Picture from I'm Not From London
A few weeks ago I interviewed maverick Nottingham music promoter Will Robinson for the Nottingham Post about this year's Waterfront Festival. This was a nice way to stay involved in a small way without the ballache of reviewing it for the paper like I did last year. When you turn up at a place at noon and are duty bound to stay there until half past two the following morning, you get tired. Not that I won't stay for the duration again this year but it will be nice to be there to do what I enjoy doing best which is watching live music. Waterfront is one of the biggest hitters of the Nottingham music scene and along with the Hockley Hustle are the perfect starting point for someone who wanted to begin an education in local music, I can think of a couple of music promoters who would benefit from such learning.
Anyway, I met Will a while ago to record the interview and talked about the festival and how INFL was founded. This year sees the fifth annual Waterfront and the tenth anniversary of INFL as an organisation which has grown into gig promoters, a record label and a publishing company so he has plans involving basing the festival on a child's fifth birthday and seaside holiday. He even mentioned donkey rides and when Will says something like that, people of Nottingham who know him don't question it. Today he asked on Facebook if he could borrow an American flag and an Elvis Presley outfit, nobody batted an eyelid. We had a nice conversation about music, what bands he would put on for his dream festival, and the charities that benefit from Waterfront. This year Emmanuel House will be the one of them, along with The Wolfston Cystic Fibrosis Ward at Nottingham City Hospital. Will has cystic fibrosis and this was the basis of his philosophy that every day is worth enjoying to the fullest. As an interviewer I know I don't exactly match up to David Frost but I managed to get him to talk about it in an open and informative way which was actually quite moving.
Like a twat I managed to lose the recording because I restored my phone to boost its memory. Actually, since I installed the DU Speed Booster my phone has repeatedly slowed down and been sluggish until I responded to the option to give my phone a bit of a clean and boost. Deep down I know I should just get rid of the app because it is all psychological but somehow you can't get rid of them, or I can't. So the recording of the interview had vanished before I had the chance to transcribe it. The sound recordings on my phone can't be emailed as attachments so they just have to stay there. I don't have a cable to empty my phone onto the computer, or I do and I can't find it. I email photographs from my phone to my Gmail address so that I can download them to keep, but I can't even do that with recordings. Luckily Will sympathised and we did the interview again today using the same questions from last time, it is a good job I always carry my notebook around.
The Sunday Alternative #47 is available from here.
===
July Housekeeping
Bags and T-Shirts are still available from here. All money goes in the fund. Feel free to browse the shop page while you're there.
If you donate £5 or more, you get to choose a song for me to cover on kazoo for a YouTube video, details here.
Seriously, I am grateful for the donations so if you haven't got round to it yet, I thank you in advance.
steveEoliver@gmail.com
