Radcliffe and Maconie's time slot may have changed from weekday afternoon to weekend mornings on 6 Music this week, but their commitment to great music remains the same. Stuart opened a new feature on Saturday's first show called 'Sun Up', showcasing music to signify the start of the day with Sunrise Through the Dusty Nebula by Hannah Peel. Have a listen, it's beautiful
So those BBC mandarins have gone and made the most ridiculous decision of them all as a massive schedule change at 6 Music sees the relegation of the Radcliffe and Maconie show from weekday afternoons to a weekend breakfast show.
It really is an absurd move. Radcliffe and Maconie is not only the best show on 6 but the best show on radio, full stop. It's been a beacon of hope for listeners since 20011 (when it moved from Radio 2 weekday evenings after a successful four years there) and the decision to slash the pair's broadcast time from fifteen hours per week down to just six, shunted off from the 1pm til 4pm weekday slot to a 7am til 10am weekend slot is an incredibly short sighted one from the mandarins and not, it seems, one either broadcaster was looking for. Twitter has been overwhelmed by a mass pouring of protest and criticism at this decision. There's also a petition at change.org that I strongly urge you all to sign. You can do so here
Heard this on Radcliffe and Maconie last week. Very quirky, and I was very taken with it. Goth disco? Surprised I hadn't come across it before to be honest.
Up until 90 minutes ago, I hadn't even heard of Cabbage, but bandmates Joe and Lee appeared on this afternoon's Radcliffe and Maconie and were an absolute scream.
You only need look at the bottom right hand side of this blog to see that I am a big fan of Isy Suttie, so it should come as no surprise that I had pre-ordered her debut book for some time. Released at the end of last month, The Actual One : How I tried, and failed, to remain twenty-something for ever, has never been far from my hands this week, meaning I have rather hurriedly devoured it. This is a great read as sweetly amusing as Isy herself - known to many as the wonderful Dobby from Peep Show - and a timely read considering St Valentine's Day is upon us singletons this weekend because this is a great anti-Valentine's read. The book concerns Isy's late-twenties and how she slowly became aware that all of her friend and contemporaries were starting to marry, have children and buy houses whilst she had just come out of another unsuccessful relationship. Told that the next guy she meets won't be 'The One' but 'The Actual One' (which is better, obviously) Isy sets out to somewhat half-heartedly find him, whilst at her home in Matlock, her eccentric mother ventures into 'The Computer Room' with a cuppa to explore the world of internet dating on her daughter's behalf. The book is littered with very funny and very frank anecdotes that are very relatable, especially if you too are of a certain age and find yourself single. Some will be familiar to fans of Isy's stand up or her excellent radio series Isy Suttie's Love Letters, but many of them are new. Having read the book, I certainly feel like I know Isy especially well, perhaps too well, given her no-holds-barred anecdotal style. But there's still more to learn from Isy and I hope she intends to write a follow-up which explains how she got from here to a settled relationship with fellow comic Elis James and - as of 2014 - a child of her own. It's hard to conjure up a significant sound bite or summary for how good this book is, so I shall just close with what Stuart Maconie had to say about it; "Imagine if you will a more cuddly Trainspotting, or a drunker, dirtier Adrian Mole. Isy's warm wonky memoir lies somewhere between the two: darkly, sweetly funny and affecting, and studded with lemon-sharp insights on life"
I heard this beautiful little curio for the first time on Radcliffe and Maconie earlier this afternoon. Their guest was Python Michael Palin, who actually wrote these lyrics along with Terry Jones for the vocalist, Barry Booth.
The BBC are celebrating across both TV and radio the twentieth anniversary of Britpop. Blimey, 20 years already since (in all likelihood) Stuart Maconie coined the phrase to describe the burgeoning British indie scene. At the time, I was still at school and faced the perennial question 'Blur or Oasis?' regularly. Or course, the only sensible answer to that question was Pulp!
Jarvis Cocker. He may not be Jesus, but he does have the same initials.
