Picture from Jake Orr
Today was spent writing up the review of Sunday night's Future Sound of Nottingham contest and I am glad that I have been given longer on it than usual. The Nottingham Post are not going to publish it in the paper until Friday when it will be printed in the EG supplement, which meant that I didn't have to write it up as soon as I got home. On one hand this was a good thing as it gave me time to be able to put together a proper write up as people were expecting trouble based on the fact that I have been very critical of Mark 'literally' Del, not on a personal level because I don't know him but rather his not going to as many gigs as he should. On the other hand it meant that I have had this hanging over me and as tomorrow is the deadline I had to crack on with it and be able to send it in. I have written two versions for their use, one slightly longer write up to publish online and a shorter one for print. To be perfectly honest I am not happy with the print version as I had to take rather a lot out and as a result the remaining 450 words seem disjointed somehow. The online version will be where I direct people to as it tells the story better although still doesn't really cover everything I wanted to say. Out of politeness I have not referred to it as a pointless popularity contest, nor have I referred to the integrity of the judging panel or used a line about Del himself being in the unfamiliar surroundings of a live music venue, and the temptation to refer to the time Del literally chained himself to the railings outside the BBC to protest about Dean Jackson was very hard to resist. What I have done is question the process of allowing acts to take part when they are already well established enough to not need to be taking part in a competition with the word 'future' in the title, you might as well allow Paper Lace to enter the contest for the chance to open Splendour. Time will tell whether or not I need to publish the 'uncut' version on IMHO or not, the online version doesn't need anything doing to it but I would be upset if people take the print version as an example of my writing. In future I think I would be happier to write the review straight away after the gig as usual, which is something I will do on Saturday night when I have been to Rock City again to see The Sex Pissed Dolls, if I'm on the list that is, I haven't had confirmation yet and DHP aren't the best at returning emails.
I have also recorded the comeback podcast which will be released on Saturday, and I need to record this Sunday's edition before too long. Looking through my files regarding the podcast I realised that I have dropped a bollock with regards the indexing of the shows. The Saturday 'bonus' podcast that I have recorded is numbered (and referred to on the audio) as podcast number 43, with the Sunday edition being 44. The last time I released a Saturday podcast, although it still carried the name The Sunday Alternative, it wasn't numbered with the regular series so now I have messed up the line. It isn't the end of the world of course, but I like things to be right but I had recorded it when I realised and I couldn't be bothered to do it again.
The Sunday Alternative will return soon.
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June housekeeping
The audio book of Bowie Day (a short story inspired by A Christmas Carol) will be released on August 31st. In the meantime the book can be downloaded to your Kindle from here.
All donations made using the PayPal button will go towards making podcasts, comedy sketches, live video sessions, documentaries, short films and more that will be made available online for free.
The Sunday Alternative bag and t-shirt (and other products) can be purchased from my shop page. All money raised will go into the fund to create free content.
steveEoliver@gmail.com
