MMU Radio

What to expect from 2012

2011-12-30T17:23:00.000Z

2011 has been a great year for music and for MMU Radio. We have had several new shows up and running, and new interviews from several bands that visited Manchester, check out all of this content at http://mmuradio.co.uk/ ...In 2012 get ready for more content than ever before, and several surprises that I can't tell you too much about yet.

Since I have told you about the year in music on this blog, I thought it would be a good idea to follow this up with a preview of next year. I know that you all still buzzing from the news that S Club 7 and Steps are both reuniting next year (maybe you were secretly excited, who knows), but first things first - The Stone Roses are back together for a few shows at Heaton Park, the first two of which sold out in less than 15 minutes. The band will also play the 2012 T in the Park festival. There is also talk of the original line-up of Guns 'N' Roses performing at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Bands also inducted included The Faces, Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Next year also see's another album from guitarist Slash, with Miles Kennedy (Alter Bridge) on vocals. Elsewhere, there is a preview of a new song from The XX here, so expect more material from them. The NME Tour features Two Door Cinema Club, Metronomy and Tribes. Meanwhile, Misfits are set to return with their 8th studio album and a tour in Feb. Looking ahead to summer, Blink 182 and Pearl Jam have UK arena tours, which look promising. At Donington Park, Download Festival is it's 10th year with Metallica, The Prodigy, and Black Sabbath headlining. Over at the Isle of Wight Festival several acts have already being confirmed, including Crystal Castles, Madness, Noah & The Whale, The Vaccines and much more, in support of headliners Tom Petty, Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen.

Whilst you await all of this, why not re-live this year with my previous blog posts '2011 in Music' and the spotify playlist: http://open.spotify.com/user/zach19/playlist/7FnCnsBdIobjrpW8Wgm6df

Words: Zach Roddis - @zach2504

2011 in Music - Part Two

2011-12-24T12:19:00.002Z

This is Part Two of my review of the year in music, Part One can be found here.

Best Album

Welcome back to 2011 in review, this year saw some fantastic new albums. It has been too difficult to pick one out as the best, so instead here are my choices of several, across many genres. Back in January, The Joy Formidable released 'The Big Roar', their debut album, after two years of singles and an EP, it was long awaited by fans and critics alike, the end result was fantastic. After being featured on the BBC Introducing Stage at the Radio 1 Big Weekend last year the band got increasingly successful. The album works so well because of the epic sound combined with the deep and personal lyrical content. Their biggest hit to date is the grunge inspired rollercoaster, 'Whirring'.

Also released in January, the second album from dance duo Chase and Status, which went plantinum later this year. 'No More Idols' features colloborations with several other acts and vocalists, including Liam Bailey, Maverick Sabre and Tempa T. The dance duo played to thousands of people over the summer, here is a link to 'Blind Faith' live at Glastonbury. 'End Credits' also featured in the 2009 film 'Harry Brown' (starring Michael Caine'). Chase & Status own MTA Records, a label which released the debut album of London duo Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray - also known as Nero. This album, 'Welcome Reality', compares to 'No More Idols' as in both instances it took the artist a long time to compile their previously released work onto one album. The singles from 'Welcome Reality' included the memorable 'Me and You', the music for this song video shows a teenager playing a retro arcade game, perhaps inspired by the recent Disney reboot; 'Tron Legacy'. This album is notable as the 'Thanks' in the CD booklet included artists as varied as Deadmau5, Joni Mitchell, Deftones and Jimi Hendrix.

Another album released this year which has made a significant impact album comes from Sound of Rum with their debut 'Balance'. Kate Tempest provides spoken word material that is set to music, she says that her influences vary from the likes of Scroobius Pip to Shakespeare and Blake. Her lyrics are incredibly well written, they mix the every day with the personal and emotional. Spoken word poetry is having a 'moment' right now, and this band are certainly a big part of it. The album is available on Sunday Best Recordings, here is the music video for 'Slow Slow'.

