Knot Tieing Up North

Well, despite my initial worries, the weekend just passed didn't go too badly.

It actually went rather quickly to be honest.

The wedding itself went really well and it was good to meet
new additions to the extended family including my cousin Angela's
children Kyle and Jamie, and Ian and his partner Ali's young daughter
Mae who will soon be joined be another younger brother or sister.

We were all gathered for the wedding of my cousin Andrew and
Rachel who's family had travelled all the way from Bath.

The venue of choice was The Devonshire Fell in North Yorkshire
where the ceremony, reception and wedding party all took place,
the latter being based around the theme of a casino, though with
imaginary money.

I didn't have a great deal to drink which may have explained why
I wasn't as active at the party disco as I thought I would, though
it may have also been because the floor was full of children
doing exactly what Peter Kay jokes about in his all-too-familiar
routine about DJs at weddings.

It was rather odd when the couple had the first dance to
Duffie's "Warwick Avenue" although a more appropriate
song by Take That accompanied them as they walked down
the aisle after signing the certificate earlier on.

I did get a few photos, albeit on my mobile so the picture quality
may not be 100 percent.

Andrew and Rachel making the cut.

Young Luke taking disc-spinning duties.

The day after, or today to be more specific we went to a pub
just outside Bradford where Grandma had been invited to,
making up for her absence at the wedding itself.

It was really lovely to see her again, and knowing she's
now a great grandmother is quite special.

So overall it wasn't too bad an outing, though I hope it's
a lot less than five years before I next see my Dad's half
of the family.

A Forced Happier Perspective

I'm not going to lie, I have been dreading this coming weekend
for months.

Understandably it's not the nicest thing to write ahead of
a relatives wedding, but home life is rather rotten with the
potential to get worse, I'm not in a good mood and can't
bear to spend 12 hours traveling to and from Yorkshire
with the rest of my family.

Having the occasion take place on the same weekend
as the Caister Soul event adds to the torture but the one
thing I need to keep in mind is to know when to keep it shut.

Family gatherings of this sort don't happen often and
two days won't be that bad.
 
The way to deal with it is to stop moping about anything
in the last couple of months that has fallen through,
worrying about things I want to happen but inevitably won't
and start thinking about the good things that definitely are
going to happen.

And there's quite a lot of them in October, especially
next week as on Thursday I'm attending the much awaited
John Cooper-Clarke performance in London, and the day
after I'll be in Folkestone to see old favourites the Half Wits
and Ted Dibiase disturb the peace at The Bar Below.

Best of all however is that on the 20th of said month
"Tuppence And The Gang" will be making a much
anticipated return to Canterbury at The Three Tuns with
Ted once again appering as the support act.

So the best thing to do is to just let the rot flow this weekend
and swim through.

Though this being the first wedding I have attended that I'm 
old enough to drink, it may go better than expected.

Mingling At The Magic Circle

An amazing day took place yesterday at London's Magic Circle, as
the second Nextradio event brought a great range of speakers
sharing ideas from many different areas of radio.

Highlights included an interview with Scott Mills at the
beginning where you could tell he felt a bit gutted about
not getting the top job at BBC Radio 1, though he had
sensible visions about his future at the station.

Other impressive talks came from Lenja Papp on creative
radio advertising, Chris Stevens from Real Radio/Smooth Radio
on station branding, Helen and Olly from Answer Me This on podcasting,
and Fi Glover on the BBC's Listening Project.

The talk that stood out the most came from Chris Burns
from BBC Audio and Music as she adapted a "fireside chat"
to give her thoughts on what made really good radio,
putting a powerpoint presentation aside, and giving
more of an intimate lecture.

It was good to see familiar faces including Rowan Collinson
from Somethin' Else who introduced me to Dave O'Donnell
who produces Gilles Peterson's show on BBC 6Music,
and Kellie Redmond who produces Trevor Nelson's
Radio 2 Soul Show.

What excited me the most however was being
stood in the presence of consultants Francis Currie
and Paul Chantler as they were the programme controllers
at Invicta FM and Essex FM respectively when the stations
were at their height and stood out amongst the crowd.

Bizarrely I didn't actually get any photos of the event itself
although I did take a few pictures in the Magic Circle's
museum.

The first one resembling what looks like severed Dalek heads.

































