DJ Delingpole

My Spectator comrade James Delingpole has many talents. Among them is his skill as a podcast-presenter for an American conservative website called ‘Ricochet’.  Yesterday he asked me to join him for his latest, deeply irregular, instalment of ‘Radio Free Delingpole’. It was without question the most anarchic 40 minutes I have ever spent on air and  I should never have done it were it not for my love of James and the vast fee he unwisely promised.

We covered a fair amount of ground, including the US elections and House of Lords reform, but mention of the Rolling Stones brought the programme to a climax with a row — instigated by James — over whether Led Zeppelin was better than Schoenberg. I challenged James to sing an excerpt from each and, rather amazingly, he sort of did. The latter rendition is the strangest thing I have ever heard. I am sure that podcasts will soon be overtaken by some other form of technology. But if they achieve nothing else then let it be recorded that they provided the opportunity to hear James Delingpole freestyle Schoenberg. It is available here. James starts singing about 36:30 minutes in.