LeftLion Podcasts (Nottingham)

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #18: Nyrobi and Chaya of ALT BLK ERA on winning a MOBO, playing Jools Holland, touring with Pendulum and homecoming gigs

Fri, 22 May 2026 13:00:00 GMT

This episode we are joined by Nyrobi and Chaya of ALT BLK ERA, who talk about their whirlwind year of winning a MOBO, appearing on Jools Holland and touring Europe with Pendulum…

In 2022, sister duo and Notts natives Nyrobi and Chaya Becket-Messam emerged onto the local music scene as electronic-rock act ALT BLK ERA. They started recording music in 2020 when they were just thirteen and sixteen years old, creating an eclectic sound that ranges from nu-metal and rap to electronica and drum and bass.

Since then, they’ve gone from strength to strength, from winning a MOBO award and appearing on Jools Holland, to touring late last year with drum and bass band Pendulum.

It’s been a while since we’ve caught up with the duo. Ahead of their upcoming performances at Rescue Rooms and Rock City, they set aside time to walk us through their crazy journey to this point.

This interview was conducted by LeftLion Editor Sophie Gargett in April 2026.

Head over to the LeftLion Spotify channel to listen and subscribe to all of our podcasts.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #17: Crazy P’s Jim Baron on international tours and festivals, soundtracking The Sopranos and his new venture White Elephant

Fri, 08 May 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Jim Baron is best known as one of the founders of Notts electronic music titans Crazy P. Their sound is a fusion of house, disco, and soul and between 1998 and 2024 they’ve released nine studio albums. Previously known as Crazy Penis, they are one of Nottingham’s most successful music exports. They’ve played at festivals all around the world including most years at Glastonbury in some form or other and they get around a million listens on Spotify each month.

Crazy P were formed from the Nottingham club scene of the mid 90s and their most recent album from 2024 Any Signs of Love received a lot of critical acclaim. However, lead vocalist Danielle Moore sadly passed away a few months after the release and it’s put the live band on hiatus for a while.

However, earlier this year Jim unveiled a new (old) project called White Elephant, which features his fellow Crazy P co-founder Chris Todd, alongside another old Nottingham uni mate Ben Smith (of Smith & Mudd fame). He tell us more about that and plenty more in this podcast.

This interview was conducted by LeftLion Editor in Chief Jared Wilson in January 2026.

Head over to the LeftLion Spotify channel to listen and subscribe to all of our podcasts.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #16: Notts County’s James Belshaw on his career, coming home and how he nearly signed for Notts several times before

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Born and raised in Clifton in a Notts County-supporting household, James Belshaw took a circular route to finally becoming Notts County’s goalkeeper. After dropping out of the Magpies youth system in 2005, at the age of 35 he finally signed for the club last January. This followed a journey via the USA, the English National Leagues, two play-off final wins for Harrogate (including one against Notts), and player of the season award at the Bristol Rovers…

In this interview he talks about:

His early memories of supporting Notts and playing in their youth teams
Heading out to the USA to play and study over there
His return to England and a few years in the lower leagues
How he met Kelle Roos playing together at Nuneaton back in 2013
Signing for Harrogate and playing against Notts in the 2020 play-off final
Finally establishing himself in the Football League at the age of 30
His hopes and dreams of what he can do achieve with Notts County FC
What he might end up doing after football

This interview was conducted by LeftLion Editor in Chief (and Notts County Supporter) Jared Wilson in March 2026.

Head over to the LeftLion Spotify channel to listen and subscribe to all of our podcasts.

Night Creatures Podcast #7: Parisa East from Acoustickle on finding a young Jake Bugg, musical collaborations and juggling life as a promoter.

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:00:00 GMT

This month’s guest is Parisa East from Acoustickle. She's a music artist and entrepreneur with many years of experience promoting live music events, supporting local talent, and providing quality cultural experiences in Nottingham.

In 2009 she launched Acoustickle: a live music platform to spotlight emerging artists, and encourage musicians to share their original compositions with respectful audiences. With decorated venues, and intimate, inspiring performance spaces, the immersive atmosphere captivates all that are present.

This interview was recorded in at Movers in March 2026. Find out more about Acoustickle Events and Soul Buggin’ on the links below:

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #15: Blur’s Dave Rowntree on NASA, Nottingham gigs and his new book of old Blur photos

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Dave Rowntree is one quarter of the British alternative rock group Blur. He’s the drummer. However, he’s also been a politician, a lawyer, an animator, a composer and quite a bit more.

Dave is appearing at Metronome in Nottingham this month doing a Q&A around a book he has released of early photos of Blur called ‘No-one you know’ all of which were shot in the very early days on his Olympus OM10 Camera.

