Today is the last day that I am allowing myself to rest because I am falling too far behind on my work and from tomorrow will seriously need to pull my finger out. Some time ago I submitted an April Fool story to the Nottingham Post but received no reply so I am not sure if they will be using it. To be honest it will be hard to tell as most stories in the local paper border on the ridiculous, as indeed they do in the national press. I have spent some time catching up on my blog today but have not been tweeting the links because I didn't want to fill my Twitter feed up with blog links. While I have been ill my follower count has been stupid, it has fluctuated at an even worse rate than usual with people following for a matter of hours. Part of me wanted to publicly mention them and ask if it was because I was ill or if it was because they are Walkers crisps fans and my #crispreport tweets favour Golden Wonder and KP, either that or they are people who think it acceptable to talk at gigs. All I know is that I still carry the word 'underfollowed' on my Twitter bio and will do for some time.

I think I will ditch The Record Store Day Video (working title) until next year and film it a lot further in advance with better planning. The pressure isn't worth it for a ten minute film when I have other projects to work on. Filming wise I am keen to get the Saturday Breakfast pilot out of the way and another crowd funding video for a film about a band from Nottingham that I have mooted but not spoken publicly about (because someone will steal the idea of course). Once they are out of the way they can earn their money until the projects come to life next year, my last filming project this year is a comedy involving puppets and is something that has been in the pipeline for about five years. When I need some reassurance regarding stunted projects I read bit's of Richard Herring's website and see how much of a struggle he has had to try and get things off the ground. His blog details television writing that has never seen the light of day and I know how he feels. It is the worst thing in the world to have to do a load of work only for it to fall before the finishing line is in sight.

The Easter Sunday edition of the podcast will need to be recorded at some point too but time is again against me as I have promised Mandi we'll spend Good Friday together and we will be going to my dad's for lunch on Easter Sunday. Even though self-employed people don't benefit from it financially I will be working on Easter Saturday and Monday to get caught up so will record the podcast either tomorrow or Thursday. All this shows that I am very much back in business although I have learned something of a lesson in slowing down and not letting work take over my life.

Due to illness there is no edition of The Sunday Alternative this week.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

If this is resting and allowing yourself to be ill then I am not sure if I enjoyed it or not to be honest. I have had a nice lazy weekend where I haven't lifted a finger but it just isn't my way, my biggest pain was abandoning my daily work and not having ticks in my diary because I now have a huge backlog of things that need doing including a looming deadline to have my interview with Georgie Rose submitted to the local paper. I also have an EP review to write and a podcast to record among other things and I am still not at full fitness so I will just have to pace myself as far as work is concerned and prioritise the important jobs. Although I haven't been publishing them I have, to a fashion, kept up to date with the daily blog by keeping notes, writing pointers and just typing them up as and when I get the time. In amongst all this I have started to make notes for a new episode of Moonage Daydream, one of the most difficult things on my work list as far as time is concerned.

The antibiotics have kicked in and thankfully I seem to have been spared the side effects, in fact I seem to be suffering the opposite of the threatened runny bum problem as I have hardly needed to go to the toilet at all. My appetite has reduced and I feel as if I have lost weight but as I don't weigh myself I couldn't say for sure, but if I can lose my belly it will have been worth being ill. On another note, I haven't at the time of writing this blog (Monday night at nine o'clock) smoked since Friday morning when I coughed and spluttered my way through the last cigarette in the packet. Cigarettes taste different at the moment, as does food, thanks to either the chest infection or the antibiotics so I haven't bothered. As I slept all day Saturday and didn't go anywhere apart from walking Jack on Sunday the urge just didn't materialise.

Although I went back to work today at Crown Court I wasn't totally there in spirit and had to leave the courtroom on several occasions to allow for a coughing fit. I also felt as if I could fall asleep at any time during open court, so no real change there. Because of my early night on Friday I missed Eastenders so had to watch it on YouTube before tonight's episode but apart from that I just took it easy and still didn't do any work. It is all very well resting and taking it easy but being ill at the weekend does make you feel a little bit cheated. I am trying to get back into the swing of things but will be taking another week off from going to gigs (Mark 'literally' Del still has chance to catch up). Being poorly at the weekend it like going for a shit on your lunch break, you just don't want to do it.

Due to illness there is no edition of The Sunday Alternative this week.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

Picture from The Bottom Wiki

After my marathon sleep yesterday I was up rather early this morning, and although I could have done anything I wanted to, I chose instead to do very little. Mandi had volunteered to go into work for a few hours (rather than the standard double time that everyone gets for Sunday work, she gets double and then some, I can't remember if it is double time and a half or something like that) which gave me the peace and quiet to enjoy being ill. I took Jack for a walk and then made myself some breakfast, had a shower to help me feel better, and did the laundry. Apart from that I had a very enjoyable day doing nothing.

