In the paperwork, the following comments appears "The new
Culture Strategy was launched as part of the ‘Art in Barnet’ campaign and a prestigious public art trail ‘Barnet Legends’ was
commissioned with specialist public art agency Create London. The
trail unveiled 20 commemorative artworks recognising historical
figures who made an impact on the borough. 140 45 events were
hosted across our libraries team as part of the UKSPF funded
Creative Communities Programme. Activities included
intergenerational events for ‘Grandparents Week’, green activities,
a creative writing course, dance, crafts and an improvisation show
for children."
As the owner of Mill Hill Music Complex, London’s oldest
independent music studios, which has hosted artists such as Amy
Winehouse, Kate Nash, Flo and Raye, seeing all win prestigious Brit
Awards, can I ask why local arts providers have not been contacted
with regards to this initiative. Surely the musical history of Barnet
should be properly celebrated and the contributions of these
amazing artists, with strong Barnet links should have been
recognised. I am also interested as to whether local artists were
engaged to produce the art works.
Dr Aashish Bansal also asked a public question. I received the following response from Barnet Council.
Further to the email below, you are welcome to attend the Cabinet meeting this evening. At the meeting, the Chair will provide a response in relation to your question. Following which, you may if you wish ask a supplementary question in respect of the response given. Further details about the meeting can be found here: https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=1010&MId=11718&Ver=4
I hadn't realised but this was the first time I have asked a question of the Labour administration, elected in 2022 and the first question to Cabinet since Richard Cornelius, former Tory Leader abolished the Cabinet system over a decade ago, in an attempt to improve transparency at Barnet Council. The Tories, for all their faults, would always provide a written answer, and you could decide whether to ask a follow up question. You also had time to compose it. I was shocked to learn that if I wanted to know the answer, I had to turn up in person. I also had no time to compose a thought out response.
When I approached the chair, I specifically requested that responses from the committee be properly minuted and recorded. I was under the impression that this was agreed. However, when I reviewed the link above, there was no mention of what the member (Councillor Anne Clarke) who responded said.
I have long been critical of the Cabinet system in local government. It means that decisions are made behind closed doors, without proper scrutiny from councillors. It makes councillors who are not in the cabinet largely redundant (not that their allowances reflect this). When Labour were elected, I suspected that they would have a few faults and make a few mistakes, but I did not anticipate that the would make the previous Tory regime look like a model of transparency and accountability.
It is clear to me that the reason that we no longer get proper responses and what we do get are not properly minuted is because the Barnet Labour Party have no interest in public accountability. To me it reeks of contempt for the public. I am most disappointed that my fellow Barnet Bloggers have seemingly lost interest in holding the council to account. All I can say is that I will continue to do the job that has fallen on my shoulders. If we want good governance in Barnet, we need citizens who are engaged in the process. The reason Councillors of both Tory and Labour persuasions don't want engagement is because it is nice and comfy for them if we take no interest. Ten years ago, the Barnet bloggers were setting the pace in the UK in terms of public accountability. The requirement for this is stronger than ever, but no one seems interested (apart from me) in doing it. If I wasn't so bloody minded I'd give up, but sadly for our councillors, in Barnet, the land where everything is opaque, I will make the case for transparency until they listen or I can't anymore. Barnet residents deserve better, but they won't get it unless they get off their arses and put some work in.
Stick with me on this. Although it may seem like it, this is not a blog about my band and music. It's just that it is the best way to illustrate what is going through my head right now. Life is strange. I was chatting to a former musician in the pub on Friday night. Nice chap, used to play the Trumpet. He stopped playing when he was twenty two. Why? He just wanted to do other things. I was thinking about what I said and I reflected on when I was twenty two. Specifically the 24th August 1984, two days after my 24th birthday. My band, The False Dots were playing at Hendon Rugby club. I can recall nothing of the actual gig and playing, but I can recall that I was in a pretty bad place mentally. My mind had been in turmoil for a couple of months. In February, everything had seemed brilliant. The band played at Dingwalls, we acquired a manager and were promised a record deal with EMI records. We went into the studio and recorded a demo. It was pretty good, it was the first professionally produced demo we'd made. The manager said "Don't worry about anything, I'll sort it all out". We had a residency at The Bald Faced Stag in Burnt Oak, which was actually great as they paid us and it kept us focused, whilst our new manager "sorted things out". He sorted us out a gig at The Pindar of Wakefield, which is now The Water Rats. We played with several other bands and were by far the best band on the night. Various record company people were there. I think we were as on the button as we have ever been.
