Well it’s official – the ‘not going to happen’ axing of BBC 6music, the only real music station now worth listening to, is going to happen.. Or will it? Let’s see.

What can you do?

Firstly there’s a flashmob protest at 6pm tonight outside Broadcasting House, dunno who’s organising it (the nature of flashmobs says: No-one! It’s beautifully organic) but they want you to print out and bring this flag . I’ll see you there.

Public consultation is until 25th May but act now – you can write to the BBC Trust at srconsultation@bbc.co.uk or trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk (check out their requirements here re: a cover letter or fill in their online survey or write to them at the address here (or all 3?) explaining how the cutting of BBC 6 Music is wrong and a severe loss for music, and a affront to the memory of John Peel and those who fought for new and alternative musics on the BBC.

Strange that the Strategy voices wanting to increase quality, but is doing this be restricting the amount of choice, a monoculture that allows the travesty that is BBC3 to exist (Sorry Andrew Collins, I know it’s part of your money stream but it’s an expensive carbuncle) and funds audience dropping Radio 2 far more, as Nigel Jenkins posted over on the FB group:

Radio 3 (2 million weekly listeners, annual budget £51.1 million, cost per user per hour 6.3p) No real changes detailed.

Radio 1Xtra (0.6 million weekly listeners, budget £9.6 million, cost per user per hour 4.5p) Links with Radio 1 will be “strengthened”.

Radio 6 Music (0.7 million weekly listeners, annual budget £9 m…illion, cost per user per hour 3.4p)

So if that’s true Radio 6 costs LESS than 1Xtra, and much less than Radio 3 (I’m not calling for Radio 3 to be closed, John would kill me…and like Radio 4 that would never happen, those in power listen to them).

Also the whole ‘making it bigger will make it commercial’ is a fallacy – as we know DAB and digital radio is still early-doors; and if ‘we don’t want to compete with commercial radio’ ethos was true then Radio 1, 2 and 4 would be for the chop for the start – especially Radio 1 which KissFM should be especially pissed off about. The idea Mark Thompson is upping the quality is a smoke screen – this is just a numbers game ignoring the Reithian ideals of community provision.

I strongly doubt that the mass produced banal pap the corporation produces will actually be less (it’s a mixed message – we need to concentrate on quality; so let’s axe the quality niche products and focus on the mainstream – eh?) and that Radio 1 or 2 will change at all, or as Mark Thompson alluded to start catering for the 6Music audience (in fact Radio 2 is going to go older, and Radio 1 gets off scot free for some reason, and 1Xtra’s audience won’t want 6Music’s breadth).

Really it is a victory for genre/demographics targetted radio, that you are all in little ticky tacky boxes and should stay in your ghettos – obviously new, unsigned and eclectic music isn’t going to be everyone’s bag, but to kill the station pretty much at birth without ever letting it have a wider (FM, or when DAB covers the whole of the UK) audience or promoting it, is totally short sighted.

There’s also a petition at 38Degrees I’ve signed, and you can follow action on twitter by the #saveBBC6Music or #save6music hash tags or follow love6music.

Facebook group: Save 6Music 88,000 people and counting!

Another petition:

PS. I’d use the email address for the consultation rather than the flakey online form to contact the BBCStrategy Review – just got this lovely error after the first page:

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Nice. Great public consultation if the form doesn’t work? Of course they don’t want the form to work, they’ve decided their route…interestingly it looks like it might become an election issue, so sorry BBC, this won’t go away. I think it’s going to be hotly political, fast.

Oh and BBC 6 Music just played Public Enemy – Fight the Power, an audience choice. I think they’re in a fighting mood.

Let’s do this, show Auntie how we roll with social media campaigns – we did RATM #1, Trafigura, MP’s expenses…now here’s the biggest one: the BBC.

Great anti-Mandy and anti-paranoia song ‘Only Idiots Assume’ by Broken Dongles who are Liam Mullone and “Blue Remembered” Hils Barker.

Love the kitten line, the BBC Micro comparison and ‘your dad’s got a beard! I bet he’s in Al Qaeda!’

Maybe their followup should be a cover/version of EMI about the blight that is record companies in all of this…

Thanks to Bob Levingbird for tipping me off about this.

I’ve been on a Viv Stanshall kick (again) recently because a kind listener (reader? what is the collection noun for podcast and blog listeners? poggers? pistener? err..anyway thank you Julian it made it through the snow!) sent me some Viv rarities as a result of the ‘Viv and Neil’ podcast I did last year inc the excellent 2002 radio documentary ‘Canyons of His Mind‘ which of course is referring to the above track, recorded for ‘Colour Me Pop’ in 1968. Apparently they did the whole show, which I really want to see.

