THIS IS THE NEWS
THIS IS THE NEWS
02/06/22
Here are some things that turn 50 in 2022.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars by David Bowie.
Britain’s second best soap opera, Emmerdale.
Fingerbobs, featuring my mate Amy’s dad.
Idris Elba.
The Godfather, Part 1 by Francis Ford Coppola. I interviewed Francis Ford Coppola the other year for The Observer. He said I reminded him of Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz. I don’t think he meant this as a compliment, but I took it as one.
Atari. You might enjoy this article about the worst videogame ever made.
The McDonald’s McMuffin. Thankyou for saving me from hangover hell on more occasions than I can tell you.
Liam Gallagher, one of two men I have chickened out of interviewing for fear they would be intolerable and I would no longer be able to enjoy their music (the other was Mark E. Smith, no regrets).
Jet skis. I went on a jet ski once. I almost died. Fuck jet skis.
A favourite of every irritating person I ever met at university, despite now being a book I have come to begrudgingly appreciate, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.
Transformer by Lou Reed.
The Rock.
Terrifying rabbit genocide tome, Watership Down, by Richard Adams.
Skateboards.
Eminem.
Don McLean’s never ending ode to Buddy Holly, ‘American Pie’.
Exile on Main St. by the Rolling Stones.
And now, courtesy of an excellent conversation I just had with the great Rival Sons, The James McMahon Music Podcast is 50 episodes old. Other episodes include conversations with Sonic Youth, Bob Mould, Yard Act, Lou Barlow, Gojira, Alkaline Trio, Sea Power, Muse, Slash, Mumford & Sons, The Bronx, Mogwai, Tom DeLonge, Neds Atomic Dustbin, Liars and gazillions more (okay, 34 more).
Thanks to every PR and manager who has hooked up conversations with musicians for me. And thanks to everyone who has checked the podcast out. If you haven’t yet - you can do that by clicking on these words here.
Here’s the fifty more!
30/05/22
It’s been a while since I shared a new episode of Shame, my podcast about... shame. Amongst other things, I’m currently working on season 2, but I thought I’d share one episode of it early. It’s an interview with the journalist Christie Smythe. She’s writing a book, Smirk, about her relationship with the notorious ‘pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli.
You know Martin Shkreli. Hedge fund dude. Bit of a troll. Actually, and I say this as a Wu-Tang Clan fan, a lot of a troll. Massively hiked the prices of life saving pharmaceutical drugs. Went to prison for securities fraud, though he's in a half-way house now. You know who Christie is too. You read about her in the 2020 Elle piece 'The Journalist and the Pharma Bro'. In the unlikely event you didn’t, you should do that now. She fell in love with a ‘bad dude’. Blew up her life. The internet went bonkers, and you probably had opinions about it and her and about Martin. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton certainly did. Bernie Sanders too. But Christie – who is a very good journalist and an excellent writer, it should be said – has often been shrouded by the hysteria that surrounds her now ex-boyfriend.
And so now you can get the truth about what happened when a woman fell for – and I quote the ELLE article here – ‘one of the least liked men in the world’ by subscribing for missives from Christie’s book at smirk-book.com.
And listening to the new episode of Shame.
It’s revealing stuff.
I hope you enjoy the conversation. Season 2 is coming.
23/05/22
Music (but mostly just the Ramones)
Football
Horror movies
Bigfoot
True crime (not the doing of it, obviously)
Dinosaurs
Videogames
Mashed potato
Ghosts
UFOs
These, friends, are my favourite things. And while nobody has yet asked me on a podcast to talk about mashed potato or UFOs, someone has asked me to appear on their podcast about football, the episode of which is out today. You can listen to it here.
Life Goals is sort of like Desert Island Discs but with goals and journo legend Theo Delaney instead of Roy Plomley, while previous guests include such luminaries as Noel Gallagher, David Morrissey, and my favourite living author, David Peace. For some reason Theo asked me to appear on the show too, which I’m sure was a mistake, but it sure was an awful lot of fun. The idea is less to talk about the goals themselves and more about where you were in your life when each goal happened.
