A remarkably stress free show tonight, I’m not keen on doing the show solo now I’ve established a good report with Gary, but family commitments kept him away this weekend. My live music guest was Joe Strange, who gave the sound engineers an easy job as he was just voice and acoustic guitar.

Once again, Gary is not doing an Erik.

7pm-8pm

Camper Van Beethoven ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’
CF98 ‘Runaway’
Nouvelle Vague ‘Teenage Kicks’
Full Blown Cherry ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’
Furniture ‘Brilliant Mind’
Kirsty McColl ‘There’s A Guy Works Down The Truck Stop Swears He’s Elvis’
Skanic ‘Breed’
The Jasmine Minks ‘Cold Heart’
Thirteenth Floor Elevators ‘Tried To Hide’
The Vaselines ‘Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam’
The Ronettes ‘I Wonder’
The Ramones ‘Baby I Love You’
The Alarm Clocks ‘Yeah’
Razors ‘Heroes’
Placebo ‘Five Years’

8pm-9pm

Human League ‘Do or Die’
Joe Strange ‘I Turned Around’

Joe Strange live in session

‘Ever Since The Day’
‘A Glimpse of You’
‘Caught In The Middle’
‘Roll It Over’

Joe Strange ‘Down In The River’
The Fall ‘Pacifying Joint’
Teardrop Explodes ‘Sleeping Gas’
Eugene Pitt And The Jive Five ‘Never Never’
The Ascots ‘I Need You’
Rip Rig And Panic ‘You’re My Kind Of Climate’

Joe Strange can be Internetted here

Modern Dad Rock #MDR

No live band this weekend, just the two of us playing great music and talking bollocks. We started with ‘Father and Son’ by Cat Stevens, as a lot of people had posted it online in honour of Father’s Day. I followed it with ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath as it is a favourite of my dad’s, and one of the first heavy metal songs that I heard thanks to him, (I still remember that ‘Snowblind’ was the B-side of the single).

A few days ago I saw a television advert for an indie dance classics compilation CD that had obviously been marketed towards Father’s Day and it made me feel old. Surely the whole ‘dad rock’ genre (if indeed it is a genre of its own) is for old dads? Am I now old enough to have ‘dad rock’ pointed in my direction? Some of you may remember a feature of The Sunday Alternative called Dad Rock Classic, in which we strayed from our usual musical outpourings and played something that wouldn’t be out of place on a Top Gear tie-in CD. The on-air discussion about this led us to invent a new marketable genre, Modern Dad Rock™©.

Modern Dad Rock™© is aimed at people who are dads, but not ‘dad rock’ dads, if you know what I mean. Towards the end of the first hour, and for the whole of the second hour, we did away with our planned music and wallowed in the nostalgia of Modern Dad Rock™©

7pm-8pm

Cat Stevens ‘Father And Son’
Black Sabbath ‘Paranoid’
The Offenders ‘Teenage Kicks’
The Lollipop Shoppe ‘You Must Be A Witch’
The Sex Presleys ‘Heartbreak Hotel’
                               ‘I Can’t Help Falling In Love’
The Paragons ‘Left With A Broken Heart’
The Pastels ‘Thankyou For Being You’
Mercury Rev ‘Goddess On A Highway’
Utah Saints ‘Believe In Me’
Pearl Jam ‘Even Flow’
Sultans Of Ping FC ‘Where’s Me Jumper’

8pm-9pm

New Order ‘Temptation’
Carter USM ‘The Only Living Boy In New Cross’
Jesus Jones ‘Info Freako’
Transvision Vamp ‘Baby I Don’t Care’
Shakespeare’s Sister ‘You’re History’
Guns and Roses ‘Jumping Jack Flash’
Faith No More ‘Epic’
The Cult ‘She Sells Sanctuary’
EMF with Reeves and Mortimer ‘I’m A Believer’

It was good to have Gary back on board this week, it’s much better doing the show with someone to bounce ideas off and chat to. We mentioned the Prefontaine gig at Jongleurs with Matt Humphries, Josh Kemp, and The Fade. There was also a brief mention of my attempts at compering, Gary and Teegan’s visit to David Bowie Is…at the V&A in that London, and I managed to get through the whole show without insulting anyone.

We also welcomed The Sea Above, a fine band from Leicester who performed live in our very warm studio.

7pm-8pm
Grab Grab The Haddock ‘Nothing To Say’
Batmas ‘Teenage Kicks’
Nine Inch Nails ‘Came Back Haunted’
Depeche Mode ‘Enjoy The Silence’ (dub)
They Might Be Giants ‘I Am A Paleontologist’
The Shop Assistants ‘All That Ever Mattered’
Lulu/David Bowie ‘The Man Who Sold The World’
David Bowie ‘Where Are We Now’

8pm-9pm
Smashing Pumpkins ‘Space Oddity’
The Sea Above ‘Empires’

The Sea Above live session‘Middle Lane’
‘September’
‘Apologies’
‘Scatter’

101ers ‘Keys To Your Heart’
Milkweed ‘Call Me A Doctor’
Sneaker Pimps ‘Ashes To Ashes’
The Smiths ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’
Stone Roses ‘Love Spreads’
Jimi Hendrix ‘Voodoo Chile’

The Sea Above are here

Stressful But Worth It

There were two brilliant live sessions in tonight, which is always a bit hectic, but thanks and thumbs up to Joe and Sam from ROFL Audio for producing the live sound.

Gary is back next week, and is not doing what is known in the radio industry as 'doing an Erik'.

7pm-8pm

The Skids 'The Devil's Decade'
MC5 'Baby Won't Ya'
Scary Cherry And The Bang Bangs 'Don't Wanna'
The Sea Above 'J A R S'
No Authority 'Archibald's Law'
Hot Pistol Shrimp 'LSD'
Calling All Astronauts 'Eye Of God'
Explode The TV 'Pure Water'

Explode The TV live session:
'This Is The Drug'
'Let Love Love You'
'Narcopolitic'
'Digging A Hole'

Visit Explode The TV here

David Fenton 'Fresh Air'

Andy And Joey 'Love Your Company'

The 45s 'Couldn't Believe A Word'

8pm-9pm

David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails 'Scary Monsters'

Shake Hands Eric 'Turning Down The Thunder'

Blind Melon 'No Rain'

Chris Cornell 'Billie Jean'

Dropkick Murphys 'End Of The Night'

Splodganessabounds 'Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please' (dub version)

NYA 'You Are'

NYA live in session:

'Open Your Eyes'

'Acoustacrab'

'You Are'

'Choir Invisible'

NYA 'Choir Invisible'

Visit NYA here

NB: Such is the difference between their studio rockiness and the beautiful gentleness of their acoustic session, it didn't matter that they performed the same tracks as I played. In fact it is interesting to hear both versions so close together. I'm sure you'll agree that the live session was something special, and only the second time they have done it. They did say this was the better of the two!

Sadly, the show ran right out of time and only had time for a very brief chat with Anezka and Dan, the show played out with 'Zombie Eater' by Faith No More, which cut out for the news.