Today was spent rather productively up in my office recording a couple of editions of The Sunday Alternative Podcast to have them in the bank to avoid the pressure of recording it on the Sunday morning. I also rattled through the emails and sorted shit out for the Hockley Hustle gig and the Random Saturday Sessions cassette launch. Both of these are looking positive, something I need after yesterday's car crash of a gig, so I am looking forward to them going ahead. As soon as the Hustle is over I will be pulling out the stops to get the cassette launch promoted properly, I also need to produce some cassettes of course. At £5 a pop, the money from the limited run of tapes is going to be equally shared out between myself and the artists featured on it, and my share will be exactly the amount of money I will have spent making the thing in the first place, who says I don't care about the art? As we'll be selling the tape for money, I will not be using the PayPal pot to produce it, so my break-even bunce will be all mine. Please consider this while you read this blog by pointing your curser over the button at the top of the page and helping be a part of the creation of comedy sketches, films, documentaries and more. 

Part of my quest to undertake more projects that will generate financial rewards is to crack on with the Christmas Carol play that I am hopefully doing in December. The script that I messed about with last week was in my bag this teatime when I went to meet the delightful Kate Williams as I want her to be involved. It has been ages since we last saw each other and it was a shame that we couldn't have talked for longer, especially once we had got the reason for the meeting up out of the way which was the play. I have a good feeling about this project so I am inevitably on tender-hooks waiting for the spanner that may or may not get thrown into the works. If I can pull this off then I want to stage two a year, one being the Christmas play every December, all of them recorded in front of an audience and released as a free download. For now though, the pessimist in me is on the lookout for spanners.

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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.

BBC

One of the projects I am hopefully going to get off the ground next year is a small series of adapted radio dramas in front of an audience. These performances will be recorded and made available for download, making them available for all to listen to whenever they like. Of course this depends on raising funds (PayPal button is at the top of this page) to stage such a project. I've been listening just lately to a few examples to try and work out how to stage such a performance and realise that there's probably a little more to it than standing in front of a microphone with the script in your hand. The main show I want to stage, and I have had the go-ahead from a venue in Nottingham to do it, is A Christmas Carol (I bet that shocked you) and I have listened to a few radio performances from the 1930s onwards. These are mainly American shows and in some cases they were originally broadcast live on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and there's as much work involved as there was in films. Aside from the cast (people can play more than one part) there is also the sound effects person and in keeping with doing things in the traditional way I want someone with a table full of props rather than a laptop full of noises. I would also need the services of a band and choir for musical filling. The Campbell Playhouse wasn't performed in front of an audience so they might have had more opportunity to put on a more elaborate show, other versions have audience applause after almost every scene and the American ones always have a rest while the narrator reads a scripted advertisement for the sponsor. 

I briefly wrote last year about finding radio remakes of It's A Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street after the films had been seen. It still seems weird that there was ever the need for such a thing, but it has got me thinking along the lines of the old sponsored radio drama and whether people would go to see a radio recording of a modern day film. I know rights would be an issue but would people pay to watch, for example, Mrs Doubtfire or Terminator done as radio plays? If they did, would anyone listen to them? You can tell I'm not really a movie buff by the two films that I pulled out from the air to use as examples.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #64 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 Shutterstock

The local newspapers didn't go with it as a front page scoop but I have just returned home from making a rare return to the world of radio as a guest on Castle Rock on my old station Trent Sound, although to be fair I could save the inhabitants of an orphanage from a fire without a single death and the local media wouldn't mention it. While I don't miss radio as much as I thought I would, the feeling you get from going out live on air when anything can happen is something that never stops being exciting. Internet radio differs from FM or digital in that the shows are 'appointment' listening; I am sure that I didn't share too much of a crossover audience between The Sunday Alternative, Andy Marriott before me and More Than Jazz afterwards, so people tune in for what you are specifically giving them. You don't listen to whatever is broadcast on an online station on a casual basis because it is far easier to turn a radio on at home than to go through the rigmarole of turning on your computer and selecting a station to listen to. I still maintain that (as much as it saddens me to say it given my lifelong love of radio and preference to it over television) radio is less significant now than it once was and podcasts and other services such as Spotify are slowly but surely winning the fight. Take Steve Wright in the Afternoon for example, Wright is a brilliant technical DJ who takes the medium very seriously and it shows. As good as he is though, I can't listen to his show because the music doesn't appeal to me. If I want background music I might have BBC 6 Music on but even that no longer delivers what it once promised it would, certainly not during the day. You only have to read Good Morning Nantwich by Phill Jupitus to find out how quickly things changed on 6 Music regarding their music policy (and let us not forget their recruitment blunders). Services such as Spotify (other music streaming sites are available) put the listener in charge of what they listen to and that should have made mainstream radio stations panic and try to change their attitude but it hasn't happened. 

