Showcasing The Best Of The Fringe Podcasts During July

With just over a month to go until the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe starts (official dates this year are 7th August to the 31st August), and I’ll be helming the BAFTA nominated Edinburgh Fringe Podcast for the fifth year, bringing you the daily show from the Arts Capital of the world.

During July in the run up to the Fringe, the Fringe Podcast is going to look back at some of the many classic interviews from the archives. Every Friday for the next five weeks, I’ll introduce one of the many guests we’ve had on the show as an appetiser for the marathon that is the Fringe!

The first Best of the Fringe Podcasts will be posted tomorrow lunchtime (Friday 3rd July). To make sure you never miss a podcast, you can subscribe to the Fringe Podcast in iTunes, or copy the RSS File into your favourite RSS application.

And if you have a favourite interview from the past you want to hear, let me know!

# July 2, 2009; Leave a Comment.

Just Call Me the Renegade Eurovision Host

Thanks to Lisa Devaney for a quote that, if I were looking for an advertising strap-line, would be right up there on the top of the poster. This Renegade Eurovision Host was interviewed by Devaney last month about my adventures at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, and my use of Web 2.0 technologies. Specifically the live coverage of the contest on Twitter and my audio commentary podcast.

Twitter got noisy surrounding Eurovision, as it sparked hundreds of amusing tweets about the song contest, and gave rise to an alternative tweeting voice when journalist Ewan Spence used Twitter to cover the event from the show’s frontline in Moscow, sending tweets, blogging and podcasting from the event.

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This ‘new way to watch’ has been picked up by many people; Adam Tinworth wrote about it just before the contest had started, giving his readers a heads-up, many people on Twitter pointed out my @ewanspence account when asked who they should follow to stay in touch with Eurovision, and the Media140 Conference in London the week after Eurovision featured a number of discussions about the coverage and how it helped get many people through the night.

One final thought from Devaney:

He [Spence] out-tweeted much of the official BBC correspondents by speed of updates and depth of information, winning rave reviews from followers. Several said they preferred the commentary of the renegade Eurovision tweet host to the banter of Graham Norton’s debut year as Eurovision host.

You can read the full article over at the Digital Journal.

# July 1, 2009; Leave a Comment.

The Scottish Summer… Foggy

Kevin called me yesterday, from the backing hot sun of France, and the heat-wave in the south of England. “What’s the weather like up there, mate?”

Still foggy.

Fog on the Forth

But at least it’s a summer fog and there is sun on top of it. In the winter it’s just a rain cloud descending to sea level!

# June 30, 2009; Leave a Comment.

The Old Grey TPN Rock Whistle Test

I know it says rock in the title, but you all know that this is actually music I like that you all need to hear so sometimes the genres go out the window and I just play stuff that’s cool.

So welcome to TPN Cool #145!

I’ve previous mentioned some of the influences and heroes that drive the show, with both Tommy Vance and John Peel being the two most obvious, but the show tonight feels more like Bob Harris and The Old Grey Whistle Test. No matter who it is categorised, it still holds true to the TPN Rock promise… Unknown… Unsigned… Unforgettable…

TPN Rock: The Friday Rock Show #145

New Rose by Zombie Met Girl (www.zombiemetgirl.com)
Stop and Stay, by The Colorfield Theory (The Colorfield Theory on MySpace)
Black Cat White Cat, by Fanattica (Fanattica on MySpace)
Barrio Chino, by White Room (White Room on MySpace)
Flowers on a Tuesday, by The Morrisons (www.freewebs.com/themorrisonsband).
The Light in her Hair, by The Last People On Earth (The Last People on Earth on MySpace).


MP3 File – Show Notes – RSS Feed

# June 26, 2009; Leave a Comment.

Buzz Brainbender on the latest PSP Show

More bite sized chunks of info, news and reviews from The Podcast Network’s PSP Show, as I talk about two Buzz titles on the Playstation Portable: Buzz Brainbender and Buzz Brain of the UK.


MP3 File - Show Notes – RSS File

# June 25, 2009; Leave a Comment.

We Want Our Boxes (For Our Games, That Is)

Over on Ovi Gaming I’ve posted an editorial on the importance of game boxes and physical media for the collector and the console gaming ecosystems.

