“Tonight's theme will be a really interesting one for us; completely different from the usual.” So said Angus from Skye in his e-mail. He was right of course, but perhaps Angus was referring only to the music.
It felt strange for me, but that was more to do with not having Paul in the studio. We worked on this show together for a long time and as it was just the two of us, we ended up working very closely together. In the end we became like an old married couple – having great laughs,pulling together like a proper team, finishing each other’s sentences…and mostly fighting like cat and dog.
Of course, we would only argue about the important stuff: Does Dusty Springfield take precedence over Petula Clark? How long is too long when it comes to Bob Dylan? And is Oblivious the most important ending in the history of Scottish pop? Ridiculous I know, but it made working on the show such good fun.
Tonight’s show was also out there on it’s own musically, but after working on get It On I don’t think I could go back to doing a show where it’s the same every day. I enjoyed the range of suggestions tonight which covered everything from Hedwig and the Angry Inch through to some of the classic musicals like Paint Your Wagon and Guys and Dolls.
Nice to know there is a older audience listening to get It On as well. Astrid e-mailed to ask for Singing In The rain for all the oldies like her. “I first saw the film circa 1953 when I was 9 years old!” she says in the e-mail. Doing a quick bit of maths it doesn’t make Astrid that much of an oldie.
I suspected that Timewarp would have people doing the actions and Alsion Downey confirmed that she was indeed doing the timewarp whilst making the tea.
Most unusual suggestion of the night came from Julie in Edinburgh who has asked me to track down a song called "The Waiter and The Porter and The Upstairs Maid".
I failed tonight but next week on the new two hour edition of the show we will be turning those sort of queries over to our very own Doctor Disc who will be searching the ´óĎó´«Ă˝ archives to track down some of those hard to find favourites. More on that next week.
Finally I mentioned that I would put Angus’s great list of musicals on the blog. How’s this for a compilation:
ROCK FOLLIES - Glen Miller Is Missing - THE LITTLE LADIES
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - I Got Rythm - GENE KELLY
SINGING IN THE RAIN - Singing In The Rain - GENE KELLY
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG - If It Takes Forever - CONNIE FRANCIS
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES - Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend - MARLYN MONROE
CALAMITY JANE - Once I Had A Secret Love - DORIS DAY
BLUES BROTHERS - Rawhide - BLUES BROTHERS
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - Phantom Of The Opera - SARAH BRIGHTMAN AND STEVE HARLEY
THE LION KING - Can You Feel The Love Tonight? - ELTON JOHN
EVITA - Another Suitcase In Another Hall - BARBRA DICKSON
THE JAZZ SINGER - Hello Again - NEIL DIAMOND
ANYTHING GOES - I Get A Kick Out Of You - there are good versions by DINAH SHORE, FRANK SINATRA and BRYAN FERRY
PAINT YOUR WAGON - I Was Born Under A Wandering Star - LEE MARVYN
THE WAY WE WERE - The Way We Were - BARBRA STREISAND
By the way, if you want to hear more musical theatre then Billy Differ's Dress Circle is on ´óĎó´«Ă˝ Radio Scotland this Sunday afternoon and his guest will be the amazing Alan Cumming.