Episode 26 of On The Record is the first fully international edition—Brian Wise filing from Melbourne, Michael Mackenzie beaming in from the ancient fortified town of Monemvasia, deep inside the Peloponnese. The contrast isn’t just geographic: Wise is braving Melbourne winter; Mackenzie is swimming in warm salt water off Byzantine fortress walls.

The hate is, as he cheerfully acknowledges, entirely deserved.

Miles Davis & Sonny Rollins: the centenary catch-up

The episode opens with an enthusiastic double-recommendation from Mackenzie, road-tested on some of the Peloponnese’s more hair-raising coastal drives: the ABC RN Music Show’s Miles Davis centenary specials, drawing on archive interviews with collaborators including Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, and John McLaughlin.

Wise adds a companion recommendation—the same program’s tribute to the late Sonny Rollins, noting the saxophonist’s surprising cameo on the Stones’ Waiting on a Friend—a pop-rock detour that Rollins mostly avoided. Having seen both Rollins and Pharaoh Sanders live at Melbourne Jazz Fest, and this year catching Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock, Wise reflects on the luxury of longevity.

The Rolling Stones: do we need the album?

From there, the episode pivots to the upcoming Rolling Stones album Foreign Tongues (due July), and the BBC2 series Tracks of My Years as a springboard. Wise had initially been sceptical (“Do we need another Rolling Stones album?”), but the Tracks of My Years episode featuring Ronnie Wood and Mick Jagger changed the temperature.

The big revelation: the original demo of “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll” features David Bowie on acoustic guitar, Kenny Jones (The Faces/The Who) on drums, and Willie Weeks on bass—all cut at Ronnie Wood’s Richmond home studio, which doubled as a revolving door for the era’s greatest musicians.

Paul McCartney’s Boys of Dungeon Lane: good, not great—but Ron Sexsmith’s is better

Wise has given the new McCartney album a thorough listen and delivers a typically honest verdict: the voice holds up surprisingly well for an 83-year-old, but producer Andrew Watt buries it slightly on some tracks.

But the real sting in the tail: Wise declares Ron Sexsmith’s new album Hangover Terrace “the Paul McCartney album Paul McCartney should have made” with Mackenzie praising Sexsmith as “one of the great unsung gems of elegant pop.”

The Tracks of My Years McCartney episode—also on YouTube—supplies its own talking points: Paul’s formative track list spans Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, and Elvis, before arriving, startlingly, at a Human League song. His one-on-one meeting with Bob Dylan backstage at Coachella produces a sharply funny Dylan observation from McCartney, one the podcast declines to spoil but strongly recommends watching.

Wilco in Marrakesh: come for the band, stay for the luxury hotel crisis

In arguably the episode’s most tantalising news flash, Wilco have announced three nights in Marrakesh, March 2027—their first African dates ever.

Mackenzie, already entered in the competition to win the full package, estimates the luxury hotel bundle will run to around $10,000 AUD. Wise offers the alternative: Wilco’s long-running Mexico coastal festival, but for what both hosts enthusiastically call “the best live band in the world,” the maths feels defensible.

Ticketing outrage: the John Farnham tribute and dynamic pricing

Wise raises a subject that’s getting louder across the industry: dynamic (surge) pricing applied to a forthcoming John Farnham tribute concert. Tickets that opened around $100 surged to $1,600–$2,000, echoing the notorious Springsteen New York pricing scandal where nosebleed seats hit $600 while Austin shows sat at $95. It’s a conversation the industry keeps postponing.

Television: The Boroughs and Spider-Noir

Both hosts are watching The Boroughs (exec produced by the Duffer Brothers of Stranger Things fame)—a desert-set sci-fi thriller about a luxury retirement community with something malevolent underneath. Shot near Albuquerque on familiar Pluribus terrain, with Alfred Molina commanding the screen, it’s “Stranger Things for adults” and both hosts are endorsing it.

Mackenzie is also pitching Spider-Noir on Prime Video—Nicolas Cage as a 1930s New York private investigator in what turns out to be a beautifully shot production with a standout gimmick: viewers can toggle between colour and noir black-and-white at any point during the episode. The switch, Mackenzie reports, is decisive. Go black and white.

Greece: Monemvasia, solo travel, and the case for shoulder season

Woven throughout is a running meditation on solo travel—Mackenzie’s sixth trip to Greece in four years. His pitch for May/June: warm enough to swim, sparse enough to breathe, and the Greek people (“patient, good-humoured, caring, and with a dark sense of humour”) are at their hospitable best. One shared toilet situation aside, the trip has delivered.

The episode closes—appropriately—with Brian Wise’s plumber arriving. The podcast’s heroic domestic subplot continues.

Show Notes

RN’s The Music Show: Miles Davis Centenary

RN’s The Music Show: Tribute To Sonny Rollins

The Rolling Stones, Tracks Of My Years, with Vernon Kay

It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll –

Rhythms Music Magazine

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