Wonder Junkie Podcast - Pete Bailey

Welcome to episode 27 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast ft radio futurologist James Cridland.  James is a radio futurologist - a writer, consultant and public speaker on radio’s future. He is Managing Editor of podnews.net, a daily podcast newsletter, and runs media.info, the media information website. He is a Director of the Canadian local radio broadcaster VISTA Radio. James has worked in radio since 1989 as an award-winning copywriter, presenter, and internet strategist. In 2001 he joined the original Virgin Radio in London, where he was Digital Media Director: launching the world’s first streaming radio smartphone app in March 2005. In 2007 he joined the BBC to work on the BBC iPlayer for radio, achieving a dramatic increase in the service’s audio quality, and being part of the team that laid the foundations for the UK Radioplayer. Since leaving the BBC in 2009, he has worked for a variety of businesses, including the receiver and silicon manufacturers Pure and Frontier Silicon, Radioplayer, Futuri Media, talk

Welcome to episode 26 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast ft Will Irvine from Hunter & The Bear.  If you haven't heard of Hunter & The Bear before, they're inspired by artists such as The Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bruce Springsteen. Will & Jimmy started to write and perform as a duo. Jimmy took responsibility for lead guitar, mandolin and vocal whilst beside him Will not only played rhythm guitar but also kick drum and joint lead vocals. That's a very short summary, but hopefully, you get the idea. Anyway, was really great to catch up with Will, have known him and the guys for a few years now and finally got a chance to say thank you for letting me use their song "Burn It Up" as the music for Wonder Junkie.  We chatted about a whole load of different things, from going to Uni in Newcastle, touring with Eric Clapton and how it can actually be harder to play in front of 5 people rather than 5000 people.  Their new album Paper Heart is out now and it's awesome, available on iTunes, Spotify etc.  Facebook - http

Hello and welcome to episode 25 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast ft the musical composers of the new tv series, Genius, Will Henshall & neuroscientist Dr. Julia Mossbridge. Genius is the new tv series presented by National Geographic with the first-ever scripted series, based on the Walter Isaacson book ‘Einstein: His Life and Universe’ The cast includes Geoffrey Rush as professor Einstein, Johnny Flynn as Albert in his youth and Emily Watson as the scientist’s second wife — and first cousin — Elsa Einstein. Over 10 episodes, the series takes einstein’s story beyond the halls of academia to explore his struggles to be a good husband and father, and a man of principle during a period of global unrest. His daringly creative mind often landed him in trouble with his loved ones and peers, but also helped him to usher in ground-breaking discoveries that reshaped modern science. For this series, a collection of musical pieces has been created, inspired by Albert Einstein. It has been scientifically designed around

Welcome to episode 24 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast, featuring historian Matt Brosnan and curator at the Imperial War Museum and the new exhibition, People Power: Fighting For Peace. People Power: Fighting for Peace, is the UK’s first major exhibition to explore the evolution of the anti-war movement from the First World War to the present day. The exhibition tells the stories of individual and collective acts of anti-war protest, and the varied forms of creative expression used to campaign against war. In the exhibit, you can view rare items such as a handwritten poem by Siegfried Sassoon and original sketches for the peace symbol. Matt Brosnan, Historian, and Curator of People Power: Fighting for Peace at IWM says: “This exhibition is the first of its kind and displays a number of fascinating items which have never been exhibited before. In IWM’s Centenary year, this major exhibition continues our mission to explore war and conflict from multiple perspectives – highlighting the peace movement and its importa

Welcome to episode 23 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring DJ, Blogger and Podcaster; Gary Cool.  Was really great to catch up with Gary, he's just launched an awesome new website (The Republic of Rock) which you should absolutely check out - http://therepublicofrock.com  We managed to chat about a whole load of different things, from the South African rock scene to Gary's ascent of the radio airwaves in South Africa, moving to the U.K and that time he was responsible for getting Bruce Springsteen to play in South Africa through an open letter!  http://petebailey.net/podcast https://twitter.com/PeteCBailey https://www.facebook.com/petecbailey

Welcome to episode 22 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring Touker Suleyman of BBC's Dragons Den talking all about the new drama "The Founder" starring Michael Keaton.  The Founder is the true story of how Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a struggling salesman from Illinois, met Mac (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman), who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers' speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. Kroc soon maneuvers himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a multi-billion dollar empire. Touker Suleyman has 40 years' retail and manufacturing experience and is best known as the founder of quintessentially British menswear brand, Hawes & Curtis and the man credited with reinventing the seminal 90s womenswear label, Ghost. After a false start in accountancy, Touker kicked off his retail career at the age of 18. He entered into a joint venture in a leather factory and so

