New Radio Free Brighton Shop — buy goodies online!

We know you guys love Radio Free Brighton. We know you want to sup­port us. So here at RFB towers, we set our heads to pon­der­ing and decided to skin two cats with one mixed metaphor.

Intro­du­cing the new Radio Free Brighton Shop!

Read more…

HARVEST SHOW. Tues 9pm.

www.harvest-bh.org.uk

On tonight’s show, Roberta and Vera from the Brighton & Hove Food Part­ner­ship will be stop­ping by to talk about food waste and com­post­ing.  As part of the Love Food Hate Waste cam­paign, the Food Part­ner­ship is encour­aging every­one to waste less food and to com­post their unavoid­able food waste if they can.  Food waste costs us money and costs the envir­on­ment dearly, so we’ll be hear­ing some simple tips and advice on mak­ing bet­ter use of our food, includ­ing some you may not have heard before!  We’ll also be talk­ing about com­munity com­post­ing and other options for those who do not have space to com­post on their property.

For more tips, resources and recipes from the Food Part­ner­ship: http://www.bhfood.org.uk/page.php?id=162
Brighton & Hove City Council’s sub­sid­ised com­poster and wormery scheme: http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1109661
Love Food Hate Waste national cam­paign: http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
Harvest’s Suc­cess­ful Com­post­ing course: http://www.harvest-bh.org.uk/events/event/139/Successful–Com­post­ing

LISTEN IN ON TUESDAY 11TH OCTOBER AT 9PM.

Technology 4 Good finalists!

Radio Free Brighton are very proud to announce that we’ve been lis­ted as final­ists in the
Com­munity Voices cat­egory of the 2011 Tech­no­logy 4 Good awards.

Graduate Internships with Brighton UNIs CUPP Monday 5.30pm

On Monday at 5.30pm Dr. Juliet Mil­lican will be join­ing us at Radio Free Brighton to dis­cuss the bril­liant gradu­ate intern­ship scheme which she run. Dr. Mil­lican, author of books includ­ing Stu­dent Com­munity Engage­ment — A Model for the 21^st Cen­tury? (2007) and Find­ing Com­mon­al­ity Among Dif­fer­ence — Devel­op­ing Emo­tional Lit­er­acy Through Exper­i­en­tial Work (2009) will be talk­ing to our very own Jodie about the oppor­tun­it­ies avail­able for post grad and gradu­ate stu­dents in the community.

Such as at Radio Free Brighton!
Tune in at half five on Monday to learn more about this excit­ing possibility.

Calling all Brighton Bands! Get in Touch!

Radio Free Brighton are mak­ing some changes..for the bet­ter! As of Febur­ary we plan to start play­ing local bands. Exclus­ively. To begin with, on our playl­ist between shows, but very soon, on all of our top music shows as well. Be you metal, rock, indie, elec­tro, exper­i­mental, big band, choral, pop or whatever, we want to hear from you, and we want to play your  music round the clock.

We’ve always strived to be a radio push­ing local issues and music, by the people, for the people. And it fits per­fectly with our mis­sion to be pro­mot­ing you, the local musical talent.

So drop us an email at jaki.chase@gmail.com, or give us a ring at Under the Bridge Stu­dios on 07799 564 620 or 01273 601 804 because we’d really love to hear from you and get you out on the airwaves!

Follow Radio Free Brighton… Across the Web!

Thanks for vis­it­ing Radio Free Brighton,  and we hope you’ve been enjoy­ing our 24hr stream of the latest Brighton talk, music and news.

Did you know we can be found accross the web? Check us out on Face­book, on Twit­ter, and on Myspace. And “like”, “fol­low” and “friend” us! You know you want too…

Come To Our Gig Wed 1^st Feb @ Psychosocial

Thanks to every­one who turned out to sup­port local brighton artists last week! Under the Bridge are return­ing to Psy­cho Social for your weekly dose of local tal­ent. This week we’ve got some of the hot­test new Brighton bands in the club, and still not a penny on the door! ‘So why do you do it?’ you ask? For the LOVE.

Bands:

Spit Shake Sisters:

With a fresh and vibrant sound this band are one of the hot­test things in Brighton right now. Check ‘em out on their face­book page.

