It was sad this morning to hear the news that broadcasting legend Bob Holness had died. He’s probably best remembered for presenting the TV quiz Blockbusters in the 80s and early 90s, and of course there’s long been an urban myth that Bob played the saxophone on Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street, but I shared my fondest memory of Bob as the time he met Lady One Question on the spoof gameshow Banzai. Bob was, for me and many people of my generation, a national treasure.
My friend Keith Rogers, who I’d not seen in quite a while, popped in this morning for a coffee, and we had a brief chat on air about his early career in radio. Keith was around in the days of the pirate ships of the 60s; he went on to work on Radio 1 as well as a number of commercial stations, including commercial radio in its early days in Essex. Keith was impressed with our set-up at Phoenix, particularly the way that we are so much at the heart of the local community – and he’s also great at making coffee!
My clues to this morning’s song that was Acceptable in the 80s – a UK top 40 hit single that you probably hadn’t heard in a while – were that this 1988 top 10 hit features Patsy Kensit on vocals, and the song includes the lyrics “take these dogs away from me before they, they bite.”*
*Acceptable in the 80s was I’m not scared by Eighth Wonder.
