Two Men And A Baby, On BBC4, Trekking Around Bulgaria, Talking About Opera

Tonight's show was a pre-recorded effort, which we did yesterday afternoon. I don't want to have to do pre-records to often, but as I'm unavailable tonight, it kept the continuity going. It would have been a shame to have had to have got a stand in, when Erik and I are on the brink of international stardom.

We were joined in the studio by Erik's daughter Anya, who was an absolute delight. A really cute little girl, who has such a sense of timing, she was able to stop making noises the instant the song started and the microphone went off. It was funny watching her play a kind of punch-ball game with the microphone when her daddy was attempting to talk into it.

We discussed our attempts to join the rank of the celebrity, and although BBC 6Music haven't been in touch yet, we have some ideas. Based on a tweet I received in the week, I pitched a chat show where I get to fight (and hopefully beat up) celebrities that I don't like. While I'm beating them, I ask them questions about their book/DVD/tour, whatever. Micheal Parkinson never had a punch up with his guests, I'm inventing a new concept in talk shows.

Erik wants to do high brow documentaries, which I have promised we can do after we've made our money doing pantomime and opening school fetes.

We managed to play a few songs too:

Tommy Cooper 'Don't Jump Off The Roof Dad'
The Ramones 'Blitzkrieg Bop'
Belly 'Feed The tree'
Joy Division 'Decades'
The Ataris 'Make It Last'
Illuminatus 'Falling Out Of An Airplane'
Marc Reeves 'Slow' (friend of the show, his videos are on YouTube)
Will Jeffery 'Heavy Hearted Man' (appearing on the show soon)
Wholesome Fish 'Reubens Train'
Weird Al Yankovic 'I Can't Watch This'
Nine Inch Nails 'Hurt'
Jesus Jones 'The Devil You Know'
The Cult 'She Sells Sanctuary'
The Barnum Meserve 'If You Had A Heart It Would Be Made Of Glass' (appearing on the show soon, they came on my old Sherwood Radio show too)
Stereo MCs 'Connected'
The Plasmatics 'Fast Food Service'

Officially Licenced Product

Thanks to my dad for sourcing out a couple of fezzes, (fezi?), and designing the logo. These are just a prototype of course, but soon, when we keep banging on about the fez, we might just start selling these for people to wear at gigs and stuff. The caption refers to one of our conversations last Sunday night, but you knew that!

The BBC Are Listening To This Shit?

After three solo shows, Erik Petersen finally finished his epic Christmas holiday as far as The Sunday Alternative is concerned. It was good to have him back with me, and I have missed him. We have developed a double act of sorts, and by rights should have our own television show, movie deal, and range of breakfast cereals. But for now, the radio show is the only way we can satisfy our fans.

If my canvassing worked, then someone high up at BBC 6Music was listening tonight, and are beating a path to our door to ask us to do the Saturday 10am-1pm slot.

News: If you like the bantering gibberish between Erik and myself, but feel that the records get in the way and that we need more swearing, then fear not. We are currently making plans to bring out a regular podcast. We will carry on with the podcast when 6Music give us the Saturday gig.

We were joined by Nottingham musician Marc Reeves, who was in to promote his new album and to perform a few tracks.

Erik and I discussed the new range of Sunday Alternative merchandising, in particular the fez, the mystery of 'sos', Spud-U-Like, Whoopie John, and eating crocodiles. Or it might have been alligator. Also, I decided that if we kept banging on about taking the Saturday 10am-1pm slot on BBC 6Music, then eventually someone would believe it and have no choice but to give us the gig.

The setlist is not in the order of songs played, as I made a mess of writing it all down.

Will Fyfe 'I Belong To Glasgow'
The Proclaimers '500 Miles' (both played because it is Burns Night on Wednesday)
New Town Kings 'Brighter Days'
Travis 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me'
Jake Morley 'Feet Don't Fail Me Now'
Kamikaze Test Pilots 'Kenny Rogers With A Shotgun'
Marc Reeves 'Handshakes'

Marc Reeves performing live in session:
'Judgement Day'
'Easy Way Out'
'Fears' (All videos available to watch here)

Marc Reeves 'Empty'
Billy Connelly 'D.I.V.O.R.C.E'
Primal Scream 'Loaded'
Volcanoes 'Is Anybody There'
The Stranglers 'No More Heroes'
Doctor Feelgood 'Milk And Alcohol'
AC/DC 'For Those About To Rock'
Fighting Evil Is Cool 'Bruce Campbell'
New Generation Superstars 'I Won't Stop'

Discombobulated

Another solo outing, hopefully my last one as I think Erik is back next week. I travelled back to Nottingham from Teesside to do the show, and it took me a while to settle in. From arriving in Nottingham, having a shower and eating my tea I was then straight out the door and getting a tram to Bulwell for the show. I normally spend some time on a Sunday afternoon preparing, (honest), but I didn't get time. Luckily I arrive at the studio an hour before my show starts, so I had least had time to get some music together, make coffee and do some self promoting tweeting and face-booking (fifteen days into 2012 and I am still logging into facebook like it's 2008).

After a shaky start, as my brain wasn't really in gear, I got into the swing of it and produced a good quality two hours of music. When I'm doing the show alone there is more music and less talk.

