Danny Baker to front 6-0-6 again

[Simster]

Great news. I'm no great fan of Baker in normal circumstances, but he was great on 6-0-6 and he's right on the current state of the programme It really is utter utter shit - thanks to dull posh gimp David Mellor and that fat, up-his-own-arse self-important tosspot, Alan Green.

It really has turned into what Baker describes as "a disgraceful old bore of a show". Anyone else bored SHITLESS of listening to premiership armchair fans making an annual pilgrimage to their club's home and immediately phoning to WHINGE about the ref?

Dull.

So great news that Baker is coming back in my view. I might actually listen again, rather than switching it off after 10 minutes.

Full article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,27-2374758.html

 

[Dandyman]

Have not listened to it for years (usually in the pub) but Baker was great on the original show.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Thankfully Baker being Millwall means that when London based Man Ure fan rings up during their latest "crisis" of having lost two games on the trot...Baker will tell them that there are teams out there who could be going out of business etc...thats a crisis.

I also daresay that he will attack the NIMBYS if anyone was to ring up about the Albion....

 

[Kylies Stunt Arse]

Full Article


The Times September 26, 2006


The football phone-in that has become the biggest turn-off on radio
By Matt Dickinson



I ALWAYS thought that returning to find that your house had been ransacked would be the quickest, most depressing way to come back to the real world after a relaxing family holiday. Not any more. You do not even need to have exited the car park at Gatwick to be sure that you have left the beach a long way behind. Just climb into the car and turn on 606.
The back door off its hinges and a gaping hole where the television should be could scarcely have been more dispiriting. What once was a flagship show on one of the BBC’s best stations, Radio 5 Live, was being vandalised by an endless succession of whingeing phone calls without a theme, without joy and devoid of wit.



Some old pleasures can still be found on 5 Live but 606 needs either to be revamped or put out of its misery. No more Bills from Chatteris complaining about missed handballs at Norwich or Jims from Nuneaton moaning about a rude steward at Peterborough. If they are to be allowed on air, these malcontents at least need a presenter who can steer them somewhere interesting or tell them to get a life.

Alan Green prides himself on being one of football’s most distinctive and provocative commentators, but his journalistic work requires him to show balance and moderation. Not the ingredients for a lively phone-in show, but then, as 606’s most successful presenter will tell you, it was never about the football but the people.

“It has become a disgraceful old bore of a show,” Danny Baker, now an afternoon presenter on BBC London as well as a columnist for The Times, said. “They think it is about 19th-hole banter, but football is as dull as dishwater, like train-spotting and stamp-collecting, if you just talk about the game.

“It’s like finding yourself on the long bus journey home and the man next to you asks, ‘How do you think McClaren’s doing?’ And you’ve got another three hours of it. Let’s not hear about your team, about your club. Let’s hear about you.

“When I left I told them it was about good radio and not about football. I told them they should give it to Nick Hancock and this was before he was widely known. I think it went to David Mellor.”

The show’s long, sorry decline can probably be traced back to that decision and it is too much to hope that it can return to its heyday under Baker, whose second stint ended with dismissal in 1997. First he got into hot water for attacking referees — and Mike Reed, in particular — although his description of “a maggot at football’s golden core” is more poetic than anything you will hear on the modern 606.

He was subsequently enraged by a truculent caller, Baker shouting at his producer to “lose him, lose him, lose him. I don’t want to hear the other side. I am not interested in some kind of balanced argument.” It was irreverent, exciting radio. “I have heard shows trying to do the wacky stuff, but you need good producers who know what calls to put through,” he said. Off the top of his head, he rattles off “tramps at grounds” and “footballers walking down the street in their kit” as topics to improve the present, dismal offering.

It raises the question of whether Baker would go back and he says that he “would like a shot” before adding that “I only say that because it couldn’t possibly happen”. Oh well, but something needs to be done, and urgently, because the present show is an assault on the intelligence and the ears.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hang on Sim, I may be being a bit of a LOON but exactly where in that article does it say that Baker is coming back to do 606?

 

[Simster]

Indeed. He will also say things that everyone else is thinking such as "I'm fed up with teams giving the ball back after kicking it out when there own team has an injury"

But the best part about Baker doing it is that it means Alan Green won't be doing it.

