Playlist from January 28, 2009

Mclusky -- To Hell With Good Intentions (Mclusky Do Dallas)
Superfurry Animals -- At Least It's Not The End of the World (Ringz Around the World)
David Bowie -- New Killer Star (Reality)
Pulp -- Pink Glove (His & Hers)
Teenage Fanclub -- Sparky's Dream (Grand Prix)
Heavy Blinkers -- He Heard His Song (The Night and I Are Still So Young)
Black Box Recorder -- Facts of Life (Facts of Life)
Badly Drawn Boy -- 40 Days, 40 Fights (Have You Fed The Fish?)
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci -- Spanish Dance Troupe (Spanish Dance Troupe)
Divine Comedy -- PErfect Lovesong (Regeneration)
Lilac Time -- The Girl Who Waves at Trains (Compendium)
Noah & The Whale -- Shape of My Heart (Peaceful the World Lays Me Down)
Kaiser Chiefs -- Never Miss a Beat (Off With Their Heads)
Graham Coxon -- Bittersweet Bundle of Misery (Happiness in Magazines)
Teitur-- Catherine The Midwatch (The Singer)
Ballboy -- A Europewide Search for Love (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Brian Ferry -- More Than This (Street Life)
Belle & Sebastian -- Sleep the Clock Around (The Boy With The Arab Strap)
The Streets -- Everything is Borrowed (Everything is Borrowed)
Slowdive -- Alison (Souvlaki)
Kings of Convenience -- Homesick (Riot on an Empty Street)
Bloc Party -- The Pinoeers, M83 Remix (Silent Alarm Remixed)
The Chrysler -- WOunded Night (Failures and Sparks)
The CUre -- Plainsong (Disintegration)

BBC 1! BBC2! BBC3! BBC4! BBC5! BBC6! BBC7! BBC heaven!

So I got to talk to my all-time radio idol live on-air last night!

Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie have a nightly show on BBC Radio 2, a station known for being pretty staid and safe and inoffensive. Radcliffe and Maconie are hadly hellraising wild men, but they are probably the only DJs on R2 to play Iggy Pop, The Fall, Buzzcocks, etc. Anyway, they have both been huge godlike geniuses to me for years (Radcliffe especially, whose shows I have listened to ever since I was a callow teenager.)

So they have an ongoing feature on their show called The Chain, whose concept is simple enough: each record (or 'link') in The Chain has to be somehow connected to the previous one. The connection can be as tenuous or obvious as the submitter likes. Each night at a couple of points in the show they speak to the listener whose suggestion has been accepted as the next link.

And last night it was me! My suggestion of a Divine Comedy song to follow a Madness song (on the grounds that both bands had written songs about Michael Caine) was triumphant! For the next week you can hear, courtesy of BBC.co.uk's 'Listen Again' feature, my three minutes of starstruck babbling...

So...click here and then select Tuesday's episode ('Graham Nash speaks') from the Listen Again list on the right hand side. Although you would do well to listen to the whole show, you can skip ahead to my bit if you like -- I'm on at around the 1hr 42 minute mark.

Last Week's Show -- Audio File

If you missed the last show, and feel like hearing it (see playlist below), then feel free to email me at transatlanticaradio@yahoo.com, and I'll send you a link to an online location where I have uploaded the WAV file.

Playlist From January 14, 2009

Ballboy -- Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Heavenly -- 'C' Is The HEavenly Option (Le Jardin De Heavenly)
Steve Harley -- Come up And See Me (Velvet Goldmine)
Badly Drawn Boy -- Silent Sigh (About a Boy)
Brian Eno -- Dead Finks Don't Talk (Here Come The Warm Jets)
Hidden Cameras -- Breathe On It (The Smell of Our Own)
Kaiser Chiefs -- Never Miss A Beat (Off With Their Heads)
Trashcan Sinatras -- I've Seen Everything (I've Seen Everything)
Blur -- Chemical World (Modern Life Is Rubbish)
U2 -- In A Little While (All That You Can't LEave Behind)
The Smiths -- What Difference Does it Make? (Singles)
Hot Chip -- The Warning (The Warning)
Aztec Camera -- Good Morning Britain (Retrospect)
Streets -- Everything Is Borrowed (Everything is Borrowed)
Lemon Jelly -- Space Walk (Lost Horizons)
Turin Brakes -- Future Boy (Optimist LP)
Belle & Sebastian -- Another Sunny Day (The Life Pursuit)
Teenage Fanclub -- It's All In My Mind (Man Made)
Manic Street Preachers -- Raindrops Keep Falling On My HEad (HELP: Warchild)
Teitur -- Catherine the Waitress (The Singer)
The The -- Lonely Planet (Dusk)
James -- I Wanna Go Home (Hey Ma)
The Chrysler -- When Sara Came to Town (Failures and Sparks)
Elbow -- Scattered Black and Whites (Asleep at the BAck)