I expected the phone call to sign a record deal. None came. The manager didn't answer the phone. Eventually I went around to his house and asked him what was going on. His answer stunned me. Bascially they weren't interested in a band lead by a black woman. I was absolutely gob smacked. He also informed me that he was no longer interested in managing us. Some of the things he said were actually quite vile. He said that as far as he was concerned, he had thought that Venessa, our singer was the only real asset the band had and the labels didn't like her image. I queried how they could have drawn that conclusion after the totally brilliant gig they'd seen. He said "There is a big difference between entertaining a bunch of losers in a shitty London pub and having a hit record".
I'd told the band that I was going to see him. I was sharing a flat with Venessa and Bill, the guitarist. I went home with the weight of the world on my shoulders. I didn't feel able to share his comments with Venessa. They were horrible. I was angry, upset but most of all devastated. I passionately believed he was wrong about the band. One of his comments was that our material was not commercial and the quality of songwriting was appalling. As I was the main songwriter, this also was a blow. As a 22 year old, this had a bad effect and I dealt with it by going on a bit of a boozing binge. The net result of this, was that when I returned, my then girlfriend threw an alarm clock at me and I had to have 19 stitches in my head. We split up for a couple of weeks. We got back together. The next gig was at The Hendon Rugby club. It was two days after my birthday. I can recall sitting on my own, after the gig and feeling as bereft as I've ever felt in my life. I felt totally alone. I just wanted to sit there and be left alone. I think the gig was pretty good (as I said I can't remember), but I felt terrible about life.
I felt that I had to make a decision, that would affect the rest of my life. Should I walk away from music and the band. I was deep in thought. I looked around, everyone else in the band were having a great time. All our friends were there and having a great time. I was sitting on my own, having the worst time imaginable. That moment is seared into my brain. I made several extremely bad decisions that night. We did one more gig with Venessa in the band, but that line up and in my mind, The False Dots were over. I replaced the band with some rather unhealthy habits. My relationship ended. I was 22 and I ended up back at home, then my health collapsed and I spent several months in and out of hospital. At one stage I couldn't get out of the hospital bed for several weeks and had to learn to walk again.
I was lucky in that my employer was sympathetic. By March, I had got myself mentally together. I got a room in a shared house. I hadn't had a drink for six months and the money I saved, I bought a port-a-studio. I enrolled in a professional songwriting course. I had taken all of the managers comments and worked out a plan to address every aspect. I realised that the songs could be a lot better, so the course would address that. My playing was sub-standard, so I'd practice every day for 1-2 hours. EMI records didn't like my lyrics or the subject matter I addressed. I had a choice. I could write stuff that didn't mean anything to me, put together a bland band that met their current whims, or I could accept that The False Dots would always be outsiders, an indie band. I decided to chase my dream. My dream had never been to be a guitarist in a manufactured band. It had been to do gigs playing music I liked. We had always wanted to set up our own label or be on an indie label. So that would be the goal. I thought about the other criticisms of the band. I realised that they were based on the premise that we should be a bland pop band, chasing chart success. That wasn't us. I was gutted that Venessa was no longer in the band. I thought long and hard. I realised that when the False Dots did our next gig, we had to be very different from what people had seen from us before.
By the end of March, I had a plan for my life. Wheras my drinking buddy from Friday night had reached that point and stopped. I chose a different path. I was thinking clearly. I decided to get fit, to play more football (I'd only played 5 a side kick abouts since school). I stopped eating meat ( which I kept up until 2000). I am dyslexic and I always had trouble reading, but I went through a period of two years where I was reading every day. Sci Fi was the genre I chose. The songwriting course was perhaps the best thing I ever did. I learned to properly structure songs. Until that point, most of the songs I'd written were just streams if consciousness set to music. When Criag Withecombe was in the band, he was a good arranger and insisted that the songs had structure, but when he left, we lost that. I realised that the managers comments about bad songs, was more about the arrangement than the actual content.
