Radio To Go

A studio scrap with Johnny Rotten: prickly but insightful

2012-01-29T15:12:00.001Z

A transcript of a 1979 show with John Lydon, when BRMB had big audiences and let their DJs do weird stuff on air.

This is a radio story from over thirty years ago. It shows how commercial radio has changed, and it’s funny as hell. Well, I think so, because I’m part of it.

We're at the very end of the punk era. I was doing rock shows on Birmingham’s commercial station, BRMB. I was offered a John Lydon interview. Lydon was on his second band, Public Image Limited, after the dissolution of the Sex Pistols. I approached the interview idea with caution. Punk and post-punk artists famously took pride in being awkward sods on air. I had been exquisitely roasted over a slow fire by the Stranglers a few months earlier, and I wasn’t keen on playing media patsy all over again. But Lydon was too interesting to pass up, so we settled on turning the show's music over to him, as part of an extended interview. The music was great: lots of deep Roots Reggae. But predictably, it was a barbed conversation. Lydon was uncompromising, mildly truculent, and provocative. He also talked a lot of sense. In between the music, the challenges flew. I only lost my temper and swore the once…

The show itself does not survive. BRMB was terrible at archiving its output: see my UB40 post for notes on how and why. But the verbal exchanges and music details have survived, lovingly documented and transcribed by the excellent Fodderstompf, who cover all things PiL. My role here is incidental: the transcript exists because Lydon did a show and Fodderstompf documented it. Merry sniping and tetchy badinage, along with relevant links, await you after the jump…

You're listening to Robin Valk now through till 11. And in this hour Johnny Rotten is picking the music. John welcome to BRMB Radio. What we are going to hear, over this coming hour or so, is what you're playing at the moment, rather than any other stuff. How much of a collection have you got at the moment?

I don't buy rubbish. So it's not that huge. I suppose it escalates over the years. It's enough to humour me, but not enough really.

Have you been able to buy more recently, or has it just gone at the same rate as before?

It's slumped lately.

A lot of things you are going to play, as you explained to me, won't exactly be current, they will have been bought from JA, because they came over in limited edition. The first track I Jah Man Levi, the first version of 'Jah Heavy Load', has got a fairly checkered history. There are two different versions. Why do you prefer this one as opposed to the re-recorded version?

Because the re-recorded version is like cocktail jazz, I don't like it. I prefer this. It's just better. I don't see why the original single was never released, officially. Like most reggae.

Do you feel that British record companies who get into reggae, as a corporate decision, are doing it in the right way? Considering the way both Island Records and Virgin Records made deliberate decisions to get into reggae in a big way, and sign up everything they could. Have they gone about it the right way…

[interrupts] It's not true they signed everything they could. There are several records in that little pile there, they could have signed up but didn't. Probably because they had too much talent. You find that, well, Virgin tend to sign up the weakest kind of reggae. The sort they hope will get in the charts and make a bit of money for them. That's the wrong attitude. You should always stick to the real stuff.

IJAHMAN LEVI - JAH HEAVY LOAD (ORIGINAL)

We're with Johnny Rotten tonight on BRMB, you've just heard 'Jah Heavy Load', the first version, by I Jah Man Levi. Leaving aside what you are doing at the moment, if you wanted to, would you want run a record company simply releasing music you believed in. Would you like to do that, has that ever crossed your mind?

No. Why the hell should I? It's nothing to do with me. I don't want to know about that end of it. I don't see why I should be expected to do it for them. I'm sick of that attitude.

That wasn't quite the angle I was looking at, it's just you are in a position now, where if you wanted to, you could get things done.

Am I? I think you'll find that's not strictly true.

Why?

Well, I still have to scrape and beg for tuppence off the record company. That's the usual story.

The next track Black Uhuru and 'No, No, No.'

That's someone Virgin could have signed but didn't. Sly Dunbar production. They signed Sly, they'll release the rubbish he puts out, but not the good stuff. It's the same with the Gregory Isaacs thing, they could have signed him, they could have signed Ken Boothe, they could have signed a lot of them.

BLACK UHURU - NO, NO, NO

On BRMB talking with Johnny Rotten tonight. Do you recognise there's almost a two tier level of production, whereby Jamaican reggae artists release the real stuff, then the mass-market stuff. Dilute it down a bit for the white market. Do you reckon that happens?

It's not done deliberately in Jamaica. It just so happens that when the masters arrive here the companies tend to cut the bass and lower the treble, and chuck out something that sounds nothing like the original. Something similar happened to our first album. There was a confusion over the masters, I really shouldn't mention all of this, but I can prove it with matrix numbers. The production of our first album mysteriously changed in the cutting of the discs.

As a result it didn't come out the way you wanted?

Ha. It didn't come out the way they wanted. I insisted on the masters we handed in. Otherwise the record would not go out at all.

You've obviously picked up, by virtue of necessity, a fair amount of studio knowledge just to protect what you've got, and what you've done. Do you want to apply that more in the future with Public Image, whatever you wind up doing next?

What do you mean?

Well, just now you're talking about what you've done, and talking about studio techniques, watering things down, and cutting things back, altering it, softening it. And you've had to put that whole side of the business…

[interrupts] I've had to stop it. We've had to stop it. In our personal situation, it is an everyday story, it's no lonely heartbreak. It just means that you should produce your own records, and you should never have anyone tell you how you should sound. You should take your own masters to the cutting rooms. You should make your own acetates. You should deliver them to the record company and make sure that the test pressings that arrive back from the record plants are exactly the same as your acetates. It's simple. If you don't do that you'll never get what you wanted, you won't recognise it.

The next track The Normal 'TVOD'. The Normal - what do you know about them?

I know nothing [laughs]. They seem to be a very discreet bunch. Isn't it something to do with a geezer called Thomas Leer, is that right? [sic: Daniel Miller] He's made a few records, they're alright. I like that sound.

THE NORMAL - T.V.O.D.

The next track is Gregory Isaacs & Christine. This is about a domestic situation, as opposed to…

[interrupts] A situation I didn't create that's for sure! [laughs] I love acting as judge and jury!

Gregory Isaacs is doing stuff nationally, as well as doing his own thing, is this is on his own label from Jamaica or what?

That's stuff that like… Gregory Isaacs is now released through Virgin, but a lot of those songs are old songs or are renditions of somebody else's. They are nowhere near as hard as they could be. And certainly stuff like that single would not normally be released through a nice establishment type record company. They don't like it, it's too heavy.

Lets assume, hypothetically for a moment, an establishment record company, one of the labels, whether it be independent or whatever, decides to issue straight undiluted, unvarnished Jamaican reggae, without cutting it or cleaning it up. Putting it out straight. Wouldn't that in itself be almost seen as a cop-out as be taking it and emasculating it?

How! Surely the reason for making any music is to get the message, that you are trying to get over, to as many people as possible, otherwise you are being a pretentious little snot.

Granted, but at the same time there's a certain tendency for records to be… well, the whole British marketing of the New Wave came about partly through 12" discs and coloured pressings, and exclusive limited editions and all that kind of garbage.

Yes.

If you've got that kind of marketing mentality already installed, by the time that something that was available exclusively, simply because the guys couldn't afford to give it a bigger pressing, a bigger run, national distribution, if it does get to the mass audience then…

[interrupts] Look, look, like Virgin have opened up a chain of record supermarkets. The latest one in Oxford Street you can't even hear a record in there. You're not even given the chance, they're just in racks. You're merely shown what it is, and that's it. You either buy it or don't, you certainly can't hear the thing. That attitude is wrong. Records should be available freely, you should be able to hear them constantly. Radio's are wrong for a start. The fact that they only play the Top 30 records that are selling is pointless waste of time. I mean, if your record is selling and people are buying it, they don't want to hear what they've got day after day, after day. Surely you should be able to hear what you haven't got. And so on, and so forth.

I'm not going to disagree with you, because basically I feel that way myself.

And what are you doing about it?

I'm not playing the god damn Top 30, Jesus!

[interrupts] I never said that did I. I'm not attacking you personally. But if you want to take it that way that's fine, I'm sure you can have a very decent intellectual argument.

I doubt the BRMB listeners want to hear me intellectualising on whether I personally am doing the right thing spreading music, what I'd like to do is talk to you, rather than get into the ins and outs of my own stuff.

Well, I mean the marketing, lets go back to the marketing the records at the moment. Different coloured vinyl, all sorts of gimmicks thrown at you. I mean you can only get away with for as long as an audience tolerate it. And the problem of all those situations is the people buying the stuff. They don't complain, they seem to like it. That's why it continues.

GREGORY ISAACS / CHRISTINE - SATURDAY NIGHT

Next one up is Ken Boothe and 'Got To Get Away'. The three versions that you went through, we're going to play the first one, which in a way, is almost the straightest of the three versions.

Well, I think the words in it are really quite good, and I'd like people to hear them. Ken Boothe is a man of talent.

KEN BOOTHE- GOT TO GET AWAY

And finally tonight, from Kraftwerk 'Showroom Dummies', the last track picked out tonight by Johnny Rotten. Kraftwerk, again, getting back to the similarities of electronic synthesisers, we touched on electronic rock earlier with The Normal, Kraftwerk are slightly more easier identifiable, Kraftwerk have changed direction quite radically over the past couple of years, certainly of the 'Showroom Dummies' track.

How do you work that out? They've always been pretty robotic.

They've got shorter and sharper and it's got crisper and…

It's 6 minutes 10 seconds long.

As opposed to 15 minutes of slightly more flowing music…

Well, you're on about very long album tracks then. They can have very short singles at the same time too.

KRAFTWERK - SHOWROOM DUMMIES

On BRMB Radio tonight my guest Johnny Rotten, one of the topics we haven't raised yet is Johnny Rotten's present group. Can you really be worried about lack of airplay if you…

[interrupts] Yes, of course I can. I think it's essential that as many people as possible hear us. That is essential. Otherwise how is anybody gonna be able to discriminate. I mean it's too easy to condemn something without hearing it, and like, lets face it I've faced a lot of that. I get that all the time.

Are you getting tired of being a whipping boy, or has it gone on so long are immune to it?

It's very easy to make me a scapegoat now isn't it.

Exactly.

I mean, look at the competition there really isn't any.

Yeah, but how do you feel about it personally? It seems to happen about every other week, that you wind up in a situation, that someone is going be firing at you. You seem to half relish it and half hate it at the same time.

Well, of course I like it. That's practically what I want. At least its a reaction. I mean it's better than 'Crossroads' is it not? I don't go out of my way to shout and scream blue blooded murder, that would be pointless, I just want a bit of difference in attitude from people. I don't like the way people accept roles. Lets see, the term punk that really did make me ill. The way the whole host of morons freely accepted that tag given to them by the media. That was where that movement went wrong, and that is why I had to get away from it. I will not be put into an army for anyone. [long pause] No uniforms.

Johnny Rotten thank you kindly.

PiL - ANNALISA

Many thanks to Johnny Rotten for the past hour of conversation, and music, and arguments…

My thanks to Fodderstompf for taking the time to transcribe the recording someone made, and to Beshara Muzic: This post is here because Beshara Muzic, inheritors of the mantle of Birmingham Reggae greats Beshara, spotted the Fodderstompf post and tipped me off. I'm really glad they did. My link with Beshara Muzic was forged as a result of working on 'Handsworth Evolution' - blog post here - a 2010 documentary I produced about Reggae in Birmingham.

Links:

Fodderstompf
BRMB inteview page on Fodderstompf
Beshara
Beshara Muzic

Steve Gibbons talks and plays on Radio to Go

2012-01-22T12:55:00.000Z

A conversation with live music from Steve Gibbons and John Caswell

I aim to tell stories about musicians from my city on this blog. In this post, however, Steve Gibbons is telling the stories... and how. This is one of a series of programmes I recorded with local musicians last year, working with Brian Travers of UB40 on his Music Up project.

It’s a simple notion: we get together in a studio, we talk, and the musicians play, live. It’s a conversation with music, and, of course, the programme is only as good as the music and the conversation. Steve has great music and brilliant stories, so this one’s a winner.

I now have the privilege of giving the show a first outing on Radio To Go. But if you’re working on a station that would like to air it, that’s fine too; just read on. I’ve broken it down into roughly two equal parts: part one is right here; part two is after the jump.

Steve Gibbons is one of the most loved musicians in Birmingham. He’s been his highly individual, poetic and articulate self, for nigh on fifty years. If you don’t know Steve, you should. Here’s the Wikipedia page, and here's a fan site.

This show was originally meant for a first broadcast airing on Birmingham Internet station Rhubarb Radio, but since that station fell over late last year, I’d rather not let it gather dust. So, accidentally, but not unpleasantly, this is currently an exclusive on this blog. However, we agreed at the start of working this series that shows would be free for rebroadcast on any station that would like to have the programme. So, if you’re such a station, email me through this blog (link below) and I’ll get a copy to you.

My thanks for to Steve and John, Brian and the team at Music Up in Coventry. And the photo at the top of the post? Thank you, Steve Ajao.

There may be more to come in this series. Feedback is very welcome in the meantime. And I am open to suggestions...

Update as of 31 January 2012:
WCRfm, a community station in Wolverhampton, is now the first station to take delivery of this programme for rebroadcast. It will air in February.

The Destroyers and the PledgeMusic finish line

2012-01-15T12:36:00.002Z

How one band found online fan funding to support their CD. It wasn't easy...

This past week – Thursday 12^th, around lunchtime– the Destroyers hit their target on PledgeMusic.com. This allows them to fundthe release of their second album. I am delighted for them. I’m not alone: check the Destroyers' Facebook page to read messages ofcongratulations from all over. By the way, this here is Louis Robinson with a lot of scary make-up being applied. TheDestroyers were shooting a video yesterday for their next single. More on thislater.

I’m a big fan. I’d love to see the band grow andprosper. I’ve been watching the onlinepledge process closely from the moment they got it underway. It seems to methat the Destroyers played this one just right. But setting up a worthwhile projecton one of the many pledge sites is one thing; taking it to fruition is quiteanother.

Fan-funded music releases aren’t new. Ten years ago, veteranScottish pomp-rockers Marillion demonstrated the power of marketing themselvesdirectly to a loyal Europe-wide fan base with spectacular success, when the record industry had long since written them off. Buffalo singer-songwriter Anni DiFranco has put out releases yearly for 18 years on her own label, maintaining and managingdirect links to her growing following.

And it’s becoming a much more significant part of the musiclandscape. I went to PledgeMusic to look at the successes. On the Funded - that is, successful – page today, the Destroyers are up there, front andcentre, one of the most recent projects to cross the finish line. Following on are astring of happily completed projects from around the world. You won’t know mostof them, because they all successfully work to their home areas. But if youjump back to the PledgeMusic home page you’ll see some surprisingly big names,not all of whom have been successful. Many are: there’s Reef, and Killing Joke,who have both wildly exceeded their targets, and in so doing, sidestepped theconventional record industry to great effect. But look – here’s Ian McCullough,a name to conjure with from the 70s and 80s, who has yet to hit the 100% mark.I think he probably will – he’s three quarters of the way there and he stillhas another two months to gather the remaining pledges of support.

Pledge sites work by inviting fans to contribute towards atotal sum. This funds a CD, or a DVD, or a film, or an EP, or an artisticactivity. There are dozens of such sites covering all sorts or artisticactivities, but they tend to work in much the same way: your pledges are onlyredeemed if the entire project hits its target. So there is a risk of failure.And of course, if you fail, your failure is both public and extremelydisappointing for the band and fans.

When the Destroyers kicked their campaign off late last year, theyrapidly hit the 30% pledge mark, offering a range of goodies to pledge for fromstraight downloads to signed items, and even attendance at a rehearsal followedby dinner with the band at a mere £140. This is a bargain: you have to fork out500 Australian dollars for dinner with The Murphy Brothers, a three piece from Western Australia. Afterthat encouraging start, things slowed down a little bit. Then, alarmingly,things slowed down quite a lot. The percentage total, loping gently butsteadily upwards, started to crawl. And after Christmas, for obvious reasons, thingsgot sticky. With a week to go, they were still some 20% off their target.However, recent days saw an explosion of online activity to raise awareness. Bandmembers, friends, fans, family and fellow musicians, tweeted, posted andnagged. The band kept up a steady stream of posts, offering video clips and extratreats for those who had already pledged. I wasn't sure anyone eventually came in for Louis Robinson’s framedbeard, though - a snip at £69.

I met with the band at their video shoot (in a backstreetboozer a stones throw from the Birmingham markets area) to talk over their campaign.Louis wasmore than happy with Pledgemusic:

“They get involved. You talk to them at leastonce a week, and it’s always the same person, so you develop a relationship. They’lltell you about other campaigns on their site, and suggest you try this or that.”

It looked at one time that you weren’t going to hit yourtarget. Do you think you were realistic in setting your financial goal?

“Yes. We weren’t asking for a huge amount – enough to pressup a few thousand CDs, cover some mixing costs and bits and pieces. The biggeryour following, the more you can aim for. But Pledgemusic are also pretty goodat suggesting a realistic target. And they check you out before letting yousign up – they look at your site, see how many Facebook likes you have see,listen to your music, read the reviews…”

Louis, you still have your beard. Didn’t anyone pledge forit?

“Oh, they did. There will be a ceremonial presentation. Theremay be video footage in due course...."

Isn't there the awful risk that you might actually fail in your attempt to raise funds? I saw an awful lof of low percentage pledges on PledgeMusic...

"Yes, there is that risk, and we were well aware of it as we approached the deadline day. But PledgeMusic, like I said, were, extremely helpful in suggesting strategies."

Paul Murphy and Sam Wooster (trumpet) talked about the dogdays of the campaign.

Sam: “When we got to about 60% of our target, with two weeksto go, I was a bit worried. But then it all came together. We got everyone working their own social networks - lovers, families, friends...”

Maybe your timing could have been better? You hit the slowstage right after Christmas, when everyone was flat broke. It was a bit touch and go there for a while...

Paul: “Robin, we really didn’t have a lot of choice. Inplanning the album release, tours for this coming year, a first single (Hole InThe Universe), and everything else, this was how it had to be. But so manypeople came onboard with our last minute campaign, by posting and tweetingabout us, it spread the word further. And we were able to offer a few exclusivegoodies to our pledgers – so that helped.”

And with that, it was back to the video shoot. They wererunning late, of course.

Lessons learned? Think it through. Design a campaign. Getyour project up. And then sell it, hard, repeatedly, and shamelessly. Findangles. Enlist support. Get the project to go viral if you can. As with so muchof today’s music industry, the onus comes back down to the artist. Your fansmay love you to pieces, but your job is to convince them to part with moneyonline. To many, that’s a contradiction in terms. And remember that you are incompetition with dozens of equally deserving projects, some of whom will be bypeople you know. The day I went down to meet with the band, two more fan-fundedappeals landed in my email inbox. I suggest you take a look at the freshlylaunched appeal project on WeFund.com from the wonderful Wes Finch.

By the way, if you’re nosing around Balsall Heath, and you justhappen to spot a very battered and tarnished Tuba, Mark Davis would like itback, please. He only put it down for a second, went back inside, andcame back to find it gone. Maybe the scrap metal boys came down his streetwhile his back was turned. Now, it may only have cost £20 and a bit of elbow greaseto convert it back to from its function as a plant pot; it may not have a perfectlybrilliant tone. But it’s the Destroyers’ tuba, dammit, and they want it back.

My congratulations go to the whole band. Now, where’s my CDdownload?

Ruby Turner tears it up like never before

2012-01-06T21:00:00.000Z

Full force Gospel! Ruby steps up to the plate and knocks it out of the park. Always knew she would.

We’re 6 days into the New Year as I write. Above is a clip of the song I’ve been playing on repeat since it got its first Youtube outing on the 2nd. You should play it, too, right now. Play it loud.

It’s from the BBC Jools Holland New Year’s Eve special. This was the number that took the show up to midnight: Ruby Turner with the Jools Holland Rythm and Blues Orchestra laying down 'Get Away Jordan', and destroying the studio audience.

No apologies whatsoever for taking this performance completely away from its New Year’s Eve 11.56pm broadcast context. This song deserves to be heard entirely on its own merits. Why? It's Ruby Turner, for decades one of the UK’s finest, taking it to church like I’ve never heard her before.

Take a good look at the video. Watch it a couple of times. There’s some great editing work. Lots of celebs to pick out. You can see Cyndia Lauper up there. And there’s Imelda May having a time for herself. And who’s that lady in black and silver, up on her feet doing the call and response? Well, I’ll tell you… that’s Betty ‘Clean Up Woman’ Wright.

So, a masterful performance. Ruby took it up up though the gears from smooth and controlled to full-force hurricane. It brought the house down, and it gave me, and I am sure, thousands of others, huge pleasure to see Ruby hit that sweet spot, like we knew she always would.

We met up for a chat. I’d been waiting to see Ruby do something like this… for decades. Now she has, I wanted to know the how and why. Top of the agenda was Gospel. There was a lovely album, ‘I’m Travelling On’, that Ruby put together two years back at Bob Lamb’s old studios, now reborn as Highbury Studio in King’s Heath, Birmingham, which was Ruby’s first full-on step into Gospel. That led to experiments and developments with a very receptive and supportive Jools Holland, and the evolution of the full-on wailing big band treatment showcased on the video clip.

This has still taken its time to emerge, right?

“It’s always been there… but Jools just gave me the platform.The thing with Gospel music, for me – I don’t know if it’s the same for Jools, it may well be – is that when it calls you, then you have to do it. It will find it’s way. It’s like water. Gospel music will find its channel.”

But you’ve always sung Gospel, Ruby…

“I was singing it, but here I am in an industry that’s all about the commercial side, it’s all about the selling, it’s all about being popular. You and I know that Gospel music is an insular thing. People view it as a religious thing, and so barriers go up… But all you need to do it to listen to it, you don’t have to have any faith as such. On a spiritual or personal level, it can take you there… and you make of it what you wish.”

So does this represent a risk for you – and Jools?

“If I can say so… Jools and I are singing from the same hymn sheet. He gets it, yes".

"But I guess, for many years, the (music) industry would get it too, but they wouldn’t take a chance on it… because it doesn’t sell. But (what I’m doing with Jools)… it works. It’s been working for ten years. We are still fascinated… we are excited by the music."

"We had to do work on a song. He was just on piano, and he asked me to sing a particular song, an old gospel song that he’d heard. He started to find his way round the piano, and of course I knew it, from church, back in the day in Handsworth. As I started singing, suddenly I heard a tone – it’s almost like a ringing tone, that you can’t touch – and I had to stop. We just went… right…it’s deep. It’s too deep!”

And one thing led to another. What we saw on Hootenanny was a song they have been working on and touring with for the best part of a year. It’s road-tested, tuned to perfection. That’s why it hits like a sledgehammer. That’s why the audience in the BBC studio didn’t stand a chance. That’s how Ruby and Jools got to that place.

And there it is, yet again. Another example of musicians taking their own path because it feels right. Another reason to be proud of the creativity of our musicians. You know what I want to hear now? More. Deep soul, gospel, torch. It’s all there. I can’t wait.

Good god almighty :-)

Jim Cleary: 40 years on from Big Ears

2012-01-01T18:40:00.001Z

A pioneering 70s Birmingham singer-songwriter and promoter comes back to town... and finds a room full of love.

