The Wurzels warmed up Scott and Chris
Scott and Chris had spent part of the weekend DJing at Harper Adams, surrounded by students and young farmers. Their unlikely warm-up act was The Wurzels, who naturally delivered “Combine Harvester” but also worked a West Country version of Kaiser Chiefs’ “Ruby” into their set.
The combination of agricultural college, cider and The Wurzels felt so perfectly matched that Scott and Chris were still talking about it on Monday. They had taken a photograph together and were particularly amused by the idea that The Wurzels could operate as a support act before a Radio 1 DJ set in 2018 without anybody finding it remotely strange.
Scott tried to switch off listeners’ smart speakers
Smart speakers were becoming common enough that the programme could now accidentally activate devices in listeners’ houses. Scott realised that a friend was hearing Radio 1 through one at home and decided to test how much control a presenter could exercise simply by saying commands on air.
He tried variations of “Alexa, turn me off” and “Google, turn me off”. Messages quickly arrived from listeners whose speakers had paused or otherwise responded, demonstrating a new problem for live radio: the presenter could now potentially tell the equipment carrying the programme to stop carrying the programme.
Ghostbusters: Christy’s Spanish holiday disappeared with the man
Christy had been talking online to a man for months and had met him around ten times. Things appeared to be progressing well enough that he suggested they spend a week together in Spain.
After a night out, Christy dropped him home and later messaged to say she had found what looked like the perfect hotel and asked whether she should book it. That was the point at which he vanished. Days passed without a reply. When she eventually called, he allowed the phone to ring and then ended the call.
The disappearance became even harder to understand when Christy spotted a Facebook exchange under one of his posts about running a marathon. A friend made a joke about him running away from relationship commitments, which suggested the behaviour was not entirely out of character.
The show tried to contact him. He initially hung up and, when approached again by the production team, made it clear that he did not want to appear on air. Christy at least got confirmation that he was alive, reachable and deliberately choosing not to explain himself, although Ghostbusters could not force the missing explanation out of him.
The Ill Game caught Kevin
Three listeners claimed to be off work ill, but one was faking. Ashley described a chesty cough and sore eyes, while Kevin rang from a service station and blamed colleagues for passing illness around. Jodie in Devon said her tonsils felt swollen and described the low-effort sick-day combination of dry crisps, *Friends* and thinking about ordering pizza.
Scott and Chris believed Jodie. Their suspicion eventually settled on Kevin.
They were right. Kevin admitted he had simply worked late, felt tired and did not fancy facing Monday morning. The service-station sickbed had been a performance, making him the latest listener to be exposed by the Ill Game.
Assembly Anthems were heading for the remix treatment
The response to old school assembly songs had become big enough for Jaguar Skills to start turning them into a proper mix. Scott and Chris discussed staples remembered from school halls, including “Give Me Oil in My Lamp”, “Shine Jesus Shine” and the song about “cauliflowers fluffy”.
They promised the finished Assembly Anthems treatment for Friday. The programme also reminded listeners that tickets for Radio 1’s Biggest Weekend were due to go on sale the following Monday morning, with caller Tom particularly interested in the Swansea event.
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