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Andy Kershaw at the BBC

Radio 2 looks back at the programmes made by an incredible broadcaster who travelled the world and introduced a UK audience to a vast range of music.

Radio 2 looks back at the life of the broadcaster Andy Kershaw with highlights from a career that spanned Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC Television. It explores a musical passion that drove him to discover music from across the globe and share that with a UK audience.

Andy talks about getting his enthusiasm and curiosity from his head teacher parents in Rochdale, walking out of an A-level exam after an hour and a half to see Bob Dylan but still getting an A grade, and booking bands like Ian Dury and Dire Straits when he was a student and entertainments officer at Leeds University.

The show is introduced by his friend Billy Bragg, who employed Andy to be his tour manager, roadie and driver, until Andy was suddenly offered a job on The Old Grey Whistle Test. This led to attending Donington Monsters Of Rock Festival, being crowned by Elvis Costello, and being in the commentary box at Wembley Stadium during Live Aid - just one year into his television career. He also persuaded Bob Dylan to give a rare, but monosyllabic, interview by giving him some jam.

Andy travelled to Timbuktu to meet Ali Farka Toure and had to cling to the side of a mud bank and jump onto a passing rusty steamer along the Niger River. He felt seriously in danger in Rwanda, where he filed news reports for R4's Today programme as one of the very few members of the western media with real access to tragic events.

Above all, Andy revels in describing a thrilling audio journey that included playing The Ramones on Radio 3, discovering the man who shouted Judas at Bob Dylan and sharing with a UK audience music which he found in places from Siberia to Zimbabwe.

Release date:

58 minutes

On radio

Tomorrow00:00

Broadcast

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