Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Push THAT button when? Ooops!

In a show wracked with technical stuff ups, (gimme a break, it's been a while since I've been in the studio you know...) this is what we ended up with:

Wed 6th Feb

1.Absolutely - Eurogliders
2. Say I love you - Renee Geyer
3. Soul kind of feeling - Dynamic Hypnotics
4. Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benetar
5. Cruel Summer - Bananarama
6. Change in Mood - Kids in the Kitchen
7. Love Plus One - Haircut 100
8. Close to me - The Cure
9. Come Around - Mental as Anything
10. Scatterlings of Africa - Juluka
11. Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer
12. Inbetween Days - The Cure

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

After 3 years in the wilderness musically, Choose Life has found it's way home!


The most EXCELLENT radio show on Roxfm is back.....well, sort of.

13/11/07

Song listing:

1. Bad Boys - Wham (Woo hoo!)
2. Alive & Kicking - Simple Minds
3. Girls on Film - Duran Duran
4. Just keep walking - INXS
5. Read About it - Midnight Oil
6. The City of Soul - Eurogliders (to complete the set of 3 Australian songs to be played in show)
7. Mirror in the Bathroom - The English Beat
8. My Girl - Madness
9. Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
10. Orange Crush - R.E.M.
11. Big Boss Grove - Style Council
12. Hand on your heart - Kylie Minogue
13.Lucky Star - Madonna

Friday, August 24, 2007

Take the pressure down!


With new radio stations popping up in town, the pressure is on to show these commercial guys a thing or two about radio. Don't you think?

Well anyway, there have been a few mournful emails from a couple of past presenters, reminiscing about the good old days. Maybe Choose Life needs a shot of "V" or "Red Bull."

The Madonna earrings need to see the light of day, that is for sure.

For those of you who know our illustrious 80's freaks, talk it up. Birthdays are coming and I can't think of a better way of celebrating than locking ourselves in to the station and seeing how much 80's music can be dug out of it!!!

Community radio LIVES! (Remember that one from those early graffiti days?)

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Suddenly 30

26/10/04

1. Everybody have fun tonight - Wang Chung.
2. Thriller - Michael Jackson.
3. Bad vs Ghostbusters - Michael Jackson vs Ray Parker Jr.
4. Tocatta (Parts 1 & 2) - Sky.
5. Mad about you - Belinda Carlisle.
6. Love is a battlefield - Pat Benetar.
7. Automatic - The Pointer Sisters.
8. Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield.
9. What I like about you - The Romantics.
10. Crazy for you - Madonna.
11. Edge of Heaven - Wham.
12. Rock the night - Europe.


Much of the music in this show was used in the movie Suddenly 30. There was more but I didn't remember it all.

The Cockroaches = The Rolling Stones?

19/10/04

1. She's the one - The Cockroaches. (1987) The Cockroaches info
2. Girls just wanna have fun - Cyndi Lauper.
3. Stop - Sam Brown.
4. Open Arms - Journey.
5. Cry in shame - Johnny Diesel.
6. You win again - Bee Gees.
7. Kiss - Prince.
8. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson.
9. Eat it - Wierd Al Yankovic
10. Physical - Olivia Newton John.
11. Anything for you - Gloria Estefan.
12. Heaven must be there - Eurogliders.
13. Bad Boys - Wham.
14. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.

Kylie who?

12/10/04

1. Crazy little thing called love - Queen.
2. New moon on Monday - Duran Duran.
3. I heard a rumour - Bananarama.
4. Only when you leave - Spandau Ballet.
5. Sailing - Christopher Cross.
6. Free fallin' - Tom Petty.
7. New Groove - The Rockmelons.
8. Before too long - Paul Kelly.
9. The Politics of Dancing - Re-flex.
10. Don't wanna be the one - Midnight Oil.
11. Stuck with you - Huey Lewis and the News.
12. Got to be certain - Kylie Minogue.

28/09/04

1. Stand and Deliver - Adam and the Ants.
2. Shock the Monkey - Peter Gabriel.
3. Rio - Duran Duran.
4. Pump it up - Elvis Costello.
5. Venus - Bananarama.
6. Relax - Frankie goes to Hollywood.
7. Dress you up - Madonna.
8. Here I go again - Whitesnake.
9. Crimson and Clover - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
10. How am I gonna sleep - Tim Finn.
11. More than I can say - Leo Sayer.
12. Reach up for the sunrise - Duran Duran.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Funky world music in the 80's.........

24/8/04
  1. Dancing in the Dark - Bruce Springsteen
  2. Hurts so good - John Mellencamp
  3. House of Fun - Madness
  4. It's still rock and roll to me - Billy Joel
  5. Tainted Love - Soft Cell
  6. She did it - Eric Carmen
  7. I don't like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
  8. Refugee - Tom Petty
  9. Can't stop this thing we started - Bryan Adams
  10. What's my scene - Hoodoo Gurus
  11. Scatterlings of Africa - Juluka
  12. Only You - Yazoo
  13. Faith - George Michael
Juluka were a favourite of mine during 1984. Johnny Clegg was an anthropologist with a penchant for music, particularly traditional Zulu sounds. He combined with Sipho Mchunu, a gardener and street musician to form South Africa's first inter-racial band. It was illegal for an inter-racial band to perform - they did, at the Wits Uni - I wasn't allowed to go :( Much of the music was politically based, lots was sung in Zulu and it was my first experience of what later became known as "World music."

