Simon Mayo Drivetime Feed

Sunny Monday

2014-03-24T09:26:40+00:00

...and it is mercilessly shining its wicked way into every corner of the house, exposing quite how much dustin' and hooverin' needs to be done. Very soon. Maybe by the weekend or even later. Maybe I'll offer money to one of the kids to do it ( I have things to do, people to see. You know how it is). Anyway my main job today seems to be to get everyone out of the house with kit, keys, bags and food. 3 out, 1 to go. Then I can get to work on the show, choose a confession ('yes that's where we lost your older brother to the goblins under the bridge') and finish off work on the Radio 2 Book Club. Today it's Emma Donoghue and her Frog Music. She was Booker nominated for 'Room' and now publishes a murder mystery set in San Francisco in 1876 in the midst of a smallpox epidemic. The book is inspired by the unsolved shooting of a (and you have to admit this quite eye-catching) young cross-dressing frog catcher called Jennie Bonnet. There's a chapter here for you to sample...
And some song choices needed. I'm thinking CUPPA oldies today. 2.5 million folk say they are too busy to put the kettle on. The tea round is on its last legs (apparently) so let's hear it for the cuppa and choose a tune to go with the brew. What do you fancy?
Right where's that duster...

1983

2014-02-14T09:11:39+00:00

That's the year by the way. Let's get it out there and say it. Your all request opener is the year of breakfast television arriving in the UK, compact discs going on sale and the first Terry Pratchett Discworld novel is published, The Colour of Magic. We have Thriller, No Parlez and Let's Dance on the radio and the first Now! album turned up. Until then we had the KTel compilations and before that the Top of the Pops LPs full of rather strange cover versions (and smiling ladies on the front), but the Now! albums changed all that. So your bestest 1983 song please...

Before that it'll be movies on 5L and Matt Damon talking The Monuments Men before a hop skip and a jump to Radio 2 towers and the rocket propulsion into the weekend that the ARF tends to bring. And before that a vast meeting to discuss the books for the Radio 2 Book Club! Reading, movies and rocknroll. Not a bad Friday on balance...

See you at 5!

Here we go then

2014-02-10T08:34:15+00:00

...with another fine week lined up for your evening's pleasure. We had a weekend with a surprising amount of sun (where were my sunglasses anyway?) a little bit wind-tossed and slightly wave-tossed too. A trip to the south coast for my mother's birthday involved an astonishing amount of calories and the suspicion that millionaires shortbread rules supreme. There might be little difference between it and pouring sugar down your throat for 5 minutes but for the brief period it takes to consume, all appears to be well. So before the journey home-along with travel rugs and shovels-sustenance had to be taken.

So suitably heavier, Monday's show is lining up with another Book Club. Today we have The Road To Reckoning by Robert Lautner, for all the world an American novel in the style of True Grit, by a new American writer. Except that he lives in a wooden cabin on the Pembrokeshire coast and was born in Middlesex. It's a pseudonym, so it's all very mysterious but he'll be on from 6, and you can read a chapter here. The story opens in New York 1837 and tells the story of 12 year old Thomas Walker who sets off on a journey with his father, selling the new 'improved revolving gun' invented by Samuel Colt. It all goes disastrously wrong and Thomas is left to try and go home in the company of the curmudgeonly former ranger Henry Stands. It's a Western everybody! So why don't we make it a WESTERN and have some fun with it too. Tunes please...

Dry and warm, your place at 5.

Rod's on the radio

2014-01-13T09:05:26+00:00

...singing about a beautiful morning and it isn't bad. I have come to accept that my taste for wild and stormy weather is unusual and that most would rather it be cold and sunny than mild and cloudy. But a cheery smile will greet us all today as we cheerily skip our merry way to work. 'Good morning sir!' call the young lads of the parish as they doff their caps and I toss them a Radio Times for their kindness. This is how we roll, as my grandma used to say.
Book club today and today we welcome debut author Aussie writer Fiona McFarlane and her novel The Night Guest. This is a psychological suspense story about Ruth in her 70s, who is living on a lonely stretch of Australian coast. She becomes convinced that there is a tiger that walks her house at night, much to the consternation of her distant family. Then a woman called Frida turns up and says she's been sent by the government to help her-we are less convinced than she is about this. Anyway, read some here and then hear Fiona after 6.
And oldies today? Well with Fiona on the way, how about GUESTS and VISITORS themed tunes? Think that might work...
Onwards and upwards. See you at 5.

