Joe Boyd tells of his journey through Sixties music, from tour managing Muddy Waters and Coleman Hawkins, to plugging in Bob Dylan's electric guitar while working as production manager at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, to becoming a leading record producer. His first session was Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood's "Crossroads" followed by Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny and many more.
Joe Boyd tells of his journey through Sixties music, from tour managing Muddy Waters and Coleman Hawkins, to plugging in Bob Dylan's electric guitar while working as production manager at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, to becoming a leading record producer. His first session was Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood's ‘Crossroads’ followed by Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny and many more. As a memoir of the enchanted Sixties, White Bicycles is among the elite...Exhilarating --Observer Music Monthly
Heroic, Hilarious and Moving
Walking Home: Travels with a Troubadour on the Pennine Way
By
Simon Armitage
Narrated By
Simon Armitage
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In summer 2010 Simon Armitage decided to walk the Pennine Way. The challenging 256-mile route is usually approached from south to north, from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm, the other side of the Scottish border. He resolved to tackle it the other way round: through beautiful and bleak terrain, across lonely fells and into the howling wind, he would be walking home, towards the Yorkshire village where he was born.
Walking Home describes Armitage’s extraordinary, yet ordinary, journey: to walk the Pennine Way without a penny in his pocket. It's a story about the generosity of the locals who sustained him on his journey, facing emotional and physical challenges, and sometimes overcoming them. It's nature writing, but with people at its heart. Contemplative, moving and droll, it’s a unique narrative from one of our most beloved writers."},
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No Off Switch
By
Andy Kershaw
Narrated By
Andy Kershaw
Overall
(36)
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Andy Kershaw truly has no off switch. As a teenager he was promoting major rock gigs. He was Billy Bragg's driver and roadie one day and presenting Whistle Test and Live Aid the next. A passionate music enthusiast, he is a man with an obsessive curiosity about the world. Over a 25 year career, he has worked for the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, shared an office with John Peel, and amassed a record collection that weighs seven tons. He has won more Sony Radio awards than any other broadcaster. He has visited 97 countries and as a foreign correspondent, filed numerous reports for Radio 4.
A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of Evelyn Waugh's stunning, tragi-comic novel of the lives, loves, and mores of the English aristocracy. The action moves between 1944 and 1923, to tell the story of Charles Ryder and his infatuation with the decadent Sebastian Flyte.
Inspired by the attitude and energy of punk, Peter Hook and school friend Bernard Sumner joined lead-singer and lyricist Ian Curtis and drummer Stephen Morris, and with some cobbled-together instruments, they created their own unique sound. In 1980 they had released two albums and were on the cusp of touring America when Ian Curtis committed suicide. In this no-holds-barred account, Peter Hook gives us the inside story of life with Joy Division. He talks with candour and reflection about Curtis's suicide and covers the band's friendships and fall-outs....
A Postillion Struck by Lightning was a best seller on first publication and marked Dirk Bogarde's transition from star of stage and screen to a best-selling and internationally acclaimed author. This vivid and engaging memoir traces the first steps of Dirk Bogarde as a young actor before he became world famous as well as his childhood amidst the enchanting beauty of rural Sussex.
Best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the iconic band Talking Heads, David Byrne has received Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe awards and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the insightful How Music Works, Byrne offers his unique perspective on music - including how music is shaped by time, how recording technologies transform the listening experience, the evolution of the industry, and much more.
Andy Kershaw truly has no off switch. As a teenager he was promoting major rock gigs. He was Billy Bragg's driver and roadie one day and presenting Whistle Test and Live Aid the next. A passionate music enthusiast, he is a man with an obsessive curiosity about the world. Over a 25 year career, he has worked for the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, shared an office with John Peel, and amassed a record collection that weighs seven tons. He has won more Sony Radio awards than any other broadcaster. He has visited 97 countries and as a foreign correspondent, filed numerous reports for Radio 4.
The War of the Worlds: Classic Radio Sci-Fi (Dramatised)
by
H. G. Wells
4.1
(53 ratings)
When a Martian spacecraft lands on Woking Common, mankind is terrorised by aliens in tall, armoured capsules which stalk the countryside on three legs. The machines wreak havoc on London and the Southern Counties, and survivors are driven underground. Scientist John Nicholson (Paul Daneman) tells how he was plunged into a paralysing nightmare of stark terror, savage madness and utter destruction.
