24 comments

1. 

   Nate - April 28, 2008 2:49 PM

   Your rants are top notch Mr Prantt 😉
   How can a rant be improved? Mmmmmm… not sure. Perhaps you could make one of your main rants one of your seg­ments, com­plete with a dis­claimer jin­gle before and after… You know… ‘The views that you are about to hear are the opin­ion of Mt Guy Pratt and not those of Planet Rock’. Let your mini-rants against par­tic­u­lar emails con­tinue though 🙂

2. 

   Thomas Robinson - April 28, 2008 4:18 PM

   I can’t really think how you could improve your show to be hon­est. The rants are cer­tainly enter­tain­ing to lis­ten to to say the least, and Rick Wakeman seems to be fac­ing some seri­ous com­pe­ti­tion. I don’t think there is any­thing that you can do to improve the show apart from get­ting Planet Rock to update the lis­ten again fea­ture and your page a bit more.

   Other than that, it’s just down to per­sonal pref­er­ences for the music really. For instance i might think that it would be nice to hear Fairport Convention played on Planet Rock but some­one else might think that this would make the show worse. So in short, all you need to do is keep it up.

   About the hypono­tis­ing idea, i don’t think you would be allowed to do it because it is in a way dan­ger­ous because if peo­ple are hyponi­tised but then walk away from the radio they can’t be unhy­poni­tised, which could be a big prob­lem. Thats why when hyponi­tists are on tv or the radio they never show or play some­one actu­ally being hyp­no­tised incase some­one at home is hyponi­tised as well.

   And finally, could i just ask, have i done some­thing to annoy you? I can’t think of any­thing but when you read out my bank of pratt email yes­ter­day you went “oh hello thomas” in a voice which sug­gested you weren’t best pleased with me. Sorry if i have done or said some­thing wrong.

   Sorry for the long response,
   Thomas

3. 

   Phoenix - April 28, 2008 7:41 PM

   Well, the con­tent is the con­tent and as such, what the DJ says goes (unless you have hulk­ing sta­tion man­age­ment who’ll smite you from upon high if you play cer­tain things). As Thomas said, it’s a mat­ter of per­sonal pref­er­ence as to what would make the show bet­ter or worse in that regard.

   However, the tech­ni­cal side of the show could use a lit­tle improve­ment, in my hum­ble opin­ion. It’s never com­fort­able for me to hit the wrong but­ton or to have to cover for the wrong song or bumper being queued up, but some­times that hap­pens, gen­er­ally when I’m not pay­ing atten­tion. I don’t know what gear you gents use in your broad­cast­ing, or how com­plex the switch­ing of stuff from mic to recorded mate­r­ial is, but lit­tle gaffes like that do detract from the professional/​polished qual­ity of the show.

   It’s all well and dandy for my sta­tion, because we’re just a bunch of ama­teurs broad­cast­ing from our houses (or hos­tels in the mid­dle of Cardiff), but for a pro­fes­sional show, mm, prob­a­bly some­thing to look at in terms of run­ning a tighter ship…?

   Luv,
   Nix.

4. 

   Thomas Robinson - April 28, 2008 8:21 PM

   I know what you mean Phoenix but at the same time it also makes the show a bit bet­ter in a way. There’s the old idea of a girl hav­ing a ‘cute’ mole. They’re the imper­fec­tions that add to things. After all, Guy is only human but the show hav­ing lit­tle faults here and there sort of brings the audi­ence and Guy closer together. There isn’t any of the “im the DJ, your the audi­ence,” instead it sounds more like a music fan has bro­ken his way into the radio sta­tion and is just there to have fun and play music, even if things don’t go as well as they should. And it is kinda funny to have a song fin­ish and then there is just silence until Guy’s voice comes back into the room, before the news sud­denly start­ing.

