The PM Signature Tune

“It’s PM at 5 p.m.” For many years the opening announcement for Radio 4’s daily afternoon news magazine followed by the PM signature tune.

PM is unique amongst the station’s main news programmes (Today, The World at One, PM, The World Tonight) in having had a regular theme tune – a brief experiment on Today notwithstanding.

There’s an interesting article about PM on the Radio 4 website but I thought I’d add some information about the first and second versions of the theme.

PM started in April 1970 as part of the network’s response to Broadcasting in the Seventies – the BBC’s blueprint for change in the wake of the launch of Radios 1 to 4 in 1967 - which required Radio 4 to give more emphasis to news and current affairs. PM replaced a more light-hearted magazine programme called Home this Afternoon, a title it had acquired back on the Home Service in 1965. A typical line-up of features might include Anne Dunys, a 30s cabaret artist talking about her career, a report on people who have retired to Switzerland, a talk by gamekeeper and naturalist Walter Flesher and consideration as to whether corsets cause varicose veins – this particular programme went out in August 1969. So you can see how PM was a contrast to what had gone before, although in the early days it was less ‘newsy’ than it would become.

The original PM theme was composed by John Baker of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and is called Computers in Business. It had already been used to introduce News Time, a 15 minute news programme that went out on both Radios 1 & 2 at 7.30 p.m. each weekday.

News Time had started on the Light Programme in January 1967 and regular presenters included Tim Gudgin, the wonderfully-named Corbet Woodall (later a TV news reader who you may recognise if you’ve ever seen the Kitten Kong episode of The Goodies) and Derek Cooper who would go on to co-host PM with William Hardcastle. Regular Radio 4 listeners will know Derek as the long-running and original presenter of The Food Programme and he also provided the voiceovers for the filmed inserts on Tomorrow’s World.

The second PM theme was introduced in 1978, though the BBC website suggests this is from 1984 but I guess this is the date of the clip they use. Again the production team (editor in charge was Jenny Abramsky) went back to the Radiophonic Workshop, this time to commission Paddy Kingsland to compose it for them. Here’s Paddy talking to Gordon Clough about how he came up with the idea and put all the elements together:

This clip from PM in April 1980 is presented by Robert Williams and Janet Cohen:

Down Your Local - Metro Radio

This is the sixth post in a series looking at the original nineteen ILR stations. This week Metro Radio.

Airdate: 15 July 1974

Still on air?: Yes. The AM frequency became Great North Radio in 1989 and is now Magic 1152.

Pop music was not prominent in Metro’s early schedules and it pitched itself too much like a BBC local radio station. After a false start the station had a schedule and music policy shake-up at the end of 1974 and advertised itself as “The North East Sound”. To help change the sound of the station it became the first ILR station to use non-UK produced jingles by going to Dallas and working with PAMS. The deal with PAMS was arranged by Metro DJ, and these days a regular Jinglemad poster, Len Groat who by 1977 had moved on to Radio Trent (see later post).

Here’s the Radio Guide programme listings published in December 1977:

James Whale started in radio at Top Shop in Oxford Circus before joining Metro as an announcer and presenter of a late-night show. Night Owls was a mixture of music and phone-ins. Back then he had already developed his acerbic style and was often criticised for cutting listeners off before they had finished.  Whilst working at Radio Aire in the 80s James was also entertaining late night viewers on YTV with a tv version of his radio show – ideal post-pub entertainment – here’s a clip from one such programme:

After his sacking from TalkSport three years ago James Whale now hosts a daily show on LBC and often reviews the newspapers on Sky News.

Giles Squire was another DJ to come to ILR by the United Biscuits Network route working under programme director Neil Spence. After some freelance work for Capital Giles joined Metro Radio, he also did the odd spot of continuity announcing on Tyne-Tees.

Bill Steel was an ex.Thames, Tyne-Tees and Border television announcer and commercials voice-over artiste who was brought in as part of the schedule shake-up in 1975. At the time he was on Metro he was also hosting Tyne-Tees evening news show Northern Life. Later Bill worked at Century FM and Real Radio.

Metro’s Drivetime presenter at this time was Paddy MacDee. Paddy, real name Patrick McDermott, ran a successful mobile disco in the North East before joining BBC Radio Cleveland in 1973 where his first interview was with non other than Paul McCartney. By 1977 jumped ship to Metro and by 1980 was the Breakfast show DJ. In the mid-80s he returned to BBC Newcastle where he’s been ever since. These days you can hear him every weekday evening and on Sunday with Solid Gold Hits.