I came to realise that with the False Dots, we'd tried to do too much, too soon. We hadn't sorted the songs out to the level where they had proper arrangements. My plan had simply been to get the band gigging, hope someone noticed us and gave us a shedload of money and it would all come together. It doesn't work like that. We needed properly arranged songs, with strong hooks. We needed a proper look. We should have targetted the labels etc that we wanted to work with and made a compelling case, based on strong catalog of recordings. In short, if you want to succeed in music, you need to have a proper plan. Much as I hated the guts of the manager, by March 1985, I realised he'd done me the biggest favour of my life.
Where I am now musically!
This morning, as I often do, I was at the 8.30 mass. As I often do, I was thinking about all of this. I had a realisation. You'd think that as a 62 year old, the penny would have dropped long ago. I got to thinking "If I am lucky, I have fifteen years of healthy active life. I have no plan for this at all". Sure I've paid into a pension, I have investments etc. But what do I want to do. If there is anything I feel I should do, I need to get a plan together. Just as I did in late 1984 and early 1985, I need to step back, take stock and get a plan, so that when I am 77 I can sit back, just as I did then and say "That was a really defining moment in my life and in music, business and life, I have got where I wanted to"
Most of the things in my life are not the result of big plans. I just stumble along and if something works, I stick with it. But if there are things to sort out and get in order, now is the time. So here's the plan. This week has been rather boozy. It was Clare's birthday on Wednesday. Next week will be a sober week. I am going to sort out all of the boring paperwork that I've been putting off. And I am going to have a long hard look at some things with a view to making sure that I have a proper plan to see me through these years. They say men make plans and God laughs. The pandemic showed me that no plan in the world can deal with everything. But if you have no plan, then everything is always chaos. So anyway, what I've expended a huge number of words saying can be succinctly summed up as "I am long overdue a long hard look at what I am doing and the time to do it is now".
Death has been on my mind over the last couple of weeks. Not because there is anything wrong with me, but I had to have a CT scan and it always makes me feel morbid. I am not worried about death, although I am not looking forward to the process that gets us there. It seems to me that there are three choices, the first is a sudden event, where you have no time to prepare. An accident etc. I don't fancy this much, although in some ways it is the least bad. The second is a horrible long illness, with lots of pain, but at least you have time to prepare, can't say that appeals. The third? Dementia, where your mind departs before the body. Is this the worst of three bad options? I suppose that in this day and age, there is also the nuclear annihilation option. In that option, possibly death is better than survival, but I don't fancy that either.
But my worries about death are far more mundane. The things that keep me awake at night are perhaps a little bit strange. Anyway, here they are.
1. What will happen to my guitars? I suspect my family have no idea of the value of them. It is a nightmare that they will give them to a jumble sale. when they are worth thousands of pounds. I really hope they check them out and get a proper price for them.
2. My comic collection, like my guitars, my missus thinks that they are a pile of rubbish, but are probably worth somewhere between £2-£5k. They need cataloging and sorting, but I have some good stuff in the cupboard.
3. My vinyl collection. Again, I suspect that the family have no idea of the value. I sincerely hope they catalog them and go through discogs. I have nightmares about them going in the bin.
4. My blog. Unlike the first three items, the nine million words here have no intrinsic value. What happens to blogs when you die? Do they just sit there until, at some point in the future, Google switches it off and you are erased from the face of the earth? I am not comparing myself to the great bard William Shakespeare, but I do wonder if he ever dreamed his works would still be performed across the globe centuries later? Will someone in the distant future, find this blog and think "My word, they worried about some strange things in 2025". I suspect that it will simply all just be forgotten, except by AI Bots that trawl the web for info on Barnet. Perhaps a fate worse than death, my efforts lining the pockets of the likes Elon Musk?
5. My music. I think I've written some cracking tunes. I had an extensive collection of songs on Myspace and they all got wiped by Myspace in a mishap. Sadly, I can't find most of the masters right now. They are in a box in cupboard somewhere. As I mentioned in a blog this week, one of the tracks we recorded in 1982 and I'd long forgotten about, turned up on a CD collection of 1980's music with female singers. It seems that once music is out there, it can develop a life of its own. If anything of me is remembered after I go, I do hope it is my music.