Your taste in music is perhaps better served by podcasts dealing with something a little different. I pride myself on the range of new music that I play on my weekly podcast and I myself listen to a range of music and comedy podcasts while working at my desk because they are there for your convenience. The Sunday Alternative podcast receives listeners from all around the world and only a portion of listeners (I keep a very close eye on the figures) actually on the Sunday. When it was on radio I didn't know how many people were listening but they had to be sitting at a computer for those two hours which is a hell of a commitment. I struggled to get co-presenters to commit to those two hours a week so how did I stand a chance expecting listeners to do the same?

Having said all that, it was a lot of fun being on live radio again, especially with no preparation. I was more of a guest than a guest co-presenter this time around with three of us in the studio. Lee, who created the show, wasn't 'driving - another presenter called Ant was and they worked well together which at times made me feel a bit spare in what quite a competitive environment when it came to trying to get a word in or build on a subject. That aside it was a lot of fun and as part this week's subject on little things you find annoying I was able to appeal to people not to talk at gigs or play music on public transport. We then switched halfway through and invited listeners to mention the little things that make you happy which worked well. 

Lee has presented Castle Rock since (I think) the start of Trent Sound and you can tell that he really enjoys it. Like me he loves comedy in addition to music and it shows in his presentation. Unlike The Sunday Alternative's radio audience, Lee does get a lot of interaction from his listeners and he and Ant work well together. Trent Sound now only broadcasts a handful of live shows and the studio is a lot smaller than the one we used at the old Trent Towers (not an actual tower) so I am not really sure what the future holds for it. It would be a shame to lose the city's only proper local radio station but so many changes have occurred that it no longer feels as though it has the local identity. Another issue is that in the temporary studio it doesn't feel like a radio station, but neither did Trent Towers in the last days. When I used to go in on a Saturday to do some recording and help out on Nottingham L.A.C.E. there was always a building full of people and it felt as though you were part of something with radio guests milling around waiting for their turn to go on and people in the office. This was also true for a while during the week when they used to have a full daytime programme starting with the morning show and after a pre-recorded hour (The Retro Chart) there was a 1pm-4pm show and a 4pm -6pm show, another pre-recorded hour led to the live shows at 7pm and the atmosphere was that of a busy radio station. Eventually it got to the stage where we were just turning up in an empty building, doing a show and then turning the lights off and locking up. 

The Facebook page for the station keeps announcing that the station will relaunch as part of a network of local online stations in the summer which could work but it would need some of the old shows back. Nottingham L.A.C.E. was a perfect show for local radio as was NottinghamLIVE but we needed (as I did on The Sunday Alternative although I never promoted it as a local show) to have live music in the studio and that simply wasn't possible in the new place. Local music needs a decent outlet either on radio or as a podcast as NottinghamLIVE has not been replaced and there is a gap in the market waiting to be filled.

This week's edition of The Sunday Alternative can be heard here.

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April housekeeping

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@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.

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March housekeeping 

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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 

©KimBallStock

White rabbits!

I struggle to get out of bed on a Sunday morning at the best of times but this morning was one of the worst in a long time, I could have quite happily stayed in bed all day. Saturday night is a night that I try to avoid going out on if I can help it, preferring instead to be in my pyjamas on the sofa in front of the television. Give me a gig any night of the week (even Sunday) and I’m there but Saturday night in the city centre can go and fuck itself. Luckily I didn’t have to venture into the mini-Beirut that is the Market Square as I was going to Spanky Van Dykes to see a band that I have been a fan of for ages but had only seen on one occasion prior to last night. August Actually supported Captain Dangerous at Jam Café in January 2013 and although I was aware of them I hadn’t given them my full attention until that night. I was impressed enough to find out more but sadly on the rare occasions they have performed since then I have missed them for whatever reason. Last night was the release date and launch for their debut album, The Forever War, and very likely to be their last gig so there was no way I was going to miss this, even on a Saturday night.

