The Easy Route

I've been pretty much busy with tons of stuff in the last day or so.

Just got back from the Job Centre where it's been bloody raining so I'm a bit downhearted.

Nothing that a penne bol won't cure later on this evening.

At the moment I'm having a listen to a compilation called "This Is Easy" containing some great light orchestral tunes such as "Bond Street"
by Burt Bacharach "Strange Report" by Geoff Love, "Up, Up and Away"
by The 5th Dimension, and even the Pearl and Dean song.

Some of these could be possible Blam Jam fodder.

Other than that, just a normal possbly empty day, set to last the whole week.

The Best Xmas Tune Of The Decade

Steve Lamaq on Fighting Talk this morning let off a rant about the increasing number of Xmas singles being released at this time of year in the "any other business" part of the show.

I can fully understand his views as everyone's desperately trying to be the next Slade or the Pogues and failing miserably whilst pissing people off when it comes to blantantly cashing in.

However on a completely different note, I've found what possibly has to be the best original Xmas tune this decade, possibly the last 25 years since
Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Christmas".

Louie Vega and the Elements of Life with "This Christmas" happens to be an impressive seasonal soulful house offering with vocals by Kenny Bobien and Sara Devine, and you could argue that it's not very full on.

But neither was Destiny's Child's "8 Days Of Christmas".

Overall that's definitely a rare example of a credible Christmas tune.

This evening I went for a meeting with the CSR music people and the guys there really must have lost their sense of sanity.

They've given me the green light to start presenting a show on Sunday evenings hopefully from December the 6th which will be called "Blam Jam".

It will be a bit more varied than my soul show on Smoke where I'll probably play a few tunes from artists such as Calvin Harris, Nostalgia 77, and some easy listening grooves from Syd Dale and Herb Alpert in addition to Incognito, The Sunburst Band, Earth Wind and Fire and so on.

It will take shape as it goes on.

The only problem is that Stephen Howie is switching slots on XStream East to Sundays as well, but it shouldn't be too bad as the shows are available to listen on demand.

Overall I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully it will give me more drive to attempt to do other things here in Canterbury.

"Smoke Screws It Up"

I've been promising this for such a long time, and it's finally here.

"The Smoke Radio Xmas Tape"

This compilation contains many embarassing and hopefully entertaining moments from the last four years and is probably the last thing I'll ever do for the station which is no surprise.

This contains many infamous moments including Steve Jones or Producer Kim knocking over a bottle of Ribena live on air, the many outbursts from
Mattie Bennett and "You Heard It Hear First", a live duet between
Oli P and NSD, and Phil Landers laying it straight about the Student Union.

Best of all (even if I say so myself) is a rundown of the many people I've worked with at the station, at 1 hour and 6 minutes.

Enjoy, and remember it's just a bit of fun with no major offence intended.

Ever Occurin'

Despite the first episode of Gavin and Stacey series 3 speeding by, I felt rather depressed throughout over the many awkward scenarios, from Gavin taking his new job too seriously, and from an epsiode point of view, the opportunity for Rob Brydon as Bryn to sing for the sake of it.

I could make the joke about Rob having little chart success, but he did record one of the Comic Relief singles earlier in the year.

The music used in between scenes on the other hand works really well with The Hooziers, and Jack Penate to name a few.

Whether I'll commit to the whole series I'm not so sure, as things are going down the slope and watching that show isn't exactly a form of escapism.

That's no way to say that it's overrated mind.

It has it's moments I guess.

Possible Change In Money Earner?

I've had a dreadful earache since this morning and getting back to Canterbury,
where I'm guaranteed to be shat on from a great height after returning from London.

Especially after what was an amazing night judging by the amount of very positive Facebook statuses emphasising further that I finished things on a high.

I'll find myself eventually, if I get the confidence I may start looking for some sort of retail job after Christmas as a short terms solution in order to hopefully find something in London that can earn money and I can live there in the long term.

The only way out of a downwards spiral, even if for just half an hour is a good laugh which was provided tonight by Never Mind The Buzzcocks which this week was hosted by David Walliams.

Bizarrely enough, I didn't find him annoying as I thought he would be, and there were some brilliant gags on offer with the one about Neil Tennant being a standout.

Next week Dermot O'Leary will be hosting and the week after that will be the much anticipated appearance of Frankie Boyle in the chair.

That should be stable in terms of my sanity.

Double Gold Triumph

So,

Last night was interesting.

The awards themselves went really well with Fearne Cotton and Scott Mills hosting with Greg James as the roving reporter amongst the crowds on both the tables and the balcony.

Smoke Radio managed to achieve their most successful results in a single awards ceremony by scooping to Golds for Best Marketing and Branding, and Best Outside Broadcast.

It was really good to see everyone again, but my night was half-spoiled by a stupid individual from LSR-FM in Leeds who thought it would be clever to bring an air horn with them.

I've said before that anyone who possesses one of those infamous inanimate objects automatically qualifies as a twat, and as soon as I heard it go off and spotted the individual at the table, I ended up having to leg it from my seat quickly and into the bar nearby, where the awards could be seen on the flat screen TVs.

The LSR lot were sat on the table in front of Smoke, so if I was downstairs with them, fuck knows what would have happened.

I'm really pleased that everyone else with me was understanding, and if I had thicker skin I would have told the security people what table it was as they did ask me very politely if they could be any help.

I'm fully certain that I may have agarophobia of some sort because of my reactions.

Or should that be "airgropohbia"?

Yes, I can joke about it.

The worst bit was when LSR actaully ended up winning best station although luckily I was in the bar at that point, and it shat on me even further with regards to the fact that Smoke Radio didn't even come close to either Bronze or Silver.

Regardless of their winnings, my thought's have been confirmed that LSR is text speak for LoSeR, with regards to that individual.

That aside, I'm very happy with our results, but if any past members of the station feel the need to gloat about us losing the Best Station category
since their departure from Smoke Radio, then you're really sad little people.

I had a chat to Chris about that issue yesterday and I won't repeat exactly
what he said but it seemed very bitter, and rather upsetting to me as I had
such a great time at the station towards the end.

It's not like me to give advice, but a possible constructive suggestion would be to establish a solid daytime entertainment show on the station, similar to Goodlass and Marshall, but with them in the knowledge that they're not bigger than the station.

That's where we went wrong when they actually started running Smoke Radio
as it came across to me as if they didn't want their thunder stolen from any of the newcomers.

And when the new arrivals ended up running the station, it still felt that way with the duo being promoted constantly.

And they were very good, really lively interaction and brilliant features, but it all got rather tired towards the end, and the then second years in charge had it in mind, that their daytime shows would take over their mantle as the flagship shows on the station.

It was an awkward time for me, as I was left to rot in the corner amongst other shows who really got too big for their boots and got very competitive which for me wasn't what the station was about.

I knew where I stood after that horrendous Marathon show where I overran,
and learnt that I was a music show, and that's where it ended.

Most of the daytime shows thought they deserved to be crowned
"Smoke Radio Royalty" and Lottie etc on taking over had the guts
to say to them "no you're not".

Not to their faces, but with regards to daytime programming we had to get real and more edgy in content and be more ourselves, saying what we really thought about the ever declining world around us.

If people want to hear schoolboy innuendos, or strung out quizzes,
they can listen to Chris Moyles and Scott Mills.

Student Radio should be fun, and never take itself too seriously by adapting corporate regimes and all that crap.

Even Dan Roberts who had the most solid daytime show, was happy to cut
his slot down to just one hour during our special broadcasts as he knew it was important to give others a chance no matter how good he was.

It's not fair for others who have been consistent throughout the year, to be shunned in the schedule for those who think they can drop out and come back for special events.

