The Sunday Alternative is a free podcast made for the love of discovering and sharing new music. I do it for free and am happy to do so. However, if you have enjoyed it then please do consider making a donation using this PayPal button. This will enable me to continue with this podcast and also to make other free entertainment, both in the fields of music and comedy, which I will make freely available online.

There is of course no obligation, but many thanks in advance if you do.

If everyone who hit this podcast paid one pound a month it would make a massive difference.

Monday 29 April 2013

Jesus They Are So Fucking Loud

The title of this blog contains all of the words from an internal email that was sent from the office to the studio tonight. It was sent during the sound check, in which the band were indeed fucking loud.

We had a fantastic show, Gary Barwell joined me for co-presenting once again, and we had a very last minute booking from the band All So Reckless, by which I mean last minute; they were booked last night.


7pm-8pm

Ritchie Havens 'High Flying Bird' 'Here Comes The Sun'
Patchwork Grace 'The Love Cats'
Prince Buster 'And I Love Her'
Dandy Livingstone 'Raining In My Heart'
PIL 'Don't Ask Me'
John Otway 'Beware Of The Flowers'
Fantastic Plastic Machine 'There Must Be An Angel'
Gang Of Four 'I Found That Essence'
Bee Gees vs Pink Floyd 'Staying' Alive In The Wall'

8pm-9pm

Buster Bloodvessel 'The Laughing Gnome'
Suede 'The Man Who Sold The World'

All So Reckless live in session:
'Teenage Years'
'Don't Come Crying'
'Wreckless'
Never Mind'

Jesus Lizard 'Monkey Tricks'
Joy Division 'At A Later Date'
Blur 'Under The Westway'
Stone Roses 'Ten Storey Love Song'
The Temper Trap 'Sweet Disposition'
Half Man Half Biscuit 'Hair Like Brian May'
Fuzzbox 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (we only fitted a few seconds of this, so we will play it again soon).

All So Reckless on Facebook

Sunday 21 April 2013

Just The Two Of us

No band this week, but I was joined in the co-presenter's chair by Gary Barwell, singer and guitarist from Prefontaine. We haven't known each other for that long, but have become good friends and can banter well and have a similar sense of humour. As usual, the two best hours of the weekend flew by.

7pm-8pm
Human League 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling'
Gary Numan 'Heart'
Spear Of Destiny 'Liberator'
Eisenfunk 'Pong' (this led to me playing a clip of the famous 'Super Morrissey Brothers' tune)
Rip, Rig, and Panic 'You're My Kind Of Climate'
Skatalites 'Simmer Down'
The Toy Dolls 'Any Dream Will Do'
Pavement 'Summer Babe'
Flaming Lips 'She Don't Use Jelly'

8pm-9pm
Black Sabbath 'God Is Dead'
Joe Brown 'Ace Of Spades'
Captain Dangerous 'Then She Kissed Me'
Rick Astley vs Nirvana 'Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up'
Junior Gee And The Capital Boys 'Have You Got The Time'
The Tansads 'I Know I Can (But I Won't)
Sisters Of Mercy 'Marian'
The Bates 'Billie Jean'
The Cure 'You're So Happy'

Monday 15 April 2013

Webpage Blurb

The second show of the returning Sunday Alternative was another triumph, with two stunning live performances from Luna Park and Fields. Those sessions will be available to hear again from this page very soon so watch this space! Those links once again for the bands are:
 
 
Again, thanks are due to our friends ROFL Audio for producing these and all of Trent Sound's live sessions http://www.roflaudio.co.uk/
 
What has Steve got in store for you on Sunday 21st April while you let your roast lunch go down? It's a secret. No, not secret, a mystery. Steve doesn't even know yet. Maybe a live band, maybe two, our best advice would be to keep coming back to this page because it'll be announced here first.
 
We do know that Steve will be bringing you a selection of music that you will only hear on The Sunday Alternative, (whether that's a good thing or not is up to your own discretion), such as these tunes that were played last week:
 
First hour 7pm-8pm
Eva Cassidey 'Over The Rainbow'
Klaus Nomi 'Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead'
John McCullough 'I'll Dance On Your Grave Mrs Thatcher'
Morrissey 'Margaret On The Guillotene'
Desperate Bicycles 'Blasting Radio'
 
Lunar Park live in session:
'Good Girl'
Ghosts'
'Control'
'Sik'
 
Ned's Atomic Dustbin 'Happy'
Birthday Party 'Mr Clarinet'
Depeche Mode 'About You About Me'
Splodgenessabounds 'I Fell In Love With A Female Plumber From Harlesdon NW10'
 
Second hour 8pm-9pm
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band 'Faith Healer'
Pop Will Eat Itself 'There Is No Love Lost Between Us Anymore'
The Wonder Stuff 'Far Far Away'/'Oh No!'
 