Presenting the Midday Music Explosion was Steve King. Reverting back to his real name of Steve Wells he subsequently worked at Capital Gold, Piccadilly, Smooth Radio and Real Radio.

The Sunday request show Yours for the Asking was co-hosted by Marjorie Lofthouse, Marjorie started her broadcasting career working part-time on educational programmes for BBC Radio Durham whilst also teaching at a Newcastle comprehensive. She left teaching in the mid-70s and went on to a wide variety of programmes – HTV afternoon magazine show Here Today, BBC1’s Pebble Mill at One, Woman’s Hour and various documentaries on Radio 4, the series Romantic Strings on Radio 2 and Business on the Move on Radio 5.

This is the station information published in January 1978:

Web Links
Metro Radio
Metro Tribute Site
Metro Jingles

Melodies for You

This week the BBC announced that the long-running Radio 2 show Melodies for You is to end. The programme has been part of the station’s Sunday schedule for the last 44 years. As the BBC’s press release makes no mention of the original presenter of the show, nor its second longest presenter after Richard Baker, I thought I’d provide a brief history of Melodies for You.

Eric Robinson

Melodies for You started on the BBC Light Programme on 4 January 1967 as a Wednesday mid-morning show sandwiched between The Dales and Midday Spin. The original host was Eric Robinson. Eric was a well-known conductor and broadcaster having played in and conducted the BBC’s Television Orchestra and the Radio Concert Orchestra. He was the musical director for the UK entries in the Eurovision Song Contest and had presented the radio show Music for You. As well as music on disc Melodies for You featured recordings from the London Light Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra – the BBC orchestra continued to provide music for the show until about 2003.

With the change from Light Programme to Radio 2 in September 1967 Melodies for You moved to its traditional Sunday slot. For many years it was scheduled from 10 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. between Junior Choice and the People’s Service and it remained a Sunday morning fixture until 1992.

Light Programme billing 1967

By 1971 Eric Robinson was too ill to continue – he died in 1974 – and another conductor took over. Kenneth Alwyn had already worked with the BBC Concert Orchestra so he seemed a natural choice. In 1972 Sam Costa was the presenter. A former singer and actor best known for his appearances in Much Binding in the Marsh, Sam would be a regular broadcaster in the 1960s and 70s.

David Jacobs was the next host of the show in a run lasting from 1974 until December 1984. He only gave up the programme when he started his Radio 2 daily show in early 1985 and remains the second-longest running presenter.

From January 1985 to April 1986 Robin Boyle was at the helm. Robin already had a long association with classical and light orchestral music having been the presenter of Friday Night is Music Night since the 1950s.

Richard Baker

Richard Baker is the long-serving presenter of Melodies for You with nearly fourteen years in total. Whilst presenting between April 1986 until October 1995, the show moved to its now familiar Sunday evening position on 5 January 1992. Baker was back from August 1999 until June 2003 when he took over Your Hundred Best Tunes following the death of Alan Keith.

When Richard Baker left the show in late 1995 a number of guests presenters took it in turns –Tom Conti, Valerie Solti, Edward Heath, Denis Healey, Nannette Newman, Bryan Forbes, Jeffrey Archer, Hugh Scully, Cleo Laine, John Dankworth, Beryl Grey, Charles Dance, Angela Rippon and Denis Quilley before Hugh Scully became the permanent host from June 1996 until July 1999

After Baker’s second stint presenting duties were taken up by Brian Kay from June 2003 to May 2004. Brian had been with the King’s Singers for many years before joining Radio 3 as an announcer and presenter and later one of the hosts of Friday Night is Music Night.

Sheridan Morley

Following Brian Kay from 9 May 2004 was Sheridan Morley. Sheridan was already well-know to Radio 2 listeners for the Radio 2 Arts Programme that he’d hosted for over a decade. On 28 January 2007 Alan Titchmarsh, the present incumbent, joined the programme and it is with the end of his contract this month that the show also ends.

With the loss of Melodies for You the radio also looses yet another outlet for non-pop music. Radio 2 controller Bob Sheenan promises to “review” how the popular classics and light orchestral music will be broadcast in the future but I suspect that the likelihood is the occasional series rather than a regular weekly show. Experience suggests that when the BBC “reviews” or “rests” a show we are unlikely to see or hear it again.

