Memories of mornings on the old Radio 5

Really enjoying the ramblings of Andy's blog (worth a read !!) which has brought back memories of medical contributions I used to make to Johnnie Walker's morning programme The AM Alternative on the old BBC Radio5 (before all that Sports nonsense got in the way!)

Funny how he doesn't mention his stint on the programme (which ran for several years) in his autobiography. And the BBC don't even mention it in his profile page

There used to be bands (old and new) on the programme most days and as it was a fairly small studio that often meant that after doing my piece I had to stay hidden in a corner of the studio while the musicians played. This was an amazing treat - and far more interesting than whatever I had to say about hernias or vitamins or other medical stuff.  One of the highlights (i.e. one of the things I can remember clearly !!) was when Everything But The Girl played this :

Another memory was the day I took these into studio for a discussion.  Johnnie had to guess what they were for and tactfully started talking about fishing....

(if you need a clue its here - could be very useful for some of my elderly female patients... and some of the younger ones too.. )

Off air we also talked about music a lot and he would pass on recommendations for things to listen to - lots of gems among them including this one - still a favourite..

MARY COUGHLAN, 'A LEAF FROM A TREE' 

Another highlight was meeting Paul Young - such a gentleman and now fronting these guys (Los Pacaminos) who are HUGE fun - in fact they are playing just up the road in Guildford on December 1st 2012  so recommend yy'all get along there !!  

 Here's a taster..