And so I talked about music journalism and OCD and an awful lot about Doncaster Rovers!
16/05/22
Bizarrely, given it is - by some distance - the most popular podcast that I and Spoook make, it took me almost 8 months to conclude the second season of The OCD Chronicles. That wasn’t intentional, but life just got a bit nuts there for a while. Then very nuts. Then very, very, very nuts. Then nuts like an underground stash of nuts saved up over a period of a year by a family of squirrels.
But since things have levelled out a bit, I thought it time to conclude the series.
Here’s a conversation with author, OCD advocate and one of my very favourite people, Lily Bailey. Enjoy!
11/05/22
Just a quick one to say that I’m on Chris Hawkins’ BBC 6 Music show at just after 2pm today, talking about OCD, music journalism, my weird brain, all that stuff. And I got to pick some music for the playlist too!
04/03/22
So, I got a literary agent. His name is Matthew Hamilton and he is fire and skill. More news soon!
13/03/22
The music podcast has got a new logo - neat, huh? Thanks Drew Millward!
04/02/22
Hopped on a couple of podcasts for a natter recently. One was Crawlspace, my friend Lance and Tim’s ever intreguing true crime stable (I think this was my third appearance? We talk Andrew Gosden, which we always do when we get together). And because I am old and I like indie, I had a chat with Time For Heroes, which is a podcast about old indie. And, If that’s not enough of my dulcet South Yorkshire tones, there’s loads of new episodes of my music podcast. And and and… I need no excuse to plug season 1 of Shame again!
02/02/22
Have you subscribed to the Spoook Substack yet? For £5 a month, or £5 a year, you too can get music journalism - like grandma made! - delivered straight to your inbox! There’s some good stuff up there - this interview with Miki Berenyi from Lush! This piece about Yard Act and the British working class! And this piece about me and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones!
21/01/22
What a line-up! TAKE MY MONEY!
03/01/22
Did a quick interview with Dartsweb about my recent Radio 4 documentary. Was fun!
If you missed the show - it’s called Look At What You Could Have Won, it’s about years on the couch lost to mental illness, the shifting sands of the working class, and the eighties TV quiz show Bullseye - it remains available to listen to here. It got a very nice review from the great Miranda Sawyer in The Guardian last week. You can read that here.
01/01/22
Happy New Year! 2021 was really rather brilliant for me personally, professionally and mentally. I’m very excited about 2022. I wish you all everything brilliant (Rotherham United, Nazis and people who sit alone on the outside seat on the bus aside).
You might enjoy this podcast that went up today. Unsurprisingly, I talk about 90’s indie on it!
26/12/21
I hope you all had a rad Christmas! Wasn’t EastEnders good!
Been meaning to say, there’s no new episode of Shame - a podcast about... - until 2022. But it's a really good one!
Why not subscribe now and never miss an episode! Thanks to everyone who has appeared on the podcast so far - and to everyone who has listened along. xxx
25/12/21
Merry Christmas to you and yours from me and from Spoook! Here’s a mixtape to see you through!
23/12/21
Spoook spoke to loads of people in 2021! Thanks to everyone who talked to us. And remember, you can access all of my/Spoook’s podcasts to date, here!
22/12/21
Wanna hear my favourite songs of 2021, on one bumper playlist? Course you do! Listen here!
20/12/21
My documentary about OCD, the shifting sands of the British working class and Bullseye aired tonight on BBC Radio 4. It’s been so exciting, a) hearing people sharing their stories of the show, and b) hearing that so many people enjoyed listening!
If you missed the show, you can listen here - or it’s repeated on Friday (24/12) at 11am!
08/12/21
My Radio 4 documentary is trailed in the Christmas Radio Times! December 20th! 8pm! Lot long now!
26/11/21
Holla! Did some talking about my era at NME (+ OCD, fanzines, punk, etc, obviously) for the always fun 22 Grand Pod podcast. Warning: I did this when I had COVID. I sound very breathy!
