during the early 90s. We'd just bought a house that needed redecorating, and I spent many happy Saturday mornings DIYing to Danny.

His tenure was the last time I routinely listened to Radio 1, it was all downhill after him.

Mark & Lard's evening show from the mid '90s before the not-to-be-spoken-of move to the breakfast show. However, and fortunately, Mark Radcliffe still presents pretty much the same show to this day on Radio 2, and the Radcliffe and Maconie show is just as essential listening.

(And a part of me harbours a nostalgic twang for the quack-quack-oops DLT days because it reminds me of being driven home by my dad the morning after teenaged parties)

his 2 or was it 3 hour marathon show on saturday afternoons. Must have been 20 years ago? Live guests and lots of Word friendly stuff. I remember Richard Thompson coming in and doing Valerie from Daring Adventures, amongst others. Can't even remember if it wasstill Radio 1, but i think so. always has seemed a very ggod egg. Even now.

Radio 1, mid to late 80s, Sunday nights, 7pm, straight after the top 40.

I think I read somewhere that they made a conscious decision to make it a request show that wasn't "please play this slushy love song that you hear all the time for my girlfriend and tell her that I love her", and she'd quite happily play lengthy album tracks or great long 12" mixes and all manner of less celebrated older hits - the Halloween special was always a good show.

Then at some point, they moved it to an hour later and it was (for some reason) less convenient to listen to.

In a way, I find that the Now Hear This CDs achieve a similar thing - "have a listen to this, you might like it, and if you don't, something else will be along in a few minutes..."

I appreciate i may be out on a limb here but as a young man i was very much a 'metalhead' and Tommy Vance's Friday Night Rock Show was unmissable as it was the only place to hear Deep Purple, Led Zep, AC/DC and, dare i say it, Saxon!

Radcliffe and Lard from 10pm -12am on Radio One in the mid nineties. An amazing show - not only was the music brilliant they'd also have poetry from Ian MacMillian and Simon Armitage which sounds awful on paper but was one of the highlights. I used to love the fact that every few months Radcliffe would play the full length version of 'Marquee Moon'. He introduced me to so many bands and made doing homework almost enjoyable.

Introduced me to this song which is still one of my all time favourites:

Gary Crowley's show on Sunday afternoons was also fantastic - 3 hours of solid indie. The weekly 'demo clash' was a highlight which I think regulary unearthed the likes of Suede, Dodgy etc. His TV show 'The Beat' was ace as well.

A quiz for older listeners.
Of what radio club was no 11321 a member of and what was his name?
Here's some music to help.

Johnny Walker fans, do find and read his recent biography. Much more interesting than the more obvious rock life stories that stare at us from every Waterstones display.

Some of the best radio ever was the pre-launch GLR test transmissions. All great album tracks and no speech. Priceless.

Chris Evans Saturday GLR show. I still remember, (to the point of where I was in the car, as I couldn't stop laughing) his on-air discourse on the uselessness of air sprays failing to mask pongs.
"...so next time you're at a dinner party, have a sniff and say to your neighbours, aah - that's Chanel No5... that's Floris... and that's Glade. Just had a shit then?"

Danny Baker's weekend shows on Radio 1 bring back memories of travelling up to a football match with my dad on a saturday morning. The joy of finding out what was actually inside a cricket ball has stayed with me to this day.

Fans of Baker and Kelly should check out their football podcasts which ran from September to November last year. Top quality stuff but cut short thanks to the dastardly Wippit not paying them.

I have a vague feeling that the nostalgia in this thread as it develops may make me weep at the state of radio today. Perhaps a more progressive topic should be "what radio shows from today will we remember affectionately in the future". A short, short list, methinks.

as already mentioned. The late evening slot worked so well for them and the guests were usually good. But they always have to mess with these things.

I also recall Saturday afternoons on Radio 1 with affection for Alan Freeman's selection of rock with classical music jingles. I may be mis-remembering but I recall hearing such things as Pink Floyd's Echoes being played, and prog, plus Stones and the like. Was something of a revelation and education for me that show. It ran from '73 to '78.

There are shows on now that I enjoy but nothing that's so special as the above. Nostalgia comes into it no doubt.

