P to the Cee

Saturday’s show has been the most prepared in a long time, I just hope it turns out OK.

Listen live from 10am on http://rhubarbradio.com – normal NaBloPoMo will resume tomorrow, promise

Today was chocked full of not one, but two meetings regarding The Midsweep.

Saturday is more or less ready to go. We just need to keep every crossed that the technical difficulties don’t resurface and that everything records OK.

Met Amy today, who will be joining us when she can on the show. She shares my love for Bon Jovi, which means I’m no longer outnumbered when it comes to iPod Shuffle!

What a weekend!

We had another live band in the studio on Saturday. Rase popped in to discuss their music and play a few live tracks (all of which are available on listen again and via our Soundcloud) and it set us up nicely for next weeks double header with The Amateurs and The Benwahs playing live.

Sunday saw us play out of our skins at Powerleague. We’ve been getting gradually better over the past few weeks and, although we lost, we stuck in there against a team that are second in league.

I picked up a nasty gash on my leg, but made up for it by taking out a few of their players, fairly of course.

Next week we play a team that we’ve ran close every time we’ve played them, so now have the belief we can get something and move on to the end of the season on a high.

Today has been highy productive. I edited down Saturdays tracks, organised logistics for next week and may have secured myself some gainful employment.

At the moment i’m headed back into Birmingham for a meeting at the Custard Factory, before going to see 2012 with fellow Brum tweeters.

Best start to the week in a long time!

Tonight is a mammoth match for our Powerleague team. We’re playing 2nd in the league after grinding out some good results against the top teams and learning to play as a team.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to throw a bit of money into the pot and invest in some very cheap Bolton Wanderers away shirts with names and numbers on the back. I have to say, we definitely look the part and actually have the belief that we are quite good at all of this, rather than just turning up every week for a kick about and some beer.

We’re not Premier League material by any stretch, but we’re starting to believe, which is what it’s all about.

For the past month I’ve been desperatley trying to find a job, to no avail. Yesterday I signed on for the first time, which will mean I’ll at least be getting some income each week, although it’s opened up a few opportunities.

The way in which I lost my job is something I haven’t really talked about yet, but the short version is this; I got a text on the 6th October saying funding had been pulled and I wasn’t needed anymore. On first look and after working for the company for four months, I had some hope that outstanding pay would be sorted swiftly and I could concentrate on getting another job without having to worry about money for the foorseeable future. Boy was I wrong!

Over a month later and it’s quite evident that my ex employer are still trading, albeit as a different entity and have even blogged about why they close the Birmingham office, rather than had their funding pulled. Emails, text messages and phone calls have gone unanswered, and I’ve now given up all hope of getting a penny of the money I’m owed.

After talking to a few people, I decided signing on was the only thing I could do to ensure I can carry on doing The Midsweep, pay bills and provide some sort of Christmas for my family. There seems to be some stigma attached to it, as the majority are seen as “the great unwashed” who sit in the pub all day blowing money that the taxpayer has provided to them. This might be true, but there are still plenty of people, like me, who have been screwed over by an employer who they believed were professional enough to pay out the money they owe their employees and, instead live the high life and not worry about anyone else.

I was given details of about ten employers who are looking at getting on board the Governments’ new Work Trial initiative. It seems that little has been done to promote the idea, but it’s quite simple; Job seekers are allowed to work for up to 15 days with an employer without losing any benefit entitlement. This enables both the employer and employee to evaluate if the job is for them, with travel expenses being subsidised by JSA.

It opens up a wealth of opportunities to people in my position to try something that they would normally not be able to due to not having the relevant experience on their CV. Over the weekend I’ll be sorting out a list of companies I’ve always wanted to work for and then contacting them over the next week in the hope that someone, somewhere bites and lets me prove myself.

I just took the 14 day trial with Soundcloud on their €9 a month plan that gives you 12 hours of audio storage. What will I use this for? Why to upload the shows on to – for now.

Once I can get to editing, I’ll be releasing tracks from the bands we have in and, eventually, will be doing something very cool with them all.

Stay tuned kiddies, it’s going to be good.

After a break of a week, we’re back on Saturday with live music on The Midsweep. Rase are coming in to have a chat and play some of their songs in acoustic form for us.

This is ahead of perhaps our most daring show next week, featuring The Amateurs and The Benwahs both performing live in the studio.

Things are developing on the show at an alarming pace, and we’ll also be recording each show independently and putting it up on Midsweep.com and SoundCloud, so you won’t miss a thing.

Quite topical at the moment, a very young Simon Cowell on Sale of the Century

As a radio “deejay” I’m somewhat expected to have a good taste in music. As some of you may have heard on The Midsweep recently, sometimes that’s called in to question.

The truth is, I have an eclectic taste in music which does include some quite rubbish ones, frankly. Bon Jovi, Girls Aloud, Black Eyed Peas and the like have made their way in to my iTunes library over the past few years and have been mixed up with classics like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and The Clash etc.

You can’t tell me that John Peel never listened to music that was rubbish. Actually, he probably didn’t but I know what I’m trying to say!

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Early 2005 I started podcasting, which brought me to where I am today with Rhubarb and the Midsweep. In that time there have been quite a few occasions where I’ve stopped producing regular content due to work, family life or other obstacles. Recently things have been taking off with the radio show, so I’m going to officially announce that I’ll be moving on from podcasting to concentrate on getting the Midsweep out to as many people as possible.

Of course this doesn’t mean I won’t use podcasting to promote the show, just that bitjobs/meltdown et al are now no longer active shows. It’s been a wild ride, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and put things to bed.