Still Tied Up

I couldn't remember anything from between leaving the hospital and going back to my flat last night. It now turns out that I have to give some notes that Lottie collected as we left, to the doctors at the clinic in Canterbury in the next two weeks, and I have to keep my dislocated finger in its plaster for about the same amount of time.

Today saw the final lecturer in the Broadcasting in the 20th Century module where we looked at the digital age and the many different methods of broadcasting used on said platforms. These included video blogs and the example that David Hendy used was noneother than one Ross Tilley who luckily wasn't in the lecture to try and defend himself.
As for tonight it will be the final Happy Mondaze of the Spring semester, although to be honest I don't think you could really call it a spring semester judging by the not so warm temperatures we've been having.

Sprung and Damaged

As quite a few of the first years were outside playing frisbee, I decided to go down and see what was going on. This was until someone decided to add a football into proceedings which I attempted to catch but ended up dislocating my little finger.
This meant that I had to make a visit to the A&E department at the nearby hospitial where I went with Lottie, Dean and Alice.

Whilst waiting I became rather addicted to the gas they had on offer which I had to breath in and made you feel slightly drowsy, whilst at the same time it
made your voice sound like Frank Bruno.
It took quite a while to get the x-rays sorted out but as soon as they were done they began a short operation that resulted in my little finger being plastered with the one next to it.

I'm not sure how it's going to go from there but I hope it won't get in the way of desk driving even though next Friday's show is the last one of the semester.

Finally Sprung

I ended up making two visits to Sainsbury's today as a result of forgetting to buy any drinks first time round. Apart from that it's been a rather quiet day although it's nice to see people outside on the grass near halls as the days are getting longer now.

I've not been too well myself as I have a bit of a sore throat although I don't think it's to the point of needing to buy Strepsils so I'm hoping tomorrow I'll be in a better state. Especially as I'll be making my final visit to the Undercroft this semester although as I've said before, the turn outs this semester haven't really been as good as last year, which could be due to the lack of Smoke Radio nights that have been taking place.
I'm really hoping we get one in May when we do our final week of broadcasting and hopefully decorate the bar with tropical decor like last year.

Although for some reason there's a straw hat hanging about in Studio 4 for which doesn't exactly make sense, especially with all the clutter around.

Saturday Leisure, Past And Present

Once again I was up in the radio rooms whilst Chris, Dean and Denis did their Saturday afternoon show, reviewing records and giving sports updates. We then went down to the Kenton Spoons where I had another chilli although this time round it was really hot and didn't go down too well.
We were joined by Stoobie and Phil as the Manchester United V Aston Villa game was about to start although I was starting to feel rather knackered and left at around half time.
It turns out that Chris on the other hand hadn't been to sleep at all since after last night so how he managed to stay active must have taken something.

Following the post I made yesterday on the old children's series Double Dare I played part of it to Stoobie as I reckon his voice sounds similar to the show's voiceover man Nick Wilton.
Stewart didn't seem to think so himself, saying that the voice was more like a
hyped up Griff Rhys Jones, although quite a few other people agreed at the smilarities between the two. I do however tend to think that Matthew the senior radio lecturer has similarities between him and Peter Simon for some reason although I'm not sure how he'd take towards that. Especially the slipping over the floor part.

And on the subject of nostalgia The Vault on Sky Digital have brought back the
classic countdowns to their channel at weekends with today's episode according to Digital Spy coming from the 15th of August 1992.
I'm guessing that was the weekend we finally returned from that very wet holiday in Scotland and Snap were topping the charts with "Rhythm Is A Dancer". Hopefully I'll get to see the episodes myself at some point although what I'd really like would be the DVD of the first ever episodes shown on ITV back in 1989, that I ended up losing last August when "that incident" happened.

Why they disapeared I don't know but I still have the DVDs of the ones shown on the Vault last year which helped to entertain me whilst I was recovering from what had happened in August.
These nostalgic flashbacks keep returning in my dreams when I'm in bed which keeps prompting me to ask, were Saturdays back then better than what we have now?
There's nothing worse than waking up in that sort of state although one redeeming part of Saturday apart from Doctor Who returning next week is my brother show Grooveline on Blast 1386 which goes out between 6 and 8pm. Turns out that Stephen is also a fan of Estelle's "American Boy" which admittedly is one of the better records to have been relased this year and has got quite a nice hook to it.

