Can I Pod With Madness - Kerrang, Metal Hammer and Rock in the 80s

Are you sure these aren’t Terry Scott’s winners? No Kerrang (again), but check this out, we played D&D in a castle!* After inexplicably winning in a Comic Relief prize draw, we were off for a weekend of nerdy fun, and have prepared a full report for you. Massive thanks to @ComicRelief @Walworth_Castle @Kynren, @DnDWizards and most of all our fantastic Dungeon Master David Knight of @NoSmallRolls and @SupportingMythicMinds for running a fantastic game, bringing the whole thing to life, and, crucially, not making our non nerdy friends run for the hills. Along the way we finally do the Dulco Ease retrospective, talk ghost hunting, and cover some gaming news about an old favourite! And a whopping big recommendation for @TheHouseFrom *Not, I hasten to add “D&D in a Castle” - an actual thing where you go on a 4 day retreat and pay a phenomenal amount of money to nerd out surrounded by halberds and butteresses and such- although we *were* in the castle they do D&D in a Castle in! Incidentally if @DnDinaCastle want to give us some complimentary tickets in return for a completely impartial review HIT US UP! PWM 77 Recorded 4th September 2026

Nickeltwats and Saxy Motherfuckers We’re back with another amazing Patreon exclusive episode - basically the kind of shambolic free form reverie that’s for the real PWM sickos. The main part of this one is a mind shattering new quiz, Saxy Motherfuckers, which I’m sure you can guess the premise of in about 3 milliseconds. In addition lots of Spider-Man talk*, and the usual stuff where we attempt to remember what movies we’ve been watching. As a preview here’s the bit where we “review” the new Nickelback number, god help us. *While we did *not* hear Nickelback in the new Spider-Man movie, we can confirm the presence of St. Elmo's Fire by Brian Eno, from Another Green World, for about 3 seconds. PWM76 - recorded August 15, 2026

Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you, especially if you remember the heady days of October 1982. John Cougar/Mellencamp is getting chippy about”real” Rock n’ Roll and Lee Aaron is BEING SEXUALLY PROVOCATIVE which may or may not involve shadow puppets. Neil Young might be patient zero of grunge, but in ‘82 he was all about modern technology - we examine whether this was influenced by his encounters with the indigenous population of Tatooine. In other news Aerosmith are well and truly in their Wilderness Years, and the comeback is several years off, but Steven Tyler is still full of piss and vinegar. Mostly piss. Elsewhere there's a report on the Genesis Reunion concert and that means once again I'm trying to educate Mrs PWM on the idiosyncrasies of progressive rock. Peter Gabriel may be once again donning the flower, but Phil Collins is overworking himself to the point that we question whether he has a problem saying no to stuff. We also get into Klassifieds and endless mentions of Denim, and there's Kommunication asking whether leather is essential to rockin’. Be warned, the full unexpurgated splurge of this conversation is available over on the Patreon so if you want to hear some more recommendations, reviews and listener mail, plus Bowie, Big Brother and our Queen of Hearts, Kinga, get over there and sign up! Kerrang 27 Oct 21st - Nov 3rd 1982 - PWM75 recorded 17th July 2026

Because we’re a 90s bitch, we’re checking out Kerrang from October ‘91. Extreme - are NOT on the cover but Nuno Bettencourt is. Don’t relax, girls, he looks pretty much the same now. Guns N’ Roses are going through some right shenanigans at the moment, Izzy’s about to leave and they’ve just put out Get in the Ring so if *that* doesn’t silence their critics I don’t know what will! We follow up our investigation into Poison’s I Want Action lawsuit from about a million podcasts ago - and the outcome is pretty much what you’d expect. We note a SHOCKING connection between Mötley Crüe and Jethro Tull, dig up a Bad News cover version and read some very angry Kommunikations A Bee Gees deep dive, reappraisals of Sex and The City and Cry Baby, and we’re going on about Rock of Love yet again. Homina Homina! Also! Talkin’ Pointz on MCR’s Common People, Skywalkers, Mary Magdalene’s skull and postal feces. And some HOT recommendations from our recent viewing. And we give our final verdict on racism (it sucks). Kerrang 361 Oct 1991 - PWM74 recorded 4th July 2026

