Radio Ga Ga

So many of the radio stations sound all the same today, not only here in the US but in the UK too and I suppose if I was listening in France, Holland or Germany they’d be much of  a muchness there also. Unless they maybe had Red Light Radio in wonderful Amsterdam. The big guns like Clear Channel and others came in and bought up the larger radio groups and suddenly we had one station beaming out  over most of the country with just a different name and some local advertising. The voices too sounded all the same, playing the same music and saying the same stuff. Nothing of any identity left.

Before leaving the UK I remember driving up and down motorways and tuning in and out of radio stations and not knowing where I was when there once was a time you could know where you were by your car radio. The DJ’s maybe had a local accent, you’d hear local stories about last night’s soccer match or what was on the TV. Not any more but no point bitching about it as is the case with with record companies they’re no longer about the music just the bottom line, satisfying the shareholders.Whatever the dross they pump out it hardly matters if the advertisers are happy. It’s a while since I heard any new exciting DJ’s too because they are pretty much programed to be the same. It’s robotic and you have to scour the internet to find new exciting music driven shows who have the presenters you’d want to hear also.

Might  this be an opportunity to blatantly publicize my return to radio broadcasting last Sunday night after a 14 year hiatus? No I couldn’t possibly do that….(www.manchesterradioonline.co.uk Has to be the longest title of a radio station ever! What happened to W  ANK and cute sounding stations like that?) I’d never really thought about a return to radio until recently and with the ease and comfort of internet radio it wasn’t a hard choice. There’s a difference between wanting to be on the radio and being allowed to do a show in the way you want. It’s something that fortunately my bosses  back in the day at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester always allowed me to do. I wanted to do a show that I would listen to, it’s the way I do everything, if it works for me then it can work for others.

If people you want you and they approach you it’s for a reason so why compromise? If they leave you alone you’re likely to do it better because of the trust they’ve instilled in you, they believe in you. And in return you do your best to repay that trust and you set out to do it right. Nothing ever worked or ever kept working if people stood still, you have to take chances, you have to push out  a little. We getting engulfed and suffocated by the same old formulas, American Idol works let’s all do it. People watch crap on TV, let’s give them more. Ever thought people watch crap because there’s nothing else to watch because all you do is make crap programs. They have no choice, you’ve conditioned them, yes you Frankenstein.

OK back to the dishes now.

Filed under: manchester radio on line, Radio Ga Ga, TV, clear channel, manchester radio online, Piccadilly Radio, radio, tony michaelides

Days I remember all my life

I tuned in to my new found radio home ( http://www.manchesterradioonline)  because radio honcho man Paul Ripley had uttered the words ‘Guess who’s on my show? ‘ And the guess who was none other than the Martian Spider himself Woody Woodmansey. All of a sudden I was working while I was listening to the radio and I thought I’d discovered multi tasking. I was wrong, I stopped and I listened. Radio heaven, a spider talking about the web he lived in.

It’s hard to believe that Ziggy celebrates his 40th year anniversary this June and they are still not teaching it at schools, even worse why isn’t it a case study at music schools, business schools, everywhere! Paul started proceedings with ‘Five Years’ from the Hunky Dory album, well that was it. I downed tools and gloriously fell back in time, I was at The Hardrock  (no please, no burger references, it wasn’t that one) and I was rammed close up front and personal and gazing forward at what still remains one of the greatest concerts of my life. Not of course that I’ve been to many….It was September 1972, Saturday 2nd to be exact and I went back the next night to see them again. And again in December, he played that same venue four times that year. And yes I did.

That song took me back to my college years and when I first heard it. I had just bought Ziggy Stardust and was thrilled to bits. I had just also starting dating a ‘college cutie’ I think we call them now, back then she was just a chick. I think we’d been for  a drink, maybe  a movie and then it was back to listen to records until God knows what hour until I’d hitch home. You did these things back then, it was the norm for teenagers like us. Can you imaging even thinking of doing that now, never mind hitching home but just the mere thought of listening to a record !