Charles Penrose 'Two Lovely Black Eyes'
Calling All Astronauts 'Someone Like You'
The Specials 'Do The Dog'
Baby Godzilla 'Streamline Feline'
Dubwiser 'Ride Your Life Like A Bicycle'
The Hot Knives 'Turkey Stomp'
Jake Morley 'Many Fish To Fry'
Marc Reeves 'Holding On'
Half Man Half Biscuit 'Joy Division Oven Gloves'
Joy Division 'Heart And Soul'
Will Jeffrey 'The Day Off'
Earthprayer 'Prophet'
Forever Never 'The World'
Tommy Cooper 'Don't Jump Off The Roof Dad'
Dead Kennedys 'Holiday In Cambodia'
New Order 'Blue Monday'
Suede 'Animal Nitrate'
Depeche Mode 'I Feel You'
Tsunami Bomb 'No One's Looking'
Tenpole Tudor 'Swords Of A Thousand Men'
Tears For Fears 'Sowing The Seeds Of Love'
The Frank And Walters 'After All'
Fighting Evil Is Cool 'The Hobo Song'
The Ska-Dows 'Apache'
Morrissey 'Certain People I Know'
Audio Karate 'Senior Year'
Anti-Freeze 'Birthday Weekend'

Happy Birthday David Bowie

Another solo affair, with Chris unavailable and Erik still pissing about pretending it is Christmas. Today is of course David Bowie's 65th birthday so it gave me an excuse to play some of the Dame's songs. Although I played a few of the more popular songs, I also broadcast a couple of less obvious compositions. I also played 'The Laughing Gnome'. Somebody had to!

George Formby 'When I'm Cleaning Windows'
David Bowie 'Life On Mars'
Half Man Half Biscuit 'Dickie Davis Eyes'
Fighting Evil Is Cool 'Brain Salad' and 'Ten Times More'
The Beat 'Mirror In The Bathroom'
Selector 'I Can See Clearly Now'
Mick Jagger and David Bowie 'Dancing In The Street'
Jake Morley 'Pondering On A Scenario In Which I'm The Hero'
Felice Brothers 'River Jordan'
David Bowie 'Starman' and 'Ashes To Ashes'
Buck Owens 'Act Naturally'
Bernard Cribbins 'Hole In The Ground'
David Bowie 'The Laughing Gnome'
Circus Envy 'Three Score And Ten' (first session on my Trent Sound show, watch them performing this song here)
Patrick Plunkett 'Attracting Attention' (another friend of the show, as seen here)
David Bowie 'Teenage Wildlife' and 'Some Are'
Kill21 'Whole Lotta Rosie'
Dirty Habit 'Verge Of Insanity'
Nirvana 'The Man Who Sold The World'
Golden Troubadours 'Road Of Bones' (friend of the show, as seen in session here)
Captain Dangerous 'Everything Beautiful Reminds Me Of You' (first session I recorded, as you can see here).
David Bowie 'Loving The Aliens'

Happy New Year

My first show of 2012 was a solo affair, Chris Underwood was at a party and Erik Petersen had taken the drastic step of leaving the country to avoid co-presenting duties, having given some bollocks about going home for Christmas.

I continued the Christmas number one countdown, which was a mistake that I had committed to. The first half of this countdown on the last show featured some good music among the not so good, this show showed that the not so good overruled during the 1980s and 1990s.

The Sunday Alternative will return to normal service next week, and the unsigned bands, alternative classics, indie hits, rarities and general John Peel-ish credibility will eventually wash away the memories of the Christmas show when I played The Spice Girls.

Mud 'Lonely This Christmas' (1974)
Queen 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (1975)
Johnny Mathis 'When A Child Is Born' (1976)
Wings 'Mull Of Kintyre' (1977)
Boney M 'Mary's Boy Child' (1978)
Pink Floyd 'Another Brick In The Wall' (1979)
St Winifred's School Choir 'There's No One Quite Like Grandma' (1980)
The Human League 'Don't You Want Me?' (1981)
Renee And Renato 'Save Your Love' (1982)
The Flying Pickets 'Only You' (1983)
Band Aid 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' (1984)
Shakin' Stevens 'Merry Christmas Everyone' (1985)
Jackie Wilson 'Reet Petite' (1986)
The Pet Shop Boys 'Always On My Mind' (1987)
Cliff Richard 'Mistletoe And Wine' (1988)
Whitney Houston 'I Will Always Love You' (1992) (I skipped a few really bad years)
Mr Blobby 'Mr Blobby' (1993)
East 17 'Stay Another Day' (1994)
Spice Girls '2 Become 1' (1996)
Spice Girls 'Too Much' (1997)
Spice Girls 'Goodbye' (1998)
Westlife 'I Have A Dream' (1999)
Bob The Builder 'Can We Fix It?' (2000)
Robbie Williams And Nicole Kidman 'Somethin' Stupid' (2001)

I gave up at this point, although I played Tears For Fears original version of 'Mad World' (Christmas number one for Michael Andrews and Gary Jules in 2003) and Jeff Buckley's version of 'Hallelujah', which was criminally covered by Alexandra Burke and was Christmas number one in 2008. The show ended without me saying goodbye, as I perfectly timed the 2009 Christmas number one, Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name' to fade out for the news just before the "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" bit.