Childhood
heroes come in various shapes and guises. For a generation of children of the
60s chances are it’s the indestructible defeater of the Mysterons, one Captain
Scarlet.
Like many
boys of my age I loved all those puppet series: Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90.
Though filmed in glorious ‘Supermarionation’ we saw them in good old black and
white. I remember every Friday walking round to the newsagents in Brough with
my Dad - he was going for that night’s copy of the Hull Daily Mail - to pick up the latest issue of the TV21 comic. I’d pour over those blowout
diagrams of the gadgets and vehicles. Shame
I didn’t keep them, they’d be worth a fortune on eBay.
Anderson’s
series led to the creation of a whole set of Corgi toys. I had the blue
Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (inexplicably the driver sat facing backwards and
drove with the aid of a monitor).But mostly I yearned to have Joe 90s attache
case, I never did get it.
As a tribute
to Gerry Anderson, who died earlier this week I’ve dug out this edition of the
Radio 4 arts programme Kaleidoscope
from 1987. Broadcast at the time of Anderson working on a new project, Space Police, its presented by
Christopher Cook. You’ll hear not only
Gerry Anderson himself but also Lew Grade, special effects supremo Derek
Meddings, puppeteer Christine Glanville and actors Francis Matthews, Ed Bishop
and David Graham.
Kaleidoscope: FAB was broadcast on
Wednesday 23 December 1987.
It’s
Christmas Day! My final advent radio offering is Classic FM’s take on the
Medieval mystery plays. The Christmas
Mysteries imagines how they might have been performed by the craft guild in
15th century Yorkshire. The play is written by David Spicer and stars Jack
Shepherd, Mark Benton, Jasper Britton, Catherine Cusack and Simon Greenall. It
was directed by Frank Stirling for Unique Productions.
That’s all
from Random Radio Jottings for 2012. A Happy Christmas to those of you who
follow the blog. I’m back in 2013 starting with a tribute to Sports Report.
Reviewing
the major events of 2011 are Richard Bacon with Clive Anderson, Jon Holmes and
Katie Hopkins.The show may have been
the Radio Times pick of the day the year before but Richard hasn’t got the gig
at all this year: the Review of the Year
on 27 December is with Tony Livesey and Stephen Nolan.Warning: this recording contains Jimmy
Savile!
Holding
court everyday on Talksport are Richard Keys and Andy Gray, who moved to the
station from Sky Sports in February 2011. A year ago today there was no Andy,
who had “business elsewhere ” so joining Richard is Brian Moore. The guest is
former Coventry City and Liverpool player Gary Gillespie.
There’s a major
shake-up of BBC Local Radio just around the corner in January but the keystone
of all the stations, remaining unchanged, are their Breakfast Show programmes.
Every morning in Shropshire it’s in the hands of Eric Smith and Clare Ashford.
Eric is another
name I know from Radio Humberside, and you’ll have also heard him on Radio
Sheffield and Radio Aire.
A delightful
mix of self-effacing humour, music and a paean to the joys of radio John
Osborne’s John Peel’s Shed had been
touring the country when it was recorded for this Radio 4 broadcast. The spark for the show was an eclectic box of
records that John won in a Peel slogan competition: “records you want to hear,
played by a man who wants to hear them”. John Peel's Shed_211211
Memories
from 70 years ago: Petula Clark’s radio debut, Wilfred Pickles singing the
Internationale, Dimbleby over Berlin, Ack
Ack Beer Beer, Victor Sylvester’s Dance
Club and Churchill announcing the end of the beginning.
Christmas 42 was a BBC
Radio 4 programme presented by Christopher Andrew was first broadcast on Saturday
25 December 1982.
A real end
of term feeling to this award-winning show as Ditchy & Salty prepare to
leave Real Radio in the North West – a decision that angered many listeners. In
the studio alongside David Ditchfield and Paul Salt is Debbie Ousbey (who
continued at Real for a couple of months or so before she was also dropped).
Playing in their ‘best bits’ with clips of Peter Kay and Anne Kirkbride.
Time for
some jazz. As Sarah Ward says here’s music in a “cool and mellow” mood. So
unwind with this recording of part of Dinner
Jazz from 19 December 2011.
In 2011
there was a Christmas Day chart so strictly the Christmas No 1 wasn’t
announced, on the radio at least, until just before 7 pm on the big day. The
question was whether the X Factor winner was going to make No. 1, or would
there be a concerted attempt to back an outsider. In fact the number one hit
announced on the 18th differed depending on your source. The Official Chart with Reggie Yates on Radio 1 did indeed see
Little Mix make the top spot.
