Cruel Britannia's Haunted Wardrobe

I decided a few weeks back that 'The Other Fadeout' on Nightbreed Radio had run its course quite successfully and to try a new format for September. I wanted to create a show which focused primarily on the goth/darkwave/deathrock scenes more than previously, and to leave the broader spectrum of music that I air completely in the hands of 'Fadeout' on Phoenix Radio, where it all began.


With that I bring you Cruel Britannia's Haunted Wardrobe; an hour of great tunes from the aforementioned genres, with a little more 'spook' in the mix. I hope it goes down well with you.

September's show playlist looks an awful lot like this:

Snake Dance-In Your Arms I'll Die
Sex Gang Children-Beasts
Bauhaus-Boys (live)
Siouxsie-Loveless
Fear Cult-If You're Watching
Hatesex-A Rose Without Eyes
The Cure-Fascination Street
Death In June-Break The Black Ice
Killing Joke-The Raven King
Kooper Kain-You Had It Coming
Xymox-Evelyn
Garden Of Delight-Spirit Lovers
Vendemmian-Heaven
Death Party UK-She's So Hot

Update:

I can announce that The Haunted Wardrobe will also be heard on Tampa's famous Deathrock Radio. More ways to hear the show are always a good thing in my books.

Forthcoming Ankst Remix and more...

This weekend I finished off the first remix I've ever done since 2007 for South African Gothic rockers Ankst.
It's for a track called 'Natal' from their forthcoming EP 'Epitaph'. It'll join several other remixes done by various artists, and as yet I have no idea who else is joining in on the project, so stay tuned to see what else the remix will be rubbing shoulders with on the release.

The last one I worked on was 'All You Used To Be' by The Faces Of Sarah. Since then, I had done some pre-production mixing of tracks for Kidderminster based industrial metal outfit Oak, due to them liking what I did for their first release 'Torn'. It turned out that I taught them a few things mix-wise, and was called into their studio for further guidance. Not bad, considering I know bugger all regarding the technical aspects, and rely solely on what my ears have heard over the decades.

I'm currently waiting on the remix stems for a track by US Deathrock legends Kommunity FK after frontman Patrik asked for me to contribute a remix. Once again, watch this space for details.

During a period when I'm beginning to look back on my roots as a musician rather than solely be a DJ & radio presenter, this is a nice segue into what hopefully might be a return to the stage one more time before I fall off my perch...

Wicky, wicky, and indeed, wah.

Sleaze On Toast; last night's playlist

Cheers for all those who made it on the night, I hope you had as good a time as we did DJing for you. Thanks also to those who couldn't make it but were keeping up with the live playlist on Twitter too.

I've taken a few minutes compile the #sleazeontoast Twitter trend into a comprehensive breakdown of the night's music, who played what, and save for one or two chronologically inaccurate artistic licence choices (it's not a crime is it?), we made people feel very, very old to the following soundtrack...

SLEAZE ON TOAST @ THE HAYGATE, TELFORD 15TH JULY 2011

JIM HAWKINS
New Order-Blue Monday
Art Of Noise-Close To The Edit
Landscape-Einstein A Go Go
Japan-Quiet Life
Joy Division-Transmission
Magazine-The Light Pours Out Of Me
Bill Nelson-Do You Dream In Colour

CRUEL BRITANNIA
Duran Duran-Friends Of Mine
Echo & The Bunnymen-Back Of Love
Gene Loves Jezebel-Desire
The Cure-A Forest
B-Movie-Nowhere Girl
Clan Of Xymox-A Day
March Violets-Snake Dance

JIM HAWKINS
Cult-She Sells Sanctuary
Killing Joke-Love Like Blood
The Mission-Wasteland
Sisters Of Mercy-This Corrosion
Fields Of The Nephilim-Moonchild
Siouxsie & The Banshees-Spellbound
Zodiac Mindwarp & the Love Reaction-Prime Mover

CRUEL BRITANNIA
Tenpole Tudor-Swords Of A Thousand Men
Bauhaus-Kick In The Eye
All About Eve-Every Angel
The Bolshoi-Away
Wah!-The Story Of The Blues
Psychedelic Furs-Love My Way
New Order-Everything's Gone Green
Ultravox-Sleepwalk

JIM HAWKINS
Nine Inch Nails-Head Like A Hole
Ministry-Jesus Built My Hotrod
Iggy Pop-Lust For Life
Rob Zombie-Dragula
The Normal-Warm Leatherette
John Foxx-Underpass
Kraftwerk-The Model