6. My funeral. One thing I hate about funerals is how nice everyone is about the corpse. The idea that everyone will be sipping sherry saying what a lovely man I was actually rather disturbs me. Never get me to write your eulogy. I enjoy the naughty bits in peoples histories,the bits they'd rather not have read out.
7. My studios. I have an ethos and I believe in supporting young musicians. To me that is more important than being rich. I doubt that whatever happens, Londons musicians will have such an advocate. I care and it bothers me.
8. My garden. I love my garden. As old Mill Hillians move out, their homes are being bought by people wanting to develop and turn a quick buck. Gardens are destroyed. It breaks my heart to see trees and bushes chopped down and horrible paving put in. Although the M1 is not everyones idea of a good thing, the marginal area between the M1 and my garden is a haven for wildlife. Sadly, there are less and less trees etc for birds to shelter in as greedy bastards clear their gardens and build illegal dwellings on them.
9. My wife. She's brighter than me, nicer than me and I am sure she'll be absolutely fine, but I worry about scammers relieving her of my valuable possessions for less than they are worth. I am also pretty sure that when I'm gone, she'll suddenly realise how much better life is without me moaning and grumping.
10. My kids. They'll be fine, but I worry like hell about them. That is my biggest worry, I put it last, as I think you could guess that anyway and its a bit boring really
I do hope I live long enough for The False Dots next gigs ! There's no real reason I shouldn't that I know about anyway
And with the Friday Joke out of the way, onwards and upwards with the music round up. You can keep up to date with all the latest Barnet Music news at theBarnet Music facebook page.
We'll start with a date for your diary! My band, The False Dots are hosting a Ska night with DJ Rebska at the Builders Arms in Barnet on Satuday July 12th. It's free! What could be better.
And we have the East Barnet Festival coming up. This week our featured artist is the rather wonderful Grace Jackman
This series is not about reviews, it's about my experiences of being in The False Dots since 1979, and the stories that sprang up over the years from the band. It might seem very strange to anyone who has just recently learned about the band and I am sure it will come as a shock to many to learn of the pivotal influence of Fleetwood Mac on the band! Let me explain.......
Cast you mind back to July 1982 (if you can remember that far back). The band had just parted company with our drummer Mark Barnett. Myself, Paul Hircombe and Craig Withecombe were trying to work out a way forward. Music was in a rather strange, post punk state. One of my punk heroes, Captain Sensible of The Damned was No 1 in the charts. Vindication? Not at all. He had recorded a version of Happy Talk, from the musical South Pacific. It had always been one of my Dad's favourite songs. Watching The Captain perform it on Top of The Pops, with my parents telling me "We love Captain Sensible, he knows a good song when he hears one and knows how to have fun!". My Dad, to my absolute horror, suggested that it was time for The False Dots to do a similar re-invention. He told us about how he'd seen Oklahoma on Broadway in 1942, when he'd been in New York and suggested that there were some banging tunes to check out. Reinvention....
I went for a beer with Paul to discuss the future. We went to a pub in Maida Vale, then around the corner to visit his mate Shawn, who had a Squat near there. A cup of tea and smoke ensured. As often happened, a hippy guitarist joined us. He was ten years older and treated us with disdain. We were not proper musicians. Proper music was the blues. Shawns girlfriend then put Rumours by Fleetwood Mac on the turntable. She exclaimed that this was the best album ever recorded. The Hippy turned his ire on her. "That is not Fleetwood Mac!". All of us young whippersnappers were rather surprised. It clearly was, it was the best selling album of all time, and was a monster of a record. I didn't really like it, but you can't really argue with the fact that it was Fleetwood Mac. She retorted "Yes it is, here's the cover, it says Fleetwood Mac on it". The hippy retorted "Without Peter Green, it is not Fleetwood Mac!". None of us had a clue what he was on about. So he gave us a lecture on how legendary blues guitarist Peter Green had been a member and they'd been the best band ever. Then he left and these horrible whiny girls and some Americans had joined and completely ruined the band. Shawn's girlfriend retorted "But no one had ever heard of them before and now they are the biggest band in the world". This was too much for the Hippy. He just said "Albatross!". This was an instrumental that had been a number one in 1968. I knew the track. It is pleasant enough, He then listed a few other tracks, such as Black Magic Woman (I knew the Santana cover) and a couple of other numbers that I'd never heard of. The guy was getting on my nerves. He was a very passive-aggressive bully and I didn't like the way he was patronisingly attacking Shawns girlfriend, talking to her like an idiot and being utterly condescending.