Spanky Van Dykes is a lovely place to go for a quiet drink during the day in the middle of summer when the students have deserted the city. I have never previously been in the place on a Saturday night and in future it will take something very special to get me to do it again. Upstairs is fine (although the sound wasn’t great) but the bar downstairs was a bit of an arsehole magnet. Standing outside having a cigarette between acts, at least four different people asked if I was Jesus with the pride in their question that suggested that they thought themselves the first people to have thought of such a comedy gem. The atmosphere wasn’t intimidating, just moronic.

The first band was in full swing when I arrived, and Gary and Cibele were positioned well enough to grab a table when one became available (two nights running I have been able to sit down at a gig, brilliant). I didn’t miss much as the first band was making the most offensive racket and had thankfully nearly finished. No! Disco were launching their new single ‘Your Orange Car’ and took to the stage with ease drawing huge support from the room. No! Disco are a band I have always had time for and have played on the radio a handful of times, including my American show. The crowd was on their side and apart from pockets of talkers the mood of the venue was a good one.

I was surprised that there weren’t more familiar faces from the Nottingham music scene in attendance, although the turnout was pretty good. Perhaps it was because the crowd paid to get in, almost an alien concept in Nottingham. It is for this reason that I couldn’t understand why there was so much talking going on while the bands were playing. Fucking disrespectful is what it is.

After the gig we went to a studio space in the Lace Market where there were loads of people we knew and a cheap bar. It was nice but I’m used to watching a gig and then going home so Gary and I left them to it at about half past one and took the night bus home. They’ll probably make us take it back when they find out it is missing.

(No Sunday Alternative podcast this week due to computer fuckery)

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February housekeeping

I rely on donations via the PayPal button to enable me to provide free online content. This year there are plans afoot for more podcasts plus documentaries, comedy sketches, short films and other content that will be available free of charge.

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My books (including my latest, Bowie Day), are available to download to your Kindle.

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steveEoliver@gmail.com
@SteveOliver76

Up until the early summer my Friday routine was consumed with the recording of my American radio show The Sound of Nottingham UK. Even though it was only an hour long (technically it was 58 minutes) it took me far longer to get the finished product done and dusted. I then had to wait for it to upload to Google Drive so that I could email it over the Atlantic with plenty of time for Robin Hood Radio to get it into their system and play it at eleven o’clock at night USA time on a Friday. As this was four o’clock Saturday morning our time I was thankful for the Sunday repeat at one o’clock in the afternoon USA time and six o’clock at teatime. In fact for a while Sunday was my radio day when I was live on Trent Sound straight afterwards.

I’d spent a good amount of time in my office leading up to the day I had announced that I was recording, and had even taken a day’s ‘holiday’ from Crown Court in order to get the show made. There wasn’t a massive influx of Christmas songs pinging in my direction from the cream of the Nottingham music scene, although there was a lot of initial enthusiasm which nobody followed up. In fact, if anyone wants to write a book about the Nottingham music scene, Initial Enthusiasm is a title you can have for free. Luckily I had enough material to go on thanks to the Christmas in Slab Square album and a new album by Steve McGill with a smattering of new tracks; I heartily recommend a listen to Beth Frisby’s cover version of ‘White Christmas’. My intention was to play all new songs that I hadn’t played on the previous two Christmas shows, which meant not playing ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Christmas’ by Drew Rivers, a largely forgotten track by a largely forgotten musician who was once all over the Nottingham live circuit. Last year we played it on the NottinghamLIVE Christmas show and I was surprised that neither Darren nor Mike Atkinson had heard of him. I had to Google the song and all the results went nowhere and his online presence was outdated so he will for now at least, remain at large.

Having sent the show over to Marshall Miles, head of Robin Hood radio, he thanked me and informed me that my show would be broadcast on Christmas Eve with a repeat on Christmas Day. I’m not sure what the time of broadcast will be yet, which will make a difference to the time it will be heard in this country as the East Coast is five hours behind us, or ahead of us, I can never remember which it is.

Before I set about recording the show I woke up at ten o’clock and took Jack to the park for an hour before breakfast. I wanted to have a clear head and not be under any pressure, recording this on a regular basis used to set my stress levels up to ridiculous heights. Having said that, I haven’t handed my key in at reception just yet.

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My daily blog can be delivered straight to your Kindle for 99p a month (link)

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here

My Sherwood Radio archive is here, why not listen and donate?

All donations received via the PayPal button above will be used to fund creative projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and a whole lot more. You are under no obligation of course, but thanks in advance if you do drop something in the pot.

