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Hi Folks - here’s the playlist from Robbie France’s My World of Music from Costa Calida Radio for Sunday 30th November 2008.

Don’t forget, I love to hear from all you listeners, and if you drop me a line either through this Web Site (Click on Contact at the top of the page) or at the Radio Station, I’ll dedicate a favourite song to your or someone special live on air.

Here are today’s songs:

Alan O’Day - Undercover Angel
Alexander O’Neal - Cherish
Alicia Keys - Prelude To A Kiss
Alison Krauss - Baby Mine
Alison Moyet - The Man In The Wings
Allison Moorer - Orphan Train
Andrea Bocelli - Io Ci Saro (Lang Lang on Piano)
Angie Stone - Life Goes On
Bonnie Raitt - Too Soon To Tell
Boz Scaggs - Save Your Love For Me (Live)
Brand New Heavies - Dream On Dreamer
Camille Saint Saens - Aquarium (Carnival Of The Animals)
Chet Baker - Time After Time
Chris Botti - Silent Night (December)
Chris Rea - Nothing To Fear CHECK
Christina Aguilera - Pero Me Acuerdo De TÌ
Christmas Three Tenors - Susani
Clannad - What Will I Do
Colbie Caillat - The Little Things
Coldplay - Poppyfields (Prospekts March)
Colin Hay - Waiting For My Real Life to Begin (Scrubs Soundtrack -)
Connor Reeves - My Father’s Son
Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
Enya - Christmas Secrets
Eric Clapton - Goodfellas Theme
Falco - Rock Me Amadeus
Harry Manx - The Thrill Is Gone
Herbie Hancock - I Do It For Your Love
Holding back
Jim White - Heaven Of My Heart
Joni Mitchell - Night Of The Iguana
KD Lang- Theme From The Valley Of The Dolls
KatherineJenkins & Rhys Meirion - Vide Cor Meum
Keely Smith - Someone to Watch Over Me
Keke - Superstore
Kirk Whalum - Any Love - Forever, for Always, for Luther
Lara Fabian - Sola Otra Vez
Lili Haydn - Come here - (Anywhere But Here Soundtrack)
Linda Eder - I Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye(It’s Time)
Luther Vandross - So amazing
Lutricia McNeal - Stranded
Mary Chapin Carpenter - On & On It Goes
Matt Bianco - More Than I Can Bear
Michael McDonald - Soul Speak
Nena - 99 Luftballoons
Nick Drake - Day Is Done
Peter Gabriel - Father Son YT
Roberta Gambarini - All The Things You Are
Scott Walker - What are You Doing the Rest of Your Life
Sigur Ros - Vanilla Sky Soundtrack
Sonique - It Feels So Good
Will Martin - Cinema Paradiso

Enjoy!

Robbie x

Hi Folks - here’s the playlist from Robbie France’s My World of Music from Costa Calida Radio for Sunday 23rd November 2008:

All Angels - Delibes (The Flowers Duet)
Boz Scaggs - Look What You’ve Done To Me
Bryan Ferry - To Make You Feel My Love
Camille Saint Saens - Aquarium (Carnival Of The Animals)
Carole King - It Might As Well Rain Until September
Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers - Got To Get You Into My Life
Clifford T Ward - For Emily
Clive Griffin Ill Be Waiting
Cocteau Twins - Alice
Colbie Caillat - Older
Damien Rice - 9 Crimes
Doug Parkinson - I’ll Be Around
Eagles - Long Road Out of Eden
Elvis Costello - A Good Year For The Roses
Eurythmics- Its Alright Baby’s Coming Back
Evanescence - Bring Me To Life
Everything But The Girl - Missing (accapella)
Frou Frou - Breathe In
Gabriel Yared - The English Patient - Main Title
George Benson - The World Is A Ghetto
Gregorian - Masters Of Chant III - 07 - Ordinary World
Herbie Hancock - River The Joni Letters - 08 - AmelÖ?(feat. Luciana Souza)
Jeff Beck - ‘Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers
Jennifer Hudson - And Im Telling You
Jennifer Paige - Sober
Joe Cocker - Delta Lady
John Barrowman - She’s Always A Woman
John Kongos - He’s Gonna Step On You Again (1971)
John Legend - Each Day Gets Better
Kirk Whalum & Bob James - The Prayer
Luther Vandross - Superstar - Until You Come Back To Me
Mary Black - Donegal Breeze
Maurice Jarre - Ghost (Theme from the movie)
Metallica - Turn the page
Michael Bolton - Lean On Me
Patrick Cassidy - Vide Cor Meum - Hannibal Opera
Peter Broderick - Below It
Pietro Mascagni - Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana
Reba Macentire & Linda Davis - Does He Love You
Sarah McLachlan - Don’t Give Up On Us
Seal - Free (Soul)
Seal - It’s A Man’s World
Shangri Las - Leader Of The Pack
Tim Buckley - Dolphins
U2 - Bono & Clannad - In A Lifetime
Vetiver - Been So Long
Will Martin - Going Home

Enjoy!

