The Hip-Hop Rebels!

Madness! That's the best way of describing my show tonight! GMC and the Hip-hop Rebels came and represented to the max! The early part of the day was spent at a meeting in the Bodega bout our Jam plans for the Savoy, a bit of record shopping in town and a trip into the Indigo clothes shop followed, where my friend Emer works (alongside Cork City FC legends Joe Gamble and Neil Fenn)! Got a class Brazil 1970 top in there, pic of the legendary team at the back saying simply "All Time Greatest" at the back! They certainly were!

The madness came later during the show and I was a tired man by 9PM. GMC arrived with (guitarist) Anto Yau and a film crew, aswell as four more of the five hip-hop rebels (see pics) An Buachaill Dana was AWOL but B Wonder, Bony, Brozy and Jaae were all out in full force. It was really busy in the studio but the interview went well and the texts went through the roof. There was the odd-bit of feedback from the amount of mics used but the live performances were excellent and the lads rocked once again. Tha launch and official album release is tomorrow (Friday) and I know it's gonna do well. My own column in the Echo was dedicated to the release and they also included two other big pieces. I've secured him more coverage on the Rooster in the morn thanks to KC (rap battle at 9AM)and Vic has been plugging the hell out of it too so it augurs well. Roll on tomorrow!

Radio days and nights

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all fairly routine! I had three very good evenings on the radio and I'm getting great energy off the texts at the moment. Between 5 and 7 Red Drive is very much a bridge between day and night with traffic reports, news, sports, gig updates etc, while my Music Overload slot from 7 to 9 is a totally different show. After 7PM it's more aimed directly at teenagers and it's been building really solidly now during the last 12 months. We are an interactive station so I try my best to reply to most texts and build a relationship with the regular listeners, even though the sheer volume of texts and emails has gone through the roof lately. This is a good problem to have and sometimes I'm still buzzing off the vibe by 10PM when I'm at home!

The music is quite fresh too and as we introduce most of the stations new stuff at night it adds to the vibrancy of things. All the focus this week is on the release of local rapper GMC's debut album on Friday, and since I've been pushing his material for so long, my show is the major outlet for competitions/interviews/updates and stuff. He is live in the studio tomorrow night with some of his fellow Cork "Hip-hop Rebels" (check the pic of their last Savoy performance) and I'll have a full report up here as soon as I can! I've seen rappers like GMC, Bony, Brozy, Jaae, B Wonder and An Buachaill Dana improve so much since their early gigs at my Jam Junior night and I'm proud that they are getting such recognition now.

The rest of my days so far this week were spent doing various other bits. On Monday I had a lot of writing to do at home, Tuesday went for a swim and had some meetings about the potential re-launch of the over 18's Jam (on a more regular basis), while Wednesday was spent at RedFM at meetings and getting up to speed on some technical stuff with regard to my shows. It's Thursday already and another weekend is here-phew! See ya tomorrow!

From John Coltrane to Ronaldinho!

And another weekend is gone! I chilled out on Saturday afternoon. Jam Junior resident Neil called over and borrowed Ashley Kahn's legendary book about John Coltrane's jazz masterpiece "A Love Supreme". Neil is an excellent young DJ and producer and I can see him doing great things in the next number of years. Like another of the finest talents in Cork, Shane Johnson, he comes from a family with a passion for jazz and this is already having a really positive influence on his music, which is very different to what most 16 year olds are doing. Watch this space!

Had a great show on Red that evening. Black on Red is the cornerstone to my DJing and it's where I really get to express myself properly. It was a really good show and I played everything from Otis Redding and Sly Stone to John Legend and Alicia Keyes. I started off with a tribute to Swing and played some 90's flavours like Soul 11 Soul and Eric Benet in his memory. I also played a big track from my early days DJing. Beverly Knight's "Flavour of the Old School" put her on the map back in the day and it was a big tune for me in Sir Henry's. I felt that it was also a fitting tune to pay tribute to a DJ who more than anyone was involved in making modern r&b a force to be reckoned with in both the clubs and on the radio.

