Category Archives: Bradford Beat

Matters relating to Simon Ashberry’s Bradford Beat show on Thursdays at 8pm (UK time)

Get set for the Christmas Countdown

We’re gearing up for this year’s Christmas Countdown – our favourite 20 tracks of the year.

We’ll be playing them over four weeks starting on Thursday, 1 December.

Meanwhile our latest playlist was:

The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts
State of Error  – The Story of our Lives
Half Man Half Biscuit – RSVP
Our Albert – Honey Dance
Wire – Heartbeat
Billy DeLines – You”re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond
Wild Beasts – Reach A Bit Futher
Kingheadlock – Lifeless Life
Grandaddy – Chartsengrafs
Thershold Shift – Superclash Dub
Billy Bragg – Waiting For The Great Leap Forward
Alt-J – Hand-Made
Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Box of Stones
Felice Brothers – Fire At The Pageant

Remember to listen again here:

http://www.podcast.canstream.co.uk/bcb/index.php?id=3965

Local music for local people

Local acts we’re enjoying at the moment on Bradford Beat are dub punks Threshold Shift,  Leeds-based one-man harmonica blues explosion Billy DeLines and Bradford band Kingheadlock – all of whom feature on this week’s show.

Coming up soon in the next few weeks we also have new tracks by State of Error,  Alt-J and Our Albert.

This week’s full tracklisting:

Embrace – Fireworks
Kasabian – Let’s Just Roll Like We Used To
Billy DeLines – I’m A Blues Man
The Damned – Looking At You
Threshold Shift – Hang In There
Wild Beasts – All The King’s Men
Paul Curtis – Drinking Gin, Smoking Fags and Feeling Lonely
Half Man Half Biscuit – Something’s Rotten In The Back of Iceland
Pete and the Pirates – Blood Gets Thin
Kingheadlock – Bad Lands
Empire Safari – I Think We Drove Too Far
The National – Terrible Love
Pavement – Killing Moon

Ahem, Christmas is a-coming…

Yes, yes, I know we’ve just had a heatwave but the fact is that we’re on the slippery slope towards the end of the year.

Forget the sweltering temperatures we had at the start of October – instead, it’s time to start thinking ahead to the Christmas Countdown.

For  the uninitiated, that ‘s the top 20 tracks of the year as chosen by Bradford Beat.

We broadcast the “chart” in true  John Peel style in reverse order throughout December.

But we do need your help to make sure we don’t miss any corkers – so email your suggestions to simon.ashberry@bcbradio.co.uk

Well, it’s better than doing your Christmas shopping anyway…

Feast of music at Myrtle

It’s nice to see Bingley Music Live continue to attract a strong line-up.
The three-day event has now established itself as a proper festival despite having no on-site camping at Myrtle Park.
On Bradford Beat we’re particularly excited about The Go! Team, Mystery Jets, Athlete, The Coral, Stereo MCs and The Sunshine Underground – all of whom we’re giving airplay on the show at the moment.
There are two local bands on the bill as well – State of Error from Queensbury and Kingheadlock, who we’re hoping to have as a studio guest on the show before BML takes place on September 2, 3 and 4

Get yourself in a Kingheadlock

If you missed our live session and interview with Kingheadlock on Bradford Beat then you can still listen again online.

They’re a relatively new name on the scene but you may already be familiar with some of them from the band Vandal Supreme.

Vandal Supreme played at Bingley Music Live two years ago and now the festival has bestowed the same honour on Kingheadlock.

Check out the full show here http://www.podcast.canstream.co.uk/bcb/index.php?id=2765

Best of Bradford

Whisper it quietly but the current Bradford music scene is as healthy as it’s been for quite a while.

Not only are Terrorvision and New Model Army still going strong but the new crop of unsigned groups is brimming with talent.

So we’ve decided to put together a Bradford Beat special showcasing the cream of the present generation.

Tune into the show on Thursday April 7 from 8pm to 9pm and you’ll hear tracks from the likes of Talk To Angels,  handmadehands, Operator Six, Chris Patrick, Hoover Dams, State of Error, Blue Roses and plenty more.

Pigeon Detectives exclusive interview

Don’t miss our exclusive interview with Matt from Pigeon Detectives – he’ll be chatting about their new album and tour on Bradford Beat on Thursday 17 March.

It’s their first UK headline shows since selling out London’s  Alexandra Palace at end of 2008.

The Leeds five-piece, whose two previous albums have now sold more than half a million copies in the UK, precede the album Up Guards And At ‘Em with a new single Done In Secret .

Recorded at Brooklyn Recording Company  with Justin Gerrish taking on production and mixing duties, the album will released on 4 April through Dance To The Radio

They will play Leeds Metropolitan University on 12 April.

A golden year in the making?

Is 2011 already developing into something of a golden year for music?

We’re only two months into the year but I’ve already been impressed by a huge number of records – many of them from new bands.

So settle down to this week’s edition of Bradford Beat and listen to new tunes from the likes of Young Knives, Fleet Foxes, Gang of Four, Chapel Club, Tom Williams and the Boat – not to mention Bradford’s very own flavours of the month handmandhands and Terrorvision.

Bradford Beat is on air every Thursday from 8pm to 9pm on BCB 106.6FM

handmadehands live in session

The Bradford band handmadehands will be live in the studio on Bradford Beat this week (Feb 17).

They’ll be chatting about their new album, being launched on March 12 at Bradford Playhouse and also playing some tracks.

Check out more about the band here http://www.myspace.com/handmadehands

And we’ll be repeating the interview with Leigh from Terrorvision on Feb 24.

Or if you prefer, rather excitingly, you can now use BCB’s new listen again service by clicking here: http://www.podcast.canstream.co.uk/bcb/index.php?id=43