CRUEL BRITANNIA
Soft Cell-Torch
Cardiacs-Is This The Life?
The Cult-Go West
Sisters Of Mercy-Temple Of Love
Siouxsie & The Banshees-Cities In Dust
New Model Army-Vagabonds
Killing Joke-80s

JIM HAWKINS
Julian Cope-World Shut Your Mouth
Joy Division-She's Lost Control
Rosetta Stone-Adrenaline (Hard Mix)
Soft Cell-Sex Dwarf
Bauhaus-Bela Lugosi's Dead

CRUEL BRITANNIA
Depeche Mode-People Are People
Gary Numan-We Are Glass
Furniture-Brilliant Mind
The Cure-In Between Days
New Model Army-225
Danse Society-Somewhere
Human League-The Lebanon
Smiths-This Charming Man

JIM HAWKINS
Pigbag-Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag
Visage-Fade To Grey
Eurythmics-Sweet Dreams
Siouxsie & the Banshees-Spellbound
Shakespears Sister-Stay
Rob Dougan-Clubbed To Death (Kurayamino Variation)

An interview with Sylvia Lancaster about S.O.P.H.I.E

Sylvia speaks to DJ Cruel Britannia in a phone interview about what the S.O.P.H.I.E. Campaign is up to now, new developments & strategies, and how she appreciates the support & contributions of the Goth Community. Click the player below to listen (requires Flash).

Sleaze On Toast; an Alt 80's night in Telford!

A blatant excuse for both Jim & I to crack out the 'diet goth' for a night and entertain the folks for whom all that suff was the soundtrack to their lives before the kids, the marriage & the day job? Maybe.

But it's all for charidee, mate.

We're planning a similar fundraiser event in Shrewsbury for the S.O.P.H.I.E campaign in September, so watch this space.

Visit the Sleaze On Toast Facebook event page.

Learn all about Jim Hawkins here.

UPDATE: it seems that the magic of the t'interweb is available to us onstage; this will enable us to be able to 'tweet' our playlists as we go, so you can see what we're playing more or less live on the night. Hopefully that will magically encourage those of you who are elsewhere on the night to haul ass down to the Haygate for last orders or sooner.

Let's face it, it's either that or the telly, and you're not missing anything on the idiot box on a Friday night...

UPDATE #2: I'll be sticking QR codes around the pub which, if you possess a smartphone and a relevant app, will magicly transport you to the Twitter search string for any posts with the hashtag "#sleazeontoast", which is what we'll be putting after each tweet containing a song we've played. Once again, this is entirely dependant on the gods smiling on us tonight and allowing us the internet connection to do it...

May, World Goth Day and all that stuff.

I haven't blogged for a bit, mainly because I didn't have much to say and didn't want to write anything just for the sake of it. However, World Goth Day is creeping up fast (only just over a day away now from this point) and I feel slightly obliged to get a few words down.

This year, more events have been announced than in 2010 and from a personal perspective, I'm very pleased to see the Middle & Far East also announcing events in Beirut & Singapore. Not the most likely of places on the planet, granted, but that's got to be half the charm.

Media interest has been healthy, with regular articles appearing in Dominion Magazine and hot off the press so to speak, LA Weekly, and as recent article from renowned US blogger Bryan Reesman.

It occurred to me that the few writeups I have haven't been properly consolidated, so here is what there is so far which relate to World Goth Day that I can find:

Bryan Reesman's latest WGD Blog:

http://www.bryanreesman.com/blog/2011/05/21/get-your-goth-on-world-goth-day-returns/

LA Weekly:

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2011/05/world_goth_day.php

Dominion Magazine:

http://truecultheavymetal.com/index.php/dominion/2011/02/14/cruel-britannia

http://truecultheavymetal.com/index.php/dominion/world+goth+day:

Bryan Reesman Blog (from 2010):

http://www.bryanreesman.com/blog/2010/05/20/world-goth-day-is-coming/

Thrash Hits (from 2010):

http://www.thrashhits.com/2010/05/its-world-goth-day-tomorrow-how-are-you-going-to-celebrate/

Fadeout will be a 2-hour World Goth Day Special on both Phoenix and Nightbreed Radio at the following times:

2pm-4pm GMT on http://www.nightbreedradio.com

9pm-11pm GMT on http://www.phoenixradio.co.uk

Because I'm that kind of guy, the show will be made available as a podcast at http://fadeout.podomatic.com the following day.

Anyway, have yourself a lovely World Goth Day and if you happen to take & some photos of what you've been up to and put them online, send a link over to info at worldgothday dot com where I'll try & compile all the links on one page.