This may seem a strange issue to bring up, and even though there is a niche that regards game boxes as collectibles, there are many, many more that would be quite happy to sell on a game, be it to a second hand shop, as a trade in at EB Games, or on Amazon or eBay. And the games publishers are fighting to stop this second sale happening – after all, these are sold on at almost full price.

Nowadays, with electronic stores, you have to struggle just to re-download an application you’ve already purchased, and in the case of the Ovi Store you get one chance at downloading a purchase. Need to grab it again because of a hard reset, corruption or you’ve bought a new phone, then you’re out of luck.

More on Ovi Gaming, which is the new name for All About N-Gage, in case you have forgotten!

# June 24, 2009; Leave a Comment.

Stephen Fry, Vax and the All About Symbian Insight Podcast

Popping up every week (although I don’t always point it out here) is the All About Symbian podcast, where Rafe Blandford, Steve Litchfield and I chat about the latest happenings in the smartphone world – mostly Symbian but we talk about the wider reach as well.

Of course you can’t talk about modern phones without discussing VAX systems from the late 80s and the occasional Prog-Rock number (Aqualung by Jethro Tull this week). We’re more than just a dry news show. I managed to sneak in some Shakespeare last week!

And if all that doesn’t float your boat, you can sit back and enjoy my rant on Stephen Fry’s review of the Nokia N97…

I love what Nokia has given to the market – I was devoted to the Communicator for years – but no one who has used an iPhone would do anything other than laugh, weep or bray with contempt at the N97.

StephenFry.com


MP3 File - Show Notes – RSS Feed

# June 24, 2009; Leave a Comment.

Ed McMahon: The Master’s Master. RIP

Ed McMahon died today.

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Both of them will be missed, but wherever they are it’s going to be a fantastic show tonight.

# June 23, 2009; Leave a Comment.

Nokia’s Comes with Music if you like mainstream, don’t mind DRM, can live with restrictions….

Nice big article over on All About Symbian looking at Nokia’s Comes with Music service, where you receive two years of as much Digital Restricted Music as you can download from the Nokia Music Store. Admittedly you need to have a taste for mainstream music, and there are some gotchas, as I found it:

Let’s start with Eurovision ("must we?" - every AAS reader). It’s the biggest live TV show on the planet (112 million viewers this year), it releases a worldwide compilation album of all the songs, and after my previous article, I knew it was in the store. But there’s a problem…

Although there are 42 tracks, and they are all listed, I’m only allowed to download 25 of the tracks individually. The other 17 are only available if I decide to download the whole album.

Comes with Music and Eurovision

What is the point of that? Okay, it’s not costing me anything extra to do that on the PC, but it eats bandwidth, it’s awkward, and it’s a pain in the neck for the end user.

The full article goes into a lot more depth, over on All About Symbian.

# June 16, 2009; Leave a Comment.

Charts Could Seal the Fate of UK’s 2010 Entry

I think that this week’s UK Charts pretty much answers the question of what happens to Jade Ewen post Eurovision. Around Europe, her Eurovision song “It’s My Time” charted at #75 (Germany), #34 (Sweden) and  #75 (Switzerland).

Becoming a success in Europe was one option after her appearance in the song Contest with the Lloyd Webber/Warren penned song. The other was to become a big name in the UK. Unfortunately the bottom line, chart success and single sales, hasn’t happened. She entered the Top 50 last week at #27, and this week has dropped out of the Top 75. Not good.

One of the reasons for the relatively good showing of the UK in this year’s Eurovision was the promotional efforts around the continent, and this was primarily driven by her record company. Alongside the involvement of a top song-writing team and the credible media reports in the UK, Colin Barlow and the support of Polydor was key.

And if you think that’s par for the course, glance over at Alexander Rybak – probably one of the most commercially successful Eurovision songs across Europe since Katrina and the Waves. Top 10 in the UK (through digital downloads, not even an official release), number one in Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Norway and Sweden, and still going strong (plus the album is flying off the shelves where it has seen a release).

Without the record companies involved, the strong foundation built by the UK this year may crumble – but will they get involved again after potentially  having quite a bad return on their investment with the parachuted into the selection Jade Ewen?

Or is this going to be a repeat of Jessica Garlic (3rd in 2002) to Jemini (nul points 2003) at next year’s Eurovision?

# June 7, 2009; Leave a Comment.

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