The campaign to save Southampton’s Talking Heads’ 20-year live music legacy naturally started online and quickly collected 3000 supporters on Facebook.

Meanwhile on Twitter a plea for help and the hash tag #saveourheads was sent to friends and the famous to galvanise support and hopefully find a saviour.

On Saturday both John Giddings (Isle of Wight festival) and Rob da Bank (Bestival) re-tweeted a supporting message and seemed to intimate that they were actually interested in buying the venue.

Because just after @JohnGiddings01’ re-tweeted #saveourheads @RobdaBank replied “buy it! ” and then Giddings responded “let’s do it together”

If only we had used Twitter properly.

A quick click would have revealed that both promoters were really talking about a local coffee shop that had suddenly closed.

Instead we jumped to a rather desperate conclusion that two people with enough logistical problems on their plate would actually contemplate running a small south coast venue and all the hassle that that ensues.

So the rumour spread during Saturday, continued around the venue during its glorious last night of music and, I confess, that due to my radio show going live after 6pm that night I too was caught up in the excitement and broadcast the rumour without checking the facts.

But the sad truth is both John and Rob were not talking about saving the Talking Heads: just keeping frothy heads on a corner-shop cappuccino.

One coincidence is that Southampton’s Band of Skulls, who have a very strong connection with the Talking Heads pub, are playing this year’s Isle of Wight festival – Bestival will be announced shortly.

“How do you feel?” befuddles his Vulcan mind, yet begins to draw out his human emotions. A classic Trek moment.

Innocent questions are no problem for Sean McGowan who at first resorts to humour when asked: “Are you angry?”

“I’m angry QPR lost to Fulham, I’m angry I never got to see the Clash, I am furious that I can’t afford a better car than ‘Fiona’ my P reg banger.”

And that’s exactly what you get from his lyrics: the events and problems of daily life, expertly wrapped up in three minutes by Southampton’s folk/punk poet.

“I’m eighteen. I have strong feelings towards everything.” Sean continues, “I am angry, I feel certain things need to change. My views are expressed in my music, I have no intention to have any political influence.“

What he would like to see is debate: “I want people to question and challenge things they disagree with. Everyone has a voice and an opinion, imagine if they could actually have a ’say’ whether it be through music, art or any means necessary!”

His songs are definitely stirring up music lovers with 100 downloads, in 24hrs, propelling him to the top of the Mintsouth charts.

This Saturday, at the Joiners, he launches his début EP ‘McGovernment’ where the audience will hear a slice of what Sean calls: “The People’s Music.”

www.facebook.com/seanmcgowanmusicuk

Saturday Sept 4th

This weekend you have two last chances to soak up that festival vibe before autumn rolls in.

On your doorstep is Pulse Festival at Sunnyfields Farm, just outside Totton.

Last year’s had a wonderful feel.

This was due in part to the attitude of the farm’s owners and also the festival’s curators Olly Maw from ‘Subgiant‘ and Mark Ward from ‘Heathward‘.

The food is organic, there is plenty for children to do and headlining the main stage are the globe trotting Kissmet who’s progressive style of Bhangra Rock can galvanise any audience.

Watch out for the ambient jazz of Achilles, preceding them Southampton’s Widowmaker and topping the acoustic stage are ‘Lost Souls Club‘.

And remember their objective is to raise funds for the Children’s Heart Unit in Southampton.

Fans of ‘Reef‘ will be heading off to the three day Musicosity festival in Bournemouth this weekend.

They are headlining the O2 Academy on Saturday night and around the town 50 acts are playing from tonight until Sunday evening.

For any live act, or fan of gigging, the Musicosity website and it’s magazine are something you should investigate.

As founder Chris Jenkins points out: “It has opportunities to raise musician’s profiles, reach new people and develop grass roots music.”

The more active you are as a fan, the more rewards you receive, the more gigs you get into free.

While for bands and venues it is a brilliant method of re-connecting with the live audience.

You can find out how at musicosity.com

First published in the Southern Daily Echo 2nd Sept 2011

The competition ends on 20th June 2011, the tickets cost £170,
and all you have to do is enter your email address here: http://audiorokit.co.uk/competition

Chester Rocks takes place on Saturday 2nd – Sunday 3rd July 2011! and some of the biggest stars in pop and rock will be performing, including;

Taio Cruz, Iggy Pop and The Stooges, McFly, The Saturdays, Sugababes, The Wanted, Echo and The Bunnymen, Lightning Seeds, Tommy Scott and many more. Enter for free here:

http://audiorokit.co.uk/competition

Good luck! XP

But my original problem is that having seen various clips in the trailer, the surprise and possible tension will be spolied as I’ll be able to join the dots while the adventure unfolds.

So if you don’t want to even think about the next episode look away now!

SPOILERS BELOW

The Doctor receives a Light Box and believes it to contain a message from a Time Lord.

It doesn’t. It is actually sent by a group of people who believe they are on the back of a being or machine.

In reality they are slaves to a strange beast who thinks he’s a Time Lord.

Trouble is he’s trapped! Trapped in a stolen Tardis that he doesn’t know how to operate properly.

He/it probably found the Tardis after the Doctor’s death which we witnessed in the first episode of the new series.

The Light Boxes are randomly sent out through time and space, like messages in bottles, to entice the Doctor to the trapped ‘Time Lord’ and release him from this prison.

(Or, he could be a person the Time Lords locked up and forgot about)

Take your pick Pat.

