´óĎó´ŤĂ˝

May 2008 Archives

Next week's themes...

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First of all, thanks to everyone who has been sending in suggestions for the summer mix tape idea. I am writing this on Friday evening just before I do my country show and two lists have come to the inbox as I type. The first one will be on Monday night's show and it's a cracker.

Secondly, thanks for an amazing response this week. We broke our records for texts and e-mails and I can't help but wonder if that's down to having Get It On broadcast on DAB as well as FM. We are on FM/MW/online and on digital while the football is off air. It will be hard for me to hand it back to sport in August.

Let's see what we get in for this week then. Some good stories coming in for Thursday already so don't be shy about sharing yours...

Mon 2nd June
Today is the 55th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation, so ‘the royal family’ is tonight’s theme. Kings, Queens and hopefully a bit of prince. Leave a comment on the blog or e-mail get iton@bbc.co.uk

Tues 3rd June
Maria in Stirling has has suggested a double theme – Good songs tonight and bad songs tomorrow. For tonight she has come up with I Feel Good, Good Day Sunshine and Back for Good. And for tomorrow…

Wed 4th June
Bad Girls, Bad Moon Rising and Bad Case of Loving you. Let’s have your really good, good songs and your really good, bad songs to getiton@bbc.co.uk

Thurs 5th June
Tonight’s theme is celebrity connections which has been suggested by Brian Brown ( who met The Silencers at passport control this week!). He says “Songs associated with listener's tenuous connections to musicians or bands (e.g. my friends have a flat in Newcastle and their next door neighbour is Eric Burdon's sister (true)- so a song by the Animals please. How many people will have been to school with Marti Pellow in Clydebank and Midge Ure in Ruthergen?”

As always, leave a comment on the blog or e-mail getiton@bbc.co.uk. Calls and texts are welcome from 18:00...

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Summer sounds...

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I will make no puns about ‘mountains’ of requests for last night’s show but we definitely peaked in terms of sheer volume of suggestions. I think it was the biggest number of texts we’ve ever had so thanks to everyone who got in touch and once again apologies if I didn’t get around to yours.

Loved the e-mail from “Hamish the Hillhead hillwalker” who was definitely enjoying Thunder In The Mountains: “Lovin the show the nite, dancin' about in my crampons & goretex to Toyah is not something I had ever envisaged doing in this lifetime. The majik of GIO!.”

There were some really clever ‘out of the box’ suggestions as well. Check out Bob Shand’s which are posted under ‘Next week’s themes’.

Let's have your summer mix tape suggestions please and you could end up getting the second hour of the show all to yourself.

To recap… each and every Monday during June and July we will be giving the second hour of the show over to one listener and their ultimate summer mix tape. What are the tunes guaranteed to get you in the mood for your hols? The top tracks that you would take on holidays with you?

Post them on the blog if you like or send an e-mail to getiton@bbc.co.uk...

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Wedding day nerves...

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I meant to get this blog up earlier but it’s been a mad busy day in the office. We’ve been going through last night’s ‘One Hit Wonders’ as there were so many good tracks suggested I think we’ll have to do another hour of them soon. Lots of good memories as well including Sandy from Strachan,Aberdeenshire who e-mailed to say:

"In 1969 as a 17 year old I tried to get the following record in record shops in Dundee to be told we "don’t stock that sort of thing here!" The record I was trying to buy was Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg's Je Taime Moi Non Plus. I eventually got it somewhere and I really liked it. Haven't heard it for ages and lost the 45 years ago. A girl friend of mine thought the background noises were the sea. May have been the Swinging 60s in London but it was still the age of innocence in Dundee!"

Tonight's 'wedding' show has been stressful as my great idea to include appropriate and inappropriate wedding songs has meant twice the amount of requests. Thanks goodness for the two hour show.

Talking of which - as the footie is off for the summer we are now on FM and MW for both hours as well as digital radio and online. Maybe I could do appropriate wedding songs on FM and inappropriate on MW?



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Next week's themes...

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Here we go then for another week of good themes. We are still working our way through the suggestions that came in for 'dancing' night and it looks like we will have to do a night of different dances - Let's Twist Again, The Last Waltz etc.

