 |
Jo Whiley and |
 |
Alison and Alyson talked to Jo and Steve.
Did you always want to be in radio?
Jo - I probably always wanted to do it. I love radio, I've always listened to radio and I've always fancied playing records on the radio, so to be doing what I'm doing is pretty damn good really.
Steve - When I was really really little, about 10 or 11 or something, I thought I'd really quite like to be a DJ, but at the same time I also thought I wanted to be a comics artist and loads of other things. In the end I ended up getting into journalism and it wasn't until I started doing some pirate radio in the East end of London that I actually thought being a DJ might be quite a nice thing to do.
So how did you get to work for Radio One?
Jo - I think it was a case of us both being in the right place at the right time, but then we'd kind of manoeuvred ourselves into the right places. At the time I was booking bands for The Word, stuff like L7 and Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, all those bands. I'd done radio stuff in the past, so I knew the bloke who produced the Evening Session at the time and he asked us both in to present the show. So it was kind of getting lucky, but coming up with the goods at the same time.
Steve - Yeah, that's basically right. I took Mark Goodier to see Rage Against the Machine once....
Jo - That was very brave of you!
Steve - ..And I think that was probably more helpful in getting a job at Radio One than anything else. I knew Geoff Smith who was one of the original creators of the Evening Session simply because I was working at the NME at the time and he used to occasionally phone up and say "What are you writing about, what sort of bands do you think we should be playing?" So we built up some sort of relationship like that where we'd go out and have drinks and stuff, and he said "You've been doing stuff on pirate radio and XFM, why don't you come in and make a demo?"
How difficult is it being female in a male-dominated industry?
Jo - I don't really encounter it in radio; Radio One is fairly up-to-date in its attitudes and stuff. In anything I've ever done I've never wanted to think, well, I'm a woman out there doing it, that I've got anything to prove or got a chip on my shoulder. I'm me and I'm doing a job and I want to do it well: that's how I've approached anything I've ever done. In other areas of the music industry maybe you encounter it more. Coming to something like the Phoenix festival you sometimes encounter some people who are fairly macho and that can be a bit daunting. But it's the same thing - you just say, well I'm here to do a job, and here to do it well, and then I'll get the respect for whatever I've done.
What's been your worst broadcasting moment?
Jo - I think you always have moments where you say something and then you just think "How can I have been so stupid to have said that!" And I have that quite often actually. I get really bad colds, and someone once said to me "What's the worst thing you've ever done on radio apart from that sniff you did the other night?" And I just thought "Shit, how can I have done that?". The Stone Roses coming in and taking over the show was fairly daunting because there were three individuals who had really strong ideas about what they wanted to do on the show that night...that was probably the most scary show that we've ever done, I think.
Steve - Pre-Radio One I think my worst broadcasting moment was when I was on a Pirate Radio Station in the East End of London and there was a police car parked outside, and I really didn't want to go on air because I was the first person on in the morning and I was presuming they were ready to just come in and bust us, and they can take all your records and it's a fine or a possible prison sentence.
Jo - Go to jail, go directly to jail.
Which bands are you most interested in at the moment, which do you think hold most promise for the next year or so?
Steve - Tiger. I just think Tiger are slightly different and there's this yearning for something that's a different take on what's going on at the moment. I think Tiger have got some tremendous ideas, very askew kind of British pop music which is really quite interesting. There's also this baby band that I'm trying to help out slightly who are called The Pin-ups, who come from Reading. They're like a 1977 punk band, but they're only 15 and 16, and they've just had to kick out their drummer because he couldn't play a gig because he was going canoeing with the Scouts. I quite like them.
Jo - I'd say Tiger as well. Martin from Gene did an interview this week which hit the headlines quite a lot with him saying how he hated Yob rock and was looking forward to new bands coming through, and I read the interview and thought "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean". I'm bored of all these guitar bands looking back to the past, retro stuff. It's just dull, really dull, and I look forward to some new bands coming through, like Tiger, Posh, Baby Bird, all those. They're just doing something new and exciting- I hate retro.
Steve 'n' Jo were talking to Alison and Alyson, at Phoenix 96.