I’m usually on RNZ once a month to have a chat about some new albums. But now and then I present features on the show too. Most recently I co-interviewed Steve Gadd!

And then, Jesse Mulligan asked me a question – a silly question: Was I the right person to do a feature about George Harrison?

Was I what! I told him then and there that I had been a fan of George and The Beatles since I was four and that when I was about 10 I’d made my own mixtape of all George’s Beatles compositions, filling it out with some of the songs he wrote that had been written for him…

So he told me that, yes, I was definitely the right person and asked me to think about a way to fill 50 minutes with some snippets of songs and some chat about “The Quiet Beatle”.

We played a wee medley of his best-known Beatles hits, but I didn’t want to reference only the obvious stuff so I built a playlist of lesser known album cuts, some demos, and one or two big hits, like the opening track off the first Traveling Wilburys album.

We talked, too, of his time as a film producer and some of his cameos on records by others, some of his outside songwriting and production work.

I wanted to feature his exquisite slide playing – which seems free of blues cliché and to talk about his guitaring and composing influences.

It was a really fun chat. And if you missed it you can click here to read some of the major talking points and of course to hear the full session.

Embedded in that clip is the Spotify playlist I made of all the songs featured. And one bonus track. But I’ll also include it here below…

Hopefully I’ll get to do another feature of this sort. I always enjoy my time in the RNZ studio. And was grateful to be asked to do this. A dream gig!
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https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018673050/the-music-of-george-harrison