You have been coming up with some great themes as well. The latest to be suggested was 'songs you gave birth to'. What do you think of that?

As always get your suggestions in early be leaving them on the blog or sending me an e-mail. Otherwise I would love you to give us a call or send a text when the show is on air...

Mon:
As Songlines showcases Eve of Destruction today,we'll be featuring some other one hit wonders on Get It On.Owen Paul, The Kursal Flyers or perhaps Nena? You decide....

Tue:
At long last the big day is here! Wedding songs including your first dances and the tracks that should never be played at a wedding. E-mail your suggestions to getiton@bbc.co.uk

Wed:
Get the climbing boots on and prepare to scale the heights for tonight's Get It On. Mountains is our theme and it's been suggested by Alison Johnson and Derek Smith. Ben Folds Five sound like a must for this one...

Thurs:
Mike Whyte has suggested that we should feature artists singing songs based on their real life experiences, so it's autobiographical songs tonight.E-mail getiton@bbc.co.uk or leave a comment on the blog...

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Mr record man...

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If some of the songs on tonight’s show sound a bit crackly then don’t worry as it’s not your radio set that’s duff.

My new producer Barbara has ordered up a range of music for the next couple of shows from our music library but has somehow managed to order most of it on vinyl.

That means our version of ‘The Politics of Dancing’ comes from the LP of Now That’s What I call Music 2 and our ‘Dance Yourself Dizzy’ is from a scabby Top of The Pops album from 1980.

Funnily enough it’s on the ´óĎó´ŤĂ˝â€™s own record label which was called ‘Super Beeb’ and the album comes with sleeve notes from the TOTP producer congratulating The Pretenders on what he hopes will be “The start of a successful record career and many return visits to the programme.”

Worst of the bunch is Neil Diamond’s 20 Golden Greats. It was last played in 1983 and is totally scabby looking thing that wouldn’t raise 10p at your local jumble sale.

Meanwhile I’ve just been sent an internal e-mail about our new media offerings and to remind me that I work in "a dynamic business that is going through unrivalled levels of change all the time"… Well apart from the Get It On office where some things haven’t moved on since 1983…

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Judging by the amount of material that’s come in so far, it looks like 'songs you danced to at your wedding' will be the most popular theme of the week – only problem is that this particular wedding has been called off.

Because Thursday is now D-day in the SPL title decider, Sportsound will be on both medium wave and FM. As much as I am gutted at being ‘dropped’, I can see that it makes sense. Imagine the ´óĎó´ŤĂ˝ explaining that we were only going to cover the Celtic match or only the Rangers one.

This way we can keep both sets of fans happy and those folk who live in a two wireless household, will of course be able to have one on in the living room and one in the toilet…although one half of the audience will be in danger of throwing the radio down the toilet if things don’t go their way on Thursday.

Fear not though, as we will return to 'weddings' as a theme on Tuesday night.

Tonight it's songs about 'you and me' . Tracks with either of them will be fine but if you can come up with one that incorporates both then great. Leave a comment below with your suggestions and I'll try my best to get them on...

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Next week's themes...

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I've taken the opportunity to get the themes online on Friday night as I know a lot of you like to come up with your week's suggestions across the weekend. It's late on Friday night as I type this but I notice already that the Get It On inbox already has several e-mails with stuff for next week. There's a ton of stuff already for Thursday's wedding songs theme - but I should warn you it's only an hour on Thursday night 'cos of the football. I suspect we will be going back to weddings. A second honeymoon if you like...


Mon 18th May:
Cash was in Folsom Prison, Mary Hopkins was on Opportunity Knocks and Dusty was in Memphis...but what were you doing in 1968 and what was your favourite music of the year? Leave a comment on the blog or e-mail getiton@bbc.co.uk...

Tue 19th May
Tonight's theme was suggested by Bill Whiteford of Newsdrive. It's songs about me and songs about you. The Wannadies managed to get both into the same title but did anybody else? From Only You to Kiss Me, e-mail your favourite 'me and you' songs to getiton@bbc.co.uk...

Wed 20th May

Ultravox were doing it with tears in their eyes and Springsteen was doing it in the dark. 'Dancing' is tonight's theme. Grab your partners and tune in after the six o'clock news...