25/11/21
I’ve got dates for the airing of Look At What You Could Have Won, mine and Steve Urquhart’s forthcoming Radio 4 documentary about OCD, the shifting sands of Britain’s working class, and my favourite ever quiz show, Bullseye!
It’s on first on Monday, December 20th at 20.00. Then, on Friday, December 24th - Christmas Eve! - at 11.00. I can’t tell you how much of a thrill it’s been, making this show, traveling around the UK and interviewing ex-contestants, seeing what happened to them when the cameras stopped filming!
12/11/21
And that’s a wrap! I’ve recorded my last lot of vocals for my forthcoming documentary about Bullseye - airing on Radio 4 over Christmas 2021, dates and times forthcoming!
Look at how proud producer Steve (and Bully) is of me!
02/11/21
I don’t update this page every time I release a new episode of Shame - or any of my podcasts for that matter. But this new episode - featuring a big conversation with Amanda Knox (you know her, or at least you think you do) - felt like something worth sharing.
I’m so pleased Amanda trusted me enough to share her story with me. Hope you enjoy!
31/10/21
Happy Halloween you guys! Pumpkin carving skills by the great Matt Hayday!
21/10/21
You might have noticed I’ve added a Music section to the navigation bar. The page itself is under construction, but in the meantime, why not amuse yourself with this playlist of songs I’ve written over the years!
01/10/21
Am absolutely delighted that Spoook Records are releasing the new single by comorbidity today. It’s on Spotify now!
27/09/21
I had a conversation with the excellent Podcaster the other day, principally about Shame. It was fun! I felt a little bit like I was on GamesMaster!
You can listen to my episode here.
16/09/21
01/09/21
3,000 downloads! Thank you for the support!
We’re closer to the end of Season 2 of The OCD Chronicles than we are the start, but keep with us - there’s more good stuff to come!
31/08/21
Ooooh! The James McMahon Music Podcast gatecrashed the Chartable Top Ten this weekend. We’re coming for you Ronson! <Tony Blackburn face>
Listen to The James McMahon Music Podcast here - now incorporating Indie Heaven!
29/08/21
Ooooh, the Indie Heaven podcast is out now - and episode one is an interview with Jim Bob from Carter USM!
I’ve got some good interviews coming up in this new Spoook Media series. 14-year-old me is trippin’! Oh, and like I alway say with my podcast series, if you can, please do rate, review and subscribe on whatever podcast player you use. It really, really helps in getting the episodes/series in-front of people. And I’ve got a tonne of new interviews up at The James McMahon Music Podcast if you’re more contemporary in your tastes!
10/08/21
I had a lovely time talking to Kenny McIntosh and Dante Richardson for the Inside The Ropes podcast. I went on there primarily to talk about the big feature I wrote about mental illness and pro-wrestling in the new issue of the magazine (which you can buy here). But we got deep into all thing current in pro-wrestling. And now I really want one of those Lilly dolls. Anyhow, you can listen to said episode of the podcast here!
09/08/21
Here’s some exciting news!
Spoook Records very own Jobbers have dropped a video for their song, ‘A Song Without A Chorus’. You can watch it here.
The song is described by Jobbers as “a hymn for those failed by mental health services. And the soundtrack to an uprising.” I can get behind that.
The video is, like previous release ‘Totally Extinct Monsters’, a Pais joint.
I remain very proud to give this excellent band a home on my record label.
James x
03/08/21
I work hard on all the things I make and do. I've never worked as hard on anything as I have my new podcast series Shame.
Episode one is out now, an interview with Megan J Renee, a young Irish woman who - whilst at school - had her naked photos shared without her consent. First with her grandparents, then with her parents, and then hundreds and thousands of times across Ireland. I've had a lot of therapy. Few people have taught me more about freeing yourself from shame than Megan. There's some good stuff coming up in this series, though I'm worried that I might have peaked too early with the learnings!
You can hear the first episode here. If you wanted to rate, review and subscribe - as they say - that would mean an awful lot!
29/07/21
And… Shame has a trailer now!
It’s getting really close!
Please!
20/07/21
Remember that new podcast of mine I was telling you about? If you’d subscribe to it in advance of its August 3rd release it’d mean a lot!
