Every Sunday, Charlie Ashcroft counts down the Amazing Radio Chart. Here he is to give us the lowdown on this week’s movers and shakers from amazingtunes.com.

Hello! Having stormed to the top of the Amazing Radio Chart last week, Leeds band Bear Driver have held on to the Number 1 spot for a second week with their glorious slice of indie pop, Enemy. The band’s next live show is this coming Friday at The MacBeth in Hoxton.

Two weeks on top: Bear Driver

Elsewhere in the Top 3, we’ve had a massive New Entry from London trio Les Mistons, only a couple of weeks since they were played on the Audition show, just ahead of a huge climber from A Genuine Freakshow.

Fresh from being praised by the Guardian, Cosmo Jarvis remains at Number 4, with Ryan Kelly rounding off the Top 5 with Go If You Want To still in contention after 7 weeks inside the Top 20.

Climbing into the Top 10: AlunaGeorge (Photo: Olmo Rodriguez Roces)

While the Top 10 also welcomes London duo AlunaGeorge and Teeside folksters Cattle & Cane for the first time, the other New Entries in the rundown this week include this week’s Amazing Sessions guests Sissy & The Blisters at Number 15, closely followed by The Heartbreaks, Middleman, Sketches and Royal Treatment Plant.

Click here to see the Amazing Radio Chart Top 20 in full. Then find out if Bear Driver can make it three weeks at Number 1 by tuning in to Amazing Radio on Sunday from 5pm!

Every Sunday, Charlie Ashcroft counts down the Amazing Radio Chart. Here he gives us the lowdown on this week’s movers and shakers from amazingtunes.com.

Hello! It’s all change at the top of the Amazing Radio Chart this week, with Saint Saviour climbing to Number 1 with her show-stopping anthem This Ain’t No Hymn. As well as being praised from all corners of the music press since the turn of the year, she recently came in to play The Amazing Sessions and the popularity of her Anatomy EP has snowballed ever since.

New Number 1: Saint Saviour

Leeds band Bear Driver have also surged up the rankings on amazingtunes.com over the past seven days, climbing to their highest position yet at Number 2, in a closely-fought week near the summit of the rundown. Ryan Kelly has slipped a couple of places with his track Go If You Want To, with Kyla La Grange and Mammal Club for company in the Top 5.

Up 9 places to Number 6: Cosmo Jarvis

As well as big climbs for Cosmo Jarvis, Fossil Collective, The Travelling Band and The Kill Van Kulls into the Top 10, we’ve also seen New Entries further down from London duo AlunaGeorge at Number 16, Brighton band Boy Cried Wolf at Number 17 and Swedish production crew Modual at Number 19 this week.

Click here to see the Amazing Radio Chart Top 20 in full. Then find out if Saint Saviour can make it two weeks at Number 1 by tuning in to Amazing Radio on Sunday from 5pm!

In preparation for this year’s Record Store Day on Saturday 16th April, we’ve got something of a treat for you here at Amazing Radio.

We’ve recorded a special edition of our It’s Amazing panel show at RPM Music in Newcastle, hosted by Audition and Amazing Chart presenter Charlie Ashcroft. The show will air on Record Store Day itself – this Saturday between midday and 1pm.

Sign of the times: Poster outside RPM Music

Charlie’s guests on the panel will be Matt Saxon, singer with Amazing Radio favourites Grandfather Birds and Kieron Donoghue, the founder of the Spotify-affiliated website Sharemyplaylists.com. Despite the different surroundings for the show, our guests will be staying true to the It’s Amazing format, judging a selection of recent uploads to amazingtunes.com and deciding which song is their favourite of the week.

Looking back to the day we recorded the show, the staff at RPM Music were all absolutely brilliant – not only did they welcome us with drinks and biscuits, but they were also more than happy to help out with the Amazing Radio outside broadcast, all in the locale of their wonderfully-stocked shop.

RPM Music on Old George Yard in Newcastle

It goes without saying that they were kind enough to let us take over their shop’s stereo system to play seven hand-picked tracks for Matt and Kieron to judge, all in the midst of their afternoon trading hours. Here’s the full playlist for you to chew over and pick a favourite song.

