No Rock And Roll Fun

THOMPSON TWINGE: So, there was very little in Mark Thomspon's plans announced yesterday to worry music fans: certainly none of the wilder threats of Radio One sell-offs or suchlike were floated. He did, apparently, invoke John Peel's name in a "it's the sort of BBC John Peel stood for" way, which is a trifle icky - we could see Alistair Cooke signing up for outsourcing your back-office operations but we somehow don't picture Peelie nodding along with the creation of a department to manage P45 issuing.

Thompson's big theme - if the BBC stops paying money for health and safety inspections in White City, we can pump the cash into programmes - seems to be a bit thin on the actual programme ideas, but he mentioned a couple of times something called the 'alternative proms' - we're not quite sure what this is (it sounds, in the words of Alan Partridge, like "just a title"); it's not even clear if it'll be new classical music or rock. Or what. We have a sneaking suspiscion that it might never happen. But we're already wondering what the Last Night of the Alt.Proms will look like - presumably they'll end with a rousing chorus of the Pistol's God Save The Queen?