How I met my wife
Festival radio was the soundtrack of a Fin de Siècle all of our very own. There were no indoor shopping centres in those days and there was no social media-so we had to make our own fun. Caberet in the Attic. Bands locked in cellars. Reckless gourmand snogging and Veggie gutbuster breakfasts. Brighton’s little lanes were lit like an indoor film set still glowing from the gas of the Helmstone and stella bulbs strung out on the seafront guided us home towards our dawny beds as we twinkled out of the festival clubs to watch fishing boats come in and deckchairs go out.
Before Festival Radio –the broadcasting world was owned and controlled by an old frowning statue in a big chair. But then came Daniel and Eugene –young enthusiasts that genuinely loved Radio even more than Ben and Jerry loved ice cream.
I hosted two shows – The first an issue based series produced by the wonderful Rachel Bennington that dipped prophetically into affairs of today. One show about gender identity featured amongst others -Tony Haase- whose solo theatre piece about Gertie Naylor and the wartime women’s football revolution was a triumph of scrummy delivery and curious warm genius.
A year later I hosted an arts series produced by the excellent Torquil Mcloud- I think we did one a day but of course it’s all a blur of memories like colours in a hotwash. I was viscously nocturnal in those days and daytime radio hosting felt like a clammy hallucination. I was addicted at the time to the adrenalin and audience interaction of real -live gigs and little did I realise then that I had been presented with the opportunity to blink into the reality of an actual real –life dream job.
Torquil ran the show brilliantly and diligently. I wasn’t very competent following cues and reading from a script but I did enjoy chatting to guests once they had put me at my ease. Margaret Atwood was a privilege to meet –an unexpected glimpse into the mind of someone that I would gladly buy a donkey for and work for as a Herald. Margaret gracefully ascertained that I didn’t really know who she was and that I hadn’t read any of her books and seemed happy to recommend some of her favourites.
Some guests were just naturally beautiful at being guests.Jo Brand sharing the couch with Peter Lord (founder of Aardman Animation –Morph-Wallace and Gromit ) Jo was relaxed and generous and Peter the epitome of the humbleinspiring life-force. I wasn’t sure how to get the chat going in an authentic way so I asked the guests on air what might be a clever way to link them together. Jo said immediately that Peter had created Morph and that she looked like Morph. It was so lovely sitting there with clever sweet people - I didn’t know how lucky I was.