Today has been a good day, well for me anyway. Various circumstances found me interviewing Sir Ken Dodd for Frome FM today. As you would expect I had done my homework, compiled a mix of questions so that we could have a meaningful discussion. Arrived at the studio early, had washed behind my ears and was ready to go. Some colleagues were in the studio to provide support and at the appointed hour I made the telephone call. At this point I have to explain that as we are still building our studio it was a jury-rig, my mobile telephone held against the presenters microphone, but that’s radio!

Sir Ken had the drop on me as I was ringing him at home and he was expecting the call, but had to wait as I was initially talking to his ansaphone. Suddenly he was there, larger than life “ah jolly Geoffrey from Frome” and there started a twenty minute gambol through the history of Variety, Frome (and he knew a lot about the town), me, he interviewed me, never let me finish a question. A lovely man, so if you are inclined please go and see him at the Memorial Theatre in Frome on 16 April. Nearly ninety and still going strong.

And the fish? Half-way through the interview his doorbell rang and it was the man who delivers fresh fish. For three minutes we discussed fish – now that’s comedy.

The expression as dead as a dodo means completely dead or extinct, it has a touch of Phytonesque about it “this Dodo is completely dead”, ‘Not quite Sir, just resting’.  The last living specimen was seen in 1662 and it is believed that they were no more from 1690.  My old school was refounded in 1652, and as one who sat through a few sermons as the gift of our benefactor and founder it was a long time ago and I am sure that each year a new batch of scholars joins the throngs of those of us who endured an hour long sermon.

I will be much shorter, I promise, I have discovered a Dodo that is very much alive and kicking. It hails from Spain and is Iseo and Dodosound and jolly good they are too. Their album Cat Platoon is available through Bandcamp and is pleasant listening.  I forwarded some music by them on Facebook lastnight and a few people have said how good it was; hence you all now get the benefit.

Tomorrow I start my Drive Time show for 10 Radio which will be fun and I am working on my next Orient Express for Frome FM which will be D-I-Y music such as Iseo and Dodosound and Kawehi and some local Frome Artists and Bands. Charity does begin at home.

And as for the Dodo is is far from dead and is stunning.

Thanks to Iseo and Dodosound for the music and Youtube for the Video

Today has been Frome’s day, well the Town Hall. Newly refurbished today was the grand opening. I managed to be working for most of the afternoon, but got in for a few minutes whilst the radio station was live on air with guests. Then home, a quick rig shift and back out again for the official opening reception.

The ribbon had been cut earlier in the day and this evening there was a ‘soiree’ to celebrate the return of the Town Hall to the community of Somerset’s fourth largest town. The evenings festivities where opened by the ribbon cutters, Mr and Mrs Wheeler who were married in the Town Hall when it was the town hall over 50 years ago. A nice touch. Then the Mayor, Toby Eliot, resplendent in his chain of office and Van Dyke beard welcomed us and gave a few words on the buildings residents, other than the Town Council, including Frome FM, kind welcoming words – thank you. It marks the end of a two year project taking the building back from the County Council, who used it as the local Social Services Office. The team have lead and completed a good project and we were all suitably impressed. The building will be available for all residents of Frome and they hope to start having marriages in the Council Chamber again. It will be a good venue.

I said that I had been working earlier and it was fun – a nice wedding at one of our more up market venues. The fun was, our colleague Karen had some Kazakh smoked string cheese, brought by her son (please skip this bit Defra and Borders Agency) and she had brought it in for the Saturday duty teams to try. Interesting, salty, smokey, cheese, which is exactly what it is – curds drawn out into strings, soaked in brine and smoked. They like it with beer in Russia in the same way as they like pork scratchings with beer up north. I think pork scratchings need not to worry just yet. But as it was from Kazakhstan it gives me the opportunity to introduce their girl band, Kesh You. Two videos below for you to watch.

Back in Frome, I sat for the speeches with the Town Crier, Mike Bishop and his wife Angie. He has a story to tell so will find his way into the studio in the future.

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez

As always my thanks to Youtube and the artists.

