It’s our summer holiday special – and it was Phil’s Choice. She reminded me that we had such a great time with The Devils of D-Day and the film of Masterton’s novel The Manitou that we should read Graham Masterton’s Revenge of the Manitou.

So we did… and we’re going to talk about it.

And watch Grizzly.

JOIN US!

Welcome to the 24th May 2025! It’s raining here in the hills of West Yorkshire, but our outlook is sunny. We’re 112 episodes deep into our now five and a half year journey into podcasting and, despite still running into persistent technical goofs with technology, microphones and set-ups, we’re still having a bloody good time. That’s a major bonus, as time remains the enemy when it comes to getting more episodes out the door and I’m getting even worse at reading in bed (three pages and I’m snoring is generally the pattern these days).

Covering Slade’s banger of a movie last time out was a treat and, having talked about Hawk the Slayer recently and covering the films of The Final Programme and The Land That Time Forgot before that, we will probably do a bit more in that direction. Provided of course they have a good novelisation to go along with them, and that they have some kind of resonance that goes beyond, “Yeah, good film that.” It will have to be something that fits into that bracket much like Moorcock. Films that made our brains tick.

On films, I mentioned Privilege on the Slade in Flame episode, but I think I said it was a Pete Walker film. It was in fact Pete Watkins’s first feature film, the guy who had previously directed docudramas Culloden and The War Game for the BBC and would go on to make the incredible Punishment Park in 1971. If you haven’t seen that, seek it out. It’s a beast of a film that is more resonant now than ever.

I suspect my slip was Freudian, because I’m a big Pete Walker mark. Inseminoid has lived rent free in my head since Dad rented it on Betamax in the early 80s and it beat Alien into my psyche by a couple of years at least. It was also responsible for my Stephanie Beacham awakening. As it happens, Inseminoid has a novelisation. Published by NEL. And it’s fucking terrible. And it’s the most one-shit bookiest one-shit book you could hope to find. So maybe we’ll do it at some point. One for the Halloween poll perhaps…?

[Editor’s note* – thanks Ben for pointing out that Norman J Warren directed Inseminoid, I blame the Anchor Bay coffin box sets for mashing them all up in my head.]

*there is no editor, just me

Zardoz

The Keep

The Wild Geese

Krull

Who Dares Wins

Performance

Rollerball (although I did talk Rollerball quite a bit with Andy Nette on one of our older episodes so maybe that’s already covered)

OK, some of these are actually film adaptations of existing novels, but whatever. WE MAKE THE RULES.

Anyway, this is something for the future. In the meantime we have more Moorcock on the way with The Sundered Worlds, the conclusions of The Runestaff, The King of the Swords and Phoenix in Obsidian and some other bits n bobs like the New Worlds collections that I’ve been picking up over the last few years.

I’m also feeling the pull to talk about some more Moorcock RPG action, like the two Hawkmoon games that we’ve had over the years (the English language ones anyway, much as I’d love to read the French one it’s beyond my capabilities) and the Darcsyde Corum supplement for Elric!

We’ll see.

Anyway, thanks for reading and sticking with us on our voyage. More thoughts soon via a new Weetabix File.

The long weekend is upon us and, as is our wont, we’ve headed to the coast; Hornsea on this occasion, not Morecambe, as we have family business on the east coast. After a thoroughly grey and wet departure from Bradford we drove into glorious sunshine too. Hopefully that will last a couple of days as today is Good Friday and we have plans. Largely they revolve around supping and eating, but that counts as plans right?

Last night we kicked things off with some nice Greek tucker and some cocktails and I have a bit of a thick head typing this, but blimey. They were good cocktails.

Anyway, food and booze aside, I’ve been thinking these past few days about the itinerary. I’d had quite a productive period, despite the line up of episodes coming together quite chaotically this past year or so for one reason or another. Having three or four in the can for editing was rather unusual but it has resulted in a rapid burst of releases. I’d tried to discipline myself and space out the uploads, but having one sitting there ready to go just makes me itchy to get it out, hence Hawk the Slayer flying the coop yesterday. I have one more in the editing suite and then I’m back to thinking in a more calculated fashion about what’s to come.

I’m fully aware too that we have a number of stories hanging, with The Runestaff, The King of the Swords and Phoenix in the Sword awaiting completion (and Wheels of Terror now at the point where finishing it would probably usher in a negative reality inversion). Therefore I will attempt to prioritise them for late spring/early summer, and of course carry on talking about non-Moorcock things here and there.

As it happens, the next episode out and the next to be recorded will not be Mike-related, although one is featured in Mike and James Cawthorn’s Top 100 Fantasy novels list and was a big, acknowledged influence on his style of fantasy. That episode will feature an all new co-host too.

The next to record features the return of Joe Banks and will cover something very close to my heart.

There will be some fresh Moorcock coming though, as I’ve finally pinned Hussein down for a return in May. We’ll be looking at The Cure For Cancer.

There’ll be more Weetabix Files along the way too as I’ve picked up a load more Time Centre Times issues and some other odds and sods of Moorcockiana.

