Blasting Off To Reading

My visit to Reading and Blast 1386 went well and it's the first time I've been to the main city itself. Myself and Stephen arrived at TVU about 15 minutes before we were on air and they've got rather modern facilities and it looks as if everythings well looked after at all times.

The show itself went well and I enjoyed having the selection of music in the second hour which included Light Of The World, Swing Out Sister and the Kyoto Jazz Massive.
We even got an e-mail from my dad who was listening in the garden back at home so I'd imagine it's a bit more brighter in Canterbury than it was in Reading and London.
Stephen and myself in between also had a chat in between links about all the ITV channels going off air which I didn't see, but Stephen and his girlfriend did and apparently it lasted for about 6 hours in the London area.
I'd imagine it proves a point of a few things about the station and it's many hiccups that it's had over the last few years both on and off screen.

As for tonight Michael's having his 19th birthday do in the form of a buffet, although I'll finish off the chilli I saved from last night before things start. I also need to buy some booze as well so I'd imagine Red Russians will do the job.

Getting In The Groove

There's a birthday do happening in my flat tomorrow evening as Michael's coming back to celebrate his 19th and I've been asked to DJ again. It will be in the same way I did at Cat's birthday a couple of months ago although it will be on limited equipment, i.e. my laptop. It should be good fun though and not too chaotic and hopefully they'll be quite a few people turning up.

As my laptop's speakers aren't that loud, I went up to the radio rooms to "borrow" a set of speakers, but to be honest no one ever uses them and I'll be bringing them back on Monday.
Sam was also up working on her radio feature that she was unable to do in the first semester due to personal reasons back in October. I very much doubt that there were anywhere near as physically bad as what I was going through that month in which I couldn't even relax or lie down properly.
Overall she's very busy juggling both the feature and two jobs over the summer.

On a similar note I will be visiting one of Sam's old haunts tomorrow, Blast 1386 where I will be guesting on Grooveline with Stephen Howie and choosing all the music for the second hour of the show.
Hopefully I've chosen a good and varied selection and it can be heard at 12pm tomorrow, via the website and clicking Listen Live.
I'm definitely looking forward to it all and it should be an eventful weekend.

"Rrrriiight!"

I managed to get my washing done today although I had forgotten to take it out of the holdall until now which makes things a bit trickier to sort out.
Asides from that I saw they had Loyd Grossman as a guest on the One Show tonight and I didn't realise until now that he has a resmblance to David Gauntlett, one of the more popular lecturers at Westminster University. I would more than happily opt to take the Media Consumption module again provided I didn't have to do the essays.

Britain's Got Talent is still in full flow although I don't understand why in almost every VT package they use "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin as the backing track. I can remember when the track was used on P. Diddy's song from "Godzilla" and my brother and a few of his mates were making rather naughty jokes about the video when he was falling in the sky.
Hard to believe that's about a decade ago now.

Almost Occupied

Once again another quiet day here in halls although things are looking up for the next few days.
I've been asked to choose an hours worth of tunes to play on this week's Grooveline with Stephen this coming Saturday which should be enjoyable and Smoke Radio are hosting next Monday at the Undercroft for the final time this year which I hope to be DJing at for part of the night.

Apart from that nothing's really been happening apart from going into the Undergrad office to change the expiration date on my ID card to 2009 which took a bit of time but I got there in the end. And I guess I'll be spending tonight as every other night this week with the third of the Britain's Got Talent semi finals which are enjoyable to say the least.

I'm hoping I can go through tomorrow without falling asleep halfway through the day although it doesn't seem too likely.

Quiet On Campus

I haven't really been up to a lot today apart from heading to Marylebone as planned.
Whether it's the poor weather or just everything in general, this years 1st years aren't really being as outgoing as last years this semester so there isn't really a lot going on.

I'd imagine tomorrow's going to be more of the same although I may go to the
Harrow Campus library again to see if there are any DVDs worth borrowing after getting out "Snatch" a few days ago.
I'm just not really feeling as motivated and forward looking as last year, although
we all know what happened in the end when I was feeling positive about the year to come when the time actually came.

"Lights Will Guide You Home..."

I left at around 10:30pm to go to the Undercroft only to find that it was closed.
I've no idea why that was the case but it was lucky I gave Chris and his housemates a ring in good time as they were just about to get a taxi to go down there.
I was invited over to there's where we then went to the New Moon in Kenton where a few people were already there including Lottie, Sophie, Phil Landers, and Alice who was behind the bar. Denis was very tipsy which isn't normally the case and spent a lot of time mucking about and messing about with chairs and the balloons which were hanging.

By the end of the evening, fellow housemate Danielle was in an even worse state and Denis and Stoobie had to literally carry her back to the house.
Shortly after this, myself, Chris, Phil H and Denis were watching all the music channels on Sky Plus and Denis still in a rather drunken state would proceed to either throw cushions or threaten to throw the table at Chris and Phil when they kept switching to a channel that was playing Coldplay videos continuously which they were singing along to in high pitched voices.

We decided to call it a night shortly after and rather than sleep on the couch I was offered the spare room previously occupied by Pete, and Dave Sharp although it was quite tricky getting out of it this morning as I knew I had to be in Central later this morning for an appointment at the Marylebone campus.

Hopefully next Monday should be a slightly different story as it's the last Monday of semester and the Undercroft should be in full flow although it's been in a bit of decline this year with drink prices increasing and so on.
Then again everything's on the increase as rice and pasta is now more expensive than it has been which will probably mean my final year will really be a struggle.

"Stealing Stones"

Hasn't been too much of a brilliant day really, especially as it's a bank holiday when most of the smaller shops are closed including Wenzels which meant I had to go all the way back to halls in the pouring rain. I did go to Sainsburys later on and brought one of their baguettes amongst other things although to be honest their bread isn't as good.

I watched Snatch as planned last night and it's not too bad a film with an early appearance from Stephen Graham off "This Is England", and Mike Reid playing
"Doug The Head" although I wouldn't rank it as high as everyone as did when it came out.
I still prefer Adam and Joe's version to be honest with "Vinnie Football" and "Cousin Lavvy" although their version was meant to get laughs.

As for tonight the plan is to watch the first of the semi finals in Britain's Got Talent and then hopefully head over to the Undercroft if anyone else is going.
Then I reckon the first thing I plan to do tomorrow is head for Wenzels to buy one of their better loaves. Well compared to the Kenton Sainsbury's anyway.

Smuggling The Truth

I don't know how I'm managing here as barely anything has been happening today.
I had a listen to "The Unbelievable Truth" on BBC Radio 4 earlier this afternoon which is a comedy panel game hosted by David Mitchell from Peep Show where contestants have to talk about a subject made up of lies and smuggle truths in front of their fellow competitors without getting caught out.

