For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on a Music As Culture project with the band UB40. They’re going to be playing a gig at the Rainbow pub in Digbeth on Tuesday to raise money to help the venue pay for a new soundproof roof over the courtyard, so that they don’t get [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Music,University
Tagged: Birmingham, culture, Music, research, UB40
This is the raw interview I did with Zane Lowe for a New Zealand radio programme called Musical Chairs. The final version will have a good deal of music and a lot of interviews with some of the people who get mentioned along the way. Since the target audience for this programme will be New [...]
Categories: Music,New Zealand,Radio
I’m a little unwell. I have Hepatitis A. That’s not good. I also have Typhoid fever, which is a pretty bad disease, so I’m told. To make matters worse, I also have Diptheria, Tetanus and Polio. I’d stay away from me for a bit if I was you. Of course, I only have little bits [...]
Categories: Travel
Just returned from London where I was interviewing Zane Lowe for a radio documentary I’m making with Sam Coley for Radio New Zealand. The programme is called Musical Chairs, and it’s a series that focuses on New Zealand musicians, and tells their story through interview and music. Of course, Zane’s not really known over here [...]
Categories: Music,New Zealand,Radio
ROOTS ISTA POSSE LIVE & DIRECT BERLIN’09 Roots Ista Posse live @ NetAudio Festival Club Maria am Ostbahnhof 8th October 2009 [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Thought you might like this live mix recorded at that NetAudio Festival I went to in Berlin last week. The guys from Fresh Poulp Records [...]
Categories: Music
Inspired (and frustrated) by last night’s battle with the application that would not die, I’ve been going through and cleaning up my Macbook. I’m prepared to do a complete fresh reinstall of the operating system if it comes down to it – but if I can avoid it, I will. There’s something I’m looking for. [...]
Categories: Technology
I had a problem on my laptop. Something called AddressBookSync was going crazy – sucking up almost all of my system resources. I don’t really know what it was, which piece of software it was connected to (though I have my suspicions) or even how I eventually managed to get rid of it – but [...]
Categories: Technology
Tagged: Computer, Macbook, Maintenance, Software
Music as culture as a TV format – and the antidote to X-Factor. Guys in their 40s and 50s who once harboured dreams of rock/pop stardom, but were just a bit rubbish so they gave it up. We assemble a bunch of them together, get a couple of music coaches in to work with them, [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Idea, Music as Culture, TV
I’ve been travelling a lot in Europe recently, and I’ve come to the conclusion that making a great, vibrant, creative city is really, really simple. What follows is my 5-step plan to better cities. If you get these things right, ALL else will follow.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Bicycle, Birmingham, How to Fix Cities, Idea, Travel
I’ve been blogging quite a bit recently. Not that you’d know by looking at this site. It’s been quiet as anything here. But I have been doing lots of interesting things and writing about them. All my blog posts have been going here: http://dubber.posterous.com Why? Because I’ve fallen in love with Posterous for one simple [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
