2015 - The Year That Blogging Forgot

It's been filled with challenges, hopeful times, anxious times,
but very rarely dull times.


2015 has been fairly enjoyable and in places therapeutic.

Positive moments have outstripped the negative ones,
but the not so good periods have lead to big decisions
and one that could see big changes in the months to come.

They're not going to happen in an instant, but it's
probably good that they're being looked into gradually
in advance.


I have more than obviously exhausted my better writing
abilities on my radio blogs, but where they lack on pictures,
this final blog of 2015 will provide.

The Bakerlite Radio Robot.

Smoke Radio 10th Anniversary

CSR at the 2015 Student Radio Awards

With Stephanie Hirst in Leeds wearing the infamous Radio 1
bomber jacket from the 80s.

My first Doctor. At Sci-Fi By The Sea

Meeting his companion with my sister.

They still don't do 'em.

Anna Louise on her 12 Hour Charity Radio Show.

With Brian Eno after his John Peel Lecture.

Festive chaos with Anna and her mum Ruth.

And though the year's not quite done with, I'm more positive
looking towards 2016 than I was about this year.

Though anything at all could happen, and it may be
best not to plan too much.

Have a good Christmas!

"Twas In The Summer of 99"

It's probably a good time to revisit that time before I became
a radio anorak proper, though it sort of came out of upsetting circumstances.

To set the scene, it was 1999 when times were tough at home
and at school, where my only pleasure was gotten out of downloading
Real Player videos of television idents past.

Back then, we didn't even have internet access at home, only
getting time online via Dad's work computer at Christ Church University
and transferring the videos to view at home, onto floppy discs.

But not even heavily pixellated videos of the Thames Television
skyline emerging, could compensate for what was a difficult period in year 9.

At the start of the academic year it seemed very promising
as I was given a really nice support assistant from the autism unit
helping me out in class.

She's no longer with us now, but was very special.

Unfortunately, a month later because of staffing problems
and regime change at the unit, I was given a rather crotchety
helper who I'd been with the year before and a whole year of
unnecessary spite on my part, blended with inside anxiety beckoned
through late 1998 into mid 1999.

Not helped by having to deal with a load of idiots in class
who used me as an easy target of comedy.

There were one or two high points, such as on a July afternoon
when a geography teacher told one of the not-so-bright students
that they owed him a tenner for saying the world would end
on the previous Thursday.

Which sort of leads on to one hub of escapism, that being
Lee and Herring's "This Morning With Richard Not Judy",
which amongst other hilarities featured Emma Kennedy dressed as "Nostradamus", making three predictions each week,
in the style of Family Fortunes.

It also had a really good theme tune, though truncated
and a slight change in lyrics for the second series.

Possibly to reflect that it had ditched the magazine elements
and interviews from the first series that never really worked,
and became essentially a (sit-down)stand-up and sketch show.

I'd watch (and tape to VHS) religiously every Sunday,
which is an unfortunate turn of phrase as the "Sunday Heroes"
sketches caused a lot of bother with more "senior" and very religious
viewers who were unlucky enough to stumble on the show.

Stood alongside the "pesky meddling twats" in November last year.

It was beaten in the ratings by T4, which to be fair I was
also a fan of, and even went as far to buy novels tieing in with
Dawson's Creek, which were actually geuinely good reads.

But both T4 and TMWRNJ were victims of sport in the schedule
taking over their respective timeslots, the former affected by the arrival
of cricket on Channel 4, especially through August which saw
a whole day of T4 at the start of the month, with the final three
episodes of "Dawson's Creek" season 2 shown back to back.

I may still have all the links on VHS.

Sadly, after TMWRNJ bowed out in June 1999, it left a televisual
comedy void that I don't think I've ever managed to fill.

No other shows would cleverly take the mickey out of
what all my peers were enjoying, one of them in the case of fellow
male school pupils, was Kelly Brook's disastrous stint hosting
The Big Breakfast.

