R.I.P. Robert Sandall (1952-2010)

I was only ever familiar with Robert Sandall as a broadcaster - more specifically, as the co-presenter of Radio 3's Mixing It, the new music show which went out every Friday evening, and which functioned not so much as a gateway to experimental music, as the drug itself in its purest form: absolute musical crack. He and Mark Russell presided over a weekly slew of strange, frightening and wonderful records with gentle sardonics, wisecracks, and deep knowledge and open-mindedness, that changed forever the places I put my ears (this was where it all went wrong, in other words). The program's sudden and mysterious cancellation in 2007 was a disgrace to the BBC's public service remit, and though he and Russell did a couple of shows on Resonance based on the old format, it didn't stick (no doubt partly due to Sandall's apparently long-term ill-health). A deeply unfortunate loss.