It was my 40th birthday a few weeks ago and I've just about recovered. There was alcohol, there were cards, there were long beards, thou shalt always BBQ, the cake was not a lie, there was mexican monkeys - wait, what? Well maybe not Mexican Monkeys, the new track from Daft Punk. Well not that new, it's been #1 for like 3 weeks. Current, eh?

And yes we go from Handel to hiphop, shoegaze to sixties, electro to eclectic, bootlegs to booty-shaking bears!

I also went to see Low and Handel's Giulio Cesare (NOT at the same time, although I suspect they would be compatible) and saw Book of Mormon...and generally and gently ruminated about the nature of life, and being 40.

Mid-life Crisis? Or Mid-life Crisis 2: Opposing Gravity?

Recently I've been checking out what has been called Electro Chaabi (or Cha'abi/Shaaby/Cha3by/mahragan aka 'festival music'), the new-ish underground hiphop/pop music in Egypt, which led me back to the show I planned after going to Egypt and South Africa in 2011. In fact this music wasn't new to me, it was all over Egypt blasting from the shops and phone places off a laptop. My queries where to get it or buy it were met with baffled looks and the response 'mp3!' and even 2 years later still it's underground, not played on the local radio and usually performed live or traded in MP3s.

I had to make do with some rather too-shiny and western-style Egyptian pop music, and some local South African house/electro music usually hiked up to silly prices cos I was a tourist. I wasn't really happy with it, hence not doing the show then.

But when I read the Quietus articles about the scene it also lead me to the Congo via Konono Nº1, Omar Souleyman and back to Sahelsounds who I originally planned to play some of 'Music from Saharan Cellphones Vol 1' back then, but Vol 2 and some other compilations such as Nigerian Bollywood music have been released, and it makes for a much more interesting 2-part show! So follow me from the Middle East to Africa, the Egypt to Syria, to Nigeria to Mali and South Africa... Leave Your Camel After The Tone

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead! Munchkins Uprise! And Party!

Recorded last week, somehow I think Thatcher's funeral has just slipped off the agenda *sigh*. We're still paying £8-10 Million for it though, and 60% or more people in the UK think that's a waste of money...which in supposed austerity, it is. But strange how we seemed in a week to have devolved to the 1980's - football hooliganism, division, and now bombings.

What next, the mullet makes a comeback?

Finally after over a year (!) the second part of the Pop Is Dead series. I promise to be more, well, quicker with the other parts...

This one is about our favourite person, the eternally dodgy A&R man.

Arista say they "love you but the kids can't dance to it"

Frankie Goes To The Vatican, Habemus Papam (San) Francisco. Results of the Pope Idol contest is in and Pope Ivor The First or Pope Bunsen Honeydew I has the highest phone votes out of all ex-chemist Jesuits with a Dirty War under their belt. Welcome to the blog Papa Pancho*, I'm sure we'll get acquainted over the years as the homophobia and mysogyny flows, so enjoy the honey(dew)moon of being a blank slate like the white robes you wear.

So I dedicate some music to the new Popey, play some It's A Trap, some Kraftkovers, some Sea Punk, some chilled music and some very silly Stan Freberg.

As I say in the show you'd have heard this show nearly a week ago (some of the tracks a week before on the exclusive RCL Mix #1) on Radio Clash Live (9:30pm Wed, 4am Sat GMT/UTC) as well as the History of Mashups Show 8 which if you listen closely during the day tomorrow around 12:43pm GMT you might just hear a repeat of... *that's actually what they're calling him in South America, Pancho being slang for Francis. That's actually quite cute...

Part two of The Queer History of Pop - this is version two, those who listened in on Radio Clash LIVE! would have heard an exclusive never-to-be-repeated version, glitches and all ;-)

Here we discuss the queer history of pop from early 90's queer Act-Up! activism to the 1990s Britpop explosion and flirting with queer imagery to the 00s with out, proud and angry feminist and LGBTQ artists making a noise.

I've been listening to the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xp4rp">Story of Pop</a> which again has been repeated on 6Music, but this time also reading the excellent Simon Napier-Bell's <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Vinyl-White-Powder-Napier-Bell/dp/0091880920">Black Vinyl White Powder</a> and the contrast has been striking - not so much the drug usage which has been there in the BBC series, but the queer element has been definitely not featured. And as we know, from the gay managers and producers of the 1960s to the out and proud pop stars of the 1970s and 80's the music industry has been pretty pink, especially in pop and dance music.

So I thought as February is Gay History Month it was time to do The Queer History of Pop - no interviews but a lot more music...this was recorded in front of a live audience, well the <a href="http://www.radioclash.com/live/">Radio Clash LIVE! stream and the Ustream webcam</a> - so if you missed that, you missed out. Part Two covering 1990s to present day will be recorded this Wednesday at 8pm - expect riot grrl and a more angry show to the Peace and Love of this one, well excepting Jayne County ;-)

If you like this show you might like the <a href="http://www.radioclash.com/archives/2012/04/27/rc-218-space-disco-3-1-waiting-on-my-angel/">Space Disco shows</a> and the <a href="http://www.radioclash.com/archives/2007/06/19/gay-shame-mix-ii/">Gay Shame mix</a>.

I Was Born This Way, Yes Even the Earrings Darling...

Every time I create a podcast I nearly always tracks for being far too long, because I'm concious that Radio Clash gets long enough as is. So I decided to be a size queen for once and embrace the long (oo-er) and showcase the tracks over 7 minutes - upto 20 minutes in this episode!

Ironically it turned out the same length as all the other episodes of Radio Clash (I was aiming for shorter as a joke but then there would be about 23 tracks!)

Long Ones Are More Juicy

2013 - not the Year of the Melting Rainbow NyanCat but lucky for some I hope - new year, new(ish) music. A very dubby/dubstep/reggae show with my faves from 2012.

Dedicated to Caroline.

Going On Thirteen...

Tracklist at the website or in the comments of the MP3, or on an iPod the Lyrics field (press your centre button 4 times).

(I created mashup Christmas cards this year from 99p shop cards, this was one of the rejects! None of this Photoshop shizzle, O.G. craft knife and prittstick technology! But yeah I guess it's 'It's More Than Merry Christmas' when you have intimate relations with a gigantic Robin and then a miniature Santa flies out...)

This is more of a Christmas pOdditiies broadcast, with Christmas song poems, holiday monstrosities, sexually inappropriate festive cheer, yodelling Santas, rockets and robot Santas, boozy Santa punks, psychedelic Xmas hip-hop, Christmas disco, festive Moog tracks and strange Xmas mashup nonsense.

Will be a Mixcloud/blog only exclusive for a few days because I've run out of Libsyn space! Sorry Libsyn people, but can't afford the temporary upgrade (I would if Santa brought some presents...or more Paypal/Flattr tips, hint hint).

Would not be possible without these blogs (yes blame them!):

• Mr Fab's Music For Maniacs
• Franklin Mint
• World's Worst Records
• The Wonderful and the Obscure
• Junk Shop Juke Box

...and many others!

Happy Christmas/End of the World from Radio Clash!

Tracklist at the website or in the comments of the MP3, or on an iPod the Lyrics field (press your centre button 4 times).