Episodes

  • Notable: Timber Festival

    Notable: Timber Festival
    Jul 6 2021

    Stuart and Elizabeth are on their travels again for the last episode before the summer hols, this time heading to the glorious Timber Festival in the National Forest.

    Elizabeth begins her history of music festivals not with Monterey or the Isle of White but the Panhellenic Games in Ancient Greece - while Stuart's horizons are set even further afield. He regales the audience with the story of the most durable object ever created, The Voyager Golden Record, and the music found upon it - sent into outer space for alien life to get a flavour of some of the highpoints of human culture.

    Notable will be away for the Summer and return with more extra-ordinary musical tales in the Autumn.

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    29 mins
  • Notable: Wendy Carlos& Norman 'Nobby' Pilcher

    Notable: Wendy Carlos& Norman 'Nobby' Pilcher
    Jun 28 2021
    In the penultimate episode of the series, Elizabeth and Stuart tackle the stories of two very different figures from the illustrious annals of music history. Elizabeth describes how Wendy Carlos shook the classical world to its well-heeled foundations with her extra-ordinary re-workings of Bach in particular, using cutting-edge electronic equipment that she herself was helping to develop. On the other side of the Atlantic, as Stuart will reveal, Nobby Pilcher was fast becoming the most notorious policeman in the history of British pop culture, with his penchant for nicking high profile musicians including John Lennon and Brian Jones.

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    26 mins
  • Notable: My Boy Lollipop & Basil Kirchin

    Notable: My Boy Lollipop & Basil Kirchin
    Jun 21 2021
    Another week, another Notable! This time out Stuart and Elizabeth tell two more stories from the annals of musical history, first up the incredible tale of Millie Small and her hugely influential hit 'My Boy Lollipop', which gave Britain its first taste of Jamaican Ska and gave Island Records its first major success. After that we hear about one of the true mavericks of British music, whose too-often neglected career spanned several decades and numerous genres - Basil Kirchin.

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    35 mins
  • Notable: Albert Ayler & Cecil Sharp

    Notable: Albert Ayler & Cecil Sharp
    Jun 14 2021
    This week Elizabeth and Stuart tell the stories of two highly influential figures from very different sections of music history. First up is the brilliant saxophonist Albert Ayler, a free jazz pioneer whose influence on John Coltrane alone merits him a much wider audience than ever achieved in his lifetime. Then, after a blessedly brief diversion into the backstory of legendary Lancashire songsmiths the Dandelion Adventure, we hear about Cecil Sharp, whose work collecting thousands of traditional songs in the nineteenth century made him a king of folk music; more recently his reputation has become somewhat more complicated, as Elizabeth and Stuart explain.

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    37 mins
  • Notable: The Wicker Man/Johan Johannsson

    Notable: The Wicker Man/Johan Johannsson
    Jun 7 2021
    Elizabeth and Stuart embark on a by-now near legendary one-show tour with their visit to the Hinterlands Film Festival in Skipton, which celebrates films set in non-urban locations. Before a screening of 'The Wicker Man' at the town's Plaza Cinema, Stuart tells the audience about movie's soundtrack, which he suggests launched its own musical sub-genre. Elizabeth chooses the work of Jóhan Jóannsson, most famous for his astonishing film soundtracks including 'Arrival' and 'The Theory of Everything', and the amazing musical life of his home country, Iceland.

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    42 mins
  • Edgard Varèse - David Bowie & 1984

    Edgard Varèse - David Bowie & 1984
    May 25 2021
    Stuart prompts a startling confession from Elizabeth through his recounting of the story of David Bowie's obsession with 1984. Before that she delves into the remarkable tale of composer Edgard Varèse and the huge influence he had on musicians including Charlie Parker and Frank Zappa. All that and a Notable Exception every bit as tangled as a C90 cassette that's been spat out of the tape player.

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    37 mins
  • Notable: O Superman/Ken Colyer

    Notable: O Superman/Ken Colyer
    May 17 2021
    This week Stuart and Elizabeth are set to beguile you with stories about arguably the oddest pop record to ever make the charts - Laurie Anderson's 'O Superman' - and one of the most influential though little-known figures in British music, Ken Colyer. In between times they're arguing about just how hard it is to get to Tennessee and where exactly 'Sprech' and 'Gesang' go their separate ways. Only on Notable, surely.

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    30 mins
  • Notable: Wigan Casino/Daphne Oram

    Notable: Wigan Casino/Daphne Oram
    May 10 2021
    Two more tales from the annals of musical history, featuring the nightclub in the ballroom of northern mill town that was voted Billboard's 'Best Disco In The World', and the pioneering genius who did so much to establish electronic music in the UK.

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    37 mins