Robbie x

Here’s something I found while digging through my files - an interview I did with Round Town News.

Written by Sharon Bruce

The many listeners to Costa Calida Radio’s Robbie France Show may wonder about the man behind the mike.

In fact, Robbie has been a resident of Puerto de Mazarron since 1998. He has a tremendous history in the music and recording business and is still active in producing highly successful acts.

At heart, Robbie is a drummer, but he’s also described as a producer, arranger, journalist, music educator and broadcaster.

Relaxing over a coffee on the Paseo at Puerto de Mazarron Robbie recalled that, although he was born in Sheffield, he moved to Australia in 1970. He became deeply involved in the music scene and at the age of 15 was teaching drums at the Australian Academy of Music. In 1982 he left the country with over a thousand musical credits to his name. Back in England he joined Diamond Head and then, in 1990, Wishbone Ash. In 1994 he was a founder of Skunk Anansie. In 1995 he joined the German band Alphaville and some eight years ago moved to Spain where he now enjoys life beside the Mediterranean.

Robbie in the flesh is as entertaining as over the airwaves and he has a host of stories. In Spain he founded the highly successful Pulpo Negro label and related activities. Some of the country’s most successful groups emerged under his guidance, including Second, who won the 2005 First Prize of the prestigious GBOB event. They are on the bill of Depeche Mode’s current tour and will be appearing at the Parque Antonio Soria in Torrevieja on July 25th. Robbie says they are a fantastic band that is destined for even greater things. His hottest tip of the moment is to keep an eye on singer Keke, who was born in Madrid but is now based in London.

Robbie maintains close contacts with a huge range of people in the music business that make sure that he knows all about the latest tracks and new acts.  So Mazarron listeners will continue to be amongst the first in Europe to hear the very latest music.

This article was first published in Round Town News.

Hope you enjoyed this little insight!

Robbie x

What a lovely day! This is what Monday is all about. A bunch of pals shooting the breeze, putting the world to rights, arguing the toss, discussing music and the like…great fun!

The Monday Club in Mazarron

From L to R; Margot, David, Karen, Chris & Jan, Norma (seated), Me, Mike & H.

Hi, gang!

I had some interesting and frank calls and texts to the show yesterday… Got me thinking… a rare achievement I know, but they did!

I was berated for not playing my weekly Chris Botti and Lara Fabian.

Years ago when I started MWOM, it was my privelege to introduce you to artists and bands not normally heard here in Spain. Fact is, I have always listened to different styles of music… thanks to my upbringing and environment. I’ll explain.

My dad was a Frank Sinatra man, my mum loved Shirley Bassey, my big brother loved the Beatles, my middle brother loved John Mayall, our next door neighbour (Mr. McNish), was a Jamaican who relished Caribbean music… you get the picture. It was a household binded together by, you guessed it… MUSIC.

I remember touring with Black Sabbath, (with Diamond Head), in the 80s when Lita Ford’s drummer swung by whilst I was warming up to play our set and grabbed my headphones to listen to the music I was warming up to…. what was it? Led Zeppelin? Deep Purple? Surely it must be some heavy metal band!

It was ‘Physical’ by Olivia Newton John! There ya go… my secret’s out! I love the track, ‘Physical’. I love the guitar solo. I love the way the track moves…and I can’t help it!

Same tour… Black Sabbath through europe… It didn’t matter what time of day, I always had to be there for Sab’s sound check. Why? To listen to Paul Simon’s ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’. I was addicted to that track for the entirety of the tour. Played over the P.A. of a zillion watts, has that track sounded sweeter since? No way. It was a glorious avalanche of chords and groove and wonder. I’ll never forget that track and what it meant to me.

So when I hear you ask…’where’s Lara” or ‘where’s Chris?’ I can totally understand. You expect to hear certain artists on a Sunday and it’s my job to give you ya fix! Me! A dealer at my age! I thought I was too old and ugly!!

