The Radio Magnetic blog brings you the latest gigs, clubs, festivals and music news from throughout the UK and worldwide.

It’s that time of the year again, and as February comes around in the city of Glasgow once again so does the Glasgow Film Festival (GFF). Running from Thursday 16 February till Sunday 26 February and spanning across 16 different venues across the city, including a swimming pool and The Tall Ship, the GFF always offers many unique and exciting experiences for locals and visitors to Glasgow.

As well as some of the best of global cinema, both new and old, this year will transcend the big screen to include many enticing special events in addition to various live and interactive happenings. With so much going on to choose from Radio Magnetic has done a bit of research and pulled together some of the things we are most looking forward to seeing for your browsing pleasure.

Naturally the first thing that jumps out at us on the programme is the Music and Film festival section. Called a festival within the festival there is some truly enough great stuff happening, and enough to immerse yourself in that you could quite easily dedicate your whole festival experience to this one part of the GFF. Cry Parrot presents: Umberto looks a particular highlight. Umberto is a true master of the horror soundtrack, think John Carpenter’s dark and unsettling synth-work crossed with the disturbing prog-rock of Goblin. He will be flying over from Kansas for this special performance on Saturday 25 February at SWG3, the film he will be providing the soundtrack for remains a secret, but whatever he chooses we are sure it will be a terrifying night’s entertainment. We are also excited by the performance of space and electro rock pioneers Silver Apples appearance on Sunday 26 February at Mono. Formed in the New York in 1968, Silver Apples were well ahead of their time, ignoring the psychedelic rock going on around them in 60’s New York they instead opted to create a minimalist experimental electro sound that influenced countless musicians, including Suicide and Kraftwerk. We really can’t recommend getting a ticket to this enough.

There is also a retrospective of the work of revered Scottish filmmaker Douglas Hart, perhaps best known for his cutting edge promo videos for the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Stone Roses, Primal Scream and Paul Weller. And, in 2009 Glasgow indie-pop outfit, Butcher Boy performed a live soundtrack to Scottish director Enrico Cocozza’s film Chick’s Day at Glasgow Film Theatre. Glasgow Short Film festival is delighted to invite the band to perform to film again, in a special event for this year’s Festival at the Berkeley Suite. Both these music related events at the film festival should be worth checking out. And, a film sure to have a fantastic a soundtrack is the Scottish screen debut of Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy. A must-see.

Filmaticly, GFF has been offering a diverse variety of cinematic genres, styles and experiences since its inception and this year is no different. One of the best cinematic experiences you can have at the GFF is the Frightfest’s frightpass, which offers you the chance to see 11 horror films over two days. It is a truly great and unsettling happening and in our opinion there really is no better way to watch horror films than one after the other with minimal rest bite. Beginning on Friday 24 February and running right through till the following evening, it’s always a unique experience to submerge yourself in film after film in the GFT’s large cinema, breaking only to get snacks, go to the bathroom and get a quick kip before returning the following morning for further frights. Some of the creepiest highlights include the ‘found footage’ shockumentary Evidence, apocalyptic dystopian adventure, The Day and the UK premiere of chilling slasher flick Rites of Spring. The brand new strand, Crossing The Line series of experimental films also has some wonderfully bizarre looking events and films including 85A Present: Jan Svankmajer, Finisterrae and The Forgotten Space.

When a festival can lurch from the depths of horror goodness to a celebration of Weimar Republic Germany’s cabaret tradition then it’s quite obvious that it’s got some variety about it, and so it is as GFF presents Weimarvellous. Adding some glamour to the cold winter months Weimarvellous kicks off with a screening of Blue Angel in the CCA on Friday 17 February. Featuring the queen of Cabaret, Marlene Dietrich as Lola-Lola, a Cabaret performer and femme fatal who is the downfall of besotted high school tutor Immanual Rath, The Blue Angel is a true classic. With Cabaret performances in the CCA bar after the film and a chance for you to to perform in Cabaroke (Cabaret themed Karaoke) it should be a cracking night to glam yourself up and strut your stuff.

