he ended up watching a different band than planned, to a 'date gig' where his ( now) wife fell asleep during the gig, to getting an apology from Peter Hook for a cancelled Joy Division gig, Ian's chat covered all the bases. Oh, and he also had some performer gig stories of his own to share too. And to finish, Ian gave us our first mid 70's 'prog' reference for his ' one live album to own' recommendation. We can't thank Ian enough for taking the time to join us. It will be a busy year for him, with a new book due out late summer ( details at his website link below)Enjoy & stay safe

https://www.ianrankin.net/

The Crossing by Big County has had a lot of love throughout our Greatest Scottish Albums debate - and is a worthy finalist.

Therefore we were keen to get a bit more insight into the album from someone closely involved with the recording. And who better to talk about it than the producer of the record Steve Lillywhite ( who joined us all the way from Bali!)

Steve shared lots of feedback and general love for both the album and the band, which included a marriage proposal, Stuart being better organised than Bono, and why Steve thought the band were a bit proggy ( in a nice way). Oh, and we also discovered what’s Stuart’s party trick in the studio was ( not for the faint hearted)

We can’t thank Steve enough for taking the time to talk to us, and it was lovely to see how warm his recollections were.

Enjoy and stay safe

We reached the semi final stage last weekend, and our polling on X proved to be both busy and eventful ( we ended up running 3 polls for only 2 ties - no, really).

Therefore, this podcast was mainly about picking the bones out of that lot. We also chatted about the upcoming final, nominating artists for the 'Over Our Garden Wall Music Prize' , and re-visiting the age old question of when is a Scottish band not a Scottish band?

Answer: well it all depends....Enjoy, and stay safe

Another winter weekend, another Greatest Scottish Albums poll on X, this time to determine our four semi finalists.And, as per the last few polls we have carried out, we ( and everyone else bar one person on X!) didn’t predict the four albums that would go through. Plenty therefore for our podcast panel to chew over, which they did, and then some. We also made the draw for the semi finals, discussed persuading the winning artist onto the last podcast, and gave the voters some advice on how best to maximise their own fav album’s chances when the polls kick off ( it involved fully utilising all family & friends to max effect, especially when they leave their phones unattended) All fair in love and war, sometimes…Enjoy and stay safe

Another weekend's voting on X ( last 16) - and yet nother cliffhanger vote, with the winner in the 98th minute! We talk about this and the other seven results on the chat. More importantly, we made the draw for the quarter final ties, and we reckon 3 out of 4 are coin tosses. We also had our first offer of bribery for a favourable draw ( in return for hot x buns). Tempting, very tempting....Enjoy & stay safe

Our ' World Cup' style knockout format proved very successful, so why change a winning formula!

Therefore, on this episode, as well as discussing the results of the last 32 album match ups (with one of the votes going to the last minute after 36 hours!) - also had a live draw, where our panel ( sans Rod again) did the honours.

8 outstanding ties, with at least 3 of them Ali v Frazier match ups....

Onwards and upwards

After 3 years of podcasting, we had another first on this episode - a live draw!. We didn't have a drunk Rod Stewart to do the draw ( maybe next time), however Caroline & Colin coped admirably. 32 artists. 32 albums. 16 match ups ( and one which is an absolute) belter. All in 15 minutes. Only a matter of time before Premier Sports start a Premier Music channel and give us top billing. Enjoy, and stay safe

This podcast was recorded after the Group stages of the polling were completed. In theory, we had the 32 albums albums we need to move onto the knockout stage. However....

Our podcast pals stated discussing whether there was merit in restricting any artist to a max of one album. Bearing in mind that there were nine artists in the 32 with two albums each ( and all belters too) - agreeing this would be a very controversial decision. On the upside, it would mean nine other fantastic albums get their chance in the final 32.

What decision did they take? Click the button to find out...

Enjoy & stay safe

PS. We also, for the first time, have a super cool intro/outro jingle, courtesy of our friend Stephen Peebles.( check out his band The Morning Early if you get the chance) Top man.