Midnight Chats

Newcastle folk legend, semi-keen gardener and hater of Christmas Richard Dawson rings in the New Year with tales of nervously meeting Louis Theroux, the time Mitski's fans screamed at his idiosyncratic music as if he was The Beatles, and how he wrote his new album End of the Middle from his allotment shed. Plus how to navigate your early 40s, and whether or not is should involving buying a bright yellow puffer jacket.

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What a year it's been... for some people. Others have had real stinkers. 

For the final 2024 episode of Midnight Chats, Greg and Stu look back at the highs and lows of the year and ask how the history books will remember its music moments. Kendrick versus Drake. Morrissey verses Marr. Oasis versus themselves. Charli, Chappell and Sabrina. It's all here in this Boxing Day special!  

Credits:

Editing by Stuart Stubbs 

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Brighton/Bristol/London band Squid have made a new album all about evil bastards. It's called Cowards, and will be released 7 February 2025.

They've not spoken about it much just yet, but with Christmas here, what better time is there to sit down with Ollie and Louis from the band to discuss songs about cannibalism, Andy Warhol's wig, how they feel these days about their biggest song, and what happens when one member of t...

This week's episode of Midnight Chats is all about Greg's and Stu's favourite albums of 2024, with a little room to also discuss the records that definitely weren't. They can't all be winners, but Greg and Stu have brought 3 of their favourites each to pitch against one another.

We also hear your favourites, and from some past and future Midnight Chats guests, including Biig Piig, Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods, Richard Dawson, ...

Jessica Winter has a hell of a story about Rebecca Black in this week's episode, involving a legendary burlesque club in London, too much alcohol and a drill going through a part of a man's body it really shouldn't go through. She also talks about scoring CBBC shows and safety for female artists and producers via a simple device making a difference. 

Outside of our guest interview this week, Greg and Stu discuss how a punk band ter...

The Coachella lineup is out, and often it can tell us a lot about what to expect from the year ahead. But how does 2025's bill stand up, when did Coachella become so powerful, and was it Greg attending in 2012 with a hologram to Tupac that made all other celebrities want to go?

Away from our tales of the festival (Stuart has also been to Coachella, but with little affect on its popularity), on episode 159 of Midnight Chats we revie...

Death! Like a begrudging respect for Robbie Williams, sadly, it comes to us all. Perhaps that's why Stuart has taken to asking our guests about the subject of the great beyond, which reminded us that there was a time when we asked a bunch of musicians what they thought was the perfect way to die, in a regular interview feature in Loud And Quiet magazine.

On this week's podcast we revisit those answers from 2014 - 2017, make our cas...

As Kaiser Chiefs announce shows for 2025 celebrating 20 years of their debut album, with support from Razorlight, We Are Scientists, The Cribs and The Coral, Greg and Stu put their heads together to come up with an alternative bill of artists who released records 20 years ago. The Carling will be served warm and the weather will be terrible. Welcome to the inaugural Midnight Chats festival!

Also on this week's podcast, Grammy nomin...

Welsh electronic artist, producer and DJ Kelly Lee Owens has come along way in a short period of time.

Yet, her warmth and charisma mean her A-list stories of playing Ibiza’s legendary Amnesia nightclub with Charli XCX or being welcomed into the Depeche Mode family, or dining with Bill Murray don’t come across like arrogant boasts. That’s because they come sandwiched with grounded stories of her days as a cancer ward nurse, eating ...

The era of surprise album releases seems to be over, with everyone from Beyonce to Billie Eilish to Charli XCX to Tyler, The Creator opting for modern (and bombastic) twists on the traditional way of hyping LPs before their release dates. Increasingly, it seems the arena listening party in a key tool in connecting conceptual artist and fans, but as Greg shares on this week's episode, they don't always work.

We also get into the wee...

We've all been there: investing our time and energy into worshiping our favourite artist only for them to call us "creepy as fuck". Ok, maybe we've not ALL been there, but thousands of Doja Cat stans were last year, whilst just a few days ago The Pretenders upset a bunch of their most hardcore fans in an Instagram post that has since been deleted. It offered us the chance to get into the fan/artist relationship on this week's podca...

As Charli XCX's Brat remix album reimagines what a remix album can be in 2024, we discuss that release and trace the remix record back to its unexpected origins. Charli's record certainly is a different approach to what Green Day have done recently with their Dookie Demastered stunt, which we also get into.

Then we get into the serious business of an age old question: Do you need to know the lyrics to a song – and their meaning – t...

Seven years ago Laura Marling came on episode 19 of the podcast at a very different time in her life. As she prepares to release her 8th album, Patterns in Repeat, this month (25 Oct), she does so as a new mother, who's trained to become a yoga teacher, who's gained a masters in psychoanalysis, who's formed a band called LUMP, who's quite touring, who's communicating directly with fans via a quite brilliant Substack newsletter abou...

When a musician dies and leaves behind unfinished music, what should happen to it? Shelved forever? Released in its current state? Completed by someone else? 

On this week's episode Greg and Stu get into when posthumous albums are a good idea and when they most certainly aren't, from last week's SOPHIE album, to work from Michael Jackson, Tupac, Biggie Smalls and Elliott Smith. But not before sharing the week's headlines about Radi...

What's been our most awkward interview yet? How do we charm our guests? Who have we been starstruck by? And c'mon guys, why is this thing called 'Midnight Chats'? 

As our podcast reaches its 150 episode, Greg and Stu celebrate by showing how the sausage is made, sharing stories and their tricks of the trade while trading some of their favourite clips from MC's illustrious history, and answering our listeners' questions about which ...

The summer slump is over and what feels like hundreds of artists are gearing up for new albums this autumn. On this week's episode, Greg and Stu get into what coming soon from The Cure, FKA Twigs, Coldplay and more, along with the recent implosion of rock giants Jane's Addiction, while a meeting with Laura Marling last week opened up the question of are music fans starting to lose their love for vinyl? 

We also introduce a new regu...

For the last 5 years, London band Black Midi have pushed experimental rock music to new and thrilling places, inspired as much by jazz fusion as math rock and no wave. But last month, quite unexpectedly, the trio split up. It was meant to be kept a secret, until singer and frontman Geordie Greep announced the news on Instagram. One week later, he announced his debut solo album, boldly titled The New Sound (out this month via Rough ...

Part of this week's episode of MC comes from End of the Road festival, where Stu met up with Irish drone folk band Lankum and put your questions to Long Island sibling duo The Lemon Twigs. Even the one about the Muppets.  

Back home Greg and Stu unpacked the fiasco surrounding Oasis' ticket sale nightmare, particularly the scam that is "dynamic" ticket pricing. And what's all this about the Smiths reunion not being as improbable as...

Like it or not, Oasis are back together for the reunion tour that's surprised absolutely no one. As a former stan of the band, Stu really should be feeling better about this news than he is, while Greg is just happy that he finally gets to share the extremely important role he's played in Oasis mythology. 

On this week's episode we get into how the story broke, what we think will happen next, and dust off our tales of seeing the ba...