"480 Minutes" - Check The Record (MES)

 
Decades ago I was an angry journalism student.  My head was ready to explode when, months after their names, faces, and crimes were on the front page of the New York Times, it became clear  that none if of those involved in the Iran-Contra Criminal Enterprise were going to prison for subverting the Constitution.  As an act of self-preservation I ginned up a work visa and flew over to merry old England to escape.

I got a job in London at the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street at Tottenham Court Road.  Every day I'd wander into the in-store DJ booth to request songs.  One DJ would never even look up at me, much less play my requests.  One day I requested a song by The Fall.  She looked up at me and said, "I do a club on Friday nights in Clerkenwell called 'Totally Wired.' You should come." She handed me a flyer and then she played my song.  

I went to the club that Friday and every Friday after that, eventually working there as security and then, in an amazing stroke of luck, as DJ! There I met music soul mates who deepened my knowledge of and appreciation for music.   Several became friends for life, and I have The Fall's Mark E. Smith to thank for them.  

When MES died this week I shed my first tears for a dead musician since John Lennon was killed.  I guess you could say that cranky bastard was important to me, so like the videos section of this blog post, there are going to be a number of Fall songs during today's show.

Mark E. Smith (1957-2018)

New (and new to us from late 2017) music today including songs by Calexico (Tucson, AZ, @casadecalexico), Camp Cope (Melbourne, Australia), Django Django (London, England, @TheDjangos), The Go! Team (Brighton, England, @the_go_team), and Leyya (Vienna, Austria, @leyyaleyya).

Today's show runs from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Eastern U.S. Time and is followed by 2 hours of uninterrupted music.  The show will then be rebroadcast in it's entirety beginning at 7 p.m., then again on Saturday at 5 a.m. and 3 p.m., and one final time on Sunday at 1 a.m., followed by a rebroadcast of this week's Fuzzy Road radio show at 11 a.m.

Tune in!

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Videos






480 Minutes / Year 14 / Episode 4