Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

This is an excerpt of a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons episode Tim concludes his two-parter on Boy George’s summertime single ‘We Will Dance Again’. Tim recounts George’s comments on the AI-assisted writing process, the visit to the Nova Exhibition that inspired the composition, and gives the lyrics a rigorous analysis. Elsewhere in the episode Tim unpacks the definition of genocide, looks at the international response to Gaza, shares Palestinian music old and new, and updates the show to include the fallout from the rece...

Today we’re taking it back to the early 70s as we begin a mini-series on spiritual jazz. Psychedelic, cosmic, astral: all words associated with a set of releases somewhat maligned at the time but now firm favourites on our turntables and across the globe. Tim and Jeremy cue up Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, Lonnie Liston Smith and of course the great Alice Coltrane for a journey down the streams of consciousness. They examine the genealogy of the term spiritual jazz and the pre-history of some of its early progenitors, dig into the the various belief systems of universal lo...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only show. To hear the full thing, plus dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to sign up.

In this episode Tim responds to Boy George’s recent musical offering, ‘We Will Dance Again’. To respect BDS, we won’t be playing this AI-generated apologia for the Gaza genocide, or anything else from George’s catalogue, but Tim does explore the British singer’s confused history of political pronouncements on this and other issues, alongside some contemporaneous synth-pop from his New Romantic heyday.
Elsewhere in the episode Tim...

Love is the Message returns from our summer break just in time for the Bank Holiday Weekend, which in London means one thing: Carnival. In this episode Jeremy and Tim cover the history of Notting Hill Carnival, the largest such event in Europe. They discuss patterns of Caribbean migration to the UK, traditions of carnival from Ancient Greece to Trinidad and Rio, and the particular story of Notting Hill, with its steel bands, dub sound systems, parade and party. They return to Lovers Rock, consider legendary stages like Aba Shanti, Good Times and Saxon, and interrogate how Bakhtinian and...

We at LITM are still on our summer break, but while we’re away we wanted to share this interview on that most Northern of subjects, Mark E Smith of The Fall. Joining Jeremy for this discussion is Dr David Wilkinson. With reference to David’s essay ‘Mark E. Smith, Brexit Britain and the Aesthetics and Politics of the Working Class Weird’, the pair get into the weeds on Smith’s complicated politics, working class conservatism, the Weird, and the type of guy MES represents: autodidactic, contrarian, nostalgic, boozy. They relate The Fall’s work to pulp Modernism, loss and libertar...

It's just Jem this week, mopping up the last suds of our post punk mini-series with a series of British bands who ripped it up and started again. We spend time with The Slits fantastic dub punk debut Cut, shouting out the production of the great Dennis Bovell on the way, then drive up the M1 to explore the rich pickings of that great musical city, Sheffield. With reference to an early Human League single, Jem unearths the imminent possibilities of the crumbling Fordist world. We hear two tracks from Public Image Ltd, before digging into one of our...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to join.

We made it: what started as a ten-minute conversation and became a six episode mini-series finally reaches it conclusion, with the 1978 release of Arthur Russell’s Kiss Me Again. Jeremy and Tim conclude the genealogy of this epic track, detailing it’s recording, dry runs in the club, how the record was sold to the punky Sire Records, and how the Arthur came to put together the players. Friend of the...

We’ve finally made it - the pivotal Post Punk year of 1979. Well, sort of. It wouldn’t be LITM without a little extra detail, so Jeremy and Tim cue up our arrival with a couple of tracks from ’78 for good measure. They talk Tom Robinson Band, Undertones and the Only Ones, exploring ‘dole queue rock’, everydayness and the limits of politically self-conscious music of the period. Later in the show they tuck into a couple of indie disco staples to examine emergent New Wave, de-masculination, Manchester and the Iron Lady. Finally, for the first time on the show, the guys s...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, plus dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

We continue our mini-series on Arthur Russell by turning to his mid-70s pop and folk work. Starting in the famous Poet’s Building in 1975, Tim and Jeremy explore life in the East Village, in particular the area’s poetry scene. They discuss the aesthetics of setting spoken word to music, stop by Ginsberg, and drop in some Tibetan Buddhist classes. Elsewhere in the episode we hear about a number of recording sess...

In this episode we return to the Mudd Club, NYC’s ‘intense laboratory’ of cinema, performance, dance and music. We hear about how this new kind of club fused these various media in novel ways, both as a day-to-day scene hang out spot and a site of never-ending unusual parties (‘Rock’n’Roll Funeral Ball Extravaganza’ anyone?). Tim and Jeremy detail the movement of artists into the East Village in the late 70s, the Fluxus inspiration for the Club’s goings on, and throw a little light on another less well-remembered venue, Club 57.

