16:07:11 ::: radioShirley presents “What’s a Matter, Baby?”

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

That four-letter word ‘baby’ is much maligned as a throw away, trite and glib addition to a lyric. mr.K and I have heard too many times someone say “If I hear ‘baby’ in a song one more time, well I’ll … ” But here at radioShirl HQ, we intend to elevate the status of ‘baby’ with a show where it features, not necessarily as a substitute for “I can’t think of anything else to call you, darling, sweety pie, hot lips, gorgeous, honeybun etc. etc” but as the integral textual ingredient to any worthwhile pop lyric this side of, well, the Brill Building!

So Shirleyphiles, drop an extra lump of that extra sweet ‘baby’ goodness into your organic double-strength chai soy latte frappacino and tempt your aural earworm alarms as Brigitte Bardot, Mama Cass, Marc Almond, Timi Yuro, The Vibrators, Erma Franklin, Dave Graney and other popular song stylists deliver up a damp nappy full of ‘baby’ tuneage!

Until next time kids, take care and play fair!
*be smooched*
radioShirl and mr. Kenneth

STREAM ::: What’s a Matter, Baby?

DOWNLOAD ::: What’s a Matter, Baby?

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!

DOWNLOAD ::: CRY!!

04:06:10 :::: radioShirley presents “ALIVE!”

Greetings Shirleyphiles and welcome to 60 minutes or so of low-fi lovliness!

Well, in the words of The Divine Miss M herself, Bette Midler who kicks off this show “Oh honey, we spared no expense for you this time. We did it all. We washed. We showered. We shaved. We FPS’d ourselves into a stupor!” And we have! Mr. K and yours truly have had a blast and clapped their paws raw putting together this show. It is a thoroughly live, continuous performance of Royal Command proportions of some of our favourite live moments that could get any aged King or Queen tearing their knickers off and throwing them at the stage. From Bette Midler to Sweet to Noel Coward to Smokey Robinson to Blossom Dearie to Sergio Mendes to Quentin Crisp and many others, there is plenty in this one to send chills and thrills up your spine and back down to the toes of your collective slingbacks!

Mr. K still shivers nostalgically when the needle drops onto track one of Bette Midler’s “Live at Last” album as he recalls the thrill of being party to one of the stage entrances to end all entrances! The palpable excitement of the audience on this particular recording is so well captured that it transports the manservant back to front row centre for Miss. Midler’s first ever Brisbane show back in the 70′s. Sharing this moment with at least two known Shirleyphiles, you know who you are, Mr. K attests that it could’ve been recorded then and there as the audience reaction is just as wild!

That’s what it’s all about though isn’t it? As masterful as studio recordings can be, its the live experience, the hit and miss, the stage chatter and patter, the warts and all wonderland where the excitement and artistry are truly expressed. Mind you, it takes two to tango as they say and without an appreciative audience to feed off, a performance can easily descend into blanc mange … and we’re not talking 80′s hair bands … or are we?

So Shirleyphiles, fire up your Clap-o-Meters, put on your favourite concert merch and settle in for a cavalcade of our faves doing it for you and doing it ALIVE!

Until next time, take care and play fair.
*be smooched*
laShirl and mr. Kenneth

STREAM ::: ALIVE!

DOWNLOAD ::: ALIVE!