Shows
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMMark Reeder on "Heroes" Part 1Recorded live in Hansa Studios in Berlin, this is the first of a three-part episode in which Mark Reeder and I delve into the rough, ripped fabric of 1978’s Berlin meisterwerk, “Heroes”
Manchester-born Berliner Mark Reeder has been obsessed with music ever since hearing Telstar at the age of 4. This passion led him to working in Manchester’s Virgin Records in the early to mid 1970s – then the coolest record shop in the city - where he immersed himself in Krautrock and embraced punk, in between trying to wean Tony Wilson off his beloved Bruce Springsteen albums, recommending records to future J...2025-04-2355 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMGail Ann Dorsey on Young Americans (Part Two)We continue our chat with Gail Ann Dorsey as she explains the seismic impact Young Americans made on her - and hear a snippet of her breathtaking version of 'Can You Hear Me?' - and reflect on friends and collaborators from Bowie universe, past and present – from Carlos Alomar, Mike Garson and David Sanborn to her current project with Donny McCaslin, the mighty orchestral Blackstar Symphony. And of course, along the way, we come back time and again to that one omniscient figure, who brought them all together.
Gail and the Blackstar Symphony play Nashville on June 18, 2025 an...2025-03-0333 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMGail Ann Dorsey on Young Americans (Part One)Buckle up listeners, we’ve got a very special guest in today and it’s none other than Gail Ann Dorsey, legendary session musician/singer/songwriter and bassist who accompanied David Bowie on tour and in the studio between 1995 and 2013. In that time, she became a core of the Bowie band, loved by David, bandmates and fans alike for her innate musicality, soaring vocals and cool, calm and stylish presence on stage.
Gail’s story stretches out way before Bowie, and has thrived afterwards too. In this episode, the first of two, we talk about Gail’s solo career, growing u...2025-02-2348 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMNicholas Pegg on Tonight (Part Three)Nicholas Pegg and I are back for the final instalment of our three part extravaganza about David Bowie's 1984 album Tonight and its a good one - you'll have never heard anyone explore the joys of 'Tumble and Twirl', 'I Keep Forgetting' and 'Dancing With the Big Boys' in quite such vivid detail before. In making this series of episodes, I've changed my mind about 'Tonight' to some extent. Going in, I'd dismissed it as a load of old horse manure, but having heard what Nick has to say has made me if not love it, at least appreciate it a b...2025-02-0241 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMNicholas Pegg on Tonight (Part Two)Nicholas Pegg and I continue our voyage into the heart of darkness as we venture deeper into the depths of Bowie's 1984 album 'Tonight'. Can we find our way back from the sadness of 'God Only Knows' into the light? Will there be redemption with Tina Turner on the title track? How do the ongoing Iggy covers fare? And what on earth does the surreal 1960 TV series 'The Strange World of Gurney Slade' have to do with the wonderful 21 minute mini epic 'Jazzin For Blue Jean' produced to promote one of the album's clutch of solid gold bangers? It's real, it's...2025-01-2757 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMNicholas Pegg on Tonight (Part One)Returning to albumtoalbum for a long-overdue reunion is renowned actor, occasional Dalek and author of The Complete David Bowie, Nicholas Pegg.
Nick's an old friend of the podcast and has tackled some of David Bowie's most acclaimed albums in previous episodes - as well as exploring entire eras (our 198More series of chats take an overview of Bowie's singles, soundtracks and various off-extramural activities 1981 - 1989). Now, he's back to tackle one of the most challenging artefacts in the Bowie oeuvre - the much-maligned 1984 album Tonight.
A rag-tag bag of semi-sentient cover versions, marimbas, an absolutely bracingly...2025-01-191h 10
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMEarl Slick on Station to StationBack in 1974, Earl Slick was a 22-year old jobbing session guitarist fast developing a reputation for his supple, searing style and versatility in all idioms. Hired by Bowie to join his Diamond Dogs tour, Slick then had to suddenly pivot from apocalypto-rock to sleek Philly soul at a moment's notice - but acquitted himself so well, he was invited to play on tracks destined for Young Americans before forming the core band, alongside Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis, George Murray and Roy Bittan to cut the extraordinary Station to Station, in LA, during October 1975.
