大象传媒

I've struggled to make it along to any of the gigs at this year's Celtic Connections (although I am kicking myself at not getting my act together for Bonnie Prince Billy!) so I have been enjoying the collection of videos and audio on our Celtic Connections website.

The big boss had recommended a watch of The Wrigley Sisters performing on Travelling Folk last week and they do have much to recommend them. They are great musicians obviously but they come over as really likeable and are naturally funny. I was laughing out loud watching their pre-song banter.

There's also an exclusive clip of /music/celticconnections/2012/artists/janis_ian/ singing a song she was inspired to write after meeting the Irish Songstress, Mary Black. I haven't actually seen any contemporary pictures of Janis so it came as a bit of a shock to see a wee white haired woman and not the Janis I remembered.

Talking of Mary Black, she could fit tomorrow night's theme as both her father and mother were successful folk musicians. The theme is 'sons and daughters' which was inspired by the fact that Lisa Marie Presley celebrates her birthday tomorrow. I can't promise we will play her hit but any theme that slows me to shoehorn in some Rufus and Teddy has got to be a good one.

Yes, it's your Uncle Vic in for Bryan again tonight, and what a theme I have for you my lovelies. This week in 1949, RCA Records issued the first ever 45rpm single. It was a revolution (pardon the pun!) as the invention of this size of record made jukeboxes possible. People could have then even more fun in public, throwing their selections on in bars, pubs, clubs and coffee shops. Since then, the 7" single has become iconic and sold hundreds of millions of copies... and refused to die. Currently it's going through a bit of a revival with bands and labels producing them in their droves, and young and old vinyl junkies lapping them up. It's amazing a little bit cool that in this digital age, people still love that black shellac! Tonight I want to know. What's your favourite 45rpm single? What was your first? What's the most recent purchase? Or what's the single you always play on a jukebox? Basically, it's a celebration of the round, shiny, 2 sided single. Get it in & I'll get it on!

Burns night has turned into Burns week for us as we've had so many folk get in touch asking to be invited back for next year's supper. Let's hope we can do it again and make it even bigger than this year.

If you are having a delayed Burns Supper then go to the programme page for Get It On and you can watch clips of our speeches or listen again to the entire show and create your very own Burns supper in the living room.

On Monday's show you can expect to hear from Slow Hand, The Boss, The Prince of Darkness and maybe even The Forces Sweetheart. Nicknames is the theme and whilst we are encouraging official nicknames I am sure a few of the bloggers will come up with their own... just as long as the ginger whinger is not among them!

Apologies for lack of a posting yesterday which honestly was nothing to do with a post Burns whisky hangover. Although Miss B and I did split the content of a buckshee bottle of wine. It was such a good night that I think we all felt a small refreshment was in order. It's what Rabbie would have wanted.

I mentioned on air tonight that I wanted to do something different for the last Friday in every month and the plan is to do a topical theme based on one of the month's big news stories.

For January I thought we could use the stramash over the independence poll as our inspiration, so the theme will be packed with fights, rows, heated arguments and the odd slap. Just what you need to start your weekend eh!

I鈥檝e just been sent an email with details of 鈥楾he Bard on 大象传媒 Scotland鈥� which has news of our own Burns supper, Tam Cowan鈥檚 TV documentary, What Burns Did For Me and 大象传媒 Alba鈥檚 promising sounding music show where some of the top Nashville women pay tribute to Burns. However, I am shocked that the powers that be have chosen to overlook what might be the finest tribute to the great man that has appeared on the 大象传媒 all year.

I know most of the regular bloggers will have read this already but I felt it deserved it鈥檚 own posting so it can be enjoyedby Burnsian scholars far and wide. DC and Gaie we salute you鈥�

Fair fa' yer honest sonsie face,
Great Chieftans o' the Blogging Race,
Abune them aw ye tak yer place,
Mail, Text or Facebook,
Aw your music is good taste,
Fae Gong tae Dr Hook

听

Springsteen, Bowie, Floyd and PIL
Kassidy, Lulu, Jansch and Tull
We mak' oor lists, we mak' them still
Tho' themes repeat
Of space and colours we've had oor fill
Lost jotter indeed!

