Radio, Rockstars, & Gerald Power!

Having been a dedicated listener of Ed Roger’s Weekly show Atlantic Tunnel for a couple of years, AAU’s own Professor Gerald Power, Ph.D, is now a radio star having been a featured guest on WFMU earlier this semester discussing musical legend, Paul Weller.

Gerald Power connected with Ed Roger following AAU’s recent roundtable on the music of the 1960s, ‘Britain Goes Pop!’ in early September 2022. 

I really appreciate Ed’s knowledge and appreciation of rock music, and the way he is able to communicate all this with enthusiasm and humor. From chatting with Ed, we got the idea for us to do a show together, and after a lot of emailing and discussion, we finally got it done. I think the result was worth the effort.

Listen to the show here to learn more about what makes Paul Weller one of the greats.

As Gerald explains, a lot of people will not have heard of him, or will perhaps only know one or two of his songs. Delving further with Ed Roger, Gerald explains further why he thinks Paul Weller is really worth discovering. Throughout his career, this musician has been very outspoken on social and political issues – having come from the punk generation of the mid-1970s. 

I think that some of his back catalogs speak to current issues, from global inequalities to toxic masculinity. Of course, it’s hard for any artist to be an activist over a forty-year career. More recently, Paul Weller’s songs are less overtly political and are more about exploring various musical genres. So, in whatever way, he has stayed very grounded in the world around him – which is more than you can say for most other rock stars, who just live (in tax havens) off their old royalties. I also think he looks cool, which is not unimportant to us ‘mods’!

The radio show featuring Professor Gerald Power, Ph.D can be found here.