Thursday 21st May
Organising the wedding is the easy bit, but what do you have for the first dance? That's the theme tonight. Let me know your wedding songs and also text in and tell me the songs that should never be played at a wedding...

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Do you want to be in his gang?

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Glam rock tonight which should be a cracking theme. Lots of Bowie, Bolan, The Sweet, Slade...and Gary Glitter. Or should the disgraced pop star be erased from the history of pop?

Angela from Dunfermline raises some interesting points about Glitter elsewhere on the blog:

"I'd like to hear GG, but not "do you wanna touch" definitely conjurs up dodgy images. I suspect the beeb has a no GG policy though as have never heard him played on R2's Pick of the Pops, Dale just whizzes by his entries as though they don't exist. TV programmes on the 70s also omit him. I find this rewriting of pop history more creepy and stalinist than the bloke himself. "

I checked with our editorial policy unit this afternoon and there is no ban on his records. However when you look back knowing what we know about him will our memories of those songs be ruined?

I would not want to to censor great pop music but at the same time I don't want to play anything that would upset folk listening to the show.

Bizzarely I had a Gary Glitter Gangshow stage pass on my cd box which I removed after his conviction, but would I never want to hear that music again? Just don't know. Your thoughts?

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That's The Beatles covered...

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With nearly two hours of cover versions, we certainly did The Beatles tonight. I hope it was an interesting listen.There is this assumption that The Beatles are universally loved by everyone, so for anyone who doesn't...sorry!

Tom Morton has an excellent song called Learning To Hate The Beatles, an amusing ditty about coming to terms with the 'hate that does not speak it's name'. You can listen to it on his page.

On the subject of the bands you are 'supposed' to like, Bobby from Howwood sent this e-mail:

"Bit of a difficult one for me this as I am probably the only guy on the planet who hates The Beatles! Tonight is however saved somewhat by the fact that we can hear some other, and almost certainly better interpretations of their “tunes”.

Saw Ali B’s request on the Blog for Candy Flip and “Strawberry Fields Forever” and I have too agree, great version of one of the VERY few decent Beatles songs.

Souxsie and the Banshees version of “Dear Prudence” was her other suggestion however, I would prefer to hear “Helter Skelter” which is just brilliant!!! I have NEVER heard the Beatles version of this song.

Funnily enough, Elvis Presley is another one I just don’t get!? I even made it my new years resolution a couple of years back to “Like Elvis Presley”. Always up for a challenge, I went along to HMV in Braehead and bought my first Elvis Presley album. I gave it away in February that year and never listened to him since. It was rubbish! I am sure it was the guy from The Wonder Stuff who had a T Shirt which said “Never Liked Elvis”, I always wanted that T Shirt to write “and The Beatles” below it! So if any of the listeners know where I might get my hands on one? There are only 2 Elvis’s, Costello and Custard (my new dog)."

Someone else came up with a theme of the 'acts you just don't get' - the bands and artists who are critically lauded but do nothing for you. Mine are Brian Wilson, Belle and Sebastian and The Stone Roses. Post a comment and let me know yours...



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Just got a nice e-mail from Kirsty who is off to enjoy Get It On in the sunshine. I will try to keep that in mind and hopefully we’ll get some lovely, sunkissed tunes in the first hour – can’t promise that for hour two though.

Tonight is a two for one special. It’s ‘falling in love’ for the first hour and ‘falling out of love’ for the second hour. I wanted to do this so I could get round to some of the break up songs I didn’t play from the other week. I figured we had covered all the good ‘break up songs’ back then and all of us had got a lot of bitterness off our chests. Wrong. Once again you have come up with a whole load of new suggestions. Oh well.

Kirsty has also come up with the perfect inbetween song – one that’s neither a falling in, or out of love song. Perhaps I should play it as the last song in the first hour – or even during the news!

There can’t be many songs written about the humdrum bit of a relationship, but I suspect you might prove me wrong once again…

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Next week's themes...

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I am glad folk seem to be enjoying the new two hour format. It certainly takes the pressure off me as I always got myself in a bit of a state trying to cram everything into an hour.

My plan is to use part of the second hour to catch up with some of the tunes I have not been able to play, but on nights like last Thursday it was all out 'bible' requests for the entire show. great fun.