This video clip is from a concert/gathering /celebration in October of last year. I've been messing around with the clip to set up this blog for a couple of days, and now I can't stop singing the song. If you are of a certain vintage, or familiar with some of the great Birmingham players who emerged in the 70s, this will all make sense immediately; you’ll recognise the faces and some of the names. If not, I’d love you to read on. It’s a great story.

Jim Cleary is the man in the middle. The event was his tribute night. As guest of honour, he had a string of different and stellar musicians perform his songs, before taking to the stage to close the event out. The evening was organised by friends and colleagues, of whom more later. It took place at a tiny venue: The Tower Of Song, in King’s Norton, Birmingham. What’s really important is the how and why of it all.

Let’s roll back 40 years. In 1972, the role of the singer-songwriter was becoming restricted. After that rush of amazing late 60s talent (Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Sandy Denny, Harvey Andrews, Clifford T Ward, Pete Atkin, Arlo Guthrie… I could go on) the record companies gorged themselves by signing up anyone and everyone they thought they could market. Hey, why stop at James Taylor when you could sign his three brothers and his sister as well? This led to a glut of, frankly, substandard albums that didn’t do anyone any favours. Of course, the record companies, having messed things up, backed off as usual, focussing instead on other, mainly rock-based, areas, and leaving a lot of dashed hopes behind in their wake.

It’s fascinating to look back at this period from our 21st century viewpoint: so much has changed. The record companies’ influence has shrunk, and we have seen a much wider acceptance of varied performance styles. This is both creative and healthy. Back then, though, artists like Jim Cleary, passed over by the mainstream record industry, faced a closing of the ranks on the folk scene as well. There was a distinctly chilly view in many folk circles about anyone who stepped outside the boundaries. Folk-Rock was completely beyond the pale.

Jim was (and is) a singer-songwriter. Back then, a lot of new music was emerging in town, not least from Jim himself, but it didn’t fit any of the fashionable niches. It wasn’t noisy enough for rock, nor acceptable to purist ears at the major folk clubs. His solution was to start a new venue, Big Ears, based at the Fighting Cocks in Moseley, where those musicians who were shut out from mainstream rock and folk could perform.

Big Ears punched above its weight. It was a pioneering venue, and it gave a broad platform to a host of fine bands and great musicians. Jim reeled out some fantastic material during that time. He recorded, with a range of different musicians; deals were signed; but sadly, nothing emerged. Big Ears ran for about five years – I remember talking up Big Ears gigs in my early days as a radio jock – before Jim moved on for work and personal reasons.

Now let’s roll back up to 2011. Vo Fletcher and Catherine Howe run a regular night at the Tower of Song. In attendance, one late 2011 summer evening were Andrew Morton, of Slender Loris fame, and John Mostyn from Highbury Studio. All of them had worked and performed with Jim. Between them, they hatched up the plan to bring their much missed colleague back up to Birmingham from Kent for a closed-doors evening to celebrate his music. Old pals signed up immediately, and once word got out, the night sold out at speed. Plans to record and video the event were added; an excerpt from these activities is the video clip at the top of this post. If you watch the full video, and take in the banter and affection as well as some sterling performances, you’ll get an idea of how much it meant to everybody who attended.

It’s about recognition and approbation. So much creative work echoes out into the void, and we have no idea if it strikes a chord. But, and this is the central point to this post, it seems to me that if an idea strikes a spark somewhere, that spark can live on, for decades... for a lifetime. Almost daily, I find myself thinking of some of the amazing music I’ve been privileged to experience down the years, and my thoughts often turn to those musicians whose work changed my life. That’s still going on now, I am glad to say. But I wonder how often those wonderful musicians of my youth get to be recognised and celebrated in the way Jim Cleary was, last October? This was a fantastic, princely gesture from a group of musicians and music professionals, made to a much respected and loved colleague.

One of the most important parts of the music-making process is the relationship between the performer and his audience. Everything else revolves around that. Promoters deal with that reality, DJs and journalists feed off it, the radio industry feverishly tries to research it down to the nth degree, and completely misses the point by slicing and dicing far too precisely. But this event understands and respects that precious relationship. I congratulate all concerned.

If you weren’t at the evening – remember, an instant sell-out, in a small venue – and the sentiment and the music speaks to you, there are plans to repeat the exercise in the spring. And you can pick up a copy of the CD and DVD of the evening from Jon Mostyn at £14 plus p&p, by emailing him at john.mostyn@gmail.com. But I wouldn’t dawdle: At last count there were less than 85 copies left.

Monstrous and magnificent. And loads of fun.

2011-12-23T13:11:00.022Z

I haven't written much about the Destroyers on this blog. My bad. It's not because I don't think they're pretty damn fab (they are, oh yes, they really are) but simply because it's been a year since I last caught them in full fig, live. And yesterday was the first time I've seen them in front of a truly DEMENTED audience... their natural element, of course.

This was the Destroyers' Christmas party, held at the Prince of Wales in Moseley, Birmingham. And, oh, what fun there was to be had. My previous Destroyers gigs were more formal and/or subdued: for example, halfway up the bill at Moseley Folk (that's Richard Shakespeare's shot of that particular gig, by the way). This was a ridiculously low placing - a headline or near-headline slot in 2012 is more than merited. They there's the regular Town Hall December slot. Now, much as I love the Town Hall, it does not entirely lend itself to uninhibited audience behaviour. It's just not that kind of venue. The upside is that you can better analyse what's going on stage. I quite like that. But I also like to be swept along and blown away.

So this made the Prince of Wales gig all the more fun. But what really put the icing on the cake was to see how much the band has kicked on in a single short year. It's always great to watch bands and acts grow and blossom - it's one of the reasons I love following music in my town. This year, Goodnight Lenin took it up several notches, for example, and ADO delivered their best performance yet at the end of November. But the Destroyers hit a whole other level. Huge showmanship, jaw-dropping musicality, and some wonderful ensemble work. They reeled off a string of new songs from their forthcoming album; each one of them a peach. Balancing the feverish eastern European influences was a new and bracing shot of Celtic folk, and the slightest hint of urban grooves. Musical promiscuity at its finest. A 75 minute set just whipped by.

I've said it before: there's something special going on with the music in this town. I'm pretty sure this is happening everywhere, with bands opting to follow their own destinies as never before. And that's great. It's producing some very interesting new acts and some wonderful music. This is the kind of thing that has to be cherished and protected, as I posted a few weeks back. As we wobble into a very uncertain 2012, it's comforting and inspiring to think about the explosive creativity we've all been privileged to witness.

So it's decision time. In the coming year, I am going to revise the direction of this blog. While I will continue to try to cover radio, it's a dispiriting task, all things considered. Our medium still has huge power and limitless potential, but that potential is just so badly mis-used, in far too many cases. But on the music side, it's all good: there is just a ton of brilliant musical talent to talk about, and great stories to tell. I plan to tell a few of these in the coming months. I'm looking forward to it.

I can't close this post without mentioning the other bands on the bill: Layla And The Good Lads were new to me, and they absolutely rocked. I'd never heard a power trio with acoustic lead/rythm guitar before. Great songs, lovely presence, and they kick like a mule when they want to: all the pieces are there. And Abie's Miracle Tonic were their usual charming and energetic selves - hugely enjoyable stuff.

The Destroyers' new album is due out sometime this spring. I can't wait. You can hasten its arrival by going to Pledgemusic and putting in an advance order. It will not, I assure you, be a waste of your money.

Much ADO about the city and its musicians. And a significant first birthday.

2011-11-29T11:19:00.006Z

Two events on two successive Thursdays, both significant and promising in their own ways. Last Thursday, the admirable Birmingham Music Network, which runs on a budget of nanopennies, providing a very useful platform to meet and talk about all things musical in the city, hosted a discussion/debate at Creative Networks in Millennium Point. The discussion was about Birmingham City Council’s sudden discovery that, hey, there is music being made in the city, and that, with a bit of luck this music thingy might, er, generate a bit of money. You didn't hear about that either? Wow. Funny, that.

I was on the platform in my capacity as local media and music industry dinosaur, along with the sagacious Dr Paul Long from BCU, the shrewd musician and local video maker Anthony Hughes, and the brilliant and extremely focussed Abi Seabrook from Lady Georgiana. Abi and moderator Andy Derrick were the only full-time music professionals.

My take? The only constructive thing the council can possibly do is to foster a legislative climate that allows local independent grassroots music events to flourish, instead of messing around with dodgy property developers who get venues closed down. In other words, let the musicians and promoters and music professionals in this town go about their business, so that new local talent can flourish. That done, the council should stand back and wait for the results to emerge, as they surely will. Any other kind of intervention is fraught with danger. The idea of some bloated councillor cosying up to the next talent in our town makes me, frankly, nauseous. It’s like seeing Blair cosy up to Liam Gallagher or Billy Bragg.

Our industry – I’m being a bit presumptuous here, calling it ‘our’ industry, but I do feel part of it, most of the time – works in a chaotic manner, and long may that state of affairs continue. That industry is driven, first and foremost, by ideas. That creativity and those ideas may well be empowered or made more solid by spending a bit of money, but money does not produce the ideas. The core of it all is the relationship between performer and audience. Yes, I know there are people who work in splendid isolation… but ultimately their music will see the light of day, to be listened to and reacted to. Any effort the council makes – and again, I’m feeling queasy already – should protect that artist-audience relationship. That is where council cash should go. That lets the council sit back and bask in the glory of long-term successes, once they realise their potential. So my advice was: help the grassroots, then back off, and wait for the success to arrive. Keep those successes local, and you'll collect taxes too. And please don’t go glad-handing or back-slapping.

It was ironic to note that virtually all the historic venues in this town have been closed, torn down, buried under concrete, remodelled or turned into car parks. No point putting up a blue plaque if you happen to adore Duran Duran or Judas Priest. Their core venues have long since gone. There’s one exception, of course, and that is the Town Hall, which simply reeks of history and tradition. If you started putting plaques up on the Town Hall, you'd never stop. But I don't see the Council making a big deal about this venue's historic associations. I wish they would - I've just started fantasising a Destroyers blue plaque going up in between Paganini and Dickens...

The debate goes on. Go to the BMN site, and read about it. Fill in the ‘ten questions’. And pass the word on.

That was last Thursday. This Thursday, December 1st, sees the first Birthday party of the fabulous Alternative Dubstep Orchestra, at the Hare and Hounds in King's Heath. ADO is a collective that grew from an idea, and has blossomed and grown in most unexpected ways. I can’t think of anything the council could have done to help this band grow and develop – apart from making it easier for the venues they might be able to play in.

I’ve written, enthusiastically, about ADO before on this blog; several times. I am extremely pleased to see them hit this milestone. ADO could only have happened in Birmingham, and they have got this far with huge courage, wild imagination, expressive freedom and buckets of energy, goodwill, and effort on all sides. I don’t see what kind of council initiative could have helped them. They’ve done all the heavy lifting themselves, as good musicians always do.

In terms of recognition and spreading the good word about Birmingham music, ADO and countless others are already doing the council’s work. I’d like to see that sort of thing recognised. But, please, no big splashy pompous stuff. In fact, a bit of humility and gratitude for the very existence of the city’s creative sector might be a good thing to see at the Council House.
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A sense of place

2011-10-30T14:41:00.002Z

I spent some time in Glasgow and Edinburgh at the beginning of September, at Radios Clyde and Forth. I was working with the stations’ music staff on tweaks to their music scheduling software (RCS Selector 12, by the way. This DOS software is still loved by many and used in preference to later versions; I would happily see anyone I work with use the Windows version). I do this sort of work quite a lot, and it's always fascinating. The theory is that if you fix the way the - meticulously researched - music is rotated to best effect, for a fresher and more varied mix, then you stand a good chance of extending the listening hours of the current audience in the short term. In the medium term, you also increase your chances of picking up listeners from rival outfits.

All this takes time of course. I did this in early September, and the survey period ran until the end of that month, so at best there were three weeks of modified programming impacting in a three month period. Results can take months to show: audiences are finicky beasts, and you build trust up slowly. However, it was nice to see that both stations recorded punchy upticks in their listening duration and market share figures (check the results for Clyde and Forth on the invaluable www.MediaUK.com. In fact, you can check the results for any major station – it’s a fascinating site).
Of course, while I was on site, I did my usual schtick of discussing local acts. It was immensely gratifying to learn that Paolo Nuttini lives a few minutes from the station, and that they both knew him, and thought well of him, as a person. It was also sweet to register the clear sense of place that helps drive the station. Clyde and Forth seem to be genuinely prospering with this mindset. Local music is only part of this, but the pride programmers feel for their local talent, and their local market, is sadly lacking in far too many stations. This is especially sad to see in stations that are part of groups that long since stopped trusting local staff to make informed programming decisions.

On that front, it is refreshing to note that BBC WM, currently awaiting details of savage programming cuts through the revolting Delivering Quality First programme, is increasingly featuring local artists on their drivetime shows. It’s not before time, but it is hugely welcome nonetheless. I sincerely hope that the local BBC Introducing Shows survive. Like I say, a sense of place is vital for local radio, and it's really not looking good at the beeb these days. I blogged about this a few months back; it looks like my worst fears will be realised.

Pitching stuff abroad

2011-08-31T15:32:00.012+01:00

I just got off an online chat with Mike, a US radio pal. We talked music as always.

Now, when working abroad, I’m always happy to push local talent, and that’s just what I did, pitching two bands to Mike a few years back when he graduated to mainstream radio. These were the New Blacks and 360. The New Blacks – not sure if they’re around anymore – were/are a fine bunch of hard rockers from the Black Country, and they went down just fine with Mike. But I struggled with 360, which struck me as completely insane. The main reason, of course, is there is no such thing a receptive mainstream music format at most US radio – the material HAS to fit certain criteria. And Ska/Funk/Punk with a dash of brilliant pop, to my dismay, wasn’t being snapped up at US radio.

Yesterday, as usual, we talked music. Mike wondered what was cooking locally. So I gave him a whole list of web links. They’re listed further down the post, after the jump. As I did, I was struck by the individuality of the acts I was asking him to check out from a US perspective. It’s a good and a bad thing.

I love all these guys. These acts are all British/English in the widest, best and most individual sense. They’re all fabulous, all uncompromisingly powerful and inventive…but I just wonder how easy it will be for most of them to get the smallest toehold across the pond. That they deserve recognition is beyond question.

Here’s the names I gave him:

The Destroyers
Alternative Dubstep Orchestra
Jo Hamilton
Mellow Peaches
Vijay Kishore
Mistys Big Adventure
Goodnight Lenin

I could have added several dozen more. Of the above list of sparkling inventive talent, only Jo Hamilton has had some acceptance in major US markets, and then only after some skilful and intelligent plugging.

This is not, repeat, NOT, a criticism of any of the above bands. Nor is it meant to discourage anyone looking speculatively across the pond. What it does show, to me at least, is that three processes have been taking place:

Firstly, from the beginning of the noughties, and maybe earlier, the last remnants of Brit music credibility in the US shrivelled up and died; no easy rides were to be afforded to UK bands thinking they could waltz into stateside success. It cuts both ways – some huge US acts (John Mayer, Bruce Hornsby, Dave Matthews, guys like that), don’t mean a thing over in the UK, where once they would have, or did.

Secondly – and a good thing too – Brit bands have largely stopped trying to be American, and vice versa.

Thirdly: with the collapse of the old-style record industry, and the rise of web tools, bands have increasingly followed their own creative drives, without making any compromises to please a dodgy record company. That is a wonderful thing. Long may it continue.

But life doesn't get any easier for musicians... does it?.

Reeling in the Years

2011-07-23T11:17:00.007+01:00

In 1978 I interviewed Bob Marley. Yup, the Bob Marley. Face to face. Now, before Marley fans get too excited, I must state here and now that it really wasn’t a great piece of work. I did it backstage: never my favourite place to conduct an interview. Backstage is a working area, definitely not DJ territory. And Marley was… somewhere else. He really didn’t have that much to say to an impressionable Brit rock jock. Island Records were pumping up the Bob Marley mystique as hard as they could. That meant preposterous backstage faffery and ego-trips between promoter, pr people, tour managers, jocks and journos. I was really quite nervous, being a callow young honky and all, and Marley’s security was, shall we say, forbidding.

Job done and interview broadcast, I forgot all about it. For decades. Until yesterday, when I was contacted by a film company who wanted to use some of the material. How’s that for something echoing down the years and smacking you in the face?

I think this is a fascinating turn of affairs. There’s a whole bunch of things you can draw from this, none of them are about me and my interview.

Firstly: with today’s inexhaustible media, you never know when something you said in the past, no matter how ephemeral, will come back out of the blue. And that leads to the ‘how’ question:

… which is: how in the hell did they get hold of a 33-year old interview, which only went out once, on a not particularly well-listened to local station? Like a lot of broadcasters, my old station – BRMB – deliberately recycled its reel to reel tape to get the most mileage out of what was by today’s standards, very expensive recording media. Like many others, and to their eternal shame, they did not keep a detailed archive. Realistically, there are two possibilities: either I gave the record company a courtesy cassette of the final production, or a Marley completist taped the interview as it was broadcast. And that also leads to the why question…

… which is; is there a point to storing all this old stuff? The immediate and obvious answer is, yes, of course, it’s a no-brainer. What gets more interesting is how you judge what should be preserved, and when does the material acquire significance? Let’s, theoretically, suppose that after 1979, Marley had simply not had that much success. Let us further suppose that he had simply retired instead of dying, and that he might be still alive today, living in obscurity. Those facts would not detract from the quality of the work he had done up to that point. But I bet you there wouldn’t have been half as much interest as there is now. It’s a sad fact that death always has a pretty powerful positive impact on the record sales of an established star. It allows a mystique to be reinforced. And, boy, did Island ever reinforce that mystique, throughout the 80s.

Finally, and coming back to the film company who want to use the interview clip, there’s the interesting question of copyright. Who, technically and legally, owns the rights to the interview clip? Well, it’s not me. It’s the company that now owns BRMB. Ironically, none of their current employees were working there when the interview was recorded. They probably weren’t even aware of its existence until I dropped them an email this morning.

And morally, who has a stake in the clip? That’s another question altogether. I don't really mind either way. It was a difficult interview to conduct, but, as people often say: there are no good or bad experiences… there are just experiences.

In the Treehouse

2011-07-05T17:45:00.010+01:00

Songwriters Cafe 1 hr version part 1 by Radio To Go

Songwriters Cafe 1 hr version part 2 by Radio To Go

Two soundcloud files: a two-part documentary. I try to tell the story of an evening at Paul Murphy's Songwriter's Cafe. Paul organises this lovely event most weeks during the summer months, in his treehouse venue in South Birmingham. It is a platform for the oft-neglected art of the singer-songwriter. Performers are allowed to flourish and develop in front of a warm and receptive audience. I always feel wholly privileged to be at one of these events. And since Paul, pictured above (thank you, Richard Shakespeare), asked me to get involved, adding short interviews to his web feed - the event is streamed live at www.rhubarbradio.com and www.paulmurphytv.com - I thought I should try to tell a slightly more detailed story.

So this is an audio snapshot. I will eventually produce a longer documentary with more songs and longer interviews, and, maybe, slicker production. But, please, have a listen, and tell me what you think. And do tell Paul too - he's at murphmusic@gmail.com. It's a wonderful collaborative thing Paul does. And, yes, it's the same Paul Murphy who tears up the stage as lead singer/poet with the Destroyers. A remarkable man. Only in Birmingham...

It just keeps getting better… and better… and better

2011-06-09T11:55:00.017+01:00

Carina Round

This has been another of those weeks for amazing, amazing music. Last night, I caught one of the best live shows I've seen in a long, long, time, in King's Heath, Birmingham; and Saturday last, I was privileged to be at Music Up studios in Coventry to work with Alternative Dubstep Orchestra, as they recorded their first full live in-studio session.

I say ‘work’, because I was there to record an interview to add to the recorded material. But it was a pure pleasure to watch the band in a studio environment and pick out more facets of their extraordinary music. Eleven stunning musicians, with buckets of imagination and creativity in an atmosphere of collaboration and experimentation.

I don’t know where this collective is going – they don’t know either – but I know it’s going be exciting, and different. As soon as I finish this post, I’m back to editing the interview. Then when the tracks are mixed, I’ll put the package together. It’s part of a series I’m working on, with UB40’s Brian Travers, all featuring the best of local musicianship.

All this will all be streaming online and/or coming to a station or website near you pretty damn soon – and if you’re in radio anywhere, reading this halfway around the world from Birmingham, or a few miles away, drop me a note, and we’ll get a copy over to your station.

And last night produced one of those special evenings. Carina Round headlined, back in town for the first time in two years from her LA base. I’d never seen her before, but this was a must-attend gig – so many of the people I respect and admire in this city rave about her, I couldn’t not go. And she was, dammit, absolutely huge. A stunning range of material, delivered with panache and a compelling stage presence. Her new songs are blistering, savage, howling, eloquent… and of course, she had a band to match, including the wonderful Tom Livemore, who also plays with Jo Hamilton and, when he’s in town, ADO.

And the other acts on the bill – a very generous bill, thanks to Birmingham Promoters – blew me away too. Vijay Kishore bounced onstage with a solo set to kick things off. He played a set of all new songs, every one of them a gem. The last one, ’13 Rounds’ is an absolute stand-out.

I’m a fan of Vijay, and the same goes for Dan Whitehouse. Both guys produce intelligent, passionate, exceptional music. Dan’s set was packed with polished, crafted songs as well, with a lot of punch from a keys/fiddle/bass/drums backup band.

I know, I’m gushing. I've got no big political point to make here. I'm not even going to try to resurrect my old argument that local radio is missing out on this stuff bigtime... because the guys running most local radio aren't listening anymore. But I will say that that might change, one way or another, as the market is expanded by the web and committed internet radio. I'll have more to say on that soon... hopefully by early summer.

But these wonderful, wonderful musicians are treasures beyond measure. They're yours and mine. And they are growing and developing before our eyes, in our towns. Well, Carina apart, of course - she's growing in LA most of the time.

Yet more reasons why, if you’re not doing so already, that you should get off your butt and explore the talent in your area.

Oldies but goodies: whose perspective?

2011-04-25T11:32:00.006+01:00

First things first: this post has been triggered by an invite from old pals Mean Street Dealers. They were also known as Hooker and School Sports, but, as Mean Street Dealers, they truly were one of Brum’s finest bands in the mid-70s. And, like a lot of excellent bands, they kind of got swept away by punk towards the end of that decade. Punk, for all its early DIY spontaneity, soon became yet another marketing device for the music industry. This made life hard for bands who had been knocking on the door for more than a couple of years. Remember all those outfits that suddenly had to pretend that they couldn’t actually play?

But that’s another story. Mean Street Dealers could play then (and how), and now they are planning a comeback gig, on Friday 8th July at the Asylum in Hockley. Here’s the reunion gig info in more detail. I will dj at the event; I'm really looking forward to it. And that’s started me thinking for this blog post.

It’s about the kind of repertoire I might use at the gig. There are tons and tons of fine songs from the mid 70s, now largely forgotten. Put them together, in some kind of musical context, and they punch way above their weight. Not many people over the age of 45 will remember splendid outfits like The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Family, Bebop Deluxe, or, Doctor Feelgood apart, pub rock stalwarts like Ducks Deluxe, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, Supercharge, the Kursaal Flyers… the list goes on.

