I don’t know where the Ricky Gervais podcast got that ‘World’s #1′ status from (probably invented it themselves a la Chris Moyles’ ‘Satan Saviour of Radio 1′) so I went and had a listen to episodes 4, and some of 5 and 6.

I must say I can’t see what the fuss is about, it’s terrible and rambly - the average ‘indie’ podcast has more humour and is more topical and on-point, and the Carl Pilkington character is mind-numbingly (intentionally?) dumb and is obviously setup as the fall guy of the jokes, and the others aren’t adding much.

Although it’s good that the talents of Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant and Guardian should put their time and money behind podcasting, thankfully there will be only 12 episodes - I think Ricky should stick to his much better and funnier TV shows.

Also the legalese at the ending seems a bit, well , stupid:

You may not copy, reproduce, alter, republish, broadcast, make available to the public or otherwise use the podcast except for your personal, non-commercial use.

Most of podcasting has cross-polinated and publicised itself via podcasts mentioning and playing bits of other’s podcasts, saying ‘this is really cool - have a listen’. And people will actually do what the hell they please with the media anyway - it’s freely available on the Net. So having a standard non-reproduction clause on the internet is a little silly and strangely authoritarian - maybe they should have released it as Creative Commons? Now that would be revolutionary.

To be honest if you think the Ricky Gervais show is the be-all and end-all in podcasting, then you REALLY need to check out these shows, or any shows in the comedy or speech categories at any of the podcasting directories.

They are far funnier and better, even on ‘ramble’ random mode:

• Top of the Pods - cover a lot of the same territory as the Gervais show when they go off topic, but far funnier for it, and have the lists to fall back on to keep it in check. And they’ve been doing it longer than them!
• Ken And Squip Show - from the US, still very topical and have far more chemistry that the Gervais show
• Tracks up the Tree - ostensably a music show, but they discuss various topics and have a much funnier chemistry between Ben and Josiah, and Funtime Diane
• Yeast Radio - from a more shocking perspective, and funnier with good politics. Got bored with daily podcasts (far too frequent for me and I think the quality drops a little), and especially the eating on mic and schvitzing so I’ve currently unsubbed, but it’s worth listening in, and still far better than the RG show
• Feast of Fools - good on a pink/shock level, sometimes very funny, sometimes serious. Currently unsubbed (see daily podcast comment above) but still quality.

Loads more podcasts out there. especially of a more serious/music bent (see my recommendations to the right) but it annoys me when someone uses their fame to jump on the podcasting bandwagon; but don’t seem to be adding any more than what you could hear on zoo morning radio here. Maybe with less tunes, but existing podcasters do it far better - with less attention and less audience sadly.

In the latest edition of Computer Music (Feb 06) there’s an interesting interview with Pete Tong, the dance/Radio 1 DJ and A&R person.

According to the article he’s one of the people at the Beeb who are spearheading podcasting - the Essential Mix podcast is out there (Essential Mix is mostly commercial dance, but is on Friday at 6pm and is one of Radio 1’s most popular shows).

What I found so interesting was his comments (as a Radio DJ) about what podcasting can do:

“You could make a podcast identical to a radio show, apart from the fact it’s not live but I think it’s my job to make it as different as possible, so I very conciously want to cover new ground musically. Ultimately it gives you the ability to go deeper and more personal….The days of turning on the radio and hearing, for example, track 7 off a Kate Bush album are long gone unless you really dig deep, so I think podcasting should be an opportunity to take more risks.You don’t have the responsibility of having to hold down an audience of two million people…

At the start the more radical you are, the more likely you are to find your audience. You can’t just put together a podcast of the biggest dance hits around at the moment. You would get some downloads, but it’s not doing anybody any good. It would be nothing new.”

At last! Someone in the big bad old media who really gets what podcasting is about - not about replicating old formats but simultaneously forging new ground while reclaiming what was great about radio and the music industry before the big media mergers and takeovers. When people could add something of themselves into the playlist. *

It also doesn’t surprise me it’s someone from the commercial dance scene as they are used to niches and underground exposure.

The important thing is not to replicate what’s out there in radio-land, it’s to produce something you wouldn’t hear on the radio in a million years, either because it’s edgy, very new, obscure or non-commercial, unplayable or unfashionable, or just personal.

* For example: I was listening earlier to XFM (owned by Capital, big commercial radio group) and the woman presenting was playing a track off the Rough Trade 05: Counter Culture compilation (not a stretch for XFM to play that, it’s indie compilation on an supposedly indie station) that was obviously not playlist or in the usual genre - it was a great steel band cover of ‘Cars’ - and prefaced it so nervously and afterwards with comments about whether the management or the listenership would like it, that you really got a sense that she could lose her job if she as much as played the wrong track, or a track that went down badly.

And this is on an afternoon show on a Sunday?!? Scary…

Just found this video using Chumbawumba’s ‘On Ebay’ which is very cool :

 http://web.ukonline.co.uk/finc/Video/On%… (Quicktime, DSL)

You can find out more at http://www.finctank.co.uk/ (EYES is where the videos are at) and at Chumbawumba’s site http://www.chumba.com/

For those who didn’t get them first time or don’t want to register over at b00mb0x, here are the 2 longform mixes I did last year as part of the Noisy6 group. I’m working on the House mix now which should be up by March, then the last one is Pop up on the 6/6/6! So some satanic pop for that, methinks…

TBC - ‘Real Punk is Playing At My House’ (and original post/tracklist - best downloaded with Firefox/Safari, as IE’s Save As doesn’t support redirects and is mucho crappy)

TBC - ‘I Hate Jazz’ - (and original post/tracklist - best downloaded with Firefox/Safari as IE’s Save As doesn’t support redirects and is mucho crappy)

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