Is That Machine On?

Available for over a year

Stuart Maconie celebrates the golden age of the music press interview. In the heyday of the printed music media between the mid-60s and early noughties, the music interview was many things - combative, intimate, confessional, unhinged, flirtatious, sometimes violent - but it was rarely dull. Still, it seems that long-gilded age of rock journalism is now over. The days of extraordinary access, when a reporter might spend a week with a band on its tour bus or private plane, hanging out in their dressing rooms and hotel suites, are at an end. The music papers are gone. In 2018, NME - the last inky survivor - went online only. Stuart Maconie looks back at the lost world - those revealing encounters between journalist and musician. Featuring classic recorded archive interviews with: Jimi Hendrix Kurt Cobain Bob Marley Michael Jackson Plus contributions from journalists Caitlin Moran, Barney Hoskyns, Allan Jones and Dawn Slough. Producer: Jonathan Mayo A TBI production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in May 2018.