Robin Millar

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is the record producer Robin Miller, nicknamed Golden Ears by Boy George. He is one of our most successful music makers with over forty four Number Ones to his credit. Randy Crawford, the Style Council, Courtney Pine, Everything But the Girl, throughout the years they and many, many more have benefited from his technical innovations and exacting standards.

Presenter0:56

Beyond the womb of the soundproof studio walls his life has been no less rock and roll, touring as part of the Rolling Stones entourage in the late sixties, modelling nude, and a bit more besides, in Paris in the seventies.

Presenter1:08

And then in the eighties he produced one of the defining albums of the decade, Shade's Diamond Life. It spent ninety nine weeks in the UK chart.

Presenter1:18

More extraordinary still is that as he went through it all he knew that an inherited genetic disorder meant he would one day go blind.

Presenter1:27

Losing his sight completely led him to forge a life very much influenced by his Guyanese nurse mother and Irish doctor Dad.

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He now spends a lot of his time helping disadvantaged youngsters, mentoring the disabled, and fundraising.

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He says I knew I wanted to make music that was sexy and visceral and very, very popular. Back then I wanted to make lots of money and have great cars and houses and all.

Presenter1:51

I did get all that, but then I grew up.

Presenter1:54

And I wonder, Robin Miller, what age you were when you grew up?

Robin Millar1:58

Thirty something. I mean, obviously it's a process.

Robin Millar2:02

I mean, I'd look back at the frightened little skinny boy who had Mr Magoo glasses and was at school trying to cope,

Robin Millar2:12

I remember it sort of, but I'm over it. And it was actually funny enough losing the remainder of my sight, which actually pretty much coincided with the incredible success of Chardé. And the minute you lose the last vestiges of your sight, the downward slope stops. And from there on, of course, you start to learn how to be without any sight at all. So you start to get better at it. And about that time was when I got involved with some of my first charitable pursuits. And I found out something for myself, which was that if you look out, not in, everything changes.

Presenter2:55

Technology of course has had a huge impact on the way music is made and recorded since you began your career. But it's it's interesting, I think, that people who are having some success, people like Beck or MC Taylor or Adam Young, they have all gone back to the sort of basics of recording, you know, recording it in a room. Do you think that's important that somehow people are trying to get back to the simplicity of music making?

Robin Millar3:01

But it isn't.

Robin Millar3:17

A lot of them have got computers with quite sophisticated recording equipment on it, and they've fiddled around for hours at home, and then they've gone back and listened to Electric Ladyland, and they go, Yeah, but how do you do that? I mean, I can't get anything like that. And of course, that was a purpose-built temple of sound, a recording engineer with 15 years' experience.

Robin Millar3:42

I mourn and lament the fact that ninety percent of those studios have gone. However, when I can go to a small township in Zambia and take an Apple Mac and a microphone and teach a young street kid how to make music, hook him up on the internet, get his stuff up on iTunes, I think that's worth it really.

Presenter4:02

It will be no surprise to our listeners that you've chosen your eight today with intense care and thought, and we sh we should get started. Tell me about the first disc that we're going to hear then.

Robin Millar4:07

An issue

Robin Millar4:08

Yeah.

Robin Millar4:12

My first choice is Somewhere Down the Crazy River by Robbie Robertson. Well I chose all my Desert Island discs very, very specifically to do with what I

Robin Millar4:25

wanted to experience on a desert island. They all had to have a mood and an atmosphere that I felt complemented a natural outdoor vibe. And if you close your eyes and listen to this track and imagine you're outdoors in a fairly hot, humid, sultry place, I think it takes you right there. And I think it's the production that does that job.

Speaker 34:51

All of a sudden I could hear somebody whistling from right behind me.

Speaker 34:56

I turned around and she said.

Speaker 34:59

Do you always end up down at Nick's Cafe?

Speaker 35:04

I said, uh I don't know.

Speaker 35:07

The wind just kind of pushed me this way.

