DJs are truly the curators of our own golden age

THE JOHN CREEDON SHOW

RTÉ Radio 1, Monday-Friday, 8-10pm

RISING TIME

RTÉ Radio 1, Weekends 6-8am

THE TOM DUNNE SHOW

Newstalk, Daily, 10pm-12

You know the way you’re listening to a music presenter, and they read out a request from a listener for a particular track, and they say they won’t be playing the track today, but hopefully soon they’ll get around to it?

I don’t like that.

I realise that in the list of human depravity it may not be close to the top, yet it’s one of those small things which to me indicates a broader malaise.

I recall funnyman Vic Reeves explaining his rage at the failure of drivers to use the indicator, because it was such an easy thing to do, literally a flick of the finger. Yet they wouldn’t do it.

Likewise there were the rock bands who’d insert a rider into their contract to have a jar of jelly beans in the dressing room, but no green ones — the idea being that if such a detail was not attended to, perhaps much larger issues of negligence may emerge; the stage itself might collapse.

So yes, if someone has gone to the considerable trouble of writing to a radio station to request a specific song for a specific occasion, they are probably entitled to the minimal amount of logistical restructuring that is required to make it happen: just play the bloody song.

Fair play then to John Creedon, who received a note from a listener on March 1, telling him they assumed he’d be playing ‘February’s Gone’ by The Walls. Creedon confessed that actually he hadn’t intended playing it, but that he’d be playing it now because he’d “popped it into the jigsaw”.

How hard was that?

No harder than a flick of the finger on the indicator, no harder than leaving out the green jelly beans (OK, maybe a bit easier than that), and yet, I was still a bit surprised Creedon went to the trouble so many others over the years would not countenance.

He has a lot of things on his mind too, a two-hour show playing records every weeknight, which is harder than it might sound. Certainly, Creedon gives it his full attention by engaging with the stories of the listeners, such as the wave of reminiscences of the summer of 1973 that was set off by his playing ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ by Bachman Turner Overdrive.

One listener recalled being in Irish College, watching that track on Top of the Pops and then another listener joined in to say she was a member of the family in whose home they were watching that TOTP, she’d have been a baby at the time. Now we were getting a sense of what music means to people, how a record can define a whole period of their lives, and take them back there.

Indeed, from Ronan Collins in

the daytime to Cathal Murray on Late Date to Paul McLoone on Today FM, what were once “disc jockeys” are now more like curators of the great art form of the second half of the 20th century, and beyond.

But are people regarding this as a cultural period as important as the Renaissance itself, just because it happened to coincide with the glories of their own youth? Perhaps, but then they might have said that about the original Renaissance too — “ah, that Leonardo’s OK, but sure everyone thinks that when they were ‘out’, it was a golden age”.

So there’s more to playing records on the radio than just playing records. Especially if, like Creedon, you’re doing it in Cork, where any lapse of judgement in music will be regarded rightly as a serious criminal offence — sure enough, Lilian Smith in the Cork studios for Rising Time at the weekends, maintains an impeccable standard.

Straight after Creedon, there’s Tom Dunne on Newstalk, with his own take on that impossibly rich musical heritage which has been handed down to us.

And while it would be easy for Tom to just grab a fistful of LPs at random and crank them out, he too takes that extra bit of trouble to note that March 1 is St David’s Day. So he’ll play an hour of tracks from Welsh artists.

Which along with Manic Street Preachers and Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones and Duffy, includes ‘Sound and Vision’ by Bowie, who is not Welsh, but whose producer Tony Visconti was married to Mary Hopkin, who sang backing vocals on ‘Sound and Vision’. And she is Welsh.

Tom just popped that one into the jigsaw, without even being asked.

This weekend last year, I was on my way home from Ennis. It was my first time participating in its annual Book Club Festival and I had interviewed my good friend, the delightful and talented Rosita Boland. It was the final literary gathering before the country went into lockdown.

Like so many in the industry, the organisers have both rallied and pivoted and this week deliver a vibrant online festival.

There are a number of events on today so do give them a visit at ennisbookclubfestival.com. This evening, for example, you can join Elaine Feeney selecting a quintet of stellar titles you should read — she’s always well worth a listen.

Last week, Feeney was awarded the Kate O’Brien Award for her dazzling fiction debut As You Were at Limerick’s literary celebration of its most famous female writer.

Lucky Limerick students have Kit de Waal teaching creative writing at the university there. Her superb debut My Name is Leon has been adapted, and filming by the BBC started this week in her home town of Birmingham with a great cast that includes Olivia Williams and Monica Dolan. Lenny Henry, who voiced the audio book, is at the helm as executive producer.

In Galway, there is Cúirt to look forward to. The City of the Tribes always delivers a knockout line-up so keep an eye out for its programme, which will be announced on March 11.

Up the road, Cairde Sligo Arts Festival has just posted details of its inaugural short story competition: Cairde Word will be judged by Sinéad Gleeson and Louise Kennedy and submissions opened this week until the end of April. Visit cairdefestival.com for details on how to enter.

Finally, those fab folk at indie press and Irish journal Banshee Lit had exhilarating news this week — they’re publishing Deirdre Sullivan’s eagerly anticipated short story collection I Want to Know That I Will be Okay in May. They also called for entries for their autumn issue, which will be guest edited by writers Jessica Traynor and John Pat McHugh. Further info at bansheelit.com