My Rapture night in the Savoy was stuffed and after a tentative enough start I got the place rocking by about 12 and it was kicking off big time at the end of the night; big tunes like "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley mixing nicely with everything from Blur and Outkast to Rhianna and Fontella Bass.

Got home quite late and with the clocks changing I lost yet another hour. Thankfully I had Sunday off and I relaxed in front of the United match. They didn't play that well but won 3-0, it was like the old days all over! Rooney still takes my breath away, he could have had a hat trick had he been more on it, but he lights up the ground with his every move. Red legend Bobby Charlton said the other day that even he can't get enough of watching young Rooney and I agree totally-players like Rooney and Ronaldinho help make football the most exciting game in the world. Watching them in full flight makes me feel like a 6 year old again, I think it's one of the reasons why I'm so addicted to football. I'm injured at the moment but can't wait to fail miserably next week when I attempt some Roonesque moves on my comeback!

My good buddy Gilly rang from London. He was very close to Swing and we had a great chat, I was delighted to hear from him. I don't miss all the travelling I used do to Dublin and beyond for gigs, but I used enjoy catching up with people like Gilly, who I've shared many good times with in the past. I got to bed early but woke at 5am and didn't get back to sleep. I've always had chronic insomnia so i'm not really in an ideal condition for work but I suppose it's gotta be done and I'll sleep well tonight!

A Tribute to DJ Swing

Found out early yesterday morning that a DJ friend of ours, DJ Swing, had passed on. Swing was one of the best hip-hop and r&b DJ's this side of the Atlantic and he used be a regular visitor to Cork in the late 90's. He had fought a long long battle against Multiple Myeloma and despite an incredible recovery earlier this year after a bone marrow transplant, he had a relapse and after being admitted back to hospital he died on Wednesday. Coming so soon after the deaths of young music legends like Jay Dee and Lynded David Hall, this is another sad loss for hip-hop and soul music.

Swing will be sadly missed by us here in Cork, Especially Mandy and the Religion/Le Soul crew who first brought him over to Cork for many gigs in the Attic and places like that. He hung out in Sir Henry's Back Bar and spun a few tunes with myself at Sweat another time while he played a legendary gig at a packed Metropole hotel at the Southern Soul and Disco Festival alongside myself, Trevor Nelson and Norman Jay (check my dodgy pics from an old photo album!) My good mate from London, Gilly, also had us both on the rooster at the Dublin leg of his Fresh N'Funky night in HQ (now Spirit), and we played many great nights up there with the likes of Colin Francis, Mani Norte, Brian Norman and of course Da Firin' Squad, all DJ's who will be feeling this loss badly.

On a personal level I had many dealings with Swing outside the clubs too, and he was the main man at the pioneering hip-hop label Tommy Boy for awhile, hooking yours truly up with the upfront promo's by the likes of De La Soul. He also generously hooked me me up with one of his contacts at Puma in London, who sent me free trainers, way before they regained their popularity a few years ago! Swing was a guy who always went out of his way to help others, people like myself who were not as relevant to the London scene, stood and walked tall alongside him, because with Swing all people remained equal. It was a small point but one which I've always remembered when dealing with younger DJ's and people myself, cats like Swing were'nt into the superstar bullshit that sometimes pervades in the music industry.

When reflecting about Swing these last 24 hours, the thing that I remember most is his smile! Infectious is the word that I'm looking for! I'm gonna play a few tunes for ya later on and i'll be thinking about that smile that lit up the dancefloor as much as the records you were playing.

To paraphrase the Pharcyde
"Rock on Dilla, rock, rock on
Rock on Lynden, rock rock on
and Rock on, DJ Swing, rock on"

Here's some links
http://www.firinsquad.co.uk/features/djswing.htm
http://www.aclt.org/content/default.asp?i=list&c=donation
http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/tx/swing.shtml


DJ SWING
RIP

And we saw Ugly Ducklings and Giant Pandas!

