AS one of the country’s most popular stand-ups and a huge music fan, Phill Jupitus was the perfect choice when BBC 6 Music went looking for its first breakfast show presenter in 2002.

With a record collection that covered a whole range of genres, and a love of radio inspired by his childhood hero John Peel, it had to be a match made in heaven. But not quite, as it turns out.

Phill, 48, who lives in Leigh, quit three years ago. He jokes: “I have always been very aware that millions of people truly appreciate the breezy banter and lively tone of the majority of breakfast broadcasting.

“I admit that on occasion I have been known to wake up in a good mood and feel quite chirpy. Unfortunately for me, this happens one day a year, at most.”

His latest book, Good Morning Nantwich, reveals it wasn’t just the early mornings that ruined it for him.

He explains: “The book was originally going to be just about breakfast radio, mainly because I was fascinated by it and the different shows that were out there.

“Then there was the whole threat of 6 Music closing down and I thought let’s write about my time there.”

Phill will be signing copies of his book at the Book Inn, Broadway West, Leigh, tomorrow, from 2pm.

From 6pm he will be taking part in a question and answer session which is ticketed event priced £3, but free if you buy his book.

Phill presented the breakfast show from its 2002 launch until 2007. In the book he outlines the good times and the bad, revealing one of his major beefs, and perhaps the main reason he left the station, was the lack of opportunities to play his own choice of records.

“It was incredibly frustrating,” Phil reveals. “I was this huge music fan, I still am, and I was only allowed to play one of my own choices an hour.

“I’m one of the lucky ones. Christian O’Connell, while at XFM, was only allowed to play one a week.

“The way it’s designed now, programme schedulers decide what records should be on the playlist and then they shove it into a computer to decide the running order. So the music on all these big stations is being designed by machine.

“I just don’t understand why radio stations get these music fans in to present shows and then don’t let them express that interest.”

Since leaving the radio station, Phill has had plenty of opportunities to express his interest and talents in a number of different things.

As well as recording another series of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, he’s also been on the West End stage in Hairspray and has received an honorary degree from Essex University.

“I was never going to get a real one,” Phill laughs. “And I’ve got one up on Billy Bragg, although knowing Billy he’ll go to university and get a real one.

“For the rest of the year I’m doing the book tour and some more stand-up. Hairspray gave me a real taste for the West End, so hopefully I’ll get to do some more of that next year.”

But for the next few weeks it’s all hands to the pump promoting the book.

“I’ve basically organised the book tour through the One Show,” Phill confesses. “I went on to speak about the book and said if there were any bookshops who wanted me to come along and sign books they should get in contact with me.”

Unsurprisingly quite a few did.

Phill adds. “The one in Leigh was the funniest. The owners of the bookshop literally came running out of the store and grabbed me in the street as I was passing.”

“I ended up with 25 all over the country and now I’ve got another 20 in the pipeline.”

l Good Morning Nantwich is available in all good bookshops, priced £12.99. For more information, call 01702 716614.