Culture
07 May 10

Six of the Best

Executive producer Willie O’Reilly rummages through his memory banks to unearth six extraordinary moments.

After the Eamon Casey story broke we asked listeners to tell us what, if a film were made, it should be called. Naturally we had some outrageous suggestions, but I still like A Bish Called Eamon!
During a programme we did in San Francisco we had a quiz in which there was one Irish woman doing particularly badly. To cheer her on Gerry offered her five points if she took off her top. Much to our, and our American hosts' amazement, she did, and then claimed the points!
When The Sun offered £1 million to anyone who could find Elvis Presley we joined in by doubling the money. Among all sorts, we unearthed one 14 year girl from Connemara who was convinced that she was Elvis' daughter from an affair her mother had with him. This was for real! We also found a guy working for Drogheda County Council who regularly registered under the name "Elvis Presley".
It was a great thrill to have Albert Lee in the studio to play for us. He just sat there on his amp, and he played 'Danny Boy' in different styles, the way Eric Clapton, Hendrix and others would play it. It was magic to see him do it and make it all look so easy.
We had Bryan Adams in to do a full-rig gig in studio 8. But he and the band had been on a bit of a tear the previous night and while they were very polite I felt that there was a bit of spark missing. I also noticed that some of the women from RTE were crowding around to get a look, so I hit on the idea of letting them view the gig properly, and when Bryan saw that he had a pretty audience he was instantly transformed!
We got a serious fright when we went to do a show in the house of a prizewinner in Ballincollig, Co Cork when the local sergeant called around to inform us that they'd had a bomb threat. It was truly frightening trying to do the show and stay calm and not give in to the terrorist bastards, and yet we had to be responsible to the people in the house. The Gardai had dogs sniffing everything in the house before they gave us the all-clear. It was really terrifying, even though deep down I felt it was a total hoax. I don’t want to go through that again!