C&CM returns to FOTW's Halloween Listening Party for 2025

Your Halloween plans are sorted! A new episode of C&CM will air on FOTW's Halloween Listening Party, and you can listen live in your timezone! Tune in on Friday 31st October for an hour-long special of spooky Italo and synth pop: halloweenlisteningparty.com

For listeners in Sydney, London, New York and LA, you can listen on Friday 31st October at 9pm. If you live outside these timezones, you can find out what time to listen.

This is an especially special Halloween night, as dear friend of the pod, Luke Applebee (aka Word Tweak) will also be airing a spooky story for the listening party.

Discover the C&CM x FOTW Halloween Listening Party Archive

Listen to the 2024 show here.

Listen to the 2023 show here.

Listen to the 2022 show here.

Listen to the 2021 show here.

Listen to the 2020 shows here.

halloweenlisteningparty.com

[UPDATE] You can download the 2025 C&CM x Halloween Listening Party for FOTW show here:

Download (137 MB)

C&CM x FOTW's Halloween Listening Party returns for 2022

Cassettes & Chocolate Milk returns for Halloween 2022 for FOTW's Halloween Listening Party. There'll be much synth-pop, jangly '80s music and macabre tunes to get your hearts racing. Tune it at halloweenlisteningparty.com

For listeners in Sydney, you can listen in on Monday 31st October at 11pm. See your local time here.

For listeners in London, you can listen in on Monday 31st October at 10pm. See your local time here.

You can listen to the 2021 show here.

You can listen to the 2020 shows here.

halloweenlisteningparty.com

[UPDATE] You can download the 2022 C&CM x Halloween Listening Party for FOTW here:

Download (137MB)

The return of the C&CM Takeover Hour for FOTW's Halloween Listening Party

Join Cassettes & Chocolate Milk for the premiere of a new episode created for FOTW's Halloween Listening Party.

For listeners in New York and London, you can listen in on Saturday 30th October at 11pm.

For listeners in Sydney and Melbourne, you can listen in on Sunday 31st October at 11pm.

You can also listen to the 2020 episodes of C&CM x FOTW here.

halloweenlisteningparty.com

[UPDATE] You can download the C&CM x Halloween Listening Party for FOTW here:

Download (137MB)

You can read all about the best of the Halloween Listening Party for 2021. Thank you IJ Wilson for letting me be a part of the fun!

C&CM Exclusive: Download Rare 1985 Radio Interviews from The Direct Hits!

I'm thrilled to announce that The Direct Hits have graciously donated two radio interviews to C&CM that have been unplayed since their original broadcast in 1985!

Originally broadcast in April 1985 on the South East London pirate radio station, Skyline Radio, host Nick Miller talks to Colin Swan, Geno Buckmaster and Brian Grover about fostering talent on their imprint Direct Records, the mood of London audiences and the interest surrounding their forthcoming tour of Germany and Italy.

The second interview dates from July 1985 and features both Colin and Geno discussing exploits from their most recent tour ("I lost a shoe in Hamburg"), humorous reflections on Live Aid not to mention their thoughts of some new record releases. Both clips are fascinating portrait of the band both before and after their career-defining tour of the continent.

The Direct Hits - The Skyline Radio Interviews (1985)
The Direct Hits - Radio Press (1985)

The discovery of these interviews comes with The Direct Hits unearthing artefacts including previously unseen photographs, gig posters, tickets for the Christmas release of a new book called "My Back Pages". You can keep up to date with this and other upcoming developments on both the band's official page and their Facebook page.

As an added incentive, check out these nifty badges dating from 1987 which recently featured! I want each and every last one of them.

EDIT: Be careful what you wish for! These fair badges just arrived in my mailbox! AMAZING!

And just in case you missed it the first time round, this is the C&CM Conversation with Colin Swan.

For many months now, I've lacked the courage to write this piece. The piece where I explain why I have decided to give up one of the most meaningful passions of my life so far. Even now, I don't really understand why I have decided to give up radio. When it is mentioned in conversation, I manage to dismiss the topic so easily, so casually. I think this is because that nobody, not even myself takes the threat seriously. After all, how can you rationally let go of something that fills you with such love and fulfillment? That empowers you, that gives you so much joy and confidence? How can you ever let go of the possibility that you could be the person you always wanted to be?

When I think of the kind of radio that fills you with so much joy and confidence, I think of my long-defunct university radio station, SUB FM. I think about the mixing desk that was stripped from a music studio. The desk appeared to be held together by gaffa tape. The phone didn’t work and the microphone that gave your voice such a beautiful, warm tone. Most of all, I think about my musical freedom. The fact that I could wash away my personal insecurities and pretend to be someone who was so beautifully unapologetic, passionate and insightful.

