It's not been a dull year has it?
2012 in general will be remembered as the year footballers
got away with being racist, comedians got caught avoiding
tax payments, and revelations of what the stars of
the 1970s really got into showbusiness for.
On a personal level I have had a mixture of up and downs
but rather than write about them, in the usual tradition
I've put up some photos of the high points, including
one or two I haven't posted online before.
My 2012 in Pictures!
With Concha at my birthday outing to Prezzos.
Pulling my first ever pint, live on the radio for CSR's
St Patrick's Day outside broadcast.
Alongside the superb Alice Russell at a free gig
by Quantic at Rough Trade East.
The poet of poor taste that is K*nt, at the Maiden's
Head weekender in February.
My second favourite person from Essex whose name
starts with K.
My first? That's near the end of the blog.
With 6Music's Nemone at the Radio Production Awards
in July.
And from the same event, the equally delightful
Sarah Thompson. A woman who's still making amazing radio.
James Waters claims the title of "Photobomber Of The Year".
Though I did get my own back on him later in the year
with this;
Love you James!
Thankfully there was no bombing of any sort
on my visit to the Olympics.
Up close with Morag at the Margate Soul Weekender.
And another soul legend, Greg Edwards of Capital Radio
Soul Spectrum fame, also in Margate.
With Pippa ST, and her boyfriend stealing the shot
with hilarity.
The soulful house stalwart that is Joey Negro.
The long awaited Uni reunion. Love these guys.
None moreso than Sirin. I'd love to visit you in Cyprus
in 2013.
And last but by no means least, Karen P.
In fact if it wasn't for Karen, I wouldn't have carried on
with my radio exploits, not least the audio below which she
was really kind enough to help out with.
It's an audio exploration of sorts into my manic episode
five years ago, in which I attempt to make sense of what
happened accompanied by a soundtrack of The Eels, Angie Stone
Swing Out Sister, and even the late Bob Holness!
Karen herself makes an appearance in the audio at 4.50,
whilst the distorted voice before hand is actually her mum!
If you get a spare 10 minutes, please do have a listen.
And the year hasn't even finished as tonight I am back at
the West Coast Bar in Margate with all the good guys to
see in 2013 with the finest in soulful stuff and plenty of
liquids, as you do.
Thanks so much for reading, and Happy '13!
It's fair to say that I've got out more than a bit throughout the year, and still in a reflective mood, I thought it would be good to look back on the visits that more or less changed my perspective on things and were the most inspiring.
Not to mention being a good laugh as well.
We'll start off with a snowy weekend in February. The Punk Weekender - Maiden's Head, Canterbury, 05.02.12
The wintry weather didn't put a stop to the third day of a birthday celebration for one of the Garden's prominent punk promoters, and to have some of Kent's finest in one place was something special. Sets from Captain Bastard, The Half Wits, Criminal Brainstorm and Ted Dibiase's Million Dollar Punk Bandwere more than just a perfect warm-up to headline act K*nt and The Gang who had traveled all the way from a gig in Sutton Coldfield to be present.
It was also good to meet up with new and old faces, and regarding the latter I was really pleased to see Alex, who was in my year (but not in my class) at primary school.
Reminiscing was certainly not on the agenda.
That school temporarily destroyed any elements of hope and creativity for many of us.
We were here to have a good time, and the antics of one such attendee resulted in Alex squawking with laughter.
That being this woman who didn't just get into a scrap with Stuart as seen below;
...but also with the headline act when she thought K*nt was slagging off her hometown Sheerness.
She was like a foul mouthed Mo Harris from Eastenders and I even got one of the arguments on video. I'll save it from the blog however as I wouldn't want to upset anyone in case.
Overall the day was amazing and an ideal warm up for a visit to London a couple of days later, for the BBC's Radio Fast Train day where I met someone even more special who will pop up later in the blog post.
The Margate Soul Weekender - 03-04.08.12
Having attended one day of the 2011 event, I was determined to enjoy as much as I could of this year's event on the Thanet coast.
