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Monday, 19 March 2012

On my last radio show, I played a cover of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' by Tori Amos, and Motorhead's version of 'Louie Louie'. For good measure I played 'I Love Rock And Roll' by Joan Jett And The Blackhearts. This has given me an idea for the show. For a long time now, I have been collecting cover versions of the above songs, apart from 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. It is only recently that the classic Nirvana ditty has entered into this obsession, so I have a little bit of catching up to do. So for a feature on The Sunday Alternative, I will be bringing in copies of these songs by different artists every week. The real beauty of a feature like this, is that it can come with us to 6Music when they finally offer us the Saturday 10am-1pm slot. So from this coming Sunday, I will be playing a three-in-a-row montage of versions of these three songs.

Part of me wants to experiment with playing nothing but versions of the same song for the whole two hours, maybe without talking at all. This will either be seen as high art, and a statement on the cover version, or as a self indulgent way to lose listeners. I enjoy taking people down these weird little avenues to see how far they come with me before they make their excuses and leave. When I was at Sherwood Radio, I was far more experimental than I am now because I knew that nobody would bother checking it for content before it was broadcast, (I did my Sherwood Radio show as a pre-record every week), and that I could do whatever I wanted. As much as it is important that broadcasters are allowed to have creative freedom, sometimes it might have been an idea in those days for someone to try and rein me in. I played a series of Alan Bennett reading Winnie The Pooh, comedy sketches, and my record for longest song I played was something lasting 29 minutes. Some of the shows are still available!

My attitude is that you can come with me, or don't. This is why I don't like explaining jokes, because if they don't get it then they don't deserve it. I have curbed my experimental nature somewhat on Trent Sound, but I like to think we are still taking risks. I am trying to develop a phone-in game of Ker-plunk, or maybe Buckaroo, that can be played with two people playing against each other. If Dave Lee Travis can do it with snooker on the radio then I'm sure we can manage it. Another idea that we can transplant onto 6Music when they see sense.