I’ve been listening to a few radio dramatizations of A Christmas Carol, not only for my own pleasure as a collector of versions but also for research into possibly doing a version of my own at some point. I noticed in my old blogs from late last year that I mention a filming project to do with the story but for some reason I made no note of this and as a result I have no idea what I was planning. As it is one of my favourite stories, if not my absolute favourite story, then I am proud to have a small part in the canon with my audio book but would like to keep my hand in with various different variations. My short story Bowie Day tips its hat to A Christmas Carol without being a Christmas story but I haven’t given up hope of either making a film version or a radio performance.

Radio drama is something you might imagine being easy, but listening to these recordings has made me realise that there is more to it than reading a script. An actor has to express everything with their voice and help the listener to picture the story in their heads, which you can’t simply do by reading words off a page. As a lover of radio as a medium I am tempted to try my hand at a proper old style radio version.

It occurs to me from watching different versions, particularly movie adaptations, is that you have a certain amount of licence to do what you like with the script. Obviously the story is a long way out of copyright so it isn’t as if Charles Dickens himself is going to slam a lawsuit on you for using his work, which is part of the beauty. Ross Kemp played a debt collector called Eddie Scrooge in a version set in the modern day, which I have probably written before is exactly what Dickens would have written if he was around now. The scope for doing whatever you like with the basic premise is a blank canvas apart from the bullet points of a mean person being visited by his dead business colleague and three ghosts before eventually learning the error of his ways and turning over a new leaf and becoming the nicest most generous man in town. We saw the Christmas future in which Tiny Tim died and nobody cared that Scrooge had met his lonely end, and he knew that he could change his destiny by honouring Christmas, but what if he’d woken up on Christmas Day and said to himself, “fuck it”?

In the musical version starring Kelsey Grammer, we see a glimpse of a back story involving Scrooge’s father being sent to prison for debt which prompted his obsession with saving money and never getting into debt. In Scrooge’s visit to the past we also see Jacob Marley dropping dead on the Christmas Eve seven years prior to the story and another Christmas past in which his old boss Fezziwigg is turned down for a loan therefore finishing his business (which in this version is a bank although it is never clear what he was supposed to be doing). Albert Finney’s Scrooge dons a Santa Claus suit to deliver the gifts on Christmas Day, although I’m not 100% sure that Santa was around (in the red-suited, white bearded ‘ho ho ho’ sense that we know of now), and The Muppets had two Marley brothers.

The other characters have never really been fully explored outside of the book so we don’t know about the life of Jacob Marley for example who we are told was just as mean and nasty as Ebenezer, or Bob Cratchit who ended up somehow working for a rich but mean money lender while still living in poverty. As Tiny Tim didn’t die what happened to him? What about the ghosts too? How did they end up with the job of changing a person’s attitude therefore saving their lives?

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My daily blog can be delivered straight to your Kindle for 99p a month (link)

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here

My Sherwood Radio archive is here, why not listen and donate?

All donations received via the PayPal button above will be used to fund creative projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and a whole lot more. You are under no obligation of course, but thanks in advance if you do drop something in the pot.

Now that my work commitments have tailed off a little I am just tidying up some loose ends and making some preparations for next year. With my audio book commitments out of the way I decided to dip my toe back into radio and very publicly suggested that I should pitch a one-off Christmas edition of my old American radio show The Sound of Nottingham UK. The response was positive so it appears that I will be back on American radio one more time before the end of the year, what a shame the BBC aren’t as easy to pitch to.

There’s enough material to do a good show and everyone has been enthusiastic about it so far, this hasn’t made me decide to bring the show back though. I quit due to the difficulty in getting artists to pull their fingers out when it came to sending music in and the rather above themselves attitude of some people (who are still on my naughty step, one particular singer has navigated round my blacklist by releasing an EP so terrible that I wouldn’t want to play it). When I quit the show I received a lot of support from the music world but it wouldn’t be enough to sustain a weekly hour long show as I wouldn’t want to just be playing the same artists on a loop. I’ve booked Friday 12^th of this month as ‘holiday’ from the court to record the show but there isn’t a confirmed broadcast time or date as yet.