After the talks had gone out we went for a drink at
a nearby pub where I bumped into Alice and Jade
from university.

Alice is working full time at event organiser Matt Deegan's
station FunKids whilst Jade is interning at Create working
on many audio and visual projects.

The night finished with an outing to a Pizza Express
on Euston Road where I went along with Emma Corsham,
Helen from Answer Me This, and event organisers James and Matt
where I proved myself to be the worst anorak present,
and revealed some unpleasant stories involving Smurfs.

A lot of wine had been consumed it must be said.

Overall it was an amazing an inspiring day and I'm hoping
it can progress even further should a third event go ahead.

Rogues On The Radio, And Awaiting Nextrad.io

The special guest appearance by The Loveable Rogues
last night on CSR turned out to be fantastic and they
were on amazing form.

Hosted by Dan Gibson the trio attracted a massive number
of e-mails and tweets to the studio and had me laughing
throughout.

Especially with this slip of the tongue just five minutes into the 
show itself;



Further proof that unlike the others, we don't take
the safe radio route, although Dan did apologize later on.

I was impressed to find out that singer Te was a fan
of Jill Scott who I'd played on my own show before them
with "He Loves Me" as part of the Double Jam where I suggested
it sounded similar to Joss Stone's "You Had Me".

I'll let you be the judge.

Also present in the studio were the KTV camera crew from the
University of Kent's television station and a few other punters
from Christ Church who enjoyed the overall chaos.

Definitely the most fun I have had at CSR so far and the
boys gave me so much stick as well.

Which was probably deserved.

No time like the present, and the crap weather outside
and the shambles of "Team Grimshaw" haven't got me
on a downer ahead of a visit to London tonight ahead
of an early start for the 2012 nextrad.io conference.

With speakers to include Scott Mills, Helen and Olly,
and Fi Glover, it looks set to be an amazing day
and hopefully a chance to catch up with a few other
familiar faces from the box of noise.

Whatever happens I'm sure I'll be acknowledged, unlike
at a birthday do last weekend for a fellow Uni graduate.

Radio Rogues

Looking set to be a pretty chaotic night at CSR later on, as immediately
after my show, Studio Blue at Christ Church will be in the control
of Britain's Got Talent finalists "The Lovable Rogues" who are
making their way over to host a special show for the station.

For those who don't remember, they're the talented three-piece
who caught the attention of the judges with this amusing offering
"Love Sick".

Despite their website saying that the Christ Church Uni is in Essex,
they seem like nice lads and it will be good fun seeing them
take to the air.

My show preceding them beforehand is my last one for a couple
of weeks as next week I'm at my cousin's wedding in West Yorkshire
and have agreed to a meal at a nearby pub the following day
with the rest of my dad's half of the family.

I'm not looking forward to it to be honest, not the visit itself
but the long car journey from Canterbury to Steeton, which
if anything is more than a hint that I need to learn to drive.

But what's worse, two visits to and from West Yorkshire, or 
blowing a lot of money on petrol and tax discs?

Tomorrow will also be an early start as Nick Grimshaw takes
to the air on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, with a promise of
"added music".

Whilst the show itself been getting a lot of promotion,
what's been frustrating is that there's very little talk
of actual show content and what will be involved.

Although if the TV trails are anything to go by, I may
be mistaking show content for heavy reliance on "celeb culture"
and endless appearances from Harry Styles, Rita Ora and so on.

It's all seems a bit rushed, although to be fair it will need
time to grow, but the one thing we shouldn't expect it to
do is to reach the heights of it's predecessor.

This will be a completely different sort of show,
and it needs to be if Radio 1 want to please the BBC Trust
who themselves are quite frankly no where near
BBC Radio 1's demographic.
I'm quite happy listening to Shaun Keaveney on 6 Music anyway.

"Nights I Will Always Regret"

As I type I'm in a dreadfully knackered state where I come to the conclusion
that I won't drink again.

Or at least for a few weeks.

Anyway, I was up early yesterday morning for what was
the final Chris Moyles Show streamed on video at the Radio 1
website, and it's safe to say that without the visual addition
the departure wouldn't have been emotional.

There's been the usual response from those who dislike the
broadcaster in celebration, and yes there have been low points
where I've felt the same, but yesterday and the last three weeks
have gone to show that radio won't have a broadcaster with
both a genuine love of radio and an penchant to tell it straight
for a long time.