Whilst taking a neutral stance on BREXIT it is interesting that the ‘auld alliances’ seem to be reappearing. Scotland, France and now Spain throwing a ‘Spaniard in the works for BREXIT. Whatever your thoughts on the matter it is an interesting time.

It will also be an interesting time this weekend, Frome FM has a new home with studios in the revamped Frome Town Hall. It says a lot for Victorian town planning that in the space of six months we have had three homes all within 200 metres (sorry yards) of each other. Christchurch Street West starts with a school, then the Old Police Station, The Rectory, The Town Hall, Christchurch and the Old Fire Station, throw in a couple of pubs and the Wesley Chapel and you had everything you needed next to each other.

Anyway the Town Hall opens tomorrow and so Frome FM will be live from 1400 to 1700 and open to the public. Our Technical lead, Terry, has done marvels this week enabling us to move in and go live all in the same day. I will get my hands on the system Sunday with my monthly Orient Express, which will take me to where we came in; Red, White and BREXIT BLUES.

The music will include some of the artists that have already been covered earlier in this Blog, but let me add a few more courtesy of Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRROwmkOJjw

and for my dear colleague John Forde, who has introduced me to the finest in Irish Folk Music.

My best friend always asks me ‘What did you do for the community today?’, usually my begrudging answer is nothing, or what a significant contribution to X or Y dependent which end of the spectrum the day has taken me.

Today is an interesting answer, a colleague asked me to cover half of his show as he had a commitment that was fixed. What a programme,  All about Frome extra, as we had just gone live in our new studio in the revamped town hall and it was to launch the new Frome volunteer website. A great mix of people and a pleasure to meet Kate and Greg from the Town Council and Paula, Helen and Lucia who came in to talk about volunteering and their respective organisations. It was heartwarming and indicates that Frome is justifiably the best town to live in the South West of England. All these organisations (120 of them) all seeking volunteers to help make living in Frome or its environs a good experience.

Apparently it was good radio so I am pleased with that I even played some Country and Western as I didn’t have a selection of my own CDs with me to provide breaks. Did manage some reggae which leads me to my important point, my tickets to see Dreadzone at the Cheese and Grain in Frome arrived today.

See why Frome is such a good place to live?

This has been one of those weekends that you wait for, savour while it lasts and enjoy the memory once passed. Nothing is better than time with family, so the heart of our weekend was my sister and husband staying over, enabling us to catch up. Although we speak regularly on the telephone, face to face is so much better.

I was working in the afternoon, but as I was leaving our postman set the tone for the day with the delivery of two long awaited CDs, Inna de Yard The Soul of Jamaica, and Oum’s latest offering Zarabi. Marvellous music from both sides of the Atlantic. Th raw, uncut reggae rather like Jamaican moonshine. Illicit not mainstream and each track exciting you for more. This balanced with the light, jazzy and clear diction of Oum with her haunting melodies from the desert of Morocco.

Sadly I had to wait until Sunday to listen to them as it would have been rude to say “Hello, sit down, have a drink”, and then play music for my own pleasure; anyway we had a table booked at the George in Croscombe and that was our treat for Saturday night. As always excellent seafood beautifully presented, my sister opted for duck and wasn’t disappointed either. It was busy we arrived just as a sitting of 20 had ordered, so much apologies for a delay, but with good conversation the time passed quickly. The chef came and spoke afterwards, a hundred covers in one day, that is pretty good for a village pub in Somerset and speaks volumes for the standard of food produced.

In my last piece I introduced Kawehi, I am pleased to say we have tickets to see her in Cardiff in September and also Dreadzone when they appear at the Cheese and Grain in Frome in April.

The music just gets better and better, and with the sun beaming down on me as I type I guess that it is well over the yardarm, so “”thank you a Cuba Libre would be just perfick”.

thank you YouTube for the videos.

Today there has been little travel, not much thought and my musical delivery today has been the Sharks – The Car Crash Tapes. I thought readers might enjoy some different kinds of music and so two offerings. The first is Behi, an Ethnic Mongolian Band, based in Ulaanbaatur and fusing traditional Mongolian music of traditional instruments with rock and lounge music. They must be a Health and Safety Officers nightmare, high heels, long flowing dresses and walking on the edge of buildings and rock formations in the desert. Perhaps they are suffering for their art, but they do make very good music.

