We Are Not Erik Petersen

This week's competition questions:
1- What time did we take this photo?
2- What was the time in real life?
(If you look back to the last few times we have done a photo at our desk, you will notice that we were later than usual. This was due to lighting difficulties with our handwritten signs, and so Daniel printed off our cool new ones, that did photograaph).

Today it is Mrs Petersen's birthday, and so Erik wasn't allowed out to play. When we went out last Wednesday, we had talked about doing a pre-record on Saturday but he couldn't make that either. Not to worry, The Sunday Alternative soldiered on regardless with Bainy, my friend and colleague from Trent Sound's Wednesday show Notts Live in my passenger seat. This is Trent Sound's first crossover presentation, which we likened to The Jetsons and The Flintstones appearing in the same cartoon, or when you used to spot a character from The Beano in The Dandy. Andy Haynes, Bainy's co-host, now has to do a show with Erik, and we tried to come up with a strategy for mixing up all the shows that are presented by two people, so that we all get to do a crossover show. Castle Rock, (Tuesdays), Notts Live, (Wednesday), Not On Your Telly, (Sunday, before we go on), Cabinet Of Curiosity, (Sunday), and Nottingham LACE, (Saturdays) all need to be mixed up. This might require a big piece of paper and a detailed plan stuck to the wall.

We also discussed cover versions, and how they should only be allowed if the person covering is able to re-interpret the song in question. Some of the songs in the setlist below should illustrate our point. With covers a recurring subject, tonight was the debut outing for a new feature on the show titled Louie Smells Like Rock and Roll in which I attempt to play my entire collection of cover versions of 'Louie Louie', 'I Love Rock and Roll', and Smells Like Teen Spirit'. This is of course something that will run and run, but the beauty is that I can take the feature with me when BBC 6Music finally get round to offering Erik and I the Saturday morning slot.

I forgot to announce our plans for a Whoopee John tribute band, but as we discussed it in the pub on Wednesday, it perhaps is only fair that I save it for when Erik is back. Funnily enough, Bainy forgot to invite us onto Notts Live for a session.

Billy Williams 'When Father Painted The Parlour'
Morrissey 'That's Entertainment'
Therion 'Summer Night City'
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes 'I Only Wanna Be With You'
Libertines 'Never Never'

LOUIE SMELLS LIKE ROCK AND ROLL (complete with new jingle, expertly made by our very own Daniel James)
The Clash 'Louie Louie'
Paul Anka 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
LA Guns 'I Love Rock and Roll'

Deny The Lie 'Alright Now'
Josh Kemp 'Fly' and 'Home'
The Smears 'Pieces'
Jake Bugg 'Trouble Town'

Bill Maynard 'Pheasant Plucker's Song'
Captain Dangerous 'Everything Beautiful Reminds Me Of You' (new album version)
Ministry 'Jesus Built My Hotrod'
Jesus And Mary Chain 'My Little Underground'
Amanda Palmer 'Creep'
Fighting Evil Is Cool 'Roll For Initiative'
Joe Brown 'I'll See You In My Dreams'
Billy Childish And Sexton King 'Dung Beetle Rides Again'
Practical Lovers 'Textbook Romance'
Nemo Shaw 'The Only Living Boy In New York'
John Farnham 'You're The Voice' (this week's dad rocker)

No pies, No Whoopee, Just Me And An Idea!

A solo outing tonight for The Sunday Alternative, in a show that was pre-recorded last Wednesday as I was on my way back to Nottingham as the show started. Sadly, Erik couldn't make it to the pre-record so it is just me. As always when I'm on my own, the show is more music focused as I can't bounce comic riffs with myself can I?

Pork pies, Whoopee John, Erik Petersen and myself will all be live and firing on all cylinders next Sunday.

Gus Elen 'A Nice Quiet Day'
Mark Fogg's Skasters 'Two Legs'
The Wedding Present 'Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft'
Hadfis 'Pop Music' (Another member of my gang of artists played on my show before BBC6Music, I am like a guru)
Krissy Matthews 'Tell Me'
The Lights 'Days Don't Get Me Far Enough Away'
The Barnum Meserve 'If You Had A Heart It Would Be Made Of Glass'
Tori Amos 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'*
Joan Jett And The Blackhearts 'I Love Rock And Roll'*
Choking Susan 'Liar Liar'
Motorhead 'Louie Louie'*
Royal Gala 'Blue Rinse'
Stiff Little Fingers 'Alternative Ulster'
The Jam 'Going Underground'
Spitting Image 'The Chicken Song'
KLF '3AM Eternal' (Growing Machines Remix)
Symphony Cult 'The Riddle'
Stillman 'The Rat's Tale'
October Sky 'Hit The Ground'
The Catch 'Find The Love'
The Death Of Six By Seven 'Everything You See Is In Motion'
Jimmy The Squirrel 'Daydreamer'
Bow Wow Wow 'C30 C60 C90 Go'
Guns n' Roses 'It's So Easy'
Free 'Alright Now' (this week's dad rocker)

*It was these three songs that gave me an idea for a feature that I might pilot next week.

The Award Winning Pork Pie, The Hostage, And Telling The Band We Killed Their Manager.

Nobody mentioned my 1990s 't-shirt over long sleeved' look so I think I got away with it.

