The Sunday lunch tables of the
country had a new soundtrack yesterday afternoon, as The Sunday
Alternative returned after a three week break. I wasn’t sure if I
had done the right thing moving the show to the afternoon as the very ethos of
the show was the late night collection of unusual music. Would this kind of
thing work in the afternoon? Given that Sunday is very much a radio day, at
least pre-lunchtime, I had a lot of competition from the likes of BBC 6 Music
and Radio 2 in particular. Al Murray does a mid-morning show on Planet Rock,
and then there’s the comedy show at noon on Radio 4 among other things. Jarvis
Cocker’s show on 6 Music is the nearest thing to The Sunday
Alternative, but thankfully it starts after my new afternoon show. I
have big plans for the future of the show, and am always working on tweaks in
the format, and think that Sunday lunchtime could be a good home for it. Live
music is going to be a feature of course, but I am only having acoustic
sessions for two reasons; firstly because it suits the laid back atmosphere of
a Sunday lunchtime with the roast in the oven, people reading the papers and
generally enjoying the day of rest (not for me though, please spare a thought
for people who work on Sunday, the emergency services and radio presenters
mainly – shop workers do it by choice for double pay). The second reason is more
of a practical one, the building we broadcast from has a shop in which is next
door to us and a punk band (for example) would carry through the adjoining door
and piss everyone off.
I was up in plenty of time to
walk to the studio, I prefer to walk there if I can (not so keen on the way
back though) to set me up for the show and clear the cobwebs away from my
brain. The band and the sound engineer were expected at half twelve and I had
wanted to get there about twelve to set up the music. The controller of the
station texted me while I was still in my dressing gown to tell me that the
band had already turned up. This shook me up a little so I took a tram to
Bulwell instead to meet the band (Lucks Lane). My music was in the system; Gary
was presenting the show with me, the band were warming up and all the signs
were pointing to a great show.
A great show is exactly what
it was. I took a bit longer than I would have liked to fully get into the swing
of it, and if you listen back having read this I’m sure the conversation
between Gary and me flows a bit more freely in the second hour. I don’t like
listening to myself so never actually listen to my shows if I can help it.
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