Scott was on his own
Chris was away for the day because it was his wife’s birthday.
Scott immediately warned him not to repeat the appreciative massage noises he had once made during the famous Kavos massage.
The absence meant Scott had the studio to himself, but the show was already full.
Dan Smith from Bastille and Marshmello were due in after their Live Lounge.
The local-news feature from Monday had also produced an enormous supply of stories.
Harriet created a whole local-news genre
Scott replayed the story of Harriet the opera donkey, which had become the programme’s new benchmark for a slow local-news day.
Listeners started supplying their own examples.
Two nurses had once made the news largely because one was called Katie Day and the other Katie Knight.
A £1 roll of tin foil had allegedly been stolen from Poundland.
A lorry had hit a lamp post.
The smallness of the stories was precisely what Scott loved.
Then a listener from Jersey introduced Gulliver.
Gulliver terrorised Jersey
Gulliver was a seagull with a reputation.
The bird had become notorious around St Ouen’s Bay because it would allow people to get surprisingly close and then turn aggressive.
Locals accused it of dive-bombing people, stealing food and taking hats.
One description compared its size with a pterodactyl.
There had even been talk of moving the bird elsewhere on the island.
Scott played a clip of a man on the beach being attacked and shouting after Gulliver stole his hat.
The attempt to reason with the seagull in ordinary English made Scott laugh almost as much as the story itself.
Pete & Bas became Scott’s new grime stars
Another listener introduced Scott to Pete & Bas, two older men making grime music.
Scott initially thought the idea had to be a novelty act.
Then he played “Do One”.
The lyrics mentioned card charges, pork scratchings and having a mate who knew karate, delivered over a proper grime beat.
The pair were around 70 and already attracting hundreds of thousands of views.
Scott had recently been invited to help judge the BBC Sound of 2019 list.
He immediately joked about using his influence to get Pete & Bas considered.
Whether or not they fitted the normal definition of a new artist, they were certainly new to Scott.
Layla brought her ukulele back six years later
The biggest studio moment belonged to intern Layla.
Years earlier, in 2013, she had appeared on Hayley Williams’s show as a Bastille fan and played “Flaws” on the ukulele.
Now she was actually working at Radio 1.
Dan Smith was sitting in front of her.
Scott replayed the old recording.
Layla looked understandably horrified at hearing her teenage self back on national radio.
Then Scott revealed she had brought another ukulele with her.
Bastille and Marshmello judged the covers
Layla performed “Pompeii” for Dan and Marshmello.
Because Marshmello did not normally speak in interviews, Scott had given him laminated emoji cards to judge the performance.
There were fire symbols for good, a poo emoji for bad and other increasingly enthusiastic reactions.
Layla received fire.
Then she played “Happier”, the Bastille and Marshmello collaboration.
Dan told her that one of the strangest and nicest parts of releasing music was hearing somebody else turn it into something completely different.
Marshmello chose an approving emoji too.
Layla had begun her Radio 1 internship by being sniffed by François the Nose.
A week later, she was playing two of her favourite artists their own hits on ukulele.
Scott considered that an unusually strong induction programme.
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