Introducing ... Rob Champion

"It’s been quite an amazing discovery seeing what comes out of the woodwork"

Tune into BBC Radio Gloucestershire on Saturday evenings to catch the biggest local acts from our under-the-radar scene. The show, hosted by Cheltenham raised Rob Champion, presents a platform for artists to flourish and gives locals a peek into the counties largely unnoticed music culture.

How important do you think it is for local bands to be heard on the radio?

“There is very little else to give people a platform out here, other than going outside the area, Bristol, Birmingham, London. You can do the Gloucestershire venues, of which there are some great venues but it’s only a handful. Primarily we have Cheltenham and Gloucester, a bit of Stroud, a bit of Cirencester, and Tewksbury, but mainly it’s a rural county where there’s not a massive urban population. Having a  radio show here that looks at the whole county’s music just makes things seem a bit bigger.”

Does the show make a big difference to bands entering, or already in the music scene?

“I’m not doing any magic, all I’m doing is getting bands to listen to each other really, everyone tunes in to listen to themselves and they might hear something else they like. It’s all about the feeling of community and linking people together. Hopefully this will be a good kick for the scene in Gloscestershire because it gets people talking.” 

 

“Sometimes it’s easy to feel like there’s not much of a scene, it’s just about getting people involved”

Have you discovered anyone who has really caught your ears, that you’ve played on the show?

“As soon as I heard Lounge Fly’s CD I got very excited, there’s been some good stuff in the last few weeks, I played a track by Tom Browning I really enjoyed; we’ve had the Ventura Project, that got a really big reaction by people phoning in. I think there’s been more experimental stuff, recently, there was quite a rough electronic, but chilled track by Audio Cocaine that was right up my street.”

How has the reaction been to Introducing in Gloucestershire?

“I have had some fantastic support from Andrew Lansley from the uni and Glos music forum, and George Morey as well, Owen Adams over in the forest, Dean Hill from Exposure, there are loads of people who have started to see this great thing happen and have jumped in to help. People are writing in and saying it’s a excellent show. And what’s better of course is to feel like people might be getting new followers and a wider audience for their music."