Another textbook example of what the Saturday morning 10am-1pm show on BBC6Music should be sounding like. The Barnum Meserve became a future pub quiz question, if a future pub quiz-master asks who were the first band to appear on both my Sherwood Radio show (that particular show is available to listen to here), and on The Sunday Alternative? Jake Morley doesn't count as he did an outside song on location in the Sherwood Radio days. I bet someone in the pub answers Jake and starts an argument. I can't stand how pub quizzes of the future are so competitive.

The Barnum Meserve talked about their new E.P. and upcoming gigs, and as a special treat, they offered to kill a deer for us to celebrate their set at Splendour. For listeners outside Nottingham, Splendour is held in the grounds of a stately home with roaming deer. I try and cater for our international listeners by talking about Nottingham. We only have a small studio, so a dead deer might have to go on the roof of the studio as a mascot. The guys took it rather well when we broke the news that their manager Chris Underwood had died some weeks earlier. (Not really, it's a back reference).

The show was easy for me this week, as we had Nottingham LACE co-presenter Rapunzel MAP in to learn how to drive the desk in preparation for Jason not being available to steer the good ship LACE next week. We riffed on her being a hostage, and she communicated only by writing notes. All I had to do was talk, as I had no knobs to twiddle, (stop it).

Our campaign to get Whoopee John into the nation's affections continued, as did our pork pie review feature, which this week contained a lovely homemade pie from a real butcher. The verdict was a resounding thumbs up for Mrs King's Pork Pies.
I'm wearing the pork pie badge of honour.

As if the show wasn't already a big enough aural treat for our listeners, we played some music too.

Norah Blaney 'Oh Mr Porter'
Plastic Tree 'Chim Chimney'
Captain Dangerous 'Executing Elliott'
Whoopee John 'Don't Drop Those Tears In My Beer'
Blur vs Nirvana 'Smells Like Song 2'
Half Man Half Biscuit 'Trumpton Riots'
Barnum Meserve 'Autumn Park'
'Stay Awake' (performed live, watch the video here)
'Hollowness' (performed live, watch the video here)
Sid James 'The 'ooter Song'
Madeline Rust 'How Would You Move Me' and 'Back Home'
Ruder Than You 'Paranoid'
The Clash 'London Calling'
Vic Reeves 'I Remember Punk Rock'
The Raincoats 'Lola'
In Isolation 'Film Noir Scandal'
Tommy James And The Shondells 'I Think We're Alone Now'
Boston 'More Than A Feeling' (this week's dad rocker)

Competition time, what time did we attempt to pretend that we didn't know we were being photographed?

One Percent More Pork Than Last Week

Despite what this picture may tell you, Erik does know how to wear a pair of headphones. This week's competition question, what time of night did we pose for this picture? No prize!

If a flimsy idea for a feature is worth doing once, it is worth doing until the premise wears thin. Once the premise is thin enough, we can stretch it further until it fizzles out altogether. Unfortunately, I just don't know when to stop. It was week two of our attempted feature on pork pie testing, this week they came from Tesco. I have to say that they were slightly better than Asda's last week, although they still weren't exactly butcher quality. Also, these Tesco pies had 31% pork, compared to Asda's 30%. My ideal find would be a pork pie containing 32% pork for next week.

I was worried that we had a lot to live up to this week, as last week we produced two solid hours of radio gold. Surely we couldn't do that again? Luckily, we could, the show just gets better and better and tonight was another gold-dust sprinkled piece of radio history. BBC 6Music still haven't been in touch, which I'm starting to realise is their loss, if they are too blind/stupid/arrogant to offer us the Saturday 10am-1pm slot.

Throughout the show we once again promoted Whoopie John, who I am going to try and make famous despite being dead. Terry Wogan managed it with Eva Cassidy. Other subjects included writing for The Nottingham Evening Post, (as I still call it), a pretentious new pub that opened in Hockley, my appearance on the BBC, our pitch to BBC4, monorails, and my idea for an interactive radio game. In keeping with my habit of not returning to subjects, we completely forgot to pay tribute to Davy Jones of The Monkees. We also became the first alternative/indie/punk radio show to have a long discussion about Rick Astley, mainly so I could tell the joke I have been working on.

Unbelievably, we had time for some songs too.

Nellie Wallace 'I Don't Like My Mother's Pie Crust'
L7 'Pretend We're Dead'
Whoopie John 'The Laughing Song'
The Freshies 'I'm In Love With The Girl On The Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk'
John Otway 'Too Much Air Not Enough Oxygen'
Kirsty MacColl and Billy Bragg 'A New England'
Rick Astley vs Nirvana 'Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up'
The Paragons 'The Tide Is High'
The Nerves 'Hanging On The Telephone'
Randy And The Rainbows 'Denise'
Mitch Benn 'I Never Went Through A Smiths Phase'
Bernard Sumner 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' (acoustic)
Bjork 'All Is Full Of Love'
Damn Vandals 'Beautiful Mind'
'Union Jack Boxes'
The Simpsons 'Monorail Song'
Mudhoney 'Touch Me I'm Sick'
Pop Will Eat Itself 'Ich Bin Ein Auslander'
Dildo Brothers 'Sweet Dreams'
Lynrd Skynrd 'Sweet Home Alabama'