Later on I made my way down to Gillingham for another
night of raucous live performances where after a rather
dull opening set from a more "serious" metal band,
the Half Wits took to the stage and gave a crazy live set.

It was made even more hilarious when Jake the guitar player
broke his A-string and the rest of the band had to adlib
with an impromptu rendition of the "Peter Gunn" theme.

Well, just the famous bassline anyway.

I didn't get many photos as the venue was rather dark,
but we ventured back to Canterbury on the train with
plenty of booze.

In my case a bottle of VS with a rather dodgy "purple" flavour.

With the time after midnight we trod through Canters
searching for boozers that were still open including
one near the Marlowe Theatre, and the Lady Luck
near the Westgate Towers.

It was by then I felt really knackered, and despite
my boozed up state I barely got any sleep.

However, now that I've got my reflection of it all written
down and blogged, I may feel more physically able to collapse,
and hopefully get over it all and stop feeling sorry
for myself.

I'm getting dreadfully old.

Almost Time For Moyles To Go

This week sees the departure of what may be the last great
daytime presenter at Radio 1, well from my age at least.

Even though the final show isn't until Friday, certain moments
have almost brought me to tears, including the many highlights
packages one of which this morning based around the mammoth
52 hour marathon for Comic Relief last year.

However it's also been pretty amusing too with the many guests
who have paid a visit to the basement of Yalding House to wish
Chris and the team well and one of them today was Alan Carr
who took part in what was the final game of Carpark Catchphrase
an item they've had since the first ever breakfast show.

Despite all of this, the host of Chatty Man admitted to have
never heard the game at all, so it was no surprise that he lost
to returning champion and friend of the show Andi Peters.

As for Roy Walker, it's doubtful they'll get him to release
a compilation CD of his many covers, but what with many
of them on Youtube, it's doubtful listeners will be suffering
from any related withdrawal symptons.

One thing worth mentioning is that the theme to Carpark Catchphrase
on the radio show bares a striking melodic resemblance to a Finnish
rap song from the early 90s by Raptori called "Oi Beibi" and
on first hearing it, I was in fits of laughter.

That said, the tune itself is superb, orchestra hits a-plenty.

With only two more shows to go, one in front of an audience
and the final one in the studio, I doubt I'll be able to control myself
by Friday morning.

Not because I'm upset about Moyles' departure but because
it will be something special altogether.

"Hop On Baby!"

A Wider Outlook

After four long years, I finally said goodbye to this tired looking
contraption;


















 
and in its place, a machine that appears to be too big for
the table I've place it on.


















The new model fits in well with my recently purchased smartphone
as it's a Samsung with an Intel Core 17 processor and a damn
sight more storage space than the old model.

As shown in the above image, I also bought a new mouse as
and a wireless one at that as my old one despite being USB 
powered could get very fiddly and problematic at the worst of times.

I'm still installing some applications onto the laptop, some
of which have taken a really long time to install due to their
complicated registration regimes but I'm sure I will settle into
it before too long and get used to the new keyboard.

Overall I'm happy with what I've acquired.
The model itself is very similar to the one I had in my later years
of college and first two years of University, and I hope I'll put
it to the best creative use that I'm capable of.

That is if I can find a way to become creative again. 

From Breweries To Bullseyes

With Mum and Dad still in Newcastle dropping Olly off,
I made a last minute decision to venture over to Faversham
as Josh and Victoria were attending the town's annual hop festival
paying host to a lot of drinks and enjoyable music acts.

One that grabbed my attention on arrival was a band who
did an impressive rendition of the early Chicago track
"25 Or 6 To 4" which was just a taster of what was to be
expected.

I didn't get the names of many of the bands playing there
but those who stood out included this raucous set from
a French act with a Celtic tinge, as pictured below;

We were soon joined by Jon and Claire at the Railway Hotel where they had
an act called Follia blending folk with fusion which started
off superb, but then evolved into utter nonsense with the lead
vocalist giving a rather unnecessary falsetto rendition of "Over The Rainbow".



It was at this point that we opted to get some grub and
the choice destination was The Wine Vaults.

We ended up regretting doing so as the food they had there
wasn't up to standards with Claire having to endure what looked
like a burnt hot dog, and Jon struggling to savour a steak sandwich.

Luckily I steered clear from such concoctions and downed a WKD Blue.

