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.