iwonderwhat.co.uk

I hope not…. i work there and it’s a great station. Alan Yentob (creative director at the BBC) has a pension pot of almost 7 million – that’s what it costs to run 6 Music every year. 690,000 listeners are at stake. And people’s jobs.

This says a lot: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/feb/10/bbc-radio

In keeping with my last post, here’s Fed talking about why he doesn’t get injured, yes he’s lucky, but you make your own luck:

Injury Free Free Fed

It’s sad that Nadal has pulled out of Wimbledon. Any true Federer fan ( i am one) will be upset. Why? well nobody wants to see another great player or champion losing the right to defend his own title – and despite the agony of 2008 in that final, i’d like to see Federer in another grand slam showdown against the man who is turning out to be his ultimate nemesis. 

For those that are huge fans of Nadal and claim point blank that Federer’s reign is over, well this proves they are wrong. The Spaniard lost in the French (there was no mention of knee problems before Soderling), and he has now pulled out of Wimbledon. It’s no secret that Nadal’s game is built in part on his ability to chase every single ball down, to wear his opponent into submission – but that doesn’t make him a great player. Federer’s reign is far from over, and Nadal is far from achieving anything quite like the swiss has achieved in his 14 slams and 5 years at Number one.  Being “great” or being the “greatest” as Muhammad Ali will attest to is about many things. One is the ability to perform in the sport for many years with the ability to go the distance, longevity therefore is no mean feat – and it’s one a great player should possess.

Federer’s game is great, because he conserves energy, he dances around the court and that means he’ll last longer and achieve more. Nadal pounds the floor, expands enormous amounts of energy and, with the incredible force of top spin he places on his shots, he places immense amount of pressure on his muscular frame in order to deal with the ferocity of his movement.

Whilst he’ll be able to beat the best players in the world when he is at his best, the reality is, there will always be a danger, if he carries on like this that he’ll be missing matches and big tournaments. He might only be 23, but Federer is still clocking up Grand Slams at 27 and looks at times as sharp as ever. Nadal might be the greatest chaser of the ball we have seen, but does he have the stamina to chase down Federer to ultimate greatness? 

Judging by Nadal’s form over the past 6 months, you’d be a brave man to best against the Swiss right now, without doubt we are all watching the greatest player of the open game. I just hope Nadal recovers soon, so Federer gets the chance to prove to everybody that fair and square he has what it takes to master the Bull.

Dinosaur Jr formed in 84, split in 97 and then got back together in 2005 – all in a lifetimes work then. They really don’t like doing interviews, or so the media says. But i found them quite engaging and full of opinion. Mascics is one of the funniest people i’ve interviewed. I could probably play his interview back double the speed and it would still sound slow!  The bands ninth album is out on June 23rd. It’s called Farm. It wasn’t recorded on one though, nope they recorded it in a small room in the J.Mascis mansion.

Four hours is officially the longest time I have ever had to wait to interview a musician, and now my interview with Marilyn Manson is officially the strangest 10 minutes of my life. 

Having arrived at The BBC Maida Vale studios with the naive understanding he’d be on time I spent much of my afternoon sat in a lounge preparing for the big rock arrival. 

Away from music, Marilyn Manson has proved himself an insightful, articulate and compelling man, this interview conducted after a session for the BBC went slightly wayward. 

During the interview he pulls the microphone apart, asks his girlfriend to strip and drops more sexual innuendos than Finbarr Saunders from the Viz comics. 

Listen to the man himself with interviewees Adrian Larkin (6 Music News) and Ian Youngs (BBC Online).

In the name of charity 7 of us from 6 Music headed north to play in a footy tournament as part of Liverpool Sound City. So we started well and battered Manchester boys In the City, then things took an almighty nose dive as we were pulled apart by Cream and followed that dismal encounter by being out paced by a collective of 45 year olds allegedly from The Farm. You know the ones, “All Together Now”….

Look at the photos here

Shot in Varadero, Cuba 2009


Storms in Cuba from Adelarks on Vimeo.

Back from Cuba… what a place. But it’s heading for another revolution. Yep – it’s going down to capitalism in a big way. It’s gonna be chewed, swallowed and spat out as soon as the yanks can say “Cohiba”.

The capital carrot has been dangled for such a long time now that they’re just itching to get their hands on all the things we take for granted everyday.

Played tennis against the coach at one of the resorts, and he literally took the shirt off my back.

I gave him my Federer, Australian Open Nike top. It made his day. It made mine too, till i found out i can’t get actually buy it anymore in the UK as it’s a limited edition. People living in Cuba must get that feeling 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

“All my life i wait for Castro to die, when?” my tennis coach said.

It’s not been the greatest of weeks. Hell in fact. So what better way to top off 5 days of anguish than breaking a BBC computer? The thing is, i didn’t break it, i swiveled the screen and then….well it fell off.

One thing you can count on the BBC is the equipment.  I’m pleased with the result, a really large and cumbersome laptop… see under extremes of pressure we’re a pretty resourceful bunch.

Somewhat of a legend, especially after Psyence Fiction and that blazing beast of a mix tape under the guise of UNKLE…. so as you would imagine quite a pleasure to spend an hour or so with him in the studio…

Turns out Lavelle is a massive Xbox 360 fanatic, so we had that in common, that and punching knobs (so to speak).