On a freezing and miserable evening I feared the worst for these guys and sure enough, Cyprus Avenue was very quite when I arrived. I met Kieran (from Cork's excellent Campus Radio of UCC) and we had a cup of tea at the bar (how hip-hop are we!)
It was strangely appropriate that it was tea rather than Cristal or Moet that was our beverage of choice because these two West Coast hip-hop crews are rolling far from the MTV cliche of Bling-bling shoot em up gangsta rap. I've been involved in a few Ugly Duckling gigs before as we brought them to Jam at the Savoy twice and I also toured with them in Galway and Limerick two years ago for a couple of shows. Giant Panda (above with the Panda eyes!) are on the excellent Tres label shared by another great act who played at Jam, People Under The Stairs, and I recently got one of their first records in Fat City.

Undeterred by the small crowd Numan from Giant Panda got on the decks and played Dilla's classic "Let's Ride" production from Q-Tip, winning me over straight away. Maanumental joined him on the mic and even minus Chikaramanga the two MC's tore into an energetic and minimal live Old Skool sounding set. The Small crowd suddenly came right alive and everyone danced like crazy as the Giant Panda delivered another timely reminder of why we all love hip-hop so much. Intelligent rhymes, funky beats, and energy levels that would put more well-known rappers to shame, these boys kicked an excellent set, the highlight for my ears being a tribute to the ear of hip-hop cassette's called 'Diggin' In the Tapes"! Now that is Old Skool!

Ugly Duckling (see pic) seemed a little bit more disheartened and having played to over 800 people in Cork at previous gigs I could understand why-Still though, they kept at It professionally and rocked on with their own unique brand of cliche-free hip-hop, including everything from the new single "U.D.", to the older jams like "Now Who's Laughing" and "Everybody In the Place".


After the show I caught up with both crews who were dead cool and I walked the Panda brothers back to their hotel after I nabbed them for some jingles. I already have some excellent radio drops from Ugly Duckling from a few years ago so I didn't have to bother them! I jumped in a cab soon enough and headed home, and now it's pushing on, so I'm gonna catch up on some of the sleep that I missed last night, I find it's hard to put the head down when you are so amped and hyped! Check Black on Red on Saturday (7-10PM Cork's RedFM) for some of Giant Panda's new stuff-we've also got a little bit of audio up on www.myspace.com/jamatcork so have a peek-it's not finished yet. But I am so goodnight and stay funky!!!!!!!

A day of jazz, a night of dance!

The good thing about working in a number of different areas is that you get to meet the most varied of people! I spent the early part of the day hanging with an experienced local jazz musician, had four of cork's most promising young Dance DJ's on the radio at night and spent the early hours of this morning with another few U.S. hip-hoppers back at their hotel!

I'll review the hip-hop gig in a separate blog in a moment but first up it's da jazzzzz! Martin Vallehy has been around cork making music and giggin for years. I met him through my good friend Mark O'Sullivan who is now a highly successful DJ and producer in Stockholm. Martin gave me his new album awhile back and I've been listening to it loads. It was recorded with some excellent jazz musicians from around the world and it was entirely written by himself.


It reminds me of some of the early 80's crossover electronic jazz stuff by the likes of Bob James, music that hip-hop heads like myself go crazy about! I'm a huge jazz fan anyway and I'm blown away by the fact that an album of this quality is on our doorstep and totally unsigned! I'm on a mission to spread the word so you'll be hearing more from Martin, who's always a pleasure to hang out with, even though I nearly caught a cold outside Le Cheile becaue he wanted to smoke a fag! The miserable Cork weather further damaged my vibe as the outdoor area in the Bodega had a small leak but as we swapped tales of legendary jazz gigs, rare Horslips records and our respect for Charlie Mingus (such nimble fingers!) , the time flew and I suddenly was rushing to work!


