Bang! 101 Songs about Nuclear War from the 1980s4 Mai

The Man who Saved the World

It’s Episode 8 of Season 2, and we have a very special guest, Stephen Baker, lead singer of Finnish art metal band Frozen Factory. Their album Apocalypse Inc came out in January 2026 and included the fantastic Petrov’s Light, a tribute to “The Man Who Saved the World” in 1983: Stanislav Petrov. We discuss Petrov’s amazing story and almost unimaginable legacy, as well as finding out more about Frozen Factory – the band, their history and 80’s influences.

We then discuss 5 great songs by the biggest names in rock music. Thematically, they are all linked by the notion of false alarms, warnings and threats….

We start with “I’ve Known No War” from The Who’s 1982 album “It’s Hard”. It was John Entwistle’s last studio album with the band (and, indeed, Kenny Jones’) and they sound on fine form, despite Roger Daltrey’s later regrets about the album.

The next song we discuss is “War Games” by Crosby, Stills and Nash, which is a surprisingly upbeat number that accompanied the Matthew Broderick nuclear war movie of the same name.

We then move on to “Four Minutes” from Roger Waters’ themed album “Radio Kaos” which sees him re-join forces with vocalist Clare Torry. It does, perhaps, offer some small message of optimism in an otherwise bleak landscape.

Supertramp’s 16 minute epic “Brother, Where You Bound?” is our next point of discussion. Complete with accompanying feature length video (although it wasn’t a single), the song has an array of styles and moods. It’s fantastic.

Our final song is “Distant Early Warning” by Rush. Its lyrics were written by the great Neil Peart, who so sadly passed away in 2020, and the song is a wonderful mix of high-powered drums, synths and guitar behind Geddy Lee’s distinctive vocal.

All of our song are on our playlists – check them out on Spotify and Apple.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4aHCNYfoQ2gtko5z6pwS9O?si=81bce0c59ff2470d

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/bang-101-more-songs-about-nuclear-war-from-the-1980s/pl.u-vxy6L76uzVzd8Zl

Keep in touch – we love to hear from you:

Blue Sky: @bangpodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: Bang Nuclear Podcast

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

Artwork: Rachel Malbon

Assistant Producer: Shivam Pathak

Opening words: Richie Wheeler

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