Jammin'

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Jammin is a musical comedy show on BBC Radio 2 in the United Kingdom. It is presented by Rowland Rivron, who also plays drums. In addition to Rowland, there are two regulars in the band, and two guests - one comedian and one musician. The guests usually provide the focus for the first part of the programme:

  • A performance of the first song they ever wrote. This usually turns into an innuendo, and the performance is stopped by Rivron just before it becomes too explicit.
  • A performance of their biggest hit, but they change the lyrics to take it 'kicking and screaming into the 21st century'.

The two regulars are usually Dave Catlin-Birch and Richard Vranch. When Dave Catlin-Birch is on tour, he is usually replaced by Mitch Benn. The regulars provide the focus for the second part of the programme:

  • The bassist plays a bass-line and the other guests try to guess what song it is taken from.
  • The combination of two different musical styles, eg. 'Roll With It' by Oasis in the style of Jerry Lee Lewis.
  • The pianist Steve Brown plays a song backwards, then, after the audience tries to guess what the song is, they turn the tape over and play it the right way (for the 2006 series, all the songs were by ABBA).


Thus the show usually follows the format:

  • Jam in which the regulars and guests are introduced.
  • Short interview with the guests, usually playing a snippet from one of their songs.
  • Feature from one of the regulars (the aforementioned ABBA/Beatles hit played backwards or "Two Songs for the Price of One").
  • Feature from the second regular - "Spot the Bass Line".
  • Creating a "New Musical Sound" by merging two different artists (such as the aforementioned "Roll With It" in the style of Jerry Lee Lewis).
  • Dragging the guest musician's song "kicking and screaming" into the 21st century (by updating the lyrics with "random" words chosen by the band).
  • Audience calls out different words and the guests have to try to think of songs that include the word.
  • Concluding jam drawn from one of the songs played from the feature above.

The programme is punctuated by snippets from a song sung in varying styles (eg. a-cappella, Country and Western, Bob Dylan-esque) as announced at the end of the programme "Today's episode of Jammin' was sponsored by...". However, the Autumn 2006 series did not include that information.

Regulars include:

Guests have included:

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