I have always had a great love for Radio.
It was that mysterious and spontaneous friend who followed me where ever I went. Whose disembodied voice (at times) entertained, enlightened, enraged, enriched and enhanced my growing years in a way television could never do. Not only did I discover great new music from passionate DJ's but I was enthralled by the grand voices of the wireless such as Alistair Cook.
When I was older, I had another reason to love radio. They sometimes played my songs and that meant phone calls from long lost friends who had just heard me, letters from fans wanting to know where they could buy my records (almost nowhere as it happens...but that's another story!).
And then, of course, there were the royalties! Never a fortune, but certainly always arriving like the financial cavalry when something or other needed paying off.
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Throughout my years as a musician, songwriter and performer I have had the good fortune to do hundreds of radio promo tours. I always enjoyed them immensely. No matter that it was at 5 in the morning for a small station in the mountains of Columbia or some of the USA's biggest networks. It was the environment, and the energy that really inspired me.
During the 90's I established and ran a venue called The Kashmir Klub where I took all my experience both as a performer and as a lover of performance and used it to create a unique event. I decided to combine the elements of a music show with the format of live radio. There would be no 'dead air' in between the acts because I would host the show and keep the energy positive and focused on the stage. This non confrontational approach mixed with quick fire ad libs and sense of control from the stage garnered an enviable reputation for the Klub as being on of the few place in the world where audiences didn't talk through the performances and the atmosphere and show was 'electric'.
In 2003 I was asked to contribute to an overnight show on BBC London with Jo Good. I quickly found this once a week spot encouraged me to develop my ideas and core skills by bringing in some of the best unsigned acts to play live (at 3 am in the morning) as well as be able to talk about all kinds of music both classic and contemporary. Later Sadie Nine took control of the overnight shows by which time my input had become very well established. We built a rapport and the show naturally drifted into a co-presented format with me driving the desk and looking after all aspects of the technology whilst still keeping the standard of music really high.
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