Stars guest on Culture Club show

We've certainly been enjoying a celebrity line-up on shmuFM's Culture Club show in recent months, with presenter Angie Joss securing interviews with the likes of Professor Brian Cox, Ruthie Henshall, Andy Kershaw and Liz Lochhead.

Angie said, "I’ve had some amazing opportunities to talk to such interesting folk since I started presenting the Culture Club. Whether they’re famous stars or local folk quietly doing great things to make sure culture thrives in Aberdeen, they’ve all had something relevant to say to our show’s listeners.

I couldn’t believe it when I wandered up to Liz Lochhead, Scotland’s Makar (National Poet) and asked for an interview at Aberdeen University’s May Festival.  Not only did she agree, she also said how much she admired the tartan Doc Martin boots I was wearing!  In conversation, she was everything I thought she might be, from reading her poems since I was introduced to them in school - and I hope that came over to the listeners, too.

Interviewing Andy Kershaw was a stand-out moment for me, earlier this year.  He can literally talk non-stop.  He’s had such a wide and varied career, you could listen to him for hours.  And, since he’s been around for so long, he also represents the memories of many of us “of a certain age”.  He told hilarious tales of what presenting Live Aid was actually like, then moved straight on to the most moving and sorrowful recollections of his time in the 90s, as one of the first Western reporters to tell the world about the mass genoicide in Rwanda.  Andy’s a natural storyteller and his One Man Show at the Lemon Tree was hours of the same - in the end, he’d to be told by staff to finish up, because the audience would have sat and listened for even longer, I reckon.

One of my favourite guests was Geordie Murison and his pals who came in and recorded a Bothy Ballads session, after I saw them perform at a Doric Festival near Laurencekirk.  They sang songs that I remembered hearing in my childhood, plus many totally new to me, accompanied by a variety of instruments, as well as unaccompanied and I went home afterwards thinking we’d preserved a little bit of Doric culture right in the Shmu studio. They were the nicest bunch of folk you could meet, as well."

The Culture Club is broadcast at 2pm on Fridays, and repeated at 7pm on Sundays, on 99.8FM.