The lunatic Steve Wright in the Afternoon was radio at its best – no matter what Morrissey thought
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Steve Wright was once the edgiest man in Britain. Or so believed teenagers in the Eighties who couldn’t get enough of the boisterous, taboo-shattering zoo radio format that he imported to the sleepy BBC airwaves from the United States.
Wright, who has passed away at the age of 69, had been knocking around the BBC for the better part of a decade when he landed on the Radio 1 weekday schedules with Steve Wright in the Afternoon in 1986. In a grey, grim era, where radio presenters were either stuff and dully or cheesy and chirpy, he was both a breath of fresh air and a human whoopee cushion – a joker, a tweaker of noses. To those who grew up with him, he was unmissable.
Steve Wright in the Afternoon borrowed shamelessly from the anarchic zoo radio with which he had fallen in love while visiting New York. A surrealist work of semi-fiction, it featured Wright alongside a cast of spoof guests and comedy characters – largely played by actors, they included the soon-to-be-iconic Mr Angry, social worker Damian and lifestyle guru Barry.
Wright was irreverent and shameless – and the kids loved it. Not everyone was so enamoured – but then Wright never minded ruffling features. Among those whose plumage was ruffed were Morrissey and Johnny Marr of The Smiths, inspired to write their 1986 hit Panic! after hearing Wright play Wham!’s I’m Your Man straight after a news report from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
“I remember actually saying, ‘What the f___ has this got to do with people’s lives?’ Marr would say. “We hear about Chernobyl, then, seconds later, we’re expected to jump around to I’m Your Man.”
That was Wright in a nutshell – outrageous, fun-loving, arguably to a fault, and never cursed with crippling levels of self-doubt. And though Morrissey disapproved, Steve Wright in the Afternoon was a sensation.
He was also one of the first on BBC 1 to bite the hand by lampooning pop stars. Among his regular characters were “Mick Jagger” and “David Bowie”. Both were voiced by actor and comedian Phil Cornwell, who provisioned them with absurd catchphrases such as “he’s alright” and “get some therapy”. Juvenile it may have been – yet the audience couldn’t get enough: by 1988, Steve Wright in the Afternoon was attracting 7.2 million listeners and he was named DJ of the year by Smash Hits – the ultimate indication of teenage approval.
It was the sort of success that couldn’t last forever and so it proved. His brand of humour fell from favour in the 1990s – by which time many teenagers who’d enjoyed his output had grown up. He was moved to the Radio 1 Breakfast Show in 1994 but clashed with new controller Matthew Bannister over what he felt was a restrictive format and quit. He worked briefly in commercial radio only to return to the mothership, joining Radio 2 in 1996.
He remained a fixture on the airwaves through the following decades. He never came close to that early notoriety, though he did revive the zoo format with a Radio 2 version of The Steve Wright Show, once again featuring a cast of largely fictional characters. However his legacy would live on in the wacky irreverent tones of younger talents such as Jonathan Ross and Chris Evans, who adopted his philosophy that radio was no place for decorum or standing on ceremony.
Wright was one of a generation of vintage DJs BBC management would try to ease out without looking as if they were culling older names. He finally bowed out from his weekday slot in 2022.
His farewell song was Radio Gaga by Queen. Outrageous, a little camp, fuelled by an infectious sense of fun, it was the perfect tune with which to sign off. In his heyday, Wright was a BBC DJ like no other. Times would change – but at his peak, he brought glee and anarchy to UK radio, and for that, he will be remembered.
