Picture by George Gadd

Picture by Me

I took yesterday as a day holiday from the day job in order to get caught up with what I consider to be proper work as I am also taking Friday off to go to York for the night. Although I didn't get through everything I wanted to do (story of my life) I did at least get some important stuff done, in particular recording an episode of The Sunday Alternative Podcast to avoid the pressure next weekend. We get back on Saturday night and can comfortably predict that I won't be motivated to do any work then and I try to avoid recording the podcast on Sunday as it doesn't leave me a lot of room for error. 

There was an article somewhere online yesterday about how you lose out by going to work on February 29th so I did the right thing. I suppose if you are paid hourly then you're okay but if you are on an annual salary (as I am at the solicitors) then I would be giving them a day of work for nothing so by staying at home I beat the system. Of course this would have been a bigger victory if I hadn't been working on various projects that don't make any money, so I will call it a draw between the system and myself. Actually the system wins overall because as a self-employed person in a precarious sector (I mean music and entertainment not the solicitors bit) I don't get extra money at weekends and Bank Holidays either, ergo I was financially better off when I worked in shops and pubs when I was younger. I wasn't literally financially better off because those jobs paid shitty wages but you get my point, I hope. I'm not sure what my point is any more, I am trying to get back into writing a regular blog and this whole paragraph possibly explains why I gave it up.

The Random Saturday Sessions is on a little break for the moment yet I ended up filming a couple of sets on Friday (26th) at Wired Cafe in Hockley. Earlier this week I was contacted by Patrick Craig through the Random Facebook page to ask if I would do something with them as he and Joe McCorriston were in town for a gig. I told him that I wasn't doing another filming day until the end of March (25th) but would try and find somewhere to record a special edition. To be honest I was flattered that someone came to me rather than me having to recruit people for a tour so wanted to repay that. Planning a filming day is the least enjoyable part of the series as you start off with a shitload of people saying they are up for it and the nearer the day gets the more people drop out. Wired were good enough to let me film at fairly short notice, (not quite as short notice than we would have given them on a normal filming day of course) and everything went smoothly. Having never met either of them I was a bit nervous but they were brilliant and it turned out we have mutual friends in George Gadd and Gerry Trimble (but to be honest everybody is friends with Gerry). 

Once I was finished I did a quick turn around at home and left the house again to head to Bunkers Hill where the very same Patrick and Joe were performing (separately, they aren't a double act) along with George Gadd at a night that Emma Bladon-Jones regularly puts together. I'd not been to this night before but will make an effort to get down more often, especially with out of town musicians being thrown in to break up the monotony of the sameness that can happen in Nottingham. 

I can't wait to share the videos on the YouTube channel, but for now there's plenty of old episodes here.

The latest episode of The Sunday Alternative is here.

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