
Crossed Channels with Tony Fletcher and Dan Epstein
by A monthly podcast on which a Yank and a Brit clash and connect over music from both sides of "the pond".
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Recent episodes
Echo & The Bunnymen: The Album That Broke Echo & The Bunnymen
Jun 11, 2026
14m 38s
Pick n' Mix: Rickenbackers, Rolling Stones, Lloyd Cole, Luna and "C**ts Like Tom Jones"
May 7, 2026
1h 07m 29s
Connecting with the Mothership
Apr 9, 2026
13m 59s
It's It's a Ballroom Blitz!
Mar 5, 2026
11m 44s
Dan and Tony Get Their Ya-Ya's Out
Feb 12, 2026
10m 45s
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/11/26 | ![]() Echo & The Bunnymen: The Album That Broke Echo & The Bunnymen✨ | Echo & The Bunnymenmusic history+3 | — | Echo & The BunnymenNever Stop: The Echo & The Bunnymen Story | — | Echo & The Bunnymenalbum analysis+3 | — | 14m 38s | |
| 5/7/26 | ![]() Pick n' Mix: Rickenbackers, Rolling Stones, Lloyd Cole, Luna and "C**ts Like Tom Jones"✨ | Rickenbacker guitarsThe Rolling Stones+3 | — | RickenbackerThe Rolling Stones+3 | — | musicRickenbacker+4 | — | 1h 07m 29s | |
| 4/9/26 | ![]() Connecting with the Mothership✨ | George ClintonMothership Connection+3 | — | ParliamentMothership Connection+1 | — | George ClintonMothership Connection+3 | — | 13m 59s | |
| 3/5/26 | ![]() It's It's a Ballroom Blitz!✨ | British glam rockmusic history+3 | — | SweetCROSSED CHANNELS+1 | — | Sweetglam rock+3 | — | 11m 44s | |
| 2/12/26 | ![]() Dan and Tony Get Their Ya-Ya's Out✨ | live albumsmusic journalism+3 | — | CROSSED CHANNELSShould I Stay (Home) or Should I Go (Out)? | — | live albumsbootlegs+3 | — | 10m 45s | |
| 1/22/26 | ![]() Should I Stay (Home) or Should I Go (Out)?✨ | live albumsmusic discussion+3 | — | The WhoThe Kinks | — | live albumsconcert recordings+3 | — | 15m 40s | |
| 12/11/25 | ![]() Buzzcocks Love You More✨ | Buzzcockspop-punk+3 | — | BuzzcocksIRS Records+1 | — | Buzzcockspop-punk+3 | — | 13m 29s | |
| 11/12/25 | ![]() Go All The Way: Picking The Finest Raspberries✨ | power popmusic history+3 | — | RaspberriesThink Like A Key Music+1 | Cleveland, Ohio | Raspberriespower pop+3 | — | 16m 27s | |
| 10/9/25 | ![]() Keeping The Faith: Crossed Channels Goes Northern Soul✨ | Northern Soulmusic history+4 | — | Wigan CasinoBlackpool Mecca+1 | DetroitChicago+4 | Northern Soulsoul music+4 | — | 10m 44s | |
| 9/11/25 | ![]() From Asbury to Hammersmith: How "The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle" Set the Stage for Bruce Springsteen's Crossed Channels Breakthrough✨ | Bruce Springsteenmusic journalism+3 | — | The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street ShuffleGreetings from Asbury Park, N.J.+1 | Jersey ShoreUK+1 | Bruce SpringsteenThe Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle+3 | — | 12m 01s | |
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| 8/14/25 | ![]() The Who Take on US and Win, 1967-69✨ | The WhoNorth American gigs+3 | — | The WhoBeach Boys | North AmericaBoston+3 | The WhoKeith Moon+5 | — | 11m 41s | |
| 7/10/25 | ![]() Good ViBritons: How The Beach Boys Changed British Beat✨ | The Beach BoysBritish Invasion+4 | — | The Beach BoysThe Who+4 | — | The Beach BoysBritish Invasion+5 | — | 9m 29s | |
| 6/12/25 | ![]() How Soon Was Now? The Smiths Take Britain and Break America | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to the 17th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.This time out, our subject is The Smiths, the most iconic British indie band of the 1980s. Specifically, we discuss the period bookended by the August 1984 release of their fifth UK single, “William, It Was Really Nothing,” and the conclusion of their first US tour at the end of June 1985. During that frantic 11-month stretch, the band released the odds n’ sods collection Hatful of Hollow and their second studio album Meat Is Murder, and their epic B-side “How Soon Is Now?” became a massive underground hit in America, thanks in part to a video that Sire Records commissioned and released without the band’s awareness or permission.Meat Is Murder, the first Smiths album released domestically in the US, reached #110 on the Billboard 200 in May 1985 — which, while not quite as impressive a feat as knocking Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA off the top of the UK charts, was still a damn fine showing for a band that had only played one US concert date (New Year’s Eve 1983 at Danceteria in NYC) prior to its release. The record stayed on the US album charts for 32 weeks in all; and on June 7th of that year, Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce kicked off their first US tour with a show at Chicago’s 5,000-capacity Aragon Ballroom.Although Dan was living in Chicago at the time, he happily passed on attending that now-fabled Aragon show. By his own admission, he spent many years stubbornly resisting the charms of The Smiths — so much so, in fact, that he somehow managed to avoid hearing almost all of Meat Is Murder until just a few weeks ago when he began prepping for this episode.Tony, on the other hand, is exceedingly familiar with the album, as well as the rest of The Smiths’ densely-packed catalog. Not only was he lucky enough to witness the band (which acrimoniously fell apart in 1987) play live on numerous occasions, but he also penned the excellent 2012 biography A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of The Smiths.Please join us for an animated discussion on a legendary band. Why did such a quintessentially English act resonate so deeply with American audiences? Does Meat Is Murder still hold up for Tony forty years later? Will the album help Dan to finally see the light (that never goes out) and inspire him to delve deeper into The Smiths’ discography? And how come Slim Whitman and Gordon Lightfoot both come up in the conversation? Tune in to find out!As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them! CROSSED CHANNELS can be heard both here on our Substack pages or via your preferred podcast app: just follow the links and instructions on the right. In addition to the podcast, Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith regularly serve up previously unpublished interviews and other exclusive content to our paid subscribers. | 13m 46s | ||||||
