MDSWP

This week was all about the Vintage fair at The Custard Factory, so not only did we talk about all the great stuff going on around the studio, we also played some scorching choons. New Music FA Cup is back with two fantastic tunes for you to vote for. Get tweeting!

• Hawkwind – Silver Machine
• Hole – Celebrity Skin
• Tin Tin Out – Where the Story Ends
• Band of Skulls
• Stereophonics – Bartender and The Thief
• The Verve – Sonnet
• Sunshine Underground – Commercial Breakdown
• The Travelling Band – Only Waiting
• Talking Heads – Psycho Killer
• Cha Cha – The Fellowship
• We All Need Heros – Devil Roads
• Otis Redding – I Can’t Turn You Loose
• The Buzzcocks – Even Fallen In Love
• Kool and The Gang – Jungle Boogie
• Happy Mondays – Kinky Afro
• The Courteeners – You Overdid It Doll
• Ellie Goulding – Guns and Horses
• Henry’s Children – What’s Wrong With You?
• Two Door Cinema Club – Undercover Martyr
• Morning Runner – Up In Flames
• Bloc Party – Helicopters
• Deep Purple – Hush

This week, Esteban joined us live in the Studio to perform some acoustic tracks (and sample some cupcakes )

You can check out Esteban and their music at their website and check out when they’re playing a gig near you soon.

This week we had the legendary Brian Travers in the studio to talk about growing up in Birmingham, being part of the World’s most successful and instantly recognisable Reggae band and their latest album, Labour of Love IV.

Thank you to everyone who listened on the day and submitted questions before we went live. Although we had a few problems on the day, there’s been a huge response on Listen Again already which will hopefully raise the profile of not only The Midsweep, but also Rhubarb Radio as a whole.

Remember to Tweet in your selection for this weeks New Music FA Cup by visiting our Twitter page or tweeting @midsweep. We’ll see you all at 10am next Saturday!

• The Heavy – How You Like Me Now
• Ash – Girl From Mars
• The Kleptones – Welcome Back
• Thin Lizzy – Boys Are Back In Town
• The Smiths – Girlfriend in a Coma
• Huey Lewis and The News – Power of Love
• Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get It On
• Free – All Right Now
• The Who – Baba O’Reilly

New Music FA Cup

• Sol Pilot – From Seed to Bait
• Gumshen – Since the Sun Shines on Me

Brian Travers in the House

• Junior Mervin – Police and Thieves
• The Allman Brothers – Midnight Rider
• Desmond Decker – It Mek
• UB40 – Close To Me
• Richard Hawley – Open Up
• Sam Cooke – A Change is Gonna Come
• UB40 – Bring It On Home

The night before a show is always a bit strange. Preparing the playlist, sorting out the links for strange news and choosing the two new acts for the Indie FA Cup take a lot of work but there’s always a lot of anticipation to it all. Will the show go well? Will I be on time? Will I remember who I am? These are all things that run through my head around this time on a Friday night.

Since we mixed up the show a little bit at the start of the year, it’s been really refreshing to be able to play whatever we like and still champion new music by getting bands in to play acoustic sets and talk about their new releases. Add that together with the Music News, Film stuff and our new features and it’s all starting to come in to place.

There’s a lot in the pipeline for Midsweep in the next few months, next week being a big step in getting us, and Rhubarb Radio into the ears of lots and lots of new listeners. You can do you bit, of course – sign up to our Facebook group and help promote the station, follow us on Twitter and start spreading the word about the wide range of shows we’ve got on air and coming up.

Rhubarb is growing, and we’d love you along for the ride.

This week we welcome Rase in to the studio for three live acoustic tracks and a bit of a chinwag. You can listen to each of their tracks over on our Soundcloud and check out the shownotes below for full track listing.

Live Rase tracks

Rase @ The Midsweep by midsweep

(continue reading…)

So this week we had a stonker lined up for you. The Benwahs had agreed to come in and do a special acoustic set ahead of their regular nights at Gosta Green in Aston starting on the 31st, Tammy had been out interviewing the general public about superstitions and myself and Steve had a range of quality tracks lined up for your delectation.

In the past few weeks we’ve been steadily getting better and better at getting the bands set up so that the acoustic sound comes out well across the interweb-waves and this week, believe me, was absolutely phenomenal. Of course you may be wondering why I’m referring to the show as if it hadn’t *actually* happened. Well it did, but a server hiccup meant that only the first few minutes were streamed live and consequently the band actually just played a very small, intimate gig for a selection of their family, friends and The Midsweep team.