Back in the day, I used to have a Sunday night dj residency dj at the long-lost Barbarella’s. 50p in, me on the decks, mainly local bands on the bill, midnight close. Happy days. Incidentally, that weekly gig paid me more than half what I was earning at the time at BRMB for five nights on air… which just goes to show that local radio paid crappy wages then and, so I am reliably informed, still does now.

Of the music I used then, much is still current fodder for today’s Classic Rock stations. Floor fillers came from the likes of Thin Lizzy, Bob Seger, Stones, Zeppelin, Quo, Sabbath, Purple, Skynyrd… you get the drift. But, as most live DJs will attest, when you have a rocking crowd that’s seriously up for it, that’s exactly when you can cut loose with some tasty material. Generally too, that’s what you could do on a Sunday night at Barb’s.

I find it mildly depressing, checking out Classic Rock radio today, that much of this rich, rich repertoire has faded away and been filtered out from what is seen as suitable for airplay. Of course, a lot of material has disappeared into contractual black holes. Someone has the rights to the material and is in dispute with someone else, and so the song fades from view. But other material, I think, is lost to us because it simply is not being championed by the people who programme the output. And maybe that’s because they weren’t around when that stuff first came out.

Of course, each generation uses the music of previous generations in different ways. And, truth be told, I do believe those stations that support Classic Rock in some shape or form – Planet Rock, Radio 2, 6 Music, even Absolute Classic Rock on occasion - are doing a reasonable job. It gets a LOT worse when you listen to Gold stations. For example, if you check out the Motown or Stax/Volt catalogues, you will find Deep Soul treasures beyond compare. But the scant repertoire served up to us on most Gold stations is filtered by cautious programmers who either don’t know or care about the breadth of material on offer, or, fatally, will research each song individually for contemporary audience appeal.

And that’s a problem for Radio with a lot of vintage material. Either you drop back to placing it on a pedestal, and patronisingly - especially with Classical and Jazz - explain the material half to death. But that implies production costs and time that a lot of stations can’t afford. The alternative? Take the timid research-driven route: cut back, trim, and prune… until you’re left with just the old material that new audiences know. No wonder Gold audiences are tanking. No wonder most Gold stations have long since abandoned most of their 60s and 70s material, and are starting to look hard at their early 80s repertoire.

The way forward? Know your music. Love it. Take it out of the box. Treat it as a shared pleasure. That’s what the very best djs do, on radio, online or live.

And that is exactly what I plan to do at the Mean Street Dealers’ gig. Boy, it’s going to be fun. Now, has anyone got a copy of ‘Rolling On’?

Oh the stories we could tell

2011-03-24T14:15:00.011Z

I had a GREAT day yesterday. Much of it was spent gassing with Brian Travers – UB40 horn maestro and all-round good guy – in a studio that simply oozes Birmingham rock history. That’s him on the left, looking disgustingly healthy; I’m the, er, distinguished elderly gent on the right. The shot's from the camera of the excellent Richard Shakespeare.

And the studio? Well, it’s the studio that ‘Signing Off’ built.

We were in Highbury Studio, in King’s Heath. It was built by Bob Lamb, who has drummed for Locomotive, The Steve Gibbons Band, Ruby Turner, and many others, over a forty year period. I last saw him behind a kit with Chrissy Van Dyke’s wonderful but short-lived rock(ish) project, at the Hare and Hounds in King’s Heath, aka hipster central, Birmingham. .

Bob was and is a terrific producer. Head and shoulders above all his other projects, in terms of commercial success as well as creativity, must stand the four track recordings he made with UB40 in a bedsit in King’s Heath. Those recordings became the band's first album, 'Signing Off', initially issued on a small independent record label from the Black Country, Graduate Records.

From the royalties, Bob built his studio. He called it ‘Home Of The Hits’. I’ve worked there often over the years. Now, and at least for the current year, while Bob is travelling, the place has been rechristened Highbury Studio. It is thriving under the shrewd management of John Mostyn, with the likes of Misty’s Big Adventure, Poppy and the Jezebels, and the Alternative Dubstep Orchestra working there.

When Brian Travers and I were discussing doing an interview, it seemed by far and away the best and most fitting place to do it. And I am very grateful to John for instantly agreeing to let us record at his place.

And what did we talk about? What didn’t we talk about is a more appropriate question to ask: Early days, your Mum and Dad helping you out, Richard Branson as good guy, long-lost country music gems, local radio, Bluegrass, Jazz, parenthood and growing old, the dearth of venues, longevity as a working band, the energy of youth and the creativity that swings wildly around that energy, the importance of supporting a grassroots local music scene and industry… I could go on, but I haven’t even started working my way through the 90 minutes we recorded. But there are some treats and exclusives.

There are other resonances and echoes, back and forth, from the past to the future. Rob Peters was the drummer for much loved 80's Brum inyerface outfit Dangerous Girls. He engineered. And as a result of other meetings during the day, we may well see Brian collaborating onstage with one of Birmingham hottest new young bands in the next couple of months. And I think that is just... wonderful

I don’t know how many programmes I will get from this material. The first one will probably see the light of day toward the end of next month. It will almost certainly get its first outing on Rhubarb Radio. But I plan to make the show available free of charge to any station that requests a copy. Stay tuned. If I make a series out of this – given time and work commitments elsewhere - there’s an obvious title. Go on, have a guess.

BBC Local Radio: death by a thousand cuts

2011-03-14T10:22:00.009Z

I’ve been mulling this post over for a couple of days. This is partly because I am so damn angry. I’ve been trying hard not to unleash a stream of bile. I certainly don’t have all the facts, and I really don’t want to heap invective onto the wrong heads, or add more bitterness to the mix. And yet, and yet, and yet…. I still can't think about this without getting angry.

Here’s the focus for my ire: it was reported last week that the beeb are seriously considering ripping all but maybe six hours a day of local output out from BBC local radio, replacing this output by opting in to 5 Live. Here’s the Guardian’s report from Thursday 10th.

That we’ve got to this point is, sadly, inevitable. The BBC is on the back foot, and has taken a vicious funding hit. Savings have to come from somewhere. They tried with 6 music, and that didn’t fly. So now they appear to be picking off local radio. Me? I’m angry because this kind of savage cut is both ill-thought-out, and targets some of the least well-paid staff at the corporation. And it is - still - completely avoidable.

Local radio, both BBC and commercial, is simply not taken seriously by its metropolitan bosses. It never has been. It was only a matter of time before commercial radio happily abandoned any pretence of localness in favour of nationally marketed ‘brands’. In so doing, they insulted the broadcasters they had just fired by loudly claiming that there was just not enough talent out there anyway. That sort of attitude is patronising, arrogant and very stupid, but not unexpected. But that BBC management should seriously consider throwing hundreds of talented and dedicated coal-face workers onto the scrap heap makes my blood boil. It means national networks are valued and local radio is not. Of course, this may be a scare tactic to usher in less savage cuts, but it speaks volumes about how the corporation views its regional talent.

Do I know of what I speak? Well… yes, I do. I landed at Pebble Mill in the 90s to produce for Radio 2 Overnights. R2 was about to take its great leap forward, ousting R1 as top UK station. I inherited my main presenters, but was allowed to use local radio presenters for holiday cover. For them it was a big deal: a shot at the big time. They gave it their all, of course, and the two that I eventually came to rely on were excellent, delivering terrific listener feedback and often outshining the regular presenters. But did this mean my fine local radio professionals were taken seriously for possible promotion to the network? Even cursorily looked at? I’ll let you take a wild guess.

That was fifteen years ago, but I doubt that attitudes have changed. I know there have been countless consultations and strategy initiatives. I know that part of the agenda has been to put news first at BBC local radio. Music programming took a back seat, with a centralised and super-safe library fed to all stations, and local music shunted to off peak hours on the admirable weekly BBC Introducing slots.

That’s a crying shame. The news agenda is fine – give me good reporting any day - but news radio is expensive. Good reporters don’t come for free. Effective speech radio takes time and money. It also means that all too often the news agenda of the day follows events dictated from outside the region. If you then fail to deliver effective local coverage, you wind up sounding parochial, and unfavourable comparisons with national networks naturally follow. Radio 5 Live is great, but I don’t need it on yet another frequency. I would, however, really like to hear the next Victoria Derbyshire honing her craft locally.

Much worse, and by now I think it’s far, far too late to rectify this, BBC local stations have been allowed to distance themselves from local culture. The staff with the skills and contacts to deal with this have gone. There’s a bloody big freighter full of cultural goodies that’s sailed right on past local radio, and the stations have fatally and completely ignored it, because it wasn't in the strategic plan. In the first ten years of this century, there has been an explosion of creativity across the country. Creativity in the visual arts, theatre, dance, video and, especially, music is bursting with energy and collaborative enthusiasm. It is a source of huge pride to many in my city, and the same principle applies elsewhere. A lot of this is down to the web, which lets ideas fly around to create inspiring events like flash-mob choral performances, musical collaborations, mashups and more. And where is radio in all this? Pretty much nowhere, criminally being allowed to miss out. Unparalleled riches are just going to waste.

Has this even been noticed in the higher echelons of the beeb? Has its potential value to local radio been evaluated? I’ll let you take another wild guess.

I don’t know where we go from here. I do know that thrilling and brilliant music is happening both here in the West Midlands and all over the country, and it’s clear to me that this wonderful new resource – squarely at the very heart of our local and national culture - is being almost completely ignored. It may not be too late to change tack. But if the BBC throw hundreds of staffers out, with all their skills and local knowledge, then thousands upon thousands of years of work and experience will be lost to the BBC, forever. Talent will flow elsewhere, and will bypass the corporation, forever. There will be less and less challenges to existing thinking, more ossification of managerial attitudes, and we will lose, pretty much permanently, a cheap, value for money resource that probably will be impossible to reconstitute.

Ask yourself: where does talent come from? How does it learn its craft? And – is it really to be found exclusively in London, with the odd side trip to Manchester?

I think not.
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A tale of two Orchestras

2011-02-04T10:31:00.014Z

We have great orchestras in Birmingham. Why, I saw two this week. Now, I just may have been the only person who attended both of these gigs, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to see other kindred spirits: the music making was equally passionate and fulfilling, and the audiences welcoming and knowledgeable.

Wednesday night was the CBSO, rollicking through Mahler 9 and a brilliant contemporary piece, Kai, from Mark Anthony Turnage. Top notch delivery from all concerned, brilliant Symphony Hall acoustics, and a few members of the audience I would have tipped off the top balcony had I been able to reach them when they coughed or sneezed during the final movement.

Thursday night was the ebullient and witty Mama Matrix - I’d never seen them before, and I loved them to bits - and the third public gig from the Alternative Dubstep Orchestra, at a seething Hare and Hounds in King’s Heath.

Seething is actually the right word. I’ve never seen an entire audience go bonkers in quite such a complex and bendy-twisty way. If was if the crowd turned into a collective skanking jelly. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of this is due to the extraordinary heroics of guitarist Tom Hyland, who plays and dances with huge expressive freedom. But you simply can not single out anyone from this collective. The mix and approach are so infectious, and the shifts and splits in direction are fresh and mesmerising. I am deeply impressed. I love catching a band as it locks into something new and individual and unique. This was one of those moments. And they’ve hardly got started.

So who are these guys? Well, the full details are on their facebook page, but simply put, they are a live mash-up of genres, with stupefyingly good live djs (last night, Malicious DJ and The Doctor, with an appearance from Maxwell 45) and brio musicianship and skills from a multiplicity of music disciplines. Some musicians – they all play with other outfits - rotate in and out, and they plan for flexibility and surprises, underpinned with a solid sense of structure and purpose. There is a very early video available for you to watch, but it cannot capture what they do live. And a mixed multicultural band draws a multicultural crowd, who as I’ve already said, mashed themselves up into a pulsing, oozing, frenzy. In some ways, the gig reminded me of the Rock Against Racism gigs of 30 years ago – but here, the driving force was the sheer pleasure of experimental music making, powered by the purest idealism and goodwill.

This is very new and very vital, and I urge you to check them out. They play monthly gigs (so far), at the Honeycomb Club nights at the Hare and Hounds in King’s Heath, with intensive rehearsals in between time. The set is brief – four or five numbers - but those numbers are extended work outs which stretch the band and the audience.

Huge props to all concerned, not least the unstoppable Shelley Atkinson and Karl 'Malicious DJ' Jones, who dreamed up the concept, and then charmed, cajoled and bullied the project to its feet and into vibrant life. Respect and admiration doesn’t begin to cover it. And many thanks to Richard Shakespeare for the use of his picture

An INTERESTING year… because we live in interesting times. Don’t we?

2010-12-31T13:55:00.005Z

It’s New Year’s Eve, and I’m taking stock. In many ways, this has been an extraordinarily diverse and creatively fresh year. I’ve found myself both trying new things with new techniques, and also handling old-school projects in new ways. I’ve met some truly great people, and worked with new and old friends and colleagues on some inspiring projects. I’ve pushed myself both creatively and technically, and winkled out some new skills. All that’s good, and in some ways a very pleasant surprise. But, as it says at the top… we live in interesting times. There are a lot of clouds on the horizon, both for music and radio. But let’s do the good stuff first, shall we?

Yesterday (Thursday 30th December), I spent a very refreshing and pleasant hour guesting with Brett Birks at BBC WM. It’s on the BBC iPlayer for the next six days or so here – scoot through to the start of hour 3 to hear it. We were talking music, local issues, and trailing the BBC WM transmission of my Handsworth Evolution documentary. This was a commission from Birmingham Music Heritage, and I don’t think that they or I had any idea of how the piece would be received. The doco is permanently up on SoundCloud; you can get there from this blog page. The doco was also aired on WCRFM in Wolverhampton on Boxing day, and it is due to get a further airing on Rhubarb Radio in the new year. That’s lots of stations, and the more the merrier, say I: as I stated when I put the thing upon this blog, the doco is available, free of charge and gratis, to any station that would like to run it – just drop me a line and I’ll get a copy to you.

This was a sweet, sweet project to work on. I have had some truly lovely feedback. There really was something special about the Birmingham Music scene in the late 70s and early 80s, both in Handsworth and Balsall Heath, and indeed across the whole city. New and enthusiastic players emerged from all sides, bursting with skill, creativity and optimism. Rock Against Racism played a crucial role in introducing audiences and musicians to each other.

I’d like to think that time laid some foundations for the sparkling cross-cultural collaborations we enjoy now. It’s too easy to view each new generation as sweeping away the conventions of their crusty and conservative forefathers. In fact, now that we are seeing some of the children of those great 70s and 80s musicians make their way in our local music scene, I know this is not the case. Sometimes, anyway.

Five or so weeks back from yesterday, we launched the Pilot Project website. I’ve written at length about this, and it’s fair to say that the site has had a gratifying impact. Lots of traffic, lots of time spent on the site exploring. I am especially grateful to my fantastic team of advisors and collaborators, some of whom went far, far beyond that extra mile to help the project find its feet. You know who you are; I can not thank you (or, indeed, pay you) enough.

The next steps are already underway. However, I won’t go into detail just yet about these. But if you haven’t been to the site yet, why not go there now? Click around. Read about how it came together. And, above all, explore some of the sensational music from our region.

There’s more: I've seen new and exotic client radio stations for the consultancy side of my business. I’m also now a proud member of the RNIB Talking Books reader panel, and I can’t wait for my next assignment. It’s serious fun, and I work with people, many from radio, who know the power of the spoken word in a way few others do. And I am pleased to be able to report that – tentatively – Rhubarb Radio seems to be building solid foundations for its future. Props to those good people who are making this happen.

Now… the downside. Mmmm. Where do you start?

I mourn for many of my talented radio colleagues, people I trained and worked with back in the day, who now, saddled with mortgages and bringing up families, have to carve out a new future outside of an industry that has decided it has no need for their talents as it rolls its radio ‘brands’ out across the country.

I hate the notion of a radio ‘brand’. It's got everything to do with not communicating... in an industry whose lifeblood is communicating. Maybe the Radio industry thinks its brands are akin to a chocolate bar…something you pick up easily because you know what it is, no matter where you are. And maybe that’s so. But maybe it’s also the case that a brand is such a familiar and known quantity that you can throw it away all too easily.

Here’s a scenario: I’m ditching my long-term fave station. I stuck with it when it suddenly morphed into Flake FM a couple of years ago. But I’m tired of that now, so think I’ll go over to Wispa FM. There’s really not a lot of difference, and somehow I don’t much care for either these days, but it’ll do for now. I suppose. Until something better comes along. Or maybe I’ll just go off cheap predictable sugary bland confectionery altogether, because they do this stuff better on the web or on the telly.

Closer to home, I hate the way our local music industry is being starved of venues because property developers want to make a quick buck running up shoddy flats, and in so doing, try to get long-established neighborhood music venues declared noise nuisances. I know we need more housing; no argument there. Possibly we don’t need so many ‘luxury’ flats, but I’m not the one selling these, so how would I know?

I do know we absolutely need our venues. We need our talent to be able to work in those venues. It’s all part of the local economy, dammit. The next UB40 is out there. But if they can’t get started, then there’s no chance that the next UB40 will develop into a long-term vibrant business that will generate dozens of jobs and millions and millions of pounds for the West Midlands economy over the next 30 years. But, hey, some property guy from out of town will have sold a few more cheap flats and made our neighborhoods even more sterile. So that’s all right then. If you doubt that this is the case, just read this.

There’s more of course: Arts funding, for example. But I think I’m going to stop there. I’ve ended this year in a much better place than I thought I would. For that, and for the talented and generous creative world of radio people, arts and music people and, especially, music makers, that I find myself sometimes part of, I am truly grateful.

Here’s to 2011. We all need a good year. I hope we get one.

Rhubarb Crumble

2010-12-15T12:54:00.003Z

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about radio. I’ve been busy with the Pilot Project, of course, but there are other reasons. The overall radio picture is relentlessly depressing. Imaginative and capable broadcasters are being squeezed out to make way for networked output, with less and less sense of an obligation to listeners or communities. All this to allow more er, ‘brand development’ (Radio practitioners who feel unjustly maligned are welcome to reply to this post).

Last month, there was more bad news. Like many community stations, the eccentric but occasionally quite wonderful Rhubarb Radio is feeling the cold winds of recession. The current managerial team is bailing out; an intensive effort is being mounted to build a new and solid structure for the continued existence of the station. As I write, there are positive signs. The latest revival news is here.

I really want the Rhubarb revival to succeed, for a number of very good reasons, listed below. But I have been struck by the harsh cynicism, and sometimes malice, with which Rhubarb's bad news has been met by many of my colleagues in mainstream and associated radio sectors. I want to challenge that.

It must be said that a number of community stations seem to be not so much about community as about layers of control-freakery and ego-tripping. Rhubarb is certainly not immune. But, to be brutally frank, not one of the 70 or so stations I have worked at or advised could be said to be immune either.

Truth be told, I don’t know anyone who puts a show out who doesn’t have ego drive. Ego drive can be a very good thing. It should encourage competition; it should make you strive to make your show, or your station, the very best that you can make it. .So rivalry certainly comes into things. But it should not extend to barely disguised glee at a fellow broadcaster’s troubles. When I was programming at BRMB, I wanted to take the opposition (at the time Radio 1) down, big time, and it felt really good when I put a serious dent in their figures. That did not extend to wanting to demolish the BBC or shutting Radio 1 down. There were those in commercial radio who did, and do, want it shut down, but that’s another story.

The spectrum of ability and impact in radio is continuous and seamless, from beginner to practised. There’s no clear division between the big boys and the tiddlers, much as the big boys would like to see it that way. But I have a problem with hearing one radio person tearing into another operation – no matter what reasons they may have. A bit of humility might be nice. It’s only radio, after all…..

We all started somewhere. Chances are it was a tiny station, online or otherwise, a whole world away from today’s glossy radio factories. Dumping on stations like Rhubarb, especially when they’re on the ropes, is an ugly way to thank the people who put your first college or community or tiny local station up, so you could start to practise your craft. I started in student radio. It was not perfect then; it’s not perfect now. But you won’t find me dumping on it.

We need those community stations. We need the room to allow people to experiment, to try new tricks, to learn their craft, to practise until they’re perfect. And we need community stations to reflect and support their communities, to champion the music from their town, to float new ideas.

When a station folds, it’s sad, but the world does not stop turning. But when a small station folds, yet another door closes that might admit brave, fresh and idealistic talent to the world of broadcasting.

When I was putting the Pilot Project team together, I approached a lot of stations. From the mainstream, apart from the gracious and constructive help afforded me by the BBC Introducing team at BBC Shropshire, I drew a blank, even from areas where I might have expected some kindred spirits. But four of the fantastic advisors who worked with me on the Pilot Project were or are community radio djs. They were and are valuable to me because of their knowledge and enthusiasm. This knowledge and enthusiasm also took them into radio, and their stations were the richer for it. Three of those advisors were from Rhubarb. All of them do excellent shows.

I want to keep listening.
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More Pilot Project stuff. The lessons we learn...

2010-12-13T21:22:00.005Z

It’s fascinating how people use website information. We’ve had the Pilot Project site up for coming up on four weeks as I write this.

We’ve just added a new link – you can now email to info@pilot-project.co.uk.

I’ve been monitoring usage with Google Analytics. It’s telling us all sorts of stuff about where people are tapping into the site from. But the nice story I have to tell today is that, placed at the very bottom of the Advisors page, accessed off the About page, is a small paragraph thanking some of the people who went above and beyond the call of duty in offering comments and advice. You kind of have to dig to get down to this section. But people have been digging.

Mike Davies is a long-standing West Midlands Music journalist. He was down to be an advisor, but had to withdraw from our first shot for personal reasons. But happily, towards the end of our first curatorial period, he was showering us with ideas, which were most welcome. Yesterday Mike dropped me a note, because a band he worked with back in the day had been digging deep into the site, and turned his name up way down at the bottom of the Advisors page. And emailed him.

Not what I planned. But very nice to hear about. It shows how something like the Pilot Project , which is pretty damn well connected up, due to its fab team of advisors, can turn up even more connections. We saw a lot of synergies on launch night, and there have been more since then.

Another piece of news smacked me round the head this morning. I’d been double checking a couple of details on the site, and found out that the really excellent Senses, from Coventry, have called it quits. Sad for their followers, and it represents another tiny milestone for the Project.

Any site that takes a snapshot of 'now' is going to have to deal with change. Our approach this time around? We note that fact that with regret, the Senses are no more… and keep their music online for the time being. If there is any justice, the talented individuals from that band will go on to do other things, and if and when they achieve some success, it’s a nice to think that some of their earlier excellent work will have been archived for posterity. In a way that is the whole point of the Pilot Project. In the meantime, I’m racking up more feedback to evaluate as the Pilot Project progresses…

I mentioned some stats, didn’t I? Well, now...

We have an average of well over four minutes on site per visitor. That means a helluva lot of people are sticking around for rather longer. Even at average durations, that means more than one track being checked out by each visitor. Not at all bad in these days of dysfunctional site surfing.

Most popular page once you get past the home page? Well, it’s the Artists page. But the next most visited page is a surprise: it's the About page, which covers the whys and wherefores of the whole project.

At the start of the site’s life, two thirds of visitors were from the West Midlands. Now it’s about 50%, which tells us that the site is rippling out across the world wide web rather nicely. And initially, most of the traffic came from Facebook and Twitter and blog plugs. Now we can see a small but growing slice of interest directly from Search Engines.