From there we ended up at the Swan and Harlequin near the 
Shepherd Neame Brewery where they had a lively rock covers
band who were on good form.

Well, until their set devolved into covers by Snow Patrol
and The Script.

I left just before 5pm as I needed to get back to Canterbury
in time for my radio show at CSR and after a two week break
it felt really refreshing and back to it's usual self with all
the regular features back in place.

The highlight was right at the end where I played a jaunty
offering from Skeewiff who has made a compilation of
remixes from vintage library LPs including this offering,
"The Tap Tastic Toe Twizzler" which bears a striking resemblance
to the theme to Bullseye.

Then again I'm certain that the original was composed years
before Jim Bowen became a Sunday night stalwart.

Overall today was good fun and worth making the visit
up even if the train journey wasn't that long.

Plastered At The Parrot

Yesterday saw the welcome return of Josh to Canterbury,

who this time brought along his lovely wife Victoria.
Both of them are attending the wedding of Josh's sister

Xanthe taking place today, and arranged for a fair few of
us to meet up in the ever popular watering hole The Parrot.

Sadly, the parrot itself wasn't frequenting it's noisy
presence this time round, although I wasn't complaining.

Amongst those who turned up were Ally who I saw performing
with The Fruit Group at Lounge two months ago, and
Jon another mate from college who was rather stunned when
I mentioned that Hans Zimmer composed the theme tune to
the Henry Kelly fronted gameshow Going For Gold.

Both Josh and Jon can be seen below trying to invent
a hand gesture for "Blammy's Blog" and inevitably failing.

 

Jon's wife Claire made an appearance later on, alongside a few
of her work colleagues, one of which will be moving to New Zealand
within a week, and had rather too much to drink.



It was at this point of the night I was regretting not bringing my jacket
with me, but luckily we went back inside the warm interior
before the end of the night.

Hopefully the next time we'll see each other again will be around
Christmas, depending on whether I'm away in Norfolk or otherwise
but all the same, it was good to catch up once again.

Souled Out In Essex

Two days full of the good stuff was on order for this August
Bank holiday, starting off at the Lobster Smack for Soul 
By The Jetty as sorted out by Jonny and Messy and
"The Reverend" Brian Kelly from Zero Radio.

Many of the Margate/Caister crowd showed up and along with
special guest DJ Nick Aravis from Solar Radio, the disk spinners

failed to disappoint.

Not least because they played the new Gregory Porter remix
by Gerardo Frisina amongst many other belters.

A few illustrations showing the chaos caused;

DJs Jonny Layton and Mark "Messy" Messent.



Soul Syren Denise shakes things up.


Special guest Nick Aravis gets in on the act.



How the crowd will react when the disk spinner
sticks an Earth Wind and Fire track on.



Lizzie, displaying the "must-have item" of the weekend.

Sunday afternoon saw me Romford bound and I arrived rather
early to see Sandra C from Stomp Radio get things going
at the Victoria pub for what may be the last of this year's
bank holiday soul sessions.

It was good to meet some new faces as well, namely 
"Dancing Debbie" and Sarah who were really lovely,
and not scared to tell things straight.

 

Hilarious as they were, I'll spare the comments from my blog.



It was also good to meet Sandra's sister Dawn AKA "Drumstix"
pictured above on the right who also brought along her
children Tamla and Cole who ended up staying longer than I did.

Once again the music was superb attracting a lively crowd.









I left just before 10pm and managed to get the last train
from Stratford going straight to Canterbury, although
the side effects of the many cans of Red Alert energy drink
had me in a comedown state which I've yet to recover from.

Though in the long run, it's going to take quite a while
to get over it all, until my next set of soulful outings that
I hope they'll be more of this year.

Three Tuns Of Mosh

On my arrival at the New Inn last night, it appeared that the 

noise police had made their mark. 

After reducing Thursday's headline act to an acoustic set, I got

wind of the fact that the bands set to play last night had been
moved to the Three Tuns pub in the centre of Canterbury.

In terms of space it was probably the right idea.

First up were the W.O.T.S. who you could argue are
Right Said Fred having woken up on the wrong side of the bed.

 

Their set provoked a fair bit of moshing which I tried to stay
out of the way of and inevitably failed.







Up next were the Half-Wits, and save for the lead singer's
malfunctioned mic, it was a good fun set, and provoking
an even greater anarchic response.











