Peter Kirkpatrick - Radio Presenter

[00:00:00.100] - Martyn Brown

Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Vinyl Impressions Music Radio Show Podcast. My special guest today is someone who's been at it for a while, and they're pretty good at it too. In fact, that good, I took them on as a presenter on my radio syndication output. Let's welcome Peter Kirkpatrick.

 

[00:00:22.610] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Hello, Martyn. Very pleased to be here. Many thanks for inviting me. I like the fact that I've been at it for a long time.

 

[00:00:29.110] - Martyn Brown

Oh, yeah, the music.

 

[00:00:31.460] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Oh, sorry, the music. Yes, absolutely.

 

[00:00:34.120] - Martyn Brown

Welcome along. Actually, I say this is one of the early shows. It could be a pilot that turns into something amazing. I couldn't have wished for a better person to be on it because I've listened to your radio shows, I've watched how you work. I've done a little bit of research. I've done my job to a certain degree, and I was thrilled when you said you'd come along. So thank you very much for that. But the first thing I must ask you, Kirk Patrick, that's and that stands out on my list of presenters simply for the net, where did it come from?

 

[00:01:04.120] - Peter Kirkpatrick

In recent history, and by that I go back 400 or 500 years, it's Scottish. I'm entitled to wear a kilt. In fact, you don't know that I'm not wearing a kilt now, but I'm not. We've got our own clan. We come from Glasgow area, Trune and Loch Lomon and all around that. Our kilt is the Culhoun clan. A big history, we were tied up with Bonnie Prince Charlie. Not Bonnie Prince Charlie so much, but Robert the Bruce and all that thing. Our motto is I make sure because one of my ancestors went in and did somebody to death. It's all very sordid, but it's all out there. It's a great history. Then before that, it was Scottish, of course. So yeah, it's a big history.

 

[00:01:41.140] - Martyn Brown

I don't know where mine came from, Brown.

 

[00:01:46.400] - Peter Kirkpatrick

It's the name you've got to keep, isn't it?

 

[00:01:48.160] - Martyn Brown

When I was on the road doing presenter and discos, it used to be Martyn King. Somebody accidentally modelled me out of somebody else and put King there, and I thought, Oh, I'll stick with that. It was Martyn 'DJ', then Brown. I thought we had James Brown, a pop star. Yes, absolutely. Back with it now. As I say, thank you for coming along. I've got a few questions to ask you, but because the podcast is for radio presenters and radio stations, I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about your radio show and when it first started airing, as it were.

 

[00:02:22.820] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Yeah, I got into radio by mistake. But when I through lockdown, I was doing two live shows a week. One was a talk show for local businesses and things. Sunday morning was just easy listening, really, and they're both live and used to thoroughly enjoy doing that. But of course, lockdown came along and where do we go from here? The station I was with kept telling me how techno they were and up to speed, and then I found out they weren't. There was no way of doing anything from home to beam into the studio. Being the next, having been a liver transplant survivor, I was extremely vulnerable to COVID, so I had to stay at home. There was no way of doing it, so I thought, I can't just sit here. I'll have a go. I Googled things and asked people questions. The other presenters weren't particularly forthcoming with anything because they were DJs as opposed to radio people, and there is a big difference. I gradually Googled things and I brought lots of equipment. I've got a shed full of stuff here that's cost me a fortune that's never, ever going to see the light of day, as you're probably the same.

 

[00:03:29.320] - Peter Kirkpatrick

But gradually, over a period of time, I then started to record a show for them. A two-hour show would probably take me about four or five hours. It was horrendous. I was involved in the management of the company and I decided that this wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't for me, so I decided to leave. I thought, again, I don't want to just sit here. I came up over a period of two or three months, this idea for 50 years of pop. Initially, it was this set-up to be for hospital radio. Having spent time in hospital, a lot of time in hospital, I wanted something to entertain rather than what was on offer, and some of it was fairly dire. I thought it needs to cover all the bases. I'm a child of the '50s, so my influence was late '50s all through the '60s and the '70s, especially. I thought that's a good place to start. Let's add on a couple of decades to that to make it a bigger audience. It became 50 years of pop. I tend to be a bit tongue in cheek with my comments. It's got me into a lot of trouble over the years, I can tell you, but still does.

 

[00:04:35.210] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I did a couple of days ago, but moving on. I decided that I'd put some useless, or not useless, but sometimes irrelevant links, but something in the way that I would entertain or amuse, because radio really should be to entertain and inform. I think just music for music's sake, nowadays radio stations are going to have something different. You can have download all sorts of music, Amazon, Spotify, whatever, and just play music if that's what you want. My wife particularly likes somebody talking in between music. Depending on the station, I can live without that sometimes, but I do like to hear a voice, but it needs to give something to me. I launched this and there was a chapie I knew who had sent in a recorded show to the station I was on, and he had left. He had his own station and I thought I'll approach him and see what he thinks of it. I sent it to him and he said, Oh, yeah, I'll have this. We started that process and then I launched it on social media. A bit slow the first week or two, not a lot of nibbles. Then all of a sudden it just went bonkers.

