The Billy Jenkins Listening Club

The Billy Jenkins Listening Club explores the music and philosophy of south east London guitarist and composer Billy Jenkins. Each show Beowulf Mayfield talks with Billy or one of his collaborators about his music and creative ideas.

Series Four, Episode Six: Playing Billy with Chris Batchelor

Beowulf Mayfield meets up with trumpet player Chris Batchelor to hear the musician's memories of recording with the Voice of God Collective on the 1988 album Motorway At Night, his use of Billy's music in his teaching work and with his own 21st Century Avant Trad band Pigfoot.

03-12
17:35

Series Four, Episode Five: Ghost Music

Our presenter returns to Equator Studios in search of the spiritual energy of sessions past and encounters 'William' - the ghost who communicates by tapping Morse code on the piano keys...

02-20
13:24

Series Four, Episode Four: Another Cup of Tea with Charlie Hart

Multi-instrumentalist turned record producer Charlie Hart explains the philosophy of Equator Studios, his personal approach to recording and describes the making of Jazz Gives Me The Blues by Billy Jenkins with Blues Trio Suburbia.

01-14
08:16

Series Four, Episode Three: Strange Meeting In Suburbia

Listening Club presenter Beowulf Mayfield casts his mind back to early 1994 and the day he witnessed Billy recording the East/West album with the Voice of God Collective and the Fun Horns of Berlin.

12-11
12:23

Series Four, Episode Two: Forty Albums Of Madness

Record producer Tony Messenger returns to Billy's shed to recall his first meeting with Billy and the genesis of their recording collaboration.

11-13
07:45

Series Four, Episode One: Musical Miles

Billy Jenkins and Beowulf Mayfield ponder the back-breaking travelling undertaken by Martin France and his drum kit during the course of 1993...

10-09
08:22

Series Three, Episode Six: In Defence Of Music

Being a creative musician can lead to trouble. Disgruntled concert-goers demand their money back, critics frostily dismiss performances and recordings that fail to conform to their expert definitions of "Jazz", others may complain that the music isn't being treated with the gravitas that the "serious" listener is surely entitled to expect. Some sort of apology might be in order, wouldn't you think?

10-23
10:40

Series Three, Episode Five: Navigating A Sea Of Turmoil

Billy Jenkins' 2005 album When The Crowds Have Gone was described by music critic John Bungey, writing for The Times, as the guitarist's "darkest record yet...". Set against a backdrop of change in domestic circumstances and alterations to the UK licensing laws on musical performance, life for the musician - and life as a musician - was passing through turbulent times...

09-26
07:53

Series Three, Episode Four: Teenage Bill Cleans Up

Billy Jenkins takes Beowulf Mayfield back in time to the days when he worked as a part time cleaner and later guitar tutor at Wing Music in Bromley, run by the late Barry Mitchell...

08-22
08:34

Series Three, Episode Three: A stick in the wheel

Beowulf Mayfield asks drummer Mike Pickering how he approached - and whether he enjoyed - playing alongside another drummer in the Blues Collective with Billy Jenkins...

07-25
10:42

Series Three, Episode Two: The Day I (Nearly) Died

Beowulf Mayfield reads The Day I (Nearly) Died, Billy Jenkins' account of a memorable day and night of artistic virtuosity, cross-cultural collaboration, administrative frustrations and sheer terror in Ostend...

06-13
14:55

Series Three, Episode One: First Day In Hell

Beowulf Mayfield tries his hand at hypnosis to take Billy Jenkins back to his childhood and the first day of nursery school. What could possibly go wrong? Starring Daniel Lemmard as the young Billy Jenkins.

05-11
09:03

Series Two, Episode Six: Big Fights! with Tony Messenger

Beowulf Mayfield corners record producer Tony Messenger to ask him about the challenge of recording Billy's legendary Big Fights! cassette series...

12-04
11:19

Series Two, Episode Five: I'm Staying In The Car

Billy describes how the pressures and irritations of suburban life inspired one of his most stamping, stomping and comical blues songs...

10-25
08:22

Series Two, Episode Four: Those Scary Strings

There's something out there in the darkness... It sounds like a scary film soundtrack is sneaking through the dark suburban streets... Don't worry, Billy assures us, it's only a string quartet - members of the Gogmagogs musical theatre group to be exact, and they only sound scary to consumers of the mainstream media...

09-27
05:34

Series Two, Episode Three: Drumming The Blues

When drummer Mike Pickering was a teenager he told a careers adviser that he wanted to be a drummer in a blues band. He had to wait a few years but in 1995 Billy Jenkins made that dream come true when he asked Mike to be part of the "holy trinity" at the heart of the Blues Collective. In this episode he recalls his part in that history...

08-06
12:42

Series Two, Episode Two: Bilbao / St Columbus Day

When Billy performs away from home, he takes great care to learn as much as he can about local opinion and sensitivities. In this story we hear about the time, earlier in his career, when Billy put his foot right in it...

06-30
08:30

Series Two, Episode One: Defining Artistry

Maggie Day, sensation of Channel 4 First Dates in May 2017, reads Billy's account of the time he thought he'd spotted a fellow artist. You can never mistake a musician - well, almost never.

06-02
10:22

Series One, Episode Six: Recording Billy

Record producer Tony Messenger talks about his long association with guitarist, bandleader and composer Billy Jenkins and describes the making of the 1998 True Love Collection.

02-28
12:36

Series One, Episode Five: Sade's Lips

Guitarist, bandleader and composer Billy Jenkins describes the pain inflicted by the sound of too much so-called smooth jazz.

02-09
08:18

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