Live Music

2011 was a big year for live music as well. System of a Down played their first UK show since their hiatus at the Download Festival in Donington Park. The Cure played on the Saturday of Bestival on the Isle of Wight. The Prodigy released a DVD of their huge 2010 'Warriors Dance' show at the MK Bowl. Over at Worthy Farm, Radiohead played a surprise show at The Park stage of Glastonbury Festival. Pulp returned with their performanes at Reading and Leeds, before performing their last song Jarvis Cocker said "if we are only remembered for this song I don't care... Black Lace are only remembered for Agadoo, so it could be a lot worse", they then played 'Common People'. Nearer to the North West, the first ever Jodrell Bank Live event took place, The Flaming Lips performed on the site next to the Lovell telescope (which you might recognise from this Placebo music video). Manchester electronica DJ and blogger Fat Roland attended, here is what he experienced.

Personally, I went to a lot of live music events, but the performer that sticks out the most for me has to be Patrick Wolf, I got to see him three times this year, but each performance was very different. First of all back in March I bought tickets to see him play at Manchester Club Academy but the show was soon upgraded to the bigger Academy 2. He arrived on stage in a smart red suit, he had an image that paralleled the nature of his latest album, 'Lupercalia' of which he played several songs that evening. He also pleased the crowd with older material including his hit 'Accident and Emergency'. Later on in the year I saw him perform at Manchester Pride, a time where he discussed sexuality a lot and played a song from 'Lupercalia' called 'Bermondsey Street' - although it may not have been for others, this was my highlight of this years Pride festival. One small issue was that he performed before The Sugarbabes - possibly not the best line-up combination ever, but it certainly created an opportunity for humour, here is Wolf performing 'The Magic Position' back in August. When he returned to Manchester in October he bought a bigger band with him and a backdrop which included a giant house. Here he performed much of the same material, but walked out into the audience to sing 'Together'. He also previewed some material from his festive EP 'Brumalia' and dedicated 'The Gypsy King' to the travelling community of Dale Farm. I suspect 2011 was a good year for Patrick Wolf, his gigs on these three occasions were fantastic.

Best Music Video

This year saw the use of the celebrity in music videos as some kind of popular cultute reference point for what makes an artist cool. Ed Sheeran had Harry Potter star Rupert Grint in his video for 'Lego House', while Rizzle Kicks got James Corden to bust some moves at the end of their video for 'Mama Do The Hump'. A much more intelligent video was produced for the Foo Fighters, as their new video for 'Walk' parodied the Michael Douglas film 'Falling Down'. This was the first single from their new album 'Wasting Light'.

All jokes and general foolery put to one side, 2011 was a big year for political music. The Foo's protested against the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church who picketed outside their concert during their American tour. In Britain, the News of World scandal caused uproar, and Billy Bragg produced a song called 'Never Buy The Sun'. Later in the year the Occupy movements had a Thank You Gig from the world of music which featured Thom Yorke and Massive Attack. By far the best music video this year though, was the video for 'Make It Stop (September's Children)' by Rise Against, the video tells the story of teenagers at high school in America that are being bullied because of their sexuality - it acts as the bands contribution to the It Gets Better Project. This is a subject which is not usually discussed in alternative music, so to see this song and music video unfold was a big step forwards.

In 2011, we also listened to:

Ben Howard, The Big Pink, Cults, Ghostpoet, Girls, Ice Age, The King Blues, Neon Indian, SebastiAn, Skint & Demoralised, Tribes, and Washed Out

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year To All!

Words: Zach Roddis - @zach2504

2011 in Music - Part One

2011-12-22T12:41:00.001Z

Intro

2011 was a very important year in music. The Strokes released their first studio album since 2006's 'First Impressions of Earth'. The Arctic Monkeys also released a new album in March titled 'Suck It and See'. Alex Turner has been rather busy this year, as well as his work with the band, he also wrote songs for the soundtrack of the excellent film 'Submarine' (directed by Richard Ayoade, based on a novel by Joe Dunthorne). Elsewhere, Florence & The Machine sunk to a new low by performing on the X Factor. Noah & The Whale went from strength to strength with their new material, including the hit single 'L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N'. Reforming to do one last tour/album seems to be quite popular, but the new Blink 182 single was met with a varied response. The Red Hot Chili Peppers also returned this year with 'I'm With You', it sounds a lot more funky when compared to 'Stadium Arcadium' - but then double albums never work, whilst they might feature one or two fantastic songs, the rest of the material tends to be easily forgotten ('Use Your Illusion' & 'In Your Honor' are two textbook examples of this). We also saw the welcome return of Incubus, with their 7th album 'If Not Now, When?', the first single 'Adolescents' showed consistency in quality material from the band. Meanwhile, Justice released 'Audio, Video, Disco', a slightly disappointing follow up to their 'Cross' album, but still sublime in a handful of the tracks, including 'Horsepower'.