I could go on. I will, next time….

Don't forget to email: info@pilot-project.co.uk

www.pilot-project.co.uk

2010-11-19T13:16:00.014Z

Well, we did it.

The Pilot Project site is streaming. And it's the morning after - one of those post-launch days.

I've felt this way before, mostly when getting radio stations on the air. It's that succession of increasingly long and frantic days, making sure that all the bits come together, with adrenalin taking over to a ridiculous extent. Anybody who has worked in radio will know what I am talking about. But this was, if anything, more diverse, using a wider ranges of skills and disciplines. No matter: the West Midlands Pilot Project is now streaming live. If you want the background and the context of the site, it's detailed on this blog on the post immediately below this one, or you could go to the About pages on the site itself and check out the brilliant team that I am privileged to work with. But, really, what I'd love anyone reading this blog page to do is... to crawl all over the site, and then feed back to us, via this blog if you like. In fact, please do do this: let's make this a very public discussion.

We have plans to develop from this most promising of starts; I hope to be able to realise these plans. The bottom line always was, and is now, that this site, and. hopefully in time, sister sites across the country will cherish and celebrate the talent that now emerges online, and feed this into the British Library New Music Network, stored permanently, for posterity.

Yes, the site undoubtedly has the potential to expose and promote our magnificent local talent, and, yes, it is a sign of the times that websites like this are now able taking on more of a role in exposing and championing this talent. And I do mourn the fact that most local radio has abandoned any sense of responsibility for taking this role on. But now that it is live, the changes and developments will be gradual, as we evaluate how we're doing so far. Remember, this is still an experiment and a test bed. We've just gone from phase two to phase three.

What's next? Oh, fixes, tweaks, software adjustments, editorial revisions, and planning, analysis, reports....

What's now? Play with this site. Enjoy. Talk it up. Tweet it, Facebook it. If you're a musician on it, let us know if it makes any difference.

It's worth noting that in our first six hours of live streaming, 36 % of visitors came from OUTSIDE the West Midlands. 25% from the UK, 11% from North America. So, hey, there is a minor promotional effect already. But I stress that this site is not built to directly promote new talent: it is meant to both record it and - especially locally, with the help of my magnificent team of curators - to celebrate it. No reason why those aims can't go hand in hand, though.

The Pilot Project

2010-11-13T10:20:00.014Z

This coming Thursday 18th at 7pm, I will be a happy man, if a slightly apprehensive one. That’s when the Pilot Project website goes live. Right now, it’s a holding screen. On Thursday… it’s something else altogether.

Over a thirty month spell of planning, cajoling and nagging, The Pilot Project has gone from a rough concept to a really solid website, packed with good stuff. It’s done so with considerable help from some truly great people, and a very welcome grant from Digital Content Development at the Arts Council. And it’s given me rsi the likes of which I haven’t felt for ten years. Then it was a huge classical database, built from scratch for lovely RTE lyric fm. That was great fun and very worthwhile. This is too, and it could turn out to be even better.

So – what exactly is the Pilot Project? Well, it’s a local music site, which feeds into the national British Library Archive, as part of their New Music Network. The Pilot Project covers new and contemporary music from across the West Midlands. It is the first very experimental step towards the establishment of a national archive of new independent music. It’s a range-finding exercise, hence the name. It’s there to answer questions both technical and methodological. It’s there for six months of web-streaming experimentation.

The contents of the site have been curated. This is important. The music has been chosen by local experts. Who are these experts? Well, they’re all people who work at the local West Midlands music coalface. They represent a body of knowledge and expertise that money can’t buy. Read on: the core members are listed below.

This is a big deal. Really. On the one hand, it is a new site with hot new music, in a fresh interface (a very sexy interface, courtesy of the great web designers at Carousel Digital), which hopefully will have the right impact.

And on the other hand, it is a prototype for something which could grow and develop across the country. We’ve taken this first step, in the West Midlands, in a spirit of optimism and co-operation. Now... look at this as the template for a whole set of sites, all covering their local scenes, all curated with the same love and passion I’ve seen in my colleagues while developing this pilot.

Still with me? Then consider this: imagine all these sites, running for, say, five years. Let’s say these sites each find, on average, maybe 300 tracks each year - notable at worst, absolutely killers at best. And let’s say we have 20 groups delivering 20 local sites from Cornwall to Caithness.

That’s at least 6000 pieces of new music each year, from across the country. Collected. Archived. Permanently. The best new music, vital parts of the very fabric of this country’s culture, on record, stored for ever. I wonder what we’d find in our archive after those five years? Actually, you’re probably ahead of me by now. It’s head-spinning.

Chances are, we would have the early work of a whole host of artists who by then had gone on to get some sort of recognition. Maybe a 21st century Quincy Jones? A new Ravi Shankar who mixes his chops with grooves and jazz beats? The next John Lennon? Asian Metal?

I’m reckoning on getting just that, and of course, lots more. And we’d have all that fantastic flowering of new music talent that the web has already fostered. Now, in the West Midlands, we have an explosion in new forms and hybrid developments touching on Urban, Reggae, Asian, Folk of all Shades, Rap, Jazz, seriously indescribable new styles… and, of course, Rock and Pop. All this deserves to be recorded for posterity. The blind alleys and mistakes, along with the successes.

I blogged recently about how one of my old stations (that’s you I’m talking about, BRMB), blithely wiped the reel to reel masters of the very first session UB40 ever recorded; I had commissioned it. In retrospect, it was incredibly unfortunate: no less than the destruction of what would have been a priceless piece of Birmingham Rock history. It should never have happened, but I know there were examples of this kind of destruction all over the country. It was a stupid management decision at BRMB, but, in fariness BRMB were by no means the only guilty ones.

Now, things have changed: different times, different ways, different storage media, different distribution. But it’s the same creativity, and the same mainstream media indifference to local and national treasures and resources. We need to tap into that creativity, permanently, to develop and to cherish it. If the Pilot Project blossoms into the fully developed British Library New Music Archive, then we’ve got a fighting chance that those UB40-style catastrophic losses will never happen again.

And the core members of the Pilot Project team? A big hand, please, for…
Chris Brumcast Downing
Marc Reck
Shelley Atkinson
Clare Edwards
Apache Indian
Richard Elms (Godiva Festival and Herbert Media)
Kate Southall
Louisa Davies at mac
Tony Dudley-Evans of Birmingham Jazz
The Friday Night Gerbil team at BBC Shropshire
Andy Linehan, British Library

Thanks, of course, are also due to all the bands and musicians who enthusiastically endorsed the project with their participation.

Who are these bands? Well the best way to find out is to explore the site. The Pilot Project website goes live on Thursday, November 18 at 7pm. Take a look; feed back to us. And tell your friends.

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Budapest

2010-11-04T17:03:00.006Z

I wrote most of this on the way back from a radio consult gig in Hungary. I’ve done this sort of thing quite a lot over the past twenty years or so, working all over the UK and Europe. Maybe fifty different stations; sometimes it feels like a lot more.

There’s something special about the first walk to work, in a new city, heading to a new client. Budapest did not disappoint, with golden autumn sunshine, mist over the Danube, and people everywhere heading out for the workday. The work is (almost) always a pleasure, invariably interesting, with endlessly different technical challenges, irrespective of the music programmed. And in case you’re wondering what all this has to with this blog, which is supposed to focus on radio and music in the West Midlands… well, actually, there’s quite a lot. Read on!

Back to Budapest… Across Europe, a lot of state radio operations are, to put it politely, being put under the microscope by their newly elected right-leaning governments. That’s certainly the way it is in the UK, with the BBC having a sixth of its funding hacked out of its budget at three days’ notice last month. Times are tough, and that goes for the commercial sector too. Trading conditions are described as, at best, challenging. It’s just not a reassuring time for people who work in radio.

That said, there are grounds for optimism. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about a full-on state radio set up in huge premises – which may not be fully staffed or well-equipped anymore - or a community station with egg cartons on the walls, or a commercial station in a portakabin, or an industrial estate, or swish city centre premises. The people I tend to work with are a passionate lot, with love for the craft and spirit of radio, and often a huge and impressive knowledge of the music they build their shows from. And, once we get to work, we're quickly on common ground, even if the challenges are different for each station. This is radio we’re talking about, with proper radio people.

And sometimes, those challenges are similar. My main client this time out, MR3, or Bartók Radio, is a Classical music station. It has a battle on its hands to play enough… Bartók. Béla Bartók died in 1945, and his work is still in copyright - for a few more years. This means Bartók Radio can’t play enough of their most famous local boy. In fact, Bartók Radio would love to expose more local contemporary Hungarian talent – and there is a lot of it – but they can not, because of copyright restrictions. This is a problem they share with Amazing Radio in Newcastle, where an artist signed up to PRS can not currently be played – although this may now be subject to negotiation.

It’s complex. I’m not about to start slamming rights bodies: they are there for damn good reasons, and I am the first to want to see musicians get their proper due. It’s also wrong when musicians have to give their work away to get exposed. I’d absolutely love it if the copyright bodies would build in a graduated set of charges that would make the use of new music more affordable, and so encourage its exposure.

Back to the computer work. It was mainly troubleshooting and analysing and debating. I have to say I had me a blast. I love working in this area, because it’s where individual creativity and rational structures collide – passion versus logic, if you will. Reconciling the two is not only interesting and engrossing, it can be a hell of a lot of fun. And although radio feeds on individual talents, those talents work best within a team ethos, where discussion and debate are part of the process.

Often the people I work with have the hardest of jobs and get the least recognition. Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, right?

Wrong. Managing a large database is detailed and exacting work. What makes life easier is clear editorial goals, and I can’t set those for any client. But I can help them implement those goals, show them the fixes, and find the faultlines… and that’s what is so satisfying.

And the local connection? Well, the second station that I worked with this week, MR7, deals entirely with Hungarian folk music, in great detail. And they were tickled pink to learn that Eastern European music is now all the rage in some quarters of my home town. So I’m going to send them some Destroyers, Mama Matrix, and Bright Size Gypsies just for fun. Hands across Europe and all that :-).

UB40 30th Anniversary thoughts

2010-10-31T19:23:00.003Z

Call me DJ Urassic: I’m pretty ancient on the evolutionary scale of djs. Actually, I don’t jock anymore, and that’s probably a good thing. But I do go on the radio to do things like the Handsworth documentary. And because I’m ancient, I get called in now and again to talk about one good old day or another.

This month sees UB40 touring to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of their first album. As I was the first jock in the known universe to actually play any UB40 on the radio, I’ve been tapped up several times for reminiscences. This led to a thoroughly enjoyable hour today on BBC WM, gassing with Carl Chinn, taking calls and waxing lyrical about four track recording sessions in bedsits in King’s Heath. Ironically, the station on which I played that early UB40 stuff was... BRMB. You know, the 'Made In Birmingham' guys. They haven’t been in touch. But, hey, I don’t think they play UB40 that much these days. And truth be told, back in the day, the station wasn’t impressed by my interest in obscure local bands… at least until those bands stopped being obscure.

Interesting fact: UB40 are the fourth most successful British band EVER. Consistency and long-term appeal will do that for you.

Second interesting fact: they deliberately chose to keep their business in their hometown. Not many bands do that.

Third interesting fact: only a town as multi-ethnic as Birmingham could have ever produced a band like UB40; they know it, and we know it. That’s why their gigs are so satisfying. It was interesting to note during the programme today that many of the callers feel a very real sense of gratitude as well as a kinship with the band. Seriously.

Fourth interesting fact – and this is where it gets personal: the session I ran on BRMB was a custom rough mix of some of the tracks that were being worked on for the first album, Signing Off. I asked for early mixes; I got them, they worked just fine. The session, in fact, was a stomping, whooping, huge success for the Rock show that I ran at the time.

Whenever I tell this story, I get asked if I still have the original reel to reel tape, as it would be a priceless piece of Birmingham music history – the very first evidence of UB40 on record.

I don’t, of course. In those days, stations recycled tape, wiping the content to re-use the medium. Pro reel to reel tape was expensive stuff. Why, a 10.5” reel, giving you half an hour of play, might run you £15 in 1979, and that was too much money to tie up. This is a difficult concept to explain to anyone under 30 years of age. Factor in inflation, and that £15 gives you enough money to buy a couple of terabytes of hard disk storage… Enough for thousands of hours of material.

Now, it’s easy and cheap to make room for audio storage. Then, it wasn’t. So countless hours of priceless material has been lost down the years. BRMB is not alone: the BBC did the same; everyone did. So a lot of stuff got lost. Some of it, like the UB40 sessions, irreplaceable, and of huge historical significance.

In a few weeks, I am launching a project - the Pilot Project – which aims to go some way towards preventing this sort of thing happening again, so that we can stand a better chance of holding on to the vital and powerful music that is being made right now. It’s been two years in the planning, and we are a long, long way from nailing this thing down permanently.

It’s a tough call. But I live in hope. Watch this space for details, very soon.

Handsworth Evolution – a documentary

2010-10-03T18:49:00.029+01:00

One tradition. Three generations of Birmingham reggae.

I spent a lot of time in the summer of 2010 bathed in classic reggae grooves, chasing down some of the musicians I worked with at local radio, over a generation ago, for a radio documentary. It was a true pleasure, and while it wasn't quite a labour of love – Birmingham Music Heritage paid me, bless, em, but they didn't pay me that much – I certainly put in way more time than was economic. The picture here is from Birmingham Museum and Art Galleries; the site's well worth a visit.

While working on the documentary, I got to hang out again with some dear friends from back in the day – so nice to catch up with some of the guys in UB40 that I hadn’t had a chat with for ages - and forge new friendships with guys like the great Andy Hamilton, and the amazing Apache Indian. And I got to do a bit of proper radio as well. It’s all there – the story of how the children of those early post-war immigrants came up with a vital new approach to reggae, mixed, matched and mashed up... and invented whole new styles of music along the way. And right now, there’s even a third generation doing new and vital stuff. Now, with the blessing of Birmingham Music Heritage, whose commission it was, I am making it available via MixCloud. Know what? I love internet publishing. All three parts are after the jump.

The programme is in three parts – I built it so it would allow for a news bulletin and breaks for promos and/or ads. It’s also on offer to local community stations for rebroadcast, gratis – email me, using the link at the bottom of this post, and I'll send you a DropBox invite.

Here's part 1:

Handsworth Evolution 2010 documentary - part 1 by Robinvalk on Mixcloud

This is part 2:

Handsworth Evolution documentary - part 2 by Robinvalk on Mixcloud

Handsworth Evolution 2010 documentary - part 3 by Robinvalk on Mixcloud

And I would be delighted to hear your comments.

Getting that gig on Radio – it’s tougher than ever…

2010-09-24T19:52:00.004+01:00

I realised, looking at the front blog page today, that, to my shame, I have not posted for well over a month; for this I apologise. However, I do have good reason for this apparent inactivity: I have been, and still am, ferociously busy on something I am calling the Pilot Project, about which I will blog in enormous detail very soon.

I'm also about to start teaching a seriously detailed Radio Course, concentrating on presenting skills. Normally I cover music scheduling, in a concentrated burst – not perhaps the best way to approach the topic - but this gig has me working on presenting and production, at length, with a team of committed and savvy students; I’m looking forwards to it. And, in a connected bit of serendipity, I was asked today for advice on how to apply to a station. So now seems a good time to pull all this together. More after the jump….

If you want a paid gig on a radio station in the UK in 2010, you need to know a few key truths:

First: there are a helluva lot less jobs to go for now than there were at the beginning of the year. See my posts here and here for a few more details.

Second: the pay’s really not that great, unless you work your way up to stardom.

Third: the guys – it’s almost always guys, by the way – that you need to reach are, frankly, feeling just a bit beleaguered, what with budget cuts on one side, and job cuts on the other.

But let’s say that you’re going to bite the bullet and go for it anyway. Here are some tips to help you along.

Listen, hard and long, to your chosen station or stations. Make a note of what you consider the strengths and weaknesses. Then listen, hard and long, to your stuff. How does this sound in comparison? What have you got that might fit with your target station? And what else has the station done that has worked well – or badly?

By the way, I’m assuming you have existing stuff; there’s really no excuse not to have existing stuff, even if you’re starting out – there’s community, student and internet stations galore. Go get involved, now, if you’re not involved already.

Put a demo together, specifically for the station you’re pitching to. Don’t just assemble a demo and think that will do for everybody – it won’t.

Make the demo short. Lose almost all the music, and use the opportunity to show off with some flash music edits to highlight your production chops… or simply fade out and in. The station wants to know what you sound like, and how you work with music. Even though you are targeting a specific station, be true to yourself.

Put the demo together on a CD, and label it properly – printed label, with your name, address, email and phone number.

Find out the right guy to send it to. Include a CV that majors on your radio experience. Don’t forget to list real-world experience too – it helps to show that you’re a real person. You got positive press-cuttings, endorsements, and letters of praise? Great! Put them together on the CD too.

Send it, and wait. The station almost certainly won’t come back to you instantly. But they may keep the CD on file, especially if it impresses.

Keep waiting.

Do NOT pester the PD, his PA, or anyone else at the station.

Keep waiting.

If you don’t hear anything… well, you’re no worse off than you were before. Keep on working at your existing station and/or your day job.

Keep waiting.

If they ask you in for a chat, go back to that list of strengths and weaknesses you drew up when you researched the station. Be ready to draw on that list… but whatever you do, be careful. They may have a truly crap drive time presenter… but he could just be the PD’s protégé. The music selection may make you feel ever so slightly icky, but it’s almost certainly going to be a long time before they come to you for your considered views on programming. Rubbishing what they are doing almost never works.

But be ready to make constructive suggestions, based on what you’ve found in your research. Present yourself so that they see you as having something they may need. Throw some competition or promotional ideas out – and be ready for them to be pinched.

Have an answer ready if they offer you a job on (ha) ‘intern’ terms. Decide how you would handle a salary of rather less than you’re getting now at your day job.

And, if you get the job… have an exit route planned, just in case you conclude, too late, that you’ve landed a gig working with a bunch of deluded basket cases, lead by a penny-pinching psycho who will never pay you properly, or promote you. It's not uncommon - sadly.

And don’t count on this as a long-term career move. This year, there are dozens of able, worthy, experienced professionals, all of who have families and mortgages, who right now are wondering where they can go to, now their stations have been rationalised out of existence. A lot of stations cater to kids or parents with young families – that’s what the advertisers want. So they tend to go for presenters with that kind of appeal. The means... twenty and thirty somethings.

By the way, in case you think I’m trying to talk you out of going for that dream gig… I really am not. I’d just like you to have all the facts. But I really, really, want you in the industry if you happen to be hugely talented and determined.

Good luck….
.

Live and Local

2010-08-09T10:56:00.008+01:00

It’s been a busy few weeks. In the past fortnight, for reasons that will become very clear in a couple of months, I’ve seen more than my usual quota of local bands, and I tend to watch quite a lot. I’m a BIG fan of local music. You often get to see new bands with extraordinary promise, and once in a while you see that promise on its way to being fulfilled. And above all, you have the pleasure of watching musicians play for the sake of making music – as opposed to for the express purpose of relieving you of as much money as possible in some soulless concrete box miles from anywhere.

So over the weekend I took in, among other things, the single launch gig of Goodnight Lenin, and a very low key warm-up gig for DC Fontana. Goodnight Lenin are a year old, but already have a mighty following, who packed out the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. I’ve never seen the place so full, or, to be frank, felt so, um, sweaty there. This may be down to the good offices of Moseley Folk, promoters of the excellent Moseley Folk Festival and the Lunar Society series of gigs, who manage them, and who have from a standing start, become extremely influential promoters in Birmingham in recent years.

Anyway, Goodnight Lenin are an interesting bunch. They showed a nice bit of confident swagger as they took to the stage, which I generally take as a good sign. Lots of energy, strangely high harmonies from three of the four vocalists, clever arrangements, lots of folky swapping and doubling of instruments (fiddle, mandolin, squeezebox, acoustic and electric guitars, and keyboards). They showed a pleasantly relaxed, slightly laddish presence onstage which went down well with their core audience – although I could have done with snappier onstage delivery, which would have made more of their material and style. But, hey, there’s a scorching single and video, and they’ve already come a long way in a year. I’ll be following them with pleasure and interest.

Sunday night was surreal. And seriously good fun. The Witton Arms is a straight down the line Irish boozer in the shadow of Villa Park, in what is now a very multicultural chunk of inner city Birmingham. A small place, full of large cheery red faced men in Gaelic footy replica shirts, with wives, mothers, aunties and girlfriends. A proper community place. Evening sunshine streaming in through the open doors, and a cheerful lurcher was being fussed over by the smokers in the courtyard. Inside there was no stage for the band, who had to squeeze themselves in – no room for the piano... just the Hammond.

DC Fontana are a band who simply adore classic soul, and make lots of room for it in their set. Now, this is a very risky thing to do, as it invites comparisons with the originals. But they carry it off very, very well, with a three piece horn section, a classic Hammond/Leslie cab combination, and a tight rhythm section, fronted by a big voiced girl singer. You used to see bands like this all the time back in the day, and sadly, most of them were rubbish; I can only think of one totally fabulous late seventies outfit, from the black country – Little Acre – who managed to get it right. DC Fontana totally nailed the classics in their set – including Green Onions and Chain Of Fools, and even did credit to Compared To What. Their own material was not too shabby either. There’s an album to explore, and the current video shows their 60s roots. They shot it in Porthmeirion, the original location for the Prisoner TV series.

As for the audience? Well, even though it was an Irish boozer on a Sunday night, most of the regulars really rather liked the turn, and gave them a pleasant reception. Me, I loved them. I didn’t think they made bands like this anymore, and I’ve very glad these guys are around. But next time I’ll check them out at a venue that has room for their piano.

Note to anyone interested at radio: both bands sound great, and have killer singles out. They would appreciate your support; I for one would love to hear either of them on a mainstream radio outlet. Note to anyone in the music industry: this stuff is self-produced, largely self-managed, sophisticated, and is completely bypassing your mainstream outlets. That's the way it is these days. Time to catch up.

Ghosts of stations past

2010-07-31T13:32:00.000+01:00

Over the past two years, I’ve traveled around the country a fair bit, working on consult gigs at different stations. Most of this has been database troubleshooting and coaching, both in RCS Selector and PSquared’s AutoTrack Pro - fine scheduling engines both.

I've been struck by the lingering echoes of old radio ways, which persist down the years, even while the old premises are now occupied by new staff doing new things in new ways. But there are some constants. Almost everything has changed in the way we do radio - except for the people.

Two recent clients are Coast 106 in Southampton, where my consult period happily and very precisely coincided with an unbroken rise in hours and reach, and Amazing Radio in Newcastle, where I was this month. Both stations are very interesting propositions, both very different from the norm and unique in their different markets. I’m going to post in detail about Amazing soon - it’s a story worth telling.

Coast took over from the previous unsuccessful owners in the teeth of the recession, and have now co-located a set of other local stations in the same premises. When I first visited them their staff numbers were tiny – breathtakingly small – as the station worked towards viability in difficult market conditions. Amazing, for their part, occupy premises first set up for radio in Gateshead for Century FM, another name now long gone from the UK radio map. But here and there, in both places, you could still find evidence of the earlier stations – machines in the racks, frosted glass markings on long-decommissioned production studios, and so on.

