The Deeply Vale Music Festival: The North West Free Music Festival, Its Demise, Its Influence, and Its Legacy

 

The Deeply Vale Music Festival: The North West Free Music Festival, Its Demise, Its Influence, and Its Legacy

Playlist - 25th March 2023

 

 

Dub Syndicate – Ravi Shankar Pt1 (China intro) – Leghorn
Peverelist - Pulse I - Livity Sound
Porter Brooke - Trakt II - Trule Records
Om Unit - Prophecy - Om Unit (Atlantis)
DJ MC - Chicago_Flow - Hyperdub (Relentless)
RP Boo - B.O.T.O. - Planet Mu
Proc Fiskal - Pic of U - Hyperdub (RT.HON. EP)
Fatima Al Qadiri - Mojik Your Waves - Hyperdub (Gumar)
Scotch Rolex & Shackleton - Opium Vibration - Silver Triplet (Death by Tickling)
Burnt Friedman - Poço Negro - NonPlace (Hexenschuss)
Brendon Moeller - Dust Collector - Steadfast (Quiet Quitting)
Brendon Moeller - Modern Harmonic - Steadfast (Dub Construct EP)
CTAFAD - Fluctuate - Bandcamp CTAFAD
Roger Robinson - Feel Bad Smile - Do You Have Peace?
Kate NV - asleep - RVNG Intl (WOW)
Rachika Nayar - allegheny - Commend (fragments expanded

Fenny
Les Abranis - Id Ed Was - Bongo Joe (Amazigh Freedom Rock)
Andres y sus Estrellas – Canuto  - El Palmas Music (Andres y sus Estrellas)
Junior y su Equipo - America India – Analog Africa (Ecuatpriano  El Universo Paralelo de Polibio  Mayorga  1969/1987)
Joanna Sternberg - I've got me - Fat Possum

The Bug - (Machine 1) Battered (Curse of Addiction) - PRESSURE (Machine 1)
Ebwino - Hibotep (Radio Edit) - Byrd Out
Ulrich Troyer feat. Osman Murat Ertel - Avrupa Köprüsü (Volante Version) - Zel Zele (El Ele)
Joe Meek & the Blue Men - Love Dance Of The Saroos - Cherry Red (I Hear A New World Sessions)
La French - These Peculiar Anecdotes - Dither (Pre-Post)
WILLIAM BASINSKI - The Clocktower at the Beach (1979) - 01 The Clocktower at the Beach (1979) (excerpt 1) – Line
Jacopo Buda - Arabesque - Communion (Emerald Vision)
Schneider TM - Ereignishorizont (edit) – Karlrecords
Fennesz & OZMOTIC - Senzatempo – Touch
Amancio D'Silva - Joyce country - Columbia (Integration)

Playlist - 18th March 2023 - 2000th Edition

 

 

Dub Syndicate – Ravi Shankar Pt1 (China intro) – Leghorn
Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Pachuco Cadaver – Straight
Martin Rev – Mari – Lust/Unlust
Muslimgauze - Sapere Aude - Permis de Construire (Coup d'Etat)
Alva Noto feat. Dave Gahan & William Basinski - Subterraneans - Noton Germany (William Basinski)
Arthur Russell - The Boy with a Smile On His Face – Audika (Steve Knutson)

Jim’s bit:
808 State / On the Wire (Live at The Ritz Manchester 6th December 1988)
Marshall Jefferson and Jim talk about Housemaster Baldwin
Housemaster Baldwin Presents Confusion - Zone (Which Mix) - Future Sound Records

Adrian Sherwood selections
Junior Delgado - None Shall Escape - On U Sound dubplate
LSK and £$P - Mystically (Who We Really Are) - On U Sound dubplate
Roy Shirley + Prince Far I - Psalm 1 - On U Sound dubplate (Adrian Sherwood selection)

Fenny’s essentials
The Notsensibles - Star Spotting and Wrong Love - Snotty Snail
Singers and Players – Autobiography - On U Sound
R L Burnside - It's bad you know - Fat Possum
The Fall – Wings (Live NYC April 1985) - Leghorn
Half Man Half Biscuit - A Lilac Harry Quinn - Probe Plus
Lucky Chops – Danza - Lucky Chops
Hot 8 Brass Band - Sexual Healing - Tru Thoughts
Oliver Mtukudzi - Mwana Wamombo - Sheer Sound
Brenda Fassie - Vulindlela - Universal Music

Christiaan Virant (fm3) - Tiger Grrl - 2003 dubplate (Christiaan’s selection)
Sandii & the Sunsetz - Zoot Kook – Alfa (kode9)

