101 Part Time Jobs podcast with Giles Bidder celebrates 350 episodes
Former musician Giles Bidder’s podcast 101 Part Time Jobs has reached a landmark 350 episodes.
The podcast takes on the taboo topic of how musical artists make a living at a time when many of them are facing losses and forfeiting meals in order to pursue their craft.
Since launching in 2020, artists featured include IDLES, Self Esteem, Yard Act, Crowded House, Jamz Supernova, Lauren Mayberry and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Reaching Number Two on Spotify’s UK Music podcast chart and a regular Apple Top 10 Music Interviews show, the podcast has hosted sold out live shows with IDLES, The Staves and Feeder, and has been featured by BBC 6 Music’s Craig Charles show, Kerrang!, Music Week, NME and The Sunday Times.
The British music industry contributed £4 Billion into the UK economy in 2022. However, there are only around 6,000 working musicians in the UK; and nearly half earn less than £14,000 a year.
In this podcast celebrating DIY and grassroots culture, Bidder asks headlining and emerging artists the questions that nobody else is asking, creating a space where musicians can be vulnerable.
“Musicians have never had an easy time pursuing their craft, but right now is the hardest time it’s ever been for independent British artists,” says host Giles Bidder.
“There is a gulf in the lack of support both financially and educationally for emerging musicians, and our show attempts to help fill in the gaps by bringing on people who are in the thick of building their career.”
The 350th episode’s guest is Madness singer Suggs, who had a range of careers at the beginnings and during the band’s success – as well as his recent vocations in book and play writing.
“The first one was a butcher. I used to work there in the summer holidays and then I sort of stopped going to school when I was about 14 or 15. And they offered me a job as an apprentice which I took, but it’s a really weird situation – apprenticeship at a butcher’s,” Suggs remembers.
He continues: “I was the one fishing hairy hamburgers out of the cabinet at the front and carrying great big carcasses off the lorry. And in fact, there was a thing called ‘butcher slang’, which really aint that sophisticated, it’s basically just words backwards. It took me a while to realise my name was ‘Yzal’. And it was a little while before I realised it was just lazy backwards.”
Bidder says: “Suggs and his lyrics have often turned real life dreariness into a celebration. He’s a happy-go-lucky, positive worker who’s open about his experiences filling in the quieter times of band life with part-time jobs.
“The podcast isn’t just about the jobs musicians had before they were famous: once they get success, there are even more jobs! More recently, that often means having a 24-hour online presence. That’s a full-time job in itself.”
101 Part Time Jobs episode 350 with guest Suggs, is available from today, 21 May.