Moorcock, Art & Comics PART I

Simon Perrins joins me in Derry and Toms to discuss Moorcock, art, comics, Tolkien, TV adaptations, role-playing games, tortured poet musicians we adored in our youths and generally go totally fugazi.

Simon is the man behind our banner art, logo, Gerard Arthur Connelly portraits and pretty much our entire visual identity. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.

Imagery and stuff we discuss along the way:

White Dwarf #57

Thrud and Eric of Boneymaloney – Carl Critchlow

Fighting Fantasy Book 9 – Caverns of the Snow Witch

Imagine Magazine January 1985 – Cover by Rodney Matthews

The Nomad of Time – Grafton Edition – Cover by Melvyn

The Tolkien Bestiary – David Day – Illustration of The Fall of Numenor by Ian Miller

More Tolkien Bestiary – elves by Victor Ambrus

Andy’s Fave Elric cover – Jack Gaughan

Barry Windsor-Smith’s Elric vs Conan

Simon’s fave Elric – Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Whelan

Elric by Lawrence Cutting

Blue Steel

Science Fantasy #47

Stormbringer 2e by GW – Rob Halford Elric

James Cawthorn’s Stormbringer by Jayde Design

Death of Elric prelim sketch by Cawthorn

Cawthorn’s History of the Runestaff

P Craig Russell on The Dreaming City

Julien Tello on The Dreaming City for the Julian Blondel adaptations

Mike Mignola’s Corum

MM on The Beatles

Moorcock and Mike Harrison (Robert Crumb style)

Homemade MERP Screens

The Swords of Heaven the Flowers of Hell by Howard Chaykin

The Mad God’s Amulet by Bob Haberfield

Swords of Corum by Mark Salwowski

The Chronicles of Castle Brass by Mark Salwowski

Breakfast in the Ruins – Random House – artist unknown

Fantasy Masterworks History of the Runestaff by Richard Carr

Fugazi by Mark Wilkinson

Me and the Monkey – Chronicles of the Monkey God Vol. I

Andy Darby joins me in virtual Derry and Toms to talk his tales of the Monkey God, Moorcock, and lots of other stuff including reminiscences about Johnny Seven, Lion annuals, Commando comics, Mme. Blavatsky, My First Two Thousand Years and tripping in Amsterdam.

You can pick up Vol I and The Paddington Incident now and Vol II releases on 5th November. There are QR codes with the illustrations in Vol 2 and The Paddington Incident that link to audio sections narrated by Andy, and you can connect with him on Goodreads.

Brayna’s Creed, the second track from the upcoming Journal Vol II is available via N Λ Ṇ D

This episode is played out by the title track from The Dreaming City III by Immryr. At the time of recording (and at the time we released The Black Corridor) this was the latest release from Imrryr but, characteristically, there is another available for pre-order already. Check out One Flesh, One End.

Andy’s reading recommendations:

C J Cherryh: Gate of Ivrel, Well of Shiuan, Fires of Azeroth, Exile’s Gate
Madeline Miller: Circe, The Song of Achilles,
Pat Barker: The Silence of the Girls, Natalie Haynes: A Thousand Ships,
Conn Iggulden: Conqueror series (these are just fucking epic!)
Tim Willocks: The Religion (awesome!), The Twelve Children of Paris (awesome 2!)
Ben Aaronovitch: Rivers of London series
Jonathan L Howard: Johannes Cabal series
Catherynne M. Valente: Deathless
Kim Newman: Anno Dracula
Karl Edward Wagner: Kane series
Chris Carlsen: Berserker series
Stewart Gordon Suaine and the Crow God
Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory, The Bridge Walking on Glass,
Clive Barker: Weave World

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.
Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.

Entropic State Report 13th October 2022

Breakfast in the Ruins podcast is three years old!

Well, actually three years and two days. Whilst we adopted Dec 18th as our OFFICAL birthday (for reasons explained in our second birthday show) this week marked three years since Episode 0 – An Introduction to Breakfast in the Ruins & yesterday it was three years since Episode One – The Dreaming City.

It’s been a fun time and it continues to prove a satisfying and rewarding pursuit. It has led to great conversations and hook-ups across the globe and shows just how wide the reach of rambling, often drunken but always enthusiastic conversations about Moorcock, genre fiction, music and anything else that crosses our minds can be.

My better half and regular co-host Phil joining me on the ride has only made it better.

Mad shouts from the mountain tops too to my Buds of Ages for their support:

Loz, getting stuck in from day one with drunken takes and hideous challenging beers only encouraged me to continue
Neil for all that early support showing me what a microphone is, how to plug it in and what is achievable with sound and editing software. He even stepped in and corrected the audio on a particularly drunken session with Tash very early on. Loz and Neil’s old band Giantkind is the source of the intro and outro music on the show too
And Wayne for all of his collaboration, creative and musical input on the Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly.