There is so much really credible and exciting stuff to see at this year’s GFF we couldn’t possibly cover it all but suffice to say that whatever you’re into, you will find something that suits you at Glasgow Film Festival 2012. The above are our top picks.

glasgowfilm.org/festival

Listen, stream and download interviews and exclusive special features from across the musical spectrum every week on Radio Magnetic.

Breda Doherty from Radio Magnetic and Dead Sound caught up with RM Hubbert, the much revered Glasgow guitarist on the eve of his second solo album release, Thirteen Lost & Found. They discuss the collaborative writing process the album was built around, why Hubbert felt the recording studio was the most comfortable environment to reconnect with old friends, the personal experiences behind his music and his understandable love for The Minutemen.

Thirteen Lost & Found is available now through Chemikal Underground. Produced by Alex Kapronos and featuring collaborations with Aidan Moffat, Emma Pollock and Luke Sutherland as well as solo compositions from Hubbert Thirteen Lost & Found looks set to be one of the most critically acclaimed and truly unique albums of 2012.

Watch the video for new single, Sunbeam Melts The Hour featuring Marion Kenny & Hanna Tuulikki below.

rmhubbert.com
chemikal.co.uk

The Radio Magnetic blog brings you the latest gigs, clubs, festivals and music news from throughout the UK and worldwide.

In association with the Hyphae festival, an innovative music platform which provides insight into the nowadays exploding digital and web-based music culture, and presented by Josh Hill (Wavy Graves) & Joe Howe (Ben Butler & Mousepad), A Global Video Party at the Old Hairdressers on Saturday 25 February from 8 – 12pm should be a terrific night of international musical goodness for only £5.

Sets will be beamed in downstairs from Jimmy Pe, Oknai, Mux Mool, Pazes and more, from locations such as Berlin, Lisbon and Brussels, with live sets from Stefan Bloemeier, Silk Cut and Ben Butler and Mousepad beamed out upstairs.

More info on the Facebook Event page.

Explore the sights and sounds of Glasgow’s rich music heritage with the Glasgow Music Tour.

The Glasgow Music Tour is an interactive audio walking tour available as iPhone and Android app and MP3 versions. The tour takes you through the city’s world famous music history through landmark venues past and present and other sites of historical interest. From that grand old lady The Barrowland to the City Halls, the first officially recorded performance space in the city, the tour gives an in-depth and engaging look at the venues responsible for playing host to Glasgow’s most revered bands and those made famous by playing host to now legends of the music industry. It also looks at the newer venues which are successfully establishing a unique niche with live music lovers such as Stereo and The Arches.

Presented by new music champion Jim Gellatly, featuring interviews with Vic Galloway, Billy Sloan, Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai, Emma Pollock from The Delgados, Jill Rodger from Glasgow Jazz Festival, techno afficianado Jill Mingo and many more musicians, broadcasters, promoters and industry insiders, this is the definitive story of Glasgow’s musical heritage. Audio content is produced by Inner Ear, the company behind Radio Magnetic.

Glasgow Music Tour is the second audio project of Walking Heads who last year released the Edinburgh Comedy Tour. Download the music tour for only £1.99 from today.

Glasgow Music Tour: Teaser Route 1 by Walkingheads

Glasgow Music Tour: Teaser Route 2 by Walkingheads

Glasgow Music Tour: Teaser Route 3 by Walkingheads

Glasgow Music Tour: Teaser Route 4 by Walkingheads

Keep up to date with Walking Heads on Facebook and Twitter.

Platform in association with Celtic Connections presents two great and eclectic nights of music on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 January. We can’t wait for this.

The first sees the fantastic cult British Indian/indie-pop outift, Cornershop headlinine. Cornershop‘s latest album, Cornershop and the Double ‘O’ Groove Of  was released to critical acclaim back in March 2011. The LP was six years in the making and is a collaboration with Bubbley Kaur, a previously unrecorded Punjabi singer. Throughout their 20 year career Cornershop have managed to successfully combine their psychedelic sound of guitar and sitar within pop songs that as well as bringing mainstream success didn’t lose any of their cultural significance.