And in those old premises, bright and committed staff – less than before, a lot less - do new things in new ways. As the stations consolidate and grow, there is space to expand, for now, although I suspect Coast, with their new services, may be feeling slightly squeezed by now.

For all the new staff, new techniques and new thinking, one vital element remains, constant, reliable and welcome. That same, warm, instantly recognisable radio vibe is still there. It comes from people who passionately love what they do, who kvetch and bitch, rage, laugh, plan, coach, cajole, seduce, brag, strut and fret. It’s intense, even when things are outwardly calm. Stations are driven by passion; sometimes that comes out as desperation, sometimes as elation. That intensity knits teams together, drives the stations, and enables the output. Whether, in the end, all that effort and emotion leaves a mark, whether it actually matters in the long run is not the issue. Much of radio is about the moment, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Show me a radio station, and I’ll show you people who love their work and care deeply about it. In both premises I tried to get a feeling for what went on, back in the day, before the new occupants moved in. At Coast, I wondered how it had been for the staffers at Original; I got my answer a few months ago talking to an ex-presenter who now works in my neck of the woods.

Walking around Amazing made me think, just for a moment, about how it was in the early 90s, when Century first launched as one of the first five regional ILR stations. I was in Scotland then, at another long-gone name, Scot-FM. It was less than twenty years ago, but things were so, so different. Those walls could still talk, just a little.

I listened, briefly, and then got to work with Amazing’s savvy and willing crew. And it was a pleasure.

Is this really popular in your neck of the woods? Ever asked why?

2010-07-29T08:33:00.003+01:00

One of my must-visit radio blog pages is the Infinite Dial, from the US-based Edison Research – who, unsurprisingly, do research for radio. They have a refreshingly open-minded approach to what radio may be now, and what it may become. A recent post covers regional tastes, and it’s fascinating. Well worth a read, here.

I absolutely love this aspect of the business – ferreting out local tastes, finding out what matters locally. It’s a source of endless interest. Of course, I also like this post because it reinforces my thoughts on localism. But I’d like to take things a little bit further.

Our man at Edison remarks, quite rightly, that it’s always interesting to find those places where ‘Mony Mony’ and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ (hey, not talking Gold much) barely register with listeners, and indeed it is. The processes by which songs become popular and spread out to audiences are interesting and increasingly varied. Who would have thought that computer games like Guitar Hero and trash teen tv (Glee) would have had become major players, bigger than tightly playlisted radio format radio, in shifting product?

What interests me is this. If those horribly familiar songs (to US ears at least) Edison Research is talking about don’t light up audiences everywhere, should we question the continued faith placed in them in their core markets? And, more interesting still, exactly what songs are now lighting up those different audiences? Classic oldie songs on Gold formats have been around a long time; they’ve had time to develop deep roots. So what made those roots either not take in the first place, or, more likely, lose their grip? And if this is genuine evidence – I’m not quite sure it is - that pop music radio's cosy assumptions of the past fifty years are turning out to be either wrong, skewed, or outdated, why is such faith still placed in the old ways of operating?

Each market is individual. While we have increasing media homogeneity, this report is pretty convincing evidence that that homogeneity breaks down when you dig deep into each market. I’m not for one minute going to wear any jingoistic assumptions that because this research is driven from the US, that it is blinkered and limited in its vision; I think we’re largely doing a lot worse over here. But if my supposition that local individuality persists against an overwhelming tide of homogeneity, that is horribly inconvenient for our larger scale broadcasters, who increasingly resist any obligations to relate to their local market places.

And here’s the point: by skipping past the local, the network boys are in danger of handing over listenership to new local operators who are rooted in their markets, and willing to both dig into local tastes and reflect their markets. The only question now is: can local small-scale operators in the market and still to come to market, find ways to sustain themselves so they can survive and prosper? The nest few years could be very interesting.

Schools Radio

2010-07-22T09:56:00.009+01:00

This bunch of cheery chaps (there are chappesses involved too, but they were cropped out - I apologise), are some of the students I’ve been working with recently at a local school – Bishop Vesey, Sutton Coldfield – on a radio production project. The school was happy to define the activity as a radio station, although, alas, of studios and transmitters there were none. In fact for most of the project, there weren’t even such luxuries as microphones. I’m told this isn’t exactly uncommon. But you know what? Radio station status is irrelevant. This project has way more in common with proper, real-life radio station activity than you might think.

After all, any station worth its salt addresses one or more communities: local communities, communities of interest, or identity, or ethnicity, or music tastes, or age groups…. You get the picture. And, just as in real live radio, people come and go, join and leave teams, get to grips or give up, and grapple with technical and programming challenges. In so doing, they weave a web of involvement, hopefully with a high degree of continuity. A school is a particular community, very high on energy, very vocal, often brash, sometimes subtle, and full to bursting with youthful tribal identities that merge and split, coalesce, explode and implode. So there’s lots going on; lots of things to cover, which matter to that particular community. Radio activities are an excellent 'fit'.

As to the work? Well, we scratched the surface. We made a start, and I’m very happy at the prospect of working with this team again in the next academic year.

This is grist to my mill. I’m especially interested in the notion of encouraging new people – and they don’t get much newer than this lot – to talk about matters of interest, to learn to voice, argue and present, to struggle with new techniques, and to deliver cogent material. As commercial radio is increasingly rationalised out of having any impact at local level, there is a huge danger that this whole way of thinking will be wiped off much of our radio landscape. I would argue that now is the time to cherish and value these skills, because they will be desperately in demand in five or so years when the Digital Economy bill is… supposed… to clear the way for small-scale and community radio operations on the FM band.

If and when that day eventually comes, I can’t say whether there will be careers to build, or even livings to be made. Radio is turning itself inside out, and for many this is a very painful time. But I do know that radio on all its platforms – streamed, podcast, transmitted, web, digital or analogue – desperately needs good communicators to reach out to its communities of listeners. Those skills are hard-won, and the industry doesn’t seem to value them any more. We desperately need to avoid the mistakes made by television as it cuts costs and sinks to lower and lower levels. Car-crash tv, presented by vacuous inarticulate morons, may be good fun for a few minutes when you get in from the pub. It doesn’t work on radio. Powerful, direct, loyalty-building communication does; always has, and always will. And it costs pennies… and the will on the part of the powers that be to let it grow and flourish. I’d love it – just love it, Kevin – if some of the above bright, engaging and likeable individuals were working in radio five or ten years from now.

PS: Two days after I took that photo, I was in Newcastle working with the excellent team at Amazing Radio; I'm due back next week. That's a whole different deal, and I'll post in detail in due course.

Budgets, cash flow and creativity

2010-07-12T09:21:00.001+01:00

There’s been huge coverage of the jobs lost at commercial radio over the past few weeks. If you want to get up to speed on this, check the Guardian’s pages here. I feel desperately sorry for the several hundred people who will now be leaving the industry they love, some of whom have been hard at work for decades.

Of course, the business rationale is that in a recession, commercial radio needs to find ways to shoulder the extra burden of digital transmission costs, and provide better services to attract listeners to digital. I hear the transmissions costs argument loud and clear, but I’m not going to even discuss issues like ‘quality of output’ now that stations are turning into brands – it’s a pointless exercise.

But there’s a lot of point in thinking about how things can be done convincingly on low budgets. Two weeks ago, I participated in a TV show, hosted by the excellent Apache Indian (check his Wikipedia entry here) from his Corporation Street venue, Apache’s Bar. It was carried on BritAsia, Sky channel 833. He does this monthly. Apache laid on a live band (jazz horns and dhol rhythm section), an audience with things to say, and a key topic – why does radio not do more to support local talent? I was there to talk radio, of course. Interestingly, I was the only guy who turned up from my section of the media; others were invited. Funny, that. And there were only two points I could make.

Firstly: I was not going to defend the indefensible. Radio’s move from local to corporate is soul-crushingly awful for musicians making their way in the world and looking for some exposure.
Secondly: But, hey, radio be damned; great music will find always find a way to its audience, and the better it gets, and the more the audience buys in, the more radio has to acknowledge this. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen radio scramble to catch up with music developments it can no longer begin to control. So.... if you're a musician, get great. Simple.

But those points are tangential to this post. The fact is that Apache delivered a credible, engaging show on a minuscule budget. The same applies all over the country at community radio level. What you need, always, are clearly thought out ideas that your audience will engage with. What you don’t necessarily need is expensive kit.

Still on this topic: I’m just coming to the end of a month-log schools educational project. The equipment we were promised has yet to materialise, through no fault of the school. So we’ve been improvising, using borrowed kit, pressing unexpected tools into service, and working on ancient computers running the excellent and free open source Audacity editing software. Although we’ve had to adapt and revise a fair amount, at no point in the project have these limitations blocked the flow of ideas, and some of these ideas have been belters. I’ll blog separately about this in a week or so, when the project reaches its conclusion.

The best programming approaches, like the best ideas, come for free. They are the results of clear and focussed thought. And often – not always, but often - that clear and focussed thought flourishes best where it won’t be stifled by large corporate structures. If you’re in a tiny operation with zero budget, you may be blessed with a creative freedom you could look back on fondly in future years.

Consolidation. We knew it was coming.

2010-06-21T17:25:00.002+01:00

Last month, and two posts down on this blog (scroll down or click here), I painted a gloomy picture of consolidation and retrenchment. Today, the first big jobs and stations cuts bit - and hard. 200 jobs and 18 stations are to disappear, as Heart moves ever closer to a national 'Brand'. Here's the Guardian's report.

Not over yet, I'm afraid.

Naming names

2010-06-10T08:52:00.001+01:00

I’m all in favour of localism in local media, as you might have gathered from earlier posts. So I was pleased that BRMB, back under local ownership, decided to revive the Walkathon – a twenty mile charity walk around Birmingham’s circular number 11 bus route – after seventeen or so years of non-local ownership. It took place last Sunday. They raised more than they expected, for a worthy charity. Well done; applause all round.

I was slightly less impressed with the ungenerous coverage from BBC Midlands Today on Monday. The event got scant coverage, with the briefest of brief shots, showing an unimpressively small group of people walking along an empty path. Critically, there was no mention of BRMB, who organised and sponsored.

Compare and contrast, then, with the lavish Midlands Today coverage of the difficulties that a Handsworth Community Radio station is experiencing. New Style Radio has funding problems, and things are looking grim. But boy, did the BBC ever go to town on their situation in the evening bulletin last night. Names were named; lovingly crafted footage of disaffected staffers and volunteers was shown; principals were grilled on screen in forensic detail.

So what do we learn from this? It’s, sadly, a typical local media thing. If a non-BBC Radio Station does something significant and worthwhile for the greater community, then, hey, that’s good news. So the BBC will, if they absolutely must, report it; but will then go to ridiculous lengths not to give the station any credit. If on the other hand, a non-BBC station is squirming on the hook because of bad news… then you can look forward to explicitly detailed coverage.

That Midlands Today’s two pieces were aired within the space of three days served to highlight a frankly uneven approach.

Community Radio stations across the country are struggling for funds; licenses are being handed back regularly, and I fear it’s going to get a lot worse. I was very sorry to hear of New Style’s difficulties, just as I was impressed with BRMB’s successful revival of the Walkathon. But a little bit of reporting consistency from Midlands Today would have been nice.

Future of Local Radio???

2010-05-28T09:24:00.012+01:00

Stop press - this post seems to have gone modestly viral. BIG response. I'm pleased.

I was the keynote speaker at Creative Networks last night. Brilliant, interested audience of students and practitioners. I gave a seemingly bleak overview of the state of UK radio and the shrinking opportunities for creative work, as cuts continue to bite at the BBC, and the commercial sector continues to strip jobs out, and ramps up automation and networking. All is not lost, however – in fact, all is never lost, if you approach things the right way.

Bullet points after the jump.

We still have great radio listening, but the BBC continues to thrash Commercial Radio – it’s now nearly a 60/40 split, down from a 49/51 split a few years ago.

The Government’s planned migration to digital is not going that smoothly – the scheduled date for the big Digital leap forward is 2015, but that, being dependent on a critical listenership mass being reached, looks unlikely.

Why? Well, you can lead a horse to water, and all that. AM/FM is ubiquitous; Digital takeup is slow. Technical standards are iffy at best, and not uniform worldwide, which pushes up manufacturing costs. Few people listen to digital by preference. We do have a wider choice on digital, but a lot of services are shoddily put together, with sloppy use of automation to keep costs down, and not a huge effort to engage the audience. Here’s a useful article from last Monday’s Guardian with some extra perspective.

The proposed closure of 6 Music is insane on so many levels, especially strategically; they provide dirt cheap (but passionate) programming, designed to pull listeners over to Digital. And it’s not a threat to Commercial Radio; the big bad Commercial Radio boy here is Radio 2, which does what it does pretty damn well. I could add a personal note here: instead of bitching about Radio 2, the Commercial boys could try pinching the Radio 2 act – providing great programming with valued and intelligent presenters, and actually attempting to relate to audiences instead of pumping out positioning statements for their, ahem, brands. It’s not expensive – it just requires an effort of will.

To sweeten the Commercial sector in the move to digital, concessions have been made that allow co-location, more reductions in local programming, and the potential virtual abandonment of localism in regional services. That spells job cuts. Lots of them.

With Commercial radio's ten-year retreat from localism in favour of brands and national programming, has come a decline in listenership. Sometimes it’s been spectacular. Here’s another interesting article from Tony Stoller, who used to be one of the Radio Regulators in my youth, also from Monday’s Guardian, which backs this up with a vengeance. Hey… interesting to note I’m not alone here.

By the way, the pay’s crap, assuming you have a paid job at all. No change there.

Now for the upside.

Production tools have never been cheaper. Go create.

Building your library has never been easier or simpler.

Local Music has never been better.

Good Local Radio and the right Local Music are a Marriage Made In Heaven.

The web lets you blog, podcast, and upload to SoundCloud and elsewhere to showcase your work. Again, go create.

Eventually, the FM band will be turned over to small-scale and community stations, who have maybe five years to get ready for this.

Even after the switchover, there will be way more FM radios out there than digital sets. They’re not going away. I expect manufacturers to continue making and supplying them, and cheaply at that.

As they retreat to their glossy digital networks in London, the Commercial boys have left the field WIDE open. I for one can’t wait to see a raft of lairy, undisciplined, anarchic, creative, open and experimental stations step forward on the FM band to take their place.

That’s how the creative process always works: something comes in from left field and kicks the doors down. Radio’s not any different.
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Creative Networks, Thursday 27th, Millennium Point, Brum

2010-05-20T11:56:00.006+01:00

Creative Networks is a monthly gathering of... Brum creatives who, er, network. The Birmingham Music Network meeting precedes this event in the same venue, and I’ve attended one or both of these monthly gatherings for some time. Last Thursday in the month at Millennium Point, and you get a meal thrown in - what's not to like?

I’m the Keynote speaker this month. It’s an interesting prospect. I am going to, of course, talk about local radio and local music. But that may just be a sidebar to some of the other areas, as we look at 21st century ‘radio’ on its many possible platforms. After all, there’s not a huge amount to say about radio that hasn’t yet been said....

...or is there?

Well now… Of course there is. I would say, that, wouldn’t I? But it remains a fact that ‘radio’ is ignored as a creative area by most people, and is especially ignored by other media unless they can print or screen something juicy or damaging. Mass media loves finger-pointing tittle-tattle, and radio has more than its fair share of unbalanced egos who can provide a steady stream of gossip fodder.

I still think, thought that there is a world of possibilities out there around radio. So what sort of things am I going to talk about?

How about the explosion in alternative sources of radio – community radio, college radio, blogging, mixes and mashups? And how come there has been an explosion in the first place?

What sort of tools do you need to get started? And, er how much do they cost?

And what sort of things are out there that you can listen to or otherwise discover?

What about… sound with images? Not, I stress, video, but SOUND. With added images.

And is this still radio? Hell, I don’t know. I do know that when you get to this point, you’re still using the same tools that you’d use to make conventional ‘radio’.

Maybe it’s the whole definition of radio we need to look at. After all, when we think about radio, it’s almost always in connection with music, maybe with a voice to link it all. Maybe, if you’re on a Spotify, Pandora or Last-FM ‘radio’ stream, a 'radio station' with no voice at all.

But I kind of think that radio is still all about connecting, ideally live. But how can you do that with a podcast?

Lots to talk about then. I’d be delighted to get some ideas from you ahead of Thursday next, by the way. Might even namecheck you on the night.

Five Minutes with...

2010-05-13T20:01:00.002+01:00

Kiwi Birmingham based new media maven Andrew Dubber likes to interview people on his iPhone.
He then takes pictures of them, on his iPhone.
Then he posts this stuff on his blog. He calls it Five Minutes with...
I'm the latest. Not that it last five minutes, of course.
Watch and listen here.

Bonding points

2010-04-30T14:58:00.002+01:00

Right after posting yesterday, I found myself musing with musos (since you ask, Apache Indian and Neil Spragg, who drums with Omnia Opera and djs as Sir Real), about that special moment when things come together between the live performer and the audience.

I’m talking about that bonding point when performer and audience become one, and everyone in the room senses it. I’m jealous: unlike club djs, radio djs rarely get even close to such a moment, because of the way we sit in our little studios, getting one-sided and iffy feedback from Facebook and emails. Me, I’ve always felt that IM really stands for Imperfect Medium, as opposed to Instant Message.

So why talk about this in the context of radio? Well, here’s why….

If you’re in radio, and you care about your show and your audience, you should be aware of bonding points. You’re going to want to identify them, and surf your shows on those waves of goodwill. You may – just once in a very rare while – even be able to generate bonding points between yourself and your listeners; and if you do, you have my admiration and respect. But, in music radio, you’re more likely to want to spot where those bonding points take place, and involve yourself and your station in some way.

And that’s where it gets easier and easier the closer you are to your audience.

Think about it. Direct and intimate communication over shared passions is what radio can do better than almost any other medium. But the bigger the station and the broader the focus, the more that seductive audience-building potential is swept aside in favour of bombast and ego on the one hand, and defensive and negative programming on the other.

Here’s an example: I love Glastonbury coverage on Radio 2, 6 Music, BBC2 and BBC Digital. I get to see terrific performances from interesting acts. I get to see bonding points between the audience and the performers – I’m thinking especially of the coverage of Bruce Springsteen at Glastonbury and Elbow at T in the Park right now. But am I engaging with the broadcasters? Hell, no – that smug ‘here I am at Glasto in the mud’ schtick puts me right off. Am I even grateful? Well, yes, I guess I am – but grudgingly, mind.

They’re still doing their job though. The beeb spotted an unusually strong concentration of bonding points and they surfed those waves of passion and goodwill. So, good for them.

Here’s where it starts to hit home for radio: bonding points are exactly what radio people should be aware of. And the closer you get to home, the more bonding points you’re going to find that matter in your market. Think about those bands who put hundreds of people into a room in your town. Now think about the impact that could have on your station… if the music is right.

That was what I was talking about with Apache Indian and Neil Spragg. They know ALL about that vibe. Neil’s working on exactly that in his shows on Music World radio; Apache Indian’s doing that most nights in his Birmingham City Centre bar. I can think of at least three djs who are doing sterling work at Rhubarb radio who reach for those bonding points, and others elsewhere who work on that too.

Now, take another look at the bleak scenario I was talking about in my previous post. By stripping out even the remotest chance of tapping into that vibe, many radio operators are losing out on that wonderful directness and intimacy that radio can generate.

Yes, I know it means more time, costs and diligence in doing that basic local market research. Yes, I know times are tough. Yes, I know that it’s really difficult even keeping businesses afloat right now.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware of the possibilities. It costs nothing to think about bonding points and how you can surf them.

More Deregulation grief

2010-04-29T17:17:00.008+01:00

I listened with some interest to You and Yours on Radio 4 today. Not only was an old colleague of mine presenting – Winifred Robinson, always listenable, articulate and insightful – but the subject matter was the further erosion of the concept of ‘localness’ at commercial radio in the UK. Given that the new measures entail yet more cuts in services, even less speech content, and even more networking, all of which equates to less jobs, less local service, and less engagement with the local audience, it made for depressing listening.

For those who want to read more on the Ofcom-sanctioned measures, here’s a detailed piece from the Guardian.

Winifred – who was a demon journo back in the old days at BRMB – had Tony Stoller, an old hand from the now long gone Radio Authority, and Andrew Harrison from the trade body for commercial radio, the Radio Centre in the studio. Harrison, naturally, defended the measures, as it paves the way for even more cost savings, and therefore allows a greater chance of survival for cash-strapped stations. I see his point – radio is in deep trouble at present. Recessions always hit radio hardest and first, and radio is generally the last to benefit from an upturn as well.

But Stoller amazed me, by pointing out that back in the good old days, when radio had huge newsrooms, decent specialised shows and provided full service options. Radio was also pretty damn profitable.

Profitable? It had to be, to allow an outfit like BRMB to have 50 or so staff, all sorts of specialist shows – including rock shows five nights a week from yours truly, and later by the estimable John Slater - and a raft of freelancers.
Stoller was right. But the argument against trying to go back to the ‘good old days’ is, sadly, irrefutable: Radio, among other services, has been marginalised by the web, online games, and a whole host of other digital services, and it’s, as yet, found no way to counter this surge, just like terrestrial TV and newspapers.

To add fuel to the fire, here’s an interesting post from the Infinite Dial: Read it and weep – the Internet has almost caught radio for Music Discovery.

The most telling comment in Winifred’s piece (hear it on iPlayer here) was that the audience would not really notice much difference, because the latest steps are just an extension of the measures that have already been taken. So, in the spirit of shutting the stable door after the audience horse has bolted, mainstream radio’s strategy seems to be to cut staff costs, outsource as much expensive stuff as possible, share programming, streamline, simplify, play the hits and sell the station brand first and foremost.

And all of this I understand.

But it strikes me that, as local and regional commercial radio moves further and further away from localness, a yawning gap is opening up. And once the right operators get their teeth into services that offer local relevance, there’s going to be no way that the big boys will have anything left to compete with.

So where are those new operators? Ah…. Good question. I’d LOVE to think that they will surge onto the FM band when the big boys shuffle off to the digital domain in (as now won’t happen – it’s bound to be shelved) 2015.
I do know this. It’s possible. It can be done. This is how new game-changing stuff always starts – out of left-field, ignored and sneered at by the establishment. Think about Pirate radio over here, both on the boats in the 60s and the Tower blocks in the 90s, or FM Rock radio in the US in the 60s and 70s; in music, think about Rock and Roll or Punk Rock… They all started out scruffy, obnoxious, and full of attitude, and they all wound up mainstream.

The question is: is Community Radio, now the only place which allows experimentation, ready, willing and able to supply staff to small-scale radio? I’d love to think so. They’ve probably got about five years to do it in.

Parents and siblings

2010-04-10T15:20:00.002+01:00

I was talking with Loz Kingsley, an extraordinarily talented guitarist who has brightened the Birmingham Music scene for well over 30 years (latest work is at www.fingerprintmusic.co.uk) the other day. I was enchanted to learn that his daughter's band is the highly rated and upcoming Poppy and the Jezebels, who are close to signing a record deal.

