Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe
Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe welcomes listeners into the warm and comforting world of the Vinyl Cafe. Each episode features stories about Canada’s favourite fictional family: Dave, Morley and the kids, narrated by the late Stuart McLean and recorded live in concert. For the first time ever, long-time producer Jess Milton shares rare, behind-the-scenes stories from her 15 years touring, travelling, laughing, and recording with her close friend Stuart. This is a world that is rooted in kindness, connection, and the laughter of recognition. A world that brings people together to rejoice in our ridiculousness. A world where we celebrate the small triumphs over the adversities of the everyday: like trying to find the perfect gift for someone you love, or the first Christmas without your sister; like trying to stage manage the school Christmas pageant, or trying to defrost a turkey with a hairdryer (we’ve all done that, right?). Join us. New episodes every Friday. www.vinylcafe.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
“It was the greatest skate of her life.”
Happy New Year! Welcome back to Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe! Light a fire, get a bowl of soup, and a cozy blanket and settle in, because we’re celebrating the season today on the show. We’ve got a story exchange for you, plus an essay Stuart wrote for the radio show about walking on ice. And we have a Dave and Morley story for you about their trip to Europe to skate on the cana...
“Did you take the turkey out of the freezer?”
For our last episode of the season – and our last before the Holidays – two Christmas classics! Plus, a beautiful, seasonal listener story from the Vinyl Cafe Story Exchange. For many of you, these Stuart McLean stories need no introduction, so grab a cup of egg nog, put your feet up and enjoy. Merry Christmas!
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“First fires…. and then floods”
On this week’s episode, two hilarious Stuart McLean stories about being out and about, Christmas visiting. Our first story is one that many of you may not have heard before, about Dave and Morley’s visit to the home of Stephanie’s boyfriend,Tommy. Tommy's parents are facing their own challenges with cooking the turkey. Jess shares a backstory about some of the characters in that story.
“Eustache was bracing himself for a long and lonely Christmas”
It’s December so we’re going the full festive from now until Christmas! This week, two classic Dave & Morley stories of seasonal shenanigans, plus a story exchange about a very special Christmas Eve.
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“Christmas in Dave’s record store is just plain fun”
On today’s episode, Jess talks about the challenges of trying to create Christmas magic when you’re not necessarily feeling it yourself. That’s a bit of the back story behind Stuart’s writing of “Dave Plays Santa” - we’ll play that story for you. And we’ve got another back story connected to “Dave Plays Santa”, which links to our second story this week.
“Dave stared at the duck in disbelief. The duck stared back at him.”
This week, we’re back talking about birds again, with two of Stuart McLean's hilarious stories about Dave and… poultry. Yes, this week’s theme is quite specific! Our first story is one you may not have heard before: Dave decides to try his hand at small-scale poultry farming…
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“Christmas Day is going to be a little strained in Dave’s neighbourhood this year.”
Today on the pod we’re all about Vinyl Cafe: The Musical! To celebrate its premiere, Jess shares the story of how the musical came into being and the excitement of seeing it come to life. Plus, you can hear one of the stories that inspired the musical in the first place.
Vinyl Cafe: The Musical has been held over for an additional week! It run...
“There’s something about the ghosts who live in the house where you live.”
This week something special for Remembrance Day: an essay Stuart McLean wrote about George Lawrence Price, a Canadian soldier killed in the very last moments of the first world war. And we have two Vinyl Cafe stories for you: a wartime story exchange, and a Dave and Morley story where they learn about the life of someone who lived in their house many year...
“Let me state the case for Hallowe’en”
Today’s the day - Happy Hallowe’en! We’ve got a wonderful story exchange about an immigrant’s first experience of Trick or Treating. And we'll also play Stuart McLean's story about Sam and Stephanie's Halloween; it's a story about this magical evening, but it's also about growing up and finding independence.
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“The baker, the chef, the Indian maestro.”
Today on the podcast it’s a smorgasbord from Stuart McLean. About food, about journeys and more in between! We’ve got a postcard from Canada, a moving listener story, and one of our favourite Dave and Morley stories.
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“There was a time when the Gander airport was the biggest airport in the world”
On this week’s episode, we have three of Stuart’s opening monologues – essays about some of the places and spaces that captivated him on his travels across the country. And Jess has a backstory about the perils of mispronunciations!
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It’s our annual Thanksgiving tradition – the Vinyl Cafe Arthur Awards. More treasures from the Vinyl Cafe archives about some amazing acts of kindness!
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“The Pensionne du Quebec was lit up like a party ship”
We’ve got a Quebec selection for you on today’s podcast. A story about Sam’s school trip to Quebec City, plus a Stuart McLean script about cheese making in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, and a backstory from Jess about the trip they took to write that story.
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“Surely Mary wouldn’t miss one of those little buttercream shrubs…”
On this week’s episode of Backstage, two stories about cakes, those special occasion cakes that promise to be oh so good… That is, until Dave and co. get involved…
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“PPMS. Phantom peripheral mouse syndrome”
Jess and Dave have something in common: rodent phobia! Jess shares how she got over hers. And in two hilarious Vinyl Cafe stories we’ll hear how Dave managed his.
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“Mary had never ever been downstairs with no clothes on. Never. Ever.”
We’ve got some classic Dave and Mary Turlington adventures on this week’s episode – as they find themselves in some compromising positions! And Jess talks about how Stuart honed his onstage craft over the years.
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“Every year on the first day of school, to the great amazement of the kids in kindergarten…Miss MacNeal would burp the alphabet from A to Z.”
Welcome back to Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe! Our first episode is all about back to school. We’ve got a story about how Dave and Morley tried to recreate the magic of their own school days for Sam (spoiler: it didn’t work out quite as they hoped); an essay Stuart wrote for a young friend...
We hope you'll join us next Friday for Season 6 of Backstage at the Vinyl Cafe! We’ve got more Dave and Morley stories for you, more of Stuart McLean’s wonderful Vinyl Cafe essays and, of course, more behind the scenes stories from Jess Milton. Here's a taster of what's in store...
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This week, more from our Apostrophe Podcast Network family! We think you will enjoy, "We Regret to Inform You: The Rejection Podcast." Sidney O’Reilly shares the stories of successful people who have encountered rejection in their careers – and triumphed nonetheless.
For this episode, we enter the wacky world of Monty Python and hear how risky it was for the BBC and others to take a chance on these unconventional...
Something special for you for our first bonus episode. From one of my absolute favourite Vinyl Cafe radio shows, from 2011, this is Stuart and I in studio talking about bloopers! We laughed so hard recording this show.
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