Fun

A four-hour epic today on 6 Music, as I filled in for both Jon Holmes and Lauren Laverne. I’m getting quite comfortable around the old place. Xanthe and Jon (different Jon) were the team, and we had a fun time. It’s like riding a bike, I have found. I can’t in all honesty build it up, or wrap up what’s required of me in layers of mystique: it’s playing some records in order and saying some words inbetween them, many of which have been sent in by listeners and are printed out on pieces of paper. Assuming you can press the news jingle at precisely half past the hour, it’s a piece of cake. Which is why I’m so pleased to be doing it again after a pretty long lay-off.

I still feel the childish need to grab a pic off the studio webcam and post it up as evidence, as this is not a gig to take for granted. I had comedian Michael Legge in between 4 and 5pm, and the hour flew by in a flurry of anti-Latitude ranting, careful sidestepping around toilet details and embarrassing Robyn Hitchcock stories. I also had an interview I recorded last week with man from UNKLE James Lavelle, so that made life even easier. We had some biscuits and Minstrels in the studio, and a ready supply of peppermint tea (I bring my own mug in, which really makes a difference), and I was able to take input from text, email and Twitter. At one point I played one of my vinyl seven-inches, The Last Film by Kissing The Pink, and noted that their Wikipedia entry didn’t specify where they came from, just “the United Kingdom.” Paul Johnston emailed in with the extra detail “London.” I suggested he add that to their Wikipedia entry, so he did, and within minutes, it was done. (This is one of the few disadvantages of the podcast, of course – the inevitable delay.) It would be nice if the radio and the podcast could exist side by side, as they compliment each other.

I called this entry Fun because the picture looks like we aren’t having any at all, but we were.

And, because it was effectively two shows, it’s in two bits on iPlayer.

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