Tag Archives: sheffield live music

Some ‘this week’ music picks from Sheffield Live presenters

Sheffield Live’s schedule features current affairs, comedy, sport, film reviews – and of course all sorts of music. What have our presenters and volunteers been listening to this week? A few picks:

Chris Welch of Sounds Like This (Sundays, 5 – 7pm): Sophie – ‘Bipp’ – “Big ‘n’ brashy and stays on the right side of cheese,” and Pipes – ‘Crooked Love’ – “Crunchy soulful house from a Sheffield legend.” Sounds Like This podcasts.

Laurence Peacock of the Communities Live (weekdays 12 – 1) team: “I’ve been enjoying Gillian Welch‘s album The Harrow and The Harvest, which I discovered via Max Munday’s “Introducing” interview with Pete David on Americana. Current fave track is Dark Turn of Mind: equal parts soulful and mellow.”

Alex Bassett of the LGBT Hour (every Wednesday, 2 – 3pm): Make it Stop (September’s Children) by Rise Against. “From album Endgame, it is about LGBT people committing suicide and how the band want it to stop because they are getting bullied for being who they are and they say it’s wrong because there is nothing wrong about it. The track is based on real teens who took their own lives in the month of September a few years ago.”

Lee Price of Vancouver Manouver (Saturdays, 1pm-3pm) has three picks for us:

“1. Kid Acne‘s ‘South Yorks’ – Sheffield’s multi-talented Kid Acne released this a few years back on his ‘Romance Ain’t Dead’ album.  It’s a great local take on Boogie Down Productions’ seminal ‘South Bronx’… It’s all the sounds you love from the 80’s BDP joint brought bang into this time and place.  This came from a discussion about rappers using local dialect and accents in their music.

“2. Hot For Astronomy’s ‘East Van’ – Hot chicks from East Van recount seedy misadventures on the seedy side of town over seedy electronic sounds.  Their current EP ‘Drugs Rock, Sex Roll‘ (free download) is bangin.  Literally.

“3. Moxy Fruvous ‘Gulf War Song’ – A song from the first Gulf War era with a message that stands up today, sadly.  These guys were a really entertaining Canadian pop accapella group in the early 90’s.  Really cheesy stuff, like – however this is a serious one and I let it fly last week.  Jian Ghomeshi from the group looms large nowadays as a media figure in Canada, being a journalist and presenter for the CBC and other media.”

The Hot for Astronomy and Moxy Fruvous tracks featured on the 7th September edition of Vancouver Manouver and Kid Acne’s ‘South Yorks’ was on the 31 August show. Podcasts are here.

Jamie Veitch (presenter of Steel Fingers, Steel Wheels on Saturday at 10am): “Today’s show featured a track from Adam and the Ants’ first (and completely different to the rest) studio album, Dirk Wears White Sox. The track was Digital Tenderness. Also played Nick Drake, The Payroll Union, and La Roux on the show.” Podcast is here.

Graham Marshall of Spirit of the Wapentake (wednesdays, 5 – 7pm): “This week both Sinead and I indulged ourselves. Sinead’s favourite track was ‘There She Goes’ by The La’s. It takes her back to when she was young(!) My track of the week was the very last on this week’s show, the live version of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.  I remember hearing it for the first time when I was a door to door breadman. One of my customers was playing it at full volume in his house with the windows open. It sounded amazing; don’t think his neighbours were as enthusiastic for some reason.” Listen to both on the podcast of this week’s show.

Andy Cooper of the Communities Live team: “This week Rednex‘s biggest hit ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ has been going around my head. Ex Rednex singer Julie Anne (AKA Scarlet) is now a solo-artist, writer and producer, and was a guest presenter with Charlotte and myself on Communities Live’s 12 September show. Also Emily Heath’s Cliffdiving has proven very catchy – and Emily was a fabulous interviewee on the show on Thursday.” Listen to Communities Live, 12 September, including guest presenter Scarlet and interview with Emily.

