We’ve been getting some very nice mails from Nancy in Phoenix, Arizona. It sounds hot over there! Glasgow had a wee spell of summer over the last weekend and it felt great. Hey don’t get us wrong Nancy, I’m not talking 90 degrees, maybe 75 if we’re lucky, but warm enough for the Glaswegians who will start taking their clothes off at the first signs of summer.

It’s always interesting when the weather has been consistently good here. (i.e. a couple of days in a row) I noticed a few people in denial yesterday who were wearing very light T shirts who had clearly chosen to ignore the fact that it had all gone quite grey and cold outside. The people who drive convertibles are often the ones with the biggest problems with reality. You’ll get a sunny January day when it’s cold enough to freeze the paint off your front door and you¹ll see someone in a topless beemer cruising along the M8 with ten layers of clothing on. I suspect these drivers usually turn their radios up pretty loud when they eventually have to stop at traffic lights so they can drown out the level of ridicule aimed their way.

Of course Glaswegians clothing and outward appearance can often be very deceptive. I mentioned the Commonwealth Games inspectors the other day who might well be slightly confused at the high density of sportswear favoured by the natives. Last night I slowed down my car to let a jogger run past. When I looked at him closer I was a little worried that he was too old for this running lark. It was then that I noticed the fag in his hand and the bus pulling away which he’s just missed.

I know this may not be obvious from my ham-fisted attempts at being a DJ but……I love the radio. By that I mean all radio.

I have often bored one of my good pals who works in the upper echelons of the broadcasting world on my love of the radio. I usually say that there is no time of day or evening when I couldn’t tell you where I’d be on a radio dial. Here are some of my radio heroes: Derek Cooper, Richard Gordon, Jack DeManio, Humphrey Littleton, Nick Clark, John Peel, Jenny Murray, Fi Glover, Simon Mayo, Sandi Toksvig – I salute you all; but let’s not forget Iain Anderson. Master of all he surveys and easily the warmest, most welcoming voice you’ll hear on radio.

There are some great things on radio out there. I heard a lovely programme on Radio Scotland about gay people of different faiths reconciling their sexuality to their beliefs. The stories were moving and very honest. That’s the kind of thing you only catch if, by some chance you are twiddling the dial on a long journey. I also love Pick of The Week on Radio 4 where you hear snippets of great things that have passed you by. I often hear this on a Sunday when I’ve dropped my eldest daughter at the airport. This hour then leads to my big radio dilemma …I’m a huge fan of Brian Burnett’s Brand New Country. (it should be on more than once a week but that’s another issue) but I also love listening to my pal Billy Sloan’s Clyde show which plays at the same time. Billy plays a wide range of new things (I first heard and loved Franz Ferdinand there) and loved the fact that he is big upping The Hold Steady who I think are wonderful.

When I’m not in the car I usually listen to the radio in our kitchen. It’s there that the best news programme of all comes on every night at 5. PM presented by Eddie Mair is news as it was surely always meant to be. Witty, discerning, non ego-driven and concise. Very often the ex presenter of the programme, Hugh Sykess reports from the middle east in such a way that you feel as if you are standing on the dusty street with him. Genius. All this is made possible by the style of the main man Eddie Mair. And where, I hear you ask, does Eddie hail from?
…..Yes folks that golden city on the north bank of the silvery Tay – Dundee.

Possibly the best thing about music on the radio is hearing something for the first time you might well love for the rest of your life.

I imagine we all have these moments: What was that, who was that, can I hear it again? I have a few of these moments every week. Very often, these days, it’s because I hear something that’s been out for ages and I’ve just caught up with it. I was driving from Nashville to Memphis a few weeks ago and I heard Patty Loveless singing Howard Harlan’s ‘ Blame It On Your Heart.’

It’s a classic country song that makes you want to smile and sing and get on with your life. I think it probably came out quite a long time ago but due to my limited knowledge of country I’d only just heard it. It made me feel quite good when I discovered it was a massive hit.

