Beyoncé had arrived in Cardiff
Beyoncé was due to play the Principality Stadium and Scott had become fascinated by the rumours that followed a superstar arriving in an ordinary British city.
A genuine video showed her getting out of a Dragon Taxis vehicle in Cardiff city centre. From there, the sightings became increasingly difficult to verify.
Listeners claimed she had been seen around bars, takeaways and supermarkets, while Scott tried to imagine whether somebody at Beyoncé’s level of fame could ever simply decide to go into Tesco for something she fancied.
One caller had a more concrete piece of backstage information. His company had delivered around 100 square metres of fresh black carpet to the stadium for Beyoncé’s dressing-room area.
That prompted an entire conversation about the strange requirements major touring artists could request from venues. Scott had heard stories of new toilets being installed for stars and gyms being built at each tour stop.
A listener who had worked at Rock City in Nottingham said a new toilet had once been installed for Steven Seagal.
Another caller argued that very famous people did occasionally visit normal shops. He remembered Drake going into a high-street store while in the Birmingham area visiting Jorja Smith and buying sweets.
Scott still liked the idea that somewhere in Cardiff somebody might unexpectedly find themselves behind Beyoncé in a supermarket queue.
Radio 1 rediscovered the internet in 1997
Scott then found an old television guide explaining the internet to children in 1997.
Everything about it belonged to a very different online world.
The presenters explained basic concepts which would later become completely ordinary, from browsing websites to sending electronic messages. The programme had its own extremely earnest theme song about “riding on the internet”.
Scott and Chris played examples of the language people used when simply getting online was still treated like a futuristic activity.
One section suggested writing to President Bill Clinton.
Another old Radio 1 clip involved Pete Tong having to read out a web address so long and complicated that it sounded less like useful information and more like somebody dictating computer code over the radio.
The feature became a reminder of how quickly the internet had moved from being something television programmes needed to explain to children into something most listeners carried around in their pockets all day.
Could three words get you onto Love Island?
Love Island was back, and Scott and Chris tried to work out what kind of person belonged in the villa by asking listeners to describe themselves in only three words.
The answers were not always aspirational.
One person chose “Takeaway pizza connoisseur”.
Another offered “Absolutely massive forehead”.
Scott liked these descriptions because they sounded much more like real people than the polished phrases normally used in reality-TV introductions.
Listener Jamie said he would happily apply for Love Island even though he had a girlfriend.
When Scott challenged that, Jamie admitted the attraction was partly the experience and partly the possibility of becoming famous.
He was so interested in going on the programme that the existing relationship did not appear to rule it out.
That gave Scott and Chris a useful preview of the following day’s subject: people who had actually ended relationships for a chance at reality television.
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