The only old Light Programme shows still on air today are Friday Night is Music Night and Sunday Half-Hour.    

With thanks to Malcy B for additional information.

Down You Local - Piccadilly Radio

This is the fifth post in a series looking at the original nineteen ILR stations. This week Piccadilly Radio.

Airdate: 2 April 1974

Still on air?: No. Piccadilly split in 1988 into Key 103 on FM and Piccadilly Gold on AM but this eventually became Magic 1152 that is on air today.

This YouTube audio features clips from the launch day with Roger Day and Andy Peebles. News readers are Jeff Cooper (later on Radio 2, Trent, Clyde and many others) and Bob Kilbey (later on Radio 2 and BBC London).

Here’s the Radio Guide programme listings published in December 1977:

The featured DJs are two ex-pirate radios jocks Ray Teret and Roger Day. Roger “Twiggy” Day had launched Piccadilly Radio in 1974. His radio experience was by then extensive, taking in Radio England (working with his old mate Johnnie Walker), Caroline, Nordsee, Luxembourg and the United Biscuits Network (UBN). Later Roger did the rounds of various commercial radio stations and these days is heard each weekday evening on BBC Radio Kent.

Ray Teret (aka “Ugli” Ray Teret his mother’s nickname for him) was also at Radio Caroline. Later at Signal Radio you can now hear Ray on The Voice of Peace.

 

Back in 1977 Phil Wood was the breakfast host. Phil is now on 96.2 FM Revolution Radio in Oldham owned by another ex-Piccadilly jock Steve Penk.

A Piccadilly DJ who was to make national radio was Andy Peebles. A former club DJ he championed soul music whilst at Piccadilly as well as presenting Rokzac. Andy would of course join Radio 1 the following year and also broadcast on Radio 2. He’s currently on Smooth Radio with his Soul Train show. Other Radio 1 DJs to come via Piccadilly were Gary Davies, Mark Radcliffe and Chris Evans.

Two other DJs came to Piccadilly from UBN. First Pete Reeves who hosted the mid-morning show; he would later work at Jazz FM. Second Tony Emmerson who was on overnights. Tony had been runner-up in BBC Radio London’s new DJ contest in 1970. He then broadcast at Radio Brighton, Radio Mallorca as well as UBN before joining Piccadilly in 1974.

Like many ILR stations at the time Piccadilly still had jazz and big band music programmes. Hosting Swingtime was Carl Sheppard who a few years later would turn up on Radio 2 with the Radio Orchestra show Sentimental Journey.

This is the station information published in January 1978:

A couple of names worth picking out here are firstly P.T. Birch the Managing Director and Chief Executive. Philip Birch was the manager of the pirate station Radio London back in the mid-60s. Here’s Philip and Roger Day  talking about their pirate days: 

The other name is that of Steve England, in charge of Commercial Production. Real name Steven Prentice he had also started on the pirates – Caroline, Mi Amigo and Atlantis – before moving to Manchester. Steve went on to form Alfasound, one of the country’s leading jingle producers, as well as being  the UK representative for PAMS and JAM Creative Productions.

Web Link
Tribute Site

Top Flight Entertainment

If you thought that darts on the radio started with DLT’s Treble Top then you’d be wrong.  Back in 1941 BBC radio regularly covered inter-service and inter-regional darts competitions. Here’s the Radio Times billing for 15 August 1941:

No mention of the commentator but old Sid Waddell was just one year old at the time.

Radio Lives - Robert Robinson

The erudite, urbane gentleman broadcaster Robert Robinson has died recently. In the first of an occasional series of Radio Lives I recall the career of the presenter of Radio 4’s Today, Stop the Week and Brain of Britain.

John Timpson and Robert Robinson

Following a career in print journalism and regular appearances on the television during the 1960s Robert Robinson joined the Today programme in July 1971 providing something of a donnish balance to the more avuncular co-presenter John Timpson, helping to turn it into a “much less frivolous affair” than it had been under Jack de Manio.  Robinson’s tv commitments meant that he had to move on from the programme in 1974, “I spent three years doing it and never slept at all” he said later.

