..always got on me nerves a bit, (speaking as a Northener meself), but you're right - he's always been passionate about the music and he must have done at least as much for 'World Music' as Peter Gabriel and his entourage. I'll definitely listen - thanks for the tip.

All I'm hearing is a guy talking about Wizard of Oz....

Be interesting to find out why...

Thanks for that. There's an article in today's Times. He comes across as still being slightly miffed.

Is usually a legal matter, unless Kershaw goes on about a new folk band from Lancashire called Swine Fever, and it has been postponed due to matters of taste.

BBC Radio 4 has pulled an edition of interview series On The Ropes featuring DJ Andy Kershaw due to be broadcast today over fears it would impinge on the privacy of his former girlfriend and their children.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/28/bbc-radio-4-andy-kershaw-int...

… I believe they had a massive falling-out and barely spoke for years before Peelie's death. Don't know what it was about - anybody else privy to the details?

popping off to the big boozer in th sky I immediately remembered Andy's story of when he and Billy Bragg went on tour with Paul.

'Weller's Dad played cards all the time backstage. He asked us 'You play cards, boys?' 'Err, yeah, just for matchsticks'
'Well you better bring Epping fucking Forest with you then.'

do we listen to a bloke who has clearly committed some kind of crime or do we give him the old shoulder froid? Personally, I believe that his crimes are far lower down the scale than Spector / Glitter and we should give the guy a chance to redeem himself. He used to be an absolutely ace DJ (IMHO) with a wide ranging taste in music and - most importantly - a love and passion for what he was doing. I've never been bothered by his alleged prefessional northerner bit: I've just enjoyed having my ears opened to some eclectic music by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable presenter. I hope he gets the opportunity to carry on.

She seems to have conducted herself with a lot of dignity in the face of quite a lot of provocation. It must be quite hard trying to keep your private life private when you're ex is constantly doing a "poor me" act for the media.

in full possession of the facts, and none of us can lay claim to being present at any of the situations described, I would state that none of us should be judging anyone in this instance. Clearly, the whole episode has been extremely upsetting for all concerned. But I just don't think, even despite the fact that this is still appearing in the media, that this is anyone's business apart from that of the parties concerned.

a long time ago and he came across as a grade A prick.

...and she was late coming on. He was bellowing for her to get a move on. It didn't work. He just came across as boorish and a bit odd. I saw him afterwards and he was still scowling.

If the BBC won't employ him, there are clearly quite good reasons why not.

Hey BBC, you can always pre-record his shows! Remember tape?

'Pledge your support for andy-kershaw'...
http://johnpeeldotnet.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/pledge-your-support-for-a...

He knows his music alright and we need proper knowledgable people like him on the radio. I hope it won't be too long now before he's back on the air.

Everyone seems to be taking her side. If someone is stopped from seeing their kids it is not surprising that they would act in an extreme way. Yes his actions will exacerbate an already difficult situation but to suggest only he needs help in resolving this issue is clearly ridiculous. Women can have a pathological desire to protect their kids from a 'perceived' threat - who knows whether this threat is real or in her mind? It seems to me that stopping him from working is making the situation worse not better. I dont know the full facts but from a faraway vantage point it looks to me as if she is trying to destroy him.

and I thought something had gone wrong with my screen.

would be very Whelk-ome

...and NOBODY has yet mentioned, in this shameless pool of punnery, that well-known Word archetype 'the 50 squid bloke'. He'll have his arms full...

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This is still going?

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Twist and Trout

...they could put Billy Ocean on the cover, with further features involving Back Street Trawler, Pufferfish Daddy and Ship-Wreckless Eric & the Shoal Wide World. Interviewed by Hake Mossman, Mark Eelen and Rob Fishpasty, obviously...

how easy it is to get reeled into these stupid threads. But it’s hard to resist the bait.

It'S 'ARD 'IN 'Ere, 'innit?