Red Drive flew and myself and RedFM Production legend had a bit of a laugh off the air with regard to our kidnapping of receptionist Val's pet mascot Wilson (long story, safe to say that I'm easily amused!!!!) The Music Overload was excellent once again, with four young DJ's (check the DJ mafia in our boardroom above!) joining me for Teenage Thursdays. Only Alan F and Dingey (with me in the pic) were on, but Hoopy and Myers came up for a look at the studio too and it was cool to see four guys so young being so eager and fascinated by the whole radio thing. They are all on Pirates and were really interested so it was a pleasure to have them up there. We rocked a few of Dingey and Alan's beats too which were pumping and got a big reaction! Fair play boys, ye gave me the energy I needed to fight the weather and go hip to da hoppin again! Giant Panda and Ugly Duckling were in town so It's time for a review (follows shortly) A quick ransom note to Val and I was out da door!

Tuesday and Wednesday!

Well after all of the excitement during the week a few run-of-the-mill days were welcome. My rare day off yesterday was spent doing a whole lot of nothing much--- although we did get our Jam site at Myspace up and running. It's not finished yet though so I won't post the link but I'm looking forward to getting some music up and on it.

Myself and Colm (Kenefick) spent ages looking through old Jam photos from the early days of the Savoy, but we had great difficulty trying to sort them all out (Check out Blackalicious above) There's loads and loads of pics on both my Mac and on CD's upstairs but they were a bit all over the place and it took some work to find some we wanted. Some are on the wrong format to which is a bitch but hey who cares! There's many more that I must sort out but my studio is some mess of millions of records, CD's and all sorts of other crap! I'm converting our attic later in the year and I can't wait to get more organised, although amazingly, I can still locate most records within a few minutes!

I also got Bebo'd up the other day which is dead handy for communicating with the vast amount of teenagers turning Bebo into a huge web sensation! It's more of a younger people's thing really but it's handy since I do so much gigs and workshops for teenagers. It's amazing really I've only been using Bebo two days and already it seems to have been around forever! I can see why teenagers find it so addictive-it's also very much their own thing and they more or less call the shots on their own profiles and create their own community-it's excellent-I'm at http://DJStevieG.bebo.com As I said though, the Jam at myspace is where we are gonna get our Jam profile back up and running-we have good plans for Jam as we appraoch 5 years this summer! The next Jam Junior is coming up in April but I'll talk about that another day.

I was back working on Red today and the show went well. After Red Drive my Music Overload starts at 7PM and it's really starting to really take off in the last few months-the volume of texts is going crazy! Tunes like "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley, Kanye's "Touch the Sky" and Rhianna's "S.O.S" are going well with the more housey and big indie/rock hits (Artic Monkey's, BellX1 etc). For a mainstream show the mix of music is quite "on it" and I'm really enjoying the interaction with the listeners. I was out there from 2pm today for a DJ meeting at work and got home around 9.30 tonight. I've a few things to do on the net before I relax in front of a movie or something and get ready for tomorrow. Teenage Thursdays is back and there's another big hip-hop gig in town (Ugly Duckling/Giant Panda)-boy, time flys when you are having fun!

Welcome to the The Pharcyde!

I've been down with the Pharcyde since day one. Back in 1993 I was just starting off as a DJ when I walked into Fish Records (run by my Sir Henry's colleagues Greg and Shane) and bought the only 12" copy of a fresh new U.S. Import of a tune called "Passin' Me By". They say don't judge a book by it's cover but with records you often know staright away if you've hit gold! This was one such record.

The Pharcyde proceeded to be an integral part of my music career and I proceeded to play the ass of my rare double coloured vinyl of "Bizarre Ride" that summer. Kudo's to Lulu from Primetime for bringing me back the album from a trip to London! Tracks like "Return of the B-Boy", "SoulFlower" and "Ya Mama" became huge in Cork. Myself and my mentor (and good friend Donkeyman) used play it off the turntables in both the Donkey's Ears and Sweat in Henry's. He was working a day job at the time and had the whole factory singing "shot em in the ass on the down stroke" all day at work. Even 60 year old men who he worked with got in on the act! I used an animated poster of the Pharcyde for a poster for my night in the Donkey's; the manager Michelle was understandably worried about the fat doobie hanging from one of the hands of the rappers!