Definitely one to be featured on the long list of songs for this University year that will probably appear on this blog around early June.

Liquid And Locos

I spent most of yesterday in M-Block which included another liquid lunch down the Undercroft and a few moments of hilarity such as Phil Harris making the mistake of confusing Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding with Noel Edmonds.

I also did my first proper soul show after last weeks Easter break and to be honest it was the first one I sort of enjoyed doing this semester. It was newsreader Dan's last bulletin beforehand and he made a bit of a farewell speech before handing over to my show which meant I had to cut short the final track I was playing and really getting into so as to hand over to the show after me.
The track in particular was by an artist called Neo and "Smile" remixed by some Japanese producer who I can't pronouce for the life of me but it will definitely be featured next week on the final show of the semester.

After the show I got a call from Chris to come down to Flat 59 where Dean a Fine Art student who went with us to Bath was having a birthday do with a few of the first years.
After a few drinks and mixed drinks in my case, we got the tube and headed to Central, picking up Tudor at Wembley Park and getting off at Holborn where we went to the nearby Spoons.
I nearly didn't get in as a result of forgetting my ID but I survived and had a few more drinks before we went to Covent Garden and a club called "Los Locos".

The music they were playing was a mixture of funky house and R&B with a few classics thrown in such as "California Love", "Maria Maria" by Santana and "Shackles" by Mary Mary.
A few people including Tudor and Jake decided to leave at around 00:30am to get the nightbus back but myself Dean, Chris, Lottie, Will and Sophie stayed for another hour and were lucky enough to find a 6 seater taxi outside the club which we got to take us back to Harrow.

We immediately went back to Flat 59 where we were joined by Alice who had been working in the Kenton Spoons that night and Stoobie who was working at O'Neil's, and had a few more drinks before leaving Dean and Chris to crash out in the kitchen.
I don't really have anything planned for today so it's a case of seeing how things go and what others are up to.

"Take The Physical Challenge!"

I came across another interesting video find last night, a full edition of the popular children's gameshow Double Dare which was featured on Going Live! for the majority of it's run.

This particular edition is the first one from the 1991/92 series although we don't get to see Peter Simon fall over on the floor by slipping over the messy gunge,
a move that I've tended to impersonate myself over the wet floors of the Undercroft and Area 51 when a little tipsy. It does however feature the rather wacky voice of
Nick Wilton "you get to take home your Double Dare t-shirt and trainers!"

Peter can nowadays be found selling items on Bid-TV which I've stumbled across now and again on Freeview although I think the clip above shows him what he was like in his prime. And good to see the video top and tailed by a certain Mr Schofield.

As for today I've more or less got the show sorted out and will probably be spending most of the day in M-Block as normal.

Daytime Intoxications

I spent most of today in M-Block as normal where the second years were getting on with their podcasts and the first years were just hanging about like they do. One of them, Dan almost shocked the everyone by revealing that apparently Neil Buchanan was dead although his source was from a Wikipedia article which someone had messed about with.

I made two visits to the Undercroft today, the first was at lunchtime with Sarah and Emma where I had two VKs, before they went to Camden to record audio for their podacast on the Camden Crawl. The second visit was at around 5pm where I went with both the Phils, Sam and Stoobie where I just had a can of Fanta and everyone else had a coke with ice which Phil Harris very kindly bought us. I may make another visit there tomorrow depending on how things go as I've got my radio show to sort out which is probably the first proper one I've done in a while because of the Smoke Marathon and the Easter weekend.

Tonight though I'll be watching the final episode of "That Mitchell and Webb Look" which I've quite enjoyed despite the poor reviews from critics and forum posters. The sketches like most sketch shows are hit and miss but some of my favourites included one set in a 1970s hospital where most of the staff spoke in innuendos but one spoke in single entendres, and another which was on last weeks show with a "Changing Rooms" style show in which the presenter got irate with a couple who made positive comments about the room they had redecorated.

Overall it's all a bit of good "clean" fun.

