Wreckers Gathering

2025 is going to be a year of change and development for the station – several things are moving behind the scenes.

This Thursday, 23rd January, we have a gathering of interested folk to discuss the plans for the year and hopefully get some of you a bit involved in helping.

The gathering is from 19:00 at the Keep Audio Cafe in Broad St, Launceston – that’s the road that leads from the Town Hall to the Square (which of course is triangular as is normal hereabouts) along the castle wall.

If you are at all interested in the future of the station and you live within striking distance then do come along.

If you can’t get there but would like to help then drop us a line at hello@wreckers.radio.

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New Releases for Feb 2025

The growing programme schedule now includes a twice daily (10am and 8pm) half hour selection of tracks from recent or forthcoming new releases by local artists (that is artists from West of the Exe). This month we are featuring new albums by Annown (due out in March) from North Cornwall , a new double EP from Banjovial (volume 1 now on Bandcamp, vol 2 imminent) based in Padstow, pre preview track from a new album Boscastle’s Jon Woode is recording – so a very North Cornwall flavour this month. Plus the Queen of Westcountry Folk – Miranda Sykes has a new album available to pre-order for an April release. You can catch her with Jim Causley touring the area during February and March If you are an artist based in Cornwall or Devon (aka Dunomia, or the Land West the Exe) and you have something new you’d like us to showcase drop a line to hello@wreckers.radio.
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New Wreckers 20 Jan 2025

Some great new music for you this month from artists who have recently played locally and are based or connected West the Exe (ie the land of moors and rugged coasts in the SW corner of the largest British Isle) In alphabetical order: Annown’s new album “The Swing Station” is due out in March and we have a preview in New Releases as well as here. Banjovial’s new double EP is top class music to make you want to get on your feet, with some more mellow tunes in the mix too. Chris While and Julie Matthews’ new album “Days Like These”, two of the top folk artists collaborate with brand new songs Jeff ‘the Horse’ Horsey’s 2015 album “Skeletons” – we just love the track “Rattlesnakes” and have delayed too long getting this now 10 year old gem online. Jon Woode’s latest album “Into the Waves”. Boscastle based songwriter casts a nautical themed spell. His newest song Lamorna’s Lament is also being previewed in New Releases. Miranda Sykes preview of the new album “Out of the Woods”. She played this at Boscastle this weekend with Jon Woode supporting and Phil Beer turned up to join her for some songs. We loved it. You can hear a random selection of tracks from these albums every day from 12:00 to 12:30, and again in the evening from 9:00pm to 9:30.
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Wreckers News 21st December

We have resisted the temptation to put Fairytale of New York in the playlist this week – but you will find a different Pogues album in the New Wreckers section and the general rotation. What we have done to mark the week containing Christmas and ending the year is acquire a copy of the new St Agnes Fountain album as their tour (which included a sell out gig in St.Agnes itself a week ago) draws to an end. We are featuring the entire album “Christmas Starts With … Live” in a new Featured Album slot every day at 10am and 7pm. Its a Cracker for Christmas, not at all your run-of-the-mill Christmas special. If it pulls you in then you can buy yourself a copy here
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The Known Complete Unknown

Just a quick note to highly recommend the new film “A Complete Unknown” which a dramatisation of Bob Dylan’s folk years from ’61 to ’65. As a film it is brilliant; acting, direction, lighting, camera, sound, scene setting are all first class. But as a key to understanding why Dylan was so important, and why he still is, it an outstanding movie.
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Wreckers Gathering

2025 is going to be a year of change and development for the station – several things are moving behind the scenes. This Thursday, 23rd January, we have a gathering of interested folk to discuss the plans for the year and hopefully get some of you a bit involved in helping. The gathering is from 19:00 at the Keep Audio Cafe in Broad St, Launceston – that’s the road that leads from the Town Hall to the Square (which of course is triangular as is normal hereabouts) along the castle wall. If you are at all interested in the future of the station and you live within striking distance then do come along. If you can’t get there but would like to help then drop us a line at hello@wreckers.radio.
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Support Your Local Live Music Club

Here at Wreckers we take a very broad view of what constitutes “folk” music – if it is played by local people (folk means people) locally and/or has a local content then we reckon it is folk music whatever the musical style. The key thing is people coming together to learn and play instruments in a more or less informal environment. Often places where this can happen are called “Folk Clubs”, but don’t let the name put you off.
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FAR 2024 – A View from the Side

