Times Online ~ December 20th, 2007

Sounds: festive anti-hootenanny

Pete is joined in the studio by James Yorkston, Malcolm Middleton and Stephen and Claire from The Lilac Time. With live music from them all, and a special Lilac Time version of Silent Night. Malcolm plays Burst Noel live, James plays In Dessexshire As It Befell and Lilac Time play The Family Coach.

They look back at highlights of 2007, analyze the presents Pete has brought and enjoy cakes and champagne.

"We had a heckler who used to call out the chords. I suppose he thought this would encourage us to play if he stood there heckling the chords."

"At first I was flattered they gave me some odds, then I was thinking why have they given me the longest odds? But then I thought, of course, We Are All Going to Die is not your average Christmas songs."

"You always think you're going to get fantastic reviews, don't you? The thought of getting bad reviews would be crippling."

"We went to Vienna recently and you're still allowed to smoke there indoors and as smoker it was quite strange. Because the ban came in when it was nice and warm, it's only now that people are really feeling it."

"I probably won't get asked back to the Green Man Festival because I called Robert Plant a name on the stage. It wasn't a name though, it was a Scottish term of affection. I said 'I was going to cover a Led Zeppelin song but some c*** played it last night'. In Scotland you say 'alright you c***, how's it going?' We can tell by the way people say it if they're calling you it or if they're just saying 'alright?'"


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Runout Groove promotion ~ 2007

Stephen Duffy & The Lilac Time took part in several radio shows to promote the new album Runout Groove during October 2007.


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BBC Radio 2 Pop Quiz ~ 2007

On 17th September 2007 Stephen Duffy took part in Ken Bruce's pop quiz on BBC 2 radio. He competed against Glenn Gregory. Listen to the audio to find out who won.


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BBC Radio 6 Roundtable ~ 2007

Steve Lamacq hosts the BBC Radio 6 Roundtable show, where guests join him to review new singles and rate them.

Stephen Duffy was one of the guest on August 30th, 2007 together with Christopher from Silversun Pickup and Charlie from Fightstar. The tracklist for the show and the marks given:


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Radio 2RDJ Australia ~ 1998

Radio 2RDJ 88.1 FM in Sydney, Australia started broadcasting on November 5th, 1983. It was the culmination of eight years hard work for a group of local radio enthusiasts. Eight years of test transmissions and money raising. And from these small steps one of the best known stations in Sydney has grown into a massive studio complex. The show "Contact!" was hosted by long time Stephen Duffy fan Andrew Lambkin, who broadcast on Wednesdays from 9 to 12 in the evening, playing indie/alternative, Britpop, new wave & local music. In 1998 he organized a phone in with Stephen for his show to promote I Love My Friends which had a rare Australian release on TWA. Andrew is also a key member of "The Renaissance Players" an ensemble bringing pre-baroque music to Sydney and beyond for the last 40 years.


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Mark Radcliffe ~ August 14th, 1995

Mark Radcliffe was born in Bolton, England in 1958. He took an interest in music from an early age and was a drummer with several failed bands in the north of England. He has a wide knowledge of Rock and Pop with a very northern English sense of humour, many commentators have him as a cross between John Peel and Peter Kay. His radio career started on Piccadilly Radio in Manchester in the late 80s. He joined the BBC in 1990 on Radio 5 and moved to Radio 1 in 1991. His most famous work is as one half of the double act known as Mark and Lard (with Marc The Boy Lard Riley). From 1993 to 1997 with a 10pm until midnight mix of non-playlist music, humour and sessions. Stephen appeared in 1995 promoting the "Duffy" album. They won a Sony award for their afternoon show 1998 to 2004. Mark is currently working for BBC Radio 2 and has his own band "The Family Mahone".