Apart from keeping my blog up to date and staying on top of my emails, I haven’t achieved too much over the last week or so since I finished the audio books. There’s still a good supply of music coming in for the podcast and I am keeping that going as it would seem to be the most successful venture I have going on at the moment. Looking at my list of jobs for next year it doesn’t look like I’ll have too much of a problem keeping my New Year’s resolution to do something work related every single day of 2015. Going back through my pocket diary I am disappointed with myself for the lack of progress in my career this year when compared to my diary for 2013. I did of course have a lot of radio commitments in 2013 so I did at least have an excuse for the failure to get other projects off the ground.

If anyone is feeling generous then the PayPal button is above (and while the banner advert is there you can click it to maybe win a prize) so anything that you can spare would be much appreciated. I’m probably looking for around five hundred pounds to do the first project on a low budget. Ironically I am raising this money to make a pilot that will be used as a video on Indie GoGo to fund a series. Hopefully I will be a lot happier with myself when I look back at my diary this time next year.

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My daily blog can be delivered straight to your Kindle for 99p a month (link)

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here

My Sherwood Radio archive is here, why not listen and donate?

All donations received via the PayPal button above will be used to fund creative projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and a whole lot more. You are under no obligation of course, but thanks in advance if you do drop something in the pot.

Now that I have my jobs for the year out of the way I am chipping away at my intention of tidying up my Internet presence. In order to do this the first stage is to edit my blog archive and add tags but more importantly to change the photographs on them. A lot of the older blogs (mostly the ones that originally appeared on MySpace) need embedded Photobucket pictures replacing so that I can delete my Photobucket accounts, and replace any broken links such as YouTube videos that have been taken down. Reading through the old blogs is a little weird; it’s as if I’m reading about someone else. I am currently in March 2009 and my relationship with Mandi is still in its infancy, Emily is a child, and I am yet to make a mark in my chosen career. The blogs aren’t even written daily although they start to appear on a more regular basis.

It is going through the old blogs that has made me more determined to kick myself up the arse a bit next year as I do feel that time is running out for me now. I keep finding references to projects that are still on my to-do list even today and some that I don’t even recognise. To find what the children’s story was that I was writing in 2009 will require a serious excavation of my notes and drawers if I have kept any evidence of it to start with. Maybe I should have thought of the PayPal button a lot longer ago than I did, because then I might have at least ticked a few things off my list.

My life was completely different in many ways back in 2009; so much so that I’m glad I started writing the blog so that I can go back and remember events. Sadly I didn’t keep detailed notebooks and desk diaries like those that I do now so I don’t know what half of these things mentioned in the blog are. When I refer to ‘the book’ for example, or a line I found today in which I pitched an idea to Trent FM. What I pitched to Trent FM I can only wonder about as they were only a ridiculous ‘same six songs, all days long’ station that no longer exists. These days I keep a box file of scraps of paper and Post-It notes containing abandoned ideas that will perhaps one day be revisited, and these scraps are all dated so this will never happen again.

I had only been with Mandi for four months at the time of the old blogs and I note that one of the biggest changes in my life was on the horizon and the impact on Mandi would not occur to me straight away. Mandi didn’t meet a workaholic writer, broadcaster, and all-round media Jack of all trades, master of none in November 2008 – she met someone with ambition in that direction. I wasn’t even working in radio at this point, that wasn’t to happen until 2010, which is when things changed somewhat. This is why I can understand why Mandi gets pissed off with me for not spending enough time with her, because the person she met and fell in love with had all the time in the world to spend with her so when I eventually started to build up my profile neither of us noticed at first.

I can only imagine where I would be if I hadn’t met Mandi, or indeed had met her but it hadn’t worked out. We met online and I had previously had a handful of disasters on that score so was prepared for Mandi to be a far different person in real life than she was on the Internet. Mandi has supported me on my slow but moderately successful climb up the ladder which of course I am grateful for considering I had such a late start, or rather a four year enforced break while I was married. The true Sliding Doors question for me to contemplate is how much better my life would have turned out if I had never met the woman I married and ended up more of a prisoner than a husband to. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it to be honest, and although I am no longer in touch with her and wouldn’t know where to find her, part of me wishes I could have one more conversation with her to enable me to tell her what is happening in my life.

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My daily blog can be delivered straight to your Kindle for 99p a month (link)

Listen to The Sunday Alternative here

My Sherwood Radio archive is here, why not listen and donate?

All donations received via the PayPal button above will be used to fund creative projects such as podcasts, short films, documentaries, comedy sketches and a whole lot more. You are under no obligation of course, but thanks in advance if you do drop something in the pot.

