The Indie Mega Mash

Spycatcher at the Tate Modern

2009-11-01T15:51:00.000-08:00

Saw these guys play on halloween.

The night was put on by DIY Womp and was quite spooktacular!

Live illustration, people sewing tiger hoods and The Experimental Choir were all great to watch in such an unusual setting.

Having a drink on the 7th floor bar while dressed as a dark angel was good too...

The Flaming Lips Play Pink Floyd's 'Eclipse'

2009-10-20T02:56:00.001-07:00

According to an LA Times report, The Flaming Lips are covering the entire Dark Side of the Moon album...They played this set on a Californian radio station

Watch: The Flaming Lips Play Pink Floyd's "Eclipse"

Shared via AddThis

To Be, or Not To BNP on Question Time

2009-10-19T03:49:00.000-07:00

It's happening this Thursday 22nd October and it's creating a right kerfuffle...

The BBC have been told they could now face legal action over having BNP leader,
Nick Griffin on the show.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hains made an appearance on Radio 5 Live after writing to BBC Director General, Mark Thompson complaining about the BBC's decision.

Nick Griffin will be on the Question Time panel along with The Justice Secretary, representatives from the other main parties and

Bonnie Greer

Unite Against Fascism are staging an all day protest outside the BBC Televsion Centre.

Johnny Foreigner - Listen Before You Buy

2009-10-19T03:32:00.000-07:00

I love this band and am extremely pleased to see you can have a listen to the whole album online before it comes out...good idea.

Click here to fill your lugholes with it!

The album comes out on 26th October.

PS. If you're outside the UK, you can only listen to 30sec clips of each song...just a taster then.

Behind the Scenes

2009-07-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

I was having a listen to some Radio 4 programmes online and found
this.

It's a short video that shows a bit of what goes on to make one of their programmes Open Country.

Worth a look at!

2009-06-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

This is an absolutely brilliant series for creating atmosphere and telling really unusual stories! Have a listen, radio should be making more programmes like this...

Between the Ears

New Podcasts Up

2009-06-11T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hello!
I've been working on news and mini docs a lot more recently so I put a piece I made up on the podcast.

If you find your wallet screaming after a visit to the vets with your pooch then the Animal Medicines podcast is a must listen...

My Podcast

Music on the show this week

2008-11-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

If you've found his blog but haven't listened to the show yet - why not?!? www.lifefm.org.uk

It's every Wednesday 6-7pm and on 103.6 FM in North london

Here's what we played this week...

Brand new shiny music:

Bromheads Jacket - Turn me on
Dananananakroyd - Pink Sabbath
Those Dancing Days - Run Run
Wild Beasts - Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyant
Underground Railroad - 25
Holy Ghost Revival - Wolf King of LA

The newy-oldie:

Frightened Rabbit - The Modern Leper

Oldie Classics we love:

The Charlatans - One to another
Million Dead - Smiling at Strangers on Trains
The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
Animal Collective - Peacebone
Brand New - Sic Transit Gloria

Los Campesinos

2008-10-20T06:04:00.001-07:00

I went to see Los Campesinos at a free gig at Rough Trade East last night and it was a corker!

They're touring with No Age and times New Viking at the moment which is a great tour line up. go and see them if you can and check out the new album We are Beautiful, We are Doomed.
You can listen to the title track from the album below:

Exhibitions

2008-10-20T05:15:00.000-07:00

Andy Warhol: Other Voices , Other Rooms
Hayward Gallery

A great exhibition for pop art fans. The curators really seemed to have given some extended thought to the whole experience of the exhibition. The rooms are full of different video screens, private booths where you can listen to audio, mini screens where you watch excerpts from his diaries and short films he made throughout his life. I found the most interesting parts were the glass boxes filled with postcards, letters, Polaroids and snapshots from people involved in his life.

Alan Aldridge: The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes
Design Museum

A crazy coloured full on exhibition, Aldridge's psychedelic images are all around as you go through the exhibition - floor, walls, ceilings, screens, everything is used. There are examples of the Penguin books he illustrated covers for, images he made for the Beatles illustrated lyrics, a room full of 3D visuals from The Butterfly Ball children books he created and many album covers he made for bands and artists such as Incubus, Tears for Fears and Elton John are all there to be seen.
Could induce nightmares in small children!

a mad three weeks

2008-06-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Hello!

haven't blogged for a while, because it's been a mad few weeks!

I spent 2 weeks doing the Fresh Breakfast Zoo - was such a good laugh and a great experience doing breakfast..though getting up before 6am for 10 days wasn't the best part of the day...!

Loads of people in watford were talking about the station 101.8 Fresh FM, so here's hoping we get our full time licence! http://www.freshwatford.com/ if you want to check it out (which you should!)

I've also been in on Hertbeat FMs Evening Bit every night this week. Had a very cool young band, The Kaves in to play a live session for me www.myspace.com/thekaves Their manager/Dad took a whole load of photos so they should be up online soon on their myspace, plus I'll be putting the session up on my podcast.

Things are changing at Life 103.6FM as well. The Indie Mega Mash is moving to a Wednesday night, same time 6-7pm. The whole station is getting a revamp so we should be enjoying a much tighter sound and sounding a whole lot sexier all round!

