Back to NOW!

Welcome, one and all, to the 3rd annual Back to NOW review! 

As is now tradition, this end of year episode of the variously compiled podcast provides …

They all know it’s Dynamite, 

And the music went on and on and on…

La, La, La.

Autumn 2001. In many ways, it has been a challenging year. 5ive and Steps split, Hearsay don’t.

Pop, just like the most boybandish of the latest boybands, Blue is (all) on the rise. The new millennium has most …

It’s a Saturday night in April 1985 and a queue is gathering outside Raffles nightclub in, well pretty much every town and city across this sceptred isle. Feverishly excited boys and girls wait and dream of Malibu and …

It’s summer 1991 and school’s out which means it’s time for your latest compilation! It was probably on cassette, possibly from your local high …

WARNING!

This episode contains scenes of graphic and often gratuitous pop perfection. Listener discretion is advised.

Summer 2004. 

The wettest summer in the UK for fifty years, and with it being another three years before …

Welcome to the middle of ‘the nineties’! Sort of! Spring 1994, to be exact. And indeed, the popworld is revelling in the ‘seed of the new breed’.

Again, sort of…

It’s the summer of 1992!

The UK had accidentally voted in the Conservative government again but to make amends wins lots of medals at the Freddie and Monserrat Olympic Festival Sporting thingy in Barcelona, so everyone …

Alexa, show me 1984.

If you were to ask a certain searchable device (others are, obviously available), there’s a high probability that the year George …

Welcome to 1993. Autumn, to be exact. 

And how was it all looking?

Well, it wasn’t really baggy like 1990, or rave-y like 1991, but it wasn’t Britpoppy like 1995. It was all a bit…well, who knows? Can we say, a bit of a …

Welcome to this bonus edition of Back to Now!

A small but perfectly formed bite-size extra serving of Festive Pop!

To compliment the end of year review …

Festive greetings and welcome to what all of the Pop Kids are rightly calling the 2nd annual Back to Now review for 2022!

Can it really be a whole 12 …

Jack, jack, jack….wait? What? Who is this Jack?

It’s 1987, and the future has arrived in the shape of the first No1 of the year courtesy of Steve …

1991.

It was the first palindromic year since 1881, and to be honest I’m not really up on the hits of that particular Victorian number. 

(Newsflash: …

1990. 

Well it certainly was time for the guru, but as the first year of the new decade was drawing to a close, it was time - a little time, if you will - for so much more. And as always, our favourite compilation series …

‘One goal, one mission…one vision!’.

November 1985, and the latest poptastic edition of NOW kicks off with the unifying cry from Freddie and the boys, after an unforgettable summer when music really did seem to change …

Welcome to the end of the eighties! Pop’s greatest (it was, wasn’t it?) decade was getting ready to pack away it’s shoulder pads, leg warmers and …

Welcome to Autumn 1996. Royal divorce, Mad Cow disease, Take That helplines, TFI Friday. 

But it wasn’t all bad news, oh no – the pop charts were continuing to dazzle and amaze the CD buying public! Indeed, if we weren’t …

It's Autumn 1992! Damn, Would I Lie To You?

What an interesting time for the UK singles charts. Is it fair to say the decade was at some sort of apex …

Enjoy this trip.

And it is a trip!

What a poptastic year 1988 was turning out to be at NOW HQ! As the 80s were speeding their way towards a dayglo …

For this episode I am joined by award winning film director Grant McPhee.

Amongst Grant’s films are Big Gold Dream, which tells the story of FAST …

Can 1996 really be over a quarter of a century ago? Yes it can, and this is where we find the hot hits of summer as sizzlingly delivered in NOW34!

The charts as ever, were serving up a veritable feast of genres, hits and …

Welcome and indeed the most festive of greetings, as the back to NOW podcast brings 2021 to a close. 

And from a variously compiled world of pop …

Welcome to summer 2006! 

And things were, indeed, Crazy. 

That top selling nine-week run at No1 was significant for not just featuring (the not crime fighting rodent) Dangermouse but for being the first UK chart topper …

So, where were you in 2004?

The pop charts were as fast moving as Dame Kelly Holmes in Athens and every week brought another selection of shiny pop …

Summer 1999.

The End of the Century beckons.

As we prepared to send the clocks back to zero, millennium bugs threatened our very existence. David Bowie …

The podcast that celebrates the variously compiled world of pop is one year old.Over the past twelve months, thirteen wonderful guests have joined me …

It’s autumn 1989 and a decade where pop has transformed itself into an all encompassing mass culture is drawing to a spectacular close. Ten years …

Autumn 1987 and the pop world is at a crossroads. Some of music’s Big Names are in need of some inspiration, trends were fast moving and the decade that brought us a plethora of pop glitz and glamour was looking for …

It's November 1988, and the latest chapter in the successful NOW compilation series is launched - and looking at the cover, it really is heading out …

Every story has a beginning and in November 1983, EMI and Virgin came together to create their own piece of compilation history. And so it was, that a poster of a certain pig signalled a change in how various artists …

It’s Autumn 1986 and the charts are once again filled with a glittering array of colourful, confident pop. The post-Live Aid landscape of 1985 has …

It’s Spring 1988 and pop music is BIG once again!And as always, NOW That’s What I Call Music is there to capture the charts in all of its late 80s …

For this special episode, I am joined by musician, writer, DJ, and film producer Bob Stanley.Bob is a founder member of Saint Etienne, and a regular …

It's Christmas!!!In this episode we shamelessly deck the halls, crack open the eggnog and pass around mince pies in honour of NOW - The Christmas Album. Cue, sleigh bells!Join pop pundit & musician Ian Wade and I as …

In 1984, it wasn't George Orwell's Big Brother that was beaming out of our TVs, it was (to quote Rick Astley), the Ruddy Big Pig.As the year began, the first NOW LP was dominating the charts, but its successor was not …

Joining me for this episode is RTS Nominated TV Production Designer Richard Drew. As well as ‘creating the magic’ for, amongst many others, The Inbetweeners, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and most recently After Life, …

1985 - a positive jamboree of pop and a fascinating year for the increasingly competitive compilation LPs. As NOW! faces stiff opposition from the record companies in the shape of HITS & OUT NOW! amongst others, the …

1990 - A new decade dawns and with it comes a genre-bursting variety of pop opportunities. Dance, Indie....Indie dance!Whilst the top of the artist …

For this episode I had the great pleasure of chatting with author and publisher with Nine Eight Books Pete Selby. Amongst other accolades, Pete has …

Welcome Back to NOW! A series of podcasts that celebrate all things related to the variously compiled world of pop.

As we open up the gatefold vinyl …