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.

Justin Sullivan: exclusive BCB interview

A treat is in store next week for fans of New Model Army.

The Bradford band’s frontman is in the studio for an hour-long Bradford Beat special looking at their 30-year career.

During the in-depth interview, Justin looks back at New Model Army’s early days and talks about their mixed experiences with major record labels as well as some of their favourite places to play around the world.

We also play tracks from a new 30-track anthology being released to mark the band’s 30th anniversary.

Don’t miss our New Model Army special on Bradford Beat, Thursday 11 November from 8pm to 9pm on BCB 106.6FM.

And here’s a catch-up of the tracks played on this week’s show (4 November):

Tricky – Murder Weapon
AFS – Unite
Trespassers William – I Could Go Back
Gruff Rhys – Shark-Riddled Waters
Being 747 – The Microscopic Universe
Talk To Angels – Off The Radar (BCB session)
Broken Social Scene – Forced To Love
Disco Machine Gun – Shoot To Kill
The Walkmen – Angela Surf City
Whole Sky Monitor – Ten Floors
Creole Choir of Cuba – Chen Nan Ren
Siren – Billy The Pig (live)
The Go-Team – T.O.R.N.A.D.O.
State of Error – Audience of None

Whisper it quietly… get set for the Christmas Countdown

Yes, yes, I know it’s not even Hallowe’en yet, let alone Bonfire Night.
But the fact remains that it’s only FIVE weeks until the start of this year’s Christmas Countdown.
In case, you’ve missed what we’ve been doing on Bradford Beat every December for the last few years, that’s our choice of the best 20 tracks of the year.
This year, we want to make it as democratic as possible by asking listeners to submit suggestions for their favourite songs of 2010.
So here’s your chance – among the most frequently-played albums on Beadford Beat have been The National and Arcade Fire.
Let us know what you’d like to see included in the Christmas Countdown – either add a comment here or send an email to simon.ashberry@bcbradio.co.uk
This year’s Top 20 will be broadcast over four weeks from December 2 to 23.

And here’s a reminder of the past five years’ Christmas Countdowns:

1 Super Furry Animals – Inagural Trams
2 Depeche Mode – Peace
3 Rev Chunky/Jam Sponge – Wednesday Downers
4 Crystal Stilts – Shattered Shine
5 Ben and Steve (ex-The Turn) – Our Sounds (demo)
6 Tricky – Puppy Toy
7 Tiny Masters of Today – Pop Chart
8 Sky Larkin – Beeline
9 Lord Auch – Maredo
10 Secret Machines – Last Believer, Drop Dead
11 Grizzly Bear – While We Wait For The Others
12 Roger Davies – Brighouse On A Saturday Night
13 Frank Turner – Poetry of the Deed
14 Blue Roses – I Am Leaving
15 Benjy Ferree – Blown Out (Gold Doubloons and PCs of Eight)
16 The Very Best – Warm Heart of Africa
17 Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes
18 Prom Knight – Counter Intelligence
19 Scaramanga Six – Misadventure
20 New Model Army – Autumn

Continue reading →

RIP Gregory and Ari

We’ll be playing tracks to mark the deaths of two unique musical talents on this week’s Bradford Beat.

Ari Up, of the ground-breaking post-punk band The Slits, died last week – and this week we also lost reggae legend Gregory Isaacs.

This week’s Bradford Beat, broadcast on BCB 106.6FM from 8pm – 9pm on Thursday, 28 October, will also feature a couple of spooky tunes to get you in the Hallowe’en mood.

Full tracklisting:

The Slits – Typical Girl

Gregory Isaacs – Common Sense

Vessels – Meatman, Piano Tuner, Prostitute

Whole Sky Monitor – Shoot The People

The Damned – Nasty

Monochrome Set – Love Zombies

Hoodoo Gurus – Dig It Up

Talk To Angels – Brain Man (BCB session)

Black Mountain – The Hair Song

Filthy Essentials – Suck Out

Vampire Weekend – Run

Grinderman – Worm Tamer

worriedaboutsatan – You’re In My Thoughts

And we’ll be revisiting the theme of lyrics which refer to Bradford next week – thanks for all the responses on this topic!

