Radio Free D’ni

There was deep sadness all over the world when another iconic performer died on January 10th 2016.  David Bowie had been diagnosed with liver cancer in late 2014 but told few people outside his immediate family.  He had successfully kept his public and private lives separate for most of his career, and did not want to change that now.  He continued to work on his final album, ‘Blackstar’, until the end of 2015 and it was released on his 69th birthday, just two days before his death.  Blackstar is a very deliberate final album and it (and its associated videos) contains many images and references that people more knowledgeable than I have identified as death rituals, references to his past and his family.

We felt that it was not possible to do justice to the breadth of his career and appeal on our own, so asked the forum to give us their suggestions too.  Many thanks to Acorn1, Max and Boywhith (Tom) for their help.

We finished the set with Blackstar (if you haven’t seen the video, go and look for it.  Sit down first) and start with Changes.  Postshow went on for longer than usual too, and finished with Changes as well.  Edison was not at his desk, so this was another show broadcast by AlanDJ with Malaclypse in attendance on the plaza.

Preshow – stash diving as usual, in the middle of the ‘B’s

The Show

Postshow

A second show featuring bassists, solo and in the groups they played with, tinged with some sadness as Lemmy Kilminster had passed away suddenly over the Christmas holiday.  The other bassists were Donald “Duck” Dunne, Jack Bruce and John Wetton.

Two tracks in the postshow have an elegiac intention, Family’s ‘The Weaver’s Answer’ and Colosseum’s ‘Elegy’.

Preshow: Stash diving once more, into the “B”‘s

The Show

Postshow

Another History, containing (as usual) significant tracks and not just Greatest Hits.  Both Malaclypse and I (AlanDJ) are big Tull fans so the track choices are very much a collaborative effort.  Between us we have everything Ian Anderson has recorded, in or out of Tull, and quite a lot from some of the significant band members.  Not enough time in just one show to cover all that.  A Tull Connections show may follow at some date…

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

A collection of tracks that have been used as theme tunes for radio or TV series.  Some started life as album tracks that were subsequently hijacked, usually resulting in a sales boost for the track.
Some were written specifically as themes, but I choose fully developed pieces as far as possible.
There is some electronic music, some rock, jazz, classical (well, sort of) and folk-derived stuff – yes, not only did we going all over the map, I had to buy a bigger map to get it all on…
The tracks are arranged in roughly chronological order, but in some cases the date chosen is that of the show and not the album.  And I have been a bit naughty in a couple of cases, choosing cover versions.  But very good covers…

I have added links to each of the titles that will take you to information about the shows, and several more, at least one or more are sort of easter eggs….   🙂

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

Another of Malaclypse’s history compilations that include significant tracks rather than Greatest Hits.  This time it’s the archetypes of Glam Metal, Kiss.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

Some more Brit Prog, and we have got to the Canterbury Scene, a group of bands that formed in or around Canterbury with interchanging sets of musicians.  Caravan are the best known, and have already had a show of their own.  Some quotes about the scene

‘In the very best Canterbury music…the musically silly and the musically serious are juxtaposed in an amusing and endearing way.’

‘But the Canterbury school seems to me uniquely capable of making purely musical jokes without parody, without insult to other musicians or listeners, without vitiating musical or intellectual ideals.’
‘A tendency towards instrumental improvisation, and the way they sing – a uniquely English lyrical and vocal content’
We will take a chronological walk through the scene, beginning with the ur-group, the one that started it all.  This was The Wilde Flowers, active from 1964-69, whose members would go on to form Caravan and Soft Machine, both bands that were both successful and influential, and go on to other bands as well.

Of the Wilde Flowers, Richard Coughlan once said ‘We only had a few tunes, so how do you make them last a bit longer?  What do jazz musicians do?  Ah, I know, they improvise….    So a simple tune becomes a 10 minute event….’

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

A contribution from our friend Janeerah, this is a selected set of Tangerine Dream tracks from their middle period.  The preshow is an interesting set of Jan’s favourites from other electronic musicians.

Overall, it can be said that while Tangerine Dream is a Progressive group, there is little Rock in what they do.  What they do well is closer to ambient, music to establish a mood and relax to.  This is not music to get excited about, or with.

Having got that out of the way, they are indeed very good at this, so much so that they are a benchmark of the genre.

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

Passport is a German jazz-rock band formed in 1972 by Klaus Doldinger, who is the only member of the original lineup to remain constant (their second album had a complete turnover of musicians apart from Doldinger, for instance).  He, and the band, were still going in 2015 when this show went out.

There is a second show in the works, but I’ve got writer’s block over it at the moment….

Preshow

The Show

Postshow

A show concentrating on bass-players and playing both solo works and work with the groups they made famous 🙂  This first show includes Paul McCartney, Mark King, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, Dave Pegg, Jeff Berlin, Patrick Scales, Tony Levin, Jaco Pastorious and Rick Kemp.  A vast coverage, and most have found fame in more than one group.

Ed was away from his desk and the show was broadcast by AlanDJ, with Mal on the plaza to back me up.  I lost connection to the radio stream during the postshow, and by the time I’d got it back, the audience had (quite understandably) dispersed.  It was a very complex show, as the playlist makes clear – still I did have time to include two requests in the postshow.

Preshow

The Show

Requests and postshow

A fourth set of Rarities and What-ifs, with contributions from both Malaclypse and myself (AlanDJ).  We try to keep a running list of this sort of thing as we find them, and serve up helpings every so often 🙂