THURSDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2007
THE FIRST 'PROPER' POSTING!
Welcome to the TRUCKSHUNTERS blog. I hope you find your visit rewarding, amusing, and interesting - or, if I'm particularly lucky - all three.
My name is IAN ROBINSON and I research, produce and present the overnight programme on BBC Radio Newcastle; it's called The Nightshift and I think of it as a mixture of music, offbeat news and trivia, questioning scepticism and straightforward whimsy! I would be interested to know how you think of it!
WHAT'S IN IT
There are regular features like The Nightshift Newsreel (odd, weird, inexplicable, foolish and even ludicrous news items from around the globe), Today...... (birthdays of the great and the good, saints' days and other commemorative trivia - such as today being the National Day of Algeria) and a Know Your North-East question. There's also a specialist music slot at about 0445.
As for the rest......well, today's programme illustrates The Nightshift's content quite well. There were items about 'unparliamentary' language (the words and phrases MPs are not allowed to use about each other).......obituaries for a super-intelligent 31-year-old parrot and a man who ate light-bulbs......some inexplicable American laws (sent in by Loz, a Truckshunter).....a spooky local folktale called The Simonside Brag (for All Hallows Night).....and the happy story of an Edinburgh teenager who has become a millionaire by making jam.
Today's special music slot - also for All Hallows Night - was Danse Macabre (by Saint-Saens). It was adapted by the BBC as the theme music for the 'comedy-detective' series Jonathan Creek.
WHO DECIDES WHAT'S IN IT
I do - so there's no-one else to blame but me.
HOW THE PROGRAMMES ARE MADE
Except for the final 30 minutes of the Monday to Friday programmes, each edition of The Nightshift is pre-recorded, usually the day before. Although this arrangement is not perfect, it is the best that can be done at present. Sorry!
On 'Clocks Back Night' (last Sunday morning) I did present the programme 'live' between 2400 and 0300 and was amazed (and flattered) to receive so many emails, texts and calls. I promise I will try and do it again sometime soon.
WHO THE TRUCKSHUNTERS ARE
You. For fairly complex and utterly unimportant reasons, I decided that The Nightshift's listeners and enthusiasts deserved a name as daft as this one is (although Kev's suggestion of Robinson's O Crew is 'twisted' enough to deserve an very honourable mention). I would like to make the Truckshunters into a kind of informal 'club' with membership numbers and certificates - but I can't do that all on my own. Any help you can offer or suggest would be greatly appreciated.
THIS BLOG.....
- will appear by about 1200 British time on the day of the programme to which it links BUT NOT on Saturdays or Sundays, or when I am on leave;
- is very open to comment and suggestion. I would like to hear what you have to say about the content and style of the programme AND this blog, as well as any suggestions you may have about the ground either, or both, of them should cover.
AND FINALLY FOR NOW......
A BIG thankyou to everyone who responded this morning to the new name, especially......
- Kev, who sent me a kind of potted biography (in which he said he was 'warped, twisted and weird enough' (with a 'heightened sense of the ridiculous') to enjoy The Nightshift - an ideal Truckshunter, in fact.....anyone want to do the same?
- Loz, whose daft US laws have become a Nightshift staple.......
- Gilly, who doesn't really need to send an autobiography because I feel I know it already!....
- Chris and Jojo in New Zealand, who have already inspired quite a few features on the programme.....
- Jim, who listens to the programme in Christina Lake (in British Columbia) because his daughter Anna is at Newcastle University and he misses her (-awwwwwww)......
- Vivienne, who suggested REO Speedwagon as honorary Truckshunters (geddit??) - - any other suggestions for honorary membership would be welcomed - - how about an honorary President? Eddie Stobart? Bob Crowe?......
- Margaret (in Haltwhistle), who compliments me - then asks me searching questions (which I will do my best to answer)!
- all the regular (and irregular) callers to the programme - like Tom, Stanley Elvis, Charlie (in Benton), John (in Jarrow), Dave (in Washington) and many. many others.
