Sending Signals

The Four Tops formed in Detroit in 1953, originally named The Four Aims. They’re a cornerstone of American pop music and helped propel the Motown label to international recognition. Although ostensibly a soul vocal group, I find the band interesting in how broad they were stylistically and in the variety of material they adopted. The current incarnation of The Four Tops are touring this year with The Temptations. They’re hitting the UK this summer, with a run that includes a date at the Royal Albert Hall. I’m joined this episode by Lawrence Payton Jr. from the current line-up, the son of founding member Lawrence Payton who passed away in 1997. Lawrence had a lot to say about growing up around his dad’s band, and why the Tops should still be on the road in 2026. He was great company. Please leave a nice review or star rating with your podcast provider. You can find me on Instagram @sendingsignalspodcast

Wolfgang Flür was born in Frankfurt in 1947 but moved to Düsseldorf in the early ‘50s, which has been home ever since. As a young man he played in the band The Sprits Of Sound, and studied to be an architect, hoping to get into interior design. Wolfgang joined Kraftwerk in 1973 and plays on one of the most remarkable album runs in pop music history; “Autobahn”, “Radioactivity”, “Trans Europe Express”, “The Man Machine”, and “Computer World”. He left the band in the mid-80’s and his relationship with his former bandleader Ralf Hütter has been somewhat acrimonious over the past few decades. Wolfgang has just released a new record entitled “Times”, which you’ll hear clips from during our conversation. The album features collaborations from Peter Hook (formally of Joy Division and New Order of course), and Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter. The day before the interview I was informed that Wolfgang’s musical partner Peter Duggal would be sitting in on the call too. Peter is a musician and producer based in Hebden Bridge, and is very amenable company. This was a fun chat. Wolfgang is really funny and interesting. It probably goes without saying that I absolutely love Kraftwerk, and although I sensed it would not be wise to focus on them too much, it’s still a thrill to have them represented on the podcast.

Pat Arnold has had quite a life. Born in 1946 she grew up in LA, and was in an abusive marriage with two kids while still a teenager. In 1965 she got a chance to audition for Ike and Tina Turner’s band as an “Ikette”. She got the gig and left her children in the care of her parents. This eventually took her to London where she fell into the orbit of The Rolling Stones, and she decided to stay behind there to establish herself as a solo artist, signing to Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s label Immediate Records, home of the Small Faces, members of whom ended up writing songs for her and backing her on some of her recordings. She also toured with them, and is the backing vocalist on Itchycoo Park and Tin Soldier, two of their biggest hits. She had hits under her own name too, including her recordings of Angel Of The Morning and The First Cut Is The Deepest. She also recorded with Rod Stewart. In the 70s she appeared on recordings by the likes of Nick Drake, Graham Nash, and Nils Lofgren. She toured with Eric Clapton and recorded with Barry Gibb although most of these recordings remained unreleased for decades. She sadly lost a daughter in a car accident in the mid-70s, and along with not being able to further her career as a solo artist, she seems to view this as somewhat of a lost decade. As well as being cast in Starlight Express, the 80s saw her work with Steel Pulse, The Beatmasters and Roger Waters, as well appearing on Peter Gabriel’s smash hit Sledgehammer. She first came into my orbit in the late 90s through her collaboration with Ocean Colour Scene, and the early 2000s saw her tour extensively with Roger Waters. In recent years she finally completed the album she started with Barry Gibb and Eric Clapton decades earlier, as well as a brand new studio album recorded and produced by former podcast guest Steve Craddock of Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller fame. She has a new career spanning box set entitled “Soul Survivor - A Life In Song” and I had a fantastic time talking to Pat about her life and career.