Speaker 35:12

She said hang in the ridge.

Speaker 35:18

That's the blue tree.

Speaker 35:21

Base has never been before.

Speaker 35:24

Look for me somewhere down the crazy river

Presenter5:29

That was Robbie Robertson and Somewhere Down the Crazy River. And chosen Robin Miller because you say it would sound great outdoors in those those muggy nights on the island. Music then, as I understand it, was at the centre of your home when you were just a little thing, when you were a child. What what's the first music you can remember hearing?

Robin Millar5:47

My mum singing me, forgive the expression, Negro spirituals. My mum was a what they call a white Creole from a local Amerindian background, but with a European side, you know, to her family. She was the only white-skinned girl in her school.

Robin Millar6:07

And she had a nice voice.

Presenter6:09

Tell me about your father's background, then.

Robin Millar6:10

He was Irish, working class Irish. The army trained him as a doctor. He boxed for the army. Very modest, he trained as a GP.

Robin Millar6:19

They both worked in India for many years.

Robin Millar6:22

And they came back when the NHS kind of summoned them, as they saw it.

Robin Millar6:27

He was a sole practitioner in Tottenham.

Robin Millar6:29

And he was out mornings, evenings, late at night.

Robin Millar6:35

And when he wasn't working he was playing the piano.

Presenter6:37

And this home in Tottenham, as I understand it, was one of those houses where they they would genuinely welcome in all sorts of passing wastes and strays, is that right?

Robin Millar6:43

We've sn

Robin Millar6:44

Well, we moved from Tottenham to a slightly more upmarket neighbourhood where we got some hate mail.

Robin Millar6:51

for our strange ways and people didn't like our caravan, which was parked outside. What do you mean your strange ways? Well, my mum, you see, was West Indian in attire and and she was very churchy. I mean, she used to take us up the hill, you know, dressed in our Sunday best and she was in flowing robes and beads and she did her tarot and she like

Robin Millar7:11

all sorts of faith healers. Only she was complete Hyacinth Pouquet because she came over on her own, on a boat, at age seventeen, talking like that.

Robin Millar7:22

and immediately met all these gals, you know, his parents had got them into nursing for s something sensible to do. And my auntie Iris, who's still alive, said oh, she said, Your mother completely shed her West Indian accent. Within six weeks it was gone and it was replaced by a cut glass English accent.

Presenter7:40

And given that she had this sort of hyacinth bouquet side to her, when the neighbours complained about the caravan, was she not tempted then to get rid of the caravan?

Robin Millar7:47

Extraordinary. My mother wanted to get a bigger one.

Robin Millar7:52

and paint it purple.

Presenter7:54

It's time now, Robin, for some more of your music. Tell me about this one.

Robin Millar7:58

The second record is Help Me Through the Day by Freddie King. And when I was about 14 years old, I was feeling an awful lot of pain at my impending disability. And I didn't know you could shut your eyes and make a face and yell and scream. And I didn't know that you could pick up a guitar.

Robin Millar8:23

And express that anguish and pain as directly as that.

Speaker 38:30

Help me through the day

Speaker 38:36

Help me through the night

Speaker 38:42

Darling, you're street loving

Speaker 38:47

We'll make everything alright.

Speaker 38:53

Uh

Speaker 38:55

Help me to tomorrow

Speaker 39:00

When stopping.

Presenter9:03

That was Freddie King and helped me through the day. Tell me, Robert Miller, how did you get on in school then? You were a clever boy.

Robin Millar9:09

I was a very clever boy, yes. I had my problems due to my eyesight. Very little sympathy from most of the teachers. Very little sympathy from most of the pupils. And I was a scrapper, but I was always reactive. I I never threw the first punch. But I boy, I always threw the second one. I always threw one back. And I was engaged in drama and music and shed the worst of the bullying by earning a reputation as being a good guitar player, a person bringing interesting musical possibilities to the school. But it was largely an okay experience, really.