I can remember reading in the Observer at the end of July that year,
about Kelly departing whilst on a two week holiday,
with Liza Tarbuck being one of the hopefuls to take over.

A duel with Sara Cox, the Observer article mentioned that Liza's
only weakness was that she was 35 as "that's 50 in Big Breakfast years".

It may explain why after Liza got the gig, many of my peers at
school gave up on the show, as they weren't watching for Kelly Brook's
"presenting abilities"...

Liza Tarbuck however, was furious with how the show treated the
presenter she was replacing, which I thought was gracious on her behalf,
in spite of the fact she was the better host.

Bringing a warmth, and a hilarious wit to proceedings, it helped me
to forget that despite not having the crotchety support assistant in class
anymore from September, things were still unsettled.

Not helped by a family holiday to Germany, which had been planned
for almost a year, but as we were going in mid-August, it made the
wait after breaking up from school even more difficult.

There were one or two high points, such as a visit to
Europa Park, though I'm sure that my mum would prefer to
forget going inside the ride below.


















However for the best part of it, the holiday was depressing,
not helped by a lack of night-life at the site, and a visit to a friend
of mum's who lived about three hours away from where we were staying.

She had three children who were obsessed with anime
such as "Sailor Moon", and when I was forced to sit through
this 80s series from Japan (that was very popular in Germany),
I knew that I desperately wanted to go home.



Though the theme tune's rather good.

I can remember my Dad commenting, "Why have they all
got big eyes?", though I had no idea that on returning home,
I would have to sit through more of the same, 
what with Pokemon taking the UK by storm.

Johnny and Liza on The Big Breakfast saw fit to taking
the piss out of the phenomenon with their spoof "Jokemon"
("You've got to buy them all!") where the most inspired character
was Richard Bacon's "Stubblesaur".

By this time I now had a television in my room, which was a
temporary measure to reducing my adolescent anxiety,
though one year later, the day before we went on holiday to France
(the happier radio memories of that can be read here)
I was in a similar state of melancholy, partly because 
Liza was leaving the show after just one year hosting.

I may have warmed to her as she had a similar sense of humour
to the support assistants I had at secondary school, (and one or
two crushes at that).

The daughter of the Scouse comedian wanted a low-key
departure, which was lucky timing as her final day coincided
with the Queen Mother's centenary.

Though no one really cared about that.

Oddly enough when we got back from holiday, Liza was
in Canterbury helping to present a live O/B for Channel 4's
Time Team over the 2000 August bank holiday.
 
Though I can only really remember seeing Liza on an excavation site
near the Canterbury Heritage Centre, smoking a cigarette.

The Big Breakfast on the other hand lost something when Liza left,
as she had a warmth that even Denise Van Outen lacked,
let alone Kelly Brook, made more evident by the Princess Of Basildon's desperate return to host the show in the months up to Johnny leaving
in early 2001.

And Tarby was certainly more likeable hosting alongside Vaughan
than she is on her own, proven by her BBC Radio 2 show
on Saturday nights which melodically, sounds like a throwback
to when Derek Jameson was on the station.

My overall state of summer anxiety, I guess is something
that's never gone away.

But 1999 was probably the year it hit the worst, and it's
amazing how many songs from that time can instantly bring back
memories, not all of happy times, but knowing happy times were nearing
even if far and few.

This Spotify playlist may bring even happier memories back to
your good selves.

A Summer Wallowing In Summers Melancholy

 It's not been a dull few months since last blogging.

I spent the night in a tent in North London at the end of June,
an experience never to be repeated again, due to
a rum and ginger beer-fueled tent nearby keeping me awake
by playing "Candy" and the SOS Band at full blast.

Even spending the night at Gerrards Cross train station a couple of days later was a better experience, due to arriving late because of an audience
recording overrunning.






















