My very first radio program went out on Sunday 27th April, at 7pm on 87.7FM. Nervewracking and exciting in equal measure, I’m already looking forward to program two next week.
If you didn’t tuen in and we haven’t managed to sort out a podcast yet, here’s what you missed.
PROGRAM PLAYLISTKISS – DO YOU REMEMBER ROCK N ROLL RADIO (THE RAMONES COVER)
DAFT PUNK ft. PHARRELL WILLIAMS – GET LUCKY
LOCAL: THE BAR-STEWARD SONS ON VAL DOONICAN – ACE OF SPADES (MOTORHEAD COVER)
LOCAL: BLACK VINES – BOOK
LOCAL: THE BLACK LAMPS – CASA DISCO
LOCAL: SERIOUS SAM BARRETT – LULLABY OF LEEDS
LIVE SESSION: THE ROLLING DOWN HILLS – SO SLOW
SESSION GUESTS CHOICE: HOWE GELB – PROPULSION
LIVE SESSION: THE ROLLING DOWN HILLS – VICTORIOUS
SESSION GUESTS CHOICE: STAIND – TANGLED UP IN YOU
RECORD OF THE WEEK: ROB ZOMBIE – DEAD CITY RADIO AND THE NEW GODS OF SUPERTOWN
STUDIO GUESTS CHOICE: CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL – BAD MOON RISING (LIVE)
STUDIO GUESTS LOCAL CHOICE: IMOKO SET – CRYING IN THE TEMPLE
STUDIO GUESTS CHOICE: THE HEAVY – WHAT MAKES A GOOD MAN
BARNSLEY MUSIC ARCHIVE: LYCA SLEEP – SOLD ME A RIDE
BLUR – POPSCENE
LOCAL: MYNAS – LESION
MEAT PUPPETS – DOWN
PLACEBO – SONG TO SAY GOODBYE
LOU REED – GOODNIGHT LADIES
ALTERNATIVE BARNSLEY – LIVE SESSION: THE ROLLING DOWN HILLS
Download the entire live session and interview featuring the interview and songs So Slow, Victorious, plus a bonus song, not broadcast on the radio called Feelings.
INTERVIEW – PART ONE
ALTB: I’m sat here with one of Barnsley finest and newest acoustic duos, The Rolling Down Hills. Hello.
SIMON: Hiya
LEWY: Alright.
ALTB: Can you introduce yourself to the listeners.
LEWY: I’m Lewy and I sing and play lead guitar.
SIMON: I’m Nomis and I play rhythm guitar.
ALTB: Can you describe the Rolling Down Hills’ sound?
LEWY: It’s hard to describe the sound as such and I don’t like pigeonholing our sound if you know what I mean into different genres or categories. What we do is a kind acoustic, mellow, durgy with grunge influences.
ALTB: How long have you been playing together as The Rolling Down Hills?
LEWY: Since about 2010 really.
SIMON: On and off over brief periods.
ALTB: Because you both originally played together when you were back at school, and you’re in your thirties now, so that was sixteen, seventeen years ago. How did it come about that you reformed?
LEWY: It’s weird really. I went away to university and we all of a sudden stopped talking. We never fell out or anything. We just lost contact.
SIMON: You often lose contact with your school friends, grow up and meet new friends.
LEWY: Your lives go in different directions.
All of a sudden Simon gave me a call out of the blue. He had a gig booked at the Dove & Rainbow in Sheffield with his then band. The singer had pulled out at the last minute.
ALTB: What were playing then?
SIMON: I was still playing rhythm guitar. Me and Jimmy, another old school friend, just played covers. I don’t think we’d ever wrote a song together to be quite honest. He called me up about three days before saying he couldn’t do it, which worked out well for us I suppose. I knew Lewy was a good singer and that we worked well in the past, so I just gave him and call and asked, do you fancy doing a gig?
LEWY: We had five minutes of rehearsal and dug out some of our old songs. We did a set of five or six songs supporting another band and they [audience] loved it. It really made me want to to the band back together. A week later we got back together as The Rolling Down Hills and started writing and new songs.
ALTB: And what’s changed about the music that you write now compared to the stuff you were writing way back then?
LEWY: I think we’ve matured a lot.
SIMON: Definitely grown up.
LEWY: I think the good thing about the break and not talking for ten years is we also both went different way musically. I went down different routes of jazz, heavy metal and even gothic music.
SIMON: Whereas I went to Alterbridge and Shinedown and more mainstream rock.
LEWY: It’s good now. Putting that together we have fresh ideas and it’s different to the grunge only orientated stuff we did before.
ALTB: So tell us about the first song you’re playing for us today.
LEWY: It’s one of the last songs we wrote together fifteen years ago before we stopped talking. It’s called So Slow.