Rock ‘n’ Roll Slut! It’s a Maiden Month at Kerrang, in which Steve Harris gets low key insulted on the cover, but the mag is talking up Seventh Son of a Seventh Son like nobody’s business, so that’s all right. Prog metal puffery, and some ludicrous statements by Bruce Dickinson aside, we’ve got a Kommunicae from Nikki Sixx, Rush on tour, Judas Priest’s brush with Hollywood, and an introduction to the most panties-removingest bands from LA this month. And what’s Tiny Tim up to these days? In addition there’s stuff about pigs, scary theatre, sexy drummers, yuppie rock and giant dandelions. Also (on the extended Patreon edition) we’ve got another AMAZING Can I Pod With Madness Quiz which, if you play along, you’re sure to do better than we did. Kerrang 183 April 1988 - PWM73 recorded 13th June 2026

Tales of Terror! If you LOVE Can I Pod With Madness but hate all the Kerrang stuff, have I got the podcast for you. Yes we don't get to the magazine this week, so, y'know, it's one of *those*. Fresh off a deep dive into the Shudder portfolio we've got some reviews (of the “trying to remember what happened in this one” variety) which leads us into true life tales of mystery and terror. Or at least childhood fears. A new Mandela Effect/Parallel Universe/False Memory has dropped and we're here to investigate. Are we going to buy an EVP recorder and become full time ghost hunters? Or just sit around and jibber jabber about pop culture nonsense? Not only that but we have a genuinely scary tale of elephant based terror. In other news we saw Michael: a series of fake noses, and recall MJ's disappointing floating statue. Also: Labyrinth in Concert - several Jareths, a handful of worms but surprisingly more glitter and Junk Ladies than we remembered. And some Bucks Fizz appreciation! Keep it para! PWM72 recorded 7 May 2026

Watering can news! When we're not giving you the excruciating details about our garden, we're looking at Kerrang 619 from October 1996. It's the most downery, cancelled motherfuckers filled issue we've had yet BUT we're still keeping it light! Helloween almost get Deep Kutz status AND we realise Coachella is probably not as good as Donnington ‘88. Korn are our cover stars but never mind that, there's a FREE TAPE which has a succession of the most 90s ass rockers imaginable. Imperial Drag takes us back to a mix CD from the early days of our relationship and we recall a time before Reef were the “It's Your Letters” guys. Nine Inch Nails’ Quake soundtrack is fondly remembered along with Command and Conquer and Force Commander. Only 90s gamer kids will understand. Also! Aerosmith in therapy! Alice in Chains on hiatus! Twelve Monkeys confusion! Pat Boone goes RAWK! Also the astonishing revelation of the reason why one of us likes impenetrable Prog metallers Tool. We end on some Patreon shoutouts and a feature that *would* be a great ongoing strand. But probably won't, for the obvious reason. PWM71 recorded 20th April 2026

Nobody Reads in That Band, Dude! Here’s another BONUS POD (Or if you’re not a Patreon - a PREVIEW of a BONUS POD) and we’re returning to Metal Hammer 256, from May 2014. Fear not though, we’re not touching on modern music (from 12 years ago) - most of this issue is centred around a celebration of 1984, and our guides are Steel Panther, so you know, you can imagine what *that’s* gonna be like. Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, Dio, Maiden - all the stuff we usually cover, it’s just now “Classic Rock”. In addition we’ve got Cradle of Filth, fondly looking back over their glittering, splattered in faeces career, and Zakk Wylde who “outs himself as an unlikely feminist”. We delve into the best videos of 1984, ponder the future of music, and ask if it’s possible to release a concept album about a Disney character and not get sued. All this and the usual stuff: hamster updates, arguments about the rules of Battleships, Buffy talk, spot the mystery quote, and our new obsession, the Amazon adjacent horror streaming service Shudder. This is now a Shudder fan podcast. PWM70 Recorded 29th March 2026 Full tracklist for the Patreon version: Shudder Shills Battleships Battle 5.20 Halloween 14.22 Back To Metal Hammer 16.05 * The Crue in ‘84 20.05 * Disney lawsuit ahoy 21.00 + Disney News The Howling Wind 25.50 The best videos of 1984 30.05 * The Future of Music 36.20 * Cradle of Filth 38.27 * Zakk Wylde isn’t his real name 40.00 *

