The film idea from yesterday's blog has been running around my head all day and given that my Jake Bugg themed sitcom It's A Bugg's Life probably won't happen I need a new imaginary project. Despite the upcoming cassette launch gig I have to sort out, (along with the actual cassette to produce) and the radio play among other real projects, it seems typical that I have this idea running through my head. It wouldn't work as a full scale movie but could make an amusing web-series with short episodes, the bands could play themselves and I would take the part of Oliver Stevenson. All I need now are two people to play the totally fictional policemen Detective Inspector Jackson and Chief Inspector Del and we have a cast. I am sure that this could happen, if only I had the time and wasn't preparing proper work that will generate money. Make a donation using the PayPal button at the top of the page and we shall see. At the moment I am trying to make a short film using the cardboard cut out police that you see in shops as a theft deterrent, but getting hold of enough cardboard police officers isn't as easy as you would think. There's also a thing about Burger King I am toying with for next year which I am planning to film entirely by phone so costs will be fairly low in comparison, it will also be a one man operation in the main and will take all year to produce so it isn't on the top of my list but will be worked on intermittently throughout 2017.

Today the film without a name (can anyone think of a name?) had a sequel commissioned as it became official that The Spangle Corps are calling it a day. 

I can't remember the first time I heard or played a Spangle Corps track on radio, but they're a name that seem to have been around a long time. What attracted me to them, possibly on a subconscious level, is the fact that they are outsiders to the Nottingham music scene. When I published the press release when I resigned from the American show criticising local musicians for their attitude, Vincent was among the first people to publicly fight my corner even though at the time we had never met. Since meeting and becoming friends we have worked together on a few occasions, (the band played one of my gigs at The Maze and Vincent played on the first Random Saturday Sessions of this year) and I have seen them perform several times. Also, and this means a lot to me, they thanked me for playing them on the Steve Oliver's Nottingham 2015 podcast series. This means that they actually listened to each one as I made a point of not publishing track lists. The fact that their last gig in their current form is on my stage is a huge compliment and they are headlining too. If you have never seen them before and can be in Nottingham on Sunday October 9th then it is worth coming to Bunkers Hill where I am hosting The Sunday Alternative stage for this year's Hockley Hustle.

We'd better hope that We Do Not Come From London don't arrange to have them killed and have me framed for it. That line will make no sense unless you have read yesterday's blog.

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 This week's edition of The Sunday Alternative 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.

Today I recorded the third edition of the Nottingham 2015 podcast and realised that this has become a bigger project than I first anticipated. Having just finished I realise that I have at least a fourth podcast on this theme to squeeze out. If this one is going out on the 27th then I think I will just do one more for New Year's Day (when everyone is spending the day recovering so effectively I have a captive audience because January 1st is the day everyone stays in bed until at least two o'clock. The positive of course is that this means that there is still a vast pool of great music of all genres being made in Nottingham and there's still so many new acts coming through that it is hard to keep up, if only I wasn't so busy/tired all the time I would make a serious move into going to more gigs. At one point I would at least go to one a week but things have tailed off a bit again, at least it gives Mark 'literally' Del a chance to catch up. I think I will draw the line at four editions because otherwise things will get so ridiculous that I'll end up doing it once a week and I don't really want that because I pulled out of the American show because it was such a pain trying to get songs from the artist. With this short series I have chosen the music myself simply based on the fact that I like it and am not trying to please anyone. 

I have made the decision not to release a Charles Dickens Christmas story audio book this year, mostly down to not being able to find enough time to record them. When I first started doing them I imagined that I would be somehow carrying on the work that Dickens did by releasing something every year just like the man himself did when he published a new story each Christmas in a magazine. Making people aware of the other Christmas stories was another reason for doing it because nobody seems to have thought of making a film or play based on anything other that A Christmas Carol. On a similar theme, I will be releasing the audio book version of Bowie Day which is a sort of version of A Christmas Carol although has nothing to do with Christmas. One of my bucket list is crossed off by becoming part of the canon of this great story, and next year I will hopefully be making yet another contribution but superstition (and fear of my ideas being stolen again) prevents me from revealing how. 

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #62 is available now from here.

Please read my November newsletter about funding for new projects.

This week's episode of The Random Saturday Sessions is here.

Next week we are going to stay in Brighton (with an overnight in London) to celebrate our seventh anniversary and I am determined to not think about work while we are away. I am not a big fan of holidays in general as my mind is always thinking of the next project, so I think I should try and unwind just to see what I am like when I am unwound. I have set a list of jobs that need doing and getting out of the way such as some background work for the various live music things I am doing, recording the podcast that goes out on the day we travel, recording another edition of Steve Oliver's Nottingham 2015, and sorting out all the paper work that is currently littering my office. 

