That Time JOHN WICKS And PAUL COLLINS Visited THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO

John, Carl, Paul, and Dana

On June 11th 2009, a pair of power pop legends joined Dana & Carl for a special Thursday night edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. John Wicks of the Records and Paul Collins of Paul Collins' Beat were in the midst of an acoustic tour, and their two-man unplugged show had a date in Cortland, NY on Friday the 12th. But, like the good Beatles fans we are, we said our hellos the night before.

Credit true believer Richard Rossi for setting this up. Seeking to publicize the Friday night club gig, Rich contacted us to ask if we were interested in inviting John Wicks and Paul Collins to appear on our show. I suspect our reply of Yes! YES!! may have compromised our façade of cool detachment. We agreed to do a one-off Thursday night live TIRnRR, and Rich arranged for John and Paul to come to Syracuse. We secured space in a common area just outside our closet-sized studio, invited a few friends to serve witness, and welcomed John Wicks and Paul Collins to This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio.

It was a blast. They answered questions and played a few numbers from their own impressive songbooks plus some Hollies and Flamin' Groovies covers. An hour show flew past like nothing. But lemme tell ya: it was something. It was really something.

I have a vague memory of someone--possibly future Perilous guitarist Bob Cat, who was there with John and Paul--trying to capture the night on video. John Wicks passed away n 2018. I'd forgotten all about the video until very recently, when Rich discovered it among John's personal effects. Rich shared a clip with us, and asked our permission to share it publicly.

We may have compromised our façade of cool detachment with our eager 'n' affirmative reply.

So here's the final song from that time in 2009 when power pop legends John Wicks and Paul Collins visited This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. It's a performance of the Records' "Hearts Will Be Broken"--my favorite Records track--and we remain thrilled that we had this opportunity to meet and chat with these two artists we've admired for so long.

You can see Rich's write-up of the clip at the John Wicks and the Records website, which includes a link to the video. For posterity, we're also embedding the video here:

Thanks again, Rich!

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.