Alex P now has two shows on the station. Alex P said: ‘My first show is called ‘Battle of the Bangers’ and is on every Tuesday from 2pm to 5pm. Alex new show sees him invite DJs in for a sound clash battle. So far battles have been with Andy Manston from Clockwork Orange, Joe Bonner, Master Pasha and will soon see his old mate and the hugely respected Tall Paul take part.

‘My second show is my original Funkadelic show which has now moved to every Thursday from 2pm to 4pm and I like to play a mixture that includes soul and jazz funk, and then I play songs from five or ten years ago, that people have forgotten and don’t get played out as much. I play the brand-new music and a lot of this hasn’t been released by then. I get sent lots of tracks every week and I go through them and, if I think they’ll work, I’ll play them. I like to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s new.’

Alex will also be playing a set at the next Centreforce party, 30 Years of the Force. He added: ‘I’ll be playing at the 30 years anniversary Centreforce party on 11th May and I am really looking forward to it. It’s such a nice thing to be invited to be included in.’

There have been other guests at Centreforce this month. Snowy had the pleasure of interviewing Judge Jules on Wednesday 20th March. Amongst talking about his Judge Jules Live project, he also brought along six tracks that got played. The eclectic mix had everyone in the studio smiling and he finished off the interview by playing London Calling by The Clash, which was a pleasant surprise. Consider Centreforce Radio judged and sentenced, and review hearing will take place again in the very near future.

Luck and Neat need no introduction, and it’s really something incredible to have them back involved with the station. Discussions are well under way to get further fixtures from them and, they are shows not to be missed as they excite and lift us up every time.

Andy Smith and Peter P (sadly Morgan was unable to be included as he was out of the UK), were back in for a Street Sounds special tribute show to Froggy who sadly passed away in 2008. Froggy was well-loved and is credited as playing a huge part in the growth of Soul and Jazz Funk in the UK during the 70s. He played alongside the likes of Robbie Vincent and Greg Edwards and kept many a happy listener hooked with his various radio shows such as ‘the Froggy Mix’ on Capital Radio. There are many involved with Centreforce Radio that knew him personally and loved him as a DJ and a brother. Andy and Peter’s show was a fitting tribute indeed.

The Centreforce ‘Balls to Cancer’ events are attracting a lot of attention including the DJ challenges. Five DJs took part in an eating competition which involved eating the hottest chicken wings in the country. The five DJs did brilliantly and suffered for a few days afterwards. DJ Sterling also took part in a challenge, a dog handling challenge with security dogs from with K9 Britannia Security and is probably sighing with relief that he got off lightly with the experience. Keep it locked for the additional Balls to Cancer challenges that will be coming at you this month. Pease dig deep (and gents, whilst you in your pockets have a feel and if anything doesn’t feel normal, please go and see a doctor and get it checked).

Also, please keep an eye out for all the various social media posts about what’s happening with Balls to Cancer. You can check out the video message from Judge Jules amongst others on our Facebook pages.

The post 883 Magazine – Issue 10 – Part 1 – April 2019 appeared first on Centreforce 883 DAB+ Radio London.

Judge Jules was live at Centreforce on Wednesday, 20^th March and gave an exclusive interview and played and talked through his favourite tracks including:

Judge Jules said: ‘Judge Jules Live was an idea I came up over a year ago. I had already been quite heavily involved in many of the orchestral shows, like with Gatecrasher and Ministry of Sound, with the exception of the Pete Tong and Hacienda ones. What this done was give me a fairly deep understanding of what works more and what works less so, as far as transferring dance music into a live show.

We are going out as a ten-piece band that includes a horn section, drummer, percussionist, two vocalists, bass player, guitarist and keyboards and then myself on decks. We’re calling it Judge Jules Live and in some ways it’s a variation on the orchestra theme events that I have been involved with. For this we are reinventing the songs, adding in a lot of solos.

Whereas the orchestra themed events have mostly taken the songs and transferred them note for note, as a score, but for this project there’s a lot more recreation involved. I suppose what we’ve done can be described as funky jazzy, which isn’t surprising because the band is made up of jazz musicians. But they do have leashes on and there’s been a lot of planning put into the songs. We’ve been able to do something that includes adlibs too and so its not like the orchestral thing where all the musicians just sit down and there’s not much emotion put in.

The musicians in the band are all based up north. They all know each other to a lesser or greater extent, and most have worked with one another at some point. We got together and they all really brought into it. We started off working with backing tracks and rearranged them and then we worked on what each musician could do. By having this approach, we were able to work out which track merited a trombone solo or a percussion solo. There was an element of trial and error, but we got somewhere by doing this.

We have two very good vocalists. We realised early on that the songs we were doing needed two vocalists. There are a lot of harmonies going on in the songs that we’ve chosen. Not every track in the show has vocals on them though.

Alongside being on the decks and spinning in samples, my role has also sort of been the musical director. I’ll also be the MC on stage too. I have tried not to interfere too much. We’ve managed to produce songs that sound very different to the originals but have retained the vibe and beauty of the original records.

It’s been a matter of getting the balance right between my DJing understanding, for instance DJ land is about having something that, for want of a better description can be quite robotic, and the live sections performed by the band.

We’ve been rehearsing the songs for about a year, and I’m convinced it’s working really well. We’ve met up about twenty times and each time that we have its been a matter of honing the songs.

I have chosen some of my favourite tracks and the intention is to add more songs over time. We are kicking off with five dates across the UK but will be adding more as it evolves, and I will do this alongside my DJing.

The venues we are starting off are live gigging places as its not aimed at the clubbing land. There’s been a lot of interest so its likely other types of venues will be used in time. We will also be doing festivals too. I’m really excited about it and looking forward to taking it live. It’s also been nice to work on a project that has taken such a long time and see it finally coming to fruition. I’m really proud of it.’

23/03/19 Plug, Sheffield

12/04/19 Scala, London

18/04/19 Thekla, Bristol

26/04/19 The Mill, Birmingham

03/05/19 Gorilla, Manchester

Tickets from judgejules.net

The post 883 Magazine – Issue 9 – Part 3 – March 2019 appeared first on Centreforce 883 DAB+ Radio London.

The Legendary ARTHUR BAKER! Interview & Exclusive DJ Mix on Centreforce!

ARTHUR BAKER was the special guest on Andy Smith’s Saturday show with Morgan Khan, the founder of StreetSounds.

Check out the Podcast for an enlightening journey with Arthur and whatever happens keep listening to the second hour, for an AMAZING, EXCLUSIVE DJ MIX by the great man!

Don’t miss the StreetSounds Valentines Special on Wednesday, 13th February from 8pm on Centreforce!

With very special guests Morgan Khan, Junior, David Joseph and Chad Jackson.

The post Arthur Baker Exclusive at Centreforce! appeared first on Centreforce 883 DAB+ Radio London.

The post Louie Vega Exclusive at Centreforce! appeared first on Centreforce 883 DAB+ Radio London.