Greetings!
Another week gone and we've had more fun on the show...
On Tuesday HM The Queen celebrated another birthday, (21st April ) while on Friday (24th) my partner in crime Danny Smith did the same - which makes him three days younger, give or take a few years. He did a very enjoyable show with a music quiz and mystery callers, mostly his friends and family, even if he did mention his big day every few minutes! (We'll forgive you Dan). Incidentally the Royals have had an interesting week with Prince Philip now the longest reigning consort and Prince Charles arguing with architects and bringing out a new book about the state of the planet!
On my programmes, inevitably, I talked about the Budget. Not content with predicting it on Tuesday and commenting about it on Thursday I actually stayed in on what was a beautiful day, watched the Budget speech and phoned in to do a report on Danny's Wednesday show with the main measures and tried to sound as if I knew what I was talking about! I won't bore you with all the details here. Some of you may have to pay more tax (50p in the £), others will go for the £2,000 trade in on an old car, while the national debt is bigger than any of us can remember. Local reaction from Anne Main MP and others was , I have to say, negative. We also learnt this week that St Albans is the richest town in Britain and peaple here pay more tax than anywhere else.
On Tuesday, Neil McNulty helped out by reading the travel bulletins - it is nice to have a fresh voice on the show and he is doing an excellent job helping us out on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Thursday we had a few technical problems which you may have heard if you were listening around 7pm. Mistakes shouldn't happen but it can be quite fun when they do!
By the way I must recommend the Emerald Hour. Presented by Lydia and Cathy, not only do they play some great Irish music but they have some brilliant discussions. This week's topic is about women suffering from domestic abuse or violence. On next weeks show, listeners will be able to phone in for advice. The programme goes out Thursdays 7 - 8pm.
It has been a busy week for interviews on the programme. On Tuesday we heard about a youth club event for primary school children, a play at the Maltings, a choral concert with works by Stravinsky, Britten and Bernstein at St Albans Abbey/Cathedral (with the Purcell School of Music) on 30th April, 8pm and South Pacific (with St Albans Operatic Society) at the Alban Arena Wed 29th April 'til Sat 2nd May, and we told you about many other local events. For more details tune in regularly on 92.6 or visit
www.radioverulam.com23rd April is St. George's Day so on Thursday I played music by bands or artists entirely from England...tracks from Culture Club, David Bowie, ABC, Kinks, T-Rex, Cream, Rod Stewart, the Clash, Smiths, Kinks, Beatles, Stones, Troggs, Who, Madness, Billy Bragg, Kate Bush, Led Zeppelin, Free, Elton John, Style Council, Bee Gees, Joss Stone and many more. I also gave you some trivia about England's patron saint, quotes from William Shakespeare, John Betjemen and John Major plus music from Henry Purcell, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and a folk song: The Lincolnshire Poacher.
The great thing is we can play a range of music, something you won't get on a lot of the other boring radio stations which offer you "more music variety" then play the same songs over and over again. I've rather neglected the new music this week, something I will put right next week.
If you have any ideas please let us know on this blog, email
studio@radioverulam or phone us when we're on - St Albans (01727) 839926.
Back with you Tuesday at 4.
Ta-ta for now!
John B-S
