Nightmare!

With the BHA conference having taken place this week, we are inevitably hearing a lot at present from the Racing For Change crew. The team's whackier ideas seem to include some sort of team racing, which is strange enough because I thought that the Shergar Cup had made things plain that team racing is not allowed to exist. However, exist it might now do, if this slightly-hard-to-envisage celebrity-led show comes to fruition. I'd be tempted to describe it as 'farce' rather than 'show' were I sure what form it is going to take; but as I don't know the details (nor can even guess at what the details could possibly be, truth be told) I feel that I should give it the benefit of the doubt. I'll also give it the benefit of the doubt because of the fact that it is being promoted by Rod Street, who is a sound, sensible man: if he can see merit in the idea, I'm certainly not going to dismiss it until such time as I've had a proper opportunity to make my own mind up.

Another RFC theme is media coaching for racing professionals. Again I am not sure that I'm convinced that the money being spent on this idea will prove to be money well spent, but I've been invited to attend one of these sessions next month to receive some tuition from Lesley Graham, so I feel that I probably ought to take up the invitation, to show willing even if for no other reason. My one reservation on this topic, over and above questioning its cost-effectiveness, is that I have generally found that, when one watches a really unsuccessful interview of a racing professional, the fault generally lies with the interviewer rather than interviewee. While we are lucky enough to enjoy the broadcasting of some first-rate presenters - and I had the pleasure of working with one of those, Robert Cooper, on ATR on Tuesday - we also have to endure the efforts of some very moderate ones too. The weak links, surprisingly, are as likely to be found on terrestrial television as on the lesser-funded satellite channels, and I'd have thought that, if the aim truly was to improve the standard of on-screen interviews, then trying to bring the handful of inept interviewers, rather than the hundreds of their potential subjects, up to scratch would be a more sensible way of going about things.

Funnily enough, I'm currently reading Clive James' fifth and most recent volume of memoirs, 'The Blaze of Obscurity - The TV Years'. This is very good, as one would expect from such a gifted writer. One paragraph which I read three days ago has proved very topical because it has brought to mind the tactics of a few of racing's less talented interviewers. In looking back on the parts of his career which involved interviewing people on television (an art of which he is a true master), Clive James reflected thus on an instance when an interview went badly wrong: "So, as one tends to do in a crisis, I reverted to a bad habit, and started giving the answer along with the question. 'And now that you're established as a star of the big screen I suppose the offers are coming in and you have to choose between them and that must be difficult because some of them are challenging roles but they wouldn't be a commercial success while others wouldn't really extend your range but they could be useful in consolidating your career as star of the big screen who ...' Nightmare." Ring any bells? James' "bad habit", one might say, is pretty much the stock in trade of all too many racing interviewers. Nightmare indeed!

From one slightly odd subject to another, our trip to Uttoxeter on Saturday with Douchkette (pictured) yielded an unexpected bonus when I stumbled upon an ad in the racebook for the Acoustic Festival of Britain, which is due to be held at Uttoxeter racecourse on May 21, 22 and 23. I doubt that I'll be there myself, but I suspect that we might find ourselves angel-less here that weekend: Gemma and her fiance Simon Waterhouse are inveterate festival-goers, and I suspect that they might be able to persuade Aisling and her husband Charlie to come along for the craic too, which would lead to scenes of merriment similar to this one here. The four of them could share a yurt, perhaps - because the festival will have yurts, along with soccer coaching (which will be a boon for Simon, who I suspect has not had much soccer coaching for a while) and "Posh Loos!!", which will be right up Gemma's street (even if I suspect that Simon, like his doppelganger and hero Bear Grylls, might be just as happy to squat behind the open ditch in true survivalist style). The big names playing at the festival include Donovan and Barbara Dickson, which is rather good as it must be almost exactly 25 years since Barbara Dickson was at the top of the charts, along with Elaine Paige, with the song from Chess, 'I know him so well'. The other singers include Darren Poyzer, Ed Tudorpole and Amy Wadge, with whom I'm less familiar - but no doubt we shall have a report from the angels after the event. More of that anon - but, in the interim, if you happen to hear Simon singing 'Mellow Yellow' to himself as he goes about his vetting, then you'll know that the tickets have been booked.

Anyway, summer will be here by the time that that festival takes place, which is quite a thought as just now it remains hard even to see spring on the horizon. Just when we thought that we were getting out of the woods we had another day of snow (Monday). This was truly horrible because it fell solidly all through the morning (as Ex Con's rear view of She Is A Cracker on Side Hill all-weather suggests) and, although it was far from the coldest day of the winter, the days this week have featured some cold winds, which was something we were spared when the temperatures were really low. Still, next Monday is the first of March - so surely things will get better shortly. Won't they?