Back To The Sixties

Tonight I went into Central to see the musical Hairspray which turned out to be worth the visit.
It took most of us a while to realise that Michael Ball was in drag playing the part of Edna Turnblad the mother of main character Tracy but he and the other cast members gave a very good performance.
It was very fast paced with some spectacular props and some good songs as well, with personal favourites including "Welcome To The 60s" which had a vocal group in red dresses looking similar to the Supremes and "You're Timeless To Me" which was a duet between Edna and her husband.

Overall it was a very bright and colourful show and well reccomended for a good night in London and I hope to go and see more whilst I'm still here although the prices aren't half expensive. It cost us £60 per seat as we were in the Royal Circle but we got a good view of what was happening and it was worth the visit.

Letting It Out

I found it difficult to get any sleep for a while last night because of worries about what's going to happen next year and so on. I thought it would be best to just let them out on here just to give an insight on how difficult things can possibly get.

1: Shortened Semesters
The advanced project conisists of us having to set up a radio station and undergo market research beforehand to see what the proposed target audience want to hear on it.
This is then followed by four shows including a pilot so god knows how we're all going to pull through.
I can honestly say that this is the module that I'm most nervous about now so I'm hoping I get a role that I'm best suited to.

2: Relationships With People In The Year Below
I feel as if I've intruded into someone elses teritory as I've found it difficult to speak to people and establish relationships with those in the first year doing radio and it comes across as if they don't want to know.
I'm mainly worried because they're going to be running the station next year and that they won't let me leave the station how I want to at the end of the year.
Ideally I'd like my show to be moved back to Wednesday nights again as the place is rather dead on Fridays and it would give me the possiblilty of doing a two hour special when I leave next year.
Hopefully I'll be luckier with those who will be starting the radio course in September.

3: University Night Life
The Undercroft has been rather dead the last few Mondays with hardly any of the radio students turning up and with the way the UWSU events and activities are going next year it doesn't look positive. Basically it's because the officers are all based in Central and are responsible for sorting out all the special events that go on at Area here in Harrow, and that they find it hard to reflect what people want from these events.
The way I see it, it seems that fewer and fewer people each year are going to the special events on campus.

4: Is Radio The Right Path?
I really don't know if I want to be having a career in radio now, having looked at what's on offer and the competetiveness of it all. Financially it wouldn't really work out as I don't really have what it takes to be a presenter full time and I'm not sure if I'd be able to take smaller shifts at stations doing various jobs after finishing my degree.
I know it's good experience but I really don't think I'm cut out for the real world of radio.
I find it very difficult to talk about radio in today's society as I don't feel motivated and inspired by it as I should be and am only really interested on what I do here at Westminster and on my own show.
But the problem is, where else should I go and what sort of career path should I take on instead of radio?
It's probably just best to let the next year go by and then see what happens.

FENCE!

There's nothing worse than returning to the flat and discovering a rave taking place for some reason or other. Luckily it can't be heard as far as my room so I'll probably get a good nights sleep after the shenanigans of last night.

It started off as planned at around late afternoon where we got a talk from
Andrew Phillips about the plans for Channel 4 Radio in a presentation called
"Radio: Who Gives A F---". This was particuarly interesting for me as Andrew used to be the programme controller at Invicta FM 10 years ago before moving to XFM in London helping to boost the career of Ricky Gervais as well as sacking Russell Brand.
The actual presentation itself asked questions such as would commercial radio work better with sponsorship rather than advertisements, whether DAB is the right platform for radio, and looked at the plans for the radio stations on offer from Channel 4 which are set to launch later in the year.

This was followed by a short visit to the Undercroft before Kelly drove us into Harrow dropping her bag off at Sam's house and then heading to Wetherspoons.
It was steak night there when we arrived although I decided to opt for the Chilli Con Carne with rice and tortilla chips which tends to be what I normally have when I go to Spoons. The plan then was to head up to the Junction but as there was such a long queue to get in, we decided to go back to the Undercroft for a few more drinks and dare games with a bottle until closing time.
The journey there didn't go without Pete shoving Stewart into bushes shouting things like "BUSH!" or "FENCE!" if he was headed for a metal fence but luckily nothing got too out of hand or on the dangerous side of things.

A few people decided to head off early to watch girly movies with the Freshers in halls but myself, Denis, and Sarah went back up to Spoons for a few drinks before going to Trinity where they were playing the usual blend of indie and rock classics.
Highlights included "Teenage Kicks", "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen and best of all
"Ace Of Spades" by Motorhead.

