Well that was a learning experience.
When I arrived at the studio I discovered that Seth, my usual engineer, could not make it in because of a plumbing issue. As it turned out, all of the potential backups that Paulette phoned were also unavailable. Enormous thanks to Miss Delicious for getting us up and running. Guess who ended up running the desk for most of the show?
Actually operating the desk isn’t that hard, if you know where to find the material. The big issues are a) if anything goes wrong, and b) multi-tasking. Thankfully everything went smoothly yesterday. However, looking back on the show, I’m pretty sure that having to think about the desk as well made me a lot less sharp as a presenter. Doubtless the more you do it the easier it gets. Also if you are expecting to run the desk then you can check out all of your jungles and ads in advance. But I think if I have to do it again I’ll script the show in a lot more detail so that I don’t forget anything.
Anyway, Nick Harkaway and Philippe Bonneau were great guests, and are well worth listening to. My apologies to them for my having been somewhat distracted. You can find the first hour of the show here.
The second hour was much easier as I handed the microphone over the Judeline who ran a fine discussion about being a school governor. Thanks to Christine Townsend for being a great resident expert, and to Jackie from the Outlook team for taking the part of the concerned mother. You can listen to part 2 here.
Most of the music for yesterday was on a summery theme. The songs were:
- Summertime – Sam & Dave
- Long Hot Summer – Dizzy Gillespie
- Heartman Blues – Dan Britton
- Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran
- In the Summertime – Mungo Jerry
- Boys of Summer – Don Henley
- Girls in their Summer Clothes – Bruce Springsteen
- Summer in the City – The Lovin’ Spoonful