The BritMix

BritMix Pledge Drive Giveaway - March 25

This week on The BritMix with Graham Rice - Pledge Drive Special!! Oh Boy! Giveaways again! Join us Thursday night - let's have fun.

An hour of Great British Music with thank you gifts for everyone who pledges to support WJFF. Thanks to the generosity of Jawbone Press and Real World Records we still have some thank you packages left.

* Eight-CD bundle donated by Peter Gabriel's own Real World Records label (almost all factory sealed) featuring albums by:
The Imagined Village (Top BritMix favorites) (page includes videos)
Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (listen to tracks from the album)
Afro-Celt Sound System (listen to tracks from the album)
Big Blue Ball (listen to tracks from the album)
Portico Quartet (page includes video) (listen to tracks from the album)
Sheila Chandra (listen to tracks from the album)
Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara (page includes video) (listen to tracks from the album)
Spiro (page includes video) (listen to tracks from the album)

* Also on offer as a thank you gift, Five-CD bundle including the new Peter Gabriel album Scratch My Back, and albums from Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (listen to tracks from the album), Charlie Winston with a selection of other Real World CDs.

PlUS

* British blues book bundle donated by Jawbone Press:
Strange Brew: Eric Clapton and the British Blues Boom - a truly extraordinary and fascinating book
AND
The new biography of Cream bass player Jack Bruce - the other lead guitarist in Cream

Thank you to Real World Records and Jawbone Press for supporting The BritMix on WJFF. We appreciate it.

Just call 845 482 4141 to pledge. Tune in to The BritMix at 9pm EST on March 25 on 90.5FM in The Catskills, North East Pennsylvania and the Delaware River valley - and beyond online at wjffradio.org

Join us Thursday night - let's have fun!

BritMix - the movie!

This short documentary showing me hosting The BritMix on WJFF was shot by Jon Weisbrod, second year student at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, for a class project. Thanks Jon!

Holiday music on The BritMix

The BritMix returns on Thursday 10 December (at 9pm on WJFF) - and over the holiday season I'll be featuring seasonal music on both 17 and 24 December.

I'll be playing a mix of both familiar and less familiar British Christmas music and I'd love to hear your suggestions for British holiday music that I might play. (If I love it, I'll play it; if not....)

Just post a comment below or email me direct with your suggestions. Thank you!

Hosting Folk Plus on Saturday 14 November

Just to let you know again that I'll be hosting Folk Plus at 11am-1pm (that's 4pm for European online listeners) on Saturday 14 November while regular host Angie Page is off.

I'll be playing two hours of Irish folk music featuriung De Danann, Paul Brady, The Bothy Band, Altan, Dolores Keane, Mick Moloney and many more.

As usual you can listen on 90,5FM in the Catskills, the upper Delaware River valley and north east Pennsylvania or online around the world at WJFF. You'll find the playlist here after the show.

Irish music on Folk Plus

I'll be sitting in for Angie Page on Folk Plus on WJFF next Saturday 14 November at 11am EST.

The whole two hour show will be devoted to Irish music - mainly, but not exclusively, traditional Irish music and will feature Paul Brady, De Dannan, Mary Coughlan, The Bothy Band, Patrick Street, Eileen Ivers, Mick Maloney, Lunasa, Mary Black, Solas, and many more.

Listen live at http://wjffradio.org (click top right) or listen later on the WJFF archive.

And don't forget The BritMix is back soon - 9pm Thursday 10 December on WJFF.

I hope you'll join me on Folk Plus and also on the returning BritMix.

The BritMix is coming back!

Yes - The BritMix is coming back. Yippee!!

I'm delighted to tell you that The BritMix will be back on WJFF (90.5FM in the Catskills of New York and in north east Pennsylvania) on Thursday 10 December at 9pm.

Been a few hurdles to cross to get there, but I look forward to your company again  - right after Ramble Tamble with John Gordon.

And for those BritMix listeners not able to listen live at that time - shows will, of course, be archived online for two weeks. Check back here for the link to take you to archived shows.

Of course - the Christmas holiday will be coming up when The BritMix returns... So if you have any thoughts about tracks to include over the holiday season, especially new indie holiday tracks, please let me know.

There'll be more news as 10 December approaches...

BritMix hiatus

The BritMix is off the air for a little while as the station and I work out a new time slot for the show. The show will be back in the fall. In the meantime if you have any thoughts about British music old or new that I should be playing on the show, email me. If I agree - I'll play it. If not...

And please keep listening to the many other great music shows on WJFF.

Music book give-away on tomorrow's BritMix

Stand by for tomorrow's music book giveaway!

'll be giving away some superb books on British music on tomorrow's BritMix on WJFF as we ask you, the listeners, to help us raise funds to meet out operating expenses over the winter. (Click  on the image to see a larger version.)

Around half our income comes from the support of listeners like you – we need your help - so I've lined up some great “thank you” gifts to express my appreciation for your donations.

Thank you gifts include these wonderful books on British music. All brand new and unopened.

From publishers Dorling Kindersley
Rolling with the Stones - glorious 500 page full color book by Bill Wyman
Punk - the history of punk in the words and pictures of the time

From specialist music publishers Jawbone Press
Strange Brew - extraordinary account of the British blues boom featuring day by day details of the rise of Eric Clapton
Bowie in Berlin - the revitalization of David Bowie's career
Together Alone - the solo careers of Lennon and McCartney

From publishers Serpent's Tail
White Bicycles - the personal account by record producer Joe Boyd of his work with Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, Nick Drake and more.
"The best book about music I have read in years" - Brian Eno.

From Rough Guides
The Rough Guide to The Beatles – From the back streets of Liverpool.. to legends

I have multiple copies of most titles to give away - I also have some British CDs for you. And I'll be playing music connected with the books on the show tomorrow.

Tune in tomorrow at 3pm on WJFF and give us your support. The station cannot survive without the financial support of listeners like you. Listen on 90.5FM in the Catskills, North East Pennsylvania and the Upper Delaware Valley Region, and listen online across the country and around the world at http://www.wjffradio.org.

Everyone who makes a donation and becomes a WJFF member during the show will get something good!

Call us on 845 482 4141 (prefix that with 001 if you're one of our listeners outside the US) or make a donation online here.

Thank you for supporting The BritMix on WJFF…

And thank you Jawbone Press, Dorling Kindersley, Serpent’s Tail and Rough Guides for supporting The BritMix and WJFF.

Music give-aways on Saturday's show

WJFF is having a quick fund drive starting on Friday 8 August. So on Saturday's show I'll be giving away music books and signed CDs.

So tune in, call the station on 845 482 4141 to make a pledge and I'll have a thank you gift for you.

Remember - it's support from listeners like you that keep us on the air.

BritMix? Not this week - but we loved James Hunter!

No BritMix this week – it’s our regular first-Saturday-in-the-month day off.

But we got our fill of British music last night when Grammy-nominated James Hunter (with his almost entirely British band) played for us live at Big Twig studio in the WJFF concert series Live at Big Twig supported by the New York State Music Fund and relayed live over the radio on WJFF. Check the WJFF home page for news of the other concerts in this impressive series.

What a great night!

You can find out more about Essex boy James Hunter here.

And download his music from iTunes by clicking this button.

BritMix is back at 3 o'clock on Saturday 14 June with the usual unexpected mixture of old and brand new British music.

And here he is, James Hunter and his band, a snapshot from last night's gig.