And I would have gone the whole hog, had I not have had to be on the radio on the Sunday.
What I loved about this year's weekender was getting to meet many punters and disc spinners who have become really good friends and encouraged me to visit more soulful events in both Margate and beyond.
None more so than Essex boys Jon Layton and Mr Messy, pictured below with the ever delightful Roni O'Brien.
At the nearby Rokka bar I also discovered a guy who I reckon has the best taste in soulful house tunes, that being Max K from Germany, pictured below with Lancashire attendee Morag who also provided the laughs.
And not to mention the opportunity to rub shoulders with a few legends who showed up including Capital Radio Soul Spectrum veteran Greg Edwards who was the headline act at the Westcoast Bar on the Saturday.
The weekender proved so successful that it's back next year not once, but twice as there's an one towards the end of May, not too far after my birthday.
Though it seems I can't wait for that either, as tonight and on Monday I'll be heading back to the Thanet coast again for some soulful New Year celebrations.
Foot In The Door at the Radio Festival - Salford, 13.11.12
I'll admit it, I can be rather timid at the worst of times, as anyone who has met me first time round will be aware of.
This is something I have wanted to go to for years but I have been scared of, all down to a tiny little thing that may not be a big deal to most, but to me it results in me going hysterical.
Basically it's radio speed dating where a small group of people go round tables with radio experts giving advice and after 15 minutes a klaxon will go off and they move to the next one. It sounds straightforward but the horrible thought of the noise itself had me worried the night before when I arrived in Manchester to the point I couldn't get any sleep.
The thought of me turning into the Helen Flanagan of Foot In The Door was too much to handle.
Thankfully Karen P from Folded Wing (pictured above holding Gordon!) was one of the experts present and having met up with her before the event, she was really understanding and helpful despite me being in tears before going in.
Event organiser Caroline, was also amazing as she went out of her way to get a bulb horn for them to indicate changeover time instead.
As for the event itself, I loved it.
A really good set of people giving advice including Christian Spooner from Real Radio giving advice on journalism, Westminster alumni Sam Gregory giving producer tips, and Kate Cocker from BBC 6 Music who told it straight and her biggest piece of advice was "Don't be a dick".
I hope to attend the whole festival in 2013, even if it does mean saving a bit of money, and overall I was grateful to everyone there for being understanding and encouraging. The Westminster Re-Uni-On - London, 15.12.12
The last couple of years have been pretty difficult recovering from the comedown of leaving university and I know I'm not the only one to have felt it. Thankfully on this special event as organized by Denis from our year, there was no aggro in sight and it was so good to see a lot of people, a fair number of them I haven't had seen since graduation.
It was a mini pub crawl of sorts that took us from Central London all the way up to Harrow where we stopped over at some of our favourite watering holes.
Though I did end up leaving early as I had another soul event lined up on the same night, and it was probably just as well, as the rest of them went to a much noisier club that I'm not sure I would have survived.
As for the overall highlight of the day, a three for one deal on VKs did you say?
Let's hope 2013 sees more of the same, many amazing outings with even more amazing people.
Once again it's that short time period between Christmas
and New Year where reflection is the main priority, well
on my blog anyway.
And none moreso than what's been floating my boat on
both the idiot and noise box, starting off with the more visual
end of things.
Television drama highlights this year included BBC 1's True Love
inJune, a nightly anthology of stories all set within the nearby town
of Margate, and featuring an impressive cast including David Tennant,
Vicky McClure, Billie Piper and David Morrissey.
Although it got a mixed reception, I liked it's improvised manner
and it's overall warmness, though if it was set in a different
location, would it still have the same effect?
Also worth mentioning is BBC Four's impressive biopic on
the great broadcaster Kenny Everett in October, with
Oliver Lansley giving a great portrayal of the talented
if deep down muddled broadcaster.
Which moves nicely on to comedy, and you could argue
that BBC 1 are trapped in 1972 rather than 2012 what
with a second series of Mrs Brown's Boys getting the green light.
