Below are 50 acts who have been featured on Xan Phillips’ ‘South by Southampton’ during 2012. The hash tag on Twitter is #festive50sbys

1 Only The Names Change – Birdpen

2 Sweet Sour (Letterman live) – Band of Skulls

3 This Old Town – Sean McGowan

4 Valentine – Delays

5 Wheelchair Sex – Shaun Sheers

6 Rites of Spring – Accrington Stanley

7 Peggy Sang The Blues – Frank Turner

8 Green Eyed Monster – Charley Macaulay

9 Welcome to Austerity – Doyle and the Fourfathers

10 Top of the Class – The Novatones

South by Southampton Festive 50 1 – 10 | 11 – 30 | 31 – 50

Below are the acts from 11 – 30 who have been featured on Xan Phillips’ ‘South by Southampton’ during 2012. The hash tag on Twitter is #festive50sbys

11 The Bathysphere Song – Grant Sharkey

12 Frustrated – Mega Thomas

13 Within Isolation – Broken Links

14 Flowers – Lost Boys

15 Father Like Son – Martha’s Man

16 Ordinary Superhero – Mike Torr (from the film Down to the Woods)

Down To The Woods from Mike Torr on Vimeo.

17 Saw You In Two – Woven Bird

18 I Know I Spoke Too Soon – Lost Souls Club

19 The Cause To Forget Everything – Oresteia

20 Might Have It All – Tom Mann

21 Do What We Do (feat. Aaron James Cashell) (Extended Mix) – Artful & Ridney

22 Lost (Radio Edit) – Wolfe

23 Flashback Tuesday – Soma High

24 Better Days – LST

25 Love Lies – Nick Tann

26 Whole Lotta Money (Jimmy Carr) – Recreation

27 Conflict – Archive

28 In My Laboratory – Johnny5thWheel&thecowards

29 Lovebound – Accrington Stanley

30 Italian Song – Anja McCloskey

South by Southampton Festive 50 1 – 10 | 11 – 30 | 31 – 50

Below are the acts from 31 – 50 who have been featured on Xan Phillips’ ‘South by Southampton’ during 2012. The hash tag on Twitter is #festive50sbys

31 Heartbeats – Andrew Foster

32 Light Falls – Alaskan Pipeline

33 21 Knots – White Star Line-Up

34 Kids – Melodramas

35 Patient 32 – Flying Alexanders

36 An Absence of Mine – Burn The Fleet

37 When The Lights Go Out (Tokyotron Remix) – Scarlet Soho

38 By Default – Betika

39 Jungle Chase – Tom Ashford

40 Two Pence Piece – The Widowmaker

41 Hold Me Down (Feat. Jai Blaze) – Dlugokecki

42 Clean White Sheet – Dan Stuart Band

43 Fire – Jim Jeffries

44 Remembered Once, Twice Forgotten – Carrasco Ensemble

45 Little Bell – Marvin B Naylor

46 Orange – heath:ward

47 Day of the Dead – Emily Burridge

Prelude of G Major Suite J.S. Bach from thomthomproductions on Vimeo.

48 There’s A Sigh – Charlotte Gordon Cumming

49 Oceanos – Coast

50 The Woolston Ferry – Brian Hooper & Jeff Henry

South by Southampton Festive 50 1 – 10 | 11 – 30 | 31 – 50

This Friday, 21st December 2012, the clock will strike midnight on those who suggested the demise of planet Earth.

They will be seen scratching their heads and either looking for a hole to sink into or maybe thinking: “what doom and gloom scenario shall we predict next?”

The world will not end on Friday, or any other day of the week. It cannot end, its too big.

For the world to end you need either a Death Star (as seen in Star Wars), a very large meteorite (various films), or a giant explosion from inside the planet. The biggest known explosion so far has been Karactoa which could be heard 3000 miles away and that didn’t even dent the planet

However, there is something inside humans that fears bleakness is just over the horizon – somewhere in the not-too-distant future a disaster is bound to strike.

There are very few people currently predicting ‘a golden future’ and I wonder if this negative attitude comes from a real event that happened in our hidden past.

