the golden age of radio?

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Marc Radcliffe and lard, 10 til twelve every week night except Friday. I listened religiously, introduced me to so many bands, so many writers, films, whatever.

Was this the best radio show ever?

― chris, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hiyaaaaa fancy a brew our kid?

― chris, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes.

― Bill, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ohhhhhhhhh yes. Every night I'd come home trying to concentrate on my A-Levels, and I'd end up boogying around in my bedroom to all kinds of stuff.

Actually, I'm sure Will Self on 'cult novels' got me through my English exam...

― Will McKenzie, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry, I'm a Danny Baker's Morning Edition man - which was on at much the same time (epoch wise, it was obviously on in the morning) as well as his GLR stuff. It is a blessed relief to hear him back on the yet again renamed BBC London on Saturday mornings.

Apparently the BBC have hired him and Danny Kelly again as well for yet another footbnall show. Well I never.

I really liked Mark & Lard but I was far too often in the pub to hear it all. If you still want to hear Radcliffe at the time of Ten why not tune in to Heroes or Zeroes on Radio 2 every Thursday. Tonights might be shit beut I hear the one of David Bowie onthe 2nd of November is a corker.

― Pete, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Peel once had the same 10-12 slot + played a more diverse array of sounds, + better sessions.

― stevo, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hIt the North was great as was the 10-12 evening show. Pluses included Kim Newman standing in for the insufferable Mark Kermode and Will Self and the boo radleys on the same show. I still have that on tape, alongwith many other Radcliffe sessions.

― Jonnie, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Peel and that Radcliffe show not comparable, really, because as everyone seems to be homing in on, the attraction of it was not so much the music - which was OK apart from the bursts of prog - but the talk: getting literature, poetry, movies etc discussed in a non-Radio 4 manner.

― Mark Morris, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

graveyard shift devotee and sad case: i taped the final show.

― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark M est sur l'argent. The music never was all that, and compared to Peel they covered a very narrow range. It was the talky bits that made it great. It's a shame that they couldn't have used the same format when they moved to the morning and then afternoon.

― RickyT, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Alan, so did I ....and I've lost it, don't suppose you've still got a copy have you?

― chris, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i've just moved so i took the opportunity to chuck out all my old tapes, but i'm pretty sure i remembered to keep that. i've often though about mp3-ing it and uploading it somewhere. 2 hours would be what about 120 MB?

― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Joyce Jillson, Girl Interne."

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark 'n' Lard back in the day were ACE! they introduced me to Throwing Muses, Simon Armitage, ooh billions of things. also annoying catchphrases "fancy a brew", "that's the bunny", "ha-HO!", "fuck my hat! i didn't know that"... *sigh*

― katie, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

they introduced me to Throwing Muses

Well fuck my hat etc. So if it hadn't have been for Mark and Lard we might not be sharing a flat now? Blimey.

― RickyT, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

M & L introduced me to Roxy Music, or at least to the idea that Roxy Music were good.

Incidentally the Heroes And Zeroes program mentioned above is on November FIRST not November 2nd.

― Tom, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

well, more precisely i heard "Your Ghost" on M&L and that was the first time i had heard of Kristin Hersh, and then i was compelled to check out her other work... so yes!

― katie, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

M & L introduced me to Roxy Music, or at least to the idea that Roxy Music were good.

Meaning you were not convinced beforehand? DEMON.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, it's very odd actually, given I'd spent at least a year beforehand hanging around with a bunch of massive Eno fans. I'd just never heard any.

― Tom, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Indeed the golden age of radio. Mark and Lard weeknights and Danny Baker at the weekend. Bliss.

Sadly Mark and Lard in the afternoon are piss poor in comparison and Bakers new show is only to be heard in London or over the net. Roll on the new Radio 5 show.

Also been listening to some of the music shows that Chris Morris did for Radio 1 back in '94 and its interesting to hear how much the station has changed. A show like this or M&L or Baker would get nowhere near Radio 1 now. Morris is getting small children to say wank, playing rap records with all swearing intact and manipulating what people says so he has Bruno Brookes saying 'cunt' etc. Not to mention finding Johnnie Walker dead and trying to get him stuffed!

I'm amazed it ran for the 25 or so shows it did.

And as for the difference in music policy...

― MarkS, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic. Taping the last show isn't a sad case, taping anything which features French Disko is probably not a sad case. Uh, in my book. The music may not have been all that compared to Peel but it was still pretty classic, at least to start with (bit too much Oasis etc in the last year for my liking), and introduced me to loads of stuff too. Almost all of the guests were great, especially the poets. Mmmm, Simon Armitage's accent, ROWR, and the way Mark and Lard would make him giggle so much he couldn't start his poems.

The White Room was pretty classic too. Morphine's set featuring Dana Colley playing two saxophones at once = pure rock. (Yeah, he may have done that every gig, but I never got to see them live apart from that, so...)

