Welcome to Indie Heaven, the part of the James McMahon Music Podcast where I – that’ll be James McMahon – connect with the bands I adored as a sapling and ask… what happened next? It’s a spin-off of sorts of my Indie Heaven website – you can find that at www.indieheaven.co.uk – and on this episode I’m speaking to Gareth Pring – but you can call him Rat – the guitarist in early 90’s indie punk heroes Neds Atomic Dustbin. Few bands are more iconic within their era as the Stourbridge band – two bassists, a gazillion t-shirt prints (there's actually a pretty neat auction featuring some of them taking place now!), some bonkers haircuts… and a load of ace songs. He’s a lovely bloke is Rat, I really enjoyed our conversation. But what follows is an interview unlike many I’ve conducted in 20 years of doing this. If you know anything about me, you’ll know I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – I’m pretty vocal about it, and being so has helped me heal to a degree. In fact I do another podcast solely about OCD, called The OCD Chronicles, which you can find on pretty much any platform that hosts podcasts. I lived in shame about my OCD for years. I thought I was a freak, that something was wrong with me that could never be fixed. And I didn’t know anyone else with the condition until a couple of years ago, which is, in truth, the beginning of that process of being fixed. Anyhow, halfway though this interview, Rat tells me that he too has OCD. And it just got me thinking about all the time I spent as a kid, tripping on God Fodder, my mind starting to unravel – and yet the guy playing the guitar on those songs was going through exactly the same thing, in silence, in secret. Both of us alone... but connected via music. It's not all OCD this interview - we take a fairly broad look at the career of Neds. But OCD is there, front and centre. The intro music on this episode is by the band Mavis. Any other music is by the band Imp. Indie Heaven and The James McMahon Music Podcast is a Spoook Media production. Spoook is also a record label, a promoter, a shop, a Substack - it's many things. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. And please do Like, Review and Subscribe - it actually really helps people find our podcasts!

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