The night ended with "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles by which point I'd completely sobered up and just as well. There was definitely no messing about near traffic cones at Northwick Avenue.

Busy With The Fizzy

I managed to get the train back to London at around 9:20 this morning and there's not really a lot going on until this afternoon.

Most of the second year radio students will be attending a talk by some of the people from Channel 4 Radio and after that they'll be going on a visit into Harrow for a farewell do for the year, which I've managed to wrangle myself on to. It will probably consist of going to Nando's and then onto any of the nearby pubs and possibly finishing up in Trinity which is always good fun.

As for now, I may head up to Sainsbury's just to get a few things including a bottle of fizzy stuff as I don't have any drinks. It's always the tricky decision of whether to buy either orange or cloudy lemonade but I'll see what happens.

Eureeka!

An idea came to me whilst I was in the bath of all places. It was a potential idea for my dissertation which I shall be doing next year and what I was thinking was to do an analysis comparing Radio 1's Chart Show with Hit 40 UK which goes out on many of the commercial stations.
I'm certain that with a bit of time and thought, this could spin into several different concepts. It's just a case of finding the right literature but I'm sure that will come about as a few people have done their dissertations on programmes such as Big Brother and have compared Chris Moyles to the many breakfast shows on offer on commercial radio.

There was an interesting programme on Radio 2 earlier tonight as part of the series "The Record Producers" which was on the material produced by Stock Aitken and Waterman. It revealed that Pete Waterman was responsible for bringing in Susan Cadogan to the UK in the mid 70s to record a version of the song "Hurt So Good" which would later be covered be Jimmy Somervile, as well as revealing a few behind the scenes secrets from the Hit Factory.

One of which being that the record company behind Mel and Kim didn't like the "Tay-Tay-Tay" part of their hit "Respectable" and wanted it removed before it was played in a European club and got a great reaction as a result. It also had an excerpt of previously unheard footage of Rick Astley singing Jason Donovan's debut
"Nothing Can Divide Us" and briefly looked at the many established artists who went to the Hit Factory to resurrect their careers including Cliff Richard and Donna Summer.

Overall it was interesting insight to the records that made many a Thursday night for me when I was younger watching them being performed on Top Of The Pops.

Early April Showers

As expected. it's started snowing here in Canterbury although the ground's not completely covered. I'd probably go by saying that it's the coldest Easter I've had although it is a lot earlier than it normally is this time round.
I probably won't go out as it doesn't really look pleasant so I guess it's a case of indulging in the many wine gums and sweets that have been left for me.

It does seem a bit odd coming back here as term doesn't finish at Uni for another two weeks and I'll probably spend less time at home because I've got deadlines towards the end of April. Hopefully I'll manage OK although I'm constantly worrying about my final year and what's going to happen from then onwards. Things aren't looking too good as far as Uni life is concerned with shortened semesters and the nightlife on the decline.
Hopefully I'll try and make the most out of my last few weeks this semester.

Canterbury Night Life

Canterbury tends to have a rather loud lot of people walking down the city center at night time as I found out after walking back from Pizza Express last night where we went as planned.
I'd imagine that they tend to go to places such as Aubrey's or Bar Bar's which is just opposite the East station.
The restaurant wasn't too bad although I'd say it's not my favourite place to go as they don't really have that many pasta dishes that I like.

Laura told us about her degree in English and American literature and how they don't get to actually do any American literature until next year. Which kind of leads on to the ongoing row about semester times being shortened next year from twelve weeks to ten per semester.
This will be really tough for me in the first semester when we start doing our Advanced Radio module and I know I'm not the only one who is unhappy about the changes.

As for today I'm probably going to go to Sainsbury's to get a few wares for the Easter weekend and lie down as you do.

In Need Of A Sleeping Bag

As planned I left Harrow at around 5:30am although I didn't realise the trains from Victoria Station would be leaving slightly later when I arrived there. There were no trains going to Canterbury until around 8am which meant hanging around in the freezing train station for quite a while although I managed to find a warmer part of the shopping centre where I stuck around half asleep until then.