With the pressure off to a small extent due to no longer being committed to recording an audio book version of Bowie Day, I have slowed down a bit regarding my work list. I am my own worst enemy in situations like this because I am still behind to the tune of the Dickens Christmas audio book and Christmas feels like a long way away. Next week I have booked another two days of ‘holiday’ from the courtroom in order to get that finished and released, which effectively brings an end to my work commitments for this year, not including the weekly podcast which remains an ongoing project. The only big task I have left is to organise the publicity for Bowie Day, hopefully scheduling all of the interviews for January 8^th with any print interviews done in advance for publication on that day. The Christmas edition of The Sunday Alternative will be available on Sunday 21^st December and a regular podcast will appear on the 28^th. I am keen that the podcast will appear weekly regardless of holidays and other obstacles that might get in the way.

It is my hope that I can do at least some serious groundwork next year in order to blow a hole in my to-do list; this will involve a lot of writing and filming in some cases, with finished products being released as soon as they are ready with no pre-set release date. I turn 39 in August 2015 and am mindful of the fact that some of these projects are several years old and as such I would like to get them done and dusted this side of my fortieth so that I will be able to slip down a gear with regards my work and maybe look into getting back into radio full time, or a change of career altogether.

Although I have quite a lot of work to do, last night I couldn’t find the motivation and didn’t even turn my computer on to do any work. I had intended to catch up with my ever-expanding email inbox and to record at least one of the Dickens Christmas stories but instead started watching a documentary about Jack the Ripper. A Swedish enthusiast has ‘revealed’ the true identity of the notorious killer, he says, once and for all. To be honest, I don’t really want the true identity to be discovered because it takes something away from the Ripper legend. This is of course only one person’s side of the story, and anyone can name names as to who they think was the killer because everyone involved is dead and cannot refute what is said about them. Jack the Ripper was a real person (or persons) but because nobody was caught and convicted of his crimes he has passed into mythology and almost become a fictional character. Countless films, documentaries, plays, and books have been written speculating on his (or her) identity, and because nobody will ever really know the truth it is wide open for fictional interpretation. Anyone who has seen Goodnight Sweetheart will know that the reason Jack the Ripper was never caught is because he was a time traveler who escaped to the 1990s and was killed when he was hit by a car. That may or may not be the truth, I don’t know for sure because I fell asleep before the end of the programme.

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It doesn’t take a lot to set me off on a depressive downer, and one of the things that really gets me down is being prevented from working. A workaholic is no different to an alcoholic in that you feel withdrawn and anxious if the source of your addiction is taken away from you. I had to record The Sunday Alternative podcast today which was a priority, plus I had to update my blog, post a newsletter, and generally go under the bonnet of my website to update it a little. My blog isn’t really work in the truest sense although I am aware that people pay to read it on Kindle or make donations using the PayPal button. These plans, along with an intention to do some research for The Shoebox Demos, all went to shit because my Internet connection went off and showed no signs of returning. This sort of thing really tests me and it is at times like this that I start to question my life. Am I cursed? Am I naturally unlucky? Why do I bother trying to maintain this career when I am seemingly destined to stay where I am on the lower rungs of the ladder? I’m further up the ladder in Nottingham than I am in the rest of the country (The Sunday Alternative has got my name kicked around in London and various other places) but overall I am still in the LDV Vans League when I should surely be in the Premiership by now. When something happens such as my Internet fucking up I take it as a sign that I am wasting my time and I should never have even started down this career path and start to feel worthless and suicidal, wondering if I’ll even be missed if I step under a speeding lorry or just go for a walk and keep walking, never to return.

Deep down I know (without wishing to sound arrogant) that I am talented enough to carry off what I do. I am good at radio presenting (although I don’t have two radio shows to rub together at the moment, this time last year I had three), and I am a good writer but I want more from my life. It is the setbacks that pray on my mind more than the successes though, and even when I’m successful I don’t appreciate it at the time. This is the guy who pulled the plug on an American radio show and turned down the chance to return to live radio, the only thing I am really good at doing.

Maybe I over think things when times get a little trying, for example last week in Skegness when I thought it was my fault that it rained on the one day I took a weekday off from working to go to the coast. While we were in Skegness we walked past two gypsies selling lucky charms of some description (heather I imagine) and did our best to ignore them. Almost immediately after that happened, (if it had been a film it would be the next scene) I walked into a public toilet and slipped on the wet floor hurting my hand. When I met Mandi outside the toilet and told her what had happened she asked if I wanted to follow them and buy something lucky from them, we never saw them again, I imagined that as soon as I fell to the ground they disappeared in a cloud of smoke, laughing maniacally as they went.

