Voyage to Venus. Musical Drama. William Anderson interviews the only known tribute band to Venus Carmichael, a Scottish singer who moved to LA to join the singer/songwriter scene in the early Seventies. Where is she now? And who is the mysterious friend of hers who keeps supplying them with new songs?

Voyage To Venus + Credits

Terror at the YMCA
Sordid Synopsis
Raymond Groborz and Iain Davidson take us on a surreal and metaphysical odyssey of epic proportions; as we journey through their unfathomably twisted and disturbed psyches.  Set against a background of a community radio broadcast at Kirkcaldy’s YMCA, a lumbering pedestrian plot soon takes a sharp turn, as serine calm makes way for imminent invasion - as a breakaway group of Victorian Gents with a Jihadist leanings storm Kirkcaldy: All the while, Aliens with Sadomasochistic tendencies, not to mention short tempers and scant regard for KDY’s  denizens are plotting earths downfall (due to being short-changed at Ann-Summers), armed with vaporising beams, KDY ostensibly seems like an easy target, however looks can be deceiving as the walls of perpetuation are challenged to the full! 

An ensemble cast represent the rambunctious locals, eccentric scientists and Alien Abductions of the Hip-Hop kind…

As Hunter S. Thomson once said “buy the ticket…take the ride…”

As Oliver Postgate once said…” They're surreal but logical. I have a strong prejudice against fantasy for its own sake. Once one gets to a point beyond where cause and effect mean anything at all, then science fiction becomes science nonsense. Everything that happened was strictly logical according to the laws of physics which happened to apply in that part of the world.”

Flabbergasting Reactions
Taking their cue from the likes of The Goons, Monty Python and the League of Gentleman; they also cite Song of Praise as major albeit absurd influence on their work – Their derivative work is sure 1to see Spike Milligan spinning in his grave and leave John Cleese spinning on his axel, they have desecrated the hollowed vision of surrealism and absurdist.  
Salvador Dali & Harry Secombe: through the Medium of a Medium!

This Podcast was reminiscent of my fist sexual experience…it left me unable to sit-down for a week after, left me traumatized and unwilling to try new things.
Liam Doyle’s disturbed Freudian musings

This Podcast is an aberration; I feel violated, dirty and defiled…yet strangely intrigued!
Moral Guardian from a bygone age

This Podcast brought moisture to my nether-regions (Durex are currently considering marketing ‘Terror at the YM’ as a natural lubricant)
DJ Scuba, concerned and aroused listener

Messrs Davidson and Groborz outstanding opus, is surely comparable to the dramatic greats and renowned playwrights of the 20th & 21st Century - War of the Worlds with the benefit of hindsight; now seems like an illegitimate, distant malnourished cousin who’s been abandoned in a wake ignominy; ‘Terror at the YMCA’ has swept away the cobwebs of austerity in the stilted stuffy-dramatic landscape as the Tsunami sized waves of reform still sweep through the hinterland of creative cabals.  D&G will now surely scale the pantheon of dramatic greats, usurping the likes of Sartre, Brect and Orwell in their wake, leaving them emasculated and marooned on sea of despair due to their embarrassingly inferior prose.
Pretentious Summing up: – Radio Producer Harky!


“From the ethereal dwelling of creativity comes a new born messiah. They ride the celestial sphere of inspiration like the stolen wheelchair of a strippers’ breast smothered Stephen Hawkins.”
Anonymous 


Terror at the YMCA - By Raymond Grobarz; Blumbo and CBAL Radio Crew

Iain Banks, may have been a highly regarded man of letters, lauded by his peers and garnering world-renowned acclaim in literary circles and with the public at large; but out-with his literary calling, he was also known for having a heart as big as his talent and a social and political conscience forged in Fife, which was a huge facet of the Authors life and outlook on the world (see the well documented passport Incident, in the wake of the Blair' spearheaded Iraq War)!

I'm uploading this short interview in the wake of his altogether too short, battle with Cancer which Iain unfortunately lost on Sunday the 10th of June 2013; he faced it with dignity and a dry gallows humour that pervaded his work, his personality and his deeds.  His books were known to transcend traditional genre's and easy categorisation, with his first published book 'The Wasp Factory' making several literary top-100 lists of the Last Century, and as an Author he also reached the upper reaches of such lists; while 'The Crow Road' and Complicity' reached a wider audience on the back of television and film adaptations.

On the Evening of the 23rd of June 2010, I had the privilege of attending the ’Celebrating Fife's Local Heroes' event at Rothes Halls, Glenrothes - in which Iain Banks discussed his career, writing secrets, taking numerous questions from his fans, and read extracts from his new book 'Transition' which bridged the gap between his Sci-Fi oeuvre and his more traditional (relatively) novels.

I grabbed an all too short word with the man, before he was ushered on stage: in which his discussed the way his work has been perceived over, how he saw himself first and foremost as a Science Fiction writer and fell into more mainstream fiction, and his ties and links to the Kingdom of Fife, no to mention his dalliance with classical music composition and soundtrack to Espedair Street.

The Interview is book-ended with a foreword about the even from Yvonne Melville  (Adult Services Co-Coordinator for Fife Council Libraries & Museums), who was instrumental in arranging proceedings; and local published Author and Poet, Andrew Ferguson, who outlines the response and love he received from his local-fans.

R.I.P. - Iain Banks (16/02/54 – 09/06/13)

Iain Banks - Local Hero - Interview (23/06/10)

Don't use Soundcloud all that much, migrated to mixcloud; might upload some podcasts here at somepoint...

Harknessian