How not to DJ: Lesson 1

It’s got to be one of the most irritating aspects of listening to radio (as opposed to enjoying one’s own music collection, in whichever format its held). A few days ago Christian O’Connell on Virgin…sorry, Absolute…puts on Sultan of Swings by Dire Straits. A great tune by (in my opinion) a hit and miss band. Now, this tune plays at a total of around 5 minutes 50 seconds, a fact that the radio station presumably knows. Furthermore, the best part of the song comes towards the end – the guitar solo – a not uncommon feature of the some of the longer rock classics to which I’m partial. So why would the DJ cut in over a minute before the end and ruin the song! Look, there’s a reason songs such as the Stone Roses’ I Am The Resurrection and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird don’t get played much on the radio – they’re long, but it would be criminal not to play them in their entirety – so stations mindful of clogging up airtime avoid them. So DJs – if you’ve decided to go for the occasional long player, please, please, please leave it to run its course. Do yourself a favour and at least pretend you know something, however little, about the music you’re playing. End of rant…