It’s The Magic Number, apparently

I refer, of course, to 3 which De La Soul dictated was a digit imbued with Harry Potteresque mysticism, rather than the pluralised version of the phrase which gives the band The Magic Numbers their moniker.  I’ve never been particularly enamoured with the latter – though I bare them no malice – so I cannot imagine they’ll be featuring heavily on Selection Box any time soon.

La Pendleton skillfully handling a tool there.  (Bloody hell, kill me.)

La Pendleton skillfully handling a tool there. (Oh dear oh dear. Bloody hell, kill me.)

I can’t pretend that I am especially partial to the number 3 either, though if Victoria Pendleton expressed an interest in making that the number which share my marital bed for non-sleeping purposes, I’d be sure to ask my wife for her considered opinion on the matter.  Then do a spot of undignified pleading, obviously.  However, the number 3 is set to be something of a focus on the show over the next few weeks, like some sort of demented version of Sesame Street (because obviously Sesame Streetis renowned for its no-nonsense straight laced stiff upper lip lack of tomfoolery), as in a few weeks’ time Selection Boxwill be celebrating its third birthday.  Will you see a sea-change in accordance with the advance in age – no longer for us the tantrums of the terrible twos, from now on operating with a new-found pre-school application and shitted pants will become an ever-increasing rarity?  Nah, I’ll probably peddle the same old pelt punctuated by great records if truth be told, but let us celebrate the calendarial momentum all the same. Continue reading

When Selection Box met Kate Walsh / In BBC Trust We Trust

Some considerable time ago on this blog I promised to post the full interview with Brighton-based songstrel Kate Walsh which appeared on Selection Box 110 back in October.  It seems needless to delve too deeply into the who, why and wherefore of Walsh’s career thus far as I’ve already posted three blogs of fairly lengthy detail on these pages (one already linked to at the start of this post, another  here and the final one – a review of her last long player Light & Dark – can be found here), so probably best to press on without retreading old ground.

Kate Walsh, apparently hiding inside a giant string vest

Kate Walsh, apparently hiding inside a giant string vest

Since October, however, Walsh has been busying herself with further live dates across Europe – most recently opening for 1980s sports headband wearing Dire Straiter Mark Knopfler at the Royal Albert Hall – and recording a series of EPs featuring cover versions of some of her favourite songs.  Her website revealed recently that these EPs are set to be compiled into a covers album which will be released in September.

If you want to save the interview as an mp3 for posterity – so you can listen to my dulcet tones on your fancy iGramophone at all times of the day or night; perhaps to excite and inflame your senses with an uncontrollable passion during lonely moments – click on the small arrow at the right hand side of the player below and download the content of your heart and indeed other organs.  Alternatively, just press the big orange button to listen NOW (yes, NOW) as a stream.  You lucky things you.

Patrick Thornton talks to Kate Walsh 19.10.09 by PatrickSelectionBox

Continue reading

Some kinda Blowin

The Blowin Weekly Extra

Blowin 9-10pm Sunday 4 July 2010

More tunes than time…

Blowin now online at http://blowin.podomatic.com

Listen to BCB on 106.6 FM or www.bcbradio.co.uk

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Man In A Pub Garden

Man In A Pub Garden

Dancehall Science, Friday 16 July

The Wire, 2A Call Lane, Leeds LS1 6DN

£6 / £4 for girls – 10pm to 4am

Rootsman feat. D Bo General www.myspace.com/rootsmansoundsystem

Reggae Roast feat. Ramon Judah www.reggaeroast.co.uk/

Exodus feat. Urban Vox www.myspace.com/exodusuk

B-Dawg (Big Toes Hi-Fi) www.myspace.com/bigtoeshifi

0113 2433414 / 07764 208202

www.dubstepforum.com/leeds-16-july-dancehall-science-rootsman-exodus-t148897.html

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Also Rootsman Sound System

The Playhouse, Chapel Street, Bradford

Saturday 17 July 10pm to 4am

www.myspace.com/therootsman

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Lightnin’ Hopkins playing the blues imperiously and righteously, despite a curious hair day…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dUUEehVDMM

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Continue reading

It’s Singles Night on Going North from Nashville! 10-11pm, Monday 5th July

A GNfN singles night, featuring  singles, old & new, from:

