South City Radio - A Double Dose

Yesterday was a truly fun day and a small milestone in my journey as a musician. A little while ago I met a chap called Patrick at one of CT's RAW nights (thanks CT!!) and he invited me on to his radio show. I was delighted to accept, of course, but I had little idea what was in store for me. His show is called PH7 from the Neutral Zone (PH7 - neutral - geddit? Actually it took me a while) and yesterday was the day that I made my way to Peckham to take part in his show. I had originally thought that I would just be having a small chat and playing a couple of songs, but as we planned the show in a local squat (more on that later) I realised that it was going to be much more than that. In the end it turned out to be a whole hour dedicated to my songs, influences and recordings - such a fantastic experience for me. I think I played four or five live songs (I'm just listening to the show now to remind myself) plus a couple off CD and talked about some of my early musical influences. I have to say I'm particularly pleased that the show featured both Abba and Bruce Cockburn - now when was the last time a radio show had both of those artists on at the same time. Anyway, you could be listening to the show right now as you read this - so head over to South City Radio's Shows list and scroll down to where you see my picture and listen to the PH7 show for Weds 28th Jan.

After a very enjoyable chat and some live songs we headed back to the squat where Patrick was preparing for his second show of the day. This is a totally different beast. Airing at 10pm - live from the Peckham squat, this show is a chaotic mix of talk, music, noises, improvised singing and whatever else was going on. It all ends up with a big jam and makes for an unmissable show. I don't think this one is available to download later so if you didn't tune it you wouldn't have heard me playing practically my entire catalogue live in a disused pub - complete with some "interesting" drumming and background vocals provided by some of the visitors that night. You would also have heard a very rare cover version of California Dreamin' !! Actually the background vocalists where three super girls one of whom was amongst the squatters evicted from Mayfair during the day (you can just about make some of them out in the picture above).

I managed to get in a few plugs for my gigs and also the 15 Minute Club, Surface Unsigned and my friend Frog's nights on 2nd Thursdays at the Montague Arms. It was there playing for just over an hour so you can imagine how much I was enjoying myself.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy listening to the show as much as I enjoyed recording it, and I just want to say a big thank you to Patrick and Roxie (the producer) for making it so easy and enjoyable.

See some of you on Sunday, or at a gig real soon!

Daren
xxx