I went to bed before Mandi last night and she didn't change the clocks so she was late for work, not that it matters on Sunday overtime of course but she did feel a bit of a buffoon. Clock change day is confusing enough for the nation as a whole without waking up with the clocks wrong. I don't feel as if I lost an hour of sleep because I was so well rested, but then again I doubt anyone ever really feels deprived of an hour in bed seeing as the clocks change happens on a Sunday when getting out of bed is optional. The time on my phone couldn't be changed, which I was surprised at considering that a smart phone should really do it automatically. In the end I had to go through all the different international time zones and find one that matched British Summer Time, so my phone now presumably thinks we are in West Africa. Being up early and having nothing to do felt like such a luxury, especially when I checked the time and realised that in 'real life' it was actually an hour earlier.

The box set of Bottom got another good dent made in it today, I am now on the second series and it's interesting to see how it became more of an ensemble peice (the characters Spudgun and Hedgehog became more of a fixture in the second series which slightly altered the dynamic between Ritchie and Eddie). As for special guests, one particular episode, Parade, saw Julia Sawalha, Robert Llewellyn, Carry On actress Patsy Rowlands, and Chris Langham. A good supporting cast for a sitcom but it feels strange seeing Langham in anything these days. He was one of the original cast of Not The Nine O'Clock News, a writer for Spike Milligan and on The Muppet Show, and for many years a 'nearly' star until his roles in Help and as one of the original cast members of The Thick of It made him a household name after thirty years on the sidelines. Just as awards and accolades were about to be thrown at him, he was arrested by Operation Ore for downloading and possessing child pornography and imprisoned after a trial. Aside from a few small parts he has not worked since and received the same airbrushing that all sex crime celebrities do, apart from one which is something I find strange. Langham was cleared of the accusations of sexual assault and had to sign the Sex Offenders Register because of the porn offence, despite his protestations that he did it purely for research and to make sense of his own childhood abuse. I am not saying we should put offences involving children into a grading system, nor am I calling for Langham's forgiveness, but Pete Townsend carries on with his career and has never been called to account for committing the same crime for the same reason/excuse. Is it fair that there seems to be different rules for different people?

Due to illness there is no edition of The Sunday Alternative this week.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

For the first time in a very long time, so long that it might not have actually ever happened before outside of my own imagination, I slept all day today. I started the course of antibiotics last night and took a couple of headache tablets before going to bed around eight o'clock. It was six o'clock this evening when I got out of bed and ventured downstairs. Despite being ill I had intended to record the podcast today having blown out the filming of The Record Store Day Video (working title), and possibly catch up on the blog, however I really must be ill as I simply couldn't be bothered. As my New Year Resolution to do something work related every day has fallen apart I have decided to write off these few days to allow myself to be poorly and start again on Wednesday 1st April.

Mandi too Jack for his walks today and apart from this and his mealtimes he has stayed by my side the entire time, this is a level of love and loyalty you just don't get from a cat. Not that I don't love my cats but it is true that dogs are more giving; it was Jack Dee who observed that a dog would watch you putting up shelves and love you despite not knowing what you were doing - a cat would walk in and tell you that you were doing it wrong. Dogs presumably know when something is wrong with you and want to look after you; I'm not an animal psychologist so I am guessing. As a relative newcomer to having a dog in the house I am learning all the time.

I haven't been to a gig this week and will probably wait another week until I am fully fit before going out again. This will give Mark 'literally' Del the opportunity to catch up with me on gig attendance should he take the opportunity. It is Future Sound of Nottingham time again so there's a spate of bands tweeting in support of other bands in the hope of a free place in the competition. Gary has dusted off the Prefontaine account to join in and subvert the 'spread the love' element and show it up for the farce that it is but they won't win as the competition is pretty much a forgone conclusion anyway - this is why they don't use people who go to gigs as judges because there's no real need for judges with any great musical knowledge. The Future Sound of Nottingham competition is (aside from a display of egomania between Del and DHP) a glossy version of a battle of the bands contest with the prize being the chance to open Splendour - an embarrassment to Nottingham as far as music festivals are concerned. You can only get on by kissing the right arses in this town and the bands all queue up to kiss Mark 'literally' Del's at this time of year. I have no idea why as all you get in return is a play on a podcast and maybe his Notts TV show. If you play your song loud enough out of an open window it'll reach a bigger audience.

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

It had to happen; I am my own curse guardian. For as long as I have known Mandi I have been looking for a reliable film maker to help with various projects. Sometimes I will mention a particular project and she will comment on how long ago I first mentioned it, as you can imagine that sort of response is just what I need to hear. Reading back through old blogs it makes me sad to see to what extent this side of my career has hit the buffers. Reliability has always been the stumbling block; that and the fact that a lot of so-called creative people are full of bullshit. Despite my success in the areas of radio and podcasting I still get frustrated at the fact that I can't get other projects off the ground.

