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Radio Ga-Ga


Devon Malcolm

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Radio was absolutely crucial to me growing up in the Home Counties in the mid-80s. As hip hop, breaking and graffiti culture were blowing up there were only two ways to keep up with the music - Morgan Khan's Electro albums (on cassette for the boom box) and Mike Allen's radio show on Capital. I was living right on the edge of Capital's reception range so I could only pick it up upstairs and even then some nights were better than others but most shows were dubbed to a C90 and accompanied me on my Walkman for the rest of the week. I wish I still had those tapes, they get uploaded to blogs from time to time and the memories come flooding back - the Roxanne Wars, Doug E Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew's The Show being number one forever... I suspect Duane was of a similar age and geography so I expect he has similar memories before the tin foil started blocking the signals ;-)

 

After Mike Allen I got my London hip hop from Dave Pearce on A Fresh Start To The Week (Mondays on GLR - now BBC London). Forget the Dave Pearce who bangs out dance anthems these days, this was a great show. Dave was involved with the famous Def Jam tour and I can remember they broadcast the PE concert that appears at the start of Nations Of Millions... Later Westwood got a show on Capital, way before he became a caricature, if memory serves this was late on a Friday and was preceded by another Don of broadcasting who opened my ears to reggae and dancehall for the first time - David Rodigan.

 

This post is turning into a proper "not as good as it used to be" thread. The next big radio memory was the launch of legal Kiss FM in September 1990. I had heard all about the station but never been able to pick it up but when it launched it had an incredible roster of DJs covering the full spectrum of dance music - Graham Gold and Judge Jules dropping house, Colin Dale and Colin Faver with their techno shows, Max & Dave on the hip hop tip and the legendary Norman Jay's Musiquarium. Norman was a guy who I followed for years, through to his Giant 45 shows on Radio London, and is probably my favourite DJ of all time, such an homour to finally work with him on New Years Eve last year!

 

On to the present day and I am a DJ myself, playing two hours of classic house one week and two hours of funk/soul/disco/anything goes the other on internet-based SS Radio. It is something I love, sharing my passion for my music in the same way all the guys I listened to over the years have done. If I may briefly shill a new radio show that I am enormously looking forward to I have to mention my mate Steve KIW (Keep It Wheel). A long time mate of mine and someone I have been desperate to get to present a show since I got involved with SS Radio's Funk & Disco channel. He is a serious collector but no soul boy snob (he is as likely to play David Bowie or Kate Bush as a James Brown track) and launches Thursday 3rd Feb 8-10 PM with Steve KIW's A-Z of Digging. I don't imagine it will be the most polished show ever but I am certain he will be pulling classic after classic out of the hat. Definitely my current recommendation of the week, goes out at funk.ssradio.com - yes he is a mate, yes it is my station but ultimately I am recommending this one purely as a fan!

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Any Scottish listeners remember Scottie McClue on Scot-FM in the middle Nineties? I used to find this guy hilarious in his 10pm slot. He was moved to a morning slot ( for some reason, which took the life out the programme (and the swearing) ) and he eventually got sacked when somebody called him a "Fat Jock Fucker" at 11am. Ah, memories.

 

You listen to his stuff now and it has really aged. Not funny at all sadly.

 

He was on TalkSport for a while around 2000 doing the graveyard shift for a while and he was pretty crap, to be honest. Mind you, Mike Dickin (RIP) was a hard act to follow.

 

Speaking of TalkSport, anyone remember the Human Zoo with Tommy Boyd?

 

Yes, and then that cunt Iain Lee ripped it for his LBC sunday night shows!

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Later Westwood got a show on Capital, way before he became a caricature, if memory serves this was late on a Friday and was preceded by another Don of broadcasting who opened my ears to reggae and dancehall for the first time - David Rodigan.

 

I remember the Capital Rap Show with Westwood on Friday and Saturday nights. Was it 11 till 2am on the fri's and 8 till 10 on Saturdays. Back then Westwood played all the top underground Hip Hop tracks out there. Friday's he had The Source updates with J the Sultan and loads of top artists in the studio. He was at his best back then. I remember all the MC Search interviews he had on his visits over. Snoop Dogg, The Wu, Nas etc were awesome pieces of radio.

 

94 it all seemed to go downhill when the switch to Radio 1 went down. Funkflex rap exchanges saved some face for me, but now........don't even listen to Westwood's racket!

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Question to any Absolute listeners - how narky are they getting about listening to it in work? Last time I wanted to get a feed from the website I saw a notice about fee-paying for listening to it in a office of more than x people, and I haven't realy bothered since.

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Out on Blue Six. Also, people from Nottingham might know The Beat (on the Beeb, on Radio Nottingham) - Dean Jackson is a superb DJ, and my old science teacher.

 

EDIT - I forgot probably my favorite of all. Let's just imagine that I'm sat here with "TURMOIL" written across my forehead.

Edited by Rosegarden Funeral
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Ah, Mark and Lard. When Radio 1 was actually bearable. Those days are a distant memory now though (for me at least). I fucking adored the Mark and Lard show, I even taped the whole of the last ever show they did, though the tape has probably since been lost or destroyed by now. :(

 

Radcliffe used to sometimes fill in for Steve Wright on Radio 2 in the afternoons, and it was a small slice of audio heaven.

 

There's loads of archived Mark & Lard stuff around - on YouTube and various places. As soon as they left Radio 1, I stopped listening to radio for a good few years and only since I started listening Radcliffe & Maconie have I started listening to a specific radio show regularly again. Even though they never seem to be on together, as is the case again this week.

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Does anybody here listen to Amazing Radio? Only just heard of it today and was wondering if it was any good. The music looks alright but I'm not listening to it if the presenters are shite.

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The Radio 1 comedy thing was weird. It was part of Matthew Bannister's revolution. Oddly, I was just thinking about it the other night while re-reading Disgusting Bliss. Chris Morris' radio stuff is some of his best. Blue Jam was awesome when you stumbled in from the pub and sparked up a joint or three. Reading about his local radio work makes me wish I'd lived in Bristol in the early '90s.

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