I know it's a contrived statement, but I kept at it all because I loved the music I played which more or less shaped the journey for things to come on a personal level.

And as best mates, the recently graduated lot couldn't be beaten,
which is why I asked Sami to co-host my final show as I really wanted my last show on the station to be a journey into my own "fantasy utopia" for just two hours with someone who I'd really enjoyed being with, within a week of other amazing and diverse shows.

To cap the year off with two golds at this year's Student Radio Awards, I think we should all be proud of ourselves.

And as mentioned before, I haven't left the station hoping it won't be as good as it was when I was there.

In fact I think it's a lot better, especially on the specialist side of things with show's such as Sam Foster's Folk Jam on Friday's where he's got a great voice alongside the music played, and third year film student James Rowney who along with Ben Simpson presents "Funky Soul Town" on Tuesday evenings.

It's great to see the "torch being carried on" but I reckon Ben and James's show fits into the station better than my show did as it's more irreverent with great production courtesy of Dumpster Punk's Matt and Silas.

The current comittee at the station have said really nice things to me, but they can manage without my presence, I just want Smoke to continue having good fun, and not fully prioritise on trying to win awards.

But after last night's acheivements, I hope it will give them more confidence
to get even better, which they will do.

As for the rest of the night it was really good to see everyone including, Dan, Spike, Fiz, Sophie Clamp, Rob, Jade, Potty, and Sam Taylor.

Not forgetting Keeley, Joe Lester, Michael Washington who it was great to see again, and Alice Bowring who made her way back from Bath to share in the celebrations.

I also bumped into Andrew Venning from CSR who just missed out to us on the Outside Broadcast award for their superb coverage of Lounge On The Farm.

We obviously just wanted to enjoy the night as it was, but Andrew said that things were looking good post audition, and I hope to meet up with him at the Dophin in Canterbury this weekend.

Pete Cooper also made an appearance along with long time co-presenter Dan Lawrence from Crush 1278 in Herts.

Best of all though, was the legend that is Joe Haddow showed up later on, who really has been very supportive and present throughout the year whilst doing really well for himself at the same time.

I decided to hot foot it at midnight so I could get the last tube to Stratford, and got a taxi to the Newham Hotel in Romford Road where I don't think I've even set foot in since I lived in East London.

Really nice to be back there.

Overall, I'm really ready to let go of my time at Westminster, although I'm not quite done yet as in the next couple of days of so, I'll commence compiling a selection of some of our senior moments from Smoke Radio that will be posted here in due course.

Further proof that it's all about having a great laugh.

Awating My Final Awards

Well it's finally arrived.

The 2009 Student Radio Awards take place tonight at the Indigo2 for a second year running and Smoke Radio is up for four categories.

I'm hopeful for tonight, as despite a shaky start at the beginning of the year, there's no denying that I had the most fun this year out of any of those spent
at the station.

It was great to make so many new friends out of the shows who joined in 08-09 and I'm hoping that their efforts will be rewarded in some way or other through the results in tonight's awards.

In the meantime, courtesy of Matt Deegan who hopefully will show up tonight,
here's a photo of what perfectly sums up the state of commercial music radio.

Fingers crossed for tonight, and whatever happens, it will be a great laugh.

Fuhrer Tunes

It really can't get any better, John and Edward getting booted from the X Factor last night, and now Katie Price has walked out of the jungle after getting fed up with being nominated for every trial.

Serves her fucking right for returning to the show.

I'm not sure if I'll start watching however as even without Katie, we see more of the trials, and less of the traumas between the contestants.

Last night I finally listened back to my last show on Smoke whilst sipping down
a large bottle of blue WKD.

It turned out to be not as embarrassing as I thought it was, even if I wound up Sami and a few others who contributed, but unlike last year with Goodlass and Marshall, it was all about me for just those two hours, and the rest of the week tended to overshadow it to an extend which was good as it gave the first years a chance to prove themselves, and that I didn't get too emotional over it all.

With all the listening back completed, I feel a lot more focused to start afresh, and hopefully by the Friday I should have compiled the Xmas tape which is likely to included the impromptu game of "Just A Minute" played on my last show which Sami had no idea about, or how the game worked.

Immediately before listening, I had a gander at a Disney cartoon which is unlikely to be screened on television, "Donald Duck In Nutzi Land" which was one of many propoganda cartoons, with Donald being made to serve as a soldier in the Nazi army.

It's things like this that make me feel very thankful for the internet, as the PC brigade would go spare at what is actually a more than valid piece of history, illustrating the propoganda in the Second World War.

After watching that and tweeting about it as per usual, I was brought to the attention of a few other examples from former Smoke Radio sports presenter, and Westminster History graduate Mark Grieves, including "Herr Meets Hare" with Bugs Bunny dealing with a leidherhosen equivalent of Elmer Fudd, and an even more questionable offering "Tokio Jokio" which lays into the Japanese.

Plenty of stereotypes are evident in the latter, even down to Carl Stalling's musical score where when it changes to Italy, an extract from "The Barber Of Seville" can be heard.

It's all very interesting to see how animation wasn't so innocent in those days.

Today I'm getting my hair cut ahead of tomorrow's awards, and I've got to sort out the cooking tonight again.

They'll probably be a bit more boozing in bed later on tonight as well.

The Twin Speed Exit

This is what I tweeted before Dannii Minogue eliminated John and Edward;

"Dannii's just seconds away from choosing to become a bigger c**t than she already is"

And this is what I tweeted after they were booted;

"180 degree turn. Dannii's gone high up in my estimation for the first time since she released "Love and Kisses"

To be fair, I didn't think Jedward's performance of "No Matter What" was too bad, but I'm still finding it hard to get into my head of why everyone started raving like mad about Joe McElderry's uninspiring Elton John cover.

The only problem is that Jedward, may possibly end up taking the same direction as Sam and Mark did after they left Pop Idol.

Bearing in mind there's plenty of lazy TV executives and producers who don't give a shit if the duo aren't quick witted.

They'll hire them...

Luckily I managed to avoid Susan Boyle and Mariah Carey's performances, but both acts managed to succesfully plug their latest LPs during the break.

Further proof that ITV really is strapped.

The rest of tonight will involve a few bottles of the sweet alcoholic stuff, and finally revisting my last ever Soul Show on Smoke Radio from back in May.

From what I can remember it was myself and Sami struggling to find a microphone that worked, spending a whole link talking about how we adored fish and chips in Brighton, and going through a 6 minute tangent about what happened in 2007 before playing my Sunburst Band album highlights.

It was pretty chaotic but a really nice end to things.

I'm hoping that the Awards on Tuesday bring successful results.

Careless With Their Wispas

The Autism Unit reunion in Canterbury went well where Hon managed to get just over 10 of the "good guys" who attended the unit showed up and we spent a bit of time chatting and catching up with each other in Cafe Rouge.

Quite a lot of it was spent talking with Mark about WWE which was and still is a very popular subject with many of those in attendance.

A few of them having started just after I left just under 10 years ago.

The plan was to attend the newly opened ten pin bowling alley in Canterbury but there were no free bookings until 5pm so we went into the Dane John Gardens.

It was good to see everyone again, and I told Honkit that we must do something similar in the new year.

As for tonight, it was George Michael/Wham! week on The X Factor, and I was certain John and Edward could pull a successful take off of George Michael as they're both wankers.

Their performance of "I'm Your Man" didn't really go down to well with regards to timing issues.

Personal highlights including Stacey as always with a nice rendition of "I Can't Make You Love Me", Danyl's unique take on "Carless Whisper" and Olly Murs doing pretty good on "Fastlove".

One thing I didn't see the appeal of was Joe McElderry's performance of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me".

I can't make comments on it being an Elton John song, as Stacey's performance was a Bonnie Raitt tune orginally, but best performance of the night?

