Gibberish

[Lawrence Jones]

Did anyone actually count the number of trails on R4 for Stephen Fry’s Gibberish? Thankfully I was at work so missed it but I would have deliberately switched over to something else if I’d been at home. Feedback will, of course, address this issue in the next series……’and we sent poor old Kathleen Griffin to the trails department to investigate.’ Ms. Griffin should be asked to investigate why R4 doesn’t run trails for its message boards!

R4 doesn’t appear to have the slightest grasp of the damage this saturation trailing actually does to a particular programme. Mr Fry is already in danger of becoming very unpopular due to over exposure and this kind of nonsense simply makes matters worse.

PS. On the subject of ‘Gibberish’, I wonder if Mr. Fry could tell us all in a future programme what ‘Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air’ actually means. He has mentioned this in the past.

PPS Hee-hee-hee-hee, what about the reference to ‘industrial language’ on the programme about Ian Dury? Can’t wait to hear Mr Bolton announce on Feedback….’and to-day we’re going to be discussing the whole subject of Industrial Language on Radio 4.’

[wave]

Ian Drury and his industrial language really added to 'reasons to be cheerful'

n.b. Years ago Ian Drury had a series as a kind of DJ on the world service and he introduced me, to Gregory Isaacs who I had never heard about. Industrial Mr. Drury was notably generous with his praise for fellow artists.

[Lawrence Jones]

wave said:

Ian Drury and his industrial language really added to 'reasons to be cheerful'

I agree and could cite many other records in which the use of ‘industrial language’ actually makes the track. Come to think of it, the term industrial language should now be modified to 'financial services language' or 'call centre language'. Oh for the day when the people of England want to make things again.

n.b. Years ago Ian Drury had a series as a kind of DJ on the world service and he introduced me, to Gregory Isaacs who I had never heard about. Industrial Mr. Drury was notably generous with his praise for fellow artists.

I do recall the series that you refer to on the WS. There was a wonderful interview with Mr. Dury on R4 (can’t recall the programme or who conducted it, but it wasn't one of the usual establishment presenters) about a year before he died and he really did strike one as a rather special person. He spoke very movingly about his wife/partner. Sweet Gene Vincent will always be my favourite song of his (also because John Peel was a great GV fan. I recall that he loved Race With The Devil).

Mark lamarr plays loads of Gregory Isaacs’ records on his programme, so hope you’re able to listen. Night Nurse (great late night driving record) often comes up for discussion on loads of MBs, but it always appears to be males discussing it – can’t imagine why!

Thanks for responding to my posting on this pleasantly quiet island.

[Crusoe]

Lawrence said:

Did anyone actually count the number of trails on R4 for Stephen Fry’s Gibberish?

It’s the old, old subject, isn’t it? R4 does trail certain programmes mercilessly and it is hugely annoying to the point where it does put you off listening to a programme.

Lawrence said:

R4 doesn’t appear to have the slightest grasp of the damage this saturation trailing actually does to a particular programme.

This is so true. They talk about the number of times someone has to hear a trailer for it to “sink in” and say that they have to play trails frequently to achieve this number of hearings but, I suspect, forget the fact that many radio listeners will listen almost exclusively to the same network for long periods, so the trails need not be repeated nearly as often as they are.

Lawrence said:

Mr Fry is already in danger of becoming very unpopular due to over exposure and this kind of nonsense simply makes matters worse.

That’s true. The other trail that I have repeatedly heard ,of late, has been for his Harry Potter programme.

[Crusoe]

wave said:

Industrial Mr. Drury was notably generous with his praise for fellow artists.

Yes. I always got the feeling that he was a music-lover first and a music-maker second. Many of his records were clearly influenced by reggae.

Lawrence said:

Come to think of it, the term industrial language should now be modified to 'financial services language' or 'call centre language'.

Quite so:-

“Two dozen enquiries are on hold for me
My shift supervisor is staring hard at me
Nobody can say what the matter is
I’m trying to recharge my batteries”

“Saint Monday” – Billy Bragg

Lawrence said:

Night Nurse (great late night driving record) often comes up for discussion on loads of MBs, but it always appears to be males discussing it – can’t imagine why!

I think it’s pretty much regarded as a bit of a classic, isn’t it? And it seems that males are more inclined than females to discuss music at length, although I really don’t know why.