Dial up and dig in - the latest Podrophenia is up for DL..
Andy Downes and Stacie Smith join Ian Pile. Steven Hastings and m'self for chats and tunes. Creative scenes, music, gigs and sing-a-longs on sea, art puns- it's all contained herein
The Podrophenic Advent Calendar from Piley, self and Popeapedia and is eady for unwrapping
Loaded with a selection box of pop quizzes, bad present tales, panto antics, the story of one of the rarest annuals ever (Willy the Kid 3), plus Christmas hits in 8 bits - and a fantasticus live set from Kate West..
Grab it, bag it and DL it here....
X marks the spot Pod Pals as we run out a playlist of x related bands/songs and X film related
chat with a live session from Millsy of power-pop rockers Vix 20
The latest Podrophenia is up for grabs - and as it's the end of The Ends we're doing 'break ups, shake up & make ups' - with Joe Blamey from The Ends giving us the news on the band's new EP and their final gig.
Roll-out wise, there's cold bands, and some Trump-thumping with who said it - Partridge or Trump, fake music news and alternative rock 'n' pop facts...
And possibly the worst album cover in history from a band who really should know better - all hereabouts and all free...
Thanks to a sharp-eyed spot from London Lee last week - tonight's Radio Podrophenia is built around a metropolis of popular song - inspired and playlisted from a selection of tunes and tracks populating the Song Map from Manchester based design collective - Dorothy
As well as roads and streets - expect to hear some uptown uptempo anthems celebrating farms, woods and parks - from Ella Fitzgerald, Solomon Burke, XTC and Lowell Fulsom. Right here at Chance Radio from 9 tonight...
If you missed last week's edition of the Podrophonic Alphabet - H. Feel free to take one and pass it on right here.. or on iTunes if you prefer Radio Podrophenia - H
Or if you you're a Facebooker - why not come on over and join our gang
Cotswold visit the tenth saw us revisiting a few old favourite paths and places and ticking off some new to-do locations: Oxford, Snowshill Manor, the Hook Norton Brewery
It really is the perfect place to spend a spring break - the space, the silence, the green lanes and lack of traffic, spotting frisky-legged lambs a'leaping and fidgeting themselves about the fields or having yourself a lazy bumble around the daffodil and limestone landscapes.
On a musical motif, two local-to-Stow ledge's include bass players - Alex James, whose farm is just a couple of villages up the road and John 'The Ox' Entwhistle, whose Quarwood Mansion can be seen here..
Although a pint in Keith Moon's pub that-was in Chipping Norton still remains on the next time tick-list. On the subject of pubs, if you ever find yourself in Stow The Queen's Head is a must visit - Donnington Brewery's BB is the fruitiest pint I've tasted since this.
Rounding off the run was a long weekend in sunny Shropshire, where spin-outs included a white-knuckle drive/crawl across The Long Mynd, nipping into Wales (Powis Castle and Rhayader). Getting back to bassics, our Shropshire accom' was pitched just a short hop from Fishpool Farm - Ronnie Lane's post Faces home.
Plonk Update: Even though the cottage I've snapped is signed 'Fishpool Farm' on the gate - digging about the net since, I think Ronnie's may have been the next one up. I'll clarify when we revisit
Unusually we hadn't included any of Plonk's output in the albums packed, but fave tunes soundtracking the trip turned out to be some XTC outtakes from the Fuzzy Warbles volumes..
Still feeling rough, raggy and rotten, but managed to drag myself out of sick bay to long enough to load up two more seasonal sing a longs.
The Three Wise Men - Thanks for Christmas Thanks for Christmas - b/w Countdown to Christmas (what does b/w stand for - backed with?). Was the 1983 XTC Xmas single released under pseudonym The Three Wise Men. Writing credits went to Kaspar, Melchior and Balthazar, and production credits went to The Three Wise Men and The Good Lord. TGL may not have interrupted his busy seasonal schedule and pitched in on production if he'd known XTC would return the favour by recording Dear God two years later. The Three Wise Men - Thanks for Christmas.mp3
Aimee Mann once managed to coax Andy Partridge out of live retirement and into a rare onstage appearance in 1993 along with XTC guitarist Dave Gregory, who has regularly appeared as Aimee's guitarist of choice for session and live work. This is her take on the Dr Seuss Christmas classic Aimee Mann - The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.Mp3
Autumn's here and the time is right for dishing up a treat.
Even with its hairy hand sized spiders scuttling in through the windows, crazy legged crane flies floating into your face and snoozy ol' wasps looking for a last fling sting, autumn remains my favourite season.
And these two pieces of misty morning pop are as autumnal as conker battles, leaf fights, blackberry picking and hearty hot pots.
I’ll be posting part 2 of my Autumn Almanac over at Channel Mondo next week.
If you held a super strength stethoscope to my head when I’m thinking of all things autumny - Harvest Home is the sound you'd hear. According to friends there at the time (as documented in the marvellous Passing Show DVD ) Harvest Home was recorded live and outdoors at Ronnie Lane's farm in the Shropshire hills - just ‘Plonk' and a few mates sitting round a camp fire strummin’ as dawn is breaking and the tweety birds are starting to stir. All of autumns colours are captured in this glorious instrumental.
Andy partridge IS an underrated genius - the Syd Barret of the 'old wave of new wave'. And Harvest Festival is his autumn anthem for school hall assemblies. Tinned fruits, packet soups, squeaky chairs, recorders and long lost loves. It’s like Charlie Brown on Friends Reunited. And if the melody doesn’t melt you, the word play will make you fold like a fallen leaf.
You can read Andy P's notes on Harvest Festival over at the highly recommended Chalkhills and Children website