When I was at Sherwood Radio one of the bosses owned a production company making educational DVDs, and offered to help me bring some of my comedy ideas to life. This gradually downgraded to the offer of a loan of a camera, then eventually not being able to help me because the camera was broken. The camera? This sort of thing has been a blight on me for too long, people saying they can help when they clearly can't. I thought that Oliver Smith was going to be a solid enough person to work with but the alarm bells first went off at the time he took to reply to an email (email, as I have said before, is the worst method of communication as far as getting a response is concerned) so I was back to the drawing board.

Lee is someone I have known for ages and has recently started his own video company in addition to writing, live music promotion, and being in a band. Finally it seemed as though I had someone to trust and help me make my filmic dreams a reality. Everything was in place for this weekend and filming of The Record Store Day Video (working title) would finally go ahead. Two actors were in place, (Gary and Craig), a musician was booked (George Gadd, last minute replacement for Gerry Trimble), and Lee and his colleague in place for filming. What could possibly go wrong? 

Something inevitably was going to go wrong because this is me we're talking about. Who was going to be the person to let me down this time? Actually it was me; despite usually being on the receiving end of last minute excuses I had no choice but to pull the plug because I am feeling so ill I couldn't envisage being filmed talking to camera and trying to be light hearted. There is also the fact that it is scheduled to be an early start tomorrow morning and I don't think I am up to it. I am annoyed with myself as usually I just roll up my sleeves and carry on with my life but this time I must be really poorly as I just want to rest. This time around I am going to enjoy being ill just like Mandi does. 

All I want to do at the moment is sleep which is what I am planning to do quite a lot of this weekend.

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

I have sadly broken the Jerry Seinfeld chain and my New Year Resolution to do something career related every day. On the other hand I have on several occasions carried out two or three tasks so I could use those days to compensate. Last night my body decided that it wasn't playing any more so I stocked up on various medicines and went to bed at half past seven determined to sweat it out. Apart from waking up around half past ten (and wondering if I was well enough to do some work and keep the chain going, before deciding against it) to drink another Lemsip and take more tablets I slept right through. I was a bit groggy in court today and at one point my left arm went numb and I had pains down my left side. This prompted me to do something I haven't done for a long time, I went to see the doctor. Actually I went to the walk in centre because my doctor is a nightmare to get seen in. Straight after work I kept an appointment with Lee for a drink and a discussion about Saturday and then I met Mandi as she wanted to accompany me to the doctor.

Part of my problem seemed to be my determination to fight through and carry on with life rather than malinger, I thought this was a good thing to do to build up strength but apparently I am not doing myself any favours. The left arm business was a result of stress (not a stroke as I worried it might be) and my intake of cold cures was a pointless exercise because I don't have a cold, I have a chest infection.

The doctor checked my blood pressure (perfect) and my heart and lungs (also perfect - bizarrely) and prescribed me a course of antibiotics with a terrifying list of side effects including diarrhoea with bleeding, because sometimes diarrhoea just isn't enough. I also have vomiting and yellowing of the skin to look forward to so if someone is looking to form a Simpsons tribute act in the next seven days then I'm your man. If this was written in the 1970s I might have taken the yellowing of the skin reference down a different path but we live in more enlightened times now.

Two things struck me as strange during this visit, the first being that at no point during this episode was I asked if I smoke. Usually this is the first thing a doctor asks you regardless of the reason you are visiting. Maybe he took my perfect lungs and heart as a sign that I couldn't possibly be a smoker, or maybe he just wasn't that bothered. Secondly, there wasn't a single person in the waiting room with a saucepan stuck to his/her head or a bath tap on a toe. Are these things not everyday occurrences any more?

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

Things are slowly falling into place with regards The Record Store Day Video (working title) but I am still nervous that this is going to fall at the last hurdle. If one person lets me down the whole thing will fall like a house of cards. My dilemma will then be choosing between putting the script on hold until next year, filming it later with the risk of it not being ready before this year's Record Store Day and saving the film until next year if the day goes ahead next year given the negativity around it this year, or putting the script and my notes into the box of abandoned ideas and moving on.

It is amazing how attitudes differ between two particular places when you ask them about filming. The businesses that I will be filming in will receive free advertising and will not be portrayed in a negative way yet you would think I'm asking if I can dress the staff up in Nazi uniform. On Saturday in Hucknall I went into two fruit and veg shops I found and asked about filming. The first shop dithered about saying that they would have to ask the boss and that they would be in touch with me, which of course I took to mean that they were going to toss my phone number and email address in the bin as soon as I was off the premises. I then went into the second shop and was given a yes straight away. The same thing happened this evening; yesterday I went into Music Exchange to ask (because obviously I need a record shop to film in) and was told they would be happier doing it on Sunday because Saturday is busy, which is understandable. Although the owner (who I spoke to on the phone) was reasonably keen I had to email him a proposal, and I know that email is the worst possible form of communication because it is too easy to ignore. This evening, although I felt like shit and wanted to get home, I asked in Rough Trade and was given a yes straight away. At the moment I am just short of a hardware shop to film in and then I will have all the pieces of the jigsaw.

