Category Archives: Bradford Beat

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

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.

Bradford Beat – Thursday 6 May

Here’s the playlist for this week’s show:

Magic Numbers -  The Pulse
Fionn Regann – Catacombs (BCB session version v official single version!!)
New Model Army – God Save Me
Catherin Wheel – Bill and Ben
Steve and Ben – Our Sounds
Benjy Ferree – Fear
Broken Bells – The High Road
Honour Before Glory – Broken Bottles, Empty Hearts
Sunshine Underground – Coming To Save You
Futureheads – The Connector
The Negatives – Black Panther

Second album syndrome

It’s a familiar enough phenomenon – but second album syndrome really seems to have been rearing its head lately.
The second offering from Leeds band Sunshine Underground, for example, is good but certainly doesn’t live up to their magnificent debut.
And the Futureheads are taking it to extremes.
I’ve been listening to their new offering The Chaos this week ahead of their gig at the Cockpit (it’s their fourth I think) and although again very listenable they seem to be weighed down by the legacy of their fantastic first album.
Both bands feature on this week’s Bradford Beat, together with the likes of the Ramones, Roger Davies, Beck, Catherine Wheel, The Fall and much more.
it’s on air from 8pm – 9pm on Thursday 29 April on BCB 106.6FM