Over the years I have done things. Things with other people. Things that to us seemed really good at the time. And, of course, I’m referring to various pop-up (or pirate) radio stations.
Not blowing my own trumpet – well, actually, blowing my own trumpet – some of the radio things have been truly creative, different, a moment in time. Indeed, radio that was in the right place at the right time.
Regretfully I am not doing this kind of thing any more, with my radio creative juices all but squeezed dry.
However, across the years I have met up with, spoken with, or, latterly, communicated via social meeja with some of those who were there with me all those decades ago when we were part of that moment in time. And, the discussion is always the same: When are we going to bring [insert radio station name] back?
What might be called ‘pub talk’ invariably focuses on discussing how wonderful something was (even though it was probably mainly crap) and how it should be ‘brought back’. I’m sure this happens forever when people who once did something meet up. Like those who, as an example, went on an adventure hike together. Decades later they will discuss how they should do it all over again, ignoring their failing mobility, health, and elderly-ness.
I have always resisted any involvement in any ‘bring it back’ project, especially if it’s come from pub sessions, because I know it would destroy the original moment in time.
I can only assume it was one of these pub sessions that led to the return of TFI Friday in 2015.
TFI Friday was originally broadcast on Channel 4 back in the 1990s, and reflected the awful whinging drunken Brit-pop of the day and the accompanying aggressive ‘entertainment’. Its hosts were smashed, the guests were smashed, and the artists playing were smashed. And of course, it was dominated by millionaire socialists who regularly revelled on air in the New Labour Tony Blair government of the day.
In so many ways TFI Friday was awful, and failed to excite in the way that The Tube had managed to a decade before.
But, for those who were involved, and for those who bathed in the champagne socialist music of the day, TFI Friday means something.
So, it’s coming back, initially for one night only, but maybe more if we are very unlucky. The original millionaire team are all lifting their arses off their commodes and shuffling forward to prove how truly funny and clever they no longer are, by doing the ‘bringing it back’ thing.
Sometimes it really is better to leave a moment in time as a moment in time rather to inappropriately ‘bring it back’ and destroy the memory.
England's England 