Here are this week's themes, so get posting and let's see what you come up with...

Monday 12 May - ‘If I were A Carpenter’ and ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ could both feature on tonight’s playlist. Occupations is the theme and all the better if you can find a song about your job. Leave a comment on the blog or e-mail getiton@bbc.co.uk...

Tuesday 13 May
- In the first hour of tonight’s show I'll be looking for the songs that are all about falling in love – what was the music that perfectly described how you felt when you were swept off your feet? Then after seven I want to return to break up songs,one of our most popular themes. Why not suggest a pair - one for the first hour and one for the second…

Wednesday 14 May
-What have Joe Cocker, Otis Redding and Willie Nelson got in common? They have all done great Beatles covers. But what are your favourite interpretations of the fab four’s work? Leave a comment on the blog and let us know...

Thursday 15 May
- Tonight let’s celebrate one of the UK’s greatest ever music movements… Glam rock. Expect big tunes from Marc Bolan, The Sweet and David Bowie. Get It On goes Glam and to be in with a shout get your suggestion in early be e-mailing getiton@bbc.co.uk...

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We are blessed...

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Last night was dull and predictable. It sounded amateurish and I left about halfway through. Thankfully I am referring only to the Willie Nelson gig and not the show. Gie it up now Willie – at the age of 75 you don’t need to be sleeping on the tour bus reducing some of the greatest country songs written to a half hearted medley.

The night had started so well with the busiest Get It On show ever. Record numbers of texts, e-mails and calls made it an exhausting but exhilarating two hours.

Your ‘things you would find in the bible’ suggestions were clever, funny and incredibly diverse. We had several suggestions for Boney M’s Rivers of Babylon and at the opposite end of the spectrum, Matt from Inverpoly’s metal suggestions:

“ Hell Awaits – Slayer,Jesus Saves – Slayer and Disciples Of The Watch – Testament. It would put a top on an absolutely terrific day if you could mention these tracks. It's always good to spread the word of metal!!!!!"

We had several requests for things like The Damned, Divine and All About Eve. I liked the double bill suggested by Mags and Ali in Edinburgh who had suggested 'Samson' by Regina Spektor and 'Delilah' by Tom Jones.

Then folk like Helen from Perth came up with great lists that they had clearly spent ages thinking about :

“The Magic NUMBERS, GENESIS, Psalm Cooke,Judas Priest,Christopher CROSS,DEACON Blue and ABBA (Father in Aramaic)”

Thanks for all of them. Let’s hope we can get more nights like that next week. Don’t forget to have a peek at other folk’s lists on the ‘next week’s themes’ posting and I will put the themes for next week on the blog tomorrow. If you want to start thinking then you can find details of the themes on the main page.

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Holy music...

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I am really looking forward to this evening - partly as I’m off to see Willie Nelson straight after the show. The great thing about working at the new ´óĎó´ŤĂ˝ headquarters on the Clyde is that it’s just a stroll across the bridge to The SECC or The Armadillo.

It will be a tight squeeze and I’m hoping that Willie doesn’t come on before eight o’ clock or I’m stuffed. I have asked a pal to line up a cold glass of wine for eight and by the time the eight o clock news is finished I hope to have consumed half of it and be on way to our seats.

The highlight of my evening should be tonight’s show. Julie in Edinburgh came up with this one and it’s “things you might find in the bible”. Already we have had a huge inbox of suggestions. You can read some of them on the ‘themes’ post on the blog. As Michelle in Bishopton pointed out elsewhere on the blog, “ This is a theme of truly biblical proportions…”

19:04
Trying to get this written during the news in what is turning out to be ourt busiest show yet. So many clever suggestions tonight...I will do the best of them onthe blog over the weekend. I was thrilled to get some good ones from a real life minister, so as promised here's what could turn out to be a craqcking sermon from the Rockin' Rev...