I was an avid reader of the music press and I knew my mustard. I said "Rumours has been acknowledged as one of the best produced albums of all time and structurally, the songs have been recognised as absolute masterpieces. Are you seriously saying that a track such as Albatross is technically better as a recording than The Chain and the ending is even used as the Formula 1 music". As with many bullies, when faced with someone standing up to them, they back down. He simply said "You like punk rock, what do you know?". I replied "Is that all you can say to defend your position? Explain why Albatross is better than the Chain technically, if you can". At that he hurrumphed and walked off. We all just laughed. Shawn said "I didn't know you even liked Fleetwood Mac", I replied "I don't really but he was getting on my nerves". However, I knew that Mr Dippy Hippy would come back at me next time I saw him, so I borrowed a copy of Rumours and had a proper listen to it. My sisters boyfriend also had a copy of an early Fleetwood Mac album with Peter Green. I listened to both several times. There is no denying that the early incarnation of the band are a brilliant blues band. There is also absolutely no doubt that the band that recorded Rumours was a total re-invention of the band that recorded Black Magic Woman. Re-invention.....
I never saw the hippy again. Paul told me that he'd told Shawn and his girlfriend that I was a 'heavy dude' and he'd be giving me a wide berth. At the next False Dots rehearsal, we were discussing the way forward for the band. I mentioned how I'd been listening to Fleetwood Mac and was intrigued by how they'd reinvented their sound. Craig got really excited by this. Paul then interjected that his mum had a friend, who had a daughter who was looking to join a band. Craig suggested that she could do backing vocals on some of the numbers and lead on others. He suggested that this would give us a massive step up musically, as none of us were great singers. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea, especially Craigs enthusiasm. After Craig departed the rehearsal, I had a long chat with Paul about it. He said "Rog, since the Sweden tour, we've been going nowhere. We are better musicians now and we need something to spark us off again". He added "Look, if she's no good, we'll just chuck her out and do something else". Paul never really said much, but when he spoke, he was always spot on.
For Craig, the ideal of working with the new singer was super exciting. He wrote a couple of rather catchy pop songs (that I hated), which she sung rather well. He then came up with a master stroke. When Pete Conway had been in the band, we had a dull, gloomy dirge of a song called "Suburban Dance". It was our 'psychedelic number'. Craig had been listening to Nial Rodgers and suggested we put a funk beat and Nial Rogers guitar feel to it. I was sceptical, but Paul liked the idea of funky bassline. We had just recruited a new drummer, Bill Lucas, who was a technically brilliant Jazz drummer. We played it and it was one of those moments where we all just looked at each other and knew it worked. It seemed we were lumbered with the singer, as it was clear it could work. I then wrote a song called A memory for you, after my sister Val had a terrible accident and nearly died. I had listened to Rumours to try and get some ideas. The song was slow and meant to be haunting. Technically, it was one of the most complicated songs the False Dots had ever performed. We went to a studio in Sydenham and recorded the two songs as a demo, in an all night session. We were well rehearsed and when we got home and listened to the demo, there was no argument. It was brilliant.