Welcome to episode 21 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring Danny Worsnop. The last time I spoke to Danny was around 2013 and of course so much has happened since then so it was great to catch up about Asking Alexandria, We Are Harlot and his new solo album "The Long Road To Home" which he's just released via Earache Records.  We also touched upon his recent path to sobriety, moving to Nashville and rebuilding the bridges with the guys in Asking Alexandria.  http://petebailey.net/podcast

Hello and welcome to episode 20 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring Sean Ayling from the Pig & Porter Brewery...mmmm beer.  Great to speak to Sean at his brewery in Tunbridge Wells, if you haven't heard of Pig & Porter before, it's a tale of fate and serendipity, ability and determination. And a love of beer that keeps leading them to new places. Like many good things, Pig and Porter was conceived around a kitchen table. On one side, Sean, positively evangelic about great modern beers who’d been brewing in his shed for several years “because it was cheaper than buying it”. On the other, Robin, a keen amateur cook recovering from several eye operations and disillusioned with recruitment. In the middle, a pile of bottles and some burgers. From that conversation the “kernel” of an idea was formed. Beer and burgers replaced tea and cake at the Ashburnham Flower Show and Fete, and then they were asked to do barn dances and a wedding. They took the pig by the tail and started the business. Sean is one of

Welcome to episode 19 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast ft Paul Hawkins from the charity Attitude Is Everything. Delighted to have Paul on the podcast, he is the festival project manager for Attitude Is Everything and as a disabled person himself gave some really great insights into the issues around disability and access. If you haven't heard of Attitude Is Everything before, they improve Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music by working in partnership with audiences, artists, and the music industry. They support the music industry to understand Deaf and disabled people’s access requirements at music venues and festivals by building equality into the strategic process using a Charter of Best Practice. The ethos of the Charter is that Deaf and disabled people should be as independent as they want to be at live music events and over 100 venues and festivals have already signed up. Be sure to check them out online at - http://www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk If you wanna get in touch via social, you can find

Welcome to episode 18 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring Frank Carter. Delighted to have Frank on the podcast, he’s someone I’ve bumped into over the years and done the odd festival interview with here n there but never had a chance to speak properly until now. From his new album Modern Ruin to Gallows, Pure Love, living in New York, coming back to London and tattooing, this is Frank being very open and honest.   http://petebailey.net/podcast

Welcome to episode 17 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring Mars One candidate Sue Ann Pien.  Sue is 1 of the 100 candidates for the Mars One Mission, she is also an accomplished actor having appeared in films such as Hellraiser Revelations, Everlasting and is also in the running to become National Geographic‘s Digital Correspondent, you can go help her on that journey by liking her video, which you can find here - http://assignmentexplorer.com/video/794 So Mars One is an organization that has proposed to land the first humans on Mars and establish a permanent human colony there by 2032. The mission is surrounded by criticism and controversy and when I had ESA astrophysicist Dr. Matt Taylor as my guest in EP01, he too had very large doubts about the mission. The primary issues the Mars One Mission faces is technology and funding but it’s made good progress on that front, having recently begun trading publicly and raising £6 million in funding.  Despite the challenges Mars One faces, in many ways, it has alre

Welcome to episode 16 of The Wonder Junkie Podcast, in this episode, we're doing Netflix recommendations with regular film / TV guest Ted Bennett and feature our interview with Mandy Patinkin.   http://petebailey.net/podcast

Welcome to episode 15 of The Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring Kyle Gass and his band! So I somehow managed to corner Kyle just after their European tour and "Grill him like a cheese sandwich" about music, films, comedy and Tenacious D but thankfully his band mates John Konesky and Mike Bray came in to save Kyle from the grilling.  http://petebailey.net/podcast

Welcome to episode 14 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring heavy metal marine biologist, The Blowfish. It's safe to say there isn't a huge supply of heavy metal scientists, so I was delighted when I was introduced to The Blowfish and get him on the podcast. His passion for marine biology, environmental issues, and heavy metal shines through so much in this podcast. From apocalypse by Jellyfish to why Sharks are so intrinsically important to "Planet Wet" and his favourite metal bands, we pretty much covered all the basis so I hope you enjoy!  http://petebailey.net/podcast

Welcome to episode 13 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring Johnny Doom from Kerrang! Radio.  It’s safe to say that if I hadn’t have met Johnny, I probably wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today. Back in 2009, I hosted my own radio show “Metalheadz” on Calon FM and was lucky enough to attend Download Festival with a media pass where I got to interview bands and bug as many people in the music industry as possible for a job. Luckily, Johnny didn’t get too annoyed by my bugging and gave me a foot onto the ladder into Q and Kerrang! Radio and it all progressed from there.  So there was a lot to catch up on as I hadn’t seen Johnny since Download Festival (this year) but I wanted to get the back story on Johnny as there’s a whole heap of stories I’ve heard over the years that I’d imagine have never made it to the airwaves…  Johnny explained how came upon the name “Johnny Doom” through the band Doom, who John Peel was a great champion of. He also clarified whether or not the Doom logo was ripped off by the now fam

