I recently wrote the following passage in my notebook:

The Sunday Alternative needs to be much tighter. Although it is always evolving there are areas that I find distressing. Today’s show went very well in terms of music and guests, but there were too many holes.

There are other notes, but I wrote the above lines while listening back to the show later that night. I don’t like listening to myself but have decided to give the show a listen every week as a post-mortem. The show has evolved over the years but I don’t really know how, and can’t really pinpoint specific turning points. In my head I know what I want the show to be, and as good as it is, it will always be open to intense scrutiny from me. I am my own worst critic which I imagine is a good thing as it means I can never become complacent. If I had the time I would listen back to every show and write up a detailed essay on the good and bad points of the show and what I could have done better. However, I can’t be bothered so if anyone wants to do it for me then go to the Mixcloud page and start from the beginning if you want to listen to just over two years worth of shows.

For the last few weeks I have been doing the show alone, mostly with a live music guest. At first I was reluctant to do the show on my own as I like to have someone there to bounce ideas off, but I am growing used to the show being my solo project. There have been four co-presenters since the show started, each bringing a different style to the show. Chris, Erik and Penny were all a great deal of fun to work with. They all had a little problem with turning up on time, if at all, but listening back occasionally brings me fond memories of the life of the show. With Erik we talked too much and turned it into a comedy show, with the music gradually being sidelined, so I brought back live music so as not to totally lose focus. Gary has been great but he has been unavailable for the last few weeks for a variety of reasons that I will respectfully not go into. I feel that I can only do the show on my own if there’s a live guest, because otherwise it is just me basically saying “that was a record, here’s another one, that was a record, here’s a longer one because I’m going out for a fag” for two hours. Obviously the music is great, but as a whole it isn’t great radio.

I’m not sure about the future of the documentary as the Indie Go Go campaign hasn’t really taken off, it will still be made but I can’t really commit to a definite ‘when’ on it. Just lately I’ve been toying with developing the filmed element angle and maybe doing a purely filmed version of the show as a weekly or fortnightly video series featuring live music (obviously) and short interview segments. Maybe a comedy sketch or two could be included, and the whole thing (which for authenticity I would actually film on Sundays) will be made available the following Sunday. This is a project on the list of things I hope to get off the ground before the end of the year, along with some other ideas. Promoting live music in a variety of different visually interesting ways is something I’m looking into, possibly dusting off my proposed but immediately discarded cookery series to include a musical element.

I had intended to do more with filmed content for the show, including the live sessions and interviews but also incorporating behind the scenes footage and items for camera only. This was to be uploaded as a weekly video uploaded to YouTube and Vimeo. As things stand though, this hasn’t been possible as we are on borrowed time as far as live music is concerned at Trent Towers (not an actual tower) so I didn’t want to start something I would have to abandon as it gathered momentum.

Another idea I had was to ditch the daily blog, as it can be a bit of a drag (to write I mean, figures show that it is still considered a good read, unless one person reads it five hundred* times of course. To replace the blog, and the daily commitment of having to find something to write about, I have been giving some thought to doing a weekly podcast. In this I would talk about my week and play some of the music I have been sent that I didn’t get time to play on the radio. It could also include guests and live music sessions, but as I would do doing it in my house that could be a bit unworkable.

*daily average 

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