One of the other artists who seems to grab your attention is Yasmin Levy. I’ve a friend, Margot. Scottish. Normal. No preconditions. With M. What you see is what ya get. But a lover of Yasmin Levy? I thought NO WAY! She’s totally besotted with her! As I and millions of others are. Can’t get enough of her.

It just goes to show. With music, it’s beauty walks across party lines, across cultural barriers, haunts the soul…and if not heard on a regular basis? You get withdrawal symptoms!!!!!

See ya tomorrow. Off to the Monday Club… I’ll explain later.

Love ya!

Robbie. xx

It’s that time again - here’s the playlist from Robbie France’s My World of Music from Costa Calida Radio for Sunday 16th November 2008:

Alexander O’Neal - Babe
Alexis Billington - Tell The Truth
Allison Moorer - Where Is My Love
Blue Cafe - My Road
Carole King - It Might As Well Rain Until September
Chris Botti - Cinema Paradiso
Curtis Stigers - I Wonder Why
Damien Rice -9 Crimes
Donna Summer - State Of Independence
Hed Kandi - Morcheba
Il Divo - Isabel - Ancora
Imogen Heap - Just For Now
Jeff Becker - ‘Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers
Jeff Buckley - Everybody Here Wants You
Jeff Healy Band - RoadHouse Blues
Jeffrey Gaines - Hero In Me
Jennifer Hudson - I Am Changing
John Barrowman - All By Myself
John Martyn - Angeline
John Mayall & Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton - They Call It Stormy Monday
Jon Anderson & Vangelis - I Hear You Now
Joni Mitchell - - Chinese Cafe - (Travelogue)
Kirk Whalum & Bob James - The Prayer
Lara Fabian - Adagio
Little River Band - It’s A Long Way There
Living Color - Cult of Personality
Liza Minnelli - Rent (Results)
Loleatta holloway - love sensation 06
Lulu - The Prayer
Luther Vandross - Superstar-Until You Come Back To Me
Luz - Sumisa
Madeleine Peyroux - In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
Magic Numbers - Tonight
Mary Black - Donegal Breeze
Patrick Cassidy - Vide Cor Meum
Peter Broderick - Below It
Sarah McLachlan - Don’t Give Up On Us
Seal - It’s A Man’s World
Shangri Las - Leader Of The Pack
Shelby Lynne - I Only Want To Be With You
Tpau - China In Your Hands
Tracey Chapman - The Promise
U2 - Bono & Clannad - In A Lifetime
Vetiver - Been So Long
Will Martin - Going Home
Womack & Womack - Teardrops (Footsteps on the Dancefloor)
Wycleff Jean - Gone Til November
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
Yasmin Levy - Naci En Alamo (Vengo)
Yvonne Fair - It Should Have Been Me

Enjoy!

Robbie x

Since I started this journey into the brave new world of blogging, I came to realise that there are people out there who may not know a lot about me.

Even some of my listeners, I’m sure, don’t know where I was before I turned up on their radios one afternoon.

With that in mind, I’ve updated the About Page on this site, so those of you who are interested can read a little more about little old me.

Link: About Robbie France

Robbie x

Music is more global now than ever before. And that’s down to one thing…the internet.

With the net, it’s possible for a record company to release to the entire world it’s product and within 80 seconds get feedback from critics, fans and retailers alike. There’s a strange word nowadays…retailer. I can not remember the last time I walked into a record store and bought a CD. In the old days I would take the hike over the mountain to Cartagena and visit Alfonso at Carrots CD store, (quite often he’d be waiting with new releases for me), to buy the new album by Travis or Coldplay. Now I buy all my music on Amazon.com! ‘One Click Shopper’ is my mantra now and has been for the last 4 years or so.

I am often asked ‘what’s the biggest band you’ve been in?’ and to this day I still don’t rightly know…but I’ve a sneaky suspicion it’s Alphaville. A German band, they have been around for decades, still going strong, but have been relatively quiet in the UK. Someone said to me the other day, ‘Alphaville? One Hit Wonders!’ much to my surprise. But because they only had two hits in the UK, (’Big In Japan’ & ‘Forever Young’), the listener in the UK assumed that was their career in total. Whereby now you could investigate on the net and discover the dozens of albums & singles sold all over the world to a massive audience and that’s before the net was even a glint in a computer programmer’s eye. Millions & millions of records they’ve sold. So many hits it’s hard to put together a setlist for gigs. Depending on which country we were in would dictate the songs. However if the lads had arrived on the scene now…what a difference!

