Friday, May 19, 2006

Podcaster Turns Guest

This Friday evening I was broadcasting live around the planet on the BBC’s World Service! The programme was World Have Your Say and the subject was Eurovision.

I actually have a little history with this show as they interviewed me for the pilot in late 2005. They had wanted someone to talk about the internet and how it helped bands like Arctic Monkeys rise to prominence.

They gave me a good five minute grilling and I was able to say what I liked but, as it was a pilot, it was never to be broadcast.

So it was great to be invited back for a proper live show. And it is weird waiting for the telephone call, knowing that in a few moments your voice will be heard around the world, and all you are doing is sitting in your front room.

The instigator of this feature was Kevin Anderson who had decided that in celebration of the weekend’s forthcoming Eurovision competition, World Have Your Say would have it’s very own Your-o-Vision competition. People from around the world would nominate a new piece of music and the expert would decide which the winner was.

My role was to nominate Itchy Tits, local all-girl punk group who I had featured recently, and a band which Kevin had also taken a shinning to.

The only problem was that the BBC felt 'Tits' was not a word the world wanted to hear on a Friday evening in England and almost 11AM in America. So we decided to call them Itchy. The Itchies might have been better.

Time ticked by and I listened to the show to get a flavour on the day’s content. By 19:50 (ten minutes to the end of the show) they still hadn’t started the competition or even contacted me. I thought, "They are leaving this a bit late". In fact the feature didn’t start until 19:53 and they had still four songs to feature and they still hadn’t even called. I figured I wasn’t going to be on.

Then the phone rang, I was connected and asked to introduce the band and explain why I felt they should be on. It went by in a flash.

Moments later it was all over and I think Itchy Tits won. As Kevin liked the song the ‘official’ judge of the show, Mark Savage, was out voted 1 to 2.

Well that’s how it seemed at the time, it was all a blur and I’ll have a listen when the show is made available.

But it was great fun being the guest for once and I still have, using the Warhol method of calculation, 14 minutes and 45 seconds of fame left to use up.

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