Lesson 1: SAYS

Too many radio scripts that intro an audio clip, use the word says.

For example. “Prime Minister David Cameron says he can see the changes in policy making a huge difference.”

Often we can use alternatives to says. So in this example THINKS, could be used or BELIEVES.

However the script can be made even tighter, and therefore flow much better by saying:

“Prime Minister David Cameron can see the changes in policy making a huge difference.”

Simple but effective.

Remember if you are using a clip of someone, you do not have to intro with ‘says’.

Last year, Reading had built a formation around the outstanding youngsters Gylfi Sigurdsson only for the Icelander to leave in August. Whilst the club cannot be falted for taking the huge money offered, the sale left the club listless and struggling to recover for several weeks.

Eventually Reading’s form recovered and manager Brian McDermott found a way to play without the playmaker. But the disruption was huge.

Why is the transfer window open until the end of August and why does it not shut the moment the season kicks off? How many transfers cannot be done before the end of July? Just knowing the deadline was earlier would kick people into action.

It seems ridiculous to me that once the season starts, changes can still be made for a month. Many teams have to change their squads because of being raided during August, and it frustrates fans. If a club sees one of its players get injured there is always the loan system. Shutting the window when the season kicks off seems fairer and more sensible. What are your thoughts?

Since then of course Simon has forged a very successful solo career, and his albums are still greeted with great interest. More than twenty years after Graceland though, that album is still used by many as a benchmark for his solo records. Since then, Simon has moved on significantly, and the process of getting older and thus becoming more reflective is more apparent with every release.

Having said that, the African influences, the rhythms and tricks, that he learned in the mid-eighties have always stayed with Simon. Less so perhaps on previous album Surprise (2006) but here tracks like Dazzling Blue and Rewrite could quite easily have come from 1986. The former is a lovely song describing love as an accident and destinies being true, that Simon fans will lap up

Elsewhere there are trickier moments with The Afterlife a slightly uncomfortable cross between The Obvious Child and Boy In The Bubble, while Love And Hard Times’ delicate vulnerability is a touch too introspective. Opening track Getting Ready For Christmas was released as a single in the States last November, but hearing it in the middle of summer just doesn’t feel right!

Paul Simon is on a growing list of artists that started their careers in the sixties and are into their eight decade. Rock and Roll will were always told is a young person’s game but some of the old guard are still proving that’s definitely not the case.

Rating: 3/5

It’s the 29th May 1995 and I am sat at Wembley holding my head in my hands. Reading are two nil up and there’s only 20 minutes gone of the Play Off final against Bolton, with the winners getting a place in the top flight, something never achieved by my hometown club. You would think I’d be jumping and down, but the realization is hitting me that the Royals are just 70 minutes away from mixing it with the big boys. No matter that teams like Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal will, in all probability, have to play us at Loftus Road because Elm Park’s unfit. I really can’t believe it. History is about to be made.

The rest of that afternoon is now Play off folklore, with Archie Lovell’s penalty saved just before half time (don’t let anyone call it a miss) and the late comeback from Bolton Wanderers that eventually sees them win 4-3 after extra time.

The aftermath of the defeat is a blur. I trudged away from the stadium slightly dazed, encountering a crying RFC fan on the tube and driving home from Hillingdon to reflect on what might have been. Pictures of Lovell, distraught on the Wembley pitch afterwards bring me close to tears but the pride I feel for the team is immense. To come so close. Amazing.

The pain slowly fades and Reading eventually made it to the top flight for the first time in their history after a record-breaking season in 2005-06.

Now comes another play off final, again for the right to play in the Premier League. This time it doesn’t mean as much because we’ve been there before BUT the pain of defeat or the joy of winning will still be extraordinary. Fans know no inbetween. It’s win or lose. Pain or glory.

And here comes my main point. Like most fans (I think it’s fair to say) I am a glass half-full person. Football does that to you. But there is real pleasure and pride in seeing my team making headlines. It still gives me a warm glow to see a front page featuring RFC (like the Liverpool or Everton cup wins recently).

To my mind, that sense of attachment, that extra bond is not felt by supporters of the bigger more successful teams. After all success is benchmarked in different ways. Arsenal have failed this season apparently. Despite qualifying for the Champions League, again, getting to a cup final and only losing in Europe to the best side on the planet. Reading finishing 9th in the Championship would have made me happy.

The FA Cup final was more special this year for the change of teams, different sets of fans walking up Wembley way. Ok, Stoke lost and were awful on the day. But those 40 thousand fans will never forget that day. And I bet they are still proud of the players and the club.

Manchester City fans know what it’s like to suffer. That’s why, despite their money. I hope there is further joy next season for the blue half of Manchester. I think City fans have an attachment, emotionally unbreakable, that means appreciation of success is greater. Good luck to United on Saturday, but please those United fans that have only known glory, take a step back and appreciate the success. Drink it in. It won’t go on forever. For some clubs it will be never be tasted at all.

Plough Lane was their home and after some turbulent times, they appointed a former Arsenal player as manager, the man who has now led Reading to Championship play offs, Brian McDermott.

As an interviewee – he was always interesting and it has to be slightly awkward, as you had the sense that he knew that I had very limited knowledge about the team and league that I was covering. After all I am a Reading fan and was far more interested in our Division One survival!

On one occasion a show I was recording featured the legend that is Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet. Chatting to Tony after recording our interview we talked football and his love of the Arsenal. I mentioned Brian was manager of the local side and that I was due to see him that day. He then insisted on driving me to the ground to meet the man he’d seen score at Highbury.

Bizarrely Tony at that time had very little money and the old banger we went in was a treat! The driver’s door didn’t open properly and it splattered and splutterd to Plough Lane. But Tony and Brian had a lovely chat!

Years later, while working for 2 Ten I had to interview then Reading manager Alan Pardew, and as I arrived at the training ground in Sonning Brian walked by and shouted ‘Hello David how are you?!’. Remembering an annoying journo from 5 years before was impressive and it has stuck with me.

Brian you are a class act – and win or lose on Monday, Reading and its footy fans should be immensly proud of what you’ve achieved.

Urrrzzz

Having already played on the HMV Next Big Thing tour, Marlin seems to have started 2011 with some zeal, and it is with some interest that we explore this debut release. The first impression is his striking baritone, which is a cross between David Bowie and Damon Albarn, and like those two, this music is very British. No other country would produce this type of material.

Inspired by the likes of Elvis Costello and Paul Weller, Marlin’s old enough to have more to write about than meeting girls and going clubbing; “Am I writing my obituary as a spreadsheet or a eulogy?” he asks on the pained ‘Undercover Genius”. Even his press release has a lovely quote about wasting years fixing the holes in his alibis.

The songs are steeped in traditional pop-rock, but Marlin knows that simple isn’t always good, and there are some lovely production tricks, courtesy of James Durrant. For example, the lovely ‘No Place Like Home’ could have been a standard acoustic strum, but instead it has a lovely pitter-patter rhythm and some delicate keyboard splashes.

‘Second Son’, with it’s touching father-son story (“you shook my hand and sent me away, remember the day”) and ‘Iceberg’ are other tender moments alongside the edgier guitar driven tracks like the very Bowie-esc ‘Hit That Button’ and ‘Play That Game’. Marlin’s supporting The Stranglers on their tour of the UK in March, and I would imagine that he’d go down very well. An interesting debut, just a shame it took so long.