Posts Tagged ‘BBC’

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That’s the ohcheers.com manifesto

January 29, 2013

Goofy. Dorky. Lacking. Vacuous.

That’s the ohcheers.com manifesto.

The ohcheers.com blog is soon to enter its 158th year of operation. It has not done too badly, but we want more. Our page views continue to grow. 5000 at last count. Pity the pigeons.

It’s not been entirely clear, however, what ohcheers.com is about, what its writers are trying to say (or what they want), and what it all means, other than espousing and emphasising the meaninglessness of it all. Such is the wilful impact of telling you what not to think, or to paraphrase Orwell: you need to use doublethink to understand doublethink.

Here, therefore, are 5 THINGS which the Main Protagonist seeks to achieve throughout 2013. He lists sub-THINGS hereunder. This is Cosmic Ordering, so the Cosmos had better provide, or else the Cosmos gets it*.

1. Writing
(i) pretentious and self-conscious poetical lyrics (haikus have been popular – I’m available for $$$)
(ii) development of PR and journalistic technique (I’m available for $$$ or else persuade me to contribute charitably)
(iii) inane whimsy on ohcheers.com, which serves as our media outlet for our profound ideas, such as:

  • interviewing interesting people, like what we did what with Lizzie Roper, the face of Aunt Bessie Roast Potatoes. Jim Campbell never got back to us on whether he’d like an interview. We’re not pushy, so won’t ask again, but he’s free to get in touch when he’s ready for the exposure.
  • radical image juxtapositions and ‘free art’
  • stuff published in Viz for $$$
  • stuff published in Viz
  • stuff published

2. Sonic Astronic / Blackhacker
(i) EP & album – hopefully released and distributed by a certain proposed agency
(ii) gigs & interviews to support released material, build the Blackhacker brand and make a name for ourselves as a band
(iii) some really cool live sessions, like BBC 6 Music, and certain suggested cunningly cultural venues [cannot disclose at time of writing]

3. Bass Guitar
(i) daily practice: at least 30 minutes, aiming for 2 hours
(ii) weekly recording session: use a day a week to record improvisation from a practice session
(iii) gigs & interviews to build name as bassist, in accordance with point #2 above

4. Audio Software
(i) develop the hundreds of Apple Logic projects started which are incomplete
(ii) apply vocal lines to the projects, in accordance with point #1 above
(iii) apply bass lines to the projects, in accordance with point #3 above
(iv) complete the better tracks and release them somewhere, e.g. Soundcloud for starters, but ideally with the help of a third party music business participant

5. Stands Ups
(i) noting that a couple of experimental efforts have occurred…
(ii) dinner parties are the best source of material
(iii) have more dinner parties
(iv) use dinner parties to source material
(v) use material at open mic nights to test out material and get experience
(vi) have DNA sample taken against will, subsequent to arrest by police for pushing act too far
(vii) struggle to remain friends with dinner party guests

VI. Income
(i) [NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT APPLIES]
(ii) DJ on BBC 6 Music
(iii) write for $$$

Good luck to ohcheers.com and its participants in 2013!

*serious point: what happens if you put it to the Cosmos that you want the Cosmos to go away? If consciousness is required to facilitate wave function collapse and thus enact the construction of reality, then all we need to do is to block off the senses of all conscious creatures to annihilate the universe.

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The Other 5… Of 6… Of The Best… Of 6…

February 27, 2012

Following on from the previous post, here are the other 5 I submitted to BBC Radio 6 Music as part of my “6 of the best” in honour of 6 Music’s tenth birthday:

Mystery Jets / Count & Sinden – After Dark
The reliably hyper-melodic Mystery Jets play through a set of perversely powerful euphoric hooks, whilst filtered through Count & Sinden‘s production, beats and mixing, defines the potential for what a new era of true indie disco could sound like. Utterly unparalleled right now, I want more of this material and if I don’t get it, I’ll have to make it myself. Wonderful Strictly Come Prancing dance competition video. A lot of fun.

