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Bach substitute

Kate Chisholm

Wednesday, 23rd January 2008

Janis (BBC Radio 2); Have Your Cake (BBC Radio 4)

It’s been really hard getting used to the idea that there’s no more Bach at eight on Radio Three. After 48 mornings, I’ve found myself well and truly addicted. The only way to combat the withdrawal symptoms seemed to be an immersion in something completely different, so I dutifully tuned into Radio Two in the hope of finding a cure. Brian Matthew, Jonathan Ross, Paul Gambaccini...nothing could shift that post-Bach mood of truculent dissatisfaction. Nothing, at least, until eight o’clock on Saturday evening when a wail of anguish cut through the airwaves like a cat out of hell: Janis Joplin, in extremis, singing, or perhaps I should say performing, ‘Take it! Take it! Take another little piece of my heart’. There’s nothing comforting about her music, no prospect of solace, but what a voice and what delivery. One minute belting it out, the next almost whimpering, ending in one enormous screech of pain.

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