Presenter9:52

You were sixteen when you had an appointment at Moorfield's Eye Hospital in London, and at that appointment they concluded that you would go blind, and they said in

Presenter10:03

twenty or thirty years. What what do you remember about the rest of that day? Having heard that as an absolute diagnosis?

Robin Millar10:07

The movement.

Robin Millar10:09

Hmm.

Robin Millar10:10

My memory of it is this very

Robin Millar10:15

Pompous man just going, you know, well, we can confirm your diagnosis, and it'll take twenty-five or thirty years, and it's possible there'll be a cure. It depends how many youngsters are run over by buses, and we can get at their eyes to take a look. But anyway, don't think about that, just think about what's going by. Pop down the corridor and go and see the nurse, and she'll give you a pair of dark glasses and a white stick, and then you can go. And I got the bus home.

Robin Millar10:42

And I actually missed my stop. I took the bus right to the end of the line and missed my stop, I think, in a state of shock, I suppose.

Presenter10:49

Your your parents had known this was an inherited condition. They knew that from the get-go, did they, that this was a little boy whose prognosis was not good.

Robin Millar10:54

This was a little boy whose who

Robin Millar10:57

They did. And my mum took me to every uh faith healer, which uh I've got very little time for that stuff now. I mean, and that was really a series of build ups and let downs. So

Robin Millar11:10

I I'd rather wish she hadn't done that. But she believed it, so I suppose she wasn't about to sit down and tell me you're gonna go blind because in her view

Robin Millar11:20

That wasn't gonna happen.

Presenter11:21

And so a year later then, you were seventeen, I think it was nineteen sixty eight, and you found yourself backstage. In fact, you were at very at the very side of the stage and your eyes were good enough to stand there and watch the rolling stones through the middle.

Robin Millar11:28

Very good.

Robin Millar11:34

Yeah.

Presenter11:35

Yeah, you were watching the Rolling Stones. How come you were at the side of the stage watching them?

Robin Millar11:40

My sister got in with that crowd.

Robin Millar11:43

and she met a young guitarist, Mick Taylor, and she started going out with him, and we were sitting in his flat in Paddington, and he came back through the door and said, Well, that was quite a day. I've just had a what I think was an audition with the Rolling Stones. Anyway, they said you've got the job. So from then on

Robin Millar12:02

I was in the inner sanctum.

Presenter12:03

Can you take me to that moment then, the moment when this seventeen-year-old boy stands at the side of the stage in 1960?

Robin Millar12:08

Very important moment. Nebworth. Sun's going down.

Robin Millar12:14

I'm standing, I've got Jack Nicholson on my left and Paul McCartney on my right, and I'm peering over Bill Wyman's base stack.

Robin Millar12:22

Now I had already known I wanted to do music, but that was an orgasmic experience for me. And it was like that's what I want to do. I want to have sixty thousand people and make music that they all love.

Presenter12:41

Let me ask you then, of course, about what we're going to hear now is the Rolling Stones. Tell me about this and why you've chosen this particular track.

Robin Millar12:47

Gimme Shelter has the best forty five second intro of any rock record ever made. Beautiful guitar riff with a vibrato on the guitar, giving it a sort of shiver. And then the producer, Jimmy Miller, plays a little South American fish bone with a stick.

Robin Millar13:09

Then a couple of notes on the piano from Nicky Hopkins, a second guitar thing, a little strange haunting harmonica from Mick Jagger, and then Charlie Watts Blap Blap Bum.

Robin Millar13:24

Perfectly timed riff from Keith Banabadungba. And then Mick Jagger comes in screaming his head off, and they mix it way back in the mix. And the producer says, I think we should get a woman to sing on the chorus. And it was the end of the 60s. And it's an incredible piece of apocalyptic music. But more than anything else, if you don't want to play air rhythm guitar and be Keith Richard when you're playing this, there's no hope for you.

Speaker 314:15

Do you know what?

Speaker 314:17

He's got the shadow, he's got the shadow He wants to

Speaker 314:25

He's got to shine away, he's got to shine away.

