Jeremy Kyle is, oddly enough, someone I can call a good friend. I say oddly because you may not be aware that we worked together twice in my radio life and first time round was when he was nowhere near settling rows between warring factions of families happy to air their dirty laundry to ever-increasing audience figures.
A week in which I’ve discovered a new found respect for an individual. It takes a real man to admit when he’s got it wrong, and whilst I may still have it right in one instance, I will be truly delighted to be proved otherwise come May next year…as long as it doesn’t prevent my own Blue machine in succeeding were it to come to pass!!
Imagine young Blues fans quizzing their Dads down the years:
“Dad – is it true that there was a fire once at our shirt sponsors shop and our owners used the insurance money to buy players and stuff?”
Or
“Dad – is it true that our new owners sell scrap metal for a living and that they sold our training ground for 1 pound to a man who flies planes about?”
Or
“Dad – is it true that our new owners sell newspapers with nudie ladies in it and run shops that sell chocolate body paint and stuff?”
Or
**********THIS IS THE FIRST FEW THOUSAND WORDS OF MY PROPOSED BOOK ON MY LIFE AND TIMES AS A MUSO - IT'S LONG BUT READ ON IF YOU GET THE CHANCE AND LET ME KNOW WHETHER IT'S WORTH ME CONTINUING THE STORY UNTIL THE (NOT SO) BITTER END. THANKS **********
Clarity – it’s the McLeast we deserve.
He’s gone then.
Alex McLeish appears to be heading inexorably for the Villa Park hotseat having found events at St Andrew’s post-relegation too hot to handle. Confusion, anger, bewilderment and supposition has reigned supreme across the city of Birmingham since my good friend Colin Tattum at the Birmingham Mail broke the news of McLeish quitting Blues late Sunday afternoon.
So we’re relegated again.
Not that February 27th 2011 is somehow ever going to be a distant memory now that we’ve dropped out of the land of milk and honey for the 3rd time in 4 Premier League seasons. Far from it – in fact there’s a need to cling to that day for Blues fans as succour…comfort if you will, from what has happened to us time and again as a club during my lifetime.
Call me an old fuddy duddy, but there’s precious little new music that excites me these days.
When you work for a radio station, as I have done since joining BRMB in 1998, it usually follows that you spend most spare time in your car or at home listening to the place you work for, partially out of a subconscious loyalty to your paymasters and partially down to ego as you want to see whether your colleagues mention how good your show is during theirs. Which never usually happened in my case.
I miss my Dad.
It’s coming up to the 3rd anniversary of my old man’s passing from cancer, and for some reason I’m thinking more deeply about this impending date than either of the first 2 years I was forced to deal with it. Perhaps it’s because Mum has finally been able to sell the family home where we moved to nearly 30 years ago and it’s the realisation within me that we as a family have reached the end of an era.
Two weekends full of work, despite the fact that the Premier League & Championship were on hiatus for the first 12 days of it. I was originally down to work the first Saturday afternoon of International weekend as well as my usual Sunday evening stint on talkSPORT, but got a call Friday morning to come down early and cover Friday evening’s Kick Off show. Not only that, but my Sunday schedule was now to be an afternoon shift presenting live coverage of Scotland’s friendly with Brazil live from the Emirates Stadium. I hope my usual Sunday evening listeners miss me ;o)