The Record Store Day celebrations at RPM will be going on throughout Saturday, with a line-up of artists including The Singling Adams, Laura J Martin, Black Sun, Dot to Dots, Martin Heslop, Im ‘n’ Im, Rick Fury and Grandfather Birds all playing live around the courtyard by the shop.

Playing live at RPM Music for Record Store Day: Grandfather Birds

Much has been written in the build-up to Record Store Day – it’s become such a global event that such increased amounts of coverage were inevitable. While certain writers don’t care (heaven knows what the chap would review if artists weren’t releasing music), it’s fair to say that the majority of the music-loving public are embracing the event for what it is.

Record Store Day serves as a reminder that local record shops can continue to be the bedrock for so many individual music scenes and communities around the world. There remains a decent portion of the music-buying public who, irrespective of age, are disposed to buying physical copies of records they like, by musicians they like.

In an industry which has experienced such an online shift in recent years, record shops provide some much needed diversity within the field. We sell new artists’ downloads via amazingtunes.com but as a team of music fans, we remain committed to the physical side of the record-buying process alongside its digital brother. Furthermore, there’s a strong, united feeling that the demise of so many small, independent stores in recent years has been painful to watch.

Amazingtunes artist The Daydream Club have a special Record Store Day release called 'The Record Shop'

Wherever in the world you’re reading this, make sure you check out what your own local record shop is doing to tie in with Record Store Day. With so many artists making moves to release special edition vinyls this weekend, there’s no better time to re-visit your local music emporium and support their cause.

Join Charlie Ashcroft for the Record Store Day special edition of It’s Amazing, this Saturday from 12pm on Amazing Radio. See more photos from our recording session on our Facebook page.

Every Sunday, Charlie Ashcroft counts down the Amazing Radio Chart. Here he gives us the lowdown on this week’s movers and shakers from amazingtunes.com.

Hello! It’s been a while since I said this, but “there’s a new song at the top of the chart.” Gasp. After the recent domination of Kyla La Grange, County Tyrone singer-songwriter Ryan Kelly has the new Amazing Radio Chart Number 1.

New Number 1: Ryan Kelly

The Celtic Thunder star has been in and out of our Top 20 since the start of March with his track Go If You Want To, but this week his legions of fans around the globe have been buying and streaming the song sufficiently on amazingtunes.com to catapult him to the summit.

Having enjoyed a stint of 5 weeks on top, Kyla La Grange has slipped to Number 2, while Bear Driver and Saint Saviour have climbed to their highest positions yet inside the Top 5. London folk crew Felix Fables are up to Number 6 with Oceans, while Newcastle genii Mammal Club are also in the Top 10 for the very first time with Four.

Climbing into the Top 10: Mammal Club

New Manchester band-on-the-block The Kill Van Kulls have this week’s highest new entry inside the Top 20 with Fools Wish landing at Number 14, while further down there are debuts for Evokateur at Number 19 and Laki Mera at Number 20.

Click here to see the Amazing Radio Chart Top 20 in full. Then find out if Ryan Kelly can make it two weeks at Number 1 by tuning in to Amazing Radio on Sunday from 5pm!

Every Sunday, Charlie Ashcroft counts down the Amazing Radio Chart. Here he gives us the lowdown on this week’s movers and shakers from amazingtunes.com.

Well, she’s done it again! Kyla La Grange remains on top of the Amazing Radio Chart for a fifth week, with Walk Through Walls already asserting itself as one of Amazing Radio’s songs of the year so far. If you want to see her in live action, she’ll be playing a London gig at Islington’s Old Queen’s Head on Friday.

5 weeks on top: Kyla La Grange

Kyla’s closest competitors this week are Newcastle band Let’s Buy Happiness and Wolverhampton’s Young Runaways, who’ve both climbed to their highest positions yet inside the Top 3. Scottish rockers Vukovi have achieved their second Chart hit of the year with Schwagger, while Celtic Thunder star Ryan Kelly has re-entered the Top 20 in a massive way, straight in at Number 5 this week with Go If You Want To.

