Hamish and Andy reveal their most memorable radio moments

THE duo, who will hang up their headphones after today’s show, have picked their most memorable radio moments and revealed the one stunt they never got to do.

HAMISH and Andy are going out with a bang.

The most successful duo in Australian radio history will hang up their headphones after today’s show to focus on their TV show, True Story with Hamish & Andy, in 2018.

And what a final show it promises to be.

All week the boys have been touring their band, Coolboys and the Frontman, around Australia and New Zealand.

Hamish plays the drums, Andy plays the keytar and their button-pusher, Jack, plays the guitar and offers little in terms of stage presence.

Travelling like true rockstars on a private jet, the group have been fronted by a different celebrity singer each night which has so far included Jessica Mauboy, Ricki-Lee and Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords.

At each gig they only play one song, once. And this afternoon they’ll perform Queen’s We Are The Champions for the final time with Vance Joy as their frontman in front of a sellout 6000-strong crowd at Margaret Court Arena.

Hamish and Andy fully expect today’s last show to be one of the most memorable from their 12 years on radio with the Hit Network. But in a career littered with so many unbelievable moments, what are their other standout memories?

“This week, landing in a rural town in New Zealand to play one song ... that was one of those things that you just go, ‘this is incredible’,” Hamish told news.com.au.

“The gig that we played on Tuesday night in one of the most remote parts of New Zealand, was because a guy called Reagan who’s a part of the New Zealand Young Farmers Association, decided he’d like us to play at his end of year function.

Coolboys and the Frontman on their private jet earlier this week.

“When we got there we went: ‘If you hadn’t had emailed, Reagan, we would not have blown literally tens of thousands of dollars of the company’s money flying here on a private jet to play for the Young Farmers Association,’ and I’m so glad we did because it was one of the greatest moments of our lives.

“I suppose it’s the end of journeys of things that started from a tiny kernel and then blossomed into something big. Being in Perth racing our greyhound, Fred Bassett, with 6000 listeners screaming and holding banners that said ‘Marry Me Fred’ at a greyhound track that averaged 20 to 30 people a night ... Those are the moments where you think, ‘this is so much fun,’ because a lot of this stuff starts from a whim and you don’t know where it’s going to go and some of those ideas grow into big things and that’s where you do pinch yourself.”

Fred Bassett mingles with fans after a race in 2006.

As for Andy’s “pinch me” moments, he’ll never forget what happened on their farewell show back in 2010 when they previously walked away from their daily show only to return in 2015.

“When U2 came out on stage at the end of our last trip, that was just a great surprise for us as well as everybody else,” Andy told news.com.au.

“We only found out the day before and weren’t allowed to tell anyone. To be able to pull it off was great fun and a producing feat by Sam [Cavanagh] and our other producers.

Hamish and Andy got knighted by Bono.

“But the one that trumps that is when we were broadcasting on a cruise ship for a whole week in front of 500 people and we pulled a skill tester machine on to the stage that no one had won for the entire trip.

“People were calling into the show and were saying, ‘left’ or ‘right’, they controlled the skill tester over the phone while we were near Vanuatu on a cruise ship. Somehow we pulled out a $500 block of cash. We won the crash crane!”

During their radio careers, the boys have done things like sail a tall ship to Tasmania, travelled around Australia in a caravan and even invented their own game called ‘Ghosting’ which took off around the world.

Andy struggled with sea sickness during their tall ship adventure.

But there was one thing in particular they wanted to do that they could never get over the line.

“At the end of 2010 when we were stopping [their daily show] and we were going to do Gap Year, the radio station asked if there was anything they could do to make us stay,” Andy told news.com.au.

“Hamish and I said: ‘We’d love to be the first radio show to broadcast from space.’ It was the exact same time that Virgin Galactic was coming out so there were discussions at the time on whether we’d be able to do a broadcast from space.

“As it turns out, technically they still haven’t got up there and that was seven years ago,” Andy said.

“We ended up doing the broadcast from Space Furniture on Church St,” Hamish joked. “And it was memorable!”

Even though they’re hanging up the headphones for now, Hamish and Andy haven’t ruled out a return to radio in the future because they know they’re both really going to miss it.

“Getting to chat to Australians every single day is what I’ll miss,” Andy told news.com.au.

Hamish said: “We’re a bit addicted to being surprised, I think, and that’s going to be rough going cold turkey on that because that’s the total luxury of the radio show.

“Every time you turn the mic on for those two hours you know there’s going to be a lot of surprises and that’s what we love. That is what we’ll miss. So I’ll probably go around to Andy’s house and egg it every now and then, maybe let his car tires down and keep surprising him so he doesn’t miss the show too much.”

You can hear Hamish and Andy’s final show on the Hit Network from 4-6pm today as they sing the fitting lyrics from Queen’s We Are The Champions for the last time:

I’ve taken my bows

And my curtain calls.

You brought me fame and fortune, and everything that goes with it.

I thank you all.

Coolboys and the Frontman will play their final gig today.