Five letter words......hmm, I know a lot of 4 letter words, does it count if you add an "s"?

17/8/04

  1. Witch Queen - The Chatoozies
  2. Dress you up - Madonna
  3. Indian Summer Sky - U2
  4. Kiss the Bride - Elton John
  5. Bananarama megamix 89 - Bananarama
  6. Stand Back - Stevie Nicks
  7. The Whole of the Moon - The Waterboys
  8. Five Letter Word - The Numbers
  9. Sunglasses at night - Tiga & Zyntherius

Ok, so I know that Sunglasses at night is a cover but it was such a well done one and recent, I thought it deserved a spot just this once.

Indian Summer Sky was a track on the U2 album The Unforgettable Fire. This is what Bono has said about the song:
"A lot of cities in America are built on civilizations long since buried by the American. A friend of mine, a wise man I know, spent a lot of time within the city -- it was Toronto, so cool and so shiny -- and he felt extremely troubled and torn in two. There had been a lot of massacres of Red Indian people in that area and he felt in some way as if there were troubled spirits still there. What I was trying to get across was a sense of a spirit trapped in a concrete jungle -- something like that. Again these are just glimpses, these songs. A lot of the subject matter is very impressionistic."

Quote has come from this web site.

You might think......


10th August 2004

  1. You might think - The Cars
  2. Loves great adventure - Ultravox
  3. Just can't get enough - Depeche Mode
  4. Barracuda - Heart
  5. Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
  6. Playing to win - John Farnham
  7. Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
  8. Sure know something - Kiss
  9. You better run - Pat Benetar.
Yes, I know, "Sure know something" was a track off the Dynasty album which was released in 1979. As far as I am concerned the tracks hit the charts in the 80's so it qualifies for an airing on Choose Life. Dynasty was the only Kiss album that I ever listened to.

Jenny Morris, Bureau, Philip Bailey and Pseudo Echo......


Some less popular and known tunes here, not all favourites, but nice to have on air for something outside of the box!

3rd August 2004

  1. Funky Town - Psuedo Echo
  2. Holding out for a hero - Bonnie Tyler
  3. Walking on the Chinese wall - Philip Bailey
  4. Working class man - Jimmy Barnes
  5. Chequered Love - Kim Wilde
  6. It must be love - Eurogliders
  7. You I know - Jenny Morris
  8. Only for sheep - The Bureau (British group formed when Dexy's Midnight Runners split.)
  9. I heard a rumour - Bananarama
  10. Bad Boys - Wham
  11. Could you be loved - Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Almost comically the only big hit for UK band The Bureau was "Only for Sheep." No, it wasn't a hit in the U.K. but in Australia! We must really love our sheep! In fact it seems it was only Australia and Canada who appreciated the music made by The Bureau. It's not all bad news though, one of the members of the band (Mick Talbot) went on to join Paul Weller in The Style Council.

Canaries in Coalmines?

6th July 2004

Thanks to a couple of friends of mine, I got my hands on the Zenyatta Mondatta disc. All of my Police albums were played and played and played. As they were on cassette, they didn't make it past the 90's.

Zenyatta Mondatta was perhaps the best of the Police albums and thankfully it qualified for Choose Life being released in 1980.
Here is the Wikipedia link for more info about the album.

Oh and as for Canaries in Coalmines - a song from the disc, short in duration (at 2 minutes 26 seconds) but about my attention span if I was trying to do aerobics.

  1. Canary in a Coalmine - The Police
  2. Bizzare Love Triangle - New Order
  3. Everytime you go away - Paul Young
  4. Only you - Yazoo
  5. The other woman - Ray Parker Jr
  6. When you walk in a room - Paul Carrack
  7. Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
  8. Heartbreaker - Pat Benetar
  9. Hungry like the wolf - Duran Duran
  10. Electric Ave - Eddy Grant
  11. Livin' Thing - E.L.O.
  12. I'm only shooting love - Time Bandits
  13. Johnny come home - Fine Young Cannibals
  14. 80's mix - clearly only had time for the short version.

Another song listing from June

29/6/04

  1. Small town boy - Bronski Beat
  2. Word Up - Cameo
  3. Black Man Ray - China Crisis
  4. Current Stand - Kids in the Kitchen
  5. Edge of Heaven - Wham
  6. You spin me right round - Dead or Alive
  7. Lily was here - David Stewart and Candy Dulfer
  8. Straight from the heart - Bryan Adams
  9. Hymn - Ultravox
  10. China Girl - David Bowie
  11. Man Overboard - Do Re Mi
I would get comments often about the music I played on air. Sometimes my friends would hate it and sometimes they would love it. What I learnt was you can't please everyone and if I only played the music I liked, my only regular listener would be myself. As it was I think I had a small captive audience in office workers and mechanics, so I would play music that I really didn't like as often as music that I did. I was often surprised at what was commented on. Music is such a personal thing! I gave up and even played Bryan Adams once or twice! (no comment)

22nd of June 2004

Clearly I had spent some time researching and recording my cassettes for a new digital era! (the Ultravox music I played was all from cassette.)

