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I found my big fake ball quite funny yesterday, but today it struck me what a cruel prank this is for my body to play on me. Obviously the cancer made itself known because my ball had grown bigger and heavier and now my remainer (48%, slightly smaller than the one that left) was counterfeiting the same condition. There's a self-destructive one and a prankster one in every double act, but I didn't enjoy being (s)Punk'd. This one was a bit too cruel. My ball is a cock.
My wife and I's 17th Valentine's Day and I was supposed to deliver 65,536 Ferrero Rochers to her, but just got her champagne and posh chocs instead and hoped she'd forgotten about my contract of love. We had a fun day, heading into Hitchin for lunch (and if you can do it a lunchtime Valentine's date is much less forced and unpleasant than an evening one). We've been together now for 16 years and a month, which is like a million years in Richard Herring relationship years. I am really going to have to get to work if I am going to have a longer relationship with someone else before I die. Unless I can get on life support.
Still very affected by the passing of Steve Wright. The tributes he's been getting have echoed my own thoughts on the man. His professionalism was second to none and I always loved being interviewed by him because his show felt like a party, but he'd also always done his research and made it feel like he was a fan (even if in all likelihood he had never seen my stuff). I think it's fair to say that most radio interviewers do the bare minimum - understandably as they have to talk to so many people- scanning the press release and maybe some notes that someone else has made, but Steve did this work himself and it showed. If I bumped into him at Wogan House he would still recognise me and be very friendly.
Over the years I took the piss a bit - Chris Morris satirised his Radio 1 stuff on On The Hour, I used to lightly mock the "love the show, Steve" stuff when I did shows with Andrew Collins and commented on the way his shows were formulaic and it used to drive me to distraction that he called the plays on "Serious Jockin'" "puns" when all they involved was saying a word ending in ing and removing the g.
BUT (and this is what struck me today) the jokes bounced off him and actually diminished the person making them. However cool we thought we were being, however much we thought we knew better, his shows were hugely successful for decades. He didn't rise to it. He knew that the jokes made him stronger, that the people joking didn't realise that he knew exactly what he was doing. We were being played by him, rather than the other way round. And all he cared about was creating an entertaining show, being like a very funny uncle, whose jokes were sometimes knowingly naff. And though we didn't listen to Radio 1 in our house in his early days, I listened to his Radio 2 afternoon show every time I was driving to a gig. And I loved being annoyed by "Serious Jockin'" puns and the phoney applause and the posse who never caught a single rustler.
Yesterday and today I realised how much he felt like an old friend. Unlike most of his listeners I did get to interact with him in person, but we all felt like we knew him from his shows, even though, again I only realised today, we knew pretty much nothing about him. I didn't know if he was gay or straight, married or single. He didn't get swept up in the celebrity circuit of parties and opening nights (I am guessing, because I am not swept up in those either - though I suspect he at least got invited) and he also wasn't a name that cropped up in the seamier/criminal side that affected so many of his colleagues. Because he only cared about the show. Serious Jockin' was a parody of Jocks who took themselves too seriously, but he was the ultimate serious jock. And though his comedy might not have appeared immediately subtle, when you dig deep you see the incredible subtlety and genius behind it.
It's such a huge loss and such a shame that he didn't get to go out with his boots on. Tthough he was still working - it'd have been nice if he'd still been doing the Big show. I fully understand why the station wanted to move on, but given how little time was left it's a shame. Perhaps if he'd carried on with the show he'd have carried on too. This business is tough and unsentimental, but you'd think there would be a little more respect for someone who had delivered so effectively for so long.
Anyway, when he ended that show he talked only about his audience and not himself and left with a lot of dignity. And now that he's gone his audience are only talking about him and maybe just realising how much this fixture of their lives meant to them.
Very close to a full roster for
the RHLSTP tour. Fred Macauley will be joining me for the already sold out show in Glasgow. And Tommy Cannon will be one of the guests for Hull- Cannon and (one) Ball back together (and there's a possibility of another incredible guest for that one too, so keep your eye on the secret areas badgers and plussers)