There was a good selection of contestants this week including Adam Buxton, Tim Vine, Ed Byrne and Lee Mack who did quite a good job on last week's Have I Got News For You. One of the subjects if I remember correctly was about potatoes and it turns out that they have been used to generate electricity although they can't be used as batteries to power clocks.

I've just returned from the Harrow campus library where I've borrowed a DVD of the
Guy Ritchie film "Snatch" which I hope will be entertaining. I've never seen the actual film before although Adam and Joe did a very funny parody with their stuffed toys called "Twat" with the tagline "A Bunch Of Gits Talking Total Sh*t" as directed by teddy bear Guy Richtoy.

Hopefully the original should be interesting and witty.

"Answers On A Postcard"

Another day which barely anything's happened has taken place although I hope things will get a bit better tonight as I'm making a lamb shank stew as I'm typing this.
I went to Wenzel's to get the usual bakery conviniences and I later went to Sainsburys as I was out of apples and something to drink.

I also had a listen to Grooveline which I will be guesting on next week and I'm definitely looking forward to, and I need to have a search for some tunes to play as Stephen's asked me to bring a few along. Definitely something I've been looking forward to for quite a while and it will be nice to see the insides of Blast 1386 which has had quite a history in it's 6 years on air.

I also managed to find an interesting discovery on UKNova in the form of the first edition of (well, part of) Series 2 of Going Live! originally broadcast on the 8th of October 1988 with Phillip Schofield presenting solo, as Sarah Greene along with newly engaged partner Mike Smith were recovering from the helicopter crash that happened the month before.
They did however take part in an O/B from the hospital ward with special guests the Proclaimers performing their then new single "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)".

Other guests included T'Pau, whose lead singer Carol Decker helped to present the Video Vote section of the show which included videos from Duran Duran and Deacon Blue's "Real Gone Kid" which got the winning score.
There was also Kylie Minogue who brought on her sister Dannii for her first UK TV appearance and the Press Conference guest was Tessa Sanderson, fresh from competing at the Seoul Olympic Games.

There was also the usual items such as Double Dare with Peter Simon featuring
Letitia Dean and Adam Woodyatt from Eastenders, and the infamous duo Trev and Simon with the first appearance of their pants swinging act "The Singing Corner" where they were joined by Kylie Minogue or "One Of The Pogues" as one of them mistakenly read.
The programme also included an infamous cock up where Phillip was trying to explain how to enter a competition which needed two envelopes so they could send back details of how to attend an audtion for the annual Young Entertainer contest.

Definitley an interesting discovery and a testament to the quality era of television overall.

Penne At Prezzo

Once again today's been more or less the same as every other day this week with not a lot going on and me feeling very tired despite not actually doing anything.
I did go into Central today however, to see Mum where we went to Prezzo's and I had a rather interesting penne dish with chicken which was different although the sauce was a tiny bit rich or strong, I don't really know how to describe it.

I may go to the bank tomorrow to finally put in the cheques that were sent to me for my birthday and I'll need to find other ways of occupying myself tomorrow evening as Doctor Who is taking a week off due to the Eurovision Song Contest which I imagine Mum will be watching tomorrow.

Possibly More Productive

I haven't really been up to a lot today. I sent a letter to ASDA asking about employment over the summer which I'm really not sure about, although I also signed up to volunteer at "Lounge On The Farm", a music festival which takes place near Canterbury in July.
The latter basically involves bar work and gets me into the festival for free so it should be something different to occupy myself over the summer.

However overall I want to pace myself before what I reckon will be a rather intense final year at University so I'll want to keep myself occupied but at the same time not do too much to exhaust myself. I'll see what happens when the time comes.

Down With Defeat

Still a bit down after last nights result but it wasn't too bad a night overall.
I arrived at Spoons at around 7:30pm where Chris, Phil and Alice were working and Denis was around with them. After half time we were joined by Ross Powell and Jane and things started to get a tiny bit more chaotic when one of the customers stood on his chair and mooned at the TV screen when Ryan Giggs came on towards the end of the second half. Inevitably he got a telling off by Shree, one of the bar managers.

After we'd been into penalties and then sudden death I decided to leave, leaving Chris and Denis to celebrate Manchester United's victory and I was feeling rather knackered anyway.
I'm now up in the radio rooms where hopefully I should be finished with sorting everything out in terms of backing up audio. I may also send letters out to places in Canterbury hoping to get a bit of money over the summer although I'm not sure how succesfull I will be in doing so.

Behind The Blues

Once again it's been rather quiet here and there's not a lot I've been up to really.
I spent part of the afternoon up in radio sorting more stuff out and the rest of it asleep although there's still stuff to be done in making sure things are backed up.

It's starting to brighten up again outside halls so people are spending time outside although tonight as planned I'll be spending my time at the New Moon in Kenton hoping that Chelsea do well in the Champions League final. I hope Chris isn't working there tonight as he's a Man U supporter but overall it should be good fun.

A Bit Too Laid Back

Barely anythings been happening today apart from a visit to the counselling service at the Marylebone campus to discuss a few things with regards to next year.

I even ended up spending the whole afternoon asleep in bed waking up at just before 7pm so goodness knows how I'll cope tonight.
I may watch the second part of "The Duchess in Hull" where Sarah Ferguson has been trying to change the dieting plan of a low-income family in Hull who are all overweight and although I've had similar weight problems over the last year, it makes me feel better that I'm not as bad as they are.

I really don't know how I'll spend tomorrow. If anyone I know is going I may watch the Chelsea V Man U game at Spoons in Kenton but either way it will be absolutley rammed.

Slightly Mellow Monday

I went to the Undercroft as planned last night where I met up with both the Phils and Denis who were at the front of the bar. We had a chat about a few things I've written on the last couple of posts and about next year overall with Phil H saying that he wanted to move away from presenting to continue producing live performances from bands.
I think I know who will be taking that role in the advanced module in the autumn.

The DJ there was mainly spinning a few dodgy mash-ups with out of tune acapellas such as Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" mixed with "Billie Jean", and Kelly Clarkson's
"Since You've Been Gone" over Rhianna's "Please Don't Stop The Music". The dancefloor wasn't really that packed either as they didn't move the chairs and tables until after midnight.

Also around were Oli P who's having a do at Koko this Friday for his 19th birthday and James Rowney who was kind enough to buy me a drink although to be honest I wasn't really up for having too many drinks for some reason or other.
I may try and relax my drinking habits this week and it saves me a bit of money anyway.

It Could Be A Lot Worse

Following my last post I've just woken up from a rather bizarre dream about us being at the Smoke Radio awards and me getting into a rather violent confrontation with someone who does a show, but wasn't actually there at the real awards.
I won't mention their name but Stoobie was having a chat with him via Facebook messenger when we were up in radio so it just goes to show that tiny things really do stick in mind and become bigger things later on. I don't even have anything major against the individual so I reckon it was a case of drink.
For some other reason the Beatles song "Get Back" was constantly playing in every place I went to although I don't think it was one of the songs I heard on VH1 Classics earlier today.
I did however hear the Wet Wet Wet Childline cover of "With A Little Help From My Friends" which isn't too bad.