 

[00:05:44.080] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Absolutely bonkers. I still get these. I don't promote it much now, but every now and then requests come in and I've literally lost count of where it is. It's Australia, America, Canada, New Zealand, Canary Island, Spain. I think I've got one in Italy. Not so much on mainland Europe so much. That seems a bit strange and certainly not in the Nordic countries. But yeah, it's out there. Of course, one bloke in Australia I said to him, Just out of curiosity, because I'm listening figures don't bother me. It's a bit like miles per gallon once you've got it, it's there, isn't it? But I thought, What is your demographic? What's your audience? And the typical Outback Australian, he had the typical outback, Australian. He said, I think we've got almost 22 listeners, mate. I thought, Great, because it's serving something for that community. And if that brings them together or gives them a laugh or they get up and have a bit of a dance around or something, that's fine. Whether it's 22 or 22,000, it doesn't actually matter.

 

[00:06:41.390] - Martyn Brown

It's interesting you say that because I always go through research and do little things every now and again, at least once a month. Some people brag, Oh, we've got a billion listeners. But I thought, I'm not really interested in that. I want to be the people that do listen. I want them to enjoy it. Like you say, if there's an E-22, that's fine. I used to do live shows on internet radio when it first became popular back in the late 90s, really. I used to get three listeners sometimes. I didn't want to... I just had fun with them and their feedback. Do you get feedback from your audience at all?

 

[00:07:19.770] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I don't from the listeners because of when my show is out there, as opposed to other syndicated shows where they do a show and the link goes out each week. I thought that it's show 93 is today, I don't do that because when I started, I sent out my link or I sent out show one to one or two stations, and then some other stations come. I sent them shows one and two, and then some other stations. I sent one, two and three. I thought, hang on, I'm spending more time doing the admin than I am doing the show. That's not what I wanted to do. Then I did it all via Dropbox link and I sent you the link and there are all the shows in there. This is station infom, obviously. They can then download what they want and play it how they want to. I do it in chunks to allow for their station imaging and promos and adverts and things. I say to them, If you need to fade the end track on each bit, do it. I'm not precious about it. I always try to put the last track on, so it's a bit fadable.

 

[00:08:20.780] - Peter Kirkpatrick

If you need to put something else in, I'm not going to ring you up and say, Oye, what are you doing to my show? It's not like that. I get feedback, some more than others. Some are just, We'll take your show, thanks very much, and that's it. Then others, you get a lot of bits and bobs, and some I have to say, that was usually quite flattering. I'm not up for accolades particularly, although, believe it or not, on one station, was it last week or the week before? One of my shows was 14th in the global charts for educational shows.

 

[00:08:51.570] - Martyn Brown

Wow, I'm impressed.

 

[00:08:53.660] - Peter Kirkpatrick

So am I, because I've never heard of it before. I didn't know what it... I suppose it's because of the information. There was actually a college in America that took it for that reason for the youngsters, so they could hear some information about 60, 70s stuff, which to them is a world away, isn't it? To the likes of us, it seems like yesterday, and I'm sure in a few years time we'll think it was yesterday, they don't know what happened in the 60s. They don't know the three-day weeks and the blackouts and the inflation and the mortgage rates and things as they were. They think it's bad now, but it was worse. I don't necessarily talk about that. I talk about music. People did different things and what the Rolling Stones got up to and sometimes is hopefully of interest.

 

[00:09:36.400] - Martyn Brown

Yeah. I think when somebody hears a song, it relates to a part of their life as well. Even if it's their parents, because their parents used to play it when they were children and things like this. That's why I quite often get feedback on a particular song. I played one not long ago, and somebody said, That song made your show because I just haven't heard it for so long. It's so wonderful and you paid the 12-inch longer version. I thought, And that thrills me to bits that does that little bit of feedback does more than anything. The other thing I do, I wonder if you did, was look on the search engines for your show title, see where it is in the world, and then go to their schedule. I'm quite thrilled sometimes because I see that it's in Australia, in four areas of Australia, and it's scheduled several times throughout the week. I do things like that. I like that as well because people that take your show are really using it.

 

[00:10:35.540] - Peter Kirkpatrick

There's one station in particular. They've got a slightly different slant on the show, and in so much they split it. Sometimes I'll be on at seven just for an hour, and then the second hour will be later on. Now, quite how that goes over, I'm not sure. Then the next day that will be on at 10:00 and 3:00. It's literally all over the show. If that works for them, that's fabulous. I don't mind. Because of the nature of it, because it's fairly laid back mostly, it does fit the later hour or the Sunday afternoon slot quite nicely, but I don't want to be in competition with Johnny Walker too often.

 

[00:11:13.310] - Martyn Brown

When you built up your record collection, was it from vinyl and you transferred it to a computer, or is it all downloads?