Things are going to be a little stressful on Saturday as we seemingly need to have everything done before lunchtime; this is manageable providing nobody lets me down otherwise I am fucked. At the moment I am suffering from the return of the cold I thought I had killed off last week and if I can't shift it by Saturday then I am in for some fun and games. Perhaps the filming will be halted because of my own illness, thanks a lot curse guardian!

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

@SoftSilly

If you follow me on Twitter (and I still haven't removed the word 'underfollowed' so there's chance to help me to change that) and also follow my friends Gary (@GaryBarwell), Bainy (@Bainy2), Andy (@iamdjandyhaynes), and Rosey (@RoseyHaze) then you will have been privy to a frankly ridiculous conversation that took place over the weekend. I can't even remember how it started to be honest but it resulted in the formation of a band, Soft Silly (@SoftSilly). Originally I was going to compile all the tweets and post them all on a page but there are so many conversational tangents that such a task would test the patience of the most dedicated archivist. The really sad thing is that my tweet count is getting rather high and I like to keep my timeline looking strong by removing superfluous tweets, but don't really want to get rid of this conversation. We transferred to private messaging which suited me but does make things even harder to follow.

Just when my work related to-do list was starting to become manageable we came up with a concept that I really want to do now. Talk of forming a band got very excitable and all sorts of plans were made; playing our farewell gig as our first ever outing, applying to play the festivals, asking to support big name bands, and all kinds of media manipulation to hype our name. We are all known in Nottingham for either music or radio so this would be a project that attracts a lot of local attention (hopefully). There is probably enough goodwill among the others to counteract the small detail that the media collectively ignores anything I do; I could find a cure for all known diseases and put an end to world hunger and Leftlion wouldn't mention my name in print - there's more chance that they will read this then form a band called Soft Silly.

Anyway, we had so much of a laugh over the weekend throwing silly ideas around and coming up with bizarre concepts that I threw in the idea of teaming up to record a regular podcast that would act as a step by step story about the formation of the band leading up to their first (and possibly last, they might be the same gig) live performance. The podcast would probably be far more entertaining than the band itself although as we are all so busy it is a big ask to get us all in one room at a mutually convenient time. This could be another concept, the band that does everything remotely and is never seen in the same room, we could even do our gigs by Skype conference call and just stick a laptop on stage. 

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

It is tragic what happened in Hockley, a pocket of Nottingham city centre at some point over the weekend. I was at Jam Cafe on Thursday night and I didn't notice anything untoward, apart from the roads being reshaped and parking being a nightmare. However, something happened and the papers have not reported on it nor has it been mentioned on the BBC news for the East Midlands. The fact that there is a media silence is worrying; what information is being held from the public and why? We don't know if there was a poisonous gas leak, a deadly virus, a crazed axe-murderer running amok laying waste to everyone in his (or her, women can be psychos too - I should know I married one) path, or some other sinister reason which is why they are covering it up. Even the BBC website doesn't mention it in the local news section, I know the BBC have form when it comes to covering stuff up but when something on this scale happens the public deserve to know about it.

I have been advertising for various people to act in The Record Store Day Video (working title) for a couple of weeks, one of the calls was for a hipster. There is one scene that needed a typical hipster type, rolled up trousers and all, the more cartoonish the better. Thanks to whatever happened in Hockley I now have to rewrite the scene because for reasons that Nottingham council and the media are hiding from us, Nottingham no longer has a single hipster. You would think that at least one of them would have replied, but now it will never be. There was a time when you couldn't move for hipsters in Hockley, (no idea how as surely they can't be afforded the opportunity to reproduce if they go around looking like that) but now they are all dead and nobody will reveal why.

Hockley will become a wasteland with boutique coffee shops and pretentious bars closing down once the (inexplicably earned) hipster money dries up. Never again will we see rolled up trousers with slip on plimsolls, checked shirts buttoned up to the neck, big beards, man-buns, and a sense of importance. Bars in Hockley will be forced to sell proper drinks instead of Tizer and Opal Fruit flavoured craft beer, and the word 'vintage' will no longer be used as a substitution for 'second hand' or 'old crap nobody wants' to justify charging extra. 

This explains why I haven't found a hipster; they have all vanished, possibly up their own arses. Not a single person replied to my social media calls for a hipster type, so whatever it was that killed them is responsible for the fact that I have to do some rewrites. 

I suppose it isn't the end of the world but I enjoyed that scene and now it won't be as good somehow. In fact, I haven't yet organised a few details for this filming project yet for some reason I am not stressing about it. The singer element has been fleshed out into every scene but with a comic twist, a nod to an old joke. It looks as if the whole scene can be shot on Saturday rather than over the whole weekend which is good but it means that Mandi and I lose our only day off together. I can then start to think about the next project, filming the pilot for Saturday Breakfast - another thing that I still don't have all the details for. Maybe there's something in this less organised approach, we'll find out on Saturday I guess.