Blur formed in 1988 and released their first album Leisure in 1991. In 1993 they played the Heineken Beer Festival on Wollaton Park. For those who weren’t around then, it was a bit like Splendour, completely free with no barriers or tickets. After this they made a couple of appearances at Rock City, most notably in 1997 in the same week that Beetlebum went to number one in the charts.

Aside from Blur, Dave has also been a radio DJ and in 2014 he was the regular Sunday night host on XFM. He’s been a podcaster and a series of ‘The Dave Rowntree Show’ went out in 2021 and can still be found on Spotify. He’s also stood as a Labour MP and was elected as a county councillor in Norwich in 2017.

Dave Rowntree is appearing at Metronome Nottingham on Friday 10 April in conversation with Dean Jackson from BBC Nottingham’s The Beat.

This interview was conducted by LeftLion Editor in Chief Jared Wilson in March 2026.

Night Creatures Podcast #6: Oli Gibbons from Tumble Audio, Risque Rhodes and Build Beats on Rave Culture

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Oli discusses playing in a Notts death metal band (Never Fail) and dancing for Gene Simmons, to putting on raves with Rubberdub and a Funktion One Sound System. He even wrote a dissertation at University on rave culture!

This interview was recorded in at Movers in February 2026. Find out more about Bohemian Events and Soul Buggin’ on the links below:

Night Creatures Podcast #5: Adam and Rob Perkins from Boho Festival on organising Notts parties from the 90s to now

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Night Creatures is a LeftLion podcast, shining a light on the promoters of Nottingham. Your host and interviewer is Beane, co-founder of Nottingham’s beloved Soul Buggin’ night and he brings with him two decades of experience of putting on great parties in the city.

The guests for this episode are Adam and Rob Perkins, two brothers from Nottingham, who founded Bohemian Events and Boho Festival. Influenced by attending parties at Venus nightclub and The Garvey in the early 90s, the duo began organising pop-up parties at Riverbank bar together in the 00s and soon spread out doing other events across the city.

Boho Festival is planning for it’s third year on 24-26 July 2026 with a line-up including The Farm, Utah Saints, Dub Pistols, Levi Roots and a comeback gig from local legends Bent. Previous guests have included Martin Kemp, Jeremy Healy, Graeme Park and Fat Digester.

This interview was recorded in at Movers in January 2026. Find out more about Bohemian Events and Soul Buggin’ on the links below:

Night Creatures Podcast #4: Nate Coltrane from Mimm on 14 years of parties, Nottingham Street Food Club and Our Yard

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Night Creatures is a LeftLion podcast, shining a light on the promoters of Nottingham. Your host and interviewer is Beane, co-founder of Nottingham’s beloved Soul Buggin’ night and he brings with him over twenty years of experience of putting on great parties in the city.

The guest for this episode is Nate Coltrane from Mimm (aka Music Is My Motive). Mimm started out as a clothing shop 14 years ago and moved on to become a much-loved club night as well as a cultural hub and recording studio.

On top of organising lots of parties, Nate was also the founder of Nottingham Street Food Club which ran for several years in Victoria Centre and Sneinton Avenues and now uses the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground as it’s regular home. More recently Nate has also been working on a new project entitled Our Yard, which looks back at the history of soundsystem culture in the UK and beyond.

This interview was recorded in at Movers in November 2025. Find out more about Mimm and Soul Buggin’ on the links below:

Night Creatures Podcast #3: Killer Jim from Out To Lunch on 25 years of Northern soul, jazz funk and jazz dance events in Nottingham

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

This interview was recorded in at Movers in September 2026. Find out more about Out To Lunch and Soul Buggin’ on the links below:

Head over to the LeftLion Spotify channel to listen and subscribe to all of our podcasts.

Night Creatures Podcast #2: Laurence and Steve from Smokescreen Soundsystem on thirty years of club nights, free parties, police, gangsters and more

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 12:00:00 GMT

This interview was recorded in at Movers in August 2026. Find out more about Smokescreen and Soul Buggin’ on the links below:

Head over to the LeftLion Spotify channel to listen and subscribe to all of our podcasts.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #14: Artist, Performer and Filmmaker Hetain Patel on Inspiration, Superheroes, Nationalism and Nottdance

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 09:00:00 GMT

Hetain Patel is an English visual artist specialising in performance, sculpture, video and photography. Born and brought up in Bolton, his work is influenced by identity, his family's Indian heritage and mainstream Western pop culture.

He first came to Nottingham in 2000 as a Fine Art student and spent more than a decade living and working here before spreading his wings; exhibiting in Norway, India, Belgium and more.