I played it to a few friends. They couldn't believe what they were hearing. It really was a very different sound. We presented it to a company called 101 Records. They said they loved "A memory for you". They said they were putting a compilation record together and it was the best track they'd heard. If we gave them £500 (which was a small fortune), they'd put it on. I said I'd discuss it with the band. I didn't. A week later, I rang them up and said "Look, we've not got £500 so we can't do it". After much haggling, they agreed £100 and we'd get five copies of the album (one each). The band all liked the idea of owning a record they'd played on, So we signed up. Then we waited. The album didn't come out. The band relations became more and more strained. The singer decided that Craig was a genius and I was an idiot. A band meeting was called. I had tired of the singer by this point. She was extrememly difficult to work with. When Craig presented a new song, she embraced it enthusiastically. When I introduced one, she'd dismiss it, out of hand. If Craig made a suggestion, it was the work of a genius, if I did, it was not to be entertained. Occasionally, Craig would agree with me and then it became a brilliant idea. At the meeting, she announced "Look, you are simply not good enough to play in this band". That was that.
My reply "Well it's my band, you are sacked, who is staying". It was no surprise to me that Craig and Bill said "We are leaving". Paul said "I'm staying" The singer was shocked. She had assumed Paul would join them. She said "But he's rubbish, why would you want to stay with him". Paul just replied "See you all later" to them. As this was going on, my then girlfriend, who I'd met through the singer, she was the singers sisters best mate, handed me a note. It simply said "******* is a complete c**t". After they left, Paul was a little bit dejected. He turned to me and said "What now?". I am not stupid. I'd seen it coming. I replied "Don't worry mate, I've got a new singer lined up. I'd heard Venessa Sagoe singing with another band. Whereas with our just departed singer, we could only really do very run of the mill pop, with Venessa, we could do anything. Absolutely anything. Anything except any of the numbers I'd co-written with the ex members that is. The False Dots were about to have another Reinvention.
A week after the split, I got a phone call to say the album was coming out with a Memory for you on it. I was sent five copies and I bought another one at the Virgin Megastore, just for the hell of buying my own record. I've no idea if the ex members ever knew it came out. I've not spoken to Craig since. I saw Bill in a gym ten years later and the singer actually worked at a company I had an IT contract at. We met in the lift. She said "Are you Roger Tichborne". I simply said "Yes". She said "Oh" and looked at her feet.
Anyway, here for your delectation, here is a Memory for You. It has actually become a minor cult classic and was included in a CD of Female lead bands of the early 1980's, released by a US radio station last year (without my knowledge).
And here is what we morphed into, within three month of the re-invention!
This morning, my mind went back to that chat with the hippy in Maida Vale. I thought he was wrong then and I think he's wrong now. Bands can and should re-invent themselves when there are line up changes. By all means, it's fine to prefer one line up over the other, but bands need to move on, develop etc. It is widely reported how much the members of Fleetwood Mac argued. The line up with that singer was really the only one where we had the experience of hating each other after the split (at least on my part). The whole thing with that line up was in my mind, for a very long time, an abberation that I wished to forget completely. I can only really remember the two songs we recorded. I can listen to the now, without immediately switching them off, but I don't think I'll ever remember that period with warmth.
I have written many blogs in the last three years about how the senior management of the BBC are completely incompetent and how they have deliberately set about to ruin what I use dto consider the jewel in their crown, BBC Local Radio and in particular BBR Radio London, which I consider to be "my station".
The figures back me up.the total number of weekly listeners has decreased, falling from around 8.6 million in the year to March 2022 to 7.4 million this year. A google enquiry about RAJAR figures reveal the following
"BBC Radio London has experienced a decrease in listeners over the past three years. Recent RAJAR figures show a decline in reach and listening hours for the station. In the most recent quarter, BBC Radio London lost 61,000 listeners, a 13 percent fall, and 782,000 hours (down 40%). This trend is part of a broader pattern of declining listenership for BBC local radio stations, according to reports.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Decline in Reach:
BBC Radio London has experienced a decrease in the number of people tuning in, with a 13% drop in reach (the number of unique listeners).
Drop in Listening Hours:
The total time people spend listening to the station has also decreased, with a 40% fall in listening hours.
Impact of Cost-Saving Measures:
The BBC has implemented cost-saving measures including job cuts and newsroom sharing, which may be contributing to the decline in listenership across local stations.
