This was the first V I have had to work at. I have had to work at the last few if you can call drinking beer and falling over work. Two years ago I was struck by a weird rare virus at V which affected my speech and cognitive behaviour so much that I burst in on Ben Jones show and starting shouting. To many untrained observers and listeners ( I think they were only a few as his cap interferes with the signal sometimes making it hard to tune in) it almost looked like I was drunk when if you were a trained medical professional you’ll have recognised my symptoms.

The first thing that has always struck me at V is how hard everyone works. And its not just this year with Clive prowling around and pulling at bits of cable asking Eddie what the blue one does. We did Friday’s breakfast show there and Eddie, Dean and all the team were working flat out to get not just everything ready for the weekend’s soon to be award winning coverage (appceptance speech probably being typed right now by Benji) but my show Friday 6am. We had two live performances which sounded great and set up the rest of the weekend.

I think it must have been great for Mr P and Clive to have been greeted by Brian in a pair of male diapers. This is what TIML paid all those millions for. A man in nappies live on the radio.

I loved doing shows from there and I rarely get to see or hear Geoff in daylight saving time, who sounded great. Martin the security guard was as always the very incarnate of John Peel. I also met Geoff’s missus. And Russ’s too. The only reason I found it was his girlfriend was that he kept telling everyone in the postcode ‘THAT’S MY GIRLFRIEND OVER THERE’. Brian cruelly suggested Russ had maybe hired her for the day.

We had six live interviews on our two hour Sunday show which were great fun. All the interviews that Ben, Sarah, Geoff, Monique, Bails and his team did were great. Bing was running round like a man possessed grabbing me to come and grab an interview with yet another D lister. Sorry I meant A lister. He once grabbed me mid pee about Kelly Osbourne. I also saw Mark break the 100 metres Usian Bolt style chasing someone who had jumped the fence. I’m not sure if they were trying to get in or out….

All the performances in the tent were fantastic and Tony Hadley who stopped off by the look of it on the way to Henley Regatta, brought the house down with his ‘Suspicious Minds’ cover with Scouting For Girls.

I thought the coverage on air this year was the best for many years and it reflected hopefully the shift in making bigger and better radio. It made the festival sound accessible to everyone listening which is the real trick and everyone who worked their little backsides off should be proud.

The other big talking point was what various people thought they had heard the new station was being called. Even former Golden Squarer James Cridland told me ‘he’d heard from high above’ what it was. What God? All I can say is if you want to know what it happening first, don’t worry about becoming a Virgin VIP just hang around the printer on the first floor.

Christian