I got back to Canterbury at around 9:30 and have spent most of the day in bed although we're going to have Oli's birthday meal in town later albeit nearly a year later than planned. My cousin Laura who is studying at Kent University is also here staying for the night as everyone else is going back to her house for the Easter weekend.

Hopefully I'll be able to occupy myself with a few things whilst they're away.

Area Goes To The Movies

Tonight's themed night at Area 51 and the last for quite a while took place tonight towards a reasonably packed club. There weren't that many people dressed up although there were one or two people dressed up as Shaun of The Dead, someone posing as one of the Incredibles, and another dressed as the Johnny Depp Willy Wonka.

The music was on top form most of the night including some bizarre mash ups from Sammy C and Fiz including Missy Elliot mixed in with the Cure and the Gossip's "Standing In The Way of Control" blended in with Liquid's "Sweet Harmony". Deeva Steeva took over later playing his usual selection of grooves including the latest one from Estelle
which I quite like and "Low" by Flo Rida.
Last up were Chris and Phil with their usual dosage of cheese including a few movie themes including "Eye Of The Tiger" from Rocky and "Ghostbusters" which as always resulted in me singing the Bob Holness version as featured on the Central Xmas Tape from 1984 (5:45 in) although I doubt anyone noticed.

On leaving most of us went over to Lottie's where Stoobie fell asleep on the table and Dean felt the need to clean up at any given occasion. After we left, I decided to go to Flat 31 where there was a bit of a party going on there and the floor was covered in popcorn which they'd brought back from Area. I didn't stay for too long as people are leaving and as there are no tubes leaving from Northwick Park on the Met line tomorrow, I'm trying to stay up until around 5am so I can get the Bakerloo line train there and make my way back to Canterbury.
Goodness knows if I'll manage.

Spectator Sport Stupidity

Beer Pong is the new craze around Harrow Halls with a few students on campus finding many ways to get ping pong balls into plastic mugs of water. The latest offering can be found here where one of my flatmates Tom is featured near the end.
In fact a game is taking place in the kitchen as I type although I haven't actually seen any succesful throws. For once.

They've already come up with an idea for one of the throws for the next video which I beleive involves a moving header although another suggestion was to have a training video
with "Eye Of The Tiger" playing in the background. I'm hoping that a few games may be taking place in the cloakrooms of Area 51 tonight.

"Podcasts Schmodcasts"

Rather uneventful day here in Harrow, I spent most of it up in the radio rooms where most of the first years were in a rush to get their features submitted and the second years were starting their podcasting assignment.
This year they get to do it in pairs, the lucky buggers, but I'm certain that they'll come across the usual set of setbacks that tend to be encountered along the way.

Stoobie and Eric are doing their's on computer games and they're hoping to make a return visit to Bath, this time to visit Future Publishing and get a few interviews with journalists from magazines such as PC Gamer. We also had a look at some rather amusing videos including this spoof interview with the Red Hot Chili Peppers which resulted in me laughing out rather loudly.

Another thing that caused some light amusement was this animation from Weebls Stuff called "A Walk In The Woods" which if you're into juvenile humour may be right up your street.
As for tonight, I've not really made any effort when it comes to dressing up although from what I hear, someone's going as Bridget Jones in her night gown whilst another is dressing up as Juno. It should be a rather eventful night.

Back From Bath

The final day in Bath consisted of the SRA AGM where they elected members for the SRA board for next year and Stoobie got his position as regional rep for London and East Anglia. That afternoon some of us went on the train to Bristol where we went round the GWR building and had a look round the studios. We also got to sit in on a session from a musician and songwriter called Tim Daniel who had worked with Gary Barlow and played us some of his own material and a rather interesting cover of ex Blue member
Simon Webbe's "No Worries".

The conference overall hasn't been too bad and it was definitely worth going to see what sort of things were covered. My own personal highlights aside from the actual talks themselves were when Stoobie decided to pass a sheet of paper round in one of the seminars and get us to play a version of the game "Cheddar Gorge" from
"I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" where we had to write down a word that would make up a sentence. I also enjoyed it in the nightclub on the second night where they followed "Valerie" with Phil Collins' "You Can't Hurry Love".

I managed to get back safely in London at around 7pm and don't really have anything planned for today apart from the Movie Night at Area 51 which looks set to be rather interesting.