My theory is based on a local area that has constantly experience bad events, which in turn have left a dark emotion hanging over the land.

Since arriving on the south coast I’ve noticed Southampton seemed to hold a cloud of negativity, which I put it down to the city’s experiences in the last century through the Titanic and also being heavily bombed during the Second World War.

A conversation with Dr. Andy Russel, from the city’s Archaeology Unit, expanded on my local knowledge and he revealed disaster had visited Southampton many times and that maybe the City had adopted a pessimistic mindset.

It starts in 1338 when Charles Grimaldi ransacked Southampton. Many were killed and the loot was used to develop Monaco. This tragedy was closely followed by the Black Death coming into England via the port.

A little later on the ‘Southampton plot’ aimed to kill Henry V before he set sail to fight the French at Agincourt. The shame must have been felt ten fold when he came back victorious.

When the Titanic was lost in 1912, four out of five of the crew were from Southampton and almost every resident knew someone affected.

And in the Second World War the city was pounded by wave after wave of bombers due to the Spitfire factory, and of course the docks.

In some respects the Spitfire is the clue to the effect of Southampton’s malaise. If any other town on the planet had been the birth place of R J Mitchell’s legendary aircraft we’d know about it.

But if this is the first time you’ve found out that Southampton created the Spitfire I rest my case. The city cannot wash away the depression it feels and that masks its greatest moment.

There is no memorial to the designer, no place to lay tributes to the pilots who flew for victory and the art deco Supermarine factory was demolished to make way for houses.

Plans for something big have been approved but these have been shelved due to other, more pressing, factors: business at the expense of a city’s soul.

This massive success story should be celebrated again and again and again. If it was down to me there would be design competitions every year in which the world’s best would be invited to show off their creations.

Children would be told the story of R.J. Mitchell as part of the curriculum and during the summer a Spitfire would fly over Southampton every weekend. It would be a fitting tribute to the original craftsmen, that it can still take to the air, and an ideal reminder to locals and visitors about its position in world history.

Southampton should love itself for what it achieved. Yet does its dark past forever keep the shutters closed on this amazing part of history?

So can this observation about an area be extrapolated to the global psyche? Is there something in our instinct, in our DNA, that remembers a catastrophic event and fears it could happen again?

Ancient texts describe a giant flood, from which the story of Noah comes. It was big enough to be mentioned in different regions and left a strong enough impression to perpetuate through time, so its cause would have to be bigger than Karactoa and our recent tsunamis. But whatever created the flood, it could be why we find doom and gloom so much more realistic than predicting hope for the future.

Funnily enough this negative attitude doesn’t work on global warming, in fact we find it very hard to be concerned. The demise of our environment seems so unlikely that most of us continue to casually waste the planet’s resources.

Maybe someone needs to set a date at which the imbalance between the population and the oxygen producing plants becomes so great that that we cannot turn back.

So how about 20:20 on 20th February, 2020, for the start, of the end, of the everything?

R J Mitchell on Wikipedia

Maya Mask photo by Wolfgang Sauber

Radio has been seriously analysing itself over the past week and the topic is prank telephone calls and where they fit into broadcasting.

As a child I remember making one ‘funny call’ to a Mr Zebedee – how could you resist?! As a listener I’ve heard ‘prank calls’ that have made me chuckle but the novelty quickly wore off. As a radio presenter there has never been the need to follow suit.

There are much more interesting and important subjects to bring to the listener’s attention and the opportunity to be a broadcaster is so tenuous these days, you feel obliged to maximise every chance by keeping it relevant.

In reality, prank calls are an audio version of an “I smell!” sticker on the back of an unsuspecting person. Funny for those ‘in’ on the joke but how the victim reacts is based purely on their strength of character.

When the Australian DJ’s broadcast their conversations with treating the Duchess of Cambridge, the royal family took the intrusion with dignity and a deft touch: they’ve had enough knocks to roll with the punches.

Even Prince Charles joked with reporters about whether or not they could be sure he wasn’t a radio station, when answering their questions.

How acutely the incident affected the hospital staff is yet to be determined but the tragic events that followed have led many fingers of blame to point directly at the DJs, a couple of presenters who were trusting their production team to do the right thing.