In 1973 Robinson took over from the late Franklin Engelmann as the host of the Brain of Britain quiz which, along with his television quizzes, confirmed his role as question-master on the more high-brow shows.  On Brain Robinson had “a conspiratorial touch with his contestants, cheering on the no-hopers, exciting precision from brainboxes and always in league with ‘Mycroft’, his silent adviser and adjudicator on the quiz, until his death in 2002, Ian Gilles”. Those famous mannerisms became as much a part of the programme of the questions: “Ah yes  Mr Robinson, would that it were, would that it were”. He delighted in naming those behind the scenes, Mycroft on the radio and ‘Eric’ the unseen manipulator of the props on Ask the Family.

Radio Times, 28 September 1974

A year later from 28 September 1974 Robert Robinson was to present the new Radio 4 series Stop the Week, a bookend to Monday’s Start the Week with Richard Baker that had first aired some four years earlier. Essentially it was a round the table chat about the week’s events and the inconsequential things in life. Guests in the first programme were  Benny Green, Edward de Bono, Dennis Barker and Anna Motson but I recall the regulars as being Professor Laurie Taylor, Ann Leslie and Milton Shulman.  Stop the Week ran until 1992, axed because it had become a little too ‘clubby’, a little too sneery. 

Of the show’s host Laurie Taylor said: “Robert Robinson is a very intelligent man who had a very wry sense of the media, who found the media still slightly absurd. He was President of the Johnson Society, and he was very delighted to be associated with Johnson as he had a good sort of rumbustious delight in language and in the power of language. But as a lower middle-class person, he had a very, very, very good eye for pretensions”.

Although this is a radio blog I cannot end without mentioning Robert’s tv work. He is best known for being the first presenter of Points of View (and the first of three Robinson’s to work on the programme – Kenneth and Ann being the other two), Call My Bluff, an early hit programme for BBC2  that he chaired from 1969, and Ask the Family.

Points of View:

Call My Bluff:

Ask the Family:

Robert Robinson continued as chairman of Brain of Britain until 2009 when ill health forced him to relinquish the role. He died on Friday aged 83.

Here’s a recording of the 1980 final of Brain of Britain first broadcast on Monday 25 August 1980. The contestants are Ralph Gordon, Dr John Perring, David Milnes and Tim Paxton. The producer is Richard Edis.
 

 

From 1986 here’s an edition of Stop the Week. Guests on this show are Sarah Harrison, Stephen Oliver, Nicholas Tucker and Laurie Taylor who discuss matters etymological and noise levels. The music is provided by Dillie Keane and the producer is Michael Ember. This programme was transmitted on Saturday 6 December 1986.

Robert Robinson 1927 – 2011. I bid you goodbye.

Read more about Stop the Week at Transdiffusion
Read about the TV series Picture Parade on my other blog

Some quotes taken from And Now on Radio 4 - Simon Elmes, Random House 2007

Down Your Local - BRMB

This is the fourth post in a series looking at the original nineteen ILR stations. This week BRMB, Birmingham Broadcasting Ltd.

Airdate: 19 February 1974

Still on air?: Yes and No! From 1988 the original BRMB was on FM only with medium wave carrying Xtra AM. In 2012 Orion Media rebranded it as Free Radio Birmingham which will become Hits Radio in April 2024. In September 2023 the community station Big City Radio was rebranded as BRMB. 

The station opened in 1974 with Kevin Morrison, former ATV announcer, hosting the first breakfast show. The station promoted itself as “The Sound Way to Spend Your Day”.

An early DJ at BRMB was Adrian Juste who had joined from BBC Radio Leicester. By 1977 Adrian had joined Radio 1 initially in the promotions department and then as a DJ. 

Here’s the Radio Guide programme listings published in December 1977:

At this time BRMB had three big names in its line-up, presenters who would go on to have long careers in local radio, but have only done a little work for the nationals – Ed Doolan, Les Ross and Tony Butler.

Ed Doolan

Ed Doolan was still appearing on Radio WM until shortly before his death in 2018. Ed was born and worked on radio in Australia before moving to the English Service of Voice of Germany and then BRMB. Ed’s show was more slanted towards interviews and consumer issues though from the programme billing you would think that he was only broadcasting to women: “linking housewives across the area” and “a chance for housewives to ring in on topical issues”.

Les Ross had started broadcasting at BBC Radio Birmingham where he was the popular host of the breakfast show. Joining Radio Tees in 1975 he became the first presenter on air, again at breakfast. But it was back to the Midlands the following year where Les took over Adrian Juste’s timeslot - he was to stay with BRMB and its sister station Xtra AM for just over quarter of a century. 

