February 8th
Sparklehorse-Hundreds Of Sparrows-Studio
Stockholm 21.9.98 Live Recording
Most of the
music that I have learned to love over the years have been introduced to me by
the usual, expected routes-press, friends, radio (i.e. John Peel) etc. There
have been though, two groups who I discovered and got into by a surprising
entry point. They are The White Stripes and Sparklehorse and I first heard (of)
them on Radio 4’s news programmes, Today and PM.
It’s been a
long, long time since I last listened to Radio 1, 2 or any commercial station.
At least 25 years. Radio 4, and to some lesser extent, Radio 3, is my preferred
listening these days. I had largely given up on Radio 1 much earlier than 25
years ago in any event, and only listened to it for John Peel. Since the death
of Peel I cannot recall putting Radio 1 on except by accident in the car and
then I would have reached instinctively for the Radio 4 button. Radio 4 is
probably one of the only things that could possibly make me proud to be
British. I am not nationalistic or patriotic in any way at all and would (even
in these straightened times), class myself as European rather than British. I
wish that Britain had joined the Euro and that we were part of a United States
of Europe rather than the United Kingdom. However, classing myself as European,
I would still be proud of the BBC and Radio 4 and it would still be my station
of choice. Even if I lived in some remote corner of Europe, I would still try
to find a way to catch up with The Archers at 2.00 p.m. every day. My day
anyway is bookended by Radio 4, Today (John Humphreys, Jim Naughtie et al) each
morning at 6.30 and whatever is on late at night. At home if I am not listening
to music, then it’s Radio 4 on the airwaves. I some ways I could cope quite
easily without television, but not music and not radio. I will listen to even
the most arcane stuff on Radio 4-including Gardeners Question Time, which is
odd, as we don’t have a garden at all.
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