The Vaud­ville

Describ­ing them­selves as “a band that like to write songs and play them to people using amp­li­fied gui­tars and a drum kit”, they’re always a real treat to see live, with bound­less energy and a real stage pres­ence. Have a listen on their myspace.

Bella Feud

An Under the Bridge fave Bella Feud have been mak­ing some noise on the Brighton indie cir­cuit and played bril­liant gigs across the coun­try. You can find out more, and see what the deal is, on their myspace.

Check out Psychoso­cial here.

From 8 til 12. Feb 1^st feau­tur­ing Bella Feud (8−9), The Vaud­ville (9−10) and Spit Shake Sis­ters (10−11)

Doors  at 7pm — Free Entry

See you there!

Climate Connections Workshop, 28^th Jan

Claimate Con­nec­tions are run­ning a free work­shop on Sat­urday Janu­ary 28^th from 11am to 12:30pm at BPEC with the aim of explor­ing ideas
and actions around cli­mate change. The work­shop will be delivered by two
facil­it­at­ors, aims to be very par­ti­cip­at­ive, will make extens­ive use of pho­tos and
activ­it­ies and very little text based presentations.

Indi­vidu­als and groups will be encour­aged to make the links between local and global stor­ies around cli­mate
change and to agree on actions or pledges that they can make, even if the action is to gain more aware­ness of the issues raised.

Refresh­ments will be provided and they can pay for a child minder or inter­preter if needed.

For more inform­a­tion on Cli­mate Con­nec­tions please visit their homepage here.

If you would like to attend the work­shop please email Paolo at
gpaolo.boldrini@bpec.org or call 01273 766610 to book a place.

Green Energy Switch Day

Last year, we were sur­prised by an amaz­ing fact: Many people who sup­port
green energy and are even will­ing to put their money in green com­munity
energy schemes, haven’t switched yet to a green elec­tri­city tariff!

We made a sur­vey to find out why, and the most com­mon response was simply
lazi­ness. And not know­ing how to go about it. If that’s your prob­lem, come
to the Green Energy Switch Day this Tues­day 24^th Janu­ary, 7:30PM at the
foyer of the Old Ship Hotel, with your latest elec­tri­city bills (and gas
bills as well, if you’re inter­ested in dual tar­iffs), and we’ll sort you out
on the spot.

The sur­vey also revealed a num­ber of com­mon ques­tions people have about
switch­ing, and we’ll be answer­ing them as well. For a start, see below a
use­ful FAQ on green tariffs:

1. Aren’t green tar­iffs expensive?

Yes and no. Yes, the aver­age green tar­iff is more expens­ive than the aver­age
non-green tar­iff. But no, if you think that:

a. The dif­fer­ence is fairly small. And it isn’t impossible that you
find a green tar­iff that is cheaper than your cur­rent non-green tariff.

b. It’s cheaper to pay now a bit more, than to pay for the con­sequences
later.

c. It depends on how green is your idea of green. You may find that
the stand­ard tar­iffs of some big com­pan­ies are already green enough for you.

To help you with this very issue, we’ll be dis­trib­ut­ing a quick guide “Green
Energy – How to make it cheaper” at the event.

2. How green is the green energy?

That’s easy to answer: As green as you want it! Your options range from
com­pan­ies that are com­mit­ted to a 100% renew­able energy policy, to tar­iffs
that have about 50% renew­ables, to stand­ard tar­iffs by big com­pan­ies that
have sig­ni­fic­antly lower car­bon emis­sions than the rest. We’ll help you
nav­ig­ate through the dif­fer­ent options so you can choose what’s best for
you.

3. Can I get a fixed plan with a green supplier?

Not cur­rently, but we can advise you on which com­pan­ies are greener,
rel­at­ively speak­ing, within those that offer fixed plans.

4. I have a key meter. Does this mean I can’t switch?

You can switch to another tar­iff, how­ever you are lim­ited in your options.
We can advise on which of those options are greener.

