Simon Mayo Drivetime Feed

Seeing Stars

2014-12-08T10:30:38+00:00

How lovely and festive to have the blog Christmas names back. Like getting the old decorations box out and finding that your sparkly favourites have made it through another year. Those months in the loft can be challenging for a bauble. Dodging the pulled-out suitcases, the casually-flung tents and the boxes of old tat are a year long trial but the wait is over and the tinsel is back. Hope the weekend was fun and didn't involve a concussion-induced trip to A&E in the small hours of Saturday night/ Sunday morning. That's an interesting place to spend a few hours. And yes all fine now (I think). I was sitting in the harsh neon light reading the hundreds of Christmas confessions that have arrived-who knows what I've let through!

It's a favourite books round-up today as we bring you some of the standout books of the year. It's not too late to enter the Bookclub giveaway (shuts tonight) and that way you can win all of our choices in one very large box. All your presents sorted apart from maybe the toddlers (although the packaging might be quite fun for a while). Any bloggers favourites this year? All book recommendations welcome...

Coldplay today-they'll be in for a chat prior to our big gig tonight. And it's time for OFFICE PARTY oldies one more time please. That cheap warm white wine is waiting...

Happily Ever After

2014-12-03T08:28:03+00:00

Well the technology is installed and that should be it for at least a week or two. We have to fit in the big design for all the on-line stuff-hope it beds down and we all get used to it. As has been noticed, it looks better on the phone at least through the bleary eyes of another early start. Child 3 has another one of his birthdays which we will be marking before attending a film of some sort (haven't checked yet). Then it's Martin Freeman to talk hobbitytosh for one final time before the release of the final Hobbit movie next week. His is a masterful Bilbo. Can anyone else glance/hesitate/frown with greater panache than Martin? A lesser man could be lost in all the CGI Orcs, giant worms, Elves, Dwarves and all the middle-earthery but not Martin (that's for a movie show slot).

Then after slaying whatever hideous monsters cross my path on the way to Radio 2 (there could be many) it's Miranda Hart for the show today. She's had another amazing year with a sell-out stadium tour. That's a stadium tour. Plus there's a return of Call The Midwife this Christmas followed by a movie alongside Jude Law. I'm sure Miranda won't call me a pervert but you never know. Dolly was great I think-a real force of nature! And really she agreed with me about Lay Your Hands On Me...eventually. Once the damage had been done. Anyway...MIRANDA what-she-calls-oldies please to pour into our lovely knew blog system. And who knows what will coe out the other end!

Onwards!

Well that was fun

2014-06-20T06:34:54+00:00

The morning after is never the best time, but in comparison with Italia 1990, this is easy. This is a breeze. Losing when you think you have a ghost of a chance is the real hassle. So we move on, mature and grown up and quietly hiding the copy of 'Vindaloo' you were thinking of playing.

So to a 2 show day and the movies first up at midday with The Fault In Our Stars taking centre stage. It's what the teens have been reading as you may well know, and now it is what they will be watching. It's a lovestory about teens and cancer, hence the poster's questionable tag line 'A sick love story'. Shaiene Woodley is fantastic opposite Ansel Elgort as the two lovers, last seen as brother and sister in Divergent. Young Mr Elgort is our guest on the show.

And your pre-weekend scene-setter ARF is on at 5 with your songs required from the aforementioned 1990. No World Cup nonsense will be tolerated. Instead, we welcomed Radio 5, Mr Bean and Rosie and Jim. We listened to New Kids, Elton, Phil Collins, Snap and Beats International. Pick a a hit!

12 &/or 5?

So there I was

2014-04-29T06:47:06+00:00

...sitting at the front of the Royal Albert Hall last night, when who should wander on stage but that nice Rick Wakeman chap. A few virtuoso twirls and we were off with Journey To The Centre Of The Earth; I was back in my 5th year at school. I borrowed the album from someone and remember listening to it on (big, big) headphones-I was very impressed because this sounded like art and sophistication and I had precious little of either. So to watch Rick, in his gold cape, with orchestra and choir was great fun. Quite how he'll make any money from it I don't know but there were many smiles from venerable music fans last night. There were no tubes to take any of us home but we swirled and trilled our way homewards, pretending we were Arnie Saccnuson. Or maybe it was just me.

Today it's best selling writer David Baldacci with his new thriller The Target which takes his government assassin character Will Robie into North Korea. Research will have been fun on that one.
And oldies today please for THE ENGAGEMENT OF GEORGE CLOONEY. Yes it's true and the world's most eligible actor has met his match in UK lawyer Amal Alamuddin. Your songs please...

And 5pm if that's ok.