Over on commercial radio the Vodafone Big Top 40 with Rich Clarke and Kat Shoob had the Military
Wives Choir. In the event it was the
Choir that made the official Christmas number one. Had the X Factor winning
song been released a week too early?
As you’ll
hear the X Factor acts (Rebecca Ferguson, One Direction, The Finalists, Leona
Lewis and Olly Murs) and some old seasonal favourites made up the bulk of the
chart.
With Mike
Harding leaving Radio 2’s folk show this month I’m posting this brief history
of folk programming on the network. Admittedly Mike has not chosen to leave but
with the changing of the guard after nearly 15 years I recall the names of
Wally Whyton, Tony Capstick and Jim Lloyd.
When Radio 2
started in September 1967 the folk show, broadcast on that opening Saturday,
was billed as a Radio 1 production, but simulcast on Radio 2. In fact it was
not purely folk, but an hour-long mix of country and folk under the title that
made this abundantly clear: Country Meets
Folk. Hosting proceedings was Wally Whyton. At the time Wally was already
known as a skiffle player and folk singer and to a generation of children,
myself included, as appearing with the puppets Olly Beak and Fred Barker on
ITV’s The Five o’Clock Club. He’d already broadcast on the Light Programme
in Skiffle Club, Folk Room and It’s One
o’Clock.
Country Meets Folk was an old Light
Programme show, first aired in July 1967 in the dying days of the old network.
It was a replacement for the half hour A
Cellar Full of Folk, both programmes being produced by Ian Grant.Alongside Wally was Jim Lloyd (more formally
billed in the Light Programme shows as James Lloyd) who was tasked with
presenting the folk and country news and then later also looking after the new
record release reviews.
In the
rather confusing way that programmes were scheduled back then by early 1969 Country Meets Folk had moved to an
earlier slot on Saturday afternoon on Radio 1 only, but months later shifted
across to become a Radio 2 show, this time simulcast on Radio 1. The other
occasional hosts were Malcolm Price and Johnny Silvo.
Throughout
most of 1968 and 1969 Wednesday evenings, again on Radio 1, was home to a
series of specially recorded folk sessions called My Kind of Folk. Most of this series was produced by Frances Line –
later to become Mrs Jim Lloyd and in the 1990s Controller of Radio 2.
Of course
other shows featured folk music, especially with the rise of progressive folk
at the end of the 60s. On Radio 1 John Peel, David Symonds and Night Ride all
played folk sessions.
Whilst
continuing to contribute to Country Meets
Folk, Jim Lloyd was to get his first solo folk series, Folk on Friday, starting on Radio 2 on 10 April 1970. This was also
produced by France Line. Jim had started as an actor in repertory before
joining Tyne-Tees in 1959 as a continuity announcer, moving to ATV two years
later. There was a spell introducing Midlands
Today on BBC1 before contributing to radio shows such as Today, Roundabout and Woman’s Hour.
A chance meeting in 1964 with The Spinners sparked his interest in folk music.
Folk on Friday ended in September 1971
when a schedule re-shuffle introduced the daily magazine show After Seven. Its replacement was Folk on 2, again with Jim at the helm
and now going out late on a Sunday night. Meanwhile Country Meets Folk itself lasted another year, finally closing its
doors in September 1972. Wally would return to Radio 2 the following year with Country Club – but that’s another story,
and another blog post.
Folk on 2 continued as the sole folk
show from October 1972 by which time it had shifted to a midweek position. But
it was joined by an accompanying programme Folk
73 from 4 July 1973, the presenter this time being one Simon Bates.Each week this show presented a different
folk artist or group in a 30-minute session and so it fell to the continuity
announcing staff, of which Simon was one, to do the honours. Folk 73 became, not unnaturally, Folk 74 with Len Jackson and then Jack
McLaughlin. Folk 75 again had Jack as
the announcer. For a few weeks on 1976 we also had Folk 76, this time with Michael Meech.
I am,
however, leaping ahead with the timeline, as back on 8 July 1973 Folk on 2 was replaced by Folkweave, best known, of course, for
being presented by Tony Capstick. Tony had been on the club circuit since the
early 60s but got his break into broadcasting thanks to Radio Sheffield, where
his popular, if quirky style ensured a 30 years career with the station.
Regrettably ill health due to heavy drinking led to his dismissal in early 2003
and his death a few months later.
