Tennis impresario Mansour Bahrami at the launch of his DVD, talks about his extraordinary rise to stardom via homelessness in France and singularly harsh treatment as a child on the tennis courts in Iran.

BIBA (The British Iranian Business Association) organised this event in Summer 08 as part of their public service programming. We also hear comments from Fari Taydayon, The Energy Deployment Company and Bez Ghazian at the BIBA event at the Hilton where Bahrami was speaking.

This show also features classical music played by Haydn Dickenson, piano imitates and transcends santoor in the ten minute piece ‘Tariq 1′ from the album ‘East’.

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Author Rudi Mathee discusses his study of Persian uses for narcotics and other more mundane stimulants throughout history.  Mathee’s book “The Pursuit of Pleasure” has just been released in Iran, and Fari Bradley asks him about Sherry, Shiraz wine and stimulants and opiates in ancient Persia from coffee to opium.

Mathee focusses on the Safavid period (1501-1722) in Persia, when excessive drinking by the Shah was sanctioned by society, as he was seen as the son of Shi’i Imam and therefore exempt from the ban on alcohol. This one example embodies many of the massive paradoxes that existed during this period, and still exist as the tension between public piety and personal freedom.

Like the British, the Persians lived through entire eras of compulsive drinking, yet which were then followed by periods when imbibing became punishable with 40 -80 lashings of the whip due to Islam.

This progamme was originally broadcast from Resonancefm studios in  London on July 28th 2008.

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When five young men who are a typical modern concoction of traditional Iranian values and MTV play music together what will it sound like?

Simorgh incorporate group chanting and a lyrical poetry that is folk-rap, accompanied by the evocative ney flute, tar strings and the empty bellow of the daf drum in their music, which is as far as our experience shows, at it’s optimum best when seen live.

Fari talks to the five members of the up and coming band ‘Simorgh’ about leaving university, playing football, parents, Bryan Adams and musical instruments as weapons of culture.

Simorgh are running workshops for the BBC on Iranian music and putting on their own concerts around London. With a name taken from a Sufi text, the band stand for something many of us can comprehend: what it’s like to be a cultural cocktail in London now.

This programme was originally broadcast from the Resonance104.4fm studios on July 21st 2008.

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Two travel companies explain the ins and outs of travelling to Iran.  From dry sand skiing to Zoroastrian tours, there is a lot on offer!

Persian Voyages and Magic Carpet Travel share anecdotes and histories, as well as tips for those considering leaving.
This programme was originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4fm in London, on July 14th 2008

Podcast

6IIIs to Persia on Resonance104.4fm

Photographer Jamshid Bayrami shows his works in ‘Haj’, the opening exhibition at Xerxes Fine Arts Gallery in London, the only permanent gallery dedicated to Iranian art.

Bayrami has worked successfully as a photo journalist and is known for his picture of a bloodied hand print on a T-shirt during student protests that appeared on the front of The Economist magazine.

Here Fari Bradley talks to gallery owner and curator Ali Bagherzadeh, who is himself a collector, about the show and its pieces.

This show was originally broadcast from the Resonancefm studios on July 7th 2008

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Nima Tehranchi singer from Hush the Many Heed the Few visits the studio and talks to Fari Bradley about his success with Hush the Many and with his own solo project “Sliding Rule“.

Nima plays live in the studio.

Hush the Many are known for their finely balanced vocal interplays and innovative songwriting.

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Fari Bradley talks to Arash Saedinia, a Los Angeles-based music enthusiast and creator of the Fars Funk website, about his passion for vintage Persian popular recordings.

Synthesizing indigenous traditions and Western influences, Iranian artists created a notable body of left-field psychedelic, rock, funk, and folk songs in the sixties and seventies. The show features songs from âPomegranates,â a compilation of Persian pop gems due later this year from B-Music.

This programme was originally broadcast on Monday 16th June 2008 13.30

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Most Iranian parents want their children to be lawyers or doctors, so how do aspiring musicians fare with their parents when making out-of-the-ordinary career choices and what does contemporary music mean to most young Iranians?

Fari Bradley reports from the Contemporary Iranian Music event at the Camden Underworld and interviews artist Maria Kheirkhah live in the studio about her career choice to become an artist, collecting air in the Iranian desert for her projects and her current exhibition the Psychology of Fear. Featured are Farinaz Entegham, Ali Charmi on hip hop and faith, and the father of one of the members of Simorgh.

This show was originally broadcast from Resonancefm studios in London on June 16th 2008, produced and presented by Fari Bradley

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Riley’s iconoclastic Persian Surgery Dervishes (played in full when broadcasting live but for podcast we can only play less than a minute). Also the audio from a documentary about skiing in Iran in the 1970s.

This programme was originally broadcast 2nd June 2008 from Resonancefm studios

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The Association of Iranian Researchers (ACI) is here represented by Roya Kashefi, on the art-music radio programme Six Pillars to Persia on Resonance 104.4fm

Discussing everything from facts to figures and holes in the news, Roya explains to Fari what the ACI does and why, while demystifying some facts about Iran today.  One subject close to Roya’s heart is the efforts of the women’s rights movements, an Roya discusses this and other efforts in this friendly interview.

With music by the innovative Belgian Leo Kupper (b. 1935) on electro-acoustic santoors (x2) and his own micro-processors.

Fittingly for today’s episode subject, Kupper is founder and director of the “Studio de Recherches et de Structurations Electroniques Auditives” in Brussels.

This episode was broadcast from the Resonancefm studios on May 19th 2008

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