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I have some questions about Radio in/around London; anyone willing to answer them, or refer me to a web resource?

What I want to know is: What do you call a radio station that plays older music such as early Rolling Stones and the Beatles, would that still be classic rock like we call it in the states, or is there another term?  What radio station in London would be most likely to play The Smiths?  Which station would play the newest pop or dance music?  Is radio in London mainly 'genre' radio like we have here (classic rock, new music, r&b, easy listening/light pop, dance/techno, etc) or do you have what we call independent or 'format-free' radio stations?  Also, I assume that radio stations everywhere hold contests for concert tickets and/or sponsor music festivals, but would any of the stations be likely to encourage community activity or charity work?

Thanks in advance.

Anyone else buy reference materials for their fanfic?  I know most of the writers on my flist do heavy research for original fiction featuring original characters.  But, how much research do you put into fic?

Doesn't matter if the fandom is X-Files, Whedon-verse, West Wing, Jane Austen novels, or something I am entirely un-interested in; seeing the words "This is my fist attempt at fanfic" attached to a story still make me smile.  Especially for those fandoms I participate in, however infrequently, that are above a decade old.

I have two friends on LJ, who not only write such great fic that they are two of my first 'favorite authors' in the BtVS/Angel fandoms, they also publish original fiction together.  One of their books is coming out in wide realease paperback this weekend!  From pepperlandgirl4's LJ:

Chasing Silver is special to eurydice72 and me [pepperlandgirl4] for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it is literally the first novel we ever wrote together. And we love this story so much. We love the characters. I don't know if any other book is so close to my heart.

Here is the blurb on the back of the book:

On the run in Washington, D.C. from a cop who cares more about inflicting pain than serving justice, Remy Capra grabs a handful of coins and jumps out a window. She lands seventy-five years back in time and across a continent in Los Angeles--at the feet of bounty hunter Nathan Pierce.

Remy isn't like any woman he's ever met. She's street-smart and sassy, but she needs help, and Nathan, against his own better judgment, offers it. Danger looms on all sides: Remy might be whisked back to her own time at any moment, a murderous gang lord is after them, and then there's the mystery of the Silver Maiden, a mystical coin with strange powers. Remy and Nathan may have a future--if she can evade her own past, and if they manage to keep alive in the ever-threatening present...

We want to celebrate. And we want everybody to celebrate with us. And in my entire life, I don't think I've ever experienced anything as exciting as knowing that my book is going to be in book stores across the country. I'd love to see some proof of it! So here's the deal: If you see a copy of our beautiful book and take a picture of it and mail me the link to jamiecraigbooks (at) gmail.com, I will send you a book from our Jamie Craig backlist. We'll be running this contest all month. Also, if you post this in your own blog, livejournal, etc, and post a link here you can win another book from our backlist.

To summarize:
1) Take a picture of Chasing Silver in a bookstore
2) Email the picture to me at jamiecraigbooks (at) gmail.com
3) Win a copy of a book!

Or
1) Cross-post this to your own blog/LJ/etc
2) Email me the link at jamiecraigbooks (at) gmail.com
3) Win a copy of a book!

Or
1) Do both
2) Win two books!

I really meant to buy the Buffy comics.  I got all excited about them existing.  And then, RL got in the way.

I saw a posting in one of the forums I visit that refered to it as 'canon-fanfic', which is exactly how I feel about it.  It's not true canon, because it's not on TV.  Period.  Although, I do confess to using the original movie as canon sometimes.  But, we were talking about the comics.  Joss is writing them, so they're canon.  Yet, they're not.  It's like Joss writing fanfic.  Which I'm okay with.  That's also exciting; now that he doesn't need to worry about production values, actors and their salaries, etc., he can do a lot of things with the characters that he might not have been able to do before.

All of that said...I missed the publication date of the first comic, by enough that the second is already out.  And I have to say, that as far as the spoilers go, I'm dissapointed.  We'll have to re-evaluate this next week, when I have a chance to read the first two comics.

When I write these entries, I like to have a point.  Or, at least a begining and end point.  I feel like this is just a little blurb floating in space, no relation to anything else, of no true value to the LJ community...

* Existential Crisis *

Okay, I think I'm better now.  What I've been thinking about, is cross-promotion; books that spawn movies, movies that spawn TV series, or vice versa.  I've never read any books based on movies or TV shows, I tend to see a lot of movies based on books I enjoyed, though.  And I'm not a huge comic person, although I've seen a good 2/3 of the comics-based movies that came out in the last 5 years.  

Why did I get so excited over the Buffy Comics?  Because Joss is working on them.  And, even if I never fully consider them canon, and even if they suck and I stop buying them at some point, that makes them worth noticing.  That the creator of the Buffy-verse still has ideas and input for those characters after all this time, says a lot for the verse, the fandom, and its creators.  I think it's impressive, which is why I'm gonna actually go out and buy comic books.

My ten year old self is mocking me with much glee.