You’ve no idea how hard it is finding stupid DJ-related images… this is of course Dj Boba Fettucin, natch.

Right then, here’s another free download for your preferred MP3 listening device for you to enjoy. Please download and comment on my faceyb page if you’d be so kind.
I enjoyed this a lot. Bit of prep goes a long way, just having a little list of stuff to talk about and all that really helps a lot. If you downloaded my last stint on here, you know the kind thing to expect. Very urban. It’s what I do.
Whilst the last one was mostly upfront with lots of pre-release tracks, this one is more commercial; you’ll recognise more of the music.

I played some of my recordings in the office last week, but that’s something for me to talk about another time.

In this download then, I mention Kerplunk and Buckaroo!, name drop workmates Elaine and Sam(antha) and play Sam a tune, I rave about Nicki Minaj as per usual, and there’s the obligatory mention of zombies; all neatly wrapped up around tons of good music.

Ace.

DOWNLOAD – Another Friday night, more free music

Or play it right here:

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Huzzah! Man I’ve not updated this site in a frickin age.
Well the wait is over, got three posts coming up.

For this one, 2 hours of laid back, upfront, kick ass music. Not much talking, I let the tracks do the hard work. I keep it urban for the duration, and on the most part stick to the CD players as per usual.

I felt good on the mic, I’m really at home in the studio now and sticking to the essential basics: remember station promos, forward promote upcoming shows, and plug the station number.
I engage my brain more now, there’s a little prep, and I know what I’m doing rather than totally winging it like I’m in a club; I can’t do that in the studio because there isn’t 750+ people in front of me to feed off.

DOWNLOAD – Friday Laid Back Up Front

Play it right here:

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I’ve had to do some editing of this one! But you can download it now and give yourself almost 2 glorious hours of random chat and music:

Anyways, I’m not saying it was rubbish this night, far from it. It was good music (natch), the phone rang and there was an instant-ish request, there was a bit of Christmas music and I had Ben Rutter as a special guest co-pilot which is always good fun.
I just think my head was in a different place and I struggled. I lost my train of thought as I was speaking a few times which is just insane, words came out of my mouth that were completely different to what I said in my head (saying “General” instead of “Glenfield” for instance and having no idea I said it wrong at the time) and other vocal mannerisms that were down to not engaging my brain enough as I was speaking which I just loathed and I knew I’d done it after the fact.

Frame of mind is definitely everything, and I my mind wasn’t quite focused on where I was. No explanation, it just wasn’t. It’s happened before doing the clubs where it’s like I’ve just gone through the motions. The fact I ended up doing 3 dance tracks back to back mixing on the CD decks during the show just shows my brain wasn’t where it was meant to be – although I proved I can mix live using the radio kit (even if the 3rd one slipped a little, oops), which I could make a little feature of perhaps since I never miss a beat.
The difference with frame of mind in radio is that it shows more than working the clubs, because I can just put my headphones on in the club and flawlessly hit every beat and nobody knows my mood (I miss that, with life in general too, because I was the shadow man).

In radio, it’s much harder to disguise frame of mind because I’m speaking more. It probably doesn’t show as much to anyone else as it does to me, if it shows at all to be honest. But it’s the perfectionist in me and I’ll beat myself up over something that goes wrong until I get another chance and completely nail it. It’s music, and if I’m not awesome at that it feels pretty rubbish.

Although a couple of points of note I’d do well to remember:

• I’ve done just 3 shows running it myself, so it’s bound not to be perfect or even close to it.
• Friday’s show, although a little bit rough around the edges, sounds just fine I’m sure and I’m being WAY too harsh on myself.
• Slow down and engage my brain a bit more.
• Winging it works in pretty much everything I do in life, certainly did in the clubs because you feed off the crowd. In radio, not so much, and just a little more prep will go a long way.
• Once I’ve done it more and settled down and get my timings nailed with some decent features, it’ll come together and it will all be second nature. I’m miles away from that as yet, so should relax about not being perfect.

6.5/10…?

DOWNLOAD – Friday 10th December

Play it right here:

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My second Friday night with my own show I was a bit apprehensive of I must admit.
My first show the previous week I had Ben to bounce of and it was a hole load of fun but he pointed his fingers at buttons a few times which I really needed (leaving the news feed on for instance so it was bleeping at me).

Tonight though I did what I know best and unleashed the music to settle in. The first hour 10pm-11pm I went with dance from the last decade. I had it in my head some of the things I wanted to mention between the music and did do: X-Factor, Strictly Come Dancing being the obvious choices. They’re easy targets of conversation; seemingly everyone has an opinion on them, certainly when you’re in hospital and not doing much but watch trash TV.

The second hour 11pm-12am I smoothed it out with R&B, and that’s where I was right at home with the music.
This is the hour you can download below. Lots of R&B, some old-school garage, some brand new music that’s not yet available and also revelled in new British artists.

What I need to remember/do for next time I’m flying solo:

• Double check the computer clock from the news and make sure it’s set to real time not countdown so I don’t completely crash the news in/news out like I did at 10pm.
• If my style is turning off the autoplay when I bring up the fader, make sure I turn the channel on otherwise I’ll be greeting with silence when I hit play even if the fader is up. Muppet.
• Working the clubs I used to talk in my head what I was going to say ahead of saying it. I need to do that more.
• I’M NOT DJING A NIGHTCLUB.

DOWNLOAD – Friday Night 02: 2nd hour

Play it here:

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First one then! I’m on the printed studio schedule now and everything so it’s official.

