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Mon, 29 Aug 2005

Tin Pan Alley Festival: Soho, London

download file - Tin Pan Alley Festival: Soho, London (~24 Meg)

Held in a little street in Soho, off the famous street for books, Charing Cross Road, we had a lineup of indy-tinged guitar bands with a variety of styles.

In Denmark Street on a normal day you can buy instruments and recording gear and, in the upstairs offices, agents and publicists, guitar makers and blaggers, go about their daily business. Most buildings have their rock history stories -- "The Sex Pistols used this office", "Joe Strummer slept in the basement here", and lots more. And every story has a whole bunch more attached to it. Phillipe Dubreille, the guitarmaker, has his workroom here and the other day Mstation bumped into a jewellry maker for rock stars there -- more stories! We hope to catch him on a podcast later.

On this day the narrow street was crowded with people and the PA echoed around the surrounding blocks. Semi-freaks, musicians, and tourists drank beer in the warm evening and peaceably bopped along to the different strands of a vibrant scene. The festival was in aid of the charity Shelter.

In our podcast we've sampled three bands, the first of which is the Cherubs. You can discover the others by listening. #

Thu, 04 Aug 2005

Music in Public Places Part 2: France

download file - France Streets (~11 Meg)

There's quite a bit of variety in a small space here. From the streets of Lille and Boulogne-sur-mer (by the sea), we have cameo appearances by a jazz duo playing in a big square in Lille and a lone flutist blowing up a storm in a winding, cobbled side street. There is virtually no traffic noise as these are pedestrian areas. Then we go to the seaside where we start with a Celtic influenced rave up and then have a twenty voice men's choir singing two old standards that involve the sea. Then, to finish, our favourite which is a lone accordian player with the sounds of seagulls wheeling overhead, people passing by, and puffs of wind. #

Robot Bathing: You've Got ... a song

download file - Robot Bathing "You've Got" (~1.7 Meg)

Here's one song from Robot Bathing. It's dark. It's loud. And it breaks most rules of song construction. We hope you like it. #