Dale Le Fevre of the Max Chance Show (Tuesdays, 5pm) and (sometimes) the Mix Tape Show – 6pm on Tuesdays: “Last Tuesday I played ‘Autobahn’ by Kraftwerk on the Mix Tape Show, first track. It’s a 23 minute track and I like it because it brings back memories of when I first moved to San Francisco. A guy I met there liked the track a lot. I’m not crazy over it, but I do like it and find it interesting. I came across it again while I was in Germany at my friend Wolfgang’s. He played it and his wife, Marianne, gave him a scolding – she was trying to do something on the internet and it made her unable to concentrate. Wolfie had gone to a concert of Kraftwerk’s at a museum. He said the audience was over 80% male. Hmmn.” Listen to the Podcast.

Dave Eyre of Thank Goodness It’s Folk (Fridays, 10am – noon) The Spooky Men’s Chorale – ‘The Fiddle and the Drum’ – this week’s show also featured an interview with Nancy Kerr. Here’s the full playlist and link to the podcasts.

A few picks here from some of our presenters. Remember, if you miss your favourite programmes on Sheffield Live you can download the podcasts afterwards. And why not discover some new music by tuning into a few more shows?

Sheffield Live picks from ‘best ever’ Tramlines

Tramlines (photo courtesy of Tramlines organisers)

Tramlines (photo: Tramlines organisers)

Thousands of music lovers from inside and outside Sheffield enjoyed a lineup of over five hundred performers at this weekend’s fifth Tramlines festival.

And Sheffield Live presenters and volunteers got stuck into Tramlines – through advance interviews, performing at and organising gigs, and getting along to enjoy and to interview, artists performing at the three day festival held across outdoor stages and over 60 venues throughout Sheffield.

The music extravaganza, formerly free to attend, this year introduced charges (£6 per day or £15 for the whole weekend) for access to the main stages, to cover reductions in council funding and falls in sponsorship. But the festival, which cost around £390,000 to organise in 2012, continued to offer a huge amount of free venues – including a large stage in the Peace Gardens.

DJ Cardiac, presenter of Sheffield Live!’s Drop the Funk Drop the Bass show (every Sunday, 1-3pm), said: “a good weekend and nice to see the whole of Sheffield out and coming together for good music and good vibes.” Check out DJ Cardiac’s new Tramlines Jungle & D&B Mix here.

Graham Marshall, co-presenter of Spirit of the Wapentake (Wednesdays, 5-7pm), said: Jungle Lion in the Peace Gardens absolutely nailed it – we had a good old boogie to them. Firesuite at the Dove and Rainbow, and the Everly Pregnant Brothers playing the crowd at the Fat Cat were my highlights too.”

Payroll Union (photo: Jamie Veitch)

Payroll Union

Jamie Veitch commented “The Folk Forest at Endcliffe Park – organised for Tramlines by co-operative Regather – had a brilliant and family friendly vibe. The arts and crafts workshops and independent stalls added to the atmosphere.

“Weston Park, programmed by Big Live Event, was packed with families enjoying music, stalls and funfair rides too. Our Folk Forest and Weston Park highlights were Neil McSweeney, See Emily Play, Barrule and Payroll Union – all utterly superb.

“Sad to miss Wolf Alice, Jim Jones Revue and David J. Roch – but the downside of Tramlines is you can’t be in two places at once!”

See Emily Play: Emily Ireland & the Stannington Brass Band (photo: Jamie Veitch)

Emily Ireland & the Stannington Brass Band (photo: Jamie Veitch)

Emily Ireland (See Emily Play) played on Saturday afternoon in the bandstand at Weston Park with the Stannington Brass Band (and treated the audience to a solo singing and piano playing encore).

Emily told Jamie after her performance:

“Tramlines is one of my favourite weekends of the whole year…everybody comes together and there’s a real feeling of community and everybody is part of making it awesome – and it’s so nice to play to.”

