Then I went on this placement, which was the first time I had anything to do with the radio. I was a broadcast assistant on The Phil Wood Show, and two of my regular duties prior to the on-air time included doing questions for ‘The Dice Is Right’ and doing a one-minute musical intro to the programme. The first routine I loathed because too many questions would be crossed out by my producer as “too hard”, and then I would be twisting my brain thinking of other, easier, questions.
The second routine I loved. In fact, it wasn’t the routine – it was a joy. Our SBJ would tick four songs from the playlist, from which I would need to pick four fragments up to 20-25 secs each, and mix them. Before then I’d never done sound editing, but this is one of the things I will forever enjoy about the time on this placement. Although I was a total novice in the radio, I wasn’t treated like one. The attitude at the BBC reminded me of the Dean of my faculty at the Moscow State University who’s been calling us ‘colleagues’ from day one, despite the fact that each of us would need to work like horse to live up to his address, for Prof Sergei P. Karpov is a world-known and outstanding scholar.
But it wasn’t just the feeling of responsibility that I enjoyed. It was music. Tracks varied from Neil Diamond (whose name told me nothing at that stage, to be honest) to 10 CC, a Manchester band, whose CD I bought ages ago in Moscow and loved it, loved it, loved it!
And I think I understand it well when people tell me that my enthusiasm for the things I like shines throughout this blog. I only hope it is as contagious to my readers, as Mike Shaft’s enthusiasm for Al Green was to me. I think on that day he’d just received Green’s new album, and he played the track All the Time. I was doing the back-up recording on the computer at home, and thankfully, I am still able to listen both to Green’s song and to Mike Shaft’s waxing lyrical about it.
When I went off the placement, I continued listening to soul music. There’s still a plenty to learn, and of course I’ll never know about it as much, as Mike does, but… thanks a lot for opening up my horizons, Mike!
So, one of the songs I’d taken away with me from that first month at the BBC Manchester and my first month on the radio was Stevie Wonder’s Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yester-Day. I’ve just found this live performance on YouTube, which is different from the studio version the BBC Radio Manchester has got on its playlist. But it is perhaps in this version that Stevie Wonder’s wonderful, genuine talent as a singer and performer shines in full splendour.
Enjoy! And thanks to a YouTubist!
