Iain Lee back on talkRADIO 21/03

[Paul Calf]

Yeah, you haven't heard comedy until you've heard Ian Lee playing to the crowd by banging on the tub about immigrants and travellers on Three Counties Radio.

[madhair60]

He used to write a column for Retrogamer, i literally couldn't read his stuff, he seemed like someone with no idea about it at all.

I've always thought he was talentless, with a habit of getting found out for this, yet still continuing to get further opportunities to prove it anew.

He was awful in Retro Gamer, yeah. He's good at talk radio though.

[Mango Chimes]

I feel a bit bad for Eloise.

[thr0b]

Here's a thing; right now, Iain is organising An Evening With Eddie Large in Portishead. He interviewed him on the show a couple of weeks back, and he was genuinely interesting and charming. Gets on with Sid now as well.

[Mango Chimes]

When this was early days, and the idea was he was dropping 'the act' and doing a more avuncular, less spiky show, I really liked that direction. I tuned in tonight and he was pretending to hate postmen in order to have a tedious argument.

[Roma]

I decided to register after seeing a thread about Iain Lee and Tommy Boyd.

(Spam removed)

I do wish James H Reeve was back on a national station...

[Lost Oliver]

Ooh! Will look into that ^ massive Tommy fan. Am organising a Tommy meet up in Brighton in August this year. So far two people are coming along. You'd all be more than welcome.

[Roma]

Sounds interesting!

I seem to have missed out on Tommy Boyd, I didn't really know a lot about him until I read that book. I'm trying to find online audio of some of the calls transcripted in the novel. Anyone know where exactly? 

[madhair60]

I have a huge amount of Tommy Boyd audio "archived" to some degree - less than half of it is currently online but I'm going to session it and get it all uploaded soon. Barely any of it is labelled, which is a problem, but I'm going to post the raw audio anyway.

[Roma]

If you could give me a link that would be great.

I was wondering if anyone had the audio that apparently got Tommy sacked from talkSPORT years ago. In that book it's fictionalised and Tommy Boyd is known as John Kelly. I got the extract from the Kindle version:

John Kelly would endure. He could be sought out here and there on local stations and internet radio. But he never retained the audience and largescale listenership he'd built.


John: Good evening, welcome to the show.
Caller: Hi....um, I'd like to talk about the royal family.
John: Hmm....
Caller: I don't think they're particularly necessary.
John: Yep.
Caller: Pretty much like you...I don't really care for the likes of you.
John: Yep.
Caller: ...Can I go on?
John: Sure. Right.

John sounded weary, but attune to this breed of caller. There was an ominous tone to the call. It felt as if the broadcaster was ready for the ruling, calm and collected in the court room. He was fully prepared to be damned, to be sent to the chopping block. The final judgment, resigned to the penalty awaiting. He'd long suffered behind the mic and now was to be at peace.

Caller: Taxpayers money, good money, being spent on those people...

His head on the chopping block...

Caller: And you know what else I think?

John gave the headsman his gold coin, to warrant a clean blow first time.

John: What do you think?

The axe descended and with a triumphant blow...

Caller: That we should shoot the fucking lot of them...how do you like that? Fuck you, pal.
John: And you too, pal.

[HappyTree]

Yeah he wasn't really paying attention, tuned out a bit. Then got jolted back quick smart! But they say it was mainly a pretext. The real reason was something to do with wrestling promotion deals.

I was listening live at the time and it was just one of those weird passing moments. Never imagined he'd not be on the next week! Never know the minute, girl.

[Lost Oliver]

Here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF1blmzxU9Q

A little dissimilar to what was quoted up top.

Ridiculous that something like this got him the can. And those who worked alongside him.

[Roma]

Cheers Oliver!

(Spam removed)

[HappyTree]

I think you can stop advertising your Christopher's book now. You've posted about nothing else! We get it.

[Roma]

Ha! He's a friend, that's all. I'm very happy to discuss something else. I did bring up James H Reeve, cos I used to listen to him on Manchester Key 103 and wondered if anyone knew where he was now.

[HappyTree]

Would you like to say something about Iain Lee in this Iain Lee thread?

I'm still listening to his shows on talkRADIO, but now only have time to listen to the podcasts. I wish Kath participated more. When Jake Yapp stood in and they were both on the mic it was a period of nice conversation. Iain does more of a "show" and I stopped calling in cos I got tired of being treated badly. I know he does it for fun but it still made me wonder why I was bothering. He can use other callers for "fodder", I actually like talking to people.

