Radio Nights

Radio Nights is a documentary film by artist David Blandy and young people from The Avenues Youth Project in Queen's Park, London.

It investigates the invisible world of the listeners and broadcasters of West London's rich radio culture, from late night call-ins to underground MCs tussling for airwaves, from the pirate innovators of the 1980s to the Grime stars of the future. It uses the West London Trellick Tower as a visual metaphor for the invisible connections created between people by radio.

The film was developed over 15 weeks from November 2004 to March 2005 and the project evolved from David Blandy and The Avenues' previous collaboration with Artangel: Backslang. Many of the young people who helped to make the film Ya Get Me? for Backslang went on to work on Radio Nights. The full documentary features interviews with a wide spectrum of pirate radio boradcasters and listeners, with contributions from Trevor Nelson, Sweetie Irie and Jazzie B amongst many others.

Radio Nights formed part of Artangel Interaction’s Nights of London series of artist-led collaborations with people who have a special view on a hidden side of the nocturnal city. The film was premiered at The Gate Cinema, London Thursday 14th April 2005 and has since been screened at Cube Cinema, Bristol.

This excerpt from Radio Nights can also be wacthed on Vimeo and Youtube.

Image: Still of Aceson— a pirate radio listener— speaking to Radio 4 listener Neil, taken from David Blandy's Radio Nights (2005).

Nights of London

Running for just over a year, Nights of London was a thread of projects exploring the nocturnal life of the city. It ran through cinemas and galleries, was hosted on websites, burned onto CDs, written into letters, performed in nightclubs and broadcast via radio channels, before concluding in an old East End town hall that – for one night only – was filled with bat experts, musicians, cabaret artists and paranormal researchers. We heard stories from the unorthodox side of nightfall. We learned about ways of life that, despite their physical proximity, are all but invisible to most of us, most of the time.

Nights of London projects include:

Night Haunts

Nick Silver Can't Sleep

NightJam

When Night Draws in

To the Man in My Dreams

Radio Nights

Images: (above) David Blandy at Iaspis; (left) David Blandy and associates at BBC Radio 1Xtra. 

Credits

Artangel is generously supported by Arts Council England, and by the private patronage of The Artangel International Circle, Special Angels, Guardian Angels and The Company of Angels.

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