08:08:10 :::: radioShirley presents “CRY!”

Greetings Shirleyphiles and welcome to another 40 minutes or so of low-fi lovliness!

“Ain’t there one damn song, that can make me break down and cry?” exclaimed David Bowie in ‘Young Americans’.

Well there are a whole bunch that can make me do that, but don’t be fooled by the title. This show is not a collection of maudlin, morose tearjerkers but more a snotty hanky full of tunes which take as their theme that sacred act of crying and the associated rivers of salt that pour down our song stylists’ faces and out of their noses. Now before you go running for the Kleenex and the key to the liquor cabinet, I must tell you that this is strictly an Eric Clapton-free zone! Oh yes it is. No ‘Tears from Heaven’ fingers down my throat nonsense here!

Oh no! The manservant and I can get into a mutual sob-sister act at the drop of a Gladys Knight and The Pips, but my brief to mr.K for knob twiddling this time around was to steer well clear of turning you devoted Shirleyphiles into a blither blather of heaving sooks. I know how much time many of you spend on the application of eyeliner, lippy and such and I did not want to turn you into an audience of sad raccoons!

Lawdy clawdy, you can even dance your heartaches away while listening to some of this show! Now that is the way to do it! Maintain that air of cool detachment while your world is falling apart, your top lip is quivering and dance on! Yes, radioShirl girls and radioShirl boys, throw those arms up in a Diana Ross diva-esque stylee! By the way, I’ve been teaching mr.K that move and he’s just loving throwing it in mid-conversation with absolutely everybody we meet. Mind you, it took the counter staff at our local Chinese take-away rather by surprise last night while he was ordering our dinner. “Beef in Black  arms up/face to the follow spot! Bean Sauce, please!” Happy face, tears of a clown and all that jazz!

That said, how can you possibly escape the high drama of such emotion when you have such a cry baby and our poster boy of the month like the gorgeous Johnnie Ray in the mix? You just can’t. You need to let the young man, off his noggin as he is, sing sorrowfully about little white clouds that cry and get it out of his system.

Until, next time, take care and play fair!

*be smooched*
radioShirl and mr. Kenneth

STREAM ::: CRY!

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14:02:09 :::: radioShirley presents “Shirley’s Little Helpers”

original image by Miss Loisy

Greetings Shirleyphiles and welcome to another 40 minutes or so of low-fi lovliness!

Oh the world seems to be going to Hell in a handbasket doesn’t it? Honestly, there’s just so much “fiscal stimulus” one can bear, don’t you agree? So how are yours truly and her manservant coping with the current global climate of chaos and turmoil?

Well, I’ve been behaving like a classic 50′s hausfrau: tearing through my own little Valley of the Dolls wearing a taffeta gown, shot silk throw, sporting frilly aprons whenever the fancy takes me and washing down fistfuls of candy that’d make Susan Hayward proud and Patty Duke Astin choke! mr.Kenneth on the other hand has been his usual flatline self : sensible shoes, three meals a day and positively Yin to my Yang. How we’ve co-existed so long, is a complete mystery!

So this episode is a little inside take on what I’ve been indulging in : a confessional of sorts, without the broom cupboard drama, detailing just a few of the favourite things which have been helping me wake up to the day, put one foot after the other and then lay the head back down on the pillow or plonk it forehead first into the oven. But no, this never happens on a Sunday! Only a few of my wicked wicked ways are name checked here. If I named everything which puts the tiger in my tank, the zazz in my piz or the wind up my kaftan, then we’d end up with show called “Shirley’s Ring Cycle” wouldn’t we? I mean, in these tough times, there are just far too many indulgences to mention!

mr.Kenneth has been a patient love as usual, risen to the ocassion and helped me select this soundtrack to the current shape I’m in. Yes Shirleyphiles, its messy. Yes, its all over the shop but we love it that way. Opening up this aural cabinet of curiousities are the Rolling Stones followed by The Champs, Regurgitator, Brenda Lee, Flying Lizards, Vincent Price, Sailor, Fischer-Z, Dean Martin, Kevin Ayers, The Pineapples From The Dawn of Time, Queens of the Stone Age, Terri “Cupcake” O’Mason and if that last track doesn’t get you doing the “Vitamin Mambo” then the fabulous B-52′s are bound to!

So Shirleyphiles, like the 52′s, gather together whatever deviant ingredients you have on hand, head on down that Martini mile and elevate yourselves to a very fine state of mind with mr.K and moi!

Until next time, take Absolut care and remember … play fair

*be smooched*
laShirl and mr.Kenneth

DOWNLOAD .mp3 (14mb)