Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Record producer with over 44 number ones, known for producing Sade's Diamond Life and nicknamed 'Golden Ears' by Boy George.
On the island
Eight records
Somewhere Down the Crazy River
if you close your eyes and imagine you're outdoors in a fairly hot, humid, sultry place, I think it takes you right there.
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 and express that anguish and pain as directly as that.
Gimme ShelterFavourite
Gimme Shelter has the best forty five second intro of any rock record ever made.
it was a black man singing about inner-city poverty, war, hunger... it was a bridge through which a whole generation crossed towards mutual understanding.
I hated it because I thought 'I'd rather go blind than to see you walk away with him, would you, really?' ... I listen to it now and it's a gorgeous perfect piece of American Soul classic.
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.
Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot to me represented absolutely everything... if I'm on a desert island, I have to keep my spirits up and this track will do it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:54What age were you when you grew up?
Thirty something. I mean, obviously it's a process. ... I'd look back at the frightened little skinny boy who had Mr Magoo glasses and was at school trying to cope, ... but I'm over it. ... if you look out, not in, everything changes.
Presenter asks
9:52What do you remember about the day you were told you would go blind?
My memory of it is this very 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. ... 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. ... 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.
Presenter asks
12:03Can you take me back to the moment when you stood at the side of the stage watching the Rolling Stones in 1968?
Very important moment. Nebworth. Sun's going down. 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. ... 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.
The keepsakes
The book
Beryl Markham
the autobiography of Beryl Markham, who is the most adventurous woman who ever lived
The luxury
Pyramid stage at Glastonbury with a 1959 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
Presenter asks
14:32You had fallen in love with music and knew it was what you wanted to do, yet you went to Cambridge and read law. Why did you do that?
Because I could, and I'm glad I did, and I'm glad I read law, because 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. But I did go from Cambridge to get a job in a record company, you know, in the legal department.
Presenter asks
27:05Tell me about having the strength to get through the retinal implant operation and its aftermath.
It was an arduous twelve hour operation, and they did a lot of cutting around of my head, not just my eye. ... The second they turned the power supply on, I saw a white silver square in sharp detail. ... It made me realize that the doctors are obsessed with independent living. ... Actually, what it did was it gave me my fifth sense back. ... My message to people ... manage the expectations ... if you can say to a blind person, look, this will not restore useful sight, but psychologically speaking, it will make you happier.
Presenter asks
30:17If you could have chosen not to go blind, would you have chosen that?
No, I wouldn't have missed this journey for the world. I think it's been unique and fascinating. ... I wish I'd seen my children. 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 is hugely rewarding.
“if you look out, not in, everything changes.”
“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 and express that anguish and pain as directly as that.”
“I went round and I swept 'em all off smashed a lot. And punched the door and punched the door until I punched a hole in the door.”
“I wouldn't have missed this journey for the world. I think it's been unique and fascinating.”
“the pleasure and the usefulness in genuinely making other people feel better about themselves and being an inspirational role model is hugely rewarding.”