18/07/21
(One of) my band(s) have got a single coming out on September 9th - but you can watch the video for it now!
Or, why not pre-order the single at the Spoook Bandcamp?
10/07/21
There’s now a presale link to the Jobbers EP that Spoook is putting out on Thursday, July 22nd!
£3 for four songs! In this economy?
If you haven’t seen the new video, you can do that here.
09/07/21
I’m delighted to announce that Spoook Records are now working with the Doncaster based bedroom band Imp! Their forthcoming mini-album will be our next release - after the Jobbers EP due out in August.
From down the back of the sofa, we found a handful of previously unreleased demos, previously only heard by a small number of Spoook associates. Because it’s Friday. Because it’s good stuff. We’re sharing them with you today.
We hope it’ll whet your whistle for their Spoook release proper!
06/07/21
I wanted to let you know about the debut release from my record label imprint, Spoook Records. Yes, I started a record label!
Released on 02/08/21, the self-titled EP from Jobbers leads off with ‘Totally Extinct Monsters’, four and a half minutes of wobbly synth rock that threatens to collapse from the very moment it exits the trap.
I’m very proud that Spoook is giving a home to a band I’ve enjoyed a lot for some time now. You can listen/watch the song - the video comes direct from the bubblegum mind of Sheffield based illustrator Pais - by clicking the link below.
05/07/21
He’s been! Season Two of The OCD Chronicles launches today!
30/06/21
There’s a new podcast from Spoook Media launching today. It does exactly what it says on the tin!
It kicks off with a very good interview with Tim McIlrath from Rise Against!
19/06/21
Heads up! All Spoook podcasts have started being added to YouTube. If you’d prefer to listen to The OCD Chronicles, The Spoook Podcast or Can We Not Knock It? there… Well, you’re in luck!
13/06/21
So, sometimes I make music. And sometimes I make that music as MC Fenerbackache. I wrote what I like to consider the Unofficial Official Anthem of England at Euro 2020. You can listen to it above!
Come on England!
03/06/21
That’s the conclusion of Season One of The Spoook Podcast!
14/05/21
Excited to announce a new release from the Spoook Mediargh organisation. Why not subscribe now, and never miss an episode?
10/05/21
Been a while, huh? How are you keeping? Good, good. There’s loads and loads of new episodes of The Spoook Podcast available to listen to now - wherever you get your podcasts!
Oh, and I knocked up a handy one-size-fits-all link to the stuff that I do. Here!
23/04/21
The third episode of The Spoook Podcast is out - wherever you get your podcasts! (I still love saying that).
21/04/21
As you guys might know, talking about old indie bands is one of my very favourite things - so I’m grateful to the excellent Do You Remember The First Time? podcast who recently invited me on to their show to do just that!
16/04/21
The second episode of The Spoook Podcast is out - wherever you get your podcasts! (I love saying that).
13/04/21
Really excited about this one. The OCD Chronicles: The Podcast is coming. More news soon!
12/04/21
Big news! Episode One proper of The Spoook Podcast is available now, wherever you get your podcasts! Enjoy!
07/04/21
This Monday, The Spoook Podcast launches proper - but what better way to whet your appetite than with Episode 0.5, a conversation about horror movies with the excellent Merseyside based heavy metal band, Video Nasties?
06/04/21
01/04/21
29/03/21
The Spoook Joey Ramone 70th Birthday Bash was fun! Thanks to everyone who played, aided us with technological nous, and, of course, who bought a ticket for the thing! Missed it? Sucks. But you can watch it back in full here!
10/03/21
The impossibly talented Drew Millward has made some amazing prints for Spoook’s Joey Ramone Tribute - oh look, we’re on Brooklyn Vegan!. You can get one from the shop here. All proceeds to OCD and lymphoma research charities, of course.
If you haven’t got your ticket yet, you can do here!