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

Up a little earlier than usual for a Sunday as not only did I have podcast admin to do, I had to take Jack out for a good run around the park because I was unable to take him with us to my dad's house for lunch today. We were visited by my sister Daisy and her husband Andy with their new baby and Andy is allergic to dogs and got into a right state last time plus we had to consider Jack's behaviour around a baby. Not that I think Jack would hurt a baby, it is just that he is a little excitable and could be overwhelming to a small person who has presumably (given her dad's allergy) never seen a dog before.

After the park I popped up to my office and set about the podcast related work. Thankfully I had recorded it without a hitch yesterday teatime but hadn't uploaded it, once that was done and the podcast was live I did the usual social media blast and had a couple of cups of tea. Despite a few weeks of technical trouble the listening figures seem to be on the increase with every week beating the one before. The tagging of bands and artists on Facebook and Twitter seems to be helping traffic, especially as I do it specifically for the retweets and shares. It would seem that my desire to record the podcast in a studio is now dead in the water so I'm glad that I have ironed out the problems with recording at home. This week I extended to eight songs rather than the usual six and I may even extend further to accommodate the volume of music I am receiving from various labels and PR people as The Sunday Alternative appears to be the first time a band is played on the vast majority of occasions. 

My new niece Edith Florence (the middle name Florence after my nana who died last year) is beautiful. I won't post a picture of her on the blog as it isn't for me to do. She was fast asleep for a while until she woke up and screamed the place down; even my magic touch at calming babies didn't seem to be working with this little lady. As nice as it was to be holding a baby I was a little sad to think that I probably won't have the chance to hold one of my own again, you forget how small and light they are when your own child is a teenager. My brother and sisters live quite a distance away and I don't see a great deal of them which is something I should rectify because I haven't done a proper amount of uncle-ing, my nephew James is eighteen now and presumably doesn't want me to take him to the park to kick his Teletubbies football around any more. I didn't have a lot of contact with him when he was growing up and thankfully I have got to know his two younger brothers. 

At least I have Jack. To make up for him missing his Sunday lunch trip I took him to the park again to have another nice run around once we returned home. Turning the computer on again I did a basic bit of admin and catching up before frittering away the remainder of the afternoon. Some required re-writes of The Record Store Day Video (working title) thankfully enabled me to tick today in my diary, the New Year Resolution continues.

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

Picture from Trip Advisor

Apart from the recording of the podcast I had a bit of a day off today which involved a spot of record shopping and a breakfast. The much mentioned breakfast podcast will not be going ahead as I don't really see what can be gained from it; I pay for the food out of my own money, not that I would use the PayPal fund for it, and put out a free podcast hoping for donations. To make a breakfast podcast viable I would have to make the money I spent in the cafe to break even. With filming projects finally starting to see the light of day I need to focus on the jobs that are going to be of some use. Not that I don't enjoy doing podcasts, (as a listener I am starting to listen to podcasts more than traditional radio thanks to the convenience of having them there when you want to), but I am conscious of spreading myself too thinly. I also have no objection to putting out free stuff but some things cost money to make so it is nice when people show their appreciation  by way of a donation, it's as if I was a busker and the PayPal button is my upturned hat or open guitar case. Besides, I am keeping a close eye on why it was that Leftlion suddenly started asking Facebook followers about breakfasts. I suspect that their food page will have a section devoted to this in their next issue and although they are free to do so as I can't copyright the idea of writing about something, it is a bit of a kick in the teeth that this was an opportunity for a paid gig that I would use to boost the PayPal account. I did consider setting up a separate page for breakfast critique but I have enough blogs to maintain so I will just be writing about it on this main blog and you can access them by clicking the 'breakfast reviewed' tag in the list below.

The point is that I had an all day breakfast today for the first time in a while. Saturday has become a working day for me and this isn't something I wanted to happen as I do a bit of work on Sunday and always try to keep Saturday clear as Mandi and I can then have a day together. Every now and again Mandi volunteers to work on Saturday and chooses to go in for a few hours in the morning so I stay at home in my office to catch up, even though we go out about two o'clock we are still not spending the entire day together.

We decided to indulge in that favourite pastime of combing through charity shops for books and records, this time we chose Hucknall, a market town just a short tram ride away. My vinyl haul wasn't my best (a BBC spin-off LP of the radio comedy I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again) but I did manage to get some additions to my clown collection. Not only that but today I seemed to have several of my obsessions catered for; a ghost sign, an ice-cream van decorated with badly painted cartoon characters, a woefully poor use of apostrophes, and an all day breakfast, it's as if the silly part of my brain had woken up and needed feeding. Some of the photos were taken in Bulwell as we popped through there on the way home. 