Also read a great piece about Viv by his second wife, Ki Longfellow about how they met…I mean I fell in love with him reading it, so in person the effect must’ve been greater . She as mentioned in the text SHOULD write a book about him. If she or anyone relating to her is reading this, please give her a prod, because reading that I would buy a copy, and I have a feeling a lot of people would feel the same way…and also because of his mysterious/insane/wonderful/maddening/glorious lifestyle there are a lot of wrong rumours out there – one of which is that he set himself alight with cigarettes when he died (no, coroner said it was electrical wiring, apparently). Would be great to have a book that comes closer to the real Viv (well dunno if that’s possible actually, but closer than the people writing ones who never met him!) and fills in that gap post Bonzos in the mid-late 70s.

Also did they ever record Stinkfoot? I’ve always wanted to have a copy, either on DVD or audio – and missed hearing about the short revival on Thekla last July…bah!

Oh a few of you might not know who Viv Stanshall was, you poor petals. So here’s a good intro, a show produced by the BBC and introduced by John Peel with Viv on himself and his history in his own words and music (the original piece in 1991 was called ‘Crank’, it seems to have gained the name ‘Diamond Geezer’ somewhere?).

It explains how Viv was just Viv ‘Well I don’t do it, I’m merely being myself, as near as dammit without frightening the housing estates…and her question was absurd rather than fatuous, as if I’d decided one day to wake up and decide I’m going to be a giant squid for the weekend or that’s it I’m going to be a wardrobe for the rest of my…err..word. Well strap me to a tree and call me Brenda! I’m whatever you like just don’t expect me to join in….You see I’m not different for the sake of being different, only for the desperate sake of being myself” Great words, indeed

…although I have no idea why an obit from 1995 has the roman numeral date of 1993 (I suspect it’s been edited together from Crank?) – EDIT: it is from 1993, someone added the ‘Diamond Geezer’ in 1995, seems like many layers of ‘Late’ show, I’ve got a headache.

Bonus: One Man’s Week, a 1975 film about Viv seems to have escaped from the BBC’s Gormenghast Colditz Vaults by means of 1975 quality video…such a shame Viv wasn’t let loose more often on the public with a camera, that would’ve been a great TV programme. Also in part 3 you can see him working on ‘Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead’ which was heavily African influenced and years before it’s time.

Saw this via Akira the Don and assumed it was the Alchemists of Sound but it’s actually from 1993 ‘30 Years of the Tardis’ which I’d never seen (although much quoted second hand) – I’d love to have a copy of this! Can you get it?

And I love the bit at the end – yes Delia is totally right, the music to Doctor Who IS sacrosanct, as all ‘remade’ versions prove, the off-beat non 4/4 groove,

The runthrough I was talking about is also on YouTube, start from from 5:38 (it earlier also mentions the Wobulator which was a homebrew simple electronic noisemaker, not even a synth!) where Mark Ayres runs through each tape loop, track by track showing how it was built up.

P.S. yes I saw End of Time which was the departure of David Tennant – the last 20 minutes were devastating; not too sure about the Timelords return, it had leaked months ago – but the actual ending with Wilf was very sad. Shame he did the Dying Swan bit a la The Trocks and extended his goodbye out FAR too much. But anyway, remains to see whether the Goofy Floppy Haired ‘Gosh’ Doctor of Matt Smith is going to be better, seeing the new trailer really am not sure about the gun and return of Daleks…again.

Heard a bunch of the BBC’s Sound of 2010 on Music Week and on the wesbite, apparently ‘165 UK-based tastemakers’ worryingly, and  my instant responses:

• Daisy Dares You – to be a Lily Allen clone
• Little Florence Marina and the Diamonds Boots Machine
• Stornaway’s Fleet is rather Foxed
• Delphic Klaxons of Trojan War, or are they Friendly?
• Joy ‘Where’s the Burial?’ Orbison (great name though)
• Ellie Golding - La Lady Gagahawke called and wants her sound back
• Giggs in Manuva Attack Shocka!
• Rox-y Winehouse
• Two Door Cinema Club is obviously having a Vampire Weekend
• The Drums are obviously from Franzvegas
• Devlin will suffer in the autotune backlash of 2010. Do we need another Plan B? Isn’t one enough?
• Everything Everything quote Radiohead as an influence but I can hear Peter Gabriel/Coldplay when the industry has gotten to them. Nice to see the african/Vamps influence again. It’s all a bit Simple Minds though.
• Gold Panda (Bear, Collective) – like the raga samples though. Could do some interesting collabs or go up his arse like Animal Collective.
• (Johnny) Hurts (Jazz)…in Black and 80’s white. Can hear them writing for boybands shortly. Like the return to the embarassing 80’s video though – but surely 2010 is the death of the 80’s revival? Please? Again on the Simple Minds/dreampop mid 80’s ABC thing. Saxaphones? Ugh.
• Owl City (obviously The Postal Service is on strike there, ho ho) – reassuringly crap name probably referencing Harry Potter. The return of twee, ffs.

The only ones I liked were The Drums who have been getting airplay already, Two Door Cinema Club cos of the Vamps influence (ditto Stornaway cos I’m a big fan of teh Foxes), Giggs could be interesting and Joy Orbison’s fidgety drumstep crossover might wobble into the charts but it’s all rather generic and sounds like someone else. Meh.

What do you think is going to be big in 2010?