The Last Salford Music Scene – 30th October 2012

On 22nd February last year (2011) I inherited Jon Coupe’s mantle of producing a Salford Music themed radio show – seemed sensible to me to have a radio show about Salford music on a community radio station in Salford….bit of a no-brainer really.

There had been a lot of debate at the station amongst a few of us about wanting to feature more Salford music on the programmes. Tony Thornborough, Becs Marshall, Ian Rothwell, Eddie Mann, Eddie Legge, Zac and Paul, Monty and SD were all doing their part in promoting new music in the city but it seemed to me we could go a bit further and increase the percentage of airplay given to local bands. I mean does anyone really want to hear the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays again and again when there are excellent bands like AAAK, Mr Heart, Suzuki Method, Lipsticks Traces, Positronik, Death to the Strange, Saturday Morning Cartoons et al who deserve airplay and more exposure?

So 88 episodes later it’s all coming to a close for a number of reasons far too complicated to waste your time on – all I will say is that one reason I am quitting  is I was becomingly increasingly frustrated at the inability to further increase the amount of music from local bands and singers on the station. So i’m off to do it somewhere else…..

So what am I going to be doing? Well this show and the Aural Delights show will be combined into a semi-regular podcast on Mixcloud. I have managed to keep a lot of my record company/promo company contacts despite me giving up broadcast radio…..and there will hopefully be more detail on this blog about the music than there has been hitherto. Also Jon, Tony and myself are bring back the Salford Music Website which you can now see here……

Thanks to all the bands that have contributed music over the last few years to make this show what is has been – extra special thanks to Ding, Tamsin, Toby Jughead, John Herring, The Inflictors (wherever you are!), Brad, Mr Moss, MJ Leigh, The Duttons, Dusty, Shaun, The General, Ken, Toska, Luis, Stephen, Martin B, Tim, Kin, the Borland boys and all the other bands Mr. Breen is in,  Hop Man Jr, Danny Short, Dave Bromwich, Andy & Michelle Quayle,  Mr Coupe  and the other three horsemen of radio apocalypse Tony, Monty and SD.

So for the final show…..new stuff and a bit of a self-indulgence with my favourite local bands – listen here……

1. Sinister Chuckles – Bottle of Pop – another snippet of pop-punk loveliness from Sad Row studios and the legendary Shaun “Ali Bongo” Maxwell……in this outing he appears to have transmogrified into a thespian……
2. Kill for Company – Mind Over Mouth – supporting both Twisted Wheel and Mr Heart in two seperate outings this coming Friday – a marvellous band which I am very pleased to have featured on the radio……
3. Mr Heart – Stones …..from the exceptional new album “The Unspeakable Mr Heart” which is launched Friday Night at The Castle on Oldham Street……
4. Kill Pretty – Mirror Factory ……. the best live band in the world…..from the new album “Dark Heart”” ……..catch them live you will not regret it
5. Palomino – Price We Pay – a brand new band from Salford which is what this show is all about…….
6. Rapid Pig – Flight – from the marvellous new album “Wildlife” …… another band which need to be seen
7. The Blimp – Miniature – the other best live band in the world ….from the 3-4 EP which we released as a free download from SCR…….saw them last Friday and they were stunning….
8. Alarms – Man With Gun – another new band – keeping in with the spirit of the show
9. Journal Keepers – Clearest Day – one of the more recent discoveries and I have to say I’m glad they wrote in – bloomin’ brilliant….
10. Kingdom Lost – Let’s Stay Together – from the new free EP “Naked from the Waist Down”
11. West Coast Sick Line – This Ain’t London – not from Salford but we’ve adopted him – the mercurial songwriting talent of Dusty Moonan from his new album “I hope everybody gets nightmares except Kirsty”
12. The Fall – Reformation – well I started with this back in 2009 so I may as well finish with it…….

So that’s your lot ……. thanks for listening….

Salford Music Scene – 23rd October 2012

Listen here

Tunes played were:

• Stalagmites – Be An Animal
• The Three Johns – The World of the Workers
• Blue Orchids – Sun Connection
• Wrecks – Not
• The Happy Fallen – Ultrawave
• Epic Noise Guy featuring Ark – Razors
• West Coast Sick Line – Literacy Gnome
• Journal-Keepers – Faded Tattoo
• Progress – No Excuses
• Kingdom Lost – We Are
• Tall For Jockeys – Loveless
• Goodlife – Romantic Comedy
• Monster Island – Shaking Hands
• The Fall – M5-1

Aural Delights Radio Show – 17th October 2012

You can listen to it here

And this is what I played……

1	Curry Quiche	Social Barrier Thing	Demo
2	The Cornelius Crane	Don’t Blame This Heart of Mine	E.P. Too
3	Damn Vandals	This Amazing	Done for Desire
4	Eugene Twist	If There’s Love Where I’m Going	The Boy Who Had Everything
5	Devilman	93	Devilman
6	Curry Quiche	Phonaphobia	Demo
7	Flies On You	The Last Pop Song	Nothing To Write Home About
8	Lola Dutronic	L’Amour Est Bleu	Everyone’s a star
9	Man	Kerosene	Winos, Rhinos and Lunatics
10	Me and My Friends	Green Back Dollar	Breath A Level Head
11	Moff Skellington	Said Naughty Norman	Gravy On A Plate of Food
12	Journal-Keepers	Still Here	Demo
13	Curry Quiche	Love Went with the rest	Demo
14	Peter Hammill	Red Shift	The Peel Session

