"Birdy Num-Num"

"Birdy Num-Num" (broadcast 12/5/25)

The Valli Boys: Night Hawk
Madness: Pam The Hawk
Danny Rivers: Hawk
Peter Hammill: The Birds
Elvis Costello: The Birds Will Still Be Singing
Kate Nash: Birds
The Unthanks: Cuckoo Madame
The Charlatans: Bird
Alex McMurray: Just A Bird
Bert Jansch & Martin Jenkins: Osprey
The Haden Triplets: Cuckoo Bird
Horace Andy & Jah Wobble: Three Little Birds 
Barclay James Harvest: Mocking Bird
Conway Twitty: Is a Bluebird Blue?
Roy Sludge: Gooseball Brown
Huw Gower: Free as a Bird
Guadalcanal Diary: Little Birds
The Dutones: The Bird
Howlin’ Wolf: Little Red Rooster
The Beatles: Free As A Bird
Canned Heat: An Owl Song 
Dolly Parton: Eagle When She Flies
Fleetwood Mac: Albatross
Stackridge: Percy the Penguin 
Lizzy Mercier Descloux: Birdy Num-num
Carlos Niño & Nate Mercereau: Wild Birds in an Imagined Canoga Park with Lakes and Trees in Place of Streets and Buildings (feat. Kamasi Washington)
Neil Young: Birds
Kathryn Tickell & Friends: Penguin Notes
Jerry Jeff Walker: Little Bird 
Genya Ravan: Night Owl
David Greenberger & Prime Lens: Bird Moved In
Luna: The Owl And The Pussycat 
Parly B: Talking Parrot (ft. Interrupt)
The A-Bones: Bird Doggin’
Butthole Surfers: Birds
Chuck Berry: Woodpecker
Baby Ray & the Ferns: How’s Your Bird?
Champion Jack Dupree: Woodpecker
Jerry Lee Lewis: Goosebumps
The Cramps: Nest Of The Cuckoo Bird
The Trashmen: Surfin’ Bird
Van Der Graaf Generator: Earlybird

What is PURE with Howard Thompson?

What is PURE with Howard Thompson?

Apart from the occasional overnighter, fill-in or fundraiser, howard now creates shows for our Podcasts page. You’ll find over 140 archived PUREs there, and new shows will be added - check the PURE and “Strictly” pages - at least once a month.

howard loves all kinds of music and has collected records ever since his uncle gave him Rock Around The Clock as a 6th birthday present.

Disc Jockeys like Brian Matthew (BBC Light Program), Emperor Rosko (Radio Caroline), John Peel (Radio London/BBC Radio 1), Hugh Nolan (Radio Geronimo), Charlie Gillett (BBC Radio London) and Andy Dunkley (the Marquee/Lyceum) made howard’s life worth living and he now just wants to return the favor.

howard worked in the music biz so he could get free records and meet astonishing people.

howard made records with Adam & the Ants, Alan Vega, Angel Corpus Christi, Aswad, Barb Jungr, Billy Bragg, Danny Gatton, Eddie & the Hot Rods, the Georgia Satellites, Hamell On Trial, Herb Alpert, Ian Hunter, John Campbell, Judy Tenuta, ManBreak, Motörhead, Peter C Johnson, the Prissteens, the Psychedelic Furs, Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3, Roky Erickson & the Aliens, Rubén Blades, Sally Oldfield, Sara Hickman, Scatterbrain, the Screaming Blue Messiahs, the Slits, The Star Spangles, The Sugarcubes, Susan Fassbender, Sir Tim Smit, Tulipomania, Victor DeLorenzo, Yellowman and 10,000 Maniacs to name a few. He was the first to release records by MX-80 Sound, the Real Kids and Suicide in Europe, and th’ faith healers, the Gipsy Kings, Happy Mondays, Paul Young and Wham! in the USA

howard joined WPKN in May 2010 and thanks Steve di Costanzo and Peter Bochan for letting him in. Terry Hopper too, for giving up an hour of The Quest to see if it could work.

howard thinks Bob Dylan should be President, and ‘Poison’ Ivy Rorschach should be Vice-President