We were most certainly spoiled over this past weekend.
(picture credit to Matthew Edwards there, featuring Lucy, James, Adam, Joe and possibly Tom plus BlackSquadron dedicated Glasto Division)
Those of us confined to our dry and refrigerator-handy homes began three days with utter nonsense, nonsense, nonsense from our Commanders and those poor souls who chose to endure sleepless days and nights from noisy neighbours were rewarded beyond their wildest dreams with what I'm going to puff up by referring to as TWO personal appearances from the webcam-shy radio botherers.
These being the last few shows for the predictable future, they went out with a sonic bang, if you will.
Invited to join the start of the Saturday show, the response from onsite Black Squadron members warmed Joe's cockles so much his jeans began to give way and even the most stubbornly prickly whisker on Adam's magnificent beard was softened to a downy wisp.
Don't take my word for it. Catch up on all the waffle over at the BBC site.
Glastonbury is surely one of the prime reasons it was imperative to save 6Music. The coverage could not have been sustained by any of their other so-called 'stations' to the level of excellence we were privileged to enjoy. We had tireless work from James, Lucy and Tom plus missive wrangling and fielding from Peta on the web feed. Thank you BBC. Thank you 6Music.
That said, the website is not as handy to navigate as the regular show based thingumies so if you want to Listen Again (and you really should) the links are:
There are still podcasts to catch-up on and revisit. The BBC have some special dispensation to leave a ton of them there going back as far as last Christmas.
Many happy souls excitedly tweeted pictures from their encounters with our generous leaders and whilst I enjoyed them all, I have selected these two to share as they produced the most enduring rictus. There are many more in the Adam and Joe section of the BBC Glasto web portion.
From Luke Vernon.......a magnificent mellay of beards and hats.
From @Pintendo64, a beloved member of TwitSquadron who gets a killer look from Dr Sexy at what was, no doubt, a salacious comment from her.
To my great joy and surprise, they whispered a little word of thanks in my lug area via the final podcast.
Some of my web-based operation would not necessarily comply with BBC Guidelines and for that reason I have assumed they'd not mention me within the castle walls. Perhaps they felt that this little field trip afforded them a cheeky opportunity for which I am deeply touched.
Adam overcame fears of tearfulness to use his heartwarmingly and sincerely genuine voice. Joe played it safe, using the stoic tones he reserves to hide what is clearly a deep rooted passion.
I didn't start this blog with a well planned fanfare so it seems inappropriate to set foot in it's third year with anything more than a regular update. However, at this time of reflection it won't hurt to explain that I began this nonsense as a bit of summertime fun while Adam and Joe were taking a relatively short break in 2009. Events overtook the thing and it turned into something else. The twitter feed became the monstrously interfering Auntie Nubbins and to quote a line from a much loved, tiny Optimum Releasing film from last decade "Who you set out to be is not always who you become".
With Joe's film safely grounded in the cinema schedules and Adam's stand-up & BUG career similarly accelerating around the world like a sonic tornado I feel this waffle portal may have run it's course. It's possible that Adam and Joe might just be able to survive without my reminding them where they said they'd be and when with my poor, lumpy prose.
However, the following has trickled over the filters of my search pebbills and may be of some interest.
June kicked off with another BUG Special. These are always wickles nights of concentrated fun but in this case the guest, Moby quickly grasped where Adam was going and they had a really lovely time on stage together. You can read a bit more from Mike Chapman, whom I believe was also a driving force behind pressing for the Manchester BUG. Joe Walsh also wrote a fabby piece about the night and there's a blog report here too.
The following weekend, Adam seemed to have brought the entire family into the 6Music studio which was very sweet. It looked like Frank chose to sit with Uncle Joe which momentarily melted this stony old heart. I won't embarrass any of the parties with webcam grabs.
A few days later, Stephenage was revived with fond nostalgia as Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold doubted the sustainability of such a fad. You've probably heard Joe's 6Music reportage on the subject but there's a nice bit in the Guardian too. Twitter was full of it on the night(s).
I'm still waiting for reports from Adam's gig at The Idler Academy last Wednesday. Squadron member, Nathan grabbed a last minute chance to take up duty on the door and Emmy the Great was there too. It sounds as though it was a special and intimate evening. Edited to add the first report from Spoonfed.
Meanwhile, BirthingSquadron had a long night of twitter encouragement before "Adam" was presented to the world. Lucy Annabel was awarded 'Tweet of the Night' for this.
Bravely eschewing concerns about any further shrinkage, Adam braved the torrential rain in aid of the National Autistic Society at the Carter Steam (Un)Fair last Friday. It was a truly miserable lump of weather allocation but everyone who made the effort to turn up seemed to have stoically broad grins on their faces. Here's one lucky punter's photo. Joe didn't want to risk getting his hair a little bit damp despite previously declaring how much he enjoyed god's spritz.
Later that evening, Adam headlined at The Bush Hall and Richard Herring, the host himself made a lovely blog entry about it. I love reading impressions from first-timers. There's an energy to their enthusiasm that is infectious. It seems he showed the wonderful Moby Identification film he made for the BUG Special earlier which is bladder testingly funny.
Tickets have gone on sale for BUG in Edinburgh. Buy them now before you regret it. Greenwich Comedy Festival tix have also started to sell.
The WYIFN had a little competition to celebrate the opening of Attack the Block by inviting members to submit a toy-based film.
