I am delighted to announce the publication of Frank Key’s new anthology of prose: “Befuddled By Cormorants“, a collection of 52 thrilling stories from the acclaimed Resonance FM series “Hooting Yard on the Air”. For more information, please visit Frank’s web-site. You can buy the book direct from the publisher.
Resonance FM is the first ever Community Radio Station to have a programme nominated for a Sony Award since the awards started over 24 years ago.
Yay!
And talking with the organisers I get the sense that they want Community Stations to apply more often…
The Good Drugs Guide series was a bit of a slog to put together so getting nominated was a really great reward. I wanted to do all the shows live because that’s my favourite kind of radio. My co-presenter David wanted to pre-record everything and make it shiny.
I still think live is great but I have to admit the episode that we chose to send in was a pre-recorded one, edited over seven mad hours just before transmission by David. It was also controversial (we had academics on who questioned whether “addiction” is a useful concept), fast moving and cheeky.
Since they didn’t hassle us to get tickets for the awards ceremony David (correctly) assumed we hadn’t actually won anything. I am an optimist, and a sucker for a schmoozing opportunity so I bought a ready tied bowtie and turned up. The first thing I saw was the celebrity meatrack experience where all the celebs take their turn to stand in a little corral enclosure and get shouted at by the photographers - “Over here - To me - Look over here - One more straight at ME love - Please one more - Over here - to me - TO ME”. I was very impressed at how many of the celebs could keep smiling serenely at every lens in turn for their whole session. One less experienced celeb kept muttering sorry, presumably feeling that she was failing in some way.
The bar was rammed. I was freaked and failing to network. I met a nice woman from a magazine who told me she knew who had won already (she had to interview the winners before her copy deadline which meant getting to them before they were actually winners). She asked me what show I was from. I told her. She looked away. Thanks.
Then I saw that the table I had been allocated was the furthest from the podium. Having been the MC at awards ceremonies I know that you need the winners someplace where they can get to the podium quickly. It would have taken me about fifteen minutes, with a machete. So I stopped polishing my acceptance speech and toyed with my entree.
The organisers have a webcast going throughout the event and I got invited up for an interview. Kevin Greening asked some friendly questions and even let me get a plea in for a new transmitter for Resonance. He said that he loved the station but that not enough people have heard of us. Actually I think he said no one had heard of us. In the end I spent so long defending The Good Drugs Guide that I failed to plug my new show on Resonance..
Mind The Gap on Sundays at Six
One of the weirdest moments of the awards ceremony was when the host was reading out the list of nominees for Best Radio Coverage Of A Jolly Big Event. “The London bombings” - huge cheer “The closure of Longbridge and loss of thousands of jobs” - rapturous applause “The death of the Pope” - wild delighted shouting.
You can watch the webcast elsewhere on the following website. But this link is to “Tips on how to win and how there’s no way to win or even get nominated if you don’t get round to sending the application form in…”
and I think this is the very beginning of a standing ovation for Terry Wogan
For just one of the swarm of Pestival events taking place between 27th May & 4th June at London’s Wetland Centre, a crack team of circuit-soldering folk (including Toby Arnott O.B.E.) have been gathering once a week in a dingy basement in London’s fashionable Denmark Street.
Amid the odour of burning wires and solder (which is uncannily similar to the smell of urine…I’m told) and using tools and materials which often resemble insects themselves, magnificently noisy instruments are being created for a production of David Tudor’s Rainforest IV.
This will be a large performance piece using junk objects as loudspeakers.
More photographic evidence can be viewed at Salim Fadhley’s photo page.
For those who missed yesterday’s Observer Music Monthly supplement yesterday, Resonance was listed alongside iTunes, Bleep.com, MySpace and others in the “25 most amazing music sites on the web”. Read more here.
I would stand on my desk and yell “damn right too!”, but I shall restrain myself. For now.
we’re all about Bodcasting now people…
THE BODCAST COMETH - SPREAD THE WORD
Resonance FM’s very own Richard Thomas was Jon Ronson’s guest in his new programme “Jon Ronson On…” In this episode Richard investigated the psychedelic dimensions of boredom, the show features such classics as ” A microphone at 95 miles per hour” and “The Winter Pantry” (a stethoscopic recording of a stomach digesting parsnips and other vegetables). The show was Chris Serle’s “Pick Of The Week”, unfortunately the listen again function on the BBC website is not currently working.