Young Knives – The Decision
Taking matters into your own hands takes an absurd and intense turn in this track. Daft but at the same time intensely serious:

“I’m the Prince of Wales / And if all else fails / I am the Prince of Wales / That decision was mine”

…is still perhaps the best vocal hook I’ve ever heard as we hear the views of someone descending steadily into psychosis, perhaps as a result of a nervous breakdown induced by middle management in an office environment. And how on Earth would I know anything about that? Such power in the face of powerlessness. Talk about defining your own reality.

LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing My House
An indie punk rock band playing dance music about a dance band playing at their house. Which also SOUNDS as if it’s a live band playing Daft Punk. It’s a brilliantly self-aware crossover of genres. It’s postmodern and ironic but it’s still a cracking tune irrespective of ignorant critical slurs like those. Like me. Like those. Like me. Like those.

Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle
As a bassist I love the understated but precise lock of the groove. It’s a demonstration of rather mature songwriting with all manner of subtleties throughout the track. And lyrically it’s a celebration of loving music. Not just listening to music passively but actively engaging within it, acknowledging the temporal limitation of a song (i.e. music captures and replicates a mood but for only as long as it plays) coupled with the very human reality of any artist’s self-doubt in the face of the drive to create and engage.

Justice Vs Simian – We Are Your Friends
This cross-pollination of Simian and Justice – respectively an established indie band and a relatively-new French dance act – propelled not only these two artists to a whole new paradigm of success, but also culminated in the evolution of Simian into Simian Mobile Disco. Everyone’s a winner, especially the listener.

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BBC 6 (Music) Of The Best

February 13, 2012

Anyone who actually reads the irrelevant dross published on this website might be aware that a character who only semi-pretentiously named himself as The Main Protagonist – well, aren’t we all the main protagonist in the story of our own lives? – has a chance of being conscious of his, or, er, my love for radio, music and in particular the best radio station on the planet: BBC Radio 6 Music.

And 6 Music is ten years old. I only started listening to 6 in 2003, when my employer (coincidentally the BBC) happened to permit me to listen to it whilst working.

I had neither a DAB radio of my own, nor broadband internet. It was a different era. It was like the 1950s of the Internet compared to now. Social media hadn’t been invented. There was no Facebook or Twitter.

As a recent graduate of an arts-based degree I wasn’t hugely employable, so whilst I was working at the BBC, it was in the highly confidential and sensitive “Scanning Room”, document managing high profile employee paperwork and seeing all sorts of naughtiness.

My favourite memory perhaps being the opportunity to read about a disciplinary for one member of staff who’d been having an affair with another and doing all sorts of sneaky, saucy, kinky devilry whilst in the office/studio. Names are forgotten so the Data Protection Act is null and void in writing this. I think. I hope.

I’d always adored music and had been rather fond of radio for years. I loved John Peel’s shows. I never knew I’d get the chance to hear an entire radio station inspired by his ethos of openness, going mostly against the grain of commerciality.

Vic McGlynn‘s afternoon show was a revelation. Hearing Daft Punk Is Playing In My House for the first time was a glimpse into genius. An indie punk rock band playing dance music about a dance band playing at their house. Which also SOUNDS as if it’s a live band playing Daft Punk.

Unfortunately a lot of our time working in our jobs at the BBC was spent “on standby” as opposed to doing actual “stuff”, so we were told to listen to the radio and watch telly and generally chat to kill time. We weren’t allowed out of the Scanning Room. We were guards of the dark information, in a dark place. No windows. Literally no windows.

As for us BBC scanners – myself, Vanessa and Bonnie (later of Electricity In Our Homes infamy) – we became fast friends before the management realised how much money they could save by selling off the entire HR dept to a third party, albeit a third party which would run it really quite terribly (Capita, aka BBC HR Direct), and thus give the management lovely big bonuses to buy big houses in Holland Park and Notting Hill.

6 Music is very much a part of this writer’s present, and remains one aspect of the BBC he adores. And so he felt compelled to respond to this challenge:

As part of 6 Music’s Birthday celebrations we want to hear 6 Of The Best from you.

