Entertainment For Lively Minds
New Podcast: Jonathan Coe on prose, prog, and the Peer Group
We're joined in the pod by the great Jonathan Coe, he of nine novels and assorted words and rock music experimentations. Anyone who’s read The Rotters’ Club will remember our hero reads Sounds and pens clunky appreciations for the school mag of prog classics like Tales From Topographic Oceans. This turns out to be fascinatingly autographical – though Coe, as you’ll discover, looked down on both his punk- and prog-obsessed classmates: he’d discovered the 7/4 rhythmic delights of Henry Cow.
Here he talks prog in riveting detail, looks back at his days as a rock hack at The Wire, explains the use of music in Billy Wilder movies, and we even hear a a newly recorded track from his reformed college loungecore act The Peer Group. And we both vigorously plug his upcoming words/music night in London on Friday October 7 with Sean O’Hagan (Microdisney, The High Llamas) and many others…
Jonathan Coe
Just to say 'thank you' for a very enjoyable podcast today. Nice to hear Derek Jewell get a mention. Another fine listen.
Nice podcast but...
...did we really have to have 'the song'?
Oh dear.
yep nice chat
Shame about the song
Indeed
What WERE you thinking?
Has a Steely Dan feel...yeah right. Maybe if Desperate Dan had made a record.
At a quick glance at that photo
I thought it was the other 'JC' interviewed on the Word podcast. John Craven, that is.
Selling 270 copies
It was interesting to hear about Jonathan Coe's early experiences in being published. Finding a publisher for your first novel simply by sending out copies of the manuscript must be the dream for most writers. Only selling 270 copies must have been the typical reality.
You do wonder who actually buys first novels by unknown writers. I don't think I know anyone who has ever bought one. I've read and enjoyed some of Jonathan's novels, but I only picked up on them once he had an established reputation, and his books were fairly prominently displayed in the bookshops. Would a large chunk of those 270 copies gone to libraries?
Fiction publishing seems to be similar to the music business with lots of misses for a very small number of hits. I'm glad both industries take punts on unknowns, but will they continue to have enough best-sellers in the future to carry on doing this?
Look-a-likey
Are Pete Dogget and Jonathan Coe the same person? They certainly look uncannily alike on those two photos. If Lord Ellen hadn't changed his shirt I would've thought it was the same shoot.
I think you mean Paul Du Noyer...
He's the one holding the copy of the Bowie book in the photo.
"Sounds Interesting"
I remember this very well. Derek Jewell was a very knowledgeable and articulate music broadcaster. It was on his program I first heard Randy Newman, and Pete Atkin, and I remember his response to "Tales of Topographic Oceans" - along the lines of "this is a bit silly really".
Thank God for the BBC, and public broadcasting is all I can say.
Styx
Derek Jewell gave the thumbs up to Equinox by Styx. He knew a great album when he heard one.
Well I thought the song was rather charming
Informed about manner of it's construction, and some of the history behind it by the by the the discussion that preceded it, I thoughtfully nodded along until it was done. The fact that it brought to mind some of the home-baked recording sessions of my own over-ambitious under-equipped teenage prog combo certainly helped. If an album by them showed up on emusic, I'd probably download it.
That was a slog
A bit lacking in charisma our Mr Coe. I knew I would find a podcast about prog hard going but his dull monotone made me drift away a few times.
I hope I was right to subscribe in the long run...