On The Record

A weekend in the life of the randomiser

July 6, 2009 @ 1:59 pm | by Jim Carroll

Funniest blog post of the weekend: Darragh goes to a full-moon party in Kells. Read it here.

Very successful outing for the very first Banter with Paul McLoone and Ciaran “The Golden Maverick” Nugent chewing the fat in the Twisted Pepper on Saturday night about radio past, present and future. Thanks to everyone who showed up (good to put faces to blogging names like Sweet Oblivion and Rob Egoeccentric) and an extra-special thanks to the Bodytonic crew for ensuring everything went off without a hitch. The diary date for the next Banter is August 8 and more info on that in the coming weeks. The podcast of Saturday’s Banter is currently in the works so ears peeled for that.

Farewell Rodney Rice. The Saturday View (and Worlds Apart) presenter retired at the weekend after 40 years at the microphone. With Rice at the helm, Saturday View always provided an interesting hour’s listening as politicians and members of the political class were harried and harrassed. Add in the fact that this was the week which saw John Bowman wrap up Questions & Answers after a lengthy run and it looks like we may be in a whole new class of political coverage on the radio and TV from the autumn.

Headline of the weekend: U2 270° in the Trib. Turns out that U2’s much mooted Crab (hey, it looks like a crab) stageshow won’t be an in-the-round affair in Croker. Boo! Is that the sound of Joe Duffy I can hear rubbing his hands with glee? Altogether now: it’s-not-fair-Joe.

Speaking of Joooooeeeee: excellent piece from Stephen Collins on Saturday about how if the public are up in arms about a €200 tax on mobile homes, how the hell are they going to react to what might be coming down the line via the so-called An Bord Snip Nua?

Sporting headline of the weekend: The Great Puzzling Anomaly, also from the Trib subs. Good piece too from Liam Hayes about the questions surrounding the GPA which no-one else seems to have asked. That said, Tom Humphries argues this morning that it may be time for the GAA and the GPA to be friends and share a bed in Croker.

Allen Klein RIP. The toughest manager in the business is now doing deals somewhere else.

More festivals! More festivals with homegrown bills! Summersound takes place at East Point Business Park, Dublin 3 on August 22 and will star The Mighty Stef, The Laundry Shop, Funeral Suits, Heritage Centre, Disconnect 4 and more. Tickets go on sale here on Wednesday at €26 a pop.

By all accounts, I missed a Nighty Night with Vinnie Browne humdinger where the Limerickman grilled, toasted, roasted, fryed, boiled and gently sweated Brian Lenihan (dude obviously has not got the time to update his website) for an hour. Pass the pepper and watch it here

Twitter users buy more music than people who don’t tweet - official. Next week: Twitter users buy more Argyle socks than people who don’t tweet.

Album of the weekend: Major Lazer “Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do”. Rewind selector!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz3lK5SUdc8&rel=0

21 Comments »

July 6, 2009
2:30 pm

Jim will the Banter podcast include the inaugural radio chat? Missed it and would love to hear it.

Comment by barryb

July 6, 2009
2:32 pm

barryb - sorry, I thought that was self-explanatory, it will be a podcast consisting of Saturday’s chat/discussion/cud-chewing.

Comment by Jim Carroll

July 6, 2009
2:43 pm

Great stuff look forward to hearing it!

Comment by barryb

July 6, 2009
2:59 pm

picked major lazer up and tis indeed a great humdinger of an album

also i wasn’t at the talk on saturday but i heard my homie craig (from city discs) got a bit of a battering.. That better be on the podcast

Comment by carnie

July 6, 2009
3:01 pm

carnie - Craig didn’t get a battering!!! I defended his honour in my usual witty and charming way.

Comment by Jim Carroll

July 6, 2009
3:41 pm

i know you did but i’m more interested what the other 2 said about him

Comment by carnie

July 6, 2009
4:00 pm

Nothing like your thoughtful Monday randomising to distract from the world of work.

Keep us informed as to where the podcast will appear. Did G Ryan show up?

It’s sad to see Rodney and John Bowman retiring, they always seemed to part of the furniture. I assume they’ll be back in various guises, come election times. Hopefully there are some newbies on the RTE corridors ready to take on the spoofers and smirkers.

I reckon that Liam Hayes suffers when moving off the meat and two veg analysis. His points about the GPA need raising, no doubt. But he’ll never have the Humphries ability to amuse while scything through the hedges. Great headline, all the same. A sub-editor’s input or does the Tribune still have these?

Great to see the Dubs rattling Kilkenny, albeit a small rattle, maybe more of a shake.

Late night listening to Major Lazer has been problematic. The autotuned baby track is far too freaky when wondering if the little uns are asleep or not.
It should make for some good dancehall hours in EP. Some good scheduling would get Toddla T there beforehand.