Folkweave was to be a Radio 2 fixture
until 17 January 1980. The series was produced in Manchester by Peter Pilbeam.
In fact show one in 1973 was presented by Harry Boardman and Harry along with
Martin Winsor filled-in for Tony when he was unavailable. This is a clip of
Tony in 1978. I can’t take credit for this recording which I’ve edited down
from the show that I found on the web; at the time of writing the whole
show, plus several others, are available to download.
Here’s Tony
with his final Folkweave on 17
January 1980.
Three years
after Folkweave started there was
another new show, Both Sides Now,
again a fusion of country and folk, again presented by Wally Whyton with Jim
Lloyd doing the news and reviews. Starting in early 1976 on a Thursday night it
moved to a Saturday, after Sport on 2,
from that October until the end of its run in December 1977.
1978 saw the
revival of the session shows with Folk 78
from 3 January, this time with announcer and part-time folk singer Ruth Cubbin.
Later that year Johnny Silvo took over, continuing with Folk 79. Folk 80, running
from January to March, was introduced by Isla St Clair.
Folk on 2 with Jim Lloyd returned to the
airwaves on 31 March 1980, and remained part of the schedules until 1997.
Here’s Jim introducing that first show that would feature The McCalmans, Seamus
Gavin, Cyril Tawney and folk news with Colin Irwin.
After 30
years of presenting folk music Jim Lloyd retired in 1997. His place in early
1998 was taken by Ralph McTell, who’d’ sat in for Jim the previous summer. This
is part of Jim’s last show on 17 December 1997, with apologies for some of the
reception interference part-way through.
And so we
come to the present but departing incumbent, Mike Harding. Mike first show was
broadcast on 22 April 1998 and would soon be billed as “the best in folk, roots
and acoustic based music”. During his
tenure a new generation of folk performers have ensured yet another revival of
folk music and from 2000 Radio 2 initiated the annual Folk Awards. In October
it was announced that Mark Radcliffe would front the weekly folk show from next
January. Mike’s last programme is on Boxing Day.
The notion
of getting the nation’s funny men to play DJ probably started in the 1980s with
Lenny Henry.A year ago Absolute Radio
offered us shows with Frank Skinner and Dave Gorman, who left the station just
last month.
Today’s
advent calendar radio offering is part of Frank’s show from 17 December 2011.
With him in the studio are Alun Cochrane and Emily Dean.
One of the
radio moments of 2012 must be Danny Baker’s on-air two-hour (“pinhead weasels”)
rant. On 16 December 2011 however it was
business as usual on Danny’s BBC London 94.9 afternoon show. As you’d expect
there’s an eclectic mix of talking points and music. With Danny is Baylen
Leonard.
There’s a
unwritten rule that all commercial radio breakfast shows must be (a) constantly
plugged all day and (b) hosted by a couple of DJs, ideally one male, one
female. Presumably the expected on-air chemistry will produce great results.
This time
last year Viking FM Breakfast host Paul Foster had left the station in November
and filling in at short notice was Drivetime DJ Ant Nichols alongside Rosie
Madison. For December the station was running a ‘Cliff is Cool’ campaign. Probably
started in response to the launch of Absolute 60s in November that had declared
itself a Cliff-free zone, despite his musical contribution in that decade. For Viking though it was all in the name of the
Cash4Kids charity.
Waking up
listeners in South Yorkshire is Radio Sheffield’s Toby Foster. A year ago today
he was encouraging folk to phone-in with their Desert Island Discs – the Radio 4 programme was celebrating its
70th anniversary.
Apologies
for a few pops and clicks on this recording.
This time
last year the bad weather was dominating the news. Those storms were battering
the Isle of Man and so news of the Steam Packet sailings features in this
recording of the daily morning news programme on Manx Radio, Mandate AM hosted by John Moss. Mandate AM_131211
The notion
of sending Simon Bates into a war zone is not a new one. Back in his Radio 1
days Simes went off to the Gulf War. So it is perhaps surprising, and quite
heartening, for Smooth Radio to spend the time and resources on a week of
programmes from Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. It makes fascinating listening.
Four months
later it was Bates in the Falklands. Meanwhile this week on Radio 1 Greg
James’s show is broadcast live from Afghanistan.
This is
perhaps untypical of Johnnie’s usual Sounds
of the 70s shows on BBC Radio 2. No musical guest. Instead, in this programme from 11 December last year, we get Sir Roger Moore, so the
link with all things 70s remains a little tenuous.