So when I noticed a Twitter conversation between three eminent radio professionals James Cridland, James Whale and Paul Easton I felt obliged to join in as I was curious about a certain aspect of this story.

James Cridland, Managing Director of MediaUK.com and a radio futurologist, started the thread with a link to the transcript of the interviews with the Australian DJs and quite rightly pointing out how desperately sad it was.

This was followed by James Whale, a radio presenter who has caused his fair share of controversy, writing:

“Who’s resposiblity is content?” [sic]

James relied:

“Interesting question. The station’s? The presenters’? I think it’s a mixture of the two?”

And then Paul Easton, a radio programming consultant and author, added his expertise:

“I’d agree – presenters, producers and stations all have responsibility for what is broadcast.”

The looseness of the answers peeked my curiosity because from a presenter’s perspective it is the presenter who is responsible. They are the ones entrusted to enter a studio and speak directly to the listener, with self-censorship being the only barrier.

When it comes to pre-recorded material there is an opportunity to involve other people’s opinion and guidance, but the presenter is still the person pressing the play button. The bosses and lawyers may have said ‘yes’ but it is up to you, the presenter, as to whether or not it goes out.

All you have to do is look at who is taking the blame for the death to realise where the media and public perceive the responsibility of radio broadcasting. The only people the media want to speak to are the presenters.

The problem the two DJs had was that they relied on their production team to OK everything. As Mel Greig said:

“’It went through the processes of every other recorded bit that we do – from interviews to you know anything at all that gets recorded and passed on to the appropriate people, goes through the process, and we’re told whether it’s yes or no to play.’

But that production team are hidden behind the studio and office walls, they are not being scrutinised by the media, they are not being vilified by newspapers and thousands of angry folk across social networks.

Presenters are the first point of contact, they are the vocal representatives of the station and this couple are being held totally responsible, even if they are not. Mel Grieg also said:

“It was meant to be a silly little prank that so many people have done before. This wasn’t meant to happen.”

I totally believe them. They didn’t expect a death to be part of this story, no one does. But when your telephone call has landed you with some serious royal information, and a breach of confidentiality, there is only one place this story will go and that is the front page.

It may have started silly, but I am sure everyone in the production team who heard that recording knew the broadcast would put the station on the map.

Don’t forget it was an Australian, working in a British news room, who called home about the apparent death of the Queen Mother after seeing a studio rehearsal. That story must be part of media folk lore down under.

The mistake went global in 1993, without the aid of the Internet. I was working the following shift and know the impact felt internally was significant. There was a feeling of “thank the Lord it wasn’t me” plus the pertinent reminder of our broadcasting responsibilities, when even phoning home.

It was Paul Easton’s arrival into the conversation that prompted my tweet as I was pondering about how radio educates presenters regarding prank calls. No one has ever guided me, or even mentioned prank calls as part of the presenter’s tool kit. As Paul had recently posted a list of useful books that teach good radio, I tweeted.

“In the books teaching “how to make good radio” do prank calls get a mention?”

Prank calls have been around since the 70’s, so my thinking was that if you have grown up wanting to be a radio presenter you might well be hoping to indulge in a prank call or two – so what is the guidance? And if we are asking “who is responsible for content” that has to be part of the learning process.

I admit that tweet is an innocent question, and one that could easily be answered by reading said books, but at the same time innocent questions can illicit a great response and prompt more debate.

On this occasion as I am still waiting for a reply and although I accept James Cridland’s tweet that my question was ‘naive’ it was only due to my interview technique and not a lack of professionalism.

So my advice, to any prospective presenter with a ‘hot’ prank call, is to play the recording to the news team. If they say “its a big story” then treat it as a news item, by all means play a clip to highlight the security breach or political ineptitude you’ve uncovered, but just keep the remainder as evidence should the lawyers or representatives of the security services demand it.

If the prank call makes the news team laugh, but it doesn’t have any news value, then it is your choice about airing it or not.

Personally I think presenters should have total control over what goes out, but in modern radio it is very hard for them to say “No”.