Comment by paub

July 6, 2009
4:28 pm

Banter was decent Jim, good work. For radioheads Ciaran and Paul weren’t great for keeping on the mic, hope the podcast comes out alright!

Just on Joe Duffy, I’m pretty sure the man is a genius. If you do’t believe it, listen to the Liveline from last friday. It kicks off in an utterly surreal and hilarious way: It’s here:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.html?0,null,200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-rte-liveline-Friday.smil
It’s pretty damned funny (despite the awfulness of the situation). If oyu had to introduce Martians to Ireland Liveline would be a neat distillation.

Comment by Major Alfonso

July 6, 2009
4:31 pm

paub - glad to know the randomiser is better than the work on your desk!

G Ryan showed up late and was last seen gurning at Pogo

RTE & politics - I’d imagine many people will be interested to know what Pat Kenny’s new Monday night show will be like - Harry McGee had a post on this recently at http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/politics/2009/06/30/what-will-replace-questions-and-answers/. I just hope that any YouTube and Twitter add-ons are done because they add to the show and not just because they happen to be the fashionable thing to do.

GPA - I think Liam Hayes will be quite hurt that you didnt think his piece was amusing - dude was imagining himself as GAA prez after all. I’d say the questions he raised are ones which many people have about the GPA - and questions which no-one at the GPA appears keen to answer. Then again, as Tom Humphries had it this morning, the sooner the GAA and GPA buddy up the better for all concerned

BAC v CC - no-one is going to beat the Cats this year. They’re mean-eyed mofos who can afford to drop a few gears in a Leinster final and still come out on top. I know Tipp have been doing similar stunts of late against Cork and CLare but their Napoleon luck ain’t gonna last forever. With Kilkenny, it’s a case of how points they’ll win by come September. A savage team.

Major Lazer album is so, so, so good. Went very well with that unexpected sunshine this AM

Major - glad you enjoyed it! I’m sure the mikes picked up everything (I’ll soon get an email telling me otherwise)

That’s the Liveline about the petting zoo on top of a building in Bettystown? You’re right - surreal. I hope some banging electro or techno producer samples that.

Comment by Jim Carroll

10.

July 6, 2009
5:28 pm

I never got over the realisation that Rodney Rice is not a black guy.

Comment by Yao Minger

11.

July 6, 2009
5:59 pm

Jim,

Any idea if the Electrician’s strike is going to effect Oxegen or Bruce?

Surely they need sparks before, during and after the event?

Comment by Paul Mc

12.

July 6, 2009
6:52 pm

Yao - I’ve passed on that observation to the RTE Press Office

Paul Mc - haven’t a clue.

Comment by Jim Carroll

13.

July 6, 2009
7:37 pm

Jim - I see you’re doing the Bon Iver after-party in the Roisin, Galway. Looking forward to that!

Comment by daniel harrison

14.

July 6, 2009
11:16 pm

Enjoyed the Banter on Saturday, Jim. Good panel, an interesting contrast in careers and experiences but both very entertaining.

Looking forward to the next one.

Comment by fionaoc

15.

July 7, 2009
4:51 am

Ahh thanks for the props Jim

Comment by Darragh

16.

July 7, 2009
9:52 am

daniel - i’m looking fwd to it too

fionaoc - glad to hear u enjoyed it. working on the next one at the moment and think it will be just as good

darragh - really funny piece, dude

Comment by Jim Carroll

17.

July 7, 2009
10:57 am

hey jim,

mildly off topic(s), but it would appear the insane $1.92m fine given Jammie Thomas-Rassett for distributing 24 songs is thankfully being challenged (although, I’d be surprised if it weren’t)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/jammie-thomas-challenges-monstrous-192m-p2p-verdict.ars

Comment by Leigh O'Gorman

18.

July 7, 2009
12:35 pm

A music festival in East Point? I work there and I can’t think of a weirder or more sterile venue. Gotta wonder where they’re going to set it up… in the multi storey car park perhaps?

Comment by Catherine

19.

July 7, 2009
1:49 pm

catherine - i used to work there years ago and I expect the place has not changed a bit since then. I’d say they might set up in the middle by the artificial lake - is that still there?

Comment by Jim Carroll

20.

July 7, 2009
4:00 pm

Ah, back in the Rondomondo days? It hasn’t changed a bit since I first worked there in 2000 - same pond, and I’d imagine the same fish judging by the size of ‘em.

Comment by Catherine

21.

July 7, 2009
8:13 pm

Hey Jim, lovely to meet you at the Banter gig! It was a really interesting hour or so, good to hear what the lads had to say about Irish radio! Coincidentally I did a blog about it recently, it’s quite topical at the moment. My dad’s a big fan of Paul McAloone so was a bit jealous I got to go, heh.
Very interested to hear what the next one is about

Comment by sweetoblivion