Last chance to listen to Show 3 of FTLOV Radio is tonight as the files will be removed in the morning. You can find it here:
https://verian.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/ftlov-radio-a-recorded-show-have-a-listen/
Month: January 2016
Record shop – Cambridge
We used to have a Fopp in Leamington, but it closed down a few years ago. I’m in Cambridge and here there be Fopp!
Picked up some bargains. I now have to convince my significant other to walk for 15 minutes away from the clothes shops towards a little record shop.
Reminder: FTLOV RADIO
I’m not around on Thursday night to broadcast live so I’ve done a live recording of a show which can be listened to here:
https://verian.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/ftlov-radio-a-recorded-show-have-a-listen/
Do have a listen if you have time and maybe leave a comment there to let me know how much, on a scale of 1-10, you hate it.
FTLOV Radio – A recorded show, have a listen.
I am not around on Thursday night to broadcast a show live so I have recorded one live, which is down below in three parts. Why three parts, just for file size really as it’s almost 3 hours long. I’ll be taking these files down at the weekend so do take the opportunity to listen before then if you have time, and do comment just so I know I’m not shouting into a vacuum!
SHOW 3 no longer available to stream
FTLOV Radio – This Thursday (28/01)
I won’t be available to do a live show on Thursday, so instead, I’m recording a live show tonight which will be available to play here (at https://verian.wordpress.com/) on Thursday 28/01 at your leisure.
It will be just as full of pauses, stutters, erm’s and uhm’s as usual for that real lack of professional sounding DJ’ing that one should have now come to expect.
I’ll post again on Thursday from my phone when it’s ready to listen to.
18:00 broadcast – that’s 10 minutes away
Some soul and suchlike, for an hour or so.
FTLOV Radio – Take it over for 30 minutes!
Submit your playlist!
Take over FTLOV Radio for 30 minutes with tracks of your choice. Submit a playlist of around 30 minutes in length and have your own 30 minute segment, with the songs you love to listen to.
I will comment on the selections during the broadcast and if I hate them I will say so, but on the plus side I’ll also say so if I love them.
Just use the form below.
Please visit https://verian.wordpress.com/ if you can’t see the form.
FTLOV RADIO – Post Mortem on Last night
Well it was fun, for me at least and I’m not remotely concerned with how many people were listening, I chatted away for the first 15 minutes with no listeners whatsoever, no problem.
I learned a lot:
- Check the Mic levels (it was a bit quiet at times)
- Remember to switch the mic on/off
- Have the next track ready, don’t try and do it while talking
- Latency in the headphones is a BIG issue, if your speech in the headphones is behind your actual voice it turns your brain to mush and makes you incapable of properly forming words.
- Sometimes MP3 Files end rather abruptly
- NEVER start to eat a chocolate digestive biscuit when a track is about to end, NEVER
- The volume of tea you drink is directly proportionate to the number of times you will have to urinate.
So I will return at 20:00 next Thursday but this time I will remember to press the ‘Rec’ button so the whole thing is saved and I can re-broadcast or maybe make some kind of podcast.
The show was 2 Hours and 45 minutes long, which went quite quickly but I was beginning to get tired towards the end. That seems about the right length, give or take 15 minutes. For next week I am going to do a poll, a listeners choice sort of thing, I’ll post it a bit later.
Thanks again to anybody who gave up their time to spend it with me.
FTLOV RADIO TONIGHT 20:00 GMT
FTLOV Radio broadcasts tonight at 20:00 GMT. At around 21:00 There will be a bit of Bowie so if you would like a specific Bowie track played then let me know, I’ve probably got it (unless you were to choose some obscure B-Side that was only released in Germany in 1973 for 1 week in a limited edition of 1). I have 1 request already, so it’s up and running.
The show can be listened to here:
http://myradiostream.com/fortheloveofvinyl
Or any App that receives Shoutcast broadcasts, such as ‘All Radio’ for the Iphone.
Maybe see you later.
Getting to grips with the Radio
I did a test broadcast yesterday, which I found rather difficult as the microphone I am using picks up everything, even the tiniest sounds, there’s also some latency in the feed to the headphones so I hear myself back about 1 second after I have spoken, which, if I remember rightly, results in people just making random noises rather than actual words, it messes with your brain, so that could happen. I’ve looked everywhere to find something that turns of the feed to the headphones from the Mic but have come up blank.
