When he was a young boy in Drumragh, Phil Taggart would sit on his neighbour's knee in a tractor doing the handclaps to Queen's Radio Gaga. It was the beginning of his interest in music that took him from that town four miles outside Omagh in Northern Ireland ("That four miles felt like 40 miles") to his current role as a radio presenter of two shows on BBC Radio 1.
But back as a nine-year-old in Drumragh, the big question on the schoolyard was whether you were Blur or Oasis – not because of the media hype but for a very Irish reason. "It wasn't the NME that was making us think that you had to be Blur or Oasis, it was Father Ted," chuckles Taggart. "After that episode, you had to pick a side."
Taggart chose Blur, mainly “out of stress and because I liked Alex James’s hair”, but it plunged him into the pool of music for the rest of his life. With a healthy disassociation from school, Taggart began to retreat into himself and music followed. “I started finding bands that spoke to me about that, like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden,” he says. After bonding with friends over the “embarrassing” genre that was nu-metal, Taggart and his friends started the band Colenso Parade.
Taggart played bass. They covered The Undertones and The Kinks and thought they were going to be the greatest band of all time. “There is no thought in anybody’s head that that wasn’t going to be the case,” he says.
We had a couple of great punk tunes, and then we did a musical change that interested only ourselves
Things didn’t work out quite that well. Despite some UK tour supports and some radio play and buzz over the nine years the band was active, the industry ultimately shattered the illusion.
“We were very much of the naive mindset back then when we signed to a label that you’re sorted and you’ve got your yacht off the coast of Ibiza and you’ve got the Playboy mansion at your beck and call. And it just wasn’t the case. We had a couple of great punk tunes, and then we did a musical change that interested only ourselves.”
Across the Line
Back in Omagh, after studying English at university with the threat of his jobseeker’s allowance being cut, Phil enrolled in CSV media, a course that trained unemployed young people in broadcasting.
“Somebody had said to me at uni the best way into the BBC was through the dole, and I thought they were full of shit until I was in the dole office and they were like ‘well you could get a placement at the BBC if you do this right’.”
It worked. He got a placement working for BBC Radio Ulster's long-running flagship new music show Across The Line making tea, doing accounts and editing interviews. It wasn't long before he was given the opportunity to present, but Taggart was too nervous to get on the microphone at first. His first show was filling in for regular presenter Rigsy, who was getting his tonsils out. The show went well.
“The first text I ever got was from my housemate Fergal who was the lead singer in the band at the time,” he recalls. It read: ‘When you’re coming home bring bread and milk.’ “It’s impossible not to stay grounded when you get texts like that,” Taggart laughs.
Once bitten, radio presenting became the focus. Taggart presented the local version of BBC Introducing and, aided by producer Rory McConnell, he would record a fake radio show for two to three hours after every shift, Monday to Friday, just practising being on air.
“It was five shows a week to nobody,” he remembers. McConnell would flick a rubberband at his head if he messed up.
Across the water
They did a demo tape and sent to to BBC Radio 1 in London. They liked it and they got him on covering Huw Stephens on a Saturday afternoon in BBC Broadcasting House as an on air trial-by-fire trial run. Phil was already nervous but the lead-up didn’t help.
“I went to the shop to buy a pineapple beforehand and the woman behind the counter couldn’t understand my accent just five minutes before I went on. I’d only learned how to use a desk 30 minutes beforehand because there was too much going on in my head, and I must have gone for my third pee in about 20 minutes and walked in on Vernon Kay in the loo because the door was broken. I was freaking out.”
The hours of fake radio obviously helped and Taggart passed the test with flying colours. His first show at 10pm Monday to Thursday, was a co-present with Alice Levine, two presenters removed from John Peel’s slot.
“That lineage was not wasted on me,” he says. “I’d listened to this slot for years and I don’t want to be the one to f*ck it up.”
Taggart now presents two shows on the station: Radio 1's Specialist Chart on Monday evenings and a Sunday-night show which he took over from Annie Mac. The more relaxed laid-back vibe of the latter meant that Taggart had to change his more energetic presenting style to fit the time slot.
“Annie was telling me before I started that they are nicest listeners, they’re really attentive, they really get in on the show and there’s a lot of interaction. You just got to look after them. I had to develop an indoor voice almost, so I went and listened to like loads of late-night radio to prepare.”
It’s a show that he enjoys immensely which gives him the opportunity to have Thom Yorke or Mac DeMarco in studio for a bedtime mix but also play a variation of new and old music.
“On Sunday past, I played Neil Young on a Radio One show which is amazing and then followed it by a Soundcloud artist called Adolescent who only has a few hundred followers.”
Taggart says that the BBC's new music focus is strong thanks to BBC Introducing which creates a chain for new music to funnel upwards from the regional shows to the big prime time BBC Radio 1 shows.
When you become a <em>BBC Introducing</em> DJ, you're also sort of like a social worker for the bands of your region
"What people don't always think about when they think about the Introducing brand is not only are they giving bands a voice but they giving the producers who make those bands music a voice, they are giving young managers a voice, they're giving presenters a voice and it builds an ecosystem in all little parts of the country and builds at all into one. It's a perfect model really."
A label and a book
Now firmly established on the BBC, Phil has started to give back. He’s currently writing a book which will serve as a how-to guide in the music industry talking to everyone from the head of a big label and rockers Biffy Clyro to pop artist Charli XCX.
"Well, one thing they don't really tell you when you get into music is how big of a community is it is. And in that community people take on different roles. So when you become a BBC Introducing DJ, you're also sort of like a social worker for the bands of your region. So they'll ask you for advice and when you're starting out, you don't know. So you start to figure it out for yourself talking to people who work in the industry."
Taggart also recently set up a record label called Hometown, with the aim of releasing mostly regional new acts. So far, the label has released acts such as Rat Boy, Rejjie Snow, Inheaven and Speelburg. His current focus is Derry punk band Touts.
“I just want everybody to feel exactly what I felt when I saw them the first time. The music for me is a vehicle to get everybody to go and see them, because they’re the most thrilling live act with guitars that I’ve seen in a long time .”
Taggart’s excitement for the band and new music is infectious in conversation and at 29, it feels like he’s only getting warmed up.
“I do it because I really like the fact that I’ve helped somebody out, and I get to be a part of a band’s story. Because there’s probably still a bit left in me of feeling like I haven’t finished something because I was in a band that never released an album. So I think there’s a bit in me that wants to see other bands do well. It’s closure!”
For more, see bbc.co.uk