Oh, fuck off.

Louis suggested that Joe had the potential of becoming a
"British Michael Buble".

No thanks, the Canadian one's bland enough.

The way the show's going, I'm expecting Stacey to go out next after the ridiculous dismissing of Jamie last week so it ends up being the biggest joke of a final with the possibility of Lloyd or Jedward being the front runners.

That's just three weeks away so not long until all this overdramtic nonsense is out of the way.

Someone ought to tell Peter Dixon that there's no need to shout.

It's just a fucking karaoke contest, not the next Rocky movie.

Animated Charity

Children in Need lived up to my expectations in terms of it being average with Alesha Dixon being wasted as a presenter getting sent out to interview various companies and fundraisers in the foyer of TVC.

The ever wooden Tess Daly was left in the studio with Terry and I was just hoping for someone to take the coathanger out of her mouth.

They made the right decision of screening the amazing video from Peter Kay early into the show although I'd imagine it got played multiple times afterwards like they always do when things get desperate.

A polished effort mind, and while the medley itself may have been a tiny bit cringey, you can't deny the amount of time taken to make that piece of genius and further proof of how much Peter is a huge fan of music.

It partly reminded me of this less polished equivalent from CBBC's Red Nose Day coverage in 1991 where a load of puppets were brought together for the song "Helping Hand".

Even Lizzie from Playdays can be seen near the end, as well as Cosmo and Dibs from You and Me.

Today I'm heading into Canterbury where Honkit has arranged a meet up for those who used to attend the Autism Unit at the Abbey when I was at secondary school.

I'm hoping it goes well although I'm also a bit nervous in case there are nervous confrontations.

It was a long time ago mind, and it shouldn't be too bad.

Passing The Pilot Stage?

I've just returned from the CSR studios at the UKC campus, where I recorded my 20 minute show demo.

I didn't think it was too bad although I was a bit too close to the mic to start with and I thought that the records played were rather too mellow and chilled.

I had set out a 30 minute playlist as I hadn't been given a specific length but I'll see what happens when the guys at the top have a listen and will hopefully get a response within a couple of weeks.

On the subject of demos, Chris and Pete on their show this morning saw Pete being humilated with some vintage audio from his past "radio career" with a show called "The Alternative" for fictitious station "Fantasy Radio".

Pete was ridiculed for his scripted approach, and the really bad jingles which I'm guessing were made using either scissors or a knife, chopping together "Fantasy" by Earth Wind and Fire with a word processor voiced "radio".

It's safe to say that neither boys have improved since, but they're still good for a laugh at that time of the morning.

On a low note I go a call from the Marlowe, telling me that Stephen K Amos has pulled his performance for this coming Thursday, which I'm disappointed about, but have managed to get a refund.

I'll take a more relaxed route for the rest of today.

Auditioning From A High Hill

Early start this morning, as at 10am I've been asked in to CSR to record my presenting demo.

I've compiled a 20-30 minute playlist and hopefully the day should go well.

I may actually include a bit of Imogen Heap in there, with the Jason Derulo tune becoming very popular, and I am starting to like which is a bit worrying.

Again, just don't subject it to me like bloody insanity.

Children In Need later this evening, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to cope with their tea party, but with Alesha Dixon hosting, she'll be the flower growing out the huge pile of manure.

And that's just Terry Wogan...

Last night's concert was quite something though.

The Ideal Fundraiser

In early 2000 Gary Barlow was dropped by his record label after unsuccessful sales of his album "12 Months and 11 Days", which Woolworths went as far as refusing to stock.

10 years later, that same man has reformed the band who brought him to public notoriety, raised millions by climbing Kilimanjaro and tonight has brought the finest performers and musicians together for an amazing concert in aid of Children In Need.

Woolworths on the other hand ended up having a shorter shelf life of its own.

Not even the incessant yodelling of Leona Lewis, the bad miming from Cheryl Cole, or the ugly face of Lord Nobber's younger brother could ruin an amazing set of performances from Robbie Williams, Paolo Nutini, Dizzee Rascal and Moira Stuart, Muse, Annie Lennox and an appearance from Sir Terry Wogan himself.

Luckily we were spared from a full rendition of the Floral Dance.

Chris Moyles proved more than competent a host, not bigging his part up but looking a lot more confident than he normally does on the goggle box.

Best of all was the surprise duet with Lily Allen and Take That blending in "Who'd Have Known" with "Shine".

I knew it was coming when the song started playing in a lower key.

Bloody brilliant.

And Peter Kay quoting lyrics by Blue Pearl was another highlight, where his much anticipated video tomorrow night may be a sign of Terry etc's proceedings peaking too soon.

Whatever happens, tonight managed to overshadow what tomorrow has to offer, judging by the line up of dancing newsreaders which proves the hyprocrisy of the slogan "Do Something Different".

Gary Barlow more or less had the right idea and I hope this is only the beginning of the possibilty of it becoming an annual event.

Dippy Dappy

Buzzcocks was a good laugh last night with the welcome return of Dappy from N-Dubz for all the wrong reasons.

It's more than evident that he isn't from this planet with embarrassing but hilarious moments such as mistaking Martha Wainwright for Cerys Matthews, and prompting Phill Jupitus to walk out after making to many fat jokes.

Next week sees David Walliams hosting and Holly Clarke happened to be in the audience for that show a few weeks ago.

From what I've heard the Little Britain star gets a lot of deserved stick.

They really should put the unedited shows onto iPlayer or something similar as it would be a great opportunity to show the really funny bits that can't get on televsion and even more so now, due to the BBC's over-sensitive censorship regimes if this article from Humpty Lawson is anything to go by.

Media Guardian Article

I've done really well so far in avoiding the current series of Celebrity,
I mean the Katie Price Show.

Someone else who isn't too sure about the series is the definitive King Of The Jungle Tony Blackburn.
His comments about too much time being spent on the trials are nailed,
and if I'm being honest they're my least favourite part of the show.

Especially this infamous trial from the last series.

Tonight television wise sees something I've been looking forward to
for a while, Children In Need Rocks The Royal Albert Hall.

Chris Moyles will be introducing an impressive line up of artists including
Take That, Lily Allen, Muse, Dizzee Rascal, Cheryl Cole, Robbie Williams,
and Leona Lewis.

Well I suppose it can't be 100% perfect.

It should be a really enjoyable show, and hopefully proof that the BBC can get something right when it comes to light entertainment.

Rainy Days And Wednesdays

I've just sat through as much as I can bear of ITV1's
Carpenters Karaoke Night.

The band who if Tony Blackburn didn't play within any of his radio shows,
then something is definitely wrong with the world.

Everything about it represented the syrup dressed as entertainment dominating our television screens and as much as I adore the woman,
Amanda Holden can't present.

She may be able to act, but she fails to convincingly play the role of
a television host.

Worst of all was the fact that Richard Carpenter himself actually endorsed the defecations of his work from the artists performing.

Although in all fairness that's not the first time such a thing has happened, as Earth Wind and Fire's Maurice White did play a big part in the awful "Interpretations" tribute album.

It was just embarrassing to see Richard try to convicingly speak highly of artists such as the Noisettes who I doubt he'd even heard of before making the programme.

If they were to do an EWF tribute programme, I'd fear the worst as they'd probably get some act like JLS on there, failing to hit the high notes on "September" or whatever they would perform.

Having said that, Aston and co's current single is growing on me.

I'm currently having a lie down whilst listening to an album that arrived on my doorstep this morning, and another old one at that "Physical Therapy" by Physical Therapy from 1992.

If anyone's into the Rippingtons or Spyro Gyra from that time period, then this definitely ticks the right boxes and whilst it may not be timeless, I can't give a bollocks.