| 5/8/25 | ![]() Accelerate: R.E.M.'s Second Reckoning? | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to the 16th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.While most of our previous episodes have covered bands or artists that have been received very differently in the UK than the US, this one focuses on a band that was hugely successful in both countries (and a whole lotta other places as well): Athens, Georgia’s R.E.M.But instead of zooming in on one of R.E.M.’s classic early/mid-eighties albums like Murmur or Reckoning, or delving into one of the releases from their multi-platinum run in the nineties, Dan and Tony fast-forward here to the penultimate studio album of the massively influential alternative rock band’s 31-year career: 2008’s Accelerate.Produced by Jacknife Lee (who had previously worked with Snow Patrol, Editors and The Hives, among others), Accelerate is a 35-minute blast of hard-riffing, tightly-wound tunes, featuring such bracing singles as “Hollow Man” (video below), “Man-Sized Wreath” and “Supernatural Superserious”. Viewed by many — including R.E.M. co-founders Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe — as a significant comeback from their previous outing, 2004’s soggy Around the Sun, the record received rave reviews pretty much across the board, and reached #2 on the Billboard 200 in the US while going all the way to #1 on the UK Albums chart.But despite its commercial and critical success, Accelerate remains something of an overlooked entry in R.E.M.’s extensive discography. Dan, for example, was only dimly aware of its existence; even though R.E.M. was once quite literally his favorite band in the world, he’d never actually even listened to Accelerate until Tony suggested it for this episode. Tony, on the other hand, was already highly familiar with the album, having detailed the story of its unusual gestation, especially the role of Jacknife Lee in revitalizing the group’s mojo, in the last update of his band biography, Perfect Circle: The Story of R.E.M.In this episode, Dan and Tony discuss the circumstances around Accelerate’s creation, the album’s various musical and lyrical highlights, and where it ultimately ranks in their respective R.E.M. standings. Will Tony make a convincing case for the album’s enduring greatness? Will Dan kick himself for waiting nearly 17 years to actually listen to the record? Tune in to this episode of CROSSED CHANNELS and find out!As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them! In addition to the podcast, Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith regularly serve up previously unpublished interviews and other exclusive content to our paid subscribers. | 10m 06s | ||||||
| 3/27/25 | ![]() Slade Inflamed | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to the 15th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.This time out, our subject is Slade, a British band who are justifiably legendary in their homeland. From 1971 to 1975, these self-described “yobboes” from Wolverhampton in the Midlands absolutely ruled the UK and European charts with one hard-rocking, rafter-raising singalong after another, lodging 17 straight singles in the UK Top 20, including six Number Ones, three of which came in at Number 1, the first act to do so since The Beatles and the last to do so before The Jam. As the incredible 1975 show from San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom below attests, few acts could touch Slade onstage, either.But despite numerous attempts to break through in the US — and even after acquiring devoted fanbases in several American cities — Slade never managed to reach higher than #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 (a placing they achieved with 1972’s “Gudbuy T’Jane”) during their UK glory days. In 1983, however, Quiet Riot’s hit cover of their classic “Cum On Feel the Noize” gave the band an unexpected commercial boost in the States, resulting in big MTV hits with “My Oh My” and “Run Runaway,” the latter of which actually made it to #20 in the US.Both CROSSED CHANNELS hosts are both massive Slade fans — in fact, Dan is currently running a multi-part interview with Slade frontman Noddy Holder on his Substack — but growing up on opposite sides of the Atlantic meant that our respective introductions to Slade and their music were vastly different. We get into our origin stories on this episode, as well as our favorite songs and albums from the Slade discography, and how the act’s growth as songwriters did not yield equivalent success; we also debate the relative merits of Slade In Flame, the gritty 1975 film that follows the travails of an up-and-coming 1960s band called Flame (who are, of course, played by the members of Slade). Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Slade In Flame will be rereleased in UK theatres this spring, as well as released on Blu-Ray for the first time… though only one of us is at all excited about this news.As always, the full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in all its Slade glory, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them! | 16m 04s | ||||||
