posted on behalf of CG
The last World on 3, 8 Jan 2010 - solo flight
I didn't realise it at the time, but this was to be my last show for World on 3.
It was actually meant to have been a showcase for Martha Wainwright, but she had a baby two months earlier than expected and was not fit for a radio show.
Unusually, I had played records at two live events in the previous two weeks, firstly at the Kurdish Short Film Festival Awards at Spring House in Kentish Town, and then at the UK debut by the Honduran singer Aurelio Martinez at the Union Chapel, promoted by the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
Caught by Martha's surprise no-show, I grabbed the CD case carrying records for the two events and decided to busk it, to improvise a show featuring records that had worked a few days earlier.
It has been a long time since I was free to play whatever seemed apt, without structure or predetermined logic, and by the end I felt like I had fallen into a groove of some kind. Somewhere towards the middle, I found myself wanting to link together Buika and Lhasa, both of them champions of Chavela Vargas, a big star in Mexico in the 1960s and more recently celebrated by the Spanish film director, Pedro Almodovar. Several of my favourite Lhasa songs are in Spanish, but it seemed better to choose one in French. But now comes the devastating news that Lhasa has died of breast cancer, leaving an unfillable hole.
I had hoped for several years to do a radio show with Lhasa, and finally had my wish when she came to do a World on 3 show last year in which the live songs were spontaneously introduced rather than used as book ends at the start and finish of the Radio Ping Pong encounter. It all felt very magical, especially when Lhasa sang 'A Change is Gonna Come', more commonly associated with great soul singers such as composer Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and Aaron Neville of the Neville Brothers. Nonchalantly, Lhasa made it hers too.
After recording this programme, I sent a letter to Roger Wright, Head of Radio 3, announcing that I was retiring from the World on 3 rota on grounds of ill-health. At the time, I intended to complete the final pair of programmes but as it turned out, I was closer to ill health than I realised and was admitted to hospital on New Year's Eve. Lopa Kothari stepped into the breach to do the second of the final pair.
Just as well, really, I don’t think I would have held myself together so well if I had known that this was to be the end of another line.
I expect to have recovered in time to pick up the threads at the World Service and to continue the much simpler format of that programme for some time to come. See you over on that other side..
CG
Charlie Gillett's final World on 3 was broadcast on Friday 8 January at 11.15 pm (23.15) on BBC Radio 3, and is available online for the following seven days at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldon3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00pjl8q
Seq - Artist - Song Title - Album - Country - Label - Cat no -
1 - Mitchell Torok - When Mexico Gave Up the Rhumba - When Mexico Gave Up the Rhumba - USA - Acrobat - ADDCD024 -
2 - Lord Cobra - Colon Colon - Panama 3 - Panama - Soundway - SNDWCD018 -
3 - Kottarashky - Tebe - Opa Hey! - Bulgaria - Asphalt Tango - CD-ATR 2609 -
4 - Matha Wainwright - La Foule - Martha Wainwright's Piaf Record - Canada - Drowned in Sound - VVR723066 -
5 - Andy Palacio - Nabi - Keimoun - Belize - Stonetree - GLPD 17 -
6 - Queen Ifrica - T.T.P.N.C - Montego Bay - Jamaica - VP - VPCD1841 -
7 - Imam Baildi - De Thelo Pia a anarthis - Imam Baildi - Greece - Capitol - 509992 3680425 -
8 - Şiwan Perver - Sebra Mala - Şiwan Perver - Turkey - Caprice - CAP 214614 -
9 - Sam Baker - Menonite - Cotton - USA - SamBaker - MRRCD104 -
10 - Buika with Chucho Valdes - Vamanos - El Ultimo Trago - Spain - Warner - 2456 468 6147 -
11 - Lhasa - J'Arrive a La Ville - The Living Road - Canada - Totoutard - 505 0467-0122 2 -
12 - Ibrahim Maalouf - trumpet/saz improvations - Disoriental - France - IM - IMB 2 -
13 - Queen Ifrica - Daddy - Montego Bay - Jamaica - VP - VPCD1841 -
14 - Fat Freddy's Drop - The Raft - Dr Boondigga & The Big B.W. - New Zealand - Fat Freddy's drop - DRP013CD -
15 - Odadewethu - Kazi Ngiyobafihlaphi - Kuyaoxaban' Amadoda - South Africa - Gallo/Warner - 5051865-1745-5-4 -
16 - Derrick Morgan - Tougher Than Tough - Tougher Than Tough - Jamaica - Island - IBXCD1 -
17 - Smadj - Toi et Moi (feat Minino Garay, Erik Truffaz, Talvin Singh) - Selin - Tunis - MVS - 3 760148 282 2894 -
18 - Jo-El Sonnier - Tear-stained Letter - 45 single - USA - RCA - SON 1 -
19 - Blue Asia - Gudinpu - Sketches of Myahk - Japan - Vivid Sound - VSCD 9692 -
20 - Seasick Steve - The Banjo Song - Man from Another Time - USA - Atlantic - 505186 5615828 -
21 - R U N N Family - Hatichina Wekutumba Naye - 45 single - Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe - ZIM 410 -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00pjl8q