  1. Let's Dance - Chris Rea
  2. One small day - Ultravox
  3. Living on the ceiling - Blancmange
  4. Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
  5. Wouldn't it be good - Nik Kershaw
  6. Stop the Cavalry - Jona Lewie
  7. We came to dance - Ultravox
  8. Wild, wild life - Talking Heads
  9. Golden Brown - The Stranglers
  10. Kiss the Bride - Elton John
  11. Talk of the Town - The Pretenders
  12. When the going gets tough - Billy Ocean

Psychadelic Furs, Wham, Talking Heads, Eurythmics have I missed anyone....?

Well maybe just a few but a fun show nevertheless...........

15th June 2004
  1. City of Soul - Eurogliders
  2. Right by your side - Eurythmics
  3. Maneater - Hall & Oates
  4. The Politics of Dancing - Reflex
  5. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.
  6. Smooth Operator - Sade
  7. Let's Dance - David Bowie
  8. Strangers on a train - The Sports
  9. Girl on the wall - Jane Clifton (played again by request)
  10. Love my way - Psychadelic Furs
  11. Drive - The Cars
  12. Wham Rap - Wham
  13. Once in a lifetime - Talking Heads

Friday, August 11, 2006

Something other than music.....

I am a collector, I have a badge to prove it....somewhere on this desktop....I know I have it somewhere in amongst all this stuff.....trust me it's here. It IS. REALLY. Well anyway, even if you don't believe me, I collect 80's memorabilia. I don't have a lot left but what I do have, well it's classic (and sadly... original and worn.)

I am also a novice digital scrapbooker. I say "novice" because I work on a smallish computer - not ideal for digital page layouts. I collect free online fonts. I tend to get a little snobbish about text. I would like to use some really cool fonts on my blog pages.... but I do want you all to be able to READ these words though, so I don't mess with that stuff too much.
So, for all you 80's nuts, here is the font for you!
Pacmania font

Oh, and it's free. All you need is to be able to unzip a file.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

The only May Choose Life show

Must have been VERY busy in this month - think I had heaps of paid work!!

  1. I ran - A Flock of Seagulls
  2. True Blue - Madonna
  3. Walking down your street - The Bangles
  4. Rock n roll is king - E.L.O
  5. Poison Pen - Hoo doo Gurus
  6. Girl on the Wall - Jane Clifton
  7. Hundreds of Languages - Gangajang
  8. I missed again - Phil Collins
  9. I love it when you call me names - Joan Armatrading
  10. Running with the night - Lionel Ritchie
  11. Looking for Clues - Robert Palmer
  12. Hand on your heart - Kylie Minogue
  13. Valotte - Julian Lennon
  14. How am I gonna sleep - Tim Finn
This show featured the "mystery song." I had a request for a song and the request didn't come with a song title, only words from the song and no artist. Whew. After MUCH research I finally came up with a song and thanks to Lord Duggan I was able to play it on air! What WAS the song??? Girl on the Wall by Jane Clifton - you know, that girl from Prisoner!

Just a bit of everything in this show.......

6/4/04

  1. 500 Miles - The Proclaimers
  2. Boys in Town - The Divinyls
  3. Broken English - Marianne Faithfull
  4. Bad vs Ghostbusters - Michael Jackson vs Ray Parker Jr
  5. Bizarre love triangle - New Order
  6. Big in Japan - Alphaville
  7. Love my way - Psychadelic Furs
  8. Heaven must be there - Eurogliders
  9. Robert de Niros waiting - Bananarama
  10. He's just no good for you - Mental as Anything
  11. Wouldn't it be good - Nik Kershaw
  12. Shout to the top - Style Council
  13. Teardrops - Womack and Womack
  14. If you leave - Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark

Corey Hart, Ultravox and Peter Gabriel

23 March 2004

  1. True - Spandau Ballet
  2. Careless Whispers - George Michael (extended version)
  3. Nikita - Elton John
  4. Sunglasses at night - Corey Hart
  5. Hungry like the Wolf - Duran Duran
  6. The Unforgettable Fire - U2
  7. Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel
  8. Running up that hill - Kate Bush
  9. The Riddle - Nik Kershaw
  10. Vienna - Ultravox

The second or third week of March..........

  1. China Girl - David Bowie
  2. Girls on Film - Duran Duran
  3. Lets Go - The Cars
  4. What is love - Howard Jones
  5. Freedom - Wham
  6. Help - John Farnham
  7. Chain Reaction - Diana Ross
  8. Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
  9. Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
  10. Bitter Sweet - Hoo Doo Gurus
  11. Walking on the Chinese Wall - Philip Bailey
  12. Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
  13. Every Little thing she does is magic - The Police