Chris compares graduation with Barack Obama’s election
The morning after Barack Obama won a second term as US president, Chris created an election-themed 24 Years at the Tap End. He returned to 2008, when Obama had first reached the White House and Chris was completing his third year at Southampton University. Chris saw numerous parallels between their lives, from both men needing a strong final campaign to each of them dressing formally for a major celebration.
Southampton’s graduation ball was held at the Guildhall and promised a meal, burlesque entertainment, a jazz band, a DJ set from Radio 1’s Nihal and a headline performance from Kate Nash. Reports that Nash had been booed the previous evening were followed by her withdrawal from the second event. Chris had even called Scott to ask whether he could travel down and fill the gap, an approach Scott did not remember receiving favourably.
The night still produced a surprise headliner. Chesney Hawkes appeared with a band, opened with “The One and Only”, performed an hour of covers and then returned to his best-known song. Chris and his friends sang with their arms around one another before Nihal’s set and a final communal rendition of Take That’s “Never Forget”.
Chris proudly recalled earning his 2:2 degree, learning to cook pasta and becoming responsible for his own future. His attempts to connect the emotional moment with Obama gradually turned into a recitation of the lyrics to “Never Forget”, but he remained convinced that the president must have experienced something similar across the Atlantic.
Scott plans a modern Christmas classic
The team discussed when Radio 1 should begin playing Christmas music. Scott thought the same small group of songs returned every year, naming Mariah Carey, Wham!, Shakin’ Stevens and The Pogues before adding the original Band Aid recording. More recent attempts tended to be novelty tracks or songs that disappeared after one season.
He decided the programme should create a serious modern Christmas classic which Radio 1 could still play in 20 years. Scott was candid about the financial appeal: writing one enduring festive hit could provide an income every December. The standard he set was a new “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, not another deliberately silly number-one campaign.
Beccy and Chris thought the aim was extremely ambitious, particularly with fewer than 50 sleeps remaining until Christmas. Scott nevertheless wanted to start immediately and imagined the royalties paying for a large house with a driveway. It was the beginning of a project that would continue through the month.
Misha B’s emergency root canal
Misha B had been expected in the studio the previous day, but emergency root-canal treatment forced her to cancel. She called the show while still in pain and taking antibiotics every three hours, explaining that one side of her face had become so swollen that she resembled Eamonn Holmes in the video for Kanye West’s “Through the Wire”.
The dark glasses in a picture posted by Radio 1 were 3D cinema glasses rather than protection following laser eye surgery. Misha had undergone treatment from eight in the morning until about six in the evening, yet was still preparing to perform in Cardiff on the final date of Nicki Minaj’s tour.
Despite being the opening act, she had not yet met Minaj. Their schedules kept passing: Misha was leaving hair and make-up as Minaj arrived, and vice versa. She hoped the final show would bring them together, even if the swelling made it a less than ideal first meeting.
Stupid Street learns that Obama won
The team replayed highlights from the previous day’s Stupid Street survey, in which people in Britain confidently said they would vote in the American election. The women who intended to find a polling station in Lincoln remained favourites, alongside the description of Obama as a party animal and the voter who believed his doughnut giveaway demonstrated his credentials.
Scott then announced Obama’s victory, spoiling the result for a listener who had recorded the coverage to watch later. Attempts to remain politically impartial quickly collapsed into a discussion of whether Romney had “won second place”, and the team agreed that genuine election analysis was better left to Newsbeat.
Real or No Real
Bill Clinton had sent only two emails while president, one of them a test message. A naga chilli did not contain ten per cent more heat energy by weight than enriched uranium, despite Chris remembering how painful the chilli had been when he tried one.
The average man genuinely spent about a year of his life looking at women. People were not always within a five-minute drive of a Papa John’s, but it was impossible to inhale through the nose and speak at the same time. The Japanese version of Deal or No Deal was not called Little Beardy Man Big Red Box Open Win Money Game. Beccy won with 50 points, ten ahead of Scott.
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