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The story of Tunnel 29

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This BBC Radio 4 podcast came out for the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.

By crikey it’s good – real-life story with a mixture of witness interviews and drama-style soundtrack & production. Even my 14-y-o was hooked.

10 x 15-min podcasts from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04sj2pt/episodes/downloads

2 x 57-min omnibus episodes (without the 1-min recap and 1-min theme music of each 15-min podcast episode) from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000nfh/episodes/player

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/Od4dL9Lip2/tunnel_29#group-The-Tunnel-G2b3yK8oV2

Tape Runs Out – Talking Through The Walls

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15/11/2019

Since I recorded prog-folk seven-piece Tape Runs Out at the Mill over the Easter holidays they have signed to a local label (Kuang Grade Recordings) and recorded three EPs in the Anglia Ruskin University music department studio.

The first of these EPs has been mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road studios and came out (streaming services and pay-what-you-like on BandCamp) on Friday. CDs to follow shortly.

Zero to Record Breaker

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This bloke took middling young metal band The Hunna from a village fete (where I first saw them) to the Reading Festival main stage in two years. It might be an interesting read, if I could get past his “big I am” ego, as a document of the end days of the old music industry.

“My name is Carl Hitchborn and I’m an entrepreneur from the UK. I’ve built various businesses from scratch including running my family bakery business. Feeling like I was unable to make the progress I wanted to make and being a typical entrepreneur, I sought a new challenge. I wanted to find a way to become global and with no prior knowledge, decided that I would attempt to make it in the music industry.”

https://www.thebakersays.com/zerotorecordbreakerbundle?r_done=1

Art of Now: Playing Well – Frightened Rabbit

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paging @sitheref2409

In the first of the three-part series “Playing Well” Chris Hawkins has an intimate conversation with the band mates of Scott Hutchison, who took his own life in May 2018.

In conversation with Scott’s brother Grant, drummer in Frightened Rabbit, and guitarist Andy Monaghan, Chris discovers more about the anxious child who reframed his family nickname as a band name – and how he channeled a rare lyrical talent, determination and energy into the creation of one of Scotland’s most important and influential rock bands.

Charting the rise of the band and Scott’s intense, occasionally hilarious approach to live performance, Grant frankly addresses the pressures his brother faced – and the structural pressures faced by anyone in the music industry. Charting the exhausting aftermath of suicide, Grant talks about defining Scott as a songwriter, in the hope that the existence of works which appear to presage his death don’t create a misleading impression of Scott’s life.

It’s a moving portrait of a fascinating artist, and an attempt to reclaim Scott’s musical legacy from the inaccurate assumption that the combination of musical celebrity and mental illness can only end in tragedy.

Details of organisations offering information » Continue Reading.

Kyle D Evans – Pop Song’s for Pedant’s

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09/12/2019

“The one-man venn diagram intersection of maths, pop and comedy returns. In the follow-up to his award-winning debut BORN TO SUM (Best Stand-up, Swindon Fringe 2018) he once again casts a mathematical eye across popular culture and wonders whether there is a place for all this pedantry in a world seemingly going to hell in a handcart. Expect songs, mathematics, fiendish wordplay and weapons-grade pedantry. If the devil is in the detail, he is Lucifer.

Kyle is an award-winning musical comedian and science communicator (winner, Famelab UK 2016) who takes a borderline perverse enjoyment in using any platform possible to preach the good word of mathematics. He has performed musical/comedy maths shows at various events, such as Cheltenham & Manchester Science festivals, Blue Dot, Green Man, Camp Bestival, London Science Museum, Edinburgh Fringe & various other festivals. He is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s flagship numbers show ‘More or Less’ and the Today programme’s puzzle of the day.”

I have been a fan of Kyle D Evans for over 12 years, since his days in the bands The Dawn Chorus and The Retrospective Soundtrack Players. He’s worked with Frank Turner, Chris T-T and Ben Marwood. Kyle has recorded » Continue Reading.

Re-Play Papworth – Prince and the Revolution

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24/11/2019

Purple Rain, Parade and Sign o’ the Times played from first pressing vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

{Ed, check this bit please…}

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This is an extract from an Op-Ed article in the current issue – that’s the December 2019 issue – of a hi-fi magazine (print edition available in your hi-fi shop) entitled “Who’d have thought Liam Gallagher would have trumped Noel?”.

It is written by a regular contributor and the magazine pays someone to be an editor. Can you spot the mistake?

“But..but..but. It’s Liam Gallagher who has just scored his second No 1 album in a feat that he has – in typical understated fashion quoted as ‘biblical’ – with his album ‘Why Me? Why Not’. It fended off competition from rock group Keane who were widely tipped to come out top in the sales charts.

