Digging with Flo: An NTS Podcast
Digging with Flo is a new NTS podcast, where our beloved breakfast show host Flo Dill invites a musical guest onto her allotment for a chat and a spot of gardening. Because it’s often whilst you’re busy doing something with your hands that the best conversations happen...
Available on all podcast platforms, weekly from Tuesday 20th June. To listen and follow, just search for Digging with Flo on your preferred podcast platform or add this RSS feed to your podcast app of choice.
Season 3, Episode 8: CMAT
This is the last episode of Digging for a while, and we’re celebrating with the queen of vegetables… potatoes! Flo is joined by CMAT for her favourite job on the allotment. CMAT is a fast rising singer songwriter from Ireland who has been tirelessly touring Europe and North America with her incredible live show for years now. She’s just been nominated for the Mercury Prize, adding that to her list along with Ivor Novello and Brit nominations.
The irony of having the only Irish guest of the season harvest potatoes is not lost on CMAT, who considered her superior harvest some form of reparation. In this episode she and Flo talk about pretty much everything, but highlights include CMAT’s refreshing love of fame, growing beans in Red Stripe tins and the art of songwriting - all whilst they dig up those unfortunate potatoes.
Season 3, Episode 7: DJ Spanish Fly
Flo’s joined today by the godfather of Memphis rap, DJ Spanish Fly. Fly is celebrated for his influential role in the early sound of Southern hip-hop, and known for his lo fi, distortion heavy musical style. In this conversation with Flo he recalls his childhood in the church, his arrival in Memphis as a country boy from rural Illinois and his role in the development of bucking, a dance style which emerged from his DJ sets at Club No Name in the late 80s and 90s. It was at these daily DJ sets at Club no Name that DJ Spanish Fly pioneered the Memphis sound, which is, in Flo’s words, spooky. The pair discuss the surprising merits of this spooky sound as they plant out cucumbers on the allotment.
Season 3, Episode 6: Rufus Wainwright
Off the allotment and into a city garden today with musician and composer Rufus Wainwright. Rufus joined Flo fresh from a run of shows and special events, including the performance of his Dream Requiem in Paris, performed by Anna Prohaska, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, and narrated by Meryl Streep.
In this episode of Digging, Flo and Rufus - with the assistance of Siegfried the dog - plant out tomatoes. Whilst they set about the task they discuss Rufus’ discovery of opera as a young gay teenager during the peak of the AIDS crisis, his musical lineage, the bruising experience of launching a cutting edge musical on the West End and his new found love of Britney Spears.
Season 3, Episode 5: Lias Saoudi (Fat White Family)
Back on the allotment today with Lias Saoudi, best known as the frontman of the heavily mythologised South London band Fat White Family. For the uninitiated, FWF are a controversial band born out of a Peckham squat in 2011: they became known initially for their riotous, electric live shows, as well as their unapologetic attitudes - depending on who you talk to, FWF are post punk heroes or “horrible little scrotes”.
Now in 2024, the band sit at an interesting juncture, with a new album out but with certain members absent, decades of excessive drug use having taken their toll. During today’s episode Lias talks about his experience of growing up in Cookstown Northern Ireland and troubling family ties, as well as new found health and semi-sobriety. Flo and Lias’s mutual disdain for musician-turned-cheese magnate, Alex James also comes up, as they successfully plant out butternut squash, which it turns out is Lias’ least favourite vegetable.
Season 3, Episode 4: Olivia Laing
Off the plot today and into the Suffolk garden of writer, critic and lifelong gardener Olivia Laing. Laing's diverse career began with their involvement in road protests in the 1980s & 1990s where they lived completely off grid: this led to training as a herbalist, before moving into the literary world. As the deputy books editor of The Observer they wrote extensively on arts and culture, before authoring award winning auto-fiction novel Crudo, and several celebrated works of non-fiction - the most recent of which, The Garden Against Time, uses today’s Suffolk garden setting as a lens through which to explore the concept of paradise and the varied, surprising stories of gardens.
Whilst Flo and Olivia pot up geraniums they discuss the concept of the gardens as a queer haven for artists like Derek Jarman, Cedric Morris, Vita Sackville-West and the ladies of Llangollen. Flo has her first go at worm harvesting and Flo and Olivia reflect on the growing urgency for public gardens that provide a refuge from urban stressors as well as the climate crisis.
Season 3, Episode 3: Duval Timothy
Today on the plot Flo’s joined by multidisciplinary artist and musician Duval Timothy. Duval’s work blends his musical and cultural influences with the piano at the centre of his practice. His work spans food, painting, sculpture, textiles and more. Recent collaborators include fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner and rapper Kendrick Lamar.
Flo and Duval talk about fatherhood, Lewisham’s Mr Pink, Duval’s commitment to the colour blue, his early experiences of making art, and some of his more recent music. Duval proves himself to be a fantastic digger and planter of courgettes, which was today’s task.
Season 3, Episode 2: Jonny Banger
Welcome back to another week on the plot. This week Flo is joined by artist, activist and founder of Sports Banger, Jonny Banger. Jonny has taken the art of the bootleg and used it to deliver searing take downs of the status quo: his work is subversive and accessible, and encompasses themes of pop culture, politics and fashion, all undercut by the spirit of rave.