   I know i haven’t explained that at all well and in case you are won­der­ing, no i haven’t been smok­ing, swal­low­ing or sniff­ing things that i should­n’t, although look­ing back at what i’ve writ­ten you could be for­given for think­ing it could­n’t you?! Oh, and i’m not sug­gest­ing that you broke into the sta­tion or any­thing like that Guy, hon­est!

5. 

   Phoenix - April 28, 2008 9:39 PM

   Oh, I get what you’re say­ing, Thomas, no wor­ries.

   And even that’s down to DJ pref­er­ences. On my sta­tion, we have DJs who laugh off stuff like that, then we have oth­ers who are per­fec­tion­ists with regard to their shows, to the point of being anal-reten­tive about it. While I agree that some­times the occa­sional flub can add ‘fla­vor’ to a show, too much makes it seem, as you put it, like a music fan who broke into the stu­dio. While there’s a cer­tain bit of ‘yay, one of us!’ fla­vor to that sce­nario that is appeal­ing to lis­ten­ers, too much can detract from the legit­i­macy and pro­fes­sion­al­ism of what’s being pre­sented.

   I’m sure there’s a bal­ance between the two… but it’s up to the DJ as to where that bal­ance will be and which end of the spec­trum they’re com­fort­able with. Me, I’d lis­ten either way. But when the ques­tion was posed as to pos­si­ble improve­ments, that was the only thing I could come up with as a sug­ges­tion for some­thing to con­sider. 🙂

   Nix,
   Not play­ing World of Warcraft today.

6. 

   Ricardo Padua - May 4, 2008 8:42 AM

   I think you might enjoy this…

   TOWEL DAY — A TRIBUTE TO DOUGLAS ADAMS
   You sass that hoopy Douglas Adams? Now there’s a frood who knew where his towel was. You are invited to join your fel­low hitch hik­ers in mourn­ing the loss of the late great one. Join in on towel day to show your appre­ci­a­tion for the humor and insight that Douglas Adams brought to all our lives.

   What do I do?

   Carry your towel with you through­out the day to show your par­tic­i­pa­tion and mourn­ing.

   When do I do it?

   May 25^th.

   Where do I do it?

   Everywhere.

   Why a towel?

   check the web­site here: http://​www​.tow​el​day​.kojv​.net/

   don’t for­get to visit the pic­ture gal­leries of the past years!

   So long, and thanks for all the fish!

7. 

   Michèle - May 4, 2008 3:49 PM

   Douglas Adams… Didn’t he choose the name for Pink Floyd’s ‘The Division Bell’ in 1994 ?

   Michèle

8. 

   Phoenix - May 4, 2008 7:50 PM

   Mr. Padua, this site just became twice as cool. I adored (and very much miss the genius of) Douglas Adams, and any­one who ‘gets’ his work auto­mat­i­cally gets twice as much respect as some­one who does­n’t. Cheers!

   Michèle, bon­jour, mon amie, you are cor­rect. Douglas did report­edly sug­gest the name of the album, and he did per­form with Pink Floyd one night at their Earls Court con­cert in 94. There’s a photo of him on the PULSE DVD in the stills gallery, if I recall cor­rectly.

   Nix,
   Listening to the show at the moment.

9. 

   Thomas Robinson - May 5, 2008 12:48 PM

   Firstly i’d just like to apol­o­gise for tak­ing so long to email you about the start of WYWH last night but my grand­par­ents were at my house so it was hard for me to lis­ten to your show and then to email in, thus the delay.

   As for the radio 4 bit i’ve read that it was a radio play or a top­i­cal dis­cus­sion show. To be hon­est, i think it will always remain a mys­tery.

   I know that you said not to out-anorak an anorak and i’m not try­ing to but i think you might have made a mis­take about the email about Wish You Were Here in 1977. You said that there was a 1975 tour but accord­ing to sev­eral books and web­sites at these con­certs Pink Floyd played Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Raving and Drooling and Gotta Be Crazy. After the tour Pink Floyd started to record WYWH which was when Have a Cigar, Welcome to the Machine and Wish You Were Here were writ­ten and recorded. So it would­n’t have been until the 1977 tour that the song Wish You Were Here was played live, so the 1977 tour was a Animals and WYWH tour in a way. Also you said that Pink Floyd played in Olympia but if you look on the Brain Damage web­site where they have the tour dates and venues the only two places Pink Floyd played in the UK were Empire Pool, Wembley and New Bingley Hall in Stafford.

