Dave is back in Derry & Toms to talk about some stories that were as formative for him as they were for me back in our teens… The Robert E Howard Conan stories, The Phoenix on the Sword and The Scarlet Citadel.
Dave also gives us an update on the latest SÖNUS news and we delve into some of the murkier aspects of the pulp of the time. But mostly we enjoy the head smashing and the surprisingly textured and erudite version of the Cimmerian in those first two stories.
Although this is our first Conan focused episode, Phil and I did look at The Tower of the Elephant way back in the early days in our first Happy Birthday Michael Moorcock episode back in December 2019.
We’re two-thirds of the way through summer already and here in Blighty the weather is only now reflecting the time of year with any real level of commitment. It is a nice afternoon though so I’m sitting in the yard with a cold one musing on the contents of the third and long overdue volume of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly. The Journal is one of the things (alongside the second and third planned sessions of the Black Sword Hack Ultimate Chaos Edition game I began a year ago – watch or listen at your leisure if you’re of the gaming persuasion) that got waylaid by the events of 2023 and again in the first part of 2024. Creativity is a fleeting thing, for me at least, and I need a specific set of circumstances to get in the zone. Unfortunately, the precise composition of those circumstances remains a mystery, but I had a little surge of activity on it over the last couple of days and vol 3 has crept closer to completion.
So that’s good.
On the flipside, however, having such a long time between sections and spurts of writing leads primarily to me looking askance at what came before and wanting to revise and alter. But I don’t have time, so this coming volume will remain, to some degree, a stream of consciousness (mine or Connelly’s is hard to tell). I also came across a piece I wrote over ten years ago when looking through old folders so that’s getting woven in too. By woven, I mean dropped in almost wholesale as an interlude. But I like it so I’m going to subject you to it too. Should you read it of course. No pressure. There may come a time when the originally planned four volumes get broken down, revised and re-assembled as the very first Breakfast in the Ruins Publications one-shit book.
The dream…
Then an all-star supergroup concept album featuring friends of the show like Wayne, Graham, Derek, Dave and Allister T. I reckon between us we can beat the Edgar Winter/L Ron Hubbard collaboration into the dirt.
THE DIRT I TELLS YER!
(You have no idea how many times I’ve almost bought this – and given that Allister T and I have talked about doing an episode about ostentatious SF/Fantasy driven prog concept albums I probably will).
The third thing that got waylaid was the re-recording of chapters 8-10 of the audio version of the Journal. They’re the only bits remaining from the scored audio version of volumes one and two that are holding up Wayne in completing his work and I need to get that done for no other reason than his work on the music needs to be heard. It’s progressed a long way since we first put the sections together that appeared at the end of podcasts in 2021 and 2022 and we have a sort of plan to put it all on Bandcamp as a companion to his two complete and frankly fucking awesome albums inspired by the Journal.
I shall endeavour to complete those last re-recordings soon and then, maybe, even start recording volume three…
On the podcasting front, the next episode on the RPG experience (Reflections on The Void) will be along this week, featuring Steve and his excellent gaming gang. Following that we have a nice little slate prepped and we’ll be looking at a bit of Conan, a Moorcock-edited anthology called Before Armageddon, a selection of alt-barbarian novels from the 60s of varied levels of quality that we’re calling Barbarian Bingo, and a vintage piece of eco-horror that dates back to the days of scanning Pops’s coffee table for booty and finding an alarming reference to my home town within. It’s August in a couple of days too so I’ll be putting out this year’s Halloween poll, watch out for that.
And finally, for now, you’ll see that the header photo for this update is a very tidy Dancers at the End of Time trio that I picked up recently in a very tidy slipcase. I think it’s high time we kicked that series off with An Alien Heat, particularly since we’ve been covering The Coming of the Terraphiles and there are some thematic connections there without a doubt.
That reminds me that we still haven’t done any Bastable, either. So much to cover. So little time.
So, in the interests of time I’ll leave things there for this report.
Stay safe folks and I’ll see you out there… on the Moonbeam Roads.
Miles is back to carry on our deep dive into Mike’s Who/Multiverse mash-up and also talk about Ncuti’s first run, the Timeless Child arc, writing Who fiction, engaged Tom vs couldn’t give two shits Tom and loads of other stuff no doubt.