Coldcut's "Solid Steel" show on Kiss and then London Live/GLR was a weekly fixture through the 90's because they mixed such a wide range of music together so seamlessly and genuinely gave the listener a sense of being priveleged to hear such ingenuity on their tranny. They would play all genres of dance music without fear or favour; Jazz next to industrial next to Conscious Dub along with Detroit Techno, Drum and Bass, Hip-hop, funk new and old, TV Theme tunes and beyond. In the same way Peel would play Fudge Tunnel and Bolt Thrower next to Juan Atkins and The Pastels, there was a terrific feel to it and you could not be sure if the running order was put together by a genius or a madman.
I still have some cassette copies of the show somewhere and can remember trading copies when I had missed a show.
And they're still going too...
http://www.ninjatune.net/solidsteel/

They recently moved Gideon Coe from 10am to 10pm. Now I only get to listen to the first half-hour, whereas the mid-morning slot was perfect.
I also miss Phil Jupitus in the mornings. It wasn't fantastic, but head and shoulders above the idiot they've replaced him with.

...and corny knockabout banter, Mark and Lard's evening show on Radio One was an unpretentious mix of good music and discussion of film, poetry and literature. I remember Miki from Lush reading Wild Billy Childish poems over a Tangerine Dream track. It was one of those touching moments that you don't really expect from a disposable format like youth-oriented radio.

On another occasion Andrew Collins (I think it was Andrew Collins) read from his hilarious childhood diaries, while Belle and Sebastian (who were in for a session) provided appropriate ‘1970s' backing.

Chris Morris was once granted an hour of airtime a week by BBC Radio One, to do with as he pleased. Predictably he went on to test the limits of this freedom. In one show he claimed to have discovered the corpse of DJ Johnnie Walker. Subsequently he convinced a French taxidermist to have a go at stuffing the body.

As part of his show on the now defunct GLR, Robert Elms would unearth some curious fact about London and get his listeners to call in with more information about it. I used to find that fascinating.

Here are clips of Peel standing in for Mark & Lard, with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring guesting, and Stuart "Stuart Maconie's TV Towns" Maconie in there for good measure too. It's a mid nineties time capsule, and Peel's story about The Goodies is priceless

http://www.ahu24.dial.pipex.com/misc/rich_stew_on_john_peels_show01.mp3

http://www.ahu24.dial.pipex.com/misc/rich_stew_on_john_peels_show02.mp3

Danny B & Danny K on the radio, but also their shortlived podcast (my second favourite podcast -while it lasted) - always made me laugh out loud, which is embarassing on the Tube!

But the show that influenced me the most would be dear old Roger Scott on Radio 1, Saturday afternoons, in the late 80's. Proper rock music, Americana way before it was invented, great Country, old Prog, etc, etc. I still say that Roger Scott, Bob Harris and Nicky Horne are responsible for my devotion to music, more than anything else, but also the sheer spread of my musical taste. Anyone that can turn you on to such a wide range of music that you tend not to even categorise your collection - its just 'music' - has to be abloody genius.

As a callow youth in the late eighties/early nineties I was a bit of a rock fan, though not an out and out metalhead, so I would dip in and out of Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show (mostly to see if Marillion were on that week). Round about this time, Tommy started another show called "Night Rockin'" (imagine it in his voice), which was more weighted towards classic rock.

At some point it changed over to "The Saturday Rock Show" and Fluff Freeman took over (presumably resurrecting the format of Fluff's show in the 70s that Sven remembers). Many's the night I would stay up till 2 in the morning, a TDK c90 at the ready, having my fragile little mind blown by a mix of current alt rock (Faith No More, Soundgarden, Fishbone etc etc), Classic Rock, metal and a fair amount of prog (unthinkable on Radio 1 in the 90s!). I think this one show shaped 90% of my musical tastes, and Fluff's enthusiasm for everything he played was totally infectious. There would be an archive session or live show from the BBC vaults - actually thinking back it felt like it was Dio at the Hammersmith Odeon every other week. At the beginning of each show I remember Fluff would announce the session and a selection of artists that were gonna get played that week (backed by The Sign of the Swinging Cymbal, obviously) and being thrilled by the prospect of hearing some of the stuff I was into, as well as a ton of stuff that I'd never even heard of.