In July this year, singer Amy Winehouse passed away. Whilst there were biographies in major retailers even before the cause of death was confirmed, which is just distasteful, it is important to remember how influential her music is. Another major event in 2011 in the world of music happened in September when R.E.M. published a statement on their website announcing their split. Frontman Michael Stipe said "the skill in attending a party is knowing when it's time to leave. We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we're going to walk away from it". It was sad to see them go. They released a greatest hits collection called 'Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage', which includes older material such as 'The One I Love' as well as material specifically recorded for this collection, like 'We All Go Back To Where We Belong'. Also, ~~cashing in with~~ promoting a greatest hits collection this year were the Manic Street Preachers, which meant that James Dean Bradfield appeared on several evening television and radio shows where the presenters hadn't a clue who he was, but when he performs Manics material acoustically it is almost guaranteed to be a great experience. Check out this version of the 1992 hit 'Motorcycle Emptiness'. Quite a few bands decided to part ways this year, Dananananaykroyd completed a farewell tour recently, and dance heavyweights Faithless performed for the last time at Brixton Academy back in April. I feel that I have started this blog post by looking at the obvious rather than the specifics of the past 12 months of music, I hope to cover a bit of both in the following sections.

Best Lyric

When considering albums and live performances (I'll get to those later) it is very difficult to pick the best out of a mind field of success in both the eyes of the media and the public. However, for this section it was easy, there was one lyric that stuck out as immediately unique. In the first single from his new album, Scroobius Pip comes out with some very clever lines, one of which is "you see a mouse trap, I see free cheese and f***in' challenge". Here, Pip uses subjects that are talked about hip hop, and discusses them in a conscious way, but also brings in issues that are usually taboo. This parallels his way of doing things; the video for 'Introdiction' was shot for just £100, and his new album, 'Distraction Pieces' is on his own record label. The 'DIY' approach is echoed in his spoken word. You may already be familiar with his albums released with Dan Le Sac. If you get a spare few minutes, be sure to look up his own material from this album as well as older spoken word pieces such as 'Rat Race' on youtube, it's well worth it. He also sold his beard on Ebay, and got more than £200 for it!

Epic Fails

There wouldn't be winners without some losers, and it's safe to say that this year delivered some. The music festival circuit saw some hundreds of thousands of people brave the British weather in the name of having a good time, but they weren't prepared for the first of these fails. Plan B felt it necessary to reaffirm his hard man image by starting mosh pits on stage during his last song, 'Stay Too Long'. This did nothing but damage equipment and lower everyone's expectations of the 28 year old hip hop star. Speaking of festivals, over at Glastonbury, headliners Coldplay took to the stage on the second day of the festival. They are always said to be the Marmite of the music world. Despite their huge status and headline spot at the festival, they still managed to mess up a song half the way through, before restarting it. In other festival news, The Offspring have completely lost it - footage of this years Reading Festival shows that Dexter's voice isn't great, they struggle to build an atmosphere and for what is supposed to be a punk rock show - they are just too old. It really isn't the same as what it was. Elsewhere, in perhaps the weirdest collaboration ever, Metallica recorded an album with Lou Reed - a man that performed a concert specifically for dogs. In a predictable series of events, X Factor winners Little Mix (a name that sounds like a variety of Haribo) covered a Damien Rice song, once again a song that i'll never be able to listen to now i've heard the X Factor cover. Worse still Leona Lewis covered 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails. I won't bother posting links to these songs, i'll save your ears. Another flop this came from Limp Bizkit. The heavily misogynistic video for 'Golden Cobra' features Fred Durst strut around next to expensive cars and naked women. Musically, it is over-produced and far too predictable. But then what did you expect from a band like Limp Bizkit?

