You can’t turn on the radio without bumping into David Byrne at the moment, and the chief Talking Heads dancer turns DJ in The David Byrne Radio Show on 6 Music, armed with a bucket of eclectic tunes.
It’s not everyone who would kick off their show with Enrique Morente. “It’s like Sonic Youth meets flamenco,” says Byrne with a giggle. “Which seems very, very unlikely, but it’s really cool.” Indeed. Anything Byrne touches is considered cool, but that doesn’t even register to him as he mixes up songs he likes and surprises “in the same bucket”. He’ll spin from Curtis Mayfield’s live funk rambler We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue to the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra’s rendition of the Planet of the Apes soundtrack. “Let’s go somewhere really odd,” he says, in a way that would make you slowly back out of his front room if this was real life. The choices are so obscure it’s a relief to hear a nice bit of Hot Chip, who Byrne listens to as he cycles around New York. That’s a snapshot of a great life, right there.
Freaky though the music may be, it’s delivered without pretence as Byrne tackles the subject of – cue the worst word of modern times – “curating” London’s Meltdown festival. “Curating is maybe an obnoxious word that’s overused,” he says, quite rightly. “But there’s a certain truth to it and the question is, am I better than an algorithm or am I not?” Fortunately, he is.
“I do like chatting,” cackles Gemma Cairney as she hosts a playful episode of The Conversation on the World Service, which is all about soap operas. Neighbours scriptwriter Sarah Mayberry, who works around the “Table Of Pain” – where storyliners dig up their darkest secrets – discusses the art of popular drama with Simone Singh, star of Indian soap Heena. Straight-talking Singh is a confession bomb. She doesn’t even watch soaps and uses eye drops for crying scenes. “If you’re going to look for realism and authenticity in every scene you’re asking for trouble,” she laughs, before explaining that it’s not unusual for actors to faint from overwork as they struggle to keep up with the gruelling filming schedule.
Usually a motormouth, Cairney pipes down and leaves her two guests free to discuss the cultural differences between their “soapies”, only punctuating the conversation with the odd question or “wow”. It’s froth-free and fascinating.
