Episode 73: Symposium

Explicit content warning

11/02/22 • 39 min

Firstly, have you joined the Substack yet?
If you’re of an age, and you came to that age sometime during the mid-to-late 90s, and you’re a fan of punky indie rock, and you read the music press – NME, Melody Maker and Kerrang! – each and every Wednesday, maybe you listened to the Evening Session on BBC Radio One, perhaps you were a barfly at your local toilet venue, maybe nothing mattered more to you than Reading Festival and the pre-bourgeois Glastonbury... well, chances are your entry point to music was London five-piece Symposium, who burned brightly for a few years and then imploded, skewering into groups like Hell is for Heroes and Paper Cuts.
Well, quite amazingly, Symposium are back, with a Greatest Hits – Do You Remember How It Was? 1996 – 1999, available on streaming platforms now – and a one-off live show at London’s Islington Assembly Hall on November 17th, 2022. And I do remember how it was. And it was largely great. But messy. And chaotic. In way both brilliant and bruital. And so what better time than now to connect with singer Ross Cummins and bassist Wojtek Godzisz to ask what went wrong all those years ago... and what has appeared to go right now.
And where I can find an Animals That Swim t-shirt in an extra large.

Twitter - @jamesjammcmahon
Substack - https://spoook.substack.com
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Twitter - @jamesjammcmahon
Substack - https://spoook.substack.com
YouTube - www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Vf_1E1Sza2GUyFNn2zFMA
Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/jamesmcmahonmusicpod/

Previous Episode

Episode 72: Chris Barker, Anti-Flag

I heard the new Anti-Flag record the other day. The 13th full length from the legendary Pittsburgh punks isn’t actually due until January 6th, 2023, and yet because podcasters get special privileges – loads of cash, global fame, diminished eyesight from editing in Audacity for a several hours of the day – I got a copy early, and I’m happy to report that it’s a rager.

Entitled Lies They Tell Our Children, the record sees the group collaborating with a veritable rollcall of acts that matter to the band. You’ve likely already heard the lead off single, ‘Modern Meta Medicine’, featuring Killswitch Engage vocalist Jesse Leach, but there’s also Silverstein, Rise Against, Bad Religion... a veritable roll call of modern punk rock luminaries. So what better time than now to ring up bassist Chris Barker to learn more... and to challenge my own personal ongoing liberal heterodoxy?
There is no better time than now.
And also to sign up to the Substack.

Twitter - @jamesjammcmahon
Substack - https://spoook.substack.com
YouTube - www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Vf_1E1Sza2GUyFNn2zFMA
Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/jamesmcmahonmusicpod/

Next Episode

Episode 74: Tom Doyle on the genius of Kate Bush

Tom Doyle has been one of my favourite British rock critics for as long as I remember. A regular contributor to Mojo and the forever missed Q, his book, The Glamour Chase, about the late Associates singer Billy Mackenzie, remains one of the finest bits of writing about music that I’ve ever read.
And now he's got a new book out, Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush, recently released via the great Nine Eight books. And because I like Kate Bush and I like Tom, I thought, “I’ll ask Tom to come on the podcast and have a little chat with me about Kate Bush”. He said “yes”. Which was very nice of him. And so I hope you enjoy listening to this short conversation that we had the other day as much as I enjoyed having it. And if you do, and you like what you hear, please do go buy Tom’s book!
(Pssst. Join the Substack).