We live in Salford and for years have suffered from appalling local radio. Imagine how excited we were to hear that we were getting our very own XFM Manchester, a station dedicated to playing indie, alternative and new music, music that is cutting edge and challenging and music that we actually like. We'd been listening to XFM London on DAB and it's a pretty good station, we assumed the XFM Manchester playlist would be similar.
Oh how we were wrong.
We have yet to turn on XFM and not hear either David Gray, KT Tunstall, Jack Johnston, The Feeling, Stereophonics, Hard-Fi, or, usually, all of those to the exclusion of everything else except the occasional U2, Oasis or Charlatans track or something by Feeder. This is MOR rubbish. This is not cutting edge. This is no different from Virgin.
Where are Dirty Pretty Things, The Futureheads, Brakes, Belle & Sebastian, Bloc Party, Elbow, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Forward Russia, The Decemberists, Editors, Guillemots, Arcade Fire, Rufus Wainwright, Antony & the Johnsons, Battle and a whole host of others? Why do XFM Manchester seem to think that we're provincial, unsophisticated and stuck in the nineties and that all we can handle are "Madchester" bands and bland singer-songwriters? As a city that has produced some of the most important acts of the last 40 years in The Buzzcocks, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Oasis, Happy Mondays and Doves, why does XFM Manchester think that we won't listen to the same sorts of interesting and exciting stuff that their London counterpart plays?
This page is dedicated to getting the suits at this appalling excuse for a new music station to take notice and start playing stuff that we can't hear 10 times an hour on every other station. Add us as a friend, tell us what you think, comment on the blog and spread the word to your friends.
Manchester will not sit back and listen to David Gray. Manchester deserves better.
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