Made with mature cheddar

2013-12-09T09:22:55+00:00

(many a true word...)
Chris is playing a Wombling Merry Christmas and the steamroller's engine is firing (if indeed that is what steamroller's engine's do). The issue of when to start the festive songs is always hotly debated. In shops the question is whether to start in September or maybe, for the reckless, October but on the radio we are more finely tuned to your needs. Maybe a sprinkling this week (but no Slade, Wizzard or Macca) then next week we can allow anything in (but no Chris De Burgh). Then wall to wall Christmas 23/24/25/26 (including carols where directed) then drop everything. Clearout sales, move on, sweep up. But I'm ahead of myself...
Big Radio 2 Book club giveaway today-all of our 2013 choices and signed by the authors too. That's your presents sorted I believe! We've had some corkers. What have been your favourites? And outside our recommendations, what book did you enjoy the most this year? Your top picks please...
And we'll go with NIGHT SKY SONGS please. 580 square miles of Northumberland is to be given protected Dark Sky Park status. It joins Death Valley in California and Big Bend in Texas as one of the best places to see the milky way and thousands of stars. Light pollution? Nein danke.
Have a heart-warming and cheery Monday, see you after 5

Ex libris

2013-09-24T06:56:50+00:00

I am reading 3 books at the same time. They're all good, and I'm doing it for you. (I am writing one too, but that's another matter). Robert Harris is the book club choice, 'An Officer and a Spy' has a chapter on the website, William Boyd has written the new James Bond book 'Solo' and he's in next week and finally Mark Lawson (him from Radio 4) has a new novel called 'The Deaths'. I mention this as Mark is in today and it would be rude not to. It is set amongst the filthy rich of a made up village in Buckinghamshire, some or all of whom are about to cop it as they are the 'deaths' of the title. Mark has a brain the size of a planet and is always good company. Hear him after 6.
And songs please for THE QUITTERS. President Obama has revealed he has quit smoking. He says that primarily it is fear of his wife that has driven his abstinence, so oldies for those who have given up the fags will be a small encouragement.
Have a fragrant and nimble Tuesday, see you after 5.

More than what

2013-09-16T06:50:17+00:00

Cool, sunny, layers needed. Morning to all, another autumnal week beckons (almost dark by the time I get home-boo indeed). Hope weekend hit the spot. Wrote a bit yesterday (actually most of the day, a tricky bit of explanation to do) and managed to got to the football with child 2. Hadn't managed it for a while but everything was lovely and goals were cheered, victory over Norwich secured. Only sour taste was the gums which cost me £2.30 and then had the nerve to have no green ones and no black ones, the only ones I like. Calamity. Football is expensive enough without paying for the wrong sort of wine gums. Child 2's party progressed well, even if albums were played at 45 and no one noticed. Ho hum.
Top week coming up and the book club offers you More Than This by Patrick Ness. It is my favourite this year and IMHO, a masterpiece. The stunning opening chapter is on these pages and here Patrick from 6. But here's the thing. You don't need to know anything about it, just read it. Reviews might spoil it. So we discuss the price of cabbages instead. I've been a fan of Patrick's since the extraordinary Knife of Never Letting Go so been looking forward to this for a while. Hope you enjoy.
And we'll do PLASTIC BAG oldies please, as charges in England are announced for big shops but not small ones. I always forget the cloth bag bought for just this purpose so this is for me I think. Some plastic pop needed!
Have a well-heeled and respectable Monday, see you after 5

The car park is how much?

2013-05-07T07:43:59+00:00

Sitting in Heathrow Terminal 4 is a lovely way to pass a few hours. Child 2 is due and I have miscalculated the time needed to cross London in the small hours. There is not much to do here though the coffee team are pretty cheerful. It was lovely to hear The Dark Lord in real time as a drove to the airport-what a great show that is! So a ridiculously small amount of sleep should mean a hysterical presenter makes it to R2 later in the day.
The main thing child 2 will notice is that child 3 is (I think) now taller than her. This may not go down well but hey ho.

I can sit here and watch the arrivals and after a while it feels like you're in Love Actually (though no Keira Knightleys so far). Last night's chat with the emigrating woman being a case in point. To leave your family in the car while you call the radio station to say goodbye and ask for the family song is very Richard Curtis. Anyway the flight has landed, the doors have opened and my luggage and taxi skills are needed...

[3 hours later]

Well thats all fine then and a show today with the latest bookclub offering The Shock Of The Fall by debut novelist Nathan Filer (great name). He's a mental health nurse and poet and you can tell. He's written of Matthew who, at the age of 9 believes he's caused his older brother's death. Matthew has schizophrenia, is 19 and the narrator of the book. It is hard to describe properly (at least for me) so check out a chapter on this site if you fancy it. Nathan on after 6.

