Grognard Files host Dirk the Dice joins me at Derry and Toms to investigate Wizardry and Wild Romance, Moorcock’s critical appraisal of the field of heroic fantasy/sword and sorcery.
Inevitably there’s some salty talk, most of it from MM himself, and beverages are consumed via the D6 wandering stupid beer table.
Will Tolkien make it through unscathed?
Are Darlington butchers really Gorian subculture warriors?
We’re almost half way through the year and things are hotting up. With our gabbing with SÖNUS and Imrryr fired across the void last week I got down to recording again on Friday night and a new show will be up in the next week or so. My latest guest is podcast royalty. Dirk the Dice of The Grognard Files joined me to talk Wizardy and Wild Romance. We had a few tasty vittels along the way too.
Meanwhile, for those of you that have been enjoying the latest episodes of the audio version of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly, you’ll be familiar with the soundscapes of N Ʌ N D and the tunes that have played the show out on a couple of occasions.
Well, the N Ʌ N D bandcamp page is now live and new tracks are being added. One of the best things about dusting off that 10 year old word doc and folding GAC into the podcast has been the opportunity to share the steering wheel with great artists like Neil Burton and Simon Perrins (and soon Ed Scott in volume 2). To be able to add the chance to hook up again with an old mate of almost 30 years (with a significant gap without contact for most of that time) and collaborate on the audio journal and then hear these compositions is amazing and inspiring.
Work on the Journal, audio and written, is progressing nicely. I’ve learned a thing or two since the first half dozen or so instalments, and after the introduction of the N Ʌ N D scores from chapter 8 onwards we decided to re-record and re-score the earlier ones to match the higher quality. At the moment I’m the one holding that up as I get my technique nailed. More to come on that soon.
Other pending shows mentioned in the last report will be going under the mic in the next few weeks.
Thanks for reading folks and I’ll see you soon… On the moonbeam roads.
In search of Moorcock-tinged sonic experiences and the stories behind them we pack up and hit the road on a coast to coast trip across the USA to talk Mike, space rock and bleak electronica in the company of SÖNUS and Imrryr.
BITR has landed on a ’20 Best British Fiction Podcasts of 2021′ list c/o Best Startup, itself a startup online business magazine looking to showcase British businesses. Breakfast in the Ruins isn’t a business of course, but as a hobbyist podcast/t’interweb radio station it’s always gratifying to make ANY list.
There’s some interesting stuff on there, including a Blakes 7 podcast I was totally unaware of called Zenith by Decorative Vegetable. Those chaps have covered not only B7 but a ton of Doctor Who and a whole host of other scifi TV shows on their Inevitable podcast series including… STAR COPS! Well worth digging into.
The other big find on there for me is Here’s Looking at You by Dr Ellen Wright (aka @DrSmut). The latest episode looks at British exploitation cinema publicity & includes conversations about Tony Tenser & Norman J Warren (along with Pete Walker one of my favourite low budget exploitation film directors).
Rounding out the list there are also public domain audiobook streams of William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland (which we WILL cover at some point in the future) and ERB’s The Land that Time Forgot.
So, many thanks to Mark at Best Startup for the inclusion and for pointing me at some great content that should keep me out of mischief for a while.
Tash’s drunken, impromptu competition for her copy of The Dark Straits of Reglathium has been concluded!
The lucky winner Graham (aka @opensussex) has received his care package along with a follow up warning from tash:
“Please make sure he knows that the clubs will expire before he works out wtf ‘game’ they play at the start of the book……”
Aaaah Favor!
As a follow up comp, if anyone can summarise the game on one page and make it make sense before those clubs go out of date I’ll send you one of my spares. And a packet of… Blue Ribands?
In the third and final part of our Moorcockian RPG triptych Rob (aka OldShabbyGamer), host of the Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi podcast, joins me at Derry & Toms to talk Moorcock, D&D, when a beer is not a beer, and Tolkien!
Graham, Neil and Norman also drop by to talk Stormbringer 3e, ploons, shit sailors & what would make our own ideal Moorcockian RPG. It’s a really Deep Fix. No prizes for guessing who provides the soundtrack!
Unbelievably it’s May already, 2021 is galloping by, and hanging a shipwrecked monkey suspected of being a French spy is now officially only the second most eye-rollingly baffling thing enacted by the good folks of Hartlepool. Stay strong Hartlepool. I still love you for your patties. They may now be Tory patties but heck… patties are patties.
In other news the third and final part of our Moorcockian RPGs triptych is a few days out from upload (guest starring @oldshabbygamer, host of the Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushee podcast and the stout party that braved the depredations of my rusty games mastery). Following that we’ll leave RPGs alone for a good while, or at least until we’ve something substantially different to play with.
Next up will be another look at some terrific musical projects inspired either all or in part by MM, and a delve into some of the great man’s own musings on the fanstastical fiction form in the company of an all new guest co-host! Looking forward to that one and I have some interesting libations lined up, one of which was care of our very own Randall Gatlin! Randall, thanks again for the bevy. I can’t wait to reveal it to the world in all of its thick, syrupy glory.
In other news, Tash and I had a great time gabbing about Dannus (no really, we did) and I’m considering what other diversions may lay ahead in the coming months. As it happens, since the Halloween episode on The Rats Guy N Smith has been popping into my eyeline regularly and, with a degree of synchronicity, I’d just picked up another vintage New English Library edition off the auction site when a Guy N Smith account emerged from the twittersphere and liked a couple of Guy related tweets from a week or two back. The account is being operated by Black Hill Books, a publishing company dedicated to keeping his extensive oeuvre in print as well as other new writing from a small selection of other authors in the horror, thriller and mystery genres. If you want in a new Guy N Smith newsletter mailing list you can send your request to blackhillbooks@gmail.com
Finally for this report, I had a really good chat with O.G. patron Norman about a potential recommendation from him as, when I originally set up the patron tiers, I asked Patron Demons to suggest books for us to cover that impacted upon them in the 80s much as Pops’s hand-me-downs impacted upon me. For better or for worse. So, after a bit of back and forth we settled on a formal nomination…
The Survivalist 01 – TOTAL WAR by Joe Aherne.
I’m surprised I never came across these back in the day, but then Pops mostly read things with a scifi or fantasy bent. Having had a peek into the Survivalist rabbit hole I can see that there is an element of risk attached. It’s a Dumarest/Gor/Casca-like series that never ends but I just thought in for a penny, in for a pound and picked up a bundle of 5. They can always go the charity shop. Also, the briefly discussed alternative was Tarnsman of Gor and I need a much longer period of contemplation before I put my toe in that particularly wacky mudhole. So I just need to identify a guest for the Survivalist mission. It might even count as a one-shit book recommendation but Tash has her eye firmly set on covering Nine Princes in Amber. Anyway, it will be a fair way down the track as we have more Moorcock to talk and Phil is getting into City of the Beast in preparation for her next trip to Derry & Toms.
Last thing before I go, massive thanks to David Dempster AKA the Tentacled Whisperer for the fab Eternal Champion t-shirt. I’m wearing it whilst typing this and I automatically feel 769% more metal!!! The Whisperer is running Stormbringer games and is often looking for interested players for his Friday and Saturday night sessions, so seek him out if you’re looking for some Moorcockian table top action.
Take care, stay safe, and I’ll see you soon… on t’moonbeam roads.
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.
Breakfast in the Ruins Podcast 