‘Why Me? Why Not’ has already sold more than 68,000 copies including 17,000 on vinyl. That makes it the fastest-selling vinyl album of 2019 and perhaps gives us another example of the continuing vinyl revival as most of those buyers will be drawn from the younger age group.

Very few people – including myself – would have predicted such an outcome when Oasis split all those years ago. And I suspect Liam is enjoying lording it over his brother Noel over those sales » Continue Reading.

David Gray – White Ladder 20th anniversary edition

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Browsing the HMV.com pre-orders section, I spotted this:-

The 20th* anniversary of White Ladder is released on Feb 14th, which will make a nice present for someone. If Mrs F is reading this**, hint, hint.

White double vinyl (for the first time), double CD (or quadruple vinyl) for the box including B-sides, demos and a book.

(*) 22nd anniversary if you bought it directly from him at a gig in Dingwalls, as I did. (**) she isn’t.

https://www.davidgray.com/

Furniture klaxon

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Furniture, the ‘Brilliant Mind’ Hit Makers, must have been one of the most out-of-time (and unluckiest) 80s bands. Only 1,000 copies of their masterpiece, the album The Wrong People, were pressed, then their label Stiff went bust the week it was released. It remained unavailable for 15 years, when Cherry Red managed to cut through the legal red tape and released it on CD (for the record, I must declare my involvement in this).

Now, reissue label Emotional Rescue have reissued the (pre-Stiff) debut mini-album When The Boom Was On and a new compilation EP of four 12″ singles tracks, including a previously-unreleased full-length mix of Bullet.

Out now on 140g vinyl or download (including 24/96 hi-res from Qobuz).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsnhJEHWIGo&feature=youtu.be

https://www.juno.co.uk/artists/Furniture/

Re-Play Papworth – The Chic Organization

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27/10/2019

Risqué, We Are Family and Diana (the Chic mix) played from half-speed mastered vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

New Order – Power, Corruption & Lies box

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Nicked from the Steve Hoffman forums & FNAC listing:

12″ reissues: Blue Monday 11/15/2019 Confusion 11/22/2019 Thieves Like Us 11/29/2019 Murder 12/06/2019

Release date: 24/1/2020 (1LP/2CD/2DVD) Power, Corruption & Lies (for CD and LP) (2019 remaster) 01. Age of Consent 02. We All Stand 03. The Village 04. 5 8 6 05. Your Silent Face 06. Ultraviolence 07. Ecstacy 08. Leave Me Alone

Power Corruption & Lies – Extras (CD) Writing Session Recordings 01. Age Of Consent * 02. The Village * 03. 5 8 6 * 04. Your Silent Face * 05. Ecstacy * 06. Leave Me Alone *

John Peel Session 07. Turn The Heater On 08. We All Stand 09. Too Late 10. 5 8 6

John Peel Session Outtake 11. Too Late (instrumental rough mix) *

New York Session Outtake 12. Thieves Like Us (New York demo #1) *

Writing Session Recordings 13. Thieves Like Us * 14. Murder * 15. Blue Monday * 16. Blue Monday *

*Previously unreleased

New Order – Power, Corruption & Lies DVD DVD 1

Live Shows The Hacienda, Manchester, 1982 In A Lonely Place Ultraviolence Denial The Village We All Stand Senses Chosen Time 5 8 6 Temptation Everything’s » Continue Reading.

Re-Play Papworth – National Album Day

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12/10/2019

The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society played at 3:33pm “in glorious mono” from 180g vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard. ‘Support’ from various LPs randomly-selected from a box of LPs.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

2-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

Is rock music doomed?

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Interesting Radio 4 doc. on Saturday. Worth 30 mins of your time.

“Bruce Springsteen is turning 70; rock’s gods are getting on. It’s not clear who’s there with electric guitars to replace them. Younger acts are failing are to make hit singles. Veteran rock journalist Mark Coles believes rock music has lost its ability to surprise and innovate. Record label boss Vanessa Higgins describes how the writing of hit songs no longer favours the rock format. Music critic Michael Hann blames the high costs of making rock as part of the reason for its decline. But Chris Woltman, manager of the band Twenty One Pilots, believes bands have adapted rock for a new generation of fans and industry veteran Sat Bisla details how rock is making headway in non-traditional markets like India and Indonesia. With Neal Razzell.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008pfg

Re-Play Papworth – Amy Winehouse

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29/09/2019

Back To Black played from half-speed mastered vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard. ‘Support’ from The Ronettes, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, and The Specials.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

3-5pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.