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MARK RADCLIFFE
From Monday 7th June
Monday to Thursday nights 2230 - 0000
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Mark Radcliffe joins Radio 2 to present a new evening show starting on 7th June, Monday to Thursday, 2230 - midnight. |
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Mark Radcliffe
Mark Radcliffe was born in Bolton in 1958 on a spot now marked by a commemorative column. He attended Manchester University where he studied English, American Studies and Classical Civilisation confident that a working knowledge of Minoan architecture would be vital in his future career as a disc jockey.
In 1979 he left university to go back-packing but only reached Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens where he was taken in and adopted by Piccadilly Radio until absconding in 1983. Ending up in London he had a brief spell as a ladyboy cabaret dancer before falling on hard times working at Radio 1 as a producer. In 1985 he worked his passage back to Manchester where he became Head of Music at Piccadilly Radio for a bet, before returning to the BBC as trainee director general in 1987.
However Mark would never reach the high office, so obviously his destiny, because in 1990 Radio 5 was launched without any presenters. A desperate search for cheap and clean talent propelled Radcliffe into the world of broadcasting where he began to make a name for himself by saying it as often as possible on the air. Mark's late night programme "Hit the North" became a worldwide smash and was broadcast from a now defunct studio 6A. It was a studio where the up and coming Lard found a chair to sit on during the show.
Radio 1 then launched his "Out On Blue Six" in 1991 - a programme which won the Sony Gold Award for Best Specialist Music Programming and began Radcliffe's dominance of those awards. In 1993, following brief dalliances with other Radio 1 shows such as "The Guest List" and "Skyman", Mark was installed in the prestigious 'graveyard shift' blending nightly, between ten and midnight, a heady cocktail of top tunes, live bands, poets, comedians, quantity surveyors and oral hygienists. Oh and the man who would become his regular sidekick - former hair stylist to The Fall - Marc 'Lard' Riley.
So far so what, but in 1997 disaster struck as Mark and Lard were installed as the hosts of the Radio One Breakfast Show. This vicious attempt to tarnish Radcliffe's unparalleled reputation worked perfectly as his jealous detractors watched with glee as he was sacked after seven traumatic months.
However his many enemies could not have foreseen that the afternoons would prove to be a natural home for Radcliffe and Lard, where they would transform modern pop radio into the cultural phenomenon it is today. In 1998 they won Sony Gold for Daytime Award - Music, in 1999 Sony Gold for Daytime Music and in 2001 Sony Gold for Music Programming - Daily Sequence, proving that no matter how they change the category and move the goalposts you just can't stop them winning.
Oh yes and they've also made two chart albums as The Shirehorses and collaborated with Paul McCartney in the formation of the supergroup McCartney, Radcliffe, Riley. In addition Radcliffe published a book of memoirs entitled "Showbusiness - Diary of a Rock and Roll Nobody" with characteristic modesty.
Away from the glittering world of showbiz Mark Radcliffe remains self-effacing, charming and muscular, devoting his time to charity work, constructing ingenious irrigation systems at his Cheshire homestead and paddy field, and continuing to seek dialogue to ensure a lasting peace in the Northwich area.
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ROCKET SCIENCE WITH MARC RILEY
Cranium Conundrums, Time Travel and some damn fine music! Yes, Mr Marc Riley is in the 6 Music house on a Saturday afternoons. It's all in the name of Rocket Science ...
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Contact Mark Radcliffe about the new show.
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LINKS
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Shirehorses Best Performance
Find out more about Bowie's Space Oddity with Sold on Song and vote on the Shirehorse's alternative cover version.
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Where He Lives
News, poetry, music and traffic and weather reports from BBC Manchester.
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| DON'T MISS |
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Doves
Special guests on Dermot's show this week
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