calling out for anyone who went to the "world peace soul jazz" sessions

i would love to hear from anyone who came along to world peace soul jazz all those years ago in oxford... it was started by a couple of friends of mine - john cusins and chris swales - then i got involved... those were the days - popping down to london to jam records in the trocadero (RIP) and getting vip treatment from ollie... and being able to play anything as long as it was good... giving away free food so we could dodge the esoteric uk licensing laws and keep going until midnight(!) on a sunday. we even had tom from groove armada as a guest dj (in 1992!).

podcast #14

without further ado, here is the tracklisting for the latest podcast... comments please - don't be shy! and anyone in madrid this friday - come down to the boca del lobo in calle echegaray...

tom jones - ain't no sunshine (parrot)
doc severinsen - fever (command quadrophonic)
"rob on acid"
hot rocks - the chopper
enoch light - hijack
steely dan - peg (abc records)
j j cale - right down here (mercury)
ray terrace - michelle (tower records)
warieka hill sounds - africa freedom march (honest jons)
fat freddie's drop - ernie (drop)
nightmares on wax - the sweetest (warp)
kutiman - music is ruling my world (mpm)
mo horizons - green day (agogo)
ben westbeech - dance with me (switch remix) (brownswood)
ben westbeech - get closer (brownswood)
makoto - take my soul baby (good looking records)

http://media.libsyn.com/media/radiomadrid/heavyusker11.mp3

finally, i can watch the beeb in madrid!!

i've been waiting for this moment for over 6 years... and it has always eluded me. to be able to watch the bbc in spain the size of the satelite dish needed has always just been out of reach - just as i was getting used to the cost (and the size) the signal would move to another satelite and the dish would have to be even bigger and uglier (latest was 2 metres diameter!). so i'd pretty much given up hope.

now this is not an advertisment, just that i am very grateful to the person who put me on to this gadget (and to my brother who has it in his house, sapping his internet upload bandwidth) and i think it might be of interest to some of you international peeps! its called a slingbox and the idea is that you leave it connected to a tv aerial and the internet in your country of choice. then you can log on to it via the internet from anywhere in the world and watch your beloved home tv. although after so many years i'm beginning to realise how crap a lot of it is... i still miss it though!!

something to stir up a bit of debate...

(disclaimer: i'm talking about differences between men and women ON AVERAGE, not about all men and women)

lately, i've noticed more and more girls who are passionately into their music. and i have my theory that the internet, itunes and online social networks like myspace have gone some way to level the playing field.

what do i mean? i think that men tend to collect music more than women but are not necessarily more or less passionate about listening to it. and faced with a collector with an encyclopaedic knowledge of records it can be a bit intimidating...

for example, in my experience of deejaying (and of course this may be conditioned on how good or bad looking i am), all the requests i have had from guys have been of the type "have you got such and such track by such and such" and from girls more like "can you play something that we all know"? i think that it is easier (in general) for a guy to go up to a deejay and ask for a request... the girls that come up tend to be more drunk by the time they start asking. the same thing goes for specialist record shops (just make a count of how many guys to girls there are on average) which has a more far reaching effect...

so, my point is that, behind the anonymity of your computer screen and with the ease of finding and downloading related music that you like on the internet, i wonder whether this has balanced out this social bias and left us just with those who are passionate about music and those who are not so passionate (be they men or women).

podcast #13 - summer madness

i'm back from my second tour of central and south america. (not a dj tour, mind.) and that means i can back to the basement... hope you like the show... comments please!

babe ruth - the runaways (harvest)
gianfranco reverberi - nel cimitero di tucson
the andrew oldham orchestra - the last time (london)
onsunlade - acrylic venezuela (yoruba)
four hero - morning child (raw canvas)
patrice - soul storm
jackie mittoo - totally together (studio one)
nouvelle vague - the guns of brixton (peacefrog)
troubleman - lonely girl (far out)
? - ? (cup of tea)
mark ronson - god put a smile upon your face (sony)
johnny pate - you can't even walk in the park (abc)
gil scott heron + brian jackson - its your world (ariston)
first gear - i feel the earth move
mario biondi - i can't keep from crying sometimes (schema)
jazz invaders - love and happiness (social beats)

http://media.libsyn.com/media/radiomadrid/heavyusker10.mp3

maybe i'm crazy...

...but check this out!