   Sorry if i sound like an anorak but i thought i should point it out. I could be com­pletely wrong though because i am bas­ing quite a lot of this on the book that also quoted you as call­ing Keep Talking and “unlis­ten­able mess” which you dis­proved a cou­ple of months ago.

10. 

    Caroline - May 6, 2008 7:07 AM

    It’s a bit late, but I have to whole­heart­edly agree with Thomas and ‘Nix about the show not really need­ing much improve­ment, Guy. I think all of the fea­tures, alive and defunct, have their mer­its. My only real com­plaint about the show is that I have a band/​artist or two I’d love to hear being played once in awhile that has yet to have been played (*cough*Hawkwind*cough*). But every­one does, so that’s a moot point.

    Speaking of the fea­tures and e‑mails, I apol­o­gize for the some­what screwed up WYWH quest response this past Sunday. The sym­phonic bit came two sta­tions after the radio play/​soap opera/whatever…(does her best Homer) D’OH!! Didn’t real­ize that until it was too late…I was appar­ently more sick and out of it than I real­ized, for I had the great luck of start­ing to come down with a cold then. *sighs*

    In clos­ing, I got the PULSE DVD set recently…and it has safely made its way to my top favorite con­cert DVDs. The pic­ture and sound qual­ity is sim­ply breath­tak­ing. I lost count of how many times my jaw dropped in awe. I thought the con­cert was fan­tas­tic through the CDs, but actu­ally see­ing the per­for­mances made them that much more incred­i­ble. My only com­plaint is “Astronomy Domine” and “Hey You” being left out, but the inclu­sion of “One of These Days” more than made up for that. 😀

    - Caroline

11. 

    Thomas Robinson - May 6, 2008 8:58 PM

    Hope you feel bet­ter soon Caroline.

    Sunday’s show was another good one, maybe we could have more quests in the future. I was won­der­ing if you have any idea when the name com­pe­ti­tion will be put up on the web­site or do you just want peo­ple to email in their ideas?

    I’ve re-read my pre­vi­ous post and i haven’t so much put my foot in it as my neck but hope­fully i did­n’t sound like to much of i a git. I did­n’t mean to but it prob­a­bly sounded like i am. Sorry about that.

    As we all seem to agree, it basi­cally just comes down per­sonal pref­er­ence for songs. i loved your com­ment when some­one said that so-and-so would­n’t go a miss and you replied it would because you can’t stand them. That was just sheer genius, and although never hav­ing had the mis­for­tune to see a Richard Gere film i do agree that Bladerunner is one of the best films ever made. Similar to the DSOTM and Alice in Wonderland idea i was told that WYWH and bladerun­ner synch up and i tried it (yes i know how stu­pid it sounds but nev­er­mind) and do you know what? as any fule kno it don’t match up! what a swizz eh?

12. 

    Pedro - May 8, 2008 6:46 PM

    Hello Guy,

    I can´t lis­ten your show live on sun­days, but I usu­ally lis­ten it dur­ing the week through the web, and I obvi­ously enjoy it and laugh a lot!

    As a sug­ges­tion to make it even bet­ter, I sug­gest that for once in a while you invite some of the many friends and col­leagues you had from the var­i­ous bands you´ve played and toured with (the ones you describe in your book and we usu­ally see them play­ing with you), and make a small inter­view with them about inter­est­ing and funny sto­ries you had together dur­ing record­ings, or tours, or shows.

    Cheers from Portugal,

    Pedro

13. 

    Thomas Robinson - May 10, 2008 4:36 PM

    Just to let you all know, Planet Rock have updated their web­site so ideas for Guy’s show can now be sent in. It does­n’t say when the com­pe­ti­tion ends though.