Again, perhaps I am over thinking, but I thought back to my marriage. This was not a happy time for me as I was married to a control freak who didn’t want me to succeed. I imagine that deep down she knew that if I did gain any kind of recognition in my chosen career then I would with that recognition gain the passport out of our marriage that I yearned for. Her paranoia that I would leave her blew up in her face when I finally did get it together to leave. (I can fully understand why abused spouses don’t just leave as people who have never been in that situation suggest as if it is the easiest thing in the world to do). My wife was into tarot cards, something I have never understood nor ever involved myself with. That’s not to say I don’t believe what they say, it’s just that they have never told me anything as I have never asked. Could she have put a curse on me as revenge for finally walking out of her metaphorical prison? It stands to reason that someone who spent our whole marriage trying to prevent me from having a career would carry on that work as an act of revenge.  I’ve said before that the reason I work so hard and try to cram so much in is because I am trying to claim back the time I lost, either I’m not working hard enough to conquer her curse or she has allowed me the false sense of security by allowing me a small amount of success while at the same time denying me the chance to reach my full potential and killing myself is the only way that I can fight back with the biggest “fuck you” possible.

Or, maybe once the Internet is fixed I’ll be fine.

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Maybe it was because the show had been announced as the last one, but I didn’t have the same feeling today as when I originally quit Trent Sound in November 2012. I remember walking around town that fateful day on Wednesday 7^th November 2012, (I had resigned the day before) and observing the collective brave face that people were putting on in spite of the news. It reminded me of Monday 1^st September 1997, the day after Princess Diana was killed. Some of the older readers might remember the strange feeling of sadness that hung in the air that day, nobody quite knowing how to conduct themselves. Perhaps in years to come the Daily Express will continue to be obsessed with the final radio edition (for now) of The Sunday Alternative.

I am joking of course, it isn’t that bad. Of course it is similar but not quite the same.

The fact that it had been advertised as the last show (for now) had undoubtedly softened the blow, but I’m sure that culturally I have created something of a hole in the world. Personally, I wasn’t feeling as sad as I expected when I walked out of Trent Towers (not an actual tower) for the penultimate time, (the final NottinghamLIVE takes place this coming Wednesday). There were no guests this time; I didn’t want to do a show with live music as it might have made things a little depressing with a final live performance. I didn’t even play any new music this weekend, depending instead on music that is already in the system.

During the show I wrote out a closing speech to read out at the end. This is the first time I have ever used anything resembling a script in all the time I have worked in radio, but I wanted it to be just right with nobody missed out in the thank you dedications. As I read it out there was no emotion, no tears, and just another song and then it was all over.

As far as I am concerned, The Sunday Alternative is my favourite of all of my radio shows. It is my baby and I suppose it is the thing that I am best known for, (not that I am particularly well known). The show has had its ups and downs, in terms of live performances and co-presenters, but I have hopefully kept the standards up during its life. When the show returns it will be a solo presented show, but only if I have live music involved too. Without live music then the show becomes a chore to do. If you listen to the archive of shows, you can actually tell the shows that I am not enjoying doing. Reading back through the notebooks for the show I can even tell myself that I didn’t enjoy a particular show; these are the ones where I deliberately play a long song just so I can go out for a cigarette. I have plans for the show that will mean the name continuing and as a result also continuing to be an important part of the music business and radio itself. Creative freedom is very much the key to the magic of the show, which is part of the reason I intend to go it alone in future. The next radio station will have to allow me to do the show with no input, which is something I value above all else.

As I said on Twitter yesterday…

It's not the end, it's the beginning!
— TheSundayAlternative (@SundayAlt) March 16, 2014

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Tuesday 24th September

There is a part of my brain that realises just how much work I have to do before the end of this year, (I am hoping to give podcasting a rest next year to pursue other projects) and this occasionally freaks me out. I have an inability to switch off, the evidence being the Post-It notes (other sticky notes are available, although they aren’t as good and usually lose their stick after a while) that adorn my office wall to the right of my desk. With my huge workload in mind, it would be stupid and a bit wreckless to think of something as outlandish as forming a band wouldn’t it? That’s exactly what I thought, stupid. So I won’t even think about adding it to my to-do list of projects, even though it would only be an occasional bit of fun to do a few gigs with and not an actual full time commitment. The time consumption of three radio shows a week on top of several audio book, podcast, and musical commitments is immense; there are times when it feels like I will never be able to have a proper rest from work. However, the more I thought about it, the more the idea appealed to me. Before I knew what I was doing, I had posted on Twitter and Facebook (remember Facebook? It’s making an inexplicable comeback) in search of musicians. It didn’t take long for a couple of interested parties to get in touch, and so wheels are in motion. I am a fool to myself.