In other news, you’ll recall from an earlier episode when we talked about the Malleus Maleficarum and The Warhound and the World’s Pain, Dave Griffiths and his gang were in the process of getting their play up and running. Now they’re taking it to the Edinburgh Festival! Putting on these kinds of shows is a real undertaking, particularly at that festival with the ridiculous costs incurred just for digs, so if you want to throw in to support Dave and the crew with their production of The Hammer and Helena at the Edinburgh Festival you can do so here.

https://crowdfund.edfringe.com/p/the-hammer-and-helena

Sometimes we don’t have time to read a book. Sometimes we just wanna gas about ace things. This is one of those times so…

Hawk the Slayer…

featuring:

MORE Big Ron…

ACTUAL Warren Clarke…

SMOKY woods and DISCO….

and EVERYONE that’s ever been on British telly EVER!

Graham is back in Derry & Toms to talk about his debut novel THE WOODLICE, as well as his influences, method, finding inspiration in Guy N Smith’s Writing Horror Fiction, microdots, dogging and regrets over that vintage Amstrad PCW 8512… the one that got away.

The Woodlice is available from Amazon stores worldwide, as evidenced by this pic from our mucker David in Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan:

On Lionel, Fortean TV was released a couple of years ago by Network DVD – for a dose of nostalgia watch Episode 1 with an introduction from Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe himself.

Welcome to March pards!

Technically it might not actually be spring yet from an astronomical perspective, but I’m going with the old meteorological date of 1st March. Besides, there’s also the phenological definition, which has been creeping ever earlier in the 21st century. Apparently, one of the indicators is the appearance of frogspawn and in 2024 that occurred in late February, so if this year showed a repeat of the pattern it could have already been spring for a few days.

BUT WHATEVER!

I reckon it’s a glorious spring morning, and a frosty one too. The days are stretching out and my energy levels are rising. But I still have some way to go to catch up with the productivity of some of our muckers…

GRAHAM PUBLISHED HIS FIRST NOVEL!

It’s called The Woodlice and I was deeply honoured to be asked by him to craft a death-laden vignette in the style of our favourite 70s horror maestros. I gave it a go, it was great fun, and it was a real delight to see it in print (thanks for the copies G).

Meanwhile, Patron Demon Tone Milazzo has launched his kickstarter for THE KING IN GIALLO – a one-shot adventure for his Espionage roleplaying game described as “Ian Fleming’s classic James Bond, as if written by Robert W. Chambers, with a touch of Italian horror.”

SOOOOOOLD!

Clarky the Cruel has been busy too, appearing on the Talk Without Rhythm podcast to talk about The Man Who Haunted Himself and The Offence (the best 70s film EVER).

I’ve had my moments though… Even jotting down a few more bits n bobs for vol 3 of The Journal. But after thinking about it all the way back in late 2021 I finally did a thing.

Over the years I was always aware of the Moorcock fanzine The Time Centre Times, although I’d never come across a copy until patron and friend of the show Sebastian Weetabix sent me a parcel of goodies. A collection of Moorcockiana that he’d collated over the years that includeded six issues of that fanzine. My first instincts were to read them (obviously) and to record some ramblings about the contents, but I put them somewhere, time passed and they got obscured by stuff for a while. Then, last week whilst looking for a copy of Swords and Roses that I KNOW I have somewhere, there they were.

So… Three and a bit years later the patron exclusive Part One of The Weetabix Files was born.

This also got me thinking… I NEED MORE COPIES… and the only place to go was John Davey’s JAYDE DESIGN.COM and eleven more issues will be winging their way to STIMBOT Towers.

On the subject of STIMBOT5000, that was my handle on the site formerly known as Twitter for around 12 or 13 years, as well as a couple of other places (MySpace?) for much longer, but I don’t think any of those fora exist for me anymore. And as I’ve finally re-tagged the Bluesky account, it may be altogether a thing of the past.

Going even further back I was SPACELORD.

Good times.

But all things must change, including our silly social media tags, therefore I shall diminish and go into the west… and remain Andy…

Or maybe STIMBOTRONAZOID67K

We’ll see.

I did start a Mastodon account too when Twitter started going tits-up, but it got left by the wayside a little bit. Plus a substack account when that platform started hotting up. But I only have so much energy for these things so I think I’ll just leave it as Patreon/website/Bluesky for now. Instagram is hanging in there but it feels increasingly grubby using it these days so that might have to go too.

Whilst I ruminate on all that gubbins though, it’s always lovely to get reminders that you’re out there and, this week, Patron Demon Gwen dropped me a line to say she picked up her Xmas aid package from her folks…

BONZER!

Thanks for the pic Gwen, and for showing us the new home for the BITR envelope sticker too (which now resides in fine company on your laptop):

I love this.

If you’re out there feel the energy of spring and drop us a line, leave us a comment or even a review. It’s been something like three years since we got a review on Apple Podcasts so if you use that platform tell us about your experience of the pod. That said, if you’re outside of the UK and you DO leave us a review, tip me off as it’s a pain in the fluffin’ arse to view them.

Right. It’s time for tea and toast.

Take care out there folks. Particularly those of you in harm’s way. We feel you.