Yes, there is going to be a sequel, maybe I will do one every year and become known as the kazoo version of Bing Crosby and get asked to do one of those traditional Christmas television specials. Last year I thought of the idea to do the album at the last minute, I will have to check the entries in last year's diary to be sure (I make a detailed log of when I record things, release things, gig somewhere, write articles and so on - all written in different colours for each project) but I recorded the album last year in December while I was promoting it. This year was far more organised, as evidenced by the list of songs in one of my notebooks that is headed by the date 17 April 2016. Written next to two of the songs is the date 14 July 2016, the recording dates, and at the moment I haven't got round to recording the other eight. My plan is to get them recorded next week in order to make the necessary tinkerings quickly and get the whole album online, but not released, for another part of my plan.

Last year I didn't do any proper publicity for the album, so this year I am prepared. Today I wrote a press release for the album which accompany a copy of the album going out to as many magazines, reviewers, and bloggers as possible, both in the fields of music and comedy. Whether or not it gets reviewed remains to be seen but I am prepared for what happens next, this is essentially a chance for people to get their own back on me. Maybe they should get Jake Bugg to review it?

Of course if it gets roundly panned then I will just fight back with an explanation about them missing the point. It isn't really supposed to be viewed (or listened to) as a music work, but as an exercise in art and comedy, to show how one self-indulgent idea can be stretched out into a battle between audience and performer. Anyone who has ever been to a terrible play or gig will understand. One of my big dreams would be to host a launch party at a live music venue and perform both albums back to back to a bewildered audience who can't stop thinking back to the 2010 World Cup and the fact that the television coverage was ruined by the constant hum of the vuvuzela. I did once consider (inspired of course by the premise of The Producers that you could make more money staging a flop than a hit) hiring out a theatre or even an arena to put on a one-man kazoo performance, making sure to take an an insurance policy on it not making money so when it inevitably tanked I would be quids in and then who would be laughing? Me that's who, which as far as I am concerned is all that matters.

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 This week's edition of The Sunday Alternative is here. (Bank Holiday Special)

The latest episode of The Random Saturday Sessions is here.

Thank you in advance for donating using the PayPal button at the top of this page. It all goes towards creating podcasts, sketches, documentaries, films and more, all of which I will make available for free in return for your generosity.

I think it is fair to say that yesterday was a disaster zone. It all started with falling asleep on the sofa in the early hours of Saturday morning having returned from Cover From Another Brother and rather ambitiously thinking I could do some groundwork by uploading the kazoo album to Bandcamp and this week's edition of The Random Saturday Sessions to YouTube before waking up bright and early ready to celebrate what social media was going to be calling #kazooturday. Everything went as wrong as it could have possibly gone as I had temporarily forgotten what a shitty bollock my luck is most of the time. First of all the noon release was held up as a result of not waking up until just before quarter to twelve, which meant that I had only fifteen minutes to upload the entire album. It has been a while since I uploaded to Bandcamp and as such had forgotten that they don't allow you to upload MP3 files. This meant I had to find a website that offered a conversion service, and then slowed the computer right down as I had this website open in ten tabs converting the whole album at once. Next the album cover was too big for the site, and I have never understood this thing about photographs not being the right size so it was too late to do anything about it. 

A Kazoo Christmas with Steve Oliver finally went on sale at around two o'clock and I would like to finish this blog by thanking everyone who helped me out by sharing the link to the album, using the #kazooturday hashtag whether writing about the album or not in an attempt to get it trending, and those who posted nice Facebook updates and tweets for me to embed on this site. Not a fucking sausage. At one point I was tempted to comment on every single Facebook post that appeared on my timeline "you forgot to use #kazooturday" but in the end I couldn't be arsed. What I am going to do instead is wait for the first Nottingham musician (technically I am one of them now) to ask me to support them, plug them, review them, or whatever so that I can reply by agreeing to give them an equal amount of publicity that they helped me with, in other words - fuck all. 

