As mentioned in the last report, my travails in the editing booth assembling the rum soaked ramblings of Tash and I regarding…
DANNUS – THE DARK STRAITS OF REGLATHIUM
…have been challenging, but the process is complete and a new show will be out in the next few days.
Meanwhile, the third and final part of our Moorcockian RPGs triptych is approaching completion with a great talk with friend of the show Rob AKA @oldshabbygamer, host of the Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushee podcast. Rounding that out will be a discussion with the stout chaps that braved my rusty GM skills and played some Stormbringer 3rd edition. Following that we’ll leave gaming alone for a while, but I do want to thank Tanya Floaker AKA @timeoftribes for extending the hand of gaming friendship to Loz and I and introducing us to the marvellous game Houses of the Blooded! It was a terrific experience and the gang we played with were really welcoming. Tanya mentioned that she’d used it in the past to run a game of Melnibonean nobility and I can see how perfectly that system would accommodate it.
Also, on the back of the last show talking Stormhack! I got to play in a con game run by Ralph and experienced the system first hand. It did not disappoint and I encourage you to support his work on this game over at his itch.io page and, of course, listen to his Fictoplasm podcast.
Other things in the pipeline include getting back to Moorcock re-reads with Phil, Hussein (finally completing our psychedelic trip into The Final Programme) and Loz, and more forays into Moorcockian music. Also, we’ve tentatively discussed looking into New Worlds and Wizardry and Wild Romance with a couple of all-new guests. Very exciting!
Right, that’s all for now. Stay safe and I’ll see you soon on t’moonbeam roads.
Andy
PS Now socially distant cafe visits are a thing again, Phil and I visited our habitual Saturday morning stomping ground the Rooftop Cafe. It’s a venue with lots of space, fantastic food and a terrific view. As the year goes by perhaps we’ll give some thought to Moorcock RooftopCon for 2022 if there was any interest. A couple of games maybe, a showing of Fuest’s The Final Programme, a live panel for a future show? Loads of booze? We’ll see.
Another show out and what a pleasure it was talking gaming again, this time in the fine company of Ralph Lovegrove. I have another one in the can looking more closely at the seeds of Moorcock planted deep into the early iterations of Dungeons and Dragons with another fine guest, but that one will be in a couple of shows time.
Phil will be back soon too, although we made the decision to postpone our original next foray for her which should have been The Warhound and the World’s Pain. Ralph made a couple of observations that it makes numerous call-backs to previous stories that we haven’t covered so I’ve reconsidered the schedule, but more on that later.
We’ll also dig into music again. I was supposed to be recording with Dave Waschman aka SÖNUS a day or two ago but technical issues threw a spanner in the works. We’ll get that back on track though.
Right now I’m heading into the editing booth (aka my study aka the box room) to assemble the drunken mess that is the return of Tash as we probe some 70s paperbacks in search of a potential one-shit book. Yes… finally we settle down to discuss another of the well-thumbed old paperbacks I received from the stacks next to Pops’s rocking chair…
DANNUS – THE DARK STRAITS OF REGLATHIUM
It may take a while.
Due to that trauma Tash has demanded that we cover something less chancey next time so she has her next assignment in hand… Nine Princes in Amber will be coming in the next couple of months.
In other news the radio station had now been active for a couple of weeks and it’s been getting a few listens from around the globe. As I’m typing this someone in Germany has had it playing for 18 hours.
Weird.
It’s an eclectic mix on there with blues, electronica, drone, metal, goth, prog, space rock, experimental… at some point as we get more content I’ll probably start programming it a little more consistently. But then again I might not. I kind of like hearing the late 80s Driffield/Bridlington goth stylings of Stiff Kittens immediately followed up by a 17 minute drone mind-fuck courtesy of Apkallu of Enmerkar.
Just need some sea shanties on there too, but I may have that covered…
Last thing for today… it was my Dad’s birthday a few days ago and when I was talking to him I asked if he had any old photos of Pops kicking around and you can see above what he sent me.
We’re back in Derry and Toms and returning to Moorcock’s influence and presence in RPGs in the company of Ralph Lovegrove, host of the Fictoplasm Podcast and designer of STORMHACK!
We talk Moorcock (obviously), gaming, podcasting and other bits n bobs, as well as Ralph’s own take on the Moorcockian role-playing game… STORMHACK!
We also mention Appendix N and other recommended reading lasts from RPGs such as RuneQuest.
It’s been a productive few weeks here at Derry & Toms.
The chapbook version of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly Volume 01 is nearing completion, with some fabulous art arriving c/o Neil Burton to accompany the superb portrait and design work of Simon Perrins. Hopefully not too long now before it can be shared with patrons.
Staying with Lieutenant Connelly for a moment, N Λ N D and I are also revisiting the earlier episodes of the Journal to re-record and re-score them to drag the quality of my earlier efforts up and into line with episodes 8 – 10. Along with some cracking N Λ N D compositions inspired by the Journal we may, at some point, put it all out on Bandcamp as free/pay-what-you-want WOTW style ‘story album’ (is that how you’d describe it…? I dunno).
Meanwhile, a friend of mine pointed out a radio app called Radio Garden. It’s a terrific way to spend time roaming the globe discovering stations and learning a thing or two about tastes around the globe (I for example had no idea that the remote sub-arctic Russian city of Arkhangelsk was so firmly committed to hard core techno). The interface is also excellent and it led me to thinking about how one would go about setting up an internet radio station. Anyway, long story short, I set up BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio and this morning Phil found it on Radio Garden. What a buzz!