I turned up a bit early to make sure I knew the right settings to record to minidisc for transferring to my mac. I also wanted to have a quick look through the playout system and see what I wanted to play.
I was still none the wiser when I put my headphones on so just winged it.

It was quite nice that Ben turned up, who I co-hosted on the Brunchbox show a few weeks previously. I didn’t fancy being in that scary building on my own on my first day and we get on awesome so it was really cool having him there. He stayed the duration and we had a laugh!

I always do a sound check with my mic and it sounds fine in my headphones, EQs all fine on the board. Then I record it and play it back and every now and then it distorts. Really weird. Clearly I’m getting too close to the mic even though I’m getting better with that now. I need to move it further away and learn the equipment more. It’s just in my headphones the further away I put it, the more distant it sounds.

You can download the first Friday show below and have a listen. If you like 90′s dance, you’ll like this. Otherwise you’ll hate it. But Ben and I have a laugh, I name drop work colleagues, talk about zombies, I get rubbish on the phone system and Ben goes down to the basement.

DOWNLOAD – Friday Night 01

Things I need to do/remember:

• Slow down at times
• Remember my proximity to the mic
• Get slicker on the phone system
• Get quicker playing requests when they ring in (although having a broken CD deck didn’t help this night)
• I’m not working a nightclub

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I got put on the air 7pm – 8pm tonight. It was my final test if you like before unleashing me on my own show.
It’s the specialist hour during that time so I went for it with alt music. I went for it.

In terms of the music, I kicked ass, but then I would. I know my stuff.
It’s weird not holding the microphone and not shouting out to people to “Put your hands in the air!” or “Make some nooooooise!” It’s not an easy task at all in fact to just speak, and speak about things that are worth listening to. The feedback I had on that was not to say things like how tasty food is, because in a hospital some patients who are listening are probably nil-by-mouth and would love something to eat. Didn’t think of that! And the usual club DJ patter of “Hey how you doin’?” stuff is no good, because again they’re in hospital so they’re doing pretty crap.

My plugs and forward promotion of shows was great so that was good to know, and I was enjoyable to listen to and have a great manner for commercial radio which is a huge compliment coming from the chap training me because he sounds great. His background as well makes his opinion hugely important to me so I’ve loved his feedback and guidance in training me.

I need to de-nightclub myself to a degree and just slow down. I’m used to banging out track after track with no pauses and everything needs to be slick and work together. In radio that’s not necessary, certainly not hospital radio. Think of my audience, slow down, and be easy to listen to. It was suggested I try sitting down to aid those things which I’ll give a try. It just feels wrong being in front of a mixer with headphones round my neck and not standing up!

Until I figure out some kind of streaming solution, I’ve put the raw, unedited final training session online on the link below. If you like indy and rock music, you ought to find something in here to enjoy.
In years to come, I hope I can come back to this and cringe and realise how far I’ve come. Mind you, it makes me cringe now…

DOWNLOAD – Wednesday First Live Show – Final Training session

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I’ll be recording my Friday night radio show on to the studio minidisc recorder. That’s fine, so I thought, as I’ve stolen my kid brothers portable minidisc player to transfer to my mac with ease.

But no. The minidisc player is so old the only way I’d be able to transfer to my mac is record it in real time: press play on the minidisc, record it for 2 hours whilst it played, then stop it. Not exactly practical.

So I’m starting the search for a dirt-cheap minidisc player, preferably the portable kind, with either USB or Firewire support, that is mac-compatible. Any ideas? Mail me!

Ok it’s boring code-geek stuff, but I discovered yesterday that this site looked stupid for users of Internet Explorer. A lot of you then.
It should now be fixed. Hooray!

I’ve also linked up this site to Twitter and Facebook so whenever I do a page like this it automatically tells everyone. Very clever and hopefully not in the least bit annoying. But it’ll be worth looking at, especially when I’m famous (?)
I can see how many clicks I get too, so I either clap excitedly that so many of you came to look, or cry that nobody cares. That wouldn’t be nice.

I’m still slowly putting this site together so stuff might keep changing.

I asked the whole internet for name suggestions for my forthcoming Friday night radio gig, and here’s a list so far generated by those weird internet people:

• Rohypnol Radio
• Sensual Lee Friday
• R & Lee
• Let’s get high (Crack smoking with Adam)
• Smooth Lee Does It
• Let Lee entertain you
• Adam Lee’s RnB
• Adam Lee after dark
• Knowing R Knowing B with Adam Lee
• Sit on my knee with Adam Lee
• Rhythm & Blues, news and frequent trips to the loos. With Adam Lee
• The Blue Zone
• Thank god, it’s own-lee (only, geddit) friday night. For the next two hours I’m all yours.
• You can’t see: Adam Lee (because its radio)
• Up to your tits in R & B
• Lonely friday nights in alone with Adam Lee
• The Adam Lee show. Where R & B stand for Raucous and BAD ASS
• Adam Lee touches you, with music
• The Midnight Run
• I Don’t Adam And Believe It Show

Thanks everyone…

My name is Adam Lee. It’s Friday night 10pm – 12am. I’ll be playing everything that fits an R&B label. There’ll be new stuff, but it’ll be the likes of early Usher, Donnel Jones, B2K, Blackstreet, and the older stuff like Marvin Gaye, Alexandar O’Neal, Chaka Khan etc. The more laid back, smoother stuff will be played; it’s late night, so it’s like a chilled out slowjams session I’m going for.

So what do I call the show?

My typographic head is on with this and I’m in branding mode. It’s the way I roll.
If you’re reading this and have ideas, mail me!