Presenter14:32

That was giving me shelter in the Rolling Stones. So, Robin Miller, um, you were somebody at that age and stage in your life who, by your own admission, had fallen in love with music and knew it was what you wanted to do, and yet you you went to Cambridge and you read law. Why did you do that?

Robin Millar14:42

Yeah.

Robin Millar14:46

Because I could, and I'm glad I did, and I'm glad I read law, because it it helped me to clarify the way I thought, and it made me fearless, and I think it still does. I had a reading lamp and a magnifying glass, and I could read about the speed of a three year old.

Robin Millar15:02

But I did go from Cambridge to get a job in a record company, you know, in the legal department.

Presenter15:07

How did it go?

Robin Millar15:08

Terrible, absolutely terrible, hopeless clock watching, can't do it.

Presenter15:12

Then you went on to France and you did a lot of sort of quite a rag bag of jobs. You're a busker and part time musician, had a go at producing. And you came back to the UK. You spent, I mean, quite a long time, I think, trying to be a musician and a singer, and then

Robin Millar15:17

Oscar

Robin Millar15:21

Yeah.

Presenter15:27

You had a p it strikes me a pivotal meeting with a man called Clive Banks, and you played him the stuff that you were doing, and he said.

Presenter15:34

Well, you're not a singer, but you are a brilliant producer.

Robin Millar15:37

Uh

Presenter15:37

How how did you take that?

Robin Millar15:38

I railed against it and I said to Ellen, my then wife, how dare he? Who does he think he is? And

Presenter15:48

And how long had you been trying to be an artist by then?

Robin Millar15:50

Well, that's what he said. He said, Well, how many ti how long have you said you've been trying?

Robin Millar15:55

I said, Well, yes, quite a long time really. And you know, the one rule that I give myself for producing is that they've got to be better than I was, and they've got to have what I call a gift. And I define a gift as somebody plays me something that they've written and/or sung, and I go, How has that person with that education and that background and that scope at that age got the understanding to come up with something that deep and that profound?

Presenter16:26

Robin, time for some more music then. Tell me about your next piece of music. What are we going to hear?

Robin Millar16:31

My next track is

Robin Millar16:34

Inner City Blues by Marvin Gaye, What's Going On was the album.

Robin Millar16:39

And it was a black man singing about inner-city poverty, war, hunger, and it was about the need for change. And it got to number one in America, and it was bought by huge numbers of people. And it was a bridge through which a whole generation crossed towards mutual understanding, which I think music can do. And if you listen to it.

Robin Millar17:02

It's a lot of space, it's congers and a base.

Robin Millar17:08

Doop-doop-doo-doop-doop.

Robin Millar17:10

It's slow build ups of intensity, little backing vocals, and it's the record that made me want to be a record producer.

Speaker 317:24

Mo chats

Speaker 317:26

Spend it on

Speaker 317:29

I have not seen it.

Speaker 317:32

Money

Speaker 317:34

We make it

Speaker 317:37

What we see

Speaker 317:39

You were taking

Speaker 317:41

Oh, they don't wanna holler the way they do my life.

Speaker 317:47

Many wanna holler the way they do my life This I never, this I never

Presenter17:54

That was Marvin Gay and Inner City Blues. So Robin Miller, um let's see, Judas Priests, the Smiths, Van Halen, the Pretenders, they were all making music in nineteen eighty four, none of them.

Presenter18:04

Sounded like Shade's Diamond Life, however, it's judged these days.

Presenter18:08

To be one of w well, one of the seminal albums of the decade. It spent ninety-nine weeks, I think, in the charts in all.

Presenter18:15

When you were producing it, what was it you were trying to capture?