 

[00:11:22.330] - Peter Kirkpatrick

No, it's mainly record or CD collection. When I got ill, I ripped all my CDs onto a disc and then gave the CDs away. It seemed a bit silly, but I was actually going through a thing because I was in liver failure, so I was actually a bit bonkers at the time. Some say I haven't got particularly better, but I had the things you get with that. I made some dubious decisions in those days, 2015, but that's where it started. I just buy CDs or I get CDs, or sometimes I borrow them and do stuff with that. But downloads, no, I don't generally do downloads.

 

[00:11:56.420] - Martyn Brown

With my record collection, I had 10,000 vinyles and I transferred them all manually to DAT, the digital audio tape, and just so that I could find them. I thought I went to track 61 in my catalogue, that was Abber or something, and it was zzz through it and then find it. Then mini disc for it.

 

[00:12:15.770] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Oh, mini disc.

 

[00:12:17.320] - Martyn Brown

That went. I had to change everything from that so I could find it on computer and transfer it and manually type in the songs. It took me three and a half, four years to do it. People say now, Do you still play from vinyl? I don't now. It is all from vinyl, but it's not there because I need to find it quickly and compile the shows and edit them and things. Actually putting on vinyl one by one just doesn't work. It might do for a small time thing where you've got a few records here and there, but not for the thousands that I had. The only time I will download is if I have got the single, but people would love that when they hear, Oh, he's playing a vinyl. But I thought, No, I can't. It's got to be good quality. So I'll download one. I do pay for them, by the way. But that's how it works. I'm always interested that people build up their record collections. Have you got thousands now? You must have thousands of titles.

 

[00:13:13.900] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Yeah, I have tried to transfer them all because I'm not very good at the filing system. So I've got stuff all over the show. So what I've been trying to do is put everything onto one external hard drive. And that is a bit of a labour of love. And of course, I seem to have a problem. I've got about four hard drives that are active but won't open. I can't access them. I've got to go and see my man and get that sorted out. But yeah, I have no idea how many thousands are on that. Of course, I love sometimes the obscure things and the fun songs from the 70s, a telephone man from all that thing, and toasts from the street band and stuff. I do love all of that. I'm quite diverse. Then I played Harry's Bar on one show and somebody said, I've never heard that before. I forgot the guy's name now. But anyway, it was just nice.

 

[00:14:02.770] - Martyn Brown

Gordon Haskel.

 

[00:14:03.850] - Peter Kirkpatrick

That's it, Gordon Haskel. You see, that's the age thing kicking in again. Sometimes you play something that isn't mainstream. I do quite like sometimes the Stephen Segel who do a bluegrass version of Thunderstruck from AC/DC, and they're hitting an anvil. It's great. And the Civil Wars do a version of Billy Jean. They split up, they were big about 10, 15 years ago, husband and wife team. It's a slightly southern, it's not really bluegrass. I like to touch upon different genres from time to time. Sometimes a cover version of something could be very interesting. So when you find that, I like to just chuck that in. When I was doing my live show, when I got in by accident to radio completely by inviting myself on to the local radio station as a guest. I made it aware that I was interested and things followed on, but I've never done the DJ thing, so I've never been that. I always call myself, if people say to me, and they do it to wind me up now, I think we do pub quizzes. When it comes to music, they'll say, Pete's here, he's the DJ. Excuse me, I'm a presenter, I'm not a DJ.

 

[00:15:11.830] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I'm quite specific about that. I certainly don't do that scratchy bit, I wouldn't. I'm not doing that. But when I did the live show, I would go in and there was usually just me, because people don't realise that us on local radio, when we're doing it live, is usually just us. There's no teams of technicians and people pressing buttons. It's just us. That's both the scary bit and the exciting bit and the adrenaline buzz from that is marvellous. But I would play out the auto DJ that I've been playing overnight, and I would play my gingle, which is still Green Onions by Book of T. I've gone back to it. I tried to dump it, but I keep coming back to it. I would have my first track ready, open the microphone, and didn't have a clue what I was going to say. That's how my show is done. There's no real planning in it. I do go through and make. So if I'm doing a show tomorrow at some point, I'll do the technical stuff, make all the files and name everything and do all that, which is the boring bit. Then I will go and get a playlist.

 

[00:16:15.040] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Now you think 30, 40 tunes maybe, depending on the length per show, I will make a playlist of probably 150 because I don't quite know where I'm going to go. And then I started doing a joke. I know, I'm Tony Blackburn, reincarnated, but I'll do a I was nearly late thing, and then there'll be a bit of a funny, hopefully. And then there'll be a very tenuous link, because I love tenuous links to the first track. And so that's how that goes. That's how I open my show. And each segment I do normally has a power track, so it'll be diastrates or it'll be status quo, just something. If it's gone to the news or something like that, it's just a bit of a, Hello, I'm back. No vocals, a gingle, my gingle, and then a power track, something a bit oomfy. Then I go off again and do my normal thing and then just try and do some bit of information in between. But this making up as I go along, to me, that's what gives me the buzz. I just think, Oh, I could do this, I could do that. Sometimes I'll have to go find another track because I've just thought of something and I've got to drag it in.

