The first show of the month and if last week’s show was anything to go by, this Phantom Dancer will be the best show ever. HEAR IT ARCHIVED ONLINE AT 2SER.COM
This Tuesday 5 Aug at 12 noon on 107.3 2SER and online at 2ser.com we listen to 1930s airchecks by Johnny Green the composer of Body and Soul amongst many other songs.
For the Old Fygges, there are 1940s radio broadcasts by Eddie Condon on the Blue Network, This Is Jazz and The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street featuring Henry ‘Hot Lips’ Levine.
The second hour, as always, goes vinyl, and we’ll be going way back to radio broadcasts by bandleaders Anson Weeks and Ray Miller then way forward to radio broadcasts by Dizzy Gillespie and Slim Gaillard.
See the full play list below.
The Phantom Dancer will be online at 2ser.com after the broadcast. Follow the Phantom Dancer links on the Program Guide at http://2ser.com
Hope you like the show, daddy-o. This week’s Phantom Dancer Video of the Week from the YoutTube vaults has a tragic ending.
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Community Radio Network Show CRN#116
Tune in during Breakfast to win the album. It’s now available on Bandcamp
Sweet Sue digital download album. Only $7, 15 tracks, at Bandcamp
Playing on ‘Sweet Sue’ are this fine group of world-touring vintage jazz specialists: Paul Furniss (sop. alto, tenor saxes, clarinet) Al Davey (trumpet / trombone) Grahame Conlon (guitar) Darcy Wright (double bass) Mark Harris (double bass) Lawrie Thompson (drums) Greg Poppleton (vocals)
Sweet Sue is a digital download-only album now available for you on Bandcamp
Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcasters (swing quartet) live, with Greg Poppleton (voc) Paul Furniss (reeds) Grahame Conlon (guitar) Bob Gillespie (drums)
Recently The Phantom Dancer has been contacted by family members of some of the singers and radio personalities presented each week on the show. So this week I’ve put up two sets of live radio featuring talent that some Phantom Dancers have a personal connection to – Lawrie Brooks, John Reed King, The Thrasher Sisters and Eleanor Russell.
Now, you can check out this show online (after 20 Sep) and hear earlier Phantom Dancer shows any time you wish over the next month by following The Phantom Dancer links at 2ser.com
And The Phantom Dancer Video of the Week – a WMGM NY ‘Doctor Jazz’ show aircheck of Ride Red Ride, Henry Red Allen, Stuyvesant casino, New York, 24 Feb 1952…
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
The very first 2 hour Phantom Dancer (and Program 50 for national listeners) starts this week.
I started The Phantom Dancer on 107.3 2SER Sydney way back in December 1985.
I had already been doing a 15 minute segment of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV within another program called Cityscope since Dec 1984. The segment was called, Hot House, after the song.
Then in December 1985 I was asked to fill in for a vacated time slot. The previous show had been called Jazz Direction Out and I unhappily inherited the name.
However, the show hit the right note with listeners. I even had a few live shows, bring musicians into the studio like James Morrison, John Morrison, Ian Date, Andrew Speight, Ted Heath Goes Latin (the band) and an outside recording of Mic Conway and his Hiccups Orchestra.
And the first request came in, handwritten in blue biro, posted from a motel in Blakehurst on a scrap of pad paper.
The next name for the show after a schedule reshuffle was even worse than Jazz Direction Out. I didn’t choose it. My proposed title, ‘Hot Shit!’, was not accepted (and was at that time illegal). Because the show was in a late lunchtime slot, it got called ‘Swing Sandwich’. Cringe.
In 1989 there was yet another radio schedule reshuffle and the show was moved to 11:30pm – 1am Sunday night – Monday mornings. I called it ‘Round About Midnight’, after the song. Listenership bloomed. And I did a few ‘wacky’ things like a ‘Honeysuckle Rose-a-thon’ and a live mix of women in jazz with excerpts from an episode of Lost In Space. Like, far out, daddy-o!’.
Sunday nights used to start at 6pm for me at 2SER, because that’s when I’d also record, then dub edit, a weekly half-hour quiz show that had a 2 year run on 2SER called, ‘Wordsports’, a word game devised by performance poet Komninos and which I also ran at the Harold Park Hotel.
I also won the first of two BASF Hi Fi Certificates Of Merit for a soundscape called ‘Registered Clubs Of NSW A Musical Legacy,’ and began working in radio professionally.
