Episodios

  • BAY CITY POLLERS. 30 GREATEST SCOTTISH SONGS. EPISODE 4
    Mar 7 2025

    It was all going so well. Voting Party's going great on X, lots of love in our virtual room, some amazing songs getting voted through to the Finals. And then....we get to the 2000-2025 nominated songs. In a word, carnage.


    107 songs voted on, only 14 voted through. Lots of big hitters missing out, and recriminations aplenty amongst our music friends. It is with this backdrop that our latest podcast was recorded, with our resident BCP panel member Caroline Binnie & the ( award winning) writer Julie Rea tasked with steering our music boat into calmer waters. Did they succeed? In a word, no.

    The panel did manage to vote 4 songs from the 2000-2025 'red' list back into the Finals ( all bangers too) - however, they also insisted that our ' max 2 songs per artist' remains a hard backstop. This in turn means that songs from four of our very favourite bands will have to be voted on again ( Julie & Caroline kindly gave us their suggestions)

    However, we finished the chat on a high, by agreeing how we should get from our current position of having over 100 songs in the Finals, to arriving at our Final 30 ( and ultimately our overall No1). Whatever the final 30 looks like, you cant say we didn't have a go...


    Until next time, enjoy & stay safe.

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    37 m
  • LIVE MUSIC & ME. XAN TYLER. EPISODE 27
    Mar 6 2025

    Our latest Live Music & Me guest was the singer/songwriter Xan Tyler. We were pretty sure that Xan would have some pretty good stories to share, and she did. From a first gig at Knebworth, to travelling to NYC for a first gig date, to missing Patti Smith playing at the Doune The Rabbit Hole festival, there was plenty going on.


    Xan also got mentions for 2 gig venues we haven't had before ( the Panopticon Glasgow & the Byron Bay Blues Festival, Australia), and, more importantly, gave us the lowdown on how to get the best seats at Ronnie Scotts ( if you are female) Oh, and let's not forget the tribute band WhamDuran. No, really....We had great fun doing this one, hope you enjoy it too.

    Stay safe

    PS Her 'one live album to own' recommendation was so good, we purchased a copy.

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    42 m
  • LIVE MUSIC & ME. HELEN O HARA. EPISODE 26
    Feb 13 2025

    Our guest for this episode of Live Music & Me was the very wonderful musician, arranger & author Helen O Hara - and 25 episodes in we are still pulling rabbits out the proverbial gig hat. For example, we're pretty sure Helen was the first guest to get Ozzy Osbourne, James Brown & a Commonwealth Games closing ceremony into her gig answers. And it was definitely the first time that we could tell our guest that they were the answer to one of the hosts gig questions ( first date with a partner). And, on top of all that, we also managed to forget to chat about the legend that is Nicky Hopkin ( who Helen recorded with) until AFTER the cameras stopped rolling!

    Thankfully there was more than enough content to keep the conversation flowing - and of course it was lovely to get a couple of Dexys Midnight Runners anecdotes thrown in too from Helen ( loads more in her memoir What's She Like which is highly recommended). Helen was a delight to chat to, and we hope that comes across when you get the opportunity to watch/listen. Until next time. Enjoy, and stay safe.

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    1 h y 2 m
  • LIVE MUSIC & ME. JJ GILMOUR. EPISODE 25
    Feb 10 2025

    For our first Live Music & Me podcast of 2025, we were joined by our good friend the Scottish singer, songwriter & musician JJ ‘Jinky” Gilmour. You go into the New Year full of plans to make the podcast lean and mean, focus on the music etc. However, before we even got to the first gig question, we had discussed the ageing process, the relative merits of the Old Firm and hot water bottles. No, really.As a long-standing member of The Silencers, we were sure that JJ would have a few stories to tell – and he did. From a first gig at the Glasgow Apollo that JJ remembered more for what was happening in the crowd (it wasn’t moshing), paying tribute to the legend that is Phil Lynott, and playing Blenheim Palace even although the promoter didn’t know who he was – JJ was on very good form. JJ also clarified how many Coatbridge tramps were in The Silencers (clue- it wasn’t 100%) – and mentioned U2 & Simple Minds a couple of times during the chat. And for the last question, one of them got the ‘one live album we should all own’ nomination from him (and it’s a belter). We tried for thick end of 6 months to make this one happen, and we hope you agree it was worth the effort. Enjoy and stay safe PS. JJ mentioned that he has had a couple of personal challenges during his career and has always been a big supporter of those organisations that offer Mental Health support. For anyone interested in this area, check out Music Minds Matter Charity https://www.musicmindsmatter.org.uk

