Jake on ‘Start the Week’

[mark sturdy]

Just wondered if anyone knew anything about this.

Victor Lewis-Smith has mentioned more than once that he used to get Jake in as guest whenever he could while he was working producer on Radio 4’s ‘Start the Week’. However I’ve never seen any more details than that.

Does anyone recall these appearances, or perhaps even have a tape or two squirreled away? Would Jake’s contributions have been musical, or just talking?

The BBC Genome site offers no clues as to Jake’s involvement, but confirms that Victor Lewis-Smith produced Midweek for a period in 1985, before moving on to Start the Week throughout 1986 and into 1987. So quite late on by Jake’s standards.

[Paul]

Hi Mark

Jake certainly appeared on Start the Week, although recordings are few and far between. I stumbled across Jake playing on the programme in 1987, when I was at university, and managed to record on cassette him playing and singing Brassens’ Dans l’eau du claire Fontaine. He also played Tortoise as a birthday treat for the host on the programme.

[mark sturdy]

Thanks Paul. I’m guessing that’s the version of Dans l’eau that I’ve heard? There’s another radio recording here that presumably is from about the same time – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isnWe5XDksk

I wonder what the archive status is of Start the Week? It’d be amazing if some of this stuff could be retrieved somehow. Seems like Jake used to pop up quite a lot on various magazine type radio programmes in the ’80s, and I bet not that many people had the presence of mind to be poised with a tape recorder.

[Author]

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