Scott packs for Chris
Chris was technically packed for Radio 1’s Big Weekend, in the sense that he had a suitcase and had put things inside it. Beyond that, he could offer very few guarantees. He admitted he had simply grabbed whatever was around him the previous night and stuffed it into the case, with no idea how many socks, pants or useful clothes were actually there. His main request was that Scott fold everything properly for him.
Scott opened the bulging case on air and conducted an inventory. There were at least some clean socks and underwear, a pair of shoes and more clothes than Chris needed, but the choices were chaotic. A collection of suspicious extras also appeared, including catnip, elderflower tea, toiletries and the mocked-up cover from 24 Years at the Tap End. Some had clearly been planted by the team.
One item, however, genuinely belonged to Chris: a Touch of Frost DVD. Scott could not understand when he expected to watch David Jason solving crimes during a weekend packed with live music. Chris’s inability to explain why the DVD was there did little to improve the impression that he had packed by sweeping the contents of his home directly into a suitcase.
More Fish Pie Sues come out of the phonebook
The mysterious Fish Pie Sue had now given her name to an entire category of telephone contact: somebody saved under a memorable description which no longer triggered any memory at all. David’s example was especially unhelpful. He had a number saved as something resembling “Su Su Woo Woo Yes”, apparently carried across from an old phone, and had no idea whether the owner would be a man, a woman or somebody he had ever met.
He called the number live. A man answered, explained that he had only had the number since February and could provide no connection whatsoever to David’s mystery contact. The likeliest explanation was that the original owner had given up the number and it had later been reassigned. The mystery therefore ended not with recognition, but with permission for David finally to delete it.
The show also revisited Steve-O’s “Rohan Scorpion Jack”. This one had a much happier ending. Rohan turned out to play guitar in a band called Scorpion Jack, and the pair concluded that they had probably met during a drunken night out in Belfast. Radio 1 had not only identified the number, it had effectively reunited two people who seemed perfectly happy to become friends again.
Radio 1’s school trip gets stuck
Travel to Derry became its own rolling story. A large group of Radio 1 DJs and artists spent hour after hour at Heathrow waiting for a delayed journey. Updates from the airport made it sound like an unruly school trip for famous people: Huw Stephens was distributing food, artists were scattered around the terminal, and even keeping track of everyone became a challenge.
After roughly seven hours, the group finally left Heathrow by road, not because their flight had departed but because cars were taking them towards a mystery alternative airport. Dan and Phil were among those in the convoy. Scott joked about Lord Sugar sending candidates off on a task while the travellers concentrated mainly on the relief of moving at all.
Back in Derry, the event itself could not wait. Greg James and Sarah-Jane Crawford broadcast from the site as the crowd queued across the Peace Bridge. With a horn and loudhailer ready, they led the countdown before the gates opened and Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2013 officially began.
Clare masks, fake Psy and a plan for Scott
Chris was still carrying the face masks which had taken over the show during the week. Scott, Chris and Clare from reception were now available for listeners to print, with Clare continuing to inspire the most elaborate efforts. One person had laminated her face in case of rain; another listener planned to attend dressed as Fish Pie Sue with a name badge and an actual fish pie.
The team then discovered pictures from Cannes of a man who had apparently walked into a celebrity party pretending to be Psy. He was treated like a VIP and photographed with famous guests until the real Psy’s location elsewhere gave the game away. Scott loved the audacity of it.
Chris thought there was another reason the story appealed to Scott: with the right glasses and styling, he believed Scott could pass for Psy himself. The idea immediately became a future challenge. Psy was due on the show on 10 June, giving them the possibility of creating a “Psy on Psy” photograph and perhaps testing whether Scott could convince strangers that he was the star.
A Big Weekend Real or No Real
The day’s Real or No Real was built entirely around previous Big Weekends. The claim that The Kooks and The Twang had accidentally swapped drummers because of a logistical mix-up was false, although Scott could believe it after witnessing the complexity of festival production. He remembered having to jump into Mika’s show in a giant bear costume when the intended performer failed to appear.
Dev really had rehearsed to play with Kids in Glass Houses only to trip over his guitar cable and disconnect himself at the crucial moment. That painfully reminded Chris of his own Christmas-show disaster, when he walked onstage for his one line and accidentally pulled the microphone lead out.
Sara Cox really had taken prawn-cocktail crisps from Alan Titchmarsh’s dressing room, and Usher really had opened his set in Maidstone by greeting Manchester. Scott also remembered the Black Eyed Peas struggling to identify Carlisle during a previous Radio 1 event. It was a fitting game for a day in which the new Big Weekend had already produced its first travel story before much of the station had even arrived.
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