Radio Free D'ni

The first of a two-part appreciation of Allan Holdsworth, a favourite of both Hugh Lynch and myself.  Edison Rex suffering from his piece of BT Internet wet string drying out, and with a very poor and intermittent connection, could not host the show.  This accounts for why mine was the only voice from the team that you heard – apart from the jingle, that is.

Preshow began with a Tony Williams Lifetime track, from one of Allan’s happiest collaborations, then a track from one of his albums as a sideman with French electric violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, before playing the title track from what must be the only studio bootleg album, Velvet Darkness.  Holdsworth and bandmates performed some warm-ups and run-throughs, and were just ready to record the album when the producer said “Right, we’ve got enough tracks for the album now, thank you and goodnight”!  We finished with some of Allan Holdsworth’s earliest recorded work, with his band of Yorkshire mates ‘Igginbottom (covering the Beach Boys, of all things) and with jazz fusion trumpeter Ian Carr’s Nucleus.

The last track in the postshow is a relatively rare example of Holdsworth’s work on accoustic guitar.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

A show containing some fine examples of both Todd Rundgren solo work and with his band Utopia. Preshow consisted of songs produced by Todd and postshow had notable covers of Todd songs.  This show was put together by Hugh Lynch, and Hugh was with us in the show too.

Some technical issues hit us on this show, with Ed losing his internet connection shortly after the start. I took over with the show (having all the music files on my machine as a backup) and the audience kept with us, coming back by restarting their music players or refreshing the web page – thanks to everyone for keeping with us. Finally Ed got his connection back and we were able to swap back over, this time with a bit of verbal warning first, so you all knew what was happening this time. Again, about half the listeners lost the connection but you all came back, and we had 16 listeners by the end of the show.

We’ve got another Todd Rundgren show in the works, but do let us know if you want more, or less come to that.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

An excellent set of tracks and someone we’ve never covered before. And despite it being the Memorial Day weekend in the US (oh, why can’t se coordinate public holidays better), we had 22 listeners for most of the show.

Pre and post-show music were by artists that Zappa admired, a category with very few entries.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

We had failed to notice that it was Mother’s Day in the US and so our audience was less than expected. Undaunted, a comprehensive show was presented covering Steely Dan from first steps to greatest triumph, the album Aja.
Preshow was mainly early demos, with the addition of a track from Jay and the Americans on which Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were in the group, and Kid Charlemagne, a taster for what’s to come, with a superb lead guitar track from Larry Carlton.
Postshow contained fallers, tracks from the albums that didn’t quite make it to the show (only for lack of time, or I’d have put them all in), plus Larry Carlton’s room 335, which was written after being beaten to the solo spot in Peg by Jay Graydon, and uses the same chords. A great show.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

Our Earth day show was appreciated by all those attending, which included some new faces. I managed to write some rather convoluted prose, but Ed, Mal and Root Beer coped admirably.  Audience numbers peaked at 24, a welcome recovery from the spring break lows.

Since we started with Messages From Earth, from the Babylon 5 soundtrack, we decided to finish with something else in the SF genre, and I found the extended version of the Firefly theme to go out with. All the other pre and postshow tracks were from the Earth Day playlist.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

Preshow

The Show

Postshow