Welcome to episode 12 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring Chuck Billy of Testament. Anyone that knows me or has heard me on the radio over the years will know how much I love Testament, so, of course, I had to speak to Chuck when he was in town promoting the new album Brotherhood of the Snake. We talked about the new album and Chuck was very honest in that it was a difficult album to make and wouldn’t want to do it that way again but very happy with the outcome. I’ve listened to it myself and if you loved Dark Roots of Earth and The Formation of Damnation, you’ll love Brotherhood of the Snake. We didn’t just talk about the album, in fact, we talked about a lot of different things from Chucks Native American background to his battle with cancer, growing up in the bay area… and the time he turned down the opportunity to work with Gene Simmons because Gene thought “Metal was dead”, nice one Chuck. I’ve always thought that Testament has been one of thrash metal’s greatest underrated bands, how it was “The Big

Welcome to episode 11 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring the host of the History of Egypt Podcast, Dominic Perry.  The history of Egypt is something that continues to fascinate me. From their early beginnings to the construction of the pyramids and their eventual decline, it’s a subject matter I never seem to be able to step away from.  Whilst I spend a lot of time working on Wonder Junkie, I also love to listen to other podcasts… Notable mentions to StarTalk Radio, Distraction Pieces with Scroobius Pip, Stuff You Should Know and of course The History Of Egypt with Dominic Perry.  I was absolutely delighted when I found Dominic’s podcast as I had binged my way through the BBC’s output on Egypt (which is fantastic) but I still felt like I needed more. The way Dominic has broken down the history of Egypt is brilliant, breaking it down episode-by-episode and making it consumable to people like myself who have an interest in Egypt but don’t have time to study it properly.  In the podcast we spoke about how Do

Welcome to episode 10 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring James Monteith of TesseracT.  I managed to catch up with James just before he set off to the US for the Gojira tour he’s now on with Tesseract and we had the unusual fortune of good weather! So you’ll hear the lovely ambiance of London in the summertime.  The first time I met James was around 2010 and at that time I was just a massive Tesseract fan, but as the years have passed by I’ve had the pleasure of chatting to James quite a few times and have been fortunate to create a friendship over those years. Aside from Tesseract, James also works for Hold tight PR and Basick Records, who do a tremendous job of breaking some of the most exciting new bands on the scene today.  So there was a lot to catch up on and for those of you who don’t know, James also used to be in a nu metal band before Tesseract called 209, so I couldn’t resist having a natter about the recently announced Korn / Limp Bizkit tour and the effect nu metal had on the rock & metal

Welcome to episode 09 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring Grant Nicholas from Feeder.  When I spoke to Grant he had already done 15 interviews with other radio stations and was running late so we were a bit pushed for time but managed to make it happen and come out with a really great chat. The last time I met Grant I was a 19-year-old student at Glyndwr University in Wrexham just getting to grips with how the music industry worked. I was lucky enough that Feeder had been booked to play at the university just as I started to do some live crewing. Not that I realized it at the time but that was a pretty important moment for me, as I quickly realized I’d never be a roadie (not with these skinny arms) but it did spur me on to keep working in the music industry. Fast-forward to today and I’ve worked in everything from live music venues to labels, PR, and management until finally settling on radio. In that time Grant has continued to tour the world, gone on hiatus, released a solo album and come back with a cra

Welcome to episode 08 of the Wonder Junkie Podcast featuring F1 Sky Sports commentator David Croft aka… Crofty! What a pleasure it was to speak to Crofty and a thank you as well to Dewsbury for helping to set it up. So it turns out that commentating on the F1 is a very busy and demanding job. The day after me and Crofty spoke he had to fly to Monaco (just for the day), then a few days later fly off to Singapore for the Grand Prix, so a thank you again to Crofty for taking an hour of his time to have a chat for the Wonder Junkie Podcast. In the chat we spoke about how he initially climbed the ranks of the BBC and 5live to get where he is today, his love of radio and broadcasters such as Roger Scott, Tommy Vance, and Bob Harris. We also touched upon rock music with his love of Bruce Springsteen, attending Donington Monsters Of Rock in 1988, doing the Newport Helicopter at a Skindred show and why he isn’t excited by the Guns N’ Roses reunion. What I got from Crofty as the chat went on was his genuine enthusiasm