When in doubt it’s always nice to channel The Zigmeister General. We are indeed, like most of you, currently out of action and not an awful lot we can do but be blue. No need to say why, we’re all aware of what we are now fighting, and previous gung ho messages have been revised, reviewed and binned like soiled tissues. This an’t the time for rock n roll tood based bravado. Perhaps that header above should read ‘Oooh Look At You Rock N Rollers’… Anyway, I’m sure we all need great music to keep us going right now from Bowie to Beefheart, Bob Dylan to Buzzcocks, if music be the food of love, kick it.

Whilst most of us are indeed out of action and find ourselves knocking around the flat trying to find ways to keep busy, please appreciate at this time the emergency services and other key workers, especially those fighting for people’s lives in the NHS. Support them however you can, if only by following the health guidelines. No beach parties with the Best Of Kajagoogoo on repeat play please. Actually that could be an invaluable service to clear public spaces so go for it.

Click on the kickass kicking her heels cute as a boot in the Dublin Castle sainted Amy to access the Bugbear radio archive on Mixcloud. Eight years plus of radio shows, some a bit brilliant, some erring on awful, many bewilderingly whack, but all prefacing a love for music, culture and good times we hope Bugbear has always represented. That’s always been the aim, holding a mirror up to the zeitgeist. Well, doing anything too intimate with a mirror right now is highly dubious so make do with wrapping your ears around recorded music and chat. New shows on the way soon.

In World War II radio came into it’s own, keeping people informed, educated and entertained through just one platform, the BBC. Now, faced as we are with the single biggest crisis since that terrible conflict, we can feel beleaguered by myriad noise from a million channels: TV, radio, social media, messaging, information, misinformation, fake news, false witnesses, faux art, a multitude of logarithm based mixed messages.

With so much competing mind pollution it’s vital to log into your own communities, your own tribes, especially when we are being forced into existing as isolated disparate creatures afraid of our own shadows. The likes of Soho Radio and Boogaloo Radio not only provide that service, but are an exemplars of it. The finest taste makers and scene setters from right across the London music scene and beyond broadcast from internet community radio. So keep in touch with your scene, keep tabs on your culture and breathe new life into it by logging on and listening in to your favourite shows and presenters keeping the culture alive.

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