My main aim this summer is to make sure my whole life doesn't end up being like a dream although I'll go onto to explain about that in a later post. As for tonight it's probably the case of another visit to the Undercroft for Happy Mondays although I'm not sure if many people will be turning up as it's been quite dead over the last few weeks.
I appear to have now been dubbed as the "V.King" by bar manager Jim Chapman which is what he wrote in my birthday card last week so my aim is to go full circle with the flavours again tonight.

"Fresh" Starts

I'm feeling rather unsure about next year already which is ridiculous because I'm getting concerned about things I shouldn't be worrying about.

Basically I heard that Lottie who's now head of daytime programming at Smoke has spoken to someone who I won't mention by name who wants their show to take over the 5-7 slot from the legendary Goodlass and Marshall who made their bow last Friday.
This is despite only doing one show last week and not exactly having the best chemistry with people around them in the studio.

I don't like to upset anyone but the problem with Freshers Week last year was that it was too over-indulgent with hardly any interaction with the Freshers themselves and no contingency between shows. That's what it felt like for me as a listener as I wasn't there for the majority of the week and I'm worried that if what I think is going to happen, then it will be another washout.

Then again it's too early to speculate and unlike last year I will actually be allowed to have a few drinks so I can enjoy my final Freshers the same way I enjoyed last week really.

"Yo!, Back Up Now And Give The Brother Room"

Yesterday evening I got a call from Chris inviting me to see him and most of his house at work in Spoons alongside Lottie who's just started working there.
It was Pete's last night working there as he's moving to Aylesbury with Siobhan permanantley and I arrived just in time as he was finishing his final shift where he made his bow by singing the Funeral March as he was about to leave the employees door.

Also drinking there were Denis and Stoobie and we were later joined by Dean who indulged in a chocolate dessert. I didn't have anything to eat this time as before I went, I had another chicken and pasta meal which is becoming a dreadful weakness.

By around 10pm we headed back to Stoobie's with Phil H who had finished his shift although Chris had to keep on working until after midnight. As is normally the case I decided to endure in music videos on VH1 Classics and shortly after Phil kept switching betweeen Brokeback Mountain on Channel 4 and The Patriot on Five where at this point I started to fall asleep on the couch once again although at one stage Phil attempted to wake me up by playing "Boom Shake The Room" at full blast.
I'm sure there were several other practical jokes that lot were playing that I can't really remember but at some stage I did fall asleep in the end.

I spent the morning watching more videos on VH1 Classics and gameshow repeats on Challenge before heading over to Uni where I am now with Stoobie and Denis where we may be heading into Harrow soon. Denis has just got a new job at Waitrose so I guess that means all the occupants in that house are now fully employed for the summer. Something I'll need to sort out in Canterbury although it would be nice to get some work experience in radio as well.

"Whatever You're Doing Tonight, Have A Nice Night!"

Last night's Doctor Who was pretty good and it was interesting to hear an extract from the theme tune to "The Beiderbecke Affair" in the episode when the Doctor and Donna emerged in 1920s dress. That happened to be the composition of Frank Ricotti who played percussion on the original theme to Grange Hill which from what I've heard has been brought back for the final series.

Nothing's really planned for today although as I type I'm listening to the return of radio legend Bruno Brookes, making a one off appearance on BBC Radio Berkshire where there have been some good tunes playing and very good listener reaction including one listener wanting to hear "When Will I Be Famous" by Bros which has lead to a bit of debate on air!

I also need to get a few things from Sainsburys including some fizzy stuff as I'm starting to die of thirst. Apart from that I doubt there's anything else happening.

Lying Back But Hopefully Occupied

My final few weeks at Uni this year I reckon are going to be pretty quiet with not really much going on although I'll try and find ways of occupying myself one way or other.
Today was spent listening to Stephen on Grooveline where there was a brilliant tune from the Sunburst Band's new album called "Journey To The Sun". I also managed to see Portsmouth's victory in the FA Cup Final when they collected the silver trophy accompanied by Feeder's "Feeling A Moment".

I may spend the next few days organising things and making sure shows from the last year at Smoke are backed up and it will give me something to occupy myself over the summer listening back to shows of various levels of entertainment and musical genres.

Currently I'm listening to PY on Smooth Radio playing another tune from
the Sunburst Band album; "Sitting On Top Of The World" of which the chorus is putting a very big smile to my face and a few tears which very few tunes do these days.
Possibly an album of the year? Well unlike Swing Out Sister's latest release it's been worth the four year wait.

Soulfully Sober

As expected, I endured quite a few more VKs earlier this afternoon even having the urge to take them back to the radio rooms. Luckily there were several bottles of water left lying about as always that I drank before tonight's show which slightly sobered me up.

Goodlass and Marshall went out in style with highlights including a special appearance by Dave Benson Phillips on the phone and another song that Tilley composed, this time about Nana Glover. It didn't get played in full however as they were pushed for time and compared to the song he composed for Goodlass and Marshall earlier in the week it sounded more like a Jose Gonzales song although I know Tilley's quite a fan of him.

The final track that the duo played was "Changes" by David Bowie and was immediately followed by my final soul show where I was joined by the "token Oz" Jane Lee and
Ross Powell from the Live Variety Show. The show got a good response in terms of interaction on the shoutbox including my sister Kate who was listening and gave me the idea for the Bubblegum Soul track "Summer Girls" by LFO which both Jane and I seemed to know word for word.
Carl who used to present the Gospel Show was listening in next door in RP1 and was appreciative of the Philip Bailey tune "Vaya (Go With Love)" and the clip of Lenny Henry which I played near the end of the show before that infamous Incognito mash-up, which if anyone wants to hear, do let me know.

I'd say that this was the most enjoyable show bringing the week to a nice relaxed end, although I really want Alice who will be looking after specialist programming next year to move my show back to Wednesdays.
I heard Matthew at the awards last night telling her not to touch the Shuffle Show as it was set in stone throughout the schedule, which is interesting because they didn't turn up to do any shows towards the end of last semester and didn't do one this week neither which without being disrespectful was rather disapointing, being one of the best shows on the station.

Myself and Eric on the way back from the awards yesterday had a bit of a rant about a few of the other specialist shows who either lacked commitment or were too big for their boots which irritates me because it's stopping other people who want to do a show getting a place in the schedule.
However let's just say at this time that I'm lucky enough to have a place in the schedule overall and not have to go through the hassle of pre-reccing which for many people is an absolute nightmare.