Day 2 In Bath

So, how did yesterday go? It was pretty packed but not too bad with some seminars being better than others. The first one we went to was "The Big Debate" on Digital and Student Radio where a few students had submitted videos such as this one.
We also had a rather interesting seminar on creating the perfect breakfast show brought to us by Roop and Tom from XFM South Wales and their producer who seemed to do more talking than them. It gave them an excuse to play a few of their creative features such as Sex Chat Bingo and Coconut Shy, which involved one of the presenters being blindfolded and throwing coconuts at prizes for callers.

The afternoon consisted of amongst other things Demo Idol where quite a few of us had submitted demos to be judged by a panel of radio experts including Sam Gregory, an ex-Westminster student now working as a producer for Wise Buddah. One of the demos that was played came from our very own Goodlass and Marshall who weren't actually present but ended up coming third winning a visit to one of the Galaxy stations.
Some of us also had a go at auditioning to be the voice for this year's Student Radio Awards and Lottie ended up being one of the runners up!

Later on we had a rather delicious meal that night at what looked like a posh building where wedding receptions are held where I had a rather delicious meal with a lamb shank and potatoes.
On returning to Bath city centre we went out to a nearby pub followed by a club where they were spinning a healthy dosage of cheese which went down really well.

As for today it's the AGM where apparently Stoobie is running for the regional officer for the Student Radio Association, and later we'll be going on a visit to either BBC Radio Bristol or GWR.
I'm hoping it will speed by so I can return to London without any major problems.

Bedding In Bath

My initial impressions of Bath on arrival was that it looked rather like Ground Zero and not that nice at all. Luckily there were stewards from URB to show the way to the bright orange buses that would take us to the campus and oh my, it was quite a labyrinth.
I met up with the rest of the people from Smoke in the Elements bar which we would later return to that night for some of the drunken activities that would take place.

The afternoon's seminar's included one called "Radio Is Your Oyster" which was lead by three figures from the radio industry including Bauer's (Emap) Mark Story who used to help produce the Simon Mayo breakfast show on Radio 1 many years ago. The seminar basically looked at the creativity involved in radio and different ways of promotion such as this rather clever video from Alex Zane at XFM.
We also had a talk about the music industry and how to get your stuff well known through the maze of pluggers, publishers, and lawyers which was rather interesting.

The evening was spent at two of the bars on campus and and having a good old boogie the same way as any Monday night. It took quite a while to get back however because of Chilvers, Pete and Stewart messing about on the grass near the coach station and near scaffolding.

My overall impressions so far are that the seminars have been pretty good but I'm still feeling rather left out at times and am finding it hard to blend in with many of those who are with us from the first year. Then again ridiculous in-jokes never have been something I've taken kindly to but it would nice to be acknowledged, even a simple "hello" would be polite.

Hopefully today's rather large amount of sessions and "Demo Idol" will see enjoyment overall.

Crashing Out

I've just woken up from what has to be the longest doze I've had in a while.
I got back from Spoons at around 5:50pm and immediately decided to have a lie down and you know how it goes from there.
Stoobie who was with us watching the rugby had done exactly that earlier after going home from Uni at 7am and lying down although he seemed pretty active throughout.
We watched the England V Ireland game as planned although they decided to swap the TVs over to show the Wales V France game at the front of the bar in favour our one showing the Arsenal V Middlesborough game which didn't make a lot of sense and didn't go down well with some of the other customers.

I'll probably go into Harrow today to buy a sleeping bag to take up with me to Bath tomorrow, although the majority of people who are attending are leaving today to stay over at Lottie's house for the night.
I'll be honest in saying I'm rather bitter about being left out of that, but the conference overall should be good and it will be nice to see what Bath is like as a place.

Reaching The Finishing Line...

We've made it. We've reached the end of our marathon broadcast with our station stalwarts Goodlass and Marshall bringing it all to a close and gathering us all into the studio to say goodbye.
We were treated to this highlights package proving what a fantastic team had contributed to the day of broadcasting that has been building up over the last few months.