Kathryn Williams – White Lines
The Rialto Burns – Radiate
Dawn Landes – I Can’t Meet You ( track 2/ B side, which we prefer to the title track)
Johnny Flynn : Kenticky Pill – Great, catchy tune from a great album (but it’s a shame about the lyrics in the light of recent tragic events in Cumbria)
Port O’ Brien : Leap Year
Jackie Leven : Gothic Road – good Levenesque fare
The Lights : The Low Hundreds – nice introduction to this band
Gaslight Anthem – American Slang
Also included: The Acorn, Fleetfoxes,The Beatles (!) & more…..
Our prog on 19th July will feature edited exerpts from an interview with Eric from Midlake & tracks from their recent album’The Courage of Others’

The BCB Sessions 23rd and 30th June 2010

23rd June:
Featured local artist: Jasmine Kennedy

Major Lazer – Pon De Floor Ft. Princess Nyah
Mantler – Fresh and fair
The Choral – 1000 years
Wild Beats – Hooting and Howling
Dirty Projectors – Stillness is the move
Grasscut – High down
Jasmine Kennedy* – It used to be true
White Rabbits – They’ve done wrong we done wrong
The Infesticons – Bombs anthem
Thomas Truax – It’s all happening now
10c – Blow it up y’all
Jasmine Kennedy* – Sleep Talker
Eels – Little bird
Health – USA Boys
Robyn – Fembot
Jasmine Kennedy* – Tall tales and shortcomings feat. Chris Martin

30th June:
Featured local band: Starling

Continue reading

Eclectic Mainline 30th June 2010

A bit of simple GCSE level physics, but explained in a rather roundabout way:

If a ball travels approximately horizontally towards a static object (lets say a horizontal bar) and hits the underside of said object, this will cause the ball to have backspin as it falls sharply downwards.  Then, if as the ball comes down it comes into contact with a flat horizontal surface soon afterwards (the ground, say) the backspin will make it bounce backwards a bit in the direction of the horizontal plane from which it came.  So, if it hits our static object (the bar) again upon bouncing up, and if we imagine there was a straight line (let’s say it’s white) on the floor immediately below our static object (the bar), it must have hit the ground beyond that line.  If it hadn’t landed beyond the line, it would have missed the bar on the way back up.

The one man who DEFINITELY knew

"maybe nobody will notice, after all the're aren't many cameras around" - Manuel Neuer

Basically, what I’m saying is, the ref and his assistant could have figured out the ball had crossed the line simply from the fact that it hit the bar again as it bounced up.  “Get over it” I hear you say.  Maybe one day…

Here’s what I played tonight: Continue reading

The Blowin Weekly Extra – What Goes On

Blowin 9-10pm Sunday 27 June 2010

More tunes than time…

Blowin now online at http://blowin.podomatic.com

Listen to BCB on 106.6 FM or www.bcbradio.co.uk

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Hope Road

Hope Road

This week I have mostly been..

  • anticipating the arrival of bottles of Saltaire Brewery’s new Triple Chocoholic beer, remarkable on draught – research continues
  • touring Manchester’s northern quarter with the Notorious Wig, encountering Shrek-a-likes and tasting something wonderful called Marble Decadence, an imperial stout, at the Marble Arch a pub with cunningly designed sloping floors… www.reluctantscooper.co.uk/2010/05/bottled-up-marble-decadence.html
  • crouching near the letterbox daily at post time, hoping for an advance copy of Sound System Scratch, a collection of previously unreleased Lee Perry dub plate mixes from the redoubtable Pressure Sounds – see www.pressure.co.uk/news/-/194/ – nothing so far…

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Belated RIP for Bradford’s Loveapple cafe venue, who were kind enough to let me dj a few times

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/8206351.Nightclub_cafe_bar_shuts_after_13_years/

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Continue reading

NYAAA on Bradford Beat

Don’t miss the Bradford band New York Alcoholic Anxiety Attack on Bradford Beat next week.

Fresh from appearing at Glastonbury, they’ll be popping into the studio on Simon Ashberry’s Bradford Beat.

The three-piece, featuring Mik Davis, Matthew Graham and James William Bridle, have had their CDs played regularly on the show for the past few years.

They have a gig coming up at the Zuu Bar in Bradford on 23 July.

You can hear NYAAA on Bradford Beat on BCB 106.6FM from 8pm – 9pm on Thursday 1 July.

Farewell “Frank”

The death of Chris Sievey – creator of the papier mache-headed comic character Frank Sidebottom – brought real sadness this week.

Here at Bradford Beat, we’ve often played seasonal songs from his Oh Blimey It’s Christmas! EP over the festive period.

Frank was even one of my few MySpace friends.

We’ll be paying tribute to Chris and playing plenty of Frank tracks on this week’s show, which goes out from 8pm to 9pm on Thursday, 24 June.

There’ll also be the 2nd Round of our Music World Cup.

Farewell “Frank”, you’ll be sorely missed