In 1991 The Phantom Dancer won a BASF Hi Fi Certficate Of Merit for its special, ’42 Years Of TV’, demonstrating that TV had been around much longer than the 25 years the Australian commercial networks had been crowing about that year.
Another reshuffle saw the show put back to a weekday afternoon at 1pm. This, too, was considered a dead spot like late Sunday night, but contrary to expectations, listenership grew some more. In this ‘carnation, I called the show ‘The One O’Clock Jump’.
Another reshuffle shunted the show in 1994 to another then graveyard slot of 10:30am Tuesday morning. But the show did well. And I changed the name to The Phantom Dancer.
Introduced in 1994, The Phantom Dancer was the first 2SER show with a digitally edited theme – and that’s the show theme that’s still in use.
On 8 May 1995, The Phantom Dancer, was the first 2SER show (and possibly one of the first Sydney radio shows) to be wholly digitally produced and edited. The one hour special commemorated the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe. And it went to air on CD. The hard-to-get CD blank cost me around $30.
In 1997, The Phantom Dancer almost went off-air due to a ‘music producer’ who nevertheless still thought enough of the show to claim in a prestigious jazz dictionary (without telling me) that he ‘produced’ the show. He went on to an academic career.
The Phantom Dancer did have its one only ever producer in 1999. Jo White helped refocus the show and as a result, the show became even more popular in the 2000s and 2010s.
In April 2007, a story on The Phantom Dancer, was the feature article in a Sydney Morning Herald Metro lift out.
In November 2007, The Phantom Dancer, won Best Music Show in the annual national CBAA Radio Awards.
In 2008, the show began to be repeated 6am Sunday mornings.
Then in 2010, the repeat program was moved to 6pm Saturday evenings.
In 2011 I was very honoured to receive a much coveted 2SER volunteers award.
In 2012, The Phantom Dancer, went national. It’s now heard on over 30 radio stations of the Community Radio Network across Australia. It has a particularly strong listenership on the popular ArtsoundFM in Canberra.
And now, as of 30 April 2013, The Phantom Dancer has grown to be two hours long! And I still work professionally in radio – as a voice over artist with RGM Voices (here’s my voicereel) – as well as volunteer.
I suppose that makes me one of the many radio professionals 2SER has created over the years.
Many people have supported and nurtured the Phantom Dancer since 1985 when hair was long, black pants, black coats and black pointy shoes were de rigueur, and swing was a dirty word. The list of names is too long to print here. Most important are the many 2SER Phantom Dancer subscribers who keep Australia’s only live 1920s-60s radio swing & jazz show, and 2SER, on air with their subscriptions and donations. 2SER is a community supported station. Thank you.
Hence, this week’s Phantom Dancer Video of the Week. It’s a mix of 2SER 1st Birthday Idents by Sydney commercial radio personalities for the very first subscriber drive in 1980. Long time 2SER listeners, is that the voice of John Cochrane giving George Donikian some feedback after his first ID read? Enjoy…
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
This week’s Phantom Dancer has a whole set of Duke Ellington from his ABC ‘Date With The Duke’ series (1945/46) and lots more live 1930s-50s swing & jazz radio besides
And a quick plug – enjoy The Phantom Dancer live as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival at FIVE Eliza (5 Eliza St Newtown) Free, 6 – 10pm. Presented by 2SER
This weeks Video Of The Week: The Ingenues – all-women orchestra Vitaphone film clip from 1928
And here’s a photo of The Ingenues at Sydney’s Central Station on tour in Australia in the 1920s
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Another humdinger of a show for you this week. Vincent Price introduces calypso pioneers Lord Invader & Lord Beginner, Bob Hope introduces Bing Crosby & The Andrew Sisters. Plus more 1940s Australian swing by George Trevare, Billy Cotton from London & Angelini from Rome
An Olympic Video Of The Week: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope (who gets very angry at the beginning – look at his face when he hits Jerry Lewis), Dean Martin, the aforementioned Jerry Lewis & John Scott Trotter’s Orchestra raising money to send the US team to the 1952 Helsinki Games
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Sunday July 1:Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Broadcasters played for Sunday Lunch at Concrete Blonde, Level 2, 33 Bayswater Road, Potts Point. Now, if you haven’t head of Concrete Blonde before, I want to tell you all about it a little later in this blog entry. Just to say now, if you’re in Sydney or visiting, it’s a must visit
But first, the Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Broadcasters’ show. Here’s a snippet…
Warren Fahey AM, social historian, author, record producer, broadcaster and singer said about yesterday’s Concrete Blonde show by Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Broadcasters:
“Yesterday’s Jazz/Funk/Whatever Lunch at Concrete Blonde was another terrific day. Here’s Greg Poppleton and the Bakelite Broadcasters in action Greg sang all the top songs of the 1920s and 30s – many that I have grown up with. There were many happy faces in the audience and Greg’s interpretations, including dancing, swaying, staring and facial gymnastics made the music all the more interesting and amusing. They will be back!”
