Known Pleasures

Gang Of Three

A sometimes wry look at the highly influential music that washed up in the seismic splash that was punk.

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78 episodes
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Episodes78

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Jun 5, 2019 · 1 hr 6 min
Known Pleasures Ep 18 - The Jam
I had no idea what a mod was. I didn’t know about Lambretta scooters, Chelsea boots or cashmere jumpers. So when I first laid eyes on The Jam I was confused. Where is the spikey hair, the ripped t-shirts, the bondage trousers and the safety pins? Who was this well-dressed trio in Union Jacks playing music like The Who on speed? In this podcast we discuss their six studio albums from when they were Absolute Beginners all the way to their final parting ‘Gift’ to the world. Seeing the Jam say farewell was easily the Bitterest Pill I’ve Ever Had To Swallow. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1uLLtYSs31jEN5NljbpaCt?si=vmPRlDJyRRmqnBwJXNjMIw
Apr 9, 2019 · 1 hr 15 min
Known Pleasures Ep 17 - The Stranglers
Were The Stranglers an ageing punk band who Got A Grip On Themselves before turning Golden Brown, or just a bunch of brass-necked bovver boys with a yen for karating their way into trouble? Are they punk, post punk or are they just…The Stranglers? Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/6KIehdHVAKygkExz42zRgQ?si=dJcn7vn2SOmsnshYIADeqA
Feb 21, 2019 · 55 min
Known Pleasures Ep 16 - Devo
From the 'Rubber Capital of the World' - Akron Ohio, these Spudboys in Ziggurat hats carved out a career in popular music by making the most uncompromising, angular, robotic tunes that really had disaster written all over them. But their rise to prominence coincided with the New Wave movement where to be unusual was the cool thing to be. So, what happened when they were through being cool? Spotify Playlist Link : https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/1HYDPMbfqrpmBgpl2JCtnY?si=xZIqcPvMQO6OJqeX2aQ3PQ
Dec 31, 2018 · 1 hr 1 min
Known Pleasures Ep 15 - Bauhaus
A group that persistently divided the critics, to some Bauhaus were brooding masters of edgy but elegant, choppy guitar-riffed bass-grooved masterpieces that spoke to the pain they felt amidst an uncaring world. To others, Bauhaus were wallies. But while the band’s pitch-dark lyrics and highly charged theatrics were just a bit too preposterous for some to swallow, over the course of four diverse albums, and a host of memorable singles, vocalist Pete Murphy and his cohorts carved a substantial, high-cheekboned place for themselves in the post-punk firmament. Spotify Playlist Link : https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/2R8lXLIhQ0wUEvaZedxXlw
Sep 3, 2018 · 1 hr 7 min
Known Pleasures Ep 14 - Hunters & Collectors
Formed amid the frenzy of the Melbourne new-wave music scene, the brutal hypnotic tribal funk of this six-, or eight-, or 10-piece band (depending on when you saw them) was as massive and thrilling a sound as we’d ever heard. So, what was it all about? Pub-rock legends, or as big a disappointment as Australian post-punk has witnessed? Here we discuss the life and times of Hunters and Collectors. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/1BVe58hBHgHs03CTeVhMOY
Jun 8, 2018 · 49 min
Known Pleasures Ep 13 - The Clash
The Clash, perhaps more than any of the rest of the Class of ’77, seemed to be looking for a way out of punk almost from the start. In an era where it felt like music could actually change the world, they set about making themselves “the only band that mattered”. No band since has fought the law and won, like The Clash. Spotify Playlist Link : https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/5L5XVvKBchXG6i76Hetf91?si=ekabH8EnTz-rtU1FOZJxcQ
Apr 17, 2018 · 1 hr 10 min
Known Pleasures Ep 12 - XTC
During the punk years there were many rules to follow. What to wear, what to listen to and what you should avoid listening to. Punk was an all encompassing lifestyle. But one band with one song proudly proclaimed that they played pop music and it opened the gates for many punk and new wave artists to embrace the catchy melodic chorus while still retaining a bit of aggression, a bit of quirkiness and the snotty punk attitude. So let’s all go Meccanik Dancing with the brilliance that is XTC. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/4Ocjc0kcFX5q3rnwqtM1Rd?si=oCLYpCEPR2uMB2X7tq16AQ
Mar 8, 2018 · 1 hr 16 min
Known Pleasures Ep 11 - Talking Heads
Despite their success, Talking Heads made a career out of never really fitting in. With no discernable image or direction apart from a desire to stand out, they emerged at the dawn of US punk, played the game their way – and won. How did these very original outsiders eventually Stop Making Sense and go on to triumph in their own Revenge of the Nerds? Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/1krZNaV4yj1VkLoVGhzRTA?si=3NuOPBqJTD6UsviQ3Ee8OA
Jan 26, 2018 · 1 hr 5 min
Known Pleasures Ep 10 - The Human League
Forget the waitresses, forget the cocktail bars, forget the brilliantly simple chorus that ensured Don’t You Want Me would be a number one single around the world. While it’s understandable that many people’s memories of The Human League revolve around their global smash hit, for the real story we needed to go back to The Future. How did a bunch of sci-fi loving non-musicians from a grim industrial city in northern England help shape the destiny of popular music and sell millions of records along the way? Welcome to the peculiar world of The Human League. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/6ut6s3tO080YsKYP5Mlpt6?si=5rnyxgwfSgWYXpTZgt3eFg
