Christmas Festivities with Deejay Gabriel on The Cat

[Guest]

New Year's Eve I will be broadcasting at 9pm on the Cat live for two hours. I will be featuring the top 25 of John Peel's last festive fifty from 2003. Christmas Eve will be a selection of Christmas songs including a couple by Maddy Prior and one by the late Ben Keith with his long time collaborator Neil Young's reed thin counter-tenor.

[Lateralthinking1]

Sounds great Martin. Can your programme be listened to on the net? I often wonder what JP would have liked now. It was so good to hear his voice on the Captain Beefheart tribute today that John C suggested. I still find it difficult to think of him as gone.

[Martin Reynolds]

Sure. Here's the website http://www.thisisthecat.com/ . When you click on listen live you will receive 5 options. The shoutcast ones are the most reliable.

[Lateralthinking1]

Thanks. I will give it a try. Actually, I did have another question for you. Is the DJ Ritu petition only on Facebook or can people sign it in other places? And how is the campaign going btw?

[Martin Reynolds]

As far as I'm aware facebook is the preferred option for registering support for DJ Ritu. So far 782 people have signed up. As far as I am concerned the most significant development so far is the fact that my MP Edward Timpson has written a letter to Mark Thompson the DG of the BBC asking for the reasoning behind the plan to scrap the programme. He sent a copy of my email to him in which I said that DJ Ritu is the best and most informative world music presenter on the BBC and that I am very upset about the decision. Mr Timpson said he would contact me again when he receives a reply.

Of course it's not just Ritu who is suffering. BBC Radio Derby has plans to scrap the respected folkwaves programme.

It's beginning to look like this is a policy decision taken at a very high level.

[Lateralthinking1]

Good luck with it. I doubt that they would have dared if Gwyneth had still been around.

[Martin Reynolds]

I had the pleasure of working with Gwyneth during the 2005 general election. A formidable and well loved woman. To be fair Mr Timpson is building up a reputation of being a hard working, conscientious and likeable individual, with a keen intelligence.

[Martin Reynolds]

Latest plans for the New Year's Eve Show:

A Tribute to John Peel

i) Top Ten from the 2003 Festive Fifty
ii) John Peel's Desert Island Discs selection.
iii) Assorted tracks from 'Live at the Witch Trials' by The Fall.

[johncorrigan]

Looks like a pretty good Festive 50 top ten there Martin - don't know them all but the ones I do are sound. Some pretty good choices in JP's DID selection especially the Orbison and the 4 Brothers - all in all it looks like you'll be having a bit of a Fall evening.

[Martin Reynolds]

Thanks John! I ought to mention that it is with kind permission of Dandelion Radio that I am including a selection from the festive fifty. They have kept up the tradition of festive fifty, and started their 2010 listing on Xmas Day. This will continue into January at the following address:

http://www.dandelionradio.com

[Lateralthinking1]

Martin, that Dandelion Radio website looks interesting. Didn't know about it before - I might listen to one or two of the previous years and do a "Now would JP really have chosen these?" assessment. Presumably people will be able to listen to your programme and have a yardstick. Looks like fun.

[johncorrigan]

I was listening to Lard on 6 Music this morning where they are running some kind of noughties' theme - part includes a section from a JP show complete with Mrs Peel, and he chose this rather excellent track from Andy's great moments of vinyl history 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrWNYYzynKs

:cool2:

[Martin Reynolds]

The show went well. There was a slight hitch at the beginning in that CD player 1 didn't want to work. However CD player 2 was more friendly. Still it was quite scary. Catch it all on 'listen again' for 7 days.

[Paul Sherratt]

John,
That Stanley Winston is just tremendous, isn't it. I have a sneaking suspicion I gave my ' mo vinyl ' cd away to a US radio station
dj, thinking I'd get another copy ... but I don't know if I ever did !

I'm not sure who uncovered ' No More Ghettos In America ' first for we lucky listeners, but it hardly matters now ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2000/sep/01/johnpeel

[johncorrigan]

....and we think we've got probs trying to get through the playlists.... thank goodness for Mozzie.

Interesting that Stanley only made that one known record, Paul - still if you're only going to make one.....

Anyway on that AK 'great moments' record is also this rather tasty treat among many other tasty treats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDeaKNBj6Mc