I already have verbalisation issues as I was told yesterday that I pause an awful lot, which I do I guess, but it’s only to momentarily gather my thoughts before proceeding, I guess it can be a little annoying for other folk when they don’t know if I’m actually at the end of a sentence or not yet. Ah well, it is what it is, while I’m sure it’s possible to change the way one speaks, I have no intention of doing so.
I have a load of tracks sorted and will be playing them on the fly, so each one has to be loaded up before it will play. This shouldn’t be a problem as I have up to 6 Virtual Turntables, but am only planning on using 2. The software allows me to do all sports like beat matching, scratching, applying effects, but I’m not going to touch any of that as I don’t really have much idea of what I’m doing. Pressing play and turning the Mic on and off is about my level right now. I think it automatically records any broadcast as well so I can easily re-transmit the whole thing as well.
Thursday at 20:00 GMT is when it kicks off. At 21:00 (Approx) there will be ‘Select A Song’ where the most requested David Bowie song will be played, I have all the official releases so be as obscure as you like. If nobody requests one, I’ll just pick it myself. Comment anywhere I’ll see it or message if you’d like to nominate a track.
Hopefully see you Thursday, here:
What’s in the Bag? (101)
Yesterday I replaced my missing copy of ‘Outlandos D’Amour’ by The Police. The album was released in November of 1978 but I already had the single that preceded it, namely ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’, which received short shrift from the BBC due to its subject matter and the picture sleeve which featured an image of Stuart Copeland standing on a block of ice with a noose around his neck, waiting for the ice to melt. I had it on blue vinyl if I remember correctly. I then bought ‘Roxanne, which the BBC didn’t like either as it dealt with prostitution, and ‘So Lonely’ after the album was released, and then later I bought the actual album. I also had their debut single, ‘Fall Out’, but I couldn’t say whether it was the original 1977 release or the re-issue from 1979. It’s a decent track, with a different guitarist, Henry Padovani.
I was very big on The Police for about 2 years, although when you are eleven or twelve years old, two years seems a much longer time, in the same way that the school summer holidays felt like they lasted forever. It all ended for me with the release of their 3rd album, ‘Zenyatta Mondatta’, which just didn’t seem to work for me. There was nothing particularly wrong with it as such, but tracks like ‘Don’t Stand So Close to Me’ and ‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’ were missing that heavier, indie (for the time period) and punk feel and they didn’t quite grab me in the same way. I have all their studio albums and they are all decent, but the first two are the ones that appeal to me the most.
The single disappointment on ‘Outlandos D’amour’ is ‘Be My Girl Sally’, which would be great without the Andy Summers poem thing on it. It’s a one-time funny story and doesn’t fare well from repeated listening, although as a pre-teen I found in hilarious, only becoming rather irked by it several years later. Here it is, and if it’s the first time you’ve read it then you might not see what I mean, but after triple digits listening, well, it’s worth lifting the needle for and skipping to the next track:
I just read that, I didn’t enjoy it at all. I even like the instrumental (of sorts) ‘Masoko Tango’ although at the time it was to me the second worst track on the album. I’ve revised that opinion over time and like it a lot now.
At some point I owned the ‘Six Pack’, which was a collection of seven-inch singles released in 1980. The pack, which came in a PVC folder contained the first five A&M singles by the band, namely “Roxanne”, “Can’t Stand Losing You”, “So Lonely”, “Message in a Bottle” and “Walking on the Moon”, plus a mono version of “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”, which was previously unreleased. Apparently the records in the pack were all produced on blue vinyl in picture covers with specially adapted labels which featured the heads of the band, rather than the original “A&M” logo and each single was accompanied by a special picture card. I seem to remember mine had no picture cards, and possibly not picture sleeves either, the memory is hazy in truth.
The album was a great début, despite the one drawback, it’s an 8.25/10
FTLOV Radio Update
The next Broadcast will be this week. I’ve procured Virtual DJ so that I can talk live and play tracks without it all being clunky, so any issues that arise should be a result of my own cackhandedness and not the software. I tested it earlier and it seemed to work fine. So this will be live talking rather than recorded, which is a bit worrying as I may have nothing at all to say. We’ll see.
