Wednesday 27 April 2016

Former Railtown Bottler

Mark Kermode - sporting neither his trademark bins or Harrington jacket

Mark Kermode’s Celluloid Jukebox is one of many regular podcasts that makes its way onto my iPod on a regular basis. Many hours spent behind the wheel or on solitary Sunday walks positively fly by listening to Kermode’s mix of sage cinematic critique and accompanying soundtrack nuggets. Kermode’s show rubs shoulders with a raft of equally excellent recorded audio output I listen to on my travels, including, but not limited to:

* 99% Invisible
* The New Yorker - Fiction
* The Allusionist with Helen Zaltzman
* Rhod Gilbert’s Saturday morning show on BBC Radio Wales
* Soho Radio
* The Moth
* Desert Island Discs (including the now gargantuan back catalogue of old programmes going back 50 years or more)
* Serial

But back to Kermode. He first appeared on my radar as the incisive fast-talking film critic on Danny Baker’s Breakfast Show in the early nineties on Radio 5 (as it was called back in the day) and again with Baker on his Saturday TV show. Kermode was stand-up bass player with Baker’s house band The Railtown Bottlers. His current band, The Dodge Brothers, combine the sound of the Solent with pure Americana. They even went out to Memphis to record an (excellent) album (live, of course) at Sun Studios. Here’s a short film they put together to record the momentous event. Keep 'em peeled for the ultimate Bono putdown.

2 comments:

  1. I listen to a fair amount of radio, often on the iPlayer and stream the odd podcast while I'm at my laptop, but I've never downloaded a podcast in my life. I'm too scared to look at what's out there, worried that I'll find loads more great stuff that I'll never get around to hearing. And talking about not having enough time - how does Kermode manage to squeeze playing in a band into everything else he does? Do his days contain more hours than everyone else's?

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  2. I must say I do have a particular soft spot for a well turned-out man with a quiff.
    As The Swede says too, how on earth does he find time?!

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