SIXTY NINE, DUDES! Yes it’s the pod you’ve all been waiting for, although the promised raunch content is pretty limited. There’s some BIG NEWS buried away somewhere in here and it has to be said we don’t talk about the magazine very much - there is some stuff about a psych rock classic from 1968, though. We introduce The PWM Megaplaylist - and resign ourselves to the fact that we’re unlikely to be sponsored by Sky, which is a shame because we review some movies we recently watched and argue about a certain Sasquatch based 80s favourite - in fact we talk a lot about slightly naff 80s classics like Short Circuit, so they could do something with that, surely? Oh, and having sex with a duck - I guess it *was* a pretty sexy episode after all. PWM69 Recorded 7th March 2026

Adventures in Remote Recording! In a special side episode, I'm temporarily leaving behind the world of 80s (and 90s) hard rock and exploring the distant galaxy of late 60s psychedelia. To do this I've roped in my old college buddy, so if you ever felt the world needed another podcast where two middle aged men reminisce about music that was made before they were born, look no further. As a very flimsy twig to hang this thing on we've both been reading the NME from December 16th, 1967, and even though most of that paper is filled with an appreciation of Englebert Humperdink, we're drilling down and finding all the good stuff about Donovan, Procol Harum and Simon Dupree and The Big Sound. Various psychedelic compilations are brought up and we get into The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, Cream, King Crimson and many more. There's also a lot of rambling reminiscences about being at college during the time of grunge and britpop but still listening to Tim Buckley and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Stay tuned for more of these intermittent sidetrack episodes, depending on whether we can get the remote recording aspect sorted out! Special note: our AMAZING theme music this week is by our pal Ol of @nithered_music - which it always is of course, but for this one, on a whim I asked him to do "something psychedelic" and he immediately knocked out this MASTERPIECE! PWM68 Recorded 1st March, 2026 Note: As usual there's a longer version of this on the Patreon, as well as our test recording where we get into more PSYCH MADNESS (and loads of reminscing about being young bucks at college!)

As “promised” very early on in the history of this podcast, we've had a look at the BBC Arts programme Arena's Heavy Metal documentary, from April 1989. Mick Wall and Jon Hotten of Kerrang were NOT IMPRESSED with the programme, and neither were any of the people that wrote in about it. Featured are Ozzy and Geezer, Bruce Dickinson going for the presenting gig, Ax Rose at his most Ax Rose, David “LeRoth”, and loads of thrash. It all adds up to not much but to a dopey 17 year old at the time it was a fun watch. BBC4's Heavy Metal Britannia from 2010 was a lot better. In addition we've got complaints about Guns n Roses’ tardiness, Spinal Tap II review, Metal documentaries we have loved and Napalm Death on Craig Charles' What's That Noise,. A note on Heavy Metal Heaven: At the end of ‘89 year the BBC repeated the documentary alongside some related shows- among others they showed The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2, a Def Leppard doc,and live concerts by Ozzy, Metallica, and that black and white Led Zeppelin TV performance from Denmark. This was all under the banner of Heavy Metal Heaven and presented by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (sample quote “tonight I've got a couple of biggies for you... no, not *those*”). That's all on YouTube so, go crazy. Special note: our AMAZING theme music this week is by our pal Ol of @nithered_music - it really annoys me that the BBC in '89 completely failed to do THE OBVIOUS THING for a metal documentary on Arena, namely a metal version of Brian Eno's Another Green World, but we have fully rectified that terrible oversight. Special Special Note: Full unexpurgated version of this pod is on our Patreon - lots of Red Dwarf talk, for some reason. PWM67 ARENA recorded Feb 20th 2026