When lyrics are close to home

We have a lyrical treat on this week’s Bradford Beat – a special feature on songs which namecheck Bradford!

Inspired by the Wild Beasts’ latest single All The King’s Men, which includes  line about “girls from Shipley”, we’ve been rummaging through the archives to find other references to places in or around Bradford in other songs.

So far we’ve come up with tracks by Ooberman, New Model Army and The Negatives – but there may be many more out there that we haven’t come across yet.

If you know of any, let us know by emailing simon.ashberry@bcbradio.co.uk

You can listen to the show from 8pm – 9pm on Thursday, 21 October.

Focus on…Mickey Dale

After last week’s session with Talk To Angels, we’ having something of a Mickey Dale retrospective on this week’s Bradford Beat.

As well as playing a track from the Bradford band’s new EP, we’ll be delving into the archives to dig out a couple of older songs featuring the keyboard player – something by Embrace (who are finally working on a new album) and something even older, by Poppy Factory.

Tune in to Bradford Beat at 8pm on Thursday, 7 October on BCB 106.6FM.

Talk To Angels in session

Don’t miss two exclusive new session tracks by rising Bradford stars Talk To Angels on this week’s Bradford Beat.

Three members of the band – bassist Chris,  guitarist and vocalist Craig and keyboard player Mickey (also the keyboard player for Embrace) – chat about their music and play two stripped-down versions of their songs.

Listen to Bradford Beat from 8pm – 9pm this Thursday (30 September) on BCB 106.6FM.

Festivals ahoy

Next week’s Bradford Beat (Aug 19) will be focusing on this year’s Leeds Festival so expect tracks from the likes of Sunshine Underground, British Sea Power, Dizzee Rascal and Queens of the Stone Age – not to mention Arcade Fire.

Arcade Fire also feature on this week’s show (Aug 12), with two tracks from their new album The Suburbs.

Also on this week’s Bradford Beat are Arcade Fire, Arcade Fire, Yeasayer, Whole Sky Monitor and the Black Keys.

There’ll be a preview of the Bingley Music Live ahead of that event which takes place from September 3-5.

Bradford Beat is on air every Thursday from 8pm – 9pm

NYAAA on Bradford Beat

Don’t miss the Bradford band New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack on Bradford Beat next week.

Fresh from appearing at Glastonbury, they’ll be popping into the studio on Simon Ashberry’s Bradford Beat.

The three-piece, featuring Mik Davis, Matthew Graham and James William Bridle, have had their CDs played regularly on the show for the past few years.

They have a gig coming up at the Zuu Bar in Bradford on 23 July.

You can hear NYAAA on Bradford Beat on BCB 106.6FM from 8pm – 9pm on Thursday 1 July.

Farewell “Frank”

The death of Chris Sievey – creator of the papier mache-headed comic character Frank Sidebottom – brought real sadness this week.

Here at Bradford Beat, we’ve often played seasonal songs from his Oh Blimey It’s Christmas! EP over the festive period.

Frank was even one of my few MySpace friends.

We’ll be paying tribute to Chris and playing plenty of Frank tracks on this week’s show, which goes out from 8pm to 9pm on Thursday, 24 June.

There’ll also be the 2nd Round of our Music World Cup.

Farewell “Frank”, you’ll be sorely missed

World Cup special

If there’s ever a bandwagon to jump on, you can count on Bradford Beat being the first to leap.

Over the next three weeks we’ll be marking the progress of the World Cup by playing tracks by artists from many of the nations taking part.

This week we started with some of the, ahem, also-rans  – including Guillermo Anderson (Honduras) and the Mutton Birds (New Zealand).

Before the tournament finished we’ll be travelling around the globe playing music from France, Brazil, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and elsewhere – so stay tuned.