The show last night went like
a dream, one of those dreams you have where all of your music is in place and
you can get into the studio. I had been a nervous wreck (inside, cool on the
outside) all day about what could go wrong, and turned up at the studio at six
o’clock to go through some final checks. It was a bit of a kick in the teeth
that none of the people that helped to make The Sunday Alternative
grow over the last two years could make it along to share in the celebration. To
be fair, Chris Underwood and Penny Reeve did send recorded messages to play
during the show, but it would have been nice to have taken a group photo of all
Alternative alumni. I emailed and texted
Erik Petersen to invite him along, or record a message if he couldn’t make it,
I didn’t hear back from him to let me know either way. Erik used to operate
like this when he co-presented the show, so I wasn’t too fazed by it. Inevitably,
he neither made an appearance nor sent a message. The appearance of former
members of the team would have also been a good addition to the film.
The highlight of the show was
right at the beginning with the live rendition of the show’s theme tune. It was
written and performed by Gary and Craig Barwell when the show made its comeback
in April, (the five month gap in broadcasting does not count, it is still the
birthday of the show) and Gary brought his ukulele along and we sang it
together. We didn’t have a camera with us last night, and so are going to fake
those scenes again at a later date for inclusion in the film.
We had a brilliant show, and
riffed on several topics although kept coming back to blatantly mentioning
products and making it clear that we didn’t want to be sent freebies, when the
underline meaning was that we actually did want to be sent freebies. I like to
think of it as a satire on how people abuse their position sometimes in order
to feather their own nest. It started from the fact that I wore the same shirt
that I wore for the very first show in order to recreate the publicity photo.
The shirt was a Paul Smith, which tied in nicely seeing as both Paul Smith and The Sunday Alternative are Nottingham products that are
enjoyed all over the world. Maybe they should sponsor the show and provide us
with clothes to wear for the videos and photographs that go on the blog?
On the way home, Gary and I
threw around an idea that Gary had for a new radio show format which we will
try to pitch to Trent Sound as Bank Holiday specials. I won’t go into details
because of my knack of having ideas stolen, but it’s an idea that has legs and
if we get it written and recorded could go out on Boxing Day. In theory we
should have plenty of time to do it, but time does have a nasty habit of
catching up with me and messing up my plans. I emailed the pitch to the boss of
Trent Sound and he sent back a one line answer that it sounded like a brilliant
idea, thus the green light has been shone on the next venture. If I’d suggested
it to the BBC I might not have heard back from them at all, after all it is
thanks to the lazy way they run things at the beeb that The Sunday
Alternative still isn’t a 6Music show.
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