These things are sent to try us

2014-04-25T07:12:07+00:00

And they do, they do. The whole of the BBC's bloggery business went down yesterday and you may well have noticed this. So nothing till late afternoon isn't particularly helpful for anyone but thanks for bearing with us. Hopefully all will be well today, but frankly who knows.

Two shows again as there is no sport to take the movie show off air (that I'm aware of). So two weeks worth of movies to get through and Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington as our guest. He steps up to lead the cast of Pompeii in all its 3D lava-explosion-tsunami-earthquake-toga and chariot glory. You'll never guess what happens.

Then some ARF for your early weekend pleasure and we'll take the year of 1987 to challenge your ARFO suggestions. Plenty to choose from and actually a rather good year. We have Mrs T, raves, PWL everywhere, the first Rugby Union World Cup in New Zealand and your host moving to evenings on Radio 1. What do you fancy then?

Meantime, I have a few questions to put to Jimmy Page. You'll hear that very soon!

Off we jolly well...

Hey Mr Bass Man

2014-04-24T12:39:54+00:00

You've got that certain something. I only know this because the Muppets sang about it on their first album - my love of which got me nothing but derision from Ricky Gervais recently. However I am right and he is wrong. That album was a thing of genius and anyone who disagrees gets Sam the American Eagle set on them. All of this has nothing to do with the show apart from the word bass. Nigel is threatening to do something to do a dead sea bass (that's a sea bass that's dead, not a sea bass from the Dead Sea). Specifically he's performing a baked striker caponata and we'll love it or suffer the consequences.

Also today we will unveil some of the big names who will be staring in the BBC Proms in the Park. Yes it's September already!

And let's try songs for GOING/RETURNING HOME after Andy Murray made an emotional return to Dunblane to receive the freedom of Stirling. 'It feels good to be home' he said and that feeling has inspired many top songs. Feel free to choose some!

Until 5 then...

Too many buns

2014-04-22T07:52:23+00:00

Way, way too many buns. They're magnificent of course and the smell of the hit and cross variety is a highlight of Easter but they taunt and mock me from the bread bin. They call to me in the night and I am weak. Soon they will be all gone and fruit and dull breakfasts will return but until then...just one more packet to go...

And as I write 893 posts to the blog while I have been elsewhere, so my guess was hopelessly out. Thanks for keeping it all ticking over so splendidly and Ryan and Richard for doing the shows. I have been very cultural and been at numerous exhibitions, galleries and whatnot. You'd have been impressed (although asking for discount at the Viking exhibition at the British Museum in London on the grounds that my DNA is Viking didn't work out too well).

Book club today with Claire North's The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. She's not really Claire North but actually Catherine North. I'm not sure why it's been shrouded in mystery and why it is a secret at all but as you know writers are very strange. It's a memorable read. What i can tell you is that Harry August is on his deathbed, nearing the end of his eleventh life, when a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Dr August," she says. "I need to send a message. It has come down from child to adult passed back through generations from a thousand years forward in time. The world is ending and we cannot prevent it. So now it's up to you."

You'll be hearing a lot about this book, starting today!

And I think we should do FOOTBALL MANAGER oldies today as David Moyes gets the boot today at Manchester United. You might have read/heard/seen something about it. I avoid football stories normally but this is a big one so tunes please! Assuming you all remember how this works...

Have a top Tuesday, see you at 5.

Right Then

2014-03-28T09:29:21+00:00

On with the weekend. Just a Friday to navigate first with the movies coming first and Ricky Gervais talking Muppets. The last Muppets film was such a hit and so joyful, it was always going to be a tough job to match it and it doesn't. There are some great bits - notably the opening song about how sequels are always disappointing - but it never hits the highs of The Muppets in 2011. Ricky G is on the show and I prove to him that I am a bigger Muppets fan than he is. In my opinion. It's my ownership of the original Muppet album on vinyl which proves the bone of contention here. Mahna Mahna indeed. It's also 5Live's 20th anniversary today which may well get a few mentions...

Then some ARF action with 1968 selected as your ARFO year. I'm in primary school (a gold star reader by the way) and had no awareness of newly launched Ford Escort, the 'I'm Backing Britain' campaign or the first Isle of Wight Festival. I do remember West Brom winning the FA Cup and Alec Rose sailing single-handedly around the world; this led to the joke (was it Basil Brush?) 'Rise Sir Alec' said the Queen and so Sir Alec Rose. Now that's funny. Your toppermost 1968 song which is noisy and fast enough to kick off everyone's weekend.

1700 hrs?