BBC 2 on the other hand managed to deliver splendidly
with a second series of Twenty Twelve and what could be
the final outing of The Thick Of It, where Roger Allam
provided many hysterics as the bumbling/raging MP Peter Mannion.
Some well observed plots as well, with a parody of the Leveson
Inquiry being one such example.
Channel 4 meanwhile gave us yet another series of Peep Show still strong after nearly ten years, but even better was the return
of Friday Night Dinner which despite being placed in a Sunday
night slot was on a higher level than the first series with many hilarious yet cringe making moments.
None moreso that next door neighbour Jim finally getting invited
to the Goodman's banquet.
Hopefully a third series won't be far off.
Entertainment on television this year saw BBC 1 once again
attempting to outdo ITV with a programme that ITV itself
had turned down.
Hence the launch of The Voice UK in March which started off
with a lot of promise but when the gimmick of turning chairs disapeared in favour of overstaged "Battle Rounds" and unappealing
final round, no one was interested.
It may be a sign that the public are bored with singing
contests on the box as a whole, proven by the decreasing ratings
of The X Factor later in the year, but yet for some reason
I carried on watching, regardless if it was sub-standard.
Apparently Simon Cowell has called a crisis meeting to save
the show, but the truth is that there is no crisis.
It's shelf life has just ran out like all long-running shows, but
rather than axe it, it should be rested for a fair few years and
revived later on.
Which leads nicely onto the annual set of shows brought back
to our screens this year, including Simon Mayo doing a fine turn
in the shoes of the late Bob Holness as Challenge brought back Blockbusters in May of this year.
If anything, Mayo was more likeable on that show than he is
as a presenter on Radio 2. Less than impressive was ITV 1 digging up "Surprise Surprise"
from the ashes, though with Holly Willoughby now hosting, there's now more than one use of tissues for that show.
Children's programmes continued to deliver with one standout being
CBBC's 12 Again, a sort of "I Love" style series where stars gave
there perspectives on home life, pop music
and the television they watched when they were 12.
And not just those from CBBC, but also established presenters
and musicians such as John Humphrys, Angela Rippon, Gene Simmons, and on a lesser note, Ian Watkins from the Lost Prophets.
One such highlight being Dick off of Dick and Dom giving his
renditions of early 90s Radio 1 jingles, and the Going Live! theme tune.
Tracy Beaker Returns did just that for the final time, though the remainder of the cast plan to carry on with the series without
the Strictly Come Dancing finalist in the new year in a series
simply titled "The Dumping Ground".
A title which many could interpret as the CBBC Channel itself
now that children's programmes have recently departed
from BBC 1's afternoon timeslot.
Moving onto radio and an exciting year nonetheless.
Radio 1 saw more departures, including that of Gilles Peterson
to BBC 6 Music, a move which has seen mixed reaction from
fans of the late night Radio 1 timeslot, but if anything the show has got even better and will continue doing so.
In fact 6 Music as a whole has been consistent throughout
the year with other standouts including John Cooper Clarke
doing a fine job standing in for Jarvis Cocker, and Shaun Keaveny turning his daily "Earworms" feature into a half hour documentary
on BBC Radio 4.
A possible listening replacement for Chris Moyles who in July of this year announced his departure from Radio 1's Breakfast Show, but was he going to go quietly?
Was he balls.
The final week of shows including two amazing video streamed
offerings for the last two went to show that no other broadcaster
let a alone breakfast presenter on Radio 1 will have the same
sort of impact on listeners as he did, even with those
who wouldn't normally listen to Radio 1, giving him their time.
Even if melodically it was half inched from the Muppets' "Life's A Happy Song".
It certainly put a heavy load on replacement Nick Grimshaw
who's self-depreciating style, and lack of perspective
hasn't received much critical appreciation, though what the listeners think won't be revealed until January 2013.
A more detailed rundown of my best bits of wireless this year can be seen via my radio blog, but when it comes
to the overall audio highlight, there's none finer than
Michael Buerk on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze giving his
honest opinion on the Jimmy Savile scandal.