You certainly wouldn't have got behaviour of that scale
at the New Inn, what with their more than cramped beer garden.

I'm not sure if my body can cope with any further moshing however,
so it's just as well that The Lobster Smack in Canvey Island
is my main destination tonight for the August Bank Holiday
Soul By The Jetty event where I expect to be reunited
with many of those who showed up in Margate earlier this month.

I'm really hoping that one of the tunes getting a spin will be this
new re-working of Gregory Porter's "1960 What" by Gerardo Frisina.



Already it's causing a stir, and starting to fill floors.

More photos to come for certain.

Squeezing In At The Inn

A potentially exciting music-filled Bank Holiday commenced yesterday
in the first of two locations I'll be frequenting over the space of four days.

Oddly enough, neither of them are Leeds and Reading.

The New Inn in Canterbury was the first destination where over
the weekend they're holding a beer festival, complemented by
some of the finest punk acts this side of the Stour, with
the first of them being Irish folk/pirate act
Captain Bastard And The Scallywags.

A band taking cues from Flogging Molly, and The Dropkick Murphys,
last night was the maiden voyage for their latest tour to
promote their new EP and they gave of a really good set.

In addition to their own material they also did a Celtic interpretation of
"The Ace Of Spades" although they claimed it was a tune they

wrote themselves called "Raisin Face".

A few shots of the musicians in action;





Lead singer Andrew Keech, or just plain old Keech.

Acoustic guitar player Tom, who was energetic throughout.

Despite performing outside, the beer garden was 

absolutely cramped to the point that at one moment
Kenny the bass player was crouched in the corner.



It didn't help that they were told to keep the noise down
by those living nearby which has me feeling a bit uncertain
as to whether the Half Wits will be able to perform tonight.

They were also present at proceedings, alongside Stuart and Aaron
from Ted Dibiase, who's set in Sheerness on Saturday I'm missing
due to my soul outing in Canvey Island.

Aaron told me I could just walk across the water from Essex
to reach Sheerness, which sounds like a feat worth trying.

Despite the cramped conditions, Captain Bastard won't
be gone from Canters for too long as The Beercart Arms is
their destination this coming Tuesday so I may pop over then.

That said, if the noise police haven't interfered, I shall be
back at the New Inn later tonight to watch the Half Wits
disturb the peace.

The Listening List - W/E 18.08.12

A Sound British Adventure - BBC Radio 4, 14.08.12

It's interesting when dissecting electronic music to discover
that most of the quirky noises and effects start off as man-made
sounds.

Those with a good ear for noticing melodic effects from every day
objects have turned them into experimental pioneering music
and this programme looks into the lesser-heard masters of the art form.

Presented by Stewart Lee, the programme divulges into the work
of Tristram Cary and Peter Zinovieff and how their quirky compositions
were initially lost on radio listeners when used to provide the
soundtrack for the BBC's dramas in the 1950s but soon became
commonplace and lead to the inauguration of the BBC's Radiophonic
Workshop.

Interviewees include Mark Ayres, best known for his scores for Doctor Who
in the late 80s although he never got to re-arrange the famous theme
music despite his knowledge and his enthusiasm for electronic music
as a whole.

Whilst it may not be everyone's melodic cup of tea, it's a revealing
insight into how such bizarre aural compositions found their feet
on the wireless and small screen and made it's way into pop music.

Best listened to through headphones for full effect.

From Sunburst To Sunburnt

An escape from the antagonisms of Canterbury was on the agenda
last night with visit to The Jazz Cafe to see Joey Negro and
The Sunburst Band performing a gig to promote their latest
album "The Secret Life Of Us".

Before arriving at the venue I met up with "Soulful Scotsman"

Stephen at the regular pre-gig drinking ground The Oxford Arms
and on arrival at the Jazz Cafe we were joined by his partner
Elaine who I haven't seen for years.

The band themselves were on fantastic form with Julian
Crampton on bass,



Tony Remy and his talking guitar



And the two superb live vocalists Pete Simpson and Donna Gardier





The set sped by lasting 90 minutes, and it was consistent
from start to finish.

Many tunes from the latest album were performed as
well as old favourites such as "Fly Away", "Everyday",
and a cover of David Bendeth's "Feel The Real" that
got the Jazz Cafe audience joining in.