Jim’s Fenny tribute:
Half Man Half Biscuit - "It’s a clear day (but I can’t see the point)"  - Probe Plus
Hovis Presley - I rely on you
Mrs Cakehead – Stealin’ in the Name of the Lord
The Fall – Kimble - Strange Fruit
Frank Sidebottom - On the Wire with Frank Sidebottom and Fenny

Noel Hawks’ picks:
The Soul Stirrers - By & By Pts 1&2 - Specialty 78rpm
Bob Marley & the Wailing Wailers - (I'm Hurting Inside) - Tuff Gong
Vivian Jackson & the Defenders - Love thy Neighbours/Version - Defenders

Steinski And Double Dee Lessons and Motorcade Mix for On The Wire 2000 by JR Binks, A Fab Gear production with thanks to Double Dee:
G.L.O.B.E & Whiz Kid - Play That Beat (Instrumental excerpts) - Tommy Boy
Double Dee & Steinski - The Payoff Mix (2016 remaster) - Tommy Boy
Double Dee & Steinski - Lesson Two (The James Brown Mix) (2016 remaster) - Tommy Boy
Double Dee & Steinski - Lesson Three (The History of Hip Hop) (2016 remaster) - Tommy Boy
Steinski & Mass Media - The Motorcade Sped On (2023 Double Dee Mix)

Funkology Selections
Osiris - War (On The Bull-Shit) - Jem Rose Records (Madhatter)
Fela Kuti & Roy Ayers - 2000 Blacks Got to Be Free (Edit) – Celluloid (Pete Haigh)

Ian Curtis Interview – Preston Warehouse 28th February 1980
Joy Division – Transmission - Factory

Demdike Stare - Physics Side B (excerpt) – DDS (Miles Whittaker)
Meat Beat Manifesto - Radio Babylon (Killer Crab Men Howl edit) (Richard Skelton)
Macka B - Blackman – Ariwa (Natural Suntan) (Shackleton)
The Fall – Couldn’t get ahead (On the Wire live at Clitheroe Castle 16th June 1985) (Ajay Saggar)
The Bug with SpaceApe - Guns of Brixton (Deep Space rmx dubplate) (Kevin Richard Martin)
SeekersInternational - NoParasites Lickshot - Sneaker Social Club (No Parasites EP)
(Spence from SKRS)
The Necks - Headlights - Wild Sound (Nick Shimmin)
Fuck on the Beach - Eat 'em All - HG Fact (Ossia)

Steve’s selections
Huan Qing - Guang Wu Road 108 - FM3 Productions Ltd (He Xie Fu)
Sun DaWei - Chu Yu Li Xing - FM3 Productions Ltd (He Xie Fu)
Intrusion/Paul St.Hilaire – Little Angel/Version – Intrusion
Tom Verlaine - Spiritual - Thrill Jockey (Warm & Cool)
Minister of Noise – Marvel of Miracles ft. Prince Far I – Unreleased Retroburn album
Arcane Device - Engine of Myth - ReR Megacorp
Henry Kaiser - Future/Jinx Blues - Metalanguage

In Tributo On The Wire #2000

On The Wire has established a deserved worldwide reputation and the show is not only a platform for countless forms of both old and new music but also a joy to listen to. Presented with exactly the right combination of knowledgeable attention to detail and passionate enthusiasm it is the type of show that radio presenters spend entire careers striving to perfect and is renowned and revered by music lovers all over the world.

Steve Barker allows the music to do the talking and has never looked for approbation for his immense contribution to the understanding and dissemination of countless genres of music.

I have been a regular listener for more years than I care to remember initially through shared cassette recordings and then through the internet. It is next to impossible to overstate the importance of the show to the development of innovative music and its role in archiving and broadcasting an entire range of historical music and interviews that would otherwise have been lost for ever.

1.    By And By (Parts 1 & 2) – The Soul Stirrers – Specialty 78rpm 10” (USA)

During the eighties there used to be an occasional 78’s Record Fair at Wimbledon Dog Track on a Sunday morning that included a stall run by a man and his wife who sold the most incredible selection of mint USA 78rpm records in original company sleeves for one pound each. I bought copious quantities and was later informed that the man behind the stall was actually Chris Barber… yes that Chris Barber. Apparently, he had purchased a warehouse full of these records in the States and had them shipped back to the UK. The valuable collector’s items were long gone but this didn’t bother me in the slightest.