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    1 h
  • BAY CITY POLLERS - 30 GREATEST SCOTTISH SONGS. EPISODE 3
    Jan 31 2025

    We have reached the 1990s! For this episode on our quest to create a list of the 30 Greatest Scottish Songs ever- as well as our resident Bay City Poller Caroline Binnie, we were joined by our friends, the actor Colin McCredie & Station Manager for Cumbernauld FM Gerry Duffy. In addition to the panel re-stating how great the 1980s nominated songs are ( all 42 of them!) we had a proper discussion on both the songs that have been voted into from the 1990s list, and more important those that weren't! Thankfully, all 4 panelist used their jokers wisely, adding a quality song each back onto the list. We also got Gerry & Colin to give us their ' die on a hill' Top 10 Scottish song nomination, and ended the chat by sharing some Wham trivia that aged us all in real time... A mighty fine time was had by all, hope that comes across when you have a look/listen. As ever, enjoy & stay safe

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    58 m
  • BAY CITY POLLERS. 30 GREATEST SCOTTISH SONGS. EPISODE 2
    Dec 30 2024

    When we recorded Episode 1 of this series, we mentioned inpassing that the 1980s looked like being a particularly challenging decade toagree a Top 30 on, and so it proved!

    Episode 2 is pretty much taken up with chatting through the 1980s songs that did make the cut, those that didn’t, and those that did but then didn’t.

    Confused? Join the club.

    We also managed to adopt another couple of bands into our ‘Scottish’ family, although we remain unconvinced that even the bands themselves would agree!

    As well as Brian & Caroline, we were also joined forthis episode by our special guest the writer, activist & mum Donna McLean, who was 10 minutes late joining us, due to a combination of all three of these priorities all landing on the same day as the podcast recording. No, really.

    Oh, and of course Zoom wasn’t particularly happy to beworking over the festive season and made sure that our screen formatting wasn’t quite what we wanted it to be.

    That Sony Award is feeling further away than ever….

    Onwards and upwards

    Enjoy, and stay safe



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    46 m
  • Bay City Pollers. 30 Greatest ' Scottish' Songs - Episode 1
    Nov 12 2024

    When we finished our last music podcast series that took us almost 18 months! (101 Greatest Albums), we had no plans to do another.

    However, after some pub some chat with friends we concluded that, although there has been plenty of discussion on great Scottish albums, there has been very little on what a great Scottish songs list might look like.

    So…..we asked our Twitter/X friends for song suggestions. And,5000 nominations later, we are now having a go at working through a quorum of them.

    Episode 1 reflects all of the above, where we are joined by some of our resident podcast panel. It also covers off the online discussion we had about how you would define a ‘Scottish’ artist. On the basis that none of Big Country were born in Scotland, it’s not as easy as you think.

    This series will take us a while to get through, however we can categorically assure you it WONT take us 18 months!

    Number 1 priority at the moment – we give this new series a title it deserves….

    Enjoy & stay safe.

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    47 m
  • LIVE MUSIC & ME - DAVID MCCLUSKEY. EPISODE 24
    Sep 16 2024

    Our guest on this episode of Live Music & Me is the songwriter, musician & singer David McCluskey. When your guests first gig is The Clash/Specials/Suicide - you know its going to be a good un... And it was. From a first winch pogoing at a punk gig, to being the only punks at a Captain Beefheart gig ( no, really) , to walking out on a Johnny Cash gig, David's gig memories were highly entertaining We also found out that, as well as being the backbeat of The Bluebells for over 40 years, David also played drums for another legendary Scottish indie band. Oh, and David threw in a Bunnymen Mac impersonation for good measure. It took us over 6 months to arrange this one, but you know what they say.... Big thanks to David - an absolute gentleman Enjoy & stay safe.

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    57 m