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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Radio 2 Piano Rooms sessions are rubbish

14 replies

HeadDeskHeadDesk · 20/02/2026 14:04

AIBU to think they are mostly excrutiating and have no place being on prime time radio?

Whoever is in charge of Radio 2 in recent years has lost the plot and should be moved on. They have an obsession with wanting to subject us to live music in the middle of the day. I'm sick of having to sit through performances that are adequate and boring at best, but frequently just.... horrible. Flat, out of tune, out of time caterwauling. There are a few notable exceptions but even the better ones just seem incongruous plonked into the middle a mainstream, daytime show.

Whenever they host a Proms in the Park or broadcast from Glastonbury they insist on replaying 'highlights' for weeks afterwards and honestly, some of these are SO BAD that I can't help but wonder if the schedulers have actually bothered to listen to them at all before choosing to replay them as so-called 'highlights'. Belinda Carlisle was one from last year, where I remember sitting in my car at traffic lights with my head in my hands thinking 'Why? Just WHY are you doing this to us? And to her for that matter? It's a performance she'd probably rather forget and yet here you are forcing us all to re-live the pain, three times in one week. Just put a record on will you? For crying out loud.'

The problem with live music is that it often doesn't translate particularly well to radio and TV. When you are caught up in the atmosphere of a big concert the odd bum note goes unnoticed but on the radio every flaw is amplified.

They should create a niche slot after 10pm for this stuff and you only need to tune in if you are genuinely interested in hearing it. Forcing it on us as part of a regular day's prime time radio just doesn't work.

I can't possibly be in the minority on this, can I? Increasingly I find I am switching stations because of this.

OP posts:
LindorDoubleChoc · 20/02/2026 14:15

Yanbu! It's the repetition that grinds my gears more than anything. I was driving at 11.45ish today when Vernon Kaye played the utter mess that is Appleton's cover of The Witchita Lineman, a repeat from when they were on earlier this week. I went to the bank and a few shops and got back in the car to drive home, no more than an hour had passed probably more like 45 minutes, and then there was Jeremy Vine playing the fucking thing again! Ffs.

EverythingIsComputer · 20/02/2026 14:19

I agree. It’s generally middle of the road acts and often they’re not very good live. Pulp were the exception this time round.

LlynTegid · 20/02/2026 14:20

I can understand being annoyed at endless repetition, something the BBC are not new in doing.

However, there are so few live music performances on radio and tv.

HeadDeskHeadDesk · 20/02/2026 14:44

LlynTegid · 20/02/2026 14:20

I can understand being annoyed at endless repetition, something the BBC are not new in doing.

However, there are so few live music performances on radio and tv.

But they are best for relaxed listening, usually in the evening, not when you are on the school run or need something unchallenging in the background while you work. You really need to like an artist a lot to want to listen to them sing several songs live and sometimes not very well. It's not live music per se I object to, it's just that so much scheduling of it on daytime R2 slots is just out of place. It's a niche preference that has its time and place but this isn't the time or the place.

As I speak, Trevor Nelson is playing a song from the Appleton session AGAIN and it's mediocre at best.

OP posts:
LindorDoubleChoc · 20/02/2026 14:46

As I speak, Trevor Nelson is playing a song from the Appleton session AGAIN and it's mediocre at best.

It's not the Witchita Lineman again is it???

blubberball · 20/02/2026 14:48

I think Sam Ryder was one of the good ones live

LindorDoubleChoc · 20/02/2026 14:49

Ha, just found my posts from last year on this very same subject

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/chat/5284347-radio-repetetive-2-how-many-times

HeadDeskHeadDesk · 20/02/2026 16:18

LindorDoubleChoc · 20/02/2026 14:49

Ha, just found my posts from last year on this very same subject

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/chat/5284347-radio-repetetive-2-how-many-times

Edited

A woman after my own heart. 😂

If two of us have felt strongly enough to start a thread about it, imagine what the general national consensus must be.

OP posts:
HeadDeskHeadDesk · 20/02/2026 16:20

blubberball · 20/02/2026 14:48

I think Sam Ryder was one of the good ones live

Yes agreed. He was superb. There have been a few who have bucked the trend of being mediocre or terrible. Not many people are as strong as him live. Even so, I still wish they'd stick to playing records in the daytime.

OP posts:
HeadDeskHeadDesk · 20/02/2026 16:21

LindorDoubleChoc · 20/02/2026 14:46

As I speak, Trevor Nelson is playing a song from the Appleton session AGAIN and it's mediocre at best.

It's not the Witchita Lineman again is it???

Haha no it wasn't but I did hear that earlier in the morning.

OP posts:
Pippatpip · 20/02/2026 16:26

Woman’s Hour on Radio 4 often has a much vaunted guest on who sings. Generally it is dire - although the harp lady recently was brilliant. After some caterwauling everone claps and enthuses how brilliant it is. Likewise, Radio stations playing something from the set at Zglast or an other concert which mostly has the crowd singing (why? I don’t want to listen to a load of shouting in time to music - I want the tune and the artists)

BigFishLittleFishCardboardBoxes · 20/02/2026 19:00

It’s the replaying it for weeks on end that I can’t stand. It’s so lazy.

JordanaBevan · 20/02/2026 19:19

The Appleton's were dire. They weren't even the best singers in All Saints.

There was a funny part where Vernon asked them who their musical influences were and they seemed unable to answer.

Then a clip was played from around 1998 of them being asked the same question and their now strong American accents were almost non existent, how?!? 🙃

Bluebuddha10 · 20/02/2026 19:26

I agree OP - apart from one or two exceptions, they all sound rubbish- really weak performances. Do they not hear what we hear?

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