Martin Bridgeman

I first stepped behind a mic in 1979 in Sarsfield Road, Inchicore, home of Radio Dublin, courtesy of the legendary DJ Pat James. He’d started himself some time previously and had landed a Friday night gig at the equally legendary McGonagle’s nightclub just off Grafton Street, so even he couldn’t be in two places at once…

Many great nights were had and great bands seen. Anyway, even he couldn’t manage to be in two places at once so he asked me if I’d like a go on Friday nights. Not many people liked the late shift but he and I were fellow night owls so it fit me like a glove.

It all felt so natural and familiar, and not just because I’d spent many an evening in Pat’s company, handling phone calls (remember landlines?), shuffling vinyl, meeting bands and generally becoming besotted with the world of the twin deck and the mic and the cart and the cassette. I had no specific brief other than it was to be a rock show…no one was specific and it suited me fine.

It was in many ways rough and ready, more than a little illegal but it was the place I wanted to be. That’s how it started.

Fast forward to January, 2005 and I find myself back in the much more palatial KCLR Studios in Kilkenny and behind a mic again. In the meantime I’d played music myself, accumulated way too much recorded music, books and magazines, married my Kilkenny wife and helped raise our two children and was about to see a red light in the studio for the first time in almost 25 years. Thanks to John Purcell and Mags Murphy: they heard and saw the light in me and asked me to present a show called People In Profile.

I was back…