♪♫ From the depths of megaspace came the Starship Overflow

All to save the human race from the horrors on the radio

And he said "Hello, Planet Earth, we have come to set you free."

And he said "Take me to your leader, I am Captain Garry Lee!" ♫♪

And what better way to start an update feature on the skipper than with the old "Freedom Overflow" theme tune we did for them back in 1992, wondrously remastered for the digital era by those groovy folks at Klappstuhl Records for the 2015 'best of' MMATT album, "Flashbax Ω Ultimate" (SP 008). The Overflow, nowadays promoted from a free drainpipe pirate radical to a fully fledged digital Starship, has been a great supporter of M&E and MMATT for many moons now. The UWU Collection was no exception, though my promo pack confused the living fuck out of Garry, as it did out of many others. He's old school, he likes vinyl, he likes cassettes, I respect that. He's no Luddite, he's perfectly okay with CD's. But he draws the line at incredibly confusing data discs with mp3's on that are only named by country and not artist or title and not listed on the inlay. I'm just a guy who's intentions were good, but oh lord, did I make myself misunderstood. In my defence, I thought no reviewer or DJ in their right mind would want to listen through an entire 33 hour collection to find the best bits for their purposes, so I created a nice little promo pack for them... and baffled everyone and their dog to the point of madness. I stood in the corner with the pointy hat on for a day, thought about the evil of my ways, and threw myself at his mercy. He made me do a special sampler compilation just for him. I took my punishment like a man, I deserved it. Personally, I thought I deserved a damned good spanking too, but surprisingly, Garry wasn't up for that. And even after that, I didn't keep an eye on the playlists as much as I should have. Slack Magic they'll be calling me. Anyway, at the very least, he gave a good bit of airplay to The Witches, Space Invaders, Sons Of Selina and The Flowers Of Romance, for which he has my undying gratitude. There was undoubtedly more, but I seem to have lost three months somewhere. If you should see it on your travels, kindly pop it a jiffy bag and mail it back to me, I'll refund your postage. Thanks.

These days, Garry's shows don't just reach the outskirts of Colchester via FM radio, they span the world via that great bastion of information and funny kitten pictures that is the internet. Now going out on River Gibbs, Radio Sylvia and Radio Seagull, (and, rumour has it, on a few pirate stations too, sshhh, Garry doesn't know a thing about it!), where each show gets plenty of re-runs. Oh yeah, there's another show apart from the Overflow ones (new releases and archives) now too; The Stonehenge Disco (and you thought they built it for astronomical reasons)! Garry describes  it  as "past,   present  and  future  tunes  from  the  underground

festival scene, spanning six decades of music." All of which, sadly, I've lived through. On the bright side, I do get free prescriptions now. But I digress, which is most unlike me. Full details of all programming is on their main website under the 'listen to the Overflow' link on the sidebar.

LINKS:

http://www.starshipoverflow.com

http://www.rivergibbsfm.com

http://radioseagull.com

https://www.radiosylvia.de

NB: BANDS - SUBMISSION POLICY...

The Captain tells me he gets quite literally overrun with bands offering him digital downloads, so much so, that he doesn't even have the time to listen to them all. As I said, Garry is old school, his shows are made in a proper studio; records decks, CD players, stuff like that. So, he begs, if you are interested in sending material in to be considered for airplay, please take a couple of minutes to at least burn a CDR and simplify his life. He thanks you. Oh, the address is on the website, of course.

* * *   F R E E   D O W N L O A D   * * *

On April 1st 1992, those wacky mad-heads at Freedom Overflow decided to play a little April Fool's stunt on the unsuspecting folk of Colchester, going on the air for a whole night as Mmattland Community Radio FM. Perhaps foolishly, Garry sent me a C90 of a part they had managed to record while relatively conscious, "Just for you, Mick," he said, "whatever you do, don't release it!" As if I would (MMATT 35, July '92). Nowadays, he lives in dread of my re-releasing it, oh come on, is that the kind of thing I would be likely to do? I mean, who would be interested in knowing whether it was he (as Scrotum The Wrinkled Retainer) or The Black Widow (as Mrs. E) that passed out first and at what ungodly hour of the morning it happened? Nobody, obviously, all that silliness was a very long time ago, water under the bridge. Why, I rather doubt that anybody at all will click on the cover image below and download the free album...

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