Robin Millar18:18

I heard their demo tapes and thought if they had a top layer of classic soul sensibility, they could be something special. And I was a big fan of Quincy Jones, and I had been to university in France and done an academic year in music arranging. So, of course, I thought I was Quincy Jones by that time. And so, I thought, you know what this needs? This needs percussion, it needs strings, it needs little neat brass parts, it needs some backing vocals, it needs sorting out into proper structures, it needs riffs that repeat rather than just random sax lines, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I sold them this great long story, and they said, Oh, we'll try it for a couple of tracks. And everything worked. And our extraordinary stroke of luck is that the man who made the decisions was a guy called Muff Winwood, who was the brother of Stevie Winwood.

Robin Millar19:14

And he said, Love what you're doing. Not sure I hear any singles. Don't care.

Robin Millar19:21

It's going to be a great album.

Robin Millar19:24

So we owe a lot to the fact that he just let us be.

Presenter19:28

It led to this massive global success for Sade. And, you know, she was invited to sing at Live Aid, and she was the woman of the moment, and then some. What happened to you?

Robin Millar19:30

Frashade

Presenter19:37

As a result of that album.

Robin Millar19:40

A lot of artists came calling Randy Crawford, Men at Work, Fine Young Cannibals.

Robin Millar19:46

Everything but the girl with the lovely Tracy Thorne. Their first album came out hot on the heels of Diamond Life, and that did very well as well.

Robin Millar19:53

Paul Weller, and then of course Patricia Cass, my French protégé. We're still working together twenty something years later.

Presenter20:02

Tell me about this next track, then, Robin. Why why have you chosen this, and what is it?

Robin Millar20:06

This track is called I'd Rather Go Blind. It was written in 1967.

Robin Millar20:13

And I hated it.

Robin Millar20:15

Because I thought hmm.

Robin Millar20:19

I'd rather go blind than to see you walk away with him, would you, really?

Robin Millar20:25

Well, that's maybe because you haven't experienced going blind.

Robin Millar20:30

So I had a very strong reaction to it.

Robin Millar20:33

I listen to it now and it's a gorgeous

Robin Millar20:37

Perfect piece of American Soul classic. I do think I'd like it with me because I'm going to need something which says

Robin Millar20:48

You faced it down, you dealt with it, you didn't just get through it, you embraced it.

Speaker 321:01

Boom

Speaker 321:06

Then to see you walk away from me, child

Speaker 321:15

So you see, I love you so much.

Speaker 321:18

Then I don't wanna watch it leave me, baby

Speaker 321:24

Most of all, I just don't, I just don't wanna be free long.

Presenter21:30

That was Etta James and I'd Rather Go Blind. And w when then was the moment, Robin Miller? Given that you've met it head on with that track there, uh let me just ask you the crass and obvious question. When did you actually go blind completely?

Robin Millar21:45

Um I was in the Camargue in France working on Chardet's second album, the follow up to Diamond Life.

Robin Millar21:57

It literally just went it just went. I couldn't find my way to the studio from our accommodation, which was along a windy path.

Robin Millar22:08

I couldn't find my way from the studio to the restaurant, I couldn't see any of the equipment and in the end I called Ellen, I called my wife and said, You're going to have to come and get me. I'm I'm stuck here. And I had a row with the band.

Robin Millar22:29

Because I

Robin Millar22:31

I didn't tell them.

Robin Millar22:33

I didn't want to tell them. I wanted to keep it to myself.

Robin Millar22:38

And of course they must have been

Robin Millar22:41

quite baffled, really, as to why Robin had suddenly

Robin Millar22:45

kind of gone I'm going home

Presenter22:47

So you con you sort of confected Arab in order that you had a reason to leave, did you?

Robin Millar22:50

Yeah.

Presenter22:51

Yeah.

Robin Millar22:51

Yeah.

Presenter22:55

And then you got home, and you are faced with this.

Presenter23:00

Horrendous situation. And you do what?

Robin Millar23:03

The first thing I did was I had a I had a study at home which I'd pinned all my gold and platinum discs around the wall.

Robin Millar23:12

and I went round and I swept em all off smashed a lot.

Robin Millar23:17

And

Robin Millar23:19

Punched the door and punched the door until I punched a hole in the door.

