Welcome back to Those Who Are About To Dive: Chronicling Colosseum, Track by Bloody Track with Dr. Glund, where Chaz Charles and the good Doctor once again fire up the mics, fumble with file links, and let the music take them wherever it damn well pleases. If you’re here for polish and pretense, you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere around Southampton.

This episode opens not with Colosseum, but with a moment of reverence. Before getting to the business at hand, Chaz and Dr. Glund pause to honor the passing of Chris Rea — a guitarist’s guitarist, a slide master, a reluctant pop star, and a deeply soulful player whose music quietly shaped generations. What begins as a tribute quickly becomes a full-on digression: stories of Clapton seeking out Rea’s slide technique, European blues scenes, Albert Hall footage, and the strange fate of artists whose biggest hits never quite reflect who they really are.

From there, the conversation eventually — inevitably — finds its way back to Colosseum.

This episode’s track:

“Plenty Hard Luck” — Track 2 from Those Who Are About To Die Salute You (1969)

If “Walking in the Park” was the invitation, “Plenty Hard Luck” is the shove. Chaz and Dr. Glund dig into the track’s ferocity, the horn arrangements that cut instead of decorate, and the sheer physicality of a band operating at full tilt. The Dr. admits to once being suspicious of saxophones in rock music — a youthful blind spot he now happily owns — while he beams through stories of seeing Cream, Hendrix, and the Grateful Dead in basement clubs where Marshall stacks barely fit and ice cream sodas were the house specialty.

Along the way, the episode drifts (productively) into record-store lore, liner-note archaeology, British blues lineage, and the lost art of discovering music by feel, curiosity, and blind faith in a cool album cover. The Glundian tests are applied, the verdict is unanimous, and “Plenty Hard Luck” emerges as a track that doesn’t charm — it commits.

Pour something strong, cue it up loud, and dive back in. Here’s lookin’ at ya, Klay Kole—let’s have a viskey

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Welcome to the first episode of Those Who Are About To Dive: Chronicling Colosseum Track by Bloody Track with Dr. Glund, where two aging music freaks with the longest podcast name in all of recorded history—Chaz Charles and the one-and-only Dr. Glund—light up the memory banks and take a deep, hazy plunge into the psychedelic waters of Colosseum. If you’re expecting NPR, you’re in the wrong ocean, pal.

This isn’t your dad’s music podcast—unless your dad spent the '60's and ‘70s in a cloud of vinyl dust and questionable smoke. Chaz and Dr. Glund riff about everything from the practice of pROCKoctology to prog rock, spinning tales of wild jam sessions, lost 8-tracks, and the kind of musical rabbit holes you only find when you’re a little sideways...

THIS EPISODE: “Walkin' in the Park” by Graham Bond - the first track from the first record - Those Who Are About To Die Salute You. They debate the merits of jazz horns in rock, and get gloriously lost in digressions about legendary drummers, forgotten bands, and the sacred art of the extended guitar solo. This being the first iteration of the band and the group that laid the foundation for all the live recordings to come, the guys go deep and deeper into the version that took Chaz's head "clean-off" when he first heard it sitting around those first hazy hits in Dr. Glund's Den of Audio Iniquities so many moons ago...

It’s part musicology, part history, and all about chasing that next sonic high—no fact-checkers, no gatekeepers, just two dudes with mics, opinions, and a bottomless stash of stories. So spark up, tune in, and hang on as the guys toast to old friends and new obsessions. This is podcasting with no brakes, no bones, and no apologies—just pure, unfiltered love for the music that blows your mind. Here's lookin' at ya Klay Kole, let’s have a viskey...

YOUR PRESCRIPTION

Recommended Indulgences to Satisfy the Voluptuary (Listener Discretion Encouraged)

• Administered not for correction, but for pleasure.
• Dosage may be increased at will.

Recommended Conditions

• Best consumed after dark, preferably when nothing important remains undone
• Volume set slightly higher than advisable
• Headphones encouraged; lights optional
• Pairs well with a visky, a comfortable chair, and the firm decision not to check one’s phone
• May be taken alone or in the company of someone who understands when not to speak

Tempest

(Hiseman + Mark Clarke + Alan Holdsworth)

A short-lived but dangerous convergence: volcanic drums, elastic bass, and guitar lines that bend time, harmony, and common sense. Less a band than a weather system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_(British_band)

Allan Holdsworth

(Future homework. Infinite notes.)

A guitarist who treated scales as suggestions and gravity as optional. Liquid phrasing, alien harmony, and a lifetime spent playing the notes between the notes.

Notably, Eddie Van Halen listened closely.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Holdsworth

Juicy Lucy

(Paul Williams. Blues-rock filth.)

British blues rock at its greasiest: loud, unrepentant, and sweat-stained. The sort of music that smells faintly of warm valves, spilled beer, and questionable decisions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juicy_Lucy

Paul Williams

(Juicy Lucy / Tempest vocals)

A voice built for the front of the room — raw, lived-in, and unapologetic. Less a singer than a delivery system for grit, groove, and intent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Williams_(rock_musician)

• Loss of interest in tidy genre boundaries
• Spontaneous volume escalation
• Extended listening sessions of questionable length
• A sudden urge to defend drummers in unrelated conversations
• Mild disdain for overproduced recordings
• Temporary belief that fifteen-minute songs are, in fact, quite reasonable

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Before the first album.

Before the first track.

Before the first judgment.

Prologue — is the ceremonial opening of Those Who Are About To Dive—a short, intentional prologue that sets the tone, the rules, and the philosophy of the series to come.

Hosted by Chaz Charles, and guided by the watchful ear of Dr. Glund, the original pROCKtologist, this episode explains why Colosseum matters, how this show will approach their music, and what every track will be measured against.

No rankings.

No greatest hits.

No shortcuts.

Just the canon—examined track by bloody track—through the lenses of musicianship, intent, and underground truth.

If you’re here for a casual listen, this may not be your show.

If you’re here to understand the music—welcome.

Those Who Are About To Dive is a narrative, track-by-track exploration of Colosseum—the pioneering British jazz-rock band that fused blues, brass, virtuosity, and fire long before genres learned how to name it.

Hosted by Chaz Charles, the series journeys through every studio album by Colosseum, Colosseum II, and the band’s reunion era—in strict chronological order. No compilations. Some of the important live albums. The recorded canon, examined with care, context, and conviction.

Each episode treats a song not as background music, but as a case study—its creation, its players, its sound, and its place in history—guided by the show’s resident oracle, Dr. Glund, the original pROCKtologist. Every track faces a simple but ruthless standard:

• The guitar must rock
• The music must expand the mind
• It must never—ever—sell out

With deep research, cultural context, and a storyteller’s voice, Those Who Are About To Dive is part music history, part ritual, and part judgment—built for serious listeners, musicians, and anyone who believes great records deserve more than a casual spin.

This is not a hits podcast.

It’s a deep dive into musicianship, intent, and legacy.

Where tracks become trials.

Where legends face inspection.

And no song escapes…

The Examination.

The dive begins. Now coming to The Boneless Podcasting Network.

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