Folk tell o whit they're aboot tae eat
Risotto or quiche, langoustine or meat
A glass o' wine seems the norm no' a treat
Nae common ale!
In kitchens a' ower they jig tae the beat
Or text wi' a tale

No' a' folks are eagerly clearing their plate
Some drivin' hame or stuck on the M8
Or rushin' wi' weans tryin' no' tae be late
To karate class
It helps when the songs and tunes are a' greaaayyyt
Then we're no sae fasht

We tune in efter six wi' oor lugs pinned back
We're hopin' tae hear that favourite track
We've ploughed our collection, looked through the stack
Spotified or Googled
We want sangs and mair sangs, nae yakety yak
Keep the gigglin' frugal!

The groaning producer鈥檚 here again
Her hurdies? Dinnae mention them,
She tries her best, but it鈥檚 aye the same
Playlist debate
Blog sangs ignored again an again
Fae six til eight

Bryan鈥檚 knife see rustic labour dight,
Cuts playlist up wi' ready sleight,
鈥漌e鈥檙e no playin that the nicht!鈥�
Babs, take a look!
Switch on the Mac an hae a sicht,
What鈥檚 on Facebook 鈥�

Then, sang for sang, they stretch an' strive:
Deil tak the bloggers! On they drive,
Till a' the weel-kaint sangs revive
In themes like 鈥淒rums鈥�;
Then auld Burnett, maist like to rive,
Bethankit! Hums.

鈥漌e鈥檒l hae tae pit on Blondie noo
An鈥� sangs that widnae flee a coo!鈥�
Proclaimers? Thon wad make ye spew
An thump yer fist,
Wha鈥� takes a sneering, scornfu' view
O鈥� sic a playlist?

Poor devils! Listenin tae sic trash,
As feckless as wither'd rash,
What they鈥檙e needin鈥檚 a guid whip-lash,
Tae bring them roond!
Nae mair tracks like 鈥淢onster Mash鈥� :
Play Bloggers soonds!

For mark the Blog, they urnae dull,
Their trembling earth resounds tae Tull,
Bragg an Floyd, turn them up full
An shake the trees
Liked fae Fife Ness tae Soond o Mull,
Wick tae Dumfries .

Ye Pow'rs, wha鈥檚 playlist taks the air,
And dishes oot this bill o' fare,
Beeb Scotland has tae take mair care;
They鈥檝e waited long
Hear the Bloggers gratefu' prayer
An鈥� Get It On!

There should be a load of dusting done tonight and thanks to your musical suggestions, household tasks need never be a chore again. Lots of good ones tonight and also some brilliant puns. 'Save All Your Dishes For Me' is still my favourite. Tomorrow I'll be looking for your suggestions of the artists who have been lucky enough to have more than one go at fame. It might be people who have been part of a band then gone solo but I'm really interested in those who have adopted different personas to make it big. Although, saying that, the only one I can think of at this point is Alvin Stardust. Let's see if you can improve on that.

We are all pretty excited about the GIO interactive Burns supper on Wednesday night and I hope that lots of you will 'play' along. You provide the haggis and we will take care of everything else.
There will be an element of live music in the show but I also would like your help in compiling the playlist. Obviously we want a fair smattering of the Bard's best works but we want to keep that same mix that we normally get on the show. So, who are the contemporary scots who might have gained the critical approval of Rabbie?
From King Creosote to Amy McDonald there's a huge list of talented young Scots who could fit the bill.
Feel free to post over the next few days as we won't be taking request on the night. We are looking forward to seeing what you come up with as the bloggers do Burns...

