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‘BRING ON THE BACON!’
By Tom Jenkins
Jack bacon is obsessed with music. The kind of music that makes synapses fire and hearts sing celestial notes. The 30yr old, originally from Cornwall but now based in Kentish Town, North London, is the man behind ‘Tuckshop Community Radio’: a weekly podcast designed to give an airing to those records ‘which may not get heard by many people, though they deserve to be’; a potent mix of psycho-punk, sunny pop and enchanting folk weirdness.
Tuckshop started life back in 2007 as a way of directing traffic to the site of a failing street-wear company: ‘I’d been searching MySpace for bands that might fancy wearing some merchandise’ says Jack. ‘The idea was to play unsigned punk and have a weekly show played through the site. However, I kept coming across this rich, varied music so I started playing everything’. He remembers being ‘astonished’ at how bad those early shows sounded, but as people started to listen and contact him with messages of support he became increasingly inspired to search out new music. ‘It really opened my eyes’, he tells me. ‘I was amazed at the wealth of music that could be found’.
Back to the present day, and Jack admits he has created his ‘own little world’ around Tuckshop. Described as ‘the new Radio 1’, responsible for keeping ‘the spirit of independent music alive’, it’s very much a one-man operation-as is the accompanying blog. Each hour-long show has a small, but devoted, following, with listeners from as far afield as Brazil and California. Does he feel Tuckshop and its ilk have an important role to play? ‘With the Internet and the rise of podcasts, people can now choose what they want to listen to and when’ he says. ‘If the medium can grow, then hopefully good, unsigned, music can be promoted honestly.’
Interestingly, Jack doesn’t listen to other podcasts, a combination of being extremely busy with Tuckshop and wanting to stick with his own intuition, so what inspires him? ‘Over the years I’ve come across so many creative people, all doing different things, that I’m inspired on an almost daily basis. The more people that contact me the more great music I hear and need to get out to our listeners’. What about in the early days? Was there a template? ‘When I first started I never came across anyone else, although I do believe there are others out there, in fact, I imagine there must be loads’.
A quick search of Google suggests otherwise, but feel free to correct me. Radio as a medium is now more popular than ever. According to recent figures released by Rajar, over 90% of people in Britain aged 15 or over tune in every week. This resurgence is due, in part, to the industry’s ability to adapt to the rapidly changing technological climate, having weathered the more serious threat posed by the arrival of T.V. in the 1950’s. While one in three people now listen to a digital radio, and those listening online and via mobiles is on the increase, Jack still has a soft spot for traditional tuner twiddling (no knob jokes I’m afraid); though he recognizes the advantages the Internet has to offer:
‘I think there is still something magical about picking up music through the Wireless. I love the fact that in London every click on a tuner brings you to a different pirate station. Having said that, the Internet will no doubt have a large part to play in the future. If it didn’t exist, Tuckshop wouldn’t have happened and I never would have come across all these wonderful bands’.
A number of artists featured on Tuckshop have begun to make inroads into reaching a wider audience. Both ‘Melodica, Melody and Me’ and ‘The Hornblower Brothers’ have recently recorded sessions for 6 Music (for Tom Robinson and Marc Reilly respectively). Huw from ‘Melodica…’ feels the early exposure they received on Tuckshop was invaluable: ‘We’d only just started getting our act together and playing gigs when Jack got in touch and said he’d been playing us on his podcast. I remember feeling chuffed that somebody we’d never met liked our music enough to want to present it to the public. It was really encouraging’.
So what’s next for Tuckshop? ‘I’ve no idea!’ says Jack. ‘It’s always moving in a new direction! However, I have a new night starting at the Hideaway in Tufnell Park called ‘Ditch the drums’, which should be a nice and intimate way to showcase some of the artists I’ve been playing on Tuckshop. We’ve also started to film bands in my living room, with a pretty good team of individuals who are working hard for the cause. I’d love to take them (the filming team) to far-flung places such as L.A., to record sessions with some of the bands I’ve got to know. We could tour the west coast in an ice cream van, putting on free gigs!’
We say go for it, Jack.
And Tuckshop Says Cheers Tom!
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