This in-depth interview delves into the life and career of a celebrated journalist and radio personality. From his working-class upbringing and early passion for punk rock to his successful ventures in pirate radio and journalism, he shares fascinating anecdotes and insights into his remarkable journey. The interview also touches upon his personal life, his enduring love for his mother, and his enduring enthusiasm for life.
My dad came from a very working-class background. He won scholarship after scholarship and went to what is now the London School of Economics. He provided brilliantly for me and my brother, but sadly he died when I was 15. He had a heart attack one Christmas. I’m now 61 and I think about him more than ever before. As I get older, I become more like him all the time. If you’d told me that at 15 I’d have been horrified, but now I’m quite pleased. My mum came from sort of wealthy farming stock.
She’s fantastic. She’s 95 and still rocking and rolling. She was a mum and a dad combined. When I was nine, I saw David Bowie doing “Starman” on Top of the Pops and after that, life was in colour. Everything was possible. Punk rock and The Sex Pistols came along when I was just the right age for it, but I was quite a middle-class boy. I hadn’t really seen the other side of the tracks, and suddenly I was going to Brixton to see The Clash, which was an awakening – first to music, but then politically, too. I grew up in Kent and I was lucky because it was a really lovely environment. I went to a progressive, brilliant school that was co-ed very early on. I enjoyed it, but I was so obsessed with punk rock that I just disengaged. I started a little radio fanzine, and started selling transmitters and tapes, broadcasting from fields. About 15 or 16, I just didn’t go back. My mum was like, “You want to be a disc jockey?” Maybe some parents would have said that was a bit of a pipe dream, but she said, “Okay, I’ll help you.” It was the late 1970s and (as operator of private shortwave Radio Mercury) I’d been nicked on Christmas Eve broadcasting in the woods in Kent. We were always running away from the police and that had been a bit of fun, a bit of cat and mouse, but I wanted to do (broadcasting) a bit more seriously. A friend of mine told me about this place, Tramore, where we could have a good summer and make some money (with a pirate radio station). Ireland had no licensing laws then, so we got a mobile home and slept in the back, broadcasting from the front. Waking up in the southeast, I’d do the breakfast show in my Y-fronts. I did that for a few years, then I went off and did the boats – The Voice of Peace on a ship off the coast of Israel, Radio Sovereign just inside the Italian border and then Radio Caroline. Eventually, pirate radio dragged me back to Ireland and then into writing.. I started that a good 25 years ago and there were so many amazing journalists there – Bill Graham, Liam Fay and Liam Mackey, Niall Stokes, Declan Lynch, George Byrne – that I thought, “I could really learn from these guys.” It was a job I’d always dreamed of and it’s been good to me. I still go in every day kind of excited. I’m mindlessly enthusiastic, sometimes too much so, but that also means I’m generally interested in whoever I’m talking to. No, I think I’ve gone native. The only thing that I still am very English about is when the sport is on. What has happened in England has broken my heart. I think Brexit was the biggest act of self-harm, fuelled by racism and xenophobia. I don’t recognise the England that I grew up in. It used to be quite a tolerant, inclusive place and now I feel there’s an edge. Well, my mum, but I’ve been very fortunate with wonderful relationships and great female friends. Last year, I married my partner of twelve years or so in Naples. It was such a magical day. Sincere, enthusiastic, grateful. I’m very grateful for the breaks I’ve had. I’m very grateful for the people around me. Extremely important. What has been nice is that in the last couple of years, I’ve suddenly got a couple of really close new friends and I love that. I don’t sit around worrying about dying, but when you start seeing Sinéad and Christy and Shane going, you can’t help but feel mortal. I want to work for as long as I can. I think I’d stop when I didn’t understand what I was writing about. I’m probably known for my hair, which is getting thinner and thinner. At some point, I’m going to have to stop wearing the ponytail because it’s going to run out! Yes, I’ve been known to buy Clarins and steal my better half ’s concealer if I have a zit on my nose.. Kevin’s an old mate, so I’m a bit biased, but I think that’s his best book. I could spend my life trying to write as well as him and never get near it. The English Teacher album, “This Could be Texas”. I put a tenner on them to win the Mercury Music Prize in the UK at 10/1 and they came through. Usually, if I say someone’s going to be famous, they break up a week later, but they’re just a great band. I’m pretty evangelical about them. Going to see my mum makes me very happy. She’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, but she’s still her. That’s always a pleasure. I go a lot to Tarragona, south of Barcelona, and Naples. The islands around it fascinate me. I do all the cooking. I have no other domestic skills. I’m a bit obsessive and I probably have 250 cookbooks
JOURNALISM RADIO MUSIC PUNK ROCK IRELAND ENGLAND FAMILY COOKING PERSONAL LIFE
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