[Lost Oliver]

Thanks Roma. And apologies HT, you're right.

Did anyone hear Lee a couple weeks back when he sounded like he was on the edge of a breakdown? Honestly felt concerned.

[Mango Chimes]

I wish Kath participated more. When Jake Yapp stood in and they were both on the mic it was a period of nice conversation. Iain does more of a "show" and I stopped calling in cos I got tired of being treated badly. I know he does it for fun but it still made me wonder why I was bothering. He can use other callers for "fodder", I actually like talking to people.

Yeah, it's a shame. He's really great at doing fun, silly, friendly shows, and he can also be really good when it gets a bit serious and he's being like a caring friend. He's bad at arguments, and awful when arguing on a serious topic. I don't know what happened exactly, but it seemed he got burned somehow by being quite open early in the Talk Radio show and has put 'the act' back on. Hope he feels comfortable enough to take it off again; giggly chats with Kath and Eloise with callers dipping in and out are where he excels.

[DrGreggles]

Lee is uploading some of his old radio stuff onto iTunes.
It's highlights (apparently), so it might be worth checking out.

[Barry Admin]

HAHAH YEAH OKAY

[HappyTree]

Well, MC, I just caught up with all the podcasts up until last Wednesday. Wow, ok. Since he came back from his week off 'strike' he's been trying something a lot more combative and for me it's not working. It might be working better for him and other listeners, so fair enough.

[Artemis]

Iain Lee is one of those people with just enough popularity to keep him bubbling away on the outer reaches of the radar, occasionally given a chance to establish himself properly. Whenever he's given that opportunity, he's consistently proven himself insufferable. It seems his home is forever to exist at some specific dial point somewhere on the radio that the discerning listener can quickly tune away from.

[DrGreggles]

I think he's alright.
He came across very well (and self-aware) in the Herring and Buxton podcasts.

[HappyTree]

14kl41111n m

Words of wisdom from Sammy, there. I think it means she wants me to rub her ribs.

[her?]

I only really know Lee from the 11 O'Clock Show but thought I'd give his podcast a go as I've heard people say he's good on the radio. Picked an episode at random and he was pretending to be in a bad mood about ratings, blaming the listeners, being all aggressive, cutting people off. It was exactly like in Down the Line when Gary Bellamy decides to get tough but it wasn't funny and it went on far too long. Smug and unoriginal, just like he was in the 90s. Podcast deleted. Did I just pick a bad episode?

[Mango Chimes]

I only really know Lee from the 11 O'Clock Show but thought I'd give his podcast a go as I've heard people say he's good on the radio. Picked an episode at random and he was pretending to be in a bad mood about ratings, blaming the listeners, being all aggressive, cutting people off. It was exactly like in Down the Line when Gary Bellamy decides to get tough but it wasn't funny and it went on far too long. Smug and unoriginal, just like he was in the 90s. Podcast deleted. Did I just pick a bad episode?

Yeah, that's the stuff I dislike. His Absolute podcasts are still up, I think, so pick a few from his last couple of years, when Eloise was producing, and you should hit some good stuff. I just listened to one of the very last ones again the other day - it's also an unrepresentative one in that Eloise is away, and Rhys Thomas sits in for the entire episode, but maybe that's a good 'in' if you like Rhys.

[Enzo]

It seems that Bob Mortimer has been ringing in to Iain's show pretty regularly in the past month as "Keith", talking about his nephew's sprinting prowess even sending on a suspicious looking video that includes proof of said rapidity.

1st call: https://youtu.be/kc6FQluZ0i8

2nd call: https://youtu.be/neg6AMzMZIM

3rd call: https://youtu.be/kCH-vMMnwuA

Video of fast running https://youtu.be/JuDTvDF8woc

4th call: https://youtu.be/NGlPr2Hcp7E

5th call: https://youtu.be/ZlFgD4dTsg4

[hermitical]

Rabbithole live from Scunthorpe from 8pm tonight. He wants some callers, anyone willing?

Skype HeyRabbitHoleShow or call 0203 286 6370

https://www.pscp.tv/iainlee to watch

[RedRevolver]

I feel a bit bad for Eloise.

I only feel bad for Eloise that she's quite as stupid as she is.

I can listen to Iain again, thanks to Katherine.