 

[00:17:23.550] - Peter Kirkpatrick

But to me, that's the exciting bit. That's what keeps me going. That's what keeps me motivated.

 

[00:17:28.350] - Martyn Brown

Wow, that's incredible. And to work like that as well, like you say, it does create that adrenaline, but it's that very thing that makes the show as successful as it is. The listener gets vibes, and that's where it's coming from. I love that. I've tried working from Scripps for South, but I sound like I am reading a script, so it's better to be natural, I think.

 

[00:17:50.320] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I do a dry read for a radio station, which is a thing called Backstage Pass, which is an airwaves, which is in Belfast, Glasgow, and Manchester, and that goes out and that's just... This is available as a podcast as well on Amazon and Apple and things. I've been doing that for a while. I just do the dry reads. It's a similar type of thing. It's a story behind a song. Why was a song nearly never made or something of that ill? I just do it and then they take it away and mix it and make it all pretty. That's scripted. That's interesting because a chap is very switched on with his radio station, but he's French, living in Belfast, and he sends me a French script that's been Google translated to English, which sometimes doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I have to improvise it, and I do that on the hook again. I sometimes have a separate screen up with some info on it and then I'll dig around, but I've got to be fairly tight on the time and I can't ramble, which is my thing. I'm rambling now, obviously, so I have to be tight on that.

 

[00:18:54.410] - Peter Kirkpatrick

But yeah, that's good fun.

 

[00:18:56.530] - Martyn Brown

Wonderful to know the background of how these shows are put together and things. I started introducing themes to mine because the local FM stations said, Can you put a theme so we know what we're going to play? So if it's even a punk rock or something, we know what it is. But we're online, I find the Internet radio stations, they're not into the theme so much. They just know that The Vinyl Impressions or The 50 years of Pop is going to be that. And so I started to come out of it. But then people said, Oh, no, we like themes. So I said, Oh, here we go, the mystery year, top threes or something.

 

[00:19:33.050] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I did have a cunning plan, as Aldrich would say, for doing a one-hour special on certain groups, for example, but that's never actually gone beyond the planning stage. That may pop up at some point in the future. But it's just a matter of timing, really, and not over-promising on something. Keep your eyes open for that.

 

[00:19:54.340] - Martyn Brown

That's an insight. And also, I find some presenters say, Oh, it takes me 10 hours to produce my one-hour show. I think that's because of all the planning and the typing and the thinking about it and brainstorming. Whereas the way you do it, you don't need all that planning because it's happening as you speak.

 

[00:20:14.110] - Peter Kirkpatrick

The trouble with Scripps is that after my liver transplant, I became a funeral celebration, and I recently stepped down from that. Not that I've stopped, but I don't actively... I'm getting too old for it. But my wife and I were wedding celebrations as well, and we stopped doing that. Covid really stopped that. But when I did the training, we had to do roleplay, and I had a very great Fools and Horses moment because in part of the script that we were given to read out to camera to show how we projected and all that thing, I had to say the happy couple will now go and have their photographs taken. Will you go to the next room where there'll be drinks and all those? Because, Fools and Horses, sunny. As I said it, I knew I was saying it wrong. I said, There's drinks and horsey dervies. Of course, everybody cracks up and I just stumble through it. But that's scripting for you. If you say it out loud, you can... But of course, it was written down there and I just read it.

 

[00:21:09.650] - Martyn Brown

You've done a lot of shows. Are there any memorable experiences as a radio presenter so far? Is there something that you do and you look back and say, Yes, that was good. Is there anything that stands out for you?

 

[00:21:21.820] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I don't know. It's obviously the first one. I was chatting to a young lady the other day who just done her first live show. And there's just that wonderful adrenaline rush that you're suddenly opening the mic and all these people are waiting for you to say something, usually something incisive or funny or whatever. And usually what comes out is a load of gibberish. And I like to carry on that style with the gibberish, but suddenly you sit in front of the microphone as we're doing now and you become... You're not a different person, but there's something different about you. I've told you before, I think I do murder mysteries for a friend of mine. Very intelligent chap, ex-police, scene of crimes, so he knows all about crime scenes and stuff. We create a crime scene and there's four of us as suspects. We go along to a Pendu or something and we're given some basic info and then the rest of it is just we make it up as we go along. Because we know each other quite well, some of us are suspects, we've done it a few years now, so we invent these little subplots.

