Radio Gonzo

Strange Fruit is a unique two-hour radio show exploring the world of underground, strange and generally neglected music. All shows are themed and all shows set out to give the most hardened of sound-hounds some new delight to sample. The show is also unique in providing homework for undergraduate students on North West Kent College's Foundation Degree in Professional Writing (who dig up many of the odd facts featured in the links between tracks). Strange Fruit presenter Neil Nixon is currently working on a book about rare albums for Gonzo Multimedia. The show is broadcast on Miskin Radio every Sunday from 10-00-midnight.

Strange Fruit is a unique two-hour radio show exploring the world of underground, strange and generally neglected music. All shows are themed and all shows set out to give the most hardened of sound-hounds some new delight to sample. The show is also unique in providing homework for undergraduate students on North West Kent College's Foundation Degree in Professional Writing (who dig up many of the odd facts featured in the links between tracks). Strange Fruit presenter Neil Nixon is currently working on a book about rare albums for Gonzo Multimedia. The show is broadcast on Miskin Radio every Sunday from 10-00-midnight.

Strange Fruit is a unique two-hour radio show exploring the world of underground, strange and generally neglected music. All shows are themed and all shows set out to give the most hardened of sound-hounds some new delight to sample. The show is also unique in providing homework for undergraduate students on North West Kent College's Foundation Degree in Professional Writing (who dig up many of the odd facts featured in the links between tracks). Strange Fruit presenter Neil Nixon is currently working on a book about rare albums for Gonzo Multimedia. The show is broadcast on Miskin Radio every Sunday from 10-00-midnight.

Last week I told you about hearing an extremely impressive track produced by Billy Sherwood. It was by a band called XNA of whom, I will freely admit, that I hadn't heard before. It turns out that the reason that I hadn't heard of them was that this is their first record. So by dint of the ever helpful Billy James, I got hold of a copy of the record, fully expecting it to be a disappointment after the extraordinary first track. So many albums have a single stand out track, and then fail to do anything that good again. But you know what? The whole album is bloody fantastic! So there was only one thing to do. Again using the good offices of Billy James I got the telephone number of their singer David Hussey and gavce him a ring. Listen to our conversation here.

Judy Dyble is one of my favourite people to interview in these pages, and I have done so on several occasions. However, this time is slightly different, because she has just stepped outside the box so remarkably, that it makes one re-examine the entire nature of said box. Then, of course, one realises that such departures from the norm are nothing new for our Jude. As well as singing for Fairport Convention, Giles Giles and Fripp, and Trader Horne she also made some dance orientated albums with Astralasia a few years ago, and has also appeared on various pieces of Scandinavian esoterica. She just has that sort of voice. But what exactly is this new departure? Check this out:

This year one of my two favourite new books (the other being Morrissey's autobiography) has been John Higgs' extraordinary biography of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. I am not alone. The Guardian, for example, wrote: Fascinating and well written insight into one of the most extraordinary bands of the past 25 years. As much as you may love their music, or hate their anarchic anti-art antics (like burning a cool million quid), you cannot fail to be impressed by their philosophy, risk taking and sheer bravery/cheek in taking on the establishments that affect their lives. You'll also never think about the No.23 in the same way again! A highly recommended read whether you are a fan or not. To me, a man who has juggled his two parallel careers as Fortean and rock and roll art terrorist for the last thirty odd (some of them very odd) years, this book makes perfect sense. It probably asks more questions than it answers, but it proposes a Gloriously Surrealchemical (watch out for GS and 23) thesis which actually g

Canterbury Sans Frontières #9 We at Gonzo Web Radio are very proud to bring you Canterbury Sans Frontières - a podcast dedicated to the music of the 'Canterbury Scene' and more. Creator Matthew Watkins writes: As with Canterbury Soundwaves, a new three-hour episode will be released with each full moon.I decided to wind down Canterbury Soundwaves so that I didn't end up (i) repeating myself, (ii) scraping the bottom of the Canterbury barrel, or (iii) becoming increasingly tangential. This new podcast broadens the musical remit, so it'll be about one-third 'Canterbury sound', together with progressive/psychedelic/experimental music from the Canterbury of today, the remainder being a mix of music from various times and places which I feel to be in a similar spirit of creative adventurousness. I'll be doing a lot less talking, and the programme will be less expository – so no interviews, barely-listenable bootlegs, etc. I also plan to include guest one-hour mixes from various musicians from the current music

