I am the EggPod
The tagline to this enormously entertaining series is ‘A jaunty stroll through Pepperland discussing The Beatles & solo Beatle albums with a pot pourri of delicious guests’. Although that’s a pretty accurate description, it does slightly undersell what makes Eggpod such as great listen.
It is as lively and cheerful as the word ‘jaunty’ suggests and, clocking in at up to two hours per episode (although more often between an hour and 90 minutes-ish), it does have the relaxed pace of an afternoon walk in the woods. It all seems effortless as charmingly amiable host Chris Shaw chats away to guests that have so far included Sanjeev Bhaskar, David Hepworth, Nicky Campbell, Samira Ahmed, David Quantick and John Higgs among many others. But such is the passion and knowledge of everyone involved that every episode is a close equivalent of a carefully researched documentary, albeit one that sounds spookily like a pub conversation.
Take for example ep 108: The Revolver Sessions with Matt Everitt. Four minutes in and we’ve already learned that film director Peter Jackson won’t allow anyone else (apart from Giles Martin) to use his revolutionary ‘de-mixing’ software that was used on the film Get Back and subsequently on the new deluxe Revolver box set. It seems as though the technology that could transform the album reissue market is being kept solely for Beatles related projects, at least for time being. We also learn that the third Beatles film was planned to be A Talent for Loving, a cowboy movie set in the 19th century and due to be filmed at the beginning of 1966 in Mexico or Spain. The film was shelved after the Fabs read the script.
The podcast really comes into its own when the guest is extolling the virtues of a more obscure or unloved album. Iain Lee on McCartney’s folly Give My Regards to Broad Street (ep 9) or Andy Miller on John and Yoko’s Some Time in New York City (ep 110) are must-listens for example. But whatever the subject and whoever the guest is, you are pretty much guaranteed an engrossing, informative and above all entertaining listen. Both Shaw and his guests tend to wear their expertise lightly and with good humour so the episodes are never hard work to listen to.
Shaw himself is however no workshy fop, undertaking what must have been a punishing schedule to publish a series of 21 episodes in January 2022, each covering a day featured in Get Back and posted on the correlating date, so ep77 is actor John Bradley discussing day 1 of Get Back, Thursday 2nd January 1969 with the episode first appearing on 2 January 2022. That mammoth undertaking didn’t prevent him from putting together a four part celebration of Paul McCartney with multiple contributors to coincide with the great man’s 80th birthday in June 2022.
The series is Beatles and McCartney heavy with only a smattering of episodes given over to John, George and Ringo, but that just means we still have All Things Must Pass and Goodnight Vienna episodes to look forward to. You get the feeling that even if the idea of podcasts had never been invented, Shaw would be tracking down Beatles fans in order to have hours-long Mop Top-themed chats just for the hell of it but thankfully we can all listen in.
The Beatles Handbook rating: Five Stars
Listen to this podcast: I am The Eggpod
Start with: ep 1 Rubber Soul with Rob Manuel
Hidden gem: ep 67 – Red Rose Speedway with Brian O’Conner and Simon Barber of the Sodajerker podcast.
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Ranking The Beatles
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the-beatles.uk 