 

[Simster]

Hang on Sim, I may be being a bit of a LOON but exactly where in that article does it say that Baker is coming back to do 606?

Bollocks.

Well that's what needs to happen anyway!

 

[Wozza]

:thud:

 

[n1 gull]

Can't wait to listen to away fans slagging off Withdean, should be fun... "£24 and that didn't include the binoculeurs ..." etc..

Definitely more interesting than the Premiershite moanfest they have on at the moment.

 

[Kylies Stunt Arse]

Bollocks.

Well that's what needs to happen anyway!

Spaz.

I do agree though that it would be a lot better if Baker was fronting it again. Alan Green just annoys me, and then they have non-entities like Spoony doing it on weeknights. On the odd occassion that Green doesn't do the weekend ones then it'll be Adrian Chiles, who isn't too bad, or Lawro, who is worse than Green.

Perhaps they should see if Jonathan Pearce fancies a go.

 

[Simster]

We don't want Jonathan Pearce doing it you PLUMP DRUNKARD. :thud:

 

[Man of Harveys]

It is amazing that, these days, there's virtually no coverage of the non-football match-related matchday experience - nothing about some weird pub near a ground with things hanging from the ceiling, or children throwing food at away fans in Chesterfield or something, or footballers who looked like other people.

That was the brilliance of Danny Baker's old 606, and the reason why some of the phone-ins are still in the memory a long time later: like the one where a bloke called in saying that he went out with a girl who looked EXACTLY like some bloke who played for Nottingham Forest - he revealed halfway through the call that he'd actually TOLD her this, or the "what was the smallest away crowd you've ever been a part of", where some bloke who called in had once stood on his own, getting "he's got no mates" sung at hime from the home fans. Bring him back!

 

[Wozza]

And the guy who got behind an unmanned turnstile, let all his mates in for free and pocketed loads of admission money.

 

[Simster]

And the guy who got behind an unmanned turnstile, let all his mates in for free and pocketed loads of admission money.

Class.

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

The finest Danny Baker moment EVER was the Dundee United plywood bow tie. Can't find the audio anywhere but there's a transcript here.

http://www.internettreehouse.co.uk/trans5.htm

f***ing brilliant.

 

[Man of Harveys]

The finest Danny Baker moment EVER was the Dundee United plywood bow tie. Can't find the audio anywhere but there's a transcript here.

http://www.internettreehouse.co.uk/trans5.htm

f***ing brilliant.

Now THAT is EXACTLY what I'm talking about - imagine calling Alan "oh, the rafaree has ROONED the gyame" Green with stories of a wooden bowtie in Dundee 50 years ago, brilliant stuff.

Sounds to me like DB is pitching in for the job.

 

[The Large One]

I remember listening to that phone call, and still recite the bare bones of it to... well, anyone who would listen. I never realised someone has got a transcript of it. Absolutely brilliant.

The other one I specifically remember was Danny Baker asking for the best half-time entertainment at a football ground. Several listeners phoned in with some wierd stuff, but the winner had to be... A Demonstration of Carpet Laying at Gillingham.

 

[LDH]

it really was radio gold. Anyone got any audio of it?

 

[Gully]

I reckon this would be a good thing, in the early days 6-0-6 was full of humour, now it seems to be full or Premiershite fans whinging about refs, Mourinho and the quality of their prawn cocktail sandwiches.

There is plenty of humour in the beautiful game, and I don't just mean the songs we sing, time to bring it back to the radio-waves!

 

[Easy 10]

Danny Bakers phone-in was superb, if that ever came back, it'd utterly TROUNCE every other post match phone (sorry Harty).
One of the funniest calls I remember was actually on TalkSport though, when Arthur Albiston (of all people) was hosting it, and they were discussing the Scottish International team and who should be in goal. The call went something like:

Caller: "I cannae believe Brown hasn't selected Anton Niemi for the squad"
Albiston: "Anton Niemi, what for Scotland ?"
Caller: "Aye."
Albiston: "But Niemi's Finnish."
Caller: "Finnish ? He's only 25 !"

 

[Withdean Wanderer]

Baker was immense, and really would make for a much better, controversial and entertaining phone-in. He's also a genuine fan, and bloody funny at that