Neil McSweeney, who has played every Tramlines, told Jamie Veitch “I thought it was great…I’ve done Tramlines every year but I’ve never played the Folk Forest before and I’ve always wanted to because I’ve come down here and really enjoyed the vibe…and I really enjoyed doing it…to come down and play with a whole bunch of people was a nice thing to do.”

Carl Watkins, of Dimond Ranks (one of several bands in which Spirit of the Wapentake‘s co-presenter Sinead Rankin performs) and Jungle Lion, did 2 gigs on Saturday. Carl told Jamie that “the crowd just went absolutely wild, really good atmosphere…the stage was running really smoothly, the sound was really good…absolutely fantastic…really good Tramlines…I felt the vibe everywhere.”

Dale Le Fevre – playful advocate of New Games, and presenter of the Max Chance Show (Tuesdays, 5pm) – ran four New Games sessions as part of the activities within the Folk Forest. Dale said, “this year was fantastic and better than last year with many adults and children keen to participate in the New Games sessions.”

John Smith (photo: Jamie Veitch)

John Smith

Max Munday, presenter of Mouthpiece on Sheffield Live every Wednesday, 9-11am, commented: “There was a massive network of free gigs from pubs and bars to empty warehouses and even a ‘forest’! I spent a lovely hour bathed in the haunting vocals of John Smith, a singer/songwriter from Devon who headlined the Endcliffe Park, ‘Folk Forest’ stage on Sunday evening.

“My highlight though was an incredible audio and visual installation piece in the Millennium Gallery, titled ‘Sleep Walk City’ that combined the epic electronic talents of 65 Days Of Static with projected imagery exploring the city and the political currents of repression and protest that inhabit public spaces. Music from the installation will appear on the Sheffield band’s forthcoming album when it is released in November.”

Max interviewed John Smith for Mouthpiece – listen to it this Wednesday, 24th July at 930am on 93.2fm or through our livestream, or get the podcast afterwards here (24/07/2013 / 9am edition).

Young Music‘s Natalie and Oli (co-presenters on the Local Talent Show – Fridays 4-5pm) organised a special invite-only gig for under 19s as part of the Virtual Community Network. They put 3 young bands forward: Trust Within; The Indigos; and The Yellow Van Man Band. Streamed live online (and available here) with Tramlines branding, this was a fantastic opportunity for the young bands – who had a great time.

Oli’s other Tramlines top pics were Counting Coins in the Bowery (“absolutely loved them”), Scrim and Drop Dead Angus who played at West Street Live, and DJ Seb Wildblood.

South Yorkshire Police praised the tens of thousands of visitors to the festival after the weekend passed off without trouble. Superintendent Shaun Morley said “Thanks to the help of everyone in Sheffield this weekend, we have seen a reduction in an average weekend’s alcohol-related antisocial behaviour and fewer overall incidents of criminality.”

It’s estimated that this year’s Tramlines attracted an additional 70,000 visitors to the city.

Tramlines Festival Director Sarah Nulty said: “A huge thank you to everyone who attended and made it a truly wonderful event. The fantastic weather on Friday set everyone in a great mood which lasted across the site all weekend. Musically it was a great year for Tramlines with so many talented artists on the bill. Through Tramlines we get to showcase exactly what Sheffield has to offer and we’re very proud of it.”

What next?

Cornucopia Live: The Performances!

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Well, we did it! On Saturday the 30th of October, as part of the ‘Off the Shelf’ festival, the ‘Cornucopia Radio Show’ was broadcast live from the Sheffield Winter Gardens, for 6 hours between 11am and 5pm.

The day featured poets, storytellers, comedians, performers, actors, musicians, singers and local amateur dramatic groups. Yes, it was a little chaotic (let there be no doubt about that!) but it was also pretty amazing, because amazing is the thing we do best!

Click here for an image gallery featuring every performer or click on the audio player below to listen to each and every act (and if you want to download them as individual mp3s click here)

And if you’d like to get involved in any of our future live events or help with the recording of our studio pieces, then our email address would be a good place to start: studio@cornucopia-radio.co.uk, or if that’s too hard, just try visiting the website.