I've recently managed to grab hold of a lot of Tom Scott and Dave Valentin from the GRP label around the same time which I'm really looking forward to, so in the unlikely situation of me hosting a candlelit dinner, I'm definitely covered music wise.

Boyle Takes On Buzzcocks

Pretty empty day so far.

Tonight's Buzzcocks sees Martin Freeman in the presenters chair and Charlie Brooker guesting as one of the panellists.

Many are questioning as to whether the Guardian columnist is selling out by appearing on every other TV show but at least it shows that he has a sense of humour to counteract his vile persona.

According to Phill Jupitus on Twitter, last night they recorded what will probably be the funniest show of the series with Frankie Boyle as the host,
and Richard Herring as one of the panellists.

That would be like attending a live concert with Bluey and Leroy Burgess sharing the same stage.

As for the rest of tonight, I plan to sort out a chicken stew although I stumped whether to have "la riz" or "parsta" with it.

If I end up making it, hopefully they'll be enough to be reheated tomorrow.

Chilly Nov

Are we in mid-November already? Goodness.

It's certainly the case temperature wise, as my bedroom is freezing but I'm certain I'll manage
Probably a case of wearing twice as many extra layers.

Today sees the final edition of The Lunch Bunch on Wireless Radio, so best of luck to them and I hope they feel the same way I did around this time last year, when possibly the hardest practical University assignment
was done with.

Listening to it is like football, as whenever a mic gets switched on too late or an audio package fails, I end up going "Oooooh!"
Especially when Joe bless him, got Aston Merrygold from JLS's name wrong
calling him Aston Martin.

I chatted to Chris last week and he said he would more than happily undergo
G Radio again as there was so much he wanted to improve on.

I would not do anything like that again for the life of me as it took up 5 days of my week non-stop and could be really stressful.

Then again, I suppose a real job in radio would be more of the same,
but then again I would most likely be working within an established format
or show regime.

Elsewhere, I'm continuing my rummage of May of this year and I'm onto the Tuesday where Impey and The Brain made their bow, and Sami later appeared
on my own final show where things were even more chaotic.

I'm saving that show for Sunday however, partly because Groove East with Stephen's on tonight and you can only have so much soul in one day.

Having said that, I may have a listen to one of my Leroy Burgess compilations later this evening, who again I will go as far as saying that he's better
than Michael Jackson.

Such a great career spanning nearly 40 years and so little recognition.

It's not worth complaining though, as I've tons of albums and compliations to keep me occupied over the next few months.

The Master Of Jingles Remembered

A rather sad start to today, as one of the finest in the world of radio jingles has passed away.

Tom Merriman, founder of TM Productions and who wrote the first radio jingle for the prolific KLIF in Dallas, was one of the masters and produced some of the finest jingle packages for stations in the US and around the world.

It would be more than apt to post some of his finest starting off with one of my favourites, co-produced by TM and Muff Murfin in the UK.

Capital Radio "Music Power" 1987 - TM/Standard Sound

If any of the beds near the end sound familiar, then it's possibly because UK composer Muff Murfin also wrote the score for the original series of Gladiators.

Northsound Radio 1986 Composite - TM Productions

Chiltern Radio 1987 - TM Productions

My personal favourite. An amazing resing of the "Full Force" package, along with a few others.

The above examples prove that Tom could add something to jingles that no one else seems to be bothered with in the present day:

Class.

And Tom's work has to be one of the only things that I can rightly describe as world class.

As for the rest of today, I plan to make a start re-living this year's Summer Send Off Broadcast for Smoke back in May leading up to what was my last ever show which I haven't listened back to since transmission.

I really hope that on listening back, it was even more fun than it was when I was there as everyone seemed to be getting on really well and no show thought they were bigger than everyone else.

It probably will be different actually as I don't have as much drink at hand, but that aside it will be quite a laugh.

With that out of the way after next week, I'll finally be able to let go and have the confidence to start searching elsewhere for possible opportunities.


RIP Tom Merriman - 1924-2009

"Nothing Really Matters"

I unintentionally fell asleep halfway through tonight's Doctor Who, waking up near the end where it seemed I had missed a rather good finale.

Hopefully that won't be the case for the Christmas special which sees a return appearance for Catherine Tate, Bernard Cribbins, and John Sim as The Master.

As for tonight's X Factor, until tonight I didn't think anyone could make Bohemian Rhapsody any worse after Ben Elton's musical, especially as they were miming their way through the song.

Fair play to Brian and Roger for making an appearance towards the end,
proving that they're the real pros although why they always seem to take a backseat from singing is anyone's guess.

Especially as Roger could always nail the Gallileos.

You could say that tonight's elimination was a deserved revenge for Simon,
but to keep Lloyd Daniels in the competition instead of Jamie is ridiculous.

However on a positive note, it went to show that with auditions like Jamie's,
it proved that the idea of an audience at the auditions really did work well
to the point of Simon Cowell getting caught on camera singing to "Sex On Fire".

I'll probably give next week's show a miss as the guests are Mariah Carey and Susan Boyle.

If I want to see two trouts, I can visit an aquarium.

If you haven't heard Susan's single release of "Waaahld Horses", make sure you have a bucket with you on watching next week's show.

Unlike in my case where I'm more than certain that my television will be switched off until 8:30pm.

"I've Paid My Dues"

Whilst tonight's SCD proved that 3 is a crowd, the X Factor met expectations by having Brian and Roger from Queen offering masterclasses to the contestants and I thought the majority of the performances were pretty good.

I've started warming to Danyl again which goes to show that his haircut has probably coincided with a loose belt.

Stacey gave a superb rendition of "Who Wants To Live Forever", Joe McElderry nailed "Somebody To Love" and John and Edward won the audience over with their blending of "Under Pressure" with "Ice Ice Baby".

When the boys made their entrance jumping through the large sheet of paper, it instantly reminded me of The Sister Brothers from around this time 20 years ago.

The overall highlight though, was the screening of the Coca Cola "Holidays Are Coming" ad which means that the run up to Christmas has "officially" begun.

I'll probably have a good lie down tonight, in between plenty more rummaging taking place tomorrow.

"Mud On Your Face, You Big Disgrace"

There's no better day to be safe inside, with it pissing it down outside.

Still up to rummaging up to the completion of my "biog" where I've almost finished watching the last series of Britain's Got Talent.
I'm actually going through that before listening back to the final week of Smoke Radio that year as I don't want my revisiting to be too anti-climatic.

As for tonight Mum and Dad are out having dinner at a friend's house over the road so I plan to enjoy a spag bol in front of tonight's X Factor where I believe the legends that are Brian May and Roger Taylor are set to make an appearance mentoring the contestants.

Or possibly torching Jedward for their performance of "We Will Rock You"
two weeks ago.

And if the veterans don't make an appearance this weekend then not for the first time will I look really stupid.

One veteran who won't be appearing on television this evening is Bruce Forsyth due to being comedown with flu preventing him from hosting tonight's Strictly Come Dancing.

I doubt they'll be digging up Roy Castle who stood in for Bruce when it happened to him during The Generation Game, but thankfully
John Barrowman's in France so that rules him out.

To be honest I doubt he can even be trusted to host a Saturday night show after "Tonight's The Night".

If anyone's a worthy replacement, then it's Terry Wogan hands down,
and if him and Alesha do a good job on Children In Need on Friday, then that's further proof that they should takeover from Bruce and Tess as that's what really needed to give the show a kick up the backside.

What started off as an inspiration from Strictly Ballroom has now turned into Groundhog Day.

Laughter And Lash Outs

Today certainly lived up to expectations as I missed the train to Ashford due to the ticket machine being buggered and no one at the ticket booth at Canterbury West station which meant I arrived at the AS social group later than usual.

