So here we go with a little bit of gossip: Hopefully by now, you will have accessed our (during our less than legal days) Solar Radio newsletter # 2 - just as it appeared in 1985! Just to clarify a couple of things in case you didn't know: Jude James is the original pseudonym for James Anthony - now of course one of the top live DJ's in the London area; and Robbie V. of course refers to Robbie Vincent.

Other DJ's mentioned in the newsletter who were part of the original set-up, but are still doing regular shows on Solar 2012: Les Adams, Clive R, Bob Jones and yours truly; and in the last few years, DJ's such as Mark McCarthy, Peter Young, Paul Buick and CJ Carlos (oh, and Robbie V. too!) have done guest shows for us. Barry Jameson was our breakfast DJ for quite a while too. Very sadly, though, one great DJ who passed away in recent years was Tony Hodges (he was also one of the head honchos at Slough Record Centre). By the way, there was never a newsletter #3 - we never managed to get that one together

Now a brief look at some of the brilliant LPs and tracks being championed on the Solar daytime shows in particular: Lamone had a great house track recently taken from the Honeycomb Music Vol 1 LP - but the new download single 'On the rocks' is a pure r&b delight - one of the catchiest tunes around...Watch out for a track by Taylor Hyll - presumably from a forthcoming album - entitled 'Xpression of xoxo (love)' a real social comment song that creeps up on you big time...On the last smooth jazz Najee album there was a soulful killer ('Just to fall in love') and indeed the same goes for saxophonist Darren Rahn on his new LP called 'Speechless' - check out the amazing track 'Magical' featuring vocalist Joshua...Jaidene Veda has a couple of things out - a soulful house tune called 'Who knew' - along with Osaze - with a great long instrumental break; but she's also on a track to be found on Compton's LP 'Compton's soul' entitled Oh love I' - pure Naked Music-style stuff - highly recommended (available at Soul Brother)...Melanie Fiona's LP 'The MF file' is nothing special, until you come to the killer track 'L.O.V.E.' featuring John Legend - this is a hot hot daytime radio track - so much Solar it hurts!

Natasha Watts is going to be our guest at the Abbey Bar on June 2nd; she has done some great soulful garage tracks - but her new single 'Back 2 you' is a mid-tempo delight, and destined to be a Solar anthem, I would say...Filthy Six are a great jazz-fusion combo - their LP 'The fox' is mainly instrumental, but there's a wicked version of Michael Jackson's 'Girlfriend' which sounds like Tower Of Power at their best...There's some great Gospel around - but apart from Brian Coutney Wilson's 'Keep pressing on' which is going great guns in the US Gospel album chart, most of it (just as last year) is independent; check out Michon Young's 'Possessing the promise' some great ethereal tracks very reminiscent of Anita Baker; also the wonderful Tina Jankins Crawley with her LP 'The longest journey' - so many great tracks; and the UK compilation LP Musiq4TheSoul - great classy r&b tunes from the likes of V9 Collective, Zie'l and Terry Newsome.

Tony Monson