Temple of Bleh – Details, episodes & analysis

Ducking out the Bullets and Octane rehearsal studio to guest host this episode, Gene Louis spills his passion for drumming with Modern Drummer founder and CEO, David Frangioni.

https://pipemanradio.com/

Michael joins ToB to talk about his time at Roadrunner Records as Head of Sales.

In this episode, Mike Gitter and I shoot the breeze, and celebrate the 15th birthday of a formative music landmark for myself, Dragonforce's 'Inhuman Rampage'.

Mike is a music industry veteran, with a career spanning over 30 years in music journalism and A&R. Given he spent 12 years at Roadrunner Records, and is directly responsible for kickstarting the careers of some of my favourite bands - we're likely to be speaking again in 2021!

Check out the previous interviews in the series on your podcast feed, as well as written interviews at https://www.templeofbleh.com/

This week I have some actual metal news to rattle on about. I've sacked off Metal Tat because there's just simply too much Anthrax stuff, and I go into the story of Ian Gillan's tenure with Black Sabbath!

On the Sabbath bit - I do nab a bit of audio from the below YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppR838nSNX8

In this episode I'm lucky enough to be talking to the legendary Bob Gruen. Bob was John Lennon and Yoko Ono's photographer throughout the 70's, and that is just one of the many many accolades to his name.

Bob was also the photographer for The Great Kat, who was a Roadrunner artist in the late 80's-early 90's.

We talk about Bob's new book, Right Time, Right Place, as well as his time with the Kat.

You can get Right Time, Right Place pretty much anywhere, but I think we should drive traffic to his own website.

[http://www.bobgruen.com/right-place-right-time-the-life-of-a-rock-roll-photographer-available-october-20-2020/]

No normal episode this week as I've been working on this :).

I say it in the intro, but this is effectively a proof of concept before I go into the proper "History of" episodes in earnest. I just thought The Great Kat was worth shining a light on in the meantime, as she's an incredibly compelling musician and person.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this one, and check out The Great Kat on all the socials and https://www.greatkat.com. Also check out my written interview with her at templeofbleh.com.

In this episode I speak with Wally van Middendorp, who had two runs with Roadrunner Records - firstly in the mid-80's, and secondly in the mid-2000's up until 2012 as the Senior VP of International.

This conversation was a sheer pleasure on my part, Wally hit the ground running on all the interesting tidbits and landscapes that I wanted to find out about how the label operated on the day-to-day - and I'm extremely grateful for Wally's time on that.

Check out Wally's current engagement, In De Goot Entertainment, who manage acts such as Black Stone Cherry, Gwar, and Theory of a Deadman!

https://www.indegoot.com/

[WARNING - pretty naff audio on my side. Turns out my mic wasn't calibrated properly. It's still hearable, but bearable? YOU DECIDE]

In this episode I speak with Kurt Shore, who produced The Great Kat's debut album Worship Me Or Die! Kurt was extremely courteous with his time, and guided me through his memories of his producing days, as well as his time with Kat.

Fast forwarding to the modern day, Kurt is also a singer-songwriter and features his music regularly on his Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/KurtShoreOfficial

In addition, the apples don't fall far from the tree - you can check out Kurt's son, Kory's music here - http://www.koryshore.com/

This week in news, old men come out to do new things, Metal tat officially overtakes actual news in volume and substance, and I dive into two of the dumbest instances of a new-ish phenomenon, Dimebag Darrell death conspiracies.