My personal highlight however was the encore which involved
a live rendition of the Brenda Russell cover "In The Thick Of It"
which almost had me in tears.

Doesn't often happen at gigs but it has to be one of the
top tunes of 2012.

I headed home minutes after the gig had finished to get the
11pm train back to Canterbury, but I'm not too gutted about
missing Joey Negro's DJ set as he'll be heading over to Margate
in November to spin the discs at the West Coast bar.

As a whole it was a night where I could once again put
the shit to one side and have a good time in the company
of like-minded musically-minded people.

Despite the fact I was absolutely sweating and
could have done with one of the band members towels.

Jingle No More

It's about time I gave my take on a topic that one could argue is
desperately filling the column inches, but for the radio fans is like
an early Christmas present.

That being the many articles posted in the papers and online
about Nick Grimshaw's new breakfast show for Radio 1 and how
the brief for the imaging requires for it to "steer cleer of sung jingles".

Media Guardian Article

BBC News Article

James Todd Blog Post

The one thing that gets me is how everyone's treating this
like it's a new development to the station, when in fact
it's not the first time a breakfast show on BBC Radio 1,
or Radio 1 station-wide has abandoned sung identification.

Many anoraks (and I will call them that) mourned the loss
of JAM jingles on the station in 1995 when to coincide with
the introduction of Chris Evans hosting breakfast
the Nirvana and Shaggy sound-alike 1FM IDs were replaced
by industrial inspired soundscapes with witty spoken liners.

Moving back up to date, the time-frame in which the
potential clients have been given to submit audio is pretty
short considering the new show commences in less than a month
but in no way does that mean the imaging cannot evolve.

Overall it's going to be a different type of show, more focused
towards Radio 1's demographic and the identification is just a part of it.

More importantly it will help the station be more consistent
all of the time, whereas with Moyles it's like a completely
different station altogether.

Thankfully with Vernon Kay standing in on Breakfast they've
abandoned the Chris Moyles sung imaging for this week so at
least it won't be so much of a sudden shock when Moyles
ditches breakfast in the long run.

Kim's Closing Calamity

For such an amazing two weeks, I'm not sure we deserved an Olympic
closing ceremony that undermined the strengths of the event, even
if Paul McCartney was missing from the bill.

It looked as if the aim was either to send itself up, or go for the
mediocre acts who were of their time as opposed to timeless.

Who still likes the Kaiser Chiefs?

And as for the Spice Girls performance, if they can get Boris Johnson
dad dancing, then that says it all.

Save for a commendable performance by Gary Barlow along with
Take That, and a strong finale from The Who, I felt rather
depressed throughout the three hour performance which went
to show how superior Danny Boyle's opening ceremony was compared
to Kim Gavin's effort.

Though I'm not sure if "effort" is the right word.

I even tried my best to avoid Twitter as there's only so many
cynical tweets one can read, which don't make things any more
amusing.

Which beggars the question are the people I follow on the site
permanently sarcastic, or is that just the state of Twitter as a
whole?

Closing ceremony aside, it's going to be quite a comedown
to get over, and on a personal level I start to realise just how
angry I am with everything around me.

A visit to the Job Centre this afternoon being one such
aggravation where they just want to rub it in when
interviews or applications have been unsuccessful.

Though I could ask if I should take that as a small
price to pay in exchange for my benefit money?

The way to solve such issues is to make sure you're
in the company of people who inspire you and want you
do really well.

Only that there's not many of them in Canterbury.

It may be a case of saving up for 6 months rent so I can
move out and find somewhere to live by myself and hopefully
have more confidence in finding a money earner.

It may take a year to do so, and a lot can happen within a year
but I'm sure something will work out.

The Listening List - W/E 11.08.12

JA In The UK - BBC Radio 1Xtra, 05.06.08

As part of the ongoing celebrations of Jamaica's 50 years
of independence, 1Xtra offers an uptempo analysis of
the culture's influence on British shores and the dominance
of dancehall in club culture.

Narrated by Vis, the documentary looks towards Jamaica's
influence beyond music and how residents from the country
moved to the UK in the 1950s onwards looking for new opportunities
and adapting to and redefining British culture.

It's important that the programme doesn't focus solely on London
looking into Jamaica's impact in places such as Luton, Manchester,and how  people adjusted to British life when moving to those towns.