Radio goings on at CSR are still fine show-wise, Blam Jam entering
it's annual run of Summer Specials where the usual features
are rested between July and August and a much looser feel
is present, meaning more summer house, latin, and the odd
bit of reggae added to the running order.

As is normally the case, very few other shows and presenters
are about over the summer, so to pass the time this year I have
been working on a project involving compilations of tape recordings
of radio from around 15 years ago called "What Radio Used To Sound Like".

Whilst it's been great fun to listen back, it's also been rather emotional particularly with the most recent episode containing audio
from the Summer of 2001.

What for me was a tough transitional period, with the upcoming
change from school to college, where not even a family holiday to France,
or better-than-expected GCSE results could lift my spirits.

It was also the period that my Mum's father died and whilst I managed
to deal with the news well, I didn't enjoy the number of visits to Stowmarket,
not helped that the local radio station there Vibe FM, had recently
undergone a format change making it sound like all the others.

Though I'll go into more detail about that on the radio blog.

In an age where many are wanting to re-live their nostalgic
past, I'm finding that nothing was as rosy in a looking back sense
as around the time, it was awful as well.

In fact in mid 2001, everything I had enjoyed 6 months previously,
I wasn't enjoying anymore, including Channel 4's Big Breakfast
which at the time had just gone through a desperate revamp
following the departure of Johnny Vaughan.

The attempt to be desperately trendy however didn't work
and after sacking Paul Tonkinson, (and eventually Donna Air)
they tried bringing it back to how it was, which at first had promise,
but by June/July it looked like they were giving up,
knowing that they were on death row.

A big part of that was down to the dropping of competitions
such as "Court With Your Pants Down" and "Star Turn",
replacing them with dull "Call And Collect" giveaways.

Not to mention the constant appearances of The Hamiltons
in a feature that started after their infamous scandal
called "Love's Tories".

I only saw the show a couple of times that summer, but it was full of awkward
moments, and uncomfortable interactions, not helped by Richard Bacon
being overbearing as a host, and spelling out his unfunny
jokes to the viewers.

It's interesting as he's become more likeable presenting on 5 Live, finding
his feet dealing with important issues, but his time on the BB,
wasn't helped by a frosty relationship with co-presenter Amanda Byram
the one survivor of the 2001 relaunch who struggled to fit in
to the show's traditional format.

They even tried self-consciously getting Roland Rat on the show
hoping he'd give them the same fortunes as TV-AM 18 years
previously.



The only positive thing that happened that summer
was the news that Jeffrey Archer had been found guilty
and would be getting banged up.

It's a little worrying that I could be on the cusp of another
depressing summer, though with things lined up for August
and a fair few other dates for Autumn, the bad stuff can probably
be put on hold until 2016.

Though it's not the worst summer I had to deal with as two years
previously, a family holiday to Germany was part of the trigger
to a depressing transitional period into the millennium, and
may have come back to attack me further in 2007.

I'll go into greater detail in a later blog.

A Deserved Kick In The Buzzcocks

When the comedy pop quiz "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" burst onto
screens in November 1996, it reflected a cynical perspective
on pop music, sneering at the Spice Girls, and blaspheming Britpop.

For the best part of a decade it was one of the few programmes
I would make an appointment to watch, and in a rather tough
period growing up, one we were able to watch as a family
regardless of its adult nature.

18 years on, the programme has been given its more than
timely marching orders, in a climate where rather than give
today's pop performers a ribbing, they're treated to a love-in
regardless of their vacuous personas.

Even the guests themselves have found it hard to take.














Rather than bemoan the long decline of the series, here's
five standout shows that have provided mirth within the melodics.

David Van Day (Series 9, 2001)




If you've ever wondered as to why the male half of Dollar
has become an obnoxious tosspot in the last decade,
maybe the constant tauntings of his side-venture as a burger
van vendor are to blame, from his appearance on the show 
in the latter half of 2001.

Right from the opening Lamarr and team captain Sean Hughes
fire off the kebab gags to much cringey hilarity.

