Putting on a CD or piece of crackly vinyl and being blown sideways to the point where I can barely speak or move.
Watching football.
Thinking about Plato and how to relate him to the essences of football and rock and roll (which you can.
Since June 2006, Dandelion Radio has been playing a range of the most exciting music from all over the world. In May 2007, I joined them. Since then I’ve played a thousand or so bands from around the world, all of them well worth shelling our to see or hear. I like to think I was also in on the ground floor with these guys, who I’m pleased to say have gone on to be seen and heard in a few other places:
Vampire Weekend
September 2007 – I played a track from their demo EP.
Since they they’ve:
Conquered most of the known world. Their album appeared early in 2008 and was massive, as you probably already know.
This summer they’re:
Supporting Blur at Hyde Park, playing Lollapolooza and other things involving massive crowds and lots of fans. Good look to them.
2 Hot 2 Sweat
August 2007 – I played their demo and, in October 2007, broadcast an exclusive Dandelion Radio session from this duo. I then named them my number one in my Listen To Me chart of that year.
Since then they’ve:
Played at the BBC Electric Proms John Peel Night
Been all over night time Radio One, 6music and Xfm
Released a whole pile of great singles on the fantastic NR One label.
This summer they’re:
Playing the Latitude festival
Releasing the excellent ‘Karmarama’ single (you can hear a track on my June show on Dandelion Radio)
Putting their first album together
Passion Pit
October 2008 – we played a track from their ‘Chunk Of Change’ EP on the Frenchkiss label.
Since then they’ve
Signed to Columbia and released their debut album to huge acclaim.
This summer they’re:
Playing a massive US tour, including sold out shows at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, and selling lots of copies of their album.
Marnie Stern
May 2007 – I played a track from her ‘In Advance of the Broken Arm’ album in my first Dandelion Radio show.
Since then she’s:
Been voted by Venus magazine one of the greatest female guitarists of all time.
Her second album (released last year) was voted into the top fifty of the year by Pitchfork and was acclaimed in all the right places.
This summer she’s:
Playing at the Roskelde festival with the likes of Oasis and Coldplay (gak – ok, but it’s definitely worth going to see Marnie) among other places.
Music
Listen to my show at www.dandelionradio.com and check my profile at www.last.fm/user/Unwashed for updates on what I'm listening to right now.
Dead of Night, Twelve Angry Men, Goodfellas, Reservoir Dogs, Quadrophenia.
Television
The Young Ones. Father Ted. Fat Tulip. Early Vic and Bob. The Simpsons. Football. Family Guy. Carl Sagan's "Cosmos".
Books
"Wuthering Heights", "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", "The Wasp Factory", "The Golden Notebook", "Gulliver's Travels", "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", "The Dice Man", "Snowblind", "Couples", "The Republic". Pretty much anything by Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood or Tom Sharpe.
John Peel. Then maybe Matt Groening, Epicurus and probably one or two others. Not much time for heroes. I admire humans for being human and dislike them for the same reason.
Mark's Details
Status:
Married
Here for:
Networking
Orientation:
Straight
Body type:
Average
Ethnicity:
White / Caucasian
Zodiac Sign:
Pisces
Smoke / Drink:
No / Yes
Children:
Proud parent
Education:
College graduate
Mark's Schools
The University of Liverpool
Liverpool, NW
Graduated: 1991
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: English Literature
Mark is on Dandelion Radio NOW, with an exclusive session from The Pocket Gods and exclusive 'lost' Miaow tracks. Listen at http://lnk.ms/08BWFPosted at 10:00 AM Nov 17 view more
The Mark Whitby show on Dandelion Radio:
"It's a brilliant mix of independent, underground and better known music and Mark plays freely between genres in a masterful way with gem after gem coming up."
Pixieguts
You can listen to my show pretty much every day on Dandelion Radio, playing a combination of the new, the strange, the different and not staying still long enough to occupy anybody else's rut.
I'm also the author of "The Festive Fifty", a book on the legendary John Peel's end of year chart, published in 2005. Get in touch if you want one.
Who I'd like to meet: Pass along this small tribute, copy this code.
Sadly this is of course never going to happen. Can't think of anyone else who I would have been interested enough to listen to for any length of time.Was denied the chance to meet Peel when a band I was managing (loosely speaking) got played on his show and he met them. However, they wouldn't let me go along because "Peel doesn't like managers", which I'm sure was correct, and entirely understandable.
Peel's role in music is best understood in the terms spelt out above. If the articulation of a universal truth is what rock and roll is all about, then John Peel more than anyone had the dedication and honesty to be able to identify the most significant articulations in all sorts of places that others, bound by conformity and illusory categories, wouldn't have known where to look.
Peel himself, of course, would have said this was complete bollocks.
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Thanks Mark. It's very encouraging that you're playing "King Kong Vs King Kanute". Kilburn State is the first album, I've ever made, that went exactly the way I wanted it to go.
Y'all can hear VULNAVIA by LORD NUMB on tomorrow nite's ANALOGUE ISLAND radio show hosted by Greg Healey, the show starts at 8.30pm and last weeks show (which features SPIDERSLEG) is repeated before it at 7.30. You can hear it here :
We have put a new song up for you, it’s only a rough demo which hasn’t really been mixed well and hasn’t been produced but it will give you a taster of what may come next in our next recording sessions which we are trying to set before Christmas.
Enjoy! It’s called 'Stop'. Please tell us what you think.
Greetings Ghouls, Ghosts'n'Goblins and welcome to FRIGHTNIGHT......featuring four terrifying tunes from LORD NUMB including two new sonic soundbites to chill your blood: #ECTOPLASM - creepy goings on around the Ouija board #OOBIE MAN - Captain Beefheart sounding just slightly deranged ANYONE FOR TANNIS? - Spooky samples from ROSEMARY'SBABY handwoven into an electro/rock-a-billy mash up BUBBA - 'Mmmm ....Brains!' - more samples, this time from the Zombie classic DAY OF THE DEAD. # = New never before heard tune exclusive for FRIGHTNIGHT! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!
We are finally ready to start promoting my 'I Surrender' single with my album, 'Ella Trip' coming right after -yey!! What d'ya think to the video teaser?
Hi Mark, thanx a lot for the add - it's an honour to be on the list of such a music expert. I really enjoyed your September show with the one and only numb; also had a lot of fun alone with some band and track names, such as "Pissed Jeans" "F*** Buttons" and "The Smell of a Roomful of Priests ...", really coooooool. You're absolutely open-minded regarding of music. Keep on in digging out rare pearls of indie music Greetings from Munich, Germany