You know how every now and then, an album comes along that just gets into your bones, and it’s hard to describe just how grateful you are it exists? (If you don’t know that feeling, I’m sorry, but keep searching for it). Tamara Lindeman working as The Weather Station has make two such records I feel that way about; 2019’s “Ignorance” and 2025’s “Humanhood”, released on January 17th. “Humanhood” is a brave, striking and beautiful piece of work that just keeps on giving back, the more you mine it. It’s not designed for casual listening; the level of nuance involved, the little interludes between songs, and it’s lyrical themes of self-identity in crisis, set against grander concerns about the environment and the post-truth era we find ourselves in, deserve your full attention. It’s the sort of album where a different moment or detail might hit your each time you go back to it. It can’t imagine it being topped this year. Our conversation takes in everything from depersonalisation disorder and OCD, to taking photos of the sky, unrealistic roles for teenagers and in movies, Canadian rock-band Our Lady Peace, and quietly making the greatest album of 2025. Let me know what you think on Instagram @sendingsignalspodcast

It’s a busy one. My guests this episode are Sunderland’s David and Peter Brewis, known collectively as Field Music, and Walter Schreifels of New York post-hardcore rockers Rival Schools. You may remember David Brewis from Field Music has been on the podcast before. I’ve been a fan of the band since 2007’s magnificent “Tones Of Town” album. Depending on how you count it, “Limits Of Language” is their 9th, 10th, or 11th studio album, in addition to numerous side projects and offshoots. However you count it, “Limits Of Language” is a very fine album, and as usual, deserves a much wider audience than they tend to get, despite a bizarre and wonderful endorsement from Prince on his Twitter feed in 2015. It was lovely to have both Brewis brothers together on the show. Rival Schools are a New York part-time supergroup made up members of 80s and 90s hardcore bands, not a scene I’m into really, but the band’s two albums, 2001’s “United By Fate” and 2011’s “Pedals” are really melodic and accessible, even for more of an indie-rock kid like me. The band are celebrating their 25th anniversary and have been reissuing their back catalogue on vinyl. Walter caught up me from a room on tour in Minneapolis, and I was impressed with the thoughtfulness and depth of some of his answers. Enjoy!

Phil Manzanera has had a remarkable life. Best known as the lead guitarist in Roxy Music, he’s also worked as a writer, producer and/or performer with the likes of David Gilmour, Steve Winwood, Nico, Brian Eno and many more. He’s just released a mammoth box set of his solo work which dates back to 1975’s “Diamond Head” album. The box, entitled “50 Years Of Music”, comes at a time of reflection for Manzanera. He recently released a memoir, in which he detailed his childhood in Cuba at the time of Batista’s overthrow in 1959, and his suspicion that his Dad, who ostensibly worked for BOAC airlines, was actually a spy. Manzanera lived in different parts of the Americas as a child and later went to boarding school at Dulwich College in London. Phil went on to explore his Latin American roots in his music, and another bizarre twist occurred in 2011 when Kanye West and Jay-Z sampled a guitar part from his 1978 “K-Scope” album for their track “No Church In The Wild”. Manzanera has claimed this one sample earned him more money than his entire time in Roxy Music. Anyway, I was sure Phil would have great stories to share and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

The last time Genesis keyboard player extraordinaire Tony Banks came on the show was a few years ago, and we discussed a box set of his solo albums. Since then there has been a final Genesis tour, “The Last Domino?”, which I got to see the opening and closing nights of, and Tony now has a new boxset compiling his three classical albums “7”, “6”, and “5”. The first half of the interview we take a deep dive into that process which I hope you’ll find interesting. Creating classical music isn’t something we’ve really explored on the podcast before. In the second half of the interview Tony shares details of an upcoming boxset of “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway”, and he also confirms details of a reissue of their 60’s debut album “From Genesis To Revelation”, which in the past has been ignored from official Genesis reissue campaigns. We talk about how he feels he is perceived by Genesis fans, and whether he’s tempted to emulate the very successful touring approach of former Genesis bandmate Steve Hackett, who incidentally he also clarifies his feeling about during our chat. I think this conversation is quite something. Hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.