Appreciating sitcoms, posters and music

Generic image of a policeman pointing at people breaking the law, stolen mercilessly from BBC1's Traffic Cops.

Evening.

Here are the best things in life at the moment:

Gavin And Stacey

I discovered this ages ago when I heard someone talking about it on the radio and thought I'd watch a bit. I've since been quoting all sorts of bits of it and remembering the gags I watched ages ago, but it hasn't been on telly for a while so it's nice to have it back.

Traffic Cops

...is always good. Another iPlayer favourite.

In the process of finding that link I've discovered there's a new episode of Sky Cops so that's what I'll watch when I've posted this! Ahaaaa, I'm such an obsessive.

Anyway, when I'm not watching police shows I'm watching geeky live streams.

The posters in NME this week

Nice big Arctic Monkeys poster. Wohoo.

New music I've discovered

I know some people are - as I said before - keeping a stalkerish eye on my music tastes via my Last.fm profile, but in case you're not a member here are some of things I've been listening to which I've enjoyed, followed by my iTunes rating for the track.

The Rapture - No Sex For Ben (5*)

I've always liked The Rapture but somehow only discovered this track. I'm obsessed with it, it's so catchy.

Chase And Status ft Plan B - Pieces (5*)

Arrrrgh I can't wait for the album. It comes out on Oct 13th - the day before my driving test. Those two events make that week the most exciting this year, pretty much...

Hadouken! - Crank It Up (Noisia remix) (4*)

I got this free from the band's email newsletter, and I really like it. It's praahperly filthy.

The Rasmus - Livin In A World Without You (3*)

Catchy pop-rock, woop woop.

The Long Weekend

A few weeks ago I rang up Oliver Burgess, who's the lead vocalist of Medway indie band The Long Weekend. The band take their influences from 60s surf-rock and more modern indie, and now their debut album 20 Minutes, 13 Stops is released tomorrow.

You can hear an exclusive album sampler from the band with Jim and Tom on tonight's show (BBC Radio Kent from 8pm), or if you miss it you'll be able to hear it using the BBC iPlayer up until this time next week.

The Lovedays

WOAH! A new blog post!

Sorry I've neglected you over the past week, it's been very uncharacteristic of me but I've been obscenely busy.

To make up for my period of downtime, here's an interview I did a few weeks ago with Ben, the frontman of Medway band The Lovedays...

The show diary

That's a video of Tunbridge Wells band Tom Williams And The Boat recording some tracks in the BBC's Studio MV4. I sense a bit of friendly rivalry going on between this video and the just-as-unofficial video that I have been working on (which will be 'released' soon). Exciting.

As you'll see in the video, the broadcast date for the Huw Stephens session has been confirmed for the show at midnight on the morning of Thursday 16th October (on the Introducing show on Radio 1). 

That means we're aiming to broadcast our own version of the day's events, complete with a Maida Vale behind-the-scenes tour and interviews with the cast and crew, the following Sunday (19th). So here's the BBC Kent Introducing show diary as it stands for the next month or two:

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28 Sept - the next show will feature an exclusive album sampler of The Long Weekend's debut release Twenty Minutes Thirteen Stops. It will be accompanied by an audio interview on this blog which will appear at some point before the show, along with an interview with Ben from The Lovedays.

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5th Oct - another busy show, with all the usual features including our hottest record and free download track of the week...

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12th Oct - an exclusive hour-long documentary, presented by Jim, about Rochester producer Nitin Sawhney. The show will feature some of Nitin's material (old and new) and details of his eighth studio album London Undersound which is released the following day.

As well as an interview with Nitin Sawhney himself, Jim will also speak to Sting. Random.

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19th Oct - A usual show, save for the middle half-hour which will feature our escapades at Maida Vale Studios as described above. You'll also be able to hear the four session tracks recorded by Tom Williams And The Boat, just in case you missed them or want to hear them again. 

The video diary of our day out will appear on this blog sometime that week (that's a tentative promise however; it's a busy week for me what with my dad's birthday, my driving test, and the release of the Chase And Status album which could be the highlight of my whole year).

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26th Oct - Jim and Tom are reunited back at base again with the usual weekly dose of new Kent bands.

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2nd Nov - Tom does a show on his own, which includes picking all the music (which will be interesting). Jim and Tom (and occasionally I) mention our favourite bands and songs on the show quite a lot but it's rare to hear them go for a whole show of all-out favouritism. 

So if you're in a Kent band... tune in to see if Tom likes you.

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Busy stuff! Woo.

I'm off for some ice-cream... it's Monday night after all. I probably deserve it.

Infa Red

Infrared Venus, the most appropriate yet still slightly random image I could find, by Flickr user Irargerich. Used under license.

On the show tonight you'll hear our two-week-old feature Free Track Of The Week - a chance for us to show off some of the musical gems we've downloaded free of charge from a band's MySpace.