However this week overall has allowed lots of people to really prove themselves such as Amy reading the news, Troy helping out Tudor with the video podcasts and on a personal level Sarah and Mary at the Undercroft who have served me many a VK bottle.
As for now, I'm completely knackered after this week and am defintely going to have a good lie down tonight after all the shenanigans.

"The Final Countdown" (Ricky Marshall's Idea)

Everyone's in a rather relaxed, coming to the end of festivities mood today after last nights awards although a few people aren't actually around including Stoobie who I very much doubt has recovered after last night when he literally crashed into his room breaking his bed doing so.
Also we found out that Tudor ended up leaving his award on the bus and had to get his parents to calm him down on getting home as he was really pissed off as you would expect.

Goodlass and Marshall are preparing for their final show where amongst the highlights planned are an interview with Westminster Alumni Danny Wallace, and the final Challenge Nan where she will be taking on noneother than media theory lecturer Maria Way.
I'm starting to fill up a bit now in all honesty but that's partly because I've had a few drinks down the Undercroft where Dan and his Preloaded team are doing their show.

I may go back for a few more as it's the last day and overall I reckon it's the most smashed I've ever been at Uni in one whole week. Goodness knows what Fresher's Week will be like.

Awards Anarchy 2008

The awards last night took place at the Paradise Bar in Kensall Green which was a rather smaller venue compared to last year but it felt a bit more relaxed and less formal.
The majority of station members for this year had turned up as well as a few old faces such as Dan P, Mark Jackson, Sam Gregory and later on, the one and only Joe Haddow.

Despite feeling unsure about it, it turned out that we had a set menu which surprisingly I managed to go through every course on there, beginning with asparagus in melted butter as the starter, a really delicious steak with potatoes as the main course and a sticky toffee pudding as the dessert.
The music playing was pretty good as well mainly consisting of big band and latin tunes from the likes of Cab Calloway, Glen Miller, and Louis Armstrong, which I thought was a lot better than having to suffer the likes of James Blunt and Jack Johnson that got forced upon us at last years event.

The awards themselves were presented with Steven McIntosh as the main compere and various members of the station presenting an award and we even got to hear a bit of audio from those winning the prizes. The prize for best male went to Dan Roberts, with Lottie recieving best female and the best newcomer went to the ever enthusiastic Oli P. Also getting prizes from memory were Smith and Bracey for Best Feature which was "Arctic Munchies" which I ended up playing on their show yesterday when they freeze food and blindfold people who have to try it and guess what they are eating.

The highlight of the "serious" awards was the one for Outstanding Contribution which went to none other than Edward "Tudor" Burke and was very much deserved. It got a bit crazy when he went up to collect the award as he was trying to persuade a very shy and retiring Alex Hill to come up as he had helped him with the video podcasts.
However the reason Alex didn't want to come up was probably revealed as we went on to the "silly awards" where Alex won the prize of "Most Expensive Mistake".
Basically this was towards the end of Freshers Week when Alex accidentally left one of the University's video cameras in Kebab Land in Harrow and ended up having to pay £1,500 for a replacement or otherwise he would fail his degree.

I also managed to win a prize for "Best Quote" which came from my rather messy show on our 24 hour broadcast which apparently was me shouting "That's Enough!" when people were messing about with silly string. Other novelty categories included
"Best On Air Blunder" which went to the Bamboozle boys for the controversial show which also took place in the 24 hour broadcast where there was about 15 people in the studio, and they felt the need to say rather derogatory comments about the SU. We didn't get to hear the audio of that incident but I've uploaded it here just to give a bit of illustration and hopefully some amusement.

Other highlights included Stoobie getting booed by Chris Chilvers when going up to present the award for Best Podcast, Dave Sharp coming on stage to several people shouting "Fix Up Dave Sharp!" and cries of "Who Are They?!" when the boys from "You Heard It Here First" won an award despite not being present to pick it up.

At the end of the awards the comittee for next year was revealed and it's an interesting line up. Once again there will be two heads of programming with Lottie Pettinger looking after daytime shows and Alice Robertson taking care of specialist shows.
The head of music went to Sophie Clipsham and the very talented Dan Roberts will be looking after station branding.
The role for head of news and web have been merged into one role again which will be taken care of by Amy Fitzgibbon and looking after events will be Danny Kelleher who many people thought should have got best haircut which ended up being won by Oli P.

As well as my award I also got a really nice birthday card signed by all the people who turned up to the awards and got given it by Phil Landers who said some very kind words to me about my contribution to the station throughout the year.
I was also sung "Happy Birthday" twice throughout the night first of all at the beginning of the awards when both myself and Adam from Shuffle were told to come up as he shares the same birthday with me. The second time was when after I had recieved my prize for Best Quote by which time I reckon everyone was blind drunk.

The after party got going around this time with sets from Tudor, Steven spinning some top uptempo R&B tunes and the highlight of the night being Goodlass and Marshall making their final appearance on the DJ decks with rather chaotic results. Basically they were mucking about with the pitch control and the turntables and yelling out things on the microphone giving namechecks to Sam Gregory, Joey, Mark Jackson and Jim Chapman from the bar who had also turned up. Even Dave Sharp was showing his moves which was good to see.

By the end of the night everyone was trying to sort out a taxi to get back home and I ended up getting inside one with Denis, Eric and a very drunk Stewart Paske. He was in an absolutley dreadful state and Eric was rather irritated that his housemates didn't let him go back with them but we got him back safely and I'm hoping he'll be alright later today when he helps produce the outside brodacast from the bar where Dan and the Preloaded team will be presenting.

It's also Goodlass and Marshall's final show and following on from them with my show is going to be quite a task but it will be good fun overall.
I'm definitely looking forward to the end of what has been a very succesfull week and I'm certain it will get pretty emotional too.

Gagging For Gongs

The seating plan for tonight has been unvieled and it looks as if I'm a a good table. Amongst those sharing it will be Chris, Pete, Stoobie, Denis, Dan Roberts and guest lecturer Dave Sharp who has been part of a campaign on the station this week called
"Fix Up Dave Sharp".
Basically it's a petition to get 500 people to sign up to a Facebook group for the campaign by giving £2 to charity and if succeeded, Dave will have to grow his hair longer again, after we found a few photos of him with long hair from around 15 years ago.

I really hope they've got decent drinks there because the main meal in my opinion isn't so good consisting of either steak or lemon sole, or a vegetarian option. We also get given a free bottle of wine which isn't too good either but it's a Michelin star restaurant so it appears we're getting our money's worth.

Chris and Phil will be DJing later on in the night hopefully spinning a top selection of cheesy tunes where I'll be absolutley sloshed probably. Hopefully we'll get a few of the lecturers bladdered as well as I know both Matthew Linfoot, and Adam Hodgkins from the Shuffle show have strutted their stuff at the SRA after parties in the past.

