EPISODE133 - Talking 80s Music with Martin Hennessy

This week we focused on Asia (the band, not the continent.) 'Supergroup' is a word that's been tossed around a lot recently so why not look at one of the biggest ones during the early 1980s. We talked with keyboardist Geoff Downes about his career, the bands he's been with and the reunion of the original Asia. We also play a retrospective mix of their singles as well as live versions of "Only Time Will Tell" and "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes." Definitely try to catch them right now while they are on tour now.

Looks like we will have to do more tweaking to give a better live experience. Sure, only a small percentage of our listeners get to hear it live but that doesn't mean we'll neglect them. We'll work on using the new software next week as we expect to have more free time. Great to see Linda join our regular crowd of misfits in the chat room to see what really goes on during an episode recording.

EPISODE132 - Talking 80s Music with Martin Hennessy

This week on Talking 80s Music, we talked with legendary producer and Alan Parsons Project mastermind Alan Parsons about his career, role as a producer and new DVD project. We also featured a retrospective mix, a live version of "Games People Play" and the beautiful "Old And Wise." If you haven't heard the group before, go out and listen to as much of their stuff that you can. They hit the ethereal, haunting, beautiful and dark while focusing on an overall theme for each album. That Essential Alan Parsons Project collection can be found at Amazon.com.

Tried out the newer software (vEmotion and Gizmo5) before starting the show and we had too many issues (for some reason no music tracks played through.) We decided to go back to what we know works already and not mess with things quite yet. Next week should be the first back-to-back interview episode for the show. Hopefully, more of those to come.

EPISODE131 - Talking 80s Music with Martin Hennessy

This week we had everything planned. We were going to focus on the Payolas but as reports of Michael Jackson's passing arose on Thursday afternoon... we knew we had to rise to the occasion. What does that exactly mean? Well, when the biggest musical icon of a decade passes away and you do a show about that decade... you drop what you are doing and get current. The negative aspect of this was that our prep time was nil and had to fly by the seat of our proverbial pants. We featured a massive retrospective mix, live version of "Billie Jean" and his first U.K. #1 single "One Day In Your Life."

This was possibly our highest attendance ever in the chat room. I think that I can understand why. Michael left some big tracks across our cultural landscape. It is also hard to separate the personal from the musical. Feel like sharing your thoughts on the singer's musical legacy? You can join and open a discussion at our Talking 80s Music group at Facebook. Otherwise, yes, it was a really long show (we originally were in the room for 2 hours and 30-something minutes) -- meaning lots of editing. Finished right before midnight. Pushed back our changes to our sound effects/music software for the live show to this next week. Then again, we heard some good things about the sound after changing the levels during the song. We'll see.

EPISODE130 - Talking 80s Music with Martin Hennessy

This week on Talking 80s Music, we head to Switzerland to talk about the jazz/pop duo Double. Their hit single "Captain Of Her Heart" is possibly one of the most overlooked gems of the decade. If anything, after this you could win the next time you are playing songs back and forth trying to play Who's That Artist? We will remedy that by giving you an overview of their career (playing the aforementioned hit, "Devils Ball" and Kurt Maloo's solo track "Young King") and talk about the latest release, 2006's Kurt Maloo vs Double's Loopy Avenue. Check out more of his projects at http://www.myspace.com/kurtmaloo.

This week we intended to try something new with the chat room. When we call into the show, the song quality is usually lacking (as the Talkshoe system is meant more for human voice.) We planned to attempt a software change and wound up pushing it to next week. The positive changes we are looking for are: 1) better music audio quality 2) allow calls in the middle of the show 3) make the live show as enjoyable as the final version. Our fingers are crossed.

EPISODE129 - Talking 80s Music with Martin Hennessy

Update episode... What? Well, scheduling conflicts happen. Sometimes we catch a few of our previously featured artists after we do a show about them. This is our first one. So, there will be no music featured this week but we do talk music with former Sheriff and current Alias guitarist Steve DeMarchi. We featured Sheriff in episode #115 and Alias in #117. Both would be well worth catching as this episode will fill in some of the blanks.

Unexpectedly, lost our Internet connection in the middle of the show. So there is a little dead space during the news section in the earliest version. We recovered and it isn't as noticeable as one would think. May be testing some new software out next week and if that works, you may hear more from our chatroom as we'll try to take more calls.

EPISODE128 - Talking 80s Music with Martin Hennessy

We often strive for balance in the show and while browsing our show archive we felt that R&B needed to be shown some love. So, this week on Talking 80s Music so we focus on The Jacksons. Sure, they had a healthy career before the 80s (as the Jackson 5) but if asked to name a few of their hits that decade, many would list ones by Michael. We play our retrospective mix, "This Place Hotel" and "Nothing (That Compares 2 You.)"

This episode went pretty well. Should be testing a few new things next week as we try to enhance the live experience of the show as the music should sound better live. Oddly enough, our next show has no music as we will focus on our first update interview (of an artist we've featured previously.)

EPISODE127 - Talking 80s Music with Martin Hennessy

We saw many charitable collaborations during the decade. You can count many of them on your fingers. This week on Talking 80s Music we focused on the often overlooked 1985 project, Hear 'N Aid, that raised over $1 million for famine relief in Africa. We played their lengthy, "We're Stars," as well Y&T's "Go For The Throat" and a live version of Accept's "Up To The Limit." The project was definite who's who of metal talent.

During the show we learned something new... we have educational value. A listener in Mexico joined us in the chat room and told us that he's been learning English by listening to 80s music and our show. We've previously mentioned our international audience and, until now, hadn't really considered that people were getting the show for its language content as well as music. Some of it does make sense as the news section text does appear on 80sMusicCentral.com (without the sarcasm) allowing contrast and comparison. We can only hope that we don't slaughter our own language too much.