Public Address: HOT CUTS AND HIGH FIVE

Side One of this edition of the programme features an eclectic selection of diverse music followed on Side Two by High Five – an occasional feature on the programme, where we hear from an individual whose life and career has involved them in the creative, music and/or the performing arts, to have a chat about their life and background. Also they’ll be choosing five pieces of music that have a special significance to them. The guest on this edition of the programme is accomplished guitarist and music business stalwart Gordon Wallace.

Written Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2025

Public Address: THE R'n'B TAKE

From heartfelt ballads to powerful anthems, R&B interpretations can give even older songs new life and deeper meaning. R&B covers have a special magic when it comes to re-inventing and reviving songs with a new depth of soul, emotion, and musical complexity. A well-executed cover can create an entirely different experience, sometimes leaving listeners astonished at how distinct it feels from the original sometimes when given added layers of passion, it can turn the song into an R&B classic in its own right.

In this uninterrupted and seamlessly mixed Public Address Special, curated and produced by Thom McKeown, you’ll hear re-imagined takes that may create for you, a bigger (or different kind of) impact compared to their predecessors’ original.

Produced Curated and Presented by Thom McKeown 2025

Public Address: JUKE BOX POT POURRI

"I can write, boy can I write. That's what I do. The trouble is that it's too bloody easy for people - that's why music is in the sorry state that it is. Any idiot can go in there, sing a chord, bang on a machine. I'm not objecting to that, but when people have a go at me for trying to say something in a rock'n'roll mode, it's as if I'm the freak." Mark E. Smith (who sadly now has left us). Singer, The Fall

Written Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2025

Public Address: ROLL AND ROCK

"If you've got a cd that's not working, just wipe it on your trousers, and if you're not wearing any trousers, put some on. Also, just to say, all songs are about shagging. You can't deny it." The late, wonderful and much-missed John Peel.

Written Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2025

Public Address: LOVE THAT STUFF

Public Address: HALLOWEEN!

That creepy, haunted, blood-curdling event each year is upon us – which means it’s time for the acclaimed annual Public Address Halloween Special! Available now via the Podbean app or by telling your smart speaker to play the Public Address Podcast 298!

Two nerve-wrangling, spine-tingling hours of macabre melodies as the ghoulies and ghosties emerge to wreak horrifying havoc in your ears. Allow your hesitant listening organs to take it in, with anticipatory anguish, if the moonlit hour allows your visceral velocity to withstand the audio terrors therein! Woooooooooooaaaaahhhhhh!

Written Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2025

Public Address: THE MAINSTREAM ALTERNATIVE

"Folk music existed in a small narrow world of its own until Bob Dyla dragged it screaming into pop. The music of hope is everywhere, all you have to doi is listen for it. Rock and roll was the victory of regional locality over the world, of precise beliefs over general theory, of particular feelings over universal philosophies". Charlie Gillett, DJ and Writer

Written Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2025

Public Address: IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

“I basically found myself in a video one day and there were all these people around me talking a strange language, so I basically decided to do something about it. I went to a place called the Actors Centre, read a lot of books and talked to a lot of people. When you're making a record you get all these ideas fortunes and sounds in your head and it's much less frustrating once you learn the technicalities behind them when doing the video. The recording side wasn't too bad because I'd done four albums with The Undertones, and you have to learn something even if you're not paying attention all the time. I went in and explained to people how to achieve the ideas I have in my head." Feargal Sharkey Former lead singer The Undertones, now environmentalist.

Written Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2025