Tucker, Gonch, Hollo, Zammo, Ziggy, Stewpot, Pogo, Roly, Gripper, Tegs...names that probably mean nothing to a lot of people. But if you're of a certain age, if you watched kids TV anytime between 1978 and up to the mid 90s, you'll know that these were just some of the pupils of Grange Hill
The brain child of Phil Redmond (later to devise Brookside and Hollyoaks) Grange Hill was nothing short of groundbreaking when it hit our TV screens in the pre teatime slot on Wednesday 8th February, 1978. This was, as Redmond intended, a real slice of life for an intended audience who could relate to it, they lived it after all, Monday to Friday at schools not unlike Grange Hill - multi ethnic comprehensives in Thatcher's Britain, unruly, underfunded and at the cutting edge of big relevant issues such as drug abuse, bullying and sex. It was a real eye opener, the first time real kids and their real issues were brought to the screens of children's television. As Stuart Maconie so beautifully put it, Grange Hill brought something of the spirit of Play For Today to the world of Play Away. It gripped as many adults as it did children.
The theme tune was written by Alan Hawkshaw and was in fact titled 'Chicken Man' It's instantly recognisable and utterly iconic and was the show's signature from 1978 to 1989, before returning for the show's final season in 2008 some thirty years after it was first heard.
Inbetween 1990 and 2008 the show's theme was penned by Peter Moss, a very 90s tinny piece of music that whilst still evocative just isn't as infamous as Hawkshaw's original. My real viewing era of Grange Hill was probably the mid 80s to the early 90s with Mrs McCluskey running the school and I certainly consider myself one of those viewers utterly terrified by the bewigged deputy headmaster Mr Bronson, played by Michael Sheard (who regularly portrayed Nazis in war films...I'm not sure which role was the most evil!)
I well remember Danny Kendall the artistic but troubled young pupil killing himself in Bronson's car and indeed Zammo, dying of an overdose, before he and the rest of the cast fronted the anti-drugs campaign 'Just Say No'; a huge crossover in the 1980s. Indeed the 80s saw the show probably at its highpoint, with TV tie-in novels, annuals, pop singles, spin off series (Todd Carty's eponymous Tucker's Luck) comic strips and even a computer game all available for fans to devour
Grange Hill was filmed in and around London, including Elstree studios - just across the way from the EastEnders and Holby City sets, which was where many of the child actors would end up upon leaving Grange Hill - and was set in a fictional London borough. However, Liverpudlian Redmond originally had nearby St Helens, my home town, in mind as his fictional setting for the school but was persuaded to locate it and film it all in London for ease. It did eventually move to the North West in its final years, with the last few series being filmed on site in Liverpool.
Though to be honest as much as it was a Madchester hit its origins were elsewhere ....
"This is on the Rham label and basically it's another very good dance record. I like the mystery and anonymity that surrounds a lot of these records. Plus the fact that Rham are based in New Brighton. I spent a great deal of time there as a child and I think it's marvellous there should be a record label there"
Tumbling through the space/time vortex to the BBC's RadiophonicWorkshop and to give you the theme for probably the most important TV show for me personally, Doctor Who. Like most themes the original arrangement is always the best, mysterious and eerie it was the soundtracks to Saturday tea times in the 1960s...
Written by Ron Grainer, the theme was handed over to the Radiophonic Workshop, the BBC's in-house department based in Maida Vale. Grainer was amazed and impressed by her rendering of his composition that he asked her if indeed he actually wrote it, to which she replied 'Most of it'. Sadly, Grainer's attempts to get Derbyshire a co-composer credit were prevented by the BBC who preferred their Workshop personal to be anonymous.
Time has helped to give Derbyshire the recognition she deserves and she is now rightly regarded as a highly influential pioneer of what is now known as electronic music. But don't listen to me, take a look at this film about her from regional programme Inside Out, hosted by the great Stuart Maconie
I've had 7931 visits to my Elizabeth 'Alcopops' Alker post from just over a year ago. She's the basis of the second most popular/visited post I've made thus far (Alex Jones with her baps out comes first. Seriously guys?!) In the past month 430 visits have been made to the Alker post. With 153 of those being made this week alone. Today, 57 people have been to see that post. Hmm. About time then I post something else of what Stuart Maconie calls 'the fragrant Elizabeth Alker'
I wonder if she knows just how popular she is? Even in this tiny corner of the net?
