FEATURE:
Station to Station
IN THIS PHOTO: Mark Radcliffe standing behind his own commemorative bench in the grounds of Manchester University/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Heyes/Cancer Research UK/PA
Song Four: Mark Radcliffe (BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio 2)
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IT has been a while since I last did…
PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Heyes/Cancer Research UK/PA
one of my Station to Station features (in my first offering, I spotlighted Lauren Laverne of BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 4) and, to be fair, most of them have concerned a broadcaster who is associated with BBC Radio 6 Music – today, alas, is no different! I will concentrate on Annie Nightingale and Annie Mac in future editions, thus taking me to BBC Radio 1 and, with it, focusing on two iconic female broadcasters who are leading the way for a wave of new female broadcasters…and are fantastic role models. One reason why I wanted to discuss Mark Radcliffe is that there is a lot going on with him right now. I will mention his new book and musical project soon but, before that, it is worth chatting about his radio endeavours. I will move on to specifics but, to recap his past, here is a little bit of information. Born in 1958, Mark Radcliffe began his broadcasting career working in local radio in Manchester – Radcliffe was born in Bolton -, before moving to BBC Radio 5, whereupon he met Marc Riley (who also now works for BBC Radio 6 Music!). The pair struck up a friendship and, as Mark and Lard, the two enjoyed a successful partnership. Although Radcliffe worked at the station for eleven years, perhaps the Mark and Lard breakfast show was quite divisive. If the breakfast run was not as successful and lauded as he and Riley might have hoped, the afternoon slot seemed like a better fit – and with Sony Radio Academy Awards came (three of them, in fact!). Radcliffe joined BBC Radio 2 after he left BBC Radio 1 in 2004 and, in the new evening slot, there were similarities with the slot he had at BBC Radio 1.
In many ways, Mark Radcliffe’s career arc and rising success is an inspiration for all broadcasters out there. I have given an overview and skimmed some details – D.J.s he replaced and various stages of his career -, but here is someone who moved from BBC Radio 1 to 2 and, after a relatively brief stint in the late shift, he would meet his now-partner-in-crime, Stuart Maconie. Radcliffe had experience working with Riley and doing breakfast and evening shows; he worked for several radio networks before he met Maconie and, just to back it up, his 2005 interview with Kate Bush was not just any old interview! If I have raced through Radcliffe’s radio career pre-2005 rather speedily, he’ll forgive me. I think the first taste of his work was in 2005 when he spoke with Kate Bush when she was promoting Aerial. There is stiff competition when it comes to who is Bush’s biggest fan and, whilst I would rival anyone for that crown, Mark Radcliffe surely is close to the top – I am only thirty-six, so Radcliffe’s longer fandom and following nudges him above me. Regardless, one needs to understand how hard it is to get an interview with Kate Bush, especially in 2005! The Red Shoes came out in 1993 and, after twelve years away from the spotlight, Radcliffe was granted one of very few interviews she provided – a very extensive and warm one at that! Radcliffe’s tireless hard work and respect among his peers meant that he finally was able to meet someone he held huge and undying admiration for.
For years prior to his interview with Kate Bush, Radcliffe had run a ‘Bush-O-Meter’ on his show for BBC Radio 2. It is understandable Radcliffe, as a massive Bush fan, was curious where she was. Of course, Kate Bush was not idle between 1993 and 2005. She gave birth to her son, Bertie, with husband Danny Mcintosh in 1998 and was enjoying a less stressful and demanding role as a mother. The fact maternal duties were less full-on that her professional life tells you why she needed a break! Aerial is a double-album and one of the finest records of her career. The interview between Mark Radcliffe and Kate Bush is hugely enjoyable. There is mutual respect and, despite one or two awkward moments (Rolf Harris appears on Aerial and, although we did not know about his sexual abuse crimes at that point, it is uncomfortable hearing his name mentioned; not the fault of Bush or Radcliffe). A lot of interviews you hear with artists are usually quite routine and they pass you by. Mark Radcliffe holds such love for Kate Bush, he must have been more nervous than he’d ever been moments before they started recording. Radcliffe has interviewed Kate Bush a couple of times since 2005 (once for 50 Words for Snow in 2011 and, earlier that year, he talked with her about Director’s Cut). I am sure he like every Kate Bush fan hopes she bring an album our next year and, if she does, I just know Radcliffe will be asked to interview her again!
