Listen: At Home with the Spiraltones from 2012
Our first live 'podcast' from February 2012: Remembering how it all came together
#spiralpod
We’re - finally - very pleased to be able to repost recordings of our very first live-streamed show, which we described at the time as a ‘live podcast’, from February 2012.
These ‘listen again’ files have for too long been missing from our website for various reasons, so it’s a delight to finally be able to share them here once more.
While the medium of podcasts was well established by the pre ‘creator economy’ time, most were download-based, and the idea of a live podcast was rather unusual - and technically somewhat harder; platforms like YouTube Live were still emerging, and few ‘independent creators’ were attempting real-time audio broadcasts from home.
If you didn’t hear it back in the day, it all started with a programme, lasting just over an hour, broadcast from ‘the heart of Bitterne Park’, hosted by local band The Spiraltones, with special guest poet Angela Chicken.
Jo from The Spiraltones singing live from Castle Spiraltone - one of the few photos from the event
Two subsequent programmes followed, each longer and more elaborate, featuring a number of guest musicians and spoken word artists, who gave generously of their time and talents.
We’re hoping to include the other two broadcasts in subsequent posts on digest+ shortly, so look out for them here.
Angela Chicken
Remembering how it all came together, editor of bitternepark.info Guy Phillips said: “To be honest, we were flying by the seats of our pants, as live streaming was a bit niche back then.
“But that was part of the fun - simply being able to create our own live pop-up radio station from someone’s living room, with a hotchpotch of different people’s kit, skills and talents, was for me part of the point of doing it!
Colin & Craig Spiraltone
“The stream fell over a few times - I think it even got hacked once - but it was all fantastic fun, and Colin was of course brilliant at presenting. I just let him get on with it. We also had some great tech and sound people across the three programmes who went above and beyond.
Jim on tech support and mixing
"What really made it, though, was the live interaction with the audience, who sent in messages on social media as we went along - some from nearby, some from elsewhere in the city, and even a few from around the world.
“I recently really enjoyed coming across some YouTube clips someone had filmed on their phone of proceedings, which we’ll try to add to these posts to give a flavour of the atmosphere. But the sound is only recorded on a phone. Do enjoy listening to the audio recordings - quality-wise, I think they are surprisingly good.”
Jim and Guy
The recordings, below, divide the show into two parts.
They are free to listen, but please consider subscribing to our digest+ channel for other more recent audios including interviews with local figures, our most regular newsletter offering links to all our latest stories, and to support bitternepark.info.
Thank you.
Thanks to Kate for additional photos
At Home with the Spiraltones, Part 1
At Home with the Spiraltones, Part 2