Tag: BBC Radio 2

A Hundred Sinners with the Feeling

Heard this song by the Feeling on BBC Radio 2 tonight. Another British band that deserves to get more traction in America.

And how about this? Michael Ball on Radio 2 talks with Doris Day. She comes in at 1 hour, 20 minutes into the programme (sorry, can’t embed it). Doris is 87 and she sounds great. Her son was the late Terry Melcher, who had a noteworthy career of his own in the music business. Doris had a squeaky clean “good girl” image in her movies, but she got married to her first husband when she was only seventeen, because she was pregnant with Terry.

Roxette’s got something on the radio

I still don’t know if I’ve ever heard something by Lady Gaga, and I’m not even sure she’s not a guy with a gimmick. But thanks to BBC Radio 2 I know about the music duo Roxette from Sweden, aka: ABBAland. When I first heard their new song, She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio), with its great Europop sound, I was surprised to learn they’ve been cranking out tunes for 25 years.

Great North Wood Barks

Last week’s installment of ‘Tim Rice’s American Pie‘ on BBC Radio 2, the second in the series, was about Oregon. I was surprised to hear Rice mention the cartoonist Carl Barks.

[audio:http://dogratcom.s3.amazonaws.com/Audio/2011/Jan/RiceBarks.mp3|titles=Tim Rice’s American Pie: Salute to Oregon]

Here is a Barks story I posted over two years ago. It was the first one by him I ever read, which didn’t happen until I was fifteen.

Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #126, 1951

© Disney
Barks died in 2000, the same year that Charles Schulz passed away, but Barks was 99 — old enough to be Sparky’s father! Here’s a nice video about the late, beloved Old Duck Man.

BBC Radio 2

The most enjoyable radio listening, by far, that I do these days is over the Net, playing BBC Radio 2. I first got interested because of Jonathan Ross, who did In Search of Steve Ditko. He does a Saturday show, and it’s so much fun, with such a fantastic range of music. Then I started listening to Steve Wright, because he’s supposed to have Petula Clark on as a guest soon. Again, I found the show to be fun, and I was really taken with the song mix. I have no interest in Rap, but Europop has a sound that I enjoy quite a lot. For example, this was one of the songs on Steve Wright’s program today.

[flv:/Video/2008/JUN/Spiller.flv 400 300]

This is “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” by Spiller, with vocal by Sophie Ellis Bextor. I flip through Boston radio stations a lot, seeing if anything catches my ear, and almost nothing ever does, so it’s not as though I’m completely inattentive. So why is it I find so much on BBC Radio 2 I’ve never heard before that keeps me listening?