Radio Three

Another day where I’ve barely had time to think, draw breath or even wee! I stayed up until 5am this morning doing my shot list, and then got up at 9 to continue where I left off. I was still transferring shots from one "show bible" to another on the tube on my way to the BBC at 4pm, and somewhere near Oxford Street, I simply slung one of the bastards into a jiffy bag and sent it recorded delivery to the lady in Bournemouth who will be calling the live event. I hope it's not too messy for her. I can genuinely say I did my best in the time I had, but it's no work of art!

I ran from the post office to Broadcasting House to discover that I’d got the time of my interview with Radio Three wrong by an hour, so finally got a little sit down with a cup of tea. I spent the time proudly texting people to say that my music was about to be played on Radio 3. A friend texted back about ten minutes later to say that she'd  obviously missed the broadcast of my song but contacted In Tune to say how much she'd enjoyed it so that they'd play it again... (a full hour before it was actually broadcast!)

The interview went well. They kicked things off by playing one of Barbara Windsor’s solos in the Kyrie and asking listeners if anyone recognised the voice. We had a chat in the studio about the piece. The combination of no sleep and too much tea had given me a funny turn just before we went in, and I explained to the presenter that I had arrived with no personality. Still, he rinsed a few choice remarks out of me, and friends who tuned in said I came across as being quite relaxed, so I guess that’s good.

It was wonderful to hear the Kyrie being played out in full on the huge studio speakers, knowing that people in homes and cars across the UK were listening in. I even had a few sales of the CD on my website!

From the BBC I literally ran – aided by a short bus journey – to the King’s Road where Julie was doing her cabaret. She sang a song I wrote with Arnold Wesker about 15 years ago, which I’d foolishly agreed to sing backing vocals for. Frankly, I have no idea what I was singing. All I know is that it was horribly wrong. I was exhausted, totally unprepared and basically just stood on the stage shuffling like an imbecile whilst Nathan and the lovely Llio Millward covered for me by singing beautifully. Julie didn't help matters by saying as we shuffled onto the stage that she had her very own gospel choir joining her. I looked down at a sea of black people in the audience, and immediately felt like a ghastly albino!

Julie did a flawless set of tunes, however, and the room was full of friendly faces including 5 members of my choir and my brother and Sascha. I had a lovely time and a delicious pizza. Glad to be back home, though!