For breakfast we chanced upon a place called The Sweet Cafe, part old fashioned sweet shop and part cafe. I had already had a bad feeling before we even found a seat, maybe I imagined that the breakfast would be moulded out of the stuff they make seaside rock out of like you can buy in any tacky seafront shop. The breakfast itself was pleasant enough but for £5.50 you didn't really get a great amount of food. On a rectangular plate (this craze for anything other than a round plate really gets on my tits but at least it wasn't served on a block of wood) the breakfast consisted of two rashers (grilled unfortunately), two sausages, one fried egg, beans, mushrooms, a cooked tomato, and two slices of toast. It sounds reasonable but everything was served in small piles on the plate and you had to pay extra for a cup of tea, something that should always be included. While the place was clean and the staff were competent, I felt short changed by this attempt at a full English and probably won't use the place again unless I fancy some cola cubes.

Some research of Hucknall would have been useful as a few doors down from The Sweet Cafe was a proper greasy spoon of a place that no doubt did a better fry up.

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

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March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

Picture from Wow247

I missed the eclipse this morning because I was facing the wrong way and as such have written a stern letter of complaint to Bonnie Tyler about her bad advice, turn around right round indeed, stupid woman.

This morning I felt better than I have done all week apart from a slightly blocked nose, this could have been a result of the smog although as I only found out about it today that might be a little psychosomatic. As usual I pumped myself full of medication all day and rather idiotically drank alcohol last night at a gig, three cans of Red Stripe to be precise. The mixture of tablets and alcohol did funny things to my mind as I started hallucinating in Jam Cafe, at one point I was sure I had seen local TV presenter Mark 'literally' Del in attendance (there were perhaps more people in Jam Cafe than have ever watched Notts TV, but then again there more people behind the bar). There wasn't a mass media interest in this gig so this wasn't one of the gigs he would usually leave the house for in his capacity as one of the Nottingham music scene's goal hangers. He seemed to be enjoying himself in the unusual surroundings of a live music venue so hopefully he will start to practice what he preaches  about spreading the love. It is much better than sitting at home clicking 'like' on Facebook and listening to SoundCloud. 

As I have said before, I have never met Mark 'literally' Del so am not qualified to comment on him personally, neither is he qualified to comment on me personally. As much as I admire what he does regarding the Nottingham music scene, my only criticism of him is that he never goes to gigs. Perhaps last night was the turning point, in which case I look forward to seeing him at Notts In A Nutshell and various other events. I could have been the bigger man last night and introduced myself, bought him a drink, and made an effort to get to know him and perhaps given him advice on dealing with being slagged off; I could have done that but I was overcome with shock at seeing him at a gig so somehow convinced myself that it couldn't possibly have been him.

It was a lovely night spent in great company, Gary and I joined Jim and Rosie from Wild Man Of Europe in watching the acts, although anyone who follows us on Twitter might have wondered if we were paying attention. I was paying attention despite the fact that there was a huge amount of talking going on in the seating area, (we were standing in the lay line between the front of the stage and the seating area - you need to be familiar with Jam Cafe to get this) and at one point I could hardly hear the music. During the first set I made a sneaky video intending to shame these people but it didn't come out very well due to not even realising that you could record video straight to Twitter and not really knowing what I was doing. Then I realised that I had not yet used the AudioBoom app on my phone so recorded the sound of where I was standing and tweeted it in the hope of raising awareness to this epidemic. My friend Andy Haynes commented that it's a shame Jam Cafe isn't in an area populated by bars (for none-Nottingham residents, it is, he was being ironic) and suggested we open a venue with cardboard cut out musicians and play CDs to see if anyone would even notice. 

I think I might start using the AudioBoom account to highlight this problem and try to find a way to stamp it out. (Yes, I am aware that I have written about this before). Talking during gigs is disrespectful to musicians and a pain in the arse for people who like to listen to live music. Venues need to start to take some of the responsibility for this  and politely (at first) ask offenders to keep it down. Thanks to the passing of a stupid law in 2007, people have to go outside to smoke in between the acts so if customers are so keen to pay attention to this rule then another one needs passing which requires people to go outside to have their conversations, or preferably fuck off somewhere else. If the venues worked together with the promoters, DJs, podcasters, the local writers and movers and shakers this is a problem that could be stopped. Now that he knows what a gig is like maybe Mark 'literally' Del could mention it on his podcast and telly show? That handful of people could make a difference if they tell enough of their friends and family. This is just as big a problem as the closures of music venues up and down the country because it threatens live music; the message is clear - shut the fuck up and listen to the music. How would you like it if a musician turned up at your place of work and got in the way of you doing your job?

I should mention the artists from last night; it was my first time seeing Daudi Matsiko and I was extremely impressed and will be watching out for him playing again. Jamie Moon and Molly & Jack were great but for me the night belonged to Keto. As the only non-acoustic act on the bill I was surprised they weren't headlining, but I don't make the rules. Apart from the rule about talking at gigs, I am going to make that rule and hope that my dying legacy will be the end of talking at gigs.

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

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March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

My to-do list is looking pretty manageable for the rest of the year so providing that the filming of The Record Store Day Video (working title) goes ahead without a hitch I will have found a new working relationship.  If it doesn't go ahead I'll bemoan my lot and start to panic a bit. With regards filming I don't really have a lot to do so hopefully I can complete that element before the end of the summer. At some point I need to start writing the next batch of Moonage Daydream podcasts and do some audio book recording for the Christmas market (even though I said I wouldn't be doing any more) so I think I might be okay which leaves me pretty much on track for the projects I have planned for next year.