Longer-Term Trend:
The latest figures are part of a pattern of decline for BBC Radio London, suggesting a need for the station to adapt to changing audience preferences and the competitive landscape. ""
These figures are appalling. Of course, I am sure the people who made the changes to programming will claim it's been an enormous success and it is just what they wanted, but anyone with a brain larger than a Higgs-Bosun particle will know the truth. I speak to hundreds, if not thousands of musicians every year at my studios. These people are the core of Londons music and creative scene. They all say exactly the same thing. BBC Radio London has ceased to have any artistic relavance at all to them. There was a time when the station was at the very forefront of London's music scene. DJ Gary Crowley was at the heart of the Britpop movement, championing and putting bands such as Blur and Suede on the radio and giving them a champion. Robert Elms used to be on six days a week and would have artists in most days, many doing live sessions in his studio. He was the first DJ to play Amy Winehouse. The managers, in their wisdom slashed Elms hours in half and there simply isn't time in the schedule for new artists. They also imposed a dreadful playlist on the station.
There are still talented presenters on the show, but the show formats completely neglect Arts and Music. Robert Elms does his absolute best working under the restrictions he faces, but his show worked a million times better when he had more air time. Gary Crowley is banished to an hour on Saturday Lunchtime. He plays great music, but there is simply no time in the schedule for championing new artists. The management claim that they have addressed this by having a special show dedicated to new London artists "Jess Izzat presents her BBC Music Introducing show on BBC Radio London, which airs on Saturdays from 8-9pm. The show features new music from London artists. "
This simply shows how out of touch the BBC management are with young music fans in London. The type of people who are into new music will be out at gigs at this time. If they gave Jess a two hour show, Monday to Thursday, showcasing artists, getting guests in to talk about forthcoming gigs, I might conclude they were serious, but the whole format and concept of her show is totally ridiculous. This is no reflection on Jess, who does very well in a limited time. I am not some fool simply shouting about a subject that I know nothing about. I run one of London's leading rehearsal spaces. Yesterday, we had artist such as Echobelly, Steve Monti (former drummer of Ian Dury and The Blockheads, and legendary Jazz bassist Alison Rayner amongst the 32 studio bookings we had yesterday. Of those, 24 bookings involved artists rehearsing for shows/tours etc. We are just one studio in London, there is is so much going on.
For most new artists, it is online, niche stations that are playing their music and showcasing them. DJ's such as Ian Griffiths on Rock Radio UK play all manner of up and coming artists, doing telephone interviews and giving them a good plug, but the BBC which is a taxpayer funded organisation, allegedly supposed to promote culture in the UK just doesn't seem interested, at a management level, in promoting London's arts. We are all stakeholders in BBC Radio London. We pay taxes that fund it. If they got it right, the station could be dynamic and drive London's art and cultural scene. Sadly, there is no space at all in the show briefs for that, apart from the morning and early afternoon shows at the weekend.
What is interesting is that there was a 13% fall in listeners after the changes, but a 40% fall in hours listened to. It is clear to me that people are still tuning into interesting shows such as Robert Elms and Gary Crowley, but giving much of the rest of the content a wide berth. I am all for giving new presenters a chance, but it is pretty clear that the management are for some bizarre reason dead set on content that is dull as dishwater. I find it truly bizarre that presenters such as Eddie Nestor, who is quirky, funny and feisty is not encouraged to do more arts content. Eddie has DJ'd at Madness events and would be amazing if he was given regular arts features and guests in the studio, as Robert Elms used to have, doing live sessions, talking about music. If Eddie had regular slots with new and established London artists, I think it would be great listening. But sadly, when his management read this, they won't agree, they will just reach for the BBC book of excuses as to why the changes have actually been a marvellous success.
The reason why the BBC funding and Licence fee is constantly under attack is because people like me, who love the corporation with a passion and love BBC Radio Londo are given no ammunition to hiot back at the right wing polemicists who's agenda it suits to attack the BBC and claim it is the devil incarnate. When BBC London was putting the likes of Amy Winehouse on the map, it was easy. It isn't anymore.
And I will finish this by just mentioning a little project we've been doing at Mill Hill Music Complex studios recently. We have been building a Spotify playlist of all the artisgt who have used the studios over the years. Check this out and let us know what you think. I very much doubt you'll hear any of these brilliant artists on BBC Radio London today (unless Eddie Nestor plays one just to prove me wrong).