It will be quite a night I'm certain.

Wednesday "WAAAAN"

It was Alice's birthday yesterday so by the time I arrived in the studios yesterday, Sophie was going round getting everyone to sign a card for her. When it came to Ross Goodlass, he felt the need to write down the infamous line from that song by Smokie inside, although I think he resisted the temptation.

It wasn't just Smoke Radio who were present on campus yesterday as one of our alumni was around or to be more specific, Maz who was recording vox pops for Mercury 96.6 where she decided to go full time instead of completing her journalism degree two years ago.
This afternoon's live O/B show was in the hands of "The Apple Bites Back" where Jake was asked to put a cardboard box on his head to replicate his ambition of wanting to become an astronaut, much to the amusement of Lottie, and Tudor who was filming the goings on for the video podcast.

It was rather quiet upstairs for most of the day as the committee were busy sorting stuff out the awards which will be happening later tonight which they've been trying to keep top secret, even down to the seating plan. As I'm not too sure about the menu that's on offer I may have a few drinks before going so I feel the urge to want to eat anything I don't normally like.

By 7pm the Shuffle boys hadn't turned up to do their show which I was rather disapointed about, although I understand Adam will be present at tomorrow's awards. I decided it wasn't worth sticking around for the Bamboozle boys who were following so I went down to the grass outside halls where Alice was having a barbeque for her birthday.

Chris, Pete, Denis and Stoobie showed up shortly after where many meat related innuendos were thrown about. Luckily all I had were two pork loin steaks which were absolutley lovely as well as a few Raspberry Breezers.
Jake was providing the music in the form of Mylo's album of which I'm certain every track has been used as a bed on Smoke or in a trail. To be more specific Dan and Sophie's Preloaded trail for their show or Friday which contains Sophie shouting out "WAAAAAN!" which appears to be saying of this week.

At around 8:30 we went to the Undercroft where it was comedy night consiting of Ria Lina as the compere, Jewish Comedian Josh Howie and Tim Vine, not to be confused with the other comedian of the same name related to Jeremy Vine.
I was slightly tipsy when we arrived so I decided to step in front of the microphone myself impersonating Bernard Manning although luckily the mic wasn't switched on.

Josh Howie's routine consisted of him taking the mickey of jokes against minorities although Phil Harris got a bit of stick when his mobile phone went off. For those that don't know him, his ringtone is the noise of General Lee's horn from The Dukes Of Hazzard which is rather loud in all honesty.
Towards the end of the routine someone kept on ringing me on my mobile phone and I'm certain that was Phil although luckily him and a few others went to get something to eat during the second act.

The headline act with Tim Vine resulted in a few people getting stick especially Mattie from "You Heard It Here First" who was sat in in the audience. Also on the recieving end was Dean who had the mickey taken out of him for being a Fine Art student amongst a room of people who were mainly doing radio.

We headed back over to Flat 59 at around 11 where we brought out a birthday cake for Alice which didn't have any candles but a couple of lighters contributed by Dan Roberts. Shortly after a few people went home leaving Troy, Will and Dean playing Shithead whilst having the Kings Of Leon playing in the background.
By midnight things got a bit more hectic and we had a mini celebration for me turning 23, by which time Eric had got back from work and more people were present in the kitchen.
Despite being around 4 years older than most of the people present I was reassured by Alice that I'm not the oldest as first year student Rich is around 30 years old.
Most of us went to bed at around 2am and for me personally it was nice to get back into a proper bed for a change after crashing on a sofa for the last two nights.

As for tonight it's the awards have finally arrived which will probably be the last time I see a few people who have been involved in the station for the last three years such as Ross Tilley, Ross Powell, and Steve Jones who was around yesterday to present his final sports show for the station. The location will be the Paradise Bar in Kensall Green and even if the dishes that are being served aren't to my liking I will use this as an excuse to celebrate my 23rd birthday by getting sloshed.

"You Sound Like You're From London Mate!"

Plenty of goings on throughout our second day of SO4S2 with Oli P's show coming from the courtyard outside M-Block where there was a tug of war and a water bomb contest which got a tiny bit out of hand as people were trying a bit too hard to avoid getting pelted. This was followed by Stoobie doing the request show and messing up as always getting song titles wrong etc, although to be fair this was partly the responsibility of Chris, Pete and your's truly messing about with Selector in the other room.

We then went back over to their house and then to Spoons where it was grill night and
I ended up devouring a 10 oz steak with a baked potato. Not really being someone who enjoys a steak it was made even worse by them not having any salt or sharp knives which made things a tiny bit more painful. I've heard that they will be serving similar dishes at the Smoke Radio Awards this Thursday so I'm really not sure if I'll be able to manage but we'll see how things go.

It was then back to the Undercroft in time for the final Pub Quiz of the year where our team was made up of myself, Chris, Pete, Stewart, Tudor and Denis with the rather dodgy team name of "Madeline McCann, The Official World Hide and Seek Champion".

Other teams consisted of Film and TV students Lawrens, Miles and Edders, Steven, Caroline, Ross and Jane, Mattie and Matt from "You Heard It Here First" and 2nd year TV students Matt and Rupert who also present on the station, and got a huge amount of stick from hosts Goodlass and Marshall which they didn't bother to respond to in their embarassment.

As luck would have it my team ended up winning again where we won £50 which got divided into £8 for each player. The plan was orignally to head up to Trinity but we decided to give it a miss with the awards coming up later in the week where everyone will probably be bladdered. That didn't mean the journey back went quietly as the boys decided to bundle each other on the grass near Area 51 and a nearby portaloo got knocked over resulting in hilarity.

On arriving back at the house we decided to indulge in a bit of swearing in cockney accents, first of all from a tune called "Blasphomy" and then by watching the film
"Sexy Beast" starring Ray Winston and Ben Kingsley. I'm certain I had that film on DVD somewhere but either Olly's borrowed it, or it ended up going missing after what happened last summer.

That aside, I'd say it's one of the best sweary films I know of and it has a good soundtrack consisting of "Peaches" by the Stranglers, "A Little Bit Of Love" by Brenda Russell and "Cuba" by the Gibson Brothers.
We decided to call it a night however by the halfway point of the film when
the Ray Winston character finally agrees to go back to London and I ended up sleeping on the sofa again. By this point Tudor had left us to try and go back to see his friend in Stanmore but I'm certain he came back again later as I was woken by the doorbell ringing.

I woke up again at around 4:30 and decided to indulge myself in old episodes of Supermarket Sweep and Catchphrase on Challenge before heading back to my flat to get a bit of sleep. That wasn't too succesfull so I got into the shower and had a wash and before the events of today kick off I may head up to Sainsburys to get a few things for Alice's birthday barbeque tonight which should be enjoyable.

