Behind The Scenes At The Spurs Show

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be invited to watch The Spurs Show podcast being recorded. I know. First the Chas Hodges story and now this tale of showbiz excess. What can I say? These are the sort of circles that I mix in.

Having been a fan of the podcast since it’s first season, it was very interesting to see how the show is made. Also, being able to witness the event in person meant that I wouldn’t have to download it this week. It seemed like a no lose situation.

The Spurs Show co-host Mike Leigh was there to greet me and provided the sort of amiable company that you’d expect from a man that has the good taste to display a signed picture of the 61 Double side in his office, alongside a poster of Woody Allen’s Love and Death. Before long we were chatting about the incredible organic growth of The Spurs Show.

Already a regular in the top echelons of the iTunes sports podcasts chart, The Spurs Show has this season burst into the full chart and gone as high as number 3, where it peered down from it’s perch to sneer at such less-achieving luminaries as Ricky Gervais and Jonathan Ross. This has largely been achieved through word of mouth. In these days of big advertising budgets, it’s refreshing to see a project rise to the top, based on it’s quality alone.

The business empire behind The Spurs Show have also been producing the excellently named West Ham podcast Stop! Hammer Time and have now branched out to appease Manchester United fans with the Man Yoo Redcast and Liverpool supporters with Not Just A Matter Of Life And Death. Football podcasting is a growing genre and these people realise that the key is to keep it funny and passionate, rather than taking things too seriously.

I then met the special guest Theo Delaney. Though I’d heard him many times before on the show, I’d never twigged that he was the brother of the newly-crowned Heat editor Sam Delaney. Bizarrely, me and Sam Delaney share an acupuncturist (not at the same time) who had recommended me to read Sam’s new book Night of the Living Dad. It’s a very funny read, but it has to be said that the Delaney siblings do not come out of it too well.

I’m happy to report though that Theo was actually a very nice bloke. Well he is a Tottenham fan after all and his brother supports West Ham, so what do you expect? Never trust the word of a bitter Hammer, even if your acupuncturist suggests otherwise.

Finally, in marched Phil Cornwell to get the show on the road. He announced that he had some mad stuff planned for his regular Harry impression which starts each show and so it proved, as he embarked on a monologue that involved our boss getting the players to do his shopping and his growing interest in ceramics.

Anyone who has listened to the show before will tell you that it is very off the cuff and natural sounding. I assumed that this was due to extensive editing, but upon witnessing it being recorded, I now know that this is not the case. The whole show was recorded in real time and if you don’t believe me, look out for Mike’s phone ringing within the first few minutes of the show.

The beauty of the show is that it sounds very much like you and your mates talking about Spurs whilst down the pub, only much funnier and without the use of the word ‘c*nt’ in every other sentence. In achieving this, it follows in the tradition of Skinner and Baddiel’s Fantasy Football League and Danny Baker’s various radio gigs.

So this is one football blog that won’t be launching it’s own podcast, because when the opposition is this good, there’s really no point. If you’ve never heard The Spurs Show before,I heartily recommend that you rectify this now, either at iTunes or here.