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush captured in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton/National Portrait Gallery, London
As Radcliffe said in the introduction to his 2005 interview with Kate Bush, he has followed her on the airwaves for years and had photos on his studio wall of her; they chatted and enjoyed cheese flan and a cup of tea or two! By 2007, Mark Radcliffe had joined forces with Stuart Maconie and they presented on BBC Radio 2 in the evenings. They won a Sony in 2009 and the show was reduced to three nights a week (they previously did four days before) from 2010. Radcliffe and Maconie moved to BBC Radio 6 Music from 2011 and were in their hugely popular afternoon slot until the very end of last year. I shall come onto their move to weekend mornings and why that was such an odd move on behalf of the BBC. One can catch Mark Radcliffe’s Folk show on BBC Radio 2 on Wednesdays from 9 p.m. where he explores the wide range of traditional and contemporary Folk and Acoustic music from around the U.K. and the world, with regular interviews and live sessions. Having that balance of his Folk programme on BBC Radio 2 and his weekend show with Maconie means he (Radcliffe) still works for BBC Radio 2, but he gets to mix that up with his show on the more hip and cool BBC Radio 6 Music – even if Radcliffe and Maconie’s show is refreshingly middle-aged at times! Radcliffe and Maconie ruled the afternoon airwaves for over seven years and, when BBC Radio 6 Music had a reshuffle at the end of 2018, they were moved to weekend breakfasts – a spot previously occupied by Mary Anne Hobbs (who is now on the weekday shift between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.).
The reaction on social media to the move was one of anger and confusion. I do not understand why it was done, because RadMac’s listenership was huge and they were loved by so many people. I do hope the BBC brings them back to weekdays very soon because, as Radcliffe discussed in a recent interview, he was a bit miffed by the move:
“The radio presenter’s programme with Stuart Maconie was moved to Saturday and Sunday mornings in order to give Shaun Keaveny the 1pm weekday slot, as part of a reshuffle in which Lauren Laverne became the station’s breakfast show host.
“We felt … surprised,” Radcliffe told the Radio Times. “And disappointed. Some of the things [BBC management] have done mystify me still, but actually, in terms of my health, it’s probably better not to have to do three hours a day, five days a week.”
Radcliffe, 61, agreed to stay with Maconie even as the show dropped from five to two days a week – a move he said was “like renewing our marriage vows”.
The Cheshire-based Radcliffe was diagnosed with head and neck cancer at the end of last year, requiring the removal of tumours from his neck and mouth. He is now in remission. The illness forced him to spend several months off air, during which time Maconie broadcast on his own”.
2018 was a very challenging time for Mark Radcliffe. Not only did he have to adapt to a future of early starts at the weekend – I bet he thought he had said goodbye to early starts and late finishes when he and Stuart Maconie started their afternoon show! -, but he received that devastating cancer diagnosis.
IN THIS PHOTO: Mark Radcliffe spoke with Bruce Springsteen earlier in the year for BBC Radio 6 Music/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC/@themarkrad
Luckily, Radcliffe is better and his voice is in fine fettle. He could easily have lost his voice for good, and there must have been times during his cancer treatment where he wondered whether he’d have to find another career. I want to deviate (slightly) from talking about Radcliffe on the radio because, tying in with my talk of 2018, it was a year where he found himself at a crossroads. Published this September, Crossroads arrived after months of uncertainty, change and challenges:
“Not long after being diagnosed with cancer of the mouth and throat last year, Mark Radcliffe found himself at a crossroads in life.
He had turned 60, his father had recently died, his adored dog too, and the mid-afternoon show he presented with Stuart Maconie was axed. He needed something new to occupy his time.
“I’m actually quite good at sitting about,” he says, “so I never felt the urge to cycle over the Pennines or anything, but I do like to have something turning around in my brain.”
He had recently gone on holiday with two friends, visiting America’s Deep South to see a less metaphorical crossroads, the one at which blues legend Robert Johnson was said to have sold his soul to the devil. Once home, and too ill to go out, or even to eat, this idea of crossroads wouldn’t go away. “I have ideas all the time, but this one snowballed, and ultimately congealed into a book.”
IMAGE CREDIT: Canon Gate
The book, entitled – what else? – Crossroads, celebrates moments that changed music for ever. It is wildly discursive, touching as it does on key points in contemporary music history. He recalls when Nirvana went from being a cult act to the largest band in the world in the early 90s; the moment in the 70s when disco took hold and taught the world to dance. He looks at the Windrush generation, who brought reggae to our shores, and how Ozzy Osbourne’s Black Sabbath became one of the country’s first heavy rock acts of note.
When, in 1997, he and Mark Riley stepped into the Radio 1 Breakfast Show breach left by Chris Evans’ abrupt departure, they proved a gloriously left-field anomaly – too much so, it seemed, for Radio 1, which soon shunted them to a night-time slot. Radcliffe has thrived on the margins of Radios 2 and 6 ever since, playing the wonderful and arcane, and being professionally deadpan.
He has also found time to write the occasional book – five in total. Though he finds writing to be “like homework”, he is grateful to have it: the more he concentrated on writing Crossroads, the less he fretted about his diagnosis.
Undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy, it was made clear to him that his vocal cords might be permanently damaged – “which would be no great loss to the airwaves, let’s face it, and it was better than the alternative”, he points out, meaning death. “I actually found it relatively easy to keep positive during my treatment, because what else would I do? Take to my bed and weep for months?”
IMAGE CREDIT: Middle of Nowhere Recordings
Not only is Mark Radcliffe an incredible broadcaster and author; he is also a very talented musician. He is in the band, Galleon Blast, who is slightly less serious and fun; Radcliffe has another project, UNE. I was not aware Mark Radcliffe had this serious musician in him and, whilst that might sound insulting, it shows that he has this diverse personality and incredible range. You can buy the Lost album here, and I think the duo have some live dates next year. Keep your ears and eyes out for news because, rather than being a side-project, UNE are a great act that warrant your attention! Radcliffe and his musical cohort Paul Langley spoke with The Guardian in September about UNE and their musical aspirations:
“Mark Radcliffe and Paul Langley are sipping tea in central Manchester. The former is the much-loved radio star; the latter is something of a mystery. “Good, the less said the better,” Langley says from behind his spectacles and pot of Earl Grey. However, I do know he once made an EP in an outfit called Rack-It! “That was with Martyn Walsh from Inspiral Carpets,” he laughs. “He said, ‘You wanna do a track called Sex on Acid – that’ll annoy people.’ And it did.”
Radcliffe and Langley are, they tell me, “soon to be legendary”. This will be in the guise of UNE, the name they have given themselves. The pair have made Lost, an album of lovely, plaintive electronica over which Radcliffe sings. They met five years ago in the Builder’s Arms in Knutsford, Cheshire.
IN THIS PHOTO: Paul Langley and Mark Radcliffe are UNE/PHOTO CREDIT: UNE
Radcliffe, new to the area, asked locals which pub was dog-friendly. This led to dog-walk encounters with Langley, and the pair were soon bantering over pints, about music and Manchester City.
One day Langley mentioned the fact he made electronic music, and Radcliffe groaned. “I didn’t think it would be any good,” he says, “because he’s such a clown. But his hidden shallows turned out to be hidden depths. When I heard it, I thought, ‘This is surprisingly good.’”
Radcliffe was reading Lost in Translation, Ella Frances Sanders’ illustrated compendium of untranslatable words from around the world. He wondered if it was possible to write a song called Boketto, which means “to gaze vacantly into the distance without thinking” in Japanese. “So I’d give Paul the idea and the picture from the book. He’d write music and I’d go away and write words.” The pair were surprised at how effectively this created what Radcliffe calls “electronic pop songs, but very warm and dreamlike”.
Radcliffe hopes UNE aren’t seen as “some radio bloke having a dabble”. He was, after all, in bands before becoming a DJ. “I’ve never really seen a divide between the two. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t because radio people think, ‘We can’t play that – it’s Mark.’ I just hope we get the same chance as everyone else”.
It has been a changeable last year or so for Mark Radcliffe but, as we look forward to Christmas, I know he must be in a better frame of mind than this time last year. He is free of cancer and has settled into the weekend breakfast show. It would be great if he and Stuart Maconie were still on afternoons, but they are still together and they have taken to their new time slot with aplomb…after a few bleary-eyed mornings and a gradual adaption to waking up earlier!
I love the RadMac show and, through the years, Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie have been responsible for some of the finest moments in radio. I loved the interview they conducted with Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon back in 2013 as he was promoting the Prefab Sprout album, Crimson/Red. They actually caught up this year and, on both occasions, the pair brought the best from the funny, warm and sweet McAloon. I love Radcliffe’s interview style and the fact you can hear this natural kindness and accessibility that makes guests relax and trust the environment they are in. As a broadcaster, Mark Radcliffe has few equals and, for sure, there is nobody with his same mixture of qualities! The sheer passion he has for music and broadcasting shows, and I know many people listen to him on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 2 and dream of being in his place one day. I shall leave things here, but I was keen to write about Mark Radcliffe as he has gone through so much recently, and there was a point when many of us thought we’d lose him or he wouldn’t be back on the radio. The road to true recovery is long, but Mark Radcliffe is keeping happy and seems like he is in a very content space right now. He also presents coverage of Glastonbury for the BBC, so I hope he gets an invite next year to help bring Glastonbury’s fiftieth anniversary to us! I feel 2020 will be a very successful year for Mark Radcliffe, as a broadcaster and artist. Who knows…he might have the opportunity to interview…
IN THIS PHOTO: Mark Radcliffe and Jo Whiley embracing at Glastonbury earlier this year/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC/@themarkrad
THE beguiling Kate Bush once more!