 

[00:22:24.440] - Peter Kirkpatrick

He's been visiting her room at three o'clock in the morning, and so all totally off script, of course. Then you do a different story at the next table. You get interviewed for 10 minutes by this group of people, usually quite drunk, and you've got to think on your toes. That's interesting. That's improv. Providing you don't tell a lie that's not in the script, you can get away with it, but you've got to just be thinking it through. Then in between rounds, when we're standing there, sometimes the other week I did one, there's two of us who in the storyline were supposed to really dislike each other. We were pushing and shoving each other and doing the dagger eyes at each other, all unscripted, and we just make it up. I'd rather like that excitement of it. I think every show to me, however it's done, somebody is going to listen to it. You want to make it as best as you can, and you want your voice, you don't want the da, da, da, da, da, da, the droney voice. You've got to lift your voice and you've got to be part of it. Sometimes you'll hear it if you listen to my show, I'm laughing to myself because I find it funny.

 

[00:23:28.080] - Peter Kirkpatrick

It might not be, but as long as you've got something in your voice that says you're a human being, you're not artificial intelligence, and I hope we don't go down that route, but it's people like us, the many thousands, millions that do this thing in spare bedrooms and cupboards around the world that keep the airwaves happy and bring an enjoyment to somebody, hopefully.

 

[00:23:49.940] - Martyn Brown

We were spoken before we came on air about the way we prepare things, and we lost my point and I've lost my thread now, but I think if you listen back to your show and you find, sometimes I find I do this, you've got to suddenly think about your audience and they are actually really out there and they're going to listen to this, that's what brings me up. So instead of saying, Hello, and here we go again, blah, blah, blah, you say, Oh, good morning, or, Hello, welcome along, blah, blah. You remember your audience, they're out there and they really are taking this is their life. They're spending that time to listen to you, for goodness sake, make it worthwhile. And so that's what I do. I think of the audience and I think, No, this has got to be, even though I'm doing it in the spare time or something, this has got to be the best it's going to be. I do agree with your techniques.

 

[00:24:44.850] - Peter Kirkpatrick

There's tips to that as well, a high back chair to make you sit up right, having your monitor that you look up high to keep your head up, having your microphone at a height that makes you sit up and project. I learned a lot of those through being a funeral celebrate that you're standing up there in front of sometimes hundreds of people and you're telling a story and you've only got 25 minutes or so to do it. You've got to project and you've got to emphasise in your voice is not going to be monotonous. You've got to have the highs and lows. We're not actually voice actors, but we're not far off it in many ways that we've got to... There's nothing worse than a monotone voice, and you see it all too often, sadly. Yes.

 

[00:25:30.230] - Martyn Brown

And somebody said to me, I stood in for a DJ. He came off and I came on. And she said, You've got a laugh in your voice. That's what makes the difference, singing your words. And that was the difference. He was, Well. And I came, Herthé! And really lit up the room and you can see it in the people. I tend to criticise now because I used to run disco, mobile discos. I look at them now and I say, You are a part of the show. So you've got to create the atmosphere by what you say about the songs or about the situation you're in or whatever. And it does work. You can read the dance floor, and on the radio, you have to read your audience. It's all fascinating stuff. I love asking presenters or DJs, but of course, there's a big difference between, as you.

 

[00:26:18.560] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Say- Of course, there is.

 

[00:26:20.310] - Martyn Brown

-how they do it, why they do it. Yours is for the buzz, obviously, because you're there and you get that excitement about it. I was going to ask if you ever thought of doing a talk show, but I believe you've already been involved with.

 

[00:26:33.490] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Talk show. Yes, I did, and I did it for two or three years. Every Thursday between 10:00 and 12:00, I used to invite local businesses on charities. Somebody was doing something a bit interesting or sponsored, whatever it might be. Then I would get the leader of the council or the leader of the opposition on and try and quiz them. Not trying to be a Paxman, trying to be... Although I might have had my own views, I still do. But because I used to chair a local group, which was a bit like a parish council, but wasn't, and I only recently retired from that. I made these connections over the years and it was good, just what's happening in town? What are we doing? Why are we not doing this? Why are we doing that? Where's this money coming from? That type of thing. You get the political response, you always will, and the temptation to say, Actually, that's a lot of foe. It was strong. But of course, you had to keep it balanced. I'm sure people on the listening in would have a different opinion to that. But, yes, I did enjoy the talk show, and it's something I have thought about, but how I could do that on the basis of, if it was specific to a particular radio station, that would work.

 

[00:27:47.110] - Peter Kirkpatrick

But I think anything big time or syndicated probably would be difficult. I don't know whether you could with new artists, and you probably get the same as me, you get all these emails saying, Oh, play my song. I just say, Unless it's a cover version of an old song, I can't because it doesn't fit. That's not to say I won't play anything that's new, but it's got to really have something about it. Just a new song won't cut the mustard, because that's 23 years above my cutoff date. Yeah, if somebody comes out with a cover version of something old, I'll listen to it, but usually, no, I like to stick. But I think my audience is, and obviously by the take-up of the show, there is an audience for it, so I don't want to change it. I don't want to upset the balance really too much.

