Welcome to this month’s Answer Us Back, full of your feedback and questions provoked by previous Answer Me Thises. On today’s dance card:
● Elly from London corrects Olly’s assertion in AMT422 that radio legend Ken Bruce goes to see Les Miserables every year. That’s SLANDER, Olly, and Elly won’t stand for it! But maybe you can redeem yourself by getting on PopMaster to impress him with your Whigfield knowledge. ● Chris did not find Cosette’s tiny toy sword, as discussed in AMT422, at all unusual, since when he was a ten-year-old in North London, he wore an actual hunting knife on his belt. ● Charlie in Kreuzberg, Berlin takes exception to the lack of Stoke-on-Trent alums in AMT419’s list of famous people from the West Midlands. But one of her picks brings shame upon Stoke. ● Katie from Halifax has using her Soundbag-tier patreonage at patreon.com/answermethis to listen to the entire AMT back catalogue, which has left her with a burning question: who is this Meat Loaf of whom we speak?? A question we are only too delighted to answer. ● Rebecca from Missoula, Montana feeds back about AUB: All Aboard the Bidet Train to object to our dismissal of the ubiquitous American grape flavour as tasting chemically, when in fact it’s the real taste of concord grapes.
If AMTs 1-422 left you with lingering questions and opinions, share them with us for future episodes of Answer Us Back. And as always, send in your questions, in voicenote or written form, to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. All new AMT423 will be in your podfeed on 29 October 2026.
Help keep AMT going by signing up at patreon.com/answermethis, where you can get an ad-free version of the show, monthly bonus bits, our video livestream Petty Problems, AND access to our ENTIRE back catalogue, including all our paywalled episodes, our special albums, and all the Retro AMT episodes.
fly killing
spider killing redemption
dogs vs children
Cornwall vs Cambridgeshire
the ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ video vs Shakespeare
the ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ video vs Hungry Hungry Hippos
the Chapel of St Leger
garlic breath
tiny stolen jams
empathy for wasps
and
the Billboard Video Music Award for the Most Effective Use of Symbolism.
In this month’s Bonus Bit of Crap on the App – available for iPadPhones, Android and Windows devices – Olly pinpoints the one thing he likes about travelling alone.
Also! ‘Tis the season (or, close enough) to fire up the AMT Christmas special album, which is one hour of festive fun only available from answermethisstore.com/Apple/Amazon. While you’re there, treat yourself to some of our classic episodes, why don’t you?
For more ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ content, listen to Helen’s Allusionist episode Eclipse, which includes some beautiful TEOTH-inspired music by Martin. (Content warning: medical stuff.) The Allusionist is also on tour in North America RIGHT NOW, gig listings are at theallusionist.org/events.
Martin is releasing four albums of new music this year! Hear them at palebirdmusic.com, on the Pale Bird podcast, and on Spotify etc.
This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Visit squarespace.com/answer and get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain with the discount code ‘answer‘.
As ever, we want your QUESTIONS: send them, in writing or as voice recordings, to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. If you’ve got questions about Christmas, send them to us NOW and not on Boxing Day.
We’ll be back with AMT380 on 5 December 2019, and there’ll be a Retro AMT episode in your feeds on 20 November.
Helen & Olly
••• AMT379 Child-Friendly Rating: 78%. Pretty clean – couple of slight swears – but the dynamics of whatever’s happening in the ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ video may give you pause. •••
Changes are afoot as the approaches its TENTH BIRTHDAY next month. But it’s mostly business as usual in Answer Me This! Episode 345, to whit:
Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical the Angel of the North
cheese juice
getting Discovered for a glittering showbiz career
amateur theatre vs professional theatre
Orange Marys vs Filthy Martinis
Samantha Janus Womack
Boots the Chemist
Plato’s Symposium
the platonic ideal of being a bed
and
a cat called Anus.
Plus: Olly petitions for the musical role of a lifetime, or at the very least a guest spot when Song By Song podcast does a Jim Steinman season; Helen actually read some trade publications about steel for this episode, lest her commitment to AMT be in doubt; and Martin the Sound Man doing an impression of Olly’s cat Coco will one day be Exhibit A in Helen’s murder trial.
In today’s Bonus Bit of Crap on the App – available for iPadPhones, Android and Windows devices – we take a trip to Winter Wonderland. Or rather winterwonderland.com, the perfect Christmas gift for only £500,000.
The perfect Christmas gift for only £2.49 is, of course, the AMT Christmas album – find out more about its contents at answermethispodcast.com/christmas, then tell Santa to buy it for you from the AMT store, iTunes or Amazon.
Thanks to our friends at Squarespace.com for sponsoring this episode, and for giving you 10% off their website-hosting and -designing services for a whole year if you use the discount code ‘answer‘. What a gift!
FREE festive fun for all the family is the Argos Game: we challenge you to find a product in the Argos catalogue that is more expensive than this £32,000 20ft swim tub (but be careful not to get too sexy in it, for your teeth’s sake).
BUT ALSO please send us affectionate voicemails – or email us voice memos – for our tenth birthday episode. Deadline is New Year’s Eve, and the episode, AMT346, will appear on 4 January 2017. Join us! Without you, we are nothing! Etc!
Helen & Olly
••• AMT345 Child-Friendly Rating: 40%. F-words R Us. •••