Elsewhere in the episode the guys...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, plus dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

We’re back on the tail of Arthur Russell this week, paying close attention to his piece Instrumentals. A large ensemble composition comprised of multiple musical cells and first premiered at The Kitchen while he was music director, this work expresses Arthur’s proximity to NYC’s post minimalist scene. Jeremy and Tim discuss the works of several of the more prominent composers of that world, including Steve Reich, La Monte Young and Ph...

Continuing our mini-series on post-punk, Jeremy and Tim turn their attention to the pre-history of a crucial NYC venue: The Mudd Club. Given Tim literally wrote the book on this stuff, he’s well-placed to tell the story of how three Downtowners got the idea, got the premises, agreed on the name (not without its difficulties) and threw open the doors. We revisit the blending of punk and dance cultures that was emerging in the city at the time, spend a moment in another club - Hurrah - and contemplate the pitfalls of punk. Elsewhere in the episode Jeremy re...

We've dug into our vault of past episodes and unlocked this previously patrons-only interview from last year. To hear dozens more episodes like this from just £3 a month, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In episode we welcome writer and anti-fascist activist Joe Mulhall to the show to discuss his fantastic book Rebel Sounds: Music as Resistance, a survey across time and place of groups and cultures using musics as part of their resistance to forms of racism and imperialism. We hear about Irish rebel songs, Kneecap and an impromptu Irish history quiz in the toilets o...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, plus dozens more, become a patron from £3 a month at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons episode we rejoin Arthur Russell in NYC as he takes up musical directorship of the supremely influential downtown arts centre The Kitchen. Jeremy and Tim discuss the Minimalist and Post-Minimalist stylings of the retinue of composer-performers in the area, including Christian Wolff and Rhys Chatham. We hear how Arthur - never a rock lover - became enamoured with the vernacular communication of the Modern Lovers, i...

Grab your zines, dust off your stencils and customise your jackets because Jeremy and Tim are continuing our mini-series on post-punk with a healthy dollop of DIY culture. They discuss the infamous Sniffin’ Glue magazine, visit Dial House to ponder the ultimate UK DIY heroes Crass, and spin some of the most out-there No Wave cuts NYC had to offer. Elsewhere in the episode they dedicate time to outré post punk pioneers Devo, shout out the pipes on Lydia Lunch, dwell on punk’s dub and hip hop influences as expressed through a classic Clash track, and unpick the aesth...

This is an excerpt of a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to sign up from just £3 a month.

In this patrons episode we continue to unspool our mini-series on the great Arthur Russell. We rejoin the composer on the West Coast in the early 1970s, leaving him a few years later at the Manhattan School of Music as he prepares to move downtown. Along the way Tim and Jeremy discuss Arthur’s friendship with Allen Ginsberg, his experiences of Buddhism, and an early rec...

Jeremy and Tim continue our mini-series on post-punk with a bit of 1978 scene-setting. Describing the inflationary crises, militant shop stewards and series of strikes in the UK and US, Jeremy paints a picture of the historic moment out of which a series of self-consciously anti-bourgeois bands were emerging. We hear about Jonny Rotten’s metamorphosis into John Lydon, take a moment to reflect on some of Leeds’ favourite sons the Gang of Four, and cross over to the Rust Belt to listen to an early track by Ohio’s own Pere Ubu. Sticking in the States, Tim spends time talkin...

UNLOCKED: we've decided to share this interview with writer Toby Manning that we originally distributed to patrons in May 2025. To hear dozen more bonus episodes on a vast array of topics, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to become a patron.

In this episode we welcome writer Toby Manning to the show to discuss his recent book Mixing Pop and Politics: A Marxist History of Popular Music. Toby's book offers a political reading of popular music, taking as its methodological starting point the songs found in the charts from the 1950s to the present day, to...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to sign up.

In this episode we begin a patrons mini-series on one of the most unique and beloved characters of the LITM story, Arthur Russell. Given Tim literally wrote the book on the singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, you’re in good hands. We begin with the story of Arthur’s early life in Iowa and his move to San Francisco, including experiences with Buddhism and drugs, alongside musical instruction from the grea...

On this week’s episode we return to 70s for the first of a mini-series on post-punk. A historical period, an unhelpful genre descriptor, a structure of feeling? Whatever it is, the guitar bands of the UK and NYC in 1978 were creating some serious music. Jeremy and Tim discuss where the term came from, what exactly the ‘punk’ it was following was, and some the music’s early proponents. With reference to The Slits, Wire, Talking Heads and more, we hear about the Hacienda, John Peel, Modernism and Mark E Smith. The guys unpack how funk and reggae were influenc...

