Mondo Bizarre Magazine Amazing Sounds & Other Delights, Radio Show, Raquel Pinheiro, YéYé Radio

Amazing Songs & Other Delights #96 – The We’re Still In Spring edition by Raquel Pinheiro on Yé Yé Radio Monday 18th and 25th

Saint Sappho

My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights #96 – The We’re Still In Spring edition is broadcasted Monday 18th and 25th May, 3-4pm (London time) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com to (or on the app).

There’s seventeen songs of different genres and time periods. By new bands and longs established ones. Some of the songs aren’t an obvious Spring choice, but they make sense to me in springtime.

The programme goes from a Spring song for children, The Kiboomers – Ladybugs Fly, to fado with Rita Braga’s tropical interpretation of Amália Rodrigues and Don Byas’ Rua do Capelão.

There’s space for indie songs, Again and Again and Again by Silly Boy Blue, Sun It Rises by Fleet Floxes, Stranger Baby by Gifthorse or Whole Again by Saint Sappho. Along Schubert’s Frühlingsglaube sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Test Department with the South Wales Striking Miners Choir singing Take Me Home.

The heavy weights contingent includes  Taylor Swift, The Beatles, The Avett Brothers, and The Kinks.

And that’s not all.

Tracklist:
01: The Kiboomers – Ladybugs Fly
02: Taylor Swift – invisible string
03: The Kind Hills – Dance, Dance, Dance
04: Silly Boy Blue – Again and Again and Again
05: Saint Etienne – Who Do You Think You Are
06: Belle & Sebastian – Seeing Other People
07: The Beach Boys – Spring Vacation
08: Fleet Floxes – Sun It Rises
09: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings
Schubert’s Frühlingsglaube, D. 686
10: Gifthorse – Stranger Baby
11: The Beatles – Octopus Garden (Remastered 2009)
12: Dean & Britta – Eyes In My Smoke
13: The Avett Brothers – A Fathers First Spring
14: Saint Sappho – Whole Again
15: Test Department with the South Wales Striking Miners Choir – Take Me Home
16: The Kinks – Sunny Afternoon
17: Rita Braga – Rua do Capelão

All previous shows on mixcloud:
Yé Yé Radio mixcloud|
Mondo Bizarre Magazine mixcloud

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Men Often Keep Returning to Places That No Longer Make Sense to Other People at The Listening Room HQ

The Cobbler – Scottish Images & Art Prints

Men Often Keep Returning to Places That No Longer Make Sense to Other People, my new post at The Listening Room HQ my men’s practice and The Polymat sister site – speaks of workshops, garages, allotments, and other familiar places that continue giving men rhythm, continuity, competence, and human anchoring long after practical or financial logic begins to fade. It can be read on The Listening Room HQ site.

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Entries, The Listening Room HQ

Why Sessions at The Listening Room HQ Matter

Flora Bowley – I Will Stand By You

Why Sessions at The Listening Room HQ Matter. Reading can open a door, but insight needs a place to live. The Listening Room HQ – my men’s practice – sessions offer men a rare space to speak freely and discover clarity through deep, attentive listening. You can book a session at: https://www.thelisteningroomhq.com/p/sessions.html

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concert Reviews, Concerts

Rita Braga,  Radioclube  Agramonte, Porto, 14.05.2026.

© Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Vítor Neves

words: António Carvalho (edited by Raquel Pinheiro)
photos: Vítor Neves

Rita Braga says that, despite living in Porto since 2011, she doesn’t play often in her adopted city. She has traveled physically and musically to many corners of the world, but her latest album, Fado Tropical which she presented live at Rádio Clube de Agramonte is her first album entirely sung in Portuguese.

In the small spaces between songs, Rita explained its concept to the audience. She went back to the history and origins of fado, drew inspiration from research and literature dedicated to this theme (mainly A triste Canção do Sul), and brought many songs from that era (late 19th and early 20th centuries) back to the present day and to her peculiar style. The exotic mix of old melodies with instruments foreign to traditional fado (Rita’s inseparable ukulele, and Rui Rodrigues on the marimba, percussion, electronics, and the banjo) is harmonious, continuing to prove that fado is a permeable language.

© Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Vítor Neves

The projected images reflect this coexistence of eras, alternating between photos, posters, and period articles with black and white portraits of Rita, as well as her stage pose (that of old fado singers) and attire. Her high-pitched, fresh, and somewhat unpretentious voice, without the mannerisms and virtuosity often associated with fado, revives songs performed by Ercília Costa, Maria Alice, and Hermínia Silva in the 1920s and 1930s, where it is clear that several themes remain very relevant today.

A version of the classic Chão de Estrelas was also heard, accompanied by an old recording of Armandinho’s guitar, establishing a link between fado and its possible Brazilian origins.

At the end, Rita presented us with one of the original songs from the album, based on a poem by Catarina Santiago Costa. Special mention should also be made of the other musician on stage, Rui Rodrigues (or “Pacheco III,” as Rita nicknamed him, as a reference to Hermínia Silva’s guitarist).

there’s a short reel and a photo gallery of the concert on our Instagram.

© Mondo Bizarre Magazine/Vítor Neves

Mondo Bizarre Magazine Concerts, Entries

Noite do Cometa at OPO’LAB, Porto, Saturday 16 May

Baleia Baleia Baleia

Noite do Cometa is a unique event Saturday 16, stretching to the early hours of Sunday 17, at a special space with concerts by Gabci, Baleia Baleia Baleia and Bulha the band of our very own Paulo Carmona, and DJ sets by A Boy Named Sue and Rodas at OPO’LAB, Porto (Rua D. João IV 643), doors 9pm. Tickets: €16.50 Euros + taxes (online at Shotgun)

Schedule:
9pm: Doors/DJs
9:45pm: Gabci
10:30pm: Bulha
11:30pm: Baleia Baleia Baleia
00:30am: DJ a Boy Named Sue | Rodas
2:30am: The Comet Passed By

Bulha