For all things Dr Who visit the BBC’s Official site

When Steven Moffat calls people “twits” for spoiling forthcoming episodes of Dr Who I have to agree.
Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat angry with fans who lost the plot? (BBC NEWS )

The first two episodes of this new series were excellent. In fact they had me scratching my head wondering exactly what was going to happen, which is quite rare. So I’m glad these ’spoilers’ hadn’t reached my ears before the show began.

But my trouble with Dr Who is that at the end of every episode they tease what is going to happen in next week’s adventure. I can’t watch these. They reveal to much and I have to switch channels immediately.

With the amount of plot detail they let out anyone with imagination can easily fill in the gaps and form a pretty good opinion of what is around the corner for the erstwhile Doctor and his companions.

So if you want to stop others spoiling your stories… start by stop doing it yourself.

Press Release from Apple Beam

Apple Beam recording studios has a long history of producing high quality songs for many international artists. This is your chance to have the Apple Beam studios producers work on your music for free.

The winner also gets free one to one advice from a successful songwriter, A&R and artist developer who has secured multiple deals for artists!

Apple Beam recording studios clients include Sony, EMI, Island Records, Nintendo and many more. We offer music production in genre’s such as Rock, Pop, R&B, Soul, Electro, Rap, Reggae, Bassline, Metal, Reggaeton and many others.

We are launching this competition in association with Audio Rokit, which is a website that lists the latest opportunities from record labels, music managers, music publishers and more.

Here’s how it works: To enter the competition you simply need to create a free profile over at www.audiorokit.co.uk Make sure that your profile has the following:

• At least one song
• At least one photo
• A bit of text about yourself

That’s it! You will be automatically entered into the competition for free. The winner is chosen at random using a program that selects just one member on the Audio Rokit website. You’ve got nothing to lose, and it could be you! If you are the lucky winner, you will contacted within Audio Rokit.

Competition ends on 17th of March 2011

Winner will be announced on 18th March 2011

Full competition details here:

http://www.applebeam.co.uk/comp-songproduction

He was celebrating BBC 4 (UK TV) playing four different documentaries featuring Heavy Metal acts, on one night.

One such documentary featured Bruce Springsteen of which ES a friend of Darren’s posted: “Think I’ll dip out on the Springsteen. Cannot get into the man. He just reminds me of a farmer from Ballyshughmacuttery. Sorry folks!”

On seeing Ballyshughmacuttery my fancy was tickled and I googled it expecting to find a place name in Northern Ireland or something from Father Ted.

I found nothing.

So I felt an experiment was need to see how a new word could find its way around the Internet.

The next port of call was Twitter and the first person to respond was the delightful (and funny) comedian Grant Sharkey:

Listening to @xanphillips’ radio show sends shivers up your Ballyshughmacuttery #Ballyshughmacutteryisawordnow

Not only a response but a hash tag! Ballyshughmacuttery had hit the big time.

Thing were looking up and by the morning we had more developments with Ian Fisher, also a presenter from Rock Radio NI , declaring this on Facebook:

“The word Ballyshughmacuttery, by it’s appearance, is an Irish place name and by definition must exist as a place. If it doesn’t exist as an area on the planet, then the word cannot exist as a word as it is descriptive of nothing.

That being …the case, you can Google it till the cows come home, but as the word does not exist then what you are typing cannot exist therefore the whole thing is a figment of your imagination, and your original post, and, if that is the case, my reply, do not exist.

In order to solve this, and to prevent a collapse of the space/time continuum, with all due respect to String Theory and the Parallel Universe theory, as from 08.13 tomorrow morning my Rhubarb patch will officially be known as “Ballyshughmacuttery” Google earth……get the cameras out!!!!”

At 8:30 pm on 21st Jan 2011 a word was born, it is already a verb and a place name. Where it will go next? The story continues…

This page has a Tiny URl  http://tinyurl.com/Ballyshughmacuttery

He first came to my attention in the duo Birdpen, an act that is dark and inventive in the studio while on stage they stand out as totally professional unit, that produces a sound so large it fills every inch of available space in the venue.

Occasionally Dave would mention he was in a collective called ‘Archive‘ who were doing quite well in Europe. As my brief at the time focused on the south coast it took a while to investigate this strand of his career, especially as the albums were just available on the continent.

It was only when I bought Bridpen’s debut album from Amazon France did I realise how modest Dave had been as, on the cover, was a sticker proclaiming ‘On, Off, Safety, Danger’ featured ‘Dave Pen from Archive’

This success abroad was on the back of Archive’s albums ‘Lights’ & ‘Live at the Zenith’ just before Archive’s 2009 release ‘Controlling Crowds parts I-IV’ which is a double album of rare beauty.

Ironically it’s also the last recording they made under their deal with Warners who, for some inexplicable reason, have dropped the band just at the wrong time. It’s a bit like the Beatles being ditched after Sgt. Peppers.

Controlling Crowds will feature in later editions of ‘Xan Phillips presents…‘, however for this episode we concentrate on Birdpen’s debut album ‘On, Off, Safety, Danger’ and Archive’s ‘Live at the Zenith’ which the French Rolling Stone magazine stated was one of the best live recordings around.

We’ve also got more music from the UK’s south coast including our hottest export to Europe and America: Band of Skulls. Along with them you can investigate Betika, Boe Weaver, The Shanklin Freak Show, Big Num, Scarlett Soho and The Moulettes.

Xan Phillips presents is brought to you by Playdio.com and is currently available on Spotify.