Aural Delights Radio Show – 10th October

The show can be listened to here

The tracks that I played were:

1	Lost Cassettes	HD1	What We Doing After
2	Pharoahs From The Grave	Machines	Pharoahs From The Grave
3	Mercury 13	Searchlight	Single
4	Me and My Friends	A Penguin Samba	Breath A Level Head
5	Destroy All Monsters	Bored	Bored
6	The Como Brothers Band	Underneath It All	The Speed Of Sound
7	The Fresh and Only’s	20 Days and 20 Nights	Long Slow Dance
8	Mercury 13	Again Again Again	Single
9	Journal-Keepers	Stay Fools	Demo
10	Moff Skellington	Who’s that coming up the stairs today	Gravy On A Plate of Food
12	Me and My Friends	Level Head	Breath A Level Head
12	Flies On You	Dub Cities	Nothing To Write Home About
13	Lost Cassettes	Beat Motel	What We Doing After
14	Electric Moon	Gefährliche Planetengirls	Lunatics

Aural Delights Radio Show – 19th September 2012

This time around it’s mostly new music which has been sent in to me…..I encourage you to check these bands out they are all rather good…….and i’ve got off my backside and done some notes this time…..

You can stream the show here…

1	Sinister Chuckles	Master of the Atom	Demo
2	The Jacobs	Waifs and Strays	Single
3	Progress	Abbie	Demo
4	The Suns	Last of the Lonely Hearts	Single
5	Moff Skellington	Picture a Pavilion	Eddodi
6	Moff Skellington	The Bearing Down of Juggernauts	Eddodi
7	Journal-Keepers	What’s Inside	Demo
8	White Rose	Talking to a Timebomb	Fanimal
9	The Apparrells	Change the Way You Are	Demo
10	Skeleton Suite	Nothing Better than the English Weather	Demo
11	Not By Design	Lesser Limits	Come Together/Live Forever
12	Epsilon One	Spirals	Spirals EP
13	Butterflies on Strings	Burning Slowly	A Boy Named Crow
14	At Dawn We Are Kings	Healing	Demo
15	Van Der Graaf Generator	The Sphinx in the Face	The Box

Notes:

1. Mr Ali Bongo keeps turning out the tunes at the Sad Row recording studio. I was particular taken with the early 60s sci-fi references on this one.
2. Unsigned, just about to record their debut EP, they have done a UK tour and string of festivals and London gigs.
3. As featured last week I am pretty damn impressed by this trio of teens from St Helens – I’ve been asked would it be possible to plug a gig they’re playing at the Cavern Club in Liverpool this coming Sunday.  They’re playing an under 18’s showcase there. Cash, the vocalist and guitarist apparently is really chuffed as he’s a big Beatles fan.
4. As Tony T said the other night the best band to come out of Chester – ever, unless you count Michael Owen and the Dodgy Knees. The new single further cements their reputation as a band of quality.
5. A new album is in the offing – here is a couple of tracks from the first album by the mighty Moff.
6. as above
7. An acoustic collective from Manchester….they hope to make new fans and friends and start releasing EPs late this/early next year. They say they are  going for a romantic, acoustic sound and are big fans of Nick Drake, Jacques Brel and Scott Walker. They have  played Night and Day, Band On The Wall and most recently supported Chris Helme and Blind Atlas at Sacred Trinity Church in Salford.
8. From Darlington and from their EP Fanimal…..they describe themselves as Indie Rock with a Northern Soul…..
9. Quite excited about this lot – a four piece from Glasgow – reminded me of The Distractions/Go-Betweens – I threw them a curve ball by picking this song – I will be featuring them again. Highly recommended.
10. A mysterious lot whose Facebook page reveals not a jot of info about their background, purpose or manifesto- though apparently they like listening to Zac Peach on SCR – the release is entitled – § – indeed …..it’s a symbol for a Section….
11. From Birmingham – and again not much of a bio on Facebook but there appears to be five of them in the picture….
12. Epsilon One – Monty got ahead of me by featuring this lot last night – New release from DOGS GOT A BONE RECORDS (based around an internet radio station)  Spirals EP by Epsilon One is out on September 17th 2012. Self formed in 2011; ‘Epsilon One’ is a solo Lo-Fi indie project from Leith, Edinburgh.  Recording mostly on a ‘tonic’ stained 8 track, ‘Epsilon One’ mix dirty pulsing bass and mellow vocals with the sounds of broken synths and a guitar line or four, and all in the tradition of the Lo-Fi Alternative.
13. On 7th September 2012, Butterflies On Strings released their self-produced studio EP ‘A Boy Named Crow’ on The Kaleidoscope Label.
14. As featured last week – and who went down a proverbial storm with the foul mouthed ingrates that chat with me on Facebook……
15. Classic mid-period Graaf with the chap from String Driven Thing (Graham Smith) on violin – Nadir-esque rocking from PJAH and his motley band…..Hammill, Smith, Potter and Evans – a good line-up of the band.