Jobs are few are far between, the pool of radio management is very small and there is a train of thought that if you say “No” in one radio station, a negative perception will quickly spread around the industry.

“Don’t make waves in radio!” is most people’s maxim but if you have doubts about broadcasting an item, when others are saying ‘Yes’ then think about the situation Mel Greig and Michael Christian have found themselves.

They accepted the station’s guidance, and their production team’s decision, yet they are the ones facing the cameras, they are the one being watched for metal stress. And if presenters are expected to take all the blame, then they should have more respect from management and the ability to say ‘No’ without fear of recrimination.

However if management wants to have total control, then management should be in front of the cameras.

Useful links

The Daily Mail story James Cridland first highlighted: ‘It was meant to be a silly little prank. No-one could have predicted what would happen’: Michael and Mel – the interviews in full

Tweet accounts for:
@JamesCridland

@PaulEaston

@THEJamesWhale

The thread where Paul Easton posted a list of educational radio books http://www.mediauk.com/radio/discussions/radio-chatter/the-proverbial-foot-in-the-door

The answer is that Brian was talking about the fluoridation of Southampton’s water and like all classic folk singers he’s composed his views into the song: ‘We Don’t Want Your Flaming Fluoride!’

He played it live during ‘South by Southampton’ on Saturday and the recording is now available on Facebook, Soundcloud and the station’s listen again feature.

He also added a couple of political songs too: the subtle, almost nursery rhyme ditty “When hippos battle in the mud (it’s the frogs who pay the price)” and the brick-though-the-window “That’s a Tory”

The latter lists Brian’s grievances with the current Government and been adding to it week by week even Jimmy Carr gets a mention: “It started with two verses,” he told us. “Its now actually got five but one of them I don’t think much of.”

No doubt that will be re-written to include diamonds in Barclays bank.

The ‘hippo’ song was written during the Labour government so there is a balance to his acoustic tar brush.

All three songs are valuable contributions to our cultural feast and if you want to hear Brian sing them live then his next gig is at the Bent Brief, Tuesday 10th July, during the Over 50’s Festival.

That was back in 2005 and how time has flown.

Woven Bird still hold all the elements that made D!D!D! so popular but the years have eroded the extravagance of sound with a smoothness that enhances the melody.

Well, that’s how the single ‘Saw You In Two’ comes across to me: they pick, they drum, they have a catchy howl and the words make you ponder.

Woven Bird have that element of Englishness that XTC embodied with out sounding like XTC.

The single will be released on Folkwit Records on Monday 25th June and this Saturday the band host a launch party at Planet Sounds, which you’ll find under the big bridge on Terminus Terrace.

Its worth going just to pick up a CD which are loving wrapped in a candy stripe paper bag: “We’re addicted to sweets so its a collection of all the bags we’ve collated,” bassist Bill Acharjee explained.

So it is good to see that they are brushing their teeth in the promo photo.

Its an excellent shot and taken by top photographer Amy Maidment who also created the single’s video and yes, the video is suitably quirky.

So when pressed if Woven Bird are making art or music Bill says: “Both. Our music is our art.”

A free gig and no doubt rammed, as Birdpen recently attracted 300 people to a concert in Normandy. and in France the buzz is this Southampton band.

They’ve a head start on most with front man Dave Pen also singing for ‘Archive‘, who headlined the French equivalent of Glastonbury in 2011.

But Birdpen’s manager, Duncan Lewis, thinks it runs deeper: “the European market and music fans are more open to the band’s style of music.”

Duncan is no stranger to the international scene having spent 10 years managing Delays and sees the UK’s obsession with youth and trends very good reasons to travel: “it is better to develop the band’s profile where they already have that growing fan base.”

No matter where it is released Mike Bird and Dave Pen have created a wonderful album.

Global Lows

‘Global Lows‘ was influenced by international strife and Birdpen admit: “The music has an uplifting quality but the lyrical content and some of the emotional content is very dark, very melancholic and sad.”

The lows mix very well with the highs of quality songs, musicianship and recording techniques that promote Birdpen to music’s Premiership.

Here is a video from Thursday’s gig….