The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[Serial_Apologist]

actually a courgette is a good description of the present BBC - liberal or green on the surface but having grown too big, bitter and seedy inside

...and frequently tasteless.

[french frank]

I tend to think if On Yer Mobile played 10 of those one morning you would have a fair bit to say ..... Add the adverts to the 29 and I honestly would have switched off very sharpish ......

Well, we have had a fair bit to say about playlists on a number of occasions

But we have to look at the Big Picture :-) : no two stations are going to be identical - pointing out specific differences doesn't necessarily make them 'distinctive'. It is a fact (isn't it?) that Radio 3's early morning programme has moved towards Classic FM in a number of respects - like playing shorter pieces than it used to, including several single movements per programme, increasing the less than relevant speech content, some perceive too much repetition of familiar works. That isn't Classic FM moving towards Radio 3. Some people may 'prefer Radio 3' and, like the BBC, they will point up the differences and play down the similarities.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not much I'll warrant, Ferney - just a few less pits perhaps. I was there not that long ago with Mrs G matching some of the localilty with the paintings of Norman Cornish - interesting mining museum and art gallery in the Town Hall.

OG

Many thanks, OGgy - I remember a school trip to the museum from my time there. Yes - definitely tempted to make a trip back to compare; I currently live 80 miles away, so not too vast a journey.

[teamsaint]

Many thanks, OGgy - I remember a school trip to the museum from my time there. Yes - definitely tempted to make a trip back to compare; I currently live 80 miles away, so not too vast a journey.

yes, well there's 80 miles and there's 80 miles.

if its anything like the last 80 miles by road to Minehead from absolutely anywhere, for instance........

[antongould]

Well, we have had a fair bit to say about playlists on a number of occasions

But we have to look at the Big Picture :-) : no two stations are going to be identical - pointing out specific differences doesn't necessarily make them 'distinctive'. It is a fact (isn't it?) that Radio 3's early morning programme has moved towards Classic FM in a number of respects - like playing shorter pieces than it used to, including several single movements per programme, increasing the less than relevant speech content, some perceive too much repetition of familiar works. That isn't Classic FM moving towards Radio 3. Some people may 'prefer Radio 3' and, like the BBC, they will point up the differences and play down the similarities.

.....fair points but my contention was, and is, that R3 Breakfast is much superior to the CFM equivalent and not, as was suggested, on a par ....

[Old Grumpy]

yes, well there's 80 miles and there's 80 miles.

if its anything like the last 80 miles by road to Minehead from absolutely anywhere, for instance........

Pretty good roads now around Spennymoor, most of them probably built since Ferney's last visit - lots of EU money available in the late 80s/early 90s.

OG

[Old Grumpy]

.....fair points but my contention was, and is, that R3 Breakfast is much superior to the CFM equivalent and not, as was suggested, on a par ....

[Flay]

and while driving to work was treated with a new low, some awful arrangement of Beatles tunes in a Baroque manner, The Royale Beatleworks Musicke.

Why arrange perfectly good tunes? I would rather hear the original Eleanor Rigby with its double string quartet, or For No One with its poignant horn solo. Beautiful playing from true professionals.

[jean]

But it's a joke - quite a good one, I think.

[cloughie]

Why arrange perfectly good tunes? I would rather hear the original Eleanor Rigby with its double string quartet, or For No One with its poignant horn solo. Beautiful playing from true professionals.

For No One, Alan Civil was it not?
...and Yesterday was Macca with a French SQ methinks.

[Flay]

But it's a joke - quite a good one, I think.

Agreed, but Petroc was asking for more (wacky?) arrangements, and my comment here reflects my thoughts at the time. The originals were pretty good.

[Don Petter]

Agreed, but Petroc was asking for more (wacky?) arrangements, and my comment here reflects my thoughts at the time. The originals were pretty good.

That was an annoying habit in R3 breakfast programmes long before the present descent into the abyss - needing to ward off imagined boredom in jaded palates by having arrangements on accordeons, nose flutes, etc.

One is reminded of the costermongers' shout 'If you don't want the goods don't muck 'em about!'.

[Flay]

For No One, Alan Civil was it not?
...and Yesterday was Macca with a French SQ methinks.

Civil played the horn but it was an ad hoc string quartet in Yesterday (Tony Gilbert, first violin; Sidney Sax, second violin; Kenneth Essex, viola; and Francisco Gabarro, cello).

One of the cellos in Eleanor Rigby was played by Derek Simpson from the Aeolian Quartet

[french frank]

.....fair points

Thank you.

but my contention was, and is, that R3 Breakfast is much superior to the CFM equivalent

Radio 3 "beats Classic FM at its own game"? As was, and is, my contention: some people will be satisfied with it, others won't. Objectively, should Radio 3 have started doing what Classic FM was already doing? An argument that it's doing it 'better' than Classic FM has no critical credibility.

[antongould]

..... That's what people mean by saying this portion of the day is no better than Classic FM. Radio 3 should be better - and that means objectively 'better' .........

This is what I was disagreeing with .........