Steve Lamacq recounts his favourite ‘shabby old rock’n’roll stories’

Steve Lamacq, award-winning broadcaster and champion of all things indie, is reliving an uncomfortable on-air encounter with a drunkenly confrontational Liam Gallagher. ‘It started innocuously enough,’ Lamacq recalls of his infamous BBC Radio 1 interview with Oasis in 1997. ‘Then Liam asked if I was seeing anyone romantically. I said, “Well, no one at the moment. Sometimes you’re so busy in the music industry you don’t have time to have a relationship. At least that’s what I find.”’ For reasons known only to himself and Mr Jack Daniels, Gallagher then threatened his host with physical violence. ‘Are you saying me and Patsy (Kensit, then wife) are f***ed?’ he asked Lamacq. ‘Because if you are, I’m going to come round that side of the desk and f***ing have you.’ Older brother Noel managed to placate his excitable sibling, but as the live-on-air interview descended into an unsavoury swear-fest, a BBC colleague, Claire Pattenden, intervened. ‘I’m the producer,’ she told Gallagher minor. ‘And I’m asking you to tone it down.’ ‘Well, I’m the f***ing singer in Oasis,’ the vocalist slurred. ‘And I’ll have you and your family.’ He later stormed out. ‘Not Liam’s finest moment,’ reflects Lamacq in his favoured Fitzrovia hostelry. ‘Good radio, though.’

BBC 6 Music DJ Steve Lammacq is touring his engaging one-man stage show Going Deaf For A Living

Lamacq recounts this and other ‘shabby old rock’n’roll war stories’ in his engaging one-man stage show Going Deaf For A Living.

‘It’s about the madness of being a music fan,’ the 53-year-old says in his earnest Essex baritone. ‘That realisation that music might actually mean too much to you.’ Initially apprehensive about treading the boards, Lamacq is slowly warming to the roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd. ‘In the past, I’ve even found playing records in a live situation difficult,’ he confesses. ‘I’m about as far from a superstar DJ as you can get.’ The live Lamacq experience also offers audiences a chance to request anecdotes about the DJ’s interactions with their favourite bands.

The Evening Session, a weekday Radio 1 show hosted by Lamacq and Jo Whiley introduced new names like Blur, Oasis, Suede and Pulp to a national audience. Lamacq’s current BBC 6Music teatime show continues the tradition of matey intimacy, in a style created by his broadcasting hero John Peel, who coined the nickname ‘Lammo’ for his young protege. Like Peel, discovering new bands has long been Lamacq’s stock-in-trade. The Next Big Thing is his thing. ‘I’ve always had an irrational sympathy for the under-dog,’ he muses. ‘Which may explain why I support Colchester United and not Chelsea.’ Inevitably, some of the acts Lamacq has nurtured from seed have blossomed beyond control. He was the first DJ to play Coldplay, having seen them perform in a North London pub (‘on a wet Tuesday night, 30-odd people there’) in 1999. Lamacq was charmed by their quiet confidence and middle-class neuroses. ‘They were posh but rather lovely,’ Lamacq reports. ‘And their songs were so strong that it wasn’t surprising that they became massive very quickly. I followed their progress up until they did the X&Y album, at which point I’d see them play Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver where you felt like you were gate-crashing someone’s celebrity party. ‘Suddenly you’re backstage at this huge venue and Chris Martin is introducing you to his missus (Gwyneth Paltrow) and you’re thinking, This is all very odd. We ended up talking about the weather, which was terrible, the heavens had opened.’ Lamacq later met Martin’s mother who lavished maternal praise upon the DJ saying, ‘Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for Christopher.’ Her rock star son stood by his gushing Mama ‘blushing like a teenager’. ‘It was a classic ‘Muuum!’ moment,’ laughs Lamacq. ‘Talk about squirming.’

The Evening Session, a weekday Radio 1 show hosted by Lamacq and Jo Whiley introduced new names like Blur, Oasis, Suede and Pulp to a national audience

The Evening Session, a weekday Radio 1 show hosted by Lamacq and Jo Whiley introduced new names like Blur, Oasis, Suede and Pulp to a national audience

Lamacq recalls an infamous BBC Radio 1 interview with Oasis in 1997, when Liam Gallagher walked out after threatening him. This picture with brother Noel was taken after the incident

Lamacq recalls an infamous BBC Radio 1 interview with Oasis in 1997, when Liam Gallagher walked out after threatening him. This picture with brother Noel was taken after the incident

Lamacq’s teatime show continues the tradition of matey intimacy, in a style created by his broadcasting hero John Peel, who coined the nickname ‘Lammo’ for his young protege

Lamacq’s teatime show continues the tradition of matey intimacy, in a style created by his broadcasting hero John Peel, who coined the nickname ‘Lammo’ for his young protege

Lammacq with la Roux in 2001. ‘I’m about as far from a superstar DJ as you can get,' he says. 

Lammacq with la Roux in 2001. ‘I’m about as far from a superstar DJ as you can get,’ he says. 

Professionally, Lamacq regrets that he hasn’t experienced the Wildean wit of Morrissey in the flesh, although it’s not for the want of trying. ‘I’ve never interviewed him, we were all set to speak but the night before we were scheduled to interview him, he checked out of his London hotel and went back to Manchester without telling anyone. ‘The radio promotions guy eventually tracked Morrissey down to his mum’s house, so he called her and asked to speak to Steven. He could hear him in the background saying, “Tell him I’m not here, mother!”’

His hectic gig-going schedule, which at its peak topped 200 per year, has been modified by the demands of a two-year-old daughter Lizzie, who he is bringing up in South London with his partner Jen. But the urge to unearth fresh talent still burns. Celebrating his 2005 nomination for a Sony Radio Academy Award – he finally received their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 – Lamacq was enjoying a quiet drink at the pub he is currently sitting in, when the realisation dawned that he was missing out on a momentous event, taking place just up the road. ‘The Arctic Monkeys were playing The Dublin Castle,’ he groans. ‘Their first-ever London gig and I didn’t go.’

The eternal indie kid sips his pint and sighs ruefully. ‘That’s never going to happen again.’

Steve Lamacq’s ‘Going Deaf For A Living’ tour kicks off in Colchester on 8th May – going-deaf-for-a-living.com. He presents his show on BBC 6 Music, Monday – Friday, 4pm – 7pm.

 

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