In Search of Black History with Bonnie Greer | Audible Originals
The 1Xtra Breakfast Show with Dotty | BBC Radio 1Xtra
The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show | BBC Radio 2
Yes, yes, Christmas is upon us, fa-la-la-la-laa-la-la-la-la-laaaaa etc, but before we get there, allow me to recommend an improving new podcast for you, that features no unexpected angel guests or straw-padded, makeshift cots. Though there is religion… and a saint, Saint Maurice, whose image is found in several places, including a church in ski resort St Moritz (which is named after him). Saint Maurice was black, which for a third-century saint was unusual.
Maurice’s history is fascinating, subtle and unexpected. It reveals much about how leaders of the past have used diversity to indicate their authority. Saint Maurice may not even have existed, but he became a focus of pilgrimage, and in later centuries Frederick the Great co-opted Maurice’s image to show how powerful he was (the Roman Empire would have huge parades of people of different ethnicity to indicate the empire’s far-reaching power).
There are several such stories in Audible’s In Search of Black History With Bonnie Greer. Black history and experience is proving to be a fruitful area for podcasts: Nikole Hannah-Jones’s 1619 explored how African Americans were crucial to US independence; Reni Eddo-Lodge’s About Race is as fantastic as you would expect; and Afua Hirsch has a podcast, We Need To Talk About The British Empire, coming out in February.
Greer chooses to go back further than most. The accomplished playwright and critic has been a trustee of the British Museum in her time, and a good chunk of her podcast looks at artefacts from there, what they truly are and how they arrived. Her purpose is to rejig our common, deeply held assumptions. So we learn that not all black people in Europe arrived as slaves, that legionnaires came from diverse communities, that the Roman Empire was held back from expansion past Egypt by the African Kushites, led by Kandake, a queen. Every episode contains a historical gem that makes you gasp; a seemingly small fact that changes how you think.
Occasionally, Greer’s presentation can seem a little slow; she has a habit of seizing on the last sentence an interviewee says, repeating it with emphasis, and then explaining what the person has just said, even though they just said it. But once you get used to this, and understand these shows as a type of lecture, then the pace becomes more relaxing. Greer clearly wants our shared history to be more than the tales of white guys’ exploitation and derring do – don’t we all! – and her delight in discovering that it’s much broader, diverse and surprising than we think transfers itself to the listener. Put it on your headphones to take your mind off the dullness of present-wrapping, and then surprise everyone at Christmas dinner with your newly learned amazing facts.
Another non-Christmassy, but very festive, aspect of last week in audio was the exceedingly high proportion of Stormzy. The UK’s favourite grime/pop star – perhaps the UK’s favourite star at the moment – has been working hard this week to promote his new album. Not only did he edit the Observer Magazine last Sunday, he also went to his old primary school for Vice. Radio-wise, he talked to 1Xtra’s Dotty, a long-time supporter, in a surprise appearance on the day of his album release, before going on Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Monday, co-hosting Annie Mac’s Radio 1 evening programme the same day and making an appearance on Manny Norte’s Capital Xtra show.
The Dotty appearance, as ever, saw Stormzy at his most relaxed – Dotty is brilliant at making artists reveal themselves – and on Ball’s show, there was a very sweet moment when one of Stormzy’s primary school teachers phoned in to talk to him. Emma Cook, formerly Miss Wheeler, taught Stormzy when he was plain Michael Omari Jr. “He was a pixie,” she said. “I do remember having a parents evening when I said, “You can’t be writing ‘da’ instead of ‘the’, you won’t be passing your Sats with that.” “My hairline was mad back then,” said Stormzy, when he saw a picture she sent in. And: “Love you, Miss!” A moment that only live radio can give you. Awwwww.
Three non-Christmassy music shows
A Life at the Piano: Elton John Special
A bit of a coup for Classic FM here: the Elt joins Tim Lihoreau at the Royal Academy of Music, where Elton studied for five years as a young man. In this one-hour show, Elton talks about his classical music passions, his time at the academy, and how both inspired his songwriting. Lihoreau is himself a pianist, so creates a nice rapport and understanding, plus Elton is one of the pop world’s greatest interviewees: never anything other than utterly truthful and pant-wettingly funny. A must-listen.
The Untold: Jay-Z and Me Part II
Radio 4’s Untold strand is consistently a network highlight, and it has already told the first part of the story of Hannah Williams, whose singing was sampled by Jay-Z for his multi-platinum hit 4:44. Unfortunately, as her music was deemed a sample, rather than a feature (she didn’t write the song), she only got around £1,200… This is Part II of the story, which follows Hannah after she quit her job as head of music at the University of Winchester in order to pursue her life with her band, Hannah Williams and the Affirmations.
Rewiring Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott made electronic music far ahead of his time. As a jazz composer and band leader in the US in the 1930s, he was deemed futuristic; when he built America’s first-ever commercial electronic music studios, he went thoroughly space-age. He designed and made musical devices: the Clavivox, the Electronium, the Circle Machine. His work was eventually overtaken by synthesisers, but in this show, writer Ken Hollings reassesses Scott’s legacy, speaking to family members and music producers, including 808 State’s Graham Massey. Expect funky-squelchy noises a-go-go. Brilliant stuff.