The free track for last week was singer-songwriter Scott Brunger...

...this week it's Infa Red with their track Demons which you'll hear on the show.

Meanwhile here's Stevie Howlett from the band who I spoke to on the phone a few weeks ago, explaining about the band...

Battleska Gallactica

Battleska: so many of them, they didn't all fit in one photograph

Ooo, interview!
Here it is:

Maida Vale fun

Me, in Studio MV4 which has played host to The White Stripes, Coldplay and The Verve among others.
I won extra Brownie points for the Beatles t-shirt.

One of the many weird things about the media industry is that things can be prepared weeks in advance of any 'audience' or listeners hearing it. In the same way as squirrels stockpile nuts and things in case they get a bit peckish, radio stations record new material and save it up just in case it's ever needed or if there's a suitable gap that needs filling.

In some cases though, holding back the broadcast of a particular item is not because it's second-rate or only needed for special occasions... on occasion the BBC keep things up their sleeves for the right moment, and in the meantime perfect it and work on it until it's ready to go. That is what happens in the case of Tunbridge Wells indie-folk band Tom Williams And The Boat who recorded a session at the legendary Maida Vale studios on Wednesday. The four tracks they recorded will air on Huw Stephens Introducing on Radio 1, probably in October.

The studios at Maida Vale are based in a huge building full of sprawling narrow corridors reminiscent of a nuclear bunker, and retro signage and lighting... the whole atmosphere feels very 60s and it's not difficult to imagine The Beatles recording there (which they did, at the studio literally just down the corridor).

The four tracks the band recorded are:

• Doing My Best - an epic ballad with a great swooping violin line and intimate, breathy vocals. If you're a regular visitor to the band's MySpace this will be familiar to you... if you missed it when it was up for download, you'll have to wait until the new EP in January to hear the official recording.
  
• Got Fuel - the new single from the EP of the same name, available from the band's MySpace page.
  
• Train Station Car Park - singalong favourite and set closer, the upbeat and harmonica-driven debut single.
  
• Wouldn't Women Be Sweet - lead by gentle acoustic guitar and violin harmonies, this track was another one we played on the show.

We have lots of video and audio from the lovely day out we had at Maida Vale with the band... but unfortunately we're not allowed to show you any until the session has been aired on Radio 1. Once it has, BBC Kent Introducing will bring you a special show from Maida Vale with all the highlights of the day and of course all the session tracks... and the video evidence will be on this blog.

Stay tuned. Exciting stuff.

Meanwhile, we've been busy with all sorts of things away from the show which means we too have been stockpiling material... on the way in the next month or two you can expect, in no particular order, the following:

• A show by Tom but without Jim, which will be a first... Tom's being rebellious and playing whatever he likes...
• An hour-long documentary on Rochester born-and-bred producer and composer Nitin Sawhney, presented by Jim...
• And of course the Maida Vale show, where we go behind the scenes and speak to one of the engineers as well as track the progress of the recording session.

I've also been thinking of some ideas for 'special' shows that we can save up for when we need them... like my mixtapes idea, but a bit more normal. A few ideas that I've thought of are listed below (although note that these are only ideas, not plans).
If you have any of your own ideas to add to my list, or any suggestions for tracks that fit in these categories, please let me know as usual...

• An hour of music that's free to legally download
  (This ties in with a feature we're starting on the show as of this Sunday)
  
• An hour of 'requests' or tracks suggested on the messageboard... perhaps like a 'listeners takeover' of the show.
  
• A dance music special, where we investigate the Maidstone underground house scene, and talk to some of Kent's prolific dance music figures and now well-established DJs...
  
• A 'music surgery' in which we rope in one of the national BBC Introducing presenters (maybe Huw Stephens? Tom Robinson? Zane Lowe? Annie Mac?) and play them some of our favourite tracks and get their critique on them...

Obviously all of these features are ones that will take rather a lot of time and preparation work, but I like the idea of adding that extra aspect to the show. We'll see how it goes.

Absence of the tour

As you'll have heard on this week's show, the BBC Kent Introducing tour is being put on hold for a while. Only three people work on the show every week, and they are Jim, Tom and myself...

Last week Jim got an unexpected promotion at work (that's in his 'proper' job - he does the same job as me but full time). And Tom is starting his third year at university (he's doing a three-year degree in Publishing, so his workload will suddenly increase). And for me... the new academic year means that I start back at college which will limit my time a bit.

We'd love to be able to keep running the BBC Kent Introducing tour, because it was a great way of spreading our love for Kent music across the county on a regular basis. But hopefully we'll be able to keep doing that on a slightly smaller scale - not just with the weekly radio show but with some one-off live events which I'll tell you about soon (and obviously all the details will be on the show).

(And by the way... I passed my driving theory test. My 'proper' test is booked).