One last hurrah

Well. Through bleary eyes it might be that the typing will be more erratic and error-strewn than normal, but I'll give it a go. It was a long old day but Radio 2 in Hyde Park was a mighty day of sweaty, swaying, cheering, yelling, queuing, happy music fans. It might be that you were watching the Paralympics closing ceremony and roaring along with Coldplay et al, but Jo Whiley and I were in the royal park along with 30,000 + fans for the 'festival in a day' that we put on every year. I'd missed all the others so it was my first and we had a great time. From Mick Hucknall (who got away with singing no Simply Red hits by playing lots of everybody else's) to Tom Jones (who just has so many hits to chose from but when he did Delilah I thought the park would tremble) via Jessie J (who had the noisiest fans by some way), it really was a good end to the summer. Which exactly how it feels now that the september spiders have taken over...

But just one more last hurrah...oldies for the PARADE OF THE OLYMPIANS AND PARALYMPIANS which wanders through London this afternoon. The flag gets one final wave. It got a good flourish at the Last Night of the Proms so lets do it one more time. Parade songs please. The LNOFTP was another tub-thumping success and when the Olympian rowers came on for Rule Britannia it took the roof off. But enough of the social whirl.

To Monday's show and the return of the Radio 2 book club with The Yellow Birds by debut novelist Kevin Powers. He's a veteran of the second gulf war and the book is set during the conflict in Iraq. But this is no Andy McNab style romp but a poetic story of friendship and loss. Read some of Kevin's book here and hear him from 6.

Have a straight-forward and hassle free Monday. See you after 5.