THE MUSICAL BOX - Our Weekly Radio Show! 

THIS WEEK:  20th May 2010 

TUNE IN ON 92.3 FM EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT BETWEEN 10pm and MIDNIGHT 

(In the USA - 5pm EST, 8pm Pacific)

Great SOUNDS, amazing MUSIC, terrific NEW ALBUMS, fascinating FEATURES

This is where we have some fun - and really hope that you do too.

Tune into our great weekly radio show The Musical Box on Forest FM 92.3 (if you live in East Dorset/West Hampshire) every Thursday night between 10 and Midnight. We play a fascinating choice of great music from a huge range of genres - somethong old. new, bnorrowed and blues! 

And the even better news is - if you live outside the broadcast area, you can listen in live on-line by going to:

                                   http://www.forestfm.co.uk/

It's a great website and all you need to do to tune in is click on the radio mast on the home page and away you go.

Just imagine - tuning in anywhere in the world!

Here at The Musical Box we aim to play absolutely fantastic music, the stuff you may not get on day-time radio. 

Our philosophy is simple - Old, New, Borrowed, Blues - we'll play it all. Whether it's the latest CD releases, re-issues, archive LPs or anything in between, we'll give it some air-time. Since the show started in October 2006, we've played well over 5500 fabulous tracks, featured stacks of Albums Of The Week and run the successful Festival Fifty competition.

We've also got heavily involved in the major music initiative BREAKTHROUGH that Forest FM are promoting to support and nurture the best local bands and musicians. It's got off to a stuning start with over 100 bands applying to become one of the "monthly" BREAKTHROUGH winners and the quality has been extremely high.

And, we're recently started the second series of the spin-off show, MUSIC NEWS & VIEWS. This is a weekly 15 minute day-time show that brings you all the key music news - bands, albums, tours, festivals, the industry - against a back drop of great musical sounds: lively, topical and packed full of 10 or more news items. It goes out several times a week on Forest FM 92.3 - and has also has three fixed slots at 10.40 every Tuesday, 11:40 each Thursday and 10:05 each Sunday. Check it out! 

THIS WEEK'S SHOW -  20th May 2010

Join us this Thursday for our latest show! 

As always, we've scoured the world for great music and we can guarantee that there will be something of real interest to all music fans.

We're also taking the cream of all the latest CDs, fine old LPs and downloads to ensure that there's a truly eclectic mix for you - as well as a smattering of previews and of course, your requests and suggestions too. 

Anyway, back to The Musical Box - you can check out this week's full playlist, plus band weblinks, in our News & Rumours Section - just click on the link at the top of the page.  

GET YOUR REQUESTS IN - E-MAIL OR TEXT US NOW!

The show's always so much better when you tell us what you'd like to hear - so go on, do it now - choose something that you really must hear and tell me all about it:

• E-MAIL: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
• TEXT: 07982-709-809 (Mark it for TMB!) 

FOREST FM BREAKTHROUGH!

You'll no doubt have noticed from the News & Rumours section that we're running a terrific initiative right here on Forest FM. Called BREAKTHROUGH, it's a long-term programme to support and promote local music and bands across Dorset and West Hampshire - check out the N&R link at the top of the page, but make no mistake, this is a major exercise and we'll be doing all we can on The Musical Bus to support it.

BREAKTHROUGH  is taking a short sabbatical while we sort out our venue requirements - if you check our News & Rumours section, you'll see that we're taking on the lease of The New Legion in Verwood (our former venue) and will be re-branding it as Club 31 and focusing much more on music and gigs. We expect a formal transfer in mid-June with a formal launch in Julyl. If all goes well, Breakthrough will be back with a vengeance in August.  

 "CLUB 31 REBORN!"

SOUNDS OF THE CITY

We run a great feature each week here on The Musical Box. Called Sounds Of The City, it's named after that rather fine series of records compiled by the late Charlie Gillett. Each month we feature a legendary music city, provide an overview history and each week, play a representative band or artist associated with it. This month we present LOS ANGELES and you'll find a real wealth of classic material from this truly memorable location. And if you have any suggestions for future inclusion - tell me!     

What You Say About The Musical Box

Although we're great fans of our show - and indeed a wide range of the output on Forest FM - it's better that we let our listeners tell it like it is:         

• "I'm proud that you played the original UK Nirvana..."
• "Your Music News show - it's better than the BBC!"
• "Just where do you find all this amazing music?"
• "Another splendid prog - chat to the minimum and music to the max!"
• "Let's rock!"
• "What a fab show!"
• "More good stuff - especially Fairport, Rose Kemp and Hendrix"
• "Another enjoyable show!"
• "Great selection - thanks for introducing me to the music of Lou Rhodes"
• "Particularly liked the Dylan album tracks - Blonde On Blonde"
• "You should be on national radio!"
• "Really enjoyed it - loved the comedy clips too!"
• "Where do you find all this new stuff each week? Brilliant!"

Why not check it out now?