Nov 17, 2017 · 1 hr
Known Pleasures Ep 9 - Echo & The Bunnymen
When it comes to influential bands coming out of Liverpool, they don’t get any bigger than Echo & The Bunnymen. (Except for one notable exception). From the reptilian snap of Crocodiles, the other-worldly Heaven Up Here, the sharpened spine of Porcupine to the pop deluge of Ocean Rain, the Post Punk output of Echo & The Bunnymen cemented their place in the pantheon of New Wave greats and for these reasons they will always be the Fab Four. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/7aeLqhiW5OdcTPU8y6z6YE?si=Q434QvmtT8eUbDM71qY5Xg
Sep 23, 2017 · 51 min
Known Pleasures Ep 8 - Killing Joke
Killing Joke emerged from the squats of Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove during what became known as the second wave of punk in late 1978. They cast a long, dark, influential shadow over bands as diverse as Metallica and Nirvana but it is their early works that set the template and reconfigured what the noise left by the end of punk could be. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/1HBKGQDP2chi5WtexX4Qy8?si=ozSO0_jERuyEq_olyUgeMw
Sep 2, 2017 · 1 hr 9 min
Known Pleasures Ep 7 - Flowers/Icehouse & Models
Flowers (or Icehouse as they came to be known) and Models might seem like strange bedfellows, but both bands sprang from the same highly concentrated influence the explosion of punk had over the Australian music scene before going on to the wider commercial success they are perhaps better known for today. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/0z6CF7WXufgzeNmcz5Sb6z?si=2qlevN1CRUa9cxYnsF0knw
Jul 25, 2017 · 1 hr
Known Pleasures Ep 6 - Gary Numan
The eighties, unlike any other decade, started with music being created on instruments that had never before existed. Sure, the Moog had appeared in the late sixties and showed up in various recordings throughout the seventies, but by the turn of the decade there were many drum machines, sequencers, analogue & digital keyboards that began to change the musical landscape in many ways. And this electronic music went from being an underground curiosity to a commercial powerhouse thanks in large part due to todays featured artist, Gary Numan. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/7AO6KIx4SluTc3oGXa019y?si=4Zz4xIYhRMKmT4VfEGiqSA
Jul 6, 2017 · 1 hr 9 min
Known Pleasures Ep 5 - The Police
To the derision of many in the punk movement, The Police would go on to become the most successful new wave band of all. Their sparse, insistently rhythmic, impossibly catchy songs simply took the world by storm, and within three years they were arguably the biggest band on the planet. So, with the benefit of almost four decades’ hindsight, how does the legacy of The Police stack up? Pleasant, but forgettable reggae-tinged pop from a best-forgotten band; or creators of some of the most brilliant music of the era? Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/3Op4fFCMRZtxh7QQM0pmcN?si=fJL3BPwBRfmVQxdu2N9Tzg
Jun 8, 2017 · 52 min
Known Pleasures Ep 4 - Public Image Ltd
In 1977 John Joseph Lydon (nee Rotten) made his name defining punk. 12 months later he arguably went one better to invent post-punk. A mere 9 months after breaking up the incendiary Sex Pistols the first output from his new band Public Image Limited arrived in October 1978 in the perfect form of the single Public Image. Suddenly a lot more seemed possible. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/6KBo48oUFsB8d9qBU7KNI4?si=dk2-9Z1_RuCfFdJPrjeR5g
May 1, 2017 · 1 hr 2 min
Known Pleasures Ep 3 - Japan
There has been some debate between the three of us as to whether Japan deserve to be categorized as a Post Punk band. They did start their life in 1974 as an almost glam rock outfit looking like the New York Dolls playing a kind of punk/funk hybrid. They then went through various changes in look, style and performance and unwittingly (much to their chagrin) spearheaded the ‘New Romantic’ movement in the early Eighties. But their music became much admired at this time due to it’s unique instrumentation, the cool slick vocal delivery of David Sylvian and the amazing fretless bass of Mick Karn that made them stand out from so many of their contemporaries. There was never anyone like them, and there has been no one like them since. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/44iygasaKcu3mrVzRQNJWl?si=wMu_8NKYQi-TZMeO9Vcqnw
Apr 19, 2017 · 1 hr 4 min
Known Pleasures Ep 2 - Siouxsie & The Banshees/The Cure
Conjoined in many ways aside from Robert Smith’s stint as touring Banshee guitarist, the links between these two may not be immediately obvious but as post-punk pioneers they stand out for their early albums in particular. Sounds and the way to treat them – once the shackles were gone nothing was off limits. Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/6h3xMAqIwHiHu3AiBHfRgV?si=ogY6P5XWS-iWSyJWPJQHAA
Apr 19, 2017 · 55 min
Known Pleasures Ep 1 - Simple Minds
In 1977, from the primordial swamp of Glasgow, in the grimy inner-urban heart of Scotland, a rock band emerged. Their name: Simple Minds. But 40 years, and 30 million records later, are they destined to be remembered as one of the most innovative, ground-breaking groups of the early 1980's or are they merely to be recalled as the band whose cheesy pop song played in the background at the end of The Breakfast Club. Did we, indeed, ‘Forget About Them’, or will they live on in our memories as long as music itself is played? Spotify Playlist Link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1230971434/playlist/6fdD6gqTXo3nApLtiu61t1?si=RCt7wnXaSeKRCrytH-NqIw