The Friday Night Experiment Podcast

It is with a hefty amount of pleasure that I announce the availability of the Friday Night Experiment Podcast.

Every week we will be making the best bits from the previous show available to you as a free download on the Stafford FM website. For those who have not heard the show yet, expect to hear regular features such as Chicken Update, Rant of the Week and Top Traders.

If you like bizarre facts, surreal comedy and ridiculous scientific discoveries, give the show a go. If you don't like any of the above, this show is also for you. Give the show a go. If you've never heard a radio show in your life and this is your first exposure to any type of broadcast, give the show a go as i'd like to know what it does to your mental capacity over a long term period.

Expect more content from The Friday Night Experiment in the near future on this blog. At every possible opportunity, i'm going to do my utmost to radio you in the face. Stafford FM has created a monster, and I hope they know it.

Thoughts on Health

A Breeding Ground for Presenters? Accents in Talk Radio

Since my radio addiction developed some time ago, particularly towards talk radio, I have undoubtedly picked up a few tips and observations along the way. An observation I want to share is regarding accents. 

Talk radio is as popular as it's ever been and it's essentially impossible for it to become dated, it will always be with us. How important is it then that the presenter's voice is inviting enough to get the phones ringing, and lively enough to keep you involved in the show, sometimes into the early hours? About as important as turning the microphone on, I would imagine. A handy tip there.

The UK is so diverse with accents, I wonder how many genuinely entertaining and thought provoking presenters have fallen at the first hurdle when it comes to securing a slot, based purely on their regional accent?

Listening to a talk radio show earlier today, the host received a call from an 18 year old student whose only ambition was to be a radio presenter. The presenter expressed concerns about her very strong accent there and then. Not only that, but several others called in to express similar dissatisfaction, which must have been a huge confidence boost for the poor girl. Any publicity is good I suppose.

I must admit I did agree with the presenter though. Imagine 'Hollyoaks-meets-Emmerdale.' Exactly.

Let's look at the current situation. Here I am with a talk show and the voice of a 15 year old girl, something i'm sure age and whiskey will deal with in it's own time, but what about the Staffordian accent? It's commonly felt amongst people ive spoken to before that we don't really have one, or at least we don't have an accent strong enough to speak of. We're not quite Brummie enough for Birmingham, nor Stokie enough for Stoke.

Have we found a sweet spot in the radio map? Is the Stafford accent thicker than we realise? Can any accent come across well if used properly?

Spotlight: Nicky Barron

There are several specific people I have worked with in my career so far that I believe have always been more than colleagues since meeting them. They have been such an influence on my work and outlook, I do not think I could have been in my fortunate position today without them. I most definitely count this person as amongst this group.


It's a pleasure to finally present an interview with a close friend and colleague, Nicky Barrron. Nicky runs the Konnektiv Drama group here in Stafford, which was formed just over a year ago and has quickly grown in size and has already performed to a wealth of local communities; here's her story.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and what led to the formation of Konnektiv.

I'm a Dramatherapist. I love Drama, always have, the voice it gives to you, the freedom of expression, the permission to be loud, crazy, emotional, weird, loving, compassionate, enraged. Drama gives a place for expression that I've never found anywhere else. 


Professionally, my specialism is mental health. I have a long history of companionship with mental illness, through the people I've known, my work, and my own experiences of severe anxiety and depression, that affected my life in a very debilitating fashion for about 10 years. I feel mentally very well now, having spent many hours with Therapists from various disciplines. But my memories of those years are powerful, I don't want people to have to experience that level of disability, or to have that much taken from them or their potential. I think us humans can work with experiences like this in positive ways that can really change each others lives. 


I'm really fascinated by Psychology and Drama as they are both about describing what it is to be human. Psychology takes the scientific route by investigating the human condition in terms of cause and effect, Drama takes the artistic route, investigating the experience of being human. 


Konnektiv is about Drama first, but we do occasionally have a look into the Psychology of what we do, and how it might affect us in our lives. 

2. What kinds of teachings and practices do you utilise as part of the sessions?

Konnektiv is more about the Drama side of my training than the Psychology side. We have looked at different styles of Theatre, from the Japanese Noh and Kabuki, to the Italian Commedia Dell'Arte. We are now starting to explore the wonderful world of Bouffons. 

Experimental Drama allows for many humanistic themes that more traditional Drama, 'doing plays' doesn't. Whilst I am very clear that Konnektiv is not a Dramatherapy group, we are a drama for health group in that we use our dramatic experiences in ways that heighten our self awareness and self expression, build on our abilities to work co-operatively and competitively in groups, communicate effectively and increase our confidence. Well that is the hope anyway. 

