Ken Bruce, Amy MacDonald and the European Circuits Team

In the lead up to 2019 we thought long and hard about what we could do to celebrate the company’s 20th year in business. Never did we think we would have the best part of 8.6 million people tune in to our factory listening to Ken Bruce of BBC Radio 2 alongside live music from Amy MacDonald and chat from special guest Sanjeev Kohli… but on Tuesday 30th July we did just that!

OK, OK, OK, the event wasn’t specifically intended to celebrate our 20th year, no, it was all part of Ken Bruce’s “We stop for PopMaster” UK tour. Our factory, here in Glasgow, was chosen from a vast number of entries to host as the Scotland leg of his tour.

Nevertheless, the day will last long in the memory of our staff, it was a wonderful day, and we would like it to be remembered as a massive pat on the back and thank you to all the hard work our employees have put in over the years.

We had to keep it a secret for a long period and the build up to the show was kept as a surprise from our staff until the morning before the event. By the middle of Monday afternoon the BBC Outside Broadcast Crew were wheeling in and setting up broadcast equipment in preparation for the show on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday arrived with Ken and the Production Team appearing on site around 8am and by 9.30am we were live on the air broadcasting from European Circuits to Ken’s enormous listenership (officially the most popular UK radio program)!

Ken, who is originally from Glasgow, started the show by announcing that he was broadcasting from an electronics assembly house in Clydebank and by 9.45am our Sales Director, Philip Briscoe, was on the air chatting about what European Circuits do and how BBC Radio 2 had ended up broadcasting from our Assembly Department!

Philip informed Ken about our 20th year in business and ran through the services we provide to customers throughout Europe and beyond.

Ken also chatted to European Circuit’s Manufacturing Supervisor, Aaron Christison, before all the staff gathered round for the infamous PopMaster quiz at 10.30am, cheering on the callers and playing along!

Aaron impresses Ken with his knowledge of PCBs. He also joked about the pair’s hairstyle!

Following PopMaster, the amazing singer-songwriter, Amy MacDonald, sang live in our AOI Department kicking off with her hit “This is the Life” and all the staff were tapping and nodding in unison!

Amy MacDonald performing live in our AOI inspection room.

Amy, who has sold over 12 million albums worldwide, then sang another two songs throughout the morning before chatting, signing autographs and posing for photographs with staff. Everyone agreed that Amy sounded absolutely amazing! What a singer!!

Next up was Still Game’s Sanjeev Kohli as special guest. He dropped in to chat to Ken about his new Edinburgh show, “Fags, Mags & Bags” before choosing two of his favourite songs which had a lot of the team trying out some new moves!

Sanjeev Kohli brought laughter and funky tunes with his “Tracks of my years”.

Sanjeev also chatted about the “Still Game” tour before meeting staff, signing autographs and taking pictures. He could not have been any friendlier.

By 12 noon we were off air and Ken and the BBC Crew joined us for lunch before heading off to their next venue in England for Day 3 of the tour.

Ken commented to the press afterwards “It always feels good to be home and you are always guaranteed a warm welcome, a barrel of laughs and lots of Irn Bru and Tunnock’s Tea Cakes” all of which were in plentiful supply throughout the morning!

European Circuits have to say a massive thank you to the BBC Producers, Outside Broadcast Crew, Ken Bruce, Amy MacDonald, Sanjeev Kohli and everyone else involved at the BBC Radio 2 studios in London for making this a great event for the listeners and those in attendance.

Finally, a special mention must go out to our own Philip Briscoe who worked tirelessly in the background to make the day happen.

View more photos from the day on our Facebook page.