Howe grew up in Hampstead, London, and is the eldest son of Yes guitarist Steve Howe. Named after Dylan Thomas, the Yes song Clap was written for him by his father. Howe attended King Alfred School from 1975 to 1986. He began drumming at the age of 10, and although he briefly studied with Bob Armstrong, Bill Bruford, and Jonathan Mover; he is primarily self-taught. During this time, Howe spent a year living with his family in Montreux, Switzerland, for the recording of Yes's Going for the One album. It was during this time he first attended the Montreux Jazz Festival. When Howe was 13, his parents took him to see Buddy Rich and his big band at Ronnie Scott's club – he cites this as the moment when he knew that he wanted to become a jazz drummer. Throughout his teens, Howe played in various groups in North London. His first gigs were at King Alfred School (1981) and University College School (1982). The groups' repertoires mainly consisted of covers of The Clash, David Bowie, Bauhaus and U2 songs, supplemen

Canterbury Sans Frontières #8 We at aGonzo Web Radio are very proud to bring you Canterbury Sans Frontières - a podcast dedicated to the music of the 'Canterbury Scene' and more. Creator Matthew Watkins writes: As with Canterbury Soundwaves, a new three-hour episode will be released with each full moon.I decided to wind down Canterbury Soundwaves so that I didn't end up (i) repeating myself, (ii) scraping the bottom of the Canterbury barrel, or (iii) becoming increasingly tangential. This new podcast broadens the musical remit, so it'll be about one-third 'Canterbury sound', together with progressive/psychedelic/experimental music from the Canterbury of today, the remainder being a mix of music from various times and places which I feel to be in a similar spirit of creative adventurousness. I'll be doing a lot less talking, and the programme will be less expository – so no interviews, barely-listenable bootlegs, etc. I also plan to include guest one-hour mixes from various musicians from the current music

Like all rock and roll scribes of my generation I strive to avoid doing what Jon Landau did 40 years ago when he said "I have seen the future of Rock and Roll and it is Bruce Springsteen" and got laughed at for it for the rest of his career. So I won't. I have seen ShiSho and they are certainly the future of something, but I don't think they have decided what yet. Within half an hour of discovering them I sent the link to their music to my niece Harriet, and within a few minutes I received a reply "I relate to this music really well, wow!" and ShiSho got themselves another fan. This confirmed my suspicions. I wrote to ShiSho guardedly. |The 21st Century is not a very nice place, and I am only too aware that middle aged men with wild staring eyes contact teenage girls at their peril. I am certainly a middle aged man with wild staring eyes and I would hate anyone to think that my motives were even slightly insalubrious]. The girls wrote back, sending me some press stuff, and we chatted a bit via Facebook bef

Billy Sherwood is the epitome of the 21st Century prog musician. He is involved in so many projects, that when I tried to find a brief encapsulation of them, I found it impossible. His Wikipedia page is voluminous and described his early days with a band called World Trade, his years with Yes, first as a producer and later as a band member. His long association with Yes members Chris Squire and Alan White, his production work with Motorhead, Paul Rogers and others, his solo work and his work on various tribute records with multi-stellar lineups. This year alone we have seen the latest records by his Prog Collective, an all-star tribute to Steve Miller which - amongst other things - featured the last ever recordings by Yes founding guitarist Peter Banks, and a remarkable (but definitely odd) record with Science Fiction TV's most notable starship captain. Billy is by anyone's standards a polymath: a musician, composer, producer, engineer and - as the latest album by Days between Stations (who we interviewe

Rick Wakeman writes: "There have always been certain 'careers' that have fascinated the public, newspapers, and the media in general. Such include musicians, actors, sportsmen, police, and not surprisingly, the people who give the police their employment: The criminal. For the man in the street, all these careers have one thing in common: they are seemingly beyond both his reach and, in many cases, understanding and as such, his only association can be through the media of newspapers or television. The police, however, will always require the services of the grass, the squealer, the snitch, (call him what you will), in order to assist in their investigations and arrests; and amazingly, this is the area that seldom gets written about. A very close and long standing friend of mine, a jolly Birmingham chap, by the name of Dan Wooding, who has since 1982 has lived in Southern California, 'Collared' the King of the Squealers and somehow got him to 'spill the beans'......all of them ! I also met and knew 'the

Brian James (born Brian Robertson, 18 February 1955, Hammersmith, west London) is an English punk rock guitarist, who has played for several notable bands. His first band was the proto-punk outfit London SS. James moved on to The Damned, recording on their first two albums Damned, Damned, Damned and Music for Pleasure before leaving. James later formed and disbanded both Tanz Der Youth and Brian James Brain's (later known briefly as The Hellions). In 1979, Brian James played in Iggy Pop's solo touring band, but he never played on a studio recording with him. He guested on The Saints' 1982 album, Out in the Jungle. He would co-found and later play in The Lords of the New Church with Stiv Bators. He recorded three studio albums and one EP along with several live albums with the band, playing from 1982 until their break-up in 1989. From 1992-96, James played guitar with the Brussels-based band The Dripping Lips. In 1992 he was invited by Scottish vocalist Robbie Kelman to co-write with him the soundtrack for the

