Spice up your life

It's easy to be cynical about the Spice Girls' reunion and forthcoming tour.

Any negative comments I've seen about it seem to suggest that they are only doing it for the money.

I thought that this was a strange thing to accuse them of, to be honest.  It was as if being paid to perform was a bad thing.

Do these people think the likes of Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones are still gigging for the good of their health?  No, I don't imagine that they are.  I assume they must still enjoy it, but don't think for one minute that they'd put themselves through all that for nothing.

The nostalgia market is huge - many 80s bands and solo artistes are still touring - so why shouldn't the Spice Girls and other 90s acts?

I must add at this point that I didn't consider myself to be a fan of their music.  But Chris Evans played a montage of their songs instead of Serious Rockin' one Friday morning, and I don't mind admitting that I found myself singing along and even doing a small jig while ironing (no easy feat!)

One listener even texted in to say that her little boy had just been fitted with hearing aids having been profoundly deaf.  For the first time ever, he'd started dancing while listening to the Spice Girls' music.  I'm sure I wasn't the only one who appeared to have something in their eye while listening to Chris read out that text.

The point I'm trying to make is, whether or not you like the Spice Girls, it doesn't really matter.  They make people happy, they make people dance, and thousands of people are paying to see them perform live again.

Let's stop being so cynical about music, artists, their motivation for performing etc.

Let's just acknowledge the fact that everybody's different, we all like different genres of music, and one isn't necessarily better or more valid than another.

People of the world, it really is time to spice up your life!

Radio 2 - if it ain't broke, don't fix it

'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' - not the most grammatically correct of sayings, granted, but true nonetheless.

On many occasions I've uttered this mantra and saved myself a lot of unnecessary stress and heartache.

I think the bosses at Radio 2 should have also said this to themselves before they changed the format of the Drivetime show.

They had a popular presenter in the shape of Simon Mayo, they had a winning formula of chat, confessions and cookery amongst other things.

But for some reason best known to themselves, they decided to throw this all up in the air and parachute in Jo Whiley to co-present with Mr Mayo.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Jo Whiley, and I've made no secret of the fact that when I grow up I want to be Jo Whiley.  She's like the cool girl at school we all wanted to be best friends with and of whom we were slightly in awe.

But the lack of professional chemistry between Simon and Jo - who have been friends for 25 years, so it's not like they don't get on - was painful to listen to.

In fact, I had to stop listening, because it made my ears hurt and I couldn't concentrate on cooking the dinner while cringing so much.

Now Simon has resigned and is heading for pastures new - rumoured to be Smooth FM, but who knows.

Jo has been given back her evening show, which is where I first listened to her on Radio 1 with Steve Lamacq.

Sara Cox has been announced as the new host of the Drivetime show, and I like her a lot, but would have preferred her on the breakfast show where she more than ably covers for Chris Evans in his absence.

I just hope they leave Popmaster with Ken Bruce and Steve Wright in the afternoon just as they are. 

Otherwise for lots of listeners serious jockin' will become serious leavin'!

Great British Bake Off 2018

Ooh, wasn't this year's Bake Off good? 

The final had me on the edge of my seat, too close to call who the ultimate victor was going to be.

I thought Kim-Joy had edged it, but Rahul was crowned the winner in what must have been the closest final in the show's history.

Rahul appeared to genuinely not know how good he was throughout the series.  How this was possible as time went on and he received Hollywood handshakes almost every week is beyond me, but his lack of self-confidence and his Eeyorish quality of doom-mongering and always anticipating the worst outcome was endearing, if not a little stressful to watch at times.

I may take up Ruby's use of positive post-it notes - we saw a shot of her flat, with messages like 'I am the Bake Off winner' etc on the fridge - and post mantras such as 'You're doing your best' and 'Your food is almost always edible' to give myself encouragement.

I wasn't sure about the out-of-the-tent experience of camp fire cookery if I'm honest, and I don't think adding a Bear Grylls element to Bake Off was necessary.  Having said that, if I ever want to cook pitta bread alfresco, I now have a better idea of the pitfalls that could await me.  Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.

The companion show Extra Slice with Jo Brand, provided a fun-filled hour of out-takes, behind-the-scenes clips, discussions with the baker who'd been voted off, and also an opportunity to see the culinary creations of the nation each week.

Never again will I be able to look at a hedgehog cake or Colin the Caterpillar in quite the same light though.  Some of the photos sent in by viewers were bordering on frightening - I can only hope these horrors were not presented to a child as their birthday cake otherwise years of counselling will ensue!

So that's GBBO over for another year, and I'm missing it already.  At least we've got the Stand Up To Cancer fundraising celeb version to look forward to - bring on the bakers!