I am still not at 100% health at the moment which is a bit of a pain because it is taking away my motivation so I am having to work very hard to fulfil my aim to do at least one work related creative activity every day. It says something about me that my biggest fantasy at the moment is to take loads of medication and go to sleep and that isn't meant in a suicidal sense, I just want to rest. Mornings are the worst because I feel sluggish and it takes me a while to get going properly, this week I have even been taking a big tub of tablets into court with me and my computer monitor is decorated with Post-It note (other sticky notes are available) with all my times written down so I don't overdose.

Today (this is mainly a blog about how poorly I am and how brave I am being so you might want to bail out now, if you look at the list of subject tags below I will hopefully have written about something more interesting to you) I have issues with my ears. My left ear is crackling so much it feels like I am hearing everything on an AM radio until it pops from time to time making everything louder. If I am getting another ear infection then I may have to admit defeat and stop 'getting on with it' to allow myself to enjoy being ill, if you can enjoy it. I'm going to a gig tonight that I have wanted to go to for ages and I'll be very annoyed if I have to miss it. Maybe if I take some Lemsip sachets with me I'll be able to ask the staff at Jam Cafe for a cup of boiling water and sit drinking that rather than beer. I'm a lightweight these days when it comes to alcohol to start with, I have only just recovered from the two pints of Harvest Pale Ale (not the strongest beer in the world) I drank at The Maze on Monday night because I had been daft enough to drink with a system full of various painkillers so I won't be drinking tonight anyway.

Last time I had an ear infection was Christmas 2008 and I remember the pain being so unbearable that the only way to get any sort of treatment from the Queen's Medical Centre (who didn't seem too keen to do anything about it) was to threaten to commit suicide on the premises to take the pain away. I can do dramatic when it is required. 

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

===

March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

As I have no intention of going to Glastonbury I am not really qualified to care who is booked to appear as I am an armchair festival watcher (in much the same way as my fellow Nottingham music champions comment on the local music scene) and with a click of the red button I can watch any band that I like. I remember a storm in a teacup in 2008 when Jay-Z appeared and it was deemed by the masses that he didn't belong somehow among the 'proper' bands and musicians. This wasn't (in the majority) a racial prejudice because the naysayers had the same moans about Metallica, it was simply that the commentators have an idea about what should and shouldn't be seen at one of the biggest festivals of the season. One of Jay-Z's (I call him Jay Zed but only when he is in this country) most vocal detractors was Noel Gallagher, at the time a member of an inexplicably successful piss-poor Beatle tribute band. Mr Zed answered his critics by not only turning out an amazing performance, but by pissing on Gallagher's picnic by opening his set by leading the audience with a chorus of 'Wonderwall'.

There seems to be a feeling that Glastonbury is an indie festival and that bands shouldn't be allowed to appear unless the NME says that they are any good, forgetting that the NME hasn't been relevant since the days when the M in MTV stood for 'music'. It matters not that these are the same people who don't know what 'indie' actually means.

This is something that goes back years; some people , let's call them 'idiots', think that 'indie' is a specific genre of music rather than being short for 'independent' as in they are signed to an independent record label. One of the biggest 'indie' record labels of the 1980s was PWL Records, Pete Waterman's label and the home of Stock Aitken and Waterman. By default the biggest 'indie' acts of the late 1980s happened to be Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, and Rick Astley. At the time it was easy to deride S/A/W for their disposable brand of formulaic pop music, but take the trouble to listen to them now with fresh ears and you'll find that the songs are perfectly crafted blasts of pop. Even now listening to such hits as 'I Should Be So Lucky' and 'Never Gonna Give You Up', you can't help but sing along with great affection - just look back at the Rick-rolling meme to see how ingrained such songs are. This might be seen as sacrilege but how was their working method any different to that of Tamla Motown? Perhaps that is a subject for another day and another article. I once had to show someone the Indie Chart in the pages of the aforementioned NME to prove this point, but not before I had been laughed at for claiming that Astley was an indie singer.

Anyway, to return to Glastonbury, it has been announced that Kanye West is to play the festival this year (he is NOT headlining because he is not playing on the Sunday, there is only one Glastonbury headliner) and it is like 2008 all over again with people saying he has no place on the bill. I pointed something out on Twitter yesterday:

Reminder: It's called The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, not The White Boys and Guitars Weekend.
— Steve Oliver (@SteveOliver76) March 17, 2015

The line about 'white boys and guitars' is actually borrowed from John Peel who used it when explaining why he was getting frustrated that the listener votes for the Festive Fifty didn't reflect the eclectic nature of his show. Twitter is a notoriously difficult place to convey tone and it was perhaps inevitable that someone decided that I had shared a racist viewpoint. Thankfully this dickhead didn't carry on the conversation once I had explained the tweet to him so presumably he is working on an apology for misunderstanding what I meant. Everyone else seemed to get it, my point wasn't anything to do with colour, it was about this feeling that a rapper shouldn't be playing at Worthy Farm. For what my opinion is worth, Kanye West has as much right as any other artist to be appearing. People forget that a performing arts festival should encompass everything for everyone and if you don't want to watch Kanye West (and neither would I in all honesty) then it is a matter of choice given that there is a good chance that Glastonbury are going to be continuing the tradition of having more than one stage in operation.

