BBC - BBC Radio 2 Programmes - Bob Harris, 24/10/2009

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Last broadcast on Sat, 24 Oct 2009, 23:00 on BBC Radio 2.

Synopsis

After midnight Bob's live session comes from Lorraine McIntosh and Ricky Ross, who, after more than two decades in and out of Deacon Blue, decided they wanted to make an album - together.

Not an album as part of Deacon Blue. Not a Ricky Ross album with Lorraine popping up on backing vocals. But an album which the two of them could call, justly and equally, their own.

They decided they would both write and both sing. The songs would be meaningful and simple - no unnecessary chords or complicated changes. And the couple would go somewhere other than Scotland to record them. "We knew what we'd get if we did it here in Glasgow," Ricky says. "We thought if we go somewhere else and get different people to work with we'll come up with something that will surprise us. We wanted to record music together that was completely fresh."

'Somewhere else' turned out to be the Red Star Studio in Silver Lake, Los Angeles and the 'different people' were a group of players steeped in the finest traditions of Americana music.

Mark Howard was hired to produce. He has worked in the studio with Bob Dylan and Tom Waits and produced Lucinda Williams's Top 20 album, World Without Tears. With Howard's help Ricky and Lorraine hand-picked a band that included drummer Steven Nistor (Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse), bass player Daryl Johnson (Emmylou Harris, the Neville Brothers) and the great Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams's guitarist) on pedal steel and banjo. Completing the line-up was guitarist and backing vocalist David Scott (of The Pearl Fishers), an old friend of Ricky's and Lorraine's from Glasgow, who produced Ricky's last solo album, Pale Rider.

The result is The Great Lakes by McIntosh Ross, an album which combines echoes of the duo's Celtic homeland with the alt.country twang of the American south - a seamless blend of Caledonia and California.

Then in the final hour of the show we pay tribute to one of Bob's heroes.

As the late Alan "Fluff" Freeman said in the 1989 Radio 1 documentary 'Radio Radio', Roger Scott was "the D.J.'s D.J."; an "authoritative, encyclopaedic and sensitive music loving broadcaster, who commanded the respect of his listeners and his colleagues."

Best known for presenting an afternoon radio show on London's Capital Radio from 1973 until 1988, Roger ended his illustrious career at the BBC in 1989.

The 31st October is the 20th anniversary of his death at the age of 46 and, as his friend and Radio 1 colleague, Bob will be paying tribute to him in the last hour of tonight's show. Bob took over Roger's Sunday slot on Radio 1 when he lost his battle with cancer, but had known and respected him for a long time.

Born in London in 1943, Roger Scott began playing records from the window of his Surbiton home, enjoying the reaction of passers-by to the music. Later in life he would constantly refer to his desire to just play things on the biggest record player in the world. In America he achieved this with a 50,000 Watt transmitter beaming out of New York State and across the U.K. on the B.B.C.

Bob will be playing some of Roger's favourite artists alongside links from his career. Archive comes from American and Canadian Radio stations like WPTR 1540 in Albany and CFOX in Montreal, as well as the 'Three O Clock Thrill', 'Cruising' and 'All Time Top 100' on London's Capital Radio and both his 1970s 'Bob Baker' and final 'Scott on Sunday' shows for BBC Radio 1.

We'll also hear from Tim Blackmore MBE, who, in addition to being the first Director of the Radio Academy, Chairman of the Sony Radio Awards Committee and a Radio 1 producer, was head of music and programmes at Capital, where he often had the task of telling Roger not to play hours of back to back Bruce Springsteen tracks or Paul McCartney and Beatles bootlegs on air.

In excerpts from the special 'Radio Radio' documentary recorded for the BBC by Johnny Beerling and Philip Swern towards the end of Roger's life, he talks us through his career, including his bed side position at John & Yoko's peace protest in Montreal. Most importantly, Roger gives a devastatingly candid appraisal of and comment on the state of radio and the then emerging pressure to "play it safe" (with the aid of an even less scientific market research process than his own bedroom window). This proves to be just as prescient and valid twenty years on.

