Speechification

Well, it looks like Woolworths has finally gone. Damn. This splendid documentary from Radio 2 reminds us how great Woolworths once was, in its pomp. Specifically the brilliant contribution they made to popular music by making cheap but decent covers available to everyone. Lovely. MP3 here.

I was slightly dreading this. Paul Morley dances frequently on the line between smart and arch, and in contact with Mr Forsyth it could all have been a bit horrible. But this is actually lovely stuff. Mr Morley’s enthusiasm defeats (or enhances) his pretension, he asks all sorts of questions that no-one ever asks someone like Brucie and the interview is just deconstructed enough to let you catch some original glimpses. Fantastic stuff. MP3 here.

We’re supposed to be doing Christmas posts here at Speechification. I have failed. This is not one. But it’s a splendid listen; stories of 70’s bedsits, Cambridge studenthood, procrastination, long baths, unexpected success and early computers. Really nicely presented by Andrew McGibbon, and excellent use of music throughout. More radio should sound like this. MP3 here.

Here’s a further bid for timeliness from Speechification. It’s another of Ben Thompson’s interviews for Resonance - this time with Alex Ross, who’s just won the Guardian First Book prize with The Rest Is Noise, which is magnificent. You see? Topical! You can hear Mr Thompson straying outside his comfort zone with all this classical stuff, and you can hear Mr Ross glancing around the Resonance studio feeling that he’s a long way from NPR and The New Yorker, but it all works rather splendidly. Encore. MP3 here.

This has got everything. Posh BBC presenters. Posh socialists. The end of empires. Trad jazz. And cappuccinos. It’s the story of the brief life of a socialist coffee house in Soho which helped create the New Left. Whereas the 2i’s spawned Cliff Richard and The Shads. Which was best? You decide. MP3 here. Programme page here.

This I Believe is a long-running NPR series, sometimes a little cloying but often lovely. And we all know that Brian Eno is often genius but can sometimes have a face of po. This is a conjunction of the lovely and the genius. Mr Eno talking about the benefits of a good old community sing. MP3 here.

Thinking Allowed is almost always good. And I liked this episode a lot, though I didn’t understand it all. Michael Thompson talks about his book about how organising happens and the types of organisings there are. I like the talk of messy and clumsy solutions. That made a lot of sense. MP3 here.

Here’s another of Ben’s Resonance interviews - cleverly scheduled to coincide with Bill Drummond’s No Music Day. Which is today. MP3 here. (It starts a bit quietly, sorry)

In a frantic bid to keep up with Steve’s topical posts I thought I’d stick this up -  The Russell Brand Episode in Ben Thompson’s magnificent set of interviews and audio for The London Ear. (On Resonance). It’s very good and Mr Brand was caught in a pleasingly un-manic phase. Or seduced into one. Should this whet your appetite, Roo’s recent innovations mean you can sample all the extant London Ear’s merely by clicking here. MP3 here.

Nothing flashy here. No clever sound business or comedy voices. Just interesting explanatory radio - telling you why the dollar arrived as top currency, and why its reign might be over. Good old Analysis. MP3 here.