In the furtherance of this aim I use some of the techniques that I trained in, such as embodiment (becoming aware of the body and all of our emotional and physical senses through body awareness), enrolment (becoming aware of our many selves and how these selves each have a role in enabling and assisting us in achieving our wishes and our potential) interactive play (enabling human interaction on many different levels, increasing social confidence) Konnektiv is where I put my training into practice. It is aimed at being enabling, but it stops short of being therapy because it isn't as personal as therapy would be.

Close second in the aims of Konnektiv, and in some ways, inseparable, is that we do good Theatre. The process of creating, as a group, something different, beautiful, thought provoking, is not just beneficial to the players, but I hope to the people who are kind enough to come and see our shows.

3. Tell us about the groups recent and upcoming projects.

We spent an amazing 15 months working with Japanese Fairy tales. I can't believe we got so much material from these three short stories. They were all performed at different events and venues. All three will now be played over one evening at Stafford Gatehouse Theatre on 30th June. As part of this project, the group will get extra workshops to create masks and backdrops, and to engage in voice and physical training that will add to their skills and to our ability as a group to entertain the audience. 

In the meantime, we are starting work with Bouffons (Buffoons). I'm very excited about this. We will be doing a bit of delving into our darker sides, and creating some amazing, larger than life grotesquely comedic characters, and ultimately having lots of fun.

4. What are your ambitions for Konnektiv and its role in the community?

I would like Konnektiv to carry on with what it is doing, which is to provide very low cost weekly workshops to people in Stafford, whether they have a background of disabliity or not, that puts on shows and also enhances peoples lives and potential. Secondly, I would ultimately like Konnektiv to run as a company that can take Drama for health and Dramatherapy into schools, hospitals, support groups etc, in a professional capacity.

5. Where can we find out more about yourself and Konnektiv? Can we get involved?

Anyone can get involved - check out our website which has links to our blog and facebook group.

Call me on 07832133844 

Email konnektiv@googlemail.com

6. Is there a particular lesson or piece of advice from yourexperience you'd like to leave us with?

Two little sayings that have positively affected my journey through life so far.

Be the change you want to see.

The difference between those who do things and those who don't do things, is doing things.

Spotlight: DJ Lynchpin

As the blog shows, my love for radio has grown to dizzy heights these days. I'd be the first to admit its becoming a bit of an addiction, but a happy one nonetheless. 

It all started though when I was studying Music Technology alongside this man. We would spend hours talking about our favourite artists and DJs amongst Critical Distance equations, frequency graphs and MAX/MSP tutorials. 

Several years later and not only are we both broadcasting on our own shows, but we made our first Radio broadcasts on exactly the same week. Here's his story, including a recording of the man himself, on the Eclecticism show.   

1. Tell us about your background and and how DJ Lynchpin came about.

Well I originally took up mixing in the late 1990s when the trance sound became really popular on a global scale. Paul Oakenfold, Sasha and John Digweed were big influences on the choices I made when it came to buying records. I would say I was educated very quickly by listening to multiple DJ sets from these guys. As for the following 3 years I pretty much genre hopped between styles such as house, tech-house and techno. Each of these genres at the time had a very distinct sound and a lot more different artists and DJs were pushing that. Labels were churning out vinyl and that was the only format I bought until I moved to Seoul in Korea in 2004. When I got there I discovered the efficiency of playing out with CDs so I started using digital files. It’s amazing how far we have come since then and how much digital music files dominate the industry these days. It changed everything.

After my year in Korea I decided to return to education and my playing out of records in public has waned slightly so I have taken the opportunity to go back on the radio this year. The name Lynchpin came about after living in Korea when I used to play amateur pool and my captain came up with the nickname for me. We competed in a league and everyone had to have one so I adopted it as my stage name ever since. 

2. What are the characteristics and qualities of this type of music and production that inspire you most?

The shows identity came about, as I have always been interested in what each genre has to offer these days. Since the early 2000s music has come a long way as to how it’s produced and as to how it’s performed in some cases. The art of DJ-ing is now very different to what it was. The advances in technology and in particular programming software like Max MSP have enabled new ways to showcase the art form. Take someone like Alfred Darlington aka Daedelus. Right now he is the only one who I can safely say is adding innovation to the art form. Back in my early days you had to produce music on top of performing to get recognition. But Daedelus’ production work does not really do much for me. Plus he is a performer you have to witness live to appreciate the energy he can create. For that reason I am not really into the idea of selecting his music for my playlists. For me though the music has to be fresh or have some sort of timeless quality. A lot of electronic music can be mundane and not have a great shelf life but I am keen on what is current.