Oh Bryan, Big mistake selecting a biblical theme with the Rockingrev and wife of RockingRev, RockingDoc on the case!
First of all for home tonight how about Sweet home Alabama, by Lynyrd Skynyrd and then Our house by Madness.
But now the big list!!!!
A contrast between the wide path and the narrow way to begin with so "Highway to Hell" and "Stairway to Heaven". Then let's start at the beginning, anything by Genesis would of course be appropriate and if you were really daring and had a three hour show you could play all 23 minutes of "Supper's Ready" - all taken from the book of Revelation. In Genesis you find "Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat". You also have the fall of the devil - he went down to Georgia!
The Call sang about "The Walls Came Down" from Joshua and from an album, "Modern Romans" for a little New testament.
Tom Jones sang about "Delilah" from the book of Judges
You then have "40" from psalm 40 by U2, they also did "Grace" a major biblical theme and "Salome" who asked for the head of John the Baptist. Talking of Johns, how about "Jilted John", ok not very biblical but so much fun.
Back to the Old Testament, they did lose the ark of the covenant and Indiana Jones tried to find it so you could include the theme from the "raiders of he Lost Ark." And then Jeremiah may have been a prophet but the song says "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog"according to Three Dog Night!
Once you move to the New Testament you can have the Three Wee Kings who visited "Lady Madonna "and Jesus Christ Superstar!
Penultimately Jesus own brother Jude wrote a small letter so how about "Hey Jude". And finally you have to feel sorry for Jamie and Thomas "sons of a preacher man"!!!

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I was made an honorary member of the fast talkers club at the weekend – nothing to do with the my broadcasting style, although anyone who has heard me desperately trying to cram stuff into the show would vote for me as lifetime president of the aforementioned club.

In fact, the ´óĎó´ŤĂ˝ Radio Scotland Fast Talkers were a group of runners we kitted out with digital recorders so they could record their reactions as they ran around the streets of the capitol in the Great Edinburgh Run.

We have got some great material which will form an hour long show to go out in the near future. The audio diaries will be posted online so you can listen to those.

Interviews with the runners, and also with race founder Brendan Foster are up already on the .

For the most part, I enjoyed it. For me it combined two things that I am reasonably good at…running and talking. But however good I am at doing each of them individually, trying to do them both at the same time is when the fun begins.

1st kilometre: cocky – this is so easy
2-5k – having fun chatting and still sounding reasonably relaxed
5-7k – struggling to form sentences
8-10k – now panting more than talking and starting to sound like one of those dodgy 0871 phone lines

Despite the difficulties in running and talking at the same time I enjoyed the whole experience - well apart from when it came to my usual pre race routine. When the recorders were handed out they were strapped on to our waists and left running for the duration. Ten minutes before the race a visit to the loo was called for, but to my horror there was no way to switch off the recorder!!!

Someone in the production team is going to have some great material for a blooper tape!

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Next week's themes

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It's going to be an exciting week for Radio Scotland with a new sound for the station and the launch of our zones. For the new Get It On team working behind the scenes on the show it will be a baptism of fire. I have tried to describe to them how much fun it is working on a really busy edition of Get It On. I hope you will swamp them with the usual selection of old favourites and hard to find oldies.

Talking of which, one of the new features on the extended show will be Dr Disc's Evening Surgery in which our resident musical expert will attempt to solve your musical queries. If there's a song that you haven't been able to find, some lyrics that have been puzzling you, or a desire to hear once again something you no longer thought was available, then e-mail in your queries and we'll get to work.

Having two hours to pay with every night will give me a chance to play catch up with some of the great songs we didn't have time to play first time around.

Let's see what you come up with then...

Mon:
It's a new beginning - 2 hour show, new producer etc so let's celebrate a new season.As Springwatch launches on the ´óĎó´ŤĂ˝, spring is in the air for tonight’s Get It On. From Mr Blue Sky to The Bees get in touch with the songs that remind you that better weather is on the way.

Tues:

We’ve done guitar riffs, drum fills and horns, so tonight we are looking for the best string sections of all time. Why not leave a comment on the blog or call and text from ten past six…

Wed:
Home sweet home is the theme tonight. Lots of great songs to choose from and this could even be the night for a bit of ‘house music’! E-mail getiton@bbc.co.uk with your suggestions…

Thurs:

Julie in Edinburgh has suggested ‘things you might find in the bible’ as a theme. That could be Peter, Paul and Mary, Nazareth or even The Rising by Bruce Springsteen. E-mail your biblical bands (or any other holy book) to getiton@bbc.co.uk or better still leave a comment below...

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