I have done it again – you know that 16-hour-a-day job. I left home at 6am and got back at 10.30pm today after a day made even more gruelling than the hours suggest because I had to drive to my two meetings as the first started too early to get there by train this morning. Not only that but I was expecting the second meeting to finish at 3pm, thereby giving me an eta at home of about 7pm….bang goes that theory then!
Today’s pic didn’t really take a huge amount of execution, though I did think quite hard before coming up with this shoddy idea. (Cut me some slack, I’ve got a fried brain.) All I had to do(!) was set up the camera on its tripod in the kitchen, frame my shot, set the camera to self-timer and bang – here it is. Three frames taken, the one that was framed best got it. So, sorry for once again reverting to the ‘grab shot’ for my pic. Also, for those who think I may have arranged the albums on top of my little machine to look ‘cool’ – nope, that’s the way they were and that Hepcat album Right on Time is one of my top 10 albums of all time (see, I’m doing one of those Hornby-esque lists again). Bought on a ‘browse session’ in my local music shop from the ska shelf. I bought it because Stoker produced it. I KNEW that he (ex General Public) wouldn’t produce anything other than a fine album and the cover looked interesting. I was right – the album is a complete stonker and if you like ska then go buy it. Whenever it goes on our CD player, we both start bouncing around the room singing along, it’s one of the things we both love to bits.
Anyway, the reason for this shot is that the BEEB (sorry Daddy – I really do have to disagree in the strongest terms with you on this one) is a wonder, a miraculous bit of the world that we Brits should, in my view, be immensely proud of. I believe I get hugely good value from my hundred and twenty five quid a year (or whatever the figure is).
Take today. I heard the ‘UK theme tune’ as played at 5.30am on Radio 4 since time began (the third time in just over a week that I've heard it) and shortly to be abandoned if all the fuss in the papers is true. To try to describe it to someone who has never heard it is difficult. Think about all those South American buskers you see in town centres doing ‘Pan Pipes of the Andes’ renditions and imagine them on acid doing a ‘Stars on 45’ medley of ‘significant’ traditional tunes from across the UK – for whatever reason, I can only remember that it contains a bit of ‘what shall we do with a drunken sailor’ and a bit of ‘rule Britannia’ all done in a good imitation of a drugged-up stylee (I’m sure the Beeb wouldn’t condone the use of acid as a creative stimulator). I am deeply distressed that it’s being abandoned because it is my sanity check. If I hear it, then I know I am up WAY TOO EARLY. How will I be able to gauge that in the future, if I don’t have my early barometer in the form of the UK theme tune?
The Today programme was the mainstay of my drive up to London, as it would normally be my early morning companion on any ‘normal’ day…..not that I have the faintest clue what a ‘normal’ day looks like….
Tonight, on the way home, I got into my car in Slough at 6.30pm and Radio 4 had finished its main news broadcasts for the day so after their comedy half-hour and the Archers (an everyday tale of country folk), I couldn’t face the true-life story of someone who’d been ripped to shreds by a grizzly bear so I was surfing around for something else to listen to.
It’s at moments like these when I rue not having a digital radio in the car because I absolutely hate the regional commercial stations on the whole so if I can’t listen to XFM (London Indie music station) then I need a Beeb station to give me any pleasure at all.
My first punt was for Radio 2 – Bob Harris’s Country Hour…..GROAN. So, a fiddle around didn’t find any FM stations that could better that and I was pushed onto Medium Wave, where I found the marvellous BBC Radio Wales (hallelujah for them) who were broadcasting a blues hour which was utterly fantastic. When that finished, Paul Jones with his Radio 2 RnB (er that is real RnB - Muddy Waters, BB King NOT the likes of the v v shabby modern acts and I can’t even think of the name of that dreadful girlie ‘tits nearly out’ band who claim to be RnB) show, then oh, oh, oh, a new discovery for me (this being ‘grown up’ enough to listen to Radio 2 without shame has given me some real gems), Mark Lamarr with a rock and roll show, this week devoted to a tribute to the legendary New Orleans rock and rollers.
It was the first show in the new series (why oh why did I not hear this before) so Lamarr had not been able to reflect on Katrina before. I spent an hour in pure rapture. I must confess to only really knowing the mainstream rock and rollers (you know, Bill Hailey, Fats Domino, the early Elvis etc) so most of what I heard was new to me. He only played two songs I knew – Lawdy Miss Clawdy by Elvis (written by a NO writer) and the sublime Sea of Love, which still gives me shivers as I recollect that wonderful film with Ellen Barkin. This was a version of the song I didn’t know though. I can honestly say, I loved every number and it really perked me up for the final part of my long journey.
So, Radio 2 I salute you once again for your night time programming – your daytime stuff is still utter pants on the whole (apart from Stuart Maconie) so don’t get cocky – and ‘don’t touch that dial’.
Last year, I was celebrating my French friends' vigorous defence of their heritage.
