We could all use a little more ‘happy’, couldn’t we? And this week, an infusion of musical happiness comes compliments of Chris Stamper. 

Chris and I met through working together with The Awesome Music Project, an organization that promotes music’s influence in improved mental health. He recently wrote an article outlining how music contributes to maintaining a positive mental attitude, which included five of his ‘happy’ songs. So of course, it was a no-brainer to invite him to talk about them on NSTS. 

Stamper’s playlist (full playlist on Spotify):

The Rolling Stones – Start Me Up

The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed

Bill Withers – Lovely Day

The Beatles – Eight Days A Week

Katrina & The Waves – Walking On Sunshine

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Rock documentary The Story of the Hard Luck 5 tells the fascinating tale of New Jersey band Rye Coalition, a group loved by Dave Grohl and signed by one of the world’s largest record labels. They seemed destined to take over the world, until it all imploded.

Rye Coalition drummer Dave Leto joins me this week to recount the unbelievable series of events the band experienced, along with some great stories about Dave Grohl and Interscope mogul Jimmy Iovine.     

Leto’s playlist (on Spotify):

Neil Young – Birds

Prince – The Beautiful Ones

Donny Hathaway – Jealous Guy

The Rolling Stones – She Smiled Sweetly

Pixies – Where Is My Mind

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Shortly after it occurred, it was widely believed that the death of INXS singer Michael Hutchence was the result of autoerotic asphyxiation – a sex game gone wrong. 

This week on NSTS I wanted to dig a little deeper to shed some additional light onto the circumstances surrounding Hutchence’s unfortunate passing, because there was a whole lot more going on than just sex games – a larger, important truth exists under the tabloidification.          

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The energy and enthusiasm that guitarist Sean Kelly brings to describing the songs that make his skin vibrate is unparalleled. Sean takes the notion of skin vibration very literally with his songs, and it was a joy for me to experience his excitement during our chat on NSTS this week.    

In addition to his enthusiasm, Sean shares impressive musical insights and an honest sentimentality that makes this show special. Highlights include a funny Dee Snider conversation, why he never wants to meet Pye Dubois, the unique way the new Lee Aaron record was written, and so much more. Sean Kelly is living his dream, and it’s a lot of fun to behold.     

Kelly’s playlist (in Spotify):

Kim Mitchell – Kids In Action

Urge Overkill – Sister Havana

Mott the Hoople – All The Young Dudes

Thin Lizzy – Cowboy Song

Daniel Lanois – The Maker  

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Andy Curran is back on NSTS this week to talk about the five-ish songs that make his skin vibrate – he actually sneaks a few extra tunes in! Before that, we finish up last week’s discussion detailing how Coney Hatch’s excellent new new live record Live at the El Mocambo came together.     

Along with the song discussion, there are more incredible stories. Andy recounts how Robin Zander took his request and played his favourite Cheap Trick song for him during their Toronto show, what it was like seeing an unknown opening act called AC/DC open for UFO at Massey Hall in Toronto, and much more.  Don’t miss this.   

Curran’s playlist (on Spotify):

Aerosmith – Nobody’s Fault

Cheap Trick – Auf Weidersehen

Tom Petty – Into The Great Wide Open

Deep Purple – Highway Star

AC/DC – Overdose

(Van Halen – Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love)

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As a Coney Hatch fan from waaaaay back, it was a privilege for me to host Coney singer and bassist Andy Curran this week. The band has released their new live record, Coney Hatch Live at the El Mocambo, recorded in October 2020 at the historic Toronto venue. 

Andy has some tremendous rock stories, and he shares many of them with me in this episode – playing tennis on the road with Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris and getting pelted with cutlery on stage opening up for Judas Priest among them. You don’t want to miss this.       

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Since its inception, Heavy Metal has spawned a countless number of subgenres. Death Metal is one of them, and in the early 1990s Norwegian Death Metal became more than just a musical subgenre. It developed into a violent, deeply sinister belief system. 

In this episode of No Sleep ’til Sudbury, we examine the dark origins and horrifying transgressions associated with the genre – Satanism, murder and corpse mutilation, church burnings, and the disturbing extremism of Norwegian Black Metal’s purveyors. 

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Longtime NSTS listeners know that I love speaking with up-and-coming musical talent on the show. And I anticipate that country singer songwriter Nelson Sobral will be a well-known name fairly soon.   

Nelson’s imaginative with the instrumentation he utilizes in his country-inflected material, a nod to his sophisticated musical tastes – something he credits to his mother. We talk Crowes, Otis Redding, The Ronettes, Howling Wolf….and we see things very, very similarly. 

Sobral’s playlist (available in Spotify):

The Ronettes – Be My Baby

The Black Crowes – Sting Me

Willie Nelson – Can I Sleep in Your Arms

Otis Redding – I Love You More Than Words Can Say

Howlin’ Wolf – 300 lbs of Joy

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This week on NSTS I welcome back one of the industry’s ‘good guys’, Jitters frontman Blair Packham. Blair is a friend and it’s always a pleasure to have him on the show. 

In addition to chatting about the new record he’s currently working on and his skin-vibrating songs, we also discuss how his dad inadvertently named his last record, the interesting story behind how Blair became acquainted with Crowded House’s Temple of Low Men record, what Malcolm Gladwell sees him as, and how he really feels about Elvis Costello’s lyrical cleverness. 

Packham’s playlist (available in Spotify):

Ron Sexsmith – Speaking With The Angel

Elvis Costello – Shipbuilding

Tom Petty – Dreamville

Crowded House – I Feel Possessed

John Legend – Everybody Knows

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This week on NSTS I speak with someone whose parents I watched on television as a kid – her mom is Cindy Williams, who played Shirley from Laverne & Shirley, and her dad is Bill Hudson of the Hudson Brothers. Her name is Emily Taylor Hudson, and she’s a super talented singer songwriter with brand new music available.    

Emily and I have a really great chat in this episode. Her new single is “Hearts We Wanna Break”, from her EP entitled Love is a Dirty Word. We also talk about her deep appreciation for the classics – old school Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles’ “Julia”, and more.  Wonderful discussion. 

Hudson’s playlist (found here on Spotify)

The Beatles – Revolution

Enya – Caribbean Blue

Marvin Gaye – Ain’t That Peculiar

Joni Mitchell – The Last Time I Saw Richard

Sting – If I Ever Lose My Faith In You 

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