Sally Boazman: In Search of a British Route 66
...British Route 66. Sally takes a closer look at Britain's motorways, B roads and country lanes to discover whether we have a musical equivalent to the iconic US classic Route 66.
Is it possible to get your kicks on the A66? Radio 2 travel presenter Sally Boazman goes on a journey around our motorways, B roads and country lanes to discover if Britain has a musical equivalent to Chuck Berry's iconic American hit 'Route 66'.
Known to millions of Radio 2 listeners as 'Sally Traffic', Sally speaks to the songwriters who've been inspired by Britain's highways and byways and to those who've had motorway muses.
First stop on Sally's musical journey is folk legend Peggy Seeger, who takes us back to 1959 when Britain's first motorway - the M1 - was being constructed. Peggy, along with Ewan Maccoll and Charles Parker, dedicated one of the their iconic Radio Ballad albums to songs about the road, which included interviews and field recordings of the men building it. Then, bringing us bang up to date, Brightonian folk singer Chris T-T gives us his very different take on the motorway's construction.
Sally also speaks to the man behind of one of Britain's most well known 'road songs', as Chris Rea reveals the nightmare journey on the M25 which inspired his smash hit 'The Road To Hell'; Billy Bragg confesses why he penned a love song to the A13 and Crispian Mills from spiritual 90s pop group Kula Shaker talks about why they wrote '303' - a song from the band's 1996 debut smash hit album 'K' - written about the road that runs past two of the country's biggest mystical areas - Stonehenge and Glastonbury.
Andy Williams, from Manchester band Doves, talks to Sally about how the group came to write their track 'M62 Song' and why they then decided to record the song under one of the motorway's busiest flyovers and John Campbell from 80s band It's Immaterial discusses the group's biggest hit 'Driving Away From Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ' which also pays homage to the M62, and reflects on why the road is so important for the north of the country. And, even further north, Malcolm Middleton, frontman of Scottish indie group Arab Strap, takes us across the border to chat about his song 'Speed on the M9', a very dark look at the busy Scottish motorway.
Last on
Broadcast
- Wed 29 Dec 2010 22:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2