Indie history, told through memory.
C86 Show - Indie Pop collects patient conversations with musicians whose stories run through indie rock history, punk, and underground scenes. Episodes linger on early records, small venues, labels, band endings, and the stray details that make music history feel lived in.
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C86 Show - Indie Pop treats music history as something stored in people’s memories, record sleeves, small studios, and old label catalogues. The format is simple: David Eastall talks with a guest, gives the conversation room, and usually works back toward the early formative years. It is measured, friendly, and full of scene-specific reference points. The show is not chasing hot takes. It is more interested in how a person found music, what bands they passed through, which records mattered, where they played, and why things changed. Recent episodes show that range clearly. Deanna Mitchell and Mia d'Bruzzi of Frightwig talk about San Francisco punk, women rejecting expected roles, catcalling from men in crowds, family background, repression, and the band’s habit of flipping the stage dynamic back at the audience. Joan Wasser, also framed through Joan As Police Woman, moves from Salvation Army vinyl and Judy Garland records into the 90s, Stereolab, The Breeders, Kim Deal, major-label confusion, touring exhaustion, Black Beetle, and Real Life Evolution. Alistair Jackson’s A Riot Of Colour interview has the charm of small-scene archaeology: cassette discoveries, North London, Dreamworld Records, Everlasting Records, Fire Station Records, Sound World, flexi discs, drum machines, loose gigs, and day-job reality. Andy Allan’s episode reaches across Lightning Raiders, The Professionals, Hank Dogs, Easy Come, and memories tied to Ready Steady Go. Mikey Georgeson’s conversation runs long and associative, starting with records and covers before moving through Bexhill memories, David Devant & His Spirit Wife, The Middle People, and a two-evening interview shape. The show’s strength is accumulation. A single episode may feel casual, but across the archive it becomes a map of indie rock history from the inside. It is strongest when guests are allowed to remember in detail, even when the route is untidy. The result is warm, nerdy, and useful for listeners who care about the back rooms of music culture as much as the famous front doors.
Made for: For listeners who follow indie rock history, punk, and the stories behind records, labels, venues, and scenes. It especially suits people who prefer long-form musician interviews over quick career overviews.
What sets it apart: Its strength is patient oral history: specific names, obscure records, small labels, and scene details are treated as the point, not as footnotes. The conversations often preserve the texture of music lives that broader rock histories skip.
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Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
David Eastall builds detailed artist oral histories from formative influences, studio choices, touring memories and the complicated afterlives of bands.
C86 Show - Indie Pop turns artist interviews into detailed oral histories of working lives in music. David Eastall usually starts with formative listening and early bands, then follows the practical turns: record labels, studio decisions, touring, changing technology, breakups…
John Peel under the bedclothes: David Eastall gets the musicians' memories you wish liner notes could hold.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A punk-history conversation that turns on stage rebellion, family pressure, and a slow, tender ending.
The C86 Show builds a warm, meandering conversation around Deanna Mitchell and Mia Debruzzi, using their story to map the influences that fed Fright Wig: a high school friend who opened the door to punk, Blondie, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust, and John Denver.
A loose, memory-rich music conversation links Judy Garland, charity-shop vinyl, 90s indie reference points, and a band's experimental turn.
The New York artist's C86 Show conversation opens on a forthcoming re-recorded and re-imagined Real Life project, then settles into the record-bin memories that shaped her musical life.
A patient scene-memory interview that lets the chronology breathe.
Alastair Jackson's story lands as a life built around records, scenes, and the strange routes music careers take. The conversation takes a while to find its center, but once it does, it settles into the early years of A Riot of Colour, moving through North London, cassette-tape…
A patient Richard Barbieri interview on formative listening, changing studio tools, and making music with old friends.
Richard Barbieri's conversation with David Eastall follows a path from school sports into record collecting, concerts, and the glam-rock pull of Roxy Music, Bowie, Bebop Deluxe, and Sparks.
Momus traces early pop memories into a songwriting practice shaped by titles, pastiche, and dense cultural reference.
Momus gives the C86 Show a clear path into Nick Curry's working imagination, as David Eastall moves through his 1967 discovery of pop, The Happy Family, solo work, and Mannequin.
Ian Wright looks back on John Peel, the Jack Rubies' American audience, and the path to See the Money in My Smile.
The Jack Rubies with Ian Wright works as a compact piece of indie-pop oral history, following a band formed in 1985 through a changing independent scene.
A candid music-history conversation, from Judy Garland records and charity-shop vinyl to the pressures that ended a band.
Joan As Police Woman's conversation with David Eastall moves between charity-shop vinyl and the harder realities of a 1990s band worn down by the road.
Joe Wong interviews drummers and musicians about craft, history, and the working musician's life.
Lij Shaw interviews producers and engineers about mic technique, mixing, and studio business.
Ian Shepherd and working mastering engineers dig into Atmos, loudness wars, and vinyl cutting.
Co-hosts Ed Thorne and Paul Third dissect mixing, mastering, and studio gear with working engineers.
This episode of the C86 Show features an interview with Heitham Al-Sayed from the band Senser, discussing his life, music, and the band's new album Sonic Dissidents.
Host David Eastor interviews Ian Wright, guitarist and songwriter for the 1980s indie band the Jack Rubies.
This episode features an interview with musician Jennifer Precious Finch, discussing her early musical influences and experiences in bands like L7, Other Star People, and The Shocker.
David Eastall interviews Joan Wasser, known as Joan as Police Woman, about her musical journey and new album 'Real Life Evolution,' released 20 years after her debut.
This episode features an interview with musician Ben Vaughn, discussing his early life in Camden, New Jersey, and how his family's connection to RCA Victor influenced his musical beginnings.
This episode features an interview with R.B.
David Eastall opens The C86 Show with Fright Wig, the all-female punk band from San Francisco.
Joan Wasser, known as Joan As Police Woman, joins host David Eastall of the C86 show ahead of Real Life Evolution, a re-recording of her 2006 debut Real Life released 20 years later with guests including Iggy Pop.
David Eastall speaks with Alastair Jackson about life, love, poetry, and the other groovy stuff, with the conversation circling back to A Riot of Colour.
David Eastor interviews musician Andy Allen about his experiences growing up with a father who produced Ready Steady Go, including early encounters with iconic bands like the Beatles and Stones.
This episode features an interview with musician Mikey Georgeson discussing his early formative years, his projects including David Devant & His Spirit Wife and The Middle People collaboration with Antonio Alaio, and personal memories from his childhood.
David Eastall opens the interview with Richard Barbieri by introducing the solo album Hauntings, then turns toward the early years that formed Barbieri's relationship with music.
"I was on the dole for at least five years" while living off the King's Road and using the system as "a fruit machine."
This episode features an interview with Ian Wright from the indie band The Jack Rubies, discussing the influence of John Peel and 1980s music culture.