I know of at least one other guy in town who grew up around his muso dad - the terrifically talented Toby Wilson, who now, among other things, drums for 360. Toby’s dad, Bob, was once one of the twin mustachioed blonde bombshell guitarists with the Steve Gibbons Band. He went on to be Music Director for Ruby Turner for a spell, ran a string of other music projects, and put his own studio together...presumably the same studio that Tony grew up in, and wfrom where he picked up his production chops.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think the parent-child muso thing is both charming and noteworthy. This set me thinking - there must be others, right? Let me know.
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Case Histories and conclusions

2010-04-07T08:45:00.003+01:00

The Track Record page here and on my website has turned out to be of the most consistently visited pages. To build on this, I’ve just gussied my website with some of the more interesting Selector case histories. If you’re at all interested in music scheduling in radio, there may be stuff to glean; feel free to help yourself.

The case histories are, in chronological order:

BRMB-FM / Xtra-AM: the highs and lows of introducing computer scheduling. Very early 90s.
BBC Radio 2: putting in a multi-genre library, along with the BBC's very first digital playout rig.
Swedish Radio P4: developing client skills in hugely varied markets.
RTÉ lyric fm: working collaboratively with passionately involved production staff to build not so much a database as a knowledge base. The polar opposite of most implementations.
UTV Radio: upskilling staff and debugging inherited nightmare scheduling conflicts.
Coast 106: swimming successfully against the UK radio stream with a larger than normal library.

In this diverse range of situations, there are some common threads...

First : dialogue, up and down the chain of command, is good. In fact, in my view it’s not so much good as essential. While many radio stations implement a rigid schedule from above, normally for ease and simplicity of management, some of the best ideas and approaches evolve from engaging with the staff who work with the system. Nobody is right all the time. If there is a conflict, either with content or with programming, it’s often very useful to examine that conflict in minute detail, so see if there is a better way to do things. Best to leave your ego at the door, though. I won’t name the middle manager who loved the idea of challenging his boss on music issues, but hated the idea of talking to his own staff about those same issues.

Second: We’re in the era of tiny databases. In the US, they’re now talking about cutting down from 150 to 50 songs. However, almost all the above case histories show ratings success allied to larger libraries.

Third: A note to managers: large databases can be a pain to keep tidy. And talking to your staff about programming issues can be a hassle you could do without. Things can get emotive. It can eat into your time, and not everybody has that luxury. But I suggest that if you actually care about what you do, you’ll benefit from putting in that time. Radio is still full of passionate people. You’ll get the best out of those people if you meet them halfway, here and everywhere else where ideas can be shared and debated.

Buried Radio treasure. It's out there, somewhere. Got a map?

2010-03-26T17:02:00.002Z

I've written this for my website, to go onto a new Selector/Music programming section, but I'm posting it here as well. It's a humble suggestion to programmers, and adds to the debate about what exactly music radio is in the second decade of the 21st century.

How we get and how we use our music has changed. Music itself has changed: it was the thing that pulled young listeners in. In turn, radio was the place to hear the hot new stuff.

Now? We get hot new stuff from the net, from friends, on phones. Pandora in the US, and Last-FM and Spotify in the UK can give you want, when you want it. Radio can’t compete with the web. Instead of enthralling and seducing the listener, to its discredit, much radio has devalued its music and retreated into conservatism.

Worse still, many radio professionals have abandoned the idea of ‘owning’ their music, and have farmed out their programming to remote services, sometime hundreds of miles away.

I’m not saying that music radio has a divine right to continue to exist in the face of hot new technology; after all, the technology that empowered music radio helped to kill off earlier forms of music distribution, like sheet music and piano rolls.

But I still think that there’s a LOT to play for. Radio, on whatever platforms it now uses, still has several prime assets: Radio has a direct connection between presenter and listener, in a way that rival media can not match.

And in music programming, of all types, there’s still a vital ingredient that is out there, waiting to be grasped: localism. By this, I don’t mean a parochial approach. I mean a sense of locality, identity and community. Localism becomes doubly valuable when set against the overwhelming globalisation of the record industry, and centralised programming that, while expedient, ignores potential local variations. It always shocks me when I visit a different country - and hear exactly the same music being played on the radio that I’m used to at home.

One of the non-radio projects I am working on taps into the world of new independent music making, which now exists online. It is thrilling, vital, and exciting. Because musicians can use web tools and computer based recording equipment that is now spectacularly cheap, the quality is often spectacularly good. Musicians the world over have side-stepped record companies to distribute their material directly, and I don’t blame them. If all a record company is interesting in signing is yet another ‘Three Tenors’ clone, or another Beyonce wannabe, or the next Michael Buble, then why go to the trouble of trying to get them to take a chance on your material?

But that’s not to say that the new online alternatives don’t have radio value. It does mean you, the programmer, have to do a bit of work to find it, but that shouldn’t be too hard. And this material can have huge impact, especially if it ‘belongs’ to your town, or your region, or even your country.

So, my question to those programmers who still have the freedom to determine what they can put on their radio stations is: are you entirely sure that those global successes the record companies thrust at you wouldn’t benefit from a judicial addition of something that you know - from experience - matters in your town, your region, or even your country?

Think about it. It could be your usp in the radio war.

West Midlands Mix number 2 (19 Artists, 5 minutes)

2010-03-07T19:01:00.005Z

I've just had a blast putting this together, following the rather gratifying response to Mix Number 1. This is more of a radio mix, harder, faster, shorter, non-chronological, and genre-mangling. Can you identify everyone?
Bottom line: listening back to this fills me with pride, gratitude and respect for the musicians of the West Midlands. We've got a lot to shout about, right here.

Another observation: I simply would not have had the tools to put this together back in the day. This used to be the sort of thing you needed four hands to mix. And it's those same tools that have opened up a new level of web-powered creativity that's made our local music scene even more powerful and interesting. I'll have a lot more to say on this subject in the coming months.

As always, mix suggestions and comments are most welcome.

Own your music: Selector (and other scheduling systems) tip 4

2010-03-05T09:44:00.003Z

Number four in a series of tips for Selector (and other scheduling system) users.

When I talk about ownership, I’m talking about really getting hold of the material you’re going to play. Simply put, if you have no real idea of what’s important in your library, or why, you’re going to sound messy on air. A big, deep repertoire is a wonderful thing. But it's absolutely no use to you, unless you know what you’re going to do with that repertoire. If you think about it; you win. If someone else does the thinking, or worse, nobody does the thinking, you lose.

An example: A small-scale station was setting up at the end of last year. They had no money for a library. So staff lent their own CD collections to copy to the station server. This is not at all unusual. They happily ripped everything they had: complete albums, dozens of them. This rapidly built up a library of several thousand cuts. However, the station’s system just happened to be off-line… so, no CDDB/Gracenote, and no artist or title recognition. Giving a database full of Song1, Song2, and so on, performed by Artist1, Artist2… and so on. And, because they were ripping complete albums, including hits packages, that database was also full of duplicates. That’s a nightmare scenario, one which will take far more time to correct than it would have taken to think about core material in the first place.

I’ve seen this happen too on courses I teach at college radio – I do a couple a year. Hundreds of tracks get dumped into memory, just to get something to work with. That’s not building a library.

Here’s why. Take a look at your Ipod. Chances are you’ve done much the same thing, especially if you’ve got a lot of memory and you want to have a BIG library to brag about. And how is that huge choice working for you? Have you taken the time to go through everything in iTunes and prioritise every single track in to favourite and less favourite? I'll bet you haven’t. What about deleting stuff? Tricky. I bet your shuffle play is… random.

Here’s the thing. Even through we’re in the era of single song downloads – a healthy development - we’re drowning in easy availability. We don’t value songs for themselves anymore - that’s so last century. Music, like so much else, has become commoditised, and it’s not healthy.

I believe that each song needs to be looked at hard by any radio programmer, before being put forward for scheduling. Don’t misunderstand me: I am not arguing for 100-song playlists like they have at a lot of stations in the US these days. There’s no reason not to go ahead and build up a huge library. Just make sure, before you do, that there’s a good reason to add each song in the first place (somehow, ‘I just like It’ isn’t quite enough). Thinking about your stuff before you add it also helps you to build a coherent structure for your scheduling system. Core songs by core artists – no matter what your format – is a great place to start. You can work it out from there.

And it might be wise to make sure you’re online when you're ripping :-).

If this has been useful, pass it on to friends and colleagues. It’s on me. If you'd like more, on a 1 to 1 basis, reply to me through the blog, or email me via the website (link at left under Work-related).

24 artists, 43 years, 9 minutes

2010-03-05T09:28:00.001Z

This has been by far the most popular post I've put up this year, so I'm going to keep it front page for a while.

I put this together last month for a radio class I taught to US students. I wanted to put the West Midlands in perspective for them. They knew some of the bands, of course, but not all (do you?), and had no idea that they all came from/worked in the region. There was a role for local radio in supporting pretty much the first 16 or so in the sequence, but those days seem to be over. Shame...

This is a montage, not even close to a proper mashup - for that, check out Sam Redmore's brilliant work - but I had a ball putting it together. The range and diversity makes me proud of my town.

With just one exception, I have interviewed and/or hung out with, worked with, shook hands with, or hugged and kissed all of these guys.

6 Music grief

2010-03-01T12:08:00.003Z

Since the Times broke the news last week, there’s been much hand-wringing about the possible demise of the BBC’s 6 Music digital service. It’s funny how media love to cover the death agonies of one of their own. Five Live ran a ghoulish sequence about this on the day itself, and our newspapers have had a field day, with reactions ranging from unrestrained glee to detailed analysis laced with a touch of tasteful schadenfreude.

I hate to see any specialist radio service go down. I feel for the fine people who work there. The possible loss of 6 Music is bad news. But I also have to ask – didn’t they see this coming? Why didn’t the BBC do more to make the station untouchable?.

James Cridland puts the station costs at a staggering £6 million a year before transmission charges. The Guardian said £7 million. That works out at around £10 per listener, which is jaw-dropping. I’m still struggling to get my head around that figure. Now, I know that if you want an ad-free personal Spotify service, you pay that sum each month, but we’re talking about radio here, traditionally a damn cheap medium, measured in terms of costs per listener.

Given those figures, it’s not surprising the station got fingered. So how could they have defended themselves?

There’s a fascinating document on the House of Commons Parliament UK site, which lays it all out in agonising detail. The programme costs per hour, for any of the terrestrial services, far outstrip those of 6 Music's, but these stations also pull in much greater listener numbers. So costs per listener - for example for Radio 2 - are minute. It's the relationship between cost of ooutput and cost per lisener that is critical. Even with Radio 3, there is some sort of relationship between production costs and cost per listener. But at 6, there's a yawning gulf.

So let’s look at costs and reach. Had 6 Music managed to get their costs even lower – not as simple as you might think when you factor in music royalties – but, critically, managed to increase their reach, costs per listener would have dropped dramatically.

Look at that graph again. 6 Music is actually very efficient at producing programmes. So I’m not entirely sure that slashing a few more back office jobs and trimming presenter fees would make that much difference. But I’m pretty sure that cost savings could have been rolled out by sharing a central music production database across all BBC popular music services – Ireland and Sweden have made praiseworthy steps in this area, and there is a very impressive initiative being developed right now in Europe, about which I am forbidden to say more.

So let’s look at increasing audiences instead. Straightaway, we’re into the thorny area of strategic network programming versus creative freedom for producer/presenter. This gets very emotive. I am personally absolutely convinced that 6 Music could have programmed more aggressively and competitively, and still built in all the cred and freedom the presenters could have asked for. I’ve seen this done elsewhere.

But there’s more to it than costs and editorial approach. The bald fact is that 6 Music is living in a competitive world. It happens – unfortunately for 6 Music – to be a digital world, which fatally limits their chances to build those fat audience figures. This, too, is a world where the listener gets exactly what he or she wants from Ipods, mates, and Spotify/Pandora/Last-FM. So do you need 21st century music gurus to tell you what to like any more? Well, you tell me. Me. I’m fine with the idea, but I am an old hippie, so it goes with my territory.

John Peel’s name has come up quite a lot in press articles – people are saying that the station encapsulates his spirit. Maybe it does; it’s a lovely thought. But it’s worth remembering that there was a time, not too far back, when Radio 1 was doing everything in its power to reduce his power and influence. They only changed their minds again, much later, when they decided he fitted their strategic brief.

Bottom line: The Government wants to attract listeners to digital. They have charged the BBC with enticing listeners across, and so far, it hasn’t really worked. I believe in experimentation and adventurous programming. But I find it tricky when that same programming is punished for failing to deliver on a listener-unfriendly medium. Strategic rethink, please.

Voicer sample, get yer lovely voicer sample

2010-02-18T20:04:00.009Z

Strictly for business purposes, here's a voicer sample in the form of a 30 second spot, for your reference. If you like what you hear, contact me through this blog, my website, or through my Voice 123 page, where there's more samples to play with.

My Selector Coloring book: Selector Tips 3

2010-02-18T16:27:00.000Z

This topic mainly applies to Selector version 15 lovers. You can do a bit of color tweakage in Version 12 (that’s the old, ugly, but gorgeously stable and well thought out dos version), but it’s really the windows version of Selector that lets you play with looks, fonts and colors. There’s lots of configuration potential in GSelector, too, but that hasn’t fully rolled out worldwide, and I’m quite sure that these remarks will also apply just as much to other scheduling engines. Bottom line? Customise away, but you should avoid the explosion in the paint factory effect at all costs.

Why is it that contemporary software design is so…. uniform? There’s a very good reason. Computer screens can display a LOT of information. Color is a great help is highlighting areas of concern, and you can often set conditions in your software package – not just your scheduling engine – which will throw a focus on an area of interest, by using a specific color.

But if you make things too busy, your brain has to work a lot harder to take it all in. If the screen is just too busy, you tend to jump past all this information.

Now let’s consider the Editor screen. That’s the one that displays your schedule, or running order. You’ve got to review an entire day of output – that's at least 24 screens, maybe much more. If the entire screen is a maze of color, you’re going to have a hard time concentrating as hard as you need to for your editing job… which means you might let something slip past… which means the output might sound lousy.

So that’s why I suggest you go easy on the color. If you like to differentiate between different categories onscreen, that’s fine – but try using shades of the same color, rather than violently clashing and distinct colors. Leave the fireworks for the emergency conditions: schedule failures and the like. And think about whether you need to apply color to the entire page – you can restrict it to one or two fields if you prefer, leaving the rest of the window more uniform.

Above all, make it easy on yourself, so you can make those critical editorial decisions: getting the mix right is way more important than having a pretty screen display that your audience doesn’t know or care about.

If this has been useful, pass it on to friends and colleagues. It’s on me. If you'd like more on a 1 to 1 basis, reply to me through the blog, or email me via the website (link at left under Work-related).

Inheriting a Selector scheduling setup: Selector Tips 2

2010-02-18T09:31:00.013Z

Most of us in Radio inherit a Selector rig when we join a station, or when the guy before us moves on. Nowadays, you very rarely build up a system, your way, from scratch. So you really need to work out how the guy before you went about his business, before changing things. If you don't, then you’re in for a world of pain working out why the rule settings don’t seem to work right anymore. If the guy before you was obsessive, you better be too. Sorry about that. The basic principles here don't just apply to Selector - they work in any system. I’ve got a how-to tip to help after the jump.

The devil is always in the detail.
A great way to zero in on any aspect of your library is to go to the Browse Window. Let’s say you want to make sure your Artist list is accurate. You really need this. Selector isn’t Word, and it won’t compensate for spelling errors.

Click on the Artist heading.
Work down the list of songs, starting from the top.
Some errors might be right at the very top – like songs with no artist.
Look for anomalies. Are songs suspiciously absent? Maybe they’re listed elsewhere under a mis-spelled artist name.

And don’t forget the famous text string issue – Selector normally sorts by the first letter of the last piece of text (known in geekland as a text string) in the field. So it would see Take That and Take_That as two different artists.

You can repeat this basic exercise for anything that is key in your scheduling rules, but of course there are some quite complex areas to make decisions on, above and beyond factual issues like getting the Artist names right. I'll post some tips in dealing with the more subjective areas soon.

Sorted? Good. Now make a note in Outlook to do this all over again in two months.

If this has been useful - pass it on. If you'd like more on a 1 to 1 basis, reply to me through the blog, or email me via the website (link at left under Work-related).

Politics, technology and demographics

2010-02-12T10:57:00.010Z

I've just come back from giving a lecture in London, to a group of university students from the US. My brief was to cover the history of UK post-war popular music radio. I had a lot of fun putting the whole thing together. Learned quite a bit too.

The bottom line? It really doesn’t matter how brilliant your programming is, how cool and innovative your marketing strategy. You are always at the mercy of factors you can’t control.

Consider politics and radio in the 60s: Pirate radio, which met a need with us baby boomers, got shut down because of politics. Not because it was good or bad (in my view, some of it was atrocious, a lot of it was mundane, some was blatantly corrupted by payola, and just a little bit of it was inspirational). It was not really a threat to the establishment. But it ran counter to government policy. So it went.

Consider politics and demographics in the 80s: The NRJ group is now the largest group in France. But they started in a tiny way, in Paris, in ’81 as a community station aimed at young listeners, and built a huge listenership. Gradually, legislation allowed them to take adverts, and they carried on growing, until they got naughty, and boosted their transmitter power beyond the limits allowed for community or ‘free’ (Radio Libre) stations, at which point they were yanked off the air. They appealed to their listeners to demonstrate – and, boy, did they ever. So, this being French politics, the government backed down.

Consider demographics and technology: radio could not have evolved the way it has today, without the ability to store and manipulate audio files. And that same technology is now kicking its butt, with IPods and web radio.

I love it all. I may not like the way NRJ has evolved into a slick Europe-wide media group. It’s kind of predictable – moving from left field to mainstream. But I absolutely love they way they proved that they could mobilise their listeners in the mid-80s, and grow beyond the boundaries that had been set for small-scale radio.

I wonder if any of that has occurred to government or the established media, as they debate the move to Digital in 2015, which is supposed to leave the FM band to small-scale and community radio?

Nah, must be me that’s being cynical.

I love a success story

2010-02-06T11:23:00.008Z

And this is a success story. I’ve been working as a consultant with a lovely and thoroughly listenable radio station in Southampton. They’re called Coast 106, and I’ve been visiting them on and off since late 2008. In this quarter’s Rajar audience survey, they posted all time high figures. In fact it’s been a pretty solid story of growth from an admittedly low start point, when they took the franchise over from the previous owners.

It’s pretty hard to rebrand a station, and then relaunch it in the teeth of a howling recession at any time. Harder still to post consistent growth figures - doubling reach and nearly trebling market share over an 18 month period. So what’s their secret?.

Lot of things, actually. Their format is different from your run of the mill commercial station: they are centred on soft rock. Classic album tracks, that have found their place with the audience without any help from radio, are liable to pop up in the mix, as opposed to the more predictable stuff most programmers consider as hits. That alone makes them pretty different, and gives them a crack at a slightly different audience.

It’s a large library by UK standards. So you get to hear different songs, but which still 'fit', and that keeps the mix fresh. They have pretty much stuck to their guns since they launched, which allows the listeners to come to them and get comfortable with what’s on offer – no panicky format flips every six months. And they’ve got a solid line up of djs, who don’t insult your intelligence with screeching or banal links.

So it’s all a pretty sensible way to go about things, as far as I’m concerned. Now, I wonder who else does this sort of thing? Oh, yes... the national market leader, Radio 2. I can't think of anyone else right now, but maybe you know better. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned somewhere. Can't quite put my finger on it.

And what have I been doing down there? Oh, my usual consult stuff: troubleshooting deeply geeky issues in their Selector database, working to recast routines to let the station use its best stuff in the best way, encouraging the concepts of owning your music, which is astonishingly and sadly absent in many stations, preaching the virtues of a well-organised database, and working out the best ways to keep it that way.

Oiling the wheels, basically, and sometimes in a very precise way. This is something I’ve done for yonks, and which I happen to love doing. This time, I also threw in some lists of music suggestions, using Spotify – a great tool for this kind of thing, but only available in Europe - leaning on my own repertoire, which was seriously good fun. Bottom line here is that there’s no point in having a great library if you don’t use it right.

So all power to you, Coast 106! I'm really pleased you've taken it this far; it's richly deserved.

How do I know my Selector Mood Codes are right? Selector Tip 1

2010-02-04T08:34:00.013Z

New feature. I’ve been a Selector wrangler for over half my career; it’s partly how I make my living.

I’m going to post a regular series of tips. Most of these cover editorial approach, which I think is an area that gets left behind. Some tips will apply to other scheduling systems. If you like what you see, or if you know someone who might, pass them on. If you really like what you see, get in touch by replying directly to this post (bottom of the post, below) or through the website link in the Work-Related pane at left.

Tip 1 is about finding your Centre Of Gravity - the midpoint of your Mood or Energy values.

The overall balance of station sound depends hugely on how you classify songs. Typically stations code their songs for Mood or Energy (occasionally both), on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 is catatonic, 5 is extremely in your face.

This is, naturally, a very subjective area. So it really helps to get a very clear idea of what the mid-ground Mood value is for your station. That’s what I mean by Centre of Gravity.

Here’s a recipe:
- Open up a list of your entire active songs.
- If you have coded up songs for Mood or Energy, sort them by this field.
- Now look in the middle area to find, say, three songs that are absolutely bang in the middle of the Mood range for your station.
- Work out from there. Go back up the list, and measure every song against your new standard.
- Then go down the list the other way. I guarantee you’ll find some surprises.
- If you have a big library, break it down into chunks. This can be hard work.
- If you haven’t set a value at all, the process is still the same. Find three Centre of Gravity songs, and work out from there.

After that, you can do some analysis work to see if you’ve set the Mood or Energy rules up right for what you’ve actually got. That’s a tip for another day.

If you like what you see, or if you know someone who might, pass this tip on. If you really like what you see, and you'd like something more 1 to 1, get in touch by replying directly to this post (bottom of the post, below) or through the website link in the Work-Related pane at left.

Digital Nirvana...not quite here yet

2010-01-28T10:57:00.011Z

I posted a few months back about the Digital Britain report.

The bottom line was that the expected 2015 date, by which the big Radio boys in UK radio would move from Analog transmission to Digital, leaving FM to small-scale and community stations, was hoplessly unrealistic. And from a report published in the Guardian on the 26th, it looks like I was right. It may be ten years before the FM band is reinvented as a home for community and small-scale radio.

The 2015 switchover target is only going to be adhered to if 50% of Radio listening is on Digital by then, and right now, that seems highly unlikely. There's a mass of detail in the Guardian piece, and if you care about small-scale radio, as I do, it's a worthwhile read.

What jumped out to me is the statistic that there are at least 100 million FM radios out there. But I think there are a lot more than that. They're in your car, on your stereo, in your phone, on your mp3 player, not counting that plain old transistor radio you may still be using. They're all portable and easy to use, and they all came (sort of) for free, or really cheaply. On the other hand, my single Digital Radio is neither cheap nor portable - it's plugged into the mains - and it's prone to having to be rebooted occasionally, and can give me really crappy signals - 5 live has been particular iffy of late.

Not really an incentive to go out and get another one, it it? All those supposedly hot new digital services don't count if you can't enjoy listening to them. You can't blame listeners for sticking with the durable, proven, and solid FM band.

So now they're talking about, maybe 2016, maybe 2020 before the big switchover. I think it's a damn shame for all parties - but especially for the small-scale stations. That's the independent stations, the small local stations, the community stations who want to simulcast on the web and on FM, or who want to step up their power just so a larger audience can help them survive.

