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Interview special: Toby Manning

Toby Manning is a London-based music journalist, author, and academic with a career spanning popular culture, music, and political history. He’s best known for his work examining the intersections of music and ideology, often through a Marxist lens, as well as his deep dives into specific artists and cultural moments.

Manning’s most prominent book is Mixing Pop and Politics: A Marxist History of Popular Music (2024), a 500-plus-page exploration of how popular music from the 1950s to the present has reflected and resisted political and social upheavals.

Plus:

Graham explains happened when he met celist, Julian Lloyd Webber in London at the launch of Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

Graham also explores the sonic world of London's Fat Dog - an indie band from South East London. They’re known for their chaotic, high-energy live shows and a genre-defying sound that mixes dance, punk, techno, klezmer, and industrial elements—think something like a feral lovechild of Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, and a rave in a Brixton basement.

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Graham and Charles report that York is about to have Britain's biggest independent book store with Topping Books https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/
Is it going to be an opportunity or threat?

Charles asks what do two Robert De Niro for the price of one add up to in The Alto Knights?

Plus Edwin Collins announcing autumn final tour after releasing National Shall Speak Unto National last Friday.

Graham previews the next Vinyl Sessions event in Harrogate which will focus on The Beatles in film and the continuing significance of the albums A Hard Day's Night and Help!.

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Graham explores why Steven Soderberg's new spy/com film, Black Bag starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender isn't as good as his best and most under-rated film, The Limey from 1999 which starred Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda.

Charles and Graham chew over the headliners for this year's Glastonbury Festival.

Graham takes a look at Grant McPhee's exceptional new book on Scottish indie bands, Postcards From Scotland.

Graham relates how an enquiry from Fibbers owner Tim Hornsby led to uncovering Charm Magazine's spat in print with the early Kaiser Chiefs.

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