State of TPUTS Address 2017

Welcome to the Blog Under the Stairs!!

So here we are...the end of another fantastic year of The Podcast Under the Stairs!!

2017 was such an incredible year for both myself and the show I started 4 years 3 months ago.

Designed by Joshua Kelly of J-Monster Art

Firstly let me say that 2017 was our biggest year yet and saw us drop our Year 4 Baz v Horror Podcast Poster designed by the incredible Joshua Kelly. In recordings we covered a whopping 195 movie reviews over 78 recorded shows & commentaries!! Duncan also covered the entire Beyond the Walls Shudder TV Series. 

Of those 78 episodes and 195 movie reviews, The Baz covered 33 movies in his 16 appearances this year.

The Baz even got his dream of a sea of listeners adorned with his Baz Flag t-shirt.

We covered Gialli, Slashers, Werewolves, Ghosts, Possessions, Exploitation, Anime, Modern & Classic titles as well as 4 horror franchises in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Baz v Leatherface) and Hellraiser & Sleepaway Camp in our new Russian Roulette Franchise Retrospective and finally a look at the House franchise with the new Arrow Video boxset (feat. Andy Blockley).

The Summer Top 10 Series was the most downloaded and most ambitious series to date as we looked an entire decade and reviewed 100 movies released in the 1970’s over 11 episodes.

I started a new subset of shows called In Reverence and now it's 3 episodes strong following the movies that inspired and shaped my love of horror not to mention Challenge TPUTS and our always fun movie club which covered 7 movies in 2017.

Now to get geeky, techy and all numerical, we have had a total of 55,495 downloads/plays from our Soundcloud feed THIS IS HUGE!!! It shows a 67% increase from 2016’s total of 33,222.

Now from our Legion feed we brought in 13,428 downloads bringing the total overall downloads in 2017 of TPUTS episodes to 68,933.

I interviewed Ewan Cant of Arrow Video (can’t wait to have him back on) & Troy Howarth author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films Vol 1 & 2, Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci & His Films and The Haunted World of Mario Bava to discuss Gialli, his upcoming Vol 3 of the popular So Deadly, So Perverse series.

Baz and I got the opportunity to guest speak as part of a live horror podcast debate at Glasgow Horror Festival in November along side the great lads of Scott & Liam vs Evil Podcast.

The Top 5 most downloaded TPUTS episodes on our feed were:

1. The Podcast Under the Stairs Bonus Episode 51 - 31 of October Part 3

2. The Podcast Under the Stairs Episode 124 - They Know Who You Are (Feat. Daeron Wilson)

3. The Podcast Under the Stairs Bonus Episode 55 - Movie Club - Cold Fish

4. The Podcast Under the Stairs Bonus Episode 56 - Bazaversary Year 4

5. Joint 5th Place -  The Podcast Under the Stairs Episode 127 Sheflanagans (Feat. Bo Ransdell & Jamie J Sammons) & The Podcast Under the Stairs - Baz v Horror 30 - The Baz v Rob Zombie

The Top 5 most downloaded TPUTS episodes on the Legion feed were:

1. The Podcast Under the Stairs Bonus EP 34 - Movie Commentary - The Stuff

2. The Podcast Under the Stairs EP 100 Part 3 - Movie Commentary - Slugs

3. The Podcast Under the Stairs - Bonus EP 32 - Listener Questions

4. The Podcast Under the Stairs - End of Year - Top 20 of 2016

5. The Podcast Under The Stairs EP 112 - Russian Roulette Retrospective - Hellraiser Parts 7-9

Thank you to my guest hosts in 2017!! Andy Blockley, Dave Buchanan, Richard Glenn Schmidt, Bo Ransdell, Danny Trioxin, Cort Psyops, Ricky Morgan, Doug Tilley, Lee Russell, Jamie J. Sammons, Gary Hill, Mark Ball, Daeron Wilson, David Anders Jr., The Wych, Jerry Herring, Dave Zee, Mike Murphy & Ryan Lewis.

A huge thanks to my comrade in arms and co-host on the DBCC podcast, Bo Ransdell. He works tirelessly over at Legion Podcast Network and has not only curated a collection of diverse and fantastic shows for your listening pleasure but he is an offensively nice guy. I am incredibly proud of our 10 month series of shows covering possibly the best TV show of all time in Duncan & Bo Go to Twin Peaksies (#TheReturnsies)

Mega huge thanks to Doug Tilley, Ricky Morgan, Andy Blockley, Cort Psyops & Bo Ransdell for their massive effort in covering the Summer Top Series and the epic finale Roundtable…all 5 and a half hours of it!!

Thanks to my awesome friend and co-host Barry Lowe!! Baz v Horror has grown-up and is blossoming into a weird little butterfly of it’s own which will spread it’s wings into something truly wonderful in 2018. I say this in all honesty that the work we did in 2017 was some of the most fun I’ve ever had recording shows.

And lastly...to every listener of the show, friend, fellow podcaster and member of this group page...Thank you all for your love and support in 2017!! We hope to continue to grow as a show and bring you more horror and more entertainment in 2018 and beyond!!

From myself and Barry Lowe, have a fantastic night and happy fucking NEW YEAR!! All the best to you and yours in 2018!!