5. I really like my cur­rent sup­plier. I don’t dare switch­ing to a
dif­fer­ent sup­plier and be disappointed!

If you are a cus­tomer of one of the big com­pan­ies, all of them cur­rently
have green tar­iffs. You can stay with your cur­rent com­pany and simply switch
to their green tariff.

6. How do I know if the new supplier’s ser­vice will be good?

Thanks to the Inter­net, there are customer’s rat­ings on all tar­iffs
nowadays. You can avoid tar­iffs with low cus­tomer rat­ings if that’s your
concern.

7. What’s in it for you? Are you get­ting com­mis­sion from selling us
green tariffs?

Now that you men­tion it… yes, we are. If you switch to Good Energy,
Eco­tri­city, Green Energy UK or Coöper­at­ive Energy, you will have not only
the sat­is­fac­tion of con­trib­ut­ing to the devel­op­ment of renew­able energy, but
also the sat­is­fac­tion of mak­ing a small con­tri­bu­tion to a local com­munity
group ded­ic­ated to the pro­mo­tion of eco energy (that is us).

If you have any other ques­tions, and/or are already excited at the pro­spect
of switch­ing to a green tar­iff, please come to the Green Energy Switch Day
this Tues­day 24^th Janu­ary, 7:30PM at the foyer of the Old Ship Hotel, with
your latest elec­tri­city bills (and gas bills as well, if you’re inter­ested
in dual tar­iffs), and we’ll sort you out on the spot. And bring any friends
with you that should also switch their elec­tri­city tariff.

One Day Workshop For Strings

The work­shop is on Sat­urday 3^rd March, 10am-4pm, at the Corner­stone Com­munity Centre, Church Road (next to Pal­meira Square).

We’ll be cov­er­ing top­ics such as acous­tic loop­ing, iso­rhythms and impro­visa­tion, scordatura tun­ing & exten­ded tech­nique (& much more) — if you’re new to these areas all the bet­ter! Being able to read music isn’t essen­tial — just bring your instrument.

This Brighton String Work­shop is facil­it­ated by Lizzy Carey & Bela Emer­son, both exper­i­enced and enthu­si­astic music lead­ers & tutors, as well as pro­fes­sional con­tem­por­ary string players.

Cost: £40 advance (£30 concessions/if you book before the end of Janu­ary) — £50 on the day.

See attached flyer for more details.

Queer Anti-Valentines Night Benefit

For those of you look­ing for some­thing dif­fer­ent to do this Valentine’s, the Cow­ley Queer Col­lect­ive are present­ing a deli­cious 2 course candlelit meal with all your queer fam­ily, fol­lowed by DJ’s and dan­cing! Whether you’re single, a couple, or wotever, come down and hang out at the cow­ley, make some new friends and have a good time, without the pres­sure and comer­cial­ism nor­mally asso­ci­ated with the day!

“This Valentines; escape from all the hetero-normative bland­ness of the city and other estab­lish­ments on this night, and make your way down to the Cow­ley Club for an even­ing of queer lavishness!”

£5 (for the meal), open from 7pm… get there early!

Décor and visuals.

Dress code: Dress to impress!

All money raised will be going towards local com­muntiy causes.

www.facebook.com/cowleyclub
www.cowleyclub.org.uk

Solicitors Advice On Radio, Sunday, 8pm

Deb­ut­ing on Sunday at 8pm Radio Free Brighton are happy to announce the launch of our new legal advice show, fea­tur­ing pro­fe­sional soli­citor Mar­tin Bryan.

This is a talk-show to enable you to get legal advice on a range of legal issues, from Employ­ment Law to Fam­ily Law to Con­tracts to Land­lord and Ten­ant Law, Immig­ra­tion Law or Gen­eral Legal Advice. Just send your ques­tion by email (studio@radiofreebrighton.org.uk) to or on our face­book or twit­ter and we will select those ques­tions which we feel have the broad­est appeal to answer on the show. This will help people get the expert legal advice they need to know where they stand on a legal issue.

We are giv­ing gen­eral legal advice but we will not be liable for any action which may or may not be taken as a con­sequence of this advice. If you need detailed advice on your par­tic­u­lar legal issue con­tact the law soci­ety for a list of avail­able solicitors.

