GARETH CHILLCOT AND POETRY!

Working in the media can lead to some very strange moments. My latest weird event was listening to a poem I had written in 45 minutes flat being read aloud on the BBC by a world famous rugby player!

I’ll attempt to explain. It all started with a Stoke City supporter ringing BBC Radio Stoke and leaving a rhyme he had penned on the station’s answering machine. He urged his favourite team to win promotion to the Premiership.

Repeating the phrase “Do It” he evoked local names, places and things in a touching plea for the hit-it-and-hope footballers of that area to bring some pride to the potteries. The BBC Radio engineers got their hands on it and set to the rousing music of “I Vow To Thee My Country” broadcast it as a rallying cry to the players and supporters.

It soon became a short video on youtube and last time I looked had achieved over 17,000 views.

Of course Stoke City were due to play Bristol City in a showdown game at the top of The Championship. Through the labarynthine corridors of the BBC the poem became known to BBC Radio Bristol and their drive-time presenter Ben Prater decided Bristol should hit back with a poem of its own.

The Stoke man was anonymous (except he calls himself Pottermouth). With just a few hours to go before the drive-time show Ben asked around the newsroom, hoping to hear of a local poet. Chief Reporter Nigel Dando stepped up to the mark and said: “I know an idiot who supports Bristol City and could turn his hand to poetry writing.”

So that’s when I got the call and soon found myself trying to find rhymes for well-known Bristol icons – like Banksy and The Wurzels! Well, you try it!

Soon the rousing words were written and sent to the Radio Bristol studio where they had enlisted the help of former Bath and England rugby legend Gareth “Coochie” Chilcott – yes, I know, that seems strange.

Why a rugby legend? Well, Gareth did go to school at Ashton Park just a stone’s throw from Bristol City’s home ground so it is his team when it comes to the round ball game.

With the rousing music behind him Coochie did the business for Bristol City and the battle-cry went out on Radio Bristol – and was soon repeated due to popular demand from listeners.

Shame that the Bristol City players were already at a hotel in the Midlands with their i-pods on so missed it. Perhaps they wouldn’t have lost 2-1 if they had heard the efforts that Coochie and I had put into encouraging them to peak performance.

But hey, it was good fun entertainment for BBC listeners and much-needed light relief on a day dominated by stories of “controlled explosions” and arrests in Bristol  of a suspected terrorist. The media needs its fun stories as well as its hard news.

MEDIA WATCH

Why are hold-ups always caused by “sheer volume of traffic” by presenters on the radio. It seems the words “sheer” and “volume” always creep in there. Why not just say it is caused by “a lot of vehicles” or simply say there is a traffic jam?

It is one of those phrases that the media use by habit. A bit like the fact that the end of the world is always “nigh” whereas everything else is “near”!