Smile, You’re On The Radio!

There’s been a lot of buzz going on around the station this week.  It’s all been quite exciting, truth be told.  Leading up to my show on Saturday the 16^th of June, communications between the presenters has been rife.  So, there I was on Saturday afternoon a few hours from the radio show and I knew what I had to do.  Out came the razor, and off came the weekend stubble.  A quick run under the shower, a vigorous all over pumice rub followed by a lathering with an oatmeal and badgersperm body butter, a full nose and eyebrow wax, including a wire-clipper attack on the tufts of inner ear hair, and a last and final dip of the comb in the pan of old chip-fat for a perfect hair sculpting experience meant I was ready for my show.  You have no idea how much effort us rock-n-roll types put into making a perfect radio show.  Oh, I also dug out loads of great music for the show, but somehow I wasn’t so worried about what I was going to play.  Well, this time anyway.

So, why the special effort trying make a face look good when it’s only suited for radio and no one will see it?  Well, we’ve got a webcam in the studio!  That’ right, you can watch us as we perch in front of the microphone, chatting about what we are about to put on, what’s coming up next and so on.  Hardly riveting viewing, in my humble opinion.  There are no action scenes, car chases or shootouts to watch with open jawed admiration for the stunts.  The closest I got to acting was a brief interlude where I pretended to pick my nose, egged on by a cadre of webcam watchfuls.  I have to say that the nude scene requested is still under consideration and, giving nothing away, I have dusted of my latex Borat thong (extra large) and found an unused vat of bronzing baby oil with spray applicator.  Hmmmm … you know, I am tempted!

Okay, enough!  What was played on the night?  Here’s the listing:

Artist : Album : Track

Ayreon : Actual Fantasy :  Computer Eyes

Hawkwind : Astounding Sounds : Steppenwolf

Planet X :  Quantum : Quantum Factor

Frank Zappa : Joe's Garage : Joe's Garage

OSI :  Free : All Gone Now

Umphrey's McGee : Anchor Drops : Wife Soup

Marillion :  Afraid of Sunlight : Beautiful

Mostly Autumn : For All We Shared : Heroes  never Die

The Tangent : The Music That Died Alone : The Canterbury  Sequence

Touchstone : Mad Hatters : Misguided Fool

The Third Ending : The  Third Ending : Eleven

A.C.T. : Silence :  Consequences

I had a great night with the music.  I managed to dig out some of my past and play it, such as Frank Zappa and Hawkwind, bringing me right back to my early teens.  Joe’s Garage was extra poignant as I used to play in a band when I was sixteen and we practiced in a garage belonging to the drummer, called Joe.  How spooky was that, eh?  Ahhh, those were the days.

An extra highlight was a phone interview during the show with the lead singer from The Third Ending.  The same named debut album of theirs has really grabbed my musical attention and it as a real pleasure to chat to Nick Storr.  The band are based in Tasmania and Nick had gotten up extra early on a Sunday morning to do the interview.  Now, that’s what I call dedication.  I only hope that they sell enough albums to let them come over here for a tour.  If they ever do, I’ll let you know well in advance so you can organise tickets.  But it all comes down to money in the end, as if we didn’t know that!

A bit of bad news, but a bit of good news.  Andy Tillison, lead singer/songwriter for The Tangent, was due to appear on the show on the 23^rd of June.  I got a call on Tuesday from Ian, the band’s manager, with an apology.  Andy was in Switzerland recording the new album, but his passport was in Belgium.  There was no way he was going to be able to get it in time to get back to England for the show.  Also, his solo album, Fog, had suffered a release delay of a week through technical difficulties.  So Ian rang up to cancel Andy’s appearance on Saturday.  The good news, though, is he’s coming on the next week’s show.  Fair enough then.  I’m just glad Ian rang me to let me know.

While I remember, I’m looking for a show sponsor.  The station isn’t one of those commercial broadcasters, making profits to feed petrol into big cars.  We only make enough money to keep the station running so that specialist shows like mine can have the air time it needs.  So, do you fancy being my sponsor?  Drop me a line and I’ll send you all the details.

Anyway, until next time, bye from me.

All the best,

Dave.

Article by Dave O'Neill, 21 Jun 2007
Posted in The Dave O Prog Rock Show

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