Author: Miranda Rae

When Miranda started out in the industry she was one of the few females in the job.

Article by Yvonne Deeley – Bristol Post

When a young girl from St Pauls was left blind in one eye after an accident involving a gun, it was not only her eye that was left shattered. Her dreams of becoming an actress were destroyed even before she auditioned when the man conducting the auditions took one look at her eye and sent her away.

Miranda Rae, who now works as the station manager at Bristol’s Ujima Radio, found the community radio station to be a safe space after a series of traumatic life events led to her stepping away from her career in commercial radio when she was at the height of success. Now with over 35 years of experience in the industry, Miranda continues to support local Bristol talent and feels inspired by the artists who have risen after being unknown before she gave them a platform.

From being part of the first all-female radio station to presenting on the first UK pirate radio station that gained a legal licence, Miranda has achieved a lot over the years but has rarely received any recognition for her hard work. “I was the first person in the UK to have a legal jungle show. I actually gave Roni Size his first show and had a top 10 jungle countdown with DJ Dazee,” she said.

“We have just been celebrating 30 years of jungle and how Bristol were pioneers of jungle and drum and bass. I helped get Roni Size and the Full Cycle crew signed to Talking Loud record label and then they went on to win the Mercury prize. I was really proud to be part of a British explosion of a new genre.

“There’s nothing quite like it that we’ve had before that was British and Bristol and it was incredible to be part of that. We are looking back now at the important role Bristol played in that explosion of drum and bass.

“Galaxy Radio had a platform to play music that nobody else could. It was because of West Country sales that Renegade Master by Wild Child had got into the charts and I was the only one who had this song”, explains Miranda who had persuaded her bosses at Galaxy in the early 1990s to give her an underground music show.

In the early 2000s after a decade of working in the music industry, Miranda felt that life could not get any better, but was hit with a series of traumatic life events simultaneously. She began to get stalked and then experienced date rape after being spiked. Then she discovered her mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Miranda said: “I got stalked and woke up being raped in my own home. I didn’t tell anyone about either, for a long time. I didn’t go to the police because I was spiked as well and I didn’t know if it was my fault. So many women feel that they’re responsible and I know now that I wasn’t.

“It was mad, it was like I’d got to this amazing point of success and then suddenly all people wanted to do was knock me down. It was really scary that things happened at such a close proximity.

“I started to have nightmares because if you are attacked in your sleep it’s really going to affect the way you sleep and it still does today. Then I realised that they were memories and it uncovered all these memories of abuse that I had as a child.

“It was the fact that my brain had managed to block it which was bizarre. I had so much to deal with and I lost a lot of weight, I stopped going out and I wouldn’t see anyone.

“I hadn’t had much of a relationship with my mum and dad for 15 years but felt that back to my parents was the only place I could go to feel safe and then my mum got diagnosed with terminal cancer. I gave up my career to look after my mum for two years before she passed away. I built up a close relationship with my dad and I’m so glad I had the chance to be there.”

Miranda said that it was only when she returned after volunteering in the aftermath of the 2003 tsunami in Thailand that she rediscovered herself, trained in journalism and spent some years working for an English language paper in Thailand.

After bringing up her son in Bristol she found a safe space at Ujima, where she has worked as the station manager for the past 10 years, alongside creating her own organisation Sound Women for women working in audio.

Link to full story:

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/meet-bristol-radio-trailblazer-who-9415701?fbclid=IwY2xjawFlRHxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYGkTiYXOVy9W0QlbicXSbs36WX-BVLs47wtMO4aTIR3oGUEiD1uwrcoAg_aem_fY9LtS7knMq1L2RjgOiwiw

The South West Sound System will celebrate local talent at the Bristol Rising stage!

Journalist Yvonne Deeley gives a platform to this celebration of Grassroots Artists at Bristol’s largest Festival, see link below for the story.

A showcase of Bristol talent is coming to the Bristol Harbour Festival this year. Performing at Queen Square, the South West Soundsystem which features a range of local musicians and artists will be performing between 6pm and 10pm on Saturday July 20.

The inspirational Bristol-born poet Muneera Pilgrim will open the stage at 6pm and hosts Miranda Rae and Krazy will introduce the acts. The music line-up will begin with Tianna whose music career has taken off this year, after only releasing her first single a year ago after her mother sent the track to Ujima Radio.

Krazy, who does The Wordlife Show on Ujima every Tuesday evening and has his own Youtube channel with the same name, will introduce 14 artists from his record label. Performing a lot of the hit tracks they have released, as well as upcoming tracks ranging from UK Garage to hip hop, grime and Drum and Bass, Rising Son, Impact Merv, Iggz, Kali-Mist, Yung UK, Origin and Kray Bristol, are just a few of the rappers that will be alongside Krazy who will perform tracks from his new album.

After performances from Mary Mina, electronic music artist Frilla will present La La Land with Ms Lex and Millie whitestone. The South West Soundsystem line-up will end with Krush Landing who recently headlined the BS3 festival and will be joined by guests, including St Paul’s-based dancehall artist and producer Lorna Da’Angel.

Curator Miranda Rae, who currently works as the station manager at Ujima Radio. said: ”It’s a real privilege and an honour to be able to do something like this. What’s so great about my job at Ujima, and what crosses over to this, is being able to pioneer and support emerging talent.

“You’ve got artists like Krush Landing, who has just performed at BS3 Live, representing the city and shining a huge spotlight on Bristol. It’s just a great opportunity to perform at Bristol’s biggest festival.

“What I love about what we are doing on the South West Sound System is that we are particularly supporting grassroots talent. A lot of these artists have been discovered through our power plays at Ujima, which are about supporting local talent.”

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/bristol-grassroots-artists-takeover-queen-9414270