The Crazy Girls of Drive Time

One eats tissue, whilst the other eats dust. Lynnike and Sefa are set to bring a brand new, youthful and oh so feminine exuberance to Drive Time on BANG. Priding themselves on their ability to stay at the forefront of hot new music, as well as their strong and addictive personalities, this dynamic duo know their talent lies in entertaining the masses.

The two first met at university at the tender age of 18 whilst both studying for degrees in Media Arts & Radio Broadcasting. The strong connection between them was instant, as by this point Lynnike had super glued her hand to Sefa’s. Soon they both recognised the passion they shared for radio. Starting out as a  University project, the two had to produce & present a weekly radio show together, and broadcast live on the FM band across  London. It wasn’t until audience listening figures started to soar and the show was awarded Best Specialist Radio Show at the Student Radio Awards that the pair realised just how successful they could really become. Shortly after they hatched their cunning plan to take over the world.

The crazy pair went on to present and produce a weekly show on one of London’s best known pirate radio stations, where as well as playing the best in sultry slow jams, they also became agony aunts. They still don’t understand how it came to be that listeners trusted their advice. It was at this point that their talents were spotted and they were asked to record a pilot for Channel 4’s new E4 Radio project, which eventually never launched. Turning their hand to DJ-ing, these ladies can also be found mixing and blending in the hottest clubs in and around the Capital.

And now you can catch the cheeky ladies on London’s award winning station, BANG Radio, where they will drive you crazy on the drive time show every Tuesday and Thursday, between 4 and 7pm. Determined to make their dreams become a reality, Lynnike and Sefa are working extremely hard to achieve the success they know they deserve.

Imaani on Soul-D-Out Mondays

Catch Imaani on SOUL-D-OUT Mondays with D’Nyce. Monday 2nd February, from 7pm

The year 1998 saw Imaani enter the Song For Europe competition to find the UK’s song for the Eurovision Song Contest. Her track Where Are You? was an instant hit with the British public and was selected to represent the UK. Imaani finished in second place, just six points behind the winner Dana International. Where Are You? entered the UK Chart in May 1998, peaking at number 15 after selling over 100,000 copies.

In 2000 Imaani supplied the lead vocals on Tru Faith & Dub Conspiracy’s cover of Adina Howard’s Freak Like Me. Freak Like Me reached number 12 in the UK Singles Chart, again selling in excess of 100,000 copies. Imaani then went on to record with British band Incognito who are widely regarded as the figureheads of the English acid jazz movement, musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. Their debut album, Jazz Funk, was released in 1981, with twelve more albums following.

Imaani has provided her vocals on five Incognito albums to date. Now venturing out on her own again, Imaani has a brand new album for 2009 which we are playing exclusively and as an independent UK artist featured on SOUL-D-OUT Mondays, is there anymore we should know about this amazingly talented vocalist?

BANG Radio Tutor Training Scheme

Got a desire to teach? Want to become a qualified tutor but not sure how?

If this sounds like you, then look no further… BANG brings you the Tutor Training Scheme. We are offering you the chance to become a qualified tutor. You will develop the knowledge, skills & experience to deliver accredited training and gain a Level 3 NVQ in Direct Training and Support.
This is particularly useful for artists and professionals in music and media industries such as radio presenters or music producers who want to extend to teaching. You can earn £15 - £20 as a sessional tutor. There may be opportunities to join BANG’s tutor pool.

In order to participate in this programme, you should have:

A commitment to community education, and a commitment to and understanding of the principles and the implementation of equal opportunities.

The ability to work in a culturally appropriate manner.

Knowledge in the subject area to be taught.

The ability to manage and motivate participants

The ability to work co-operatively with members of a team

The ability to form good working relationships with people from a wide range of social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds

Facilitation skills and the ability to work independently.

The ability to demonstrate a methodical and thorough approach to work, and work to deadlines.

The ability to be tactful and sensitive, though assertive when appropriate

To be eligible for this programme, you must meet the following criteria:

Be 19 years old or above

Have the right to remain and work in the UK

Be either: 1. a contracted employee (full and part-time), 2. self-employed, 3. a volunteer or 4. an employment agency worker (i.e. a temp)

Live in Greater London (i.e. within the M25)*

Have no more then 5 GCSE’s A – C

Be at Entry Level 3 minimum

If you do qualify and are interested, email: trainingapps@bangradio.fm

*Priority will be given to applicants living or working in South Kilburn

Obama!

Wow wa wee wa, that’s all I can say. Barack Obama is officially the 44^th President of the United States of America.