McIntosh Ross (photo by Simon Murphy)

Tribute to Roger Scott

Starts at 1am GMT

Tracklist

Santana — Smooth

Supernatural, ARISTA
Will Hoge — Highway Wings

The Wreckage, Ryko
Bruce Springsteen — Badlands

The American West, BRUTON MUSIC
Deacon Blue — Real Gone Kid

N/A
Neil Diamond — Cracklin Rosie

The Best Of Neil Diamond, MCA
Chairmen of the Board — (You Got Me) Dangling On A String

H.D.H Presents The Hits Of Hot Wax & Inv H.D.H. Records
Traffic — Empty Pages

Smiling Phases, Island
Dan Clews — Out In The Garden

Dan Clews, Dan Clews 2009
Jana Keeley — The Prairie Song

Trouble, Prairie Girl
Vernon Dalhart — Puttin' On The Style

Beatles Beginnings: Quarrymen One, Rhythm and Blues
Bo Diddley — Pretty Thing

His Best, Chess
Van Parks — Introduction

Discover America, Rykodisc
Van Parks — Bing Crosby

Discover America, Rykodisc
The Beach Boys — Heroes And Villians
Call — Let The Day Begin

Let The Day Begin, MCA
Gregory Alan Isakov — That Moon Song

This Empty Northern Hemisphere, Columbia
Chip Taylor — Gin Rummy Rules

Yonkers NY, Train Wreck
Ricky Ross — A Passing Place

Lorraine Mcintosh;, Davie Scott
Ricky Ross — Bluebell Wood

Lorraine Mcintosh;, Davie Scott
The Blue Nile — Saturday Night

Hats, LINN RECORDS
Rosanne Cash — Sea Of Heartbreak

The List, Manhattan
Ricky Ross — Walls

Lorraine Mcintosh;, Davie Scott
McIntosh Ross — Oh The Dark

The Great Lakes, Cooking Vinyl
Dion — Donna The Prima Donna

The Road I'm On, COLUMBIA
Boo Hewerdine — Sleeping Lions

God Bless The Pretty Things, Navigator
A.A. Bondy — Mightiest Of Guns

When The Devil's Loose, Fat Possum
The Avett Brothers — I and Love and You

I an Love and You, American
Jane Taylor — Home

Compass, JANE TAYLOR
Eagles — King Of Hollywood

The Long Run, ASYLUM
R.E.M. — Bittersweet Me

New Adventures In Hi Fi, WB "RECORDS"
Live — Selling The Drama

Throwing Copper, RADIO ACTIVE
Sean Taylor — Calcutta Grove

Calcutta Grove, Sean Taylor Songs
John Martyn — Go Down Easy

Solid Air, ISLAND RECORDS
The Moonglows — Sincerely

Don't Stop Doo Wop, TELSTAR
Jerry Butler & The Impressions — For Your Precious Love

Rockfile Volume 39, BACKLINE
The Kalin Twins — Three O'Clock Thrill

N/A, MCA
Cliff Richard — Move It

The Rock 'N' Roll Years, EMI
Carl Perkins — Blue Suede Shoes

Rock 'N' Roll Greats, EMI
Ralph McTell — Streets Of London

Ivor Novello Awards / The Winners, EMI
Elvis Presley — I Got Stung

Elvis The Definitive Rock And Roll, RCA
The Beatles — Dizzy Miss Lizzy

Live At The Hollywood Bowl, Capitol
James Brown — Money Won't Change You (Part 1)

40th Anniversary Collection, Polydor
Clyde McPhatter — A Lover's Question

All Time Classic Rock 'n' Roll Tear, Warner Strategic Marketi
Cat Stevens — Matthew And Son

The Collection, Castle Communications
Led Zeppelin — Whole Lotta Love

Led Zeppelin Early Days, ATLANTIC
John Lennon — Give Peace A Chance

The John Lennon Collection, PARLOPHONE
Gordon Lightfoot — If You Could Read My Mind

Gord's Gold, REPRISE
Marc Bolan And T.Rex — Get It On

The Essential Collection, Universal Music TV
Clive Dunn — Grandad

HELLO CHILDREN EVERYWHERE Volume 4, EMI
Harry Chapin — Cats In The Cradle

Rediscover The 70'S, 'EMOTIONS' (VARIOUS OLD GOLD
Bruce Springsteen — Born To Run

Greatest Hits, COLUMBIA
Traveling Wilburys — End of the Line

vol1, warner
The Everly Brothers — Wake Up Little Susie

The Definitive Everly Brothers, WSM
Simon & Garfunkel — Sound Of Silence

The Simon & Garfunkle Collection, CBS
Roy Orbison — Dream Baby

Only The Lonely, VIRGIN
The Everly Brothers — All I Have To Do Is Dream

The Golden Years Of The Everley Brothers Warner
Mark Germino — Rex Bob Lowenstein

Caught In The Act Of Being Ourselves, RCA