Author Archives: Simon

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About Simon

Simon Ashberry has been playing the best of local music on Bradford Beat for almost a quarter of a century . He was music columnist for the Telegraph & Argus for several years, covering local acts such as Embrace, Terrorvision, Tasmin Archer and New Model Army, and has played bass in several bands himself. He was previously part of Bradford-based Loom with John Rigby from Trip and Stumble and currently plays with innovative blues trio West Yorkshire Noblemen's Society.

That all-important chart in full

Here’s a recap of our 2020 Christmas Countdown – our favourite 20 tracks of the year:

1 Yard Act – Fixer Upper
2 Deep Throat Choir – Like A Mountain
3 Mura Masa featuring Slowthai – Deal Wiv It
4 Fontaines DC – Televised Mind
5 Mush – Fruits of the Happening
6 BC Camplight – Back To Work
7 Fiona Apple – Shameika
8 Mark Lanegan – Burying Ground
9 Andy Shauf – Thirteen Hours
10 Tina – Golden Rope
11 Talkboy – Over Under
12 Laura Marling – Strange Girl
13 Hotel Lux – Loneliness of The Stage Performer
14 Goa Express – Be My Friend
15 Songhoy Blues – Worry
16 Nick Toczek – Absalom to Zedekiah
17 Pillow Queens – Brothers
18 The Strangerz – Straight Gay Brother
19 Sports Team – Here’s the Thing
20 Maya Kally – Chose To Stay

 

Christmas Countdown 2020 – part 4

Here’s the full track listing for our Christmas special, including the top 5 tracks in our Christmas Countdown:

Three Wise Men – Thanks For Christmas
Maria Helena – Autochrome Days
Caro – Form A Line

Christmas Countdown – part 4
5 – Mush – Fruits of the Happening
4 – Fontaines DC – Televised Mind
3 – Mura Masa featuring Slowthai – Deal Wiv It
2 – Deep Throat Choir – Like A Mountain
1 – Yard Act – Fixer Upper

Julia Jacklin – Baby Jesus is Nobody’s Baby Now
Laura Groves – Faking It
Idles – Kill Them With Kindness
Big Big Train – Merry Christmas
Bombay Bicyle Club – Always Like This
Nick Toczek and Thies Marsen – Exit

Listen again to the show here: https://www.mixcloud.com/BradfordBeat/bradford-beat-24-december-2020/

Christmas Countdown 2020 – part 3

It was into the top 10 in our Christmas Countdown this week

Here’s what we played on this week’s show:

Laura Groves – Foolish Game
Arctic Monkeys – 505
Maria Helena – Electrocrime
Goat Girl – The Crack
The Staves – Good Woman

Christmas Countdown – part 3
10 – Tina – Golden Rope
9 – Andy Shauf – Thirteen Hours
8 – Mark Lanegan – Burying Ground
7 – -Fiona Apple – Shameika
6 – BC Camplight – Back To Work

Mush – Blunt Instruments
Buzzcocks – Raison D’Etre
Nick Toczek and Thies Marsen – A Prayer For The Living
Lost Horizons – Every Beat That Passed

Listen again to the show here: https://www.mixcloud.com/BradfordBeat/bradford-beat-17-december-2020/

Christmas Countdown 2020 – part 2

This week saw 5 more song revealed in our chart of the top 20 tracks of the year:

15 Worry – Songhoy Blues
14 Be My Friend – Goa Express
13 Loneliness of The Stage Performer – Hotel Lux
12 Strange Girl – Laura Marling
11 Over Under – Talkboy

And the rest of the tracks we played were:

The Right To Be Forgotten – Memory Drawings
Arabella – Arctic Monkeys
Drei Bruder aus Irland – Thies Marsen
Farewell – Hen Ogledd
Searching For The Stars – Laura Groves
Then Again – Nick Toczek and Thies Marsen
Free Today – Albertine Sarges
Island Mentality – Mush

Christmas Countdown 2020 – part 1

Tonight, we revealed the first 5 tracks in our annual chart of the best 20 tracks of the year.

Announced so far are:

16 Nick Toczek and Thies Marsen – Absalom to Zedekiah
17 Pillow Queens – Brothers
18 The Strangerz – Straight Gay Brother
19 Sports Team – Here’s the Thing
20 Maya Kally – Chose To Stay

Numbers 11 to 15 will be unveiled on Thursday 10 December between 8pm and 9pm.

But this week’s show was also tinged with sadness following the announcement by the Leeds band Mush about the death of founder member Steve Tyson.

Here are the rest of the tracks we played this week:

Mush – Blunt Instruments
Terrorvision – Our Christmas Song
Robert Wyatt – I’m A Believer
Maria Helena – My Skin Is A Map
Songhoy Blues – Assadja
Laura Groves – Sunset
Dirty Projectors – Overlord
Thies Marsen – Da Virus Geht Um
Fontaines DC – You Said
Working Men’s Club – Teeth

We upload Bradford Beat each week to https://www.mixcloud.com/BradfordBeat/

 

Songs From a Padded Envelope

We were excited to be asked to feature as a guest on the podcast Songs From a Padded Envelope.

It’s a music and culture podcast which unearths lost demo tapes and the hears the stories of the people behind them.

Here’s the episode we recorded – featuring an archive track by Keighley band the Big Bang:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/episode-23-simon-ashberry-bradford-uk/id1500404870?i=1000500631055

Many thanks to Steve and Ben for the invitation and for their kind words!

We’re back!

Sorry for the long long delay – but we’ve had technical problems at BCB Towers which haven’t we haven’t been able to update this blog for ages.

We’re back up and running now though so I’ll aim to post regular updates here.

Tonight’s show features tributes to Florian Schneider from Kraftwerk and also Little Richard, both of whom died recently.

Bradford Beat is on at 8pm every Thursday on BCB 106.6FM.

You can also find the show on Mixcloud:

and we have a Twitter account:

RIP Dr John

We paid tribute to the late Dr John on this week’s show.

Here’s the full list of what we played:

The Mekons – How Many Stars?
Kate Tempest – Firesmoke
Siren – Collapsing
Cate Le Bon – Home To You
Team Picture – Back To Bay Six
Postculture and Sinead Campbell – Back To Basics
Makgona Tsohle Band – Vula Bops
Stealing Sheep – Joking Me
The National – Hairpin Turns
Aldous Harding – The Barrel
Dr John – I Walk On Guilded Splinters

You can listen again on Mixcloud >