Alan has been involved in music in many ways for 20 years, from being a drummer, to announcing bands at festivals, organising events, and of course with his radio work. I caught up with Alan at the BBC Radio Leeds studios ahead of his show. (Ben Bradford) How did you get into radio? (Alan Raw) By accident. I've worked in music for a long time for over 20 years. I'd done loads of different things in music, but I'd never done radio, and I never thought I would. But I was presenting at festivals, introducing bands. Because I was a session drummer, I was playing at a lot of festivals, and I thought I could earn some extra money by introducing the bands when I wasn't playing.
 | | Alan introduces bands at the Leeds Fest |
As a community worker as well I was putting on new unsigned bands events, like the Improv festival (which was the biggest one in Yorkshire for unsigned bands). The BBC decided to get together with a festival I was running, as part of BBC Music Live. I was also friends with John Peel, he helped me out loads in the past - he was responsible for getting my record and distribution deal, and for most of the best gigs I'd got. Because of that, I had a lot of friends in radio as well, I certainly had a lot of friends within distribution and record companies who could send me stuff, and just the fact that I knew John meant that people sent me demos in the hope that I would pass them on to him. So it just seemed easy to play some of them on the radio. Then Radio 1 decided that the only Radio 1 show that people in the north were listening to was John Peel, and they thought if they had a music show in the north which was about local music not only would it fit with what I was campaigning for, but would suit them as well. So it grew from there. What was the band that you were in called? I was in a lot of bands. I session drummed for even more bands. The only band that I actually stayed in for a long time was Back to Bass, who were a dub reggae outfit, who did their own records but also backed other reggae artists like Benjamin Zephaniah, who I did an album with and toured with extensively. We had international distribution, we signed to Max Power records and Pinnacle. When did Raw Talent start? It will be four years in February. It started on just one local station and soon got picked up by others. I wanted the show to be put out by more stations, so that I wasn't just playing local bands back to their own audience, we could play bands from one town to another. Also we could do some band gig networking which we did a lot of in the earlier shows, trying to get tours and gigs going. We helped to support Generator in Newcastle, who ran a thing called Transit which was a promoters' support network across the country to try and rebuild the gig circuit for live bands. Most recently I've been heading the Adventure network which is providing support, in a charitable way, for unsigned bands, independent labels, studios, promoters, and venues to try and support music in the north and make it competitive. What's the best thing about doing the show? | "Hosting the unsigned stage at Leeds Festival, being able to shout at a much bigger audience than usual about how good the bands are..." | | Alan Raw on his highlights of 2005 |
I feel it has an impact on the world that I used to reside in. I'm not a drummer anymore, I packed it in to do the show. But I was in bands all my life, my parents were in bands, my brothers and sisters were in bands, and it's something I've always done. When I stopped doing bands and music and got into radio, which is a completely new world, I just thought 'Oh my god they've got so much stuff here, that will help people, that they will let me use'. It's state of the art equipment, big transmitters... if I was doing this without the BBC I'd be getting arrested! But as it is the BBC sees the value in
promoting arts which live, and creative new music is. What's been your highlight of 2005? Leeds Festival, hosting the unsigned stage at Leeds Festival, being able to shout at a much bigger audience than usual about how good the bands are. To be able to big the bands up and say nice things about them. Working with the teams, crews, companies, and organisations who were at Leeds Festival, like Mean Fiddler. They just had a real passion for new music like I have, they really wanted to make it happen, and not just for themselves which was great. There have been other highlights, the Beach Festival in Scarborough was fantastic, the tide came right up to the stage, at which point the audience had to scarper and come back when the tide had gone out. Having our own stage in the middle of Bradford Festival was cracking too. Standing on big stages and speaking to audiences about bands that they've not heard of, and then watching their surprise as the band comes on and blows them away - that's been a recurring theme throughout the year, and something I've really enjoyed.
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