 

[00:28:39.690] - Martyn Brown

I also think there could be a podcast in your Murder mysteries.

 

[00:28:43.890] - Peter Kirkpatrick

That could work. Yeah, they are great fun. We went to one and we walked in the door and we saw that was a hen doon. We walked in. We'd gone right in the middle of nowhere for this thing. As we walked in with all our gear, and because we chalked the body's outline on the floor and there's and stuff, and it's very clever. I play no part of that. I'm just there as an actor. But yeah, it is great fun. But we walked in there and they were so lively, shall we say, we thought, Shall we keep the engine running? Can I make a swift exit? Are we going to survive this? But we did. Yeah, we did one on, was it? To punk. It's very big around here. Dave, who is behind all this, he had actually got a laptop and made a wooden frame for it and it fixed a brass piping on the edge of it, because obviously there's no internal combustion engine. Everything is steam-powered. He got an old gun and it welded bits of piping onto it and he told me the theory of how a steam-powered revolver would work, because that was the murder weapon.

 

[00:29:45.750] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I had to know this and you're relaying it. You set this little bunson burn and you get enough steam and you pump it up and it's enough to fire two bullets and things and then you have to start out. I said, Wow, this guy has got such a marvellous imagination. I do every year. He does a firework display and I go up on stage. That's the only time I go up on stage and I just play the music for two hours as people are milling around and then we do the big firework display at the end of it, because he likes playing things up as well at the stage.

 

[00:30:12.860] - Martyn Brown

Oh, I love it. You can always repurpose things. So if you've got an output with something that people are enjoying, you can say, Okay, that's for that audience. Now let's just change something about it and put it out to a new audience. And that can often work. I do like these ideas. I've got millions of ideas, by the way. A smaller amount actually get pretty much action. Okay, I've got a couple more questions than we must go. I appreciate your time. I was going to ask you, which style of music do you enjoy the most and why?

 

[00:30:44.640] - Peter Kirkpatrick

That's difficult because I grew up... My dad love military music, military bands, and my mum love Pericomo, so I don't play either of those. I guess that the show that I actively look forward to listening to every week, which is pretty much the only show I listen to every week, is Tony Blackburn's Sound of the 60s on a Saturday morning at six o'clock. Come on, put the guy on at six o'clock. You're having a laugh. But we have actually set the alarm to listen to him, or we listen to him on catch up. I listened to Tony Blackburn when he started off Radio One. I was laying in the garden and listening to him or whatever it was. That's how I remember it. Anyway, it probably wasn't like that, but that's how I remember it. I listen to Radio Caroline and Radio London, Radio Luxembourg, that used to drift in and out. My music really is 60s and 70s. That's my core music. I like the poppy stuff, but I also love something with a bit of an edge. I do the Diastrates and the AC/DC and Deep Purple wasgroup, we traveled when I was my group.

 

[00:31:45.850] - Peter Kirkpatrick

When I was 17, we traveled to see some friends in Germany in the back of a Morris-Thousand. I've always been six foot, I think I was born six foot, and I was wedged in the back with all this luggage and I had a cassette with the batteries, no rechargeables in those days. I had Carol King tapestry and Deep Purple Machine Head. I played those two tracks all the way there and all the way back. Of course, the batteries are like that. You'd get them out, you'd rub them on your jeans to try and spark them up a bit, put them back in. I had about three sets and constantly swapping them over. It cost me a fortune. Carol King, James Taylor, that type of thing, Neil Siddaka, of course. Then I was into the atomic rooster and stuff like that of the day. As I say, Deep Purple was a great influence. But I listened to things and to me, it's either all or nothing. The same with the book. I start reading the book. I stop reading now. It's not good for me. But if it doesn't grab me in the first page, it's gone.

 

[00:32:51.280] - Peter Kirkpatrick

The same with music. I just like something with a bit of a mth to it. I don't like weary. I don't like feeling sorry for myself. I'm not that person. That, especially as we've all had history, medical history, and you either come out of it as a victim or you think, I'm going to embrace life and go for it. I've done more since my transplant than I ever did before. I'd always been active in local voluntary stuff and whatever. But I just think, Wow, there's a chance that some people... I did a Zoom for what we had to think about intensive care. And of the 20 people that were in this thing, most of them were, Oh, I can't do this and I can't do that. There's things I can't do physically because of tiredness with the tablets. But other stuff, mentally, this is part of the reason I do this, mentally to keep on top of things. Otherwise you just become a... You're sitting there watching daytime TV. Not that I don't, but you can just sit there and just watch TV and just get bigger and lose this spark that we've all got somewhere.

 

[00:33:50.740] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I'm lucky and I'm very fortunate. I live in a beautiful place. I live near the sea. I'm 68. I'm in pretty good nick, really. My wife and I love holidays. We have a great life. We are extremely lucky in that respect, and we make the most of it. And if an opportunity comes along, we'll grab it.