Okay I am ranting, of course the album wasn't me being serious. It's just that I originally came up with the idea as a joke and the more I mentioned it the more it appealed to me to actually record one. Right up until the release people weren't 100% sure either way if I was serious or not until I pointed out on Facebook that I do have a blog dedicated to Skittles on a plate separated by colour and if I can do something like that then anything is possible. It would have been nice though to have had a bit more participation on social media, maybe next time when I release the sequel. 

Please read the December newsletter.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #68 is available from here.

This week's edition of The Random Saturday Sessions with The Mithered is available from here.

Today was spent in the office working hard as always, on a Saturday too yet for no obvious financial reward as self-employed receive no time-and-a-half for giving up the weekend. Don't feel sorry for me though, unless you want to feel sorry for me you could hit that PayPal button above the page to help me to carry on providing free entertainment. You might also want to pop along to the shop page and buy something. 

Anyway, the main job in hand was the recording of this week's podcast which took me longer than usual because I hadn't compiled the music beforehand. I usually listen to a handful of songs every day and download them from the email if I like them and make notes, but this week I hadn't time and had to listen along to six songs and make a decision fairly quickly. There is a bit of a backlog of music so I carefully picked out tracks with a future release date and had a listen while making notes and laying out the blog page. By spreading the task over a few days it makes things a lot easier. 

Of course the job on my to-do list that isn't really moving along thanks to time restrictions is the recording of the not at all anticipated album A Kazoo Christmas With Steve Oliver. So far I have two songs out of ten recorded which isn't a desperate situation but I am aware that I would have a problem getting the thing released in time for the festive market if I'm still recording it near the time. I will be releasing it on my Bandcamp page as a free download with the option to pay your own choice of amount if you want to, it would be nice if it happened but I doubt anyone will buy it. Near to Christmas I might release a bonus track on Soundcloud although another idea would be to allow the free/pay what you want option on Bandcamp but record another song that isn't on the album but will be emailed over for a donation of one pound or more. The money doesn't go in my pocket so I'm not conning anyone, it will go towards making films, sketches, podcasts, documentaries and other things that in return for your gift I will release for free. 

Despite the fact that I have been called Nottingham's top kazoo player (only by myself but it counts doesn't it?) I found this really difficult. 'Silent Night' and 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' are already down but today I had a lot of trouble trying to record 'Sleigh Ride'. Part of the problem was that I was using the Ronettes arrangement which has quite a lot going on at the same time, so as soon as I had finished playing the lines I had to follow it straight up with the 'ring-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding-dong-ding' bit with a proper chance to breathe in. I do think I will get there eventually though so please don't worry. Nobody was worried. 

The Hockley Hustle Practice Run can be viewed here.

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September housekeeping

Please consider making a donation using the PayPal button to help finance ongoing projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and other entertainment that I will make available online free of charge.

Any money made by the sale of products on my shop page also goes into the fund, ideal Christmas presents!

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

I am grateful for the fact that Mandi doesn't stand in the way of my work and has no problem with me going to gigs and wandering off to interview people or whatever I need to do, however I sometimes get the impression that her tolerance for my activities is a thinly veiled lack of interest. As supportive as she is I do often tell her that she isn't bothered about my career and sometimes ask her questions to test how much attention she pays and she will show that she doesn't know the answer. Despite me giving her a copy to look at about four months ago she still hasn't read my book Bowie Day, and it doesn't matter that I am saying this because she doesn't read my blog. 

There have been countless occasions when I have asked her to watch, read or listen to something only for her to fob me off to the point where I have now given up asking. It is kind of nice that she isn't too fussed about what I do because what is more important to me is the fact that Mandi never tries to stop me, and after being trapped in a marital prison before and not allowed to pursue my career goals I know which situation I prefer.

Yesterday though Mandi hit me with a devastating bombshell from which I don't think I will ever recover. She told me that she doesn't like the kazoo. Part of my working day yesterday had been recording two tracks for my upcoming Christmas Kazoo album, and after doing so I went downstairs to find Mandi had returned home. When I commented that I hadn't heard her come in she made a comment about me having a duck trapped in my office. This afternoon I asked if she wanted to hear the two Christmas songs (Mandi loves Christmas so I thought she would jump at the chance) and she said no because she doesn't like the kazoo. 

Doesn't like the kazoo!

