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Tommy Boyd

Started by Lost Oliver, August 07, 2014, 03:24:17 PM

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Lost Oliver

I've banged on about him before but I've recently been listening to some of his old shows and felt the need to create a thread.

He was bloody incredible and probably still is. His afternoon shows on Talk Radio, The Human Zoo, LBC, BBC Southern Counties were always worth a listen. A genuinely original, articulate, funny and wise performer.

But where the hell is he now? Will he come back? Who knows.

To those who don't know the guvnor here's a link to one of my favourite calls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmOfKVyQNuk






madhair60

I remember a site a few years ago with large archives of Human Zoo broadcasts, wish I still had them.

thraxx

I had totally forgotten about him.  That call is hilarious.

Does anyone else happen to hear the BBC 5 live coverage of the 1999 Scottish Cup final, where they meant to phone the Celtic player Tommy Boyd who was injured and couldn't play for a bit of punditry? 

They ended up calling this Tommy Boyd by accident who clearly couldn't understand why he had been called but was clearly over the moon to have some national media exposure, and the 5 live presenters couldn't understand why Celtic Legend and Glaswegian Tommy Boyd had an estuary English accent.  The bafflement and confusion of both sides, as they try to make the segment work is wonderful.

I've never managed to track down a recording of the coverage – anyone know where it can be found.

Don_Preston

As I said to an associate of mine, who is also his producer, yesterday, Gaunty will never hit the big time until he presents a children's show with Timmy Mallett.

Lost Oliver

I've got a few zoo shows, probably ten in total and a few other TalkSport ones. They're still great, even now. Ash is here. Willing to send on if anyone is interested.

I've been searching for the 5live interview for years! Did it really happen? And did you hear it? Almost sounds too good to be true.

The last I heard of TB he was on Man Size Radio. He did/does prerecorded segments under the name 'The Wise Man'. I haven't listened to that in a while so I'm not sure if it's still going. I just wish he'd come back to live radio. The play radio stuff wasn't great though.


Artemis

Quote from: Lost Oliver on August 07, 2014, 03:24:17 PM
He was bloody incredible and probably still is.

Yes he was, but sadly no he's not. I thought his product dived badly once he left Southern Counties, and his Play UK stuff was terrible. He's popped up again on local radio a couple of times and on every occasion he's delivered desperately disappointing, bland wallpaper radio of the kind he'd ridicule 15-20 years earlier. It sounded like he was phoning it in to be honest, the equivalent of a high-energy race driver in California who's retired to Florida and now ambles around on cruise control.

Maybe that's a little harsh; I was such a big fan that it's a crying shame to hear him these days. His Talk Radio stuff was in many ways his peak, but I loved his late night stuff (not the massively overrated Human Zoo, but the more focussed shows). I've actually met him on a couple of occasions and he's a lovely bloke. I think that came across in what he did and stopped him from simply being a troll. He was that, but it was challenging as much as it was provocative, forcing justifications from people or simply illustrating their absolute lack of critical thought.

Some of my favourite calls were when he put through people who just fancied complaining about him.

Here's a classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Trh7e_SE4

Lost Oliver

Believe it or not but that was the video I wanted to put in my post but changed my mind at the last minute. "You called me an arsehole!"

The Original 106 shows were disappointing but I figured he was just doing his job. It was the Play Radio stuff that I wasn't a massive fan of.

Part of his brilliance comes from him challenging people who either don't like him or have never heard from him. He played with boundaries but on Play Radio it just seemed to be sycophants and twats calling in, and because of the format, there were no limits so he had nowhere to go.


boki

Quote from: Lost Oliver on August 07, 2014, 04:22:08 PMI've been searching for the 5live interview for years! Did it really happen? And did you hear it? Almost sounds too good to be true.
It definitely happened - I worked in the local Oxfam shop on Saturday afternoons at the time and remember hearing it going out.  It was just a bit awkward, really.

Rolf Lundgren

RE: The Tommy Boyd/Tommy Boyd mix-up

I might be remembering this wrong but on a different forum years ago there was a poster there who had the audio. I didn't hear it but someone posted about a bit that went:

Interviewer: What do you think of Scotland's chances this afternoon?
Tommy: I have absolutely no idea.

Neomod

I used to be a regular listener to his show on . . I want to say Southern Sound, but could be wrong. The first time I heard it he was doing an outside broadcast with David 'Lego' Legge. Only about 2 hours in did I realise they were using sound effects.

I don't think I've ever listened to him since.

Fabian Thomsett

A few more clips:

Boyd vs. what sounds like a UKIP supporter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF0MmXTJJX0

Probably the highlight of the later human zoo shows - Boyd arguing with Ash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PZ1_QN2-us




thugler

I have a little collection of bits I've downloaded over the years and I used to listen regularly back in the day.

I  find his ability to deal with horrible callers utterly thrilling to listen to!

That first one is a great example, he's always in control, and always lets people dismantle their own argument. Such a shame he hasn't remained on national radio. I think he'd fit in quite well on LBC.

Artemis

Quote from: thugler on August 07, 2014, 09:03:28 PM
I  find his ability to deal with horrible callers utterly thrilling to listen to!

I used to do a little internal yelp with joy whenever an angry caller came to air. There's a brilliant little minority of people who believe they have some kind of ownership over radio stations - especially BBC ones - and that they're perfectly within their rights to phone up and give the host a jolly good telling off. It's brilliant the way Boyd either gives it straight back to them or gives them enough rope for them to hang themselves. It's even better when they take the bait from something he's said, knowing full well it'll rile them up.