LIVE SONG: SO SLOW
INTERVIEW – PART TWO
ALTB: So tell about the kind of music that influences you both.
SIMON: When I was back at school I used to listen to Michael Jackson and Meat Loaf and only really picked up a guitar when I heard this band called Nirvana, which really inspired me – the short, catchiness of the songs. It encouraged me to pick up an acoustic. Ryan [Lewy] taught me the basic chords, and from then on self taught. But yeah, the roots of it was probably Nirvana, REM, Alive in Chains and Live would be the main bands for me. There are a lot of other bands but they are the main ones.
ALTB: What about you as a vocalist?
LEWY: As a vocalist it’s changed. Back in the day it was grunge; Pearl Jam were a heavy influence, mainly because Eddie Vedder’s range was similar to my own. It just seemed right at the time. It’s evolved since. I listen to Chet Baker, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra – jazz and really great vocalists, people like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Jim Morrison. The passion in their voices and the way they can hold an hold a crowd. They influences me in that kind of way.
ALTB: How do you go about writing a song?
LEWY: Normally, Simon comes up with a tune or a melody on the guitar or I will and I’ll later write over the top of it. It depends really… sometimes I’ll write poetry and then put it to music. I’ve got note books full of song lyrics and documents in on-line storage.
ALTB: Is it the same with you. Do you write riffs in your own time then…
SIMON: Yes, but it’s magic sometimes. I’ll go to Ryan’s [Lewy’s] after having three hours at home coming up with nothing and then at Ryan’s after five minutes it just comes out and it grows from there.
LEWY: Sometimes things just appear. Songs are sometimes just sat in the ether and you just need to pluck them out.
SIMON: Depending what mood I’m in, I’ll write sometime slow and sad or something quite happy. So it depends what frame of mind I’m in. It’s strange. You look at Victorious or So Slow and the difference between them.
LEWY: You can see we’ve matured.
ALTB: Okay, so we’re going to play a few songs for you. If you could pick one song now for us to play, what would it be?
LEWY: I’ve been listening to a lot of alternative country. Probably a Howe Gelb song, or Giant Sands.
ALTB: Simon?
SIMON: I’ve been listening to a lot of Staind recently. A song called Tangled Up In You. It’s quite a sad song but that sums me up.
BAND’S CHOICE: HOWE GELB – PROPULSION
INTERVIEW – PART THREE
ALTB: So what can we expect from you guys in 2013?
SIMON: We’re planning to get some recording done.
LEWY: We have some recording booked in for April, so we should have our first EP out soon. Get them out there and let people take something away with them – a CD or a download.
ALTB: And what’s the last song you’re going to play for us today?
LEWY: It’s a song called Victorious.
SIMON: It’s probably one of our most popular and more complex songs, and the one that we worked really hard on to complete. We spent a lot of time writing that song.
ALBT: Cool. Well thank you for visiting Horizon Radio and quickly, how can the listeners find out more about you?
LEWY: You can visit our website therollingdownhills.com and find us on facebook through the website or search for The Rolling Down Hills and you’ll find us.
ALTB: Thank you Simon. Thank you Lewy. This is The Rolling Down Hills and Victorious.
LEWY: Thanks for having us.
SIMON: Thanks for having us.
LIVE SONG – VICTORIOUS
BAND’S CHOICE: STAIND – TANGLED UP IN YOUVisit The Rolling Down Hills on the following links:
www.facebook.com/TheRollingDownHills
www.therollingdownhills.com
soundcloud.com/therollingdownhills
FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS
THE BAR-STEWARD SONS ON VAL DOONICAN – ACE OF SPADES (MOTORHEAD COVER)
“Obviously you’ll recognise that as a reworking of the classic Motorhead song. If you don’t know the Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, they are known for performing parodies of famous songs with a Barnsley twist to the lyrics. That song though was a straight Ace of Spades and the b-side to a record the band released just yesterday, especially for International Record Store Day.
When the guys in the band, that’s Scott, Alan and Andy, decided they’d like to release a special one-off vinyl and discovered it would cost them up to £1500, they decided they couldn’t afford that up front and instead ask their fans to crowd fund it, which essentially mean the fans would pay up front for the record, enabling the band to foot the bills for recording and production. To their amazement, their project was fully funded after just a few days.
If you paid the minimum £6, you got a copy of the record. If you offered to pay more, there was a series of special gifts from the band such playing an in house gig for you, a specially dedicated vinyl, art work of lyric sheet, t-shirts and they also recorded a song of your choice.