Fields live in session:
'I Know That You Know'
'Conversations'
'Turn It Down'
'Rock Paper Scissors'
 
Sultans Of Ping FC 'Turnip Fish'
Calling All Astronauts 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'
The Jam 'Tales From The Riverbank'
Wedding Present 'A Million Miles'
Ministry 'Lay Lady Lay'
The Beat 'Whine and Grine (Stand Down Margaret)'
 
Steve tweets during the show from the Trent Sound official twitter account @TrentSoundLtd but can be found making weak jokes and flag waving great music at @SteveOliver76 and show updates can be found at @SundayAlt
 
 
                                    

Ding Dong

I went there! I had been planning the opening gag since midweek; open with 'Over The Rainbow' and then ponder on the fuss about not playing a song from The Wizard Of Oz. Satire! I should be on a late night BBC2 show or something. After all the hype surrounding the playing of the song, I had let it be known that whatever the BBC decided, I was going to play the song. My big advantage was that my show starts immediately after the Radio 1 chart countdown, so even if only for the first ten minutes or so, my audience would probably be higher than usual.

This week I did the show solo, something that I enjoyed doing but felt that something was lacking. However, it suited having two bands in as I didn't have to fill with a lot of chatter. We had two brilliant sets, (one in each hour) from Lunar Park and Fields.

7pm-8pm

Eva Cassidy 'Over The Rainbow'
Klaus Nomi 'Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead'
John McCullagh 'I'll Dance On Your Grave Mrs Thatcher'
Morrissey 'Margeret On The Guillotene'
Desperate Bicycles 'Blasting Radio'

50% of Lunar Park

Lunar Park live in session:
'Good Girl'
'Ghosts'
'Control'
'Sik'

For more information about Lunar Park, their website is here.


Neds Atomic Dustbin 'Happy'
Birthday Party 'Mr Clarinet'
Depeche Mode 'About You About Me'
Splodganessabounds 'I Fell In Love With A Female Plumber From Harlesdon NW1'

8pm-9pm

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band 'Faith Healer'
Pop Will Eat Itself 'There Is No Love Lost Between Us'
The Wonder Stuff 'Far Far Away'
The Wonder Stuff 'Oh No!'


Fields

Fields live in session:
'I Know That You Know'
'Conversations'
Turn It Down'
'Rock Paper Scissors'

Like Fields on Facebook here


Sultans Of Ping FC 'Turnip Fish'
Calling All Astronauts 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'
The Jam 'Tales From The River Bank'
Wedding Present 'A Million Miles'
Ministry 'Lay Lady Lay'
The Beat 'Whine and Grine (Stand Down Margaret)

Sunday 7 April 2013

Sundays Are Back!

It felt like slipping in to a comfortable pair of slippers, and for some reason I wasn't in the least bit nervous. Ever since I quit The Sunday Alternative, I've wanted to bring it back. Whenever I hear a great song it irritated me that I couldn't share it with anyone via a radio show. I've obviously kept my hand in, doing The Sound Of Nottingham UK, and the array of podcasts, but live radio is a different kettle of fish altogether. The excitement of live radio got back into my system the first time I started doing NottinghamLIVE, and although I love doing that, Sunday gives me chance to share a far wider reach of music.

Today was spent hoping that everything went without a hitch, and the results spoke for themselves. It was especially good to have Andy Haynes co-presenting with me, although I felt a bit guilty about the fact that we didn't have a lot of time to go into long conversation pieces. Booking two live session guests was a gamble, but I think in retrospect it might be a good idea to save that sort of booking until I do the show solo.

Having said that, we had a great double bill of live music in. I'm not the world's biggest fan of tribute bands, but I was impressed when Rebel Rebel sent me some music. With David Bowie being big news at the moment, and with me being a well documented fan of all things Bowie, I decided to go for it and book them in. They played an amazing set, and as the singer said, it is a hard job to have to pick four songs from such an amazing body of work. They also did a brilliant job of 'Where Are We Now', which I imagine has made a sudden entry into the setlist of all reputable Bowie tributes, after ten years of thinking you have all the songs you'll need. Matt Blick, who I've been in touch with via social media, came in and performed in the second hour. I've been critical of the over population of the 'one man and a guitar' performers, but Matt is another one that stands out from the pack. Listening to him from the safety of our recording booth was a pleasure, I can't wait to hear it back. Matt's site is here.

7pm-8pm

AC/DC 'Back In Black' (intro only)
The Undertones 'Teenage Kicks'
The Stone Roses 'I Am The Resurrection'
The Pretenders 'Every Day Is Like Sunday'
The Selecter 'On My Radio'
David Bowie 'Ziggy Stardust'

Rebel Rebel live session
Where Are We Now?
Heroes
Let's Dance
John I'm Only Dancing

Velvet Underground 'Rock 'n' Roll

I forgot to get a group picture of Rebel Rebel, so have a look at their Facebook page.

8pm-9pm

Prefontaine 'Sunday Jingle'
The Bad Shepherds 'Sound Of The Suburbs'
Ramones 'Wonderful World'
The Wonderstuff 'Planet Earth'


Matt Blick live session
Finger Nails
Let's Build An Airport
Brother Bull
Sweet Baby Hand Grenade

The Clash 'Idle In The Kangaroo Court'
New Model Army 'No Rest For The Wicked Ones'

Sadly, my home recording didn't work out, so I'll have to wait until the show is available to download from the site. Which is here by the way.