Yesterday restored my faith in The Random Saturday Sessions as an ongoing project with legs, as I was a bit disheartened when only two people turned up for the December one. To be honest I thought this one was going to be over quite quickly as only John Hardy turned up at the tram stop so I thought we would just film his set and have a drink. After waiting in the cold we decided to go for a warming cup of tea, at which point Paul Carbuncle turned up. I can't remember what prompted it but we had a look in the churchyard at Byron's grave and then met up with Jimi Mack so with three musicians desperate to entertain the good people of Hucknall we were ready to go. 

After a bit of deliberating we first entered a light and spacious bar that I immediately deemed unsuitable because of the noise, even though it was just people talking (and I'm sure they would have shut up once a musician started playing because that's what people do isn't it?) the room had a lot of echo. It didn't matter though because it didn't seem to have anyone working so we couldn't ask anyone for permission. Eventually we ended up in a butchers that couldn't have been happier to have a gang of musicians turn up and play. It was about two o'clock and the staff were cleaning down yet as soon as we attempted to film we were interrupted by customers a couple of times yet everyone was friendly and patient with us. Vincent Watts (leader of The Spangle Corps) appeared while we were there and it turned out he knew the staff. Actually, it turned out that Vincent knew pretty much everyone in Hucknall which worked in our favour as we didn't have to do much begging and persuading. Next door to the butchers we struck lucky again with the greengrocer and our only strike outs were a charity shop and a bar, although to be fair the bar asked us to come back later by which time we didn't need to. The shopping public of Hucknall's appreciation of The Random Saturday Sessions led to Paul Carbuncle having to start again as an old lady started shouting encouragement so the relative peace and quiet of Vanilla Cafe was welcome. Turning the visit into a chance to have a coffee and get out of the cold for a bit, it turned out that the owner of the shop was a friend of Vincent's so Jimi was filmed in there and a couple of customers invited us to their antiques shop to do the final set. 

I was a bit apprehensive about Hucknall but I was proved wrong as we were welcomed with open arms and friendliness wherever we went so I am pleased to say that the project will live on. However, I do feel that Nottingham has been exhausted for the time being so am going to take a break for a bit. Since the first episodes were recorded in Beeston I have managed to release an episode every week without a break so I haven't done too badly. For the first time I was working with a completely new collection of people which was refreshing (although of course I missed Gerry, Cibele and George) and now I am planning to take this out of Nottingham and play other cities. At some point it would be cool to do some kind of homecoming gig in Nottingham, maybe on the 24th October which will be the first anniversary of our first time out in Beeston. As that is a Monday this year we will have to do it on the 22nd I suppose.

Please read my January newsletter here.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #73 is available from here.

This week's episode of The Random Saturday Sessions stars Gerry Trimble, watch it here.