Picture by Matt Stone

I don’t know if anyone is keeping a detail statistical account of the general running of NottinghamLIVE every Wednesday evening, but if there is someone out there acting as our very own Statto then tonight was the night that they wrote down the fact that we have achieved something once thought beyond us, the three of us arrived at the studio on time. Cassia was in the nearby shop when I was buying my cigarettes, crisps and energy drinks, and Darren and Paris appeared just as we hit Trent Towers (not an actual tower). Traffic is such a bollock at that time of the evening that we have struggled to arrive on time, and for the last couple of weeks I have been turning up just as the seven o’clock news is playing. I can’t speak on behalf of my colleagues but it doesn’t work for me at all as I prefer to have time to set my stall out mentally rather than just get straight down to business. You don’t turn up to work at exactly nine o’clock in the morning and get straight on with it after all, you allow yourself time to make a coffee and get into the swing of things first.

We had hoped for two live guests this week, but sadly we only had one. The statistician had another note to make today as Nick Aslam became the first Nottingham musician to make three appearances on the show. He’s got a new album out and performed a few tracks from it for us. It’s been interesting watching his progression from the first time he appeared last year; when he played on our Christmas show he had just signed to a small label that had all sorts of plans for him, and now he is to break out of Nottingham by playing gigs further afield. It’s always good to see this happen as the Nottingham scene has a tendency to have a glass ceiling over it with the same people playing the same gigs to the same audience over and over again. As good as it is for musicians around here, there isn’t really anywhere else to go unless you’re really lucky. Jake Bugg has proved that it is possible to break free of this city with the right people behind you, and if he can do it then it shouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility for someone with genuine talent and commitment. Nick has come this far in less than a year and if he has climbed another rung of the ladder with every appearance on our show then who knows what news he’ll have the next time he darkens our doors; maybe he’ll just be too big and have nothing to do with us anymore. That won’t happen hopefully, he’s such a nice chap.

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