Thankyou ALL for making me feel so welcome on The Nightshift.
BBC RADIO NEWCASTLE
You can get details of BBC Radio Newcastle's other programmes on the BBC's website - bbc.co.uk/tyne (or /wear). You can also listen to The Nightshift online there.
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
email ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN, England
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
WEDNESDAY 31 OCTOBER 2007
Pre-recording programmes a day - or even more - before they are transmitted can get confusing for me at the best of times. Today was a real problem, though. Should I use Hallowe’en items for THIS edition or for tomorrow’s - which will go out on All Hallows Night, after all. On balance, I decided to do the ghostly stuff tomorrow - which is, after all, the night we should REALLY be scared of!
THE WORLD IN ONE CITY
A year ago, two London comics decided that there MUST be at least one representative of every nation on Earth living in London. So they set out to find them all - all 192 of them. A year later, they had found 183; people from tiny states like Nauru and Tuvalu are still missing. Their quest got me thinking, though. Firstly, in how many countries are there people listening to The Nightshift. After all - and as I keep on saying - it’s not the middle of the night EVERYWHERE! Secondly, I wondered how many nationalities are represented in north-east England - between, say, the Tweed and the Wear. The Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese communities are well-known of course. There is also a small group of Turks and Greeks on Tyneside and South Shields has its historic Arab population, who are said to have been there since Roman times, perhaps even giving their name to the Roman fort - Arbeia. Many East Europeans, too, have recently settled in our area.
But....are there any Japanese? Sudanese? Brazilians? Or perhaps even Nauruans and Tuvaluans?
If you can help with either of these questions, get in touch!
KNOW YOUR NORTH-EAST
The answer to yesterday’s question is Windlestone Hall, which lies just south of the Sedgefield to Bishop Auckland road (A689) near Rushyford. The local coaching inn is the Eden Arms, named for the same family.
Today’s question......whereabouts in the north-east is the arch bridge often said to have been the model for the Tyne and Sydney Harbour bridges?
ODD HOUSE RULES
This item was taken from a fascinating and revealing ongoing discussion in The Guardian. Different families order their daily lives in different ways, and live by different ‘rules’ which are imposed, perhaps, to increase the family’s cohesion and feeling of ‘uniqueness’. Always taking off your shoes at the back door (and never even USING the front door!) or never sitting in a particular chair because it’s ‘owned by your granda’ were quite common when I was a kid - and apparently still are.
The commonest rules, though, seem to apply at the dining table (insofar as families still eat at a table at all). No elbows on the table (why?), no reading or watching tv while you eat and being made to eat WHATEVER is put down in front of you still seem to be quite normal. I have very vivid memories indeed of my ‘nana’ telling me to eat all my turnips. If I didn’t, she swore to serve them up AGAIN until I did. And she was as good as her word.
The comparative rarity of sweet stuff like jelly and custard also meant that we HAD to have a slice of bread with it. I suppose it helped to fill us up so that we wouldn’t ask for more.
Apples and especially oranges were also expensive in the 50s - at least they were to mining families - so nana would make sandwiches of them. Yes really. Orange sandwiches. That way, one orange could feed three growing lads. To this day, I firmly believe that the BEST banana sandwiches are made NOT by slicing the fruit (wasteful!) but by mashing it with milk and sugar. It goes MUCH further!
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
My contact details are......
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
THE WORLD IN ONE CITY
A year ago, two London comics decided that there MUST be at least one representative of every nation on Earth living in London. So they set out to find them all - all 192 of them. A year later, they had found 183; people from tiny states like Nauru and Tuvalu are still missing. Their quest got me thinking, though. Firstly, in how many countries are there people listening to The Nightshift. After all - and as I keep on saying - it’s not the middle of the night EVERYWHERE! Secondly, I wondered how many nationalities are represented in north-east England - between, say, the Tweed and the Wear. The Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese communities are well-known of course. There is also a small group of Turks and Greeks on Tyneside and South Shields has its historic Arab population, who are said to have been there since Roman times, perhaps even giving their name to the Roman fort - Arbeia. Many East Europeans, too, have recently settled in our area.