Notable works from him include 2014’s American Boy where he showcased a range of influences from mainstream American movies, swirling together snippets of Bruce Lee, Batman, Gladiator, American Psycho and much more into a piece reflecting on his own identity. Then for 2015’s The Jump he dressed as Spiderman and recreated a scene from his childhood home wearing a very special handmade suit.

Hetain is back in Nottingham with his latest work Mathroo Basha, performing at Lakeside Arts on Saturday 1 November as part of Nottdance festival 2025.

This interview took place over Zoom in September 2025.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #13: Filmmaker Adam Curtis on Shifty, politics, filmmaking and Wollaton Hall

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 09:00:00 GMT

Bafta-winning documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis has a long career under his belt of making surreal films exploring how people think, feel, and act in the West.

He first began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. However, the release of Pandora's Box in 1992 marked the introduction of Curtis's distinctive presentation that uses collage to explore aspects of sociology, psychology, philosophy and political history.

Since then he’s made dozens of films and series in this style, many of which can be found on BBC iPlayer, including Bitter Lake (2015), HyperNormalisation (2016) and Can't Get You Out of My Head (2021).

His latest Shifty: Living in Britain at the End of the Twentieth Century is a five-part series of hour-long episodes, which just happens to feature archive footage from Wollaton Hall, filmed back in the 80s by the BBC. With this in mind we jumped at the opportunity to pick his brain about filmmaking, politics and more.

This interview took place over Zoom in September 2025.

Night Creatures Podcast #1: Felix Coulton (aka OK Flex) on founding Swing Dash Radio and opening Movers in Hockley

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Night Creatures is a new LeftLion podcast, shining a light on the promoters of Nottingham. Your host and interviewer is Beane, co-founder of Nottingham’s beloved Soul Buggin’ night and he brings with him over twenty years of experience of putting on great parties in the city.

The guest for this first episode is Felix Coulton, the director and founder of Nottingham’s Swing Dash Radio and the new Hockley venue Movers. Felix originally moved to Nottingham from Sheffield to study here, but he found our local scene so compelling that he’s still here a decade later and helping to shape our local dance music scene. He also regularly DJs in venues across the city under the name of OK Flex.

Swing Dash Radio is a Nottingham-based community radio project that operates a self-service livestreaming and recording studio for DJs, MCs, and producers to create their own radio shows and music content.

Movers is a DIY day-night venue and coffee spot at the bottom of Hockley which opened in July. It’s a three-storey multi-purpose space that hosts everything from gigs and club nights to DJ live streams, workshops and panel talks.

This interview was recorded in July 2025 at Movers in Hockley Nottingham.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #12: Writer James Graham on Dear England, Sherwood, Broadway, London theatre and writing for stage and screen

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:00:00 GMT

James Graham grew up in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Notts and has gone on to be one of the most prolific stage and screen writers in the country. In 2020 he was awarded an OBE for his service to drama and young people in British theatre.

To date he’s written thirty five plays including Quiz (about the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire coughing scandal), Ink (about the Murdoch Empire) and Dear England (about Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England football manager).

James also has a prolific career as a screenwriter and has written dramas like Brexit: The Uncivil War (starring Rory Kinnear and Benedict Cumberbatch) and Brian and Maggie (starring Steve Coogan). However, James’ biggest TV baby is the prime-time BBC One drama Sherwood for which he is the showrunner.

James has quite a lot going on at the moment. When we recorded this interview he was in a hotel room in New York. This was because Punch!, a play he wrote last year about a man from the Meadows, Jacob Dunne, who killed a man with one punch is heading to Broadway over there and premiering in September.

However in mid September James will be back in Notts as Dear England, is playing at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal as part of their 160th birthday celebrations.

This interview took place over Zoom in early August 2025.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #11: LaQuarn Lewis on new Notts based BBC drama What It Feels Like For A Girl

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 09:00:00 GMT

Upcoming BBC mini-series What It Feels Like For A Girl tells the story of Byron, a Queer teen who is desperate to escape the confines of Hucknall. Based on the novel of the same name by Hucknall-born journalist Paris Lees, the witty, gritty and heart-breaking show delves into what it was like growing up as a trans person in a small town during the early 2000s. To hear about the show, ahead of the premiere, we caught up with LaQuarn Lewis, who plays Fallen Diva, ‘the premier podium dancer-cum-hellraiser’ Lady Die…

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #10: Comedian Matt Forde on His Early Life In Notts, Keir Starmer, Spitting Image, Forest, Cancer and The End of An Era Tour

Fri, 09 May 2025 09:00:00 GMT

Originally from Lenton, Matt is a comedian, TV and radio presenter, writer, impressionist and more. He’s perhaps best known for his podcast The Political Party, where he interviews politicians including in the past the likes of Kier Starmer, Tony Blair, Ken Clarke, Nicola Sturgeon, William Hague, George Osborne and Angela Raynor.