Even guest Ricky Tomlinson gets in on the act, providing an
amusing reminder of the more raucous period of the Lamarr
era, before he turned into an angry, bitter man towards the end
of his tenure.

Pete Burns (Series 10, 2002)



The series has seen it's fair share of outrageous guests,
but when Pete Burns appeared in Sean Hughes final series,
the Dead Or Alive singer caused a stir not just with his
bitchy behaviour, but his rather shocking facial appearance.

Lamarr later commented that "an inexperienced surgeon mixed
crossply and radial together"

Amy Winehouse (Series 19, 2006)



Slightly biased as I was in the audience for this episode,
though having made a memorable appearance on the showin 2004 around the time of her first album, the singer's
second outing on the show turned out to be more outrageous.

Simon Amstell having settled in well as the new permanent
host for this series picks up on the change in persona
from "the old Amy", as later reflected
in the video for "Back To Black".

Though whilst the episode has it's fair share of funny moments,
it's a tragic reflection of the long-term repercussions of the singer
and many wonder whether Amstell had a point. Well, maybe not
about duetting with Katie Melua.

Donny Tourette (Series 20, 2007)




Screened after the singer's infamous appearance and escape from
the Big Brother house, but recorded before it, this episode cemented
Simon Amstell's position as the definitive host for the show.

I personally thought it overshadowed the episode with Preston
walking out, though unlike the lead singer of the Ordinary Boys,
Patrick Brannan to give him his real name, at least has the courage
to laugh heartily at the jibes made at him.

But taking on Bill Bailey, that's a no-no as the team captain
manages to deal with the childish digs in his ever-hilarious manner.

Even Noel Fielding in his first appearance on the show is amusing,
which is an added bonus.

Frankie Boyle (Series 24, 2011)



For me this is where the show should have ended.

Two series without Amstell, it was clear that they weren't able to find
anyone who could take on the show permanently made even
more evident, by eventually enlisting Rhod Gilbert for it's fateful
final series.

Whilst Boyle would never be asked to take on the permanent mantle,
this episode made up for many a shambolic guest host this series,
and with Boyle being the only one who'd hosted before, he settles in
well, even allowing witty if at times wicked banter with the guests,
namely an impressionable Michelle Williams off of Destiny's Child.

Sadly rather than end the series here, they focused less on getting
a permanent host, and more on unfunny gimmicks and unnecessary
props, allowing the show to become the exact parody of what it
laid into.

With 269 shows to it's belt, Never Mind The Buzzcocks can go
to it's grave knowing it's run for a hundred more shows than
Noel's House Party.

But like said show, if your remember the show at it's prime
with Lamarr and Amstell at their sharpest, you'll be able
to recall it as enjoyable.

I say enjoyable, I mean tolerable...

A Day Away From Dirty

It seemed only right to blog before turning 30 this coming Friday
and that there's been a fair bit going on, with regards to getting
out.

Most of it has been positive although some of it
has been a muddle and at times upsetting for no good reason, especially if I have brought myself into it.



















That was the case at the beginning of April when I
went to the Village Underground in East London to see
Andreya Triana perform live, trying out tunes from her latest
album "Giants".

Unfortunately I only lasted one song through no fault of
A.T. herself, but for reasons I'd prefer not to discuss on this post.

The photo sort of sums it up, which is a shame considering
A.T. was wearing her amazing striped suit.

Though it's probably just as well as from what I've heard
the rather unpleasant venue was filled with even more
unpleasant punters who felt the need to chat amongst
each other whilst Ms Triana was performing.

Utter wankers, really why do they even pay to go in
and not even listen?

Thankfully none of those idiotic sorts were at Rough Trade
East last Thursday as to celebrate the release of said album
Andreya was back performing a mini-set at the East London
record store, where this time, I was back right at the
front of the stage.






















Let's keep it that way, yeah?

