Field Day fiesta

I knew yesterday was going to be all about Ginger Baker, but a wonderful London Field Day also delivered the excitement of seeing Palma Violets at…

British Sea Power

Shepherd's Bush Empire, 17 April 2013 I first stumbled across British Sea Power at the Reading Festival when on a 20 minute break from working behind…

Spring has sprung

British Sea Power provided the soundtrack to the weekend, with ‘Spring Has Sprung’ proving the perfect accompaniment to the first t-shirt-weather day of the year. It got its first play while I woke the off-road bikes from their winter slumber, and the joyous refrain “birdsong sings in the atmosphere; spring has sprung out of nothing” kept popping back into my head throughout the day as Liz and I followed the River Lea from our home in Walthamstow down to the Thames at Limehouse.

Jarvis and Attenborough in radio heaven

What a day Sunday was on Radio 6 (6Music if you must), but Jarvis Cocker stole the show with his two hour chat on music and nature with David Attenborough.

Public Service Broadcasting

I’ve been in the Lake District this weekend to see Public Service Broadcasting, the band/art project that makes music to archive newsreels. Taking inspiration from founding…

New York – in praise of oysters big and small

Alongside generous hand-outs from native Americans, the first European settlers to cross the Atlantic largely survived off the plentiful supplies of oysters that lined the coast…

Festive Fifteen 2012

The Festive Fifteen is my annual Xmas homage to John Peel’s much missed longer and more eclectic list of the year’s best tunes. The only rule…