Concrete Blonde wrote on their Facebook page: “What a fantastic performance yesterday here! Love the bloke in the pinstripes and ……. phew, check out the size of that guy’s tuba”
Greg Poppleton & his Bakelite Broadcasters at Concrete Blonde
Now a few words about this great restaurant itself…
Concrete Blonde is one of those rare restaurants where the space makes you feel good (expansive, even!) the minute you walk in. It has both an indoor and outdoor area and the connection between these two spaces is remarkably seamless. As a space, its designers have successfully combined a sense of occasion and gathering with intimacy and privacy. Remarkable! (As I’ve just done). Part of the occasion is being able to see your dinner cooked. The kitchen is along one side of the space. There’s also a friendly and extensive bar. And a cellar behind glass in the dining area itself. Car parking is in the building, which makes it easy in busy Kings Cross. But I don’t drive. So there’s the 324 and 325 bus at the front door and the 311 bus and Kings Cross train station just around the corner! Plus there’s live music by name bands in jazz, funk, gypsy, folk and more. Free! Sunday lunch and Wednesday nights. As Symphony Sid used to say in between Charlie Parker/Miles Davis sets on his all-night, all-frantic WMCA bop show from the Royal Roost nightclub, New York – ‘what more could you want?’
I’ll tell you what more – the food and the friendly staff take your experience to a whole new level
And the menu is special
For Sunday lunch, the band chose the Beef with Yorkshire Pudding and the Duck. There was also a vegetarian choice that was very, very tempting. I’ve never had Yorkshire Pudding before, but I will be having it again. And our Mancunian drummer, Bob Gillespie, formerly musical director for Lovelace Watkins and drummer with Maynard Ferguson’s English Orchestra, and whose family makes Yorkshire Puddings at home, was mightily impressed. The beef just melted in my mouth. And despite the servings being generous, with two big serving boats of tasty roast potatoes and broccoli and carrots arriving at our table, nothing was left on anyone’s plate. In short, the chef made a Sunday Roast exciting – and delicious. That’s real skill and passion for food
As for the restaurant space being an event in itself, making you feel good, and making you want to be there, I found this quote which goes some way in explaining why I felt so good the way I did the moment I walked through the doors: “Concrete Blonde is very excited and proud to announce that we have been short-listed (from over 600 entries) for the finals of the International Restaurant & Bar Design Awards. This is the only concept of its kind in the world and is dedicated exclusively to hospitality design. The Awards invites and receives entries from the world’s top architects, designers and hospitality operators. The judges recognise and reward entrants from all over the world for design excellence. The winners will be announced at an innovative ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects, London, 66 Portland Place on the 6th September 2012”
So Concrete Blonde is indeed a very special place. It’s warm and friendly. You’ll feel comfortable no matter what your restaurant background – whether you’re local or visiting, whether you’re a gourmand or someone like me on a very low income who only goes to a restaurant on very special occasions. And if you are someone like me, well you can guess from the tone of this review, that I reckon Concrete Blonde is one exciting place that’ll take your special occasion to a whole new level and you’ll be happy to splash out with the hard-earns
Sydney’s rarest commercial artwork, the 1911 garage hoarding unearthed on a wall in Newtown, having not seen the light of day since 1915, has been defaced by a creep
See below to see what’s been done. No technique. No talent. No artistic ability. Simply embarrassing. Even my 8 year old described it as ‘scribble’. It’s the juvenile scrawl of someone’s spoilt little brat desperately seeking attention. “Look at me, Mummy. Look at me!”
Luckily, I’d taken some photos and reported on the history of this vintage mural before the dog cocked his leg on it. Here’s the link to the wall as finished by the original artists :https://gregpoppleton.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/840/
Feel free to put your guesses on what the moron was written in the comment box below. Defacing artwork is as stupid as burning books. I’d say little boy lame wrote,’KICK ME’. What do you think?
