Episode five of BBC Radio 2’s documentary ‘The Record Producers‘ is all about Stock, Aitken and Waterman. I grew up to the sounds of Rick Astley, Mel and Kim, Kylie and Jason, so hearing the distinctive Stock, Aitken and Waterman sound dissected and explained (LIN9000! Fairlight! Quantize buttons!) gives me deep joy.
(MP3)
Best of all, the documentary begins with an audio Rickroll.
Thanks to Nick for the link.
Praise the Lord. A big, loopy concept album of a radio show (which has a computer game to go with it) from Malcolm McLaren. It’s an hour long and it’s about Paris and life and… you know. Need I say more? (MP3). BBC radio does this kind of one-off quite often these days but makes hardly any fuss about it. Did you read about this in the paper? Did you know about it at all? Why not, I wonder?
More forty-something thrills from Radio 2. This time a terrific three-part series about songwriting that originally went out last Summer. All three subjects—Leonard Cohen, Nile Rodgers and Patti Smith—are old enough and rugged enough not to be troubled by self-doubt or by fear of the opinion of others so we get disarming honesty about methods and inspirations. Of the three, Smith is probably the most guarded but this is still a mesmerising show (MP3) and the other two parts are here.
Stephen “The Office” Merchant is obviously a real telly enthusiast. Here he tells the story of edgy, 35 year-old American phenomenon HBO. Lots of excellent contributors and clips from all the top shows, especially from the last decade - and a show that handily defines Radio 2’s mission: unpretentious, grown-up factual programming with a current pop culture theme (MP3). Last year Merchant presented an equally good show about Seventies TV comedy landmark Taxi - for Radio 4 (MP3).
Over on Radio 2 Paul Morley has made a clever two-parter about celebrity. I hesitated to put it up actually because, well, it’s not quite as good as I was hoping it would be. Don’t get me wrong, the show’s thoughtful and funny and there are loads of excellent contributors (and Paul Morley, obviously). I think it’s just too long. Each part is an hour long. Whose idea was that? Anyway, don’t let me put you off. Here’s part one and part two.
It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for a new episode of Flight of the Conchords on Radio 2. Good comedy on Radio 2. Who would have believed it? Ok, so it’s a repeat from 2005, but so utterly brilliant that it doesn’t matter.
Flight of the Conchords (”formerly New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk parody duo”) are a recent personal favourite. Somehow hearing them again on Radio 2, with a repeat a week later on Radio 7 if you miss it, is always going to be more special than the HBO show on HBO. Here’s episode 4 (MP3, Real) for you. Get comfortable and prepare for a London flavoured treat, with narration by Rob Brydon and an appearance by Greg Proops.
A blog of Radio 4. Not about Radio 4 but of it. We point to the bits we like, the bits you might have missed, the bits that someone might have sneakily recorded. Other speech radio from around the world will no doubt find its way here too.
Of course, one day this might turn into something else, maybe a new way of curating speech radio, or maybe it won’t.
Your hosts on this not very wild ride are Steve Bowbrick, Russell Davies, Dan Hill, Bobbie Johnson, Roo Reynolds and James Bridle. Drop us a line with your thoughts, unless you wish to complain about continuity announcers and their accents.
Things tagged with 'speechification'