This is like Eric Clapton's wife suddenly announcing that she doesn't care for the guitar, or Mrs Mozart asking her husband to knock the piano on the head. The biggest night of my life will come when I am asked to give a concert at the Royal Albert Hall and travel the world in my capacity as Nottingham's premier kazoo player, taking in Sydney Opera House, Madison Square Gardens and the Hollywood Bowl, and Mandi won't want to be there to share it with me. 

The Sunday Alternative #55 is available from here.

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September housekeeping

Please consider making a donation using the PayPal button to help finance ongoing projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and other entertainment that I will make available online free of charge.

Any money made by the sale of products on my shop page also goes into the fund, ideal Christmas presents!

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

On Sunday night I had two pints of Nottingham's most famous laxative, Shipstones Bitter which made it a good job that I had booked yesterday off work to concentrate on 'proper' work. By proper work I mean a lot of catching up in my home office. I should do this on a semi-regular basis really as it was a hugely productive day that I wrote a list for the day before and pretty much stuck to apart from a few things that aren't urgent. It could have gone wrong and I might have stayed in bed until the middle of the afternoon and got nothing done at all, but thankfully Jack was agitated and seemingly desperate to get outside. I usually walk him before work and on days off he doesn't usually get taken out until about nine or ten, he gets a walk at around two o'clock in the morning so he always has a good unload to tide him over. Today though he wanted to get out and I pulled on some clothes and he dragged me down the road until he eventually let go with an almighty deposit. Of course I am a responsible dog parent and would musically have picked it up and put it in the bin, but I would have needed a spoon for this, my saving grace was that he did it on a verge on the side of the path underneath some nettles so at least it wasn't going to become a burden on someone's shoe. He kept assuming the position throughout the walk and appeared to be in discomfort for the most part of our outing, he was just dripping the remains out so I decided to keep him out until he seemed to have emptied himself and we ended up being out for two hours. 

Once I had made breakfast and attempted to feed Jack (he didn't want anything and I didn't force the issue) I set about getting on with it. I rattled through and managed to record Sunday's podcast and did all the uploading and set up the blog page so all I have to do on Sunday is press a button and it is done. After doing some advertising for the next gig I recorded a small podcast to preview it, something I think I will do for all of them from now on, and uploaded it straight away. Once that big job was out of the way I ploughed through the outstanding admin tasks, emailing all and sundry with various replies and comments before it was time to have a late lunch. The interview with Will Robinson about Waterfront was emailed in to the paper as was some information about The Sunday Alternative Live in the hope that they will do something with it. 

Jack seemed to be over the worst so he must have just eaten something that didn't agree with him and upset his stomach, to be honest I have mornings like that. To help him to get his appetite back I took him to the park to chase his ball for a while. I still don't like to take him there any more since the incident on Good Friday, but he is over it even if I am not so it isn't fair to deny him of it. I tie the lead up around the gate and don't move from the spot now, always on the lookout for someone coming in who ignores the rules and then swears blind that right is on their side. Jack chased and fetched his ball non-stop for about forty minutes before picking up his ball and walking to the gate, his way of showing that he has had enough fun and exercise for one afternoon. 

I had wanted to do some recording of the Bowie Day audio book but couldn't really motivate myself to do that, so I attempted to kick start another of my projects. It started as a joke but I am determined to see if I can do it, and that is the kazoo Christmas album. Sitting at my desk and tooting out a respectable rendition of 'Silent Night' I became aware that I was being watched, turning round I was confronted by Jack sitting there with an inquisitive look on his face. Every time I tried to continue I just started laughing, so if A Kazoo Christmas With Steve Oliver doesn't see the light of day then you know who to blame.

The Sunday Alternative #50 is available from here.

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August housekeeping

We are now in the eighth month of the year and at a standstill as far as work is concerned. In unrelated news, it is my birthday on the 27th of this month so a nice present would be a donation using the PayPal button. This would be spent on creating podcasts, documentaries, short films, comedy sketches and various other entertainments that I will make available to enjoy online for free.

The above t-shirt and bag is also available to buy, all the money goes to the same creative fund. They are on my shop page.

