In the late 1980s/early 1990s, a new DJ was broadcasting on GLR, the BBC radio station for London. Unusually for the time, the station gave DJs a free hand. They could talk about anything and play whatever music they wanted. There was no playlist. Some of the DJs who started on the station included Chris Morris (The Day Today, Brass Eye) and Chris Evans. It was the station’s heyday.
This particular DJ used to play an eclectic mix of music and have phone-ins. One of the phone-ins was about funny names. Lydney Harbour reminded me of someone who phoned in to mention a family he knew whose surname was Harbour. They named their son Sidney. Other names included Russell Sprout and Tom Ato.
The DJ also had a penchant for photos of dressed up chimps. They caused him endless amusement. Little did he know that several decades later he would lose his job because of a dressed up chimp.
That DJ was Danny Baker.
Friday’s stroll was a gentle one taking in Lydney Harbour and the surrounding deserted countryside. I met an artist (from Rugby) by the harbour and spoke to him for a while about art, photography and hiking. He travelled around the country painting. In the painting he was doing by the harbour, I noticed that he had added a non-existent ship to the painting! He said he often added stuff to his paintings to make them more interesting than what he saw in front of him. It was artistic licence that didn’t require Photoshop.
The harbour is next to the River Severn which I learned is the longest river in Britain (about 350km). It flows from its source in the Cambrian Mountains (Wales) to its mouth in the Bristol Channel.
From the harbour, you can see the Severn Bridge, which is about 1.5km long.
