Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A comedian from Lancashire known for his stand-up and folk music.
On the island
Eight records
The Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
Well, I want something that would remind me of home. I'm not particularly a nationalist, but I was born in England and brought up here, and it does mean a lot. The English countryside means a lot to me.
The Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea
I was a Goonshow addict from a very early age so my Saturn record is uh Goonshow Classic
Well, it's got to be back to the rock and roll days, and rock n'roll's king for me, the man who had us all pressing our little sweaty noses up against music shop windows, unable to afford the Fender Stratocasters that lay there in pristine glory.
I couldn't live without brass band music. I love the sound of brass being a northerner and um I in fact played in Besses of the Barn Boys band for a year and a bit myself, played the cornect.
I'd like to take to the island with me a record of Dick Gawkin singing a song that I love about an early Socialist leader in in Glasgow called John McLean.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
I love Jacques Brell as a songwriter, the French singer songwriter. I think he writes absolutely incredible songs. And I also love the late Alex Harvey, who is for my money one of the most dynamic rock and roll singers to come out of Britain.
The 2000 Year Old ManFavourite
I think one of the funniest men I only have to see him and I and I fall about laughing is Mel Brooks. So I'd love to do the bit he did with Karl Raynor when he imagines that he's a two thousand year old man.
Stéphane Grappelli and the Diz Disley Trio
I'd love to hear him playing with probably the greatest jazz violinist, including Stuff Smith, and that's Stefan Grappelli.
The keepsakes
The book
The New Oxford Book of English Verse
Helen Gardner
I thought a lot about this particular one because I love books so much. The hardest thing is just choosing one. And I like a book of poetry and I love [Gerard] Manley Hopkins and I want a book with him in it and with John Donne as well.
The luxury
I'd like a complete set of one-inch Ordnance Survey maps... so I could spread them out and relive a lot of the walks I've done. And I would also like... a complete edition of the works of A. W. Wainwright... so I could sit and relive all those walks.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:46How well could you put up with complete loneliness?
I think I could stand a certain amount of loneliness but I think that probably I would look to be rescued eventually I should imagine.
Presenter asks
4:58As a child, what was your ambition? What did you want to be?
I'd no idea what I wanted to be. Various times I wanted to be an engine driver, which everybody wants to be, and then I'll. Almost wanted to be a policeman.
Presenter asks
8:01Had you left school [when you were playing in rock and roll bands]?
No, I was still at school. I'd passed my eleven plus in the old days of the scholarship. It was the only way a working class kid could get a proper education. I passed my eleven plus and went to Saint Bede's College for young Catholic gentlemen in Manchester. And I was still supposedly doing O levels.
Presenter asks
12:33How much money were you earning in the group? Were you getting paid?
We did. We got paid weekly, very weekly, as the old guy goes. It it varied quite a lot, actually. You could do some gigs that were might be a youth club gig and of course they couldn't afford very much. They might pay you I think it was something like eight pounds for a youth club you'd get between five of you.
Presenter asks
21:08What was the breakthrough [from slogging away in the folk clubs]?
Well, what actually happened was that I felt that I'd got to the limit in folk clubs and that by seventy five I'd I'd done a lot of the folk clubs three or four times a year for the last three years and it was getting to the stage where I felt that it wasn't challenging enough… So in seventy five, in the spring, we got together and printed the posters and the tickets and I hired Bradford Library Theatre, um, the Duke's Playhouse, Lancaster, and the Octagon in Bolton, and in a week I did those three and they sold out and I thought, well, there's a future in this.
Presenter asks
29:00Could you make a go of being a castaway?
Yes, I think so. If I had to answer the question seriously… The one thing I have got is a great will to survive. I mean I've always said I want to be beaten to death by a jealous husband when I'm two hundred and nine. I like life too much to want to lie down and take it, so I would I would really make a go of it.
“I went over to John Lennon at the end of the evening we were sort of leaning against these sweaty damp walls that they had there. And I said it was great. You know, you were terrific. I said but you know. If you're gonna get on. You want to get on you you want to get some suits like ours. He said a few words to me. Both of them connected with sex and travel and uh the rest, as they say, is pure history.”
“I had one brief experience with an agent who was to entertainment what Cyril Smith is to hang gliding”
“I like life too much to want to lie down and take it, so I would I would really make a go of it. Yes, I'd I tell you I would try and be rescued very, very hard.”