I've had enough train journeys for one week and until the 24th of this month I'm staying put in Canters.

I really hope I move to London within the next 12 months or find the right sort of job in order to do so.

There's only so many times I can make the journey to and from the city and considering the only people I really speak to in person live there, it would make an awful lot of sense.

Having said that, you've got to laugh in order to carry on and tonight's HIGNFY managed to cover that.

Jack Dee was the host this week with Marcus Brigstocke as one of the panellists who got a deserved humilation through a clip on his appearance on Hole In The Wall last year.

You'd have thought he'd known better although I'm guessing he was trying to please the fans of his CBBC series "Sorry I've Got No Head".

Another CBBC escapee was a guest on the News Quiz on Radio 4 this evening, that being Holly Walsh, who only 12 months ago was presenting with a puppet brain in between shows.

Back to HIGNFY and another highlight was a clip of Sir Alan Sugar giving his thoughts on the recession.

I won't give it away but it's very likely it will end up in my audio comedy compilation at the end of the year.

I really do need a good laugh, especially when seeing other people's Facebook photos and statuses that make me want to beat them to death.
I'm not mentioning any names but it's better that I write such stuff down rather than not being able to sleep over it.

It may not be good career wise, but I really need a break from it all, at least until after Christmas.

"Shut The Duck Up!"

Two examples of musical bliss from a better age of children's television make up the "content" of this post from BFT in 1992 hosted by Lottie Pettinger and yours truly. (leave it!)

The first clip involves a feature called "Tack Alert" (1.33) introduced by not really a musical sting, but anyone who's spoken to me at length will know that it's music to my ears at least.
Although nowadays that would be more likely to be preceded by a health and safety warning. That's how crazy things have changed in 17 years.

The second extract involves Philippa reading the birthday cards accompanied
by a very well chosen bed in the background if you turn your speakers up.

Oddly enough despite being a huge fan, I don't actually own the instrumental version of that song myself which really is bizarre.

Although in all fairness I didn't really develop that much of an obsession with the song as I did for one of their later tunes.

It's the content of those video clips that more or less shaped my own shows on Smoke or to be more honest, became a pale imitation but the one subject that tends to come up in conversation with others is that there's nothing of a similar nature on television anymore.

Even "Tack Alert" is better than anything Sam and Mark could come up with
I tell you.

An Empty Reunion?

The turnout for last night's "Gradiverseray" was as disappointing as the line up for this year's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

It ended up just being four of us, Pippa and Holly who arranged the do, and myself and Martin Perret who ironically graduated this year.
Martin having to re-do his final year in the Photographic Science module.

The reason for the moderate turnout was probably because fellow CMP alumni Kate Richardson was performing in Shoreditch and many others tagged along.

I'd definitely want to see her perform live sometime in the future.

It was an enjoyable evening where we got to find out what everyone had been doing, with Martin's current whereabouts being the most interesting as he's now enrolled at a catering college where they even have half term and academic holidays!

That's a weird return to form after University but it sounds very productive.

I got a few photos from last night which can be seen below;



"Frances and Gerrard" (In joke for Saturday morning obsessives)



Pippa and Holly



Martin in ponder mode (or Ponderland come to think of it).

We also had a surprise visit from a CMP student in Pippa and Holly's year who wasn't as present on campus due to living in South London but was interested in our stories of our Undercroft and Area antics.

Martin nailed it spot on when saying that the Undercroft had been getting worse year after year, and if it wasn't for Phil Harris we wouldn't have had any record breaking crowds at all in our final year.

We left at around 10:15pm and made our way to Tottenham Court Road station via the flamboyantly decorated Caranaby Street.

After staying over in Argyle Street, I made my way back to Canterbury this morning where I have been mainly burning DVD-Rs and creating more spare storage.

I've come to the conclusion that after Christmas I'm going to have to buy myself another external hard drive, again with bigger storage space.

I hope it's not too long until a portable terrabyte hard drive is invented which you don't have to plug into the mains.

The Helium Sister

It really is back to reality with a bump, in terms of the fact that nothing really interesting has happened worth blogging about.

That hasn't already been blogged before of course, as I've spent the day re-viewing episodes of the last series of Britain's Got Talent.
Even now, I'll stay true to my words that it defecates all over the X Factor, although despite Amanda Holden's exploits, she's more worthy of a crush than Dannii or Cheryl.

On that subject Dannii's planning a musical comeback of her own, and is hoping that by the 2010 series series she'll be able to enjoy the same sort of success as Cheryl Cole did this year.

Personally, nothing can beat this in terms of Dannii's musical career.

One of the songs that reminds me of moving from London to Canterbury
and I can still taste the french fries.

On a similar note, I'm heading back to London tonight for Holly's "Gradiversary" party at the Red Lion in Central London.

It will be good to see a few more old faces, including one or two who I saw at the "Hollyween" do a couple of weeks ago.

I'm just looking forward to getting it done with so I can have a bit of a lie back ahead of the Student Radio Awards on the 24th of this month.

An Ideal Recovery?

You've probably all heard this, but courtesy of Unoffical Mills here's
Reggie Yates making a slip of the tongue on Radio 1's Chart Show last Sunday.

Personally I'd see it more as an unintentional advertisement for Radio 1
as a whole if you take the literal meaning into account.

Having said that, I think the Chart's more solid a show with just him on his own.

And as for the "19 years" claim, to be fair he was a child actor for a long time before presenting including on the short lived CBBC drama "Agent Z and The Penguin From Mars".

Not to mention his stint on the Disney Club where he was known as "Robbie" and appeared alongside Paul "Des" Ballard who I believe is now on CBBC's Sportsround.

On a slightly more poignant note the idea of depature's starting to kick in as I'm listening to some very early Leroy Burgess from when he was in little known 70s soul act Black Ivory and their debut album from 1972.

To be more specific it's the album opener "It's Time To Say Goodbye"
that's almost had me going but I'll pull through.

It maybe because I've just had a look through at the photos from yesterday that I've uploaded onto Facebook whilst the song was playing, but don't worry,
it certainly isn't that dreadful song by Richard Whitely and Carol Vorderman.

I mean Andreas Bocelli and Sarah Brightman.

I'm seeing Pippa and Holly tomorrow for "Gradiversary" in Central so the party's not quite over, and as for tonight things are good radiowise as Sarah's back with the Get Up on X Stream East, followed by Stephen with a new name for his show "Groove East".

Basically the boss at the station wasn't happy about Grooveline's return to Blast 1386 despite being different structure wise to X Stream but apart from the name it's business as usual.

Elsewhere I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue is back next week with Jack Dee hosting throughout the new series.
One of the guests will be David Mitchell who I've never heard on the show before which should be superb.

Who says things are looking bleak?

"The World Comes Alive"

What was a tiring but very rewarding and enjoyable day started off pretty early with Chris and Pete's one off Monday breakfast show on Hayes FM where they were standing in for Libby.

One of the highlights was when the pair got into a genuinely heated argument about John and Edward being saved on the X Factor and Simon Cowell turning
into Simon Coward.

Pete seemed to take the idea of the show being a singing contest very seriously and was possibly amongst the many people wanting to boycott the show after Sundays "fiasco".
On the other hand, I really don't think Lucie Jones is worthy of a "good mornin" which the taller half of the team uttered on the show.

The boys were the ideal warm up for my journey to London where myself and my parents got the train and tube to the Barbican where after I got my gown I was hassled into queuing for my official photo which Mum and Dad wanted.

Luckily I was fast-tracked as time was short up to the ceremony and I happened to see a few familiar faces including film student Dave Baker, Rob Furnell from CMP, and radio students Denis, Sami and Sirin who were all looking amazing.

The cermony itself started shortly after where Matthew and Dave Sharp were present with the rest of the academic staff including Maria Way and
Geoffrey Davies.
Unsuprisingly I didn't see face to face with the latter two.