| 2/20/25 | ![]() Move On Up with Curtis Mayfield | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to the 14th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. And this time out, our subject is Curtis, the 1970 solo debut of the legendary American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer Curtis Mayfield.Curtis produced two international hits — “(Don’t Worry) If There’s Hell Below We’re All Gonna Go” (listen via the YouTube clip that follows) and “Move On Up” — and topped the US R&B Albums charts while reaching #19 on the Billboard 200, setting the stage for Mayfield to leave The Impressions and embark upon a successful solo career that would peak commercially in 1972 with his soundtrack for the blaxploitation film Super Fly.As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode (75 mins) is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one (or both!) of our Substacks. | 20m 40s | ||||||
| 1/16/25 | ![]() Sleepwalker: The Kinks' Hidden Gem | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to the first 2025 episode (and 13th episode overall) of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. And this time out, our subject is one of the great British bands of all time: The Kinks!Rather than talk about one of the band’s widely acknowledged classics like 1968’s The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society or 1969’s Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), we’re discussing a Kinks album that’s largely underappreciated: 1977’s Sleepwalker. | 13m 40s | ||||||
| 12/5/24 | ![]() A Band From Britain Called James | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comThough largely (and perhaps unfairly) remembered as a one-hit wonder in the US, where their 1993 single “Laid” reached #3 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart (and #61 on the Hot 100) and helped their album of the same name sell over half a million copies in the States, James remain massively popular in the UK. Yummy, the band’s 18th and latest studio album, even topped the UK charts upon its release this past April, giving James the first Number One album of their lengthy career.Will Tony make a convincing case for the enduring brilliance of James? Will Dan be able to move past his long-held suspicion of the band and actually find ways to connect with them and their music? Will a certain accusation about James made by a certain member of the British band Thee Hypnotics be squarely refuted once and for all? Listen to this episode of CROSSED CHANNELS and find out!As always, this podcast episode is only available in full to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith - where Tony also recently posted the transcript of his 2011 interview with Tim Booth for his Smiths biography - though a short preview of the episode is available to all. To hear it in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one (or both!) of our Substacks. | 20m 35s | ||||||
| 11/7/24 | ![]() Krossed Channels: The Incredible Story of Redd Kross | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to Episode 11 of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast, in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.Actually, we should probably change it to KROSSED CHANNELS for this episode, since it finds us discussing one of Dan’s all-time favorite bands: Southern California cult heroes Redd Kross! | 11m 15s | ||||||
| 10/3/24 | ![]() Back In The USA: The MC5's Finest 28 Minutes? | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to Episode 10 of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast, in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.This time out, we taken on of the greatest rock n’ roll bands to ever demolish a stage: the MC5!Formed in the mid-1960s in the suburbs of Detroit, Michi… | 14m 41s | ||||||
| 8/29/24 | ![]() Kate Bush: From Prog Nuns to Pop Stardom | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to Episode 9 of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast, in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.Elton John calls her "a most beautiful mystery.” Tricky notes how “you can’t hear her influences.” And yet, as St. Vincent observes, “You can hear one no… | 14m 40s | ||||||
| 7/17/24 | ![]() Love's Forgotten Classic: Is 'Four Sail' Better Than 'Forever Changes'? | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to Episode 8 of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast, in which two music journalists/obsessives, Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.In our last episode, we took a deep dive into The Clash’s controversial 1980 album Sandinista!, and attempted to whittle down its sprawling three LPs into a 12-track single album. Just as the three Clash albums that preceded Sandinista! have tended to loom the largest in that band’s legacy, so too is the case with today’s subject: Love, the groundbreaking, genre-blending American band led by the brilliant and mercurial Arthur Lee.For decades, Love has been (rightly) celebrated for their phenomenal 1967 album Forever Changes — a record which regularly appears near the top of “Greatest Psychedelic Albums of All Time” lists, and sometimes “Greatest Albums of All Time, Period” lists, too — as well as their half-great 1966 pop-jazz-psych LP Da Capo and their self-titled folk-punk debut from earlier that same year.But there is far more to Arthur Lee and Love’s discography than those first three albums and their non-LP 1968 single “Your Mind and We Belong Together,” which was the last thing Lee cut with Love’s “classic lineup”. 