Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

London pirate radio - news and discussion

End of year personal round up

Flex legalisation disappointing...a couple of ok shows, but it's no Rinse and often a bit crap with djs seemingly being told to try and encourage audience participation where it's not appropriate and leading to banal crap like what's your favourite thing at Gregg's call outs.

Kool and House FM both back on the FM after close to a year off. Great news.

Venture my new #1 goto reggae related station. Well run, great music and strong signal.

Best newcomer award a station called Divine, which seems to have a great signal, always on, and plays a good rave scene selection.

I feel like Back 2 Back has got a new lease of life but maybe that's all in my mind
 
ska invita said:
End of year personal round up

Flex legalisation disappointing...a couple of ok shows, but it's no Rinse and often a bit crap with djs seemingly being told to try and encourage audience participation where it's not appropriate and leading to banal crap like what's your favourite thing at Gregg's call outs.

Kool and House FM both back on the FM after close to a year off. Great news.

Venture my new #1 goto reggae related station. Well run, great music and strong signal.

Best newcomer award a station called Divine, which seems to have a great signal, always on, and plays a good rave scene selection.

I feel like Back 2 Back has got a new lease of life but maybe that's all in my mind
Click to expand...

Good roundup, will have to check out Venture, Divine and drop in again on Kool and House FM.

Agree about Flex. It’s turned into what I feared it might. Still some good DJs there but it’s lost a a lot of what it was.
 
ska invita said:
End of year personal round up

Flex legalisation disappointing...a couple of ok shows, but it's no Rinse and often a bit crap with djs seemingly being told to try and encourage audience participation where it's not appropriate and leading to banal crap like what's your favourite thing at Gregg's call outs.

Kool and House FM both back on the FM after close to a year off. Great news.

Venture my new #1 goto reggae related station. Well run, great music and strong signal.

Best newcomer award a station called Divine, which seems to have a great signal, always on, and plays a good rave scene selection.

I feel like Back 2 Back has got a new lease of life but maybe that's all in my mind
Click to expand...

I'm listening to Back2Back at the moment, mainly as I have trouble getting the others on my radio reception (I don't have a computer so I can't listen via the internet).
They actually have some interesting and diverse music shows.
 
Back on the iplayer.

The Last Pirates: Britain's Rebel DJs - documentary covering the London 80s pirate era, including stations like KISS, DBC Rebel Radio, etc.

In the 1980s a new generation of pirate radio stations exploded on to Britain's FM airwaves. Unlike their seafaring swinging 60s forerunners, these pirates broadcast from London's estates and tower blocks to create a platform for black music in an era when it was shut out by legal radio and ignored by the mainstream music industry.
Click to expand...

BBC Four - The Last Pirates: Britain's Rebel DJs

Available for 30 days.

I knew the pirates were performing well, but was surprised how well, from that documentary, a listener poll in 1987 the London Evening Standard showed the Top 10 stations as;
1 - Capital
2 - Kiss (pirate)
3 - Radio 1
4 - Radio Caroline (offshore pirate)
5 - LBC
6 - BBC Radio London
7 - Radio 3
8 - LWR (pirate)
9 - Radio 2
10- Time (pirate)
 
Last edited:
These days:

Vision - pretty much catering to old house and UK/US garage heads which is great for me, loads of bumpy 4x4 and not so much 2step pop remixes.

As ska said Venture FM is good for reggae.

Vybes fm also essential.

Supreme playing a good mix of reggae and rare groove/classic soul, big favourite of 2019 i feel.

Intent playing the new kind of commercial UK electro house, not so much into that.

point blank can be alright if you tune in at the right time, loads of tech house though.

Haven't checked out playback. apparently they are playing the new bassline gear but honestly it's not the same, it's all slower and not as bumpy as the classic 05-09 stuff.

Rinse is still rinse, a lot of diversity initiative stuff is going on (which should be applauded of course but also) a lot of international professionalised guests like the radio is a job that has to be done with a certain type of refined etiquette, kind of lost its london pirate vigor a long time ago. Inevitable this would happen, quite amazing they held out for so long though. props where props are due etc etc... Always keep an ear out for Grandmixxer though. I hope Josey Rebelle comes back soon. I always liked her shows on Sunday morning.

Got sick of mi soul in 2019, way too many ads.

Back 2 Back FM I quite like but I can't tell you which shows in particular.

on the internet radio stations I'm quite into Zuli's shows on NTS and Cerakhin on noods bristol.

Pyro can be good sometimes for the grime stuff. Big into trends' sets on there.

Spooky on Mode (sometimes) though for the love of god hitman just quit grime ur time is up.

Rude is rude, always playing the same kind of minimal stripped down dnb, fun for about 20 minutes but really i feel like they need to vary it up a bit.

Tentun's 93 shows on kool are good. bunter's crate digging shows on kool.

Anything ive missed? ska invita stethoscope
 
dialectician said:
These days:

Vision - pretty much catering to old house and UK/US garage heads which is great for me, loads of bumpy 4x4 and not so much 2step pop remixes.

