Celebrity Interview – Mark & Lard
by Steve Orme
Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley presented various weekday shows on BBC Radio 1 from 1991 to 2004. Now they are on the road with their show Carry On – An Evening With Mark and Lard which is basically a series of clips from their afternoon programme. They will stop off at both Buxton and Nottingham over the next few months.
Mark and Lard, both northerners, first teamed up in 1991. Radcliffe was a radio producer who began presenting specialist shows. Riley, formerly a guitarist with post-punk band The Fall, was a record plugger and tried to get Radcliffe to play his records. Radcliffe eventually took on Riley as his sidekick.
Marc reckons getting kicked out of The Fall was the best thing that’s happened to him in his working life.
“Being in The Fall was quite hard work. It was an honour and a privilege and I absolutely loved the band. But if I hadn’t got kicked out, then none of the rest of the things that have happened to me over the last 30 years would have happened.
“The Fall was a massive thing for me. I’m still very proud of it but if I’d been in there for 20 years I think I would have been an emotional and nervous wreck instead of being on the radio to ten million people.”
When Mark and Marc presented Hit The North they were allowed to play their own choice of records. They were snapped up by Radio One and given “the graveyard shift”, as it’s known in the industry – broadcasting from 10pm until midnight. Again they picked all the music which featured the likes of Oasis, Blur and Nick Cave.
That led to their being given the breakfast show on Radio 1 after the departure of Chris Evans. They lasted only eight months – the shortest of any presenter in that time slot.
“It was a massive culture shock,” says Marc, “because not only was the audience massive and not really used to us, we weren’t used to working at that time of day. It was awful for everybody.
“We also had to play nothing but anodyne music that we didn’t like at all. It was a well-paid job, the profile was very high but we failed.
“Then we went to the afternoon show which was hugely successful which is how we’re in the position now to be able to tour the country and get big audiences who basically want to see the afternoon show.
The tour has to fit around the anarchic duo’s other work. Mark Radcliffe presents the Folk Show on Radio 2 on Wednesdays and a two-hour show with Stuart Maconie on 6 Music on Saturdays and Sundays.
Marc Riley hosts an evening show on 6 Music from Monday until Wednesday which features sessions by artists that he chooses.
Their live show has proved popular, with several dates selling out.
“We start the show off by recounting the fact that we’re treading the same boards as Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin,” says Marc. “It’s mind-blowing really, an absolute privilege to be able to play those places.”
Mark Radcliffe tries to put his finger on how the live gig works: “It’s not a resumption of the show, it’s the resumption of a friendship between Marc and I which isn’t to say we fell out.
“We went on our separate paths for a long time but what we’re doing live is more akin to conversations we would have off air and in the pub.”
Marc Riley adds his thoughts: “You don’t need two people to present a radio programme – it’s just largely music. But the relationship we had on air was largely about making each other laugh.
“That’s what the audience are coming back to see and hear. A lot of them know the clips that we play in, they’re aware of the characters and the punchlines but they still laugh like an open drain at the end of it. We’re having a good laugh. Not every show is the same.”
As well as presenting, Mark and Lard created a spoof rock band called the Shirehorses who released two CDs. Mark turned down Marc’s suggestion that they should resurrect the band – but when Marc pointed out it was the 20th anniversary of Mark and Lard’s last show, they agreed to do a couple of gigs. It soon became clear there was a big demand for their live show.
So why has it taken them 20 years to stage this tour? Mark Radcliffe points out they were doing other things. When they started Mark was single while Marc Riley was married but didn’t have children.
“We were very different people then in a different world,” says Mark. “We went to the pub and talked about things and made each other laugh. By the time the show finished I was married, we both had children and we didn’t live as close to each other.
“I got to the point where I didn’t want to do it any more. You change as a person. A new Mark and Lard show could only be disappointing for fans of the old one. A lot of it was stupid and puerile.
“We started together 30 years ago. I just don’t think it’s credible for two blokes in their sixties to be those people.
“It’s a very different thing going on stage and talking about it in retrospect. Looking back and celebrating it, we do call the show an exercise in celebration, nostalgia and pension pot enhancement. That’s honest but accurate.”
Mark Radcliffe will turn 67 at the end of this month and Marc Riley is 63. Neither is worried about the BBC being ageist and getting rid of them.
“I don’t think you could accuse Radio 2 of being ageist,” says Mark. “Tony Blackburn’s on and he’s in his 80s.
“I’ve been working in radio since 1979 so I can hardly complain about anything.
“Mark and Lard had to finish at some point. One of the emotions was relief that we didn’t have to keep thinking about it and doing it any more.”
Marc jumps in: “I’ve got a stiff neck from looking over my shoulder for 30 years. People say to me: ‘are you still on the radio?’ I say: ‘I’m not sure. I was last night.’ If they want to get rid of you they can just say ‘we think what you’re doing is tired.’ Quite often it is.
“You haven’t got a God-given right to be on air. When we started, I thought if I could do it for a year, that would be amazing. Thirty-five years later . . . it’s staggering. It’s a great job – there aren’t many better jobs than being a presenter on the radio.”
As well as being on air, Mark Radcliffe is a musician who plays in bands and is also a writer. He has a new book coming out in August, Et Tu, Cavapoo? which is the story of Mark taking his dog for a walk around Rome.
Marc Riley is also running a record label with some of the former members of The Fall “which keeps us busier than you would ever imagine”.
One final question: where did the nickname Lard come from? “I used to play a lot of squash and five-a-side,” says Marc. “I got an injury and started to put on a bit of a belly. I said to Mark I needed to shift some of this lard.” The name stuck.
For the moment Mark and Lard are concentrating on “An Evening With” which they’ve been touring for the past year. They decided to do it after Mark posted on X, formerly Twitter, a photo of the pair of them in a pub which got more than a million views in a day.
“It’s been ridiculously successful,” says Marc. We’re really enjoying it which is the most important thing.”
Mark and Lard will be at Buxton Opera House on 21st June and the Theatre Royal, Nottingham on 17th November. Sounds a fun night even if you never listened to their radio show.
Steve Orme