Bringing his charismatic flair to...2024-01-2857 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMLeah Kardos on The Next Day Part 4In this episode we analyse The Next Day Extra, November 2013's accompanying min-album chock-full of tasty treats, rambunctious remixes and some songs that inexplicably never made it onto the album proper. Never mind. Now they get their moment in the sun and thanks to Leah Kardos's encyclopaedic knowledge of all things late-era Bowie, a fascinating conversation ensues in which we gallop across this collection and appreciate anew the understated and undersung treasures that await within.
Thanks again to Leah for all her time and insights and for making this conversation so enjoyable and illuminating. You can find out...2023-12-3133 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMLeah Kardos on The Next Day Part 3Stadium rock! Ziggy! Morrissey? John Cooper Clarke? The Singing Detective! Join author of Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie, musician and director of The Visconti Studio Dr Leah Kardos as she continues her full-spectrum analysis of The Next Day, David Bowie's masterful penultimate album from 2013. In this episode, we look at the final three songs of the album - (You Will) Set The World On Fire, You Feel So Lonely You Could Die and brooding closer Heat.
This is the third of four episodes devoted to The Next Day and its unruly children on The Next Day...2023-12-2644 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMLeah Kardos on The Next Day Part 2We're back! And by we, I mean me and musician, writer and academic Leah Kardos, amongst whose many achievements is the critically-acclaimed book 'Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie' which takes a thoughtful and informed view of Bowie's final projects. She is also a friend and trusted collaborator of Tony Visconti's, founding The Visconti Studio at London's Kingston University. Currently, Leah's working on her next book, exploring Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' album.
In this conversation, we continue our deep dive into The Next Day, with anecdotes, opinions, random theories and what we hope are facts, a...2023-08-281h 16
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMLeah Kardos on The Next Day Part 1The Next Day is 10. And what a sprawling, dense forest of darkness, enervation and guttural thrills it is. The perfect halfway point between the charismatic rock of Reality and ethereal elusive Blackstar, it's often overlooked and overshadowed by that monumental successor. But there is a lot here to unpack and to do it, I could think of no one better than Leah Kardos, senior lecturer in music at Kingston University where she co-founded the Visconti Studio with Tony Visconti, the leader of The Stylophone Orchestra, a frequent contributor to The Wire magazine and author of the universally acclaimed Blackstar Theory...2023-03-241h 21
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMMike Garson on Aladdin SaneIn this episode we talk to the one and only Mike Garson, pianist extraordinaire!
From playing with the Spiders from Mars to improvising one of the most extraordinary passages in pop music – that utterly frenetic piano solo in Aladdin Sane – to the elegance of 2003’s Reality - Garson was one of the only musicians to have played with Bowie across decades, sculpting the sound for Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups, Diamond Dogs, Young Americans, Black Tie White Noise, Outside, Earthling, Heathen and Reality. And, as he explains here, he was originally only hired for eight weeks…!
In this episode, Mike tal...2022-10-0932 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMBrett Morgen on Moonage DaydreamThe auteur responsible for one of the most talked-about Bowie events in years, Brett Morgen, joins me for this episode of albumtoalbum - the first of a new season! - to discuss the ideas behind, meanings within and reaction to, his film Moonage Daydream. In a wide ranging talk, Brett talks about the acclaim and complaints the film has garnered, why he made it the way he did, why he didn't include your personal favourite Bowie moments and what he might do next.
Recorded over Zoom (apologies for the poor sound quality) in September 2022, our conversation was incredibly i...2022-10-0152 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMReeves Gabrels: Part Two
He's back! Join me and Reeves Gabrels for more tales from the rock'n'roll frontline.
It's not surprising that the calm, can-do polymath Reeves, who barrels from rock to roll in the blink of an eye, so appealed to David Bowie’s need for a foil, friend and co-conspirator. It had been apparent from their first proper collaboration, the 1988 Reeves/La La La Human Steps performance in which Reeves oversaw a coruscating rendition of 1979’s Look Back In Anger, at London’s ICA. Explaining to Bowie what he wanted to do to the song, the guitarist said he wanted “the repe...2022-04-171h 08
Music, Mindfulness, & MadnessShining the Persistence/Commitment CoinWe talk about the relationship between persistence and commitment, how they can serve each other in your projects and daily life, and more...---Taxi (songwriting service): https://www.taxi.com/songwriting3Composer Catalog: http://www.composercatalog.comInterview with Reeves Gabrels on "DAVIDBOWIE:ALBUMTOALBUM"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reeves-gabrels-part-one/id1355073030?i=1000547920678Jamie Lidell's Secret Harmony Trick:https://youtu.be/jhG4gw85Boohttps://trojanrecords.com/rudeboydocumentary/---Dee, Michael & Anu:Anu Kirk:https://www.anukirk...2022-03-051h 53
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMReeves Gabrels: Part OneIn this, the first of an epic conversation about life, music, art, noise, haircuts, farts, Tin Machine, Buck Owens, Mick Ronson, Mick Jagger - oh, yes and more Tin Machine, legendary guitarist, composer and performer Reeves Gabrels joins me for a wonderfully random chat that charts our hero's early years, his career as a lawn-mower, wedding-party guitarist par excellence right up to meeting the man with whom he would spend the next ten years as a co-writer, guitarist, performer and friend.
