Sheffield is the first place to have a dedicated forensic autopsy unit in the UK. The flagship service enables postmortems to be carried out with the use of a mouse instead of a knife. At the present time there is an additional cost attached to this service.
Charlotte Reid reports for Sheffield Live!
From a caravan in Sharrow to an FM radio station, to digital TV – community broadcaster Sheffield Live! starts a new phase in its journey today (Tuesday 23 September).
The new local channel will provide the city with local news, programming produced by local people and archive material. A founding member of Sheffield Live! Sangita Basudev, talks with Charlotte Reid about today’s launch.
Gas safety week was launched today at The Moor Markets in Sheffield. The Road Show promotes gas and appliance safety awareness to the people of Sheffield.
Gas Safety Week is a national event which highlights the importance of checking gas appliances and making sure that people are safe in their homes.
Russell Kramer, CEO of Gas Safe Register, talks about why holding events like this are important.
Rachel Vine and David Richards report.
Fantastic, I thought, finally a new Horrors album for me to sink my teeth into, writes Jade Knox.
Having first heard the band in 2008, a year after they had brought out their garage punk style album Strange House, I had a feeling that this was the start of something glorious and continued to follow them on their musical journey.
Strange House was perfectly timed for me as that was exactly the genre I was exploring and I thoroughly enjoyed the slightly darker image of the band. With their Chelsea boots and incredible hair they brought such personality to the table at the time when nothing similar to this was really knocking about.
Gradually, over time, the group lost the look and seemed to settled for simple leather jackets and I supposed for Primary Colours and Skying I was relatively happy, they had calmed down, and so had my teen angst, so I appreciated the move to something a just a little more mellow than ‘Jack The Ripper’.
Now, on to Luminous… Well, I may have gotten older but I’m not in my eighties yet. I was SO disappointed listening to this album, the moment the first track kicked in I felt I knew what was going to happen. Songs seemed to plod along one after the other with no great enthusiasm. I can appreciate a slower more ambient track, ‘I Only Think of You’ is my all-time favourite but it’s a long shot from dull which is genuinely how I felt about the majority of this release. There was a time for me that when I heard The Horrors I would jump out of my seat and dance; songs such as ‘Scarlet Fields’ and ‘Monica Gems’ from ‘Primary Colours’ and ‘Skying’ respectively but in the case of Luminous, there was not so much of a foot tap.
I am not completely writing this album off for everyone, if you had not really followed the group from the start and this is where you are starting then maybe it will seem much more impressive. I could definitely use it to study with as nothing about it is particularly distracting or it could be a good method if you are having trouble sleeping. Some magic has definitely been lost somewhere along the road to this album for me and I don’t know whether this has been a conscious decision by the band or whether someone else may be pulling some strings to get these fellas more and more mainstream.
Hopefully when I see the band on 30/09/2014 at the lovely Leadmill the live performance may add a little bit of substance or passion that I’ve not found simply listening to the album.
GP surgery’s in Sheffield have said that they may have to close if funding cuts continue to be phased in over the next few years.
Cuts to the Minimum Income Practice Guarantee (MPIG) pose a real threat to the survival of up to five surgery’s in Sheffield.
Sheffield could see up to 13,000 patients being directly affected because of the withdrawal of MPIG funding.
The additional funding supports GP surgeries which serve populations with more complex and demanding health needs. The Government began withdrawing MPIG funding in April 2014 and plans to phase it out totally over the next seven years.
NHS England says 100 GP surgeries across the country are threatened by closure as a result, whilst the British Medical Association has warned that the number of surgeries seriously affected will be far higher.
Some practices under threat could lose more than £100 per patient per year, while others will lose £20 or £30 per patient.
Devonshire Green Medical Centre and the Hanover Medical Centre are two of the affected surgery’s in Sheffield. MPIG funding cuts could be in the region of £140,000 between them.
Staff are concerned that they may have to close. Dr Graham Pettinger, who works at both practices said: “At the moment, NHS England have a poor understanding in my view on the impact this is going to have on practices and the patients in Sheffield and across the country on a whole.” Dr. Pettinger continues “This is an extremely serious threat to our survival – if we are unable to find replacement money then the practice may have to close its door to the patients and the community.”
Paul Blomfield, MP for Sheffield Central, challenged Health Minister’s on this issue. He said: “Local GPs have expressed serious concerns to me about the consequences of this vital funding being withdrawn. The Health Minister’s answer to my question was shockingly complacent. He’s putting patients at risk and I’ll now be seeking a meeting with Ministers to press this issue further.”
Mr Blomfield added “Our local GP surgeries are the first port of call for most people who are unwell or have health difficulties. No-one wants to see service cutbacks having to be made which is why I’m raising this issue now before the situation gets critical. The Government should be talking to GP surgeries now and rethinking this decision.”