Part Two

Words: Zach Roddis - @zach2504

#DiscJockey Haydock Racecourse

2011-12-22T04:08:00.003Z

Hello, Kate here future Jockey/radio presenter extraordinaire!

In the new year I shall be posting in here a lot all about my adventures as I explore the world of horse racing in a bizarre attempt to become a Jockey!

Far fetched as it may seem, so far I'm not doing too bad, in fact this weekend me and two friends Catherine & Jack visited Haydock racecourse and managed to get into the parade ring! Not too bad since it was the first official "Disc Jockey" outing!

Now the weather was horrendously cold, wet and miserable on Saturday but the plan for the day was to take two friends who have never been racing to the races, show them how much fun it is, and to meet Racing Welfare to learn more about the fantastic work they do, as they are going to help me in my quest to become MMU Radios Disc Jockey!

Fortunetly Haydock racecourse is only 25minutes up the East Lancs, so it's no great task getting there, except we were getting the train, and I am always running late! Fortunetly there's a Haydock bound train every 30minutes or so from Oxford road, which is very handy as I was running very late on Saturday, so much to the annoyance of my friends several trains later than planned we were on our way.

We eventually got to Haydock, missing the first race which annoyed me a lot as a jockey-blogger (and potential rival!?) Dave Crosse was racing, and I like to watch Crosse race, as his lovetheraces.com blog is very entertaining! Dissapointed at missing the first race we gathered our bearings(headed for the bar) and braved the cold to meet the lovely people from Racing Welfare, now these are brave people, because the weather on Saturday rivalled that of Wizard of Oz proportions and they were stationed outside with only marquee for shelter! Inside their marquee was lots of information on the fantastic work the charity does to help support injured people right across the world of racing, from the unsung heroes of every yard, who may not get a mention on the racing telly, and who's injuries wont be infront of a packed grandstand or on live TV, but who risk life and limb every day for the sport, and run the risk of one day needing Racing Welfares help.

Whilst chatting to Racing Welfare I also met Barney Bamford, who before being paralysed by a fall was a race trainer, Barney will be raising money himself in May for Racing Welfare, by covering 105 miles in an adapted hand operated cycle so visit "Barneys Challange" for more info & to donate!!

After speaking to our new friends at Racing Welfare we then had to get watching some racing!

I had a second Chance to watch Dave Crosse race as he was riding in the 3rd race on Marleno, and me proudly showing off my patter to my racing novice friends marched up to place my bet, "£2 win only, number 9" I was just being a smart Alec, there is no right or wrong way to place a bet, in fact when I write out betting slips if its a horse I like I will write the name rather than just the number which is more of the "proper way" but I like to think it's giving a nod to the horse and a bit of good luck - but I am rather silly! Anyway for all the good my spiel did, my horse was pulled up! Fortunately I had only placed a minimum £2 bet, which at 8/1 would of only one me £16 so never mind no great loss!

Having no look backing Dave Crosse we thought we best have a peek inside the Racing Post for a more informed idea who to back in the next race, and then headed down to the parade ring where the real excitement is.

Whilst looking at horses me and Catherine decided we'd pick a horse after having a closer look at them, and hopefully the winning horse would pick us and perhaps whinny or nod, or better yet wink at us. This is when our new pal Richard Negus from Racing Welfare invited us into the parade ring, where we could be amidst the excitement, and possibly be more likely to catch the eye of a horse that nod at us.

Jason Maguire at Haydock

Now being in the paddock with all the horses being lead round was all a bit mad to me as only one month previously I'd was on the other side of the railing clambering to get a glimpse of my beloved Ruby Walsh and a triumphant Kauto Star in the very same parade ring I was now casually stood in. Not to mention the fact it had only been a few hours since Catherine and Jack had never been in a Racecourse and now they're in a parade ring, stood only a few feet from this years Grand National winning jockey Jason Maguire!

Unfortunately the only photographs from the parade ring involve Jacks McDonalds toy mascot, which he had great fun coming up with puns such as "Pad-Duck" and "Hay-Duck" with.

Now as totally idiotic as these duck photographs are, they do go to show that days at the races are bloomin' good fun, nobody is too serious, and silliness is plentiful!

Some take silliness to all sorts of extremes!

