John Peel's Shed, Underbelly, Edinburgh
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Your support makes all the difference.In 2002, John Osborne won a competition on John Peel's Radio 1 show. The prize was a box of records from the DJ's shed, including such gems as Oizone – a punk Boyzone covers band – and Atom and his Package's "Pumping Iron for Enya".
"Just because they belonged to John Peel," Osborne says firmly, "doesn't mean they were all good." In this utterly charming show, directed by Joe Dunthorne, the writer of Submarine, Osborne takes us through the collection and his lifelong love affair with the radio.
The show is at once a tribute to Peel and his music and a less mawkish version of Peel's "Home Truths" – a lo-fi hour packed full of titbits from everyday life. A few years ago, Osborne tuned in to a different radio station every day, all day, for a month. He wrote up his experience in a book, Radio Head, which he revisits here, sharing whimsical tales about Kit-Kats and book tokens, reliving close encounters with DJs and describing how he learned, grudgingly, to love Radio 1.
Shy and awkward but with a keen eye for a killer line and the significance of the trivia of daily life, Osborne sits somewhere between Tom Wrigglesworth and Daniel Kitson, which is a very good place to sit. I could have listened for hours.
To 28 August (0844 545 8252)
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