B95: Star Wars, duhnuhnuh, Star Wars

I've been really starwarsy of late, the most I've been since about 1983, when I was very very starwarsy. 

I am the youngest of the original Star Wars generation, in that I was just about old enough to watch Return of the Jedi at the cinema. I have not, over the years, considered myself a major Star Wars freak, but I am fan enough. 

Really, Star Wars and still being starwarsy means attempting to feel again what it was the like to watch the first few minutes of the original film over and over again on the video player at our next door neighbours the Hymases in 82 and 83.

I'd say it's never come close, but I do remember I found The Force Awakens pretty thrilling at the cinema. The other one I found excellent at the cinema was Rogue One, and I think the spin-off shows are best when they catch the spirit of that film, or when they simply let fun actors have a bit of fun.

I haven't found any of the spin-off shows exceptional but I've found them all enjoyable, especially Obi-Wan Kenobi, obviously. Having said that, I found the prequel films enjoyable enough at cinema, and it was only after the event I'd think "that was a bit dreadful really", a suspicion confirmed if ever I catch a section on the TV. In isolation, the scenes, the acting, the script, yes, they're all as dreadful as people say.

Sometimes I think the Star Wars folk think people are into more than trying to recreate the first few minutes of the first film, and there are funny monsters and funky clothes and weird lore, but I expect they're fairly clued in now as to how to tick the right boxes - the monsters are ok, the weird lore is hohum.

Anyway, those are my brief and banal opinions on the star wars. You should see them.

B97: Best Sportspeople

Here are, in my opinion, the 10 Greatest British Sportsmen and 10 Greatest British Sportswomen this century.

 It's just a throwaway list.

It's just a definitive list.

Sportsmen:

Mark Cavendish

Adam Peaty

Jonny Wilkinson

Andy Murray

Mo Farah

Ronnie O'Sullivan

James Anderson

Chris Froome

Lewis Hamilton 

Joe Calzaghe

Sportswomen:

Jessica Ennis-Hill

Sarah Storey

Lucy Bronze

Rebecca Adlington

Laura Kenny

Liz Yarnold

Chrissie Wellington

Kelly Holmes

Charlotte Edwards

Christine Ohuruogu

B96: Mainline Playlist

I've made a playlist which I really think is great. It's still not perfect, and somewhat dynamic in form, but the idea is so simple yet, I think, important, and I'm really enjoying listening to it a lot, and think it's one that lots of people could enjoy.

It started with watching the Sex Pistols series 'Pistol', which I enjoyed for various reasons, but one of the interesting aspects was that one of its main sub/plots was that it presented itself as an origin story for Chrissie Hynde. An undercurrent to the whole thing was  "there's a frustrated genius in the background here who's going to outshine all of this", so the whole thing made me think about Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders in a new light.

I've always liked the Pretenders - they were a real AM/FM staple throughout my youth, and in a way, it's a little baffling they're not more acclaimed in the big scheme of things. Such a unique voice, great style, such great, distinct pop-rock songs.

The next piece that helped me put the playlist together was an interview with Gilbert O'Sullivan I read. A couple of years ago, I saw a few people on twitter talking about how 'Alone Again, Naturally' (a song I'd seen mentioned but not knowingly heard) was one of the best lyrics ever written in a mainstream pop song, and I was like "yeah right grandaddio", then I listened to it, and it is, it really is.

Gilbert O'Sullivan was very successful for a while and now he's just not really in the big picture.

So I put Chrissie Hynde and Gilbert O'Sullivan together, and had a think. What's the link, what's the catch?

I've put a lot of acts together here, and this is how I think about them - that they had a turn in the mainstream - they're not really cult heroes as such - but they brought something fresh and sui generis to the mainstream. Most of them, not all of them, never quite made it to the Hall of Fame, to regular in-depth features in Uncut, to the absolute pantheon, You still might catch them playing mid-afternoon at a mid-sized festival, or doing a couple of shows at the Roundhouse or some other medium-sized venue. They don't keep on selling out arenas.

They're, in some sense, singles acts. There's not, usually, one album that really stands out. They have a fine Greatest Hits. They're not just one-hit wonders, they're not just about one place and time.

It's not quite the music branded as "Guilty Pleasures" a few years back,  though that comes into it a bit. There are quite a few soft rock acts which the fullness of time reveals in a more favourable light, but I've tried to make it cover all the decades and a few different genres. though it's harder for me to know who these acts were in the 60s and who they are in the present day.

There are some acts who are probably a bit big - Blondie, Dolly Parton, Pink, The Commodores. But I think I just thought they'd be nice to have, and just to have a reminder of how many good songs they have.

Some acts are there in quite a specific way - by Fleetwood Mac in this case, I mean Christine McVie, by the Style Council, I very much mean the Style Council, not Paul Weller in toto.

Which acts did I, just about, deem too big and acclaimed? The Kinks and Kate Bush were the line. Wanted to put them on, but just missed the point a bit too much in different ways.

Anyway, I could go on, and I will. I can hone the list, take out any songs that don't feel right on listening, add in new ones I think of. Today, I thought ... The Coral, The Lighting Seeds. There'll be more.

This is a great listen, I reckon. I'll accept all suggestions to improve it apart ... from Duran Duran.

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/mainline/pl.u-DdbloCYWr9b