Just over a year ago KhaoSanRoad.com sauntered down to Sripoom Espresso Bar to meet Daryl Lloyd and DJ Steve "Manow" Moss. Back then, they'd recently kicked off a twenty-four seven Internet radio station called UBRadio.net and had just moved into a custom built studio on Samsen Soi 5 (just down the road from Khao San). They were also embarking on organizing events at some of Bangkok's major clubs. Big ideas, big talk… but did they walk the walk?

"It's been a pretty good year," suggested DJ Manow taking a break from preparing the next round of uploads for UBRadio.net. Clearly, his mastery of the turntables is rivaled only by his mastery of the understatement. "We aimed to pull together local talent into a genuine underground scene, and I think we've done that. Through UBRadio.net local DJs now have a following around the world. DJs come to the site and just upload their stuff. Visitors can just download the stuff they like - house, reggae, drums and bass… We really have every possible genre of music ready for anyone to download. There are around 900 downloads on the site right now… in fact we've got so much material there's a waiting list for getting on our shows. And people are listening. We've got over 6,000 people registered to the site and through networking sites like Facebook we've pulled around 25,000 contacts together. It's amazing."

Amazing indeed… UBRadio's efforts have helped change the world's impression of Thailand. Alongside TAT's carefully crafted image of a nation of people selling flowers from boats on canals, the world now knows Thailand - and especially Bangkok - as a hub of world-class underground urban culture at the forefront of where that scene is going.

Although probably a full-time job in its own right, the radio station is just one aspect of UBRadio's two pronged attack on the Bangkok scene. "We've been working with some of Bangkok's best clubs. Places like Glow, 808, club Culture and of course QBar," adds Manow. "We've brought some major international acts to Bangkok - people like Dub Pistols, Lee Coombs, and Malente. And many of them have been down here to play live," says Manow, gesturing to the UBRadio studio that's nestled on the ground floor of a large apartment block that houses hundreds of people. "This studio is fully soundproofed by the way," he adds. Hopefully. If the noise coming out of the studio carried to the upper floors, there would likely be a riot.

So with everything going as planned and things growing quite nicely thank you very much, well… You know what they say; "If it's not broken, don't fix it." Right? Wrong… "It's just that the time is right," continues Manow referring to UBRadio's upcoming sortie onto Khao San Road.

"Working with the clubs we've come across acts that just don't fit into the current scene. They need something fresh. People enjoy the nightlife on Khao San Road, but there's no real scene for people to latch onto. What we want to do is bring top international acts to Khao San, to a more western audience that probably doesn't need to be educated about who the acts are and the music they are listening to. It should be pretty immediate. Genres like Drums and Bass need a big place like The Club where people can really enjoy it."

Working with Dave Milligan at Champion Sound, UBRadio kicked off in the right direction. Wednesday 20th January 2010 saw DJ Fresh come to KSR. 'Knowledge Magazine' wrote this… "Perhaps DJ Fresh has been the biggest influence on drum and bass we've ever known." Praise indeed.

Class western acts though mean class western prices, and that's not something Khao San Road is famous for - quite the opposite in fact. "If we had done this (DJ Fresh) on Sukhumvit or RCA (Bangkok's main club/entertainment areas) then it would have cost 800 Baht a ticket (currently around $24US). We did it on Khao San for 400 Baht , including two drinks. That's the right price to bring the Khao San people in and even attract people around Bangkok to come to KSR to see what's going on. If these events are a success - if people like them and they bring people in, we'll be doing something monthly and then hopefully move to something bi-monthly. It's a challenge we are looking forward to."

It certainly sounds exciting, but after being located on Khao San Road's doorstep for over a year, the question comes to mind, "Why now?"

"As I said, the time is right…," reiterates Manow. "It's not really a financial thing; it's not necessarily going to make much money. What we want is to revitalize the DJ culture on Khao San Road and if this one works we will do another one next month. We just want a real club scene on Khao San Road."

Sounds good? We think so, too.

If you want to learn more about UBRadio visit their website.

If you want to contact DJ Manow directly, email him here.