The Nottingham media have done their best over the years to totally ignore me and my achievements for the time I have been in the business, and while it used to bother me I now find it funny to an extent. The decline of the Nottingham Post over the years is a sad thing to see in a way because like radio before it, we are losing a quality newspaper too, and it isn't just Nottingham. Local news is suffering for whatever reason be it lack of money, lack of advertising or most obvious of all lack of quality writers. The Nottingham Post website has turned into a generic local paper site that is impossible to read, especially on a phone, because of pop-ups and the page refreshing itself at random points. Plus once you get to the bottom of the article you are bombarded with the usual click bait bullshit, 'you won't believe what happened next'.
Leftlion, a free arts paper that is available in selected shops, bars and cafes, is another blinkered publication that has ignored me. I even did a radio show with Penny Reeve who was an editor at the time, and that didn't warrant a mention within its pages, neither did my doing a radio show in America showcasing Nottingham music and giving artists their first overseas airplay. I don't need to mention the ignorance of the Nottingham Post when it came to the way they handled the 'retirement' of their food critic and basically kept him going so he could copy exactly what I pitched to them as a replacement.
I don't know what prompted this embargo but over Christmas they took it too far and just acted out of nothing more than childish spite. At the Hockley Hustle I joined The Breakfast Club on stage for their song 'Top Shop' and with the band's permission I released it as a single in order to raise funds for the Hockley Hustle charities. Once I had the single and video ready for release I emailed the Post, Leftlion, Notts TV, BBC Radio Nottingham, Nottingham Live, Kemet FM, and the local television news strand East Midlands Today. Only Nottingham Live picked up on this but nobody else even replied. Instead they threw their attention behind the novelty hit 'We Built This City on Sausage Rolls', admittedly a funny idea (one of those funny ideas that get progressively less funny with each revisit) and for a worthy cause but I am sure that they didn't have to throw all their towels on the one sunbed. Such is the local media and their obsession with ignoring me that they jump behind a guy who doesn't even live in Nottingham anymore.
If you would like to support local charities, then download the single from here and have a look at the video here. Because you won't read about it in the local press. To be honest I could cure cancer and the Nottingham press would ignore it.
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