08/03/21
Hey ho! On Sunday, March 28th, I’m holding this online tribute to my hero Joey Ramone. Let’s go? There’s some amazing people taking part. There’s a bunch of surprises happening that I haven’t yet announced. And all proceeds go to OCD and lymphoma charities, those being two illnesses that featured far too predominantly in Joey’s all too brief time on earth.
Tickets can be bought - on a pay what you can basis - from this link here.
04/03/21
I enjoyed Indie Heaven: LIVE! last night. If you’d said to me when I was 15 that I’d interview four of my favourite bands, via the internet one day - well, I would have said to you, ‘what’s the internet?’ Thanks to everyone who showed up, and of course the musicians too - we raised over £200 for MAD COVID. But don’t worry if you missed the event, you can watch it below.
A nice way to mark twelve-months of ‘Indie Heaven’.
28/02/21
I’ve got some new Spoook badges! You can get one from my shop and there’s loads more spoooky stuff coming soon. While I’m here, I would like to take this opportunity to recommend my friend Manda’s badge making business, Wee Badgers, which you can find here. Quick, affordable, friendly and easy to work with - they’re the best there is!
25/02/21
I've been a music journalist for almost 20-years. I’ve worked for some of the world's biggest and best publications. But before that I was a teenager who loved indie music. And, as you might be aware, if you are a regular visitor to this site, for the last year, I've been tracking down my teenage icons and interviewing them for 'Indie Heaven'.
To celebrate doing this for 12-months, 'Indie Heaven' is having a party. Sadly - I'm sure you've seen the news - we can't all get together and eat jelly and ice-cream and listen to The Best Of Suede. Not right now we can't, anyway. But what you can do is jump on a Zoom on Wednesday, March 3rd, where I'll be charing a conversation between some of the sites allumi. That includes Martin Carr (The Boo Radleys), Johnny Dean (Menswe@r), Manda Rin (Bis) and Amelia Fletcher (Talulah Gosh and Heavenly and many other amazing bands).
The chat will last for an hour, and then you'll be able to ask questions.
Proceeds to Indie Heaven: LIVE! will go to MAD COVID, an amazing intersectional mental illness ally group. Read more about the important and inspiring work that they do here. And get your ticket now!
Oh yeah, in other news, I agreed today to do a book about Badly Drawn Boy! More news on that soon - but for now, here’s a song I love with every bit of my heart, and my lungs and liver too…
24/02/21
Remember when I spoke to the Crawlspace podcast about my true crime writing the other year? Quite remarkably, they’ve had me back - this time to talk about Bigfoot, ghosts, ABC’s and many other of my favourite things!
Lance and Tim are great people. The work they do within the true crime space is important and selfless. You can listen to the new episode that I guest on via the YouTube link below, or by downloading it here.
23/02/21
Pleased to say that The OCD Chronicles: LIVE! event went very well. We raised over £500 for the Central London OCD Support Group! If you made it along, thank you so much! And if you didn’t? Well, I recorded it, which you can watch below!
19/02/21
Hello there! If you’re a fan of The OCD Chronicles, then you might like to know about an event I’m holding next Monday - February 22nd 2021 - to celebrate the site turning one year old. That’s twelve whole months of people with OCD - people with lived experience - sharing their truth about this hugely misunderstood and misrepresented illness (with pictures of guinea pigs).
I’m calling it The OCD Chronicles: LIVE!
Join journalist and host James McMahon - that’s me! - for a conversation about the realities of OCD, with site alumni David Adam [author of The Man Who Couldn't Stop], Dr. Jo Edge [co-creator of intersectional mental illness ally group Mad COVID], Sorcha McCaffrey [actor and writer, Ladybones] and Maximilian Hawker [author of Rory Hobble and the Voyage to Haligogen, a book for children with OCD, and their parents] as the group draws upon our history with the disorder and suggests that maybe, just maybe, there is life after OCD.
This is an event suitable for anyone who has OCD, thinks that they might have OCD, or would like to know more about OCD.
There will be a Q&A after the conversation.
Pay what you can. Tickets can be obtained here. All proceeds will be donated to the upkeep of the London based OCD support group, OCD London.
And if this all sounds very dry? Don't worry, there'll be laughs too!