Two years later "Runnin" became arguably the biggest Back Bar (of Sir Henry's) tune of all time and it's safe to say it was one of the reasons why our Saturday residency became even more legendary around Ireland and beyond. By this time JayDee (Dilla) was on board producing some of their stuff and his sound developed further with other huge personal favs like A Tribe Called Quest and Busta Rhymes. Having only passed away weeks ago It was an emotional time for the Pharcyde to be coming to Cork and I was slightly worried in case they might damage their already mighty legacy for me! They have lost a few members but added an incredible live band-I've kept buying their music through the years but hip-hop has changed and gimmick free crews like this simply don't get played on MTV anymore. But did they dissapoint in Cork? Hell no! This was one of the gigs of the year!



Local rapper Chance warmed up with Doobious and Mr Barton and got the crowd hyped up nicely. These guys have been around for years and I was delighted to see them getting such exposure! They rose to the occassion too and the crowd of a couple of hundred were amped by the time Imani and Bootie Brown came on. The live band were unreal and the guy on keys was doing all sorts of vocoding and just ripping it up! The drummer and DJ were class too while the two hip-hop legends out front killed it with everything from classic early stuff to some of the lesser known (but equally effective) later flavours!

I hooked up with their main man Schmooche after (Thanks Eoin!) and he was really really cool-hooking me up with some wax and introducing me to the band. They signed that very same rare original copy of "Passin Me By" and Bootie Brown (pictured above) hooked me up with some sweet radio jingles, including a repeat of their Dilla tribute which I'm gonna play out live and on air. I was walking on air when I made my way home and stayed up till about 6 in the morning writing my Echo column and updating some emails. I was back on RedFm today and played one of Bootie Brown's jingles before his rap on the Gorillaz "Dirty Harry"! Tonight I'm looking forward to a rare night off tomorrow-myself and my Jam partner Colm Kenefick are gonna meet up and listen to some tunes and hook up a myspace account for Jam before I chill for the rest of the evening. Needless to say, I won't be blogging till Wednesday, so have a good one!

Weekend Review!

It's Monday now and I'm fairly tired! After my Black on Red show on Saturday I went straight down to the Savoy and caught the end of the Human League! I used to love them when I was growing up and still play out some of their music today. The atmosphere was incredible as they belted out their biggest hits and I was glad to catch a few of their tunes. The stage set-up looked class (see picture) and I think it was a real success!

My Rapture night was on straight after and it went fairly well. I wasn't as "on it" as Thursday but managed to keep it nicely bubbling for the night and the crowd were up for it too. I went up to the dressing rooms after, where various sound engineers, friends of the promoters and a couple of my friends proceeded to polish off the rest of the Human League's rider. Again I wasn't drinking so it was some fruit and orange juice for me. Who said rock n'roll was dead!

Pretty wrecked on Sunday but had to get up early and pick records for my All Day Music Day in the Woodford. J Remy is a Cork DJ now based in Dublin and he was my choice for the Woodford event this month. With the limitations of the licencing laws here in Ireland I've always wanted to do events where DJs can express themselves without having to play all of their records in a short time. This event gives us 7 hours to express ourselves and we managed to play a bit of everything!

J Remy is one of my favourite Cork DJ's. He is a crate digger and music junkie like myself and he has a huge record collection aswell! We went from soul, jazz and funk right through to hip-hop, latin and disco and managed to play everything from Fela Kuti and Redman, to The Meters and Trouble Funk! It was a really nice evening and a perfect warm up to the Pharcyde's first visit to Cork at Cyprus Avenue-the review is coming next!

In Full Swing!

