Looking forward to this. That solar powered lifeboat/studio combo looks amazing, I want one! Look!

especially hearing his view now of that period in 1985 when he played with Bowie at Live Aid, having also recently produced Joni’s Dog Eat Dog album.

I met him that summer, as we both waited for a bus at Piraeus to take us to Athens airport. With the inevitable delays at the airport, we had quite a long chat and he offered an insight into what it was like working with La Mitchell. He allowed me to listen to the, as yet unreleased, album and it was clear from his comments that it had been a mixed experience for him. He admired her as an artist but came away from the project with little that was good to say about it. Joni, he said, worked for long periods on her own in the studio, re-working ideas. It can’t have been easy for him, but having said that, he clearly made the best of the situation. His influence is all over the album, from the extensive use of the Fairlight to the lush textures on tracks like Fiction and Ethiopia.
Incidentally, this view of Joni as largely unproduceable is confirmed by Henry Lewy in an interview on the Joni Mitchell website.

Another anecdote I remember is that they wanted to use tape of a Southern preacher for the track Tax Free, but couldn’t get the pastor in question to agree. So they got in Rod Steiger to recreate the speech verbatim.

While I don't recall Dolby being particularly effusive about the experience with Joni, he couldn’t have been prouder of the Prefab Sprout album Steve McQueen.

Figured Mr Dolby's appearance was only a matter of time. Looking forward to this.

Once again, thankyou Mighty Wordsters.

Much forwardest looking to hearing the Dolby - a very interesting guy. But hearing that Mitchell is a bugger to work with really comes as no surprise. She has a talent bordering on genius (depending on the charity of your definition), and that usually comes with baggage attached. Ultimately, what matters and what lasts is her music, which is pretty damn extraordinary.

Come on people! There's nothing better than a bit of muck raking. A great podcast and a fascinating man. Time to dig out The Flat Earth and Hissing of the Summer Lawns again. Nice one Heppy!

Incidentally nice to hear someone namedropping For The Roses rather than Blue every frigging time. A much better album!

Would have asked him if Dolby was his real name.

I thoroughly enjoyed that, thanks to all involved.

that while I think Dolby did sterling work for Prefab Sprout, it shouldn't be forgotten that The Golden Age of Wireless is a damn fine LP (still one of my all time favourites).

By the way, did you ask him about this none-more-eighties clips from the 1985 Grammys:

I suspect that one of the men in the photo at the top of this page has something in common with Richard Thompson and The Edge, to name but two.

...one of the best Wordcasts and best interviews (or perhaps interviewer/interviewee combo) I've heard in ages.

Must admit to groaning slightly when I heard who this week's guest was having never cared for his music, but Dolby was an excellent interviewee

Regarding cock-ups at Live Aid, a few come to mind. The live broadcast of the Who segment went down for a bit. I also remember most of Bryan Adam's set being plagued by weird electrical feedback buzzing. Worst was Adam Ant's one-song set where after being introduced on stage by Harvey Goldsmith, there was an interminable wait before the band started playing the song.( In fact I think i read that out of all the acts at Live Aid, Adam Ant was the only artist performing with a single in the charts that week which went DOWN after the concert )

For - Prefab Sprout's mighty Steve McQueen (which he was very gracious in giving credit to Paddy et al).
Against - Teenagers playing annoying ringtones really loudly. His polyphonic work with Nokia surely to blame!

This was from last year, sent to me by an old schoolfriend who directed the video.

I still prefer Windpower though

Great podcast. Dolby is a very underrated and original artist. I took against him years ago for a comment he made in passing about my home area. Something on the lines that the people of Middlesbrough might be impressed by Queen and their videos but he wasn't.

Despite this terrible slur, I managed to forgive him and even went to see him in concert in the University of East Anglia or was it Loughborough?

The Flat Earth is a fantastic album. This is a brilliant track.

And this was excellent too - you may have to click through to You Tube

Imagine a series on BBC4 about the history of record production presented by Thomas?