Add to that interviews with acts such as Ms Dynamite
and Wretch 32, it's a revealing insight into what influenced
those who are continuing to inspire a new generation of dancefloor
acts.

What I found most interesting was how the Notting Hill Carnival
was founded as a response to race riots in the early 1950s,
prompting me to look for more background into the event.

Once again, all of the above fits into the conventions of a
radio music documentary allowing the listener to generate
their own mental image, where it sounds like the listener in this case
is walking through a street market and approaching
the interviewees along the way, accompanied by a soundtrack 
of old and new West Indian beats.

To cut that paragraph short, there's a great flow throughout,
fitting in with the station style of 1Xtra.

Synchronised In Stratford

It's not often that the public turn out in their thousands to view individuals,
most of whom aren't known by name, but their incredible skills and talents
are the selling attraction.

The Olympics succeed in providing exactly that, and yesterday I made my
way back to my birthplace of Stratford with Mum, Dad, my Mum's mother and
we met up with Kate to attend the finals of the Synchronised Swimming duets.















What impressed me the most about our visit  to Olympic village was that despite the large crowds, it was fairly easy to get around, especially regarding the fact that you didn't have to queue to get into the Aquatics Centre itself.

We made our way there after having lunch at the Park Live area
where on the large video screen we saw the Brownlee Brothers
winning their Gold and Bronze medals respectively for the triathlon,
making them the first siblings to win medals in an Olympic event.















As for the synchronised swimming it was superb, 
even surprising those who many not have been sure about it in the first place.
But even from as high up from where we were sat, it looks even better in real life than it does on television.















Amongst the twelve taking part, the stand-outs were routines from Russia,
Canada, Spain, and China, the Canada one being particularly notable
for the well-positioned cartoon sound effects to accompany the dives.

It was a close contest with China winning bronze, Spain getting Silver
and Russia winning Gold.
As for Great Britain, we came 9th, although to be fair our programme
was a lot less memorable compared to those who won the medals.

As a whole, I very much doubt I'll be in such a special position again
where I can say I attended the games. It was definitely a special opportunity.

Unless of course I want to spend a vast amount of money
on a visit to Rio in four years time.

The Jolly Soul Boys (And Soul Girls) Outing

The otherwise quaint seaside surroundings of Margate gave way to an enthusiastic gathering of music lovers from various corners of British shores for the Margate Soul Weekend for three days of the good stuff.

Well, I was only present for two of them but it was really enjoyable

and was in the company of some really delightful people, sharing

the enthusiasm for the good stuff.

This year's event was even bigger than the one before, as 

midway through the Saturday there was a live brodacast from

Solar Radio as pictured below with James Anthony holding the reigns.

Also taking to the stage were live performances from Ingrid Mansfield Allman from Brit Funk band Freeez, Gee and Nat from
Light Of The World and James "D Train" Williams as shown below.

When it came to venues you were spoilt for choice, as the Rokka provided
some amazing soulful house, and the Britannia bar just up the hill was
offering a blend of reggae.

Most of my antics however took place at the Westcoast Bar where 
DJ sets were provided by Solar Radio's Roni O'Brien, Caister veteran Tony Matthews and percussion playmates Jonny And Messy.

As well as a special guest appearance from the legendary Greg Edwards, formerly of Capital Radio's Soul Spectrum, and Jazz FM.

Some really good tunes got played with the usual favourites 

such as Mario Biondi's "This Is What You Are" as well current stufflike the Sunburst Band's new album, the Opolopo mix of Gregory Porter's"1960 What?" and a latin filled offering from Gerardo Frisinawhich for many defined the weekend.

Not to mention the interesting characters getting down to the tunes including a gathering dressed up as characters from Only Fools and Horses.

 

Here's some of the other punters I bumped into during my stay;

Myself and DJ Pete Collins getting down to Ingrid Allman's live performance.

Morag, a lively visitor from Burnley with a lovely Lancashire 
accent to match.

And the first lady of soul, Miss Roni O'Brien from Solar Radio.

Had it not been for the alterations to public transport,and having a radio show to present I would have stayed on the Sunday, and I am certain that in 2013
I shall be present for the whole stretch.
Although if I can't wait that long, maybe a visit to Caister will be on the cards?

As a whole I loved being there, and it re-ignited my love for the finest classiest music to move to.