Classic's Cliff hanger
While he is happy to give credit where credit's due for the column inches generated by the Cliff Richard/Tony Blackburn spat, Mark Borkowski would like to make it known that he no longer works for Cliff and did not dream up this stunt (though he wishes he had)
Tony Blackburn: his 'puppy dog demeanour is a little unusual in a man of 60'
Any silly season worth its name needs silliness galore, so warm and generous thanks to whoever organised the Tony Blackburn and Cliff Richard stunt this week. There's nothing like a decent publicity stunt to give an old PR man a stiffy and the spin the national press gave us was better than Viagra. The concept of using not one but two of the country's national treasures to promote a digital radio station, and to make music the 'issue' at stake, was brilliant. A much better way to promote a radio station than that terrible debacle at BRMB a few years ago, when competitors had to sit on blocks of ice for as long as they could, resulting in frozen-arsed Brummies being carted off to hospital. What great publicity that was.
Tony and Cliff was also a gift to sub-editors - not least at the Guardian, where they made 'Tony Blackburn's unexpected Summer Holiday' front-page news, no less. The story, repeated across the press, of Tony Blackburn being fired for playing Cliff Richard records when he'd been told not to, contained all the classic ingredients in the perfect proportions.
First the heroes. Blackburn didn't win 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here' last year by being anything less than utterly charming and open. If that kind of puppy dog demeanour is a little unusual in a man of 60, well, Tony's quite unusual. Nice enough, though. Cliff, on the other hand, ranks somewhere in the vicinity of the Queen when it comes to 'overwhelming celebrity and national treasure' hood. His fans are among the most fiercely loyal I have ever experienced. Mess with them at your peril. I'll tell you how I know.
A few years back, the tennis-loving Artist Formerly Known as Harry Webb was embroiled in another scam, one in which I can now admit playing a role. Facing a similar ban from Radio 2's airwaves, we mixed a particularly funky Cliff track called 'Can't Keep This Feeling In', credited it to something or someone called 'Black Knight', and sent it as a 'white label', pre-release CD to various oh-so-cool radio stations. It was deeply satisfactory when the track duly started clattering out across the airwaves. A point had been proved.
This time I would imagine the radio station simply needed to pep up its breakfast show ratings to justify an advertising rate-card increase pencilled for the autumn. That's generally the way these things work. Presumably former Kings of the Jungle don't exactly come cheap, either, so you might as well get some extra mileage out of him beyond spinning platters and talking rubbish.
And the villains? Recalcitrant, ignorant, ratings-obsessed producers and administrators, the evil faction who would deny Britons their God-given right to whistle along to 'Bachelor Boy' or 'Congratulations' over a cuppa and a HobNob. What's the world coming to?
It's 'no contest'. Obviously the programme controller will be considering his position (for all of 0.02 seconds) and will stay where he is since he probably dreamt the whole thing up in the first place. Tony Blackburn has been immediately 'reinstated' and allowed to play Cliff's records. Phew, and more ink and PR to be had restoring Tony's job, and Cliff will sell a few more records.
mediaguardian