But....are there any Japanese? Sudanese? Brazilians? Or perhaps even Nauruans and Tuvaluans?
If you can help with either of these questions, get in touch!
KNOW YOUR NORTH-EAST
The answer to yesterday’s question is Windlestone Hall, which lies just south of the Sedgefield to Bishop Auckland road (A689) near Rushyford. The local coaching inn is the Eden Arms, named for the same family.
Today’s question......whereabouts in the north-east is the arch bridge often said to have been the model for the Tyne and Sydney Harbour bridges?
ODD HOUSE RULES
This item was taken from a fascinating and revealing ongoing discussion in The Guardian. Different families order their daily lives in different ways, and live by different ‘rules’ which are imposed, perhaps, to increase the family’s cohesion and feeling of ‘uniqueness’. Always taking off your shoes at the back door (and never even USING the front door!) or never sitting in a particular chair because it’s ‘owned by your granda’ were quite common when I was a kid - and apparently still are.
The commonest rules, though, seem to apply at the dining table (insofar as families still eat at a table at all). No elbows on the table (why?), no reading or watching tv while you eat and being made to eat WHATEVER is put down in front of you still seem to be quite normal. I have very vivid memories indeed of my ‘nana’ telling me to eat all my turnips. If I didn’t, she swore to serve them up AGAIN until I did. And she was as good as her word.
The comparative rarity of sweet stuff like jelly and custard also meant that we HAD to have a slice of bread with it. I suppose it helped to fill us up so that we wouldn’t ask for more.
Apples and especially oranges were also expensive in the 50s - at least they were to mining families - so nana would make sandwiches of them. Yes really. Orange sandwiches. That way, one orange could feed three growing lads. To this day, I firmly believe that the BEST banana sandwiches are made NOT by slicing the fruit (wasteful!) but by mashing it with milk and sugar. It goes MUCH further!
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
My contact details are......
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
TUESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2007
THIS IS THE FIRST 'TRIAL' POSTING OF THE NIGHTSHIFT BLOG. IT'S AN EXPERIMENT - DON'T BE TOO HARD ON ME AND DON'T TAKE THIS TOO SERIOUSLY.
THE VIEWS REPRESENTED HERE ARE MY OWN AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE BBC.
I had to start the programme by thanking all the canny people who contacted me on Clocks Back Night when, for the first time since the new-style Nightshift started in August, I went out ‘live’ (as they say) for the first 3 hours of the night. (Well, actually it was 4 - but the clocks went back halfway through!). I lost count of the number of emails and calls I took, and the text line was busy too. So a very big (and heartfelt) ‘thankyou’ to you all. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to mention all of you - or even get to the phone in time to answer your call - but it was so good to know that you were out there spending/wasting your time listening to me!
TODAY...
..featured a peculiar list of birthdays; Michael Winner is 72, Bob Wilson (erstwhile England goalie) is 66, Henry Winkler (‘the Fonz’) is 62, Diego Maradona is 47 and Juliet Stevenson - unquestionably the most beautiful woman in the entire world - is 51. Today is also St Ethelnoth’s Day. Who on earth was HE? Or SHE?
NIGHTSHIFT NEWSREEL
The usual worldwide trawl produced a good crop of proofs - if proofs were needed - that it’s a truly absurd world we live in........a Californian dentist charged with fondling 27 women patients claims that ‘chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases’.......an inquiry has started in the Russian town of Vladimir after a 30-year-old man married his own grandmother.....an Egyptian man threw his wife out of a 6th-floor window for refusing to clean his dirty shoes......a Swiss pensioner may lose his licence after falling asleep at the wheel whilst waiting for the lights to turn green.....and a Chinese bride has set a new World Record for the length of the train on her wedding dress - over 200 metres!
