London pirate radio - news and discussion

[ska invita]

massive piece in vice on kool
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/kool-fm-jungle-pirate-london-945

great pics in that

nice to see a pic of Smurff (in the corner) who really started Kool

 

[ManchesterBeth]

Were there any pirate stations in London after 92 focused on techno and house?

E2A: chicago house and the like.

Basically the music that was aired on the Abstrakt Dance show.

It seems like to me house and techno gradually fell out of the pirate orbit around 93/4. Before that things were less segrigated.

ska invita stethoscope you'll probably know!

Reason why I'm asking is I've never found recordings of techno pirate radio shows from the era. I might not be looking hard enough, granted.

 

[ddraig]

yeah there were house ones

 

[ska invita]

Were there any pirate stations in London after 92 focused on techno and house?

E2A: chicago house and the like.

Basically the music that was aired on the Abstrakt Dance show.

It seems like to me house and techno gradually fell out of the pirate orbit around 93/4. Before that things were less segrigated.

ska invita stethoscope you'll probably know!

Reason why I'm asking is I've never found recordings of techno pirate radio shows from the era. I might not be looking hard enough, granted.

as ddraig says house yes, but techno no - not as far as Im aware. Shame - that wouldve been great. Theres are lots of gaps in pirate radio.

 

[ska invita]

From the VICE interview;
"The first of these birthday parties, at the end of 1992, was one of the station's earliest triumphs. "We hadn't done any events, but we thought we'd put a little do on for our one-year anniversary," says Eastman. "We done a little rave at Arcola Street in Stoke Newington, and it was packed – the phone-line for it was non-stop."

I mentioned already on this thread i went to that - my memory of it was that it was in some kind of large scout hut on the edge of an estate - a smallish rig inside and the maddest mix of people, including some punks IIRC. Remember the power cutting out twice and Eastman running around with a torch looking for the fuse box.

I would love to know where exactly it was though - jsut to fill in my sketchy memory - Ive streetviewed Arcola Street and cant seem to find anything suitable. I don't suppose you have a clue Fozzie Bear? I know thats your part of the world....

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I would love to know where exactly it was though - jsut to fill in my sketchy memory - Ive streetviewed Arcola Street and cant seem to find anything suitable. I don't suppose you have a clue Fozzie Bear? I know thats your part of the world....

I never really went down there in the heyday - Shaka used to play Arcola Street in the 90s as well. Maybe ringo did?

There is the old Arcola Theatre, which seemed to be based in an old industrial unit. I saw Solution Sound there in the noughties I think.

 

[ringo]

Don't think I went there, it doesn't look familiar. Some quite new development on the street from the Google pics, I imagine its changed a fair bit.

 

[ska invita]

I never really went down there in the heyday - Shaka used to play Arcola Street in the 90s as well. Maybe ringo did?

aha! there mustve been a space there - i know shaka used to play lots of community halls (which is what i think this was)
there must be a flyer out there with the address....

 

[ManchesterBeth]

as ddraig says house yes, but techno no - not as far as Im aware. Shame - that wouldve been great. Theres are lots of gaps in pirate radio.

Oh I know there were vocal house pirates and the like, but I meant the stuff coming out of Chicago like stuff on relief and cajual etc.

It's interesting how techno was part of a broader rave music until 93-94. Then the purist splits came in. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing, mind.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

as ddraig says house yes, but techno no - not as far as Im aware. Shame - that wouldve been great. Theres are lots of gaps in pirate radio.

Another interesting thing to note is how pirate radio never became radicalised in London but did in Italy

 

[ska invita]

This month I have mostly been listening to http://www.cyndicut.com 90.6fm London/Kent/Essex

Most often excellent selection.............


established 89 though?

 

[dlx1]

This month I have mostly been listening to http://www.cyndicut.com 90.6fm London/Kent/Essex

Most often excellent selection.............


established 89 though?

Listening

 

[ska invita]

Listening

me too

 

[ska invita]

Picture this...a recording studio far far away....

Had a funny experience last night -not sure if i can relate it properly, but for weird reasons i found myself at 1am last night in deepest darkest Sheppey....a nice drizzle coming in over the town
Wanted to go to the beach, but really struggled to find it...tried to go where i thought it would be and went into a dark car park down a side street
There were some buildings to one side which had that slight promenade style to them so got out of the car and walked towards them - darkness and rain all around
but there was one bit of light - out of one window were some disco lights
headed towards it and as i got closer i heard music coming out of a little window
stepped cautiously towards the window, and inside this one little room was a radio station! A sign on the window said Sheppey FM!
A little cat was curled up on the window sill - enthusiastic dj voices coming out the window


Tried to tune in to it but its online only - been listening today - very sweet community station - like pirate norfolk digital vibes they even have a Mid Morning Matters show http://sheppeyfm.org.uk/shows-5/ but they've got some potentially good music shows on there
Well worth a bit of radio tourism...

 

[ManchesterBeth]

This month I have mostly been listening to http://www.cyndicut.com 90.6fm London/Kent/Essex

Most often excellent selection.............


established 89 though?

This syndicut? I hope it's bak and playing good music!

 

[ska invita]

This syndicut? I hope it's bak and playing good music!

Very likley the same
90.6 used to be Pulse's frequency - looks like theyve moved along the dial a bit

 

[ddraig]

Bit on newsnight bbc2 now with flex fm

 

[ska invita]

Bit on newsnight bbc2 now with flex fm

why?

 

[ddraig]

About FM and why they still do it

 

[ska invita]

Hoodlum on Kool playing a really good upfront new dnb selection right now - but mainly im writing to say that Kools got the webcam back i like it
ETA: first three intro tunes were good but got stupid quickly

 

[ddraig]

was listening to Eastman not dj'in earlier

 

[skyscraper101]

 

[ska invita]

thanks for posting it
new presenters on newsnight eh

 

[ddraig]

this popped on the side when clicking the above on youtube!
searched thread, don't think been posted, not watched yet but got Rude fm on it

 

[blossie33]

Does anyone know if there are pirate radio stations in other parts of europe or is it just a uk thing?

 

[pesh]

people do it all over the world, the sort of people doing it and their reasons for doing it seems to vary depending on the local laws governing unlicensed broadcasting and how they're enforced...

in Spain they don't tend to worry about pirates so you get massive professionally run bland commercial crap stations run by expats who make loads of money running advertising for local expat businesses as well as the occasional Ibiza heads running something halfway decent for a laugh...

in Amsterdam you've got people like Dance Radio who specalise in putting their transmitters in ridiculous places in order to stop the authorities from being able to get them down...

and outside of Amsterdam you get people sticking industrial sized transmitters and antenna masts in farmers fields then running a combined bar and studio and having hellish drunken umpah raves live on air
Music World: Etherpiraten | VICE | Netherlands

 

[ska invita]

Outlaw on Kool right now absolutely classing it up - on till 5pm - recommend!

 

[ska invita]

 

[stethoscope]

Available from this morning - ordered

 

[ddraig]

Rude FM