Very specific thanks also to Simon Perrins. Simon has provided almost all of the art and banners for this podcast across a variety of platforms and, as a result, he’s a core part of its identity.

And finally of course thanks to all our you, our patrons, and to all of our friends & contributors!

I raise my wine mug to you all.

Here’s to the next three!

The Mad God’s Amulet Book Two

Dave (AKA SÖNUS) is back in Derry and Toms to pick up the second and concluding part of our quest for The Mad God’s Amulet.

Join us as we discover the greatest NWOBHM band to never exist… THE MUTANT WAR JAGUARS OF ASIACOMMUNISTA… and Lord Shark’s Ostentatious Couch returns.

Things mentioned in the show include Gates of Londra – a must have if you dig your industrial black metal with a Moorcockian twist.

Imrryr’s latest release The Dreaming City III is out now featuring Dave and Allister Thompson AKA The Gateless Gate.

Massive thanks to Dave Dempster for the Maegan Lemay poster. Check out her web and store page.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store. Listen to BITR Breakfast in the Ruins Radio on Radio Garden.

The Final Programme Phase Three

The Final Programme Phase Three

Hussein is back in Derry & Toms to triumphantly conclude our epic coverage of The Final Programme.

We talk parties… get older… and add Rhyl to the list of towns we’ve offended… but damn it we got through it!

The best news is that Hussein WILL return again.

This show is played out once again by Ｎ Λ ＮＤ with the new track Gallery of the Lost.

DIG IT!

Check out our Patreon for exclusive updates and content.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Moorcock and RPGs Part Three – A Deep Fix?

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!

Breakfast in the Ruins is hosted on Podbean and available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Owltail, Podparadise, TuneIn, Overcast, Amazon Music and most other podcast clients. If we’re not on your favourite let us know and we’ll sort it.

Check out our Patreon for exclusive updates and content.

Our podcast art is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter.

Spirits Burning w/ Don Falcone

Spirits Burning with Don Falcone

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).

Check out our Patreon for exclusive updates and content.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Moorcockian Music – Addendum

Our latest show, exploring new worlds of Moorcock inspired music in the company of the artist known as Elric and our very own Patron Demon, The Guljas, is doing brisk business and is on track to be our fastest downloaded show to date!

Since it was uploaded I’ve had some great conversations too, with some other music projects being thrown my way that are deserving of attention.

Our man Clarkey put me on to Italian power metal outfit Domine. From the outset they wore their influences on their sleeve (literally) with 1997’s release Champion Eternal, and they followed up with numerous Bob Howard and Moorcock influenced material, frequently featuring Elric on their cover art. A regular fixture across their releases is the epic and multipart track The Chronicle of the Black Sword.

They haven’t released anything since 2007 as far as I can tell, but they still have an active presence on social media and are still gigging. If power metal is your thing they deserve a look.

More recently I came across Canadian outfit Smoulder via their track Ilian of Garathorm. They’ve released an album and an EP, easily available via Bandcamp, and they’ve got it all… chunky chest beating riffs, a cracking rhythm section and, to top it off, powerful, melodic vocals and epic, heroic fantasy inspired tales to tell.

Finally, coming very much from the more classic NWOBHM inspired end of the metal spectrum, Eternal Champion have been knocking out some galloping goodness with a strong Moorcock influence and, in the tradition of their classic metal forebears, have got faster, crisper and more intricate over the time they’ve been active. Their last release, Ravening Iron, dropped in November last year and it’s a beast.

If there’s anyone else out there doing Arioch’s work, drop me a line.

Andy

The Knight of the Swords Book Two

Loz returns as we head up to the Roof Garden to ruminate over Corum’s endless jawing with a slightly dubious sorceror in The Knight of the Swords Book Two.

Multiple varieties of pants are considered along with a couple of actually palatable beers. Progress I say!

Meanwhile, Gerard Arthur Connelly and co reach Grevenburg.

Check out our Patreon for exclusive updates and content.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Episode 03 – Elric of Melniboné Part one

Elric of Melniboné Part one

Loz is back with me at Derry and Tom’s as we tackle the 1972 novel Elric of Melniboné.

We have a few drinks and muse upon Elric’s early pre-wanderer, Stormbringerless years on the Ruby Throne of Imrryr.

We also ponder the news of a possible Elric TV show and attempt to get comfortable on Lord Shark’s Ostentatious Couch (spoiler, we don’t).