One individual who I had no idea was amongst the academic staff present was the first artist I played on Soul Expression, that being Atar Shafighian.

I was very surprised but he does know Commercial Music lecturer Mykaell Riley really well, and is a very talented musician who's knowledgable on many areas of music.

The ceremony itself went well and quite a lot of the students got a great reception when walking on stage to shake hands with the Dean of the University.

Them being Sam Taylor who got a big cheer, film student Jonathan Wei Dickinson or Jonny Wei as everyone knows him, and Maz Lopez who probably got the highest pitched reaction.

When I went on stage it completely flashed by me in seconds even though the announcer got my name wrong. However it didn't phase me over enough to stop me from cheering when Sirin went on stage as she was one of only two people present who got a first.

I was first on stage from the radio lot although Dave Baldwin was meant to be first to go up but he was absent.
Rather surprisingly his girlfriend Lisa Topping was sat behind me and it was brilliant to see her again.

Other firsts included Richard Manders from Film and TV who was one quarter of the Mjolnir team, Dean Threadgold from the same course who got his head shaved on St Patrick's Day, and TV student James Smith who was the technical whizz behind the Matt and Rupert Show on Smoke Radio, and now works as a technical assistant for Westminster's TV department.

Straight after the ceremony we headed to the fountain for a few photos and here they are;



Stood alongside Mum and Dad.



The BAMS Radio Class of '09



The obligatory shot of Sami and Blammy



Stood with TV students Matt and Rupert

It was lovely to meet each other's partners and family members although I only really spoke to Sami's where I met her partner Danielle and her parents who were superb, even if her stepdad is a Manchester United fan.

It gave me a chance to gloat, but we got on well and I loved how he referred
to Sam's first radio station she presented at, as "2-1-0" and not "2-Ten FM".

That's showing my age.

Mum and Dad finally got to meet Matthew Linfoot in person where he revealed that he hadn't completed his PhD on the history of BBC Local Radio and was being forced to work on it promptly.
I imagine he's been working on that since I started at Westminster as he once had to take a two week break from teaching during the Music Radio module.

My parents also met Dave Sharp who I wanted them to see face to face as Dave also teaches at Christ Church University College on the FRTV course.

Also present was Caroline's twin sister Suzie who also graduated last week, Charlotte Bracey's partner Meg who I've met many times, and one of our radio alumni James Poulter was present supporting his wife to be Holly from the Film and TV course.

I didn't speak to them however although hopefully their knot tieing will be a success.

One guest I did have a chat with was Alice Robertson supporting Sam Taylor and I'll look forward to seeing them both at this year's Student Radio Awards.

We left at around 5pm and made our way to Great Titchfield Street, first of all for a few drinks at the Crown and Sceptre.

Following that was a very filling meal at Sergios where I was beginning to feel rather knackered despite the garlic pizza bread, and the spag bol being amazing.
The restuarant had been frequented by a few famous visitors judging by the photos, which included Lulu, Sharon Osborne and Peter Andre.

I made my way over to Bethnal Green to check in at the City View hotel and whilst the bed was nice, I was so bored as the TV with the Sky Digital box was buggered.

It didn't deter me from heading back into Central and Leiecester Square where I got a call from Chris telling me to head over to Covent Garden where he was present along with late arrivals Steven, Danielle Farthing, and the one and only Tudor.

When everyone else arrived we made our way to the Roadhouse club where we went for Chris's 21st brithday in January but it was less rammed than last time.

We were shortly joined by Sarah Smith, Charlotte Bracey, Liam Nolan, and Phil Landers and Sean Curran.

It was great to see Sean again as he's now moved into London permantley and taken over the job that housemate Kyri had during his defferal from University.

Sean on the other hand had broke his leg so he was on crutches but it didn't stop him from enjoying the proceedings.

I quite quite a lengthy chat with many people about music where we all agreed that Paolo Nutini's new album is superb. Especially "Pencil Full Of Lead" which really stands out for the right reasons.

Chris and Steven on the other hand got into a huge argument when Steven called Chris a "hypocrite" for slating Victoria Beckham's solo album, but liking Cheryl Cole's new LP.
Which I thought was a bit of a ridiculous argument as always just because they're both married to footballers.

I still need to listen to Cheryl's album mind, although "Out Of Your Mind" from Posh and the Truesteppers will definitely go into my top 20 tunes of the decade.

I on the other hand referred to a Tweet I made a couple of days ago suggesting the JLS were wasted.
They could have been the new Pasadenas or Damage, but instead they decided to become the new Blue.

Having said that at least they're performing original material and it's catchy to an extent.

However what resulted that evening was a lot worse than JLS, Cheryl Cole, and even Leona Lewis as Rock-E-Oke was taking place and Denis went on stage to perform a brilliant rendition of "Honky Tonk Women".

That as followed by something far worse, as I went on stage to perform "Long Train Running" by the Doobie Brothers and tried to adlib to disastrous results, with the chorus of "Happy" by Leona Lewis, and "Barely Breaking Even" by Leroy Burgess as it's still stuck in my head.

If anyone likes the Duck Sauce record currently around, do check out the link at the bottom of the previous blog post.

Having said that, Bobby and Steve have done their own remix of "Barely Breaking Even" which came out last year which can be found here.

It's not bad, but nothing can beat the synths and percussion of the orginal.

As for the Doobie Brothers song, it would have made more sense to include the lyrics from the similar sounding "Trampled Underfoot" by Led Zeppelin.

Back to the Roadhouse, and here's some more photos from there;



Chris, Den, and Tudor



Stood with the Irish lads Denis and one legged Sean.



In my element on Rock-E-Oke



The grope, I mean group shot.

I headed back to Bethnal Green at 11:40pm so I could get the last tube, but it wasn't without the usual antisocial pricks who clambered onto the train, before I could get off and got lippy with me about it.

I wasn't going to let it spoil the night as I kept in mind that they were showing me for what they were; utter twats.

I got back to East London safely and got a good lie down, whilst Chris, Phil, Stewart etc went over to a strip club in Soho.
If I wasn't so concious about getting back to my hotel safely, I would have gone with them but it's never too late.

Overall it was an amazing day and good to see everyone again dressed really nicely.
We'll definitely remain close way beyond graduation, regardless of long distances.

"Every Single Weekend, I Never Know Where The Money Goes"

You know that good things are happening when you've got a song stuck in your head.

Quite a lot in my case most of which are very relevant, with the Omega Tribe one from earlier, a Facebook status which turned into a rendition of "Enjoy Yourself" by The Specials, and this gem from one of the many ventures of the king of key changes, Leroy Burgess.

And I don't mean Michael Jackson key changes of basically suggesting
"I can sing this song over the whole scale".

And unlike Michael Jackson, he can still produce stuff that's just as good as it was in the 80s if "Survivin" with The Sunburst Band is anything to go by.

Although that would have been better written in the past tense.

I've been going through quite a lot of his stuff recently, and this tune's even more catchier.

"Barely Breaking Even" by The Universal Robot Band more or less sums up how things are, or how I'll be living should I finally find employment and whilst things may not be good, why moan about it when you can set it to a catchy beat with great percussion and synths?

The synth guitar riff is very identical to Daft Punk and could very easily be adapted by the band themselves.

If anyone's wondering what the hell I'm singing tomorrow evening,
that's your answer in advance.

Even if the next few months are indeed rubbish, there will always be undiscovered musical gems, regardless how old they are.

Graduation Motivation

It was a long time coming but Chelsea managed to defeat the red bastards this afternoon.

Chelsea won 1-0 after a goal from John Terry in the 76th minute but it was rather anti-climatic in all honesty.