14. 

    Caroline - May 10, 2008 10:08 PM

    Thank you, Thomas, for both your well-wishes (as of last night, I am offi­cially feel­ing bet­ter, I.E. I can actu­ally breathe again and my nose isn’t con­stantly prac­tic­ing for the Boston Marathon) and let­ting us know that the show-nam­ing con­test is offi­cially on. I have done my duty and sent in my entry…and all I’m going to say is that I think it is con­sid­er­ably bet­ter than what I sent in on the Sunday that Guy started ask­ing for show names (and for any of you won­der­ing, yes, he read my sug­ges­tion that day, but with­held from men­tion­ing my name…and for that, I thank you, Guy). But, that is up to Guy and Planet Rock to decide… 😉

    I have to say that my being sick was­n’t totally a hor­ri­ble thing…when I was­n’t spend­ing a half to two thirds of the day in bed, I was on my com­puter finally mak­ing the final rounds on my bass hobby research AND start­ing to have that hobby come together. In other words, I finally have my first ever bass arriv­ing here next week!! *does a happy dance* Just got to get an amp and all that good stuff for it…

    - Caroline

15. 

    Karen - May 13, 2008 6:29 AM

    Umm, why do you have panda eyes after falling into the bath, did you fall on your eyes ?

16. 

    matthew - May 17, 2008 11:40 PM

    so get this i,m a bus dri­ver on a pop­u­lar route for goths an rock fans and against all the com­pany rules on dri­ving pro­to­col i,ve got my dab on dri­ving the bus on route from derby to not­ting­ham on sun­day night sure enough i,m get­ting the usaul crowd of young­sters on there way to rock city an the old sal pub plus a group of sol­diers from chill­well bar­racks and sev­eral stu­dents from not­ting­ham uni (which i,d like to give a big up as they really are a mar­vel­lous bunch of kids from all over the world ) any­way the bus is totally rock­ing singing to the tracks and broad smiles all round when we got to toll­house hill the goths and like are get­ting off prais­ing my choice of sta­tion and ask­ing if i will be doing this route every sun­day made a real change for me to see peo­ple get­ting of the bus all talk­ing to one another instead of wear­ing those unso­cia­ble ipods an walk­man type things so thank you guy for turn­ing a mun­dane travel expe­ri­ence from derby to not­ting­ham into a rock­ing time for all on board .

17. 

    Caroline - May 18, 2008 9:10 PM

    I thought that was­n’t really Sir Paul on your show for this week. ;D And I thought ‘Paul’s’ com­ments were hilarious…but your tak­ing out ‘James Blunt’ was what seri­ously took the cake. I can­not express enough how much I heav­ily dis­like that “You’re Beautiful” ‘song’ of Blunt’s…and it’s always nice to know that I am not alone with that opin­ion. 😉

    Great show, as always…and in addi­tion to “The Punk and The Godfather”, Roxy, and “Coming Back To Life” (the more I’ve lis­tened to “The Division Bell” lately, the more “CBTL” has come to be quite pos­si­bly my most favorite song from that, though really, the whole album is great and unde­servedly over­looked), it was just great to hear some Beatles on your two hours. 🙂

    - Caroline

18. 

    Phoenix - May 18, 2008 10:07 PM

    Not a half-bad vocal imper­son­ator, but his voice was too deep/​too rough to be Sir Paul’s. He had a good chunk of the accent down, a few of the expres­sions, but, yeah.

    Good try, tho. 🙂

    I agree with Caroline re: Coming Back to Life. Just love that song. It and High Hopes are my two favorites on that album.

    Luv,
    Nix.

19. 

    Thomas Robinson - May 22, 2008 4:19 PM

    Sorry this is so long after the show but i was out on Sunday and i’ve been hav­ing prob­lems with my inter­net con­nec­tion since then.