I'll play you a kazoo song request, find out how here.

Letter of complaint written for you for £2, here.

steveEoliver@gmail.com

@SteveOliver76

The LP charts have been very kind to Nottingham musicians just lately with Saint Raymond and Sleaford Mods taking a well deserved place alongside lesser more overrated performers such as Indiana and talent vacuum Jake Bugg. There are bands and artists who should be sitting if not alongside them then above them such as The Wild Man of Europe and Lorna who have both recently brought out excellent long players but for some reason they haven't had the luck or the publicity drives behind them despite being infinitely more talented than a lot of what is out there. I keep mentioning my skills on the kazoo that have so far come to nothing, I have never been asked to help out as a session musician for any of the huge array of Nottingham's artists so I have decided to take matters into my own hands. What started as a little joke has now become something that I am thinking seriously about doing; releasing an album of Christmas songs on the kazoo. 

Maybe I am insane or maybe I am a genius artist who won't be appreciated until after I am dead. Actually I can tell you the answer to this question, it is C - none of the above. What I am in fact is someone with a sense of humour that exclusively applies to myself. It is like I wrote recently about my attempts at conceptual art, I am only doing this to amuse myself and if someone else gets on board then all the better. I have been practising Christmas songs on the kazoo just in case, fuck knows what the neighbours think. In preparation I have whittled it down to ten songs which I think I will release on my Bandcamp page as a free download with the option to pay whatever you like. Obviously nobody will pay a penny but for me it is the art that is important, although on the other hand I could take it too far and set the price at something ridiculous like £15. It wouldn't make a lot of difference because in both scenarios I will make no money. Get this, I have even designed an album cover. This is despite the fact that my to-do list is going to shit but at least there will be something to show for it.

The Sunday Alternative #48 is available from here.

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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

@SteveOliver76

If I wasn't wearing my old shitty 'only in the house' jumper I'd have made this my professional picture for kazoo playing.

I wrote a newsletter today that will be published on Saturday when I have time to advertise it while I am sat in my office recording the podcast. The main gist of the newsletter is another drive for donations via the PayPal button as I can't afford as yet to crack on with several projects and this is the only barrier to getting on with it. Ideally I would be able to draw a wage from the PayPal account which would enable me to focus on the things that take up the most time, such as Moonage Daydream for example. This is obviously a long way off but I can dream and in the meantime I will plough on with the day job, which to be fair is where I get a lot of ideas for things to do when I get home. Within the newsletter (I will mention it properly on Saturday but there's fuck all else to write about today) I aim to use my love of the kazoo to my advantage by offering a videoed kazoo cover version in return for donations. I have set this prize as a special privilege for donations of £10 or over for a few reasons; first of all I assume that this won't be something that people fall over themselves to get on board with, secondly if it is a huge success then I will be able to afford to get on with making films and stuff but ironically I won't have time because I will be too busy recording kazoo videos to do any proper work. Maybe this is my key to fame and fortune, it's about time the world had a professional kazoo player and I could take show business by storm. I would love to either be able to afford to risk the money or find someone rich and daft enough to back me to hire out an arena to stage a one man kazoo recital. I have the equipment at home to record an album of tracks to attempt to sell as a download so maybe there is another possibility. 

One of the reasons I started writing a daily blog was to assist me as a writer by throwing something down to wake up my brain. Something else that happened as a happy accident is that I inspire myself into ideas that do eventually get fleshed out into feasible projects, in fact a couple of blogs have formed the basis of short films that still haven't seen the light of day so please consider that and maybe drop a few coins in my electronic hat. Even as I am writing this blog (you don't need convincing that I am making it up as I go along with nothing planned in advance) another idea has just come to me, a Christmas album. A Kazoo Christmas With Steve Oliver is a good title but I have time to work on it, so now all I need is a few songs. I can see the album cover now, me sitting on a rocking chair in front of a roaring fire with a Christmas tree in shot and I am wearing a Christmas jumper with maybe a glass of sherry in my hand. Now that I have written this I have forgotten what I was supposed to be doing.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #43 (Saturday edition) is available from here.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #44 is available from here.

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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

@SteveOliver76