Anyway she pulled out Hunky Dory and stuck on Five Years, and then initiated me with the rest of the album. That was it, I never left and were married six years later. Why wouldn’t you marry a girl with a record collection like that, Marie I thank you! Oh and for our two beautiful children but let’s face it Bowie came first.

Back to the show. Woody was an unassuming character, happy with his lot today yet proud and very grateful for what he’d had. Well who wouldn’t be, there was only him and three others after all. It was fascinating to hear someone other than Bowie talking about that period and especially from where he was standing, behind the man and driving home a relentless beat. What a seat! He spoke of how he got the gig and also about the late Mick Ronson, never a forgotten hero to me and many others. I can see him now with his glam pants and mad hair, and that iconic rock pose with Bowie sliding under his legs and dragging the solo out of him. Bowie loved him and although Mick  was a wonderful guitar player Woody said he never saw himself like that. Bowie would ask him to play a solo and then tell the producer, ‘keep it’ although Mick thought he needed to go back and do it over and over again. When you’re that good you’re good first time round.

Woody also talked of those wondrous eccentricities that are David Bowie. How he would ‘mess about,’ pick up an accordion that was lying around and tell the producer Ken Scott, ‘record this.’ The band would sit around and watch all this going on thinking, why is he pissing about, let’s get on with it. Then it would be played around with in creative , innovative ways with his producer and himself and they’d look at each other and say, ‘how the hell did he get it sound like that?’ And it would end up on the album and the rest indeed is history.

Great stories makes great radio and this was great in itself. Good questions that came over like any fan would ask and a responsive totally normal guy telling it like it was. It could have gone on forever, I’m first in line to request a repeat. Get him back and roll the tape once more. It gives you hope and brings back your faith in radio once more. Bring it on.

Thank you for the days,
Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me.
I’m thinking of the days,
I won’t forget a single day, believe me.

Ray Davies 1968

Filed under: About Tony Michaelides, manchester radio on line, Opportunity, Radio Ga Ga, Hunky Dory, Mick Ronson, Woody Woodmansey, ziggy stardust

Now let’s get this part started

Another mad busy week getting everything ready for the book to go to the printers. Everyone seems to have done their bit, well almost til I interfere and make some changes. Call me a pain in the ass but whenever I see something that can be better I want to make it better so it’s better, and now it is better! Seems like I’ve lived with this for an eternity but a few changes along the way have meant a couple of delays but I’m sure it’s all worth it. So by the time I write my next blog I’ll be announcing that it’s on it’s way and then to the fabulous world of social networking to launch myself upon an unsuspecting public. Expect that is those that know me then it’ll be an expected expectation, the suspect, me and it (the book.)

Much as I want to promote this I want to start writing my next one, it’s a killer and the sooner I get started then the sooner I’ll be able to bleat on about it and get repetitive. All I’m saying is that it will involve a whole host of colleagues from over the years.

I will have my You Tube channel up and running by weekend, it’s registered and it’s going to be called TM TV. It’ll be full and feisty and fun at the same time. Got lots of ideas on content.

The plan was to release the book early in the New Year and set it up properly, but I don’t do properly very well so we’ve arrived at a compromise. There’s going to be a limited edition number of copies until the full launch, all signed. I sign them and send you a pencil and you write the number of copy on it. And when you go on holiday you take your book with you and you ask the person next to you on the plane what number theirs is then same again when you get to the hotel. Guests, receptionist, concierge, the lot of them. How else will you know the full value of what you own? If you find someone with the same numbered book send them both in and you get a refund, payable with 10/16  weeks.

Call it marketing. Well call it what you want, like I care?

Filed under: Book Tony Michaelides, manchester radio on line, tin can, TM TV, insights from the engine room, TM TV, tony michaelides, You Tube channel