One of the benefits of broadcasting a live event is you get to be there for it all, the downside, especially if its the first time you’ve done it with the setup, is that you might spend more time having to fiddle with things and worrying about it than actually enjoying the performances. That was certainly the case for me on Saturday and Sunday, by Monday I had got my act together and could pay more attention. So what follows is a selective personal view rather than a proper job review. Friday The first act failed to turn up so Steve the compere pounced on a young man who happen to have an accordion with him and pulled him from the audience. Very folk community. Sebastian from Rock – never played on a stage before – gave us a couple of tunes to fill, and still no sign of Harry Devereux, so got out a penny whistle and did a couple more. Described himself as “not a musician” but proved to be a competent performer. Finished with more accordion and a big round of applause. (Emma grabbed him for an interview later which you can find in the Podcast section) Next up was Steamrocket, a trio playing a mix of old 60/70s Pop songs and folk on 2 guitars and double bass, unfortunately I was distracted by tech, but what I heard was good. Martha Woods from Lostwithiel played violin with backing by recordings of herself on other instruments and electronics. A good voice and an interesting sound. Would be well worth catching in a club environment. Emma recorded an interview – find it in the podcasts section. King’s Heathens is a duo of blokes with guitars and voices from Birmingham who played a mix of their own songs and trad tunes. Good fun, but again I could only pay attention intermittently Toby Webb is a solo guitarist from Falmouth with his own songs of Cornish life finishing with an adaptation of “What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor” bringing it up to date with Saturday night tales of young Falmouth (or anytown) life. He was followed by something completely different in the 20 man version of Truro Male Voice Choir – doing what male voice choirs do hereabouts. As the afternoon wore on in the sunshine it was time to get up and dance and Bow Creek provided the necessary. Great energy and fine performances from this quartet of bass and acoustic guitars, squeeze box, and fiddle. Bradley the Busker came on next as a solo act with a variety of songs most of which I missed trying to work out why everything seemed distorted (due to a schoolboy error on my part). As afternoon became early evening the Blue Badgers took to the stage – a six piece rollicking folk band provided the perfect finish to an excellent day. Sunday The weather was not so kind on Sunday – grey and a bit windy, which caused some problems with the sound. Also a technical problem with the main stage mixing desk caused me some headaches. First up Glen Chun, who is also the chief steward for the Festival. Solo guitar and fiddle, and clearly a man with musical as well as organisational talents. A good opening set. Glen was followed by a female acapella group The Drecklys. Of a certain age, as were the songs (and me!), but nothing wrong with that. Nice to hear. Next up another solo guitar singer, Joeseph Davis, who I missed as I left Emma minding the shop to get some lunch. JayCee&Bee, an acapella trio, male two female with some good material. And then The Bray Family Band (Dad, son & daughter). The son was pretty good on guitar, banjo, & fiddle. Smokin’ Pilchards are a quartet with a bit of spirit and attitude. Got my feet movin’ a bit. Then Mark Waistel who I mostly missed – a prolific songsmith with a lot of good material. Annown followed and were pretty good, but I was having problems with the balance of the sound feed, They do have lots of good songs al based onCornish themes, unfortunately the recording is flawed technically. Naturally we particularly like their song “Wreckers” with the chorus Hey ho wreckers, get yourselves down to the shore,There’s enough barrels of whisky for a hundred men or more,You can work the mine all day, a penny’s what you’ll get,Or come join the wreckers you’ll be a rich man yet. Finally Du Glas up from Penzance raised the party mood with and energetic theatrical lead singer/mandolin (Lucy Osborne) and some stomping tunes. Got us all dancing. Monday The sun came out again and my tech problems subsided so I was able to enjoy the day. Starred with Tracy V, a strong bluesy folk singer with guitar and harmonizing pedal giving a fuller sound. Annoyingly the recording was marred by a hum loop build up until I switched to a different input. A great shame as she was very good and would be amazing in a club setting.. She was followed by Fable a duo of women with concertina & flute and harp. A lovely sound and good an mellow for a sunny midday set. Steve Flanders, the sound engineerfor the FAR Stage, did a spot revealing another multi-talented member of the CFF Crew. Impressively good guitar and songs from various sources. Luther Clayton was a young man from Tresmeer, Launceston doing mostly his own songs in a quiet but interesting style which is quite his own. Very nice voice. Meand’er was another duo, he played guitar and she mandolin and sang. Finished with an entertaining climate ‘protest’ song – “Hang Your Underpants in the Breeze” River Blue, a male quartet from the Scilly Isles started with a cover of Paul Simon’s “America”, but then did their own material inspired by their island home with some eminently dance-able tunes which started to get the audience moving. Nicole Tesseyman gave us a […]
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Welcome to Wreckers Radio!

Wreckers Radio was borne out of Cornwall Folk Radio (CFR) in early 2024. A small group of dedicated volunteers came together to ensure that the legacy of CFR could continue, and started to think about ways in which it could grow and develop.
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