As well as using it as another outlet for the show, I’m delighted that some fellow Moorcock enthusiasts and patrons of this show are happy to have their cracking tunes gracing the station too, so Corum, SÖNUS, N Λ N D, Apkallu of Enmerkar and Giantkind are all on there and we’ll be doing some additional bits n bobs to drop into the schedule.
In show-related news, we have some more material in the can awaiting editing including Tash’s next appearance as we try to dredge our way through a potential one-shit book, and a great discussion with a new guest around Moorcock and gaming for part two of our look at Moorcock in RPGs.
It appears we will also soon conclude our deep dive into The Final Programme with Hussein.
Right, that’s it from me for now.
Take care, stay safe, and I’ll see you soon… on the moonbeam roads.
Breakfast in the Ruins is now broadcasting across the multiverse as an internet radio station!
It’s early days and I’m still figuring the technicalities out so it’s not in any public directories yet but it is up and running and you can find old school radio player feeds and other basic info here. This will get our stuff out there on a rolling 24/7 basis, and also do the same for some of our creative pals and patrons like SÖNUS, Corum, Giantkind, Apkallu of Enmerkar and NAND, as well as any other folks that want to join in.
More info to follow as I figure all of this out, but stay tuned for details on the dedicated radio page!
Old pal Robbo joins me in Derry & Toms to discuss the book from Pops that blew my mind into tiny pieces back in the early 80s, Sven Hassel’s Wheels of Terror! We look at the man himself, including the shroud of mystery around his history, the first part of the novel and it’s horrific, bleak yet darkly humorous depiction of the impact of war, and whether this was really suitable reading for an 11 or 12 year old to move onto from the Doctor Who novelisations by Target Books. We also talk Moorcock (naturally) and the impact growing up in the ruins of a war must have had on him.
We also probably add wargamers, military geeks and the people of Withernsea and Patrington to the list of people we’ve offended.
Spirits Burning with Don FalconeCover art by Keith A Donald
We’re back with another look at Moorcockian music, this time in the company of Don Falcone, captain of the starship Spirits Burning, long time collaborative portal for progressive and space rock projects involving luminaries from across the rock field, most recently Michael Moorcock himself with their last two albums being musical adaptations of the Dancers at the End of Time trilogy.
We talk Moorcock (obviously) and Don’s influences and history as a musician and producer, as well as a few other bits n’ bobs as we go.
The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly continues with Chapter 10 and an unusual encounter (score and atmos again by @nand_soundtrax).
As previously mentioned, Tash and I are in a quest to find the perfect One-Shit Book. After she coined the phrase when describing The Jewel in the Skull (almost perfect) we always knew this would be a question for the ages. Does such a thing exist?
We’ve set out to find out.
As Pops gave me a number of crappy books as well as the great ones back in the day, I pulled a contender from the shelf. With my tongue in my cheek perhaps, but a contender nevertheless in the shape of:
Dannus: The Dark Straits of Reglathium.
I’d already tried to sucker Loz into covering the 4th Dannus epic but he wriggled and evaded the hook. Therefore Tash ended up on it.
However… There are challenges. The images below provide a brief look inside of our process and the tangles and complex negotiations that take place in establishing our agenda for a show. And we haven’t even started on our rum choices yet!
There is time yet for another lapse in Tash’s resolve but do not fear friends… I’m determined that we do this so you don’t have to.
It’s hard to believe but 2021 is already thundering by and we’re almost half way through February!
Phil and I have had this week off, so we took the opportunity to have Christmas v2.0 (as work pretty much ballsed up proper Xmas) and it has been boozy, relaxing and very monster heavy (we did a LOT of Godzilla movies thanks to the Criterion Collection I got the xmas before last). Bonzer!
On a more pertinent note however, I’ve been fairly productive on the recording front. We got The Knight of the Swords Book Three out last week and we have Loz’s next show covered in terms of what we’ll be reading. I’ve needed an excuse to delve in to those White Wolf collections and now I have it. Not that I really REALLY needed an excuse but… so many books… so little time.
In terms of future developments, the Journal continues to benefit from some collaboration (see the previous patron exclusive post for more on that).
In terms of upcoming episodes I have two more in the can awaiting some editing and tomorrow I’m recording with Tash for the first time in an age. We’ll be embarking upon the first of what will be a series of occasional quests to find the ultimate ‘one-shit book’. This time we’ll be reading the epic(ally terrible?) Dannus: The Dark Straits of Reglathium, the fourth in a series of five fantasy heart-breakers by Mike Sirota.
Why the fourth?
Well, that was the one that ended up in my hands c/o Pops back in the 80s. I’d never even seen the other four (until I picked them all up over the last few months). If Pops gave me it, it’s in scope.
For that reason, the first of the two other shows I have recorded and awaiting assembly is MASSIVELY in scope. I mentioned Wheels of Terror in our introductory episode and the novels of Sven Hassel were Moorcock’s main competitors for my attention as a teenager. I’m joined by a new guest, my old mucker Robbo, as we take a look at the horrors of the war from a distinct perspective.
The second is another foray into the world of Moorcockian music as I’m joined by the driving force behind Spirits Burning, Don Falcone. Don is a producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose latest projects have been the musical adaptations of Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time trilogy, the first two of which are available now. We had a really great conversation and it was fascinating to hear how a Moorcock fan went on to not only produce Mike’s Deep Fix album Live at the Terminal Cafe, but also collaborate with and record him as part of the Spirits Burning band along with a number of other rock luminaries.
Phil will also be back on the show soon for our first dip into The Warhound and the World’s Pain.
One final note from me today – our patron @opensussex is heading towards the close of his rum-soaked Kickstarter project, card game The Full Shanty. At the time of posting this there are four hours to go. Pledge as a Boatswaine and you can get the card game AND a CD of the Duck Pond Sailors singing the shanties in the game.