I think there was one show where Tommy Vance guest hosted and the two old duffers were so busy reminiscing about the good old days of rock that they didn't realise they were playing the first record at the wrong speed until halfway through. Brilliant.

Those two will be sorely missed.

The Top Twenty was a must. Sitting in the bath with a soggy copy of Disco 45, singing along. You had to be out of the bath and in your pyjamas before Sing Something Simple started.
Fluff was my master, I, his humble servant.
Not 'arf.

..,Noel Edmunds - yes really - on a Radio 1 Sunday morning many, many years ago used to play some great American music at a time when it was unfashionable to do so. In particular I remember Bob Seger, Bruce Hornsby and Harry Chapin. OK there was also Captain Beaky, but the mists of time afford some forgiveness.

Gavin

With his posse then including that marvelously plummy radio 4 newsreader. Lots of Elton John at about the time of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

When the original GLR rose out of the ashes of Radio London they had a breakfast DJ on that I used to pick up about Beaconsfield on my drive into London. Always played great music and was genuinely funny and made the M25 nightmare almost a pleasure. What was his name?

I'll own up first of all and point out he's a friend of mine, but in all seriousness this was the only radio show to ever challenge the Mighty Peel, as far as I'm concerned.

Broadcast on Saturday lunchtimes in the mid-1990s, this was a wonderful eclectic mix of sounds past and present, with a glorious disregard to anything resembling a playlist. The man's a big fan of Ivor Cutler, that gives you some idea where he's coming from.

For more info try this link:

http://www.phosphene.debrett.net/radio.htm

Totally agree with other posters on Danny Baker's Radio One show and Mark Radcliffe's shows but I remember Alan Freeman's Saturday Rock Show in the 70s with particular fondness.

He used to run some sort of competition called "Get on the right track" (baby) and would play a tune of that name as the intro.

I also used to love it when he did the rundown of artists at the start which invariably included Led Zep and Deep Purple - my particular favourites of the time. I would then hover over the cassette recorder for the next three hours waiting to record anything I liked or thought I might like.

Mind you, I used to step back from the radio whenever he played Van der Graaf Generator which I seem to remember he did a lot. "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers"!? Good lord.

His Radio 1 evening show in the mid to late 80s was fabulously eclectic and opened my ears to all sorts of new sounds. In the days before he narrowed his focus to play nothing but world music (if you see what I mean), you could hear anything from Billy Bragg to the Bhundu Boys to Green On Red, and it all sort of fitted together. To this day, I can't see Ali Farka Touré's name without hearing it spoken in a broad Lancashire accent.

Beyond that, yet another vote for the godlike genius of Danny Baker; a nod for Noel Edmonds' Sunday morning shows, which seemed to help with my maths homework somehow; and a mention for Roger Scott's afternoon show on Capital Radio in the late 70s/early 80s, which went a long way towards turning me into the Bruce Springsteen fanatic I am today.

by most of the above - although I appear to be the person never to have heard Mr Baker on the radio.
Can I also add the luverly Janice Long's ace indie show back in the day, which weened this lapsed hardcore punk off the hard stuff.
A doff of the cap too to Vic McGlynn, formerly of the fast-fading 6 Music. Not merely for the Radcliffesque banter and excellent tunage, but the fact I won shedloads of CDs on her Golden Anorak quiz. Sadly, I was KOd in the semi-finals of said glittering tournament by a teen savant with total Bjork recall

Ibid the recent (really rather good) Podcast, I give you Adrian Juste.....
I can't recall if he ever banged on a record but I do recall him shoe-horning in old comedy records with the most tenuous of justification.
He was unintentionally hilarious on a Beeb documentary about the Radio One revolution which consigned him to the dustbin of etc, that he made making DLT's exit appear dignified.
Not to mention, his endless and shameless forays for the Tories which drove millions into the bosom of Labour.
For all that, he must be ....worst. Dj. Ever

can I have a copy of that Fluff C90 too?? ( How do we sort that out then? )

...Annie Nightingale on a Sunday evening after the Top 40. Annie helped me get through so much homework that I'd never be able to repay her should she ever demand repayment.