Important Upcoming Events Jan/Feb

Hello Brighton! Here are a few dates for your cal­en­dar com­ing up in the next couple of months -

Thursday 26^th Jan Coun­cil Meet­ing Lobby on Music Ser­vice Cutsgoes to Coun­cil Time to be announced later by Trades council.

LONDON, 31^st Janu­ary  The New Green Team: Local gov­ern­ment, sus­tain­able energy, jobs and skills, 11–2, TUC,  Con­gress House Great Rus­sell Street.
Speakers include Car­oline Lucas MP, Leader of the Green Party
Frances O’Grady, Deputy Gen­eral Sec­ret­ary, TUC
Cllr Richard Wil­li­ams, Oppos­i­tion Leader, Southamp­ton Council
Solar industry rep­res­ent­at­ive 
Mark Bramah, Assist­ant Chief Exec­ut­ive, APSE
Union speaker.
To register, please visit http://thenewgreenteam.eventbrite.co.uk/

Brighton and Hove Urges Rethink on Plans to Cut Solar Energy Tariff

“Plans to reduce fin­an­cial incent­ives for solar elec­tri­city threaten ambi­tious plans in Brighton & Hove to gen­er­ate solar power to help cut fuel poverty and reduce CO2 emissions.

The coun­cil has urged the gov­ern­ment to rethink plans to reduce the Feed In Tar­iff – which determ­ines pay­ments for organ­isa­tions that gen­er­ate their own elec­tri­city and sell solar power back to the National Grid.

Brighton & Hove City Coun­cil warns that the pro­posed change of FIT rates will have a neg­at­ive impact on devel­op­ment in one ofhe UK’s few growth sec­tors and cur­tail the oppor­tun­ity to cre­ate more jobs. The pro­pos­als also put coun­cil plans to poten­tially roll out solar PV across 1,600 coun­cil house roofs and other pub­lic build­ings at risk.

Changes in FIT were ori­gin­ally pro­posed to take place on 1 April 2012 but were brought for­ward to 12 December.

Pre­vi­ously, Solar PV pan­els that are installed have earned their own­ers 43 pence per kilowatt-hour gen­er­ated plus 3p per kilowatt-hour when sur­plus power is expor­ted back to the grid. A new cat­egory for multi-installation is pro­posed for after 31 March next year, which means that those registered for a multi-installation of Solar PV pan­els would see FIT rates cut by more than half.

Brighton & Hove City Coun­cil Cab­inet Mem­ber for Fin­ance Cllr Jason Kit­cat said: “This short-sighted pro­posal could be a killer blow for the grow­ing UK solar energy industry — not least in Brighton and Hove. Local firms installing solar pan­els had been look­ing to expand and take on staff but because of the government’s pro­pos­als they now expect to cut jobs.”

This year around 20 solar pan­els have been fit­ted to coun­cil homes in Brighton & Hove. Cllr Kit­cat added: “We hope to install many more solar pan­els to coun­cil homes because solar power will help us sup­port people on lower incomes by redu­cing their energy costs and keep­ing them low as well as help­ing res­id­ents live health­ier lives. It will also cut the city’s car­bon foot­print and cre­ate jobs in the city.”

Read the full sub­mis­sion to the Depart­ment of Energy & Cli­mate Change FIT con­sulta­tion here”

“Born In Flames”, Feb 5^th

Born In Flames (Liz­zie Bor­den, 1983), the fam­ous fem­in­ist cult sci-fi film, will be shown in a rare screen­ing at the Duke of York’s Pic­ture House on Sunday the 5^th of  Feb.

Explor­ing a vis­ion of Amer­ican soci­ety liv­ing with the broken prom­ises of their cor­rupt revolu­tion­ary gov­ern­ment, in a coun­try rife with inequal­it­ies and told through the voices of two under­ground radio DJs Born in Flames is a must see for any­one with an interest in polit­ics, fem­in­ism or film, and also for any­one want­ing to see a grip­ping movie!

This screen­ing is part of a lar­ger cal­en­dar of events tak­ing place in Brighton for LGBT His­tory Month.

For more info check out Zhoosh Brighton, and to book tick­ets please visit the Duke of York’s homepage.