Click on the link and you can catch up with the most recent edition of the show.

Old, New, Borrowed, Blues?

Yes - that's the score: we're interested in music and musicians as indeed our all our discerning listeners, so we'll play a huge variety of stuff.

Old

• An Archive Album Of The Week - 3 Tracks from a great classic, or an overlooked gem
• A mix of re-issues, forgotten bands and artists and live recordings

New

• Album Of The Week - 3 Tracks from a brand new release
• A mix of tracks from a range of other new and recent releases

Borrowed

• Great cover versions - borrowed songs - often off-beat, always great
• Tell us what you'd like to hear - or us to track down!

Blues

• Great range of roots music - Blues, Folk, Jazz, Country and all ports in between, including new releases too 
• Often fine imports from the USA

We've played a vast range of featured Albums - both NEW and ARCHIVE. The aim is to allow old classic (often forgotten) releases to breathe again, plus we're truly keen to share just some of the fantastic new music that's coming out all the time. The following tables list the choices since we started the feature in March of 2007.

The Musical Box - NEW Albums Of The Week - 2007/08/09/10   

The Musical Box - ARCHIVE Albums Of The Week - 2007/08/09/10

Finally, don't forget each week, we encourage requests and suggestions - you the listener are just as important as the show and the music. Got anything you want to recommend? Want to suggest an Archive Album Of The Week? Drop an e-mail to us at:

                       This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

We'd be delighted to hear from you.

Okay, So What's Been On?

Well, we're glad you asked!

Being a lover of lists and data, we've got a database listing everything we've played, the artist, the track name, the album and airdate - and you can access that and search things down.

Go on -have a go - it's easy: just click on the link in the left hand column "The Musical Box Playlist" and take it from there. Particularly good if you catch something on a show and can't remember the details!

So, What Else Do You Do?

We're particularly proud of our Albums Of The Week slot - it always gets great feedback, both for the New Album and the Archive Album. You'll find the choices for recent weeks and the tracks played on this very page  - and it's updated every week. If you want more detail, why not check out the current week's PlayList - just click on "News & Rumours" on the left hand side of the page, select Playlist and you'll see all the current info - plus artist website links. 

MUSIC NEWS & VIEWS - BRAND NEW SECOND SERIES!

A great initiative from The Musical Box has been our thrice-weekly show on Forest FM: it's a music news programme called - simply - Music News & Views and it's aimed at providing an array of music clips and news bites from across the worlds of popular music. It runs to just 16 minutes, but is fast-paced and in that time includes some 8 or so news items - and it goes out several times a week. The first series ran to 40 shows - and we're now well into Series Two - do not miss it!

Putting The Musical Box Together

It's always a fascinating challenge cramming together 30 great tracks and then balancing them out to make a great show. We try hard to minimise repeats - in fact in the last year, we've played over 5000 tracks and introduced our listners to a tremendous range of great new - and old! - sounds..

Indeed, we really like searching out new bands and forgotten bands, so you're very likely to hear a huge range of artists rather than the same range of sounds.

We don't forget the big-sellers though - each show features several great tracks by big artists such as The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Muse, Patti Smith, Fountains Of Wayne, The Coral, Rilo Kiley, The Foo Fighters, Richard Thompson, Neil Young, Pink Floyd and The Kaiser Chiefs: we all like some familiar stuff!

Look out for a feature we're running shortly on the mechanics of putting the show together - choices, photographs, playlists, recording and broadcasting.

Well worth looking out for.

Tune In!

So, that's it for now -don't forget to tune in each and every Thursday at 10pm on 92.3 Forest FM, or live on-line at  

http://www.forestfm.co.uk/.

To help you get there, we've got a link to Forest FM at the top of the home page - just click on the logo and it takes you to the Forest FM website: then just click on the radio transmitter and away you go! 

And finally, we also send out a weekly bulletin to our listeners via e-mail. Sent out every Wednesday it highlights what's coming up on that week's show - and also summarises the tracks and artists that were played on the previous week's show. There's also a collection of short snippets of news and views too.

Why not sign-up now?

Just go to the subscription section on the bottom left of this page, fill in the details and you'll soon start hearing the satisfying ping of a weekly TMB Bulletin e-mail in your mailbox. The bulletin will not only preview what's coming on the show, but note bits of fascinating news and also highlight some of the items and deals we're featuring in our on-line stores.  

Have fun!

ALAN DOREY

Presenter - The Musical Box - Thursdays 10pm ‘til Midnight

Presenter - Music News & Views - Tuesdays/Thursdays - 10:40 and 11:40 (Mornngs)

THE ARCHIVES 

 From time to time on The Musical Box, we run special features - it might be a one-off interview, or a particular band in the spotlight, ranging through to a major competition! During the summer of 2007, we ran the first of our Fabulous Festival Fifty events and the following article tells you all about it. Look out for what we'll be doing in the run-in to the the year-end - and 2008 will see another Festival Fifty.

Can't wait!

THE FESTIVAL FIFTY 2007