Friday, February 17, 2006

Pretending to be a DJ

My occasional stints on 6Music are easily amongst the most enjoyable of my distractions. I think if I did the job week in week out the shine might come off it but getting the chance to go in every now and then to cover for someone else is just a perfect gig. I never feel particularly slick or professional but it is the radio station I listen to most which means it's easy to be enthusiastic about the music. They allow me to play quite a lot of stuff of my own choosing as well which makes it even easier.

The most enjoyable aspect for me has been the live sessions. I had a meeting with the producer a few weeks ago to chat about who we thought would be good on the show and I've been amazed at how many of the bands I suggested have been available. We had Jim Bob in on Monday. I think he was my very first interview on my first stint on 6Music many moons ago while I was standing in for Gideon Coe. He's really good company and when the album School comes out in April I highly recommend it. (Sample lyric: There was an altercation at the Esso station, they used to call it smash and grab/ There was a theft of fuel and a fire at the school. It started in the science lab.)

Tuesday and Wednesday saw Misty's Big Adventure and The Boy Least Likely To respectively. They're very different to each other yet they both have something charmingly childlike in their music and both of their latest albums are amongst my current favourites. Today we had Teddy Thompson in the studio. I'm less familiar with TT but he was really relaxed and enjoyable company and again his latest album is very, very good.

I didn't know that the thing I recorded for The Culture Show was going to be on this evening. I only realised when we got a text message at the studio asking me how I was managing to be on 6Music and BBC2 at the same time.

Because the show runs Monday to Thursday I now have a three day weekend before I'm back in for a second week. I hope you get the chance to tune in - if you ignore my babbling you'll hear some really great music.

I spent Wednesday afternoon recording a voice over for the BBC4 Top Of The Form night. This involved sitting in a studio watching an edited version of the programme I filmed all the links for last week and then fitting the appropriate words to the appropriate shots where I wasn't on screen. If you watch the show when it goes out you'll notice that I have a very red nose in most of it. I told you it was cold in that Neasden warehouse.

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