Hellish

Hellish is taking a break for the next few weeks, but as we didn't want you to be without something to listen to we've called in some of our top podcast pals to help us out.We're running a mini series we're calling 'HELLISH PRESENTS ...' Each week we're going to be introducing you to a podcast we love: there will be a short intro, and then we'll let you enjoy a whole episode of the show of the week.This week we're bringing you SONGS FROM A PADDED ENVELOPE. In this show, Ben Clay and Steve Swindon talk to their guests about their old demo tapes. They've had loads of awesome guests, including Stuart Braithwaite, Mike Peters, and James Acaster. The episode you're about to hear, however, has two guests you will all be very familiar with: us.Listen to more SONGS FROM A PADDED ENVELOPE here

Writer and storyteller JOHN OSBORNE gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell!Music is a massive part of John's work as a writer and performer: his career kicked off with a Edinburgh show called John Peel's Shed, and he's also written and performed work called The New Blur Album, and My Car Plays Tapes. As well as getting him to select his Infernal Playlist, we talked about the eighties cartoon that has no lore, working with Craig Cash (Early Doors/The Royle Family), 'Three Lions' and why it shows the UK is unfair (again), and the nature of truth when creating something that is presented as autobiography. John also relentlessly tries to make everything into a positive, and Alex and Daniel do their best to foil him. This is Hell, after all.John's Bandcamp, where you can listen to many of his shows, is hereJohn's new poetry anthology Sandy Arse is out now. John says: "it's the first publication from a brand new (tiny) publishing company I have set up with Katie Cooper called Paper Boat ... [it's] a collection of seaside poetry. It has poems from some of our favourite poets, including Salena Godden, Inua Ellams, Luke Kennard, Ella Frears, Joe Dunthorne, Luke Wright, Henry Normal, Phill Jupitus, Martha Sprackland and Anna Jordan." 

Writer DAISY BUCHANAN gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell!Daisy tells us all about her new novel, All Grown Up, which is a modern British reimagining of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. We also talk about tribute bands, indie sleaze, what all the cool kids at the Tory Party Conference listen to, and the ahem suggestive number one record that was bouncing round her head when she had to talk about Salman Rushdie on television.All Grown Up came out on June 4th. Get it here.The bookshop Daisy talks about is Simply Books https://www.simplybooks.co.uk

Sound artist, and creator of Centuries of Sound, JAMES ERRINGTON gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell!James tells us all about his fascinating Centuries of Sound project, in which he has been producing an audio collage for every year of recorded sound, which goes back a lot further than you'd think and involves a pig, some ink, and a misguided Frenchman. We also get to hear about the passport mishap that saw him move to the Czech Republic, his love of Pulp, and something called a bug complaint counter.You will find Centuries of Sound here.You can read James's blog on Pulp here.

Writer and artist ROSE RUANE gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell!Rose talks about moving between art and writing; her love of Manic Street Preachers; the time she walked out of a job AND she names one song in particular a "C*nts' Charter", so that's worth the price of listening alone. (Listening is free. But why not support us on Patreon anyway?)Find Rose on Instagram and BlueSky Get her books This is Yesterday and Birding here.

Comedian and author CATIE WILKINS gives us the five tracks she will meet in Hell!Catie talks about settling scores in comedy and children's fiction; moving away from stand up and then coming back to it; being lampooned by Steve Martin; and she reveals very incorrect opinions about one of the five tracks she's chosen, according to Daniel anyway. Oh, and she talks about the time she got done for attempted murder too.Catie's website is here - Cafe Chaos book 2 is out now, and you can see Catie live in St Albans in June!

The Loft frontman PETE ASTOR gives us the five tracks he will meet in Hell!Pete told us all about The Loft's new album, Badges, as well as the forty year gap between the band releasing their second single and their first album. We talked about the band's very public end on stage in Hammersmith in 1985, their reunion, and - believe it or not - their favoured choice of travel tavern.Get Badges by the Loft hereThe Loft are on tour throughout May. Tickets here.

Happy New Year!In this special New Year episode, Alex and Daniel are sent to purgatory to cover holidays. There, they must sit in judgement as a former damned soul offers up their REDEMPTION SONGS in an attempt to escape Hell!They are reunited with the photographer VALERIE PHILLIPS, who was the guest on episode 16 of Hellish (which you will find here). Valerie has three songs with which to convince the judge she is worthy of being let out of Hell...will she succeed?Valerie's new book is called CANDY CAT HEAD. You can read more about it in this article on Fashion Grunge. It's out now in Japan from Marginal Press, and will be coming to the rest of the world early this year!___________________________________________________________________________Hellish now has a bookshop - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/hellish - where you can get books written by our guests, and a choice selection of Hell literature.Find us on Spotify https://tinyurl.com/hellishpodYou can find us/beg for absolution on social media...Instagram: www.instagram.com/hellish_podThreads: https://www.threads.net/@hellish_podFacebook: www.facebook.com/hellishpodcastBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/hellishpod.comTikTok: www.tiktok.com/hellishpod

This is a sort-of repeat of one of our favourite episodes, episode sixteen with photographer Valerie Phillips, which originally went out on August 5th 2024. It’s a sort-of repeat, because what we’re putting out today is actually the Patreon version of the episode, so you’ll be getting the ‘Artist in Hell’ section instead of adverts in the middle. If you just want to hear the Patreon bit, skip to 37 mins and 2 seconds.We're not fans of podcasts putting repeat episodes out, so we won’t be making a habit of it, and this extended version of the episode will only be on the main feed for a limited time.The reason we’re doing it is: we have a very special episode coming out on New Year’s Day. It’s not a new Hellish, but it is a sort-of sequel to this episode of Hellish, and since there are a lot more people listening now than there were in August 2024, we wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to listen to this one before our special episode releases.So remember to come back on New Year’s Day to hear the special, and until then enjoy meeting - or getting reacquainted with - the awesome Valerie Phillips…BUY US A COFFEE! If you just want to be nice/bribe your way out of Hell then you can tip us over at https://www.ko-fi.com/hellishpodFIND US ON SPOTIFY! To hear the songs on every Infernal Playlist in full, as well as the Ultimate Infernal Playlist which combines the choices of every damned soul we've met so far. https://tinyurl.com/hellishpodBECOME A PATREON SUPPORTER! https://www.patreon.com/hellishpod to access episodes early and ad free, where you will find out which artists our guests will meet in Hell. You'll also get our two pilot episodes, a bunch of advent calendar extras, and some other stuff depending which tier you pick.FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA for Alex's fiendishly impossible weekly picture quiz and loads more...Instagram: www.instagram.com/hellish_podBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/hellishpod.comThreads: https://www.threads.net/@hellish_podFacebook: www.facebook.com/hellishpodcastTikTok: www.tiktok.com/hellishpod