On air, I acted as if I was directly talking to the very person who would never think to belittle my taste as a teenager. I relish each moment that I would talk to him, as we rarely got a chance to speak. I really loved him. He always feigned fascination with whatever I had to say.

After five and a half years of radio, I am a broken person. I had foolishly believed that I had something worthwhile to offer to my listeners. My Programming Manager had me believe that I hadn't earned my right to talk about music authoritatively. He made me believe that I knew nothing, that I am nothing. He filled me with such new-found feelings of self-loathing that I just can’t do this anymore. I have nothing more to say.

So, I've just come back from what could be described as a whirlwind tour of Sydney, playing lots of dates with Agnes Kain. Needless to say, it was spectacularly fun and hopelessly decadent adventure - with people who are gifted in more ways than I can count. That and Chanelle, Stef and Evan are very extraordinarily tolerant of my frequent temper-tantrums, glockenspiel smash-ups and feline tendencies. I'm really very lucky.

There are lots and lots of things to write about this trip. However, I thought I should draw on one particular occasion where we were invited to play Beatles covers at the film premiere of US vs John Lennon at very short notice. Of course it was a breath-taking ordeal having to learn these amazing songs in such a small space of time.. but how many opportunities do you get like that? How can you not fall over yourself with excitement at the prospect of performing Beatles songs to anyone, let alone a mass of people?

So anyway, the film itself featured that John and Yoko's famed bed-in for peace.. and it reminded me of an article that I wrote for an old radio show, Counterfeit. I'll include it here, just to bulk up the post.. and so others can slightly imagine the extent of my profound Lennon love and influence.

A few years ago, I was watching the Beatles Anthology with my brother. I remember a moment in the story where they were up to the Ballad of John and Yoko - just shortly after the pair embarked on their famous bed-in at the Amsterdam Hilton in 1969. I can't exactly imagine it would have been the most ideal honeymoon but you know, people do all kinds of heroic deeds in the name of bed/hair/world peace.

A few days later at a press conference in Vienna, John concealed himself and his new wife with a bedsheet and revealed a new philosophy called Bagism. Its application in society was rather redundant but needless to say it struck a chord with me. According to John and Yoko, if you had something to say, Bagism allowed you to communicate your message without unfair judgement. The theory was that prejudice could be eliminated by covering your physical features and attributes, whether it be the colour of your skin, the clothes you wore, your age or even the length of your hair. That idea (and the prospect of staying in bed for a week) has always appealed to me.. and it has become a fundamental basis of my love for radio.

As soon as I started my course at Latrobe Uni in March 2003, I started radio at SUB FM. I was thrilled at the prospect of actually broadcasting my thoughts about the music I love. I was equally startled at the irony that I could only suppress such feelings at school. In retrospect, I can't tell whether these judgemental girls feared difference or whether I feared judgement from different girls? Regardless. I shut my mouth and did what the others did.

Radio allowed me to be protected by my proverbial bedsheets and in truth, my insecurities could be washed away by the fact that I could communicate without any physical prejudice. But like any ideal, Bagism didn't work out the way it was meant to. Despite this creative freedom, I still had a frightened, unforgivingly unconfident on-air persona. Needless to say, I was, am and always will be haunted by the inability to describe the significance of "my" bands. Because occasionally, words are too patronising to describe love.

After nearly three years and eight radio shows, I'm fully prepared to present Counterfeit with Amanda this Monday night without any fear of unfair judgement. Although I will always the embrace the very fundamental ideal and intimacy of this medium, I will not shy away from the challenge of radio. I will not hide in my proverbial bedsheets.. that is, unless, of course, I'm having a bed-in.

Although it might look like that C&CM is going through a significant dry-spell at the moment, I can only post to prove this is not the case. The graveyards at Triple R have been going really well, but I still have to wait a few more weeks to hit the airwaves again. I know I've promised some people actual recordings of the shows, but they reach up to 100mb a piece.. and anyone who has any contemplation of how bad my interweb is will understand why this would be a problem. So quite responsibly, I've decided to attach playlists in the comments for every clicker's enjoyment.