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Jeremy Nicholas (GLR) ~ 1995

GLR, or what we now think of as GLR started in 1922 as 2LO based in The Strand, London it was the BBCs first radio station. Until 1970 it was part of the "BBC Regional Programme". From 1970 to 1988 it became BBC Radio London as part of a pilot project headed by Frank Gilliard who had been influenced by US local radio stations. The name GLR stood for Greater London Radio and only existed as such from 1988 to 2000 whereupon it shortly became BBC Radio London. sadly it's claim to fame now is unrivalled traffic news for London having access to Scotland Yard's Network of Traffic cameras across the busiest London Streets. Stephen's appearance came in 1995 promoting the album Duffy with tracks Starfit and She Freak.

Jeremy Nicholas began his radio presenting back in 1984, when he sought out the university radio station as sanctuary from an extremely dull degree course. His first role was with Radio Viking in Hull (North East England), from there it was on to do Sport at BBC Radio Nottingham and then back to his native London to join GLR, where he won a Sony Award for his breakfast show, when he interviewed Stephen in 1995 he was doing the afternoon show. Since 1996 he has mainly been on TV, but is now to be found on BBC Radio Kent (South East England) on Sunday afternoons, he remains a huge West Ham United fan.


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Rock Over London ~ 1993

Rock over London was a British radio program designed to break acts and new music in the United States of America it was distributed by Radio Ventures (New York). It was a weekly showcase for what was being played on the UK airwaves and aired across the US in the 1980s and 90s. The 10 track program was supplied to the US on vinyl (later CD) and was a mix of actual released singles and live accoustic recordings of singles or album tracks and always came with cue sheets. These were then introduced by the announcer Graham Dene (b: April 7th 1949) who was a regular on independant radio in London and latterly Paul Sexton. The radio show LPs turn up irregularly on auction sites and Stephen appeared on several of the records with Totem and Natalie in 1993 to promote Music in Colors. There is another one missing which I think is Charlotte's Conversation. If anyone has this or any others with Stephen on please do let us know.


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BBC Radio 5 ~ 1993 & 1998

BBC Radio 5 or as it is now known BBC Radio 5 Live is Chris' favourite radio station. It was launched on August 27th 1990 and was designated as the BBC's news, phone-in, sports and live chat radio station. Until recently it has only ever been broadcast on the medium wave (MW), it is now also on DAB digital radio with it's sister station BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra. The first voices heard were those of the comedy duo Trev & Simon, popular children's (and adults) entertainers from the BBC. Stephen has made two appearances one on the old Radio 5 with It Sparkles! in 1993 although we don't know which show it was on and once on Radio 5 Live in 1998 (the name changed in 1994) on the Ned Sherrin show playing Twenty Three.


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Radio 1 Roadshow ~ July 2nd to 6th, 1990

The Radio 1 Roadshow was an annual summer event hosted and broadcast by BBC Radio 1 from the 1970s through to the 1990s. The concept for the Roadshow came from Radio 1 producer and later controller, Johnny Beerling.

Various disc jockeys from the station would visit British seaside resorts to play a live set and meet local people to play their requests, take part in competitions and give away "goodie bags" of Radio 1 gifts. Accompanying the DJs were a support crew led by Tony Miles, nicknamed "Smiley Miley", who had provided the original caravan for the first Roadshow.

Several games and contests were devised especially for the Roadshow, most notably 'Bits and Pieces' where contestants would have to guess the names of a series of one-second snatches of pop tunes. The Roadshows became a key part of the summer schedules for Radio 1, and attracted much support during their run.

The first Roadshow was held at Newquay, Cornwall on Monday, July 23rd, 1973 and was hosted by Alan Freeman. The largest attendance was at Sutton Park, Birmingham on Sunday, August 30th, 1992, when 100,000 fans turned up to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Radio 1 with live performances from bands including Del Amitri, Aswad, The Farm and Status Quo.

By the 1990's the Roadshow had increased to 54 live dates over 9 weeks. Two trucks reversed back-to-back to form an impressive 75-foot stage frontage. The Lilac Time appeared from July 2nd to the 6th. This was a week when the roadshow was touring Northern Ireland. Nick had refused to go and this was the point that Sagat Guirey joined the band. The boys played three tracks during the week "You've got to love", "If the Stars Shine tonight" and a brilliant version of "The Lost Girl in the Midnight Sun". We are not sure if any other tracks were broadcast or played, if anyone has a different track then please do let us know.

