Well this is probably the worst way to start off a biog of about myself, but the first thing I should admit to is that I’ve got some terrible taste in music. But panic not, I love music and my varied taste ranges from the bad to really great new music out there, and it is the latter I want to share with you at Fresh On The Net.
From an early age I would be listening to whatever my dad was tuned into on the wireless and would also be sat as his side when he was watching TV shows such as The Old Grey Whistle Test. I think I was about 8 years old (1978) when I started using my pocket money to buy my first records. Each time I would sit excitedly on the bus home just waiting until I could get to my bedroom and listen to my latest purchase.
My musical abilities have always been severely lacking (unless playing the triangle at primary school counts) and even though my passion for music has never waned I only ever saw myself as a record buyer and gig goer.
That was until a few years ago at the tender age 38 I met up for a chat with a certain Mr Tom Robinson. I talked to him about music at length and it became clear that I could in fact give something back to the music I had spent many a year just consuming. I decided to use my spare time to start a music blog in late 2009, here we are three years later and I am the proud ‘accidental editor’ of silentradio.co.uk which is based in Manchester.
The website is run on a totally non-commercial basis; in fact it doesn’t even cover its own costs, which isn’t really a problem, as myself and the other 50+ contributors do so quite simply for the love of music.
The main gist of Silent Radio is this… We believe that the majority of the music press has become smug, superior, cynical, negative, bitchy and massively desperate to be cool. This has led them to see themselves as god-like figures with authority over the real consumers of music. The only people that have the right to make or break a new artist or band are the record buying and gig going public.
Much of the mainstream media has now lost touch with the everyday music fan. They treat music as a commercial product, when it should be treated in the same way it was made, with care and passion.
Many publications/websites will ‘tell’ you who is good and who is not. This is wrong, and we aim to inform, and hopefully in the process help you find new music. This is also what I hope to do by contributing on FOTN too. As none of this trip into the music world was planned I always refer to myself as an accidental editor, and now here I am with the prestigious honour of being part of Team Freshnet.
So anyway, that’s me in a nutshell and hopefully I can point some good new music in your direction.
Twitter @SR_Poolie
Website www.silentradio.co.uk
This week’s Fresh Faves were chosen by genuine readers of our Listening Post over the weekend and are reviewed here by Team Freshnet member Simon Poole from Silent Radio: They say laughter is the best medicine, and it’s a good point, but in my books, music is even better. Being from Salford and being a more »
December 3, 2012 – 2:00 pm
Well its big ol’ week on the Fresh Faves front with no less than 14 tracks being included. This surely is a bonus for everyone involved, especially me as I get to find out a little more about each of the chosen many, as opposed to just listening and deciding if I like them or more »
October 17, 2012 – 8:09 pm
Team Freshnet’s live pick for this weekend in Manchester My choice of Manchester recommended gig for the upcoming weekend comes in way of an urban festival in its second year. And what a second year it will be. This really has got to be the daddy of any two day intimate independent event. Last year more »
October 8, 2012 – 8:03 am
Reviewed by Team Freshnet’s Simon Poole A while back a comment had been left saying that there doesn’t seem to be much diversity in the genres of music being chosen in our listening posts, well this week should dispel that comment. There’s a great mixture this time round so feast your ears with another 10 tracks chosen more »
September 25, 2012 – 8:43 pm
Team Freshnet’s live pick for this weekend in Manchester Any regular listener to Tom’s BBC Radio 6 Music shows over the years will undoubtedly have heard of the artist playing my choice Manchester gig for this weekend. If you haven’t, you really should listen more often – because Thomas Truax is the kind of special, one-off more »
September 4, 2012 – 10:00 am
Team Freshnet’s live pick for this weekend in Manchester It’s been a few weeks since my last recommended gig, but I think I’ve found a little cracker taking place at Manchester’s bijou backroom establishment The Castle Hotel. Yet again it’s another band I only discovered last week called Husky. Husky are a four piece band more »
The week’s live pick from Team Freshnet’s Manchester correspondent Now I know I normally bring you a weekday recommendation of a weekend gig in Manchester, but this time flip things around and give a weekend recommendation of a weekday show you should head to. I reckon some of you will already have had the pleasure more »
This weekend’s live pick from Team Freshnet’s Manchester correspondent My recommended gig for last week was unfortunately cancelled, so I’m hoping for Manchester’s sake that the same doesn’t happen to this week’s choice. It’s been a while since Chew Lips have been up this neck of the woods and I was rather gutted to see more »
This weekend’s live pick from Team Freshnet’s Manchester correspondent Well here I am looking for another gig to recommend if you’re at a loose end in Manchester this weekend, and to be honest, there’s not that much to choose from. Well that was until I stumbled across some bloke called Rough Fields playing at one more »
Normally I would use this space to tell you about a gig that I’d recommend for the weekend in my city of Manchester, but with this month being a bit shy on shows I thought I’d give you a video to watch of a band I managed to miss a few weeks back. Gutted.
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