6 Music: 28.01.2019

Another week ahead for BBC 6 music as the new schedule settles in. We're still not used to hear Keaveny in the afternoon although his morning absence is in part atoned by Hawkins' extra half-hour. They seem to be 'over-promoting' themselves a bit still, as if people were really thick and not realising Laverne is now in the breakfast slot etc. She was even on The One Show this week to promote her own show. Desperate?
Anyway this week Lammo is on his travels as he visits 'independent' venues around the UK starting with Edinburgh on Monday, York on Tuesday, Worcester on Wednesday, Bedford on Thursday and winding up at the 100 Club on Oxford Street no less for the Specials, er, special live performance. Good to see they've chosen the not so obvious usual cities (Liverpool, Manchester, Brum et al.)

This week's playlist begins to see some new stuff at last although 2018-veterans Maribou State, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stealing Sheep and Lizzo are still coming up more or less every hour - not that we disdain any of those of course. However, the best new track of 2019 so far seems to be this new one from Foals which is very catchy and even has a kind of 80s-production vibe to it. It's rightly on the A list (and on Radio 1's B list). New album coming in March (and another in the autumn!) Meanwhile,enjoy:

6 Music: 07.01.2019

The much anticipated new daytime schedule is already in full swing on 6 Music with - if you needed reminding - the following line-up as from Monday 7th Jan.:

• 5.00 - 7.30 am Chris Hawkins (extra 1/2 hour)
• 7.30 - 10.30 am Lauren Laverne "Breakfast Show"
• 10.30 am - 1.00 pm Mary Anne Hobbes Morning Show
• 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm Sean Keaveny "Lunchtime Show"

Hawkins seems to be dealing quite well with the extra half-hour (he calls it the new conservatory extension), which is also quite welcome. He's introduced the new "Exit Music" feature towards the end of the show (penultimate track played) whereby listeners can request a song for leaving the house in the morning.
Laverne is trying very hard (too hard?) with the arduous task of taking over from Keaveny although of course it's practically an impossible task and she is quite rightly doing her own thing. We here at LiM are still sadly missing the earworms, the Parkinson theme, Hill Street Blues and even Let's Play..Pontoon! (and Georgie).
Admittedly we haven't been listening to Hobbes or even the new Keaveny properly in order to pass any judgement. Time will tell.
Lamacq plods on and this week is featuring forgotten 80s tracks (thanks for reading our mail, Steve). Roundtable Thursday afternoon and Friday Free For All carry on as usual.

Radcliffe & Maconie (sans Maconie, for now) take over the weekend Breakfast Show but we're not expecting any big surprises there, although wondering how he/they will cope with the early start!

25 Years of Rock has been extended to include the extra 5 years of 30 Years of Rock, which finishes on Friday, to be replaced by Alan Freeman's epic 1994 series The Story of Pop starting Saturday.

6 Music: week ahead (17-23.12.18)

the first in an occasional series..

After the nearly-Christmas 'end of an error' festivities on Friday, 6 Music starts off the week running up to Christmas with quite a few 'stand-ins' as presumably folks are off to do their Christmas shopping.