As for shows that are on now that we'll miss when they're gone, I'd nominate Simon Mayo's excellent Radio 5 show and anything Mark Radcliffe does, although he was better with Lard than he is with Stuart Maconie.

Also, and I know this makes me sound like *such* an old fart, I will miss I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and Just A Minute on Radio 4 when all the participants shuffle off to god's green room. I quite like the News Quiz too, especially when Sandi Toksvig laughs at her own jokes before reaching the punchline.

Roger Scott on Capital in the 70's when he had an afternoon show. The guy was just brilliant. RIP

Nicky Horne on Capital... he did some appallingly fawning interviews (I seem to remember some Eagles ones in particular) but what a cracking taste in music. He used to play tracks from the Nils Lofgren "authorised bootleg" that should be in every home. And tracks from Jefferson Starship's much under-rated "Red Octopus" album - which still sounds excellent to these ears.

Mark Radcliffe's "Out on Cloud 9" evening show - Mondays, I think? He played "Dead Industrial Atmosphere" by Leatherface and it's been a favourite ever since. And he did a brilliant interview with Frank Zappa, too.

OK, he was the archetypal Smashie & Nice but Snooker on the Radio was a brilliant laugh!

Roger Scott on Saturday afternoons, Radio 1.
I also used to have a slight affection for VIRGIN Radio when it first started back in the nineties. I think Ross and Evans had a show on a Saturday morning at some point, and I used to quite like Richard Skinner and Nick Abbott on an evening. I remember when they were trying to secure a FM license; Skinner played Pink Floyd's new single "Keep Talking" and remarked "that sounds great on my headphones in stereo", but we could only hear it in poor AM, which maybe wasn't a bad thing, not their greatest piece of work, it has to be said.
It's a shame Beadle wasn't on the radio more, think he would have been good.

Chris's Tickle Your Trout spot was a particular favourite. And what about Mary Costello's Saturday evening show? GLR RIP.
Danny Baker's weekday shows on BBC London are well worth checking out.

on Picadilly radio in the 80's. Hard to believe now but he was a great radio dj. Had Chris Evans as his outside broadcast boy interviewing punters outside the latest duran/spandau gig at the Apollo. The only show I've been namechecked on!

But my vote goes for Radcliffe and Maconie. Put it this way, they've been bloody good company in an 'interesting' period in my life (era), just when I've needed them (slot), and as for the presenters - sheer northern genius. Even if I am an ex-pat southerner (stockport to devon - bit obtuse - sorry).

Echo the comments above about Andy Kershaw, hope things get better for you mate.

ps who was the 'danny baker' equivalent on Picadilly Radio? Same sort of era as Timmy Mallet - ran all thos marathons?

To answer my own question. He ran all those marathons (to correct my spelling). Not sure if he was a great dj, but seemed like a good bloke at the time. Certainly enjoyed listening to him. Probably should have been doing better things with my time tho, like going down to the Hacienda

Back in the early 90's, as well as the weekend slots (step forward Messrs Evans, Baker and Morris), the weekday schedules were pretty good too. The breakfast show was quite newsey, but entertaining, followed by Robert Elms, break for news at lunchtime, then Gideon Coe, then Peter Curran.
With all that going on, I found it very difficult to get any work done.
Does anyone remember, during Danny Baker's saturday morning show, a slot where Danny Kelly selected a picture from that days paper, described it, and then headlined it with the same word (sorrow? shame? something like that.) Doesn't look very funny on the page, but I nearly crashed my car through laughter a number of times.
I also attended a couple of "Save GLR" demos - freezing cold outside Broadcasting House with a handful of like-minded souls (including Gideon Coe, if I remember correctly). Henry Kelly, in a dinner jacket, being met by a group of cold but polite protestors springs to mind.
Alex

CE had a studio audience and managed to get tickets for a show.
Remember that it was very cramped and was promoted as Chris's and the missus (he was married to Carol McGiffin(?) then).
I think that he noted an advertisement in a Cumbrian newspaper for logs and rang up for them.

