Gideon Haigh is a polymath amongst journalists: his interests from true crime via office culture, legal history and beyond could fill up several other podcasts. I’m surprised he had the time to spare for this podcast with someone he’d never met - but am thrilled he did. First and foremost though, Gideon is the pre-eminent cricket journalist in Australia. He’s even been described as “the greatest cricket writer alive”, although his friend, with whom he stays when in England for The Ashes, Michael Atherton is another claimant to the title.
Yet we all have our limits. Having watched and commentated on cricket myself for many years, I do know that Mike Atherton has no knowledge of music whatsoever. Which I suppose places him one notch above the typical sportsplayer’s love of Oasis and Coldplay. But just the one notch.
Gideon, on the other hand, is very much the exception in the world of sport (alongside his podcast confrere, Peter Lawlor) in that he regards The Fall as the most significant group in history. He was delighted to brandish his phone case, decorated in the style of what he described as the Ur-Fall album, Hex Enduction Hour. Needless to say, from that starting point, Gideon’s playlist could not have been more on brand for Sombrero Fallout.
And not only, as it turned out, did we have musical taste and cricket in common, we also shared a passion for polar exploration. I got the feeling that had we hung out together any longer Gideon would have revealed his favourite authors to be Richard Brautigan and Ivy Compton-Burnett. (Actually you can find out exactly what his other interests are by heading to the “Things I Like” section of his website: https://www.gideonhaigh.com/things-i-like/)
Underpinned by a shared love of Slint, Chris Tavare’s forward defensive and doomed Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, please enjoy the recording of the highly enjoyable time I spent in the company of Gideon Haigh.
Setlist:
New face in hell, The Fall
What we all want, The Gang of Four
Between you and me, Graham Parker
Kamikaze, P J Harvey
I feel mysterious today, Wire
Final solution, Pere Ubu
The big payback, Big Black
Gamma ray, Beck
Good morning captain, Slint
Oddity, The Clean