Haydock, April 2011

Despite, getting up close to the horses in the parade ring we had no look, the horse we were tipped by racing welfare and backed for a win, came second, and the horse I had taken some notion to back at 40/1 brought me no look at all, but even coming home with no winnings, and being a bit rain drenched, we still had a great day and I have to new racing fan friends in Catherine and Jack, so we're looking forward to our next outing!

There will be more exploits to come from me in the new year as I channel my inner Louix Theroux and infultrate the world of racing! I'll be airing Interviews on my radio show, making little videos for MMU Radios Youtube channel and keeping everyone updated on here when im off meeting trainers, jockeys, stable staff, visiting yards and racecourses all with my goal to become a [Disc] Jockey!

Lots of thanks again to Racing Welfare and Barneys Challenge

The Christmas Number One

2011-12-20T00:31:00.003Z

Over the past few years what it means to get to Christmas Number 1 has changed, the definition of it is somewhat loose and varies constantly. Before looking back at the significance of the number one throughout chart history, I am going to ask you to look back to 2005. Yeah, that's right, 2005, a year that gave us Elvis Presley re-issues, Crazy Frog ringtones and that Audio Bullys remix of 'Shot You Down'. Christmas Number 1 that year, courtesy of the X Factor, was Shane Ward's 'That's My Goal'. The main competition and near threat, was a song that you might remember. It was Number 1 the previous week. I am talking about the re-release of 'The JCB Song' by folk duo Nizlopi. Whilst this song was a quaint novelty, I would have prefered it to get to Number 1 - at least this was a song written by the people that performed it, and they were signed to a small independant label.

Looking back it is easy to say that the festive Number 1 spot has seen a lot of variety. At least Number 1's from The Human League, Pink Floyd & Queen had musical value, while Mud & Slade suceeded with songs that had an obvious Christmas theme. By the time we got to the 90's the quality had started to decline somewhat, The Spice Girls bagged the Number 1 spot for three years running, and then Westlife topped the festive charts in '99. With the exceptions of 'Mad World' and perhaps 'Killing in the Name', the 00's were very much an embarrasment in the the name of music (well, chart music at least). I always thought that 'Mad World' just wasn't happy enough to be a christmas song. As for Rage Against the Machine, well i'll come to that in a moment. Before that can be discussed, there is another more importance influence here. One man came along and murdered popular music, he gave people dreams of arena or even stadium success, only to be found in the bargain bucket at tesco six months later, next to the CD cases of Chas & Dave and copies of 'Now That's What I Call Music [whatever]'. I am, of course, talking about Simon Cowell of Sony records. He has monopolised the charts and killed songs that you once knew and loved.

The significance of the talent show is slowly fading away. It has been rumoured that this years X Factor will be the last series of the show, but even if it does go, it will only be replaced with the same talent show format, under a different name. In 2009, a facebook campaign was started and succeeded in getting Rage Against the Machine the Christmas #1 in the UK, beating the X Factor's 'The Climb' by several thousand copies. Don't celebrate too soon though - what seemed like a minor victory for recording artists, was actually relatively meaningless. The campaign was to stop Simon Cowell (and Sony) getting their hands on the number one, so we obviously succeeded when Rage Against the Machine (and Sony) beat them. Last year, despite several attempts at the number from various groups including Cage Against the Machine and 'Surfin Bird' (which was featured in a certain animated series), the X Factor's Matt Cardle still got the #1. The fact that I had to look up the name of the winner says it all really. Nobody really knows what the christmas number 1 will be this year, but the fact that there are no major competitors means it will probably be another hit for the Simon Cowell Factor. No matter what song achieves the Christmas Number 1, it won't prove anything. If I were to ask you what was number one last week, odds are that you won't know, and that is exactly my point, no one cares about the UK Singles Chart, be that at Christmas or any other time of the year.

Words: Zach Roddis

Noah and the Whale

2011-11-27T14:16:00.004Z

Ok, so this is my first official view for MMU Radio and we have a bit of a back log due to exams, lost e-mail and generally the internet distracting me...

Back to business. So as the title show I will be reviewing Noah and the Whale's single 'Tonight's the Kind of Night', taken from their album Last Night on Earth (7th March 2011 - told you we were behind).