This Tuesday’s and Saturday’s Phantom Dancer features Spotlight Bands’ ‘Band of the Week’ for 31 January 1942. It’s Sammy Kaye, over the Blue Network
His best-selling record that got him the ‘Band of the Week’ gig? A ditty entitled ‘Remember Pearl Harbour’
Turns out NBC interrupted a Sammy Kaye program to break the news of Pearl Harbour being bombed, 7 December 1941. Hence the message song. And like all message songs, well – you be the judge
See the full play list for this week’s Phantom Dancer after these exciting pics
That’s right, photos. Instead of a Video of the Week, I’m posting some exciting archeological photos I took for you just a few hours ago.
There was a fire near me recently. A dry cleaners burnt to the ground. The building has been demolished. And behind a demolished wall a well-preserved painted advertisement has been revealed
I guessed by the artwork and fonts that the ad was from 1911. A quick look at the Sands Directory tells me I’m about right. The Sands Directory was an annual listing of everyone who lived in Sydney with their addresses and occupations. The last Sands was published in 1932
In 1910, according to Sands, the site of the demolished dry cleaners was the Newtown Carriage Works — Arthur Dunn, proprietor. In 1911, it became H. Phippen’s motor garage. He was a motor engineer. By 1912, Phippen had left and Arthur Dunn’s Coachbuilding business had returned. Or, perhaps, between 1911 – 1914, the site was shared between the coach building and garage businesses – new technology piggybacking on the old. By 1915 the site was occupied by an upholsterer
Because of a locked wire gate I couldn’t get a full shot of this huge, vibrant ad from the street. So below is a series of shots covering the entire wall I took from the footpath. In this first photo, note ‘Cars for Hire’ and ‘Waratah Motor Spirit’. What would have been the demand for Car hire in 1911? Was H. Phippen ahead of his time? Did low demand beat his business? It’s not listed in the Sands Directory for 1912
1911 Garage Wall Ad - King St, Newtown
Waratah Motor Spirit appears to have still been around in 1925 when you could buy it from twelve outlets around Sydney, according to an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald dated 28 Jan 1925. As you can see in the bottom of the wall ad, Waratah, was a product of the Neptune Oil Company. Neptune Oil began in Australia in 1905. A motoring website says Neptune’s Waratah brand was introduced in 1917. This ad proves the motoring historian wrong. The site became an upholsterers in 1915. An upholsterer wouldn’t be putting up an all-weather sign visible to passing motorists for Motor Spirit
Perdriau Tyres Sign - is this the earliest extant?
Perdriau Tyres? Henry Perdriau entered the rubber importing business in Sydney in 1888. His Perdriau Rubber Co. Ltd. started manufacturing rubber parts in 1904 and finally merged with Dunlop in 1929 to form Dunlop Perdriau Rubber Co. Ltd. Could this be the earliest Perdriau wall sign extant? A Perdriau glass lantern slide ad from 1924 – 29 exists in the ANU Digital Collection in Canberra
Detail of the Waratah Motor Spirit sign
It’s hard to see in the photo below, but on site I could just make out the phone number L1905. L stood for 5 and was the area prefix for Newtown and surrounding Inner West Sydney suburbs. Sydney phone numbers used one and two letter prefixes until the mid-1960s. The code was: A = 1, B = 2, F = 3, J = 4, L = 5, M = 6, U = 7, W = 8, X = 9, Y = 0
Garage and Phone Number L1905
Some more pics. The sign-writing is of an extremely high standard. The Waratah is a beautiful piece of commercial art. The amount of effort involved in sign writing such a huge space by hand is quite extraordinary, especially if they used, as my grandfather did about the same time as a house painter, individually mixed paints. My grandfather would crush blocks of pigment with a mortar & pestle and mix the powder with linseed oil and I guess some kind of fixer. I particularly like the blue used in the top band of the sign. It’s a colour you don’t see now. The uneven durability of hand-made paint is revealed in the preservation of the different colours. The green lettering for the phone number and the red fill for the Waratah are the most deteriorated
Having been protected by the sun and weather for almost a hundred years by a brick wall, this is a most amazingly intact piece of commercial pre-WWI art
A new building will be erected on the site. Will the sign survive another 100 years? After the photos you’ll see the play list for this week’s Phantom Dancer on 2SER
1911 Garage Wall Ad – King St, Newtown
Perdriau Tyres Sign – is this the earliest extant?
Detail of the Waratah Motor Spirit sign
Garage and Phone Number L1905
Here’s this week’s Phantom Dancer play list. Enjoy the show on your radio!
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney
Actor - Singer - Voiceover 