A box of old relationships needed dealing with
The show began with a problem from listener Charlotte, whose mum had sent her a box containing photographs and keepsakes from old relationships.
It was not just one ex. Charlotte had effectively received an archive of former boyfriends, complete with old toys and other presents. Scott suggested that anything sellable could go on eBay, joking that at least an old relationship could then be given a precise cash value.
Chris had experienced something similar when an ex returned a box of things he had given her. He remembered his mum Theresa having to call and gently explain that the package had arrived.
Other listeners made the situation stranger. One said his gran still displayed a large photograph of him with an ex in her living room. Another had kept expensive photographs from a Disney holiday but covered his ex’s face rather than throw them away.
The question was less about whether people still had old photographs — most did somewhere — and more about when an old memory becomes too conspicuous to leave on the wall.
Don’t Look It Up became unexpectedly heavy
Don’t Look It Up started with Year Six geography before moving into a round of thrash-metal versions of pop songs.
Scott and Chris had to identify songs from aggressive guitar covers, including Lizzo’s *Truth Hurts*, Dua Lipa’s *Don’t Start Now* and The Weeknd’s *Blinding Lights*.
There was also football-mascot trivia, which brought back the previous day’s confusion over Partick Thistle and its famously unsettling mascot Kingsley. Arsenal’s Gunnersaurus was another answer.
As usual, the fun came from questions that sounded straightforward until the pair were denied the ability to look anything up.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor was recovering from a frightening fall
Sophie Ellis-Bextor joined the show from her bedroom, where she had hidden away from her children to do the guest mix.
Scott first checked that she was all right after a cycling accident had made the news. Sophie explained that she had swerved to avoid somebody while cycling along a towpath and had gone over the side while the tide was out, landing on the concrete below.
She had felt foggy for several days afterwards and admitted she had not been wearing a helmet. The experience had changed her view completely: she said she would never cycle without one again.
Sophie had posted on Instagram to thank the runners who stopped to help. She had not anticipated the story becoming news, meaning her dad found out about the accident before she had even managed to tell him herself.
The mix moved from The Weeknd to The Streets
Sophie’s first selection was The Weeknd’s *In Your Eyes*. She particularly liked the strange video, in which a woman ends up dancing with a decapitated head.
Next came The Streets and Tame Impala’s *Call My Phone Thinking I’m Doing Nothing Better*. Sophie said it had been lovely hearing Mike Skinner’s voice again, which was particularly well timed given that Mike was due to do his own guest mix on the show later in the month.
The conversation then turned to Skepta’s *Love Me Not*, which sampled *Murder on the Dancefloor*. Sophie had been delighted when Skepta approached her to clear the sample. She liked the way it gave her original vocal a completely different atmosphere and described the contrast as part of what made it work.
That left only one sensible follow-up: *Murder on the Dancefloor* itself.
Murder had travelled to some very odd places
Scott asked Sophie about the strangest places she had encountered her own music.
One memory went all the way back to the success of *Groovejet*. Sophie had been having a fairly personal medical examination when the doctor suddenly mentioned hearing her song on the radio that morning. Sophie made the mistake of joking that she hoped the doctor would not think of the examination whenever the record played, probably guaranteeing exactly that association forever.
More recently, she had been delighted to hear one of her songs used on *Don’t Tell the Bride* while a groom tried to propose using a ring tied around a chicken’s neck.
Her later selections included a song chosen because she missed festivals and live music, followed by Daft Punk’s *Da Funk*, which took her back to music she had loved when she was younger.
She finished by returning to *Groovejet*, approaching its 20th anniversary in 2020.
Scott tried to improve Rag’n’Bone Man
The archive moment of the day featured another of Scott’s deliberately overconfident vocal-coaching sessions.
This time he attempted to teach Rag’n’Bone Man how to put more emotion into his vocal on Calvin Harris’s *Giant*.
Rag’n’Bone Man played along as Scott stopped and interpreted individual lines, told him when to reveal more emotion and treated himself as though he had found something the professional singer had somehow missed.
It continued the week’s running joke of Scott offering unnecessary artistic guidance to singers with voices rather more accomplished than his own.
COMMENTS