As the first EVER African American to reside in the White House, Mr President has promised to bring change - and you know what? Change has already come! First President of colour?  Well if that isn’t change, I don’t know what is. It’s absolutely fabulous! OK, so who is Barack Obama?

Well, he is not what you call new on the political scene; in fact he has been ‘on the circuit’ for quite some years. Obama spent several years as a state legislator and it was back in 1996 when he was first elected to the Senate for the state of Illinois. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2002.

It was around 2002 when Obama decided he wanted to spread his wings that little bit further and considered running for the U.S senate.

A major landmark in Obama’s political career came when he wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.  It was at this time he questioned Bush’s whole approach to the Iraq war. This undoubtedly solidified his potential and made all those that were sleeping on him, patently aware!

Obama was sworn in as Senator on 4th January 2005, becoming only the fifth African American Senator in U.S history. After being involved in various legislation and committees, on 10th February 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President.

Right from the outset, Obama’s campaigns (in the primaries and the general election) set various fundraising records. Initially there was a whole host of Democratic candidates angling for President but it was promptly narrowed down to Obama and Hillary Clinton. After a long, and sometimes bitter, rivalry Hillary eventually conceded defeat resulting in Obama going head to head for the Presidency with Republican nominee, Senator John McCain.

Fast forward some months and on 4th November 2008 Obama demolished McCain in the general election with a landslide 365 electoral votes to McCain’s 173. Obama’s victory speech was sombre compared to the soaring and inspirational heights of his previous speeched during the campaign, but in it he announced that ‘change has come to America’.

Man, this is emotional writing this.

Forward wind to January this year, this month in fact, the 20^th January 2009 is a day that will NEVER EVER be forgotten!

At noon (local time, Washington D.C.) on a day cold enough to freeze breathe but glorious in it’s deliverance, Obama was officially sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America. The first of colour.

Did you see the live footage?  Dang it was deep - the sheer volume of people, the pride of the people, the tangible energy and vibe, the anticipation in the atmosphere, everything! Man, I wish I was there experiencing that!

With a risk of boring you to tears with my continual praise and pride for President Obama’s success, I will sign off with this thought. As the old saying goes, behind every powerful man, there is a powerful woman. So let me tell you a little about Michelle Obama. As the rock and strength upon which Obama has depended, believe me, Michelle is about to make her mark on history too. Not only as the first First Lady with some serious class and style, but as a woman with intelligence, integrity and goals!

Barack Obama (and Michelle), we salute you!!! 2009 is shaping up nicely and remember, YES WE CAN!

Peace, love and presidency,

Sherryl Blu x

P’tang Yang Kipperbang

P’tang Yang Kipperbang Folks and fellow Hip Hop activists!

On a historical week where a sympathiser to Hip Hop culture became the most powerful human being on the planet, I trust you are well! This week we touch upon Pyrelli and Channel 4 (again!); up and coming female Hip Hop artist Tor Cesay; I make a bold prediction significant for the British film industry and I explain what p’tang yang kipperbang is!

So, the saga continues with UK Hip Hop artist Pyrelli and Orange Unsigned Act, Channel 4’s competition for unsigned music acts. The story so far… Pyrelli enters, does well… gets voted out… yours truly TJ Chill cries ‘INJUSTICE!!’ right here on the BANG Radio blog… the British public responds to this in their masses (or so I would like to think!), and votes Pyrelli back into the show!

That’s where we left it. However, I was told Pyrelli went back on the show and got kicked off again. (D’oh!)

I go back to my original perspective on this whole issue and in doing so I point my finger squarely at Channel 4 in a Chuck D Public Enemy sort of way. As long as you are an artist performing Black Music without an electric guitar in front of that judging panel you will NEVER win that competition! Channel 4 with your 5 different channels and once champions for taking risks, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give UK audiences a chance to see UK talent demonstrate their abilities on appropriate platforms. I don’t enjoy watching top Black Music performers being degraded by jumping through hoops on a talent show they could never win. Come on Channel 4, fix up. There’s a wealth of young and experienced talent here at BANG Radio that could help out.

Speaking as a black man I feel like British television broadcasters make Black People look like we are always moaning at them about being under representation. But for real, when you look at the United States, they have the likes of Barack, Oprah, and Cosby gracing their small screens. We have a couple of people in Eastenders, Trisha and Howard from the Halifax advert!

Anyway, all we can do to make any sort of change is to get behind rising talent and push push push. Speaking of which I had the honour and pleasure of having Tor Cesay on Monday night’s show. An East Londoner rising up quickly in the Hip Hop game, Tor is following similar paths to success as Ms Dynamite and Estelle. With her compilation mixtape Beatz International out now and with a studio debut album out later this year, you will hear much more about Tor.

