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The Radio 1 DJ Mark Radcliffe (right), 44, was born in Bolton and studied in Manchester where he played in bands. In 1983 he joined the BBC where he later teamed up with Marc Riley. As the double-act Mark and Lard, they briefly presented `The Breakfast Show' but can now be heard in the afternoon. Radcliffe lives in Cheshire with his wife and three daughters.
Born in Manchester, Marc `Lard' Riley, 41, left school at 16 to join local punk-band The Fall and in 1983, formed his own group, The Creepers, before teaming up with Mark Radcliffe. The pair were recently included in `Debrett's People of Today' and, as the Shirehorses, had two Top 30 albums including `The Worst Album In the World Ever'. Riley lives in Sale with his wife and two daughters.
Mark Radcliffe I can't remember the exact date I first met Marc, it must have been 1983 or 84. I was producing sessions for John Peel at Maida Vale in London. I never knew who I'd be recording until I got there. I came in and it was Marc Riley and The Creepers. I knew of him because he'd been in The Fall and we sort of knew a lot of the same people in Manchester. I didn't pay much attention really but I remember a track called "Shadow Figure" and the session came out on a record called Creeping at Maida Vale. It wasn't a terribly memorable meeting.
We didn't really become friends until the late 1980s when he was plugging records with a mutual friend and I was starting a show on the old Radio 5 called Hit the North. I think they offered it to Riley first but he said: "I don't fancy it, why don't you get Radcliffe to do it?" I was second choice but everything started from that show, so I probably owe him my career.
Marc would come in and try and do a gossip column about the local scene and I would berate him for having nothing to say and trying to cover his tracks. The relationship we...