GLAM Racket: London Libraries hosts Rough Music Rhyme Time and What Did the Hippie Have in His Bag?

Broadcast as part of Micro Clear Spot, 5th October 2026, Monday 11:30 am – 12:00 pm

This episode is a percussive collage from two family learning programmes in London libraries. It opens with the closing moments of "I'm Still Climbing Mountains" by Ronald Amanze and Paul Hitchmough, first played in full on the GLAM Racket show in June 2026, and ends with Cornershop, who tell us that once the mountain has been climbed, it will never be the same again.

2026 is the National Year of Reading, and this year's Summer Reading Challenge theme is "Read to the Beat", which these sessions took literally.

First up is Rough Music Rhyme Time, a percussionist-led, drop-in session where children and families made drums from paper cups, paper straws and balloons. It's inspired by library rhyme times, E. P. Thompson's essay Rough Music Reconsidered, Jack Zipes on community, storytelling and fairy tales, and the Bonfire Society parades of Lewes. Children could protest anything they liked, and mostly chose to celebrate the summer. We hear what happened across dozens of libraries, from the tentative experiments at Wallington to the cacophony of Forest Gate.

Then we move to What Did the Hippie Have in His Bag?, a tactile family workshop based on the Cornershop song and picture book. Families learned about vinyl on a real record player, and made zines, paper record players and poetry records. Then the children took over, mostly on the Theremin, and their improvisations play us out.

Music: "I'm Still Climbing Mountains" by Ronald Amanze and Paul Hitchmough; "What Did the Hippie Have in His Bag?" by Cornershop.

GLAM RACKET: LEWISHAM AND NEWHAM

Broadcast on 22nd July 2026, available in the archive on Resonance FM.

2026 is the National Year of Reading – a UK-wide campaign designed to inspire more people to make reading a regular part of their lives. This episode listens in on a conversation led by Lewisham Libraries with people working and learning at Prendergast Vale School about all things book-related.

The theme of this year's Summer Reading Challenge is "Read to the Beat." GLAM Racket took that literally by kicking off the challenge with Rough Music Rhyme Time in Newham libraries, where standard nursery rhymes got turned into something closer to a percussive, celebratory racket.

…

GLAM RACKET: NEWHAM AND RONALD AMANZE

Broadcast on 22nd June 2026, available in the archive on Resonance FM.

Today explores repair and the experience of being seen and heard. We visit Robbie Judkins at a Repair Café at Forest Gate Library in Newham. Residents, volunteer fixers and library staff come together. Organised by East London Waste Authority and Newham Libraries, the café highlights the value of repair in reducing waste, saving money and strengthening community ties.

We also hear from Ronald Amanze, who, following a stroke, realised he had a health condition which had been misunderstood. Now living with dementia and advocating for being active and creative to stay healthy, Ronald reflects on what it means to be truly heard by councils and public services, and why he often turns to writing, art and music to express himself beyond labels such as "bad behaviour". The programme closes with a song Ronald collaborated on with Paul Hitchmough called “I'm Still Climbing Mountains”.  

…

GLAM RACKET: CAMDEN AND BRENT

Broadcast on 25th May 2026, available at the archive on Resonance FM.

This show explores community storytelling, reggae heritage and creative expression. From the streets of Harlesden we hear from Janet Kay, honoured by Harlesden Bassline for her contribution to British reggae culture. We visit writing groups and libraries across Camden, hearing recordings from live reading events led by Kit Slatford alongside the voices of Cynthia Cao, Sheryl Sze and Adam Khan in a multilingual exploration of translation, memory, poetry and co-creative writing.

…

GLAM RACKET: BRENT

Broadcast on the 11th March 2025, available at the archive on Resonance FM.

This episode focuses on the centenary of the British Empire Exhibition, 1924 and 1925, in Wembley through the Becoming Brent project, a National Lottery Heritage-funded initiative examining the legacies of empire and public memory in the London Borough of Brent. Blending oral history, archival recordings, interviews with community researchers, and experimental sound, the programme revisits the spectacle of the Exhibition while questioning how imperial histories continue to shape cultural institutions and everyday life today.