July 13th, 2006
The last Mystery Train tonight
Tune in to the very last broadcast of John Kelly’s soon-to-be missed Mystery Train on RTE Radio 1 at 8.30pm. The decision to ditch the show is a real loss for music and for eclectic broadcasting. It’s also interesting to note that there’s no mention of it being the last show on the Radio 1 homepage, nevermind fanfare or tributes to the show or its presenter. Nothing. Nada. With some luck, and as a fitting epitaph, the seven year playlist archive (obviously text only) will still be available on the Mystery Train homepage for anyone looking for new musical inspiration.
Apparently there’s a piece in today’s Examiner about the final show, but I couldn’t find it despite an extensive trawl around the Examiner site. (If anyone can find it, let me know)
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’ll miss all the nuggets of Northern soul, blues, jazz, electronica, indie, swamp rock, bluegrass, afro-beat and so many more weird and wonderful discoveries heard via the show.
July 13th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
This is gonna be a big loss. I wish they wouldn’t put the Around Midnight show off over summer, I really enjoyed that.
July 13th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
He’s only gone and switched to Lyric.
July 13th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
I’ll show my age here by saying I remember him when he was up North. I’ve still got to read his book Cool about the ankles which is still up in a bookcase somewhere.
July 13th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
When I heard that the show was being cancelled I was devastated! Huge loss. Especially for the people who never got to ride the train. Best show I have ever listened to.
July 14th, 2006 at 7:10 am
Thanks for your continuing publicity on this arts deficit on RTE issue. John Kelly astutely handles the television programme The View, which is an interesting programme albeit with occasional shortcomings. The arts scene in Ireland has expanded enormously in Ireland over the last twenty years but our media have a half-hearted attitude. There is a crying need for a long national discussion about this.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:37 am
It is truely a desert out there now without John Kelly and Mystery Train. This programme was the first thing that i zoned into and felt reflected the the true Broadminded musical soul of Irland since returning after 17 years in San Francisco California where Radio stations are killer and where people live for them.
RTE has lost the plot and cant think outside the box it seems! Ill follow John Kelly to Lyric or whatever he decides to hang with. John Kelly for President. Rave on John.
July 14th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
I must say I have to agree with David Cotter. I was in San Francisco for a summer driving around a truck and listening to the radio. Different stations had different sounds. Imagine that! Here, we just have the one sound that every radio station is going for, the only difference between most stations is what time they have each particular style of show on. Boring!
John Kelly guaranteed a different style of music each night.
July 14th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Agreed re radio, there is very homogenised thing going on here with radio. More and more, we’ll be turning to the internet to listen to radio (I already do). I was talking to someone last night about RTE’s plans for Digital radio and it was actually very encouraging.
Donal and David, of you missed today’s post, you’ll be delighted to hear that John is back on Lyric (albeit in a slightly less broad sense) in October.