Mark and Lard was the stage name of
Mark Radcliffe (Mark) and
Marc Riley
Marc Riley (born 10 July 1961 in Manchester) is an English radio DJ, alternative rock critic, musician, and former music businessman. He currently presents on BBC Radio 6 Music.
Formerly a member of the Fall, he co-owned a record label, In-Ta ...
(Lard), who presented various weekday shows on
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
from 1991 to March 2004.
Career
Radcliffe, then a Radio 1 producer, began presenting specialist shows on the network in 1991, namely ''
Out on Blue Six'', ''The Guest List'' and ''Skyman''. During this time, he also hosted ''Hit the North'', a weekly
BBC Radio 5 music and comedy show from Manchester with Riley as its researcher, and latterly, co-producer and presenter. Riley also presented his own series, ''Cult Radio'', during the summer of 1993.
On 25 October 1993, the pair transferred to Radio 1 full-time and began presenting a late night show from 10pm-midnight on Mondays-Thursdays, replacing
Nicky Campbell
Nicholas Andrew Argyll Campbell, OBE (born Nicholas Lackey, 10 April 1961) is a Scottish broadcaster and journalist. He has worked in television and radio since 1981 and as a network presenter with BBC Radio since 1987.
Early life
Campbell wa ...
's ''Into the Night''. The ''Graveyard Shift'' featured a mix of comedy sketches, poetry readings, live sessions and guests, including regular contributors such as
Mark Kermode
Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', prese ...
,
Mark Lamarr
Mark Lamarr (born Mark Jones, 7 January 1967) is an English comedian, writer, radio DJ, and television presenter. He was a team captain on '' Shooting Stars'' from 1995 to 1997, and hosted ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' from 1996 to 2005.
Early li ...
,
Stuart Maconie
Stuart Maconie (born 13 August 1961) is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, and critic working in the field of pop music and popular culture. He is currently a presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music where, alongside Mark ...
,
Simon Armitage
Simon Robert Armitage (born 26 May 1963) is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds.
He has published over 20 collections of poetr ...
,
Ian McMillan and
Katie Puckrik
Katie Puckrik (born July 12, 1962) is an American broadcaster and newspaper columnist. Born in Virginia, Puckrik is best known for hosting British youth magazine shows '' The Word'' and ''The Sunday Show'' in the 1990s. She also created and ho ...
.
They had presented the ''
Radio 1 Breakfast
''Radio 1 Breakfast'' is a radio show that is broadcast across the UK on BBC Radio 1. It is hosted by Greg James since 20 August 2018 as the show's 16th presenter.
The show ran six days a week until February 1968 (seBBC Genome Project, then fi ...
'' show as stand-ins for
Chris Evans, and after his departure from Radio 1, Mark and Lard took over the flagship show on 17 February 1997. But low ratings led to the pair being replaced; they presented their last show in that time slot on 10 October 1997. Their eight-month tenure was the shortest of any Radio 1 Breakfast Show. Mark and Lard moved to an early afternoon slot (2-4pm, later 1-3pm), where they continued until 26 March 2004.
Throughout the afternoon show's run, regular features included spoof phone-in quizzes such as ''It's a Sausage Roll'', ''Circle of Chance'' and ''Fish or Fowl''. Other items on the show included ''Downcount'', ''Lard's Classic Cuts'' and ''Beat the Clock''. The pair became well known for a stock of catchphrases such as ''Biggedy Biggedy Bong'', ''Stop....carry on!'', ''By Jovi'', ''Cabbage Garden'' and ''Wickedy Wickedy Warp''. One of the many characters on the show was 'Fat Harry White' (Radcliffe with a
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
) – a thinly disguised parody of soul singer
Barry White
Barry Eugene Carter (September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003), better known by his stage name Barry White, was an American singer and songwriter. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came ...
, this character was so successful he was given his own CD in 1998, entitled ''Hmmm Baby'' (The Seduction Selection, which was also his catchphrase) – it peaked at number 83 in the UK charts. During the afternoon show's run, Mark and Lard went onto win three Golds at the
Radio Academy Awards
The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...
.
Throughout their Radio 1 career, the pair produced and broadcast their shows from the
BBC North West
BBC North West is the BBC English Region serving Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, North Yorkshire (western Craven), West Yorkshire (western Calderdale), Derbyshire (western High Peak), Cumbria (Barrow-in-Furness and So ...
studios at
New Broadcasting House, Manchester
New Broadcasting House (NBH) was the BBC's North West England headquarters on Oxford Road in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. The studios housed BBC Manchester, BBC North West, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Religion and Ethics de ...
– in contrast to the network's London-based content. The studios, closed in November 2011 and later demolished, were invariably dubbed on-air and in Radio Times' schedule billings as ''The Palace of Glittering Delights''.
Shirehorses
Mark and Lard are also the creators of the spoof
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band "
The Shirehorses", who released two CD albums:
*''
The Worst...Album in the World...Ever...EVER!''
*''
Our Kid Eh
''Our Kid Eh'' is the second album from the spoof band the Shirehorses, comprising two BBC Radio 1 DJs, Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley (a.k.a. Mark and Lard). This album's title is a play on the name of Radiohead's 2000 album '' Kid A. Our Kid ...
'' – The title is a combination of the contemporary
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
album ''
Kid A
''Kid A'' is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown of Oxford.
After th ...
'', and the northern phrase 'our Kid'.
Leaving Radio 1
In February 2004 the pair announced they were leaving Radio 1, with Radcliffe moving to
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...
and Riley moving to
BBC Radio 6 Music
BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...
. Their last show was broadcast on 26 March 2004 and featured a guest appearance by
Travis, messages of commiseration from
Neil Hannon
Edward Neil Anthony Hannon (born 7 November 1970) is a Northern Irish singer and songwriter. He is the creator and front man of the chamber pop group The Divine Comedy, and is the band's sole constant member. Hannon wrote the theme tunes for t ...
,
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
,
Blur (
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...
composed a special song but "broke down in tears" before finishing it) and
Kelly Jones
Kelly Jones (born 3 June 1974) is a Welsh singer-songwriter and a founding member, lead singer, and guitarist of the rock band Stereophonics.
Early life and debut
Kelly Jones was born youngest of three boys for Beryl and Arwyn Jones in the s ...
of
The Stereophonics
Stereophonics are a Welsh rock band formed in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in the Cynon Valley, Wales. The band consists of Kelly Jones (lead vocals, lead guitar, keyboards), Richard Jones (bass guitar, harmonica, backing vocals), Adam Zind ...
, whom they'd frequently insulted during the show's run. They also received a bouquet of flowers from
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
. At the end of their last show, Riley sat in the silent studio sighing. Radcliffe convinces him to buck up and come to the pub to buy him a drink. But they had time for a swift half a catchphrase: "Stop!" Then the door closed and the show was over.
It was followed by a silence of some twenty seconds causing the network to switch to the emergency tape, this was believed to be a final opportunity to make a nuisance of themselves, but was as a result of show overrunning and studio staff in London not being in place when the show finally ended.
They subsequently worked together on the ''Mark & Lard's Football Nightmares'' DVD. They had previously presented ''Match of the Nineties'', which showed highlights of English football seasons from 1989 to 1999, during the summer of 1999.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mark And Lard
British radio DJs
BBC Radio 1 programmes
British comedy duos