Yesterday was the last Sunday of the month and that can only mean one thing: a new episode of 25 on Xfm.  This episode, already the sixth of the series, looks at The Smiths album The Queen is Dead.  Being a big fan of The Smiths, this has been a labour of love for Sam.  This is reflected by the large amount of interviewees.  Featuring in this episode are: Johnny Marr, Mani, Guy Garvey (look out for his frank yet hilarious confession half way through), Brett Anderson, Clint Boon, Billy Bragg and Dr Eoin Devereux from the University of Limerick.

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The latest episode of 25 aired last night on Xfm.  This episode focused on the R.E.M album Lifes Rich Pageant.  After an early panic, as we were unable to locate primary contributors, we managed to locate Don Gehman and Sam was granted permission to conduct a phone interview with R.E.M bassist Mike Mills.  I conducted my first interview for this episode, interviewing R.E.M author Tim Abbott.  Considering that the interview was conducted using Skype, the quality is very good indeed.

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Apologies for the lack of posts but I have been catching up with things after my holiday in Italy.  The latest episode of 25 was broadcast a couple of weeks ago, this time focusing on Prince's album Parade.  I was not involved in this episode, instead my buddy Simon and S-Endz, from the band Swami, helped Sam out with this one as I am not a knowledgeable on Prince than I am with the other artists/bands discussed on 25.  This could be Sam's best documentary yet.  It features Prince keyboardist Dr Fink, Prince uber fan Bill Oddie (yes, the Bill Oddie), Suede's Brett Anderson and many other worthy contributors.  The highlight is probably S-Endz talking about how the track Kiss evolved from being a track for the band Mazarati to a Prince song.  You can listen to it below.

I am already involved in locating material for next months 25 which will look at the R.E.M album Life's Rich Pageant.

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The latest in Xfm 25 documentaries is now available to listen to on MixCloud and features, amongst others, yours truly talking about the Depeche Mode album Black Celebration.  I usually shy away from being interviewed for things but was happy to be involved in this.  I had no idea how difficult it is to be interviewed, I am very glad that I prepared before Sam stuck the microphone in my face for 30 minutes.  As most people say, listening to your own voice is never a pleasurable thing and I still haven't listed to it all the way through.  That is mainly down to me not having time yet, think I will save that delight for tomorrow when I am writing up my latest PhD chapter.  The next 25 episode will focus on the Prince album Parade.

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Sam's radio documentary on the 25th anniversary of the Public Image Limited album Album aired Sunday night on Xfm.  I have been helping him research, locate contributors and provide content for past couple of months.  As always, Sam has done an excellent job.  Xfm were able to get Lydon into the studio for an exclusive interview, his comments are as entertaining as usual.  Also listen out Paul Long, my PhD supervisor, and the inimitable Professor Tim Wall offering their observations on the album.  The next documentary in the series will look at the Depeche Mode album Black Celebration.  I will be one of the interviewees.

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For the past two months I have been helping my buddy Sam with research and locating content for a monthly radio documentary series he is producing for Xfm.  The show is called 25.  On the last Sunday of every month, an hour long documentary will be broadcast that will reveal the stories behind albums that are 25 years old this year.  The first documentary went out this past Sunday and focuses on Metallica's album Master of Puppets.  I was pleased to find that I have been given an assistant producer credit.  The next documentary will be on Public Image Ltd album Album and then the great Depeche Mode's Black Celebration.  Well done to Sam for producing such a high quality documentary.

<div><div style="clear:both; height:3px;"></div><p style="display:block; font-size:12px; font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin:0; padding: 3px 4px 3px 4px; color:#999;">25 / 1: "Master Of Puppets" Jan. by Xfm 25 on Mixcloud</p><div style="clear:both; height:3px;"></div></div>