To hear the extended, 12", almost-2-hour version of this conversation, including discussion on Maximo Park, Kenickie and Bob Davenport, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from just £3 a month.

In this episode of LITM Jeremy is joined by writer and editor of Tribune magazine Alex Niven to talk about the musical history of England’s North East. Our interest in this subject was piqued by Sam Fender’s victory in last year’s Mercury Music Prize. Fender is himself an artist indebted to our recent subject, Bruce Springsteen. Alex talks us through the par...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to sign up.

In our final episode of 2025, Jeremy and Tim spend some time exploring the life and times of Bruce Springsteen. Tracing his life from his early career up to 1984, they unpack specificities of the Boss’s politics, his particular aesthetic, and the often confused reception of his repertoire. We hear about the sense of place in his music, the influence of Dylan on his writing, the iconography of the small to...

It’s Mamdani time! On this episode of the show we’re bringing things right up to the here and now to celebrate New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani. Tim and Jeremy recount the emergence of Zohran as a political figure, his background and parents, his democratic socialist politics and what his election means for the Left and anti-imperialism more broadly. We also hear a potted history of the DSA, consider the particularities of Left Populism as a contemporary political tendency, spend time with Bernie and de Blassio, and appraise a couple of the incoming mayor’s early rap tracks...

In this episode we conclude our look at the Democratic Republic of Congo with an exploration of the music and politics of the country from 1960 to the present day. Beginning with the overthrow of Patrice Lumumba, Jeremy and Tim discuss the colonial and imperialist dynamics that have buffeted the country for the last half century, the cycles of violence this engenders and the role of nations like the US, China and Rwanda have played in destabilising the country. They also unpack the ‘resource curse’ of the DRC’s mineral stocks, the activities of companies like Apple and Tesla, and finish...

This is an excerpt from a patrons episode. To hear the full thing, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 a month.

In this patrons-only episode Jeremy and Tim revive the long-dormant ‘What We’re Listening To’ format for an exploration of what’s been on their turntables recently. Tim pulls extensively from the bag he packed for a recent Lucky Cloud party, including selections from SAULT and Cotontete, while Jeremy shares a modern slice of Bukem-esque DnB and an end-of-the-night dreamy deep cut. Elsewhere in the show we h...

We’re continuing our series of episodes inspired by the 2024 documentary Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat with an examination of some of the film’s key characters: the so-called ‘Jazz Ambassadors’, a group of mostly black US musicians sent around the world to (unwittingly) promote American soft power during the Cold War. Tim and Jeremy give a brief history of the emergence of the CIA in the post-war USA, explain the role of NATO, and detail a few of the great many instances of US interference in newly decolonised states around the globe. We hear about Louis Armstrong in Ghana...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 a month.

In this patrons episode we’re taking some time to explore some of the background to our recent main feed show about colonialism, jazz diplomacy and the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat with a bitesize primer on the origins of the Cold War. Jeremy and Tim run it all the way back to 1917 to unpack the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the subsequent years of co...

Love is the Message is back! After last series’ mammoth 18-month excavation of the year 1977 we’re switching things up a bit. While we’ll continue to chart our rough way through the history explored in our work to date, for the moment we’re going to focus on a few smaller, more bite-size topics, starting with the 2024 film Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat. A natural partner piece to our beloved Summer of Soul, Johan Grimonprez’s documentary tracks in vivid and exhilarating style the Cold War episode that led American musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Secur...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode of the show. To hear the full episode and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and sign up from £3 a month.

In this episode of LITM Extra, Jeremy takes the mic solo to expand a little on our recent patrons show on Kneecap, turning an eye specifically to musical and cultural antecedents of the Irish trio’s project. With reference to music both from the island of Ireland and abroad, Jeremy discusses Stiff Little Fingers, dancehall chatting, Scousers, and Welsh language punk bands. He int...

Here it is: our 18th and final episode of series 6. We’ve covered punk, Studio 54, the Warehouse, Black Disco, Eurodisco and Saturday Night Fever, but today Jeremy and Tim summarise some final reflections on the city of New York in the pivotal year of 1977. They discuss the early career of a businessman who liked to frequent the discotheques and would go on to become president of the USA, linking Mr Trump to a culture of corporate welfare and downtown development. We hear about the Son of Sam, the World Series, power cuts, looting, scratching, breaking, the Bronx and the be...

