I've said this elsewhere, including emails to Louise, but I'm really not sure about Ras's show at all and not because he doesn't play enough guitar stuff. My problem is that he only plays Urban music. I'm not really sure what defines Urban music but I do know it's just too narrow for me.

 

I like that he plays Broken Beat And African music, but I can hear that and much more on Benji B's show on One extra. There you can expect to hear anything from Pantone to Milt Jackson.

 

Or again I can listen to Patrick Forge or Gilles Peterson and they both play a wider range of music than Ras. Why isn't Ras playing Conya Doss for the soulies amongst us? Why isn't he playing really bouncing new rap like Typical Cats?

 

I have no objection to black music in any of it's forms. In fact I came to John's show in 1980 because he played what I still consider to be the best deep soul track of all time, Peggy Scott's Every Little Bit Hurts.

 

John's never played that one since and the shame is I just know Ras will never have heard of it never mind think of playing it. The thing about John was that even if you were really into black music he would still play old stuff you never heard before. I  imagine Ras doing that for me.

 

Most of the Reggae tracks he plays wail have been played weeks even months before by Robbo Ranx or David Rodigan. When John played one it was generally no more than a week old and if you collect 7s like me you know, much older than that and you can't get the vinyl anymore.

 

Ras seem ok. He certainly has a good radio manner but his knowledge of his field is just not deep enough for me. It's certainly not wide enough.

 

This has turned into a bit of a rant, but I'm really not happy with the musical tunnel Ras is going down.

 

I think the other two nights are really good. Rob got off to a flying start but Huw's shows just keep getting better. His unsigned showcases have been the best by miles so far.