Hits the airwaves March 4th. We'll see what sort of reception it gets (as it were). Of course I wish it well, though I'm sure some will be initially sniffy about the pop-n-rock background of its starting line-up.
Personally, what I'd like to see is an approach somewhere in between Radio 3's traditional "eight seconds of dead air is an opportunity for you to think back on the depth of what you just heard" style, and Classic FM's "relax! this music is all about relaxing! all orchestral music is there to relax you! even the Rite of Spring! are you relaxed yet?" mania.
There'll apparently be a programme dedicated to film scores, hosted by Mark Kermode, a man I once stood next to on the concourse of Waterloo station. Let's hope it's not on a Saturday afternoon, like the other two national-radio film-music broadcasts are.
Yeah I read Simon Mayo's twitter comments about this last night. You would think there should be a market for it, if as you say it offers something different from the other two. At least it will be available on DAB nationally (replacing Heat Radio) which should help. I've a feeling Kermode's show (whenever it's on) might be a bit more eclectic than the other two currently broadcasting, though I do like Matthew Sweet's approach to things.
And I agree, the constant "relaxing, smooth classics" links on Classic FM are tiresome.
There'll apparently be a programme dedicated to film scores, hosted by Mark Kermode, a man I once stood next to on the concourse of Waterloo station.
I once stood next to Janet Street-Porter at Birmingham New Street station. I hope your experience doesn't set a precedent because I don't think she has a very good radio voice.
There'll apparently be a programme dedicated to film scores, hosted by Mark Kermode, a man I once stood next to on the concourse of Waterloo station.
I once stood next to Janet Street-Porter at Birmingham New Street station. I hope your experience doesn't set a precedent because I don't think she has a very good radio voice.
I once saw Alex Ferguson on a platform at Piccadilly station, Manchester. One little nudge....
Has anyone had a chance to listen to this station yet? I've been listening a bit since Monday and I like what I've heard so far. I've listened to mostly Simon Mayo's mid-morning show and some of the afternoon show. Haven't heard any of the breakfast show yet as I listen to RTE Lyric at that time.
Clearly isn't taking itself too seriously, and has been playing a decent variety. Some fairly obvious classical stuff, a decent amount of film music (which isn't Out of Africa or LOTR or Schindler's List which is Classic FM stock-in-trade), some musical theatre tunes and some popular vocalists eg. Pavarotti, Bocelli etc. Although it has also been playing classical versions of more contemporary pop songs (eg. Coldplay) which I'm not that keen on.
Seem to be trying to poach older BBC Radio 2 listeners who may be fed up with their shift to more current pop songs and might be ready for some classical listening. Personally I gave up on Radio 2 some time ago, so I'll continue listening to this to see how it progresses.
I do listen to classic fm once or twice a day in the kitchen- and their film music knowledge/choices is for the most part wanky and excruciatingly obvious and tediously repetitive. As tho someone who knows fuck all about film music has given every presenter a fixed playlist they cant deviate from. As thomas says Lotr is played about every 25 minutes and Williams stuff is always the obvious stuff - saving private p etc. Again Barry stuff is always either dances with wolves or out of africa. And if youre really lucky Ennio's the mission. Its like going to a gig where the dj has the same records over and over again! Hopefully any new station can learn from this.
A discussion (on Radio 4's 'Front Row' yesterday) about the station made much the same observation. I've only heard about half an hour of William Orbit's show so far; I'm going to wait until the style's settled down and I've heard more (plus I want to hear what sort of playlist Mark Kermode's film music programme is going to have) before passing judgement.
