Front Row

Front Row joins Radio 4's celebration of Bob Dylan, who will be 80 on Monday. John Wilson joined by Bob Geldof, to consider the art and influence of Bob, on Bob. Ann Powers, music critic for National Public Radio joins from somewhere on the Nashville Skyline. On Bob Dylan's first trip to Britain, in the winter of 1962, he and the great English folk singer Martin Carthy, met, became friends and performed together in small clubs such as the Troubadour (still going!). Bob Dylan acknowledges the influence of Carthy, whose versions of Scarborough Fair and Lord Franklin, for instance, inform songs of his such as Bob Dylan's Dream and Girl From the North Country. It will be Martin's 80th birthday on Friday, he's three days older than Dylan. Front Row drags him away from his celebration (and a rehearsal - Carthy, like Dylan, is still a hardworking musician) to remember those early days, and a winter so cold he and Bob chopped up an old piano for firewood.Kerry Shale stars with Richard Curtis, Lucas Hare and Eileen At