SEX AND FOOD
I was happy to congratulate the four north-east eateries who made onto The Observer’s list of the 50 Sexiest Places to Eat in Britain. They were As You Like It (in Newcastle), the Tree House at Alnwick Garden, the Rose and Crown in Romaldkirk (County Durham) and Seaham Hall (also in County Durham). I’m still not sure what makes any of them particularly ‘sexy’ though....
REDNECKS
Congratulations to our American cousins on being able to take the mickey out of themselves - something they’re not exactly famous for. The 12th Redneck Games took place in July in Georgia and featured Hub-Cap Hurlin’, Bobbin’ for Pigs’ Feet, Toilet Seat Hoop-la and the Mud Pit Belly Flop. For music lovers, there was even an Armpit Serenade. Does anyone know if there’s any YouTube footage of these events?
KNOW YOUR NORTH-EAST
The answer to yesterday’s question about Lord Byron’s associations with the region was Seaham - and in particular Seaham Hall and Church, where he married Arabella Milbanke in 1821.
Today’s question is indirectly about Auckland in New Zealand. It was named after the first Earl of Auckland (yes, our Auckland), a member of the Eden family that later produced Anthony Eden, Prime Minister during the Suez Crisis of 1956. But where in the north-east was their ‘country seat’?
BAGPIPES
The news that a 15-year-old Glasgow lad has been cured of asthma by taking up the Scottish bagpipes made me do some digging around for other QI facts about them......Emperor Nero played them......a pipe band playing at full pelt is louder (at 122 decibels) than a jumbo jet taking off .......piper James Reid was executed for simply possessing a set of bagpipes in 1746 ( - it was illegal at the time)......a Stirling maker once made some bagpipes out of surplus mammoth tusks he had bought - the pipes were bought in 2005 for £3,500.......Rufus Harley, a black American, introduced bagpipes to American jazz ( - does anyone know of a recording?).....and in Bulgaria they say that ‘a wedding without bagpipes is like a funeral’!
LISTEN TO THE BANNED
This week’s rather risque track was With Me Little Ukulele In Me Hand, sung (naturally) by George Formby. It was banned by Uncle Beeb in 1933.
THE FLYING DECKCHAIR
A glaring omission form the Nightshift Newsreel has been brought to my attention by Peter in York. One weekend in mid-July Kent Crouch, who lives in a place called Bend (in Oregon), settled down in his deckchair with a few snacks, some water - and 105 large helium balloons attached to the deckchair. Jettisoning some ballast, he floated away and came down nine hours later in a farmer’s field 193 miles away. He thus ranks with Larry Walters who, in 1982, rose three miles above Los Angeles on his balloon-powered garden chair and was last seen floating out over the Pacific. Larry was given a Darwin Award for this.
TRUCKSHUNTER’S PLACE NAME
Some of the north-east’s place-names have no known explanation. Amongst them are Quakinghouses, Pity Me (there are three places with this name) and Glororum (which occurs twice). If you are sure YOU know the derivation(s) of one or more of them, get in touch!
CONTACT......
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
THIS IS THE FIRST 'TRIAL' POSTING OF THE NIGHTSHIFT BLOG. IT'S AN EXPERIMENT - DON'T BE TOO HARD ON ME AND DON'T TAKE THIS TOO SERIOUSLY.
THE VIEWS REPRESENTED HERE ARE MY OWN AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE BBC.
I had to start the programme by thanking all the canny people who contacted me on Clocks Back Night when, for the first time since the new-style Nightshift started in August, I went out ‘live’ (as they say) for the first 3 hours of the night. (Well, actually it was 4 - but the clocks went back halfway through!). I lost count of the number of emails and calls I took, and the text line was busy too. So a very big (and heartfelt) ‘thankyou’ to you all. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to mention all of you - or even get to the phone in time to answer your call - but it was so good to know that you were out there spending/wasting your time listening to me!
TODAY...