1969’s Four Sail was ignored or denigrated by music critics for decades, simply because it featured an almost entirely new Love lineup, and because its acid-rock sound was such a radical departure from the pastoral soft-psych of Forever Changes.And yet, Four Sail contains some of Lee’s finest songs — and there are even some days where Dan actually prefers this underrated album to anything else in the Love catalog, Forever Changes included. Will Dan convince him of that album’s enduring brilliance, or will it all be a bit too “West Coast hippie” for his punk rock liking? Tune in to the latest episode of CROSSED CHANNELS to find out!A free preview of Episode 8 is available to all listeners, but the full episodes of CROSSED CHANNELS are only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse https://danepstein.substack.com/ or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith. https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/ If you’re already a free subscriber to either of these Substacks (or better yet, both), upgrade your subscription now to hear the whole thing, as well as all our previous episodes. As always, we are immensely grateful for your encouragement and support! Cheers! | 9m 19s | ||||||
| 6/20/24 | ![]() The Clash's 'Sandinista!': Masterpiece or Mess? | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to Episode 7 of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast, in which two music journalists/obsessives, Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.A free preview of Episode 7 is available to all listeners, but the episode is only available in its entirety to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith. If you’re already a free subscriber to either of these Substacks (or better yet, both), upgrade your subscription now to hear the whole thing, along with other bonus features. As always, we are immensely grateful for your encouragement and support! Cheers! On this occasion, paid subscribers can also win a copy of Tony’s book on The Clash: The Music That Matters to be won.In Episode 6, we discussed Blondie, a band from the NYC punk scene that hit it big in the UK before most Americans had ever heard of them. This time, we’re tackling one of the most important bands from the original wave of British punk: The Clash.After making their live debut with a July 4, 1976 performance at The Screen on the Green in London (at which they supported the Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols), the Clash quickly gained a massive UK following on the strength of their high-energy gigs and outspoken left-wing ideology. But Epic Records, the American arm of their label CBS Records, flat-out refused to issue the band’s self-titled 1977 debut album, assuming that it had no commercial potential in the US.By 1980, however, the Clash had become immensely popular in the States — their third album, 1979’s double-length London Calling, made it all the way to #27 on the Billboard 200, thanks to the surprise radio hit “Train in Vain” — and the band spent so much time on the road in there that they were regularly accused of forsaking their homeland in pursuit of the Yankee dollar.This transatlantic shift in the band’s fortunes was underlined by the December 1980 release of Sandinista!, the most politically-charged and stylistically wide-ranging album that the band ever made. The three-LP set received rave reviews in the US, surpassed London Calling on the Billboard 200, and went on to sell over 500,000 copies; in the UK, however, Sandinista! was poorly received by critics and fans alike, and would become the lowest-charting album of the band’s career.Though often hailed as a masterpiece, Sandinista! has been almost equally criticized as being a mess. Many folks think it would have been a far better listening experience as a double LP, or even a single album. On this episode of CROSSED CHANNELS, we dig deep into this incredibly diverse record, and attempt to assemble the ideal single-album version of Sandinista! by slimming it down from 36 tracks to 12. As it turns out, however, we have wildly divergent opinions on which tracks should make the cut… | 12m 19s | ||||||
| 5/15/24 | ![]() Blondie: America's Finest Pop Band? | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to Episode 6 of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast, in which two music journalists/obsessives, Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.Our 5th Episode, Oasis: What's The Story?, in which we discussed the 1995 album that catapulted the Manchester band to international fame, is now available in full, on all streaming platforms, for anyone who is not one of our paid-up Substack subscribers and wants to hear where we go with these discussions. We now head back to the United States for a look at the strange case of Blondie.A cornerstone of the original New York punk scene that revolved around CBGB, Club 82 and Max’s Kansas City, Blondie were a group with roots in both the pure pop of 1960s girl groups like the Shangri-La’s and the pop art experiments of the early Velvet Underground. Fronted by the gorgeously talented Debbie Harry, Blondie were the biggest (and arguably the best) pop band in the US from 1979 through 1981, though they actually scored two massive hits in the UK — “Denis” and “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear” — in 1978, before most American