The biggest and most popular example of this heard on their 1997 album, When I Was Born for the 7th Time and the iconic and timeless Brimful of Asha, the unique sound of which lead to praise not only from John Peel but lead them to completing sold-out tours in the UK and supporting the likes of Oasis and Beck in the United States. Watch the video for new tune, United Provinces of India, taken from Cornershop and the Double ‘O’ Groove Of below.

In keeping with Celtic Connections‘ ethos of using the festival to bring together both local and global artistic talent, supporting Cornershop will be Glasgow’s own indie-pop group, 1990s.

Tickets cost £12.50/£10 and are available from the Platform box-office as well as Monorail, Tickets Scotland and Celtic Connections.

The following night it’s the turn of Laetitia Sadier, Jo Mango and Dan Haywood’s New Hawks to take to the Platform stage.

The amazing Laetitia Sadier is best known as the lead singer of Stereolab. When the band announced an indefinite hiatus in 2009 Laetitia set to work on what would be her first ‘official’ solo album The Trip. The record was well received by critics for it’s intensely emotive look at the sometimes unexpected personal kicks life can bring. Sadier is renowned for her beautiful and sometimes unexpected live performances which you can get a preview of below.

Jo Mango is an alternative folk and acoustic band from Glasgow and also the adopted name of the group’s front-woman and primary songwriter. Mango has collaborated with musicians such as David Byrne, Devandra Banhart, Vashti Bunyan and Teenage Fanclub. During the gig Jo Mango will premiere a brand new work created especially for Celtic Connections, There Was and There was Not… a collection of songs inspired by Angela Carter’s wild and dark, Book of Fairy Tales.

Dan Haywood’s New Hawks are a new literate voice on the British musical landscape. Their epic scope marries transatlantic cosmic roots music with a poetic and soulful British folk. A rambling, rolling band whose crazed stage presence, with various players swapping instruments and psychic powers amongst themselves, has already assured them cult status.

Tickets cost £10/£7.50 and can be purchased from the Platform box-office, Monorail, Tickets Scotland and Celtic Connections.

Both events include bus transport to and from Mono to Platform, costing £4 and leaving promptly at 6.30pm!

platform-online.co.uk
celticconnections.com

2011 has been another busy and exciting year for us at Radio Magnetic. Our tenth anniversary is quite possibly the best year we’ve ever had!

We’ve featured a wealth of amazing new shows, guest mixes, live sessions, features, videos, events and what we consider to be, generally excellent music, on the station since January.

And as we look towards Crimbo and a brand new year, we thought we’d round up the station’s highlights.

Our tenth birthday year has seen the launch of lots of superb new regular podcast and shows. We’re delighted and proud to have welcomed these new shows to the fold - Dead Sound, The Process, We Can Still Picnic, Wild Combination, Luxury Milk, Ionise Dubcast, Join the Dots, Sero’s Sessions, Hepcat Radio, Men and Machines mixes, Highlife, Less Chat More Taxi, Symbiosis and Tigerstyle - definitely something for everyone there. Make sure you check them out.

And of course we’ve had plenty of top notch podcast action from the Radio Magnetic stalwarts and veterans too: Phuturelabs, Jim Gellatly, Is This Music, Orbit with Joe Carr Hollands, Little Rock, Big Dada, Hepcat, The Charge, Too Many Fireworks, Glasgow Podcart, Radio Vava and the Optimo Podcast all providing glorious sounds on a regular basis.

We’d like to thank all of the above shows for being a part of what we’re trying to do with the station – provide a platform for quality underground, alternative and independent music that often doesn’t get the chance to be heard elsewhere – and we’d like to take the opportunity to thank you all for listening to them.

We’re also over the moon to shout about our ongoing friendship and collaboration with the good people at Mixcloud too. They invited us to play at their monthly night at the Big Chill House in London to celebrate our tenth birthday party and we had a great time. Check out those mixes and stay tuned for more news on our collaboration with them in early 2012.

