As some of you know, I had a two-week planned holiday after episode 163. As fewer of you know, that was followed by a ten-day flareup of my chronic illness which meant I couldn’t think due to brainfog and couldn’t type due to joint pain. Unfortunately, both these came just as I was working on the biggest episode since 150, a truly massive undertaking that has required more research than any episode I’ve done in about a year, and required me to scrap and completely rewrite one script that simply didn’t work.
I’ve made a few statements on my Patreon about when I expected the episode to be up, and have missed every day I suggested, so I’m not going to say for sure when it’s going to be complete and uploaded, but what I can say is that I just finished recording the 57th section of the episode (Moe Tucker just turned up for the first time) and Tilt has been editing in parallel while I’ve been recording.
The next few after this should be much, much more straightforward — I already know exactly what I’m going to say in the next two and it’s basically just a matter of transcribing them — so we’ll be back on a regular schedule soon. Thanks for your patience.

Recently, the main podcast has been fortnightly, but the 10-20-minute Patreon bonuses have been going up even in skip weeks. So every month or two I’m going to do a quick update on what Patreon backers have received, because I only mention the current bonus episode in the tag of the main episode.

I didn’t do one of these in December because Christmas got in the way, but since the last one at the end of November, Patreon backers have received:
A bonus on Jake Thackray

A bonus on P.P. Arnold

A bonus on Leonard Cohen

A bonus on Canned Heat and the Chipmunks

A bonus on the Watersons

A bonus on Beverley (Martyn)

A bonus on the Buckinghams

And a bonus on Procol Harum

All of these have been longer than the advertised ten minutes — the shortest is twenty minutes and most are around half an hour. I only guarantee ten minutes for the bonuses, but they do often stretch longer at the moment.

They’ve also had a Mixcloud playlist of stuff which I’ve been listening to recently, with liner notes. I’m planning on doing these every month.

The main podcast will always remain free, and without adverts, and I am making more than enough money from the Patreon to keep going, and to keep paying Tilt for his work. If you don’t sign up for the Patreon, you will continue to get a full episode every two weeks (health and occasional holidays permitting) — I’m recording the next one, on the Monkees, tonight. But Patreon support (and only that support) is how I fund this work, so rather than try to sell you meal kits or mattresses in the middle of the episode, I’ll continue posting these lists every couple of months.

To be very clear, I am making a good income from this, my listeners are extremely generous, and nobody should feel pressured into backing me — I don’t want to take a penny from anyone who can’t afford it, and only sign up if you still have money left after paying for your own expenses, donating to any charities you support, helping your friends, and backing more needy artists. But if you do have a dollar a month left over after all that (and many people don’t, and I wouldn’t dream of taking your money if you can’t afford it) I think that list above is probably worth that dollar if you like the podcast.