It is my only hope that someone on the BBC presenting team has the courage (should the opportunity arise, he might not do interviews) to tell him that Beyonce deserves it more than he does.

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

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March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76 

Although I still have the remnants of a cold I resorted yesterday to my usual method of medicating the shit out of it and getting on with my life. There was a gig at The Maze that I wanted to attend, Notts In A Nutshell, the semi-regular showcase of new and upcoming bands and musicians. I couldn't let the side down with regards the supporting of emerging talent in Nottingham by not turning up just because I have a cold, what would my fellow influential music champions with radio shows and podcasts think of that after everything I have said? Aside from looking forward to seeing the presenter of BBC Radio Nottingham's The Beat and the host of Notts TV's local music programme Literally and maybe having a drink with them as well as a discussion about local live music, I wanted to see the band City of Kites. I've known Gerry Trimble for a while and have seen him playing solo on several occasions and the band played an acoustic set on The Sunday Alternative on Trent Sound but I hadn't actually seen the band doing a full set.

As is usually the way I was running late from the start; once I was home from the courtroom I had to have a shower, dinner (we watched an episode of Bottom with dinner as there wasn't an episode of Eastenders last night) and make my way back out. Whatever obstacle befell me in my mission to get to The Maze, it was worse for my fellow music champions as they didn't make it at all. I missed a couple of bands but caught one whose name escapes me that just sounded like noise, never have the words "this is our last song" made my heart lift so much. City of Kites blew the place apart as I suspected they would do, as always it is a shame that Notts In A Nutshell isn't a well attended gig as this is an ideal place to discover new acts, good or bad. Professional to the end, the band played to the same standard as they would have done for a sold out crowd and that is how it should be. Sometimes artists can be a bit snarky and dismissive when playing to an empty room forgetting that a few people paid to get in (myself included, I always pay for this kind of thing) and deserve a decent show. Kites play a good humoured punky set and I would have been happy to declare them the winner of the night, even though it isn't a competition.

During one of the breaks in proceedings I headed out to the rear smoking area where two lads who looked about 12 (but obviously were not 12 because I am not implying that The Maze would serve under age customers) were discussing the differences between Guns 'n' Roses and Metallica. I have never heard such ill-informed waffle spoken in a smoking area before. First of all they said that GnR only made one good song, when in fact they made one good album, Appetite For Destruction, followed by one decent album spread over two substandard albums, Use Your Illusion 1 and Use Your Illusion 2. The problem seemed to stem from the fact that they were judging GnR based on what they are like nowadays, and when I said that I had seen them live in 1993 they looked at me as if I had told them I was present at the discovery of fire. Was I that dickish as a teenager to imagine that music didn't exist before my own time? Although I like Metallica (up to and including the 'black album') I do think that GnR are better, but these kids were dismissing both bands out of hand without any real knowledge which made me want to put my cigarette out in the eye of the mouthiest one. To be honest I'm not sure whether I was pissed off with their attitude in general or just the fact that I am too old to be getting into discussions about music with young twats at gigs. I tried to put myself in the place of the cocky teen in Converse and ripped jeans, smoking a hand rolled ciggie, trying to hold court and talking a lot of shit and then I realised the horrible truth; I was looking at the 16 year old version of myself. Not only was I looking at my 16 year old self but an even worse truth dawned on me as I returned to a bar full of people younger than myself (apart from parents of band members waiting to be called for chauffeur duty), I was the 'old' person that my friends and I used to sneer at for being at a young gig. I'm sure we used to sneer at people who were, like, literally, one hundred or something, but it would seem that we were just being cruel to people who were only in their thirties. 

Interplanetary Trash Talk were the headline band last night, a band I haven't seen before but definitely will again. An all out '1,2,3,4' punk outfit, they played a blinding set again treating Notts In A Nutshell as if it was a sold out Rock City instead of what it really seems to be, a sociable band practise. The final result was a tiebreaker between them and City of Kites, except that it isn't a competition.

Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.

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March housekeeping 

To purchase my audio books, albums, and books, please visit my Shop & Donations page.

I am trying to raise the money to extend The Sunday Alternative, read about it here.

We also need to fund a pilot episode of a new music and cookery show, read about it here.

Every penny that I receive via the PayPal button will be used to fund future projects such as podcasts, short films, comedy sketches, documentaries, and more. They will be made available for free online and I will not personally benefit financially. All help is greatly appreciated.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76