Matt is a regular on radio stations like Radio 4, 6Music and Absolute Radio, usually either talking about politics or football.

He has also done lots of TV including fronting Unspun, a political comedy series that ran on Dave from 2016-2018. He was also a prominent member of the cast in the 2020 reboot of Spitting Image, which might help to explain the sample you heard at the start of this show. In early 2025 Matt was the winner of Celebrity Mastermind, answering questions on the specialist subject of 'Nottingham Forest Football Club from 1977 to 1993’.

A couple of years ago Matt was diagnosed with bone cancer and had a tumour removed from his spine. He now lives with a colostomy bag. As you’ll find out in this podcast he’s not shy of discussing that and he has a show coming up at Nottingham Playhouse in June where you can hear all about it in person…

The interview was conducted by LeftLion Editor in Chief Jared Wilson in April 2025.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #9: DJ Jonathan on The Palais, the changing art of DJing, Northern Soul, Jazz Funk and Tiswas

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 12:00:00 GMT

DJ Jonathan (aka Jonathan Woodliffe) is a veteran DJ who grew up in Burton Joyce in Notts.

He became well-known across Nottingham in the 1970s and 1980s as the first in-house DJ at Rock City. Believe it or not he even had a flat at Rock City in the early days and has some fun stories as a result. However, this interview focuses on his formative years at the place he first started DJing: The Palais.

This April The Palais celebrates 100 years as a night (and sometimes day) club. In an industry where nightclubs come and go, it’s an amazing achievement that The Palais (aka The Palais De Danse, Ritzy, Oceana and PRYZM) is going to be open to celebrate it’s centenary. At LeftLion we decided to celebrate with a big spread in our April print issue and a long-form chinwag with Jonathan about what the club was like in his days there in the mid-late 1970s.

The interview was conducted by LeftLion Editor in Chief Jared Wilson in March 2025.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #8: George Akins on Rock City, Beat The Streets, Thekla, Dot To Dot, Massive Attack and 30 years working in live music.

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 09:00:00 GMT

George Akins is the Managing director of DHP Family, who run music venues and events both in Nottingham and around the UK.

In Nottingham DHP Family venues include Rock City, Rescue Rooms, Stealth, The Bodega and most recently they acquired The Palais. Across the UK they also run the Thekla in Bristol and Oslo and The Garage in London.

As well as the dozens of gigs they put on every week they are the company behind music festivals like Dot To Dot, Splendour and the upcoming Beat The Streets charity festival. To date Beat The Streets has raised around half a million pounds for Framework to help fight homelessness in Nottingham.

However, these are just the tip of the iceberg and in this interview we talk at length about some of the festivals and venues from the past, as well as George’s favourite personal gigs and much much more.

The interview was conducted by LeftLion Editor in Chief Jared Wilson in October 2024.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #7: Chanel Cresswell on This Is England, Shane Meadows, Guy Ritchie, Colleen Rooney, Winning a BAFTA and more.

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Chanel Cresswell is a BAFTA-winning actor who trained at Nottingham’s Television Workshop.

She got her first professional break as a fifteen year-old appearing in Shane Meadows’ 2006 film This Is England. She then went on to take a leading role in the three subsequent television series’ and in 2016 won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Kelly.

Following this Chanel went on to star in TV shows like Trollied, The Bay, Dracula, Des, Vardy vs Rooney and most recently she’s been working with Guy Ritchie on his Netflix series The Gentleman.

The interview was conducted by LeftLion Editor in Chief Jared Wilson and recorded in front of a live audience at Nottingham Central Library on Friday 6 December 2024.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #6: Natalie Duncan on Music Careers, Hockley Hustle, Goldie, Jools Holland, Ronnie Scott’s, Peggy’s Skylight and more

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Natalie Duncan is a Nottingham-born singer-songwriter and recording artist whose music straddles neo-soul, R&B, jazz and more.

Natalie, now in her early thirties, was performing at Hockley Hustle festivals as far back as 2007 and released her first EP on local label Farmyard Records. She broke nationally appearing in the BBC TV series Goldie’s Band: By Royal Appointment (2009), and went on to release her debut album on Decca Records, appear on Jools Holland, tour Japan and work with big name artists and songwriters across the musical spectrum.

