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THIS FRIDAY!!!

                 WRIR 97.3fm is proudly turning the big 10 and we invite you to join us February 6th, 2015 to help commemorate this milestone in local, community-driven radio at the biggest Party for the Rest of Us…

Tickets may be purchased here!

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                 WRIR 97.3fm is proudly turning the big 10 and we invite you to join us February 6th, 2015 to help commemorate this milestone in local, community-driven radio at the biggest Party for the Rest of Us...

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Image credit: Scott Elmquist Style Weekly

Opinion: VCU has facilitated much of Richmond’s cultural boom. Yet the growth of the university, especially in the last 20 years, hasn’t always been seen in a good light.

Is today's live music and associated art scene in Richmond the coolest it's been for a while? Given the musicians, artists, nightlife venues and galleries, you might think so. And judging from local media, including Facebook posts, it's easy to gather the impression that a lot of people think the answer should be yes.

Maybe it's true. In 20 years we'll be better equipped to say for sure. But if the premise is accurate, then I wonder about timing: Today's in-crowd, music-and-art-driven milieu has been the coolest since when?

If we're to believe much of what was said during the RVA Music History Tour, put on Sept. 27 by WRIR-FM 97.3, the answer is the late-'70s to mid-'80s, centered on the Fan District's nightlife scene. That was when the 800 and 900 blocks of West Grace Street were the epicenter of what was shaking.

More of the article on Style Weekly here.

Read more of F. T. Rea's writing in any of his blogs posts about Richmond including his counterculture movie, music and Fan District area posts here.

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2014 WRIR Fund Drive: Help keep independent radio alive in RVA and get a cool tribute t shirt.  Join here!

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Donate here! Hot Dolphin rocking our Fall Fund Drive 2014 tribute T. You can get yours by calling 804-622-9747 or clicking here and donating $50. Gabba gabba hey!

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By Dale Brumfield, contributing writer for The Commonwealth Times 

"Fueled by more than 20 consumed kegs of beer, one bathroom, cops with guns and an abruptly shortened headline act, the Iggy Pop Halloween concert held Oct. 31, 1981 in the Mosque (now Altria Theater) basement could be considered a true VCU riot."

Read more at about this early punk rock, halloween event at VCU here on at the Commonwealth Times.

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1986 Handbill. A Lit Fuse production. Art designed by F.T. Rea.

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The Richmond OKeh Sessions of 1929.

BY DON HARRISON

"A few months before the Great Depression in 1929, New York's OKeh record label held a multiartist field recording session in Richmond that led to more than two dozen 78-rpm releases by area singers and musicians. We still don't know exactly where this interracial talent show happened — restrictive Virginia laws concerning race mixing ensured that the endeavor was hush-hush — but OKeh's engineers managed to capture a diverse array of sounds: old-time country music (Roanoke Jug Band, pictured, the Buck Mountain Band), white gospel (Bela Lam, Otis and Tom Mote), "hot" jazz (Bubblin' Over 5), black religious quartets (Monarch Jazz Quartet, Sparkling Four), blues (Blues Birdhead), even a Hawaiian string band (Tubize Hawaiians) from Hopewell."

Read more at Style Weekly here.

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Shafer Court flyer, Barriers and Degenerate Blind Boys, June 1982(?), Virginia Commonwealth University

Photo credit: Dale Brumfield

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Flyers from VCU's Cabell Library Special Collections on the WRIR Richmond Music History Walking Tour a week ago today.

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ThroTTle "Bennyfit" flyer, January 1982. Design by Dale Brumfield.

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Empire stop on the WRIR Music History Tour.

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The Mosque ( now Landmark) Theater tour stop on the Richmond Music History Tour.

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Photo credit: Ron Smith

       "On Halloween, 1981, the Iggy Pop show at the Mosque was declared over by Richmond Police at 1:00 AM after only thirty minutes. The outraged and intoxicated crowd stormed the stage, throwing projectiles at three policemen. One policeman panicked and hurled his billy club into the crowd, striking and injuring a student, before waving his handgun. He was subdued by his fellow policemen."

Don Harrison from Open Source RVA

  Learn more about this TODAY at 11 am on the WRIR Richmond Music History Walking Tour. Purchase tickets at wrir.org.

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"My homage to Donald Cooper, the scariest candy-man on Grace Street, was published in Soundzine's December 1983 issue." by F. T. Rea 

Learn more TODAY on the WRIR Richmond Music History Walking Tour. Starts at 11 am. Get more details and purchase tickets at wrir.org.

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Richmond band that formed in 1974, played regularly at many Fan and VCU area clubs and still occasionally play out.

Check out their story here.

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Classic 1980's line up for this show at Hard Times in 1982 (where Elephant Thai is now at Harrison & Cary). 

Art by F. T. Rea. Check out his work and blogs here.

Learn more tomorrow about VCU area music history on the WRIR Richmond Music History Walking Tour. Purchase tickets at wrir.org.