Before I write about my picks for the year ahead for Nottingham’s music scene, I will round up 2013. The year started (as reported in my New Year’s Eve blog) with me back on the radio presenting Trent Sound’s NottinghamLIVE. I can’t believe we are planning out first birthday show, with live music from Albion and Josh Wheatley. The first show was a pretty nervous affair, as I didn’t really know what I was doing seeing as I had just turned up to replace Andy Haynes at the last minute and wasn’t even too sure whether I’d be taking the job on a permanent basis. The reason Albion are playing is because we kind of owe them one, they were booked on to appear on our first show but technical issues meant that they were unable to perform. Not the best launch to a show that would become Nottingham’s biggest and most influential radio show, but a problem that we never had again and NottinghamLIVE proudly managed to host a live session (occasionally two) every week from the second show onwards. We do still have our ‘want list’, and I have my ‘C-list’ (we all know what the C stands for) but 2013 saw us welcoming a fantastic lineup of guests:

Spaceships Are Cool
Lorna
Marc Reeves
Hayley Queen
OneGirlOneBoy
Prefontaine
Emma Bladon Jones*
Josh Kemp*
Brad Deer
The Most Ugly Child*
The CTRL (twice, the first band to make two appearances)*
Alex Young
Band Of Jackals
The Fade
Sara-Louise
St Raymond (who was signed up soon afterwards)
Breadchasers
Crimson General (who said that we treated them better than John Peel and the BBC did)
Karizma
Afterdark Movement
Josh Wheatley
Matt Humphries
Georgie Rose*
Gorgeous Chans
Ar Mullah
The Swiines
John Hardy
George Gadd*
DH Lawrence and The Vaudeville Skiffle Show
Joe Sheldon AKA The Sinister Minister*
Long Dead Signal
Ande Hunter (from Hunting Helen)
Chris Turner
Dick Venom and The Terrortones (our first police visit for noise complaints)
Nick Aslam (the first solo artist to play twice)
Sam Jones
Natalie Duncan
Great British Weather
Winterhouse
Hargreaves Sisters
RAM1
Steve McGill*
Imperial Circus
Lauren Lovejoy

Quite a line up, the artists marked * are those that I have also had the pleasure of working with for The Sound Of Nottingham UK along with Nightmare Arcade, Ruckus, Starscreen, Priory Jones and The Mission, Lisa De Ville, and Oscar Speed. Although I wasn’t going to have Nottingham bands on The Sunday Alternative, I have welcomed Rebel Rebel, Matt Blick, Lunar Park, Fields, All So Reckless (a total fucking nightmare), Ryan Thomas, Joe Strange, Chloe McShane, and Blue Vulture.

At some point I’d like to get Calling All Astronauts up to Nottingham for a radio session or a gig. They are a totally DIY band and you only have to follow their singer/manager David Bury on Twitter to see how much effort he puts in. Promotion-wise, they make me look shy. Their album Post Modern Conspiracy impressed me so much that I must have played at least five of the tracks in one radio show, and they release singles at a rate that shames any of today’s pop groups.

One of my picks for 2013 was The CTRL, and I am going to put them in my 2014 list too for the simple reason that now they have laid the foundations during the last year, they can only move upwards now. Their determination and work ethic is unbelievable, and providing they stay at it, they can’t fail.

As for my other ones to watch for the year ahead:

In a recent interview, Josh Kemp said that one of his ambitions is to play an arena, and although that might not come true for 2014 it will one day. He is already filling his diary for 2014 and showing no signs of slowing down. He’s been played on American radio already (you’re welcome America) and one day he’ll be going over there to tour, we can call it our apology for Jake Bugg. Kemp is the first Josh of Nottingham music, and I predict good things for the second Josh. Josh Wheatley has an EP coming out at the end of the month and will be making his second prestigious appearance on NottinghamLIVE the day before the launch. Seeing how he has progressed since his first session for us makes it exciting to see what 2014 has in store and what I’ll be writing about him this time next year.

Matt Humphries played a few of Prefontaine’s gigs last year and performed on the show. He is only 14 years old, (13 when he played) and has the drive to do incredibly well in the year ahead. Another grafter who deserves to climb the ladder by several rungs during the year ahead is Georgie Rose, who appeared at practically every festival during 2013 and plays regularly around the city.

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