Technology is a funny old thing. We depend on it to get our messages across about the music we love, the research we do during the week and for each and every one of you to enjoy the result of our hard work. I won’t lie, I actually felt like bursting in to tears after I found out we’d not been on air since 10:05. The emotion in Suzie’s voice on the songs transferred to me and, already feeling a little delicate, it made myself, Steve and Tammy absolutely dejected.

Fingers crossed the show has been recorded somewhere in the ether so we can put it out on listen again as well as get something prepared for next week when we have World of Fox and, possibly, The Benwahs back in again. It’s going to be a good one. Again

Today was a very interesting show for me. We’ve been asking for bands to come in and play live acoustic sets since the show started, and today Crimson Joy were the first to rock the Custard Factory studios.

Normally I’d have relied on Tammy and Steve to help get them settled and ready to go, but as the law of sod would have it, they couldn’t make it through illness and other commitments. Luckily for me I’d done a small amount of sound engineering before, as well as some solo interviews when we were down in Camden, so nothing to lose by doing it all on my own, then

After a few inital hiccups instrument-wise, we kicked off the session at around 11am (you can listen again here) and the guys played some songs from their new album, Tales of Ordinary Madness which will be out on October 29th.

It’s always hard for a band that are used to playing with a full drumkit/bass etc to transfer the edgier songs to acoustic form. In the studio, it definitely sounded like Jordan and the guys managed to do this and although a little bit weird having someone play live for the first time, I bloody enjoyed it!

Fingers crossed we’ll have another one with us next week which will hopefully signal a regular occurence on the show. It’s definitely something I enjoy doing and brings us one step closer to bringing new local music to the masses.

I’d love to hear from you on today’s show. Give us a call on 0121 288 4955 or leave a comment below.

The questions for Tammy’s first Izzy Wizzy are below. Email her tammy@midsweep.com and answers will be on next weeks show.

1. Kaiser Chiefs’ singer Ricky Wilson landed in hospital this week after jumping between the barrier and the stage at Madison Square Garden, while playing a Green Day support gig. But what did he break in the fall?

a His ankle
b His finger
c A rib
d His nose

2. Which of these songs was found to be the most popular first dance at UK weddings, according to a survey published this week by music rights body PRS?

a Aerosmith – Don’t Want To Miss a Thing
b Shania Twain – From This Moment On
c Lonestar – Amazed
d Bryan Adams – Everything I do (I Do It for You)

3. Which singer responded to disparaging gossip-blog remarks this week by saying: “If one more ‘journalist’ makes a cavalier statement about me and my band, I will personally greet them at their home and discover just how much they believe in their freedom of speech”?

a Britney Spears
b Marilyn Manson
c Will.i.am
d Eminem

Slight change to the plan I posted about the other day. The Supersonic passes and timetable on Rhubarb has all been finalised, so I won’t be starting next week as planned.

Instead I’ll be taking to the airwaves on Saturday 1st August with the first two hour Midsweep show. In the meantime, I’ll get a few 30 minute shows recorded and put out for podcast so you won’t have to wait too long for another fix.

I’m still undecided on whether to release each and every Midsweep I produce for Rhubarb as a full two-hour podcast, or whether to edit it down. Would be cool if you could provide some feedback so I have an idea of what the consensus from existing listeners is.

Leave a comment below or send we a tweet to @philcoyne.

I met up with Paul Hadley yesterday lunchtime for a tour around the RhubarbRadio.com studios and am happy to say that the first Midsweep on Rhubarb will be broadcast from 10am next Saturday, 25th July, right before day two of Supersonic kicks off. So now the preparation begins; playlist building, MP3 sourcing, band interviewing, music playing goodness.

Am yow ready?!*

*Read in a Brummie accent ‘cos it’s talk loik a brummie day

It’s been a few weeks since a Midsweep show and in that time I’ve been making a few changes to not only the way I’m going to approach and produce the show, but also how I separate personal musings and show related stuff.

Personal stuff will now be on philcee.com whilst this site will concerntrate fully on the show. There’s a big announcement coming in the next week or so which will change not only the reach of the show, but also how you can listen and consume it.

All being well I’m hoping to announce these changes when I get another live show underway sometime this week. At the moment that’s going to be Thursday, but I may shoot for a lunchtime slot and as always release as a separate podcast a few hours later.

Exciting times are ahead for Midsweep and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you all. In the meantime, why not become a fan of the show over on Facebook and help spread the word.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:58 — 21.3MB)

• Euphoria Audio – Flow
• Cold Dead Cow – Aurora
• The Foxes – Lover Killer
• Pippa Rogers – Open Hearted
• Ishkobar – Open Up
• 3 Monkeys and a Man – Ecstacy