Archive for October, 2009

Oi, idiot! Get off the road.

October 14, 2009 at 9:30 pm · Filed under City Life, transport

It’s now been just over a year since I conquered my driving phobia, tootling around Birmingham and beyond in my red Nissan Micra, like a live-action version of Noddy (that’s the toytown character, not the lead singer of Slade).

Overall, it’s been a fantastic experience, not least because it’s freed me from the horrors of public transport. But I can’t help but get driven absolutely mad by stupid people on the road who come from the planet ‘thick’.

Here’s a particular example that drives me round the twist:

The Aston Expressway is a 3-lane motorway that is actually a feeder road for 4 different routes out of Birmingham city centre. It is fairly long, and has specific lanes for specific destinations. You use the left-hand lane for the M6 North, the middle lane for the M6 south, and the right-hand lane for local routes to Erdington and Sutton. These are marked on overhead gantries right from the beginning of the Expressway, and intermittently along it too. So why – WHY! – do people sit in the WRONG lane all the way to spaghetti junction, and then decide that they need to change just 100 yards from the point where the road splits? At that point, most people are speeding up because there is less of a likelihood of people changing lanes, but thanks to the one pratt who’s left it to the last second, everyone has to brake hard to accommodate the pillock who’s now slowed to 15mph so he can change lanes in time. It can’t be because they don’t know which lane to use – so why is it? It happens almost every time I drive down it! It drives me MAAD!

And to the person who drove along behind me, beeping their horn because I was patiently sitting behind a learner driver (who was about to turn off anyway) and who I saw virtually run someone off the road in an effort to beat the traffic lights: I hope you contract a case of haemmorhoids so bad that you wince every time you press your foot on the accelerator.

And why is it that Audi and BMW drivers seem to keep their lights on until about midday? It’s light, for god’s sake! Just because you’re wearing sunglasses in October, it doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t see you.

I could go on and sound even more like Victor Meldrew than I do already, but I won’t.

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This is me.

October 4, 2009 at 10:56 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

It’s Sunday night, and I’m reflecting on a couple of months of absolute creative joy. Three projects have come to fruition over the last few weeks, bringing a huge smile to my face in each case.

The first is broadcasting on 1Radio.org. Tim, the station’s owner, has created a marvellous outlet for creativity in allowing a wide range of broadcasting talent to hold complete creative control over regular shows, right down to the booking of timeslots. The level of interaction possible on the station is huge, with a ’shoutbox’ that acts as a chatroom, mail facility and request form all in one. The satisfaction in being able to present a live show from home that’s part of such a professional outfit is huge, and I’m grateful for the opportunities it brings to test out material. Audience figures aren’t huge, but as the station’s reputation builds, 1Radio is sure to go from strength to strength. I’m excited to be a part of it.

The second of the three has been a competition I’ve been running in conjunction with character artist Steve Rack. Steve created a new character for Clever Little Pod that I’m going to bring to life on the show, and the character needed a name. The competition invited people to submit suggestions, with original artwork from Steve on offer as the prize for the winning suggestion. Working with Steve throughout has been a pleasure, and quite a buzz with over 150 people entering the competition. The winning suggestion – ‘Dop’ – was announced on a special 1Radio show on Wednesday. The new podcasts will follow next week.

Finally, earlier today I did my first show from a proper studio since my hospital radio days (13 years ago!) It was on the Birmingham community station ‘Rhubarb Radio’ which broadcasts from the Custard Factory (which is Brum’s centre for the creative arts – it’s the old Bird’s Custard factory, hence Rhubarb Radio!) I had been looking forward to this for weeks, and crammed as much comedy as I could fit in to the hour I had between 5-6 today. Rhubarb has an added dimension to it, because there is a passionate local community behind it working hard to build the reputation of the station throughout the region and beyond. There is a culture of creative freedom that is rare in radio, and I am hoping that it will give me the opportunity to meet other people who are as passionate about comedy writing and broadcasting as I am.

So, you can probably tell I am feeling a huge amount of creative fulfilment at the moment, and I haven’t even started to put out the new podcasts yet. The new website is almost there (in fact, I should be doing it now!) and will be online in the next few days.

I’m now writing more original material than ever before, which is a massive leap from the early days of the podcast, when writing material was creatively fulfilling but so, so hard. It is still a challenge, but I feel I have more of a handle on my own ’style’ of humour now, which helps with generating ideas and turning them into workable items. It remains to be seen whether I can keep the ideas flowing on a regular basis, given that I now have two weekly shows to put together (although I’m sharing some material between the two.) Working to a set format for ideas also helps too.

The next challenges – apart from keeping the material coming – will be to grow the audience to equal and exceed the buzz – such that it was – that surrounded CLP when podcasting was ‘the next big thing’ in 2006-7. I said to someone the other day that I think there is more of a challenge in growing live Internet audiences than podcast audiences, but with the help of services like Twitter and Facebook, people can at least be reminded when things are happening.

Please, if you have a few minutes, check out the following:

1radio.org – try different shows! There’s something for everyone. Read the schedule descriptions and set up email reminders for the ones you want to hear.

steverack.com – Steve has opened a great new shop with original artwork for sale as well as T-shirts, badges and more. All featuring his unique, fun designs. Check it out and treat yourself!

rhubarbradio.com – soon to have a new website, but in the meantime you can ‘listen again’ to all the shows, and check out presenter profiles. My show is not detailed on the site, and only features on ‘listen again’ as the second hour of the 4-6 Sunday slot (which you can’t forward).

Radio. Comedy. Live.

Love it!

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