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I appear to have been knocked off my fish-punning Perch.

can hake any moray of this tuna be honest.

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Groupercoleycrabgillisticpescescaley-docious

fish jokes. I make no bones about it,I am away for a smokey and a line. Rod Stewart and Peter Hook are singing "salmon enchanted evening" as I write. Downloaded from the net, obviously.

...he's a right turbot.

...Dimitar Turbotov

Marlin Peters, Billy Breamner or Stan Coleymore

Someone starts a thread in a degree of moral support and somehow it descends in the longest - and most on-screen geographically eccentric - thread of marine puns imagineable! Most enjoyable, and yet there must be a moral in there too...

Director Gen to Kershaw: 'Sorry Andy, about this comeback you're after - we've just done a bit of net-trawling [no pun intended here, really!] by way of research into your current popularity and, er, we feel your audience have moved away from world music and ee-ba-goom presentational styles to a more sophisticated diet of wordplay based around, er, fish. How are you on that line of things yourself? Not so good, eh? Well, just thought I'd ask. Well... I'll give you a call in a couple of years or so when the punters have exhausted the maritime punnery. Best of luck with the lifestyle and all that....' click... whirrr......

'there's plenty more fish in the sea'

Very good, Mr Dog! :-D

Cockney take on a Carpenters classic?

according to some doctor guy.

is in today's Independent. He doesn't mention fish.

While we're on the subject of creatures, did I mention I used to work in a pet shop? Unfortunately, I got fired - my boss caught me with my hand in the trill.

Etc.

Yes, he's definitely frustrated. However, he continually repeats the "why me? what about them?" spiel with his repeated reference to Sachsgate and cocaine dealing. Not a particularly attractive quality. That, coupled with his attack on Mark Damazar, suggests to me that he's still a very angry person.

I sent in ten fish puns to win the prize but No Pun In ten did.

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tench waiting to sea if you'd won

was waiting for a whelk-home in the eel-side (if he was Welsh)

..and no marine puns :

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/84500-andy-kershaw-to-serpents-tail.ht...

If the link doesn't work, the article basically says the book will cover his life in broadcasting, with his recent issues forming only a 'small part of the story'. The same publisher is also putting out Jah Wobble's autobiography 'Memoirs of a Geezer' this September, which is a pretty colourful read too..

On the one hand, he would provide his listeners with an endless supply of brilliant music and use his position to support hundreds of deserving musicians. On the other hand, his private life is something of a mess. I don't think that his absence from the BBC schedules has much to do with either.

He is not 'a safe pair of hands'. He is 'an accident waiting to happen'. Legend has it that John Peel had to prevent Kershaw from assaulting Simon Bates during Kershaw's first appearance at a Radio 1 Christmas Party.

The day after the press reported Peel's death, Kershaw was all over the 'papers inferring that the BBC was implicated in Peel's premature end. The BBC had not taken proper care of him: too many late nights and long, daily commutes. I think Kershaw had a point but employers really don't like that kind of thing. You know, that 'being accused of manslaughter' kind of thing. They don't like it at all.

That's why I think that the BBC is not ready to leave Andy Kershaw alone in front of a microphone. Not whilst it's under such unusually close scrutiny. I don't know what he can do about this.

Kershaw needs to relax his head and listen to some Phil Collins

I saw Andy Kershaw's name and thought "that's a thread I could glance at since I have a minute to waste". MANY minutes later I've been very fishily amused, but living on the other side of the planet (Brisbane) can only be guessing from the comments here what the "issues" are that are affecting him. Will just have to google accordingly.

I met him once many years ago - we were both browsing in the African section at HMV in Oxford Street. We talked about (and disagreed on) Johnny Clegg, and I recommended Malombo (via a rambling personal tale), and he bought the album. I was very impressed that he was genuinely passionate - he was enjoying going through the records as much as I was, and went and BOUGHT a pile.

Saw him many years later just wandering down the a path between venues at Womad. No self-importance in sight.