| Charlie wins another award | Charlie was awarded "The John Peel Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music Radio" at the Radio Academy's Celebration of Music at the Caf茅 de Paris. This is a truly distinguished "gong" following in the footsteps of the likes of John Peel, Kenny Everett, Johnnie Walker, Paul Gambaccini, Steve Wright, Pete Tong and Chris Tarrant. It's further recognition of Charlie as one of the most respected music presenters in British and world radio. |
Every Saturday Night, Charlie Gillett takes off on a musical adventure, inviting his listeners to come along for the ride. Most weeks he has at least one guest, often two, with one of them playing two songs live in the studio, and the other joining Charlie in a game of his own invention called Radio Ping Pong. The rules are simple: with no prior discussion about who brings what, the guest and Charlie each bring about a dozen records to the studio, where they take turns to play them for an hour. If they can find reasons for playing one song after another, so much the better. The range of guests reflects the range of the music - among the people he has played ping pong with this year are Terry Hall (formerly of the Specials and Fun Boy Three), the Be Good Tanyas (a trio of female musicians from Vancouver), Samuel Charters (author of The Country Blues, a standard work on the subject), Eugenio Benatto (a songwriter, producer and bandlander from Naples) and the 82-year-old calypso singer Young Tiger. Playlists of all the shows since June 2001, with photos of all the guests and album covers are posted at the website where Charlie recommends an album of the month and provides weblinks to help tracking down the records for listeners who want to buy them.
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