The other great thing is when you hear something that you know your pals are going to love. My wife and I recently fell helplessly in love with Ryan Adam’s new single, ‘Two.” We got the chance to play it to some music-diggers who came round on Friday and it was lovely to see the smiles of approval on their faces. I guess that’s what you hope might happen when you play some new things on the radio. To this end I want you to hear some wonderful new things I’ve enjoyed recently. I hope to be playing new things by Midlake, Sufjan Stevens and Tobias Froberg. I’m also enjoying the new Rufus Wainwright album (something I couldn’t say since Poses.)

My producer Roslyn finds wee gems which surprise me too. We played Jamie Liddell and Candie Payne on the show in the last week then went home and bought them myself. Hey, that isn’t how payola’s meant to work!

Big news here is the Commonwealth Games inspectors have come to Glasgow to see whether we’re the place to hold the Commonwealth games. I don’t really pay a lot of attention to athletics and that kind of thing but it would be great if the games came to Glasgow. It’s always fun when these things happen where you live.

People in Glasgow still talk about the night Eintracht Frankfurt played Real Madrid for one of the greatest European Cup finals of all time. I still regret not getting a ticket for Real’s last triumphant visit in 2002.

Apparently there are 5 inspectors in Glasgow over the next few days. I like the idea of that. Maybe it will be like school inspections where the “headie” always tries to give the best impression and third year Christmas leavers are mysteriously sent on an outdoor ed project. My favourite story concerned the mythological school inspector visiting a Glasgow secondary history class. He decides to take over the show from the class teacher to see how much the customers really know. “Who was responsible for starting the First World War?” he asks of Thomas in the front row. “Wusnae me,” says the boy. This is ridiculous says the inspector to the bystanding class teacher. “ I know” says the teacher, “But I can vouch for the boy. It definitely wasn’t him.”

Perhaps the Commonwealth Games inspectors will do a bit of random questioning of the citizens of Glasgow: “And you young man, are you interested in sport?” one will ask in perfect broken English. Standing in front of him will be a youth clad from head to toe in sports gear and as the inspector looks round the city he finds to his amazement many such youths. Little groups of sport-mad kids gathering on every street corner. Surely they will think – “Glasgow’s so desperate for these games they’re already stripped for action!” Hey – it’s a done deal…how can they refuse?

That’s not to say that the declared aims of these events tie in entirely with the expectations of the customers. A few years ago Glasgow tried to hold an annual arts festival called Mayfest. Plays, concerts and exhibitions were held across the city. I always remember my brother in law, John , mentioning that Mayfest was happening to someone we both met in an pub one night. Much to our surprise they declared themselves as 100% behind the arts festival. “I love it.” And which particular art form was it that swung it for them? They had no doubt, “Pubs are open till 2 in the morning.”

Looking forward to hearing from some of you bloggers live on the show tonight. The running order has just been mailed over to me …….there are going to be many beautiful moments in tonight’s show. My fingers are already getting itchy. See you at 10.30.

Saturday 9th June

I’m chilling folks. My hands are steeped in cold water…fader fatigue. I have survived one week at Pacific Quay and so far the suits have not come to remove me from the building.
Thanks to you bloggers out there. Tony Currie is a BBC legend and his kind encouragement has been very helpful this week. Thanks too to Dougie and Calvin for your kind messages.

It’s good to get feedback from the show from the Iain Anderson listeners. Iain is another legend and I count myself as a huge fan. He has a great way of making you feel welcome and his programmes is rightly very popular with his loyal listeners. Needless to say this can also make a guy like me feel a little apprehensive, especially when we are changing the kind of music you are used to at that time of night. I do think that over the next few weeks you will get a chance to hear a lot of brilliant songs that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear within the same two hours.

Some people won’t like this but I hope those of you that do will stay with us. Personally I love the variety of rock n roll, r n b, reggae, big band, jazz, blues, trip hop, country that we’ve managed so far. Good music is good music I’m sure you’ll find. The other night we went from Annie Ross to Massive Attack. In the meantime I know Iain and the professor will be gathering you up a year’s worth of music to keep you going through the long winter.

Next week I’m taking my camera into the Lounge and I’ll give you all a glimpse of the nefarious characters that hang out in my late night den of iniquity. Keep on blogging baby.