Robin Millar23:24

And struggled.

Robin Millar23:28

On

Robin Millar23:30

Because I was running a business, you know, I was running the studio.

Presenter23:33

Yeah.

Robin Millar23:34

Didn't get any help.

Robin Millar23:36

Didn't ask for any help.

Robin Millar23:39

Couldn't really.

Robin Millar23:41

manage and the studio started losing money.

Robin Millar23:49

So the day came when I had to, you know, just sell the lot in the fire sale, you know, cut my you know, go back to zero.

Robin Millar23:59

Because I never have.

Robin Millar24:02

because something in me, dating back to six, seven, eight years old, had decided that I was good enough and capable enough and strong enough to make it. About six years after that, when I think my marriage

Robin Millar24:21

was you know you have to remember that when when we got married, you know, I could see and I think it's a lot to to ask of a marriage, you know, to s to s for that suddenly to change. When I left, you know, and went to live on my own,

Robin Millar24:37

That was quite strange because I couldn't see anything, and of course I had to.

Robin Millar24:43

Completely, you know, do for myself. And in fact, my wife, Ellen, I have to say that she did continue to say, you know, well, I'm not going to let you starve or, you know, you know, she was very magnanimous. But my friends have told me since that I contacted all of them and said, Don't worry about me, look after my wife and my children, make sure that they're okay.

Robin Millar25:11

And they did, and they left me to it. And that was a bit stupid really, because I did end up, you know, a little bit isolated.

Presenter25:20

How no I mean, when when the time came when you were spending time with your kids, or the time came when you did want to boil yourself a kettle to make a cup of tea, or change the beds, how did you cope?

Robin Millar25:31

I c I coped. I have to say Shelley, who had been my friend for some ten years before then, was on the scene and we had literally been sitting on a sofa next to each other and I'd got a bottle of champagne to celebrate something and it was one of those moments, you know, where uh a hand on the knee and then goodness me, you know, crikey, we're not friends anymore, are we?

Presenter25:54

Just as well we have the music, Robin. Tell me about the next one, then. Why have you chosen this?

Robin Millar25:58

This is the best all round recording of acoustic singer and musicians that there has ever been, or that I have ever heard. But I have to say the clarity and the beauty of this record, on a desert island in the open air, you will be able to literally see the ocean through it.

Speaker 326:21

Love is hard to measure Hidden in the rain

Speaker 326:29

That's why.

Speaker 326:31

You'll find me here all alone And still I'm wondering why Waiting inside for the cold to get colder And here where it's clear that I've wasted my time Open the fly cause it's almost old

Presenter26:59

That was Alison Krause and Paper Airplane. So Robin Miller, it was fairly recently this, back in 2012.

Presenter27:05

You underwent something as I'm I'm going to make it as simple as I can here an implant in your retina, an operation that may have given you the chance to see, and indeed you you did see, but it only lasted for a few weeks.

Presenter27:20

Tell me about having the strength to get through that.

Robin Millar27:22

Mm'kay.

Robin Millar27:24

It was an arduous twelve hour operation, and they did a lot of cutting around of my head, not just my eye. And they had assumed that someone who hadn't seen for that long probably everything would have atrophied. The second they turned the power supply on, I saw a white silver square in sharp detail.

Robin Millar27:48

But crucially, it made me realize that the doctors are obsessed with independent living. They think that's the only reason to do it. Actually, what it did was it gave me my fifth sense back. So my message to people who are involved in research is don't always think about this in terms of independence. Think about this psychologically and manage the expectations of the people who are going to receive this help. Because if you can say to a blind person, look,

Robin Millar28:22

This will not restore useful sight, but psychologically speaking, it will make you happier.

Robin Millar28:31

being able to see a little flashing light. In the same way that I think if someone's been in a wheelchair for thirty years and I say, I can put you through a fairly unpleasant experience, and when I do, you will be able to stand up out of that chair, lean on the windowsill and look out of the window, and then sit down again. What do you think about that? I think they'd go,

Robin Millar28:50

I love it.