Join us!
And be sure to check out the Casual Trek Podcast too.
Another quick-fire report from Blighty thanks to Jim Jupp and Ghost Box Records. Yesterday postie called by with another fantastic package from Jim – Fellfoul by Mulgrave Audio featuring a score by Jim and Belbury Poly. If you’ve not come across it, Mulgrave Audio is making atmospheric audio dramas that catapult me back to the days when TV drama and public information films in the UK had an undercurrent of ephemeral threat and usually we’re accompanied by incredible music.
This 10″ vinyl includes a page of the accompanying Fellfoul comic strip with art by that absolute legend of UK comics John Ridgway!
“Fellfoul has all the feel of a lost episode of Dramarama or Play for Today, a curiously British affair that is imbued with a sense of teh bizarrely normal.” – Starburst Magazine
If you have any passion for those autumnal, slightly odd folklore driven TV dramas from the 80s and their dreamlike scores you need to get this.
In other news, I’m typing this before heading off an a four hour drive down to Stroud where I will be catching up with a Derry & Toms original… Tash is getting hitched!
Will there be another report with wedding photos tomorrow?
I dunno.
I’ll probably get langered though.
In podcast news, the next episode is just around the corner. I’m talking to returning guest Allister Thompson about The Land That Time Forgot… The book by ERB… The film scripted by Moorcock and Cawthorn… Its cinematic sequel and… The Asylum remake starring and directed by C Thomas Howell. And that my friends was a real challenge to get through.
But we did it for you.
Then we’ll reconvene with Miles to try and get past just banging on about all things Doctor Who to properly cover The Coming of the Terraphiles. Maybe.
As the last few months have been generally all over the place with real life events I’m reckoning on things settling a bit for the summer (with any luck) so I’ll be rebuilding the itinerary for the coming second half of 2024. It will soon be time to launch the Halloween poll too, which seems odd as we’ve only just passed the summer solstice.
HA!
Summer my arse. The weather here in the North of England has been fucking bollocks. But the sun has come out today for Tash, so that’s a good omen.
Anyway, I’d better get driving so take care out there. When I get back, the second John Ridgway page that includes a download code for Fellfoul will be headed out to a Patron Demon…
After all this dancing around the subject of Michael Moorcock writing for the iconic Doctor Who IP and talking Alien and Quatermass and Blake’s 7, Miles joins me in the Cloister Room as we just about get to The Coming of the Terraphiles…
Just about…
But with our tendency to go off on tangents AND 61 years of Doctor Who to consider perhaps it was inevitable that this would be a multi-part deal. Anyway, join us as we talk about Timelords, edgy 90s Who novels, 12p swiss rolls and much more besides… even a bit of Moorcock here and there.
My publicity shot for my ‘The Next Doctor Who’ pitch – who needs question marks when you can simply look mysterious/confused
After a gloomy first few months of the year, wholesome rays of sunshine are breaking through the bruised skies and lifting moods across the land. Or here in Derry and Toms certainly.
As the fug ascends, I’ve been deep into my musical backlog of bandcamp pickups and vinyl deliveries.
First up, Jim Jupp’s Ghost Box Records released their fifth Pye Corner Audio platter – The Endless Echo.
If sinister dance grooves overlaid with an atmosphere of menace are your jam, get down and pick this up. The heavyweight vinyl is yet another example of how Jim and Ghost Box have an essential place in the marketplace if you’re looking for their specific brand of haunted folk psychedlia and electronic grooves. Which, quite frankly, you you should be.
Yet to take a spin is my signed double live album by Whitley Bay’s finest Moorcock-inspired metaloids, Tygers of Pan Tang.
I have been streaming it though and the new material from their 2023 studio release Bloodlines clearly demonstrates they haven’t lost a step in their steady pursuit of solid NWOBHM stompers. As a vintage 80s greb I really should have paid more attention to the Tygers. Beyond name recognition they never really did it for me at the time but this live set has had me digging back into their catalogue and I think I may have been missing out. I think I always demanded a certain level of darkness, grandeur and epsicosity in my metal, including thrash, but I’ve mellowed with time and these days I just appreciate a great metal banger. And this album delivers.