In response to the death of the Ozzy Osborne this week, we've unlocked this patrons episode from last year about heavy metal, Black Sabbath and the Prince of Darkness himself. If you like this you can hear a lot more like it by becoming a patron at Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this episode Jeremy raises a devil’s horn salute to the gods and demons of heavy metal. He explores the etymology of the genre term, excavating its shared roots with acid rock, and explaining how heavy metal compliments our story here on LITM. Wi...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, and dozens more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 a month.

In this patrons episode we wanted to spend some time talking about the band on everyone’s lips: Kneecap. The Belfast three-piece have been in the headlines of all the papers in recent weeks for their vocal support of Palestine, trouble with the law, and Transatlantic festival shutdowns. Tim and Jeremy provide a healthy dollop of context to the group, including a potted history of Irish independence, the...

We’re almost at the end of our 1977 series, but in true LITM fashion why have just one show on a topic when you could have two? Across this and the next episode we’ll be filling in a few gaps we haven’t touched on so far, and providing some broad economic and political scene-setting for this seminal year in both Britain and the States.
In this episode we hear about the emergent neoliberal order, the oil crisis, austerity then and now, and OPEC. Jeremy and Tim consider escapism in music and film, Punk, Mods, the Silver Jubile...

This is an excerpt from a patrons episode. to hear the full thing and dozens more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and become a patron from £3 per month.

In this patrons-only episode we welcome writer and anti-fascist activist Joe Mulhall to the show to discuss his fantastic book Rebel Sounds: Music as Resistance, a survey across time and place of groups and cultures using musics as part of their resistance to forms of racism and imperialism. We hear about Irish rebel songs, Kneecap and an impromptu Irish history quiz in the toilets of a Wolftones g...

In this episode, Tim and Jeremy complete our mini-series on Saturday Night Fever by looking at the film in its cinematographic context alongside two other huge movies of the late1970s. With reference to Rocky and Taxi Driver, the guys unearth the shared visions of class and race politics in the USA of the period. They discuss the particular place of Italian Americans in the culture more broadly, discuss particular forms of American-ness, and spend some time on the real life events that inspired the character of Rocky Balboa.
After that, attention returns to Travlota to wrap up...

This is am excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing along with dozen more, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod and sign up for as little as £3 a month.

In this patrons-only episode we welcome writer Toby Manning to the show to discuss his recent book Mixing Pop and Politics: A Marxist History of Popular Music. Toby's book offers a political reading of popular music, taking as its methodological starting point the songs found in the charts from the 1950s to the present day, to explore how the music people listen to reflects a...

In this episode, Tim and Jeremy pull on their white suits for a full run-down rewatch of Saturday Night Fever. Starting with the iconic 'Stayin' Alive' opening sequence, they draw out the class, race and gender politics of the film, including Italian American stereotypes, consumer culture, Bruce Lee, meritocracy and male grooming. On the music side, they talk blue-eyed Soul, falsetto, an early drum loop, Bee Gees, Kool and the Gang, MFSB and more.
Produced by Matt Huxley.

We are now on Youtube! Find series 6 here: https://www.youtube.com/@LITMPodcast

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The day has finally come: after 79 episodes of Love is the Message, it’s time to talk Travolta. Saturday Night Fever was always coming down the pipe for us, and now we’re giving it the LITM treatment.

In this episode, Tim and Jeremy establish some of the pre-history to the seminal 1977 film. With musical examples drawn from Vince Aletti’s Disco Files playlists, we hear about the rise of the suburbs in the USA, the dynamics between the different boroughs of mid-70s NYC, and consider the suburban disco scene. We ask again what m...

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing and dozens more episodes on topics ranging from Walter Gibbons to Glam Rock, visit patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this patrons episode we conclude our two-parter on Bob Dylan, dragging him from where we left off last time in 1966 all the way up to the freewheeling year of 1977. Through a glut of albums we hear about John Hammond, spirituality, gnosis, religious iconography, St Augustine, Joe Hill and The Band. Dylan meets the Panthers, who don’t think much of him, he gets ma...

Tim and Jeremy conclude our look at Eurodisco with a series of cuts from the mighty Giorgio Moroder. We hear the silky vocals of Donna Summer, the relentlessness of the 4-to-the-floor, the aesthetics of whiteness and what can only be called Prog Disco.

Also in the episode Tim recounts a recent visit to the Philharmonie de Paris, Jeremy revels in a Star Wars rework, and we board the Trans Europe Express once again to spend some time with Kraftwerk.

Remember, we have a rolling playlist of all the tracks...