I think this caller got angry because Boyd mentioned something about being able to fit the population of Bangladesh in Yorkshire, in relation to how much space there actually is in the UK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhVqribVgag

The little 'hmm' he gives after her 'backs of lorries' outburst is priceless.

mr. logic

#13
His best trick was taking common arguments made by twats and reframing them as absurd ones that said twats would then become outraged at.

For example: 'Depression is a ruse for people who fancy time off work' became 'Isn't hayfever fantastic!' and 'Fox hunting is a traditional English pastime' became 'Bring back bull fighting!'

Both available on YouTube.

HappyTree

I loved him, perhaps a bit too much as I had my first OBE while listening to his show on 29-07-2001. He disappointed me greatly with his shenanigans on Play Radio, but part of that was down to my own overreaction at the time. Maybe he just successfully trolled me, damn him! :-D But I remember him for the good times and at his best he was a cruel-to-be-kindly human taunting cats with catnip-infused string. And we all loved to watch him make the cats dance, and it was good.

Rolf Lundgren

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGuBhQaLJ-s

Bloke calls up to do a horse racing commentary skit. If you give space to let people do what they want they can also be creative and do something funny.

thraxx

Thaqks for posting - these are brilliant.  I only remember him from his Wide Awake Club days, so this is a revelation for me. 

His ability to deal with aresholes is brilliant and he seems to have a psychic ability to know which buttons to press to wind them up, which path to take in order to bring them down. 

I just listened to the 'Pray for me to die' radio phone in - incredible radio and a touching human story.

I would loved to have seen Tommy Boyd fronting the Jeremy Kyle show instead of the twat that does.


Lost Oliver

Another cracker from the argument hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se_FHFAxObk

Does anyone know what Ash is doing now?

batwings

Used to really enjoy Tommy Boyd during the Talk Radio days. A lot of the BBC Southern Counties stuff is also fantastic.

Some Boyd audio can be found at:

http://www.thetommyboydshrine.co.uk/mainmenu.htm


The Masked Unit

Quote from: thraxx on August 08, 2014, 08:22:41 AM
Thaqks for posting - these are brilliant.  I only remember him from his Wide Awake Club days, so this is a revelation for me. 


Yeah, ditto that.

mr. logic

I found his co-host on Southern Counties incredibly annoying. A bit like Robin on Howard Stern- desperate to be part of the joke without an actual understanding of what the host was up to.

Vodka Margarine

Quote from: mr. logic on August 08, 2014, 12:19:04 PM
I found his co-host on Southern Counties incredibly annoying. A bit like Robin on Howard Stern- desperate to be part of the joke without an actual understanding of what the host was up to.

Allison Ferns? Ah, she was alright. Straight woman to the outspoken Boyd and they had a good rapport. I was gutted when that show ended. Anyone remember that call from the woman in her tent?

Lost Oliver

Yes! I think I found her blog a while back. Unbelievable. There is a post on it that says that she went to Tommy's house and his wife had to phone the police to evict her from the premises. Apparently he looked at her knee in a sexual way or something.

Allison was alright. I've got the show before her wedding when she clearly was drunk and it got a bit shouty - great stuff.

What about Kirsten? The Swedish woman who had a lovely calming voice. I hope she's still around.

Artemis

Allison was lovely, I thought. It was endearing the way Boyd brought her in to the show (I think originally her role was more as a producer), plus it gave him an in-house audience to play to.

One of the brilliant things about his work, particularly towards the end of the Southern Counties stint, was that he'd put out stuff that was occasionally so beyond what many of his victims felt was acceptable, that they must have just thought 'well he wouldn't do that if he couldn't get away with it', despite it clearly being a bit out of order.

Case in point, when he kept calling back someone he felt was a bit rude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLBNSvExRvg

Vodka Margarine

Quote from: Lost Oliver on August 08, 2014, 01:15:56 PM
Yes! I think I found her blog a while back. Unbelievable. There is a post on it that says that she went to Tommy's house and his wife had to phone the police to evict her from the premises. Apparently he looked at her knee in a sexual way or something.

Fucking hell, that's amazing! And she has a blog?

It does feel a bit prickish to glean so much entertainment from a person who clearly has issues / a mental illness but any road up, she was radio gold. As Tommy may well concede, it's all fun and games until someone comes round your house, threatens your wife and accuses you of looking at their knee in a sexual way.

Don_Preston

Quote from: Vodka Margarine on August 08, 2014, 12:33:13 PM
Allison Ferns? Ah, she was alright. Straight woman to the outspoken Boyd and they had a good rapport. I was gutted when that show ended. Anyone remember that call from the woman in her tent?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZKYCqUlFlQ

E're are.

Fabian Thomsett

I'd completely forgotten about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JKMzEqPGZQ

Chris from Crouch End. She was...something.

Artemis

It was great on the rare occasions Boyd conducted more traditional interviews as well, like the subject of adoption of children by same-sex couples. It was lovely to hear him sacrifice being balanced to instead conduct the interview on the basis of there being nothing intrinsically wrong with gay couples adopting children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocJKYiJg1ZI

Every time I stumble across it, I'm sad that so often equal weight is afforded to two positions, one of which is inclusive and reasonable, the other of which is ignorant and lacking evidence. Good on the bloke for tackling both interviewees from a sensible standpoint.

Rolf Lundgren

Quote from: Lost Oliver on August 08, 2014, 08:56:28 AM
Does anyone know what Ash is doing now?

Still working at Talksport. I think he's been working the 10pm-1am shift for about 15 years regardless of whose doing a show. He was with James Whale for a long time where they were pretty much a double act then after that I think it was Ian Collins and a few others. Now it's The Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein and Jason Cundy where he doesn't get involved as much.

Lost Oliver

That's a shame. He was very funny at time but I suppose he needs the right person to bounce off. Can't imagine Goldstein and Cundy are his cup of tea.