Radio is desperately in need of fresh innovative ideas to pull in new and young audiences. Those ideas normally come from left-field, the same way new music always comes in from left-field. So we need the left-field sector to flourish, to get more professional without getting more corporate, so it can play host to some programming innovation. I was kind of optimistic about a five year gap before the smaller stations can get a level playing field. But it looks like that was too good a target to hold up.

Track Record

2010-01-26T07:53:00.023Z

I've just updated my biography page on my website. I'm posting it here as well. Now here's the thing. You really can get a lot done if you have enough time to do it in. But you also need some luck, help when it's most important (you won't know when that is), a bit of persistence, and the right people to work with. You never do it all on your own.

Robin Valk has worked in Radio and, more recently, digital media, for over 40 years.

While at University he helped launch University Radio York. After graduation, he was offered a job by WPHD-FM in Buffalo, in upstate New York, who felt they could use an English accent on their Progressive Rock FM format. There were very few English broadcasters in the US at the time, and English music (especially Rock music) in the 70s was much more important and relevant to a US youth audience than it is now. Robin stayed at WPHD for just over a year, during which time the station went to #1 in the Buffalo market.

Returning to the UK, Robin joined the new Independent Radio sector, moving to BRMB Radio in Birmingham, again as a Rock dj. Robin’s stint as a Rock dj coincided with a host of music developments throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s: the end of ‘traditional rock’, the arrival and departure of punk rock, the Two-Tone movement centered on Birmingham and Coventry, and the growth of corporate rock and international megastars in the 80s and 90s. He did shows for BRMB in all specialist and mainstream formats, and interviewed just about everybody there was to interview. Under Robin’s direction, BRMB embarked on a series of recording sessions of local bands, and this kick-started the careers of artists like UB40 and Ruby Turner. There was also close involvement with the CBSO, as Robin was by now presenting Classical shows as well. At the end off his time at BRMB, Robin was Head of Music for two stations and Group Head of Research for all stations in the Midland Radio Group, and an acknowledged Selector expert.

Capital Radio bought the group in 1993, leading to a wholesale loss of jobs at the group, including Robin’s. Robin then formed the Radio To Go partnership (now Radio To Ltd), and embarked on a consulting career. This took him to Bulgaria (FM-plus, Sofia) Scotland (Scot FM, where he built the database and implemented Master Control), Sweden (Selector training for P4 radio) and back home to Birmingham, where he produced shows for Radio 2. This then led to a five year stint implementing playback software and building a digital library, and then producing the Overnights sequence for Radio 2 from Birmingham – 25% of the output – where he quadrupled the listening figures.

When the Radio 2 Overnight shows returned to London, Robin took on training and database development for RTE Lyric FM, where he trained staff in programming and scheduling at the Limerick-based national Classical music and Arts station. This overlapped with more consulting work for Swedish Radio, and work with a number of European stations, Program Director responsibilities at Riviera Radio in Monte Carlo, and the start of a ten year stint with RCS, makers of Selector, at their New York head offices. Robin authored online help and produced training videos for RCS’s leading products from 2000.

While at RCS, Robin continued his consult work, retraining the entire programming staff of the UTV regional network of stations in 2007/8, followed by Coast 106 in Southampton and Amazing Radio in Newcastle in 2008 to 2010. The newest members of Radio To Go’s consult portfolio are the Classical and Folk channels of Magyar Radio, Budapest, Hungary.

Robin is acknowledged as one of the most experienced Music Radio programmers in Europe. He has extensive format and market experience. To this he can bring deep scheduling systems knowledge with established global leader RCS Selector/Master Control and PSquared AutoTrackPro/Myriad, who now have more installations in the UK than any other system. Robin still presents occasionally, and produced a one-hour documentary in 2010 for Birmingham Music Heritage on 70s and 80s reggae in Birmingham. He was last seen behind the decks, aged 59, at a very alternative Project X Presents event in Birmingham. PXP are a loose collective of artists, dancers, poets, sculptors, performance artists, lighting engineers, designers and musicians who mount six-monthly events in alternative venues. He is a big supporter of local music talent in his city.

For the past two and half years, Robin has been developing a music archive programme for the British Library, which seeks to capture and document the best new British online music. The first experimental website, the Pilot Project, launched in November 2010

Robin is still based in Birmingham, which has proved to be an excellent city from which to build a national and international client roster. He speaks passable German, and is fluent in French.

Well, hello there... my, it's been a long, long time...

2010-01-23T12:59:00.006Z

How am I doing? Ya really wanna know? Well, I guess I'm doing fine.... There's a prize for the first person to spot the song AND the classic 60s singer whose version I'm thinking of, by the way.

My apologies for the dearth of posts at the end of last year. The fact is, I was NOT doing at all fine a month or two back.... Not at all. But now I am.

So here's a first post for 2010, to tell you about a bright new and ever-so-slightly-viral-marketing style initiative from the wonderful Jo Hamilton, which you really should take advantage of.

Jo will present to you - if you go through the right motions - a free concert, online, live and direct from Artisan studios, on January 30th. An e-concert, if you will, at 7.00pm GMT. All the details are on Jo Hamilton's facebook page, or if you are so over the Social Media thing, look at this specific page on her site.

Bottom line? Jo is asking you to post a review on the Amazon page for her album Gown. That spreads the word on Amazon. And it gets you into the e-gig. It's not much to ask for something as intimate and engaging as this will be. I know of what I speak, as I attended one such similar event, but in person, when we worked together on a podcast in Spring 2009 . You should never pass up an opportunity to see an artist like Jo at work, especially in as close and intimate a setting as this. Go get those e-tickets!

Millennium Point - the aftermath

2009-11-16T11:20:00.016Z

The excellent Pete Ashton, social media guru of this parish, has posted a passionate and heartfelt blog post piece about the aftermath of the Millennium Point debacle on Saturday night. I urge you to read it. It has sparked a large response. I commented too - scroll down if you want to read my bit - among many others. This was partly to, again, defend the unfortunate radio station - BRMB - that was associated with the event. BRMB seem to be coming in for an awful lot of stick right now, one way and another. That's wrong. There's no question in my mind where the blame lies, and it's not at BRMB's door. But Pete, in the middle of his passionate post, made several very elegant points, one of whom I want to elaborate on here. Put baldly: this was a Birmingham event, put on by the Council. So.... where was the Birmingham music?

I'm completely OK with BRMB lining up the Sugababes, JLS and all the rest for a big public event. They do this sort of thing on a regular basis. It's their home territory. It's absolutely fine. Big popular acts lend glamour and sparkle, and there's nothing wrong with that. The format is simple - get a lot of names lined up, put them on stage in a rapid-fire line-up, and have them sing to backing tracks. It's relatively easy to stage - you don't really need soundchecks - and it looks impressive.

But you know what? There's not a whole lot in it for Birmingham bands. I'd like to ask why we don't think about our own talent, just for a moment, when we do these Big Birmingham events. I don't think there is a genuine logistical problem in combining live performances, from local crowd-pleasers, with a bit of miming or singing over backing tracks from the latest pop acts. In fact, I'd be tickled to see some of Birmingham's finest strut their stuff, on a large stage, to a large crowd. There's always the tantalising possibility that they, as support acts, might just make some of the headliners look a bit - how shall I put this? - crap.

So why don't we do it?

I'd love to hear from the Council on this, but I'm pretty damn sure I won't. Maybe you've got an opinion you'd like to share?

The way we do the things we do – allright!

2009-11-04T11:41:00.015Z

I came back up to Birmingham on Tuesday night, fresh from two days on the South Coast working with the admirable and very listenable Coast 106, about whom I will post in detail soon. This was so I could catch the UB40 show at the Rainbow. This, in case you’re not from Birmingham, has been the talk of the town for weeks, reaching fever pitch last night, and flowing through to a front page feature in the Birmingham Post today, reviews on BBC WM, live streaming on Rhubarb and elsewhere, and other coverage, which I’ll come to.

Oh, it was good. Remember, UB40 have been doing this stuff for 30 years. They are road-hardened, professional, and very tight. So...they hit the stage, and steamed into One In Ten.

Wham. 500 people lock into sync and rock with the band for 90 cheerful raucous all-hometown minutes. A great night. And all because the UBs, led by Brian Travers, lent their support to a grass-roots campaign. I am so impressed with the gesture. It makes you proud.

There are several stories here.

First: how often do you get the chance to see a band this big, this good, play a 500 capacity hometown venue, when they can just as easily fill the NIA? Only when the band themselves choose to play such a gig. Rare and precious. And the band knew it.

Second: there was - and is - a vital point to this gig: we need our local music venues. We need places for our fantastic local musicians to hone their stagecraft. We can’t allow one of the most vibrant music scenes in the country, one which generates vast amounts of money for the local economy, to be stifled by planning regulations. Take a look at the Rainbow's own page for more details. If you agree, do something. Join a Facebook group - try Keep Digbeth Vibrant for starters. Let your local councillor know how you feel..

Third: UB40 are undeniably rooted in Birmingham. There is a bond between band and audience I have only very rarely seen. I suppose if I got to see Bruce Springsteen play a bar in New Jersey, I might get a similar vibe. But I’m not from Jersey. This is where I live, and a gig like last night makes me feel proud for our local scene on so many levels. And whatever you do, you must take a look at the UB40: Music As Culture site for more background. It’s a revelation. You'll never get closer to a band and their fans.

Fourth: full personal disclosure here: When I was a local radio DJ in this town, I gave UB40 their first session, and that was in the days when radio paid bands to do sessions - just imagine that. So… and I’ve seriously only just realised this… that makes me the first DJ anywhere in the world to have played UB40 on the radio. Blimey.

The tapes were early mixes of tracks that went on to be released as the first single and tracks from the first album, produced by Bob Lamb. They were lovely. The songs had huge impact. I felt I'd hit the motherlode when I realised just how important they were to my audience. That's why I have a personal and very direct sense of involvement with the band - but that’s only my angle. Others, thousands of others, who supported the band through their early gigs, feel the same kinship for their own valid reasons.

Last but not least: I don’t know how many times I’ve made this point, and in how many ways I’ve said it. But I’ll say it again now. Stuff like this is pure gold; you can’t bottle it. It is a USP, in business terms. And yet most mainstream radio stations in our town, and elsewhere, continue to ignore this kind of thing. Last night’s gig was, yet again, a powerful demonstration of local identity, expressed though music, and in UB40’s case, as a unique and confident statement of local culture. It’s there: part of the fabric of our town. And this makes it an absolute gift to local media. All you need, if you’re in the media, is the humility to see that this sort of thing is probably more powerful and enduring than your particular outlet. Then you really need to measure it against juggernaut machine-tooled stuff like X Factor TV exposed product. And lastly, you need to make a decision on whether you want to get on board this thing, and how.

Up to you, media mavens. For me, it’s a no-brainer.

Who's listening to what?

2009-10-28T12:55:00.015Z

I spent some time yesterday at Absolute Radio's studios in London. My main purpose was to take a closer look at one of their new online products, comparemyradio. This is a very cute piece of software, and it has caused no end of fuss in the very closed hothouse world of UK Radio. Basically, this software tracks plays of songs on a number of major stations – most of the big ones, in fact – and lets you compare who plays what, how often, and where the overlaps are. It’s open to anyone to play with, and it throws up some very interesting perspectives.

Full disclosure: I author help for a heavyweight professional media analysis software package called Media Monitors, a sister company to RCS, the Selector people, for whom I also write help packages. So I had more than a pure radio interest: I wanted to see what the One Golden Square Labs boys were up to, what their analysis kit could do… and, above all, exactly why they chose to share all this with you and me.

Absolute were the soul of hospitality, in keeping with their mission statement of openness and accountability, which I applaud. I’m all for exchanging ideas and comparing notes. Personally, I'm not threatened by the idea of sharing what I know. Those that do feel this way, in my opinion, lose out, and wind up hobbling their own creativity. That said, I didn’t quite get all the answers I was looking for, but I’ll come back to that.

Comparemyradio went public last week and instantly kicked up a fuss. Bauer Media’s Kiss-fm promptly disabled their 'now playing' site feed, which is where the comparemyradio software scrapes its data from, arguing that their daytime output does not reflect the full range of output from their specialist shows, which presumably do not feed their data out in such detail. When I looked this morning, BRMB had also lifted up its skirts and (note this page may have changed again if you check it) removed its output from Absolute’s grasp. Other industry operators have publicly expressed their irritation.

This is being just a trifle precious. A station’s output is public. Once broadcast, it’s published, it’s out there. Anybody who wants to take the time and trouble can study the output, analyse it, and draw their own conclusions. What comparemyradio has done is simply make this a lot easier. However, some stations don’t exactly look that great under this new bright light. So it’s fair to say that Absolute are being a mite provocative. The most provocative tool of all is something they call the variety index. This charts the ratio of lightly played material as a proportion of overall output. Clearly, the greater number of songs which get unique plays over a given period, the more genuine variety the station can claim to be offering. To put it another way: if you play 300 songs a day, and 150 of those are unique plays, you’ve got a lot of variety. But if you play ten songs six times a day, another 30 songs three times a day, and 60 more twice a day, there’s only 30 single play slots left in your day, so you’ve got less room to mix it up.

I really wanted to do a comparison on all West Midlands stations, as this blog focusses on this area. I’ve have loved to have BRMB’s figures, but, as mentioned, they’ve blocked this now (boo! hiss! shame!). But Heart West Midlands has a variety index of 11%, not entirely encouraging in a station that claims to offer more music variety. Smooth London, whose output is uncannily close that that at Smooth Birmingham, can offer a respectable 26%. But scooting over to Radio 2, the big beast in the radio jungle, we see a huge variety index of 60%, which must reflect their detailed and admirable specialist show output, as well as their large (by today’s standards) active daytime library. It presents them in a frankly golden light, but then, look at their listening figures. And what about Absolute themselves, purveyors of this provocative package? Well, their flagship service offers a (not at all bad, but could do better in my view) figure of 20%.

So what are we to make of all this data? Well, for people like me, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s a useful new rough and ready tool to get a feel for certain areas. So I’m quite pleased it’s there. It’s certainly stirred up a hornet’s nest of resentment in the industry, which I can happily live with. There are questions as to the validity of the data and the accuracy of the source material that is scraped to analyse in the first place, but Absolute do acknowledge this. I also heard dark mutterings yesterday about the use of other public streaming sites’ software to do some of the heavy lifting in the analysis area, and that worries me – the more third party involvement, the less trustworthy the data tends to be. But I have no way of verifying this.

The primary beneficiary of all this has to be, of course, Absolute Radio. They have offered their users something new, which might just be a novelty. Or it might be something to raise the company’s profile – chalk up a success there – and keep users on site to explore some of their other products. So in terms of building relationships with listeners while dissing the opposition, it’s pretty cute and Imaginative.

A closing note: Anthony Abott, the courteous and affable Absolute Radio webmaster who spent time with me, and to whom I extend my thanks, checked this blog out before I arrived. He in turn was interested in my championing of local bands and my mantra that local radio benefits from exposing the best of its local talent. Now, this is something that makes no sense whatsoever from a London or a national perspective, so I can see why he was curious. I’m sure there are millions of interesting music scenes in London that aren’t getting the exposure they deserve – that’s the problem with radio in big cities: it's too damn conservative because it's too damn competitive. New York is the same, which is even more tragic.

But this really does give operators outside of the smoke a big advantage, where cities and regions have much stronger senses of local identity. And how does this tie in with what I’ve been discussing? Simple. Forget about variety indexes just for a moment. Forget that hugely depressing overlap between stations. Look instead at the USP for your market. This is something the big boys can’t ever do. If nothing else, comparemyradio has shone a dirty great light into this area. It’s up to local stations to exploit what they can learn from it. If that includes bumping up a variety index by championing bands that you know for certain matter to your audience, then it’s all good.

Grains of sand, pebble, rocks and bloody big boulders

2009-10-23T13:22:00.008+01:00

Hello Digital in Birmingham this week was interesting and useful. Lots of great ideas flying around; some interesting thinkers; way too much showoff tweeting. C4’s Head of Future Media, John Gisby, painted an interesting picture of multiple arrays of services and programming, provided on as many platforms as they could dream up, including YouTube. And he used the idea of pebbles to describe the new TV landscape on Freeview, cable and online TV, as opposed to the three huge terrestrial boulders (BBC1, BBC2 and ITV we had before Channel 4 landed 27 years ago. It’s a neat analogy, and I want to play with it a bit.

Before we do, I have to ask: was John talking about the economic clout of pebbles and boulders, or the creative punch of same? I’m pretty sure it was the economic clout. After all, the creative punch of a high-end TV production can be, and is, spread generously across multiple channels. We enter the world of repeats, trickling down over and over (Cheers on E4, anyone?), to polish up even the most cynically thrown together auto-repeats channel on the further reaches of your programme guide. But the economic clout – well, that’s where the action is, as far as TV goes.

Now let’s turn to radio. First, we need more definitions. I’m going to start with grains of sand: that’s the podcasters, the one man web streamers, and the community radio stations. Gritty sums it up just right. Then we can work back up the scale to take in local radio (sadly, often a case of onetime rocks, now ground down to pebbles), and then working up to the boulders, by and large the national commercial outlets and the BBC Networks. Of course, I’m stretching this analogy a bit: some of the BBC’s digital offerings are really rocks or even pebbles, rather than boulders. But you get the general picture. I don’t think anyone would dispute my assertion that Radio 2, for example is a big, fat, hulking boulder. So big, a lot of rocks and pebbles say it’s stealing some of their sun.

Here’s where it splits away from the TV analogy. The creative process is not so totally dependent on budgets in radio. Certainly in popular music radio, it is fundamentally the same process at grain of sand level as it is at boulder level. The creative punch of a dedicated one-man podcaster can stand next to that of a highly produced network show. It’s about ideas, relating to the audience and playing the music that’s right for the show and the listener. Just because a show doesn’t get much podcast take-up does not make it artistically less valid than the most listened to Network offering. This is not where the uneven playing field is to be found.

Now let’s take it on to the web. This is where it gets very interesting. Like C4’s impressive diversification, there are a number of imaginative radio operators, large and small, who are working on new ways of serving up radio, on multiple platforms, real-time and other wise, packaged and unpackaged, and sometimes with a far more impressive degree of audience involvement than recycled facebook messages and listener tweets. Quite a few rocks spawning some interesting pebbles. The beauty of it all is that there are far far less barriers to creativity – even if you don’t have, like Absolute Radio, your own software writers.

Back at Hello Digital, as usual, not too many radio people seemed to be interested in what the web and social media tools can offer. They should have taken note of what happened to local web station Rhubarb Radio, who was enthusiastically streaming live: there was enough online demand to temporarily crash their servers. Point made?

UB40 play a boozer in downtown Brum shock

2009-10-17T11:24:00.005+01:00

The very excellent Rainbow in Digbeth (one of Birmingham's best boho/creative quarters) needs to raise cash. Fast. The goal is to pay for a roof over the outside gig area, so cutting noise levels, and placating the Council worthies who have visited noise abatement orders on them. It's VERY important that the Rainbow survives as a live venue. It's been looking worse and worse for Kent Davis and his team; see the links at the bottom of this post if you want to read up on it all. But now... step forward UB40.

UB40, bless them, have decided to play a benefit for the Rainbow Roof fund. What a bunch of absolute princes. This is a fantastic gesture. The date for this special gig is November 3rd. And the venue is not that big, so (if there are any tickets left: there's a link posted below) you can look forward to seeing UB40 in a sweaty crowded stand-up venue, the way it used to be back in the early 80s before they broke big. I can't wait.

There's are no freebies or backstage passes on this one; the tickets are for a good cause: preserving one of the city's best and most adventurous live music venues. We need the Rainbow. In fact, to reverse the grim trend of this past decade, we need several Rainbows. If you can, you should help. This is a great way to do it.

Buy tickets - if there are any left - and donate to the fund here
Read up on the background: it's a sad but fascinating saga of urban redevelopment here

John Russell - an appreciation

2009-10-08T09:44:00.016+01:00

Gatekeepers don't have an easy time of it.. They’re the ones standing in between you and your next goal, and it's their job to decide when it’s right to let you through. The more you bang on the gate, the more they have to hold it shut until they think you’re ready. Whether they are right or wrong is not really the issue. They’re always, ALWAYS, there. And, as a result, they take a lot of heat.

We all have gatekeepers, who let us through, who sometimes encourage us, and who set us on our way. Often, we don’t appreciate what they do, let alone why. John Russell, who died a few days ago, was one of my most important gatekeepers. He was the first Programme Controller at BRMB, and I had no idea how his opening the gate for me would affect my life.

We forget, of course, that gatekeepers are not perfect; they have their own gatekeepers too. They have to respond, for better or worse, to directives and pressures that we, down here banging on the gate to be let in, don't really care about. I used to think that being a Programme Controller was the holy grail of radio. I soon changed my mind when I got the job. Instead of building a brilliant radio station, bathed in a golden glow of award-winning creativity, I spent most of my time wiping snotty noses, dealing with emotional crises, and fielding frankly idiotic requests from a distant management that had no idea what the market was about, or even what a radio station was meant to do. Rock and Hard Place doesn’t begin to cover it.

John Russell was probably in much the same position. He corralled a collection of talented but demanding individuals, none of whom lacked for ego, and most of whom, me included, were massively insecure – typical jocks, in other words - and he let us loose on air. Looking back on what he set up, and considering his own management, I marvel at his patience. Of course, this was a wholly different kind of BRMB to the one that the current owners are steadily rebuilding. I’m not entirely sure any of us really knew what were doing. The BRMB of old was an odd beast, but it was an effective station in its way, and it is remembered with affection. And it was John’s beast.

So that’s why I’m talking about gatekeepers. Had John not opened that UK gate for me, I would not have lived and worked in (and from) Birmingham for most of my adult life. I would not have been able to participate in and enjoy the explosive rise of musical talent from our area. I would not have been able to meet and work with fabulously creative musicians, something which I relish to this day. I would not have been able to play with presenter styles and broadcast ideas, exploring ways of communicating with a freedom now completely denied to almost all broadcasters. Nor would I have had the chance to travel all over Europe and the US to work in radio and some of the extraordinary businesses that feed and service our industry. Nor… I could go on.

John opened that gate for me. For most of the time, the gatekeeper dynamic being what it is, I gave him a lot of grief. But right now, 36 years on, I, and a lot of other BRMB veterans, remember him with affection and gratitude.

You never know who's listening...

2009-09-30T08:17:00.008+01:00

I visited the Brussels Museum of Musical Instruments last month. It's brilliant. They give you wireless headphones which spring to life when you approach the display cases: you get a blast of a Mozart wind quintet on period instruments, or some stonking Hurdy Gurdy dance music, or a bit of steaming Hammond B3. It just brings those wonderful old instruments to life. And, of course - this is a state museum in the capital of Eurobureau - it is very fully documented, with discographies and notes. But: did they ever miss a trick... a big one too...

That Mozart piece blew me away. I love Mozart, and this, played on warm and subtly toned period instruments, was just gorgeous. I had to have it. So I visited the museum shop, where a deeply cool and painfully crucial guy with a wicked 'do cooly and politely informed me that, no, there were no CDs available with any of the museum's music samples - just what they had on the shelves... there might be a bit of Mozart wind stuff over there....

I was tempted to ask him if he had trained in retail in the UK, but I passed. He wouldn't have understood.

