The general pop/rock - music thread Page 204

OLD TIME MUSIC RADIO ROUND UP

For your info, the following old timers and semi-old timers are still to be found on the UK radio network : Radio 1 : Ann Nightingale, 79, who is extraordinary and as the first ever proper female radio DJ has easily outdone John Peel now in coolness. The output of her show which is aimed at a certain type of teenager and 20-something is so radical that even most youth would find it challenging and certainly I do. A few years ago, I posted a question about a record asking what it was. I said it went na-na-na-na-na-na but wasn't Hey, Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye. Rather it was dance like, probably 1990s, and I liked it a lot. To my amazement, she was the one who kindly answered, advising me that it was "Templehead" by Transglobal Underground. I was well impressed by the way she had taken the effort and just sort of "emerged" to do it.

Radio 2 : Tony Blackburn (Sounds of the 60s - he also does a soul programme on BBC London), Johnnie Walker (Sounds of the 70s), Paul Gambaccini (Pick of the Pops - charts from past years), Bob Harris (Country), Steve Wright (the same afternoon show which he was doing on Radio 1 some 38 years ago when I was a 19 year old at university), Gary Davies (Sounds of the 80s) and Ken Bruce (weekday mornings). BBC 6 Music - Radcliffe and Maconie (weekend breakfasts).

BBC Wales - Janice Long (weekday evenings). BBC Surrey etc - Graham Dene, ex Capital (Saturday lunchtime), Nicky Horne who was the rock man on Capital and now counter intuitively does a show on Sinatra and similar plus historical clips of American big band era radio (Sun nights). BBC Kent - Roger Day, ex offshore pirate (chart show on Sat evenings).

The last time I looked, Emperor Rosko, Tony Prince, David Jensen and David Hamilton and several other ex pirates and sundry others could all be found either regularly or occasionally on United DJs - The Station of the Stars. That internet station was set up by Mike Read who appears to have now moved on to embark on another radio initiative. I believe the presenters mainly work there just for the love of it. David Hamilton also turns up on BBC Surrey and in other places.

There are some other ex pirates on Radio Caroline which again is essentially staffed voluntarily. While it is broadcast more or less permanently from above a shop in Kent - I know where although they like to make out it is secret - on two different channels catering for slightly different tastes, the key time to tune in is when once a month they team up with Manx Radio to produce a weekend of Caroline North broadcasts from the ex pirate ship the Ross Revenge which is moored on an Essex estuary, Again, I do know its precise location but I won't spoil the pretend-it's-still-the-60s fun by mentioning it.

SOME THOUGHTS ON RADIO - AND A FEW RECOMMENDATIONS

I was a huge radio fan in the late 1960s, the 1970s and 1980s and the early 1990s but confess I struggle with a lot of radio now. The presentation style in daytime music programmes - the gang's all here - often seems trite, contrived and overly loud/hysterical. I preferred early presenters who were very enthusiastic about records, with various, distinctive preferences, and mainly spoke about those in their shows. People will say that BBC Radio 1 and 2, BBC local radio and early commercial stations were always trite. There is a lot of truth in that idea - The Clash in "Capital Radio" summed it up neatly - but there were also many exceptions. The obvious reference is inevitably to John Peel who along with a few cronies including David "Kid" Jensen, Janice Long and Andy Kershaw deliberately - and not without good reason - accentuated the point. But I could name up to a dozen presenters who were not part of that crowd yet never fully played along with the mainstream.

One of my biggest objections to "reality radio" which is, in effect, what we have today is that I don't like its version of reality. The starting point for me is that radio should not be realistic anyway. I never wanted, when I was a teenager at school, to hear a bunch of people on the radio who sounded like school kids, whether they were of that age or middle aged parents. Yep. That's right. I wasn't a fan of Noel Edmonds or Dave Lee Travis. Consequently, I don't want to hear someone who sounds like a Love Island reject or a Stormzy wannabe or an over-consciously modern Nan now. Also, I didn't want in a music context to hear about hospitals and initiatives to defeat illness and umpteen abuses or what celebrities were doing to stop environmental catastrophe or what financial products were on offer from banks, solicitors or gambling firms, all of which we get in spade loads. Much of this under the regulations then would not have been permitted to be broadcast and I benefited mentally from that being so. Less censorship equals more miserable people.

So yes. I wanted to get home from school and later work and escape from all of those things. I didn't even want to think about my mates or my parents when the radio was on. To the extent that any presenter was a mate, they were a mate who said "hey, listen to this stuff, it's great and ain't the world just great." A combination of the music and the sentiment was able to persuade me that the world could after all be great and perhaps, in finding bus travel and sitting in seminar rooms horribly confining, I must have got it all wrong and just fallen into the bad bits. Of course, later with Wikipedia and open incessant talk about everything as it is "good for us", one finds that they were having affairs and their kids suffered or they had a complicated not entirely happy sexuality or they were total bastards to manage or awful even to meet. But I didn't know those things. I was left blissfully unaware. They were to my way of thinking people who had no identity other than being enthusiasts so in some respects I went out to copy that idea. It seemed the best way of not having any problems,

It gave me the motivation for decades to go out in free time with that state of mind and turn it into my own reality, come what may. Some of that starts from being able to ignore all of the grinding routines and the conflict between people and the all round oppression. The ability to do it - and it was only sporadic - came almost wholly from radio "DJs". The "mates" who I knew but who didn't know me and therefore didn't judge me. The "mates" who I heard but gloriously never had to see when some appearances could have made me feel inferior. Plus stations then had a superior aural architecture which almost defined places as being full of interest and music and sunshine and space and community and a minus-metal-and-concrete vibration. In truth they never were. But it was precisely these notions which could be taken out into the world so that the great outdoors could be made into that way in the mind. That is, as soon as some sort of inner switch away from traffic and bosses was switched on. I don't think it would have happened with headphones on the ears during travel. That is way too conscious a thing for it to be sufficiently internalised so as to turn it into an alternative personal outlook.

