A couple of weeks ago, during an interview with Joe Brown, Spencer Leigh let slip that he would be 75 on the first of February, the date of Brown's gig at the Liverpool Phil - which Spencer will, of course, be attending.
Like Joe Brown, Spencer's longrunning On the Beat show on BBC Radio Merseyside is still on the go, and long may it continue. I've really grown to enjoy his wide-ranging musical knowledge and his unshowy delivery. Performers seem to open up to him because they know that he knows his stuff and he cares about it. He has written books about various aspects of pop music: he has a particular interest in Merseybeat and the Beatles but his knowledge of rock'n'roll and 60s/70s pop seems pretty far-reaching.
His, for example, was the only UK obituary of Pookie Hudson (in the Independent) which gave any indication of familiarity with the Spaniels' biography. And during a Steve Cropper interview he was able to make the leap between the Beatles' 12 Bar Original and Green (not Glass) Onions. Not to mention a discussion with (I think) one of the Searchers about just what sort of kiss it was in Sweets For My Sweet which "thrilled me so." Or pointing out the pinch from the Diamonds' version of Little Darling at the end of the Beatles' Misery. All in one episode.
The programme isn't parochial, even though he will announce local gigs and his knowledge of Merseybeat and the Beatles will come to the fore. The scope of the programme is much wider than that. If you could weep when you think of the amount of time you have spent in the past listening to interviews by DJs or TV figures who haven't done their homework or simply don't have that much invested in the interaction then in a quiet sort of way Spencer will be a revelation because he does care - and he can make the musical connections which can illuminate things for the listener. During that recent Joe Brown interview there was an anecdote about George Harrison subjecting Scotty Moore to an evening of George Formby songs, to Moore's obvious discomfiture. Who else but Spencer would have pointed out that Pete Seeger was a Formby fan?
There is, in short, a foundation of wideranging knowledge which means that his interviews are more rewarding than in many other cases, and you can hear it in the performers' response to his questions: you can hear them relaxing and opening up, because it sounds like they're being talked to by a human being who has actually enjoyed their music, not a Radio Personality. Tommy Hunt mentioned during an interview that when he heard Spencer's voice on the phone "I knew he was gonna be nice."
When I began writing this blog I thought I would only write about doo wop. But other music I'd grown up listening to crept in, and of course it was all connected. Why not just celebrate it all? Which is what I've tried to do. And what I get most strongly from Spencer's show is that he too thinks all this, the broad sweep of popular music, is important. On his personal website he says of On the Beat:
My radio programmes contain many interviews with a wide variety of people from the world of pop, rock, country, soul ... everything in fact. I hope to provide an insight to their music, and give the listener an opportunity to hear the unusual as well as the familiar.
Well, for my money he does - frequently. And if you haven't heard this little gem of a show, you can listen to recent episodes here. The Joe Brown episode is here. Spencer's own website, where you can read articles, buy his books, and see a list of past On the Beat guests, is here.
On the Beat is broadcast on BBC Radio Merseyside every Sunday 7.00-8.00pm.