In all seriousness, this represents a completely wasted opportunity. Here is a museum which attracts music lovers. During their visits, these music lovers are exposed to a tantalising range of fantastic music - hundreds and hundreds of samples, effortlessly brought to life in a charming and accessible way. I would probably have come away with several CDs had they been available for purchase. Of course, there are bound to be copyright issues, but I don't see that these couldn't have been overcome. If I ran a record company, I would happily have made appropriate samples available to the museum, in exchange for their shop stocking the source CDs. It just makes simple business sense, and, provided the curatorial goals of the museum drive the process, there is no reason that the profit motive should override things.

However, since this is a Radio and Local Music booster blog, you may well be asking by now why I am spending so much time banging on about wasted business opportunities in Brussels.

Well, I've got two reasons, the most important of which is this: every time you go on the air, or play a gig, or get your song on the radio, you get a chance to sell yourself. And you never know who might be listening. Don't ever be content to put something lovely together, like the fabulous Brussels MIM, and then skip a chance to press home your advantage. It may just be a dumb tourist, like me in the Museum, asking the questions. But it could be a listener. Or someone who wants to buy your stuff.

This all connects up. Really, it does. There's been much talk lately - see my previous post, and a new post up today on the Infinite Dial blog - about the creative areas, where new radio practitioners are bypassing the old-school network operators, to go straight to their audiences. New ideas and new approaches are being born every minute, and I welcome them. Podcast and community radio audiences might be tiny right now, but you can bet that in among these audiences, there are movers and shakers, future bosses and future decision makers. They're listening right now, because they too are looking to find new inspiration.

Second reason - I just got friended on Facebook by a local muso, Mick Howson... who plays the Hurdy Gurdy... which reminded me about the Brussels MIM. See? It all does connect up.

Wise words

2009-09-25T10:37:00.014+01:00

I follow a lot of radio blogs. Lots of savvy thinking going on out there. I'm posting a link to one of the most impressive among them, a US based blog from Tom Webster, called the Infinite Dial - there's a link at the end of this post.

Tom's talking about about staffing, resources, creativity and Radio's approach to digital tools, coming off the back of a session on just this area at the US NAB convention in Philadelphia (in passing, note that the European NAB convention in Athens has, er, been cancelled this year).

Tom talks a LOT of sense. Here's the pay off line:
We cannot continue to say, over and over, that content is king--and then continue to invest in tools. Tools don't make content, people do. The tools are free. Pay the people.

Couldn't agree more, Tom. Here's the whole post

Autumn looks promising

2009-09-16T08:24:00.010+01:00

I've been having a vigorous debate with a friend about the merits and demerits of Disney's proposed remake of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine movie in 3d. I hate this - it's going to see 21st Century techies completely manipulating 20th Century ideas for their own corporate ends. I'm not bemoaning new technology - it's empowered thousands of musicians worldwide - but I'm much happier when it works for the music, instead of using it as part of the product mix. Today, musos can take charge of this area too, and that can only be for the good. For example, take a look at the latest EPK vid from the fabulous Jo Hamilton. She shot most of it, and the editing was a joint venture with producer Jon Cotton.

By the way, Jo has a major gig in London on the 22nd. Then she's back at the Town Hall in December, with the great Scott Matthews. The same venue hosts the Destroyers, supported by The Old Dance School and Toy Hearts, on October 11th. Before that, Rich Batsford previews his new album on September 24th in King's Heath.

And what has all this got to do with my rant at the top of this post? Well, all these gigs, and the associated videos - not just Jo's - are in support of self-produced and distributed albums. We're not talking about product, to be reimagined by some faceless corporation in 40 years. We're talking about the contemporary creative process.

Buddy, can you spare half a million?

2009-08-29T12:38:00.012+01:00

There was an interesting if depressing article on Community Radio Monday 24th in the Guardian, from Steve Buckley, one of the stalwarts of the movement. It got me thinking, and sparked some vigorous debate in the online comments. I'm posting - belatedly - because there's so much to say, not all of it cheering.

The case for governmental Community Radio funding is so clear so and simple. And yet, and yet...

I've posted several times on this blog about visiting Community stations as an interview guest. I'm a thoroughly interested observer: the vibe of a buzzing station is something I really enjoy, and I've found that exact same vibe at all levels of the industry, including at Community level. I am both genuinely impressed with some of the efforts put in at hyper-local level, and genuinely depressed at some of the output I've listened to.

I suppose the most engaging thing about Community Radio is that it truly depends on the efforts of a few people at each station putting in ridiculous amounts of time and effort to stack up a wobbly broadcast edifice against all the odds. I admire that enormously. Leaving that hard work aside, you don't set up a station for free, and a key point in Steve Buckley's article is that promised support funding has been both sparse and unevenly distributed.

But once you open up that funding discussion, things start to get hazy. As I see it, the distinction between small-scale Commercial Radio and Community Radio is getting more and more blurred. The line between the two becomes harder still to draw once Community stations are allowed to sell advertising, raise sponsorship funds, and the like. It's understandable that Commercial Radio is not about to support funding initiatives that would encourage competition from the Community sector, while at the same time seeing some of the commercial revenue they would expect to receive drifting away to the Community boys. And there is also the awkward fact that some Community operations might well be accused of being more interested in getting the funding than serving their audiences.

That said, the good side of that line-blurring is that it should remind us that Radio, like Football, does have a pyramid structure. In Radio, the current legislative structure is criticised at each level of that pyramid. Worse, it offers no defined paths for practitioners to move around. But it is a pyramid structure nonetheless, and we should acknowledge this.

I don't see a perfect solution, probably because there isn't one. Funding is needed to up-skill community stations, give a better experience to the listener, better training to station volunteers, and, vitally, ensure the stations' survival; no argument there. But I can see why the Commercial boys don't want the Community stations firing on all cylinders, and start nipping at their heels - and cash flow. But possibly, despite all the horrible compromises that external funding can bring, that's exactly how it should be.

Follow the Leader

2009-08-20T09:25:00.005+01:00

I had a very interesting chat this week with one of the managers at Rhubarb Radio. For non-Brummies, this is Internet radio coming from the Custard Factory (see what they did there?) complex in Digbeth, an industrial quarter of Birmingham that increasingly hosts new media operators, recording studios, clubs, venues, and technorati startups. Rhubarb is interesting but chaotic, with more than its fair share of bright young presenters, some of whom I truly hope and expect will go on to great things elsewhere.

They have plans, and some of them could be really exciting. I hope to be able to report back on these in due course. A lot of this - not all - will be web-based. I just hope it doesn't rely too much on Social Media. Radio in general - not just Rhubarb - seems to place a great deal of hope in Social Media and its rejuvenating associative properties. I've never seen the point in this - for two reasons.

My first, and I'm afraid my biggest objection, is this: Social Media does not need Radio, or indeed TV, Movies, Newpapers, or any of the 20th Century Media, to flourish. Facebook and Twitter justify themselves by the amount of one-to-one activity they generate. Anything else is irrelevant. A lot of social media is about the buzz, the now, the excitement of the moment. Original content kicks it off, but the buzz takes over. And this becomes an end in itself. On Facebook, I've had some terrific conversation threads recently - really fun, interesting stuff. But they spun out from one idea at a time; they were happy accidents.

Which leads me to my second point. To try and lock in to this buzz on radio seems a bit schizophrenic. It's like a newspaper live-blogging football when you can watch the game live on your computer instead. What's more important - the game, or your chat around the game? So when I heard some witless jock - this one wasn't on Rhubarb, it was one of my local terrestrial operations - banging on about how the tweets were flooding in, and his facebook page was going crazy, it kind of made me think he had the cart before the horse. He was giving himself a huge distraction from what might really have been going on in the studio. As a lot of lazy Radio types do, he was soliciting ideas to react to, when he should have been sending stimulating ideas out. Bad mistake. Just sends your listeners away, to their own Facebook pages.

I'd like to think that sparkling debate and witty banter can be encouraged at Radio by the feedback tools Radio can now use. But I always come back to the same thing: Radio, like Newspapers, TV and Movies, needs to generate unique, original, quality content to survive. And there's the rub. It's by no means impossible - and radio has the great advantage that good ideas come for free, and are cheap to implement. But I really don't see the point in following someone else's activity and passing it off as your own.

Decline and fall?

2009-08-09T11:33:00.016+01:00

I read a book review last week of a work covering the spectacular, ego-driven, cocaine-fuelled, decline and fall of the record industry. As I was prepping this post, I checked on Amazon on to be sure I had the title right, looking for books on the Record Industry, decline and fall of. Blimey, there's dozens of them. Talk about Hollywood Babylon revisited.

Record industry depravity aside, the review sparked a notion for this post. Some years back, a very savvy and smooth operator, Tim Blackmore, was in charge of the Radio Academy. This is a UK industry talking shop, and I was, and still am, a member. If you care about broadcasting in the UK, you should be a member too. Tim set up a meeting which brought together music radio types and some senior music producers - respected players in the then ego-driven, cocaine-fuelled, etc, etc, record industry - to discuss common ground. You know, all music lovers together, that sort of thing.

Only trouble was... there really wasn't any common ground. Early on, I wittered on worthily about radio's need to relate to its audiences first and foremost, and if that meant radio could support record industry priorities, that was fine and dandy; but that we could not honestly be expected to place their priorities above our own. Blissfully unaware of their reactions, I ploughed on about it was now difficult to trust the chart as a barometer of public taste, and how it made sense to do some research into local sales patterns.

Well, that went down like a lead balloon with the producers. And when the producers in turn talked approvingly about hyping sales to put records into the charts so that radio would be forced to play their product, that went down like a lead balloon with me and not a few others.

Of course, that was in the days of serious audience figures for Top Of The Pops, when Radio 1 was the biggest station in the UK, and Radio 2 was definitely... not. Since that time, record sales have largely tanked, the chart has lost all credibility as a programming tool, and a lot of radio has programmed increasingly conservatively using in-house research. What we didn't expect then was the web: This punched a dirty great hole through all our cosy assumptions. I'm not unhappy at the changes: I'm hearing so much great music from the web - stuff that doesn't fit the financial model the record industry grew fat on. And, as I have already said, I'm not at all unhappy that thousands of new players are experimenting with radio, also on the web.

What I would like to see is some way that the new cream can rise to the top. We're not there yet. But I'm happy to wait. In the meantime, I would love to see a companion Radio Babylon-style book or two about the ego-driven cocaine-fuelled big beasts... of radio... back in the day.

Community Radio 3

2009-08-01T11:15:00.015+01:00

Here's a little story. I joined the BBC 15 years ago, after 22 years in the commercial sector, to set up a scheduling and playout rig for the overnight shows on Radio 2, which then came out of Birmingham. I stayed on to produce for 5 years.

It was great. I had good DJs, creative freedom, fantastic music, and the best boss in radio. On the other hand, I got some ridiculous stick from some BBC Network types because all I'd done before the BBC was... local radio. They found it hard to believe that a local commercial boy might have the chops to produce network output... harder to believe still when the audience figures quadrupled.

I'm a great believer in local radio. It should be a launchpad, the place where radio careers start. But at Radio 2, my suggestion that there might be worthwhile talent at local stations was laughed out of court. Even when I drafted in BBC local radio presenters for holiday shifts, who promptly lit up the switchboard and scored great feedback, there was no reaction from management. It seemed a shame, and a wasted opportunity.

I was reminded of this when I mentioned community radio to a local radio type recently. I saw the same reaction - in fact I could have sworn I saw a slight curling of the lip. And that's even more of a pity, because the local boys should know what it's like to be looked down on by the networks.

I truly think that we need to revisit how we look at talent on radio, before the whole edifice is washed away by the web. A good communicator is a good communicator, whether he or she is talking to twenty people or two million. It's people behind the mic at one end, and listeners at the other end. And content matters. If it's good, it's good, local or otherwise. On the other hand, bad content doesn't magically improve because it gets national coverage. So why the Networks aren't prepared to look at local stations, and why in turn this sector isn't prepared to look at the internet, community radio and podcasting, completely baffles me.

Now, I've heard an awful lot of bad radio recently. Some of it (by no means all) has been on the community stations I've been checking out. I've tuned out in anger or boredom quite a lot. But I've also heard impressively competent sports discussion from young volunteers at Unity FM, and, on Rhubarb Radio, engaging and scurrilous banter around Supersonic, deeply impressive mixes from Sam Redmore and Mark Reck, the great Vijay Kishore live on Sunday City Musicbox, and more.

This encourages me. The commercial sector may be scrabbling for revenue, and the BBC may be horribly nervous after Sachsgate, but Radio as a whole is NOT dying. At grassroots level, it now has has more space than ever before to showcase the new talent and energy that thrives on its new platforms. What it however seems to lack, certainly at the more established levels of the broadcast pyramid, is the will, and possibly the humility, to accept that there just might be something out there worth looking at, a couple of levels back down that same pyramid.

Community Radio 2

2009-08-01T11:04:00.004+01:00

Following on from my thoughts below, it seems I'm not the only person who thinks this way. Here's some very interesting stuff from the Guardian, wherein Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust, expresses serious doubts about the feasibility of switching over in 2015.

Community Radio 1

2009-07-25T11:07:00.009+01:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about community radio recently. Partly, this is due to the comments and assumptions in the Digital Britain report on the future of the FM band in 2015, when all the big boys will (the governnment hopes) have moved over to digital.

The assumption is that: ‘a new tier of ultra-local radio, consisting of small local commercial stations and community stations, will occupy the vacated FM spectrum’.

Yeah?

I’m a trifle worried about how the concepts of ‘ultra-local’ and ‘commercial’ are going to work together. Seems to me that they tried something like this in France twenty years ago, when they first allowed hundreds of low power volunteer-driven community operations on the air… and then later deregulated the sector so they could compete commercially. It was, of course, an unqualified disaster for the community sector, who, having abandoned their roots to compete with the big boys, swiftly went belly up, allowing the bigger (Paris-based, of course) stations to buy them up and create networks on the cheap. By the way, it produced car-crash radio, as nobody had any idea about how to opt in and out of adbreaks. As a way forward, I think this will produce confusion, heartbreak and bankruptcy.

The other reason that community radio has been in my thoughts is that, more through luck than forward planning, I’ve been on WCR-FM in Wolverhampton and Unity FM in Bordesley recently as a guest interviewee, and I’m pencilled in to do a session in August on Sunday City Musicbox on Rhubarb Radio, with the excellent Shelley Atkinson. So I’ve done a lot of listening, and there are grounds for optimism. More on this in a future post.

Project X fun

2009-07-09T11:54:00.009+01:00

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours in Moseley yesterday evening conducting interviews (off camera - I have a face for radio) for a new set of video features that will go up on the Project X Presents website. The plan is to use the rather fabulous World As Seen From Moseley PXP poster, created by the splendid Hunt Emerson, as an interactive map on the PXP site. Click on the 'Cross', for example, and you will be able to see interview and performance video montages from PXP contributors who performed or exhibited at that venue, and so on.

Lots of editing to come before all that sees the light of day. But to be able to sit and talk with such a range of good and creative people was, frankly, a joy. So, thanks to Mandy Kasafir, Lee Stowers, Ant Ramm, Dave Checkley, Rich Batsford, Sally Sherlock, and James from the Lazy Lizards. Stay tuned for details on PXP 6.

Localism

2009-06-29T17:24:00.012+01:00

In September and October posts last year, I touched on the future of local stations in the region. Now, at last, things appear to have moved on.

Two - count 'em, two - clusters of stations have finally changed hands. The BRMB/Mercia/Beacon/Wyvern group has, after byzantine negotiations, moved from Global radio to a company headed by highly respected industry veteran Phil Riley, who got his start at BRMB in the 80s. It was Phil Riley who devised what was probably the finest and most successful Gold service - Xtra-AM - that this country has ever seen. And last week, the Touch cluster, covering Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, Coventry, Rugby and Tamworth, was sold off to a new group, again headed by another respected industry veteran, Steve Orchard.

I wish Phil and Steve well. They are both great operators, but they face serious challenges. This is a truly lousy time to start breathing life into old radio stations. We're still deep in a recession, and radio suffers badly in a downturn. And of course Radio has changed: the stations that Phil, Steve and I all worked on back in the day don't exist the same way.While Radio can be cheaper to set up and run than ever before, it is still a costly business; the bulk of the cost is staff. Across town, the estimable Kerrang! Radio, has painfully and regretfully lost staff, good ones at that - and they, remember, are Sony Station of the Year in their coverage category.

The most significant development, for my money, is this: the new groups are no longer owned by distant and remote companies, who don't seem to care for their properties that much. The two new clusters are concentrated in areas with clear identities, with overall control exercised from within the region. That is hugely encouraging. There are now no obstacles, costs aside, to these stations evolving in their own ways to serve their own markets. What they do, and how they do it, is another matter. Watch this space. Hopefully more soon.

Fantastic

2009-06-25T19:38:00.005+01:00

Only slightly put off by a snotty post in today's Guardian about the decline of blogs, I'm happily resuming blogging here after managing to revive/retrieve my logins so I can post again. Lovely (and free) though this service is, you wind up going round in circles when Google sends retrieval information to your gmail address... which shares the same login as your blogger page.

No matter - I'm happy to be behind the tech curve. This month, I caught the full debut gig of the jaw-droppingly skilled Urban Folk Quartet at the Crown in Moseley. They don't sing; they play, and how. Birmingham has a wealth of fantastic bands, and this is just the latest development in the folk/world/jazz field. These bands swap musicians with wanton promiscuity - I could have sworn I'd seen the cajón player before. Two fiddles, bursts of mandolin and breathtaking guitar work, percussion and rhythm, and a crowd that went berserk. Lovely. See them soon.

UFQ supported the fantastic Jo Hamilton at her album launch gig a few weeks back. I've seen her twice since then, and she has blown me away each time. Watch out for a video podcast, which I'll post details on soon. On it, I had the extraordinary good fortune to interview her as she sang live in the studio, with a small band. it was thrilling to see her perfom live at close quarters, and to be able to talk to her, immediately, off the back of the peformances. Jo is super-smart, witty and sensitive; she has terrific songs; for me, the interviewing of an artist doesn't get much better than this.

Local Radio - where is the good news?

2008-10-04T11:25:00.004+01:00

Here's a little local story. I spent a LARGE chunk of my working life, just under 20 years, working for BRMB, the first commercial station in Birmingham. I joined them 35 years ago, pre-launch, as a baby rock jock, and left as Head of Music and Research, having done pretty much everything there was to do in old-style commercial radio.

News came out last month that their current owners, Global, are selling them off, along with three other stations in the West Midlands. This lets Global off the anti-competition hook, so they can carry on in the much more lucrative London market with, er, Capital, LBC, Heart, Choice, Classic FM and several other AM and digital brands. Go figure.

I'm not really concerned with London radio right now. It's like New York: the lack of diversity and interesting programming is striking, and of course it's all down to hyper-competition and the perceptions of the executives who make the programming and marketing decisions. But I still have have stupidly fond memories of the old station where I plied much of my trade, back in the last century.

For me, there are two big questions hanging over BRMB (and Mercia, Beacon and Wyvern):

Question one: given that we are now in a recession, and that, in the UK, radio advertising suffers first and worst when they cut the ad budgets, is there still a shiny future for 'traditional' local radio when it is cut adrift from a well funded network? Remember that these stations were all launched as full-service stations, and all those old-time features have been ruthlessly stripped away as competition piled in from Networks and the Internet.

Question two: That old-fashioned appeal is fondly remembered by many who listened twenty and thirty years ago. It was that same old-fashioned approach that let me experiment as a Rock DJ, with a degree of freedom inconceivable by today's standards. I went on to record many of the region's finest bands, and in so doing built up frankly extraordinary listening figures, again, by today's standards. But is this kind of approach remotely cost-effective, appealing though it may seem? In short, have we seen the best, and maybe last, of old-school radio?

I do know that it's possible to do great things really cheaply, and that is encouraging. Modern kit means it now costs less to run a business and far less to cover some of the radio basics - doing the accounts, keeping in touch with staff, building running orders, assembling a library, scheduling advertising, setting up promotions via email and the web, and so on. But that's only part of the picture.

Are these old businesses worth paying good money for? Is it worth breathing life into them anew, once all emotion has been put aside? You tell me. I'd love to see it done the right way. But I wonder how many people share my opinions.

Internet Radio

2008-09-27T12:17:00.006+01:00

I was at a gathering last night in the city to talk and sympathise with some old friends who are being moved on because of the UK radio ownership merry go round. The talk switched to new technology, Internet Radio, old-style Radio (for example, BRMB, now on the block to anyone who will pony up an unfeasibly large amount of money), and what's coming next for this old and beloved medium.

The question was, when will Internet Radio finally displace old-style radio? It's a good one. I don't have the answer, of course. But I did see a straw in the wind a couple of months back in New York, the week they launched the new iPhone. They had lines round the block all over the city. Not unusual - Apple fans are fanatics. But then I heard something both unusual, and hugely encouraging. I think we’re finally approaching the era of decent portable internet radio, and that will be the nail in the coffin of old-style radio, which may well be a damn shame. There's a brilliant service - Pandora - which you can no longer get in the UK or Europe. And they streamed 3.3 million songs to the new iPhones in the first week of availability. Some going.

That made Pandora’s new app the third most successful in the iPhoneverse. Pandora can sadly not now be received in the UK because of our obscenely restrictive copyright restrictions, and I truly regret not being able to listen to them any more. They are, for me, the best webstreamers by far. The iPhone hookup got them 180,000 new users in three days. They claim a new user every two seconds. This is BIG stuff.

So what do we take from this? I think we are finally seeing another conjunction of new technology, audience, demographics and circumstance. You need ease of use; you need attractive programming; you need affordability; and you need someone to spot the gap and fill it. This is uncannily similar to events in the 50s when Rock and Roll and Top 40 Radio came together.

This may be a huge step forward. I hope so; Pandora deserve it. I still won’t call it radio, though. In my luddite book, radio still involves someone communicating with you. I’m sure Pandora have an adorable detailed and fantastically well-connected database, the fruit of their very savvy staff. I’d kill to be able to play around with it. But I can’t relate to databases. I still want to hear from real people. But if I was living permanently in the US, Pandora’s app would be enough to make me get an iPhone.

Post Project X Presents musings

2008-09-15T14:16:00.004+01:00

PXP 4 took place on Saturday 13th last.

Damn, it was good. I'm so pleased that the event went well. So many brilliant people participated in so many diverse and stimulating ways. I felt privileged to attend PXP2, and even more privileged to contribute to PXP4. I feel nothing but huge respect and gratitude for each and every one of the PXP team. For my part, seeing a roomful of people grooving to a dj set of seriously obscure jazz and other wonderful stuff was positively life-enhancing. Roll on the next PXP - there will be a PXP5 podcast, of course. And if the stuff I captured on the night stands up, you'll hear some of that on the next 'cast too.

Project X Presents 4 Podcast

2008-08-23T11:39:00.006+01:00

Project X Presents is coming - get your tickets now! I'm referring you to the website, cos this rather fab event is really difficult to put into words - you kind of have to be there. Of course, it helps if you're in Birmingham. On September 13th.

This 'cast has 360, Lil Miss Vix Buzzfox, Rich Batsford, Arc Vel, Loopz and Cellardoor.

And don't forget the buzzboxes...

Radio To Go podcasts can be found at at iTunes and Feedburner.