That’s what it looks like. I honestly have no idea at the moment how it all works but have figured ‘Mic On’ and ‘Play’, so that should be plenty for now.
The plan at the moment is to go for Thursday at 20:00 GMT again. Come join me and see me (Well, hear me) fall flat on my face!
A trip to the shops
I had no intention of buying records today, but I popped in to town and ended up getting a few things from the used crate:
5 things in fact:
The Beatles – with the Beatles
Wings – Wild life
Plastic Ono Band – Plastic Ono Band
Ian Dury & the Blockheads – Laughter
The Police – Outlandos D’amour
I had the last one already but lost it at some point so this re-completes the studio albums.
The covers are in ok condition but the vinyl looks very good. I’ll find out when I get home.
FTLOV – About Last Night!
Thanks very much to both my listeners, you know who you are. It was a lot of effort for two people but you were both so very nice I’m good with that.
As promised, here is the playlist. It was about 2 and 3/4 hours in total.
David Bowie – Fantastic Voyage (2:51)
Joy Division – Atmosphere (4:10)
Public Image Ltd. – Poptones (7:49)
Tenpole Tudor – Swords Of A Thousands Men (2:55)
The Stranglers – Peaches (4:04)
The Jam – Down in the Tube Station at Midnight (3:57)
The Cure – 10:15 on a Saturday night (3:40)
The Fall – Totally Wired (3:25)
The Damned – New Rose (2:42)
The Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen (3:17)
Stiff Little Fingers – Nobody’s Hero (4:08)
Electric Light Orchestra – Don’t Bring Me Down (4:04)
Rush – Tom Sawyer (4:34)
Pink Floyd – Another Brick In The Wall (Part II) (4:00)
Tubeway Army – Are ‘Friends’ Electric? (5:23)
Gary Numan – Cars (3:56)
Japan – Quiet Life (4:53)
Bob Marley – Natural Mystic (3:27)
Siouxsie And The Banshees – Christine (2:57)
Blondie – Hanging On The Telephone (2:21)
XTC – Making Plans For Nigel (4:08)
Public Image Ltd. – Public Image (2:58)
Motörhead – Ace Of Spades (2:51)
Dr. Feelgood – Milk And Alcohol (2:35)
Tom Robinson Band – 2-4-6-8 Motorway (3:16)
Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll (3:11)
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea (3:02)
The Police – Can’t Stand Losing You (2:48)
Adam & The Ants – Kings Of The Wild Frontier (3:50)
Bad Manners – Special Brew (3:38)
The Selecter – On My Radio (3:15)
Untouchables – FBI (I Spy for The) (3:24)
The Beat – Tears Of A Clown (2:42)
The Specials – Too Much Too Young (2:04)
The Specials – A Message to You Rudy (2:54)
Desmond Dekker – Israelites (2:39)
Junior Murvin – Police And Thieves (4:03)
Body Snatchers – Let’s Do Rocksteady (2:58)
The Knack – My Sharona (4:00)
Joe Jackson – Is She Really Going Out With Him? (3:34)
Blondie – Denis (2:15)
The Tubes – White Punks on Dope (6:43)
The Stranglers – Something Better Change (3:36)
The Damned – Smash It Up (2:51)
The Teardrop Explodes – Reward (2:54)
David Bowie – Ashes To Ashes (3:37)
I’ve learned quite a lot from last nights experience and am hopeful that next time will be a bit smoother, particularly if can get live talking mixed with the music. At the moment the internet is keeping how to do that a secret, but I’ve a week left to persuade it to give up its secrets.
FTLOVR – Tonight!
On the assumption that everything goes well, tonight will be the inaugural broadcast of the ‘For The Love Of Vinyl Radio Show’ which will include occasional interludes by a stuttering buffoon (me). It should start at 20:00 GMT tonight, which is 2 or 3 in the afternoon in the US I think. You can listen online or from any app that streams shoutcast broadcasts, I listened last night on my phone to a test broadcast and it worked really well.
I was, however, having some streaming problems last night but hopefully that was just a temporary thing and I did manage to equal the record for most ever listeners, which is 4, including me. Tonight I’m hoping for 5, because you have to dream big, right?