Elsewhere in the Top 10, there are climbs from Bear Driver, Doctor Banker, Dimbleby & Capper, Saint Saviour and Felix Fables, while we’ve also got New Entries in the wider Top 20 from The Collectable Few, Fossil Collective, The Travelling Band and Cosmo Jarvis.

Click here to see the Amazing Radio Chart Top 20 in full. Then find out if Kyla La Grange can make it six weeks at Number 1 by tuning in to Amazing Radio on Sunday from 5pm!

This week on Amazing Radio we’re treating you to not one, but two brand new chapters of The Amazing Sessions.

Today we’ll be kicking off The Chris Martin Show, our brand new addition to the Amazing Radio schedule, with live performances from the sublimely talented Saint Saviour.

Saint Saviour (photo by Tim Brown)

Described on her amazingtunes.com profile as a ‘prolific songwriter with an extraordinary vocal talent’, Saint Saviour is no stranger to the international audience, having travelled the world as front woman on Dance outfit Groove Armada’s last live tour. And the solo artist’s talents are not purely limited to the stage; she’s also an experienced producer too!

If you’d like to hear more about Saint Saviour’s day with the team recording for The Amazing Sessions, head over to the amazingtunes.com blog now. You can also check out all of the tracks over at The Amazing Sessions homepage right now.

Hear the first of the live performances on The Chris Martin Show from 10am this morning on Amazing Radio. You can hear more from Saint Saviour in The Amazing Sessions on Amazing Afternoons with Kyle Wilkinson from 3pm today, and with Rich Brant as he presents Amazing Live this Friday from 1pm.

This week’s Website of the Week is new and alternative music blog Quiff Pro ‘Fro, described by founders Ben Travis and Elliot Bentley as “the music blog to end all music blogs”.

Ben writes:

“Unlike many music blogs, generally created out of a strong desire to provide musical knowledge and recommendations, Quiff Pro ‘Fro was forged from the sheer boredom of the summer holiday between University terms. Elliot and myself (Ben) knew each other from writing for the music section of The Courier, Newcastle University’s student newspaper, but only really connected after discovering a shared love of – in true origin-story style – comic books. With a friendship formed, after days of sending each other recommendations for an impending trip to Glastonbury, Elliot proposed the idea of a blog. We both agreed that, basically, we didn’t really have much else better to do.

“As it turned out, writing about music on a much more regular basis than just sending in the odd newspaper article ended up being a lot of fun, and so Quiff Pro ‘Fro (an arbitrary hair-based pun that somehow stuck) has continued to grow. The freedom available on music blogs is brilliant – we basically write about whatever we’ve been listening to, whether it’s new and unsigned bands, classic albums, local music, or online downloads, resulting in a pretty huge range. Our recent pieces have varied from articles on Newcastle band Mausi, to the new Arctic Monkeys track circulating the internet, to boundary-pushing dance acts like Burial. Whatever we’re writing on, rest assured that we always aim for it to be approachable and interesting.”

The Quiff Pro 'Fro boys

“With interviews from the likes of We Are Scientists, Everything Everything, Dinosaur Pile-Up and Frightened Rabbit (some obtained through writing for The Courier), we try to balance out pieces about established bands alongside more unfamiliar artists. There’s a whole tonne of unknown and local music out there that really deserves to be listened to, so any time we hear something that we love, we make sure to either blog about it or send a recommended on our Twitter and Facebook pages. It’s fantastic that social media can allow you to instantly tell a whole load of others about an awesome new tune you’ve heard, and to get pretty much instantaneous replies and opinions about them.

“What started out as a fun summer project has now become something that both of us are completely invested in – it’s been fantastic to see the site expand, and hope to see that continue despite increasing pressures of university work. If nothing else, we hope that Quiff Pro ‘Fro will stave off, or at least distract us from, the terrifying prospect of impending graduation next year.”

Hear Elliot and Ben in conversation about their Website of the Week on Amazing Afternoons with Kyle Wilkinson, today from 3pm, on Amazing Radio.

This week the Amazing Afternoons with Kyle Wilkinson team have been getting to grips with new music in Scotland’s newest city, Stirling.