But you do know I really don't say that much, anyway.
Otherwise, I've scored some kind of meeting arrangement with the SBS Radio's Alchemy. I'm really thrilled because these guys make the kind of radio documentaries that I'd love to make. After daydreaming about it for so long, I've finally made a start on my first project. But when I say "made a start", I really mean that I've just been fruitlessly hassling friends to partake in a faux vox pop. Now I'm beginning to understand that hassling my people probably isn't the most effective means to score material, so I might have to try another tack. Perhaps bribery by Cherry Ripe cocktail?

UPDATE: I've now collected over FIVE HOURS of material for my FIVE MINUTE documentary.. and I haven't even finished recording everyone yet. So thank you to all my people for obliging and helping me out with my project. Seriously, if I could marry all of you, I probably would. In a big ceremony, probably involving a big woman falling into a big wedding cake. So thankyou, seriously.

In other news, my brother Andrew & I saw the Pet Shop Boys a few weeks ago at the mini V-Festival at Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl. The showcase also featured The Rapture, Gnarls Barkley and Groove Armada. Although I should really mention that I was hopelessly gutted to have missed The Rapture by a few minutes, my Pet Shop Boys made up for everything. It was the single greatest live experience, ever. Truly. Not only was the entire show that spectacular, the setlist featured so many cunning obscurities and upbeat surprises (think: Heart, Domino Dancing and even Can You Forgive Her?). Seriously, only my bootlegged recording of the gig be a very close testament to how ridiculously fabulous I thought the whole show was.


(all day, all day) Domino Dancing

Til later, my friends xx

Admittedly, it has been far too long between posts. My apologies extend to those who take personal offense to this. So I should really start off by referring to my last post where I announced that C&CM would be enjoying a brief sojourn at 3RRR. Since then, I'm happy to report that readers of the blog have missed not one, but three graveyard shifts in the past few weeks. Fortunately, I've included a tracklisting to these shows in the comments so you can relive some of the show's glory. If glory is synonymous with an aural catastrophe.

Although it appears that I will always be plagued by extremely irritating perfectionist tendencies, I was just relieved that I could do live radio again. A lot of it had to do with the exploitation of my Listen Without Prejudice segment, which provided ample opportunity to play white-labelled Roxette demos. Haha. To top off the whole experience, the Programming Manager actually said you certainly have the skills to be as good as any of the broadcasters on Triple R at the moment. It's enough for any girl to develop a chronic blushing problem.

However, despite the lovely feedback, it may take up to 10 years to actually obtain a show. Clearly, this is a severely depressing reality.. but I'm more disenchanted with the prospect of no more interviews. No more ridiculous chance meetings. No more life altering deep and meaningful conversations with gifted lyricists.. and more to the point, no more realisations that many of my musicians are in fact a drug addled prima donnas with no love and little respect.

Yeah, it breaks my heart.
So that's why I want this entry to feature some of those infamous excruciating interviews that I am certain many of you have seen before. Occasionally they illustrate the extreme ineptitude of the interviewer. Sometimes they highlight the most cruel and nasty characteristics of the musicians we admire most. It is for this reason that I dedicate this post to those struggling journalists who rarely have the opportunity to deal with their raging, ill-tempered heroes. You know I love you anyway.

Noel Gallagher on Triple J, November 2005
Here, a nameless Triple J presenter adopted what I believe to be a profoundly ungrateful, disrespectful and ditzy attitude upon interviewing one of the greatest songwriters of our generation. Not only did she talk to Noel Gallagher as if he was completely musically irrelevant, but her vague and aimless questions somehow managed to successfully provoke the desired response: Noel's views of former nouveau indie darlings Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and the Kaiser Chiefs caused a needless and ridiculous furore, offending many and surprising few.

Peter Hook on New Zealand radio, December 1982
Many would recognise Hooky as the oft-lovely dexterous bassist of New Order.. and I always had it on good authority that Hooky would be also lovely guy to interview. Right? Wrong. In this infamous early interview with a clearly shaken and overcome radio host, Hooky becomes so difficult and snarly that it effectively wants to make you crawl inside a cupboard and forget you ever heard Bizarre Love Triangle. That's how this whole mess started in the first place.

Freddie Mercury on Rio TV, promoting Rock in Rio, 1985
The fact that Freddie can't speak Portuguese and the interviewer can't understand English makes for a profoundly disjointed interview. But obviously, awkward multilingual exchanges are inevitable when you are the lead singer of the most famously fantabulous band in the world. However, this problem is aggravated by the fact that Freddie is clearly suspicious that the interviewer is distorting his responses. In typical style, my Freddie deals with it in a way that involves a lot of wit, class and flirtation. What can I say, he's my hero.