If you do have an opportunity, do listen in for a bit, even if only to troll me about it later, that’s fine. And feel free to share the link to it and let other people know, this is the link:
If you follow the link then you’ll find a chat option there, on the top right, I’ll be on that from 20:00 and throughout the broadcast so do say hi, or anything else you like really or you can post here or on facebook/twitter, I’ll receive messages from all these sources. Which reminds me, I did create a facebook page specifically for this which you can follow by ‘Liking’, apologies that there isn’t a ‘Dislike’ button there.
FTLOR Broadcasting Now
Listen by following the link above. A test for 60 minutes to make absolutely sure it all works. Just music, but good music!
Started at 20:52 GMT
Still going at 21:58 – A Bowiefest!
FTLOR Only two days away!
I am woefully under prepared, but that’s pretty standard, it will be available here:
At 20:00 GMT
Bowie
Everybody should be able to remember what the very first album they bought with their own money was, I do, it was ‘Lodger’ by David Bowie. Up until that time we had family records or ones that were my Brother’s but that I got to listen to, either in the same room or through the wall of my bedroom. ‘Lodger’ was my own, to keep in my room and to play whenever I wanted, which was quite often as it was the only one I had. If you are wondering which album it is, it has ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ and ‘DJ’ on it although I think ‘Fantastic Voyage’ may have been my favourite track from it.
Yesterday I was in the record shop in town holding a vinyl copy of ‘Blackstar’ and trying to decide if I actually had £22 that I could spare to buy it. I had my sensible head on and decided against, it would have to wait until pay day. I met up with my wife and we went for a coffee where she asked me if I’d bought anything and I rather proudly declared how sensible I’d been in not buying the album. We then talked about how good he looked for his age and google imaged recent Bowie pictures on our phones.
Then there was this morning’s news, which saddened me deeply. I had envisaged a whole series of albums over the next 10 or so years, which sit in, what for me, is my favourite period if his, from 1999’s ‘Hours…’ up to today. Perhaps there is more to come, it seems clear that he felt he had more to do and I hope very much that there are a couple more properly completed albums just waiting to be released. I feel that is just the sort of thing he would do.
After lunch today I received a call from my wife, let’s call her Pip, because that’s her name. She had called the record shop as soon as it opened and had a vinyl copy of ‘Blackstar’ put behind the counter, which she picked up at lunchtime for me. They had 6 copies and the other 5 had sold before she got there. Today’s sad is therefore tempered to a degree by this little joy.
So, at this point, my first and last albums bought were both by Bowie. Which, I think, as a tribute, speaks for itself.
Thanks David.
FTLOV Radio Show (Episode The First)
This experiment continues with a first proper broadcast scheduled for Thursday January 14th 2016 at 20:00 GMT which will run for between 2 and 3 hours, depending on whether I get called away to take the bin out or wash the dishes or suchlike.
I have a set of songs pretty much figured out and ready and now need to work out if I can include some talky bits between tracks.
The first show is roughly based around a 5 year period, 1977 to 1981, which were formative for me as I entered my teenage years and music took on an importance that has stayed with me all my life. I was 10 in 1977 and 14 in 1981, which is a time of great change and while I can’t claim to have listened to each and every track when it was released, I did discover them during this period, having to only dig back a couple of years to find them.
If you are a Forty or Fifty something then it will be an evocative selection, if you are younger, then these are tracks that don’t get much airplay nowadays and, you never know, you may find something you like, retro is cool nowadays, right?
During the broadcast there’s a chat room available which I’ll be checking in on so do feel free to say a word or two, or say something here, I’m always happy to chat.
So until Thursday then, let’s see if I can smash the record listening figures of 4 people (one of which was me).
Radio Test
I’m currently testing a radio stream and would welcome any feedback. It runs from my laptop to a server and can be listened to here:
I’m going to leave it on for the next 4 or 5 hours so please do see if it works for you and let me know.
Many thanks
Update @ 17:37
So that seems to work ok. I was out and about for 5 hours and when I had 4G or wi-fi I could stream the broadcast without any real problems. The next step is to figure out how to do a fully live broadcast, alternating between music and speech and to build some kind of interaction in, and a schedule. It won’t be on all the time but I’m thinking it can be on at set times during the week. Lots to do, lots to think about. Thanks to anybody who listened. At one point there were 4 people listening at once, which 3 more than I expected!
verian.wordpress.com 