The other issue today is about the music itself. The problem after many decades is that one finds that the likes of Radio 2 mix up the old and the new and much of the new is not wanted. It's disappointing. Very much so. I find it surprising because I generally felt that I would always have an ear for the current mainstream when in the past decade or two I have patently not. But it also goes to the nostalgia shows. There you get a range of stuff from an era, some of which is loved or is even personally very meaningful and the rest of which was dismissed as not being up to much even when it was released. While it is nice to hear a good voice accompanying music when that combination does occur, there is too much of a map in the head about what I prefer so I should be more suited to a personal Spotify playlist. But even that doesn't satisfy as there is still the wish to hear others introducing new and old things on the fringes which might still amaze.

So it does then mean work on the internet. A few days ago, I listed a large number of my sources. The irony given that access to everything is supposed to be now so much easier is that it can be blimming hard work to do it. It is far more difficult than when most radio presenters largely played stuff that was of genuine interest but then back in the 1970s almost every style of music was at some time in the charts. Yes. Forum contributions from other people can be helpful too. But after that, you do have to find the radio presenters who can be relied upon to provide surprises. And here in case anyone wants to explore new things are the ones I on occasion turn to when they are broadcast or via "Listen Again":

Cerys Matthews (BBC 6 Music - Sun mornings), Stuart Maconie (BBC 6 Music - Sunday nights), Gilles Peterson (BBC 6 Music - Saturday afternoons), Don Letts (BBC 6 Music - late Sunday nights), Gideon Coe (BBC 6 Music - Mon-Thur nights), Huey Morgan (BBC 6 Music - Saturday mornings), Robert Elms (BBC London - Weekday and Saturday mornings), Gary Crowley (BBC London - Saturday evenings), Lopa Kothari or Kathryn Tickell : World Routes (World Music) (BBC Radio 3 - Sat afternoons), Alyn Shipton : Jazz Record Requests (Jazz) (BBC R3 - Most Sun afternoons), Sean Rowley (BBC Kent - 1am on Sun mornings), Ricky Ross : Another Country (Country) (BBC Scotland - Tue nights), Mark Radcliffe : The Folk Show (Folk) (BBC Radio 2 - Wed nights), Richard Latto : Stereo Underground (Indie) (BBC Surrey - Saturday evenings), David Freeman (Blues and Boogie) (Jazz FM - Sunday evenings), Dotun Adebayo : Virtual Jukebox (BBC 5 Live - 2am Sundays).

Very interesting thanks.
John Peel aside,the radio programme that I really enjoyed was Mark and Lard on Radio 5 before it became Live.They called it Hit the North.Frank Sidebottom would turn up sometimes.Absolutely bonkers.

Horse - I'd love to know your thoughts some times especially when skimming I noticed you mention Steam but I have a low attention span.

Quote: Chappers @ 21st January 2020, 8:54 PM

Horse - I'd love to know your thoughts some times especially when skimming I noticed you mention Steam but I have a low attention span.

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Yes certainly.

In a nutshell, as an old prophet once advised me, the steam is mightier than the bananarama - so look to the skies.

Quote: john tregorran @ 21st January 2020, 7:05 PM

Very interesting thanks.
John Peel aside,the radio programme that I really enjoyed was Mark and Lard on Radio 5 before it became Live.They called it Hit the North.Frank Sidebottom would turn up sometimes.Absolutely bonkers.

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Oh, yes indeed.

I loved the way Frank's face looked on the radio.

Quote: A Horseradish @ 22nd January 2020, 1:38 AM

I loved the way Frank's face looked on the radio.

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Booyah!

TODAY'S INTERESTING FACT ABOUT THE SPICE GIRLS
The Backstreet Boys say they want to tour with the Spice Girls because 'We're the same.' True. Backstreet Boys - Spice Girls - I'm watching five c**ts.

The tabloids must've leaked that I'm single again. https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/0DnenUXMYcuAIybDbQGVTA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTQ2OS45NTA0NzQxODMzNTA5/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5cee5cf924000054008556f5.jpeg

Doh! I just knew it would be them!

My fish likes balancing on stools. Must be a perch.
My fish likes sleeping. Must be a kipper.
My fish likes One Direction. Must be a total dick head.

Quote: john tregorran @ 21st January 2020, 7:05 PM

Very interesting thanks.
John Peel aside,the radio programme that I really enjoyed was Mark and Lard on Radio 5 before it became Live.They called it Hit the North.Frank Sidebottom would turn up sometimes.Absolutely bonkers.

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Then they went on to form the greatest rock n roll bands of all time of course

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zA4jOgMYaS0

What do you call a cross Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert? Tracy Thorne.

Quote: Michael Monkhouse @ 15th February 2020, 11:55 AM

What do you call a cross Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert? Tracy Thorne.

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Not sure I quite get that as I think Tracey is a great singer and I like New Order too.