A Witch Hunt and a Nuclear Party

It's Episode 6, and this time the theme is "Angry Young Britain". We explore songs from bands who raged against the injustices of the day and welcome a very special guest. Four of them hail from the Midlands - The Specials, UB40, The Beat and The Au Pairs and Swindon's finest, XTC.

The Au Pairs' lead singer is the great Lesley Woods and she spoke to us about the song "America" - a damning indictment of American foreign policy - and of the pervading nuclear threat - of that era. She also breaks some very exciting news.... the title of this episode is drawn from the lyrics.

Our discussion begins with The Specials' dark but danceable "Man at C and A". We then move on to UB40's bleak "The Earth Dies Screaming"... a 4 minute intro before a word is sung. After our interview with Lesley, we then move on to "Dream House in NZ" - again, its dark lyrics make you want to move your feet. We then finish with XTC's wonderful "Living Through Another Cuba" - another up-tempo ska-infused tune that reminds us of a time when the world was on the brink....

Thank you to all who have been loyally following and enjoying our podcast. Our playlist of all songs discussed is updated with each podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vLjQBbJEhiDaFNOTz9snD?si=55356228bc354821

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-6mo4j9KFByBgKXl

Keep in touch – we love your feedback and your song suggestions that have resulted in us extending beyond the 21 shows that we had planned!

Instagram - bangnuclearpodcast

Blue Sky - @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Reddit – r/bangnuclearpodcast

Email – bangnuclearpodcast@gmail.com

Opening and closing music – (Waiting for the) Heatwave – Fay Ray. Appears courtesy of Fay Ray. Written by John Lovering

Opening words - Richie Wheeler

Artwork – Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer – Shivam Pathak

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.