A spokesperson for the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw area team of NHS England, said: “We are committed to making sure patients have access to high quality GP services. The minimum practice income guarantee (MPIG) payment is being phased out to make funding for GP services more fair for everyone.” They continued “This is a national plan. Future funding for GP services will be based on the numbers of patients that a GP practice serves and the health needs of those patients. These changes started in April this year and will happen over a seven year period.”
Dr Graham Pettinger speaks to Sheffield Live! George Torr
JB Gill, former member of the band JLS today helped launch Sheffield Colleges new Show Business School. Speaking to Sheffield Live!, JB Gill shared his thoughts on who the course might appeal to.
“The course is obviously going to help people who want to be artists, dancers or singers, but it’s also going to be an opportunity for people who don’t want to do that; those who want to manage the artists or want to work on stage in a theatre. There’s so much here for people to tap into”.
Today also marks National NVQ day, an annual celebration of vocational qualifications. Earmarking such qualifications as the one gained through the show business school, Julie Byrne, Principal of Sheffield City College spoke of their importance and where they can lead.
Courses, like this one are absolutely vital to employment growth and lead onto careers or university, and we know that employers value vocational qualifications as much as academic ones”
Gill’s enthusiasm for the course was something which resonated with students as they gathered after the session for a photo call. Queen Uwacu, 22, said “I was really impressed by the fact that JB is giving something back. That’s really important when you’re a celebrity who a lot of young people look up to”.
Aimed at assisting young people interested in breaking into the entertainment industry, the show business school offers a two year course working towards a vocational Extended Diploma equivalent to 3 A-Levels. Modules including event management, music production and public relations will be primarily taught by college business lecturers, but will also feature a number of guest lectures including at least two master classes a year from Gill himself.
JB Gill was on site this afternoon to host an hour-long Q&A session to share his knowledge and insider expertise on what to expect from the entertainment industry,telling themhis own experiences which have led to him claiming Brit and MOBO awards along the way.
Full details regarding course content and entry requirements can be found on the Sheffield College website http://www.sheffcol.ac.uk/
JB Gill speaks to Sheffield Live! Sam Newton
Review: Back to Verona, West Street Live, 25/02/14 by Jade Knox
After meeting these lads while I sat in on the Local Talent Show on 28/02/14 (podcast of this show – featuring an interview with three of the band – is here), I wanted to see the band in action and showed my support at West Street Live last Tuesday, writes music-loving Sheffield Live listener, volunteer and gig correspondent Jade Knox.
I’d been intrigued by them initially by the range of different genres they appeared to move through, and in the Sheffield Live! studio I heard three tracks that all felt entirely different. The vocals of one of the tracks played in the studio reminded me of one of my old favourite bands Avenged Sevenfold – a pretty big compliment.
Arriving the at the gig I managed to catch a couple of bands before Back To Verona played their headlining set. It became apparent very suddenly why the group took the top slot. Musically and vocally the band outshone any previous acts I saw that evening a thousand times over, it was a completely different ball game. The entire group performed confidently and looked as if they were having an amazing time whilst doing so – which in turn made me have a wonderful time too! Stage presence and audience interaction is something I will always mention as I find it can truly make or break a gig but Back To Verona were very likeable and fun to watch.
Back to Verona – click to view at full size. Photos © Jade Knox
Although it is clear the band are still deciding on their sound, elements of every genre they have experimented with have been spot on. It was mentioned in the interview on the Local Talent Show that there had been a change in relation to band members and I must say if the group dynamics weren’t beautiful before – they certainly are now. I look forward to seeing where these guys go because I’m certain it will be far.
Luckily West Street Live had no issues with me bringing my DSLR and I was able to take a few shots of the band at the gig.
“I’m proud to live in a city that has Sheffield Live! as one of its home-grown radio stations. It is a wonderfully diverse and interesting service with something for everyone.”
Wow! We’re very appreciative of these wonderful words from Sheffield Live! Listeners. The comment above was one of many received in our recent Listener Survey, which we created and ran from December to mid-January to ask listeners specific questions about Sheffield Live! – and give them the opportunity to influence some future programmes.
And we’re really grateful to those of you who completed the survey. We’ve been looking at all of your comments, feedback, suggestions and requests – and we’re looking forward to using your input to help make our output even better.
We promoted the survey on air in mentions across our programmes (our weekly listener figures are about 35,000 – 40,000 adults); online on our website and to our 3000+ twitter followers and 1600+ facebook fans; and respondents had the opportunity to win one of many prizes kindly donated by local businesses (huge thanks to these businesses too, and we know how happy you have made the winners!)
