If you’ve ever thought, “Jeez. I wonder what goes into making an episode of the incredibly effortless-seeming Answer Me This!,” then firstly, you should consider having more interesting thoughts. Secondly, you should check out our interview on Little Atoms podcast, in which host Neil Denny came to the AMT studio to peek behind the curtain to imspect the machinery behind it.
Click here to download the episode, but don’t do it if you were incredibly traumatised when you found out that the Wizard of Oz [SPOILER!] was just a normal middle-aged guy with good stagecraft and a penchant for hot air balloons. Hearing podcasters revealing the mechanics of podcasting might finish you off.
One aspect of AMT behind the scenes which we’re happy to reveal: our perennially sumptuous cheeseboard. Here’s Neil getting involved.
When Martin the Sound Man is not enabling us to make sounds, he makes sounds of his own under his musical alter ego The Sound of the Ladies. For his brand-new album The City of Gold and Lead, he not only made the sounds, but also the pop-up CD sleeve you see in the photo above, which is almost as pretty as the music within.
You can buy the album in CD or MP3 form from HERE, and you’ll make an old sound man very happy if you do.
Unlike Whigfield, we don’t spend our Saturday nights dancing by ourselves in front of a mirror. (That is, of course, our official Tuesday night business.) Instead we trot off to talk about the week’s most thrilling internet events on BBC 5 Live’s Saturday Edition.
Many of you have previously asked whether the show is available as a podcast. Hitherto, the answer has been ‘No’, but now, it is ‘YES!’ It is called Let’s Talk About Tech and you can get it HERE. Also includes tech, cars, gaming and other matters of interest.
Last month we spoke at Next Radio, an event all about radio attended by the great and good of the radio industry.
“What the heck can you two chancer hobbyists have to teach the radio industry about radio?” you ask.
Fair point. We went for a kind of This is Your Life trot through our podcasting experiences, and here is the video footage. Warning: contains some gross images.
As some of you may have observed over the past two years, we have another weekly noise-making gig aside from Answer Me This! – we’re the internet correspondents on BBC 5 Live’s Saturday Edition with Chris Warburton. It is the jewel of Saturday evening radio, and on Saturday 6th October, you can see that jewel sparkling for yourself!
For one night only, Saturday Edition will be recorded in front of a live audience at 5 Live’s studios in Media City.
So if you want to treat your own eyes to the visual spectacle that is live radio, and you can be in Salford Quays 8-10pm on 6th October, email chris@bbc.co.uk or text 85058 with the message, ‘I want to come to Saturday Edition’.
So we’ll see you there, yeah?
For illustrative purposes only – actual appearance of live radio may vary
To tell you the truth, friends, we’re taking a working holiday from the podcast, and tomorrow we have a big job: Helen and Olly’s Required Listening on BBC 5 Live, a three-hour radio extravaganza all about podcasts, unusual radio stations, and other varied and curious sounds to put into your ears.
UPDATE: the aforementioned ‘tomorrow’ has passed, and the live transmission with it; so click here to hear Required Listening via BBC iPlayer.
And that’s not all: the Arseblogger will be kicking off versus Phil Cornwell from The Spurs Show; the Indie Travel Podcasters will stay still long enough to talk about their six-years-and-counting world tour; we’ll take in the sounds of the sewers with Resonance FM and eat brains with We’re Alive.
A lot of artists suffer from Difficult Second Album syndrome, but not us. Following our Top 20 smash hit longplayer The Answer Me This! Jubilee, we are delighted to bring you…
The Answer Me This! Sports Day
59 minutes and 33 seconds of all-new material in celebration of the glorious sporting event that will be wreaking havoc with London’s transport system this summer. Buy it now through the AMT Store, iTunes or Amazon.
Join us for a jog through such Olympian questions as what would happen if Boris Johnson dropped the torch, how you can become an Olympic competitor whilst remaining a lazy bastard, how the Ancient Greek athletes prevented their glistening nude flesh from getting sunburn, whether Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony is going to be like this, and why Jewish athletes might be buying haggis shortly before the competition.
We also learn why the men’s Wimbledon trophy is so fruity, how David Attenborough can be blamed for the popularity of snooker, what the chess queen has in common with the Alien queen, what Jack Broughton has in common with Alan Ayckbourn, and what bookies have in common with Abraham Lincoln.
We check in on such record breakers as James Cameron and Lee Redmond, and face the biggest sports question of all: what IS a sport? And do you actually have to get out of your chair to do one?