I'm finally home, and as always I'm first to arrive back as to be honest I'm not sure I could have survived another day at Manor Mews.
To be fair it was a nice place and my bedroom was in a house seperate to where everyone else was and I was able to watch television without anyone invading my privacy.
Unless they wanted to use the wireless internet that is.
I resisted the temptation throughout the whole of my stay, though this year was the first that I had brought my camera with me.
Here's a few of the snapshots I got.
Granny's present.
Polly trying to recreate the descending gauge. My team ended up winning.
Hang on, this is the trophy?
Thankfully my presents saw no expense spared.
A t-shirt with Yorkshire Television's early 90s symbol.
And a sweatshirt for ITV's North Eastern provider.
I've got a fair bit of catching up to do telly-wise including last night's Moomin documentary which I missed the last 20 minutes of, due to being called in to play yet another board game. Whilst that was entertaining, I didn't enjoy the annual pub quiz, put together by our extended family's answer to The Fast Show's "Competitive Dad". That being Big Richard.
One things for certain, between now and my first of many outings this weekend I am going to get some decent grub inside me.
Tonight will involve a chicken stew with pasta in front of eith Pointless Celebrities, Eastenders, or Mock The Week depending on when I can be bothered to shift my backside.
A festive and poignant day as this afternoon was the last that BBC 1 broadcast children's programmes in it's hallowed timeslot.
I wasn't too gutted as my definitive favourite children's programmes were broadcast on Saturday mornings, but seriously those broadcast on weeknights and more importantly the presentation holding it all together was pretty much responsible for me becoming a television anorak.
And when looking at this video uploaded last month, you can understand why to an extent it's sad to see it go.
It was nice to have in-vision presentation back just for today with the presenters of CBBC and CBeebies joining forces with the final programme being the CBeebies Panto of Jack And The Beanstalk, penned by the real "Anorak" Chris Jarvis who also starred as Dame Trott.
A good way to finish but probably not as good as last year's "Strictly Cinderella" panto.
Whilst many may get nostalgic about children's programmes disappearing from mainstream televsion, I'd see the move as one that's been a long time coming.
The stuff we loved when we were younger hasn't gone altogether it's just been moved to it's own platform, and not just television, but music as well with special online outlets catering for those with specialist interests.
Sites like Mixcloud and Podomatic allow everyone to enjoy such shows at anytime and even make output themselves so overall, the current state of culture's still revolutionary and influential.
It hasn't all gone from terrestrial at present as CBeebies and CBBC will remain on BBC 2 mornings until the 4th of January, and to mark the changes, I've put together another "tangent" of sorts similar to the one I wrote on Saturday mornings a couple of years ago.
It should be uploaded towards the new year when nok32uk from TV Forum comes up with a front cover better than my own poor effort. This is likely to be my last blog post before Christmas as tomorrow morning we'll be heading up to a brand new holiday house with Mum's extended family, but still within reach of Norfolk and Suffolk.
We were actually meant to have gone up tonight, but didn't realise until this afternoon! I'm not too fussed though, and I'll get to leave a day before everyone else. And if you've reached the end of this blog post, have a really good Christmas yourselves!
I've noticed that I haven't done much blogging about the just finished series of The X Factor this year.
Though that's probably because I manage to get everything off my chest about it on Twitter as the show goes out.
But this article from the Guardian speaks volumes, and more or less sums up why the show is currently losing appeal in an austerity Britain.
The article calls it a crisis meeting, but if looked at more openly, there isn't really a crisis.
Just an observation that the viewing public are fed up with being told who to like and create a bandwagon for.
And as the article suggests, it has just got stale which is natural for any long-running entertainment show or television show in general.
A suggestion for when the show comes back next year would be to make it more irreverent or tongue in cheek, reflecting what most people write on Twitter during the show.
Caroline Flack and Olly Murs manage to do a great job on the ITV 2 sister show, balancing a witty chemistry without being snide as a whole and if that could be brought on to the main show it would be just as good.
Dermot could pull that off, he managed to do so on T4 and Big Brother's Little Brother.
