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Kay slips into Bruce’s slot with a family affair
RIGHT then, here we go – the adventure, let it begin.” As opening gambits go, that’s possibly overselling what is, after all, just a radio show, but there was a real sense of excitement crackling through the airwaves on Monday morning when Vernon Kay launched his first full-time show in the old Ken Bruce slot. “I feel like it’s my first day at school,” Kay told us.
He chose U2’s Beautiful Day (approved by his daughters Phoebe and Amber) to kick off proceedings. A classic choice to calm the horses for anyone worried that he was going to play non-stop Sleaford Mods or something (unlikely admittedly). Chic, Rita Ora and Harry Styles all followed as Kay found his feet, somewhere to the south of Bruce, ie younger in voice and musical choices, but not scarily so.
Kay is hardly a newbie to the DJ game so it’s not really surprising that he seemed on top of things from the get-go. But anyone who heard Scott Mills’s first day taking over from Steve Wright in the afternoon will know that nerves can get to the most experienced of radio jocks. That was not the case here.
Kay made his first day something of a family affair, with most of his relations getting a mention. It seems Kay getting the prime Radio 2 job has been emotional for all of them. “When I told Paul, my cousin, he started crying,” Kay revealed. His mum also got a birthday shout-out and a spin of Doris Day’s Secret Love.
His home town of Bolton was also given plenty of mentions throughout. He even played a song by Michael Bolton, Just the Beginning, which was a wry choice (a terrible song though).
“We’re not going to be Londoncentric,” Kay told his listeners. Which is admirable, although no-one warned Suggs, Kay’s first guest in the Tracks of My Years slot. The Madness singer chose Sinatra singing A Foggy Day (In
London Town) and London’s Calling by The Clash.
Even so, this was a confident debut and Kay already seems like a safe pair of hands for Radio 2. Listeners who haven’t jumped ship to follow Ken Bruce to Greatest Hits Radio will probably be perfectly happy.
On Radio 4 on Tuesday, Sound Towns travelled to Fife with Nicola Meighan to talk to members of The Fence Collective.
Musicians James Yorkston, KT Tunstall and Kenny Anderson (aka King Creosote) all contributed to the programme. Meighan even touched on the fallout between Anderson and Johnny Lynch (The Pictish Trail) that ultimately marked the end of Fence. But this was mainly a sweet, nostalgic celebration of a moment in musical time.
Later the same day, Great Lives on Radio 4 celebrated the late Terry Hall, front man of The Specials and Fun Boy Three, and “the coolest man in the world,” according to author and journalist Jon Ronson.
Ronson and the singer’s friends
spoke more about Hall the human being, than Hall the pop star. Which was fine. The human being turned out to have been pretty heroic. He fronted up to the racists who attended The Specials gigs. And he would talk about his manic depression when no-one else was open about their mental health.
The programme touched on the darkness in Hall’s life. When he was 12 he was abducted by a paedophile gang. Ronson wondered if that made Hall always look out for his own fans. Ronson had his own experience of that as a kid at a Specials gig when Hall checked he was OK.
“He liked to portray himself as very dour and cutting, but I think he was intent on quietly leaving a good footprint,” Ronson said.
In an archive interview, Hall himself explained his outlook. “All you can give is love and respect really and you hope that works and it does sometimes.”
I’m a sucker for a good pop story anyway, but this was the story of a good man. I found it hugely moving.