I didn't realise how keen you are on singing along. On tonight's show I was asking for the first song that you learned all the way through and I actually wasn't sure how many folk had actually bothered to do that. Instead we were swamped with all kinds of great stories from wee girls belting out Lena Zavaroni on the swings to tales of Long haired Lover From Liverpool being sung on the stage at the British Legion in Thurso. It was a wonderful show to be part of so thanks once again to all who took part.

Tomorrow night I can promise you a night of escapism so if you have had a rotten week then this is the show for you. Songs about escaping is the theme and now the blog is up and running again there will be no stopping you...

Miss Babs here - hurrah the blog has sprung back into action this morning! Apologies for the difficulties we had yesterday.

Tonight we want you to confess to the first song you could sing all the way through - now we're not meaning nursery rhymes - so Row Row Row the Boat, Twinkle Twinkle don't count. I think it's going to be a challenging theme for Bryan.
There's nothing more he likes than to belt out a lyric as the songs are on in the studio each night, but I've seldom heard him manage to get the words right for the first line far less a whole verse or song.
He did however, manage to perform at Hogmanay with That Swing Sensation and was word perfect for Ain't That a Kick in the Head - but hopefully he can reveal later what the other song is that he knows all the way through!

A starry show tonight and packed with great tunes. It was good to hear from actual stargazers including our own Frank in Denny who was getting in a plug for Stirling Observatory. Seemingly Coates observatory in Paisley is worth a visit as well.

Tomorrow the theme is performing producers and although Miss B does a good turn I am more thinking along the lines of Calvin Harris. There are tons of examples from Daniel Lanois to Trevor Horn alongside contemporary producer/performers like Timbaland. I have a feeling that this theme could be one for the musos although that is not a bad thing. Might be a night for sneaking a look at the credits of old CD sleeves.

Thanks for all the great suggestions that came in for our week of themes inspired by classic albums. I really enjoyed having a theme that runs all week so we will try and do something similar soon. On Monday, Stargazing LIVE (co-produced by The Open University) returns for a second three-night series on 大象传媒 Two set to encourage everyone - from the complete beginner to the enthusiastic amateur - to make the most of the night sky. It's inspired us to have an all-star line-up on Monday with songs like Lucky Star, Swinging on a Star and of course Don Mclean's tribute to Vincent. I also want to mention our Burns night show which is going to be a gathering at 大象传媒 HQ with free haggis and some great 'turns'. I do hope a few of our bloggers will come along and be part of it. You'll get more details on the 大象传媒 tickets website and the draw for tickets opens up on Monday.

From Lambeth Walk to London Boys, tonight's show was a whirlwind tour of the Olympic city. We had some really fun things on tonight's playlist ( Pop Goes The Weasel) alongside some genuinely brilliant bits of songwriting. Rainy Night in Soho was a great showcase for Shame McGowan. I think the amount of suggestions we had tonight proved that London, like New York is an inspiring city for musicians of all kinds.

Tomorrow's classic album is My Generation and I'm looking for the artists who you think summed up your generation. As we have such a broad range of age groups who listen to the show we could end up with either Joe Loss or Justin Beiber.

You know it's been a good show when you have two hours of good stuff...that you didn't get to play. Predictably, I loved the mix of tunes but I really hated having to make tough decisions about who to leave out. Sorry if that ended up being one of your favourites.

Tomorrow's classic album is London Calling so I'm looking for your suggestions of songs that mention the big smoke.

Upbeat love songs was a cracking theme and there were some really joyful tunes. It鈥檚 always good to hear the more unusual tracks and I liked this message we got from Brian Doig after playing Julie鈥檚 Blossom Dearie suggestion: 鈥淪ong of the night - Doop Doo De Doop... That was amazing... Never heard that before but smiled from the first beat to last... Is that not just what music is for?鈥�

Tomorrow鈥檚 classic album is Sweetheart of the Rodeo and the theme is the women of country and americana. This show should really be an embassment of riches so make sure you get in early with your top shouts鈥�

More Songs About Buildings and Food is the Talking Heads album but was also tonight's theme. Well done to all who managed to shoehorn both elements into a single song or band name like Prefab Sprout.