..featured a peculiar list of birthdays; Michael Winner is 72, Bob Wilson (erstwhile England goalie) is 66, Henry Winkler (‘the Fonz’) is 62, Diego Maradona is 47 and Juliet Stevenson - unquestionably the most beautiful woman in the entire world - is 51. Today is also St Ethelnoth’s Day. Who on earth was HE? Or SHE?
NIGHTSHIFT NEWSREEL
The usual worldwide trawl produced a good crop of proofs - if proofs were needed - that it’s a truly absurd world we live in........a Californian dentist charged with fondling 27 women patients claims that ‘chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases’.......an inquiry has started in the Russian town of Vladimir after a 30-year-old man married his own grandmother.....an Egyptian man threw his wife out of a 6th-floor window for refusing to clean his dirty shoes......a Swiss pensioner may lose his licence after falling asleep at the wheel whilst waiting for the lights to turn green.....and a Chinese bride has set a new World Record for the length of the train on her wedding dress - over 200 metres!
SEX AND FOOD
I was happy to congratulate the four north-east eateries who made onto The Observer’s list of the 50 Sexiest Places to Eat in Britain. They were As You Like It (in Newcastle), the Tree House at Alnwick Garden, the Rose and Crown in Romaldkirk (County Durham) and Seaham Hall (also in County Durham). I’m still not sure what makes any of them particularly ‘sexy’ though....
REDNECKS
Congratulations to our American cousins on being able to take the mickey out of themselves - something they’re not exactly famous for. The 12th Redneck Games took place in July in Georgia and featured Hub-Cap Hurlin’, Bobbin’ for Pigs’ Feet, Toilet Seat Hoop-la and the Mud Pit Belly Flop. For music lovers, there was even an Armpit Serenade. Does anyone know if there’s any YouTube footage of these events?
KNOW YOUR NORTH-EAST
The answer to yesterday’s question about Lord Byron’s associations with the region was Seaham - and in particular Seaham Hall and Church, where he married Arabella Milbanke in 1821.
Today’s question is indirectly about Auckland in New Zealand. It was named after the first Earl of Auckland (yes, our Auckland), a member of the Eden family that later produced Anthony Eden, Prime Minister during the Suez Crisis of 1956. But where in the north-east was their ‘country seat’?
BAGPIPES
The news that a 15-year-old Glasgow lad has been cured of asthma by taking up the Scottish bagpipes made me do some digging around for other QI facts about them......Emperor Nero played them......a pipe band playing at full pelt is louder (at 122 decibels) than a jumbo jet taking off .......piper James Reid was executed for simply possessing a set of bagpipes in 1746 ( - it was illegal at the time)......a Stirling maker once made some bagpipes out of surplus mammoth tusks he had bought - the pipes were bought in 2005 for £3,500.......Rufus Harley, a black American, introduced bagpipes to American jazz ( - does anyone know of a recording?).....and in Bulgaria they say that ‘a wedding without bagpipes is like a funeral’!
LISTEN TO THE BANNED
This week’s rather risque track was With Me Little Ukulele In Me Hand, sung (naturally) by George Formby. It was banned by Uncle Beeb in 1933.
THE FLYING DECKCHAIR
A glaring omission form the Nightshift Newsreel has been brought to my attention by Peter in York. One weekend in mid-July Kent Crouch, who lives in a place called Bend (in Oregon), settled down in his deckchair with a few snacks, some water - and 105 large helium balloons attached to the deckchair. Jettisoning some ballast, he floated away and came down nine hours later in a farmer’s field 193 miles away. He thus ranks with Larry Walters who, in 1982, rose three miles above Los Angeles on his balloon-powered garden chair and was last seen floating out over the Pacific. Larry was given a Darwin Award for this.
TRUCKSHUNTER’S PLACE NAME
Some of the north-east’s place-names have no known explanation. Amongst them are Quakinghouses, Pity Me (there are three places with this name) and Glororum (which occurs twice). If you are sure YOU know the derivation(s) of one or more of them, get in touch!
CONTACT......
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
text 07786 200954
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
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