listeners were even aware of their existence.Blondie’s US breakthrough came in 1979 via “Heart of Glass,” the Mike Chapman-produced disco smash that provoked cries of “Sellout!” from punk and new wave fans, but completely connected with the cultural zeitgeist of the time. Of course, Blondie — a band who were never shy about experimenting with musical styles and forms beyond accepted punk parameters — had actually been playing versions of the song well before “disco” became a dirty word.In this episode of CROSSED CHANNELS, Dan and Tony take a look at Blondie’s incredible run of six albums between 1976-82, and discuss how a band that was largely written off by critics and scenesters in their early days wound up scoring Number One hits on both sides of the Atlantic — as well as why British record buyers fell for them first. Along the way, our hosts answer these questions and more:• What was the original title for "Heart of Glass,” and how far back does the song date?• When did Debbie Harry first show up on an album?• What was the group that Chris Stein and Debbie Harry first played in together?• What cassette did drummer Clem Burke bring back with him from London in 1975?• And was it Farfisa or Vox that gave keyboard player Jimmy Destri Blondie’s distinctive retro sound?A free preview of Episode 6 is available to all listeners, but the episode is only available in its entirety to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith. If you’re already a free subscriber to either of these Substacks (or better yet, both), upgrade your subscription now to hear the whole thing. As always, we are immensely grateful for your encouragement and support! Cheers!…A couple of photographic references from the episode: | 12m 32s | ||||||
| 4/18/24 | ![]() Oasis: What's The Story? | Welcome to the fifth episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast, in which Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pondHaving tackled the rise and premature demise of Otis Redding in our last episode, we now return to England — Manchester, to be specific — to discuss the band Oasis and the 1995 album that catapulted them to international stardom, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?Originally a quartet formed in 1991 as the Rain, Oasis – which became a five-piece once singer Liam Gallagher's older brother, the songwriter Noel Gallagher, joined the band - were signed to Creation Records in the summer of 1993. They scored their first UK Top 10 hit a year later with “Live Forever,” and generated such a buzz that their 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe entered the Number One spot on the UK albums chart in its first week of release, becoming the fastest selling debut album in British history.But it was their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, that turned Oasis into a genuine phenomenon. Released in October 1995, the record spent ten weeks at the top of the UK albums chart and spawned four UK #1 or #2 hits with “Some Might Say,” “Roll With It,” “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger”. For anyone in Britain in 1995-96, it was impossible to get away from the sound of the band’s music; discussion of their antics (the Gallagher brothers took “sibling rivalry” to new extremes and the group as a whole was known for its rabble-rousing); and coverage of the Britpop phenomenon, which Oasis were drawn into after the media created a rivalry between themselves and Blur. This astonishing success climaxed in the UK in August 1996 with a two-night stand at Knebworth Park (see below), the biggest ever concerts in the UK's history; they drew a record 250,000 people, only 1/10th the number who applied. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? went on to sell over 5 million records in the UK, and over 4 million in the USA, accompanied by Grammy nominations, Brits and Ivor Novello awards, and commensurate international sales adding up to over 20 million globally, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.Why did Oasis — and especially (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? — strike such a massive chord with British record buyers? What was it about the band’s music, message and attitude that resonated so deeply in the UK? And how was this exceedingly British band received in the US at a time when the seismic rumbles of the grunge movement were still being heard and felt on that side of the Atlantic? Dan and Tony discuss these topics and more, including their memories of their first Oasis concerts, and have a look to see just how well (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? holds up today, nearly 29 years after its release.A free preview of Episode 5 is available to all listeners, but the entire episode (along with all previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes) is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith. If you’re already a free subscriber to one of these Substacks (or, even better, both), upgrade your subscription now to ensure that you don’t miss out on all the fun. As always, we thank you for the encouragement and support! Cheers! This episode was recorded on Zoom, rather than in person per usual, due to Tony being in the UK, and there are a couple of minor audio glitches for which we apologize. We figure you can fill in the gaps! If you have comments on this episode, or suggestions for future episode subjects, we are all ears! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tonyfletcher.substack.com/subscribe | 1h 17m 40s | ||||||
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