Breakfast in the Ruins
Friends old and new join me in Derry and Toms roof gardens to discuss the work and influence of prolific British fantasist Michael Moorcock, as well as other bits of 60s and 70s genre fiction that came to me via my Grandad in the 80s and informed my world view. Books, music, role-playing games, wrestling in Featherstone Library and many other digressions await.
Listen on:
Episodes
20 minutes ago
20 minutes ago
Seeing as John and I had such a good time with Trevor Hoyle's first Blakes 7 novelisation and series watch-a-long, we thought sod it... let's do another.
And this time... it has Servalan, plus:
Roy from Eastenders...
Glynnis Barber...
Woke blasters...
Big Ron Tarr...
TRAVIS!!!
IT'S GOT THE LOT!
Monday Mar 10, 2025
Monday Mar 10, 2025
With news that the Apple TV/Skydance Eternal Champion series is "DOA", what better a time to talk to Chris Preyer, the man behind Elric: Chains of the Doomed One - a fan-film project. Chris lifts the lid on the joys and challenges of crafting and resourcing a passion-driven endeavour.
Follow Chris and the team's progress on Instagram and check out Tim Hintsala's armoury at Iron Ape Forge, Shai Winzer's make-up at Tesh Techniques, and the haunting music of Altoscliff.
Friday Feb 21, 2025
Friday Feb 21, 2025
Tom Murphy of Colossive Press drops by Derry and Toms to discuss The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. Plus, Bryan Talbot joins us so we can quiz him about his early career and the origins of Arkwright!
Sunday Feb 09, 2025
Sunday Feb 09, 2025
For the first time in several years I recently managed to make it to one of the UK's premier RPG gatherings, GROGMEET, a joyous celebration of roleplaying games hosted by Dirk of The Grognard Files. And this time... I TOOK PHIL... so we decided, 'what the fluff!' and recorded our reflections on a cracking weekend and, into the bargain, I also gamed with Andrew Beck so I roped him in for a chat too.
Wednesday Jan 29, 2025
Wednesday Jan 29, 2025
Dave, frontman of Space Rock Colossus SÖNUS, is back in Derry and Toms to tackle the final volume in the first Hawkmoon saga... The Runestaff (AKA The Secret of the Runestaff).
Huon's tongue is flicking, Meliadus is plotting and Hawkmoon is SULKING ABOUT BOATS!
Wednesday Jan 15, 2025
Wednesday Jan 15, 2025
It's 2025, but we're tying up some 2024 business with Miles and finally rampaging to the potentially multiverse-shattering conclusion of Moorcock's Doctor Who novel The Coming of the Terraphiles.
They came. They went. The hat mystery was solved and the multiverse saved, and we still don't really get what went down.
But HATS!
Monday Dec 30, 2024
Monday Dec 30, 2024
We're back for our last show of 2024 and it's dropping in that weird 'between time' when I'm sick of festive food and just craving a tin of beans, but also wondering how much Yorkshire pud I can fit on my plate when my NYE appetite returns. And because Episode 101 has emerged through a haze of mince pies and sherry and our 18th viewing of Krampus, it's a lazy, boozy one that features a hastily conceived, tenuous theme.
It also goes on for about three days.
JOIN US!
Tuesday Dec 17, 2024
Tuesday Dec 17, 2024
It's Mike's birthday... It's Phil's birthday... It's our centenary...
For this one, we have a very special guest. It's Michael Moorcock!
Also, me and Phil go to Morecambe blah blah blah... JOIN US!!!
Monday Dec 09, 2024
Monday Dec 09, 2024
Simon Perrins is back in Derry and Toms to pick up the third instalment of the first Corum trilogy. Many delights await as Mike puts his foot down on drawing together the threads of this first ten years of Eternal Champion cosmology and, as usual, Jhary wears some nice threads.
JOIN US!
Friday Nov 22, 2024
Friday Nov 22, 2024
Steve Aylett, Moorcock's favourite modern absurdist and one-man genre, drops by Derry and Toms to talk about his work, satire and his latest novel The Book Lovers (available Dec 2nd 2024).
This was a real treat for me as I've been a fan of Steve's since happening across Lint in a King's Cross bookshop nearly 20 years ago. Since then he's continued to amuse and alarm with a whole range of writings and claims.
In his own words:
"My writing has been described as dreampunk, slipstream, bizarro, cyberpunk, new weird. I call it satire. I'm an aspie, a synaesthete and, despite all I've done, miraculously invisible. I love books. I'm very interested in permaculture, perennial veg and ecobuilds. I'm tall and resemble some sort of hen."
Breakfast in the Ruins
It had been a few years since I tried anything new hobby-wise and particularly anything t’interweb related beyond twitter and generally using it for all of the general reasons we use it (gifs, cat pics, buying things I don’t need etc).
However in recent years, whilst doing lengthy commutes, I found that podcasts had moved on somewhat from the type I’d been exposed to previously, with less of the ‘yuck yuck’ interactions between podcast hosts that felt the need to be artificially heightened, and more of a naturalistic and joyous approach to a specific subject matter that drew me in to feel part of the conversation.
Combined with this new found interest I’ve been needing a hobby and outlet for my creative energies, such that they are.
A few years back, for similar reasons, I started a blog (mentallicohullic.com), where I was able to have a good rant, but also link to the online articles I’d written for thequietus.com. I didn’t really keep that up with any regularity though, so it fell by the wayside, although it is still live.
Anyway, it struck me a while later that a sudden upsurge in interest amongst my friends in fantasy fiction, and particularly Michael Moorcock, had generated a number of conversations that I really enjoyed participating in. We were also having particular discussions about how to best model Moorcock in a table top role playing game. One night I started typing up some thoughts regarding my approach to it and, reading it back, it was written in a conversational style and for a split second the idea of a podcast themed around Michael Moorcock’s books and other associated art seemed appealing. A few sherries later I’d ordered a USB audio hub and a condenser microphone and the next day recorded a five minute podcast introduction as a proof of concept. I shared it with some like-minded friends and, following feedback, decided to give it a whirl.
Michael Moorcock as a subject seemed the natural choice, for reasons that may become apparent during the introductory episode. As you'll see as the show progresses, there's a reason why I call it 'Moorcock flavoured'.