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.
Yet another tricky selection business this week….I’m juggling loads of great tunes. Here’s what came top of the list and made it onto the show:
Mazes – Most days
Dorian Concept – Her tears taste like pears
Anna Calvi – Blackout
Joan as Policewoman – Kiss the specifics
The Kills – Satellite
Cherbourg (BCB Session track from the archive) – Never love again
Gabby Young & Other Animals – Whose house (this band are originally from my neck of the woods in Wiltshire…saw them at WOMAD and loved them.)
Disco Machine Gun – The sirens (this is the b-side to their new single. They’re having a party on 9th April to launch the single – your name’s on the list).
Yimino (BCB Session track from the archives) – Q-bit
The Memory Band – A new skin
Olaf Arnalds – Surrender (feat. Bjork)
Malachai – Let em fall
East Park Reggae Collective – The Frontline (from Leeds, fans of La La and the Boo Ya will like this!)
Next week on the show we’ve got Duane Simon doing a bit of beat boxing and moon dancing – it’s gonna be great so tune in Wed 2nd March from 9pm on 106.6fm in Bradford or online at www.bcbradio.co.uk
Final word, if you like what we’ve been playing but you’ve missed the show then fear not! We’ve got a new listen again service – you can listen to your favourite programmes up to four weeks after they were broadcast. Click on this link: http://www.podcast.canstream.co.uk/bcb/
Only a wazzock would begin a blog entry about what he played on his radio show this week by discussing a band whose wares he failed to commit to the airwaves. I am that aforementioned hitherto hypothetical wazzock. I had all good intentions of playing Salsa Celtica on this week’s programme, and then when the weekly task of packing the record bag full of goodies in preparation for the programme came along, I just plain forgot. If you see me on the street, feel free to point and boo me for my continued enslavement to lacksadaisy.
The timing of the proposed play was imperative, as it was meant to serve as a “heads up” – as I believe trendy people say – to the fact that Salsa Celtica, who released their new live album En Vivo En El Norte on 19 April, are set to play at Victoria Hall this coming weekend as a part of this 2010’s Saltaire Live.
Salsa Celtica - only one of them was expecting rain.
After a false start a little while ago, Brigadeer Phillip Agnostin D’Argtanian Tannoy Gargle Pissflap Cope III plonked his posterior into the guest chair for Selection Box 128. I continually say that I am not going to keep noting the number of the show we’re on, as its something I only mark out for my own probably-autistic filing purposes. And yet I continue to announce how many of these by-the-seat-of-the-pants produced pillock presented programmes we’re up to now. Still, worth noting that in around four months we’ll (and that’s very much the royal “we”) be up to 147 shows. Perhaps I’ll have a snooker-themed special to celebrate. Chas & Dave have retired now, so that’s them out the window as potential session guests, but no doubt referee Len Ganley knows how to tap a triangle on cue, so that’s a part of the rhythm section sorted. Actually, he’s probably dead now I think about it. I do know that Steve Davis is a prog rock aficianado, so perhaps this isn’t as daft an idea as it first seemed. The only problem I foresee is that personally I find the majority of prog a bit too, well, shit to play on air.
Yours truly (right) and Phil Cope clearly have nothing in common.
After a typically quiet post-Christmas period on the live music scene, things are finally looking up.
And on this week’s Bradford Beat we’ve been looking ahead to some of the imminent West Yorkshire gig highlights.
One band I’m definitely going to see are Sunshine Underground at the Leeds Academy on Feb 19.
Before then is a gig by on Feb 6 at the Leeds Cockpit by Detroit Social Club who were on the bill at last year’s Bingley Music Live with TSU.
Other touring bands to watch out for include The Maccabees, Passion Pit, New Model Army, The XX and The Editors (the latter playing St George’s Hall in Bradford on March 8).
While we’re still gazing back over the past decade (just), here’s a reminder of the previous four Christmas Countdowns – our pick of Bradford Beat’s favourite 20 tracks of the year – going back to 2005.
It’s nice to see some bands have become almost regulars – The Lodger, Roger Davies and The Futureheads among those appearing more than once.
Here it is – the full list of Bradford Beat’s Christmas Countdown, our favourite 20 tracks of 2009:
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 8 )
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
To hear our choice of the best albums of the decade so far, tune in on New Year’s Eve!
Bradford Beat is on BCB 106.6FM on Thursdays from 8pm-9pm and repeated Sunday 7pm-8pm.
I have to confess it gives me an extra thrill to stand and watch Bingley Music Live every year. I spent the first 18 years of my life living in and around Bingley and so to come back and stand in Myrtle Park and watch the event grow into a what is becoming a full blown music festival is very exciting, and a little bit surreal.
BML’s a fantastic music three day-er in the picturesque setting of Myrtle Park in Bingley (near Bradford). So many bands were brilliant but  my favourite moments were spent dancing to Editors (proper anthems), Reverend & the Makers (ripping it up and going for it the day after Jon and his now wife got married!) , Calvin Harris (all the kids wearing specs and loving the disco vibe)…seeing Ocean Colour Scene and Top Loader was great – didn’t realise how many of their tunes I knew!
Also, a big thumbs up to Disco Machine Gun, The Little Black Hearts, Spike Island and vAndal supreMe. They opened the procedings on Saturday and Sunday. Confess I didn’t catch all the sets (busy sticking my nose back on…see video for details) but got great feedback from punters and BCB’s broadcast of DMG & TLBH sets. Know this is a bit daft but felt really excited and happy for all four bands – seeing you go through the competition to get there, the band playoffs in Shipley, into BCB for sessions and then on the big stage – I’m a right softy but a very proud one! Hope something good comes from the opportunity.
I’ve recorded some tasty morcels for you…tune into ‘The BCB Sessions’ this Wednesday night at 9pm to catch interviews with Reverend & the Makers, Editors and The Futureheads. I’ll also pop them up on here for you as soon as I’ve got myself out of big weekender mode and into ‘organised mode’.
If you want to see some top bands doing things they wouldn’t usually do in an interview, here’s a little something I made earlier…starring big bands (not elastic), a whole host of revellers (maybe you???) and more celebrities.
