Alan Raw: A Man of Many Talents By Michelle Dee

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Most readers of this site will know that Alan Raw is a music radio presenter championing unsigned artists. Through his show Raw Talent - broadcast on local radio - he has, for the past three years, been doing just that. By using his extensive knowledge of local bands through his position of festival organiser he was a good candidate for the BBC to approach to present such a show. I started off by asking him how he felt tonight's show went.

He appeared pleased if not slightly relieved by the fact they had got through it. Tonight's broadcast of Raw Talent was full of incident and due to changes in timing procedures and unforeseen circumstance (the band were held up in traffic) there were, from time to time a lot of anxious faces. Alan explained to me how the show is aired to the rest of the region simultaneously through Radio Sheffield, Leeds, York and Humberside.

I was interested to find out whether Alan had an idea of who was listening on a Thursday night. It appears that to begin with the show's main listener-ship were local musicians like Alan. He stated that they were playing Hull music to Hull people. If the show hadn't developed it would have become stale and insular. To avoid this fate a decision was made to expand the show to include the other local regions.

Now Alan had much more scope and began to dissolve the invisible line that separates our region from the likes of Leeds and Sheffield. The audience grew to include music producers and promoters. Owners of live music venues began contacting the show wanting to advertise their gigs and booking agents desperate to secure dates with artists that had featured on Raw Talent.

The show also took a leap of faith and technology when it began to be streamed live through the Internet. So it is possible to listen to your local pub favourites wherever you may be on the globe.

The thing that makes this show unique is that the music is played at the actual time you hear it, none of this pre-programmed stuff being splurged out of a computer in an empty room. Live means live; whether it is an artist playing inside studio 2; a band playing in the performance space or Alan physically playing the CD ,vinyl records can also be played if bands bring in that fast disappearing format.

Problems both technical and man-made have to be overcome by the dedicated team working behind the scenes. One of the things Alan loves about the show is the fantastic state of the art equipment at the new Queens Court site. The other is working with such a knowledgeable and easy-going team.

Listeners will hear Dave Reeves, the co-presenter of Raw Talent, coming into the studio to share news, messages and gig dates with the masses. His job as communicator to Alan: using strange hand gestures, and John Anguish and the other sound engineers who work in Studio1, is absolutely vital.

The ever-serene Katy Noone produces the show; swanlike she oversees tonight's guests in and out of studios and the building itself. It is a pleasure to observe the way she quietly and calmly ensures everything runs smoothly, troubleshooting the problems that can occur from time to time.

Like when, as with tonight's show, Alan goes off air momentarily. But as well as hosting a groundbreaking unique radio show, he has a lot of other interests that help make up the tapestry of his life. It seems that Alan was always destined to follow a career into the music industry; both his parents and grandparents were musicians. His parent's had a band that needed a drummer and Alan became the youngest member of the Raw family band. I've been a drummer since I was old enough to hit things with my hands.

Alan was introduced to the public and propelled into the limelight touring all over the country playing gigs.

He recalls playing at the City Hall in Hull to hundreds of people at the tender age of twelve. He was seen as something of a novelty, a child playing in an adult band must have been quite a draw for the crowds. He became very good at drumming, busking with his father at festivals. He got more money if I was with him, says Alan.

Later on he played in different bands and supplemented his income doing session work. At this time he was playing with rock bands that he really admired. Clearly this was a fun time in his life he talks fondly of playing reggae festivals with Benjamin Zephaniah and recording an album with him. Alan gigged around with Benjamin playing Glastonbury, Ring rock and lots more shows, touring right around Europe. He began to appreciate live music more when he could understand the technicalities and sheer brilliance of what his fellow musicians were doing.

In particular Slovenia just after the war, he remembers doing a huge concert where he sat at the back of the stage playing drums without even thinking about it completely awestruck with Benjamin Zephaniah. He was at the front of the stage singing Vampire at the time; the audience, who had mainly come to see them, absolutely loved every moment.

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