Pete Doherty on MTV News TV, May 2005
It's difficult to narrow down one excruciating incident with Pete Doherty. As much as I love his music, his behaviour during this interview sickened a vast many of his most loyal defenders, including myself. Initially Pete refused to join his bandmates for the backstage interview after a gig in Berlin. Midway through the interview, Pete joined the band and then proceeded to squirt a syringe full of his own blood at the camera. Needless to say, his bandmates were less than impressed, promptly apologising and walking out of the interview. Charming.


You can lose a lifetime thinking of it & lose an era daydreaming like I do
Paul Weller on Swedish TV, 1981
As much as I adore Paul Weller, I acknowledge that he is pretentious at the best of times. That being said, I cannot possibly understand why this Swedish television presenter felt so compelled to ask whether The Jam was named after a condiment. After a consistent sequence of slack-jawed questions and a persistent refusal to dignify those questions with a response, Weller still stands so close to this girl that it's unclear whether he wants to jump or slap her. I don't know, you tell me.

Noel & Liam Gallagher, the Wibbling Rivalry interview, Glasgow, 1994
What we have here is fourteen farcical minutes of arguing, swearing, cussing and shouting from two indecipherable drunken Mancunians. I can only imagine the sheer panic of interviewer, Q journalist John Harris who actually had the pressure of finding some shred of coherency between the pair. Fortunately Fierce Panda obtained the rights to the recording of this interview and it was later entitled Wibbling Rivalry. The disastrous interview between the squabbling Gallaghers later became the most successful interview release in the UK charts, reaching #52 in November 1995. Similarly, Q Magazine managed to find some use for the interview and published the transcript of Wibbling Rivalry interview, much to the amusement of Britpop lovers alike.

Addendum: No really, this has to be the most awkward interview in existence.

So yeah. That's all from me.

Here are some songs for your enjoyment:
The Sounds - Tony the Beat
Kasabian - Empire
!!! - Myth Takes
Pop! - Pop! Goes My Heart
Röyksopp - Poor Leno [Silicone Soul's Hypo House Dub]
Talkshow Boy - I Know A Girl Who Spots Foxes
Space - Neighbourhood (Radio Edit)
1984 - Step On Me (Take 1, Thames Television Studios Demo Tape, 1967)
Asobi Seksu - Thursday

All my loving, Elly x

It took me long enough, but I've managed to snap up a graveyard shift at Melbourne's 102.7 3RRR FM. I'll obviously pimp the gig a lot closer to the date, but I thought I'd dish out a forewarning so readers can promptly re-adjust their sleeping hours now. You heard me!

In other radio related news, ye olde co-host Fi has kindly invited me to guest on her new show tomorrow on 90.7 SYN FM to talk about my old flame Morrissey and the Smiths. You can listen into her show, Notes from the Underground, Thursday afternoon at 2pm. There surely isn't anything better than that!

Until next time! x

Don't worry. I haven't abandoned C&CM. Despite the lack of posts, it's been something that's been at the forefront of my mind for months now.. particularly moreso since my prospects of a law career eventuating has become more improbable. Radio isn't something that I could seriously rely on as a career but it's something that I will always want to do, paid or unpaid. I can't imagine a time when I'm not preparing for it, either by doing interviews or research or editing.. or basically killing myself that I'm not good enough as I should be. The fact is that I love it and I miss it.

I suppose student and community radio can provide a sense of comfort in that there are few people perceiving you. It allows you to build confidence in your content, presentation style and ultimately yourself. Luckily this is afforded by the fact that the people who do listen most likely know you on a personal basis. In this way, I am overly grateful that my friends do listen to me and they, in turn, provide me so much support in my moments of doubt. However, because there is this lack of truly critical, professional advice. I obsess about what the hell I can do to improve. Not what I can do "to get on a particular station", but how I can properly refine my style and project the confidence I had on such projects such as Radar and Counterfeit.

This brings me to what happened to spur this ridiculous entry. For about a week, I've been attempting to record the second of my summer podcasts and I found I couldn't do it. This inability to record anything of remotely acceptable quality is somewhat ironic, in light of criticisms such as "you can't even string a sentence together" and "you say um". Although I used to be able to argue until I was blue in the face that I never actually "say um" on the radio (in the same way that I never dot my i's), I have suddenly become crippled. I can't do what I love.

