The Music Show

We're digging into the archives for a special program looking at the role that music played in the UK miners' strikes: a political, industrial and personal struggle. From Peggy Seeger to Paul Weller, Billy Bragg to brass bands—there's music supporting the striking miners, songs tormenting strikebreakers and tracks referencing (and sometimes sampling) National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia John Street guides us through the history and music of this divisive time, plus we hear interviews from the ABC archives with folklorist A L Lloyd, singer songwriter Billy Bragg, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, folk singers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger and composer David Lumsdaine.

Zoe Knighton of Flinders Quartet is undertaking a multi-year project with composer Melody Eötvös. It's fittingly called The Eötvös Cycle, and The Music Show will be following this creation of new Australian repertoire over the next five years. 
Composer Cassie To has told other people's stories when she's scored for the screen and advertising, but her debut album, Heart Songs, takes her into a deeply personal space. 
Mantis is the 2025 Pacific Break winner, for his track Weatherman. It's a breakthrough song for Mantis, a Vanuatu artist inspired by Kendrick Lamar and the West Coast sound. He talks to producer Ce on the ground at WOMADelaide where he performed for the first time in Australia.
Music heard in this program:
Title: Cassie ToArtist: The StormComposer: Cassie ToAlbum: Heart SongsLabel: Amica Records
Title: The Unspoken EightArtist: Flinders QuartetComposer: Melody Eötvös & Rishin Singh
Title: ShivelightArtist: Quercus TrioComposer: Melody Eötvös 
Title: Cassie ToArtist: Open HeartComposer: Cassie ToAlbum: Heart SongsLabel: Amica Records
Title: WeathermanArtist: MantisComposer: Ethan-Xavier HakwaAlbum: SingleLabel: Palm Tree Studios
Title: There Is Power In A UnionArtist: Billy BraggComposer: Billy BraggAlbum: Talking With The Taxman About PoetryLabel: Liberation Records
The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, Kaurna, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
Technical production by Tegan Nicholls

Writing about and scholarship of Bob Dylan tends to focus on the words - he's a Nobel Prize winner for literature, after all - but his music deserves a deeper look too. Between the jangling guitar sound, rusty-hinge vocal stylings, and highly variable intonation, his unpolished and constantly shifting attitude towards performing his own music demands a long conversation with Steven Rings, author of What Did You Hear: The Music of Bob Dylan.
Title: Things Have ChangedArtist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: The Essential Bob DylanLabel: Columbia
Title: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Artist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: The Freewheelin' Bob DylanLabel: Columbia
Title: Lord Randall Artist: Jean RitchieComposer: Jean RitchieAlbum: Ballads (From Her Appalachian Family Tradition)Label: Smithsonian Folkways
Title: 1913 MassacreArtist: Woody GuthrieComposer: Woody GuthrieAlbum: Documentary # 1: StruggleLabel: Asch Records
Title: Song To WoodyArtist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: Bob DylanLabel: Columbia
Title: It's Hard On We Poor FarmersComposer: TraditionalAlbum: Archival
Title: Running ScaredArtist: Roy OrbisonComposer: Roy Orbison & Joe MelsonAlbum: CryingLabel: London Records
Title: Lay Lady LayArtist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: Nashville SkylineLabel: Columbia
Title: One More Cup of CoffeeArtist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: DesireLabel: Columbia
Title: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Artist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: The Concert For Bangla DeshLabel: Apple Records
Title: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Artist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: Live 1975 (The Rolling Thunder Revue)Label: Columbia
Title: The Jean GenieArtist: David BowieComposer: David Bowie & Mick RonsonAlbum: Aladdin SaneLabel: RCA Victor
Title: It's Gonna RainArtist: Steve ReichComposer: Steve ReichAlbum: Works: 1965-1995Label: Nonesuch
Title: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Artist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: The Great Music Experience 1994
Title: I Believe In YouArtist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: Slow Train ComingLabel: CBS
Title: Blind Willie McTell (Take 5 - Infidels Outtake)Artist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 16Label: Third Man Records
Title: Blind Willie McTellArtist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1 - 3 [Rare & Unreleased] 1961-1991Label: Columbia
The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, Kaurna, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
Technical production by Ann-Marie Debettencor

Riccardo Tesi and Giua are bringing their melodeon, guitar, and Italian folk tradition to Australia for a series of concerts called Retablos. These are Peruvian magic boxes which create windows into different worlds. Riccardo and Giua join Andy to open a window into their world
Points of Inaccessibility, the latest album by Rafael Anton Irisarri, began as an audio-visual improvisation at a former psychiatric prison in Utrecht. The ambient composer was interested in the emotional distance that exists through our online existence - eternally connected, but drifting further apart - and he explains how that led to melodies on the new record that never fully resolve.
Tour dates for Riccardo Tesi and Giua are here.
Title: Signals from a Distant AfterglowArtist: Rafael Anton IrisarriComposer: Rafael Anton IrisarriAlbum: Points of InaccessibilityLabel: Black Knoll Editions
Title: Martini On The RocksArtist: Giua & Riccardo TesiComposer: Giua & Riccardo TesiAlbum: Retablos (Live)Label: Independent Release
Title: Mex MoonArtist: Giua & Riccardo TesiComposer: Giua & Riccardo TesiAlbum: Retablos (Live)Label: Independent Release
Title: Breaking the UnisonArtist: Rafael Anton IrisarriComposer: Rafael Anton IrisarriAlbum: Points of InaccessibilityLabel: Black Knoll Editions
Title: Empire SystemsArtist: Rafael Anton IrisarriComposer: Rafael Anton IrisarriAlbum: A Fragile GeographyLabel: Black Knoll Editions
Title: A Hard Rain's Gonna FallArtist: Bob DylanComposer: Bob DylanAlbum: The Concert For Bangla DeshLabel: Apple Records
The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, Kaurna, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
Technical production by Ann-Marie Debettencor

Irish singer and multi-instrumentalist Andy Irvine has been coming on The Music Show for over thirty years, so he's the perfect person to start our occasional 2026 series Music Now & Then, in which Andy (Ford) speaks to long-running guests about how the world of music around them has changed over the years. Andy spoke to Andy in front of a gaggle of session-goers at the Gaelic Club in Sydney.
The Music Show is recorded on Gadigal, Gundungurra and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country
Technical production by Harvey O'Sullivan and Simon Branthwaite