Blog: Back To Brentwood

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As it was going to be a BUSY WEEKEND i had laid PLANS to make sure i didn't wear myself out and get a repeat of the UNPLEASANTNESS re. Baboon's Bottom that has happened before, HENCE i had built in a good old LIE IN for Saturday morning, that i might be RESTED before heading to Essex. My BRANE, however, was having none of it, and woke me up at 7am saying "Come on! let's hit the ROAD!"

I tried to go back to sleep and failed, then harboured thoughts about popping in to work or something, before realising that, actually, if i got up and WENT I could actually go HOME for a couple of hours, so that is what i DID - it was GRATE! An unexpected BONUS trip home thus followed, and it was a happily recharged Hibbett who set off that afternoon for BRENTWOOD, there to play a session on the newly opened Phoenix FM, who were celebrating the start of the PERMANENT LICENCE.

This was also the start at my attempt to utilise as many forms of transport as I could - it being the weekend nearly all public transport was, as usual, SCREWED, so I had to get a "rail replacement" bus (NB IT IS NOT A GOOD ENOUGH REPLACEMENT) to Wansted Park - a 3 minute journey by train which took half an hour by bus, although it did mean i got to be a HERO by persuading a train platform full of people of various nationalities that a) there was no TRAIN coming today (they took a lot of persuading) b) they needed to get a BUS instead and oddly c) the bus WASN'T going to be coming along the railway line. Still, it did all get quite jolly and I had a nice chat with one guy about the iniquities of Weekend Public Transport.

I thus arrived at Wansted Park full of CHEERINESS, which got battered a bit by the floods of REALLY MISERABLE looking people between there and Forest Gate Station, not least the family queuing behind me at the ticket machine who GLARED SILENTLY at me throughout my transaction in SOUR FACED UNISON. It was a bit scary.

Anyway, i got the super-quick Mystery Train from there out to Essex and discovered that Brentwood is actually on a MOUNTAIN, which I had to scale to get to the radio station, where I discovered Eddie, Steve and co. all gathered together in their brand new station. A year or so ago the government granted over 200 new licences for community radio stations around the country, as they'd realised that local commerical stations had LONG AGO stopped being anything but franchies of two or three massive companies, and so after nearly 10 years of temporary licences Phoenix was going FULL-TIME. They were having various people in to do sessions during the day and had very nicely asked me to do a short set, so THIS is what i did:

The Peterborough All-Saints' Wide Game Team (Group B)

It Only Works Because You're Here

Easily Impressed

It was LOVELY. Mr E Curry introduced me then dashed into the room where I was playing to watch, which meant that for about ten minutes _I_ and i alone was in FULL CONTROL of MY OWN RADIO STATION! WHoo! I really really enjoyed myself - quite a few gigs recently have seen us/me being slightly ignored by large sections of the audience and some of the COLOSSAL CONFIDENCE has been slightly battered, so it felt DEAD GOOD to be playing to people who a) actively wanted to listen and b) seemed to be enjoying it. I LIKED it! ALSO, as the studio was in the shopping centre, people kept walking past looking in, sometimes waving or LARKING about, sometimes looking TERRIFIED to realise that i could SEE them through the window. It was all VERY jolly, and it sounded quite good as well - i have MP3s, which i shall try and put up on the MYSPACE quite soon.

That done we nipped into the studio next door for a quick chat, and then it was HO! for the next part of my odyssey: CAMBRIDGE!

posted 26/3/2007 by MJ Hibbett

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