What else did listeners tell us?
Listeners love the “wide range of shows” on Sheffield Live!; presenters’ passion for their music; our diversity and variety of programming; “Interesting programmes, presenters you can relate to”; our inclusivity; “Eclectic mix of stuff I wouldn’t hear on other radio stations”; “The freshness and the variety.”
Our listeners access the station through FM (about 60%), our internet livestream (about 40%), and podcasts (about 30% of listeners use the podcasts); they do so from home (over 60%), work (over 20%) and in the car (over 60%).
But who are they? Well, they’re varied in age:
Where are they?
How long have they been listening?
As far as preferences for types of show are concerned, we’ve got a schedule that most listeners love; in fact the eclectic and varied schedule was very well commented on.
We asked listeners about our coverage of many genres of music, as well as other programming (eg shows dedicated to mainstream and non mainstream sport, LGBT issues, arts, non-English language shows, film reviews, business, and more). For most of these categories of music and types of programming, most listeners think we have things about right. And there are really no areas of programming in which a significant number of listeners want us to devote less time to.
But listeners (overall) do want more local music, more comedy, more debate about social issues, more arts, and more Sheffield specific-sports coverage.
The categories where ‘I’d like more than there currently is’ significantly outscored ‘it’s about right’ were ‘Comedy’ ‘Local Music’ and ‘Talk / debate about social issues’ and ‘arts programmes’ and ‘Sheffield sports coverage’.
So we’re working to increase our coverage of these areas. We’ll be appointing a head of news as part of our cross-platform media operation with Sheffield Live Television later in the year and will be able to bring listeners regular news bulletins – on radio, tv and the website.
And we’re opening a new call for programme proposals – so if you’d like to be part of our schedule – and can offer comedy, arts, sheffield sports, local music or debate programming, please get in touch!
You can download a programme proposal form here: Radio – programme proposal form [doc] or Radio – programme proposal form [text].
We found out alot more about listeners in our survey too.
Most get around Sheffield on foot and by car – but buses, trams, bikes and taxis are all used by a significant proportion of listeners.
Listeners are active in Sheffield – regularly eating out, going to gigs, clubs and pubs, going to the cinema and theatre, shopping, exercising, and enjoying Sheffield culture:
How often do you: (results show listeners who participate at least monthly – ie daily, weekly or monthly:
Listeners are hugely loyal to Sheffield Live!, with a clear majority not listening to other stations:
And the ads on Sheffield Live! have demonstrably changed the likelihood of our listeners purchasing – with over 80% of listeners saying YES about whether a specific ad had made them “more likely to purchase from / engage with the advertiser.”
Fantastic news for our advertisers too – so do get in touch if you’d like to find out more about how to reach our amazing audience.
Sangita Basudev, chief executive of Sheffield Live!, commented:
“Thank you to all the listeners who took the time to complete our survey. We’re proud of the schedule of fantastic, diverse and rich programming on Sheffield Live! and we are thrilled that so many of you expressed such positive comments about the station and our shows. We are addressing all of the comments, constructive feeedback and suggestions that you made – which will help us to make Sheffield Live! even better for you.”
Let’s close this summary of the survey with another of those wonderful listener comments:
“Sheffield Live! is going from strength-to-strength with its strong line-up of programmes, which greatly demonstrate the diversity of Sheffield and its residents. It always provides something new and offers a refreshing break from the local mainstream commercial stations that refuse to break away from the mediocre and mundane. May it long continue!”
Now that the Council have announced their proposed changes to Sheffield’s Libraries, the Cabinet Member responsible, Councillor Mazher Iqbal, came into Sheffield Live! to the discuss the plans.
In a two-part interview with Sheffield Live’s Laurence Peacock, Councillor Iqbal discussed the the financial background of the proposed changes and the question of sustaining independent libraries.
In part two, we focused on the details of the volunteer groups who have so far come forward to take over some city libraries and the feasibility of their doing so.
You can read the council report here, including all the proposals, and from the same link you can also contribute to the consultation.
The interviews were first broadcast on Communities Live on 2/10/13.
In the interests of full disclosure, we would like to state that Sheffield Live’s volunteer presenter, who conducted the interview (Laurence Peacock) is employed by Sheffield library service.
Max Munday interviewing Richard Wright
Richard Wright – chief executive of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry – joined Sheffield Live’s Max Munday on yesterday morning’s Mouthpiece show to discuss education, training, apprenticeships – and Pink Floyd.
James Oliver of Longley College also joined Max for an interview. The programme covered the value and purpose of education – and considered how schools, apprenticeships and vocational learning prepare young people for careers and for further study. It examined these questions from the perspectives of businesses, of colleges and of young people.