Ahead of Friday’s Drive I caught up with musician, singer, songwriter Will Joseph Cook. An undisputed TikTok star I talked to Will about his breakthrough single “Be Around Me”, what it was like putting together his highly anticipated third album, his latest single “Little Miss” and all sorts from the pros and cons of releasing on his own record label and his love of Nintendo to playing live in a hot air balloon in Mexico! Every Single Thing by Will Joseph Cook is out 10th June on Bad Hotel / The Vertex and you can also see him playing live on tour in all the following places… Thursday 17 March – The Joiners, Southampton Friday 18 March – The Prince Albert, Brighton Saturday 19 March – The Castle & Falcon, Birmingham Sunday 20 March – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff Tuesday 22 March – Think Tank, Newcastle Wednesday 23 March – King Tut’s, Glasgow Thursday 24 March – The Deaf Institute, Manchester Friday 25 March – The Wardrobe, Leeds Sunday 27 March – Lafayette, London

Ahead of Monday’s Drive I caught up with London based singer, songwriter and musician Viji. We talked about all sorts from growing up in Vienna in a musical family and making her own instruments to getting inspiration from books and movies, recording from home and how a cold British winter inspired her most sun-soaked single “Cali”. Cali by Viji is out 11th March and you can also see her headline London’s Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes on 11th March. Click here for details.

Ahead of Thursday’s Drive I caught up with local mum and paramedic Serena De Lastic. Inspired by her patients, family and her own experience of working through the pandemic as a paramedic and in vaccination clinics, Serena has written a poem and a short story. Witchy Poos and the Covid Fairy is a short illustrated story to help children with any anxieties and questions they may have around getting a vaccine. We talked about how Serena was inspired to write the story, how her daughter Raven’s puppets and drawings brought the characters to life and how her colleague Fran Montgomerie helped to illustrate this wonderful story. We also talked about the crowdfunding campaign to get this story into schools and children’s hands, where you might see Witchy Poos again in the near future and you can even hear Serena reading the book on my Poetry Podcast! To support Serena in publishing and getting more copies of this book into schools click here to visit her Crowdfunding page.

Ahead of Tuesday’s Drive I caught up with musician, composer, author, lecturer and Queen of Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra, Dr Leah Kardos. We talked about her work at Kingston University and Visconti Studio, how a car boot full of stylophones inspired their album and getting Tony Visconti involved to produce their version of Space Oddity. We also talked about Leah’s new book Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie and how limitations can inspire creativity. Stylophonika, the debut album from Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra is out now on Spun Out Of Control Records. For more information about Visconti Studio click here and to find out more about Dr Leah Kardos including more of her music and writing, click here.

On Friday’s Drive I was joined by Callum & Hamish from Brentwood based Ocean Flaws to introduce their new single Karmageddon. We talked about how the single came into being, how the song evolved musically & lyrically plus all sorts of other stuff from Hamish’s new moustache to the whereabouts of the blowup doll and drinking in a field on a sofa in Doddinghurst! You can download the new single, find out more and follow Ocean Flaws if you click here.

For over 55 years this all girls marching band has given young girls an opportunity to learn music, make friends, gain confidence and travel the world to perform. With the departure of the band master in recent years, they have struggled to find a permanent replacement and so Jessica joined us for a chat about the history of The Haverettes, her fond memories performing with the group as a young musician and why it is so important that they continue to offer future generations of young girls the opportunity to join The Haverettes.  Formed in 1965, because their daughter and other girls were only allowed to march behind the Hornchurch Drum and Trumpet Corps (an all boys band) as majorettes, Alf and Sylvia Smith from Hornchurch in Essex decided to form an all girls marching band. Over the years the band then went from strength to strength, going from a one song routine to a huge repertoire and various displays under their belt. The girls had a major impact at various levels in National Competitions and compete at the highest level in TYMBA contests, formerly national champions. The band are often invited to perform in various shows and carnivals across the UK and Europe as well as being in various music videos including the Inspiral Carpets and Enya, on ITV’s This Morning and even TV adverts too. The latest being the Mulberry Christmas Advert 2018, the 12 days of Christmas (look out for their feet / drums!)​. The Haverettes are holding an extraordinary general meeting on Sunday 13th February 6:30pm – 8:30pm at Elm Park Assembly Hall to discuss the future of the band. If you or somebody you know would be interested in helping to support the continuation of the group then please do attend or get in touch as soon as possible by contacting them here.

Ahead of Friday’s Drive our resident film critic on Phoenix FM, Mark Searby caught up with Actor Stephen Moyer about his latest film Confession, his roots in the local area and how his True Blood co-star, now wife, Anna Paquin has picked up plenty of Essex slang! A local boy, Stephen grew up in Brentwood, his mother still lives in Billericay and for many years he was the patron of Brentwood Theatre. Although he now lives in LA, Stephen shared many fond memories of life in Brentwood from some of his early jobs at various places in the high street, buying his first single at Kelly’s Records, how Brentwood’s cinema used to be the centre of his universe and even confessed some naughty stories involving the back page ads in the Brentwood Gazette!

Ahead of Monday’s Drive I caught up with local crime writer, journalist, teacher and all round top bloke Trevor Warman about his new book “Don’t Look Back Hungover“. Writing from his own personal experience of problem drinking, Trevor’s empowering story explains how he went from believing he would never be able to end an unhealthy relationship with alcohol to living a happier life of sobriety. We talked about how he got into writing, his original crime series, how his passion for writing and teaching combine to pass on the art of his craft and how he overcame the challenges of writing about such a personal subject in this book. Trevor also shared some terrific advice for writers, and a little about how Andy’s Man Club can help men through a difficult time.

Ahead of Thursday’s Drive I caught up with Sarah Brown. Throughout an incredible career as a vocalist Sarah has sung with the likes of Stevie Wonder, George Michael, Pink Floyd, Simply Red, Roxy Music, Duran Duran, a huge list of other iconic artists and is about to embark on another tour with Simple Minds. Today, she releases her debut solo single ahead of her debut solo album and it was great to talk to Sarah about the release and how Mahalia Jackson inspired not only this song but has been a constant source of inspiration for Sarah’s career. We also talked about her route into music, some of the obstacles she had to overcome and Sarah also shared some priceless advice for anyone struggling with self doubt PLUS of all the people she’s worked with… who wouldn’t she introduce to her mum?!

Ahead of a special edition of The #AsYetUntitledRockShow I caught up with previous guest of the show and prog rock royalty, Ian Anderson for a chat about Jethro Tull’s new album. It’s been almost 20 years since the band released their last studio album and as Ian spoke of new music when he was last on the show back in 2019 – it was great to finally hear and get to talk about his latest work. We also talked about how he drew inspiration from the bible, recording from home and how, despite the vinyl revival, he prefers to listen to music on a digital device! The Zealot Gene is out on 28th January 2022.