Radio 1 Vintage

From September 30th - October 2nd to celebrate 50 years of Radio 1 they put on 3 days worth of shows spanning the 50 years. I've just finished listening to all the shows they put up. They are still just about available to listen to here.

For me it was a mixture of shows before my time, during my time and after my time. I suppose I could say technically I'm still a Radio 1 listener as I still listen to the Essential Mix every now and then, but I've not really been much of a listener since around the turn of the century.

It was good to listen to the first ever show even though it was the exact show, more Tony Blackburn talking about the show and playing the same records. I quite enjoyed the show he did with Nick Grimshaw too which featured interviews with Simon Mayo and Sara Cox and plenty of music from years gone by.

Then came Kenny Everett, someone from before my time who is highly regarded. Whilst I have no doubt he was very talented, I just found him annoying to be honest. Kid Jensen on the other hand was very good, I've been enjoying his Top of the Pops episodes with John Peel and discovered they joined forces on the Radio too and were just as entertaining.

Next up was Colin & Edith, an after my time one but was pleasantly surprised. The music was actually quite good, I guess there were just many alternatives to Radio 1 by that point. Fearne & Reggie on the other hand was pretty dreadful but I kind of expected that anyway.

Dave Pearce was the first one I was particularly looking forward to as I'd always listen to Dance Anthems on a Sunday night back in the late 90s. Was good to hear some crazy people making requests again, but at the same time reminded me that I never got on there despite phoning up with requests several times.

Pete Tong came later and he is probably the DJ I've listened to the most shows of on Radio 1 so unsurprisingly I enjoyed his show too. When Fabio & Grooverider came on for the last show of the day they mentioned the predecessor to their show, One In the Jungle, which they said didn't really work but I used to love that show. Anyway was good to listen to a bit of Drum & Bass whatever the show was.

Day 2 began with Zoe Ball basically saying how surprised she was to do the breakfast show without prior radio experience and how she'd always be going out on the piss and sleep in the next day, but fortunately Kevin Greening was there to begin without her. Next came Mike Smith and the highlight for me was when someone tried to give shout outs to a bunch of people, and he cut them off, Ken Bruce should take note for Popmaster.

Chris Moyles was full of waffle, I actually liked his show when he did early breakfast but once he did the primetime radio he was just annoying.

I always remember enjoying Bruno Brookes on the radio as a kid but couldn't quite remember why. Listening to Bruno & Liz though made me realise they were funny and I found them very entertaining.

Always liked a bit of Dreem Teem on a Sunday morning back in the day and their show brought back memories, though could have done without having David Beckham as a guest on the show.

With Trevor Nelson it's always been a bit love/hate for me. It's true that I started to appreciate R&B music a lot more when he started on Radio 1 in the mid 90s, but as time went on and he started featuring nonsense like Rihanna who to me is a pop singer with an annoying voice.

The next show was The Ranking Miss P, someone I wasn't familiar with but I was very impressed. It was a reggae show and her style of presenting fit the bill perfectly. Lots of tunes I wasn't familiar with but I was kept interested throughout.

The best of the official chart was quite predictable, but I guess that made sense. Then came Annie Nightingale, the show I always remember after the charts having "Hi" in it during the first song, would have been good to hear footage of some of her later shows when she did the chill out zone or the breaks, but still not a bad track selection.

The big dog Tim Westwood was hilarious as always, I know he gets a lot of stick for acting the way he does but personally I find it quite entertaining.

Onto the final day, I found Mike Read irritating, Noel Edmonds ok and then came Simon Mayo who's breakfast show was the first one I properly remember. It was good to hear confessions again.

We got to hear the Ali G interview on Sara Cox, something I remember reading about at the time but never heard and I did find it quite funny.

Next came Simon Bates and we got to hear Our Tune which I used to absolutely love when I was a kid. I'd not heard of Emperor Rosko who came next, but found his show to be quite entertaining.


With just half a days worth of shows remaining, I was onto one show that I couldn't listen to the whole way through, The Live Lounge. It was just so boring, just reminded me of a man who used to play "Livin On a Prayer" slowly on his acoustic guitar at the students union which would just send you to sleep. Expect it was an hour long rather than 5 minutes.

Then came Mark & Lard who said they never wanted to do the Breakfast Show and tried to get out of it by demanding they record it in Manchester and got more money, but they got what they asked for so couldn't get out of it. Some funny sketches in there but the music was a bit boring.

Steve Wright was poor, too much talking and not enough music for my liking. The Evening Session was something I would listen to in the 90s, mainly for the new music. The music on the vintage show though wasn't great, I'm sure they didn't just stick to Brit Pop music at the time.

Rob Da Bank was one that was after my time but seems like I missed out a bit there. It had a good representation of what is essentially dance music played with live instruments which I quite like.

The penultimate show was Mary Anne Hobbs who I remember being on Radio 1 but don't recall ever listening to her shows. I thought her shows were rock and indie music orientated, but it was actually more grime and dubstep so quite a difference.

Last up was John Peel and it goes without saying that it was a good show.

The big eye opener, or should I saw ear opener, for me was how many shows didn't have an obvious track selection. Obviously with John Peel and the more specialist shows you won't, but with some of the more mainstream shows there were some quite obscure songs on there which never charted.

I recall working a job for a month or so in the early 00s which had Radio 1 on all day in the office and it was a very narrow playlist. This was my realisation that there was very little variation on daytime radio 1, but maybe it wasn't always like that. On the other hand maybe they played records they thought would be big but flopped.

Overall it was a mixed bag as expected, but was a good opportunity to hear things I hadn't heard for 20 years or so and things I hadn't ever heard. So if you haven't done so yet, I would recommend you give it a listen.