Greetings

2014-03-19T09:30:07+00:00

...from the 8 o'clock train to Kettering (calling at Wellingborough Corby and Luton, though not in that order). Coffee and baguette being taken, all well.

Sport Relief kicking off today at Radio 2 with Jo Whiley beginning her marathon broadcast-in a box and on a treadmill. What is she thinking?! My Comic Relief effort was at least sitting down. Jo has to be vertical and moving for 26 hours. And talking. We will all cheer her on, stump up some cash and then, exhausted through merely watching her, slump in a chair and eat chips. Go Jo. You can do it! The least we can do is choose some songs of ENCOURAGEMENT. Songs that will inspire her to keep on keeping on.

And it's Grammy Award winning jazzman Gregory Porter on the show today. His Liquid Spirit song and album has been a real breakout hit for him and lifts any show it appears on. He always wears a hat in public and he calls it his 'jazz hat'. I might get jealous for a few minutes then remember I look daft in all hats. But if you have a jazz hat, feel free to wear it from 6

That's it. My supply teaching class is waiting. See you at 5.

As the winds howl

2014-01-06T09:23:09+00:00

...and the rains sloshes against the windows, welcome back to work! Welcome back to the routine! Forget the chaos at home, the housework still waiting to be done and the decorations box still waiting to be dealt with, here we go with all the delights of 2014. The return to normal is a good thing, we just need to make sure normal keeps getting better. Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn has a gloomy song called 'The Trouble With Normal (it's always getting worse)' but he's wrong! We should embrace normal. count those blessings, and be kind to everyone. (I need to stop this 'pause-for-thought' audition blog right now, very dreary).

So all the team are back after last week's warm-up and Jane Horrocks is our guest, last seen as Jean in Sunshine On Leith. Bubble in AbFAb and LV in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice are her biggest roles (though that supermarket ad as Prunella Scales sensible daughter deserves a mention!) Anyway she loved the Proclaimers movie so much she's been recording old favourite songs by Hawkwind, Joy Division and Morrissey. Hear some Jane Horrocks after 6.

And for our first bunch of oldies THAT OLD ROUTINE SOUNDS about right.

5o'clock then!

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

All About Me

2013-08-29T08:16:39+00:00

If this is later than normal, that is my fault. I am blogging late as child 3 starts a new school today. It is quite a thing isn't it (so poetic)? There won't be a blogger out there who doesn't remember starting their secondary school, the nerves, the itchy uniform, the feeling of 'where am I supposed to be and who are these people?' Anyway, he's dispatched and autumn is with us (at least in this house).

Went to a prom last night at the Royal Albert Hall-Stravinsky mainly and a new piece that had been specially commissioned-but spent the first half locked out. If you miss the start (7pm I have an excuse!), you have to wait for a suitable moment before you are allowed in and that turned out to be half-time (as they say at Radio 3). Sitting on the steps eating crisps was fine but hardly the full prom experience.

Show time with Nigel doing streetfood again-Indonesian fritters I beleive. And we'll try EGO oldies please. New book explores the show-off, self obsessed types we all know and work with (not at R2 obvs) and that sounds interesting to me. Ego songs, oldies for the egomaniac in your life.

Have a strutting, preening Thursday. See you after 5.

Bigger, brighter, better

2013-07-11T08:17:16+00:00

Ohh well, it all worked very nicely here. A day without blog troubles - hooray! Which was just as well as child 1 had a birthday and child 3 packed up for the summer, cue pizzas and takeaways and cake and late nights out (from which he may have returned but I'm not checking just yet). Then we have to coordinate getting many generations to Manchester for a little graduation ceremony. We have loads of 3 worders at the moment celebrating various degree ceremonies and next week it'll be my turn. Gowns and mortar boards for all! There should be a parents 'I paid for all this you know' certificate at the very least and if we can herd the family north and south again without incident and in a day, we will have a double celebration.

Well, here we have another Thursday with some food on offer from Nigel . My guess is that Matt, on a no food day, won't be tempted as he was last week. We have Petits Farcis de Provence on offer which looks like stuffed veg of various sorts and Matt will keep his fancy starvation diet pure for another day.

So oldies please inspired by this from The American Journal of Cardiology which tells us that people of a cheerful demeanour will live longer. And particularly that a general sense of well being - feeling cheerful, relaxed, energetic and satisfied with life - actually reduces the chances of a heart attack. So fine if you are that way inclined. but tougher on everyone else. But music can change this; it can make you more cheerful! And this, inevitably, is where you come in. Songs of CHEERFULNESS and OPTIMISM please and we'll add minutes to our lives. Our health on your hands!

Have a positive and optimistic Thursday, see you at 6.