Yeah we are well and truly in the middle of a big weekend now-I'm on air at the moment bumpin a Rapture mix from Thursday and the show is going well! Catch it on www.redfm.ie





Last night was a great night, went to both events! Dawn Penn was excellent and I also caught an hour of the Scratch Perverts (pictured above from the Balcony of Savoy) who rocked the Savoy. Thought they could have deviated a bit more from the drum n'bass and played a few more songs but other than that it was a cool night! Hung out for awhile with Dawn (see our pic on the left) who was dead sound and also caught up with old friends like Jim Comet, Larry, Kirk, Bellyman, Harry J and loads more! Got back late and chilled with my buddy Graham today watchin some of the matches on TV. Hopefully I'll get some pics from last night up by Monday but I gotta jet now!I'm still on air and playing after the Human League in the Savoy! Should be another big night let's go let's goooooooooo!

Paddy's Day

Woh it's pretty cold and miserable today! It's Friday and a national holiday here in Ireland because of Paddy's Day. I stayed in bed this morning because I'm not heading to work till about 3PM and have my quietest day of the weekend today. Yesterday was really busy so I'm gonna give my ears a rest for a few hours and not do any music today. I'm headin out tonight after work to check out some of the tasty gigs that are coming to Cork for our St Patrick's Festival.

Last night was unreal! The highlight of Red Drive was local world music promoter and advocater Phil B texting me to tell me he had just collected Dawn Penn from the Airport. I played a big request welcoming her to Cork and Phil said they were just driving down the Airport Hill when she heard it and she was delighted!

The show went well enough and even though I was a little bit too sloppy for my liking I had recovered by the Teenage Thursdays section of Music Overload, where I interviewed Swatting Flies (pictured with me above!). I didn't know much about these guys beforehand but i could tell immediately that they are gonna do well. They are managed by a young guy I know called G-Force and he's already a budding entrepaneur at 18! Once the band stepped in the studio though i knew they were gonna be good. They were very relaxed and comfortable with each other and not fazed at all by being live on air. We had a good little chat about their origins and future prospects and plugged their gig in the Pine Lodge on Saturday. We also played a couple of tunes off their demo which went down really well and we received loads of texts so all in all it was a successful show!

Headed straight into town after the show for my gig in the Savoy. There were six turntables set up in anticipation of the visit of World DJ Champs the Scratch Perverts tonight! I helped test out to see if all the decks were in order before reverting to my own more restrained set-up of two turntables, two CDJ's and a mixer! The main stage set-up looked class though and in a big theatre like the Savoy I reckon the Scratch Perverts will tear it up yet again! I was really happy with my own gig last night. I don't do Thursdays so wasn't sure if it would be busy but it was full with over 1,000 people quite early! The bank holiday vibe certaintly helped and i could tell from early in the night that the crowd were really up for it.

I had been dissapointed with my last couple of DJ sets earlier in the week. Last Saturday the Savoy was stuffed as usual and the place was rocking but I wasn't as at 100%. I did what I had to do to rock the place but I couldn't put my finger on it (pardon the pun), there was definitely something missing! On Monday I DJ'd with Colm Kenefick at the Savoy staff party till about 6 in the morning but again I felt there was something lacking! Everyone said it was great but i was silently dissapointed all week and determined to have a good one last night!

Some nights everything goes just sweetly. I always bring loads and loads of music and had about 300 records with me, not to mention loads of CD's too. I always try to keep it pretty soulful on the music front, while mixing my core of hip-hop and r&b with some old Skool styles like disco, reggae, soul, electro and funk. I like all music so I try and play some rock stuff too-the ultimate aim is to join the dots of different musical styles while keeping everyone rocking on the floor! You get so much freedom when you are open to all music and there are no boundaries, even in a big club with a 1,000 people you can express yourself and your music.

I kicked off with some new hip-hop and soul stuff and moved gradually into disco territory. Some of the big party tracks around at the moment also got a spin before I went into an old soul set and a rock set before bringing it back to more hip-hop and dancehall reggae stuff. I'm not interested in the whole Paddy Whackery image of Ireland but since it was Patrick's Day tomorrow I played a track by one of my favourite bands, the Pogues, at the end of the night and it tore the roof off! It was the classic Ewan Mac Coll number ("Dirty Old Town") which still sends a shiver up the spine. I even got some Johhny Cash in at the end. it was one of those nights where I put it together better than I could have imagined and everything worked! I'll post my top 10 from last night in a sec!