He comes across very well. He was on the other night on Vintage TV covering a lot of the same ground, so he's got the stories pretty much down pat. A real pro.

I'd love to know how much he got from Nokia.

A middle-class kid who's neither too fond of himself nor trying to be one ov der lads, innit. This is very rare. Quite unselfconscious, and everything - everything - he said was interesting. I usually wander about the room (or the internet) while listening to the podcast, but I didn't wander from this one.

Oh - and his new album is very, very fine.

Hmm - the last podcast featured a middle-class kid, too. And they're both wearing I'M NOT BALD, I LIKE HATS hats.

And what an entertaining and articulate chap Thomas Dolby is (his speaking voice sounds not unlike Elton John, in fact).

Stuff-ups at Live Aid?

How about Keith, Woody & Bob sleepwalking their way through a shambolic yet mercifully brief set? Broken guitar strings, three over-refreshed performers and Dylan doing his usual trick of playing songs they hadn't rehearsed. It was a total shambles from start to finish.

Also, Macca's microphone was turned off for most of the first verse of Let It Be.

And why do you think Led Zeppelin are not on the Live Aid DVD?

I posted on a thread here recently discussing Koyaanisqatsi, posing the question, which English musician is featured in the flash-frame TV footage section in the middle of the film...to zero response. Well the answer was Thomas Dolby. I think it's the video for She Blinded Me With Science. I wonder does he know that he appears in such a cinematic landmark.

The most enlightening and surprising part of the podcast for me was when he came out in favour of joint credit for songwriting royalties between band members.Had he have lived, I'm sure that Mick Karn would've appreciated Thomas's assertion.

Talk about hitting my hot buttons! I got the horn! Talking of which - how about trying to wrangle Trevor Horn into the mighty Word Towers soundstage? After all, his work probably defined the sonic landscape of the youth of many of us here.

"Sheev"
"Yes"
"Did you really use the phrase 'sonic landscape'?"
"Yes...I...um. Yes"
"You will find a bottle of whiskey and a loaded revolver in the next room. I think you know what to do. Goodbye Sheev"
"Goodbye"

I really enjoyed it and found TD very engaging. Surprisingly, as I find that 80s plinky drum machine synth pop stuff completely unlistenable. I'd be interested in hearing his new album to see how he's evolved.

PS extremely weedy personal connection - my sister hung out with him a bit in France in the 80s whilst he was recording there.

Great interview, though "New Toy" was actually 1981 not 1978! Can't believe Thomas got that three years out, particularly as it was the first time he had featured on a (minor) hit record. Incidentally, the other studio guests on TOTP that week were the Polecats, Graham Bonnet, Hazel O'Connor, Tony Capstick (!), Gillan and Bad Manners.

That was a great example of why I love The Word in all its guises. I've never owned a Thomas Dolby record, his music has hardly impacted on me at all and yet listening to him on the podcast was both entertaining and enlightening and has resulted in my viewing him in a new light. It just goes to show that interesting people are interesting people, irrespective of whether they're amongst one's personal favourite artists or not.

I won't (daren't!) use the word 'groan' but, as 80s artists go, he is fairly low down on a list of people I'd like to hear from, but he was thoroughly interesting even about subjects & artists I care little for. So press on with people as articulate and erudite as he; fear not for groans.

However, I am sorry to say that his latest project does sound like the work of someone with immense technical and musical talent combined with enormous (Nokia-funded) wealth and stacks of free time.

New Toy by Lene Lovich was a number 53 smash in 1981.
Interesting and erudite speaker.
If that opening track is anything to go by, dreadful lyricist.
edit - just realised Neil B said the same above. As you were.

Just caught up with this today. I *was* actually interested to hear what Thomas Dolby had to say, because without ever being a fan I quite liked a couple of his singles, he's worked with Trevor Horn, and because he came up with God's own synth line on Waiting For A Girl Like You. So even if he'd been grumpy and monosyllabic there would have been something in it for me. But he was articulate, interesting, engaged, and modest (yet without false modesty).

I may not ever be a big fan of the music, but as of now I am a huge fan of the man.