It's 1988 once again and our cover star is Robert Plant, looking to regain his crown as THE prime hard rock frontman (it says here). To be honest he's just back with a new album that's a bit more Zeppelin than his definitely not Zeppelin no sir! recorded output from the early 80s. Most of this is about their famously disastrous Live Aid performance, but there's a bit of slagging off David Coverdale for good measure. There's an Ozzy interview that's suspiciously similar to one from Metal Hammer that we covered in an early episode, but I'm sure no one remembers that so I think we can get away with it. Meanwhile Nikki Sixx is simultaneously both dead and alive, like Schrodinger’s Cat on smack. Warfare have the best song titles! Cher impersonations aplenty! We review Wonder Man and take a deep dive into M. Night Shyamalan's plant-based shitfest The Happening. Also: Belinda Carlisle, Pepsi and Shirlie, Screaming Marionettes, Bastard Head, Malicious Mercenaries and, er, Impotent Society. Plus all the baking cork updates you could possibly want. Note that this episode appears in (mostly) unedited form on our Patreon, the shorter version is here on the main podcast feed (so if you're pushed for time, listen to this one!) PWM66 recorded 6th Feb 2026

We’re looking at Kerrang from Aug ‘86, so as usual there’s news of another forthcoming Alice Cooper album, and Iron Maiden have a single out (one of their best although we are arguing about that one). Elsewhere we delve into the world of Madam X, and our main feature this week finds Run DMC colliding with Aerosmith, for one of the most bulletproof stone cold classics of the 80s. That’s not a hot take, I know, everyone likes that song. And the video’s even better. There’s plenty of distractions in terms of ranking the Spice Girls solo jams, movie reviews, run ins with horror icons and talkin’ Tolkien. Also another digression into the world of The KLF. Note that this episode appears in (mostly) unedited form on our Patreon, so if you want to listen to us going on about a shaved Bill Oddie, Garage Days, and Tusk, that’s THE PLACE TO BE. PWM65 recorded January 26th 2026

Kerrang 233, Apr 89 Come with us as we take a fun nostalgic trawl through the minutiae of the late 80s rock scene, in order to distract from the continuing awfulness of the modern world. Our topic today is Kerrang from April 1989. What were you up to? Black Sabbath (actually just Tony Iommi) is on the cover and we have yet another New Alice Cooper Album nugget. We’ve missed the birthday of Ray Phillips from Budgie but someone in Kommunication is here to put things right, and from the looks of it both Extreme and Dream Theater get their first notices in this very issue. A review of The Cult’s Sonic Temple leads us to consider our short lived career as drummers, however we’re far more interested in this article about Lawnmower Deth, those lads sound like a laugh. Along the way we’ve got hamster updates, meme reminiscences, tattoo stuff and a DEEP KUTZ from a very well known band that one of us has never heard of, even though they’ve been mentioned many times on this podcast. Note that this episode appears in (mostly) unedited form on our Patreon, so if you want to listen to us going on about Lawnmower Man, seemingly endless scrolling through YouTube, and moaning about AI, get your ass signed up to our exclusive band of sickos. PWM64 recorded 16th January 2026

It's the Nineties again, and two veteran swordmasters return to the field of battle. Yes, violin bows at the ready, Coverdale Page have embraced their destiny to team up for an album of uh... hoary old blues rock. Meanwhile shock news, Bruce Dickinson has left Iron Maiden, and ‘Arry and the lads are “surprised, to say the least”. I think we all would have been surprised if, as Kerrang suggest, his replacement had been Paul Di'Anno. Also in this edition: 2 Tribes, Infectious Grooves, Blind Melon, Fish, and Jon Bon Jovi’s wang. Along the way, the usual digressions and nonsense on Michael Bolton, East 17, Lego, Labyrinth and the Stranger Things finale. . Note that this episode appears in (mostly) unedited form on our Patreon. I cut out a lot of the extraneous waffle here - imagine that - BUT if you want to listen to us going on in excruciating detail about hamsters, Jane McDonald and the difficulty of obtaining signed Whitesnake albums from eBay, that’s where you need to go! PWM63 recorded 10th Jan 2026

We're back for another year of metal memories and deep digressions - taking a look this week at Kerrang, Nov 87. Great White are on the cover but we're far more concerned with this Wolfsbane interview. This leads us to discussing Home Star Runner, whether Wolfsbane does actually repel werewolves and we learn what constitutes "Scram Metal" Apart from that we've got our Christmas Roundup, ASMR spectacular, Karaoke report and like every other basic bitch on the planet we've been watching Stranger Things. Who's our favourite, least annoying character? You'll find out in PWM62! PWM62 recorded 4th January 2026