I see this as a long time coming. As much as radio was a self-indulgent and extremely passionate distraction, it has become an excuse to believe the hype and consequently shred my self-confidence. I even see this in the progression of C&CM as well. In the 8th and final semester of the show, I did refrain from making this a personal entity. I don't retell personal stories or anecdotes, neither do I share any profound details on the blog. It could be because all my stories have to do with ex-boyfriends who have run over my heart in their car.. or else it could be because people just want to hear the music. People don't necessarily care about what I have to say.

I am aware that anyone's presentation style need not be perfect. I use to teach kidlets that it's important to be enthusiastic, passionate, open and confident. Slick presentation manner aside, it's most important to be engaging. It's how so many listeners developed a rapport with icons such as Peely.. and as much as I would dream of commanding such a faithful listenership, I just want to be on air again, anywhere.

I apologise for the awkward self-indulgent rant. Hopefully many of you have skimmed over it and rushed for that Morrissey b-side further down the page. For those of you who have been unfortunate as to read it, I hope you take something away from it. With any luck, someone suffering from the same neuroses will read this and recognise how stupid it is to dwell on such things. Then they will promptly get over themselves and consequently achieve great things. That's the idea, avoid my example.

So, since I haven't got a podcast to present, I decided to upload an unedited (this means I “say um”) interview that I've never released before. I recorded this a few days before I left for the UK in mid 2005. This interview is with Peter Freestone, famously known within the Queen community as Phoebe, Freddie Mercury's personal assistant. I never had grand intentions to air the interview as it bore such a great deal of personal significance. It was my opportunity to become better acquainted with the person who started all of this, the musician who I still claim to know everything about. To me, it was so fascinating to have my misconceptions clarified. It was an interview where I did gain a proper, realistic insight about the character and motivation of a person who has inspired me so greatly. But this is all retrospective though. The interview itself sounds like two teen girls gushing about a crush. But that can only be expected, right?

Interview with Peter Freestone (mp3, 17mb) (linkie updated)

Well, I somehow became aware that there was a massive influx of visitors on this site.. and I have to ascribe gratitude to the visitors of mod64, gergtreble, totally fuzzy & tilted2oneside who have such great music taste. However, no one would really know about the influx at the commentage rate :(

So what's news? Well tomorrow night, Mason has kindly invited myself and my old co-host Amanda to guest star on his and Brett's baby project, Track One, Side One. That means listening in to 90.7 SYN FM from 9-11pm on Monday night.

I know, I always forget too.
In other news, I bought 9 Q magazines for $9 and I've been pouring over the ghosts of British music industry past instead of studying for my exam tomorrow. If only I had to write about Stephen Patrick Morrissey instead of indefeasibility, I think we would all be a little bit happier. Don't you tink?

Yesterday, myself and many others received this email from Simon Knight, my station manager of four years:

I'm sorry to have to tell you all that SUB FM will be closing at the end of this semester. The University has not included us in their services to be funded next year and subsequently I am (and many others) are to be made redundant. The station will continue as normal til the end of semester...

This is why.
It's difficult to express how I feel about this. I've lost something so important to me. This was my little stage, my platform where I first consolidated thoughts about my music and all the ridiculous things associated with it. It was the place I could talk so freely and carelessly with people I missed so much. SUB was the place where I found my confidence. SUB was the place I found my passion.


Julian Casablancas: Things, they have changed in such a permanent way
Personal associations aside, the bulk of my disappointment lies in the fact that no future students will have this chance again. No one at Latrobe will have the opportunity to stumble upon their passion on air. In saying that it's ironic to mention that I started radio simply because Latrobe shut down its music department 12 years ago. Regardless, I am so grateful I've been given this chance in the first place. I'm very much indebted to my station manager Simon after all these years of support. I toast my milk to you, sir.

Playlist for August 7th 2006
New Order - Face Up
INXS - Black & White (Extended Mix)
The Strokes - Alone, Together
Suede - Rent
Ratcat - That Ain't Bad (Live at Sydney's Metro)
Basement Jaxx - Romeo (Acoustic)
The Shins - Caring is Creepy
Maximo Park - Shiver (Acoustic Cover)
Blackbox Recorder - Kidnapping an Heiress
Ivy League - London Bridge
The Whitlams - Make the World Safe
Moloko - Familiar Feelings
Peter Gabriel - Digging in the Dirt
Montell Jordan - This is how we do it
Le Tigre - I'm so Excited
Pet Shop Boys - Try It (Peel Session)
Style Council - Long Hot Summer (El's Lust-Induced-Coma Mix)
Depeche Mode - Leave in Silence
Piney Gir - Boston

Don't forget to download the first 78 minutes of this week's show, if you happened to miss it, that is (44mb, decent quality, considering).