They're a band I just don't get. Not helped by the fact my last ex was obsessed with them, following them and watching them live like others would follow a football club. But for me, they're just a faux pomp rock/prog rock band for girlies and immature boys who feel real rock is just a bit too hard for them.
If Queen were the Lidl Led Zep, then Muse are the Aldi Queen...and I always say beware pale imitations.
So it absolutely stuns me that their remarkable success has now incorporated them bagging the official 2012 Olympic anthem, called 'Survival' Having just heard it on Radcliffe and Maconie's 6 Music show I am even more stunned; it is, as both presenters agreed, God awful. A totally up it's own bottom, smug and OTT anthem in the Queen mould with shades of third rate Rick Wakeman.
Why? Just why? Jeez, go and listen to the originals and the best not this pale poncey pastiche! Seriously it was like something The Darkness would knock up, but without the tongue in cheek vibe.
Honestly, I'd rather listen to this...
Honestly, listen to Queen, listen to Led Zep, listen to King Crimson, listen to Genesis, listen to Caravan, listen to Focus, listen to Camel, listen to anything but this wank 'homage' that makes chinless wonders millions. Grow a pair and listen to THE REAL THING. Listen to REAL MUSIC!
Nostalgia is a funny thing isn't it? I know a good deal of this blog is essentially implicitly about it, without having the need to reference it directly, but tonight I have to do just that. You see, I finished watching Casualty as is my usual Saturday routine (oh yeah, rock and roll me) and, with spare time to channel hop, I found myself on BBC2 and the result of their current season on the 70s, a repeat of I Love 1979. Now, I Love 1979 is - as you would have guessed - the final instalment of a series entitled I Love The 70s that focused on one year in the 70s each week. It was a brilliant show, lovingly crafted with some canny astute observations from several talking heads (Mark Radcliffe, Stuart Maconie, Johnny Vegas, Miranda Sawyer and Peter Kay being prime examples - and all Northern you'll note *winks*) However, this series itself is now twelve years old. Twelve. Years. Old. As such a curious nostalgia within nostalgia can be experienced. As I sat and watched the final stages of a show devoted to the 70s, and the year of my birth in fact, tonight I recalled fondly watching it the first time round on Saturday nights in the year 2000 and began to think how great my life was in that year, in my steady job with a huge network of friends, at the great age of 21 with my life ahead of me. Not that at the time I considered that period so favourably you can bet - invariably the past is, as they say, always the more pleasant place. Incidentally, I Love 1979 was hosted by that year's hot property, star of '10' Bo Derek, which gives me the excuse to share these pictures
Because the lady in question has been working extra on The Radcliffe and Maconie show on 6 Music for the past fortnight, whilst Mark is away. And since I blogged about her, that post has been hit many many times.
Here's the stats for my blog today -
And this past week -
And of all time -
Dollybirds still prove very popular too as you can see; any post relating to a girl gets a lot of views.
I think I've decided I would like to marry Elizabeth Alker, the music news giver from Radcliffe and Maconie's 6 Music show
I don't know whether it's her delightful Mancunian accent.
I don't know whether it's her extensive music knowledge and love.
I don't know whether it's because she dreams of joining Coronation Street, providing legendary Manc poet John Cooper Clarke can play her father as they romp home to triumphant victory on the Rovers dart team
I don't know whether it's because of the daft things she says; like how a gathering of students on the Piazza De Stan Ogden of Media City reminds her of Watership Down much to Stuart's bemusement!
6 Music's Radcliffe and Maconie modelling the hip and fashionable Hoxton bonnets
Back behind the velvet rope ladies!
I'm tempted to say they look like Last Of The Summer Wine meets Crossroads! Or like two Buchan like spies trying to infiltrate snowy Austrian climes in the immediate pre war era!
Is proud to be a RadMacaroon. Followed them from Radio 2 to 6, indeed used to enjoy Mark's first solo show on 2, Stuart's many solo shows and of course Mark's pairing with The Boy Lard on Radio 1 back in the day. I'm also a keen admirer of their writings too. And they're from The North, what's not to like?The best radio out there right now. They return to the afternoon slot next week.
Just back from my final two fillings at the dentist. Top left jobs. My top lip now feels like a harelip and my nose is cold. Comfortably numb I am not.
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