Name: Pete Bishop
Show: Deep Sea Ball
When are you on?
I am on Tuesday evenings from 10pm to midnight rotating on a four-week basis with The Peter Harris Experience.
What type of music can we expect to hear on your show?
I play almost anything – I cannot think of a style of music that doesn’t have some odd and interesting gems hidden somewhere within.
How did you discover this music?
In the very very first instance, John Peel in the late 70s. I am a big believer in radio for broadening a persons musical horizons, god bless the BBC (but not daytime Radio 1, heaven forbid).
How long have you been DJ’ing?
I did my first ever show on Vibraphonic in 2006.
How did you start DJ’ing?
I listened to Vibraphonic about four years ago and it was good to hear something different. I though yeah I can do that, I’ve got some music that people might want to hear. So I emailed the right person and they said tell us what you want to play and we’ll try and get you a show. Here I am!
Do you DJ anywhere other than on Phonic FM?
Well, I do run the charity quizzes in my local pub, but aside from that . . . .
What was your most embarrassing DJ’ing moment?
Probably some ill-thought out feature on Jim and Pete’s Breakfast Show, going down like a lead balloon.
Jim Roberts and I did about three months of Phonic FM Breakfast Shows in the spring, during which various features were dreamt up by the both of us. We had Dawn Chorus, Mystic Bob’s Horoscopes, Entente Cordiale, From The Horses Mouth and many more, just to keep things interesting for the listener (they might disagree!). Most were well received, and went well. One didn’t – The Undersea World of Joe Bugner! Joe Bugner was a British boxer from the 70’s and the idea was that Joe was making a comeback, and that we would interview Joe (impersonated by me) before and after each comeback fight. Now, being out of the ring for a sometime, he’d obviously need to start with easy fights – hence Undersea World of Joe Bugner, as we had him down to fight, in ascending scale, starting on Monday, a marine mollusc (limpet), small crustaceans (your prawn), large crustacean (lobster), small fish (sand-eel), and, by Friday a large fish (a conger eel). Sounds good eh? And it should’ve been easy to impersonate a boxer – you just talk whilst pressing hard on your nose. We had some splishy-splashy sound effects, and the sound of punches can be created by biffing the mic. But it was one idea too far. It was, plainly and simply – rubbish. And once you’re in up to your chin in a fictitious rockpool pressing down hard on your own nose, pretending to battle a limpet, well, there’s no easy way out, you’ve just got to keep going to the end of the skit. Feeling stupid. “Yes”, said people who I know had heard it, “what on earth was all that splashing and thumping about?” Maybe it was a good idea, maybe I just didn’t have the bottle to carry it through, but as yet I’ve not heard back from Benny Hill, to whom I forwarded my idea . . . .
What was your best DJ’ing moment?
Ten shows in, getting less nervous and realising I was starting to enjoy this . . .
Who is your favourite artist?
Ah! Impossible to answer! So many wonderful tunes.
What is you all time favourite album?
It is impossible to choose just one so: Dragnet by The Fall, it was their second album and was released in 1979; Indian Poet by Kavi Pradeep it’s an album of Bollywood film music from the 50’s; and Sequel by Michal Jacaszek and Milka Malzahn it was released in 2006 and is some Polish electronic-swing-jazz-trip-hop!
Tags: deep sea ball, pete bishop, steering group