Oh and then there’s my dislike of any ‘professional’regional “characters/characterisations- northerners/cockneys/from anywhere* - the idea of Chas and Dave doing something this sentimental probably including a bit about sharing some jellied eels with Reggie Kray, “who loved his old mum you know”, well minus 10 wouldnt be low enough!

And finally my Lancastrian partner insists on having one of Lowry’s bloody pictures in pride of place in the main room.

*except possibly those from the South West (eg the Wurzels)because,well you just can’t take them
seriously can you?..only joking if there’s any carrot-crunchers oops I mean West Country types out there in Popular-land.

Not only was there one on Lowry, but it used a specially rerecorded and extended version of “Matchstik Men…” as a framing device. It wasn’t B&M singing it though- it was then presenter Mark Curry!

This would be the only show he ever presented on Radio 1, but he did present occasional music documentaries on the station, notably on Abba, Queen and the Stylistics, and he never showed any sign of crossing over to television, for example via Top of the Pops. His smooth style and Received Pronunciation voice (becoming more noticeable in later years; initially he had tried to sound more like a 1970s pop radio DJ) were unusual for Radio 1 even then, and would be utterly unthinkable now.

After leaving Radio 1 he would broadcast for BBC Radio 2 in the early 1980s, provide the voiceover for many TV and radio adverts, and continue his acting career, notably appearing in Emmerdale Farm (as it was then called). He subsequently became a newsreader for BBC World television and then moved to Hong Kong, where he became a popular broadcaster on the British Armed Forces radio service in the final years of British rule. His final appearance on national BBC radio came at the very end of 1991, when he presented “The Million Selling Singles of the 60s and 70s” on BBC Radio 2, although he was a contributor to Radio 1’s “25 Years of the UK Top 40″ which aired in September 1992.

After the Hong Kong handover in 1997, he continued working in radio, as well as commercial voice over artist and freelance video presenter until 2005, thereafter retiring to live in Thailand with his Thai wife. He currently owns a farm where they grow rice and mushrooms with the mountains of North Central Thailand in the distance.

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Browne_%28broadcaster_and_actor%29″

I have a far clearer recall of the Blackburn era.

(as Dollar’s Love’s Gotta Hold Of Me fades out)
Blackburn: “That was beautiful…and so am I”!

I got “Forever Autumn” and “Northern Lights” to review.

So, I get very unexcited about two singles that are neither good or bad.

And I get, in return, a badge. And a photo, maybe, I can’t remember. And, no records. Heck, I’d always get records when I did Radio 210 stuff!

Geldof (feverishly): “I’m gonna be like, I’m gonna be like, I’M GONNA BE LIKE ME!”

[one second of dead air]

Blackburn (witheringly): “Oh.”

“It’s got a good beat to it!”, chirped the caller.

“Yeah, but banging your head against a wall has got a ‘good beat’ to it”, retorted Blackburn, witheringly.

I have no idea why I remember these things.

Also, disavows a racist reaction.

For Peter “Tron is the greatest film ever made, apart from other ones” Powell’s attitude towards the singles chart (he had to do the Tuesday teatime recap) it may be worth coming back to examine that a little more in the eighties (there’ll be several key opportunities)…

There was some talk of the novel “Paperback Writer” where “Hold on to your dream” was one of the songs recorded by the newly reformed Beatles.

After so many years of ELO songs being direect or indirect lifts of Beatle tunes, here was one that was a direct lift from a Beatles song that didn’t even exist!

The beginning of a 1977 Top 20 Sunday countdown, featuring the familiar dash of CCS’s Brother and Tom’s tones, can be heard on the opening to Saint Etienne’s Studio Kinda Filthy. Apparently.