One of the music events of the year Frank Zappa's legendary 1971 work 200 Motels is performed live in concert for the first ever time in the UK. This colossal piece, one of the most ambitious that Zappa ever wrote, is performed by the full forces of the BBC Concert Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, London Voices and a large cast of rock musicians, singers and actors. Banned from live performance at the time of its composition, and a cult classic on film and on record ever since, 200 Motels can finally be heard on stage in its full glory. Rob Ayling was there...

GONZO WEEKLY: What is Gonzo? Rob Ayling explains

Strange Fruit is a unique two-hour radio show exploring the world of underground, strange and generally neglected music. All shows are themed and all shows set out to give the most hardened of sound-hounds some new delight to sample. The show is also unique in providing homework for undergraduate students on North West Kent College's Foundation Degree in Professional Writing (who dig up many of the odd facts featured in the links between tracks). Strange Fruit presenter Neil Nixon is currently working on a book about rare albums for Gonzo Multimedia. The show is broadcast on Miskin Radio every Sunday from 10-00-midnight.

Strange Fruit is a unique two-hour radio show exploring the world of underground, strange and generally neglected music. All shows are themed and all shows set out to give the most hardened of sound-hounds some new delight to sample. The show is also unique in providing homework for undergraduate students on North West Kent College's Foundation Degree in Professional Writing (who dig up many of the odd facts featured in the links between tracks). Strange Fruit presenter Neil Nixon is currently working on a book about rare albums for Gonzo Multimedia. The show is broadcast on Miskin Radio every Sunday from 10-00-midnight.

Oliver is the first son of Rick Wakeman. His parents divorced when he was young. He worked with Clive Nolan (of Arena) on two progressive rock concept albums, Jabberwocky (released 1999) and Hound of the Baskervilles. Tracy Hitchings appears on both albums, while Rick Wakeman (narrating) and Yes alumnus Peter Banks both appeared on Jabberwocky.Wakeman worked with Steve Howe for several years, (originally his father's bandmate in Yes and later as a bandmate when Oliver joined Yes himself). The two lived fairly close to each other in south-west England. Howe guested on Wakeman's solo album The 3 Ages of Magick, while Wakeman is on Howe's 2005 solo album Spectrum and contributed to Howe's recording of "Australia" for the US version of the Yes collection The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection. Wakeman wrote a CD inspired by his visits to and experiences on Lundy, a small island in the Bristol Channel which was released originally in 1997 and then again in 1999. He toured with Bob Catley in the UK and Euro

As regular readers will know Gonzo are very proud to be bringing out a record (imminently) by the lovely Miss Crystal Grenade aka Carol Hodge, who was last seen in November 2011 on stage at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. She was holding the hand of the one-time Crass vocalist Steve Ignorant as they closed both Ignorant's world tour and his career of singing songs by the one-time Kings and Queens of anarchopunk, with a massively emotional version of Bloody Revolutions. Even watching it on YouTube brings tears to my eyes, so I can only imagine what it would have been like being in the audience, or even more on stage. Carol joined Ignorant's world tour half-way through after the previous female vocalist had dropped out for family reasons. And she had some pretty big shoes to fill (I suppose if I was clever enough I should make some sort of reference here to Crass's notorious song about Chinese footbinding, but I can't think of one). And she filled them righteously. As well as her own project, Carol and guita

I often seem to preface my interviews for the Gonzo Weekly by saying that "I am very fond of...", but it is true. Especially in this case. I am very fond of Erik Norlander. He is a kind, sweet, funny man, and a bitching prog rock keyboard player. We like many of the same books, both are fond of curry, and can chatter on for hours upon various esoteric subjects. But if you want the dry facts, Wikipedia has them: "Erik Norlander (born 1967) is an American musician who describes himself as a 'keyboardist, composer, producer and engineer'. Norlander has produced albums for Rocket Scientists and his wife, Lana Lane. He also has a progressive rock solo project titled simply Erik Norlander. Norlander has toured and / or recorded with singers Kelly Keeling, Joe Lynn Turner, Glenn Hughes, Lana Lane, Tully Winfield, James LaBrie, Edward Reekers, Robert Soeterboek, Scott Kail, Mark Boals and Buck Dharma, bassists Tony Franklin, Don Schiff, Kristoffer Gildenlöw, Mark Matthews and Phil Soussan, guitarists Bruce Bouillet,