3. Give us an insight into how Splash Radio works and how you go about planning each show.

The show I present on Splash is done from home and I use broadcasting software to do so. I am given Carte blanch to do whatever I want with the show. I can play what I want whenever I want. I have a lot of freedom in that sense. I like to start off with something catchy always; it’s the best way to begin a show. From there I alternate the playlist according to how I feel. However with 2 features each week I try my best to keep them on a tight timescale. The first being the ‘soundtrack of the week’ - this could be any piece of music that has been used in TV or film. It started off as film scores. But has already evolved to tracks used in television and not just original pieces but established pieces of music that have defined a scene in a TV show or movie. I may expand that more as time goes on. And recently I have started a new feature called 3 from 1, which are 3 tracks played consecutively by the same artist. And I am being quite selective with those at the moment. Making sure they are worthy of that tag. Other than that I just make sure I have enough fresh and upfront tracks along with timeless pieces to keep the identity of the show eclectic. I am always on the look out for new artists but there are a lot of established ones out there and in particular a lot of established labels that do come in handy when I want to keep things timeless.

4. How would you like this radio show to develop? do you see a long term role in radio in the future?

In terms of the development of the show, obviously I want to build the listenership as much as possible. Two hours is a lot of time for people to commit. However by allowing people to listen to it again on Mixcloud and Soundcloud I can generate more listens. I am still finding my feet with how I want it to develop but I would like to add a mix section in the future and feature more unsigned artists. Soundcloud allows one to do that but it’s putting in the time to do that. There is a lot of mediocrity on there and to filter through the stuff that’s fresh to the stuff that’s average is a long process. Thankfully I listen to a lot of radio myself to add to my research. That helps build the playlist each week. In terms of a long-term in radio, I don’t really know. I would like to think so. But right now I am just enjoying it for what it is. I try not to look too far ahead with these things. I am more concerned about racking up more listeners for the next show as opposed to the previous one. Once I do that then I can think about the bigger picture. 

 5. Where can we find out more about yourself and the show?

Splash Radio

DJ Lynchpin on Soundcloud

DJ Lynchpin's Cloudcasts

Gary Lynch on Linkedin




6. A message or piece of advice you would like to end with?


Dedicate time to listening as opposed to just hearing.

Eclecticism Podcast 22/2/12 by Lynchpin on Mixcloud

Listen to Eclecticism with DJ Lynchpin on Splash Radio, on Wednesdays at 8pm. Previous shows can be heard on Mixcloud.


A huge thankyou to DJ Lynchpin for getting involved with The D-List and sharing another great story with us. More great things to come from this gentleman, i'm rather sure of it.

Urashima at Earth Hour: You Had To Be There

It's difficult to plan a candlelit performance of theatre and music in a gothic Church without getting carried away by the romantic stunning imagery that creeps into your imagination as the day draws closer. It's near impossible to achieve the exact same effect in real life, but Earth Hour in at St. Chad's Church on Saturday 31st March surpassed anything my imagination managed to conjure up.

It looked, sounded and felt as stunning as we'd all imagined it. Our performance was a total success, my first acting experience since High School was hugely enjoyable and the live music by Mell Ellis and her band which followed created an intimate, cosy atmosphere which is not easy to achieve in a huge building with little/no heating!

And finally, three words I have wanted to write since this blog started: Standing room only. One more time. Standing room only.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Heather who looks after the beautiful St. Chad's Church (well into the night when necessary) and Mel who played a gorgeous live set. A huge thank you to Tom Woj for the excellent photography yet again, see his website below for more of his work.

Finally let's thank Dramatherapist Nicky Barron for leading the Konnektiv Drama group into our most memorable live show to date. We did the people of Stafford and local performing arts proud.

As I promised, it was the kind of unique evening that only comes around once and can't be repeated again. You had to be there.

Konnektiv Drama
Tom Woj Photography
WWF's Earth Hour 2012

Urashima: A Performance for Earth Hour

This Saturday night will see the first performance of the Konnektiv Drama group's play Urashima, a traditional Japanese tragedy.

Urashima will be part of an internationally recognised celebration, WWF's Earth Hour. For one hour on Saturday 31st March, 8pm UK time, participants from around the world will switch off their lights in recognition of our dependance on the world and our responsibility to protect it.

We will be celebrating this event alongside a live performance by Mel Ellis at St Chad's Church in Stafford. Urashima will be performed by candlelight only as we contribute to this unique event, which will only make for a more special performance you'll never see anywhere else again.

I have enjoyed my various roles in Konnektiv tremendously; they live and breathe community spirit. Until now i've produced several pieces of music that have required me to push my cultural boundaries, which can only be a good thing. I now have the challenge of taking on one of the lead roles as well; as usual i'm learning a great deal both onstage and backstage.

Urashima will be followed by a live set by Mel Ellis at St. Chad's Church on Stafford high street at 8.30pm on Saturday 31st March. Entry is free and there will be refreshments after the show.

And just to re-iterate one tiny wee thing, you might never see anything like this again.

WWF's Earth Hour

Konnektiv drama