Attack the Block is double billing with Die Hard at this year's Somerset House/Film4 Summer Screen run but I believe both it and the pre-film discussion are sold out.
After remaining in the UK top 20 for four weeks, the film finally has a release date of 29th July for a few big cities in the States and preview screenings have been happening over the last couple of weeks to great twitter excitement. It seems that Joe stumped up a delicious Shiner Bock for everyone attending the Austin preview. A red band trailer was released for anyone needing a spoiler-fest. (Seriously, think hard before you watch this, it will impair your viewing of the final product).
Deepest joy of the week was the discovery that there are an entire eighty four creature lovin' minutes of extra feature wafflization on the DVD/BD/Digital version which you can buy to own and salaciously run your tongue over in September. You might want to opt for the Play.com Special pack with Glow In the Dark nonsense and what looks like might be a complimenting green case. Lurble, lurble, lurble.
I try not to have favourites but I'm only human. The 6Music Radio Show which aired on 11th June 2011 was a corker. Quite possibly the jewel in the crown of the 2011 run. I suspect I'm not alone in this opinion. James made the podcast a suspiciously short offering which I might suggest was ergonomically compressed to efficiently delight the ears of Sony judges in the fullness of time whilst also including a meta kind of request-stroke-challenge to pop a noon barrier jongle in the absolute midpoint of said pod. Joe's workload had clearly lightened a little after all the film promotional hoopla and despite having some kind of very late :cough: work commitment the night before he seemed to have more time to prepare and contribute to both The Listeners' and Adam's delight.
This show was the two year anniversary of one of the other funniest shows in the locker (13th June 2009) wherein Joe first brought the ludicrosity of Blah Boobidy Baya to our attention and I feel sure it was pure coincidence that he revisited the subject in the 11th June show. I see the BBC have changed their perceived spelling of this timeless band in their recent blogpost but they remain as entertaining as ever. We were also introduced to illustrator James Hood, Roo's dad Graham and some sublime jingle reworkings. There was even cake. You can understand my fondness, surely?
The last studio-based show in the present run has aired and we only have Glastonbury left to enjoy. The festival microsite seems to be fully functional now, having gone live a little prematurely last week. They're showing a 2009 picture with a 2010 label and I'd like to know how long they gave Adam and Joe to come up with those choices of acts but everyone at 6 has to multitask so I'll forgive them. 6Music give such amazing coverage of the festival for those of us not able to attend. I am particularly chuffed to see that Shaun Keaveny has finally been allowed down there to join in the fun.
If you intend to arrive at Worthy Farm in time for an early start on the Saturday, please go along to the left hand side of the Pyramid Stage where the BBC OB unit set up their camp. Adam and Joe will be conducting the Black Squadron half hour by roaming around that part of the site and interacting with listeners. Please take an extra pair of clean paants. I believe further details will be posted at the BBC Blog in due course.
Here's a snapshot of the charts on this, the anniversary of my blog:
They've not been out of the top ten Podcasts or Episodes for the entire 2011 run and I wouldn't be surprised if their Glastonbury shows shoot them right up to the top for their swan song. That they can consistently remain in the top listings for the Radio iPlayer is something to be overwhelmingly proud of.
That final studio show, though heady with toxic emissions, evoked happy memories of the gloriously silly video Adam was showing in the Autumn of 2009 with himself, Joe and Louis Theroux dancing to Groove is in The Heart by Deee Lite. A select group of idiotholes saw it at the Electric Proms event but he also showed it in Greenwich and at BUG 15 Director's Cut. Joe found time to see Derrin Brown's latest show with Louis and reminded us of his Mr Magico days. What an amusing child-ponce he must have been. Joe also caught some sneaky peaky films including Adam's Stardust co-star Dexter Fletcher's directorial debut.
They used their almost dormant Twitter account to share a picture of a stuffed beaver but to be honest, I was more interested in seeing the BBQ of cement slathered skulls. They seem to be playing that Adam and Joe, 6Music jingle with the warmly surprised tone in it much more lately. I find it strangely comforting even though it's not made by Adam or Joe.
They revisited the Goblin King and reminded us of Adam's audition film. Joe surprised and alarmed us with his hitherto unheard impression of Frank Oz. Adam teased us with more reference to his much anticipated new instalment of Country Man by discussing nettles at length and even giving us what he called a 'song' about them. Can somebody remind me how we learned to cope without all this stuff on a Saturday, please?
According to the Radio Times, Andrew Collins and Josie Long will be covering the 10-1 slot on 2nd July.
Andrew Mawson has made an Adam and Joe based soundboard app for the iPhone, iTouch & iPad called NonSense 9000.
There's a lovely Black Squadron partnership out there in the form of David and Fiona James and today I thought I'd link Fiona's blog where she keeps her command submissions and much more. Andrew Collins sweetly takes the trouble to thank David for his help in this blogpost. Attendees of the BUG Röyksopp Special will remember that David's parents had the incredible foresight to name him "vidjam on twitter".
I'm not sure why some YouTubers disable the embed code but that is the case for this homage to an Adam and Joe conversation. It's mentile. Do take a look.
This channel only takes a few minutes to plunder but they'll be gigglesome minutes.
Final silly thing that might amuse is from Richard Dreyfuss and his reading of the Apple T & C's.
Enjoy the weekend at the farm. Goodness knows when we'll all meet again. Other Adam and Joe summer activities can be found here.
