The last radio show was beamed out from Oldham Edge, a foreboding hill with adjoining aerial that manages to loom under the skyline, separating Oldham’s desolate moorland, with Oldham’s desolate town centre.
Each weekday from 10 til 2 Clint Boon held sway on the airwaves, with both complete control over the playlist, and with power devoluted to his adoring masses. For the first 2 hours of the show was comprosed of the songs he wanted to play, and nothing else. The second part, The Rebellious Jukebox, was comprised of listeners requests and nothing else.
And we, the Boon Army sat huddled in our Oldham hovels, our ears pressed to the speakers of our FM radios. Boony fed us a healthy, rich diet of Buzzcocks, Chameleons, Puressence, Bunnymen, Joy Division & New Order, Pixies, Interpol, Public Image, The Smiths, The Fall, The World Of Twist, The Paris Angels, Bowie, Blondie, The Clash, the Bunnymen, the Roses, the Carpets and his own band The Clint Boon Experience (Boony likes the royalties).
Boony fed us gateway drugs. Once he got you into Magazine (including telling you about ‘Shot By Both Sides’ riffs usage in Buzzcocks ‘Lipstick’) it’s only a short jump to the similarly named Television. And from Television it’s only a hop, a skip and a junky away from Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers.
Boony ruled his roost. One day he played a cover of ‘Another Girl Another Planet’ by Blink 182 (or some such toss) only to stop it half way through and crush it audibly. He’d play ‘Duelling Banjo’s’ at will.
Minds were shaped in the white heat of this cultural fire. Music junkies were fixed up good. This young neophyte heard Jimmy from Puressence sing and the world changed.
Then one day Boony left us, going off to join Radio X, or XS Manchester, or XS Playlist, or something. I tuned in once, they were playing the Kaiser Chiefs. For us weened on the finest diet, to listen to such table scraps was an affront to our education.
Radio has declined steadily since, becoming less and less meaningful. They have a radio on at work. It seems obligatory to play at least 70% Queen songs.
But for those of us that were part of the movement, the act, we had The Rebellious Jukebox and Boony was the ringleader.
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