Another Wednesday, another show in the bag. I’m very pleased with this one.

In the first hour I have the fabulous CN Lester in the studio to talk about the history of opera and their own music. Along the way we get to talk about Francesca Caccini, the first woman opera composer, and we play music by Noah Stewart, a gay black opera singer. We also play two tracks from CN’s debut album, Ashes. Inevitably CN and I talk about trans issues too.

You can listen to the first hour here.

The first segment in the second hour is all about new things for the new year. Has the team made any resolutions? If so have them managed to stick to them all the way through to February? CN and I enthuse about whisky.

Segment two sees our regular team member, Judeline, getting a go in the Woman of the Week slot.

In the final half hour Patsy Staddon joins us to report on the Women and Alcohol conference that took place in Bristol on Monday.

Along the way we play music by the amazing trans woman, Angela Morley, and from the “Dirty Blues” revival group, Vinyl Closet. I strongly recommend the podcast on the Vinyl Closet website. Once you have listened to it, you will never be able to hear any Little Richard song, or Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” in the same way again.

You can listen to the second hour here. I’ll get a podcast done of CN’s interview as soon as I can.