Friday 11th October

With no live session recorded this week, I had to fill an hour of tracks for this weekend’s edition of The Sound of Nottingham UK for those lucky Americans (and people in Nottingham bands who tune in to hear themselves being broadcast five hours ago due to the time difference). This wasn’t too difficult as I have a lot of tracks, but I have got to the stage where I don’t know the age of each song. I knowingly play ‘oldies’ on the show but also feature quite a lot of new stuff, so it would have been a good idea to put release dates on the songs when I saved them. Never mind, I was more impressed at the fact that I was able to record the show in one take without having to start again. This was especially nice as I record the show as live, with no edits, and with no live session I didn’t have the necessary time to go to the toilet. There aren’t that many songs that are long enough for a decent poo break, so as soon as I had finished I was out of my office and in the bathroom. I also insist on having a shower afterwards, which in my opinion is far more hygienic than using dry paper, so that takes time too.

After quite a long and stressful week it was nice to have the show sent over the Atlantic and once I’d received the confirmation email from Connecticut I turned off the computer. I have made a list of urgent tasks, which can’t be that urgent or I would have tried to tackle at least one of them, but I couldn’t be bothered. We had two bottles of red wine and dinner to work through, which at the time seemed far more important, and still do.

I seem to be the only person who has noticed that Eastenders appear to be using a storyline taken from an old episode of The Simpsons, in which a father needs a kidney from his son. When Dexter (the son for those who don’t watch it) ran away from the hospital having lost his nerve, I did wonder if he was going to run away to sea before coming back. I’d love to see more episodes of The Simpsons used as inspiration for Eastenders; Morgan and Tiffany could phone up a radio station and win an elephant that they can’t afford to keep for example. Alfie Moon could turn the Queen Vic into Mo’s Family Feedbag (with Mo Slater as the figurehead), Phil Mitchell could lend money to Dot Branning to start her own pretzel business, Fatboy and Tamwar could go on the rampage in the West-End after first going in to the Minute Mart and convincing Denise to let them have a Slush Puppy with extra sugar, and little baby Scarlett could shoot Ian Beale prompting widespread mystery as to who fired the gun. After a few years, another soap opera should appear called Family Man, in which Eastenders Simpsons themed storylines are recycled.

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