O DIO A R SKA PATROL MONDAY NIGHT 8pm TO 10pm (GMT) RADIO DIAL AT 90.3 FM / inet www.near.ie /http://www.mixcloud.com/SkaBop/ Now Ska and Reggae would not be top of my list but i still appreciate a well crafted set of JA that takes you on a journey. This show does exactly that and is a melange of all aspects of Jamaican music from reggae, rocksteady right up to the 2Tone era. As it’s a live show the lads are always happy for folk to text them on 00353851624482 From Anywhere In The World! There’s a Webcam in the studio too which adds another dimension.
WWW.JAZZRADIO.COM For anyone who likes jazz of whatever hue then this non stop stream will certainly see you right. Covering all aspects of Jazz from early hot dixie-land jazz up to current performers there’s something here for everyone. No commentary from presenters and the music just does not stop. I do prefer to get some detail about the tunes but as the web player contains details of title and artist theres always a chance that if you hear some new track you can look up the release. personal fave is the latinjazz stream but there’s so much here you will be spoilt for choice
COMETH THE HOUR... “It's a perfect storm, you had Wiggo winning the Tour De France, The Who are touring Quadrophenia, New York times running an article on Mod, a parade of Scooters closing off the Olympics.....it’s got to happen but unlike previous revivals it won’t happen in the UK”. Thus says Warren Peace – Radio broadcaster on the We are the Mods program on Wake the Nation radio - when I recently asked him, ‘Is there a revival in the offing?’
Peace should know – his WATM show has quickly garnered a loyal (and young) dedicated following with consistent figures of over 5000 per week. “We have listeners who tune in from as far afield as Argentina, Spain, Honduras, Colombia, Japan and even Guam these kids are not looking to London for inspiration. To them it’s old hat. Their scenes are all about their own location and they are doing it for themselves”. And Peace certainly sides with that outlook.
Although he started his Mod journey back in the eighties going through the then orthodox route of 2tone/Jam/Quadrophenia he sees that style of Mod – ‘Quad Mod’ as he terms it – as having had its day. He regularly hears of kids picking up the gauntlet and living the typical “clean living under difficult circumstances”, appropriating influences from all eras, cutting it up and putting it back together to produce a new version of Mod for the 21st century. To him the eighties Mods are middle aged both in age and aspect; “wheeling out their 5 grand lammies for a run on Sunday”. The unspoken words hanging in the air that really Mod is a youth cult.
The radio show goes out over the internet each Tuesday and is repeated regularly through the week. Backed up by some canny marketing (the show is available on an app for smart phones) via Facebook, musical policy is an open and non biased trip through all eras of Mod music whether it be original sixties or contemporary bands. “To be honest when I put it out there for bands to send me stuff so I could promote them, I had expected drivel but I consistently receive excellent music from current bands – the quality is breathtaking”. Thus some of the bands that he has been plugging of late have been French Boutik, The Move and The Town. And interspersed between the sounds is the man himself giving
his forthright views on whatever aspect of Mod has gotten his attention. Chief targets (excuse the allusion to Mod iconography there) are the aforementioned Quad Mods and in particular American middle aged Mods. I put it to him that he is like Howard Stern with the anger dripping from the radio speakers at times; “it's not for shock value....it’s stuff I passionately believe in. I took the US Mods to task in one of the early shows and I had some feedback from a few of them and I engaged with them with a result that they understood my position and I theirs. But Most US Mods are happy enough to go the pub, have a beer and then back to the house, park the bike up and that’s it for the week....I mean come on for Gods’ sake”. In one memorable interlude he went to town on one particular guy who sneeringly left a post on a pic on the FB page denying an Argentinean Mod the right to call themselves a Mod. Peace took the poster to task and after doing some research on the guy via his online profile commenced to demolish him and threw out the opportunity for a live on air debate....at time of writing there has been no pickup on the offer. Back to the subject of this revival; “there’s got to be a Face that will lead this but who is waiting in the wings? Weller is an old man with a tan, Miles Kane? I don’t think so....maybe it will be the lead singer of The Town ...who knows, but someone will become the face of Mod in the 21st century”. Is his show a rallying point – a nexus for this Gen 4 Mod Movement? “First and foremost my show is about getting a reaction, a call to awaken and recognise all that is happening in the world of Mod. I couldn’t give a toss about what’s happening in the traditional centres I’m more interested in hearing what’s going on across the world with the kids....you know Mod is first and foremost a youth cult and not some fraternity of Big Bellies and Big Wallets. My show is about giving the kids what they want to hear and it seems to be working, almost a pointing out the way”.
He rails against the older Mods protection of the movement and again the term Middle aged is bandied about, he adds; “Mod should be forward, backward, thinkingO making the best of what you can be not what you were” And I suppose that’s exactly where the show is going....its own way
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