Here's a preview of our second Patreon exclusive Pod. Our Christmas BONUS pod calls for something unprecedented so we’re unveiling our amazing CHRISTMAS QUIZ which hasn’t got a name, but needs to be heard to be believed. We watched Krampus and have OPINIONS - and we also reveal our YouTube Wrapped (like Spotify Wrapped but from a company that’s slightly less despicable). Our feature presentation is a look at Metal Hammer from the wildly futuristic year 2014! What’s the rock press like in the age of streaming and social media, other than loads of stuff about bands I’ve never heard of? We discover Babymetal 11 years after everyone else, and elsewhere we go through Taylor Momsen’s favourite records. And then go through ours. We’re not entirely out of our comfort zone as a big chunk of this mag is dedicated to a look back at 1984, although we don’t even get to that part, so we’ll be picking it up in a future episode. Want to get an insight into some of Can I Pod With Madness’ deepest, darkest secrets - and overhear us practically have a domestic over a certain Batman related song? Then our Patreon is for you! In addition to the bonus pods, you also get access to the PWM digital archive where you can read along with us, early episode access and we'll even send you our old, used Kerrangs! PWM61 recorded 17th December 2025

Shittin Myself Waiting for Santa Merry Christmas, FOR REALS THIS TIME. When we're not roasting your favourite Christmas movies, we’re delving into a *very* festive Kerrang from 1985. Lemmy, Venom's Cronos and those lads from Ratt are all getting into the spirit, while the mag does its bit for women's lib by getting the top female rock stars of the day together for a photoshoot. And then referring to them as tarts. Stryper are the cover stars, appropriately enough for the birth of Christ, but Robert Sweet is keen to point out he knows all about sin. Meanwhile, Yes’ Jon Anderson has a Christmas Album out but it's anyone's guess why he's in a heavy metal magazine. And as for Frank Sidebottom... We have a lengthy feature on Starship, one time psychedelic godheads, now purveyors of smooth AOR (and the record Rolling Stone perpetually pegged as the worst ever, but fuck them, We Built This City is ace). And what's more Grace Slick is excellently snarky in the interview. Don't miss our third annual Festive Blowout! PWM60 recorded 6th December 2025

Sexy Snowball Fight Christmas is rapidly approaching so we're discussing a modern festive Cinematic classic, which you've probably not seen but consider this your recommendation to watch Poinsettias For Christmas- particularly if you're really fucking into Poinsettias. In November 1988 we have a news report of an imminent album release from Mötley Crüe- which turns out to be a reality warping mystery. Are ‘ver Crüe a nexus of paranormal anomalous weirdness? We're investigating the shit out of it. The Macc Lads have been banned by the Police, Marillion are still looking for a new lead singer, and Queen are rereleasing a shit ton of their old singles on CD. This leads us into some *very* salty opinions about the output of Freddie and the lads. And Christmas songs in general. Kommunication leads us to rediscover a forgotten piece of 80s culture, and we reminisce about the time The Who replaced Keith Moon mid concert, and Journey pioneered the video game tie in. There's an interview with David Lee Roth, which is as unhinged as you'd want, and someone in the Klassifieds needs to get his hands on Europe's sexiest videos, for completely non pervy reasons, no doubt. Beware - this is a HIGHLY SEXUAL EPISODE! PWM59 Kerrang 214 November 1988 recorded 27th November 2025

It's September 1992 and Faith No More's Mike Patton is on the cover regurgitating *something*. Bryan Adams has a single out that we've completely forgotten, but we're still fans of all of his Mel C collaborations. Axl Rose is picking up industry awards left right and centre, but does that mean he's calmed down a bit? We'll find out! Bon Jovi have a “controversial” new single out, but we’re more interested in King Diamond’s Christmas song OBVIOUSLY. Marillion are celebrating 10 years of having a record contract with EMI (let's see how that one pans out) but Kerrang is throwing shade at their audience. Cover stars FNM are interviewed on what sounds like a pretty shitty tour, and the whole thing's a bit grim, meanwhile The Black Crowes are sick of hearing about how great the 60s were but at least Monster Magnet are bringing their psychedelic heaviosity to the UK's toilets. We dig into the charts, and relate a story of youthful excitement, vandalism and East 17. Also the usual crap about personal ads. We ain't changing this winning formula! Kerrang 410 Sept 1992 PWM58 Recorded November 9th 2025