Hi Folks

So glad to have some blog response. To George (we’ve met so many times, George and it’s nice to talk again) I fully take on board your request…send it in to the prog too so my producer sees it too!

I hadn’t realised I was going head to head with Gorgeous George Galloway on a Friday night. What a prospect! So glad George remembers me as fondly as I recall times with him. George and I once travelled to Edinburgh to join in a rally to support the call for a Scottish Parliament. The rally was organised by a very disparate group of people who, if not fully paid up members of the club called “Hippy”, had certainly considered membership. By the time Lorraine and I arrived on Calton Hill Gorgeous had sussed out that the occasion wasn’t going to threaten anyone’s memory of Martin Luther King’s march on Washington. There were around twenty people there and a couple of dogs. The “organiser” had informed George G that there was no formal plan and that speakers should make use of the “open mike situation.” As George informed us of this conversation he shook his mane sadly,”I told him,” he said “that this, in my experience leads to an open space situation.” He wasn’t wrong.

The thing I like best about all this radio malarkey is the chance to play some things on air that I never hear otherwise. Needless to say this has involved getting in about the CD cupboard in a major way. When I’m there I start to find the most amazing things that I’ve not played myself for years, never mind heard on the radio.

Last night we played Rachel Yamagata’s Jesus was a Crossmaker (written by the late Judee Sill), Freda Payne’s Band of Gold and Oh Patti by Scritti Politti.

The good news is if you like any of these songs you can, almost certainly, find them legally and download them for a very small price. In the old days I used to hear a song on the radio and know that the only certain way to hear it again was to go to Bruce’s record shop in Reform St (Dundee) and ask the boy behind the counter to put it on. Most of you know that this task is beyond the emotional development of a teenager so the track would not be heard until a few months later when I’d saved up enough money to buy the album. Going to the boy behind the counter and asking him to put on the record led to the “minter” – a full blown red-face full of embarrassment.

There was one other option to this: you just hung around the record shop in the hope that it might come on. We spent days in record shops – not that there were many. In Dundee, until Bruce’s arrived we used to to go to Boots! (I ask you!) In Bruce’s one day in November 1975 I heard an entire album from beginning to end. It was Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. I have owned that album on vinyl, CD and now the remastered version sits pride of place on my shelf. That afternoon probably changed my musical life for good. Sometimes it’s worth just hanging around.

Good Morning,

It’s the morning (Tuesday) of the night before. The Late Lounge opened last night. I wasn’t over nervous when I went in, but by the time the show had finished I was a poor, trembling wreck.
It’s my professional opinion that any time you trust your livelihood to technology it will repay you by jumping up and biting you hard in the bum. Once when I was a student teacher I decided to opt for taking the, decidedly non-academic 5th year Christmas leavers, class. This, to my mind gave me two huge advantages 1) Only half of them turned up 2) I wasn’t going to have to test my limited knowledge of English literature. On the day of my crit lesson the technology I’d decided to impress them with failed spectacularly. All my lesson plan evaporated and a great formless void of 40 minutes had to be filled with me yakking on about nothing in particular – cue my entry in to the business we call show!

How, I hear you say,does this relate to The Late Lounge, Rick? Computers. The BBC have now decided they want computers controlling everything. Anyone who’s ever had to use these dam things know that they always fail. To help the situation I had three nervous looking people in the studio with me. For most of the night it was like any scene you can remember from Apollo 13. – “OK we can’t play Jimmy Cliff but we’ve got a ball point pen, a paper cup and two old scripts, let’s see what we can build.”

Anyway, it all passed with only the two moments of technological disaster. Which isn’t bad, but about the correct ratio for the amount of gigabytes being used. I once looked on in horror at a song writing workshop/performance as Pete from Duke Special entrusted his piano sound to a fragile looking laptop which he was assuming would understand that the next 15 minutes of his life were important to him. His trust was entirely misplaced.

Tonight I’m prepared. I’ve got some CDs in my back pocket and I’m going into town to buy a hard hat. When they tell you the computer does it all for you they are always right, unfortunately the computer doesn’t have to explain itself to the audience. Speak to you tomorrow if I’m still alive.

This is my brand new blog to accompany my late lounge show on Radio Scotland.