EPTThe next time I really noticed them was when they did a show called Adam and Joe go Tokyo, when was them exploring interesting things in Japan. I watched it shortly before going to Japan myself, so it was really cool to see all the mad things. They had guests and some bands playing live. Definitely worth checking out on youtube.
However my personal favourite thing they have done is their radio show on what was then the new station Radio 6. The show was on at the most unreasonable time of Saturday morning, just when most people would be waking up. The show developed a cult following. They have a very easygoing style of talking on the fly, and turning every situations into funny anecdotes. Anyway, my whole ramble and the point of this blog is that I would like to invite you to listen to the archive of their shows, which are in the form of podcasts that have had the music removed from them obviously for copyright reasons.
Some terms you might come across whilst listening are:
Text the nation – A section of the show where they get people to write in e-mails about a particular subject. Also, Retro-text the nation is a way in which people who listened to the show later on demand could send in their letters about the previous week’s topic.
Black squadron – Black squadron are the hardcore audience of the Adam and Joe radio show who wake up early on Saturday morning to listen live from the very beginning of the show. This concept then spawned other “squadrons” such as lazy-squadron, blog-squadron etc.
Song wars – Song wars was a challenge in which A&J each wrote an amusing song for on a particular theme, and then the listeners voted online to decide who won the challenge. Probably my favourite part of the show. Because this involved a lot of work for A&J they only did this occasionally.
Steven! – The most random thing on the show. A listener responded to a topic on Text the nation. I forget exactly what the subject was, but the jist was this guy wrote a comic about himself when he was a kid called “Steven!”, which then A&J turned into a calling card for all listeners to their radio show. The idea being people would go to a public place and shout “Steven!” and then anybody who knew what this referred to would respond with “Just coming!”. It’s really one of those things where you had to be there.
Big British Castle – is how A&J refer to the BBC as a joke
Boggins – a fictional dog voiced by Adam
The show finished because Joe became a fulltime movie director directing his first film Attack the Block, and also writing the screenplay for TinTin.
Some things are precious and special, and the Adam and Joe radio show was one of those things. When you were listening to it you felt as though you were a part of something larger. I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy, but it felt like something special to me.
You can listen to a collection of the podcasts here.