Robin Millar28:52

You know, go for it.

Presenter28:53

Robin, it's time for some more music. Tell me what we're going to hear now. What's this?

Robin Millar28:57

This next record is the original recording of Je tem moi nonpleu, which means I love you, nor do I, by Serge Gansbourg and Brigitte Bardot, recorded in nineteen sixty seven, two years before

Robin Millar29:15

the version that everybody knows with Jane Bjørkin. And Brigitte Bardot to me represented absolutely everything. Her face was absolutely stunning, Brigitte Bardot. And if I'm on a desert island, I have to keep my spirits up and this track will do it.

Speaker 429:40

Oh we should.

Speaker 429:49

Omonamu.

Speaker 429:52

Come in, you raised a little.

Speaker 429:59

Should they?

Speaker 430:01

Jeu vais es jeux, mu fien.

Presenter30:09

Uh

Presenter30:12

Je têmoin pleu by Serge Gainsberg and Brigitte Bardot.

Presenter30:17

Robin, listening to you today has been totally fascinating. There's something that occurs to me, and I hope you don't think it's an impertinent question, but listening to everything that you have done and everything that you have been through,

Presenter30:31

If you could have chosen not to go blind, would you have chosen that?

Robin Millar30:37

No, I wouldn't have missed this journey for the world. I think it's been unique and fascinating. And I'd be a fool if I thought that by not going blind nothing bad would have happened to me, and I'd have had no misery. Because that's that would be the stupid reaction, wouldn't it? I wish I'd seen my children.

Robin Millar31:01

Um

Robin Millar31:02

But overall I think I've had a fascinating and charmed and valuable life, and I think that now the pleasure and the usefulness in genuinely making other people feel better about themselves and being an inspirational role model

Robin Millar31:22

Is hugely rewarding. It's hugely, hugely rewarding to me.

Presenter31:27

We're going to hear your final piece now. Tell me about this.

Robin Millar31:30

I could have picked anything by this guy. Uh his name's John Grant. This particular track is called Mars, and and it's it's a testament to what you can do with a song as a lyric.

Speaker 331:42

Fine totty fruity special raspberry leave it to me

Speaker 331:50

Free gris, scotch, lassie, cherry, smash, lemon, freeze.

Speaker 331:58

I wanna go to Mars

Robin Millar31:59

Mm

Speaker 332:01

Where green rivers flow And your sweet sixteen is waiting for you after the show

Speaker 332:13

I wanna go to Mars

Presenter32:17

That was John Grant, and I want to go to Mars. I'm going to cast you away now, Robin. First of all, before I do that, I give you a couple of books. They are.

Presenter32:24

Um the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and then you get to take another book along with them. What's your book going to be?

Robin Millar32:30

I'm going to take West with the Night, which is the autobiography of Beryl Markham, who is the most adventurous woman who ever lived, and she was the first woman to fly east to west across the Atlantic, and she died on her own in a house on the edge of the Serengeti at the age of eighty two.

Presenter32:50

It's yours. And a luxury too, something to make life more pleasurable.

Robin Millar32:53

Kirsty

Presenter32:54

Yeah.

Robin Millar32:54

Yeah.

Robin Millar32:56

I want the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury, complete with the whole sound system and the light show, and I do need a nineteen fifty nine Gibson Les Paul guitar, because I need to fulfil a life's ambition to stand on the stage at Glastonbury and play with the Rolling Stones.

Presenter33:18

Absolutely yours.

Robin Millar33:19

Thank you.

Presenter33:19

And finally, which one of these very carefully chosen tracks today would you save from the waves?

Robin Millar33:25

The stones

Presenter33:25

Of course, it's yours. Robin Miller, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert islandists.

Robin Millar33:27

This is Robin

Robin Millar33:30

I've loved it, Kirsty. I've loved it.

Presenter34:12

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk slash Radio4.