The more you hear about radio culture in other countries the more you become aware of what a
shitty place Germany is in this respect. Especially the UK has a long tradition of running
experimental programs, playing new styles and introducing completely unknown artists, mainly via
the non-private BBC Radio 1. You might have heard of the legendary John Peel sessions (of which a
lot even went to vinyl), you might have stumbled on the fabulous Mary Anne Hobbs show, who's
pushing the Dubstep sound and lots of related stuff every Thursday night. Or you might know
"On
The Wire". Well, if you don't - like me, until recently - you're in for one of the nicest radio
programs that's roaming the air-/internet-waves. Ever. God bless the BBC for all of that
(and
Dr. Who!) - despite all its faults.
_Steve Barker, being on the wire ________(click to enlarge!)
_____
_the famous OnTheWire title theme
Just to give you some historical perspective: the first OTW show
was aired on 16th September 1984 on BBC Radio Lancashire,
presented by Steve Barker.
Dub was obviously dead by then,
there
was neither HipHop or any
Dance music in the radio then
and the
UK was in the firm grip of
the New Romantics. OTW's
first guest
was Dub producer Adrian
Sherwood who also supplied
the title
theme.
A week later a then
unknown band called Depeche
Mode
showed up, followed shortly
after by a three hour Lee
Perry
special. From then on
every Sunday afternoon three hours
of incredible program were
shot into the Northwest English ether,
when looking back it has
to be called nothing but totally
revolutionary: first radio plays in
the UK for Derrick May, Kevin
Saunderson, the radio premier of
808 State's "Pacific State", A Guy Called Gerald's "Voodoo Ray",
etc. For a full history read THIS and be in awe.
The nicest thing now is that a lot of these excellent broadcasts can still be found in the depths of
the OTW site - and are available for free download! Especially the Reggae and Dub section simply
breathes with history: there's a requiem for King Tubby, aired one week after he was shot dead (no
speech there), a wicked Lee Perry show, an excellent Keith Hudson recording, a big YabbyYou mix, RockersOnTheWire, ScorcherOnTheWire, and, and, and... A musical treasure simply too big to
describe with words - so click over THERE at once and grab every single one of these deadly tapes!
play some
wicked OTW
mixes here!
But it gets even better: OTW is still alive and running! While the
UK-end is co-presented and produced by Jim Ingham and Michael
'Fenny' Fenton, every week
Steve is dropping an excellent
show
(in handy MP3 format for free
download) full of everything ranging
from Reggae and Dub over
to Dubstep and Electronic music on to
classic old Soul smashers.
The program is occasionally recorded in
(Buddha
machine creator) Christiaan
Virant's bedroom in Beijing
and
Steve's hosting it in a such a
totally easy and funny old-
school
stylee that you don't know what
to do first - grin from ear
to ear
or tap your feet along like hell.
Well, probably you'll end up
doing
both at the same time. And
come
back for more goodness
every
week.