Across the week Kyle has been getting to know the new music scene with the help of a number of local ‘insiders’ including BULGE promoter Tommy Hamilton, Stephen Hume from Stirling’s premier music venue Tolbooth and Innis Mitchell of music networking site Scottishmusicians.co.uk.

Miniature Dinosaurs

Alongside the top tips from our local experts, we’ve also featured music from Johnny and The Giros, Pose Victorious and Little Eskimos. Today we’ll be rounding things up in Stirling with the help of Barry Maclean from Pop Rock act Miniature Dinosaurs.

Hear Kyle round up this week’s New Music Tour on Amazing Afternoons with Kyle Wilkinson, today from 3pm, on Amazing Radio.

Every Sunday, Charlie Ashcroft counts down the Amazing Radio Chart. Here he gives us the lowdown on this week’s movers and shakers from amazingtunes.com.

Hello! No change at the summit of the Amazing Radio Chart this week, with Kyla La Grange staying on top of the pile with Walk Through Walls for a second week. She, like a whole host of artists on amazingtunes.com, is currently out in Texas for SXSW, so we look forward to her announcing her next batch of gigs when she returns to the UK later this month.

Two weeks on top: Kyla La Grange

Daughter remains at Number 2 with Run, while Hey Laura’s huge rise ensures an all-female Top 3 thanks to the success of Left Turn.

Gloucestershire three-piece Hermes and Newcastle quintet Let’s Buy Happiness also climb into the Top 5 this week, while the Top 10 welcomes Dirty Goods, The Answering Machine, Ryan Kelly and The Mouse That Ate The Cat for the first time, in a week where tons of songs have surged up the rankings.

In the world of New Entries, West Midlands band Young Runaways have the highest-placed at Number 15 with Closer, while London dance duo Doctor Banker and Ayrshire rockers Vukovi also land in the Top 20 this week.

Click here to see the Amazing Radio Chart Top 20 in full. Then find out if Kyla La Grange can make it three weeks at Number 1 by tuning in to Amazing Radio on Sunday from 5pm!

In a fortnight’s time, one of North London’s most prestigious venues, The Bull & Gate in Kentish Town, will be playing host to the last in the Gaymers Camden Crawl’s series of warm-up gigs.

This Camden Crawl Tips show takes place on Thursday 24th March and is particularly close to our hearts here at Amazing Radio, seeing as we’ve helped curate the line-up!

Three of our finest artists from amazingtunes.com will be performing, with a view to bagging themselves a place in the final Camden Crawl line-up over the first May Bank Holiday weekend.

So we’re pleased to announce who’ll be performing at the warm-up gig at The Bull & Gate on 24th March:

The Epstein 

The Epstein

The Epstein are an Oxford band who’ve been wowing European audiences with their EPs and live shows over the past couple of years. Their self-released Last of the Charanguistas album received widespread acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone, Q Magazine and The Independent, while their new EP I Held You Once is a superbly-crafted collection of lo-fi folk ‘n’ roll.

The Voyeurist

The Voyeurist

The Voyeurist have been making waves around the London circuit in recent months with their haunting brand of electro-tinged pop noir. Fresh from playing Roundhouse Rising and being included in the Glastonbury Emerging line-up, Sarah, Anna and David will lure you into their world and leave their mark on you from head to toe.

Rob Cowen & The Dissidents 

Rob Cowen & The Dissidents

London five-piece Rob Cowen & The Dissidents deal in euphoric mini-anthems that’ll have you singing until you’re hoarse. Their rock songs are full of honesty, harmony and hair-raising passion, and with their track Heartache having recently rocketed into the Amazing Radio Chart Top 10, it’s an opportune moment to see them live.

The night will be headlined by established London band Arrows of Love, who rocked The Wheelbarrow last month in the company of a thrilled crowd and have been described by Rockfeedback as providing “the sonic attack of At The Drive-In, with nods to Jesus Lizard and Quicksand.” The perfect way to round off the night!

So come and join us at the last in the series of Camden Crawl Tips shows on Thursday 24th March. Say hello, have a drink and join us for an evening of brilliant live music.

Tickets are priced at £6 and are available from this link. Make sure you keep up to date with all the latest Camden Crawl news on Facebook and Twitter.