Michael Bublé was all
over the radio and TV schedules last year – mind you he did have a Christmas
album to promote. In fact he’s back this year too – already appearing on Heart
and with a series of seasonal shows on both Magic and Smooth this month.
In these
recordings you’ll hear Michael chatting to Dermot O’Leary on his Saturday
afternoon Radio 2 show and also doing a spot of DJ’ing – voicetracked one
assumes - on Magic 105.4. It seems we simply can’t get enough of the Bublé.
It was only
in retrospect that I realised that the geographic spread of stations I’ve
chosen for this series of advent posts is concentrated in the North, can you
tell I come from Hull?
There’s a
Hull connection here as I remember Simon Logan from his Viking days but now on
daily at BBC Newcastle. We get the good old radio standby of The Golden Hour, in this case two
mystery years under the title ‘Time of Our
Lives’. There’s the first of many appearances in these recordings of the
eventual winners of The X Factor,
Little Mix. You have been warned.
Jamie
Theakston’s usual partner on Heart Breakfast in London was Harriet Scott (who’s
just left the show after seven years) but this time last year Emma Bunton was
sitting in – we even get a Spice Girls track.
At 32
minutes in see how many of the tasks you still do that have now been replaced
by new technology.
Peter Levy
is your multimedia man. Viewers of Look
North in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire can see Peter grilling local
politicians and needling weatherman Paul Hudson each weekday evening.
Meanwhile at
lunchtime on BBC Radio Humberside (as well as BBC Radio Lincolnshire) Peter’s
doing what local radio does best, covering local issues or providing a local
slant on national stories. So in this programme we get wind turbines in
Swanland, working half-pay to help your employer, Sue Holderness in panto at
Grimsby and why staff who work in HR are more likely to get off with someone
else at the Christmas party.
Amazingly
Ken has occupied Radio 2’s mid-morning slot for twenty years; it’s a
broadcasting institution.
In this
recording you’ll hear all the usual features: The Love Song, Pop Master, Tracks
of My Years (Ralph McTell) and the banter with travel reporter Lynn Bowles.
This show also includes a magical live performance from Carole King.
In the days
of my daily commute into York I always had Galaxy as one of the presets. If I
wasn’t tuning in to Moyles or Wogan it was Hirsty.
Simon Hirst,
Danny Oakes and Jojo Kelly have been a fixture on Galaxy/Capital for nearly a
decade so a chat, a laugh and a bit of bickering amongst mates is the order of
the day.
When Moyles left Radio 1 breakfast in
September Hirsty was told to expect more listeners, his typically
self-deprecating response on Twitter was that you’ll need to “lower your
expectations” if you do listen.
In today’s
advent radio countdown it’s the Sunday show from 4 December 2011 with Mark Punter’s Gravy Train. This segment is billed as The Big Quiz of the Week as listeners
phone-in to win … the Mark Punter Prize Pen! Well were are talking BBC local
radio budgets!
I’m a
regular listener to this show as Mark and I both have an appreciation for the
late great broadcaster Ray Moore.
This time
last year the BBC local radio stream was suffering from ‘pops and clicks’ that
had started about December and wasn’t fixed until around Easter time. So
apologies in advance for quality of this recording.
A trip to
Scotland for today’s advent offering. Although recorded on Clyde 1, Boogie and
Dingo were networked across Bauer’s Scottish FM stations. In this clip Boogie
(Andrew Bouglas) and Dingo (David Konoc) are keen to out any males that resort
to tanning.
There can’t
be many DJs (any DJs?) who broadcast on five different radio stations each
week. You can hear Tony Blackburn on Radio 2, London 94.9, Magic, Radio
Berkshire and KMFM. A year ago, before he got the Magic and Berkshire gigs,
Tony was on each Friday morning on Hull’s KCFM. Here he is doing his stuff on 2
December 2011.
Tony was
dropped from the KCFM schedules in early 2012 when the P&O sponsorship was
withdrawn.
Little did
we know at the time but this was to be the last Christmas for Chris and the
team. But here we are with the first of a series of posts of radio shows from
this day one year ago, my radio advent calendar. Today it’s a scoped version of
the Chris Moyles Breakfast Show from 1 December 2011.
You can have
a good old sing-sing, not only with the Cheesy Song but the first festive
outing for Dominik the Donkey. The programme started a campaign to get Dominik
to the top of the Christmas charts. In the event it peaked at number three.
