This weekend marks the 6th anniversary of the first Friday NI Rocks Show being broadcast on Rock Radio NI on 27th August 2010. The 297th Show has just been uploaded to the On Demand Player – we’ve missed a few uploads over the years, mainly due to problems with my laptop! (The NI Rocks A-Z Show started a few months earlier and is currently on Show number 324). As I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to stats, I thought it was worth looking back over the first 6 years of the Friday NI Rocks Show. We’ve broadcast 50 interviews (44 in the last three years) and included almost 4,000 tracks by around 650 different artists on the playlists.

 


 

On the Friday NI Rocks Show I have the flexibility to play whatever I want each week rather than following the A-Z approach, so it’s interesting to look back at what I’ve been playing over the past few years. I always try to include new releases on the Show, which probably explains why there are 650 different artists on the playlist. I’ve also focused on playing local bands and classic rock bands and that is evident in the list of artists who have been included on the Friday NI Rocks Show playlists 20 times or more. To be honest there are a few bands that I’m surprised not to see on the list, but here it is:

 

Million Dollar Reload 106; Trucker Diablo 88; Tesla 86; Stormzone 85; The Answer 78; Screaming Eagles 72; Iron Maiden 52; Whitesnake 47; Black Stone Cherry 46; Baleful Creed 42; Tygers of Pan Tang 40; Blackfoot 39; Swanee River 39; Thunder 38; Great White 37; The Last Vegas 35; Sweet Taste 34; Buckcherry 32; Kings of the Sun 32; Ozzy Osbourne 32; Triggerman 32; Y & T 31; Hessler 30; The Quireboys 30; AC/DC 29; Gasoline Outlaws 28; A Little Bitter 27; Ajenda 27; Guns n Roses 27; Saxon 27; Slaughter 27; White Lion 27; Worldsend 27; House of Lords 26; Motley Crue 25; Black Freeway 24; Bobaflex 24; Cinderella 24; Kobra and the Lotus 24; Sinocence 22; Black Label Society 21; Hydrogyn 21; The Treatment 21; Dave Rude Band 20; Five Finger Death Punch 20; Last Known Addiction 20; Lita Ford 20; The Red Velvetines 20.


Sitting just under the 20 mark are bands such as Black Sabbath, Glyder, Halestorm, Inch High, Maverick, Orianthi, Shakra and The Burning Crows.

 

These figures relate to the number of times the artists have been included on a specific playlist for a Show. As each Show is repeated several times on the website during the week and some Shows have been repeated for a few weeks when no new uploads were done, the number of actual plays is much greater. In addition each Show is available via the On Demand Player or as a podcast.