The video released on YouTube on a Tuesday, the download chart announced Wednesday, the amount of hits on MySpace & Facebook or Twitter calculated by Thursday and quite possibly you will have a hit around the world in less than a week! The power of the net seems to just keep increasing almost weekly.

Of course the music trade has had to adapt, as has the music loving public. But boy are they adapting! It’s a brave new world for us all. However it’s a fantastic world of different acts and styles of music delivered without fuss on to our computers every day. The days of the trek to the record store are well and truly over!

See you next month…keep listening!

Robbie x

This article was originally published in the November Edition of Beachcomber Magazine.

Here you go folks - here’s the playlist from Robbie France’s My World of Music from Costa Calida Radio for Sunday 9th November 2008:

Alison Krauss - Get Me Through December
Angela Ghiorgiu - O Mio Babbino Caro(Gianni Schicchi) Puccini
Angelis - Pie Jesu
Billy Ward and the Dominos-Stardust - Goodfellas Soundtrack
C&C Music Factory - Things That Make You Go Hmmm
Chaka Khan & Michael McDonald - You Belong To Me
Charlotte Church - Panus Angellicus
Craig Armstrong & Evan Dando - Wake Up In New York
Dave Grusin Dave Grusin and the N.Y._ L.A. Dream Band Shuffle City
Dulce Pontes - A Ilha Do Meu Fado
Gilbert O’Sullivan - One Door Closes
JP Den Ten - Looking For Rosie
Japan - Ghosts
Jeff Buckley - Lover You Should’ve Come Over
John Barrowman - You’re So Vain
Josh Ritter - Girl In The War
Keith Urban - Making Memories Of Us
Landon Pigg - Coffee Shop
Luciana Souza - Were You Blind That Day
Madeline Peyroux - You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
Manuel Barrueco & Steve Morse - Cavatina (The Deer Hunter)
Nicolette Larson - Mexican Divorce (Bacharach)
Patrick Cassidy - Hannibal Opera
Patti Austin & Sadao Watanabe - Any Other Fool
Paul McCartney - Put It There
Peter Broderick - Not At Home
Placido Domingo - Che Galida Manina(La Boheme)
Rick Braun - Feel Like Making Love
Rostal & Schaefer - Michelle
Sade - Jezebel
Seals & Crofts - Closer to You, Closer to Me
Secret Garden - Nocturne
Shabba Ranks - Mr. Loverman
Shelby Lynne - You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me
Sia - I Go To Sleep
The Bench Connection - All Strings Attached
The Bird And The Bee - How Deep Is Your Love
The Hollies - Just One Look
Toots Thielemans & Shirley Horn - Corcovado
Vetiver - Been So Long
The waterboys - You In The Sky

Hope you enjoyed the show!

Robbie xx

Here you go folks - here’s the playlist from Robbie France’s My World of Music from Costa Calida Radio for Sunday 2nd November 2008:

Andrea Bocelli - Incanto Preview
Barbra Streisand - With One More Look At You{A Star Is Born}
Billy Joel - New York State of Mind
Bjork - Hyperballad
Black - Sweetest Smile
Bliss - Kissing (worldmusic act from Denmark)
Blood sweat and tears - you make me so very happy
Blue Nile-Chris Botti - Midnight Without You
Bob & Earl - Harlem Shuffle (original)
Bob Dylan - One More Cup of Coffee(Emmylou Harris)
Bobby Darin - Abraham, Martin & John
Bon Iver - Stacks(For Emma Forever Ago)
Christina Aguilera - Beautiful(Acapella)
Creed - Higher
Daniel Bedingfield - If You’re Not The One
Dave Grusin & The NYLA Dream Band - Countdown
Declan O’Rourke - Sarah (Last Night In A Dream)
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
Emerson Lake and Palmer - Lucky Man
Everything But The Girl - Missing
James Taylor & Luciana Souza - Never Die Young
Jennifer Hudson - If This Isn’t Love
John Cale-My Maria - My Maria
KD Lang - Hush Sweet Lover
Linda Ronstadt - Heatwave
Michael Buble - Song For You (Feat. Chris Botti)
Michael McDonald - Real Love (Live Arsenio Hall ‘92)
Molly Johnson - melody
Rick Braun - Notorious
Run DMC vs Jason Nevins - It’s Like That (Extended Mix)
Sade - Is It A Crime
Tina Arena - Whistle Down The Wind
Toots Tielemans - The Shadow of Your Smile
Will Martin - Cinema Paradiso
Van Morrison - When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God

Hope you enjoyed the show.

Robbie xx