Notorious shrinking violet Danny Baker is apparently so narked off with the “hordes of bloodless suits … pests, vampires and ghouls” who run BBC local radio that he’s thinking of crowdfunding his own station, packing it with his talented chums and sticking it to The Man (I’m paraphrasing) – Jonathan Ross has already tweeted his willingness to come aboard.
He (Danny) is not shy of tweeting pictures of his many Sony Awards (four in the past five years, I understand) so would Radio DB be an essential listen – an alternative to the bland and corporate BBC, or a tilt too far?
Danny Baker’s crowdfunded radio station.
by 53 Comments
Danny Baker and Jonathan Ross? That’s two reasons not to listen 🙂
I suspect it’ll be a bit like all things Baker-related. He’s basically a bit of a tit, and at his absolute worst when he’s talking about himself and his own career, but he’s also a hugely entertaining human being, a terrific raconteur and a veritable volcano of fact and opinion.
The descriptor “pinheaded weasels” always makes me laugh. Good for him.
Not everyone’s tasse de thé but I’d listen. With next to no interest in sport I often listen to his Saturday morning wireless programme on 5 Live. Because his show contains next to no sport, apart from when Lynsey tries to shoehorn some mention in.
I like Danny but this has as much chance of being a success as I have of winning Miss World.
I’ll withhold my donation until I see how you perform in the swimsuit round.
I have no interest in him, opinions or ilk.
It must be the case that when DJ’s gain some notoriety their ego grows too. Same thing also with Andy Kershaw but given the choice between the two I know which one I would choose and it wouldn’t be the Cockney.
Hasn’t he already done something like this — The All-Day Breakfast Show that you had to subscribe to — and it didn’t do well for one reason or another?
Yup – after a run of free shows he switched to a subscription model hosted by a company called Wippit. Downloading was painful and the schedule moved from 5 shows a week to 3, with a break where nothing came out at all. And in a pattern that is fairly familiar, he fell out with the management company.
Given his history, and his pride in always living beyond his means, I wouldn’t risk £2.
I like him and used to really enjoy the Jonathan Ross show on Saturday mornings on Radio 2 so I would be happy to listen and contribute £5.
Nothing will tear me away from Radio Tres, despite the countless hours I spent corpsing over Danny’s mania when he sound-tracked my complete DIY renovation of a house in the late 80s.
Good luck to him. I’m sure it’ll be very entertaining, for as long as it lasts. Which probably won’t be very long, given his rabid antipathy towards anyone whose talents lie in the realm of business management rather than disorganised (but witty) burbling. Money pit.
He is opinionated but I enjoy his shows.
I find him unlistenable but I’m a big fan of crowd-funding and it’s a good idea for those that enjoy him, so good luck to him.
I think Danny peaked a few years back. I was tiring of him on BBC London when he flounced.
To be fair. He was fired as a cost cutting measure.
I think you weren’t alone in tiring of him then @davebigpicture. Probably why they dumped him.
He can be very entertaining on the radio, when he’s not getting too far up himself, and I very much enjoyed his “Word In Your Ear” appearance plugging the first book of his autobiography. The actual book in it’s entirety made a rather tedious read, all in all. Not keen to read the second volume, as a consequence.
I really enjoyed the audiobook version of Danny’s first book, probably because we’re roughly the same age so I could totally relate to the stories he told. I hate to say it, but I actually did a couple of LoLs while listening.
They get Mark Lamarr’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, Alternative 60s and Christmas shows on board, I’m on board.
What is Mark Lamarr doing these days?
A good question. I’m still waiting for him to return from the break he said he was taking from Never Mind The Buzzcocks.
He is the Jose Mourinho of radio, Comes back to the BBC then after about three years he gets hacked off over something and fucks off in a strop. This act is getting old now.
He’s probably flounced from this place in the past.
He was on the old site.
He’s probably now scribbling out the “How That Arpeggio Thread Helped Me Beat Cancer” title for his 3rd memoir right now. You heartless bastards
I can’t listen to his Five Live show because of all that listener participation stuff.
“What was the worst Christmas present you ever received from your nan? Phone in and tell us, we really want to know”
There follows an awkward conversation between a hesitant caller and Danny, sounding way more excited and interested in the non-story than he ought to be.
It sounds forced and wooden much of the time.
Here in Melbourne I inly listen to 3PBS and 3 RRR for music.
Aren’t there any indie /community radio stations in UK
As an antipodean contributor, it’s fascinating reading all this stuff about radio bods that seemingly have large public lives outside their radio gigs – thanks to the increasing corporatisation and networking of commercial (and to some extent, government) radio, there hasn’t been a “personality” of note here for decades (Sydney devotees of what was then Double J may disagree).
Junior’s dead right in saying that community radio’s about the only sort worth listening to (if it’s music you’re after)
“There’ll be NO meeting rooms at the station..”
Christ that’s a bit precious – we even have a meeting room at 96.9 ALL FM don’t we @simongmusic @wholehogg
That said, I like the guy but then I like his shtick – I’m sure he’s unbearable if you don’t
@dr-volume @wholehogg you mean the loo?
I don’t get Danny Baker at all. I remember years ago on a telly panel show, everyone had to say what their secret talent was, and his was that he had a brilliant falsetto voice. He demonstrated by singing the chorus of “Hey There Lonely Girl” – it was terrifically horrendous, verging on terrifying. He, genuinely, thought it was brilliant and couldn’t understand why the audience wasn’t giving him a standing ovation. My husband can’t stand his mate, Danny Kelly – who also loves the sound of his own voice. He says “imagine those two in the same room – it would be an ego-lunatic bollocksfest.”