One of the records I purchased was a Specialty 78 of ‘By And By’ by The Soul Stirrers… apparently there were some Soul Stirrers records featuring Sam Cooke but these had been snapped up when the shipment first arrived. Recorded in 1950 it features RH Harris, one of Sam Cooke’s heroes, on lead vocal and is intense, heartfelt and heart-breaking…

2.    (I’m) Hurting Inside – Bob Marley & The Wailing Wailers – Tuff Gong 7” (Jamaica)

I suppose it would be easy enough for me to pretend that of course I knew this record from the mid to late sixties heyday of rock steady but it wouldn’t be true. ‘(I’m) Hurting Inside’ was never released in the UK and the initial Jamaican Wail N Soul M pressing was a white label pre-release. I first heard the song when Big Youth cut a version for his ‘Progress’ LP in 1979, which was very good, and sent me seriously searching for the original. I discovered that it had been re-released in 1972 on the b-side of ‘Concrete Jungle’, the ‘Catch A Fire’ cut, on Tuff Gong although the label stated ‘Sun Is Shining’.

A few years later I managed to find a copy on an American oldies list from Nighthawk Records that had only listed the a-side and I took a gamble that this was the one I was after and not the USA Tuff Gong version of ‘Concrete Jungle’… which, by the way, is excellent. It took best part of a month to arrive but yes… it was ‘(I’m) Hurting Inside’! It is my favourite Wailers record, rock steady at its finest, and has subsequently appeared on a number of compilations… but it wasn’t so easy back then.
 
Marcia Griffiths also sang a lovely version for Mrs Pottinger’s High Note label in 1978…

3.    Love Thy Neighbours – Vivan (sic) Jackson & The Deffenders (sic) – Defenders 7” (Jamaica)

One of Vivian ‘Yabby You’ Jackson’s best ever recordings produced by Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett and released on his Defenders label in 1974. Steve Barker knew I was a devotee of the music and singular stance of Yabby You and asked me to put together a selection of Yabby’s records for an On The Wire special in 1990. I duly sent Steve two cassette tapes of some of the best records from the self-styled Jesus Dread and Steve Barrow also contributed to the tribute show. I was honoured, and humbled, when, seven years later, Steve Barrow decided to use my selection as the basis for an epochal four LP/double CD box set, ‘Yabby You Jesus Dread 1972 to 1977’ on his influential Blood & Fire label. He also asked me to write the liner notes which led to my writing notes for a number of other reggae re-issues and, eventually, a complete career change.

A big thank you to both Steve Barker and Steve Barrow for their positive encouragement, then and now, and of course, to Yabby You for some of the most moving, spiritually inspired music ever created.

4.    Version – Defenders (sic) 7” (Jamaica)

I would have loved to have included ‘Distant Drums’ by Family Man & Knotty Roots, a Nyahbinghi instrumental version of ‘Love Thy Neighbours’ released on the Fam’s label, but Steve stipulated only three choices. However, I’ve included the b-side of ‘Love Thy Neighbours’ here just in case…

Finally I have to say that I am proud to have been able to contribute, in a very minor way, to the continuing story of On The Wire.

Noel ‘Harry Hawke’ Hawks
March 2023

Playlist - 11th March 2023 - Funkology

 

 

 Dub Syndicate – Ravi Shankar Pt1 (China mix) – Leghorn
Remi Kabaka - Kabaka - BBE (Sons of Africa)
Asher Gamedze - Wynter Time - International Anthem & Mushroom Hour (Turbulence and Pulse)
Angel Bat Dawid - Recordare - Recall the Joy - International Anthem (Requiem for Jazz)


William Bell - I Forgot To Be Your Lover - Stax Records (Soul'd Out The Complete Wattstax Collection)
Isaac Hayes - Rolling Down A Mountainside - Stax Records (Soul'd Out The Complete Wattstax Collection)

Fenny
Map 71 - Box Angel - Foolproof Projects (Blood Fruit)
The Good Samaritans - Onughara - Analog Africa (No food without taste if by hunger)
Shana Cleveland - Walking through morning dew - Hardly Art
Samuels Strufaldi - Cammino Sent a Sapere Dove - Musica Macando Records (Davorio)

Alina Bzhezhinska, Tony Kofi - Altera Vita (For Pharoah Sanders) - BBE Music
Julius Brockington - Rock Steady - BBE Music (Sophisticated Funk)
Pedro Ricardo - A marcha que o monte parou (Radio Edit) - Soundway Records (Soprem Bons Ventos)
Oscar Martos ft. Essy - So Lonely - Rocafort

Pete March 2023 Funkology selection 2023 – Nu, Revived & Re-fried
Joel Holmes, Tenderlonius, Roberto Manzin - Broken Styles - Toy Tronic Records
Mausiki Scales - Everybody Loves The Sunshine - Common Ground
Turbojazz - The Standard - Last Forever Records
War - Galaxy (Muzikman Edit) - Exemplary Music
Andy Hay, Children Of The Sun - I Believe In Love - Andy Hay Records
Doug Gomez - Freebirds - Merecumbe Recordings
Kiochi Toyama - Samba Chamba - Gamm
Louie Vega - Atmosphere Strut - Nervous Records
Oscar P, Ruben Swift, Vidal - The Drum - Open Bar Music
Beat Rivals, Tasha LaRae - Better With You - Rival Beat Records
Chris Bangs - Circuit Break - Acid Jazz Records

Baby Charles - The Sphynx - Record Kicks
Surprise Chef - Rosemary Hemphill - Big Crown
John & Alice Coltrane – Joy – Impulse

The Longest Running Music Radio Show is 2000!