Over on Bandcamp there have been a surplus of riches these past few months, first and foremost via our occasional co-host and top mucker Imrryr. His latest release By then we’ll be dust and the regret of others (only his third this year – you’re getting slack D) is a sobre doom metal-laced meditation on just how fucked things are for so many people but it contains a hopeful seed.
Characteristically atmospheric and layered this is the first collaboration between Imrryr and Owlripper Recordings in the Czech Republic. As always you can bag Immryr’s entire back catalogue for a snip and, as it happens, you can do the same with Owlripper too. Well worth the shelling out.
Meanwhile, Duck Pond Sailor, all-round top fella, co-host and GNS specialist Graham sent me a mysterious package…
This unmarked and enigmatic cassette, found at a car boot sale, contains some remarkable underground electronica evoking memories for me of sweaty clubs and warehouses circa 1992 or 3. Incredible, evocative and hypnotic. Whatever the true solution to this riddle, you can check out the tunes for yourself and slip into the sweaty, post-E fug and pick them up on Bandcamp.
There might even be a cassette or two left from G’s haul.
Over on a different slant entirely, our favourite Canadian co-host and musical tour de force Allister Thompson is not only closing in on the final stretch with his new novel, but he’s continuing to pursue his wider passions with his second album of old British and Irish traditional favourites – Ancestors
Allister is one of the most eclectic and versatile artists out there, with a catalogue that includes (but is not restricted to) prog, folk, kosmiche organ drone and post-rock. And even some Moorcock inspired atmos…
And Allister will be back in D&Ts soon as we look to tackle another chunky raft of material with the confluence of MM, ERB and Doug McClure!
All that is really only scratching the surface of what’s been in my ears lately (including the latest excellent releases from Hawkwind and spin-off Hawkestrels).
On the podcast front, you’ll have noticed a recent lack of strictly Moorcock-focused content. That’s partly accidental and partly down to recent events ripping up the schedule, but we’ll be back with some MM yakkin’ soon, one which we’ve been building to steadily with all of our IP shenanigans and another that just needs programming back in now that shit seems to be settling down.
Join my co-conspirator John and me as we board the Civil Administration ship London where our brutally oppressive crew sets the speed to Time Distort 5 and makes for Cygnus Alpha where we will all suffer for our crimes!
En route, we’ll have plenty of time (between beatings and summary executions) to discuss Trevor Hoyle‘s novelisation of the first four episodes of Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7 and the series itself. And some other stuff.
Sadly, we chose a book that features NO SERVALAN WHATSOEVER. But we still talk about her…
Andy Darby is back in Derry and Toms to talk about his all-new novel, The Blade in the Angel’s Shadow!
Enochian madness, brutal sieges, swordplay and the machinations of the Elizabethan court all combine to give our heroine a hard time, some gnarly powers and a profound ethical dilemma.
Andrew Nette returns to Derry and Toms as we continue to muse over some formative telly, novelisations and other stuff but on this occasion to talk about Nigel Kneale’s enduring and iconic character Professor Bernard Quatermass (and a load of other digressions, naturally, including brief musings on a favourite mercenary war flick). We roam around the original Hammer films, the impact of Quatermass on the zeitgeist and, most specifically, the 1979 serial and its novelisation by Nigel Kneale himself.
In our continued deliberations about tackling Michael Moorcock’s Doctor Who novel The Coming of the Terraphiles, several questions about the pitfalls of writing for established IPs have arisen, and a pressing one is:
What happens when Trumpton and British politics intrude upon the Alien universe?
We investigated so you don’t have to. Join Miles Reid-Lobatto (writer and co-host of the Casual Trek Podcast) and SF Starship artist and designer Ian Stead AKA Biomassart as we look at what makes the Alien IP tick and how some recent books have tackled it.
Mainly Alien: Colony War.
But also Alien: The Cold Forge. Which we probably should have talked about more, because it’s great.
You can read my 2012 feature on Alien 3 here (just don’t start any more flame wars you Colonial Marines fans you).
Breakfast in the Ruins Podcast 