I began to realise when I was assessing the show and how best it could serve the audience, that useful as airplay can be to aspiring artists, it isn't the only service that a show like mine can provide.

I've had a bee in my unfeasibly large barnet for a while, now, because I'm one of the many who thinks we don't make best use of the experienced members of our society. This doesn't necessarily mean the eldest members of our communities, just those who have reached a certain level of experience in their chosen field of endeavour.

Magazine interviews and rock biographies are a great source of anecdote, but a lot of the time it's difficult for songwriters seeking advice and inspiration to sort the wheat from the chaff [or the truth from the exaggeration] in these tomes.

My idea was this: that I would ask good music people who have been influential and eminent in their field to pass on the wisdom / advice that they wished they had known when they were starting out.

I then wrote to, and e-mailed, a couple of hundred artists, managers, agents and websites and waited for all of these wonderfully magnanimous people to send me their nuggets of wisdom all neatly tied-up to share with you.

I hadn't taken a few things into account.

Artists at the level that are inspirational and recognisable to others are always being nagged for 5 minutes of their time to devote to this, 5 minutes of their time to devote to that. Altruistic as this idea is, 90% of the artists I approached won't have even received the request. It will have been left to moulder in an overfilled inbox.

However, some excellent people have responded -- and their responses are a real treasure trove of common sense tips, philosophical enlightenment and lucid wisdom... the kind that you can only get from people who have been there and done it.

I will persevere with the e-mails and the phone-calls and the hand-written letters because I know how well these are being received and how inspirational some of you have found them to be.

If you can contribute to this part of the show [assuming you're an eminent musician / songwriter / visionary / producer / manager / label owner etc.] then the examples below should serve as a good template for how this works and what we would expect from one of these pieces.

2 - 5 minute monologue, either recorded by you and e-mailed to me as an .mp3, or recorded as a short phoner.

We bookend these pieces with two of the artist's songs in full... generally a piece of back catalogue and a newer piece of work, if appropriate.

Here are the pieces that we have recorded and broadcast, so far.

Please feel free to share them. The advice was offered freely and should be shared freely, too.

If you're a fellow broadcaster and you use any of these pieces, a credit back to the show would be appreciated. I won't demand it, I just feel that it would be good manners.

I'd like to thank all of the artists who have contributed thus far, and their representatives. It's edifying to know that there are significant artists out there who are happy to help those struggling to find their music and / or make a name for themselves.

Sharing knowledge and inspiration seems like a good way to use the airwaves.

Please send any suggestions for other people to get in touch with [especially if you have contacts!] and any reactions to the voices below to:

themysterytour@gmail.com

Thank you! I hope that these are useful to you.

tx: 11th January 2009
Black Francis - the Pixies / Frank Black

tx: 18th January 2009
Kim Fowley - legendary West Coast mogul, writer and record producer.

tx: 25th January 2009
Manda Rin - former member of Bis, the first unsigned band to appear on Top of the Pops.

tx: 2nd February 2009
Alex Paterson - founder member of The Orb.

tx: 9th February 2009
Clive Langer - legendary producer of Madness, Elvis Costello et al.

tx: 16th February 2009
Colin Newman - member of Wire & Githead.

tx: 23rd February 2009
David Gedge - singer / songwriter with the Wedding Present.

tx: 8th March 2009
Kristin Hersh - phenomenally influential songwriter & founder of Throwing Muses / 50ft Wave.
Robert Minhinick - acclaimed and award-winning Welsh writer and poet.

tx: 15th March 2009
Richard Parfitt - guitarist and singer / songwriter with 60ft Dolls. Also managed Terris and took Duffy to Rough Trade Records.

tx: 22nd March 2009
Jon Langford - founder of the Mekons, member of the Waco Brothers, painter & producer etc.

tx: 29th March 2009
Deke Leonard - founder / guitarist with 'Man' & Iceberg. Brilliant writer.

tx: 5th April 2009
Pete Waterman - legendary record producer and music mogul.

tx: 12th April 2009
Neil Innes - founder of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Rutles, the 7th Python, a veritable leg-end.

tx: 19th April 2009
Tom Robinson - Post-punk songwriter & hero of the musical underclasses on 6Music.

tx: 26th April 2009
Martin Carr - Polymath co-founder and songwriter for the Boo Radleys, bravecaptain and, now, as Martin Carr. Martin expounds on making electronic music. See his releases as bravecaptain and the forthcoming Black Serpent Choir albums.

tx: 3rd May 2009
Graeme Park - Legendary house DJ at the Hacienda. Still DJ'ing and now lectures on aspects of the media & the music business.

tx: 17th May 2009
Mike Peters - Singer / songwriter most renowned for his international success with The Alarm.

tx: 7th June 2009
Marina & the Diamonds - As part of a special on emerging, young talent, the Welsh artist most likely to breakthrough this year shares her advice.

tx: 21st June 2009
Ray Davies - the best songwriter these islands have ever produced. In my opinion!

tx: 26th July 2009
Paul Draper - Mansun's musicially ambitious songwriter. There aren't all that many who can claim to have written two No. 1 albums with as little commercial compromise as this one-time resident of Flintshire managed.

More to be added as the weeks pass... Back to the top of the page...