At least the end result's a tiny bit of extra drive for tomorrow.

As for tonight to paraphrase something I wrote on Twitter earlier this week,
I've noticed that John Barrowman's one of the contestants on Vernon Kay's
All Star Family Fortunes tonight, followed by John and Edward hoping to be
saved for another week on The X Factor.

I've now realised that there's no need to subscribe to a porn channel to see four c**ts in one evening as ITV1 have it covered.

I'll take it easy tonight with further rummaging ahead of tomorrow and further proof that nothing seems to be going wrong this year.

That's until the drinks start flowing....

Minor Time Changes

Following a slight confusion with the amount of time between graduation and our booze up, I've rescheduled the booking at Sergio's to 6pm so we won't have any problems having to rush the champagne reception at the graduation.

If we arrive early anyway, not to worry as the Crown and Sceptre pub is opposite and we can possibly have a few drinks in there.

As for this afternoon it's the Chelsea Vs Manchester United match which I won't actually be seeing but will keep up to date via the goalflashes on the BBC website.
Here's hoping we can finally knock the red bastards out for once in person.

I'm not feeling nervous at all as I write but in less than 24 hours time I'm certain that I'll be bricking it.

It will be good to see everyone though, especially Sirin who I haven't seen for almost a year, and was one of the few people out of us radio lot who got a first, and is actually willing to celebrate.

And if Chelsea come up trumps this afternoon, I'll have a bigger reason for celebrating.

Did I Leave Uni At The Right Time?

Really I should have let go, but one issue over University has got me raging.

Rather than rant about it myself, here's an opinion from second year radio student Matt Garforth on his blog.

I will offer my take on it and can sum it up in one sentence.

The higher managerial staff of the University of Westminster are cunts.

They may as well abandon the SU elections if they're just going to put their own people in to oversee SU operations rendering the idea of a students union pointless.

That's more or less saying that they don't think the officers that us students elected are good enough to take on the jobs we voted them for.

If you want to lose future students or take away the most important parts that help it work, such as the sports teams, the SU bars, and the Smoke media then you're bloody well going the right way about it.

I feel sorry for Matt as the University aren't providing him with the money for the amount of work he puts onto the Smoke Radio website which I'd definitely say is a lot more effort than they've fucking done for the University this year.

Anyway that's my two cents and I'll let those still attending fight the cause on their own as I wouldn't want to get too bobbed down.

But to finish with, I know it's not original or clever but here's the perfect song that sums the issue up; "Profit" by The Omega Tribe

Taking The X

For the first time in a month, I watched the live Saturday night edition of
The X Factor and it wasn't too bad a show.

I managed to live up to my comparison of being Simon Cowell as I actually agreed with most of his views such as Stacey Solomon's "lazy" song choice of
"Son Of A Preacher Man", and showing Louis for the hypocrite he is when he criticised Olly Murs rendition of "Twist And Shout" as featured in one of my favourite films "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

Apparently Paul McCartney was very pissed off when they added horns to the song in the film, which was also implemented in tonight's performance.

Danyl's performance was along the lines of "Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be Prince" and he didn't half choose his worst song and all.

Utter tosh, although he's less cocky than before.

I also rather liked John and Edward's performance of "Ghostbusters" not least because they actually nailed the yeah yeah's halfway through.

Whether I'll watch tomorrow's show is another thing, although I'll definitely be watching the last half hour or so to see who gets eliminated.
I just want to avoid the the High School Musical esque group performance
at the start.

Before tonight's show I caught a bit of Strictly where the utter stunt that is Rod Stewart managed to ruin the Four Tops "Same Old Song".
That's another one to add the list of songs he's "c*ntified" including
"Tom Traubert's Blues", and "Have I Told You Lately".

I happened to be having one of my dad's home made pizzas in the front room whilst watching it, and tomorrow instead of a normal Sunday lunch he's preparing a lasagne for the three of us.

Dad does realise that we'll be going to Segio's on Monday after graduation, and even I think that he's giving us a bit of an Italian overload.

Then again I'd rather that than a bloody stir fry overload.

The Soulful Grad Warm Up

On arrival in Camden it was pretty drizzly so to pass time before Stephen showed up, I went into a nearby record shop where they had stacks of vintage soul LPs.

I didn't actually buy any despite the really cheap prices, but I got a few photos of some of the sleeves;



Tony Blackburn's favourite record, Phyllis Hyman
and "You Know How To Love Me"



A solo offering from Philip Bailey. I had no idea that he
did further work with Phil Collins.



A record that needs no introduction.



Junior's 1992 cover of the Dionne Warwick tune.



No, never heard of this band....

By the time I came out it was absolutely showering it down, so I went straight into the Oxford Arms pub where Stephen arrived shortly after.

By 8:15 we made our way down to the Jazz Cafe where they've made a few changes inside since my last visit including the addition of curtains at the back of the stage, probably to soften the acoustics, and two video screens advertising forthcoming events at sister venues.

They've also removed the S.T.F.U sign, but I'm hoping that the rule will stay in place.

The warm up act spinning the discs played quite a few mainstream tracks including Mylo's "Drop The Pressure" and the current one from Duck Sauce that's been doing the rounds.

The latter track's probably going to become the signature track of "This Is Wireless" from a personal point of view, in the same way that Hard-Fi symbolise "iSmoke", and Scouting For Girls remind me of "Breathe London".

I'm not sure if there's one track that can pinpoint G Radio, probably
"The Promise" by Girls Aloud.

The Tortured Soul trio made their stage entrance at around 9:30pm and I had no idea that they were a white band.

Even more distinctive was that the lead vocalist was also the drummer, and a very good one at that although if you have a look at this, you'll be thinking "Dominic Byrne's put on the pounds".

That aside, the gig was better than I expected it to be with all the songs being dance tunes and they kept going throughout for just over an hour, followed by an encore.

Most of the tracks from their latest album were played, although I was rather gutted that they didn't included "Don't Hold Me Down" in their set which was definitely my favourite tune off the "Introducing" album in 2006.

It didn't spoil what was an amazing performance.

Straight after that was a DJ set from the Strictly Vinyl Sessions where they played some not half decent disco tunes such as "Casanova" by Coffee, "Encore" by Cheryl Lynn and "I Found Lovin" by The Fatback Band which got everyone shufflinng in rows across the dancefloor.

I headed back after midnight to the Montana Excel hotel in Argyle Street and thought it was so pleasant, I've booked myself in there again for after "Gradiversary" on Wednesday.

As for Monday, I'm staying in an even cheaper hotel in Bethnal Green,
which I'm hoping won't be too much of a struggle to get to.
Then again, if I could get there by accident after the SRA Nominations, it should be a doddle.

Beyond "Tortured"

Everything's sorted for tonight with the tickets for the Jazz Cafe, and my hotel reservation number printed out.

It would have been quicker if I had actually removed the blue sticky tape from the bottom of the ink cartridges which made me look really stupid, after getting in a rage for no good reason.
But although we've got the printer downstairs working, I still want my own one for Christmas.

When I brought the carts in Staples, I was served by a fella named Michael who I haven't seen for years and was probably the only real friend I had when at the Abbey School.

During registration all we seemed to talk about were the goings on from Smackdown that weekend, or possibly a pay-per-view wrestling event which was ideal escapism from the petty behaviour of the others.

Having said that, quite a lot of people at the Abbey loved the entertainment of the WWF as it was then.

On that note I was revisiting this year's Wrestlemania event on DVD-R last night, only this time in full vision after this now "legendary" incident at the Becmead Boys' house on the night itself.

If they ever return to the O2 in 2010 then I'm definitely going, especially as the British audiences behave slightly different from the ones in the US, by yelling "who are ya?!, who are ya!" if anyone they don't like or know enters the ring.