It didn’t take long to fill the diary with bands willing to perform live sessions for The Sound of Nottingham UK, with every Tuesday until the end of the year taken, (apart from Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve of course, I’m not going to work on those days). Things were a little rushed tonight as the band were a little late arriving at the studio due to traffic, so there wasn’t a great deal of time to chat between the session recording and the interview.

This week’s guests were Ruckus, a band who have been together in their current lineup since the beginning of 2012 and sound fantastic. I’ve not actually seen them live yet but will make a point of doing so. They were a friendly group with a sense of humour which always helps, and they even played along with the deceptive system of doing the songs before the interview by mentioning a song they were going to play later. Brilliant. I’d like to get them in to play on NottinghamLIVE at some point, possibly in the New Year when their EP comes out. Despite the slight pressure on the band, and myself everything went smoothly in the end and the first USA session with a full band went like a charm so I know that I can do it. There are a few bands in the pipeline so I need to tighten up on their arrival time so that they are ready to record at my allotted studio booking.

The session and interview can be heard this weekend on The Sound of Nottingham UK (the home of Robin Hood on Robin Hood Radio). Friday 11pm EST Saturday 4am UK and Sunday 1pm EST and 6pm UK.

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Is there an accepted convention when it comes to what goes on toast? I don’t mean supper snack toast but breakfast toast. If I’m having jam or marmalade I will still put butter on first, as it softens the toast. People who spread jam straight on a slice of toast without the butter underlay are surely lining themselves for a harder toast experience, and who wants that?

Here’s another thing, I strongly advise that if you haven’t tried it already then please try Weetabix with butter and jam on. It is actually nicer than Weetabix with milk on to be honest.

I can’t be alone with this one; when I’m making myself tea at home, (I make myself two mugs at a time for reasons I don’t really know), and the cereal box is looking tempting, I will stick my hand in and pull out a handful of corn flakes to eat as a little nibble snack.

These were the main topics of conversation yesterday between four grownups at ROFL Audio studios, where we were recording this week’s exclusive USA session for The Sound of Nottingham UK. I was meant to be working with The CTRL, but due to illness they had to pull out. I went on Facebook (remember Facebook? It’s making an inexplicable comeback) to see who was online. Pulling up the live chat box from the corner of the computer screen, George was the top of the list of people online. I asked him and he said he would be up for it, and that was that sorted. If his green dot hadn’t been showing, it would have gone to someone else, that’s how things are booked nowadays it seems. It is certainly better than dealing with managers, who tend to get ridiculously above their station when it comes to trying to book an artist.  Not that I'm naming names, but I had a conversation on Twitter with a woman who said that she would definitely be up for it, but then gave me her manager’s email address to arrange. Manager emailed me to ask all sorts of snotty questions, which is a shame because it reflects badly on the artist and makes them look a bit precious. In this day and age I don’t really understand why music management is even still a thing, given that a singer can communicate directly via social media. Once an artist pisses me off enough, I add them to the c-list which is a shame because we all know what the ‘c’ stands for.

I don’t pay the artists who come on the various radio shows I do, so there’s no need for all the stupid questions from managers. If I was a singer and my manager informed me that they were responsible for losing me a live exclusive for an American radio show, which had the knock-on effect of blacklisting by the presenter who also presents two important radio shows in the UK then I would sack them immediately.

Luckily there a still a huge amount of artists in Nottingham (the UK capital of music) that haven’t got twattish managers seemingly preventing them from having a career. George had been on my want list for a while but I knew he had to go back to university in Birmingham (at the end of next week), so as I was booked pretty far ahead I knew it wasn’t worth asking him. Although I’m a massive fan of The CTRL and hopefully will reschedule their appearance on the show, this was a lucky little twist of fate. The evening was a lot of fun and evidence of it will be broadcast on The Sound of Nottingham UK this coming weekend.

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I’m raising money to make a film of The Sunday Alternative and put on a free screening, please read my latest newsletter.