BBC "Mastertapes": Davies, Weller, Zombies etc

December 13, 2012 5:07 AM

BBC Radio 4's Mastertapes series is nearing the end of its first run. Each artist selected gives John Wilson a 30-minute interview about a key album in his or her career, followed by a second 30-minute episode opening the floor to questions from fans. They play snippets of relevant songs live, which can be heard in full along with other bonus material on the programme's website. The first series has already featured Billy Bragg, Susan Vega, Paul Weller, Brinsley Forde, Ray Davies and Corrine Bailey Rae - and will close this week with The Zombies. It's pretty good.
posted by Paul Slade (8 comments total)

Man, this looks incredible! I can't wait to listen to some of these.
posted by OmieWise at 5:34 AM on December 13, 2012

Huge thanks - I would have totally missed this! I'm a big fan of BBC6 and their music docs, but didn't know that BBC4 also had music docs. Now I'm wonder what other BBC Radio goodness I've missed.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:46 AM on December 13, 2012

Or even BBC 4 the tv channel....their Friday night is usually an awesome bunch of music themed docs and archive.
posted by C.A.S. at 6:19 AM on December 13, 2012

Bookmarked for beery Friday night headphone listening.
posted by chococat at 6:27 AM on December 13, 2012

Rod Argent & Colin Blunstone are always enjoyable in interviews so that one was as great as I expected it to be. But I was pleasantly surprised by how unguarded and relaxed Paul Weller is here.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 7:40 AM on December 13, 2012

In the same vein, you have five hours left to listen to Zane Lowe's Masterpieces interview with the Chemical Brothers, followed by a full playthrough of Dig Your Own Hole.
posted by pharm at 7:43 AM on December 13, 2012

Ray Davies, Paul Wller, and Billy Bragg? Sign me up. Great post.
posted by immlass at 11:23 AM on December 13, 2012

I only just caught up with the second Ray Davies programme myself. He gets so swept up in the conversation at one point that he mistakes a bit of chewing gum for his ear-piece and sticks it in his ear before he's noticed. Bless!
posted by Paul Slade at 11:59 AM on December 13, 2012