Archive for the 'Music' Category

Christmas on the Radio

The more observant of you may have noticed that 25th December falls on a Tuesday this year. And that my radio show, Empty Space, is also broadcast on a Tuesday.

Next Tuesday I will in the studio as usual, broadcasting across Sheffield and the world. But as Christmas is all about spending time with your family, I’ll be dragging my wife and kids along with me.

I’ll be playing a bit of dark folk and quirky pop. Gill will probably play some songs by ladies with beautiful voices, plus a bit of Ooberman. Lola will, no doubt, want to give her new Pop Party 5 CD a spin. And Rowan will be sitting in the corner refusing to communicate.

Alongside any family dramas, we’ll also have a short radio play, a special localised adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ “The Junky’s Christmas”.

All this, plus mulled wine, mince pies, unwrapping of presents, and perhaps the odd family spat.

We’ll be on, as ever, from 10am until midday, so why not listen in while you’re stuffing the turkey (or roasting your nuts). It’s on 93.2FM and www.sheffieldlive.org

Playlists & podcasts, as ever, at fadwebsite.com/category/radio-show-empty-space/

Jibber and Twitch

Empty Space - Sheffield Contemporary Art Radio

I just got my own radio show!

The first “Empty Space” will broadcast on Sheffield Live next Tuesday from 10am until noon (GMT). It will continue every week, either in that slot or at the same time on Friday.

You can listen live at www.sheffieldlive.org - where every show will also be archived as an MP3/podcast - or if you live within a few miles of Sheffield city centre then you can tune your radio to 93.2FM.

The show will be about contemporary visual and audio arts. I’ll have features and interviews on Sheffield events and artists, interspersed with eclectic and experiMental music. I’ll also be working with artists to create some one-off made-for-radio artworks.

If you’re near a computer when the show’s on, please visit the Sheffield Live chat room, where I’ll be hanging out and taking feedback and suggestions.

After (or even during) the show, I’ll be posting track-listings and details of events to FAD, the arts magazine website which I co-edit.

I’m very open to suggestions for features, guests, music, happenings - anything which might work on the airwaves, but which doesn’t usually get an airing.

Please listen and enjoy!

Hooked on a Feeling

Over a Stuck Between Stations there’s a great compilation of all those terrible music videos which you just can’t get out of your head. And, yes, Nimoy is there: “drawing a parallel between Hobbit and Vulcan strap-on ears was a gesture of fantasy brilliance”.

Magma Beard

Anyone who knows me knows my beards. Until my wedding day (on 1/2/3 - or 2/1/3 if you’re American) I went clean-shaven for most of my life. But on that happy day, I got best-man Ed to carve something new in my face, inspired by my new Paul Smith suit complete with thigh-length drape jacket.

Ever since then, I’ve kept some variation on the same theme. Since Gill and I never did get around to exchanging rings (and since Ed had promised to make us wedding rings), I guess you could say that my facial hair is my wedding ring (NB: the same doesn’t apply to Gill). It has evolved since then though: through subtle changes in facial anatomy and less subtle rescue jobs on shaving cock-ups, it has crept around my face, grown thicker and thinner, stripes have changed position, angle and number. A few months ago at Razor Stiletto I had my face painted, tiger-style, with a couple of beard-stripes doubling up as tiger-patterning. When I got home, I thought I’d take the similarity further (forgetting that I had done something very similar exactly two years earlier).

Going tiger-striped seems to have inspired me to new shaving confidence, and to trust my facial hair to find its own shape. Shaving has now become an almost meditative activity, a sort of automatic-drawing but with a sharp implement, where I allow the contours of my face and the movement of my razor to conjure up new patterns of their own, with little conscious intervention from me. As a result, things have got sort of… well, fancy.

Here’s the latest result:

Magma beard

For the first few days after it shaved itself, I couldn’t help thinking that the design was somehow familiar. I was sure I’d seen it somewhere before. Then it struck me: it looked just like the logo for 70s French operatic prog-rock band Magma. OK, so it actually looks quite different now that I’ve seen the original again, but it was close enough to jog my memory.

Any suggestions as to which prog heroes’ logo I should carve into my chin next? Hmmm, carve into my chin… [thinks]… my face could become like some sort of prog-rock Mount Rushmore.

The 1234 Shoreditch Festival

Yesterday I went to the 1234 festival, organised by our mates at 1234 records. With my “Access All Areas” press pass, I had some fun backstage and got a few decent photos (appearing soon on Dan Shot Me - a couple are already up on Flickr). Didn’t catch a lot of music, although I was very happy to grab the end of Man Like Me’s set - I saw them last December on the Vice tour, where they were the highlight of the evening.

I hooked up with Jan while I was there, and the two of us pootled around photographing everything, him with his little compact camera and me with another Heath Robinson-esque flash rig, which Suz has described as looking “like a portable version of the Fylingdales Early Warning Station in Yorkshire”. Here’s a photo Jan took of me and my rig:

Dan pretending to be Fylingdales Early Warning Station (mobile version)

Washtock photos and new flash doodads

This weekend was Washtock 2007. Last year, Washtock was the event which introduced me to so many of Sheffield’s bands and really helped me to connect with the Sheffield scene. So I wanted to try and be there for the whole weekend this year, and catch as many new acts as possible. I failed rather - got there for the last 5 minutes on Friday, caught most of last night, but tonight felt too ill to go at all. All the same, I did manage to take some great photos on Saturday night at Washtock, and I also got to see Kid Acne for the first time which was well worth the wait.

I was trialling new equipment too - a few weeks ago, I splashed out on a very expensive Canon Speedlite 580EX II (I bought it because I was photographing a wedding - bloody typical, the Speedlite didn’t arrive until after the wedding) and a Lumiquest 80/20. I’ve also ordered an off-camera E-TTL flash cable which hasn’t arrived yet, but Andy lent me his. So, last night was the first time I fired this lot in anger. I started off feeling my way, pretty experimental and pretty crap, but once I sellotaped a piece of white paper over the top of the 80/20 and dialled the shutter speed right down to 1/5th to get some background fill-in, things really started cooking. I got some lovely photos, and I’m really looking forward to going out again with this set-up.

Cherokees go to London

More photos up on Dan Shot Me - this time, a gig, a photoshoot, and some reportage - all rolled into one! Take a peek at The Cherokees go to Volstead, London.

Meat for a Dark Day photos

Out last night to see the wonderful Meat for a Dark Day, at the launch of their single Vanity Unfair. Photos here, featuring the dapper and very photogenic Mark Hudson. It felt very weird doing these - I haven’t photographed a gig for what feels like such a long time (probably about 2 weeks), amazing how much can change over that period.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

This is Lola’s take on Connie from “Britain’s Got Talent”.