I'd expect similar chants, or "Clear Off To Cambridge" will be in store for Monday's graduation booze up, although I really hope that no one does anything stupid resulting in a "holy shit!" chant.

As for tonight, I'll take it easy on the drinks, especially as those at the Jazz Cafe aren't half steep.

It wil be good to meet up with Stephen again, although I didn't hear his show this week on XStream East as I was in London on Tuesday.

Having said that, Grooveline will be on Blast 1386 this afternoon, so I'll probably listen to that before getting the train over to London.

Graduation Reservations

Earlier this morning I made a return visit to CSR-FM for the desk training and an introduction to Myriad, which after four years of using RCS, this is a hell of a lot more usable and easier to insert audio as well as dragging and dropping.

I also submitted my show proposal which personally has the worst title I have ever come up with, but I think it may just work.

Again, I don't normally do this but I'm keeping it secret, because I'm no exception to the idea that a "work in progress" may end up being utter rubbish.

As for graduation, everything's just about sorted as I've booked a hotel in Bethnal Green for the night, and for the post-ceremony meal, myself and Mum and Dad will be heading to Sergio's in Great Titchfield Street which I believe was the exact location where Trevor Dann and John Revel negotiated the idea of Chris Evans hosting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show.

Then straight after that I'll be meeting up with the rest of the students for what I hope will be a pub crawl around Central London.

Come on, Denis's idea makes perfect sense as opposed to being stuck in a noisy claustrophobic night club where you can barely fucking hear anyone.

To make the day extra special, Chris and Pete will be presenting a special Monday breakfast show on Hayes FM, so it really will be like the old days.

I'm finding it hard to get over the excitement, so it's no surprise that I'll be returning to London tomorrow where I will be heading along with StephenH to the Jazz Cafe where Tortured Soul are performing.

I've never seen them live before, but having produced one of the top soul albums of the year, I'm sure we won't be disappointed.

Intergalactic Taste Buds

I have more than literally spent the last half hour in stitches, re-viewing this piece of genius from BBC 2's "Red Dwarf Night" in February 1998 in which Ainsley Harriot presides over a special edition of "Can't Smeg Won't Smeg".

I never knew the chef actually appeared in Red Dwarf itself, but he is on top form with the usual double entendres, although I love it when he gets really angry with the contestants, not least Lister and the Cat's alter-ego Dwayne Dibley.

Chloe Annett as Kochanski looks genuinely scared at what she has to face although for some reason, her reaction remind me of fellow radio student Potty
when she's really stressed for whatever reason.

Overall it's full proof that what made me laugh 11 years ago can still have me in stitches in the present day.

It helps as well that there's a similar odour downstairs from what I'd imagine is a slightly more pleasant curry being made than the efforts that Lister and Dibley come up with.

Comedy wise tonight, there's Buzzcocks hosted by Claudia Winkelman this week, with quite a good set of guests including a welcome return for Jamelia, and Harry Shearer who oddly enough I've never seen interviewed in a Simpsons documentary.

Although Ross T was lucky enough to meet him and the rest of Spinal Tap in a confusing encounter at Radio 1.

Whether my laughter reaction will go all the way up to 11 remains to be seen.

Hitting Home In Harrow

On arrival in London, Oxford Circus tube station was closed due to the Xmas light switch on meaning I had to get off at Warren Street and head over to my destination via Euston Road.

On the plus side I happened to pass the offices of Stern's Records, a top African label who have artists such as Orchestra Baobab, and the Raul Band who featured Salif Keita and Mory Kante before they both went off into successful solo careers.

Before meeting up with Joey, I happened to spot Pippa ST in a nearby pub on Great Portland Street and stopped over for a quick hello.

On meeting up with Joey I brought a Red Bull as per usual and due to the crowded nature we went outside to drink and catch up on various things.

That's not to say it was quieter as an Irish fella stopped over and told us a succesion of rather distasteful jokes, and I swear he must have had a lot to drink with me hassling him to relax and calm down.

Asides that it was time well spent where Joey revealed that he's moving with George Lamb to his new weekend breakfast slot on 6Music next year.

I also decided to get a few things off my chest such as the infamous visit to Nottingham earlier this year for Jingleday which more or less set it in stone that unless it's held in London, I will not be attending one of those again.

Hopefully I'll be seeing more of Joe in 2010.

I then made my way up to Harrow where after checking in at the Comfort Inn,
I made my way to the Junction where there were barely any familiar faces, possibly because all those at Uni were at the Undercroft as they were showing the Manchester United Vs CSKA Moscow.

The Junction on the other hand showed Chelsea playing Atletico Madrid which ended in a 2 all draw although I'm anticipating the match against
the Red Bastards this coming Sunday.

Shortly after half time, second year TV student Michael Bland showed up where we caught up over all sorts of things including his forthcoming DJ set at Trinity in early December which I may be attending.

Other arrivals included a few of the third year commercial music students including JP and Alex Lipinski who have been approached by Jamie King to record a Christmas cover to play on Smoke during the run up to the season, where one idea was to perform a version of "Stop The Cavalry" in the style of
Vampire Weekend which would be superb.

Also present were JC and Annabel who it was really good to see, and Annabel herself will be attending graduation to see her boyfriend take to the stage.

At around 10pm I headed over to The Moon on the Hill where a lot of second and third year radio people were about including Sophie, Jake, Spike, Rich, Fiz and Oli P, whilst from the second year were Matty ID, Rob, Ru, Lee Collins, Bedders, Mark Case, Jade, and Nicola.

Jade has taken over from Alice B hosting "Here Come The Girls" which I didn't expect as I thought Nicola would become a permanent co-host on Jade's specialist show.

However Jade's putting that to one side this year as she's got too many other specialist shows to deal with, although I think her and Nicola work really well together on air in a daytime format.

Alice on the other hand will be returning for the SRAs which I'm looking forward to although I still need to pay Potty the money, and I've no idea how a bank transfer works.

The third years meanwhile got quite a slating for their first "Wireless" show despite my positive comments, but I can understand and it's a shame how such really well produced presentation stuff can be let down by individuals who aren't too capable of driving a desk.

I should know.

However I know that it can get even better and have faith in them throughout
as it's a great format and a lot different to what we did last year.
Pretty much in the same way that G Radio was quite a long way off from Breathe London the year before and so on.

I also heard about some hilarious behind the scenes goss that I can't really mention on the site, but the words "know your limits" spring to mind.

Straight after, myself, Jake, Matty, Mark, Jade, Nic and Ru headed over to Trinity where "Antony from the Johnsons" was once again spinning some great indie tunage such as "Supermassive Black Hole", "Last Night" by The Strokes, and a few obligatory anthems such as "Teenage Kicks" and "This Charming Man".

Here's a few images from the night;



The entrance of the Stern's building.



Stretched with Spike.



Nic and Rich get "smashed"



Outside Moons with Ru, Sophie, and Jade.



"It's YOU!"



Nicola requests a tune from "Antony"



Nicola and Ru.



Lee opens wide.



Jadey Babes in her element.

We made our departure at around 1:30am and it was after getting into bed that it hit me that I was feeling that my time was up over here.

There had been no aggro at all but I was feeling that I shouldn't really be here in Harrow staying over, although it was probably because I had an awful lot to drink and after I've drunk a lot, I turn into a stupid little child.

It's normally not until I'm back in Canterbury that I feel recovered which is possibly trying to tell me something.

Yes I've lived here on and off for 18 years but London's my true home judging by the amount of times I keep coming back.

In fact this coming Friday sees my next return as I shall be seeing Tortured Soul at the Jazz Cafe where I haven't been for nearly 18 months now.

As for this afternoon I plan to finish off the rather delcious stew I made yesterday, this time served alongside "la riz".