• Chris Hawkins had plenty of time off just recently so he's back in his early morning slot (5.00-7.00 am) and apparently already has his Christmas show 'in the can'. Plink Test, Wednesday whines, etc. continue as normal, although there's an Apollo 8 special programme coming up on Friday.
• Shaun Keaveny is still contractually billed in The Breakfast Show although Nemone is standing in all week. Earworms are still featured although of course we will sadly miss Hill Street Blues, Dead Zone and other audible tomfoolery.
• More sitting-in mid-morning with Tom Ravenscroft standing in for Lauren Laverne, who is presumably limbering up for her daunting new Breakfast Show assignment.*
• Business as usual for Radcliffe & Maconie, although of course it's still a one-man show as the countdown to the New Year and their new weekend slot continues.
• Steve Lamacq launches the TV Quiz Themes World Cup. His programme site still publicises the 25 at 25 feature although the audio recordings are no longer available (plenty of reading to do though). Thursday's Roundtable is a best of 2018 edition.
• Marc Riley picks up where he left off last Thursday with his best of 2018, tunes and sessions, continuing until this Thursday. He'll then be back in the New Year. 
• Gideon Coe continues relentlessly with archive live recordings and sessions and still manages to break the record for the number of bands featured that you've never heard of. The Jam in concert at the 100 Club in 1977 on Tuesday should be a good one. Wednesday & Thursday see special Christmas shows and on Sunday 30th there will be special 2018 Obit show.
• The excellent 25 Years of Rock documentary series continues. Amazing to think this was first broadcast in 1980. It ends with 1979 on Friday although hurrah! - the series morphs into 30 Years of Rock taking us from 1980 to 1984 on Christmas Eve. Tape recorders at the ready.
• The Wish You Were There? vintage live concert reviews also get a re-run starting Monday. Queen's Hyde Park performance in 1976 is featured on Friday.
• Liz Kershaw has a special Xmas request show on Saturday. Followed by the much-plugged (ratings down?) Giles Peterson, who in turn is followed by Craig Charles and his Funky Festivities, if you like that sort of thing. This GP show in particular is being plugged, "celebrating 10th anniversary of Brain Feeder"
• Actor Cillian Murphy returns on Sunday, playing his favourite artists in a special pre-Christmas show. Expect a lot of Irish music. At midnight (into Christmas Eve) there's also a repeat of a Murphy show from back in April when he stood in for Iggy Pop.
• Followed by Amy Lamé who is joined by non other than Tony Visconti, "ahead of a solo album in 2019".

• Full schedule can be found starting here.

*errata corrige: LL is back from Tuesday, TR having stood-in one day only. That's not to say she wasn't preparing her new Breakfast Show mind.

Review of 2018: 1 - BBC 6 Music

I can't remember why I started listening to BBC 6 Music on a regular basis but I know I started around May of this year (2018 AD), a few weeks before their Biggest Weekend in Belfast. I'm quite an avid radio listener and have gone through various phases over the last few years, especially as far as listening during my one-hour (or more) morning commute to work is concerned. I've listened to various Italian stations (including a unusually entertaining economics/politics show on Radio 24, the host of which suddenly and mysteriously 'disappeared') but they are on the whole dominated by annoying adverts, which are a pet hate of mine, even on UK commercial stations. You can't avoid them here because they're on the state broadcaster radio & TV stations too.

A few years back I moved on to BBC Radio 3, especially the Breakfast show, and became particularly fond of Clemency Burton Hill, who much to my chagrin found a rich husband, bore a child and then moved off to NYC. Clemmy aside, I enjoyed at least trying to listen to and appreciate classical music via R3 (a lifetime goal, still unrealised), also due in part to the fact that I was disillusioned with the state of modern music, which seemed of little interest to me.
I've also been through various Radio 4 programmes, especially the quizzes, plus In Our Time etc.. For most of 2017 my morning listening routine was Farming Today, Tweet of the Day, Today ...then over to R3 Breakfast. I had become the perfect late middle-aged, cultured, listener of 'posher' radio.

I had approached 6 Music listening on an irregular basis over the last 7/8 years or so, but what they were playing seemed a long, long way from my musical tastes, which were sadly very much connected to stuff I'd been listening to during my late teens/early twenties. I just didn't get new 'alternative' music just as I didn't get the mainstream pop/charts music. However, for some unknown reason I switched on to BBC6 last Spring and have been hooked ever since to some of their regular shows. The early-risers Chris Hawkins and Sean Keaveny* have become my favourites over the year, but even via the youngster Tom Ravenscroft (imagine my surprise when I discovered who his father was) and others such as Lauren Laverne. Nemone and the somewhat more annoying Steve Lamacq and Radcliffe & Maconie, I have at last got my finger, at least partially, on the pulse of modern 'alternative' music which seems to be in a fairly healthy state.

For the first time in many many years I have been able to create a decent playlist of songs from a  current year. I'll be reviewing a few of the best from 2018 over the next few posts, so, er, stay tuned.

*It was announced a few months ago that BBC 6 would be undergoing some major changes in 2019, including Sean Keaveny leaving his breakfast show slot to move to the afternoons. Apparently after 11 years and 8 months he was knackered. This was quite a blow for me as his show really did make my morning commute a lot easier. The man has even read out some of my 'earworm' emails over the past few months, even choosing mine to be played on one occasion. We have also exchanged e-mails, which I thought was really good of him. As I write, I am listening to his last ever Breakfast Show. Thanks Sean - it's been a privilege and a laugh.