The second is a lady with a prodigious talent, originating from Hawaii, now living in Kansas. She goes by the name of Kawehi and will have a four venue tour in UK in the autumn. I enclose two videos from her collection to just show her ability. I think a must see for 2017.

Enjoy

https://youtu.be/HSNOqHV4cuY

We are all shocked by the events in London yesterday and naturally our thoughts are with those who were killed. All credit goes to our emergency services who did as much to save the life of the perpetrator as for his victims. Our thoughts naturally are with the victims and their families. I will not enter into the debate on the issue, but post two links which people may find useful. They are little applications which give advice or warning of emergencies and may save a life.

http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Emergency-response/Emergency-app

http://citizenaid.org/features/download-citizenaid-app/

Enough said, now Sign Language for Radio.

Not compatible I hear you say, those who use sign language cannot hear the radio. It’s your Fly Fishing in the Yemen moment.

Of course you are right, but community radio is all about inclusiveness, the very title gives it away; it is about your community and so we should make all effort to include everybody. So when an opportunity arose to get on a course, which was an introduction to Sign Language I took it. We can all order beer in a dozen languages and say, please, thank you, yes and no; so why not add sign language to that list. As a radio presenter we are invited to go out into the community and engage with our public so if I have learned the stock phases, let us include the deaf and those who use sign language. We produce a Talking Newspaper for the visually impaired, so let us look at improving our websites so that they can be at the heart of our local communities and include the hearing impaired too.

For my own programmes, I provide playlists for the music ones that I publish on my Facebook pages. I will develop a website that will carry more information on all my programmes, but rather like the Talking Newspaper wouldn’t it be good if you could go to a site where there was a transcript of an interesting programme that you might have enjoyed listening to, with all the links to useful sites. If I have mentioned a group, you could at least see what I had been talking about on a Youtube clip.

When I am on the street I will be able to say hello to everybody, that must be good for relationships in a community.

So where is the sun cream and my fishing rod, shukraan!

Yesterday was the monthly Shepton Mallet Sunday Market, it was credit to Helen Reader, who has been the driving force behind its establishment and her unstinting efforts to revive the Friday Market. It was a pleasant walk through the centre of town, crowded with shoppers and the food stalls seemed to be doing a brisk trade. Such activity was against the backdrop of a closed bank, the town has lost two of its three banks in a year.

Against the wall of the closed bank in the market square was a stall for the town’s twinning committee. The brave souls to kindle an interest with Misburg in Germany, Oissel sur Seine in France and Bollnäs in Sweden. I was wondering how strong the links are as I walked among the stalls? There does not seem to have been any streets named after the towns even though there has been a lot of housing development around Shepton Mallet over the years, and sur-Sheppey does not create an picture of bistros, boulangeries or cafes as there may be in our twin in France.

By the time I reached the bottom of town I realised my thoughts of twin towns were all mistaken. The real heart of our twinned relationships is with the Dia de Muertos and the mannequin in a glass case on the wall was its physical representation.

The headlines today are full of tributes to the legendary Chuck Berry, who has passed away at 90, so he has done well against some of his contemporaries. Credited with being the man who started Rock and Roll, his songs have been covered by nearly every major act.

Amongst the many tributes, I found this; it puts him in a place no other musician will achieve.

Elsewhere in the news is the story that the successful marketing campaign for dinosaurs has claimed another victim. Monopoly allowed the public to decide on their tokens and Thimble, Wheelbarrow and Boot got the boot and joined Iron who was rejected for a cat a few years ago. Welcome T-Rex, Penguin and Rubber Duck. We all love dinosaurs, safe in the knowledge that there is a 66 million year air gap between them and us and we will not meet one as we cut across the park on the way home from the pub. The historical reasons for the tokens that rose from the depression has been lost and modern populist themes sweep them aside. Progress, I suppose, as we no longer like history that has any unpleasant side to it, Jurassic Park and Happy Feet win the day.

Go Johnny Go