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This is my son, Matthew’s, band recorded in a live session on Breakthrough Radio in Norwich.
Their next gig is at:
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The Gramaphone w/ The All New Adventures Of Us | Spitalfields, London |
The most ill-natured interview ever on CD after 55 years | guardian.co.uk
He was a novelist known for his quick and cruel wit, his wide-eyed opinions and his indifference about saying the shocking. So a BBC Home Service programme called Frankly Speaking in which Evelyn Waugh is quizzed by three abrasive questioners was never going to be a walk in the country. Today what was later described as the most ill-natured interview ever broadcast can be heard for the first time since 1953.
This is more like an inquisition than a radio interview. I have no idea why three professional broadcasters should subject him to such an inane line of questioning. It reminds me of some disastrous job interviews I’ve endured. Perhaps Waugh was unwittingly being lined up for a job at the Beeb rather than for a broadcast. At least his sense of humour didn’t desert him.
Asked what failings in others he could most readily excuse Waugh replies quickly: “Drunkenness.” Any others? “Em [long pause] … anger. Lust. Dishonouring their father and mother. Coveting their neighbours ox, ass, wife. Killing. I think there’s almost nothing I can’t excuse except perhaps worshipping graven images. That seems to be idiotic.”
BBC - North Yorkshire - Entertainment - The Best Bedtime Book
Last year, BBC Radio York ran a Bedtime Stories Writing Competition. The standard of the entries was so high, we’ve created a book out of the top eight, which we’re selling to raise money for Children in Need. Here’s how you can get hold of one.
My old radio station has been nominated for a Sony Radio Academy Award for their Bedtime Stories in the Multiplatform section.
Congratulations to the team, and all the best on the awards nights in the glittering setting of the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
I think the highlight of my BBC career was standing on the stage there to receive the Sony Gold Award in the Community section for our service during the Floods of 2000.
David Cameron’s first criticism of the budget speech was that it was delivered with all the enthusiasm of someone reading out the telephone directory. So I assume he thinks the job should be given to a presenter.
I switched off - that’s the prerogative of a listener - assuming that, as the opposition leader’s prime criticism, there was little to follow.
Presentation over content is the scourge of the modern age. Make your talk glitzy enough and no one will notice you have nothing to say.
So if David Cameron is elected to power and you want to be Chancellor now would be a good time to put in some broadcasting hours to up your game. Or perhaps David Cameron himself should be given a radio show of his own. If he wants even more popularity he should be a gameshow host, “Vote or No Vote“, or “Who wants to be a Millionaire Tax Exile” with a “Giveaway Budget Jackpot“. The audience figures would be a painful gauge of his popularity.
This is not a defence of Alistair Darling’s budget, just another example of how easily David Cameron can get up ones nose, in the same league as Noel Edmunds and Chris Tarrant.
Abide With Me Hymn
How many verses do you know of this hymn? If you watch the FA Cup Final at Wembly you would be familiar with the first, and if you’re a church goer you’ll know a few more.
At the funeral of Mike Hurley we sang the full version. Eight verses. It was noticeable that the “gusto” disappeared from the singing in the congregation as we hit the unfamilair words:
Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.
There followed three other little known and somewhat incomprehensible verses until the familiar words “I need thy presence, Every passing hour” restored volume to the voices.
I’ve been singing this hymn for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never waded through all eight verses before. But somehow, at Mike’s passing, it seemed appropriate. Tradition meant a lot to Mike.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
BBC Radio 5 Live has a problem on Wednesday Lunchtimes - it’s two main presenters, Brown and Cameron, are becoming very predictable. Whatever the subject they both turn the conversation to competetence and exchange accusations about the others ability to lead.
So here we are again, Prime Ministers Questions; today mainly on Europe.
BBC NEWS | Politics | Leaders clash over EU referendumGordon Brown has clashed in the Commons with Tory leader David Cameron and Lib Dem Nick Clegg over an EU referendum. Mr Cameron said Mr Brown had lost his “courage” while the Lib Dem leader said the prime minister had “bottled it”. Mr Brown hit back by accusing Mr Cameron of “appeasing” his eurosceptics and putting British jobs at risk. He ridiculed Lib Dem plans to abstain.
So should we have a referendum? It would be suicide for Brown because he knows he couldn’t win. The right wing press has lined up its tanks along the cliff tops of the channel coast with a firm “No”. There is a deep suspicion in Britain about what goes on in Brussels and Strasbourg and a perception that we give more than we get from the EU. But the risk is also high for Cameron because the process of disentangling the UK from Europe would be long and costly. Will he still be supporting a referendum if he becomes PM? (more…)
I’m a radio junkie - not surprising for a broadcast journalist and former BBC Local Radio editor, but my interest in radio began with what many call Ham Radio although the UK hobbyists prefer to call it Amateur Radio. I still have my call sign, G4VRU, which was secured through a series of exams which included tests in morse code and the fine detail of the GPO licensing laws as well as technical tests.
Last week I received an invitation to renew my membership of the Radio Society of Great Britain. My membership probably lapsed in the early 1980s so my knowledge of the hobby is at least 25 years out of date.