 On Saturday 18th March legendary music radio show, On the Wire will broadcast its 2000th show.



Presented by Steve Barker, On the Wire is the longest running continuous underground music show on UK radio!



Since 1984, the programme has championed artists and bands from all over the northwest alongside music from all manner of genres including Blues, Hip Hop, Punk, Dub, Reggae, Electronica, Jazz, Disco, Techno and Psychedelia.


Steve's music knowledge is second-to-none and he delivers each show in his inimitable laid back and dry-witted style. Interviews with Depeche Mode, Lemmy from Motorhead, Michael Stipe, U2, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Neneh Cherry, Burning Spear, John Cale from the Velvet Underground, The Smiths and Brian Eno are just some of the big names who have featured on the show over the years, along with regular guests, features and sessions.



Until the pandemic, the weekly show was broadcast on BBC Radio Lancashire, and via Mixcloud, but after BBC Local Radio cuts, On the Wire was restricted to Bank Holidays and specials. After further shakeout On the Wire – and all other local radio specialist music shows - will no longer be available on the BBC after August this year (though still available on Mixcloud).



Steve often hosted On the Wire live events in the north west, including The Fall at Clitheroe Castle, Lancashire when 2500 people turned on a Sunday afternoon in June 1985. Another memorable night was a sold-out 1988 Christmas gig at The Ritz in Manchester, which featured A Guy Called Gerald, 808 State, Little Annie, Adrian Sherwood's On U Sound System and special guest Neneh Cherry.



Adrian Sherwood created the theme tune for the On the Wire and his impressive catalogue of work has always been supported by Steve over the years. As Adrian comments:



“Steve Barker is a very important 'music man' in so many ways and I’d like to congratulate Steve on the momentous achievement of having reached the 2000th edition of his mighty radio show, On the Wire. With Steve’s music selections, great knowledge and taste he was every bit on par with our old friend John Peel (who had the greatest respect for Steve).


“Steve has shared his vast knowledge and love of music with me (plus a good number of samples that litter the On U Sound catalogue)! He has offered me advice and encouragement and was one of the first supporters of my productions from the very beginning. I have total respect for him as a proper music man and for all he has done for me and in championing so much great music.”



Excerpts from both the On U Sound and The Fall gig will be featured on the 2000th edition of On the Wire, which will be available from midnight on Saturday 18th March (www.mixcloud.com/otwradio). On the Wire will be back on BBC Radio Lancashire on Saturday April 8th, with the final BBC show being broadcast on Saturday May 27th.



The 2000th show will be filled with lots of fantastic tunes with special guest selections, alongside some incredible interview clips from the past, including one of the last ever radio interviews that Joy Division's Ian Curtis recorded just 3 months before he died.



As Steve sums thing up: “I never imagined that the show would last so long, I suppose you could say I just got carried away for the past forty years or so… but we have always championed new, experimental and underground music that always seems against the grain when it first appears.”

Playlist - 4th March 2023

 

 

Dub Syndicate – Ravi Shankar Pt1 (China intro)
Richard Skelton - Faint Ray Systems - Phantom Limb (Selenodesy)
Craven Faults - Odda Delf - Leaf (Standers)
Laraaji - All Pervading - Numero (Segue To Infinity)
Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis –  Lear - Important Records (Deep Listening)
Jim Jarmusch & Jozef van Wissem - American Landscapes - Incunabulum Records

Fenny
Kimi Djabate - Alidonke – Cumbancha (Dindin)
Yalla Miku - Asmazate - Bongo Joe (Yalla Miku)
Lakiko - Ovce - Lakiko Records (What to do, How to live)
Acid Arab - Done Done - Crammed Discs (Trois)

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani - A New Day - RVNG Intl (FRKWYS Vol. 13- Sunergy)
Natural Information Society - Stigmergy - Aguirre/Eremite (Since Time Is Gravity)
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra - Future Shaman - International Anthem (Lightning Dreamers)
Wayne Shorter - Footprints - Blue Note