The Scott Walker Prom

BBC Radio 3 | 2017-07-25: Prom 15: The Songs of Scott Walker (1967-70). Live from the Royal Albert Hall, a celebration of the extraordinary early solo career of Scott Walker. A 1960s icon, Scott Walker has progressed from Walker Brothers teen idol to avant-garde contemporary musician. His music has influenced a wide range of artists such as David Bowie, Leonard Cohen and Goldfrapp. This Late Night Prom presents tracks from his four self-titled albums with live orchestral backing for the very first time. Jules Buckley and the Heritage Orchestra pay tribute, along with star guests. 

Performers: Jarvis Cocker, John Grant, Richard Hawley, Susanne Sundfør. Orchestra: Heritage Orchestra. Conductor: Jules Buckley. Presenter: Stuart Maconie. 

Max Richter's Introduction to the Scott Walker Prom

BBC 6 Music | 2017-07-23: Max Richter's Introduction to the Scott Walker Prom. Composer Max Richter maps out the meeting points between Scott Walker's songs and his instrumental music; and considers how these join up with other types of experimental music, both pop and contemporary classical. 

Newspaper Article

GUARDIAN: Jarvis Cocker's slumber party

Here's a nice article about Wireless Nights, which is back on the radio tonight.

In the past couple of years, Cocker's nocturnal musings have formed the basis of his occasional Radio 4 series Wireless Nights, in which the singer has sat up watching badger colonies, met on-call transplant surgeons and interviewed night-shift workers at the National Grid. His next show – recorded live with the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester – explores his fascination with classical music as a means of making it through the night.
The programme presents a potted history of musical insomnia, narrated by Cocker in a subdued, red-eye monotone: "It's deliberately low-key, as I'd regard it as quite a success if people were to nod off during the broadcast," he says.

• Jarvis Cocker’s Wireless Nights starts on Radio 4 at 11pm on 13 October.  Links:

BBC iPlayer (if you can access it in your area)

Official BBC podcast (available worldwide)

Programme Page (for info)


Thank you to Gordon for sending me the article!



ALSO: on BBC iPlayer at the moment, another chance to hear Peel Acres, a tribute to John Peel.

It's Oh So Quiet...

 

Jarvis was away from the show for three months, so the Archive took a little break too and there are still a few shows waiting to be added here. But there were many wonderful guest presenters for us to enjoy in the meantime. Here is a list...

06-02 BOBBY GILLESPIE Sits In
06-09 JOHN COOPER CLARKE Sits In (6)
06-16 JOHN LYDON Sits In (1)
06-23 JOHN LYDON Sits In (2)
06-30 JOHN LYDON Sits In (3)
07-07 COLIN GREENWOOD, JONNY GREENWOOD and ADAM BUXTON Sit In
14-07 COLIN GREENWOOD Sits In (2)
21-07 [no JCSS: general Latitude Festival coverage]
28-07 COLIN GREENWOOD Sits In (South Africa show) (3)
04-08 JOSHUA HOMME Sits In
11-08 BOB GELDOF Sits In
18-08 TOM RAVENSCROFT Sits In
25-08 [no JCSS: extended edition of The First Time with Trent Reznor]

I hope all the devotees of the show and readers of this blog had a very pleasant summer!


Did You Know?
In May, the mesmerising Radio 4 series Wireless Nights returned for a second series.  It was released as a podcast. 

Jarvcasts

Can anyone help with a request?

I had a comment from listener Frank regarding the Jarvcasts.  This was a series of short stories read by Jarvis and released as podcasts — two of them have featured on JCSS in the past.

Here's a list:

2006:
The Wizards of the Westman Islands (Icelandic folk tale) [7:49]
The Bokkala and the Boy (Icelandic folk tale) [4:48]
Excerpt from The Tokyo Montana Express by Richard Brautigan [13:17]
The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage (from Grimms' Fairy Tales) [3:58]
The Laughing Man by JD Salinger [30:59]
The Shadow by Hans Christian Andersen [27:57]

2007 Halloween:
Rats by MR James [13:56]
Playmates by AM Burrage [52:25]

Frank has most of them but is missing the underlined ones.  Can anyone shed any light on the search?  I haven't got any of them but I'm sure someone reading this can help...

Celebrating David Bowie

Last week, there was no Sunday Service because the station devoted a whole weekend to David Bowie — in our usual slot wuza-wuza Adam Buxton's love letter to his hero (the show is on his Soundcloud).

So instead, here's another chance to hear this episode from January 2012... [link expired]

But wait, there's more! Jarvis narrated a TV documentary on BBC4, David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust. It's currently available on YouTube. Enjoy:

Newspaper Article

GUARDIAN: Jarvis Cocker on radio: this isn't hardcore

A lovely article about the show.

Sunday afternoon brings a particularly intimate and informal audience. Many listeners text or tweet to say they are busy making their Sunday dinner, and on a rainy day like today, they email in droves. "That's another part of the concept, I suppose, that it's pretty laid-back," says Cocker. "When I was more of a drinker, I always found that hangovers got to their worst around 4pm. You're over the physical thing, and it goes into a psychological thing by then. So I thought it would be good to do a show that helps you through that difficult time — without being bland, but being quite soothing." He smiles, a slight pursing of the lips. "To me, it's what Sundays used to be like. At one time we used to say we were bringing the boredom back to Sunday, and that might be overstating it, but it's that kind of thing. That the week's kind of finished, but the new week hasn't begun, so you've got this weird kind of floaty time where you can be a bit more reflective. It's not a massive concept," he adds, with typical self-effacement.

Story Time

Jarvis reads a very small excerpt from a new children's book by Oliver Jeffers, The Hueys.  Courtesy of The Guardian.  Not the whole story, sadly, but still charming.

Wireless Nights

This was a four-part series Jarvis did for BBC Radio 4.  They made it available as a podcast, and you can find it easily on iTunes.  It has the same intimate, soothing atmosphere as JCSS, with dialogue by Jarvis linking together interviews and snippets of music.

Wireless Nights:  Jarvis Cocker prowls the dark, finding stories of night-time people.

1. Overnight Delivery (2012-04-05)
Jarvis boards the red-eye, taking a transatlantic flight of the imagination.  He's gripped by the life and death stories of a shepherdess in the middle of a difficult birth, a transplant nurse on late shift and a real life exorcist.

2. They Only Come Out at Night (2012-04-12)
Jarvis slips between the shadows to eavesdrop on punks, poets, poker dens and an alcohol-fuelled badger watch.

3. Behind Closed Doors (2012-04-19)
Jarvis goes on foot through the city.  He joins a lock-in, and shares the loneliness of a prisoner who dreams of empty streets under a full moon. Plus, one man relives the night when the doors shut in his brain.

4. Night Manoeuvres (2012-04-26)
Jarvis invites you on a kerb crawl around the seamy side of town.  He joins a private eye on the trail of a suspected adulterer; finds a minicab driver lost in the fog between fares; and is encircled by street skaters seeking thrills on wheels.