Some of my personal highlights for me that weren't included in that selection were around 4-5am when we got an unexpected appearance from Mattie who had presented earlier that evening and took over the slot that was meant to be filled with a chill out show where instead we got a selection of mainly rock anthems as eclectic as
Lit's "My Own Worst Enemy", "Get It On" by T-Rex and even the
uncensored version of "Sexy MF" by Prince.

We were also joined up in the radio rooms by Undercroft manager
Jim "Partytime" Chapman who spent most of the time playing a few tunes on a guitar that was lurking around the studios. Overall it was a really good atmosphere throughout and I'm hoping that we'll be doing the same in 2009.

However there's May week to be thinking about as well pretty soon where we'll be saying goodbye to a few long standing station members such as said duo Goodlass and Marshall,
Steve Jones and Tudor.
That's due to take place the week beginning on the 12th of May when the dissertations will be handed in and is the same week as my birthday so hopefully I'll be able to do my show on that day!
Well also because Friday is the day we'll be having the awards and I wouldn't want to pre-record my final show of the year.

I doubt I'll be getting much rest for now however as I may be meeting up with a few of the station members later this afternoon to see the England V Ireland game in the Six Nations at the Kenton Wetherspoons.

No Signs Of Stopping

It's approaching the early hours of the morning on Harrow Campus and never have the radio rooms been so packed at such a time. As I type, Sophie and Eric are engulfed in playing Sushi Go Round whilst Phil H is on air blending a weird selection of trippy tunes with Brian Cant's voice excerpts from Trumpton.

My show went well although I'm was a tiny bit gutted I didn't let Jane my main co-presenter have a bit more time on mic than I did during the show despite enjoying the music I had to offer. We may do a show together for the summer broadcast when that comes around in May where I hope to do another show similar to last years summer soul show.
I did however have a bit of success with my feature "Presenters Under Pressure" which in this extract involves my ideal co-host Sami who grasps the concept of the game very quickly leaving me a bit lost with the Bruno Brookes comment.
That's the problem I have with people, I find it difficult to talk to them under normal circumstances but when in a radio studio it's totally different, provided it's with someone you're enthusiastic to work with.

The majority of people overall have been upbeat all night helped by pizzas, episodes of Family Guy and quite a swift intoxication of Fruit Gums.

The Journey Begins

Everything's all go but relaxed up in the radio rooms with the 24 Hour Marathon in full flow. We've got Steve Jones and the rugby team walking from the Marylebone to Harrow campus and Alice from the first year has brought in a Nintendo Wii which other first year Nick is having a go on as I type, to play baseball.

Everything's just about set for my show including a game I'm planning called "Presenters Under Pressure" which involves plastic bags and silly string. Basically I've based it around a game that was on the Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow where an unsuspecting victim in a gunge tank would have to guess as many names as they could in 90 seconds which were written phonetically
i.e. Rob-In-Blame-Ires all in 90 seconds otherwise they end up being covered.

There's a video on Youtube of two games, the first of which comes from series 3 in 1990 where the rules were changed slightly from that in the second clip where the contestant had to choose a set of prizes which all had a different value without going over 100. It was basically an excuse overall to use that brilliant sound effect that accompanies the drenching which is missing from the second clip. That's something I'd love to get hold of as quite a few people know but I'm sure what I've got tonight will go down well whatever happens.

It turns out however that I'm not the only one getting messy as Oli P on his request show was pelted with water bombs which resulted in a few four letter words coming out of his mouth. It resulted however in £10 going towards Hearing Aid so hopefully that's not the last of the novelty stunts happening in todays broadcasts.

"Looking For Clues"

Today was quite a long one with the majority of the afternoon spent up in the radio rooms whilst the second year students were completing their websites. I managed to get hold of a free ticket for tonight's perfomance of "Clue" at the Regents Campus which myself, Sirin and Ross Powell went to see stopping off at Ross' house beforehand where Steven and Caroline were with us.

The play itself was based on a movie from the 80s built around the board game of Cluedo and featured Penny playing the maid, Kit playing the butler and Jane (who's blog can be found in the links section) being the highlight as a singing telegram girl who was one of the many murders.
We then went off to a nearby Bar 4 One where there weren't any drinks that took my fancy which meant I resorted to drinking a rather expensive can of Red Bull. This was followed by a tube journey to Wembley and the 24 Hour ASDA as I had some pasta left for my meal but no meat to go with it and it gave me a good excuse to get a few extra refreshments for tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll get some well earned rest tonight before chaos ensues tomorrow.

