Sunday 22/01/2012 with guest presenter Andy Hoyle

By Mike Wallbank, 22-Jan-2012 17:25:00

Like To Get To Know You Well (Howard Jones)
Flowers In The Window (Travis)
Michael Caine (Madness)
Two artists with a connection
Big Time (Peter Gabriel)
Sussudio (Phil Collins)
... lead singers of Genesis
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Rocket Man (Elton John)
Guiding Star (Cast)
Newsround Tameside - 28 years ago: January - February 1984
99 Red Balloons (Nena)
Feels Like Heaven (Fiction Factory)
My Ever Changing Moods (Style Council)
I Am What I Am (Gloria Gaynor)
Wishful Thinking (China Crisis)
Break My Stride (Matthew Wilder)
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Gold (Spandau Ballet)
Why Can't We Make Things Work (Lee Meade)
When I'm Dead And Gone (McGuinness Flint)
Two instrumental tracks with a connection
TV themes, by the same artist, A side and B side of a #1 UK hit single in 1973
Eye Level (The Simon Park Orchestra)
... Van der Valk theme
Distant Hills (The Simon Park Orchestra)
... Crown Court theme
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Matthew and Son (Cat Stevens)
There Goes The Fear (Doves)
Reflections - 41 years ago: January 1971
You've Got Me Dangling On A String (Chairmen of the Board)
Pushbike Song (The Mixtures)
Resurrection Shuffle (Ashton, Gardner and Dyke)
My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)
Home Lovin' Man (Andy Williams)
No Matter What (Badfinger)
Rhapsody In Blue (Rick Wakeman)

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Sunday 15/01/2012

By Mike Wallbank, 15-Jan-2012 15:00:00

Goody Two Shoes (Adam Ant)
The Night (Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons)
Hope Of Deliverance (Paul McCartney)
Cheery Tunes with a sing-a-long quality
A World Of Our Own (The Seekers)
Don't Throw Your Love Away (The Searchers)
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Speak Like A Child (The Style Council)
Mirrors (Sally Oldfield)
Newsround Tameside - 19 years ago: January 1993
The Love I Lost (West End featuring Sybil)
Sweet Harmony (The Beloved)
After All (The Frank and Walters)
How Can I Love You More? (M People)
Life Of Surprises (Prefab Sprout)
Could It Be Magic (Take That)
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Please Mr Postman (The Carpenters)
One Of Us (Abba)
I'd Never Find Another You (Billy Fury)
Cheery Tunes ~ Absolutely Lyricless
Ski Sunday theme (Pop Looks Bach) (Bob Sleigh & The Downhill Racers)
A Walk In The Black Forest (Horst Jankowski)
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Another Suitcase In Another Hall (Barbara Dickson)
Beautiful Stranger (Madonna)
Reflections - 50 years ago: January 1962
The Lion Sleeps Tonight (The Tokens)
Crying In The Rain (The Everly Brothers)
Let's Twist Again (Chubby Checker)
Multiplication (Bobby Darin)
Tower Of Strength (Frankie Vaughan)
Stranger On The Shore (Mr Acker Bilk)
Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen (Neil Sedaka)
The Young Ones (Cliff Richard & The Shadows)
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Rhapsody In Blue (Rick Wakeman)

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Peep into the past - spanning the decades...
posing at primary school, modelling the latest
hip and trendy eyewear in the late '60s...
fast forward to the summer of '75 with
Bay City Rollers' hair... and onwards
into the '80s with HUGE saucer-sized specs. newsreading and presenting shows on
Heartbeat Radio (later known as 8 Towns Radio)
at Tameside Hospital

Music played... complete track listing

Vintage Newsround Tameside

The Newsround Tameside archive is a regular feature of The Show That Forgot - carefully preserved from 'a previous life' long ago...
The original Newsround Tameside was a weekly feature on the local hospital radio station -sadly now defunct - which broadcast to the patients and staff at Tameside General Hospital. The station was officially launched in 1983 as Heartbeat Radio, but later adopted the name 8 Towns Radio.
I am proud to say that I was there at the start, training a team of volunteers to compile and read the hourly news bulletins. I read the news on the station's very first day on air, Saturday 22 October 1983.
That same weekend, I presented the first edition of Newsround Tameside, compiled from the week's local papers. The 15-minute round-up evolved into a feature within my own weekly show which ran for 10 years, from February 1984 until early 1994.

Is that REALLY Rolf Harris...?

'G'day... you're tuned to
Microphone Wallbank'....
an instantly familiar voice
makes the announcement
during our back-to-back music
interludes known as
the Cheery Tunes.
And yes, it really IS the voice
of Rolf Harris himself,
recorded way back in 1986!
I was delighted to have the
opportunity to interview Rolf backstage at G-Mex
in Manchester, during a break in rehearsals at the Halle Summer Proms - he was the narrator for a performance of Peter and The Wolf.
At the time, he was presenting Rolf's Cartoon Time on TV and had just published a book on cartoon drawing, on which he scribbled his autograph in typical style!
A genuinely nice guy - I found that the man as seen on TV is exactly what you get when you meet him in real life.
Our conversation, first broadcast on 8 Towns Radio, for the patients of Tameside General Hospital, included many great memories of Rolf's early career and an impromptu rendition of the first song he ever performed - complete with customary, improvised sound effects and the unforgettable title...

Seven Beers With The Wrong Woman !!!