Also respect to the Candyman especially with Danny Kelly

Yes, GLR created a great community of listeners and presenters in the 90's. Until the management morons moved in and decreed that 'interactive' radio was where it was at. This meant wall to wall phone-ins with the likes of Jon Gaunt and Vanessa Phelps. Brilliant idea, you overpaid suits. As well as Danny, Gideon, Peter Curran, Coldcut, let's not forget Charlie Gillett's Saturday night world music show, which always featured a live band in that homespun chaotic way which sounds like they just walked in and set up in your living room. Followed by some great DJs into the night. Then Sunday mornings with Danny meant you couldn't leave your bed/house until it ended. GLR had a really enlightened music policy for a while. Pity they blew it and have turned into unlistenable moan-in radio. Even Elms doesn't sound enthusiastic any more.

Tony 'The Greek' Michaelides, Last Radio Show, mid 80's (?) sunday evening Pccadilly Radio, great showcase for new local muisc, old favourites and the incoming new American bands. And all presented with rare humour, kowledge and passion, bit like that bloke Peel!

I remember being one of the mob on Chris Evans show. If you rang in you could "pop down" to the studio.

I remember the segment where Chris would ring a celeb and see if they were in touch with day to day issues. Like " How much is a pint of milk" etc.

The day I was there they rang the legend Frank Bough and just as Frank came on air a chorus of deep sniffing from the audience kicked off.

I'll always remember Frank cheerfully exclaiming " I can hear that". How much for a can of coke jokes etc. Still brings out a smile.

i was virtually glued to it in the early 1990s when chris evans, danny baker, gary crowley et al would rule the airwaves. i cant listen to much "personality dj" radio these daze; presenters all annoy me and it seems compulsory to have a speech impediment.

i was virtually glued to it in the early 1990s when chris evans, danny baker, gary crowley et al would rule the airwaves. i cant listen to much "personality dj" radio these daze; presenters all annoy me and it seems compulsory to have a speech impediment.

i was virtually glued to it in the early 1990s when chris evans, danny baker, gary crowley et al would rule the airwaves. i cant listen to much "personality dj" radio these daze; presenters all annoy me and it seems compulsory to have a speech impediment.

Mark and Lard on at 10pm mid week mid 90s.I remember them telling silly stories and laughing so much they could not talk and a tune or two would be played.Loved them, so funny.Poet Joolzs did a poem about her father at Christmas which i thought was brilliant but have never managed to find it!Ah fond memories they opened my then young world to so much music.

Let's forget the rotten TV show, Kenny Everett was quite something on the radio particularly when he did the Capital breakfast show in those dim and distants when Capital was any good.
As for Danny Baker - weekend mornings on GLR were the gold standard.
Has anyone mentioned Bloody Good Records with regular features Bob O'Clock, Fab Past Eight et al?

I was keen on 'Little' Nicky Horne's Capital Radio show "Your Mother Wouldn't Like It" (mine didn't). (Say it soft, but I was one of the ones who loved the public-school noodlings of the Genesis crew.)

Later on, Radio One's killer one-two evening combination of David 'Kid' Jensen and the mighty Peel regularly knocked me out. I spent the last twenty-five years trying to recreate the coupling of three tracks played back-to-back by Kid Jensen, which I was unfortunate enough not to be able to record at the time. The final piece fell into place last year, when I finally tracked down an MP3 of Shoot The Pump by J. Walter Negro & Loose Jointz. The other two tracks? In Every Dream Home A Heartache by Roxy Music and O Superman by Laurie Anderson. I have no idea why this medley made such an impact on me, but it did.

I loved all the Mark and Lard Radio 1 shows particularly their afternoon slot, but for me Danny Baker's Radio 1 shows were the height of radio. In particular, the Turmoil spot where Danny Kelly would write the word Turmoil on faces from the days' newspaper and then show them to Baker live on air and the pair of them would crack up. Doesn't sound funny when you write it down, but was fantastic to listen to.

