While looking for something in my office, I stumbled across some old issues of Night Flight magazine, (don't worry if you don't remember it, you are not alone), which I used to write for. It was like stepping into another time, and reminded me of how far I've come regarding my foothold in Nottingham's music scene. I moved back to Nottingham in 2007 and was effectively starting my life at year zero. Having previously worked as a music promoter and small time reviewer, (I once wrote of The Paddingtons "as far as naming themselves after bears is concerned, this band are less Paddington and more Pooh", I was so proud when that passed by the editor), I knew that the unsigned local music scene was something I was interested in. However, when I arrived in Nottingham in the early part of 2007, (my diary for 2007 doesn't tell me the date of moving for some reason, maybe I'd packed all my pens), I didn't know where to begin.

My return to Nottingham coincided with the reopening of the Old Market Square, and the special three day concert series to celebrate it, (this is back when Nottingham used to do things like that, there is a sub-story here about how the city itself has gone downhill since I moved here, although not because I moved here). Opening the weekend long festival was Captain Dangerous. These days of course they are friends of mine, but back then they were just the first name that appeared in my musical radar. It was as a result of my link to Night Flight that I first met Adam Clarkson and Miles Clark from the band.

It was from here that I started to fight my way through; first by getting into radio, attending more and more gigs, getting in touch with bands via Myspace (those were the days), and generally getting my name out there. Before I joined Sherwood Radio I recorded a video session with Captain Dangerous (still there on YouTube), and formulated a plan with Night Flight to launch a spin-off podcast video series. Somewhere if it still exists, is a video of me attempting to interview a band (who might be Captain Dangerous, my memory fails me on this occasion) in a graveyard in near pitch black darkness. My first idea to meet and work with bands was a similar project; an online 'television' series featuring live performances and interviews, but as I have lamented before, I was a bit ahead of my time in 2007 and couldn't get anyone to fully understand what the hell I was talking about.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe just how far I've come in such a short space of time, and I suppose the icing on the cake was the American show, giving Nottingham bands a chance to be heard over the Atlantic. Which brings me back to finding these old copies of Night Flight..

The whole media storm about Nottingham and its music scene only really kicked in about two years ago, with the publication of an article in The Guardian about Nottingham music. That same year, Leftlion photographed almost every music mover and shaker for the now legendary (still spoken about by those who were on it) Christmas 2011 cover. There were names mentioned in Night Flight that are no longer about and who just missed out on getting on the Nottingham bandwagon, and it got me to wondering where they were now. It would form a good basis for a feature on NottinghamLIVE to cover a different band every week, and maybe track someone down. The trouble is, the only leads a lot of them have are Myspace sites that haven't been updated for a while.

In fact, that is something that dates these old Night Flight issues, the fact that every band mentioned didn't have a 'proper' website, but had a Myspace. Once we've sussed out where all the bands are, we'll try and find Tom. I want to ask him why he never changed his profile picture. He still hasn't, look!

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