Steve Lamacq, co-presenter
I worked for New Musical Express for five years, then Select magazine. I had a weekly show on the pirate radio station Q102, which morphed into Xfm, and made a couple of guest appearances on Mark Goodier’s fledgling BBC Radio 1 evening show. Mark was away for four weeks in the summer of 1993 so they got in guest presenters, including Jo and me. A couple of months later, we were invited back to co-host for seven weeks. Matthew Bannister had just taken control of Radio 1 with rumours of an immediate shake-up. He called us into his office. We both sat staring at our boots, thinking: “This is the point where he says: ’Thanks very much.’” He said: “We’d like you to carry on.” He gave us the job full time, and off we went.
The idea was to take the left-field music from what some people considered this rather dark ghetto and make it more accessible – somewhere between daytime and John Peel, who had the 10pm to midnight show. Even though we were both in our late 20s, we were perceived as the whippersnappers of Radio 1. We wanted to recreate the feeling from when we were kids at the end of the 70s, listening to Mike Read and Kid Jensen. We both understood what a brilliant radio friend Janice Long [who worked for Radio 1 from 1982 to 1988, including presenting the evening show] had been, making listeners feel part of a gang. It probably helped that we weren’t the most proficient of presenters: we couldn’t believe that someone let us play records for a living.
It couldn’t have happened at a better time. I’d made a reputation of going out to find new bands to champion, and the whole music landscape was about to change. A month after we signed the contract, in late October 93, Elastica released their debut single. I remember playing Girls & Boys by Blur, which was such a culture shock after Modern Life Is Rubbish. Oasis’ first session went out the first week of 1994 where they played a set of four songs [Cigarettes & Alcohol, Shakermaker, Bring It On Down and Up In The Sky] before they’d even recorded them for Definitely Maybe. In November 1994, we had the exclusive first play of Love Spreads, the Stone Roses’ comeback single. A security guard turned up at Radio 1 with the CD, let us play it once, put the CD back in the case and took it away again.
Suddenly, all these misfit characters became pop stars, and we became part of the process that Jarvis Cocker describes as the lunatics taking over the asylum. We were the two lunatics at Radio 1.
Jo Whiley, co-presenter
I knew his name from NME, but Steve and I didn’t meet until we were in the studio preparing for our first show. Although I did have a bit of radio experience, I think he knew me best as the person who booked bands for [Channel 4 chatshow] The Word, like Nirvana, L7 and Rage Against the Machine. Steve and I were both wearing cherry-red Dr Martens. The chemistry was instant.
The layout at Radio 1 meant you could see into the other studios. We would be messing around and see Alan “Fluff” Freeman, Dave Lee Travis and Simon Bates. We’d think: “What are we doing here?” I used to borrow Dave Lee Travis’ headphones that smelt strongly of aftershave. I’d go home, get into bed and think: “What’s that smell?” I smelt of Dave Lee Travis.
We were both going to lots of gigs, so it was a melting pot of who to play. Steve would suggest These Animal Men or S*M*A*S*H and I’d suggest Therapy? or Northern Uproar. We were fans of trip-hop – Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. Suede, the Manics, Radiohead, Pulp, Blur, Oasis and the Verve brought out seminal albums during our tenure, and most came in to do sessions and interviews. It was like they were our mates down the pub. There was no fakery or pretence. When Chris Evans took over the Breakfast Show [in 1995], he would play all the bands we liked, which took them to the mainstream. We’d be sitting in our little studio going: “Do you remember when Oasis sent us their demo tape?” as Noel Gallagher was pictured at No 10 with Tony Blair on the front page of the Mirror.
These days, I always listen to Steve on Radio 6 when I’m doing the cooking. We see each other whenever we can, although we are just as likely to talk gardening as we are music. It’s fantastic that Pulp, Blur, Suede, the Manics, Richard Ashcroft and, of course, both Gallagher brothers are doing their old hits but still doing new music. It feels like this is a really good time to still be involved in music.
• Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq host the eight-part podcast The Rise and Fall of Britpop, available on BBC Sounds. The duo will co-host a ‘Britpop Forever’ special on BBC Radio 6 Music on 27 July, 4pm-6pm
