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’Bad Brains are totally awesome, man ... Best live band in the

world.’ These were the first words I heard on Xfm. Under normal

circumstances, they would also have been the last.

The words ’totally awesome, man’ conjured up a loathsome image of bad

hair, pyrotechnics and air guitars. The pronouncement, ’the best band in

the world’, left me reaching for the dial. This kind of comment is the

reason why I rarely listen to the radio or read music magazines.

However, I persevered and, much to my surprise, found myself growing to

like Xfm. It is genuinely free from the tyranny of the playlist - in

four days I didn’t hear a single track repeated.

If your musical taste revolves around ’alternative rock’ then there is

little doubt the station’s musical output will satisfy you. Xfm provides

good information on gigs and bands, although the DJs seemed

interchangeable, bland and too ’DJ-ish’ for my taste. But, then again,

I’m an old fart who likes John Peel.

My personal view is that Peel has lasted so long because he understands

that to get the best out of music you have to chart its breadth as well

as its depth. By the time I came to write this article, I was desperate

to hear an alternative to wall-to-wall guitar bands.

Will I listen to Xfm again? Certainly. Will its core constituency love

it? I think so. Is it the answer to all my radio prayers? I think

not.

My perfect station would segue happily from Radiohead to James Brown,

from Teenage Fanclub to Miles Davis, and from Paul Weller to Lyle

Lovett.

Now that’s what I call an alternative.