John Higgs has joined this podcast to talk about William Blake, James Bond, and the Beatles - and now he's back with another iconic British cultural export: the electronic band sometimes called The KLF. He's just released the 10th Anniversary Edition of his book trying to make sense of why they set fire to a million po

The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds by John Higgs was first published ten years ago, self-published in fact, and quickly became a phenomenon. Ostensibly about the reasons why, in August 1994, the remnants one of the most successful, if esoteric, pop bands on the planet would torch 20 thousand

On October 5, 1962, two items were released, hardly newsworthy at the time. One was Dr. No, the first James Bond film, and the other was Love Me Do, the first Beatles recording. Over the next sixty years, both Bond and the Beatles would become cultural juggernauts, with a reach and influence so vast that they can be ha

RHLSTP Book Club 41 - Love and Let Die - Richard talks to author John Higgs about his fascinating book linking the stories of the Beatles and James Bond, who coincidentally appears in the world on the same day in October 1962. There are a lot of talking points including the way the 60s began to define class and masculi

60s Britain produced not only the most biggest band in the history of music, but the most successful movie character of all time. In this episode of the podcast, cultural historian and novelist John Higgs investigates how and why the Beatles and James Bond defined our aspirations and fantasies, and the role they contin

**Contains outrageous spoilers about the recent Bond film No Time to Die** There are few cultural phenomena that rival the impact, reach and longevity of either The Beatles or James Bond. That both made their first significant impact on the public consciousness on the same day 5 October 1962 — with the release of the B