Join us as we while away an hour or so looking back on an extraordinary life and m...2022-01-141h 15
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMMark Plati & Sterling Campbell on Toy (Part 1)Welcome back to Albumtoalbum, the David Bowie albums podcast with me, Arsalan Mohammad. And it’s a very exciting podcast indeed today as we welcome not one but two Bowie alumni, producer/musician Mark Plati and drummer Sterling Campbell, to talk about a new old classic lost collection of remakes, the legendary TOY.
TOY was released last month as part of the Brilliant Adventures box set, which covers the 1992 – 2001 period, an era in which Sterling and Mark worked with Bowie, together or individually, on albums like Black Tie White Noise, Outside, Earthling, hours and TOY as well as some of the...2021-12-1044 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMMark Plati & Sterling Campbell on Toy (Part 2)Welcome back to albumtoalbum the David Bowie Albums Podcast with me Arsalan Mohammad and in this second part of our chat with David Bowie’s long time collaborators Mark Plati and Sterling Campbell, we recall the making of albums including Black Tie White Noise, Earthling and of course, the great lost album of 60s tunes revisited, TOY, all of which feature in the new box set Brilliant Adventures. During the course of this episode, Mark and Sterling dig deeper into the sessions for TOY and the anecdotes come thick and fast. Do you know, for instance, what classic Bowie track in...2021-12-101h 21
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMTHE 198MORE SHOW WITH NICK PEGG PART FOURJoin me and Nick Pegg for the fourth and final part of the 198more show, an all-singing, all-dancing odyssey through the wildly underrated Bowie 80s. In this part, we address post Live Aid Bowie, his work with Iggy Pop, Tina Turner, Jimmy Murakami, Martin Scorsese, La La La Human Steps and a fellow called Reeves Gabrels, who would play a huge role in reorientating our hero with his muse, as the 90s loomed.
I hope you enjoy this episode and do share and spread the word about the series if you are so inclined. Meanwhile, keep an ear o...2021-08-2738 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMTHE 198MORE SHOW WITH NICK PEGG PART THREEIt's Live Aid Special! Join us as we join Bowie behind the scenes at the global jukebox on July 13 1985 for a day that changed pop'n'roll history2021-07-1340 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMTHE 198MORE SHOW WITH NICK PEGG PART TWOJoin us for this 90 minute epic as we continue our mid 80s odyssey through the hectic schedule of D. Bowie, who is dressed in a frightwig and tights hurtling around labyrinths, or smoother than a filtered Turkish gasper, suave and Soho-sexy for Absolute Beginners. We get to grips with the music from both movies, debate Bowie's astonishing work rate, enjoy his Iggy Pop impersonation, tell you all you ever wanted to know about the Italian evergreen 'Volare' and Pegg shares some fruity opinions on Chris de Burgh and the Thompson Twins. We're very happy with this one and I hope...2021-04-031h 23
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMTHE 198MORE SHOW WITH NICK PEGG PART ONEThe 1980s were Bowie's lost decade. True? No, says Nick Pegg. Join me and the much-loved author of The Complete David Bowie for a reappraisal of Bowie's musical adventures around and beneath the official albums released between 1980 and 1990. We're looking at Baal, Queen, Pat Metheny, Cat People, Live Aid, Band Aid, Labyrinth, Absolute Beginners and of course, as is always the case with Mr Pegg, a whole load of assorted trivia, facts, opinions and theories. Whatever you think of Bowie's notoriously divisive EMI albums, one thing's clear - there's much more to Bowie in the 80s than Never Let Me...2021-03-091h 28
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMAdam Buxton & Chris O'Leary on Scary Monsters (Part 2)Part Two of my megachat with comedian and author Adam Buxton and in this episode, we’re joined by the one and only Chris O’Leary, returning to Albumtoalbum after his chat with us on ‘David Bowie’ (1967) some months back, author of Pushing Ahead of the Dame blog and collected essays on Bowie’s canon in ‘Rebel, Rebel’ and ‘Ashes To Ashes’.