 

[00:34:09.350] - Martyn Brown

I like that. Thank you very much. That's a lovely insight and good advice to others. I find that when I was on the chemo, people around me, they'd say, Oh, I've been on this five years now and this is how I've got for the rest of my life. And I thought, don't accept it. Come away. Come off it and do something positive and get your mind back active and your body. And you've got to do it. But it just takes so much. But the radio side of things, it works for me as well. I'm glad it's worked for you. You look healthy and happy and you've got a good sense of humour as well.

 

[00:34:40.320] - Peter Kirkpatrick

My next thing is I've been looking at new guitars because I've got hanging up on my wall, I've got two acoustics and an electric and two ukuleleys, neither of which I can... When I was young, when I was about 12, 13, I wanted to play the guitar really badly, and now I'm 68 and I've achieved that I can play the guitar really badly. But I've been looking at the new guitar, not that I've mastered these ones, but it is that if I... My goal now is over the between the next few months to... I'm a three chord strumber, so I can play bits, but not proficiently. And so it's to get to a better standard that I can justify my head buying a new guitar. I've seen some semi-hollow ones that rather take my own bright red. That could be on the list. That's my next little project.

 

[00:35:28.220] - Martyn Brown

Yeah, I was going to ask what you're going to do and you've just answered it. Thank you very much. Two more questions, if I may, than we must go. What advice would you give someone who is interested in starting their own radio show, but they haven't quite started yet? Would you say jump into it or, Hang on, think first?

 

[00:35:44.950] - Peter Kirkpatrick

A bit of both, really. The first thing is simply hardware. There's a certain amount of cost. You've got to have a laptop and a microphone and somewhere relatively quiet. There are some hardwarey things, but you can do it with free software. That side of it can be done. You can go and approach radio stations or speak to people for help and advice, and that's never a bad thing. But I think have a bash at it and just do it, but then listen to it and listen to it. Possibly, if you've got some nice friends that aren't too cutting, that will say, Actually, they'll give you an honest appraisal. And whatever we're doing now, you and I, we did it very badly a while back. And if we have this conversation next year, we'll be doing a bit better. And you constantly learn, you're picking up things. Look at that all the information is there in terms of the technical stuff. Look at what radio stations are doing. Look what the market is. Decide what market you want to be in. Are you a disco person? Are you folk music, possibly, or whatever it might be?

 

[00:36:49.870] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Is there a market for what you want to do is the important thing, because otherwise you might do a fabulous show and there's no takers for it. That could be a bit frustrating. But I think the main thing is, all of that aside and that's all doable, changeable, whatever, if you want to do it and enjoy it, I can't say any more than that, really, have fun and let that fun come over into what you do.

 

[00:37:14.230] - Martyn Brown

I find with the syndication thing, you do get presenters that start off and they're all keen and they're doing everything, but they only last for a few shows. Their website looks a bit... If it's there in the first place, looks a bit duff and slow and they give up. I suppose the other thing is just don't give up if you really want to do it.

 

[00:37:31.410] - Peter Kirkpatrick

If somebody's committed to you, if a station has said they want to take your show and make sure there's a show to give them. There was a thread actually on social media about that a week or two back, and somebody was saying that these people have come to them and I go, And there's no show to play this week, so you've got to play something else or not. With me, I've got a bank now of shows, so somebody new coming in has probably got, if they're doing it once a week, they've got a year and a half's worth or they can do two shows a week. That's different. But if you're going to say you're going to do something and don't let people down because they're relying on you, they might have a station in the outbreak of Australia, might have said, Here is John Smith and he's doing this show and he's going to be on at 10 o'clock on Thursday. Then at 10 o'clock on Thursday, they stop shearing sheep and there's no John Smith there. If somebody's going to put a bit of time and effort in you, you've got to repair and make sure that you're doing it.

 

[00:38:28.290] - Peter Kirkpatrick

If not, there's got to be a good reason.

 

[00:38:31.330] - Martyn Brown

Finally, you've touched on many aspects of this. Anyway, I was going to say, what can listeners expect from your show in the future? And are there any exciting new developments coming up that you can share with us? Or do you feel what you've got will just continue?

 

[00:38:46.670] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I like it to have the element of growth about it. I don't want to say this is it because you don't want to get into a rut and you don't want to get say me because that will then reflect in what you're doing. I think I just want to keep the thing vibrant and punching along there. For me, I always looked for if there was something interesting I could bring into it, I would consider it. I quite like the format. I'm happy with the size of it and the type of music I play and the bits in between. I would always look to see if there was an element I could bring that would enhance it, but I have no plans to change it at the moment. I just enjoy doing what's happening, so hopefully people are feeling the same.

 

[00:39:29.430] - Martyn Brown

Okay. If somebody wants to get in touch with you and grab your show and have it for their radio station, where would they go?