The Nottingham 2015 podcast was supposed to be a one-off but will now be four editions containing ten songs each (forty songs, I'll do the maths for you) and there might be more. I won't have time to record both on this side of the holiday but I do have until Christmas; at the moment the first podcast will come out on Christmas Eve, the second on Boxing Day (although at the end of the first one I announce the next one as being released on New Year's Eve and I am not going back to re-edit because I'm a crazy maverick. Number three will go out on the 27th and I will try and make the last one for New Year's Eve release. A few musicians have started to ask questions about this podcast but I am saying nothing, everybody starts on an even footing with this one because nobody is going to know in advance what I am playing. This way I will be doing it for myself and playing songs just because I like then rather than trying to be everybody's friend like the other ones do, weirdly the people who want to kiss arses are the ones that the musicians all fawn over and thank on social media for playing them. It will be interesting to sit back and see who does thank me or even acknowledge me but at the end of the day I don't care. Whatever happens I doubt very much that a to-do list as big as this is going to be completed by Saturday so I might as well just kick back and wait and see what happens.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #62 is available now from here.

Please read my November newsletter about funding for new projects.

This week's episode of The Random Saturday Sessions is here.

Picture from Elite Pro Performance

Before I begin today's episode in my dull yet occasionally entertaining life, I forgot to thank my dad in yesterday's entry for the part he played in my Hockley Hustle. He filmed several of the acts and generally kept me calm, or at least tried to. 

Having learned my lesson last year when I had to sit in a courtroom with a hangover and not enough sleep, I decided weeks ago that I would book 'Hockley Hustle Boxing Day' (as nobody calls it) as a day holiday because even though I didn't drink to excess, I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on legal stuff after such a big day - I can barely do my job in normal circumstances. I wasn't going to waste the day though, there is no such thing as a day off these days when you do two jobs, one for love and one for money, especially when the 'love' job is the one you prefer. 

Today I had intended, to use one of my dad's expressions, play hell with the big stick today work-wise and knuckle down in my office to crack on with reducing my frankly ridiculous to-do list. Although I didn't quite achieve everything I wanted to (this is why I won't die young, no time) I did get some important stuff out of the way such as recording this week's podcast and (finally) the first edition of the Nottingham 2015 podcast which will be released on Christmas Eve morning. I am also now only one chapter away from finishing the audio book of Bowie Day (a short story inspired by A Christmas Carol). Jack seemed to enjoy the fact that I was home all day too as it meant we could go to the park and play fetch with his favourite ball. The park still makes me nervous after what happened on Good Friday this year but it isn't fair to deprive Jack of a good run around. As I haven't got round to buying a bike lock I wrap his lead around the gate quite tightly and stay almost rooted to the spot to keep a look out for people approaching with dogs. 

My only regret is that I made no progress on the recording of further tracks for my much anticipated Christmas kazoo album. I bet Bing Crosby wasn't this disorganised.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #59 is available from here

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October Housekeeping

Donations have slowed down a bit and this has had an adverse effect on filming plans. Ideas are waiting to become reality so please do consider making a donation using the PayPal button above.

In return for your gift I will make entertainment that I will put online to be enjoyed free of charge by everyone. Comedy sketches, documentaries, short films and podcasts are waiting to be made so dig deep.

You get 365 blogs a year, a weekly podcast and a forthcoming Nottingham music podcast (at Christmas) free of charge already.

Some ways to help:

You can have a kazoo cover dedicated to you.

Beat the 5p carrier bag charge here (and check out other goodies)

Download my audio books here.

I can now safely say that my Christmas special broadcast this year will be well worth listening to. Before you accuse me of being all arrogant and self serving I should explain that I am not the reason for this, the content is what people will be wanting to hear. At the time of writing it looks like I might have a two parter on my hands, which will mean releasing one episode on Christmas Eve and another of New Years Eve, both in the morning would probably be a better idea so that I can advertise it to people before they are too drunk to listen to it. All the music is collected up on a USB stick all ready and raring to go, and as I think I have said before I am not going to publish a track list or reveal the names of anyone I am playing to try and just encourage people to listen for themselves.

Recording the first part of this should have been one of the jobs I undertook on Monday when I was trying to chip away at my to-do list but I didn't have time. Hopefully I should still be able to fulfil the recording part of my to-do list now that I have trimmed the impossible tasks down and passed them on to 2016. Rather than actually start recording today I thought about how I don't want people thinking that I am playing the songs in order of preference and didn't want to keep repeating myself so I wasted a good deal of time recording a trailer for the podcast. Maybe I should have considered what I was going to say before I started recording but where is the fun in that? It's surely more entertaining to turn the recording on and ramble through like the incoherent person at the bus stop who wants to engage you in conversation. Have a listen to the introduction to give you some idea of what is going to happen.

The Sunday Alternative #54 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

I used to present a radio show called NottinghamLIVE in which we played music made by Nottingham musicians and had them play in the studio. Also, I presented a show in America called The Sound of Nottingham UK where I played music made by Nottingham musicians and gave them their first airplay over the Atlantic. Now, I have no outlet for Nottingham music apart from occasionally playing them on The Sunday Alternative, which was never pitched as a Nottingham show.  Although I still try and play a part in the local music world I am happier being a member of the audience these days, especially if the audience shut the fuck up talking while the artist is working. Aside from occasionally popping up on NG Digital I don't tend to get too involved, preferring to champion music on merit rather than its geographical location. 