― Rebecca, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ahh, the 'Nightime' show. Actually, Mark Kermode's cult movie slot was my favourite feature - he can now be heard reviewing movies/DVDs/mentioning The Exorcist on Simon Mayo's Radio5 show on fridays - but the early 90s was a bit of a golden period for Radio1, you had decent documentaries, Chris Morris and Victor Lewis-Smith doing very near-the-knuckle hour long shows and the veritable cultural grab-bag that was Mark & Lard.
Were they given the option of either keeping the nightime show or moving to the breakfast show?
I remeber the last show, the last thing played was the session version of Tindersticks' 'Tiny Tears' which was a choker.
And, at around this time, Nick Abbot had his excellent late-night phone in show on Virgin - still the best show that's been on that station.

― DavidM, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

How about putting Mark + Lard, 10 till 12, on Radio 2. It could work.....

― Stephen, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Absolutely.
One of those rare shows when you think that it has been made especially for you. Sparks, humour, Maconie before he became ubiqutous, the banter with Baby Bird, Jim White, Kermode, Self and that fella' who discussed art. I fogot how refreshing it was to hear art and literature being discussed without that radio 4 tweed jacket feel.
The afternoon show's fine but it's emasculated by the timeslot, the target audience and playlist constraints.

― Billy Dods, Thursday, 18 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark & Lard wanted to move from the evening slot - because it meant they couldn't go to the pub. Read The Nations Favourite for details on pretty much all of the above period of Radio One. M&L were bribed to do breakfast, originally they were going to do teatime - which I think would have worked pretty well.

The thing about Golden Ages is they do have to end...

― Pete, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But that mid-90s period - while there was a lot of great stuff on, and M&L were indeed incomparably GRATE - was also notable for an extraordinary number of generic indie / Britpop records clogging up the playlist. Unbelievably bad radio moment when Nicky Campbell played a weak, forgettable record by ultimate indie also-rans Speedy and sounded bored beyond belief trying to get excited about it: the nadir of Radio 1 after 1993, anyone? At the time, though, I suppose we were so glad to be rid of the Hairy Cornflake, the Medallion Man and the rest that a lot of R1 output seemed better than it was. To be honest, I think 15- and 16-year-olds have far better taste, on the whole (despite nu-metal) than they did when I was that age. There is a certain sort of bitter, grizzled old hack who resents M&L playing Kelis or So Solid Crew, both of which sound better to me now than a lot of the stuff they played on the Graveyard Shift (which, obviously, I loved *then*), and god forbid that I should go that way: in 10 years' time such people will be the equivalent of the bores who thought Bob Harris had a divine right to stay on Radio 1 forever.

None of this, of course, detracts from the thrill, excitement, variety etc etc of the Graveyard Shift. 10pm every night, I was *there*: the opening rants still classic, the disregard for dividing lines of time and genre even more so. Wonderful.

Mark Goodier and Stuart Maconie have stood in for Richard Allinson on the Radio 2 late-night show recently (unbelievable moment recently when Mark Lamarr handed over to Goodier: I have tapes of both of them playing Public Enemy on R1 only five years ago, when R2 was still mostly John Major FM and Major was still even PM!) and both have been pretty good (yep, even Goodier when he gets his mind to it) but M&L would have to be allowed some pretty radical liberties with the playlist to recreate that magic. It's an "adult contemporary" (YUK!) show at heart, that: the *antithesis* of the Graveyard Shift, and I can't imagine it being changed in one go.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Glad to see you back Robin. i think the thing I miss about the M & L show isn't so much the music (which for better or worse fits my 30 something postpunk demographic), which even then didn't encompass my range of listening.

No it's the intelligent, open minded liberal approach to popular (and not so popular) culture, which I struggle to find anywhere else on the radio I miss. Though Radio 4 has it's moments. I first heard about the emerging Britart on their show for instance.

I forgot to mention Steven Daly btw, funnier and more perceptive than Alisatir Cooke imho.

― Billy Dods, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm with you on missing the talk more than the music.

Alistair Cooke = increasingly Alan Keith with journalistic pedigree.

― Robin Carmody, Saturday, 20 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

The boys are splitting up, just when they've been back approaching there best stuff. Maybe since they knew they were going they could forget about trying to fit into the audience demographic and become strange and playful again. I think I'll have find a smoky boozer, sit in a snug and think about the good old days.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 19 February 2004 22:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Coo, Speedy. I was their number one fan. What fool was I.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Carmody (who is my age) absolutely OTM. It was a defining show. R1 '94 was immense: you had lots of grabte comedy too -- Chris Morris, Lee and Herring &c.

― ENRQ (Enrique), Friday, 20 February 2004 13:08 (twenty-one years ago)

And packets of crisps only cost 28p!

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 20 February 2004 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

They only cost 27p in my office... it would be nice if R1 decapitated that old bore Peel and had some comedy, though...

― NERQ (Enrique), Friday, 20 February 2004 13:25 (twenty-one years ago)

eleven years pass...

In America this was, of course, the '30s through the early '50s (at least), when radio comedy series in particular made superstars of Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Burns & Allen etc.

The freshly deceased Stan Freberg had the last original big-time comedy program produced for radio in 1957, which can be accessed here:

http://splitsider.com/2015/02/the-stan-freberg-show-radios-last-comedy-series/

― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 8 April 2015 16:20 (ten years ago)

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