Personalised music channel

2008-05-16T02:14:00.000-07:00

check it out!

1. Type in your last.fm username

2. The site takes your music choices compiled from scrobbling and playing on last.fm and matches this with videos from youtube...

3. You know have your very own personalised music channel!

http://tv.timbormans.com/

I had everything from Yeahyeahyeahs and MC5 to Earth, Wind and Fire...fantastico!

Friska Viljor at Hoxton Bar and Grill

2008-05-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

Met up with the Swedish Friska Viljor before their gig in East London. Despite them feeling slightly intoxicated with the fruity beer...the interview is up here.

http://megamash.podomatic.com/

Here's a video of them doing their thing... sound isn't great as I just took it on my small camera but it's a bit of a taster for you!

Mystery Jets at Scala 24.04.08

2008-04-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

I went to see the Mystery Jets at Scala last night and had a rollicking good time! It was great to see a band who actually seemed to genuinely really like each other, work together brilliantly on stage and perform really well. Go and see them if you get the chance.

They peaked a bit early in my opinion, playing my favourite track 'Young Love' right at the beginning!But was still a cracker.

Check out the new track:

I'm off to see Andrew Bird at O2 on Saturday night so I'll let you know how it goes!

Trippy Wicked at Life FM

2008-04-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

As if the recent influx of podcasts haven't been enough I have sacrificed sleep to put up yet another one!

Trippy Wicked came in a few weeks ago and played the first non-acoustic session I've had on the show. It took them about 20 minutes to set all their kit up. They brought in electric drums, guitar, mixer and some kind of foot pedal. There were wires and cables absolutely everywhere.

I took some fabulous photos on my phone; Pete is above on guitar and Chris is below on drums...

It went reeeally well and you can hear the results here on the following link:

http://megamash.podomatic.com/entry/2008-04-01T06_42_43-07_00

If you want to get some of this live action for yourself, they've got gigs coming up:

The Red Lion, Stevenage - 29th May

Club 85, Hitchin - 18th July

http://www.myspace.com/trippywicked

New podcasts uploaded

2008-03-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

I've just uploaded 2 new podcasts for your listening pleasure

- the DIY Womp (Do It Yourself Word of Mouth Promotions) interview where they brought in some tracks from local unsigned bands and told me how they got away with putting on an arty gig in the woods lit by glowsticks...

- Interview and live session from noisy gang of musicians Wartgore Hellsnicker. 7 band members squeezed into the studio and pounded out 3 acoustic tracks including new single C+F=Poww!
All online HERE

http://megamash.podomatic.com/

Wartgore Hellsnicker photo by Jessica Crago.

Videos from Late 80s baby session at Life FM

2008-03-05T03:36:00.000-08:00

Here are some videos of the band performing live in my studio last week...

Hey Little Annie:

And a cover of Sweetest Girl:

Coming Up

2008-02-29T02:25:00.000-08:00

I have a whole load of interviews and live sessions that I'm working my way through and posting up here and on my podcast...Soon to be posted:

Interview with James Lavelle from Unkle

Live session with Betty and the Werewolves

Interview with Alabama 3

Interview with the Duke Spirit

Interview with David Brewis from Field Music

Live session with The Frantic

Live session with The Outside Royalty

phew lots to do...

In the coming weeks I've got live sessions lined up with Wartgore Hellsnicker http://www.myspace.com/wartgorehellsnicker

and Trippy Wicked

http://www.myspace.com/trippywicked

Both of which are going to sound very different from any past sessions!

we've got shedloads of people coming in for the Wartgore session - it's going to be a technical and spacial triumph!

Plus the Trippy Wicked session will be my first one with drums in the studio - possibly an electric kit but I'll keep you posted.

Late 80's Baby on Life FM

2008-02-29T02:06:00.000-08:00

Had Late 80's Baby in for a session on Life FM 103.6 last night

http://www.myspace.com/lateeightiesbaby

They took loads of photos and videos which will be up on their myspace shortly. I'm going to give the session a few tweaks and then it will be up on here as well for your listening pleasure!

Here's a little sample of Late Eighties Baby from a live show they did a few months back. Check their myspace for videos from last night!

Backstage at Koko with The Runners

2008-02-18T15:12:00.000-08:00

I headed into Hitchin boys The Runners dressing room at Koko just after they came off stage. They've been touring with Air Traffic so I wanted to see how their support slot was working out and how their single release in December had been . They gave me their last beer as well..... The podcast of the interview is up here:

http://megamash.podOmatic.com/entry/2008-02-18T15_04_50-08_00

Stuff for you to listen to

2008-02-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

Hola!

One of the first things you can have a listen to is the programme resulting from a 4 week training course I did for a group of young francophone people in Bow, London. The content is all their own, I put it all together.

www.radio1812.net/en/audio/by/title/ensemble

There's little bits of french in there, but everything is explained in English as well. It's interesting to hear the kind of opinions these young people have; it's a bit of contrast to the kind of reputation young londoners seem to be getting.

We aired it in December 2007 at www.lifefm.org.uk and also had a live discussion in the studio with some of the young people involved and Kwaku from Life FM, who is incredibly well informed about the kind of British and African social issues and politics these young people were concerned with.