Wednesday 16th October

I’m still full of cold and pumping myself full of all manner of pills and powders, not the good kind either, so I wasn’t entirely sure if I would be fit enough to present the radio show. Tonight was shaping up to be one of our busiest shows of all time so I wanted to be a part of what will be one of Nottingham’s ‘water cooler moments’ tomorrow. Fighting through the desire to crawl under the duvet and sweat it out, I soldiered on and made my way to Trent Towers.

Some time ago when Darren and I were throwing ideas about for the show, I suggested having two live sessions on the show in order to devote even more time to showcasing this city’s musical output. I have done a double session before on The Sunday Alternative and although it is stressful it is the good kind of stress that makes you produce great radio. Although he wasn’t keen on the idea at first, I think tonight will bring him round. We need to make sure that Joe is cool with it of course, as it will impact on his leaving time.

We were only about fifteen minutes into the show when our first problem happened, as we were scheduled to have a telephone interview with Harleighblu to briefly talk about her new album and the launch gig on Friday. This was to take place just before Natalie Duncan was due to do a live set for us. Having Natalie on the show was something of a big deal to be honest, as she now lives in London and has spent the last year headlining jazz festivals and headlining her own tour. She is back in Nottingham to promote her new album and play a launch on Saturday, so we were lucky that she had found the time to appear. Obviously it was a big thing for her too, NottinghamLIVE being an important cog in the Nottingham music wheel. We have a recording of her saying that appearing on the show was more exciting than her appearance on Later With Jools Holland. To be honest, she did read it from a piece of paper; did she write it down so that she could get a heartfelt tribute to us word perfect? The handwriting looks a lot like mine!

The telephone in the studio had some technical issues, so Harleighblu’s interview was behind schedule, which forced us to delay Natalie for about ten minutes. Our other band, Great British Weather, turned up just before and quickly filled the live room up with equipment, so things weren’t going exactly to plan. Natalie played a beautiful selection of songs and although showed ease and humour during the interview, I did chicken out of asking the all important question of the cartoon character she’d most like to have sex with. I kicked myself afterwards as we’ve never asked a female guest before, but I didn’t want to be responsible for the word spreading that we were terrible interviewers.

"Act natural" I said.

Cassia didn’t really get a chance during the show tonight at all; in fact I’m not even sure she went on air once during the whole three hours. She was kept busy liaising with the guests, and took tonight’s photographs, but the show was such a cluster-fuck that there wasn’t really time to run the show to the usual structure (not that you’d know we go along with a structure).

Me, Natalie Duncan, Darren
picture by Cassia Helme

Great British Weather played in the second hour, (we had taken the eight o’clock and nine o’clock news out of the system to avoid being cut off in mid-flow), and although very loud it didn’t result in a visit from the police. There was a hammering on the door at some point, but I had already made it clear that nobody was to answer the door during the session so as to enable us to plead ignorance. I don’t personally think the previous complaint (when Dick Venom and The Terrortones performed on the show) was genuine. During the sound check I went outside for a cigarette and crossed the road into the police station car park and couldn’t hear a sound. The police station is the nearest building to Trent Towers (not an actual tower), and the nearest house is too far away to hear anything. On the Thursday after Dick Venom’s session we received a forwarded copy of an email of complaint to the station, that the owner had sent us. I responded then that someone is out to cause trouble and that we should ignore it, it isn’t as if we have a lot of noise at a ridiculously late hour, the live sets are done by nine o’clock. Besides, the people of Bulwell need to be woken up from sharing a bed with their spouse-and-sibling combination for the burglary nightshift so should be thanking us for the alarm call. Also, why aren’t they listening to the show like the rest of Nottingham? In theory we are just providing them with a live experience.

After we’d interviewed the band we had two more guests, the organisers of Oxjam Beeston, who were in to talk about this weekend’s proceedings. Darren did that interview while I saw to the band, who I didn’t want to keep prisoner at the studio so Cassia joined us in the usual photograph. The interview went on for the rest of the show so Cassia and I didn’t get to say our goodbyes. It certainly was a full show, which ended with Darren suggesting we have two live acts in again.

Me, Great British Weather, Cassia
picture by one of the band's parents on Cassia's camera

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