The Complete Barchester Chronicles (Dramatisation)
by
Anthony Trollope
Narrated by
Anna Massey,
Alex Jennings
4.3
(330 ratings)
Here is a new audio edition of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of Anthony Trollope's gently satirical tales of provincial life, available together in one download. Nearly 20 hours of ironic, witty, and wonderfully written drama is contained in this audiobook. The cast includes Anna Massey, Alex Jennings, David Haig, Rosemary Leach, Kenneth Cranham, Emma Fielding, and Brenda Blethyn.
Throughout this decades-long journey to becoming a multibillion-dollar enterprise, Marvel's identity has continually shifted, careening between scrappy underdog and corporate behemoth. As the company has weathered Wall Street machinations, Hollywood failures, and the collapse of the comic book market, its characters have been passed along among generations of editors, artists, and writers - also known as the celebrated Marvel "Bullpen".
Narrated by
Dylan Thomas,
Richard Bebb,
Richard Burton,
Hugh Griffith
4.5
(13 ratings)
Under Milk Wood is Dylan Thomas's undisputed and unforgettable masterpiece - an affectionate, but hilarious portrait of a small Welsh town. The classic 1954 recording, featuring a perfect cast led by Richard Burton as "First Voice", is rightly considered to be definitive. This collection also includes two earlier radio programs: Return Journey to Swansea and Quite Early One Morning, read by Dylan Thomas and others.
The Odyssey is the greatest adventure story ever written, and one of the great epic masterpieces of Western literature For almost 3,000 years, it has been a storehouse of ancient Greek folklore and myth. It is also our very first novel, if we think of it in terms of romantic plot development, realistic characterizations, frequent change of scene, and heroic dramatic devices.
Alan Bennett: An Englishman Abroad (Dramatisation)
by
Alan Bennett
Narrated by
Full Cast
3.3
(4 ratings)
It is 1958, and in a squalid flat in Moscow, double-agent Guy Burgess is hiding from the world. When he is visited by actress Coral Browne, he is overjoyed to see someone from his former life in England. Starved for information, Burgess interrogates her about English society gossip, and cajoles her into taking home measurements for a new pinstripe suit from his London tailor.
Written by Jennifer Worth, Farewell to the East End is one of the trilogy of memoirs upon which the popular BBC series Call the Midwife is based. London's East End in the 1950s was a vibrant place-a close-knit community of families where children made playgrounds on bombsites and a lively social scene emerged.
First published in 1973, this is a study of the force of photographic images, which are continually inserted between experience and reality. When anything can be photographed, and photography has destroyed the boundaries and definitions of art, a viewer can approach a photograph freely, with no expectations of discovering what it means. This collection of six lucid and invigorating essays, with the most famous being "In Plato's Cave", make up a deep exploration of how the image has affected society.
Judi Dench and Michael Williams: With Great Pleasure
by
Sylvia Plath,
Dylan Thomas,
Charlotte Mitchell,
Alan Bennett,
Alec McCowen,
William Shakespeare
Narrated by
Judi Dench,
Michael Williams
4.4
(7 ratings)
Two archive BBC Radio programmes in which Judi Dench and Michael Williams, accompanied by friends John Moffatt and Alec McCowen, read a cornucopia of poetry and prose. In this enchanting pair of programmes from 1991 and 1996, Dame Judi Dench and husband Michael Williams shared an eclectic selection of pieces that they loved, admired or simply found entertaining.
Sylvia Plath,
Dylan Thomas,
Charlotte Mitchell,
Alan Bennett,
Alec McCowen,
William Shakespeare
How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond
by
John Powell
Narrated by
Walter Dixon
3.9
(36 ratings)
Have you ever wondered how off-key you are while singing in the shower? Or if your Bob Dylan albums really sound better on vinyl? Or why certain songs make you cry? Now, scientist and musician John Powell invites you on an entertaining journey through the world of music. Discover what distinguishes music from plain old noise, how scales help you memorize songs, what the humble recorder teaches you about timbre (assuming your suffering listeners don't break it first), and more.
In The Trachinian Tragedy, better known as the Women of Trachis, the wife of Herakles, Deianeira, finds she has a rival in the house for her husband's affection. The consequences of her counteraction are incredible. In this faithful translation, F. L. Light attempts to write as good a play in English as the original in Greek. F. L. Light has also translated Antigone of Sophocles.