There were some real treasures in tonight's show as well. I loved the cover of Mansion on The Hill and we have to thank Scotch Git for unearthing Lulu's lovely cover of A House is Not a Home.

We also had a lot of good puns with my top marks going to 'Blueberry Hill' by Flats Domino!

Tomorrow's classic album is Songs For Swinging Lovers so the theme will be upbeat love songs. It will be the only love songs show where smoochies are banned.

Following the successful auditions for the Get It On band I am delighted to announce that Freddie Mercury is our lead singer. He joins a fairly random line up of musicians. I can't promise they will make beautiful music but I think the tour bus will be a great laugh.

I've really enjoyed this week of themes and it would be good to get more like this which can run across the week.

Next week's themes are themed as well. They are all based around classic albums. For instance Springsteen's Born In The USA could inspire a night of folk who were.

We will start on Monday with the suggestion which inspired this theme. It came from Suzanne in Applecross and is based on Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food. Presumably with such an obvious title you don't need me to explain what kind of songs we will be looking for on Monday?

Have a great weekend all.

We were completely oversubscribed with applications for the keyboard player vacancy in our band so it will not be possible to reply to every applicant individually! I was gutted to leave out so many great ivory twinklers and am sure many of you will be gasping with horror that Rick '3 keyboards' Wakeman didn't make it to the shortlist.

I decided to go for Jimmy Smith who really livened up tonight's show with The Cat. Besides that I thought that a Hammond Organ would sound great in our band.
Now we move on to arguably the most important role. Just who should front this band of disparate talents? Let's have your shouts for who should be the lead vocalist...

We have a bass player! There was much competition for this role and although Norman from the Blockheads, Hooky from New Order and Geddy Lee of Rush all got multiple nominations it came down to two men. It was almost going to be blogger's favourite and the man described by one listener as 'Bishopbrigg's finest' - Jack Bruce, but in the end it was Lemmy that won it.

I know there were other more credible musicians we could have installed in the rhythm section but I just thought that Lemmy would be great fun and would certainly liven up the Get It On tour bus.

So, the line up thus far is:

Lead guitar - Stuart Adamson
Mandolin - Ray Jackson ( allegedly)
Bass - Lemmy
Keyboards - TBA

Whose fingers will occupy the hallowed keys in our imaginary super-group?

Hammonds, synths and pianos all count so I'll leave it to you to decide!

Thanks for all your nominations for our Get It On super group. Going by the comments from Monday's show then I'd like to propose Stuart Adamson from Big Country as our guitar player. As far as the string section goes then it seems that the job should go to whoever played mandolin on Mandolin Wind. This might be tricky though as we are not entirely sure who it is. According to Wikipedia:

"The identity of the mandolin player on "Mandolin Wind" is unclear. The liner notes however claim that "the mandolin was played by the mandolin player in Lindisfarne" but that Rod Stewart had forgotten his name. In 2003, Ray Jackson claimed to be the mandolin player on the album, at least for the song "Maggie May." Ray Jackson is the talented mandolin player from English folk-rock band Lindisfarne .Mason attributes the mandolin playing to Martin Quittenton. The liner notes to Every Picture Tells a Story list Quittenton only as the acoustic guitar player."

From John Entwhistle to Jack Bruce, Wednesday's show turns the spotlight on great bassists, so let me know who the bloggers fancy for the job. (As if I didn't know!)

Happy New Year to all our listeners and a big thank you who still had some energy left after Hogmanay to get in touch tonight with suggestions of great guitar players.

Alongside the usual suspects of Clapton and Blackmore it was good to hear Roddy Frame and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I also thought the Wilco track was a standout.

Tomorrow we are looking for string sections for our band as well as other stringed instruments like the dobro, the banjo and the mandolin.