He can relax, they’ve done that show already 🙂
Back in the 90’s, when the middle classes suddenly had always loved football, because Nessun Dorma & Gazza, they had a footie-related show together, the name of which escapes me.
Baker and Kelly Upfront.
Apparently they considered “The Two Dannies”. They also had a football podcast for a while which I quite enjoyed, though they wound it up because I think they couldn’t find a sponsor.
They also took over the Radio1 Saturday morning show from DLT in the mid-90s together.
A nation gasped in the mass realisation that the hairy snooker-on-the radio-meister was perhaps not so bad after all.
And, IMHO, their show was wonderful on its own terms – compared to the dreadful DLT it was radio heaven.
The Captain may be Adrian Juste – “We did some of the best shows we ever did. God knows how we did it following that”
You spliced yourself into comedy routines making them terminally unfunny, you prat.
Danny was at his height pre-Google when he could build a show on nothing more than “What are the words to Wooly Bully / Top Cat’ or one show where he asked people to ring in which “woah-woah”s in records. Dullsville in anyone elses hands but his glee when a guy ramg up and let rip with the coda to ‘Its Not Unusual’ was infectious.
Strangely enough, considering the clapping at gigs thread, he also did one on “double ripples” on live albums. i.e. when the audience applaud at the beginning and then later in the song The below being an example
Oh here is the Dan. the Dan Dan the Hatchet Man, Mr Banister and Adrian ‘Unfunny’ Juste on one of my favourite documentaries
I’ve never seen the appeal at all. He’s just that mouthy twat off the Daz adverts as far as I’m concerned. He appears to believe he’s a radio genius – something I’m pretty sure isn’t even a thing – and that we should all be writing to our MPs every time he runs afoul of his employers.
Not being a born Lahndahner, I never heard his local radio stuff from ages ago. I’m told that if I had, I’d think he was the balls. But I didn’t, so I don’t. He seems like a nightmare.
When he was good he was very very good and when he was bad he was Evans
I would definitely stump up some cash if they recreated his afternoon BBC London show with Amy Lame and Baylen Leonard. Danny always played great music and conversation was v entertaining plus Baylen has a gorgeous voice. Not so keen on Jonathan Ross though.
I do like Danny but he is ‘diminishing returns’ personified.
Less is more.
What I’m trying to say here is that I think he is very … lessish.
So, no, not for me.
I had a horrible feeling while listening to his first book that I can’t quite shake off. To music types of a certain hue in the 70s, it is important to have been at the 100 Club to see the Sex Pistols when they played there in 1976.
Danny has a story about being at that gig but misses a lot of the set because he meets record company mogul Seymour Stein and they go outside to talk. That’s why the photos of the crowd at the gig never feature Danny. I don’t give a rat’s bell end whether he was there or not, but it seems to be important to him to let us know that he was – all right?
Also, Sisters of Mercy bassist Cleo Rocos tells of an outrageous night on the town with Freddie Mercury, Princess Diana and Kenny Everett. None of them can exactly deny it, can they?
Say what now? Cleo Rocos?? Thought she was the drummer?
Isn’t this similar to what Chris Evans tried to do when he bought Virgin radio? Bring in his mates, just do your own thing. – But you need someone to keep an eye on finances and regulations & that’s usually someone in a suit.
I think the fun would wear off very quickly.
I think I read in his first book that this need for someone to organise the finances was a source of enormous stress for him and he became eternally grateful to the people that eventually did.
I have a lot of time for DB. He is first & foremost a superb writer on music with a gift for a funny put down that’s second to none.
He’s also an entirely genuine article from SE London & is unapologetic about it.
As an autodidact with more front than Brighton, he has rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way primarily because he’s never done deference & carries a whiff of his background’s shoulder chip with him. I don’t consider this a negative at all.
He will never be everyone’s cup of tea & his love of having it large can get wearing, but it does so with friends & acquaintances & we put up with them.
Ultimately he is an authentic individual with very deep passions & knowledge & broadcasting ( but more particularly writing) would be a far duller place without him.
If I can warm to a Disney loving sentimentalist Millwall supporter, I can potentially warm to anyone. No bad thing.
Good post. I think you nailed it there.
Yes, nice one Jim
Aw, cheers chaps.
I like the Saturday morning show and have pinched the sausage sandwich game for work events. He’s at his best when there is nothing to focus upon. On the odd occasion when the tables are turned he can get a bit overbearing (Desert Island Discs was very disappointing.)
Aside from the excellent semi biographical TV series (which he wasn’t really in) I prefer his radio work to his tele appearances, but he’s not alone in that.
Presumably this would be an digital /internet radio station that works as a podcast too. Probably worth a small donation I’d say.
In other radio related news, the sacking of Martin Kelner from BBC Leeds was horrible. He’s a brilliant writer and broadcaster but after, what, 30 years he is called into a room by the current boss who says “this won’t take long” and tells him the station is going in a different direction, pays him til the end of next month and off he goes. When he was off with cancer a few years ago, he continued to be paid but had to pay that money back. He’d just paid his last 20 quid instalment – and they sacked him.
Totally endorse your post BC.
Kelner’s treatment gives new depth to the term shabby. I’m not familiar with his Leeds show, knowing him from Fighting Talk on BBC R5 – but he’s precisely the type of talent any decent radio station should be fighting to sign up.
His humour is self deprecating yet devastating when putting the boot in – a very hard act to pull off – & his books are top dreawer too.
Also love the fact he’s a northener who for some reason supports West Ham passionately.
He somebody to be treasured, not discarded by the nitwits & pinheads who deemed him surplus to requirements. A pox on all their houses.