Deep in limestone country, at the corner of Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire, lies the village of Coleshill. This haunting new collection from Fiona Sampson is a portrait of place, both real and imaginary; a dreamscape with its roots deep in the local soil. The poems hum with an evocative music of their own: there are hymns of the orchards, verses for walkers, songs for bees. These are slices of life and states of mind; poems of grief, fears, and maledictions, but also of renewal, resurrections, and the promise of spring.
Narrated By
C. R. Adams,
Angela Andazola,
Ariel Atlas,
Sarah Baker,
Amy Balkini,
Stephen Balling,
Sydney Dickinson,
Bridgette S. Dunne
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Four audio plays about southern women. Dix Tableaux: Two women chart the course of each other's lives. Van Choc Straw: A bittersweet comedy about tenuous family ties. PIGmalion: A gentle comedy about to how to reconcile who we are on the outside with the true person who lives within each of us. Deep in the Heart: A serious comedy about the special healing joy that comes to those who know how to "drink life to the dregs."
Drive-in dreams and terror at the show, stories and poetry as well. There are still plenty of spaces for you to pull your car into and the concession stand is serving dishes of fear, cotten cravings, fresh hot barbecued ravens and all sorts of delights. It's a triple show at twilight, bring your best girl and watch as the lights go dim. Drive-In Horrors will take you to the other side and back.
Poe on Poetry: Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection, Volume 4
By
Edgar Allan Poe,
Christopher Aruffo
Narrated By
Christopher Aruffo
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The author reveals his craft in the structure of story, the creation of Beauty, the role of the critic, and the mechanics of verse - including a complete, step-by-step explanation of how he wrote his most famous poem, The Raven.
Bonanza Mammon Booms: A Drama of the Comstock Lode
By
F. L. Light
Narrated By
Ryan Dusek
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In San Francisco, the new Bank of California would branch itself in Virginia City, Nevada, a mining town situated on a mountain side over the Comstock Lode of silver. As the branch's moment bigger grows under the direction of William Sharon, so a monopolistic sovereignty of mills and mines is ventured. This drama sets forth the actions of monopolist temerity and what success or miss the principals had. F. L. Light is the author of the Gouldium, a series of 24 dramas (all framed to his peculiar form of Athenian tragic poetry), on the life and times of Jay Gould.
The News from Lake Wobegon from A Prairie Home Companion, May 18, 2013
By
Garrison Keillor
Narrated By
Garrison Keillor
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"It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my hometown..." Garrison Keillor first did his monologue in 1974 to an audience of 20 in a St. Paul theater. Today, more than 2.2 million people tune in each week to hear the tall tales and sweet stories about the citizens of this small Minnesota town. It's a town where "the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average."
Traveling Music: The Soundtrack to My Life and Times
By
Neil Peart
Narrated By
Brian Sutherland
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The music of Frank Sinatra, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, and many other artists provides the score to the reflections of a musician on the road in this memoir of Neil Peart's travels from Los Angeles to Big Bend National Park. The emotional associations and stories behind each album Peart plays guide his recollections of his childhood on Lake Ontario, the first bands that he performed with, and his travels with the band Rush. The evocative and resonant writing vividly captures the meanderings of a musical mind, leading rock enthusiasts to discover inside information about Rush and the musical inspirations of a rock legend.
Take Another Little Piece of My Heart: A Groupie Grows Up
By
Pamela Des Barres
Narrated By
Pamela Des Barres
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Pamela Des Barres, celebrated "queen of the groupies," chronicled her adventures with rock stars in her bestseller I'm with the Band. This book picks up where that one left off, with Pamela embarking on marriage and motherhood, all the while sharing quarters and making friends with stars. But this is a survivor's story about the anguish of coping with loved ones' addictions, about suffering divorce, about the joys and terrors of raising a gifted son.
Total Depravity: Poems bring together poems that explore love, passion, and human sensuality. The poems highlight sensual beauty in the mundane patterns of daily life and celebrate the beauty inherent in the feminine form. The collection contains metaphoric poems exploring feminine beauty and sensual expression in today's technological devices, such as the USB cord.
If you've been watching the AMC drama Breaking Bad over the years, you've had the privilege of seeing some extraordinary performances by the lead actors, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Anna Gunn. But some of the greatest moments have been of the smaller, more isolated type. Like the ones featuring my guest today, Mark Margolis, who plays - or should I say played - Hector "Tio" Salamanca. You remember Hector, the notorious, bloodthirsty bastard we met as an old man and later in flashbacks as a young badass.