In this episode Flo and Jonny talk about Jonny's long standing connection to pigeons, the KLF and the buzz he gets when he receives a cease and desist letter: all whilst planting out climbing beans.
Season 3, Episode 1: Molly Lewis
Flo and her guests are back on the allotment for the summer. In this first episode she’s joined by NYC based Molly Lewis, who is probably the world’s most famous whistler.
In this episode of Digging, Flo and Molly will be planting potatoes whilst chatting about cane toads, the weird and wonderful world of competitive whistling - and Flo gets a whistling lesson.
Season 2, Episode 6: Shy One
This week, in the final episode of Digging Season 2, Flo is with fellow NTS host Shy One. Shy is a producer and DJ who started aged 13 making grime instrumentals for this emerging London scene. Now a celebrated DJ and musician, she’s played in clubs and festivals across the world, and is loved for her musically deep, eclectic sets.
In this episode Flo and Shy One plant out tiny baby leeks and discuss their very different experiences in the seminal internet chat community MSN, Shy’s classy musical upbringing, and her early years watching classic British comedy Smack the Pony with her mum.
Season 2, Episode 5: Penny Rimbaud
In this special non-gardening edition of Digging, Flo is spending time with Penny Rimbaud in his garden. Penny is a founding member of the anarcho-punk band Crass and performance group EXIT, as well as a poet, writer and philosopher. In this episode Penny gives Flo a tour of the garden and ‘sheds’ at Dial House, the radical open house he established in the 1960s. They discuss his approach to meditation and philosophy as well as Penny’s various tattoos.
Season 2, Episode 4: Slauson Malone 1
Back on the plot with Slauson Malone 1, formerly Slauson Malone, also known as Jasper Marsalis. Jasper is a painter, sculptor and musician who currently lives in Los Angeles. His work in music feels like a form of collage; of narratives, sounds and references.
In this episode Flo and Jasper are appealing to Jasper’s perfectionist qualities and planting out garlic. They discuss the music that Jasper is currently fake listening to; his respect and fear of cooking and appreciation of dumb but useful items, like the dibber - which is well used in this episode.
Season 2, Episode 3: Tirzah
Today Flo’s off the plot and into the garden of English musician Tirzah. One of the most enduring exponents of weird and wonderful music, Tirzah has released a string of acclaimed albums, and works in close collaboration with other musicians, namely school friend Mica Levi.
In this episode Flo and Tirzah are planting onion seeds and broad beans into seed trays to be grown inside, until they’re ready to be planted out on the allotment. Whilst they set about this task they discuss the delicate business of karaoke, the musical impact of exiting Jehovah’s Witnesses, motherhood, and the art of collaboration.
Season 2, Episode 2: Sainté
Today’s guest digger is rising UK rapper Sainté: originally from Leicester, this charismatic artist is an accidental musician: forced to rethink his promising basketball career due to the pandemic, he uploaded a song born out of a freestyle on the bus on the way to practice, and the internet did the rest.
In this episode Flo and Sainté plant out raspberry canes as they discuss Sainté’s career so far, his aspirations of opening his own cafe, and early memories of growing the wrong kind of peas at his mum’s allotment.
Season 2, Episode 1: Jeremy Deller
In this first episode, she’s joined by English contemporary artist Jeremy Deller. The Turner Prize winner often weaves music and pop culture into his art, which tends to be politically focused and collaborative in nature. In this episode of Digging, Deller and Flo attempt to bridge the gaps between Take That, William Morris and the lost magic of the jumble sale, whilst planting out strawberries to overwinter on the plot.
Episode 5: OK Williams
This week, Flo's joined by old friend and longtime NTS resident OK Williams to help harvest potatoes on the plot. As they work in the blazing sunshine they reflect on Londoner OKW’s recent ascent in clubland, how she got into DJing, macho club culture, and her past role producing Andrew Weatherall’s influential NTS show.
Episode 4: Cosey Fanni Tutti
In this episode, Flo visits the vegetable plot of Cosey Fanni Tutti. Beyond gardening, Cosey is an artist, musician, and writer, well known as a leading figure in the early industrial and avant-garde music scene. Her work is shocking and confrontational, often censored, the press has accused her of being a 'wrecker of civilisation. Here, Cosey talks Flo through her DIY approach to gardening, scoring the recent Delia Derbyshire film, and her ideal music to strip to... whilst sowing carrot seeds.
Episode 3: Brix Smith
Flo is off the plot today and doing some container gardening on Brix Smith’s roof garden. Brix started out at the liberal arts college Bennington, alongside Donna Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis, before going on to join seminal British post-punk band The Fall. She was also married to Mark E Smith. Today she fronts her own band, Brix Smith - a “kind of all-female supergroup”.
Episode 2: Mark Leckey
Turner Prize-winning multidisciplinary artist Mark Leckey braves the rain with Flo this week. They plant some potatoes and chat about Mark's day-to-day, the mundanities and transcendence of art, the power of nostalgia and TikTok, among other things.