Anyone other than me remember the original XFM in London? This would have been late 1997, and it lasted a year or so before it was taken over by Capital. XFM was originally connected with The Cure's management, and it professed to be the true alternative to mainstream music radio. The playlist was certainly left-field to say the least: Beefheart on the breakfast show, anyone? There was also a two-hour garage-rock and swirly psych show on Friday nights, with a presenter (I forget his name) whose spoken links occasionally interrupted the dead air between tunes, bringing new meaning to the word "laconic". Sure brightened up the soundtrack to Friday night dinner.

Of course, it couldn't last. Advertisers stayed away in droves, and less than a year later, XFM was just another flavour of Capital. I never tuned in again, but a quick glance at Wikipedia reveals that the station is now apparently automated during daytime hours, and there's a supposition that it might not be around much longer at all.

Does anyone remember who was the Evening Show Presenter from about 7-10pm or so on GLR about 19901/2 during the week? I think his name was Simon (could be wrong about that) but he always played crackin tunes and had this mellow "I'm have a nice puff" voice.

Always wondered what happended to him. Maybe a puff to far etc.

What everyone else has said and more. As Danny himself would say" like a warm bath" radio genius

No it doesn't sound cool but this is one of my fonder radio memories - listening to Ed Stewart on a weekend morning in the kitchen while I ate my breakfast and Dad read the paper.

Most here won't remember "Hello, Darling" but I know Messrs Ellen and Hepworth know who I mean!

I also suspect my own kids would still like this kind of stuff.

Anyway, back to the Showaddywaddy records...

Bit late on this one,off work ill so catching up,but Fluff was the best dj radio 1 ever had.Listened to the saturday afternoon show in the 70's and discovered most of the music i still love today....thinks...must go rooting in the dusty cassette box to see if i still have some of the trusty c90's!

Bill Oddie - (yes him from Birdiewatch) Sunday Mornings at 10, did the most fantastic funk, Jazz and all sorts selection from Prince and Steely Dan to Dixie Dregs and Donald Byrd. So good I actually taped several of his shows.

I'd agree with all the 'votes' for Johnnie Walker. His Saturday afternoon 'Stereo Sequence' show on Radio 1 was superb as was his original Radio 2 Saturday show (3.30-5.30). Things became rather more mainstream musically on drivetime which was a shame.

Steve Madden who used to do the overnight show on Radio 2 was always a good listen with a great taste in music. He seemed to like Jackson Browne quite a bit and Nick Drake which was alright with me.

Bob Harris wherever he's been on-air has always been a top-class presenter with impeccable musical taste. He did some rather fine weekday evening shows on GLR for a while. And he remains a must listen with his Radio 2 shows. Pity he's not on BBC 6 Music anymore though.

Hi all, unfortunately I've discovered this thread, indeed this website a bit late but never mind I'll say my tuppenceworth! Much of what l'd have said about my fave radio presenters has already been voiced however I'd still like to mention the great Roger Scott (Grab a little piece of heaven with Roger Scott from 3 to 7 on Capital 194) He was a legend and had a spot called the peoples choice in which listeners were encouraged to vote for their current faves. Roger introduced me to Bruce Springsteen. I spent many years driving Post Office vans and had GLR's Simon Barnett to keep me company between 8 and 10 then Whispering Bob between midnight and 4am, luxury! Am currently enjoying the works of Radcliffe and Maconie and Lamarrs 'God's Jukebox' is another recent good discovery. Happy listening, Bobino

Eh up - I've come to this even later, Bobino.

Thumbs aloft for Danny Baker, Kenny Everett, Radio 1 breakfast show-era Noel Edmonds, Tarrant's Capital years and Mark Radcliffe.

Mark & Lard had reached that crucial two year anniversary on Radio 1 lates. One of their celebratory links consisted solely of Lard blowing up a balloon. When, inevitably, it burst, he yelled "Cobblers!" before the next track played in. A real almost-swerved-off-the-road moment as I wiped tears of laughter from my eyes.

Mentions in dispatches also to Mike Baker of Beacon Radio for introducing me to gay disco at a time when Robbie Vincent on Radio 1 was showcasing the dullest dance music the western world had to offer.

Thumbs down: Chris Evans. "He'll never get anywhere," I inwardly harrumphed in early 1990 as I heard his GLR acolytes laugh like drains at his every utterance.

Shows what I know.