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INTERVIEWING hard rock royalty and covering world-changing events across the globe might sound like daunting challenges, but they are all in a day’s work for Andy Kershaw.
Galeri Caernarfon hosts An Evening with Andy Kershaw on Saturday, March 17, where the writer and broadcaster will talk about everything from covering the Rwandan genocide to his TV “baptism of fire” - quizzing rock jester David Lee Roth and self-styled Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne at the 1984 Monsters of Rock festival in Donnington.
He said: “The very first TV job I did was to do a piece to camera standing in the middle of a field with thousands of jeery, boozy but good-natured heavy metal fans.
“It stood me in good stead for the rest of my career, let’s say that.”
Diving in at the deep end seems to be a feature of Kershaw’s near 30 year career, and even before he set foot in a studio, the Rochdale-born DJ was booking acts like Iggy Pop, the Clash Ian Drury, and Duran Duran as Leeds university entertainments secretary in the early 80s.
Kershaw eventually became an authority on world and roots music, and a respected correspondent, covering the Angolan civil war in 1996 and aftermath of the Haitian earthquake in 2010.
He also broadcast to around a billion viewers on Live Aid in 1985, and Andy believed that not having done an outside broadcast helped him during that chaotic day.
He said: “I just sat in the middle of it, as this swirl of chaos went on around me, because there was nothing on which to model it - everyone was necessarily making it up as they went along, so the achievement was all the more remarkable.”
“I’d never done an outside broadcast until Live Aid, so when it happened I just thought this is how they must be, whereas everyone else was panicking.”
Tales told at the Caernarfon show, and more besides, will feature in Kershaw’s autobiography No Off Switch, which is available now.
To book, contact the Galeri Caernarfon box office 01286 685 222, or email www.galericaernarfon.com.
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