Under reforms to the station, the Radio 1 Roadshow was axed in 2000 in favour of one-day pop concerts.


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Philip Schofield ~ 1990

Phillip Schofield was born on April 1st, 1962 in Oldham, Lancashire, England. He spent most of his childhood in Newquay, Cornwall. At the age of 17 he moved to New Zealand where he made his first TV Appearance presenting a children's music programme called Shazam! in 1982. After a year or so, he moved back to the UK, where he first appeared on UK television presenting Children's BBC on weekdays from the broom cupboard in 1984and then Going Live! on Saturday mornings from 1987 to1993. At the same time as doing the Saturday TV show he did a Sunday Radio show called Going Live! on BBC Radio 1. Along with Simon Mayo he is a self acclaimed fan of The Lilac Time as shown by his knowledge of the band and his love of "American Eyes". What is good about this 1990 interview is that Nick also gets to show his comedic timing with the bazouki. Phillip currently presents daytime TV talk show, This Morning on ITV, along with Fern Britton and is still as popular as ever in the UK, almost but not quite achieving Stephen Fry's "National Treasure" status.


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Adventure Club Sessions ~ 1989 or 1990

"The Adventure Club Sessions" comes from radio station 94.5 The Edge in Dallas, Texas. The FIRST in a series of CD releases from the station. KDGE Dallas was where many bands stopped off whilst touring the southern United States. Many recorded rare and otherwise unreleased versions of their hits or tracks from LPs they were trying to promote. These tracks were then bundled together and given a small release. We are not exactly sure when The Lilac Time recorded these two songs, they were in the right area for the latter part of 1989 and January 1990. The CD was released in a small run in 1993 but it is not difficult to get hold of.


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BRMB Roadshow ~ 1985 & 1988

96.4 BRMB radio is a pop/rock station based in Birmingham, England. It started on February 19th, 1974 on the old medium wave and was the fourth independant radio station to launch in Britain. Playing a wide variety of music coupled with local news, live football coverage and information, the station became an instant hit with Birmingham listeners. It was originally based out of Aston but now occupies large offices in the revamped Broad Street area of the City Centre. The station also attracted much controversy in 1999 with its Two Strangers and a Wedding competition, in which they endeavoured to find two complete strangers who were prepared to get legitimately married in order to win a prize. Rather like BBC Radio 1 the station took to the streets during the summer although on a much smaller scale going to the major towns in and around the midlands for a fortnight. It was in 1988 that The Lilac Time joined the Roadshow to promote the "You've Got To Love" single, they also played "Together", which was odd because they didn't sound together, with minimal practice and lack of tuning. Actually they sounded excellent whether by luck or judgement.

The interview is from mid 1985 just prior to the release of "Icing On The Cake". There is no ending, the tape Chris had this on just ran out so if anyone has the full interview please do get in touch.


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Peel Session ~ 28th January 1985

From the 1960s to the 2000s John Peel invited more than 2,000 artists to record three or four track sessions, which were then broadcasted on the BBC. The "Peel Sessions" were soon famous around the world and recognised for quality and diversity. In 1985 Dr Calculus were invited to recorded such a session. The exact recording date of is unknown, even on the BBC doesn't seem to have any information other than the tracklist.

If anyone has a recording of the session or knows more details, please do get in touch.


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Miscellaneous

The Japanse Fan Club Tape is a Christmas message for 1991. If you listen to it it is fairly self explanantory. Stephen in his audiodelic studio playing Black Velvet from his appearance with Nigel Kennedy in Australia October 1991, there is also a track by Sagat Guirey in the background. This was done for Mari Kadomoto's Japanese Lilac Time Fan Club. He is in the process of recording "An Angel gets his wings" which of course became "Music in Colors". On that tour Stephen and Nigel also played "Julie Christie" but we have never heard that track, if anyone has this please do let us know.

The Cambridge interview was taken on the afternoon of The Junction Concert on October 30th, 1990. We don't know who did the interview or why, but it has many interesting parts to it.


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