Carry On! An Audience with Mark & Lard
The former Radio One DJs reunited at Epic Studios for a night of skits, anecdotes and two rubbish songs.
It was an unlikely chapter in broadcasting history. Two northern lads, Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley aka Mark and Lard, took over Radio One’s drive time show between 1997 and 2004. They’re style was offbeat and sense of humour frequently risqué. They had radio bosses quaking in their boots, but listeners loved them and they counted some of the most famous and influential people in the country among their fans.
After more than 20 years since their final Radio One show the reunited pair took to the Epic Studios stage in matching suits to meet their fans and relive those crazy days that were even crazier than anyone could have imagined.
Following an innuendo heavy pre-show announcement from Fat Harry White, it was down to BBC journalist Phil Williams to welcome the duo to the couch for a light grilling about their unique career together.
“We realised there was a future in being really sh*t”, Mark recalled from their early collaborations on Radio Five show Hit the North. It was a future that lasted longer than either could have imagined as the pair moved to the 10pm to midnight “graveyard shift” on Radio One followed by an ill-fated stint on the station’s breakfast show before moving to the afternoon slot with 8 million listeners.
It was this later chapter of their career that the show focused on and the audience rarely stopped laughing as the pair regaled us with anecdotes, clips of spoof quizzes designed to smuggle dirty words onto daytime radio and skits with a colourful cast of characters. At one point Lard slipped into his alter ego Rabbi Lionel Blair - “that’s like l-i-i-fe”. Forgotten classics like a send up of US sports commentary with Butch Schlong and Snatch Frigitt and Tony McCarrol’s Classical Gas, a dig at the sacked Oasis drummer, had everyone in stitches. One man laughed so hard he spat beer all over the row in front. “This wasn’t us fooling around. This was going out live to 8 million listeners,” the pair reminded us.
Some anecdotes seemed too bizarre to be true. Did Tony Blair really arrange his meetings around the duo’s show? The tale of meeting the then PM while dressed as Goth undertakers for a photoshoot sounded like a bad acid trip.
They did gain unprecedented access to the biggest names in show business, including their number one hero David Bowie. They related introducing the singer on stage while drunk in Manchester and hanging out with him in his dressing room at another show and helping to choose his setlist. These are probably the most well-worn anecdotes of the show, but who wouldn’t retell them at every given opportunity?
The evening would not have been complete without a Shirehorses revival - the spoof band that took on a life of its own with two albums and gigs at Glastonbury and an arena tour supporting Blur. The second half was bookended with two songs: Now I Know Where I’m Going… and Why Is It Always Dairy Lea - the pair belting out the lyrics and strutting the stage with hobby horse mic stands.
Some of the duo’s output was so surreal and controversial it is hard to comprehend these days. They got into in hot water with Elvis Presley’s estate after featuring Hound Dog in the segment Lard’s Classic Cuts, in which records were manipulated to make them sound filthy. They read out the lawyers’ cease and desist letter, with the BBC apparently settling for £10,000 - “Better than spending it on Bargain Hunt,” Mark quipped.
They spent the first half hour of one show singing along to Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells between records without any explanation. “I’m really proud we did that”, said Mark.
In these times of AI such unique personalities and daring creativity seem all the more important. It’s easy to wish for a return of such irreverence to the airwaves, but this was a rare and short-lived trip down memory lane for two broadcasters who have always kept looking forwards. They remain regular fixtures on national radio on separate shows - their sharp wit and passion for new music undiminished.
As they took their final bow to Kiss’s Crazy, Crazy Nights, the last song they played on Radio One, the show inevitably had to stop. But in the hearts of their fans it will always carry on.