After a stint at Saga Les rejoined the BBC but hit the headlines, for the wrong reasons, in 2008 after this notorious interview. He now has a Sunday morning show on Boom Radio. 

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Like Les Ross, Tony Butler’s radio career was also Midlands-based at BRMB and BBC Radio WM. Tony was the sports editor who long before Radio 5 Live’s 606 programme was hosting sports phone-in programmes with a style something akin to KACL’s Bob ‘Bulldog’ Briscoe on Frasier. Tony died in 2023.

Dave Jamieson, in 1977 on The Late Show, is a bit of a radio nomad whose career, as far as I can ascertain runs as follows: Hospital Radio in Edinburgh, Radio Leicester, BRMB, BBC Scotland, Radio Clyde, Mercia Sound, Viking Radio (where I met him when he was Presentation Controller), Radio Tees, Central TV, back to BRMB, Xtra AM and Coastline Radio in Spain. He's now on Boom Radio. Dave’s first professional broadcast was as guest DJ on Radio 1 Club in 1969 when the show came from Edinburgh.

Robin Valk was the station’s rock expert. His professional DJ career started in the States at WPHD before joining BRMB. His show was influential in giving UB40 their first big break. He moved into production and in particular helped stations, including Radio 2 in Birmingham, with programming and the use of software such as RCS Selector. He ran his production company Radio To Go. Robin died in 2022.

Also at BRMB in 1977 was Mike Hollis. Mike has a special place in broadcasting history as the last DJ on Radio Luxembourg’s English Service on 208 metres – here he is talking to Benny Brown (below). Later Mike was on Smooth Radio, internet radio station morethan40, Sunshine Radio and, most recently, Radio Tatras International. 

Nicky Steele

The other main daytime DJ Nicky Steele also stayed local moving from BRMB to BBC Radio WM and then Xtra AM. He died in 2001 aged 53.

Tucked away on Sunday morning was Brian Savin with a kind of Junior Choice show and he appeared later in the day with Country Jamboree. Brian went on to become Deputy Programme Controller at the station before taking up management positions for the Midlands Radio group and Saga FM. In 2014 he co-founded Serenade Radio. Brian dies in September 2023.

This is the station information published in January 1978:

These videos celebrate BRMBs 30th anniversary:

Mike Hollis audio courtesy of RadioLuxembourg.co.uk

This post was edited in February 2024 to mark the 50th anniversary of the original launch.

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

I’ve been down various audio avenues and alleyways since my third post last November in which I recalled some early radio memories of hearing Listen with Mother, though it’s that haunting melancholic closing theme from Faure’s Dolly Suite (above) that probably lingers in the memory.  So to remind you what the programme sounded like here’s an edition from 16 June 1965 in the days when it went out on the Home Service. The announcer is John Dunn.

It’s amazing isn’t it how over the years the phrase “Are You Sitting Comfortably? Then I’ll begin” has become part of the language, even though the programme is now a distant memory. It conjures up cosy black and white images of the children playing in front of the wireless, mother going about her housework, father out at work in some suburban post-war full employment world that never really existed.

It’s probably such memories that led to the outcry on 1982 when the BBC announced the decision to axe Listen with Mother after 32 years as by then few children actually listened, with mother or otherwise. The audience share of pre-school children was just 2%. An audience survey in the mid-70s revealed that there were as many long-distance lorry drivers as young children listening, presumably sitting comfortably in their cabs.

The then Network Controller Monica Sims, formerly head of BBC Children’s Television, saw the programme as a “frightful nuisance” as listeners switched off after Woman’s Hour. So in September 1980 the programme was shunted off to a mid-morning VHF only slot opposite the Daily Service and two years later the axe fell.

Here is that final Listen with Mother from 10 September 1982. The presenters are Tony Aitken and Nerys Hughes (of The Liver Birds fame). As you’ll again hear, contrary to what reference books and online encyclopaedias state, the phrase “are you sitting comfortably?” precedes the story and not the actual programme.

Down Your Local - Radio Clyde

This is the third post in a series looking at the original nineteen ILR stations. This week Radio Clyde.

Airdate: 31 December 1973

Still on air?: Yes. Since 1990 the FM service is Clyde 1 and the AM service was Clyde 2, but rebranded as Greatest Hits Radio in April 2023.

When Clyde went on air, just in time for Hogmanay you’ll notice, there was little local competition. BBC Local Radio hadn’t yet ventured north of the border and BBC Scotland was still some five years away, so it was regional opt-outs from Radio 4 that provided the local Scottish programming.

