[naughtyclanger.jpg] Tonight’s Freaky Trigger And The Lollards Of Pop gets Down and Dirrrty with international pop: should we be scared of what we don’t understand? (We share our experiences so you don’t have to.) Plus what else scares us: the irrationality and roots of fear — what is the REAL fantastickal menace? And once we’ve found it, how — in today’s hyper-messy hyper-smuttified society which shows every sign of worsening — shall we keep ourselves safe and clean? Chips, tips, sex by dicethrow and and a SCARY SPECTRAL GUEST (maybe), all in our Junket of muck!

It’s at 7PM, on Resonance 104.4 FM if you’re in the South Bank area and at www.resonancefm.com if you’re not – broadcast over the internet and then podcast afterwards on www.freakytrigger.co.uk. Junk Bondsminx is Sarah Clarke, Hi-Tech Jinxmonkey is Eli Sessions, the Massed Menks of Vulgar Panic are Magnus Anderson, Tom Ewing, Kat Stevens.

And (below the cut) is that special plea once more from Ed Baxter, programming director of Resonance FM. If you like Lollards (or indeed anything else on Resonance), act accordingly!

As you may be aware, Resonance FM was established by London Musicians’ Collective. LMC’s remit has been, for thirty years now, to support avant-garde music, that supposedly “difficult” stuff that gets lampooned as elitist noise in the popular press and on the “Today” programme. Tbe list of its achievements would take up many pages (a tiny fraction is at www.l-m-c.org.uk). Suffice to say, Resonance FM was entirely the creation of the LMC Board and emerged directly from its work. No other organisation would have realised such a project: no other organisation did.

LMC’s grant from Arts Council England’s Music Department has now been entirely cut. The radio station is not immediately threatened, as it is financed directly by the Visual Arts department (Music having never expressed interest in Resonance whatsoever). But to have one without the other is, as you can imagine, a little pointless to those of us who set up Resonance FM.

This year, ACE has managed to find £1.7million to underwrite the launch of a new music umbrella body, “The New Organisation.” LMC was excluded from the discussions about this quango, the stated ambitions of which sound remarkably like what we have been realising on a daily basis for the last five years: the maintenance of a hub which encourages, nourishes and broadcasts the work of musicians of every stripe from our locale and beyond, etc etc (only couched in the language of marketing consultants and apparently to be manned by people devoid of originality or vision). Meantime, too, the sequel to LMC’s best selling CD, Peter Cusack’s “Your Favourite London Sounds” plays in ACE’s lobby as a permanent audio exhibit!

I wonder if you would help me by writing a short email to the people at ACE Music, expressing your support for LMC? And ask for an acknowledgment of your email. If they receive five or six thousand emails, maybe they will be prepared to reconsider this crisis of their own making.

Please address your email to the following persons:
graham.knight@artscouncil.org.uk (Assistant Officer, Music, London)
helen.sprott@artscouncil.org.uk (Head of Music, London)
moira.sinclair@artscouncil.org.uk (Director, London)
peter.hewitt@artscouncil.org.uk (Chief Executive, National)

Please make the subject “From ” rather than something generic that can be easily ignored. Bear in mind, these are public servants: they work for us and you can, I think, insist on a response. Don’t be surprised to receive an Out of Office automatic reply initially: of course everyone responsible will [still be holed up in] the hills!

Please cc it to “plea@resonancefm.com” so we have a copy on file. All emails sent to this address will be treated in strict confidence.