Natalie released her second album Free in the summer of 2020, the first release on Goldie’s Fallen Tree 1Hundred label, with a gig at London’s legendary jazz cafe and two sold out nights at Ronnie Scott’s. The interviewer was LeftLion Partnership Manager Adam Pickering, who has known her since they were schoolchildren. It was recorded in front of a live audience at Nottingham Central Library on Friday 1 November 2024.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #5: Shane Meadows on This Is England, Virtues, Stone Roses, Injuries, Notts County FC and more

Fri, 18 Oct 2024 11:00:00 GMT

Shane Meadows is a legend of British film and television. In the mid-90s he was making lots of short films around Nottingham. In 1997 he released his debut feature TwentyFourSeven. Since then he’s gone on to create masterpieces like A Room For Romeo Brass, Dead Man’s Shoes, This Is England, The Virtues, Gallows Pole, The Stone Roses: Made of Stone and more.

Shane was also the cover star of the first ever printed issue of LeftLion Magazine back in 2004. The interview was done by LeftLion Editor in Chief Jared Wilson, who has also interviewed Shane twice previously in the LeftLion printed magazine. The interview was recorded in front of a live audience at Nottingham Central Library on Friday 4 October.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #4: Daudi Matsiko talks Music

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 11:15:00 GMT

British-Ugandan singer-songwriter Daudi Matsiko is a Nottingham resident and a well known face in our local music scene.

This interview was recorded in front of a live audience at Nottingham Central Library on Friday 6 September. Interview by LeftLion Marketing and Partnerships Manager Adam Pickering.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #3: Emily Catherine on Hip-Hop, Fine art, Album Covers and Graffiti

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 08:00:00 GMT

Since launching her career in 2015, Emily has gained recognition for her artistic collaborations with acclaimed hip-hop artists, including Tha God Fahim, Juga-Naut, and Micall Parknsun.

As a long-time artistic collaborator of the New York based rapper and producer, Your Old Droog, she was commissioned to design several of his album covers, notably his 2019 It Wasn’t Even Close and Space Bar in 2021.

From 25-31 August she launches her debut solo exhibition I Can Heal and Give You Art at Richmond House. The exhibition includes: The Art of Album Covers, a retrospective of Emily’s album covers, and commissions born out of her long-standing collaborations with music artists including Tha God Fahim, Micall Parknsun, Juga-Naut and Your Old Droog; and her more introspective and personal charcoal portrait series, on show for the first time, Here with You.

This interview was recorded in front of a live audience at Nottingham Central Library on Friday 2 August. Interview by LeftLion Editor Sophie Gargett.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #2: The Petebox on Beatboxing, Youtube Fame and ITVs The Voice

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 14:00:00 GMT

The Petebox (aka Pete Sampson) grew up and began his musical career in Nottingham and is someone we have known right since the early days of LeftLion. He headlined the old LeftLion stage at Splendour Festival in 2011 and also played the LeftLion 10th birthday do back in 2013. Since then he has performed dozens of other gigs around the city.

In 2011 he recorded a series of cover version videos that went viral on youtube. These were covers of songs like Lithium by Nirvana, Kids by MGMT, I Get Around by the Beach Boys and perhaps most famously Where Is My Mind by The Pixies.

If you’re not familiar with his work we’d definitely advise you to have a good look or listen through them on youtube or spotify. In late 2023 Pete had another big dose of fame as a contestant on ITV’s popular TV show The Voice, getting to the semi final stage.

To date he has released three albums and has toured all around the world, making a living as a touring musician - which is no mean feat in this day and age.

This interview was recorded in front of a live audience at Nottingham Central Library on Friday 12 July. Interview by Jared Wilson, Editor in Chief of LeftLion.

LeftLion Interviews Podcast #1: DJ Graeme Park on Selectadisc, The Hacienda and the UK Club Scene

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 09:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the first episode of the ‘LeftLion Interviews’ podcast. Our guest is the radio and nightclub DJ Graeme Park.

Graeme Park began his career in Nottingham’s record shop Selectadisc, a job which led to him becoming a DJ at The Garage. From he became a resident at the seminal Manchester nightclub The Hacienda, rubbing shoulders with Tony Wilson, New Order, The Happy Mondays, Oasis and more.

Graeme has since become one of the leading figures in the UK rave and house music scene, worked as a consultant on the 2002 Steve Coogan film Twenty Four Hour Party People, hosted hundreds of radio shows and more.

We discuss all this and more over this hour-long podcast. This interview is a recording of a written interview that also appeared in the July issue of LeftLion magazine and on our website, with more content gems than we can fit into the printed medium.

We're recording some future LeftLion Interviews podcasts as live events thanks to the funding of Arts Council England. Tickets for those events are free - more details at www.leftlion.co.uk/library