An article on this sort of topic is bound to gain comments in response and certainly those that will have me raising my voice for no good reason.
One of them suggesting they should bring back Gladiators and not because I didn't like the series (though it quickly ran out of steam), but because they brought back Gladiators not long ago for two series on Sky 1.
Did you watch that when it aired?
Did you balls. That said, ITV1 has once again jumped on the revival bandwagon already with Holly Willoughby's Surprise Surprisewhich since Holly's arrival on the show, has required more than one use of tissues when watching.
It shows no sign of stopping in 2013 as in January, Holly's Ministry Of Mayhem presenting partner Stephen Mulhern will be presenting a revival of Catchphrase with new 3D graphics.
Apparently the 3 dimensional Mr Chips looks really scary. Seriously though, whilst they're old formats they're succesful too and having been given adequate resting time, I'm actually excited about their return. Maybe The X Factor could learn from the same book.
Wow. I have had the most amazing few days which yesterday managed to reach an even greater height, starting off with the London Uni Reunion as organized by the one and only Denis.
I met up with him Chris and Tudor at the Liverpool Street Spoons where I guess we got all our minor grudges out of the way with a few witty arguments about Global Radio and Manchester United.
Two very big institutions that make a lot of money and are overrated.
Seriously though, it was just the beginning of what was to be an amazing day and it's safe to say, nothing's really changed.
Joining us along the way were Steven, both the Phils Harris and Landers, fashion student Dani who's recently become a mum, and best of all Sirin who's stopped over for a short visit back from Cyprus.
Also joining us later on were Ross Powell from my old year who thankfully managed to clear away all the glitter from our last outing a few weeks ago.
And not forgetting fellow fashion student Gulshana who was also on fine form.
Our aim was to make it up to Harrow via the Met Line and luckily for us there were no engineering works this weekend. Here we all are at our old stop off point.
Walking past Harrow Halls was quite an emotional experience though they've made a few changes to the entrance of the Harrow Campus itself, half-inching a name from either a Kentish Town gig venue or the studios where they film BBC Look East.
We didn't actually manage to get past the glass turnstiles, so we headed towards the Junction in Harrow where another familar face joined us and one I haven't seen for 18 months. The good news however is that both of us are a lot better now than we were then.
It was at this point when things got even more chaotic as in the time honoured tradition I stuck a fair few songs on the pub jukebox, most notably Swing Out Sister's "Breakout" which someone thought would be funny to video me singing to.
After a short stop off at Trinity I had to bid adieu as I was making a long visit from Harrow to Canvey Island via Fenchurch Street.
I almost shat myself however when realising I was low on funds and worried I wouldn't be able to pay my hotel bill.
On walking up there I fell into the mind of "The Little Engine That Could" constantly repeating to myself "I know I can, I know I can".
Though when I arrived at the hotel, it turned out that actually I already had, as the payment was made when booking the hotel.
With that out of the way, I made my way down to the Lobster Smack and a fantastic crowd of people were present including the usual turnouts DMD AKA Den Montgomery-Dye, Mark and Debi, Andrew and Theresa, and Paul and Jules.
A really good DJ rota was also present as always starring;
"The Reverend" Brian Kelly
Caister veteran "Jazzbod"
Mark "Messy" Messent
Father Christmas himself, looking suspiciously similar to Jonny Layton
And special guest headline act Tony "Maggot" Matthews.
And with Tony's presence, it meant a return appearance for the ever delightful Roni O'Brien, who I can be seen below in a bit-too-much of a close up shot.
The tunes last night were on top form including a few Fatback Band remixes, D'Influnce and a few festive offerings including Cee-Lo Green's Mariah Carey cover.
And not forgetting the usual favourite such as Gerardo Frisina and "the Jetty theme tune" from Mario Biondi.
Here's just a few more of the chaotic antics that took place;
Overall, a fantastic night and more of the same to come throughout 2013 including in June, a guest appearance by radio legend Jeff Young. To finish with though, a nice shot I got of the ice rink near Stratford International station this morning.