Somewhere in this blog I have mentioned presenting an end of year podcast playing my favourite Nottingham created music of 2015, which I have started preparing today. This means that I have spent a lot of time recently listening to local music in the name of research, and that isn't a bad way to spend time.

As someone not known for hiding my feelings when it comes to expressing an opinion, I am able to restrict this podcast (that may be more than one edition) to things that I like to listen to and not worry about compromise. I have only ever played my own choice of songs on the radio and in podcasts with the exception of NottinghamLIVE that was a team effort and that inevitably meant that I wasn't keen on every song (or artist) we played. This podcast isn't going to take the form of a chart or list based on favourites, it is all in no particular order. To make things even more interesting I am not going to tell any band or musician that they are featured and I am not going to publish a track list, the podcast is just going to be thrown out into the Internet and if you want to listen to it you can and if you don't then that is fine with me. 

Steve Oliver's Nottingham 2015 will be released in December sometime, maybe Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and if it goes to a two parter then the second part will come a week later either on New Year's Eve/Day. If I like you, you might be on it.

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

Another month closer to the end of the year and now only five months away from my to-do list needing to be crossed out. If I'm perfectly honest I can't see them all being crossed off the moment but who knows? There are two audio books to be recorded and Steve Oliver's Nottingham 2015, the one off podcast (maybe two editions, there's nineteen songs so far) for the end of the year which are doable if I put my mind to it. The Sunday Alternative will continue to run both as a podcast and now a live show and the live show will soon become a weekly video series so at least I have achieved some stuff in 2015. Looking at the list that looks down on me from the right hand side of my office desk has two cross-offs that were cancellations. I pulled The Record Store Day Video (working title) because I was ill with a chest infection and a proposed project in London fell by the wayside thanks to a bewildering list of conditions, not to mention fees that bordered on the stupid. If I only get to pull off one more item then I would like it to be the Saturday Breakfast pilot. One another note I am possibly going to record a kazoo instrumental Christmas album, simply because I am my own commissioning editor and I commissioned it. It will be available as a download for free or pay what you like, remember that all the money will go into the pot to create free content for your entertainment pleasure. I say all the money as if a kazoo Christmas album is the metaphorical John Harrison pocket watch that will change my life and make me a millionaire.

Next year's to-do list doesn't contain a great deal of things but the things on there are potentially quite time consuming so maybe I can pull accomplish things if I give myself until next year. Again this all falls down to finance so hopefully the donations will drip in with enough consistency to be able to bring some of my ideas to life.

The Sunday Alternative #45 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

Picture by Martyn Boston

The morning after an event involving Nottingham music has in the past painted me as the bad guy for daring to go against the grain of Nottingham arse licking and say what I think. My review for The Nottingham Post is actually quite nice despite everyone's expectations, and although I have said that I will be posting an unedited version on IMHO I really don't see the need. As far as I am concerned the Future Sound of Nottingham is a self indulgent pat on the back for Mark 'literally' Del to show what a nice guy he is and once the first prize is over there is no further consequence. Last night's line up of finalists was certainly the strongest in recent years and the winner was a difficult call for the judges, (for some bizarre reason I wasn't asked again) although Ellie Keegan was the only the only one who would have truely benefitted from the boost that the top prize would have given her, the others on the bill being either already well established (Cheshire and the Cat & Josh Wheatley) and not really in need of a popularity contest. 

Josh Wheatley is a talented musician who has worked really hard over the last few years, having done his first radio session for NottinghamLIVE in our early days (breaking NUSIC's rule about not being able to do a Future Sound session if they've done a radio session prior) and building up his live reputation. He goes out of his way to be nice to everybody which is why it was weird to see a posting on the Facebook event page from a woman who did not agree with the winners and singled Josh out for her disgruntlement. 

Modified version of the post, taken from Josh Wheatley's Facebook profile.

Leaving aside the fact that a great many solo artists use a backing band, this was a strange post to plant on the event page for everyone to see. It has been removed from the NUSIC page but not before Josh had copied it to his page, attracting a shit load of comments in Josh's favour. I took the opportunity to comment about how refreshing it was to not be the villain for a change, and followed it up with a long winded comment that for some reason Josh has removed. I would be interested to hear Mark 'literally' Del's take on this but he has been rather quiet since last night, maybe getting over the unfamiliarity of being in a live music venue.

On the subject of new music, today I have been listening to music for the podcast and having a catch up. Because it has been off the air for the last seven weeks I will be dispensing with my usual policy of only playing upcoming releases and playing some tracks that were sent in during the hiatus. I am going to be doing two podcasts this week, a bonus edition coming out on Saturday and one as usual on Sunday. To go back to Nottingham musicians, I have collected a lot of music for my proposed end of year podcast so there will be more than one edition of this given that we're only in June. As I intend to release these Steve Oliver's Nottingham 2015 podcasts during the Christmas holidays I might go along with the tradition of making Christmas specials and record it now during the summer.

The Sunday Alternative will return soon.

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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