The thing that got me about Tor was her instantly infectious personality. She’s bubbly, young, very smart, determined and independent. She’s nice on the mic too! She has even set up her own record label ‘Pinch of Salt Records’.

To get a flavour of Tor’s music seek out her version of Bashy’s ‘Black Boys’, flipping it to ‘Black Girls’ and saluting all of the prominent UK black women as told from a young black women’s perspective. Tor Cesay is absolutely awesome! I wish her all the best.

With Tor alongside other female acts like C’Mone; Pariz 1, Poni, Deekay, Reenee Silver; Angel, Peaches and Baby Blu, the female element of the UK Hip Hop scene will most definately be on fire in 2009. Plus there’s a whole stack of new girls getting ready for 2010 too!

Time for my prediction and it’s based on a gut instinct that served me well whilst working for years in A&R (talent devloping):

She’s a 23 year old British actress called Carey Mulligan.

She is about to appear in the lead role of a independent British film written by Nick Hornby called An Education.

I predict that she will be one of Britain’s biggest young female film actresses over the next 5-10 years.

She’s unknown by the wider public as yet. Let me know what your thoughts. And thus to the playlist:

.

Zulu Nation Rap Show playlist from 19th January 09

Special guest - Tor Cesay

Black Girls	Tor
Hip Hop Ain’t Dead	Lowkey
Beatz International	Tor
Alright	MCD feat Myesha and The Ragga Twins
Superstar	Tor
Live This Way	K.I.D
The Perch	Tor feat Flying Lotus, Phonte Coleman & Oddisee
No Pardons	Exo
Mengibus Anthem	Jehst
Graveyard Shift	Sir Smurf Lil
Truss	Chain of Command
I’m Talking to You the Big Daddy Cool	Spekta and Capone Law
Tru Skool @ Night
Renegades of Funk	Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force
Unbelievable	The Notorious B.I.G
.

P’tang Yang Kipperbang… HUH!

The ‘huh’ came with a salute and was the coded greeting of the school yard characters from Jack Rosenthal’s 1982 screenplay set in the 1940s about a cricket obsessed schoolboy’s first love. P’tang Yang Kipperbang was the opening film in the First Love season when Channel 4 began broadcasting. (Full of wonderful trivia aren’t I!)

Before I sign off, a quick heads up. This week saw top UK Hip Hop artist Lowkey in Trafalgar Square in front of a packed crowd dropping some science at a huge rally regarding the whole Gaza situation. Lowkey got the whole crowd cheering and chanting with his speech/performance. The BBC seem to be treading on eggshells about the issue. If you’re curious about what Lowkey alongside Drew Mcconnell from Babyshambles had to say and see what the BBC won’t play, check it out on YouTube.

It’s been a good week! Keep supporting the show, keep supporting the music and keep supporting BANG Radio.

Until next time my friends, P’tang yang kipperbang!

TJ Chill - Zulu Nation Rap Show, Mondays 10pm - midnight

Presenter Focus: Sheryl

Sheryl presents an hour long talk based show (Wednesdays at 9pm) which aims to engage listeners in fast moving and high-spirited debates on all that’s topical; whether it be in the local, national or even international news.

No matter what your view is, TALK wants to hear it, promises to discuss it, may seek to challenge it and, maybe even change it. Sheryl takes you by the hand and pulls you right up into the centre of the debate.

What are your views on the latest celebrity scandal? Are you sick and tired of the mere mention of so called ‘celebrities’? How do newly proposed government measures affect you? Or do you think that they are way off the mark? Are you sick and tired of being the focus of the news but never part of the discussion about the real issues?

Whether it be crime and its causes, the state of modern relationships, bullying, racism, policing, dating or just plain player-hating Sheryl’s show is the place to have your views aired on it.

Sheryl is a lawyer from North West London so playing advocate is in her blood. Now be warned; Sheryl is highly opinionated and always has something to say on absolutely everything that hits the popular radar. And as Sheryl is not afraid to share her views, even when they are not necessarily popular with her audience, you had better have your game tight before you call or email the studio to take part! She doesn’t suffer fools gladly! Controversy is a concept that Sheryl is not shy of. Does she court it? Well, you would have to tune in to find out.

Sheryl is new to broadcasting, joining BANG Radio in November 2008. So when not banging away criminals, Sheryl can be heard banging away at your ear drums instead. Every Wednesday between 9pm - 10pm. Only on BANG Radio

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