Presenter Shaun Keaveney, 49, on , his dream festival, and why he would have struggled a decade ago.
How are you today?
I’m at my mum and dad’s at the moment, up north. I’m actually avoiding the children, they’ve all gone out, so hopefully, there will be no disturbances for once. The weather’s s***e.
Whenever I come up north I spend the whole time sitting in the conservatory, listening to the rain on the roof – it’s always raining whenever I come here.
You left BBC Radio 6 after 14 years and started podcasting. Do you miss it?
It was a wrench to begin with but the last few months have been exhilarating, terrifying and quite tiring. I’m not used to multitasking so I’ve been learning how to do it.
It’s six months down the line now and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t really get holidays anymore now, do I?’ And I really need one – but being self-employed, I can’t book a holiday off with myself! So that’s annoying. But apart from that, it’s been exciting and for an oldish guy it’s been a new world.
Your …
One of the things we did at the end of last year was start a Patreon – almost by accident. We did a live show on Fridays and it’s become a focal point
for a lot of fans of Radio 6.
We’ve called what we’re growing the Community Garden. You miss people – a lot of these guys would email you every day and send in jokes and shout-outs, so it’s
nice to regroup and start the silliness all over again.
Doing my podcast, The Line-Up, is another great way of keeping in contact with people. If the job had gone away sort of 10, 15 years ago I would have been screwed. But that’s the good thing about the modern world and social media – I can keep in touch with my listener family.
Tell us about your The Line-Up…
It’s a bit like Desert Island Discs but instead of a fantasy island, it’s a fantasy festival. We get a special guest who loves music and I’m their festival genie, creating one magical day from dawn to dusk and beyond with the five artists, alive or dead, they would love to put on stage. But they also get to talk about their lives, their loves and losses.
We talk about their culinary peccadilloes, their friends and family – it’s amazing how it all unfolds and becomes quite emotional and funny. It’s a great way of hearing about music you would never have heard of.
Felix White of the Maccabees namechecked this incredible, left-field classical guitarist called Marisa Anderson. But equally, George Ezra picked the Spice Girls. He wants to get up on stage and perform with them, you see.
Who’s in your dream line-up?
It would be Marvin Gaye with Sly And The Family Stone – some beautiful soul stuff to get the crowd going. Then the Jimi Presley Experience – that’s Jimi Hendrix and Elvis on vocals. Inspired by the very sad loss of Taylor Hawkins, I would desperately like to see the Foo Fighters play again with Taylor on drums – seeing him play was one of the greatest rock ’n’ roll experiences of my life.
Then I’d have someone like Tom Misch or one of these south-east London jazz collectives who haven’t yet managed to play a festival.
What’s your favourite festival?
It’s a hackneyed choice but Glastonbury. Nothing beats it. It is all the things that people say about it. But when I look back at the line-up I think, ‘I can’t remember any of the artists, I don’t think I actually saw any of them.’
You miss more than you ever see but that’s part of the pleasure of the place, it’s all of the things around it too, the healing fields, Block 9, all the psychedelic craziness…
You’ve got another podcast as well…
I’m beginning to realise I’ve got a lot on my plate – I’ve got out of the traps pretty fast. It’s called Creative Cul-De-Sac and it’s me sitting in my top room going through my old notebooks of old gags, sitcom ideas, things that never came off – and then I have a special guest and go through their odyssey of failed ideas.
I’ve had people like Vic Reeves, Samira Ahmed and Joe Lycett. It’s a really interesting insight into their creative world and all the things they’ve done that no one’s ever heard of.
Is it sad to look back on these great ideas that didn’t take off?
You realise the thing that’s missing all the time is time and effort. I’m a bit lazy and a bit ADD and I’ve got three kids, so everything just falls off the plate.
I’m not particularly happy that I’m not a successful novelist or a great screenwriter but that’s my lot – I’m a broadcaster and podcaster, and that’s good for me. It’s an OK way to make a living.
You’ve got three things on the go – what’s next?
Doing less! I’m hoping to step back and take stock, and work out what I can do and do it well. And maybe fit in a holiday.
The Line-Up and Creative Cul-De-Sac are available on all good podcast providers. Community Garden Radio is available via Patreon.
