I'm currently in the library where I reckon it will be an all nighter going through the rather extensive video and CD archive. It probably won't do me any good in terms of sleep patterns but I hope it won't become too much of a regular thing.
This time next week will be a slightly more chaotic story as Smoke Radio are once again holding a night at Area with the theme this time being "Geek Chic". As always I'm not sure if I'll be able to meet the dress requirements but persona requirements, that's not a problem as that normally occurs at any time I'm present with others.
They haven't confirmed a full DJ lineup yet but the good news is that Fiz will be one of those spinning the discs. Although it's also likely they may get Synamatix back to play a load of dance records that no one's heard of, but after the success of the Christmas do last month I really hope that this one will be more or less in the same vein in terms of overall enjoyment the range of music played.
Earlier on that evening they'll also be a big meeting taking place in LT3 where we will be given the lowdown on what I hope will be big things to come for Smoke Radio this semester and hopefully some of us will get a chance to have our say on certain aspects of the station.
I'll try not to turn the whole thing into a soap box however as I'm not going to be there for much longer. It would be nice to go out on a high though, with everyone else enjoying it at the station as well.
Before heading into the library I watched tonight's Krypton Factor, and the extras on Somers Town as planned. These included some really good interviews starting off with the one with Shane Meadows where he explained how what was originally going to be a short for Eurostar ended up being a feature length film, and how it was the first film he directed that wasn't written by him.
He elaborated on that by referring to the film as writer and best friend Paul Fraser's answer to "Romeo Brass" with the character of Marek being the equivalent of him being a rather timid person growing up, compared to the more energetic Shane.
I also enjoyed the interview with Perry Benson who plays Graham, the middle aged fella who enlists the two boys to undertake errands. He mentioned that Shane first noticed him in the cult BBC sitcom "Operation Good Guys" in the late 90s, and that he is actually an Arsenal supporter in real life as well as his character in the film.
Shane once revealed that he only got into football at a later age when a mate of his took him to see Notts County and he became instantly attached.
The only game I've ever been to was Derby County playing at home to Aston Villa on Boxing Day 1999 where the rams ended up losing which I was a bit gutted about.
The whole game just sped by although my only other recollections were the journey back to the house we were staying at in Tibshelf and listening to "Sports Report" on 5 Live with that legendary theme tune that's lasted many years.
Back to Somers Town, and there was also a masterclass from Shane and Paul Fraser at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, where they spoke about the preferences of working with amateur actors as opposed to the big name ones, a lesson learnt through "Once Upon A Time In The Midlands".
The part that interested me was when Shane talked about his long term involvement with musician and vocalist Gavin Clarke who has provided his music from most of Shane's films.
It all came about when Shane and Paddy Considine were taking a break from Drama School to form a band until they heard Gavin perform and Shane decided to concentrate on film making leaving the singing to Gavin.
The best use of his work has to be in the short "Northern Soul" which can be found on the DVD of Dead Man's Shoes where Toby Kebbell plays a young fella who gets chucked out by his wife because of his ambitions to become a wrestler. Undeterred he sets out to fulfill his dream by blagging himself into an exhibition match at a professinal wrestling convention.
It soon turns out that he is to wrestling to what I am to radio presenting, only with even funnier consequences.
The film was designed to promote the latest album for Gavin's band "Clayhill" by featuring four of their songs and they really worked brilliantly alongside the main story. The band even make an appearance themself in one of the scenes, performing in a bar after the main character has embarassed himself in the ring.
However Shane's website reveals that another reason that the film was made was as an apology to Gavin as he had composed a score for "Midlands" which Shane rejected and laterly regretted doing so.
The finest performance from Gavin apart from that, comes in the final scene in This Is England and a very good arrangement and performance of the Smiths "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" possibly one of my favourite songs from the Manchester band as covered by the Dream Academy whose version was used in the art gallery scene of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
I was also impressed when Shane mentioned Alan Clark as one of his influences as apart from "Scum" he directed one of my favourite television movies "The Firm" which I discovered at around the same time as Dead Man's Shoes near the end of my HND media course.
The film itself was written by Al Hunter and was based on football firms in London who weren't interested in football itself but fighting at the grounds. The plot of the film involved Bexy played by a young Gary Oldman trying to form a national firm for the 1988 European Championships, on the condition that he would be the leader.
This doesn't go down with rival firm The Buccaneers who cause Bex's Intercity Crew a lot of hassle by torching their cars and attacking the members.
It's a brilliantly made film with clever camera angles resulting in not one football being seen in the film at all, whilst the only song used is Dean Martin's "That's Amore" in the opening scene.
There's also a few familiar faces such as Charlie Lawson who went on to play
Jim McDonald in Coronation Street, and Steve McFadden as one of Bex's allies
"The Hornchurch Boys", who is now better known as Phil Mitchell in Eastenders.
Also appearing was Terry Sue Patt who was probably best known for playing Tucker's mate Benny Green in the early series of Grange Hill.
Overall it's a very good film making a statement on how football was ruined by violent firms in the late 80s.
I may have to buy Scum on DVD before I finish University.
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