    The show was cer­tainly enter­tain­ing, thats for sure and even my par­ents are prob­a­bly going to lis­ten to it. Just one ques­tion, you say at the end you haven’t really had Paul McCartney on and you did­n’t really hit James Blunt but was it really James Blunt that knocked on your door or was that just another imper­son­ator. We never really heard enough of him to be able to tell which it was.

    Besides that i really can’t under­stand why peo­ple got so upset about it. Did they really think that you were try­ing to con them? Surely they realised it was just a bit of fun?!

    That and what is it with all the swingers emails?

20. 

    Guy Pratt - May 27, 2008 1:51 PM

    Paul Mcartney Al Pacino and James Blunt were all played by the bril­liant Lewis Mcleod…

21. 

    Thomas Robinson - June 2, 2008 4:08 PM

    It was another good show last night as i’m sure every­one will agree but we did­n’t get to hear you thoughts/​theory about prog rock bands like Yes. I was look­ing for­ward to hear­ing your thoughts on it, because although Pink Floyd get called prog rock some­times they don’t really fit in with it that much IMO. It’s pretty hard to com­pare Yes and Pink Floyd for exam­ple.

    I was think­ing about pod­casts again the other day and although there could­n’t be an option to down­load entire shows because of music rights and fees etc. how about every so often doing apod­cast of all the best bits of your show? some­thing like the wit and wis­dom of Guy so that you best pee-takes or answers to stu­pid ques­tions wont be for­got­ten?

22. 

    Caroline - June 3, 2008 6:15 PM

    Ooooh…that’s right, Guy did­n’t do his thoughts about prog rock, did he? I too was look­ing for­ward to hear­ing that…even if it ended up being one of those ‘agree to dis­agree’ kind of things, prog rock geek I tend to be.

    But that said, I do agree that while Pink Floyd has had the VERY OCCASIONAL prog rock lean­ing (I’m look­ing at you, Atom Heart Mother), they are very much more-so ‘art rock’ than prog rock. Outside of AHM, while there are plenty of moments where the Floyd comes across as ‘prog-ish’, par­tic­u­larly the jazz influ­ences of Dark Side of the Moon, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond“ ‘s length and being divided into two ‘suites’, DSotM, Animals*, and The Wall being con­cept albums, etcetera; Gilmour and Co. have just never struck me as prog. But, I very much con­sider them art­work in not only regards to those said ‘prog-ish’ aspects, but also because I think no other band could/​can con­vey atmos­phere bet­ter than Pink Floyd…and I don’t know about you or any­one else, but that is very much an art in and of itself.

    Speaking of art, while I have my PF fanatic hat on (pulls the string on it to make a pig decal bleat out “One of these days, I’m gonna cut you into lit­tle pieces!!”), I have to say some­thing I meant to say a cou­ple of weeks ago: I loved the Rick Wright piece you played on the May 18^th edi­tion of your show, Guy. And as some­one who had read a lot about Mr. Wright’s solo work but had yet to sam­ple it, your play­ing that sam­ple was very much appre­ci­ated. Perhaps you can play more in the near future? 😉

    Also, I don’t see how Planet Rock could­n’t do a mini ‘Best Of’ com­pi­la­tion pod­cast of Guy’s jokes, waf­flings, etc. for each week’s ‘episode’. Afterall, I haven’t checked lately to see if it’s still up, but for awhile, the PR player had a ‘Why You Should Listen To Guy’ entry, which had a cou­ple of Poke Pratts from one episode. If PR can do that, I don’t see how they could not do a pod­cast fea­tur­ing more than two of such moments.

    - Caroline

23. 

    Thomas Robinson - June 4, 2008 6:05 PM

    There’s no rea­son why planet rock could­n’t do the pod­cast now that they’ve been saved. Finally they have a new owner! (how do i make a smi­lie face on this blog?)

24. 

    Phoenix - June 4, 2008 7:57 PM

    Just type in the smi­ley like nor­mal (such as : ) with­out the space) and the site will auto-cor­rect it like so. 🙂