Here’s the Radio Guide programme listings published in December 1977:

There are four names in Clyde’s 1977 schedule that are perhaps better known for their subsequent TV work – Steve Jones, Richard Park, Dougie Donnelly and Paul Coia.

Steve Jones was a music plugger when he passed an audition for BBC Radio 1 and for a while presented Radio 1 Club and deputised for holidaying DJs. He joined Clyde at the start to host the 9am-noon slot. By 1979 he was back at the Beeb as a presenter of Radio 2’sThe Early Show, alternating with Ray Moore every 3 or 4 months. In the mid-80s he’d been promoted to a daily lunchtime show at the station. But Steve may be best-known for TV’s The Pyramid Game.

Richard Park

Richard Park had been a pirate DJ on Radio Scotland and later joined Radio 1 where like Steve Jones he had spells on Radio 1 Club. Back in 1977 at Clyde he was presenting Homeward Bound, originally hosted by Tony Currie. Richard would go on to work at Capital Radio as Programme Controller but TV viewers will recognise him from his stint as judge on BBC1’s Fame Academy in the Simon Cowell/Nasty Nigel role.

The Lunchtime Show was presented by a name known to sports fans on BBC Scotland’s Sportscene as well as Grandstand. Dougie Donnelly got interested in radio whilst at Strathclyde University and DJ’d at local discos before joining Clyde. But he later became a familiar face on tv hosting Scottish football coverage and golf tournaments for the BBC.

Paul Coia, at this point broadcasting in the wee small hours of the morning, was the first voice on Channel 4 as continuity announcer. He’s since done loads of TV and radio work including occasional appearances with his wife Debbie Greenwood.

Tom Ferrie is still at the station, these days presenting a request show on Clyde 2. In 1977 he hosted Tom at Two as well as a Family Favourites type show on Sunday lunchtime. Tom went on to work at BBC Radio Scotland and even put in the odd appearance on Radio 2.

The Breakfast Show presenter was Dave Marshall. A former salesman his previous broadcasting experience before joining Clyde was five years in hospital radio. The weekend Breakfast Show host was Brian Ford: he came to Clyde straight from working at the Scottish Daily Mail.

Clyde still offered a wide range of evening and weekend programmes with politics, arts, book reviews, jazz, big band and folk all featuring in the schedule. Presenter of The Big Bands, The Sound of the Guitar and Music Round the World was renowned broadcaster and musician Ken Sykora. Ken had been broadcasting on the BBC since the 1950s with his Guitar Club, as contributor to Jazz Scene and for the second half of the 60s one of the regular presenters of Home this Afternoon on the Home Service and Radio 4.

The station would go on to establish ILR’s first drama department. Hamish Wilson, who produced and directed the play The Slab Boys for Clyde in 1979 joined the station full-time to lead a small unit. Wilson continued to provide drama productions for the station until the early 1990s including The Bell in the Tree about the history of Glasgow.

This is the station information published in January 1978:

Note the name of Andy Park as Head of Entertainment. Andy was a jazz musician in Glasgow before going to Radio Clyde. He’d later work at Channel 4 and BBC Scotland TV as a producer, his best known programme was Tutti Frutti starring Robbie Coltrane. More recently Andy was back at the piano touring with his jazz octet.

[This post was edited in December 2023 to delete broken links and replace the YouTube video]

Radio 1 Roadshow - In Scarborough

Back in 1993 I drove up the coast to Scarborough to watch the Radio 1 Roadshow with Gary Davies (in the interests of research naturally). Gary was a master at working the crowd, providing the sound effects during his story and cheering like maniacs when the show went on-air.

Gary Davies signs autographs in the Goodie Mobile

I filmed a lot of the show and here’s the opening few minutes as the programme kicked off at 11 a.m. With Gary is producer John Leonard and miming to her latest song Kim Appleby.

Other guests on the show were Richard Darbyshire (ex Living in a Box) and Irish band The Fat Lady Sings. You can see more of the show including the audience warm-up on my YouTube channel.  

Normski appeared on stage and for some reason other Radio 1 DJs hanging around that day, but not appearing on-air, were Claire Sturgess and Lisa I’Anson.  

Claire Sturgess

Lisa I'Anson poses for the local press

Gary with an adoring fan

These days Gary runs the Upfront Media Group