Some of our choice picks of the exclusive guest mixes we’ve featured this year would include: Melting Pot, Auntie Flo’s AfroFutures, Our birthday Mixcloud Party London sets and the ongoing Compost Black Label Sessions mixes. All well worth checking out.

This year also saw us kick off a new series of Free MP3 Downloads every day. So far we’ve featured tracks from across the musical board from the likes of S-Type, Psychemagik, DJ Harvey, Real Estate, Auntie Flo, Matias Aguayo, A$AP Rocky, Lana Del Rey, Kate Wax, Cass McCombs, Japanther, Greg Wilson and loads more. Check the site daily to keep up to speed with those too.

This year has saw the Magnetic team record some our favourite up-and-coming acts at both T in the Park and Homegame too.

Here’s a video from each of those series to check out. If you like the look of them watch the rest of the videos in each series and check out the full audio recordings too…

Once again, thank to everyone for listening and supporting us through another year of wonderful music being made and played in the musical city we’re so fond of, Glasgow.

Have a great Christmas and New Year.

Lots more to look forward to from us in 2012.

All the best.

facebook.com/radiomagnetic
twitter.com/radiomagnetic

The Wedding Present play The Garage in Glasgow on Thursday 29 December 2011.

If you’re pinching pennies in the run-up to Christmas, enter our competition below to win two tickets to see the seminal indie outfit, live in Glasgow.

Competition

To win a pair of tickets to see The Wedding Present on Thursday 29 December in The Garage, simply tell us what the name of David Gedge’s other band, formed in 1998 were called?

Answers in the comments box below please and good luck!

Rules and Biz

1. By entering the competition you agree to subscribing to our newsletter.
2. You must be 18 years of age or older.
3. The prize is 1 x pair of tickets.
4. Competition will run until 10am on Tuesday, 27 December at 6pm.
5. You must tell everyone how much you LOVE Radio Magnetic!
6. By entering this competition you agree to our terms and conditions

We recently recommended in a post on our gig guide that you get yourselves along to what we are sure is going to be a cracking night at the Chambre 69 put on by our good friends at EQTV and featuring the delectable techno sounds of DJ Scuba, check out this video of Scuba at Dancity Festival 2011 in Foligno to get a sense of what a special night  it’s gonna be.

And a couple of you lucky folks can now go along cause we’ve managed to get our hands on a pair of tickets to give away and for a chance to win all you have to do is answer the simple question below.

Competition

To win a pair of tickets to see Scuba on Friday 9 December at Chambre 69, simply telwhat the name of Scuba’s record label is?

Answers in the comments box below please and good luck!

Rules and Biz

1. By entering the competition you agree to subscribing to our newsletter.
2. You must be 18 years of age or older.
3. The prize is 1 x pair of tickets.
4. Competition will run until 10am on Thursday 8 December at 6pm.
5. You must tell everyone how much you LOVE Radio Magnetic!
6. By entering this competition you agree to our terms and conditions

We suggested in a recent post on the Radio Magnetic blog that you should get tickets pronto for the excellent Omar Souleyman’s who will be playing at Oran Mor on Thursday 8 December.

Well if you haven’t got round to taking our advice yet you may be in luck because we have a couple of free tickets on offer for what is surely going to be an incredible gig by a very special musician.

Here’s a wee promo video for his upcoming world tour to entice you further.

Competition

To win a pair of tickets to see Omar Souleyman on Thursday 8 December at Oran Mor, simply tell us in which country Omar was born?

Answers in the comments box below please and good luck!

Rules and Biz

1. By entering the competition you agree to subscribing to our newsletter.
2. You must be 18 years of age or older.
3. The prize is 1 x pair of tickets.
4. Competition will run until 10am on Tuesday 6 December.
5. You must tell everyone how much you LOVE Radio Magnetic!
6. By entering this competition you agree to our terms and conditions

Download Misery one of the stand-out tracks from Big Troubles new album, Romantic Comedy. The album is out now on Slumberland Records and comes highly recommended.
Big Troubles – Misery by Slumberland Records

Check out below the video for the band’s new single, She Smiles for Pictures.

bigtroubles.bandcamp.com
slumberlandrecords.com