 

[00:39:36.350] - Peter Kirkpatrick

It's a Facebook page for me. My own Facebook page is just Peter Kirkpatrick. There is two other pages. Well, there's one page, which is 50 years of pop. I think the other one is cool there, but if they just Google 50 years of pop.

 

[00:39:50.450] - Martyn Brown

That's what I do to find it.

 

[00:39:51.850] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Yeah, I'm here. I haven't done it recently, to be honest. But if they either Google me and ignore the eminent brain surgeon down at Addenbrooke's, because when I used to go in there for my checkups, I said, Why is my name up on a board? It wasn't me, it was the consultant in the next room, because he's got the same name as me. There are a number of Peter Kirkpatrick's around all the more eminent than I am. But if you just Google me or 50 years of pop or Peter Kirkpatrick, it's 50 years of pop, something should pop up. But I've had the same phone number and the same email address for years. If anybody wants to get in touch, just get in touch by whatever means is best for them. But I'm always open to chat and interact. I've turned down loads of requests for do live shows simply because of time and stuff like that, and so I still get those. I do some other work for other stations. There was a one-off and stuff, but I was just conscious of if I spent too much time in what I call my studio, my wife used to call the spare bedroom, but I sold the bed, so it's no longer that.

 

[00:40:57.880] - Peter Kirkpatrick

But yeah, I made it my own gradually. I crept things in with her when she wasn't watching. Where did that cover? I just brought on Amazon. I said, I think other mail order companies are available. Of course. I have to say, my hero, if you want to have a hero was Sir Terry Wogand, who-.

 

[00:41:17.530] - Martyn Brown

Amazing, amazing.

 

[00:41:18.470] - Peter Kirkpatrick

-just a fantastic... I've got his book. I'm going to read that. I'm going to go away on holiday and read that book. I used to be a tog. In fact, I was a Grand Master tog and I had lots of fun. I got thrown off that actually for being a bit rebellious. But there again, we won't talk about that. But Sir Terry had this wonderful persona, this wonderful way of talking as though he was talking to you. And that's nice. I don't actually visualise anybody as such, but I do feel I'd try to talk to somebody and get them to engage somebody in what I'm doing. And he was the past master. I don't compare myself with him by any means, but if somebody is going to give you some inspiration, it's Terry Woken. He was just excellent.

 

[00:42:04.170] - Martyn Brown

Do you remember the Janet and John sequence?

 

[00:42:06.700] - Peter Kirkpatrick

On a Thursday morning, wherever you were in this country, you would see cars parked by the side of the road at 20:00 to 9:00 on a Thursday morning listening to Janet and John. My late wife and I used to pack the CDs for the charity. We did loads. We used to get... We'd just sit in the garden on the gazebo and just pack these things off to go off. I was even on a todd calendar once one year they did that. Janet and John, I still listen to them now, they were just awesome. They were just so funny and so rude. They were pure filth, really, but so funny.

 

[00:42:39.340] - Martyn Brown

He made it as though they weren't. I can see the funny side of that. You didn't realise it was much deeper and they were very...

 

[00:42:48.800] - Peter Kirkpatrick

I tried to write. I had a punchline. Janet and John, you have to write them backwards. You have to start with a punchline and work it back and then wave in the thing. What's said at the beginning of the opening of this two, three-minute thing, actually is part of your punchline. You've got to pay attention to them. I've got the CDs, I've got them, and I'm on the Janet and John Facebook page. But to watch him when he read them out to get the obvious enjoyment and to see that man laugh and have so much fun with the people around him, all falling around laughing at this city, it's all very schoolboyish. I actually got chucked off because I was too rude. I wasn't any ruder than Janet and John. But yeah, so that was that, but happy days. But yeah, schoolboy humour, you can't beat it.

 

[00:43:39.350] - Martyn Brown

They used to say, Oh, there's a red flag there. Oh, there's a.

 

[00:43:42.580] - Peter Kirkpatrick

Red flag. But of course, you see, the trouble is that you've got to be very careful what you say because people do get offended. I would never set out to offend anybody. I just wouldn't. But you can do it innocence by what you say nowadays. I think we, as broadcasters, we have to be careful of that. We don't want to upset anybody, but we still want to have a bit of fun with what we do. It's a fine line.

 

[00:44:08.000] - Martyn Brown

Thank you very much, Peter, Kurt, Patrick. You've been a sensational guest for me on the show because you've given us a wonderful insight of what it's really like to be a real presenter, both of talk shows and a music radio. And we've seen the man behind the presenting. And it's been wonderful. So thank you very much indeed. I will continue to listen to and syndicate your shows, 50 years of pop. Peter Kirkpatrick is 200 plus in the back catalogue already, so plenty to choose from. And you know how to contact Peter, and I'll put the contact details and all the links and everything with the podcast, so you're not going to miss out on a thing. Peter, thank you very much indeed.

 

[00:44:51.760] - Peter Kirkpatrick

My pleasure, Martyn. Many thanks for inviting me on. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.