We travel through the album’s tracklisting in this episode, from Ashes to Ashes to the closing Its No Game Part II and a bit beyond too. Chris and Adam swap nuggets of Bowie trivia and anecdotes and Adam b...2021-01-081h 23
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMAdam Buxton on Scary MonstersWelcome back to Albumto album with guest Bowie obsessive Adam Buxton!
Scary Monsters is a milestone album. It is one I have long wanted to tackle here and I have quite a few thoughts about it. Here are a few of them.
David Bowie entered 1980 restless for change and a new sense of purpose. The generally lukewarm reaction to his previous album Lodger clearly prompted an internal audit and the 33-year old artist, on the move from Europe and now soaking up the energy of New York city, felt the time had come to harness the sp...2020-12-151h 12
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMTim Worthington on Holy HolyTim Worthington - writer, podcaster and cultural archaeologist - is someone who digs deep and delights in obscure details. So, it follows that in this episode of Albumtoalbum, he chose to eschew the album format and instead, picked an intriguing slice of Bowie history - the 1971 single 'Holy Holy', originally recorded in the weird dead period just after the recording of The Man Who Sold The World in 1970, after a disillusioned Mick Ronson had returned to Hull to work as a municipal gardener, marking out rugby pitches on council playing fields instead of living it up with the Bowie gang...2020-11-1754 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMChris O'Leary on David Bowie (1967) part 2Let us head back to the summer of 1967 and the second side of the debut album by promising pop hopeful David Bowie. On this side of the disk, we encounter Little Bombardier, Silly Boy Blue, Arthur (uncle Arthur?) a singer in a band, the Maid of Bond Street, the sneezing Mr Gravedigger and many others. Guiding me in this kaleidoscopic quest is my friendly guest, the man behind Pushing Ahead Of The Dame, Chris O'Leary. In amongst the ditties, he tells me something of his own work and the story behind his remarkable chronicle of Bowie's life and work and...2020-09-2245 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMChris O'Leary on David Bowie (1967)Following on from our conversation about Bowie’s final album, this episode of albumtoalbum whizzes us back 53 years to his first, the eponymous debut, released in Britain on June 1 1967. Of course, any other artist in the world might be nervous about releasing an album - a debut album! - on the same day as The Beatles dropped their long-awaited follow up to Revolver, but that's showbusiness baby. Still, one can only imagine the sense of panic felt in the Decca boardrooms, when puce-faced executives heard just exactly what their newest star would be releasing in competition with the Beatles' masterpiece.2020-08-3156 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMDonny McCaslin & Leah Kardos on ★ Part 3The third and final instalment of our epic conversation with Donny McCaslin and Leah Kardos takes a behind the scenes look at the recording of David Bowie's final album, ★ in New York. Donny tells us what it was like to work on Bowie's demos and how even in his last sessions, David B was as inspired, energised and excited as ever by his music and collaborators. Thanks to Donny for his time and generosity in sharing these precious memories and especially to Leah Kardos for her insights and perspectives on the album. Don't forget to follow them both at
...2020-08-0949 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMDonny McCaslin & Leah Kardos on ★ Part 2Welcome to the second of a megachat with musicians Donny McCaslin and Leah Kardos, as we discuss at length the life and times of the final epic album, 2016’s ★
2016’s ★is a dense, darkly textured epic that reveals Bowie in full flight as a musician, improvisator, lyricist and performer, a tour de force that demonstrated that Bowie was as much at ease with his past as he was with his present.
A remarkable accomplishment indeed, of course, for as we know this was Bowie’s farewell. And what an album ★ is. Like Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen, Bowie left us...2020-07-061h 04
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMDonny McCaslin & Leah Kardos on ★2016’s ★is a dense, darkly textured epic that reveals Bowie in full flight as a musician, improvisator, lyricist and performer, a tour de force that demonstrated that Bowie was as much at ease with his past as he was with his present.
A remarkable accomplishment indeed, of course, for as we know this was Bowie’s farewell. And what an album ★ is. Like Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen, Bowie left us with a complex and astonishingly powerful final statement. It’s the sound of an artist at the top of his game, confident, with nothing to prove and that fertile, qu...2020-06-2137 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMGuy Pratt on Lodger part 2The legendary bass player to the stars Guy Pratt joins us for a wonderful succession of amazing tales, rock and roll anecdotage, fashion advice, Floydian digressions and hot takes on Lodger in this second part of our megachat extravaganza!
