Radio Free D'ni

Something different this time – we aren’t always predictable – and a set of solo tracks from Peter Hammill, who may be more familiar as the founder and front man of prog rockers Van der Graaf Generator.  Just as the generator itself is a somewhat out-of-the-ordinary device last seen in a school textbook, some of the wit was schoolboyish too, but the set was very well appreciated by all concerned, and a peak audience of 23 listeners too.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

We try to do a show for IWD every year, and this year it was made easier by it being on a Sunday and between our usual shows.

A new organiser for the days events came forward this year, Nosila, and she followed us with a music stream.  In between we hosted Ghaelen’s recorded talk on two Influential Women in History.

Appropriately, Root Beer was the voice of Radio Free D’ni for this show, the contents of which were sung, played and/or written and composed by women, and had some significance connected with the day.  Audience figures reached 21 at one point, a good number.

The Show

A new idea this time, a show concentrating on just live tracks, with the stipulation that they must be outstanding, better than the studio versions.  It turns out that quite a lot of tracks qualified, with the assistance of Hugh and Mal, and we can do this again, probably more than once, without repeating tracks or albums.

Hugh and Root Beer were both away, so it was back to the old days of the three original members.

The title was a challenge from me to you to identify what short-lived TV SF show it came from.  Korovev and Hayley Mosteller got it right – it was Max Headroom, that dystopian “20 minutes into the future” show featuring Matt Frewer playing two roles, one in heavy prosthetic makeup, as CGI weren’t that good yet.  It was a good series, very critical of TV advertising, the quest for “ratings” and an elite living in a moral vacuum.  It’s no wonder then that it got canned after 14 episodes.  By an unfortunate coincidence, that’s the same number of episodes that Firefly ran for.

Enough of that.  Again, we had more than 20 listeners, which is encouraging for us – do keep coming back.

Preshow – like the postshow, tracks that didn’t make the cut for the main show but still met the criteria.

The Show

Postshow

Something a little different (a bit of a trademark of ours) as we took a look at the songs of Tom Waits. Hugh put this one together, and I was as interested as anyone else, having not followed the man at all, and being only sort of aware of him, largely because of his very recognisable voice.
It was a great show, and I came away more impressed than I’d expected. Many thanks to those who joined us on the plaza, and those who just listened in.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow