You can't always get what you want...

As the 1980s drew - some might say mercifully - to a close, Freddie Mercury could be heard bellowing ‘I want it all and I want it now’ to anyone who had a mind to listen. The single I Want It All reached number three in the UK charts for Queen at a time when you had to go to a shop to buy a plastic disc if you wanted easy access to a specific song. Approximately 200,000 hardy souls did just that.

I was reminded of that particular ditty recently when the BBC radically reduced access to their radio programming for overseas listeners. From a rich cornucopia of delights across all stations to a scanty smattering of bits and bobs, the change was presumably made at the click of a couple of buttons by a young man with a pony tail, sitting in London chomping on endless packets of Cheesy Wotsits.

My initial reaction was to hop from foot to foot in the manner of Yosemite Sam after he’d been once-again outwitted by an irrepressible Bugs Bunny. When that particular urge died down, I resorted to dreaming wistfully of VPNs and myriad loopholes before finally settling upon the only sensible option - doing nothing and adapting to the circumstances. It’s been a revelation.

The positives include finding other radio stations with excellent programmes that I would never have investigated and having to manage my time better if there’s something particular I want to hear (there are now very few ‘listen again’ options). Most important of all though, has been having to accept the fact that I can’t have everything I want when I want it (sorry, Freddie). It’s been quite liberating to be disappointed at having missed something I would have really liked to have heard. In fact, not feeling constantly like a spoiled child becomes quite exhilarating after a while, not to say addictive.

At primary school, one of our teachers, Mr Kelly, would claim it was always better to leave the dining table still feeling just a tiny bit hungry. We thought he was as mad as a box of frogs and chuckled at his tomfoolery as we stuffed our chubby faces to the brim with chocolate cake and pink custard. These days, I’m having my doubts.

Anyway, not being able to listen to exactly what I want when I want on the radio has certainly freed up a lot of time to do other things like play the guitar and do a bit of singing. In fact, I can feel a new song coming on right now. It’s going to be called ‘I Want Just Some Of It And I Want It Only Occasionally.’

You can hear the stadium-rattling singalongs from here.

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