Back when Darren and I hosted
‘Our Big Gig’ at the Arboretum, one of the things we did, (mainly because we
had no material to go on stage and fill time with), was invite Darren’s two
sons onto the stage to read out the raffle numbers. They were brilliant, and of
course have the cuteness that we hairy radio presenters sadly lack. To keep the
peace when they appeared to be getting a little restless, I suggested that one
day they should come to the radio studio and help us out and give them a chance
to see what their dad does on a Wednesday evening. Of course they greeted this
invitation with utter delight, and to be honest I didn’t think they would even
remember me saying it. Ever since that day, Darren has mentioned how they keep
reminding him that they were invited in and asking when they were going to be
allowed in.
Today was the day that
Mitchell and Robert joined us for an edition of NottinghamLIVE, and it
certainly was an interesting evening. I arrived at Trent Towers, (not an actual
tower) to be greeted by Spiderman and Darth Vader. It was Mitchell and Robert
in costume of course, and Darren had come prepared with comics, sandwiches, and
pop. The Patterson family had attended the Y-Not Festival a few weeks ago, and
we had the idea to ask the kids about it as guest reviewers. Children have an
honesty about them that gets lost as grownups, and I was looking forward to
hearing them seriously diss some of the acts. It didn’t work like that as they
said nice things, although as a payment they insisted that we played that awful
‘Gangnam Style’ song. The younger of the two (I still can’t remember which one
is which) was sat on my knee to talk into the microphone, and I was able to
literally put words into his mouth by giving him lines to say to our listeners
as part of our admin housekeeping.
“Whisper whisper”
“Follow the show on twitter…”
“Whisper”
“At Trent Sound Ltd”
“Whisper”
“We are on Facebook…”
“Whisper”
“Trent Sound Limited”
“Whisper”
“We’ll be back after the news”
“Whisper”
“I smell of bums”
I am hilarious.
We also had Cassia with us,
who regular blog readers will remember as the woman who wanted to learn about
working in radio and so agreed to join us two in the studio. Due to the chaotic
nature of the show, she somehow ended up trying to keep the kids from making
too much noise during the more serious bits of the show. She’ll be coming in on
Sunday for a third time lucky glimpse into how to make radio magic.
Who is George texting?
Maybe George was texting Joe?
George Gadd was our live
musician tonight, who not only delivered a fantastic session, but was also a
jolly good sport when it came to a change in the interview format. We had
decided to invite questions via Twitter, and ended up with questions that had
nothing to do with music. It all started when Gerry Trimble asked who would win
in a fight between a Moomin and a Care Bear, and degenerated from there; How
many Pringles can you fit in your mouth? What’s the best impression you can do?
This system works well and loosens the mood; I certainly wish that we had
thought to employ this when we’ve had the less talkative guests in, not naming
names of course. We will probably keep the Moomin/Care Bear question, and the
Pringles one, (I’ll be bringing a tube in from now on, maybe it’ll lead to a
sponsorship or some freebies), and I’ll be keeping my own stock question of
which cartoon character you’d most like to have sex with.
The children are a delightful
pair to have around, I found a new audience for the Eric Morcambe invisible
ball into a paper bag trick, which dazzled them both. However, we soon came to
realise that three hours is a long time to hold patience and concentration at
that age, I struggle enough at my age. By the time the third hour rolled
around, they were becoming difficult to keep entertained and kept interrupting
the show, despite being asked to keep quiet when we were talking on air. If I’d
been invited to go on the radio at their age I would have been just as excited.
I pondered on the logistics of letting them present the whole show one time,
but kept it to myself in case they prove more popular than us.
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