This week is definitely making up for what has been a rather unsettled year at University although there's still a lot more to come and I haven't even presented a show yet.
Overall it's a team effort with everyone helping out with what they're good at whilst trying new things at the same time often with good results.

Moderately Messy Monday

I'm feeling really rough this morning but that's partly because I decided to ditch my bed in favour for the sofa at Chris, Stoobie's etc, and that I've got a rather snotty nose and a poorly throat which isn't too good.

Despite that last night went well although the turnout was moderate compared to past Smoke nights. The bar staff and a few of the customers including Edders, and James Rowney from the first year Film students were enjoying my soul set although Paul Calvert started asking me to play stuff from Lonnie Liston Smith and George Duke which I hadn't put onto the CDs I was using. It may be an idea to start burning my MP3s onto audio CDs and Sarah, one of the bar girls said it maybe possible to come in to play this sort of music more reguarly to provide a nice chilled atmosphere to the bar in the warm months.

In between the soul and cheese sets I spent most of the time outside where Oli P was talking to Sami about what appears to be his obsession; The Smoke Radio Comittee and who will be in it next year. Denis was also present as well as Phil L who wasn't too happy about the Leeds United result from earlier in the day.

I can't really remember what else happened to be honest but the cheese set managed to get people dancing where I played some of the obvious tunes such as "Summertime" by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, "MmmBop" by Hanson" as well as a few odd choices such as "Hot Hot Hot" by Arrow.
By the time it was all finished I was drunk enough to head back to Chris, Stoobie and Denis's etc although for some reason Denis went back to his old house for the night.
As was the case last time I spent the night on the sofa switching between The Vault and VH1 Classics falling asleep at around 3am whilst spending the rest of the time thinking about my main meal the next day which more recently seems to have become an obsession despite trying to watch my weight.

I reckon I'll go for the simple option of chicken and pasta at around lunchtime as it's quite a busy evening tonight with the Smoke Radio Pub Quiz followed hopefully by a visit to Trinity. Although the guys have been nice enough to let me stay on their sofa I reckon I'll spend the night in my own bed if I'm tired enough by the end.

Let The Chaos Commence

It's more or less packed up here in the radio rooms as Smoke's Out 4 Summer 2 has started with Pete playing an A-Z of Summer Tunes beginning proceedings. Also up are James and Jane preparing for their first Smoke Signal, and Lottie and Eric from "Razzle Dazzle" who are doing their show live from the Undercroft as part of "Smoke Radio On Tour".

By 5pm things should definitley get interesting as Joe Haddow will be making a return appearance on Goodlass and Marshall's show and will be definitely good to find out how he's been getting on since leaving last year.
Then it's over to the Undercroft again where I will be spinning the soul, Steven will be spinning his selection of R&B which always goes down well, and later on I'll be playing cheese to round off the night where overall we're hoping for a good turn out.

If I end up getting sloshed tonight than I will have done well.

A Visit To The Soul Cellar In The Shopping Center

We really could do with some air conditioning in the radio rooms here at University after spending three hours in an air conditioned studio at Time 106.6 where Stephen or Tony to give him his DJ name was presenting the Soul Cellar.
The transport as expected wasn't up to scratch with the trains and tubes being rather slow and bloody boiling at the same time. However I arrived just before 6pm and luckily the radio station wasn't too far.

The station itself despite being based in the Observatory Shopping centre in Slough wasn't really that big but then again I wasn't expecting anything too spectacular.
There were however a few shades of the station that used to occupy the building;
Star FM with a mousemat with the stations logo and addresses on it and a sign above the entrance saying "Stars Only".
The playout system looked really complicated with all the music and jingles stored on a DOS based version of Selector meaning that you had to type up the codes for songs that you wanted to play rather than dragging and dropping them on the Windows based version.

The music was on top form with tunes from Stephanie Mills, Rodney Franklin's "The Groove" and 3 tracks by Earth Wind And Fire. It was quite difficult to fulfill requests as the system didn't have "Breezin'" by George Benson or "Shake Your Groove Thang" by Peaches and Herb that listeners wanted to hear but despite that it was an enjoyable show and good to see I'm grateful to Stephen for letting me see him in action.

As for tomorrow it looks set to be very hectic as Smoke's Out 4 Summer 2 gets underway with an outside broadcast from the bar and the second of our Messy Mondays later on. It's also goodbye to two of the best specialist shows on the station in the shape of Paul and Ross's "Live Variety Show" and "Tudor Rock" and from what I've heard they've good some good things planned to go out on and things won't get too emotional.

All Set For An Early Summer

I reckon today's probably the hottest it's been all week but in spite of that I'm up in the radio rooms where Pete, Chris and Denis who's come back from Ireland are sorting out the music to be played out next week.
I'm hoping that we get some really good summer tunes going out throughout although I've got a few decent, if at times predictable ones that will be played at my Undercroft set tomorrow night.

As for tonight I'm heading up to Slough to meet up with Stephen or to give him his DJ name, Tony Ryan as I will be sitting in on his Soul Cellar show going out on Time 106.6 across South Bucks.
Hopefully they'll be time to have a drink or so before hand as to go on the tube in this sort of weather is quite a chore.

Preparing For Summer Festivities

Barely anything's been happening today, I've just been out to get my clothes washed and up to the radio rooms where preparation is still continuing for next week.

Oli P was planning things for his edition of "Smoke Radio On Tour" which is happening on Tuesday where I've been enlisted to help out with things on the show coming from the Street on the Harrow campus and a possible water fight on the courtyard.
Goodlass and Marshall were also around planning for their final set of shows for the station which from what I've heard is going to include a song about Nana Glover, who's been part of the long running feature on the show testing her general knowledge.

I'm very certain that the final show on Friday will be a very emotional affair and having to follow on from the duo is going to be no mean feat. Overall, though it looks set to be a very good week with warm weather looking set to stay for the next five days at least.

A Short One In Central

Last night's do at the Sports Cafe was a bit of a washout to be honest.
I left just before 10pm with Lottie, Sophie, Dean, Will and Oli and arrived at the Sports Cafe although there was nothing there to tell you that Smoke Radio was present.

Those who were there included both the Phil's, Dani, Spike, and Sarah from the Undercroft, as well as Sammy C who was DJing along with Fish playing funky house remixes of tunes such as Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and "Sweet Child O'Mine" by Guns And Roses.
The dancefloor wasn't really looking that packed however as a lot of the people there wanted to hear some R&B which started to annoy Fish to an extent. Some of us decided to call it a night after Sammy and Fish had finished their set and the drum and bass was about to start as we wanted to get the last tube back.

Hopefully Monday night at the Undercroft will go down better as there will be a wider range of music being played which should be good fun. As for today I'll probably be sorting out audio for next week on Smoke for a few presenters who will be leaving the station, then later watching Doctor Who and Britain's Got Talent as per usual.