As ska said Venture FM is good for reggae.

Vybes fm also essential.

Supreme playing a good mix of reggae and rare groove/classic soul, big favourite of 2019 i feel.

Intent playing the new kind of commercial UK electro house, not so much into that.

point blank can be alright if you tune in at the right time, loads of tech house though.

Haven't checked out playback. apparently they are playing the new bassline gear but honestly it's not the same, it's all slower and not as bumpy as the classic 05-09 stuff.

Rinse is still rinse, a lot of diversity initiative stuff is going on (which should be applauded of course but also) a lot of international professionalised guests like the radio is a job that has to be done with a certain type of refined etiquette, kind of lost its london pirate vigor a long time ago. Inevitable this would happen, quite amazing they held out for so long though. props where props are due etc etc... Always keep an ear out for Grandmixxer though. I hope Josey Rebelle comes back soon. I always liked her shows on Sunday morning.

Got sick of mi soul in 2019, way too many ads.

Back 2 Back FM I quite like but I can't tell you which shows in particular.

on the internet radio stations I'm quite into Zuli's shows on NTS and Cerakhin on noods bristol.

Pyro can be good sometimes for the grime stuff. Big into trends' sets on there.

Spooky on Mode (sometimes) though for the love of god hitman just quit grime ur time is up.

Rude is rude, always playing the same kind of minimal stripped down dnb, fun for about 20 minutes but really i feel like they need to vary it up a bit.

Tentun's 93 shows on kool are good. bunter's crate digging shows on kool.

Anything ive missed? ska invita stethoscope
Click to expand...

Have you listened to any Flex FM these days? I used to like it until it went legal, now it’s terrible.
 
It's ok for the commercial UK drill I hear. I like some russ and 67 but I've not really been able to fully commit to that scene, a lot of it is just griming up lex luger type trap beats which is cool definitely but it really seems to unable to escape the mcs driving it, which was always part of the ying yang contradiction in UK music, that competition between the DJ and the MC. Seems like the UK drill DJ is not much different to most other jukebox djs.
 
I've just found a new station, by chance, moving round the radio dial this evening.
Kream fm on 104.8
There's a FB page for them, I presume it's the same one, doesn't give any wavelength info.
Looks like they've only started up this year - an hour of old skool House and now it's UKG.
 
dialectician said:
What im looking for are energy fm sets, hardcore techno/acid/gabba station that ran from around 94-96 ish? south london iirc.
Click to expand...

waaa dialectician i made a new account just to reply to you - i loved energy FM, that acid gabba sound was amazing back in the day. i used to tape marie chantal and callie shows regularly, i will endeavour to rip some of them and get them online for you (i already had a vague plan to do this) but i just moved house and first i'd have to locate the tapes hehehe - so i'm saying it will happen but not any time soon :)

if you search Energy FM 87.9 London on Fakebook they are still going, but it all seems very housey nowadays which is a shame.
 
Not been a good year on the FM - my favourite stations all down over the last year, Kool, House, Galaxy and even Rinse all off the FM dial, seemingly for good - Galaxy by court order. Not sure whats happened to Rinse - they've got a license! But just broadcasting silence for about a year now.

Almost exclusively listen to Venture now on the FM. Back to Back signal isn't strong enough in my bit of south london....can almost pick it up. excellent station though, worth checking online, Back2BackFM

There's a good dark DnB station called Wax https://www.londonswax.com that's been running of late - 102.8? I forget - but again the signal isn't quite good enough where i am. Just read they're Plumstead based...signal stronger further east

I get S-Dance signal strong. Never knew till recently that the S stands for South! Must be why the signal is so good for me. Unfortunately I don't really like any of their selection. Shame. I love House and DnB and yet what they play doesnt do it for me.
 
Last edited:
I can still get Back2Back sometimes on 887 (in north east London) and Kreamfm on 1048.
A new one I've found recently is DivineLondon on 980.
 
blossie33 said:
I can still get Back2Back sometimes on 887 (in north east London) and Kreamfm on 1048.
A new one I've found recently is DivineLondon on 980.
Click to expand...
will check both online

yeah there has been some DAB pirating - someone in Germany cracked it too IIRC. Has been mentioned in this thread somewhere. I haven't got a DAB radio so am currently not interested :D I occasionally get Zipvans for work and they sometimes have DAB - I think De Ja Vu might be on DAB in London? One of the more oldskool stations I think.... Steph would know, was mentioning this not long ago
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cm.london.30
Drum and Bass on the bike, London 2024
Replies
0
Views
180
cm.london.30
cm.london.30
N
Portuguese music in London?
Replies
2
Views
174
Ms Ordinary
M
cm.london.30
London Bicycle Rave - Sunday 14th July
Replies
9
Views
475
editor
editor
editor
Pirate rehearsal studios in Camden - where the owner checks your bag for alcohol and demands Photo ID
Replies
7
Views
599
platinumsage
platinumsage
Silverghost
Vinyl Record Store Recommendations In London:
Replies
5
Views
336
rutabowa
R
Back
Top Bottom