We must offer big thanks to Sam Pythagoras Pay and Amy Smith for the jingles, which alone are worth the £2.49 RRP. Eg:
NB The Answer Me This! Sports Day is in no way officially affiliated with the London Olympics. They looked at our waist measurements and said there’s no way they could endorse that.
Just two days after release, The Answer Me This! Jubilee is TOP 20 in the iTunes album chart!* So thankyou very much indeed to everybody who has bought it already; and if you feel moved to do the same, click here to buy it off iTunes. UPDATE: it’s now available on Amazon too, and even better, at our own AMT Store.
In return for your £2.49 outlay (or equivalent in your native currency), you receive 57 minutes and 55 seconds of all-new Answer Me This!, themed around Her Maj’s upcoming Diamond Jubilee.
Amongst the many questions royally addressed are:
• Could the Queen get away with murder? • What’s the deal with all those 21-gun salutes? • Does the Queen have a mobile phone? • Are you really supposed to pronounce ‘regina’ like ‘vagina’? • Who has seen the Queen’s tits? • Where can I run into Prince Philip on an average day? • What’s the point of the monarchy, anyway? • And what the bloody hell is going on with those nearly nude guys in the Danish monarchy’s coat of arms?
We hope you enjoy it. If you don’t, blame Prince Andrew, like everybody else does.
*Information correct at time of writing. At time of reading, it might have dropped so far out of the iTunes chart that it is outside by the recycling bins.
We know you love free entertainment, because you listen to podcasts. If you also like it in the form of sitting in a pub and watching actual people saying things in front of you, then you are in luck:
On Tuesday 31st January, we will be recording a radio pilot for a comedy quiz at the Phoenix Cavendish Square, and we need YOU to be in the Live Studio Audience. We will be joined by some of our favourite raconteurs, Ian Collins, Tom Parryand Bridget Christie, and as if that were not temptation enough, the pub serves very pleasing-looking food. And the price is a very recession-friendly £0.*
So please do come along; doors open at 7pm for a punctual 7.30 commencement, but remember, early arrivers get the good seats. It should all be concluded by about 9pm. Please bring a pen and paper, as -SPOILER!- you may need one.
*SMALL PRINT: since it is a pilot, quality cannot be guaranteed. But if it does turn out to be rubbish, remind yourself that it cost you nothing. Financially speaking.
MORE SMALL PRINT: it is taking place in a pub, so the usual pub age restrictions apply.
Hey! We haven’t just been sitting on our arses since the last dose of AMT; we’ve been sitting on our arses talking into microphones, and if you happen to be interested, here are links to the various results:
• In our regular slot on BBC 5 Live’s Saturday Edition, we ran through the highlights of 2011 online with Chris Warburton. In the unlikely event you did not spend New Year’s Eve nestled up to your radio listening to it, you may instead click here to download the podcast.
• We joined John Plunkett, Vicky Frost and Dan Sabbagh to contemplate the year in media on Guardian Media Talk, which you can download here.
• And we considered what we managed to learn in 2011 on MacAulay and Co on BBC Radio Scotland, which until the morning of Friday 6th January you can hear here. We and comedian Chris Ramsey pipe up from the 59-minute mark.
Can you believe it, Answer Me This! is rapidly approaching its fifth birthday? So please help us celebrate by sending us a card! Here is our postal address:
Answer Me This!
PO Box 53587
London
SE19 9BQ
We will be thrilled to receive your missives, and are sharpening the paper-knives in expectation.
Answer Me This! Podcast 
The Answer Me This! Sports Day
July 2, 2012A lot of artists suffer from Difficult Second Album syndrome, but not us. Following our Top 20 smash hit longplayer The Answer Me This! Jubilee, we are delighted to bring you…
The Answer Me This! Sports Day
59 minutes and 33 seconds of all-new material in celebration of the glorious sporting event that will be wreaking havoc with London’s transport system this summer. Buy it now through the AMT Store, iTunes or Amazon.
We also learn why the men’s Wimbledon trophy is so fruity, how David Attenborough can be blamed for the popularity of snooker, what the chess queen has in common with the Alien queen, what Jack Broughton has in common with Alan Ayckbourn, and what bookies have in common with Abraham Lincoln.
We check in on such record breakers as James Cameron and Lee Redmond, and face the biggest sports question of all: what IS a sport? And do you actually have to get out of your chair to do one?
We must offer big thanks to Sam Pythagoras Pay and Amy Smith for the jingles, which alone are worth the £2.49 RRP. Eg:
NB The Answer Me This! Sports Day is in no way officially affiliated with the London Olympics. They looked at our waist measurements and said there’s no way they could endorse that.
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