Very Thirsty

It's slightly more humid than yesterday out there but I'm feeling a bit better after the post I made last night after having a snooze midway through the morning until about 12 midday.
It appears that there isn't going to be someone solely looking after specialist music on the station next year according to the fellow comitteee members who are with me upstairs in radio and so the position will just be looking after programming in general.

Next week however is looking pretty good, especially on the Monday as in addition to spinning the cheese at the end of the night I may get a chance to do another soul set earlier on as I haven't really done one for a while now. As for tonight Smoke Radio will be taking over the Sports Cafe in Central where I'm hoping to get sloshed once again, partly because I haven't got anything to drink in my flat having drank all the cloudy lemonade yesterday whilst outside Harrow Halls. The music looks set to be very dancey with Synamatix and Sammy C having their own slots but it will be brilliant for Smoke Radio to finally get out their into the big city itself.

It should be a good one.

Warm Weather, Possible Frosty Receptions

The majority of the afternoon was spent on the grass outside halls where quite a few people were enjoying the warm weather. These included JC who was trying to compose a song on his guitar, Oli P who was attempting to help out with the words for the song, and Julia who was also helping out.
James from first year Film and TV was also out celebrating handing in the final essay of this year as well as Tom from my flat and JP from the commercial music course.

With this rather large amount of people outside, we thought it would be a good idea to have a kickabout by having a Shirts V Skins game of football. I decided to refrain from taking my shirt off along with Tom and JP amongst others, whilst James, Oli, and Ali from first year TV kept their shirts off on their team.

I even had my chicken stew with pasta outside in the warm weather and it was around this time at about 7pm that Flat 40 above my flat decided to play rather loud music to those on the grass outside halls. This ranged from Daft Punk to Dizzee Rascal as well as Jay Z amongst other tracks which kept on going until around 9pm when everyone decided to go back to their rooms.
A few of the commercial music students were present at this time listening to the Unsigned show on Smoke Radio through a Mac which could recieve wireless although this leads onto one of my big worries about next year.

There seems to be a very close circle of those who do specialist shows on the station mainly in the first year and to me it seems that they can get away with anything in front of those running the station.

Then again I was doing almost exactly the same when Joey was running the station in my first year but back then it felt like one big happy family and everyone blended in together with regular meetings every few weeks where we got to introduce ourselves and find out about events etc in an informal mannner.
That's only happened once this year and when it did it seemed more like a bollocking with the comittee all sat behind a table moaning about issues such as deleting songs, presenters making their own jingles etc.
Another thing that's been bugging me for the last two years at least is that there appears to be a big divide between daytime and specialist shows with barely any of the daytime shows plugging them and so on. I really don't like the idea on why they have to be seperate to an extent because it makes us sound like two completely different stations.

Next week at the Smoke Awards they will be announcing the comittee for next year and without going into too much detail I'm very concerned about what's going to happen with specialist programming next year and who's going to get the role of looking after that area.
This is partly because none of the first year radio students appear to have shown an interest in specialist shows on the station and the thing that's annoyed me most is that none of them have commented on or possibly listened to my soul show.

Also shows that focus more on playing "mature" music as like Ross and Paul's "Live Variety Show" and "Tudor Rock" will be making their bow next week and with my show being the only one similar to them but for my respective genre I'm worried about it's future.
This is partly because certain members of the comittee seem to be more interested in the shows who get unsigned acts to perform live as opposed to just playing music from different genres, but also because of the arrogance around the other specialist shows on the station from those in the first year.

My main reason for doing the show is to combine my love of modern soul music with my love of radio but with the way things are going now, no one else on the station with the exception of those departing seem to feel the same way about radio and see it as just an ego boost for themselves.
If this continues with those starting Uni in the autumn then the station is just going to be awashed with "unsigned" Indie/Rock shows and my show will sound very out of place.

I'm also fed up with people trying to discourage me from doing the show because "my degree is more important".
Yes, next year will be vital but I really don't want people to discourage me from the main reason I wanted to get into radio. This is probably the only opportunity to do the type of show I want to do in radio because there's very few opportunities in the real world to play the sort of music that I do on my show on Smoke let alone get a proper job in radio.

I'm ever so glad I started University when Smoke Radio was more or less in it's infancy because if I'd started now it would be totally different and I'd definitely feel left out.

Let's just say the future rhymes with "bright".

Sloshed

Last nights antics were pretty chaotic, starting off at the Undercroft at around 3pm where Ross G, Ricky and David Jackson were present at the start of the dissertation deadline party. We later had arrivals from Tudor dressed in casual clothing for a change, Ross Powell, Nina and Ina and "homegirls" Leah and Lucy. We also had a few of the Film and TV students joining us including Lawrens, Miles, Joe and Edders adding to the fun.

I was disapointed however that Patrick from Journalism was the only lecturer who made it to the festivities but apart from that it was all good and the time just shot by throughout the afternoon into the evening and I ended up losing my keys which made me feel a bit insecure.
Despite that we headed up into Central as planned but before we got over to the club we went to a nearby McDonalds and because I was so starving I broke my own rules and devoured a rather nice McChicken Sandwich. Well just the chicken itself and not the lettace but it filled me up just abouts.

We made it over to Cheapskates but because I was rather drunk I didn't have too much and spent most of the time laying down on one of the sofas and didn't start dancing until near the end where they started spinning some really good stuff such as "This Charming Man" by the Smiths, "Love Will Tear Us Apart", "A Town Called Malice" by the Jam and "White Wedding" by Billy Idol. The highlight however had to be just before I left when they put on "Nightboat To Cairo" by Madness which for me is any excuse to be at my worst when it comes to being near a dancefloor.

I got the nightbus back with Joe, Jon and Matt and ended up sleeping in the library for part of the night but on the plus side the security had found my keys to get back into my flat. As for today it's going to be a lot more quieter although I plan to go to Wenzels to get some lovely bread and am planning on having a chicken stew with pasta later tonight after a lack of grub yesterday.

All in preparation for another visit to Central tomorrow night where Smoke Radio are taking over the sports cafe. I won't be DJing this time round but it will hopefully be eventful.

"Souled Out"

It's been a good night as far as my visit into Central has gone, which started off with Incognito's set at Fopp. The line-up consisted of Bluey on guitar, Matt Cooper on keyboards, Francis Hilton on bass and Imaani, Tony Momrelle and Joy Rose on vocals.
The set itself consisted of the slow version of "Always There", "When The Sun Comes Down", the stunning "Step Aside" and "N.O.T." which Bluey referred to as the bands equivalent of "YMCA".