Excitement Ensues

I honestly just want today to be over with. I barely got any sleep last night although that was partly due to me attending the Sexy Slave Sale at the Undercroft where various members of University Sports Teams were auctioned.

Chris and Phil were DJing again with a really good and wide selection of music with the highlights being the Girls Aloud megamix, "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba, and I strained my throat once again to "Don't Stop Me Now".
I may go into Harrow this morning to get a few things for tomorrow's Smoke Marathon and may spend the afternoon trying to get back the sleep that I didn't get last night.

Putting The "Pop" Back Into Music....

Bit of an early start today to record my promo for the special Bubblegum Soul show on Friday.
It can be heard here just to give you an idea of what's on offer.

Other than that just a normal day apart from a visit to Prezzo where I met up with Dad in Central London. I may go again tomorrow night to see the Drama Society's production of "Clue" if I'm up for it although I may need a bit of rest in preparation for Friday. Ooh I'm getting nervous now...

Monday Carnage (Or Lack Of)

A visit to the Undercroft was the order of last night although to be honest, it wasn't really as packed as it should be. Even by 11pm they hadn't moved the chairs or switched the main lights off and I was considering leaving, until they started playing "Valerie" by Mark Ronson which seems to get everyone going on the dancefloor.
There were quite a few other good tunes as well such as Heatwave's "Boogie Nights" and Earth Wind and Fire's "Let's Groove" which I was really impressed with as well as the usual selection of dance and R&B that gets played every week.

It didn't really do me any good as I barely got any sleep last night and woke up at 8am this morning. To be perfectly honest I want today and tomorrow to be done with so the wait for the Smoke Marathon on Friday doesn't seem that far away.

Taking A Dip In Bath

I wasn't expecting this to be happening at all, this time next week I'll be heading to Bath with a selection of other radio students to this year's Student Radio Conference.
This came about after I found out that there were some extra places going and I texted back and got chosen randomly this morning out of a draw along with a few others who will be going.

This will be interesting as URB, the station for Bath University has won the Marketing and Branding category at the Student Radio Awards for the last 2 or 3 years now and I've never been to that part of the country before so it should be overall interesting.
It will also be a good opportunity in getting to know a few more of the first year radio students and hopefully we'll enjoy some of the nightlife that Bath has to offer.

It's going to be an interesting few days.

"Let's Dance To Joy Division"

Last night was a rather eventful one with the Undercroft Smoke Radio Pub Quiz taking place this time with Chris and Pete hosting. The highlight was a musical intros round where I managed to get all ten that were set which included George Michael's "Faith" and "Good Thing" by the Fine Young Cannibals.
As it was Pete's birthday we decided that we'd make our way to Trinity in Harrow stopping off just before at Spoons where I decided to get rather honest about everything that happened since that incident in August and the running of Smoke Radio since then. I'm hopeful however and with the 24 hour broadcast coming up next week it should be really good.

Along with Bracey, Sarah and Emma we made it into Trinity where they really were playing quite a lot of good tunes mainly current Indie tune but a few classics thrown in such as "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division and "She Bangs The Drums" by
the Stone Roses. Getting out was the problem as a lot of us had quite a lot to drink in there and I'm not too sure whether everyone got back safely. I managed OK however and things are still looking quite positive.

On The Ragga Rocks

Last night there were two birthdays being celebrated in my flat, one being Cat who's studying abroad from her home of Long Island and the other was Emma's sister Laura who's turned 18.
We spent part of the night in the kitchen and I looked after the music with my two hard drives coming up with the goods before heading into Central.

The plan was to go to Old Street but the Northern Line was closed so we got off at Liverpool Street and went to a club called "On The Rocks" where they were playing quite a lot of old reggae and ska. It was rather crowded and dark inside for my liking and around 2am some of us were on our way back despite taking a while to find a taxi that was operating.

Not a lot's been happening recently although we've got a Smoke Radio night at the Undercroft tomorrow night where I shall be DJing for the earlier part of the night when the bar's less crowded. Hopefully it should be succesfull although there hasn't really been a lot of promotion for the night outside of Facebook.