...does Folk

extract from an interview with gareth k vile

"I like to think of the show as being the radio equivalent of contact improvisation,"laughs Gareth K Vile. "It takes everything that is going on in my life, and turns it into audio gold."

Of course, anyone familiar with Vile's behaviour as a "Performance Critic" will be aware of his idiosyncratic mixture of high ambitions and almost comic naivety. While he wanders around the studio at Subcity, holding his microphone like he thinks he is a rapper, his Producer Harry is in the corner, working hard to fix the sound levels on an interview that Vile conducted in the cavernous Briggait because "he likes the atmosphere there". Harry is the unspoken hero of the Radio Hour, somehow managing to contain Vile's frequent flights of fantasy and personal recriminations.

The first episode of 2011 is a fine case in point. At various points, Vile claims friendship with local celebrities, picturing himself as the nexus of the Scottish performance scene. Harry rescues him repeatedly from further disgrace by making sure that the playlist, inspired by Celtic Connections, interrupts the monologues.

Whether Vile's quest to create a new form of criticism succeeds or fails depends very much on the listener's patience. "I am influenced by Free Jazz, John Cage, anything experimental, Belgian choreography and forgetting to pay for my internet connection," he continues.

(Taken from Margaret Kirk's soon to be published collection of interviews, Meetings with Remarkably Stupid Men)

Posted at 12:40, 29th January 2011