I'm off drink till June so went home soon after the gig and chilled out watching the "Helter Slelter" movie about Charles Manson. I've always been facinated by the 60's and this movie was pretty good. Tonight it's a choice between Dawn Penn and co in the Mardyke and the Scractch Perverts in the Savoy but I think I'll check both gigs out! I'm on the radio beforehand and headin into town after so I'll let ya know how i get on tomorrow!

Rapture at the Savoy with Stevie G
Paddy's Eve 2006
Gnarls Barkley "Crazy"
Kanye West/Curtis Mayfield "Touch the Sky/Move on Up"
Lefties Soul Connection/DJ Shadow "Organ Donor"
Chris Brown "Yo, Excuse Me Miss"
The White Stripes "My Doorbell'
A Tribe Called Quest "God Lives Through"
Johnny Cash "I Walk the Line"
The Four Tops "It's the Same Old Song"
The Pogues "Dirty Old Town"
The Clash "I Fought The Law"

The weekend starts now!

It's Thursday morn and i'm getting ready for the weekend! I'm at home at the moment sorting emails and stuff and am just about to go upstairs and do a few hours in the studio before work. I've just ordered some new music from my favourite record shop, Fat City, in Manchester so they will arrive next week. I'm not producing much music at the moment but I'm doing a lot of DJ edits of tracks for club and radio play. For those who don't know, this is basically just an extended mix of a track that makes it more club friendly. I do it with a lot of disco or r&b or even reggae tracks, it makes them much better to play out in the club and gives the DJ more individuality. I'm also gonna listen to new promos and transfer some of my new vinyl onto CD for back-up and convenience purposes. There's some banging tunes out there at the moment; "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley has been huge on my show and in the clubs and i'm delighted to see it blowing up at the moment!

I'm also gonna prepare my records for tonights gig in the Savoy. It's a Rapture Special, and should be pretty busy since tomorrow is a national holiday. We normally just do Rapture every Saturday and it's full every week! I should be ready to hit work at around 3PM. I've got my column in the Evening Echo out today too so i'll check that in work and get ready for my show, the highlight tonight being Teenage Thursdays, a section on the show where i interview an upcoming local band, singer, rapper, DJ etc. Last weeks band , The Impressionists (above), were one of the best acts yet on the show and their "Funk It Up" track went down really well! Tonight there's a young band from Carrigaline called "Swatting Flies". It's the start of a busy evening for me, so i'm gonna get moving! Stay funky!

Okay, Here we go!

Time to get this blog thing goin on! It's a Wednesday afternoon here in Cork and I'm getting ready for my radio show on RedFM! There's also quite a busy weekend ahead in Cork with our St Patrick's Festival attracting acts of the calibre of The Pharcyde, Scratch Perverts, Human League and Dawn Penn to Cork. I interviewed the reggae/dancehall legend Dawn Penn for my show the other day and she was a pleasure to talk to-she even went to the trouble of sending me on some records the next day! It's great when internationally reknowned artists who have been around for decades retain the same humble attitude as to when they were beginning! It makes me want to tell even more people about her great music and her gig, which happens on Friday down at the Mardyke!
I'm also gearing up for a busy day Sunday with my All Day Music Day at the Woodford-serving as a good preparation for the Pharcyde's visit later that evening. Myself and one of my favourite Cork DJ's, Jeremy Murphy, will be spinning the best in soulful music from 4PM, mixing everything from jazz and funk to soul and reggae! I've got two big Rapture shows in the Savoy aswell (Thursday and Saturday) and a fair few radio shows so I better make the most of my last relaxing night tonight, as i head home and chill after my show! Catch ya tomorrow!