Noah and the Whale have always been a popular band in Manchester - with gigs selling out at both the Deaf Institute and Ritz - and it's easy to see why when they release golden songs like this.

With it's bouncy cheery piano melodies the song seems to give hope despite things not always being perfect, and I would be surprised to meet someone who hasn't been in a bad situation but has been cheered up by something so simple.

After listening to the song for a while you would think it would get tiring, nope. It never fails to make me feel happy or look on the bright side of life.

I would definitely suggest this song to anyone if you're feeling a bit blue or a bit down. Sure it may not be everyone's cup of tea but it's a nice song.

Now if you excuse me I have a cheery bouncy song to listen to.

Rating:

Stuart takes Control

2011-11-14T15:54:00.003Z

I now have access to the blog and will be posting quite regularly, unlike my show Priortise the Charts (available at www.mmuradio.co.uk).

I will also be doing a few music reviews on bits and pieces received through our post and e-mail. I may also throw in a couple of movie and game reviews as thats just what I do.

If you have any requests to give us then drop us a line on here, twitter, our e-mail or facebook page and say that Stu sent you.

Ape Birthday with Nero @ Warehouse Project, 8th October 2011

2011-11-02T14:15:00.000Z

MMU Radio's Zach Roddis was sent to Ape Birthday with Nero at WHP and this is what he thought...

Whilst the rain was bouncing off the road outside, inside the sweat stuck to the walls and floor, the atmosphere was relentless. This was in no way a bad thing. Underneath the clean outlook of Piccadilly Station lies the Warehouse Project. This series of events marks 'The End of Store Street', as WHP do not have a licence for further events in 2012. This does not mark the end for future WHP events, but everyone agrees that Piccadilly Arches (a car park disguised as a venue) will be difficult to match. Nobody knows where the new venue will be, but we don't doubt for one second whether or not the Warehouse Project will return to Manchester.

It gets to midnight, some eager music fans are still in the queue underneath the arches of the station, waiting to pass the venues tight security. The police are waiting near the entrance with sniffer dogs, which is hardly surprising given dance musics' relationship with drugs. Walking inside, the heat smacked you in the face, the whole room was alive. The event had sold out weeks in advance, and this was evident as the audience of twenty-somethings filled the main room, side to side and front to back – there was no space to move. Warming up in the early hours of Sunday morning was a stellar line up of DJs. Just before the act that everyone had been waiting for arrived, David Rodigan took to the stage. With a love for reggae and dub, he got the crowd pumped. He finished his set with a sing-a-long to the likes of Bob Marley and Johnny Cash – a memory that will stick in my head for a long time. After an explosion of applause and a few moments of eerie silence, the lights went out making the packed venue almost pitch black. There was a sense of desperation and paranoia in the air as everyone awaited a somewhat late-running show from the one and only Nero.

By this point, perhaps it was safe to assume that the audience were quite drunk (or otherwise intoxicated). A huge platform made of wiring, television sets and other 'junk' was uncovered on stage. This was the debut of Nero's new lighting show. One larger screen had the iconic Nero logo in blue that lit up as soon as the intro kicked in. The dubstep duo launched straight into 'Doomsday', the first track from their #1 album, 'Welcome Reality'. From then in chaos ensued, as Nero provided some heavy bass accompanied with strobe lighting and lasers. They ran through some familiar material such as 'Innocence' and 'Guilt' (with Alana on vocals), and also their new single, 'Crush on You'. This was the first time Nero had returned to the north west since 'The Dubstep Symphony' – a Radio 1 event which marked the opening of Media City UK, in Salford. This was an experiment which fused the Nero dubstep sounds with a classical music set up. It was interesting to hear the opening bars of the hit single 'Me and You' played by a string section of an orchestra back in June, but at the Warehouse Project the sound was more whole. The bass could be felt throughout the almost circular main room, and the vocals of Alana were almost drowned out by fans singing every word of what was the last song of the set.

Those that left after Nero had finished felt as if they had woke up from some form of dream-like state, leaving those that stayed to party through till sunrise. The Warehouse Project continues for what is left of 2011 before the last event on New Years Day. Highlights include Aphex Twin, Skream & Benga, Skrillex, and James Blake. http://www.thewarehouseproject.com/calendar.php

Review by Zach Roddis