Playlist from New Years Eve, 2008

Ballboy -- Avant Garde Music (Guide for the Daylight Hours)
The Go Team -- We Just Won't Be Defeated (Thunder, Lightning, Strike)
David Bowie -- Let's Dance (Changes)
Pulp -- Disco 2000 (Different Class)
Camera Obscura -- Happy New Year (Biggest Bluest Hi Fi)
Life Without Buildings -- New Town (Some Other City)
Gomez -- Whippin' Picadilly (Bring It On)
Goldrush -- Waiting for the Wheel (Ozona)
Southside Stalkers -- Five (Sound of Speed)
Jens Lekman -- The Opposite of Hallelujah (Night Falls Over Kortedala)
Teitur -- Catherine the Waitress (The Singer)
Love Spit Love -- Am I Wrong? (Love Spit Love)
Teenage Fanclub -- Sparky's Dream (Grand Prix)
Elvis Costello -- You Tripped at Every Step (Brutal Youth)
Noah and the Whale -- Five Years Time (Peaceful the World Lays Me Down)
Belle & Sebastian -- Jonathan David (Push Barman to Open Old Wounds)
Coldplay -- Strawberry Swing (Viva la Vida)
Pogues -- If I Should Fall From Grace With God (If I Should Fall From Grace With God)
Libertines -- Time for Heroes (Up the Bracket)
Streets -- Turn the Page (Original Pirate Material)
Gorillaz -- Feel Good Inc. (Demon Days)
Boo Radleys -- Wake Up Boo! (Wake Up)
Trashcan Sinatras -- It's A Miracle (Weightlifting)
James -- Sit Down (Gold Mother)
Ed Harcourt -- Watching the Sun Come Up (From Every Sphere)
Stars -- Look Up (Heart)
Divine Comedy -- Lucy (Liberation)

Best of 2008 -- Playlist

Hot Chip -- Ready for the Floor (Made in the Dark)
Goldfrapp -- Happiness (Seventh Tree)
Badly Drawn Boy -- Degrees of Separation (Born in the UK)
Ray Davies -- In a Moment (Workingman's Cafe)
Glen Hansard -- When Your Mind's Made Up (Swell Season)
Duffy -- Warwick Avenue (Rockferry)
Southside Stalkers -- Five (Sound of Speed)
Ladytron -- Ghosts (Velocifero)
Bloc Party -- Better than Heaven (Intimacy)
The Cribs -- I'm a Realist (EP)
Frightened Rabbit -- Heads Roll Off (Midnight Organ Fight)
Foals -- Balloons (Antidotes)
Portishead -- The Rip (Third)
The Real Tuesday Weld -- What it Takes (End of the World)
Tricky -- School Gates (Knowle West Boy)
Radiohead -- Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
Elbow -- One Day Like This (Seldom Seen Kid)
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds -- Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!)
Wire -- One of Us (Object 47)
Forward Russia -- Breaking Standing (Life Processes)
Ting Tings -- Great DJ (We Started Nothing)
Noah and the Whale -- 5 Years Time (Peaceful the World Lays Me Down)
James -- Whiteboy (Hey Ma)
Supergrass -- Diamond Hoo Ha Man (Diamond Hoo Ha)
Coldplay -- Strawberry Swing (Viva la Vida)
Sigur Ros -- Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur (Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust)

Mince Pies...Jamie Oliver style

At this time of year in the UK you can hardly turn around without someone shoving a plate of mince pies at you. Contrary to what the name suggests, these are actually vegetarian confections, a little sweet tart filled with 'mincemeat' (a bizarre mix of dried fruits, raisins, miscellaneous spices, etc.)

By mid-December, everyone in the country is thoroughly sick of the sight of them, and yet they still buy them and serve them at Xmas parties -- a weird form of obsessive sadism/masochism.

Anyway, I cam across this video online, and thought I would share it with you all. It is truly a remarkable achievement, coming dangerously close to making me actually want to make a batch of mince pies.

See what you think.