I managed to get autographs on my copy of the album not just from the band but from a few others who turned up including oddly enough James Alexandrou AKA Martin Fowler in Eastenders, who was one of two people filming the performance.
There was also Noel McKoy who's best known for performing with JTQ on their superb "Supernatural Feeling" album, and I met one of if not the finest soul DJs in the UK in the form of Peter Young from Smooth Radio who was wearing a rather loud shirt from Planet Hollywood.

I then headed up to the Jazz Cafe to see Fertile Ground who were supported by
Ashley Thomas whose band included a percussionist who played only on a wooden box and a set of cymbals. During their performance there was the arrival of another top soul DJ, this time being Sandra C who used to present on Sunday mornings on Solar Radio. I'm guessing this was her birthday treat this year in the same way the Rebirth gig was around two years ago and it was good to see how both her and husband Kev were getting on.
The gig itself was brilliant with Navasha Daya dressed in a lovely silky dress and really showing her moves during the performance and we got a great selection of songs including "Seasons Change", "Live In The Light" and "Be Natural".

By the time I got back to halls I noticed another bonfire taking place, ironically placed at the fire assembly point.
It wasn't long before Jackie Chan came up with a bucket of water to extinguish the fire but that didn't stop the chaos going on as Michael one of the commercial music students managed to jump over a tall bush with plenty of encouragement and the flat nearby decided to have a bit of the party although the only tune they were playing was "Sun Is Shining" by Bob Marley.

As for the rest of this week, today consists of the dissertation deadline party at the Undercroft, Friday sees Smoke Radio taking over the Sports Cafe in Central London and on Sunday I'll be heading up to Slough to see Stephen Howie (under the DJ name of Tony Ryan) present the Soul Cellar show on Time 106.6 which should be enjoyable.

It's definitely the busiest but enjoyable of all months within each year at Uni.

Awaiting Sunny Central

Last night was a rather different experience at the Undercroft as there wasn't anyone spinning the discs and there weren't even any bouncers at the entrance. It was still moderately full and I managed to find the two Phils and Stoobie at a booth with a few members of bar staff.
Stewart was speaking to Sarah about different levels of geekiness whereas Sarah had found different types of "fives" as opposed to high fives and Stoobie was on about the which series of Star Trek was better, i.e the original or TNG and so on.

I happened to be wearing my Happy Mondays t-shirt which for some reason Stewart didn't seem to get but for some reason it seemed to go down rather well.
When everything shut down at around 1am I headed back with my flatmate Tom and we went into a few other flats including Flat 17 where a lot of toast and marmite was consumed as well as messing about with a skateboard.

As for tonight I will be heading into London to see two gigs, the first being a free 20 minute set by Incognito in Fopp near Covent Garden and the second one being Fertile Ground at the Jazz Cafe.
However, as the weather is absolutley stunning I may walk from Baker Street station all the way to Fopp going across Oxford Street.
Definitely one of the main high points of living in London around this time of the year.

Marathon Madness Revisited

It's been rather quiet here although there's been stunning weather good enough for me to have the windows open. I've spent the majority of today listening back to the shows from our 24 hour Marathon Broadcast back in March enjoying such highlights as the Death Metal Karaoke competition on Tudor Rock where Stoobie completley messed up a rendition of "Rock Me Amadeus" inevitably turning into the "Dr Zaius" song from the Simpsons.

Other bizarre moments included Phil H on his Monkey Beats Drum show mixing clips from Trumpton and The Clangers against "Doom's Night" by Azzido Da Bass and Mattie from
"You Heard It Here First" making a return appearance to step in for a show meant to be playing chill out tunes, by playing a selection of rock anthems, at around 5am in the morning.

So far this has been the highlight of Smoke Radio this year for me although next week looks set to be really big with SO4S 2 where we've got plenty of events each night including our second Messy Monday at the Undercroft where it's likely I'll be doing the top slot again on the CD decks.
There's also another pub quiz taking place on the Tuesday where the team I've been in have won twice consecutively so here's hoping we can make it three.

As for tonight I may be heading to the Undercroft where I'm hoping everyone will be in the mood for May Day drinking and having a boogie as per normal.

Birthday Bundles

Last night's party at Flat 59 started off with Troy and a few of the others having a go on Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii that Troy had bought along with him. As the night progressed we saw arrivals from Jake, Oli P, Sophie and both the Phils from the second year where things started to get a bit more chaotic.

I didn't really get drunk at all last night, just a bit queasy instead which resulted in me not really wanting to take part in the drinking games that were happening including
"Ring Of Fire".
One of the rules for getting the king was for Phil Landers to sing any Dizzee Rascal line from one of his songs although he seemed rather reluctant to do so.
There was also a plastic funnel which we used quite a lot for people to drink through and inevitably resulted in a few spillages.

By the time I left Troy, Will and Jake were mucking about on the grass outside the flat and bundling each other so I reckon that Troy was celebrating his 20th as he wanted to.
Hopefully things won't be as chaotic for my 23rd although that's the same day as the Smoke Radio Awards which will probably be one the classiest birthday do's I've had.

Boozed Up (Hopefully Not Out)

It's been a rather quiet one once again today although tonight looks set to be interesting. I spent the afternoon listening to Stephen on Grooveline where it sounds as if he's still enjoying the new Incognito album, and had a listen to Sam do her stuff on
Mix 107. That won't be the case for much longer however as they're dropping her show in favour for a networked sports show going out on Saturday afternoons across the majority of the TLRC stations.

I'm more or less sorted for tonight's do at Flat 59 where I will be bringing a box of Red Russians with me although hopefully I won't need them too much in order to enjoy the goings on.

Live And Unplugged

It was pretty bare again today although this time round I didn't end up sleeping halfway through the day. The show tonight went reasonably well with quite a good response on the shoutbox although I forgot to mention the free Incognito performance at Fopp that will be taking place on Tuesday although I'm hoping that will turn out well.

I managed to book tickets for another gig that's happening all the way into September, Frankie Beverly and Maze at the Hammersmith Apollo. The band are responsible for a well known live album recorded in New Orleans with one of the highlights being
"Joy And Pain" which is a favourite with anyone into 80s soul or the genre overall.
To be in the crowd when they do that live and getting the audience to sing at the end will definitley be something and an ideal way to start my final year at University.

Tomorrow I may buy a few things at Wenzel's as I'm running out and I may head over to Sainsbury's to buy some drinks for a do at Flat 59 tomorrow to celebrate Troy's 20th birthday.

Mundane But Coping

Barely anything of interest has happened today, it was probably the first day in a while that I went to sleep in the middle of the day because there was hardly anything worth doing. That probably means it will be a bit of a struggle sleeping tonight although it's the London Mayor elections so with 5 Live's coverage of that on in the background it should make things easier.

Tomorrow should be different as I'm doing the radio show again, after about a month and they've got Brian Blessed presenting Have I Got News For You later on which should provide a bit of light entertainment. Otherwise the rest of the day should be more of the same.