Jeremy Vine Meets...

Today's guest: LIONEL RICHIE!

Who's tomorrow? PHIL COLLINS?

Have we had a Bob Geldof Classic or Dud?

Remaining guests include DEBORAH HARRY and on Friday ELVIS COSTELLO.

I can't now recall who the other one is.

It's pretty good. VINE is harder hitting than MICHAEL PARKINSON.

The other one - tomorrow? - is STING!

Miller to thread!

Also, RJG should be watching, this.

car crash tv... vine won't stop going on about how debbie is blonde. very alan partridge.

this is why i have been late for work every day this week

Geldof and Sting came across well, i've never really had a problem with either anyway

I watched Debbie Harry this morning. It dawned on me for the first time that she is a genius. They showed a clip of Heart of Glass and she just moves her head very slightly to one side and it's a perfect move. I mean, I liked her before, but I'd never thought wow what a genius. The interview was good, but occasionally I thought JV overstepped the mark (for my tastes). Having said that, he could have overstepped it a lot more. The producer or director or whoever's stroke of genius was to show JV just after DH had left. He looked completely freaked out, there was total disbelief in his chin-stroking daze.

Very good programme.

Until this morning I had forgotten about this programme, and I hadn't seen this thread.

i never realised she was 33 when Blondie's first album was released. i thought the whole deal was she was about 18 when the first singles came out, shockah!

I never realised that either.

Steve, when Blondie broke in America her age was an issue - as were the (erm) 'session photos' of her in her 20s that wound up in Playboy or similar.

PJM and co -- I agree that DH came across terrifically. I mean, as an older woman: she has wisdom, serenity, yet energy and heart still.

The problem was Vine: he interviewed her appallingly. Every time she said of some bad thing that she'd got over it, it was too bad, here we are, let's count our blessings, he'd go over it yet again: "so was that what drove you?", etc. It was infuriating. For a supposed fan, he asked not one question about... the music. The records. How they sounded. Whom they were trying to sound like. Whether they succeeded. Why they changed. How many guitar parts is the optimum number. What was the best solo. What was the best vocal she ever recorded.

Or - what's her favourite book? What's she reading now? Who are her favourite actors in film history? Whatever: things that might have got her thinking with interest, rather than weariness.

the scheduling is truly bizarre

presumably a nod to the ratings boom for Radio 2 (and possibly 6?) in the mornings

god. interviewing costello, he's even worse. he can't believe he really wanted thatcher to die. he cant believe he's still willing to stand by the song. vine just keeps harping on in high register, like Costello were some politician on newsnight who's admitted to drowning kittens - not investigating what costello has said, just expressing disbelief, like wishing thather dead were an indefensible position.

Well, it does make you closer to Thatcher than if you didn't want her to die, I suppose.

Yesterday I was going to defend JV by suggesting that he had orders to appeal to the remains of the Kilroy demographic, hence all the celeb gossip questioning, but today I've decided he's just boring, with a boring haircut. The Radio Times describes him as an 'arch New Order fan' but he's not very arch at all, he's just boring, boring, boring. To think I missed Pause For Thought for this.

Costello's only stroke of genius: the record that looked like a teddy bear.

Inerviewing pop stars in a Paxman like manner though seems and urgent and key idea nevertheless.
"So Elvis, and please answer this time - none of you finagling please. You never answered your own question. Is it worth it, a new winter coat and shoes for the wife?"

Teddy bear?