His work here is done

Russell Brand leaves 6 Music: hardly anybody notices
Much wringing of hands greeted the arrival of Mr Russell Brand at 6 Music in April, assisted for one week only by Karl Pilkington, and ever since, by Trevor Lock and Matt Morgan. The message boards have been alive with hyperventilating support and table-thumping dissent ever since. His style of broadcast – eloquent and yet barracking, self-aggrandising and yet ‘umble, self-centred and yet sidekick-dominated – was not to the tastes of all, and the fact that he is a comedian appears to some to be a crime on a music station, even though 6 Music launched with a Sunday show hosted by Sean Hughes, has employed Dave Gorman and Bill Bailey as deps, still boasts Phill Jupitus at breakfast after four years and positively encourages Richard Herring to come in and be funny on it. What, I think, rubbed a certain section of the listenership up the wrong way were associations – the Big Brother connection, the tabloid currency – in other words, snobbery. His Sunday shows, which I always listened to, as I was upstairs preparing for my own, ranged from hilarious to a shouting mess, a by-product of freeform radio. I met Russell and he was both charming and quiet. What a surprise: a comedian whose public persona is just that.

Through little fault of his own (he was always a team player, trailing ahead to other shows and bigging up 6 Music on air), he also rubbed up some of the other presenters by being granted the sort of carte blanche to do whatever the hell he liked that many of us would like. But let’s be fair, three hours of “anarchy” at the weekend is one thing, “anarchy” every day would soon get boring. I felt aggrieved that what was once a podcast comprising the best bits of 6 Music (including, yes, myself and Richard Herring) suddenly became the Russell Brand podcast. But its success speaks for itself. I concede that point.

I saw Russell onstage at the Albert Hall in March, before he started at 6, and he was a terrific turn. He pretty much repeated his routine at the Secret Policeman’s Ball, and was grudgingly agreed (by some) to have been one of the highlights of an uneven night. Seeing him ply his craft makes all the difference. The biggest controversy, again not of his making, came last month when an upturn in 6 Music’s fortunes were attributed to the Russell Brand Effect, a phrase used in the official press release in a quote by an “insider”, whoever that may have been. It certainly gave the press their angle. You can see why anyone at 6 Music not connected with the Russell Brand show might feel that their hard work was being somewhat diminished at this point. The defence will be that you have to put a spin on the RAJAR figures, or else Media Guardian won’t be interested. A 40% rise in listeners year-on-year isn’t in itself a “story.” Russell Brand is.

Here are the numbers. In September 2005, 6 Music’s RAJAR figure was 285,000 listeners (a weekly average calculated using their rubbish “diary” system – but hey, it’s the only system we’ve got and we must live and die by it). In December 2005, it was 354,000. In March 2006, it went up a little bit to 359,000. In June 2006, the first quarter to feel the impact of Russell Brand, it fell slightly to 354,000. However, in September 2006, our most recent audit, it shot back up to 400,000. This is a fine figure, one we’re all proud of at 6 Music. Year on year, this does represent an increase of 40%, an increase that was attributed to “the Russell Brand effect.” In cold hard facts, the “effect” was an increase of something like 12%, which is still worthy of note, just not quite as spectacular.

Nobody’s disputing the seismic ripples Russell created while he was with us. It couldn’t have been better timed. Pretty much the moment he arrived, his dalliances with, among others, Kate Moss, landed him in the tabloid spotlight, where he has remained ever since, to the point of his departure from 6 Music actually making the papers, initially and speculatively reported by the likes of the Daily Star as a sacking. Which it wasn’t. He was merely moving onwards and upwards, with two shows on Radio 2 to get his teeth into. It’s no secret that 6 Music and Radio 2 share a controller; such deals are bound to take place. His work at 6 Music is done. He’s ruffled feathers. He’s created a stir. He’s brought new listeners to the network, some of whom might even stick around, and he’s put a podcast with our name on it at the toppermost of the iTunes chart. Not bad for six months’ work. Whatever you may think of him, and whatever you thought of his 6 Music show, he earned his money. The tabloids, though, have created a potential monster, and Russell will have to take extremely good advice to ride this tide of unwanted salacious interest into a long-term career in his chosen field, that of comedy.

As you can see from the webcam picture above, he was pre-recording the last hour of his last show while I was doing the Chart on Saturday. (He made no secret of this fact on Sunday.) I passed him and his gang coming out of the BBC as I went in on Sunday, and I wished him well. There was something exciting about having him in the building. I hope the Radio 2 message board people leave a few bones after they’ve done with him. I suspect he can handle it.

Advertisement