Tales from the world's largest archive of music journalism: entertaining interviews with luminaries such as Neil Tennant, Billy Bragg, Pamela Des Barres, Gary Kemp, Vashti Bunyan, Midge Ure, Nick Hornby and Robyn Hitchcock. Thoughtful and informative conversations about all aspects of popular music history, interspersed with clips from exclusive audio interviews that date back to the mid-'60s. The RBP podcast is hosted by Barney Hoskyns and Mark Pringle and co-hosted & produced by Jasper Murison-Bowie. We're a proud part of Pantheon — the podcast network for music lovers.
https://www.rocksbackpages.com/podcast
episode 170: A Tom Hibbert special!! with Mark Ellen and Sylvia Patterson
In this extra-special episode we welcome into the RBP lair not one but two legends of music journalism. Former Smash Hits/Q/MOJO supremo Mark Ellen and Sylvia (I'm Not With The Band) Patterson join us to pay tribute to their late friend and colleague upon the publication of our book Phew, Eh Readers? The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert – the single funniest music journalist who ever lived.
Both guests recount their initial and unforgettable encounters with "Hibbs" – Mark's at New Music News in 1980; Sylvia's at Smash Hits in 1986 — before we look back at Tom's early years, his marriage to the marvellous Allyce Tessier and his pop passions from the Byrds to Big Star (via Moby Grape and the 13th Floor Elevators).
Interspersing the conversation with quotes from the classic Hibbert pieces collected in Phew, Eh Readers? and the tributes to Tom we commissioned for the book — plus clips from audio interviews with Jon Bon Jovi, Vivien Stanshall and Tom's Smash Hits colleague Neil Tennant — we follow our hero's path through his brilliant career.
Stops along the way include his entirely made-up letters to New Music News, his 1987 audience with Margaret Thatcher, his infamous "Who the Hell" interviews for Q and his hilariously irreverent columns for The Observer and the Mail On Sunday. Not forgetting the Love Trousers, the neo-psychedelic covers band he formed with Mr. Ellen...
The pathos of Tom's twilight years, following his 1997 hospitalisation with pneumonia and pancreatitis — is touched upon before we wrap up with a fond nod to his old pal "Juggins". We shall not read his like again.
Phew, Eh Readers?: The Life and Writing of Tom Hibbert is published by Nine Eight Books on 1st February, 2024.