My gig visiting adventures have also taken me up to Manchester
and my first ever visit to the rather special Band On The Wall
which last Friday paid host to the man of the moment,
a guy who has been compared to D'Angelo, only that his album
actually sounds like he bothered to finish it.

And not one dull song on there or in his performance, that being
Jarrod Lawson.


















Hailing from Oregon, this guy's caused quite a stir with
soul lovers in the last year or so, especially in the UK, though
unfortunately, the presence encountered a few more rats to
the venue, who again felt the need to talk during the songs.

Undeterred I've booked another gig with the great man,
in November when he'll be performing at the Shepherd's Bush
Empire, in what will be quite a busy month for gigs as
A.T. will be at Koko, and The Sons Of Kemet will be stopping
over at Rich Mix near Bethnal Green.

Really excited about that last lot, as they've brought jazz to
a young and dare I say lively crowd, dispelling perceptions of
the genre being celebrated by pretentious so and sos.

Radio wise it's been a little quiet at CSR as most of the students
involved have been in exams, though we have the annual Kic Awards
this Saturday on the day after my 30th birthday.

I won't lie in saying that I've started to feel left out of goings-on
there, but luckily a few days later I have been invited back to
my old stomping ground of Westminster to give a masterclass on
editing to the current set of students running Smoke Radio, as the
station celebrates it's 10th anniversary.

It's also on the same day as the station's awards do so it
will be good to hopefully catch up with some old faces as
well as a few new ones. 

So overall the next couple of months is looking busy,
and then by November it will happen yet again.

A Not So New Year

My first blog post of 2015...

Though if you take in the news of Blur reforming and Kathy Beale
returning to Eastenders you'd think we'd ended up back in 1995.

Or if the vile actions of Chelsea fans on a Metro train in Paris
are anything to go by, 1955.

Goings-on have been relatively OK so far, no major upsets as such,
but it's not to say that all the wounds from last year have been healed.

One such worry being the future of the Radio Academy which was pretty
much up in the air at the AGM held before Christmas, not helped by
the raised voices of those in attendance, but this Tuesday coming
a meeting revealing the plans for the future and the results of the
trustee's strategic review will be taking place, again on the seventh floor
of New Broadcasting House.

Understandably Ben Cooper has a tough job along with his BBC Radio 1/1Xtra
duties, but I'm pretty sure that the whole debacle would have been less
heated if back in November last year, they'd openly admitted than
they were financially screwed, rather than dress it up by announcing
a new event that even at this stage hasn't even been finalised.

Elsewhere my outings elsewhere to both London and various soul
dos this year have been sparse.

Save for a couple of outings to come in Brighton in April and late August,
I've started to catch funk fatigue (if that's the right description)
not helped that the Margate Weekender earlier in August has gone up in price.

Part of this is due to the organisers getting hold of the Winter Gardens
to host amongst other things a live Roy Ayers performance, but
for me it's another indication that the event as a whole is turning into another Caister, with big crowds, and endless rotations of a Philly Compilation CD.

Still on the plus side, Joey Negro's going to be doing a DJ set on one of the nights.

Happier times have occured now and again, including last night
where I saw the ever-amazing Andreya Triana performing at the Lexington,
a delightful little bar near Angel in London and the best sound setup
I've heard at a gig where they've actually bothered to make sure it doesn't distort.























A.T. was performing tunes from her upcoming album "Giants" and 
this was proper solid stuff.

A few are predicting she'll go the same way as Sam Smith and George
Ezra, but with tunes of such great quality, I very much doubt she'll
be troubling The X Factor as one of their guest performers this autumn.

She's probably taken a few pointers off of another giant, and the
gentle jazz giant at that.



So overall it's rather quiet, but hopefully things will pick up in
the Spring, not least with my 30th nearing, which I'm sort of celebrating
by traveling to Manchester the week before and finally seeing this guy performing live.




Despite having already interviewed him for Blam Jam...

They'll be happy times in '15, just fewer and fulfilling.