It has taken me over two weeks to get round to posting this.  I’d like to think it’s because I am incredibly busy between work, studying and partying, but the real reason is because we’ve just got a Playstation and a new telly and between writing this blog and playing Grand Theft Auto in High Def, it’s clear which one is going to win.

That’s me meeting Noel Gallagher, all thanks to work.  It still seems like a bit of a dream.  I’m just a normal member of joe public and next thing I know I’m sitting in a room with one of the Gallagher brothers.

Thankfully my colleague Neil was doing the main part of the interview which meant I got to sit there enjoying the moment without getting too nervous.  You can hear the interview on episode 51 of the Sunday Showcase podcast.  I ask Noel about his favorite tv show, Seinfeld… a bizarre moment.

It was that night I realised I have one of the best jobs ever.

David

One of the most anticipated albums of the year for many, including me, is out on September 8th.

This still being the early days of my radio career and being my first year at a ‘proper’ radio station, it was quite an exciting moment for me recieving the promo ‘watermarked’ ‘embargoed’ copy of Glasvegas’s debut album. Watermarked in that if I were to leak it to the internet, they’d know who did it. Embargoed in that I can listen to it as many times as I want but I can’t play it on the radio till the 1st of September.

What was also quite exciting was getting to interview James and Rab from the band. All be it I was sitting in Aberdeen and they were sitting down a very long line in London (so I can’t claim I met them). Interesting Glasvegas fact, James used to play for Falkirk. He at least pretended to be slightly interested when I informed him that he helped my brother win the cup final in Championship Manager some years back.

I’m not too good at music reviewing. But I can say one thing, the album is completely worth the hype.

Look out for “Flowers and Football Tops”. The album version is more polished than all the demo versions on the internet, it also includes a hair raising chorus of “You Are My Sunshine” at the end of the track.

David

The face of pure evil on Flickr - taken by me

Aberdeen Seagulls. They are getting bigger, and they are getting less scared of humans and I feel it is only a matter of time before they will be governing us (saying that I have now just realised that a seagull in charge of the country couldn’t do any worse than our current government).

There is one seagull (pictured below) who now lives in our car park at work scaring everyone as they leave their cars. One day he even managed to get in the building. First he hangs around, I predict he’ll then be doing travel news before the end of the summer shortly followed by getting his own weekend show on the station. Much like my progression at work… only no doubt he’ll be more entertaining.

Also, in the current economic crisis, I’m sure the expense of window cleaners, thanks to this seagull, isn’t a welcome cost.

Sea Gull on Flickr - taken by me

I’m sitting here in candle light. Not sure why. I’m not usually in to all that sort of stuff. I’m trying to relax you see. I’m being David the travel bod tomorrow on the breakfast show for the first time in a month or so. I’ll have to get into the swing of waking up very early again.

Problem is I’m not the relaxing type of person. I can never settle. I wish I could put down my laptop, switch off my phone and mute my IPod but it just doesn’t seem to work.  Xavier, our book pundit on the Sunday Showcase has let me borrow a copy Ian Fleming’s short Bond stories in a desperate attempt to get me to start reading books, maybe I should try that to relax.

It’s also not helping that it is still very light outside, even at half 10 at night. Something I’m used to when in Shetland, but not on the mainland.  Rather scary though in a couple of weeks we’ll be at mid summer and it will start getting darker again!

Getting close to mid summer could be a benefit for tomorrow though. At least it will be broad daylight leaving the flat at 5am. Always a help.

Andrew with Mia Riddle and Dan Berry

We had one of my favourite sessions on the show this week, Mia Riddle, a folk singer song writer all the way from Brooklyn. She’s fantastic. And she’s only signed in Japan, she really should be signed here… if only I owned a record company.

I got a copy of her new album which is going to be out in about July, very nice. Look out for it.

Here’s my favourite song from the session, City Song:

An exciting time for my broadcasting careerer today…. my first ever station photo.

Sounds quite nice, but I have a little bit of a tough decision to make. To shave or not to shave. Here’s the pros and cons.

If I don’t shave I look a bit scruffy and like a typical student (not that good a look). If I do shave, I look about 12 and you can see my spots (again not a good look). Eventually I went for the shaved look, so it will now look like Original are employing a 12 year old presenter.

I hate getting my photo taken. My brain seems to shut my eyes automatically every time the shutter goes off, flash or no flash, resulting in a load of photos that look like I’ve had too much to drink. Also the reason I did radio was to be heard and not seen.

I was thinking the other day how weird it is I can sit in a radio studio and speak to potentially hundreds of thousands of people, yet I would struggle to stand up in front of a room of 5 people and do a talk.

I shall post the results here when the photos arrive.

David

So how are you spending your bank holiday tomorrow? Maybe you’ll sleep all day? Maybe you’ll go shopping, mow the lawn, have a BBQ or generally enjoy the 18 degrees Celsius weather forecast that Aberdeen has.

I on the other hand will be enjoying the biggest gig of my radio career to date. Bigger than my debut on Radio Shetland 6 years ago. Bigger than my first solo show on commercial radio 4 months ago. They’ve given me mid mornings… for one day only.

And yes it’s a bank holiday, but that could be quite big. Lots of people in their cars on the way to the shops. Lots of people driving around wasting fuel on a nice run to the country. I think I’ll be running on adrenalin for the 4 hours.

So if you’ve got nothing to do tomorrow, it is a bank holiday after all, 10am-2pm, 106.8/106.3FM across the North East of Scotland or online at www.originalfm.com, give it a listen!

Mean while, here’s a video of Iain Lee showing you how to present a radio show. Loving the subtle digs to Virgin Radio and their music rotation.