1979's 'Lodger' is an often underrated album but upon further inspection, this blend of new wave, electrorock, globally-inspired music and esoteric experimentation stands the test of time. It's a shift away from the previous two 'Berlin' albums and probably the most Eno-esque of all Bowie's records, until 1995's '1. Outside'. The tough line up of Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis...2020-05-2949 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMGuy Pratt on Lodger part 11979's 'Lodger' is an often underrated album but upon further inspection, this blend of new wave, electrorock, globally-inspired music and esoteric experimentation stands the test of time. It's a shift away from the previous two 'Berlin' albums and probably the most Eno-esque of all Bowie's records, until 1995's '1. Outside'. The tough line up of Carlos Alomar, Dennis Davis and George Murray are on top form and our man Bowie sounds, in turn, edgy, expansive, impassioned and artful.
Joining me to discuss this superb moment in Bowie's career is the legendary boss of the bass, Guy Pratt who s...2020-04-2349 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMStuart Maconie on Diamond Dogs part 3With our tin cans and string stretching across the locked down nation, Stuart and I return to conclude our scuttle through the dark underworld of Bowie's Diamond Dogs. In this episode, we rattle through what we quaintly call 'Side 2', taking in the soul-inflected death disco vibe and pondering its debt to Orwell. Along the way, we look at the disparate influences that come into play and touch on disco, soul, claret, Stormzy, the Arctic Monkeys and Chas'n'Dave and debate the burning issue of the day - viz. Is it "reason" or "treason"? Find out more ... in NINETEEN EIGHTY FOOOURR2020-04-121h 00
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMStuart Maconie on Diamond Dogs Part 2"This is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning." Winston Churchill could have been talking about this episode of Albumtoalbum, in which Stuart and I continue our deep dive into the world of Bowie's* Diamond Dogs and conclude the first part of our chipper chat session. In this handy, pocket-sized episode, we marvel at Sweet Thing/Candidate and Rebel Rebel, via Bowie's eyepatch, John Lennon, Alvin Stardust and a choice of Germanic influence - 1920s Berlin Cabaret or pounding krautrock?
*Have you noticed how, in 1974, it w...2020-03-3128 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMStuart Maconie on Diamond Dogs Part 1In the year of the Diamond Dogs... while the zombie peoploids were crawling through Hunger City yowling with rage, a cheerful 13 year old lad in Wigan encountered Bowie's chilling, thrilling 'Diamond Dogs' LP. Today, Stuart Maconie, BBC DJ, critic and author joins me for a wonderfully rambling and enjoyable chat about all things Diamond Dogs. In this first episode, as well as recalling those halcyon days of the mid 1970s (and indeed they were halcyon, according to his new book The Nanny State Made Me), we delve deep into the mid 70s world of Bowie, the rise and fall of g...2020-03-241h 00
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMNicholas Pegg on 1.Outside Part 3The final part of our king-sized 'Outside' chat with the MC of DB, Nicholas Pegg sweeps us up in a torrent of facts, trivia, analysis and architecture and morality. We push to the close of our investigation into this esoteric masterpiece and ask the important questions of the day including whether Oxford is actually a town or city, what track would make Bowie duck onstage when he played it live and the album's pleasing ability to be played in any old way you like. Join us!
Don't forget the previous two episodes here:
Part 1: https://podcasts...2020-03-2053 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMNicholas Pegg on 1. Outside Part 2Spongebob Squarepants, Scott Walker, Eno, murder, murder, madness, the Pet Shop Boys, Algeria Touchshriek, Noah and Nelly, death, millennial angst and one of Bowie's finest albums, yes it's more from the dark, dangerous world of Outside, with the one and only Nicholas Pegg. 2020-01-0650 min
DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUMNicholas Pegg on 1.OutsideReleased in September 1995, 1. Outside (The diary of Nathan Adler or the art-ritual murder of Baby Grace Blue: A non-linear Gothic Drama Hyper-cycle), was [Wikipedia says] "set in 1999, in which the government, through its arts commission, had created a new bureau to investigate the phenomenon of Art Crime".
How disappointing that 1999 in fact, just brought us "...hours" instead.
Anyway, 1. Outside was intended as the first in a series of releases intended to articulate a sense of dystopian tension in the air as we hurtled towards 2000. It was a return to the sort of scabrous sounds and sc...2019-12-0153 min