Mull It Over 021: It's My Live
Aurora borealis, Bon Jovi, a Lisburn Road street party, confusion with copyright law and a brand new radio show.
Last week, Ireland experienced a once-in-a-lifetime supernatural event. Those who were lucky enough to bear witness posted photos and videos to their social media accounts so the rest of us mere mortals could look on only in awe and wonder - Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band returned to Belfast for the first time in over a decade. Except, you didn’t need to check your Instagram for photographic updates - by my calculations, you were there, as was I. As was the entire population of Belfast.
It was a hot, early summer night in the city, and the Boss rolled into town promising and delivering a near three hour-long set. Two quickly drunk pints on the Lisburn Road in the middle of an impromptu street party; a spring in our step we made our way over to Boucher Road Playing Fields for the unmistakable opening drums of “No Surrender”. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.
Not enough can be said about how much of a pain in the arse it is to get to this ‘venue’ and back again. Traffic was at a standstill, you’re barely in the city and public infrastructure leaves everything to be desired. We left before the last couple of songs to beat the throng. Not something you do lightly when the voice of the working class is charging upwards of £120 a ticket. Anyhow, it beats sitting at home watching Match of the Day. If only we could build a stadium for such events.
Unbelievably, I was hamstrung again by another New Jersey rocker the very next night. As half the country made it outside to witness the absolutely magnificent aurora borealis display in the night sky, I was in the house, curtains drawn with a cup of tea watching the new Bon Jovi documentary on Disney+. There’s a lot you can pick apart there, but make no mistake - I have never resented America, music or hair quite as much as I did when I saw everyone’s amazing photos of the Northern Lights transform the sky. There were rumours they would be visible again the next evening but nothing appeared. Still, I made it to the end of episode two of my Bon Jovi documentary. Two more to go. We’re halfway there.
Live on air
This week I started my brand new radio show on Belfast Built Digital Radio - Mull It Over: Live. BBDR is a new digital/online radio station that broadcasts from The Spinners Mill studio in Banana Block, East Belfast. In the vein of London’s now iconic NTS radio and Dublin’s DDR - Belfast Built is an online-only radio service that has aspirations to be a truly fun and eclectic community for music and culture lovers alike in Belfast and beyond. The station is very much in its infancy and has yet to be properly launched (all to come). For now there have been some guest mixes by local DJs and Saul Duffin, founder of the exceedingly fun and vital local scene-zine (trademarked) YEO Magazine has been broadcasting a live weekly soul show with guests form the local music scene joining him in the studio for a yarn between tracks.
My new show will initially begin as a monthly roundup of the music I’ve been writing about right here on the newsletter - it is essentially a natural, live extension of Mull It Over. The plan is to broadcast on Monday evenings at 8pm. For those of you who listened to the first show this week you will have got a flavour of what is to come - lots of fantastic music by local artists interspersed with some shite talk in between. I want the music to do the talking - I’ll save my rants for the written version. Lucky you.
Initially, I had planned to bank the episodes of the radio show and release them as a podcast as part of your Substack subscription, but unfortunately due to cumbersome copyright and licensing laws surrounding the playing of full songs, that’s not quite achievable at the moment on the limited resources I am running this thing on. That is not to say, however, that there won’t be a Mull It Over podcast sometime in the future, but it is unlikely it will be the same format as the radio show. For now, if you want to listen to Mull It Over: Live, the only way is to tune in to Belfast Built Digital Radio and listen live each month. I will post the link on my social media so you can join in the fun. What I can do, in lieu of a podcast, is share the playlist for each show. I had received some requests for the tracks after Monday’s show, so I’ve made the playlist available. See below.
Thanks for reading this edition of Mull It Over. It was a little different this week as my time was taken up by organising the radio show and ensuring everything ran smoothly. I was pleased with the outcome and if you managed to find the time to listen, thank you very much. The regular Mull It Over content will be back next week. For now, have a great weekend and Happy Friday!