Just select six songs that most represent 6 Music to you by filling out the form below.

You’ll be able to hear a different listeners’ selection each week on the Liz Kershaw show on Saturdays, 13:00-16:00. We’ll also be compiling a chart of all the entries that are sent in.

I’ve replied. I bit on the bait. Here’s my first of the 6:

Guillemots – Made Up Love Song #43
The wife and I played this at our wedding for the first dance. Our Auntie Pam in a broad Manchester accent is on video yelling, “WHAT THE BLOOMIN’ HECK IS THIS?” in response to the wonky Hammond intro to which my newlywed wife and I did a close dance. We pulled some delightful dancey twirls out of the bag in the song’s climactic second part, much to the surprised cheers of onlookers who hitherto had only ever seen me raving sketchily in muddy fields.

Can you resist a few dancey twirls, dear reader?

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6Music: SAVED! For now, at least…

July 5, 2010

The Main Protagonist of this site has been harping on for some while about the proposed closure of the favourite radio station of the Oh Cheers crew, BBC 6Music.

Guess what? We’ve only gone and bloody saved 6Music, Rodders!

Wonder if the mighty Viz will again come up with another suitably worthy strip to honour this triumph of sanity over, er, insanity?

But, oh my dear 6Music fans, please do remain vigilant, however, as it is not yet exactly correct to say the station has been saved with a long term permanence:

The Trust concludes that, as things stand, the case has not been made for the closure of 6 Music. The Executive should draw up an overarching strategy for digital radio. If the Director General wanted to propose a different shape for the BBC’s music radio stations as part of a new strategy, the Trust would consider it.

Vigilance!

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Training Humans on a Course (with a Horse)

May 20, 2010

The Oh Cheers Main Protagonist has had an unusual week…

Yes, yes. I was on a course this week, as per the requirements of the office employment (note: the details end there due to non-disclosure arrangements).

Who knew training could be so much fun?

Hello old friend[click image to maximify]

Dobbin Horsome makes his mark (not just manure)

Dob Day Sunrise

An intimidating interrogator… [click image to maximify]

Dobbin - Multiple=

Now listen here, fact fans: Dob and his crew intend to attend the final BBC 6Music protest this Saturday (20/05/2010). As made previously clear, we are strong supporters of the 6Music and will be madder than Hell if it is withdrawn. See you there?

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What Kind of Chap Would Want to Axe BBC 6Music? Only a Fuckwitt.

May 20, 2010

Main Protagonist writes…

UPDATE IN ADVANCE OF THE FINAL CHANCE TO MAKE OUR TIME

FINAL PROTEST: SATURDAY 22/05/2010

Ever seen Terry Fuckwitt and Mark Thompson in a room together?

Viz: Razor Sharp Accuracy

All of us at the Oh Cheers crew are big fans of 6Music and consider it utterly absurd it has been mooted for the axe.

If it disappears, what the Devil are its listeners supposed to listen to?

There are a whole host of ways we can support 6Music:

The suggestion to axe 6Music on grounds of competitive conflict of interest is ensconced in hypocrisy upon consideration of the mere existence of BBC Three, a TV channel which has a schedule which reads somewhat like Charlie Brooker’s satirical writings in TV Go Home from yonks ago.

6Music is a burgeoning national treasure, coming from a public service broadcaster famed throughout the world – championed by its adherents, hated by its competitors – for its relative freedom to act independently in highly competitive markets.

The chief operating officer of Absolute Radio, Clive Dickens, reckons his company could buy 6Music and run it commercially. Could this be a bluff to get the press coverage? Is it a reasonable idea? Surely it is simply best to not fix wot ain’t broke.

To great effect, this month’s Viz brilliantly captures the disappointment – no, scratch that, we mean annoyance! – that 6Music listeners share over this proposal.

It’s not the first time Terry Fuckwitt has had a go at controversial BBC developments which can, on occasion, split public opinion right down the middle.

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