And Helen Mirren oldies? I think so. After her splendid rant at the band outside the theatre, dressed in full HRH regalia, she deserves a few tunes.

Have sprightly and chirpy Tuesday. See you after 5

Oh, and the short stay car park was £9.20

Settle down

2013-03-25T09:44:49+00:00

Well the coldest Easter for 10 years is on the way (as if we didn't know that) so that spring wardrobe may well have to stay shelved for a few weeks yet. The fleecy Radio Twosie really would have been a good idea after all. I hope all bloggers had a good weekend. Many have spent it leaving warm comments about this here blog so thanks for that. We even seem to be responsible for a little matchmaking (Sal, Brandon and the otters-congratulations) so let's keep this thing ticking over for a few more posts at least...

A weekend of snow and theatrical delights as child 3 appeared in Animal Farm as 'little pig number 2'. I am happy to report he excelled and squeaked with great style. I had forgotten what a great story it is having not touched it since school. But this bunch of 13 year olds were fantastic and delivered a compelling show-we whooped and clapped as all self-respecting parents would.I've given up filming these things now, opting instead for actually watching the thing properly in the first place. Forget the camera angles and switching the thing off and on when your child is actually on stage. Just watch and enjoy.

Today we have another bookclub for you and it is none other than Jodi Picoult. She is right now the New York Times Number One best seller with The Storyteller. Her last 7 have all debuted at the top and she is one of the hottest properties out there. The Storyteller is about a 25 year old American baker called sage Singer who befriends a 95 year old man who claims to be a Nazi war criminal. He wants her to help him die, a fate he says he deserves. It is a typical vast thought-provoking tale and you can hear Jodi at 6.

And STORYTELLING songs always works neatly as an oldie theme. I enjoy a song with a story told in under (say) 4minutes and leave it to you to choose a few belters.

Have a vigorous and persistant Monday, see you after 5

In Stitches

2013-02-25T09:55:38+00:00

Watcha. Here we go for another week of drivetime antics. I hope your weekend was a lovely one. Mine was full of pies and onion rings. In fact enough fried food to force me onto broccoli for the rest of the week. Mind you, the onion rings were possibly the best ever (red onion and light batter) so each floret will be a reminder of good tomes. And there was a howling gale, snow flurries and freezing temperatures outside so everything was justified. In fact it is a well known scientific fact that when the weather is that horrid, calories don't count. It is true, try it. And if the weather is set in for as long as they are suggesting, we'll have a grand time. Pass the pastry.

So today we have another top book choice for you (though obviously you'll be the judge of that) It is Wool by Hugh Howey and was a self-published phenomena in 2011. Originally it was just a novelette but there was such demand that Hugh had to get right back to his computer and create some more rather fast. All you really need to know is that Ridley Scott has the film rights. For a science fiction book, that's about as good as it gets. It's about a people who live in a buried silo. They've lived there so long, there are only legends of mankind ever living anywhere else. And you can't talk about going outside or you are kicked out and that's the end of you. So lets try WOOL and FABRIC themed songs, just as a challenging way to start the week...

Have an encouraging and pie-based Monday, see you after 5.

Sparks may not fly

2012-10-08T09:09:35+00:00

And good morning to all bloggers, old new and vets. A fine weekend I hope. I was (as you may have read here) in beautiful Bath at the Children's Lit Festival and talking to a cool collection of families. Youngsters, slightly-less-than-youngsters and a few bags of sherbet lemons is a fine way to spend a couple of hours.

And then blogger Hoffs and Master Hoffs appeared and photos were taken and all was well. I always enjoy meeting everyone afterwards, although it usually means I miss the train home and a bit of re-jigging is needed. Bath looks fine on most days but in the sunshine of Saturday it was spectacular. Could have stayed all weekend!

Then that night I dreamt I was Art Garfunkel and was lost backstage at the Royal Albert Hall and I wondered if an excess of sherbet can cause such things. Maybe I should stick to fruit gums in future...

Today is book club day and Jacqueline Wilson returns with another hit book for her loyal audience called Emerald Star, the third of her Hetty Feather books. Jacqueline has sold 35 million books, is a former Children's Laureate and a Dame for services to children's literacy. This woman know a thing or two! Some of our younger listeners will be reviewing her book after 6.

And David Blaine oldies please. The illusionist is spending three days and nights standing in the middle of a million volts of electric currents streamed by tesla coils. The stunt is called "Electrified: One Million Volts Always On." He is wearing a chainmail bodysuit as a barrier between himself and the electric currents and some scientists have cast doubt as to how dangerous it really is. However, we will play some Blaine-themed tunes on today's show.

Have a sparky and electrifying Monday yourself. See you after 5.