Ace of Spades also features two other Barnsley musicians – Richard Kitson on banjo and also a guest guitar solo from friend of the band Graham Oliver from Saxon. The 7” vinyl also features their own versions of songs by The Ramones and Blur, all performed in their own comedy folk style.”WEEKLY GIG GUIDE
TUE 23rd APRIL – Ivory Tusks, Trudger, Bonggripper and Conan @ The Green Wizard, Sheffield
WED 24th APRIL – The Beat Holes and Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican @ Fitzwilliam Arms, Elsecar
FRIDAY 26th APRIL – The Black Lamps @ Rebecca’s Night Club GIG OF THE WEEK
FRIDAY 26th APRIL – Black Vines, Mynas and Brain Bomb @ The Polish Club
FRIDAY 26th APRIL – Mark Jackson’s Criminal Waste of Talent, The Hurriers and Cambodia @ Darfield Conservative Club.
FRIDAY 26th APRIL – Mike Harding @ Penistone Paramount Theatre
SAT 27th APRIL – The Glavins and Spittin’ Feathers @ The Clothiers Arms, ElsecarBARNSLEY MUSIC ARCHIVE: LYCA SLEEP – SOLD ME A RIDE
“This week is actually already eight years old and is by a band called Lyca Sleep. They were formed in 2001 and released couple of singles through Genepool Records and also played Leeds Festival in 2003 and 2005. This song was called Sold Me a Ride and in fact today’s guest Ryan Bracha directed the video for the single. It was released in 2004 on CD and vinyl. They split up in 2005 but fortunately, some of the members went onto form what is probably Barnsley’s biggest indie band right now, Exit Calm. Fly Magazine described them “wonderful and eerie in equal measure”. See what you think. This is Sold Me a Ride.”WEEKLY MOVIE GUIDE
PARKWAY CINEMA, ELDON STREET
Oblivion, The Croods 2D and 3D, Scary Movie 5 and previews of Marvel’s Iron Man 3.
Senior Screenings of A Yorkshire Story and Ken Loach’s Spirit of ’45.
PENISTONE PARAMOUNT
The Odd Life of Timothy Green and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.LOCAL ARTS GUIDE
EXHIBITIONS
Pop! @ The Civic, Barnsley
Fiona Stephenson’s PIN-UP @ The Civic, Barnsley
Northern Young Artists – PostScript @ Unit 1F Redbrook Business Park
THEATRE
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest @ The Civic, Thursday 25th.
Comedy – Paul McCaffrey and Kieran Boyd @ The Civic, Friday 26th.
Treasure Island @ Academy Theatre, Birdwell, Thu 25th – Sat 27th
Visit the following links to find out more by all of the local acts I played on program one:
THE BAR-STEWARD SONS ON VAL DOONICAN
www.facebook.com/thebarstewardsons
www.thebarstewardsons.com
BLACK VINES
www.facebook.com/groups/blackvines
blackvines.bandcamp.com
THE BLACK LAMPS
www.facebook.com/pages/The-Black-Lamps/141577792606561
soundcloud.com/theblacklamps-1
SERIOUS SAM BARRETT
www.facebook.com/pages/Serious-Sam-BarrettYaDig-Records/185802254796469
serioussambarrett.bandcamp.com
THE ROLLING DOWN HILLS
www.facebook.com/TheRollingDownHills
soundcloud.com/therollingdownhills
IMOKO SET
www.facebook.com/ImokoSet
soundcloud.com/imoko-set
LYCA SLEEP
http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2005/08/02/lyca_sleep_interview.shtml
MYNAS
www.facebook.com/mynaspage
soundcloud.com/mynas…and here are the links for all local venues and artists mentioned:
RYAN BRACHA
https://www.facebook.com/Ryanbrachaauthor
http://ryanbracha.webs.com/
ELSECAR REAL MUSIC VENUES
www.facebook.com/Elsecarmusic
THE POLISH CLUB
barnsleyrockandblues.moonfruit.com
REBECCA’S NIGHT CLUB
www.facebook.com/pages/Friday-Indie-Night-at-Rebeccas/141698175970230
PENISTONE PARAMOUNT THEATRE
www.penistoneparamount.co.uk
THE CIVIC, BARNSLEY
www.barnsleycivic.co.uk
FIONA STEHPHENSON
www.fionastephenson.com
NORTHERN YOUNG ARTISTS/UNIT 1F REDBROOK BUSINESS PARK
northernyoungartists.tumblr.com
ACADEMY THEATRE, BIRDWELL
theacademytheatre.co.uk
PARKWAY CINEMA
barnsley.parkwaycinemas.co.ukFor for information about Horizon Radio visit facebook.com/HorizonRadio.
Tune in next week, Barnsley 87.7FM, Sunday 7pm for more local talent and news about what is happening in our humble little town called Barnsley.
Alternative Barnsley 