Goodbye America...

This weekend's edition of The Sound Of Nottingham UK will unfortunately be the last one. While I have enjoyed doing the shows and sharing the eclectic musical output from the city of my birth, certain factors are getting in the way of producing the show.

Most of Nottingham's music makers are nice people and I have made some good friends among them. The show has been well received by the vast majority, and even if people don't recognise me they twig when I mention 'that American radio show that plays Nottingham music'. My gratitude to Marshall Miles for giving me the show is as strong now as it was on day one. I never imagined having a radio show on an American station so that is quite an addition to the CV.

Sadly the negatives keep eating away at me. The biggest being the attitudes and ego within the scene, this hasn't got better and it is this delusion of grandeur that will prevent certain artists from breaking out. It used to annoy me when an invitation to appear on NottinghamLIVE was met with one of two reactions. The first was saying they'd come on when they had something to plug, when we explained that we asked people on merit and weren't a show that relied on people appearing as part of a publicity junket. This even happened when I was doing sessions for the American show! A few people found their way onto my blacklist which effectively meant that they received no more airplay on thee other side of the Atlantic. To my mind this diva behaviour hadn't been earned; you can only become a prick when you're at a certain level; Axl Rose is a good example. 

Then came the issue of new material. I have had to resort to asking for tracks for the show, and while most have been grateful some have treated the idea of American airplay as an inconvenience. A lot of the time this happens with artists with managers, so I would ask that they take a good look at who is supposedly looking after their interests and ask themselves if they are doing their job properly. Compere this to The Sunday Alternative, for which I receive songs from PR companies and labels from all over the world because this is how the music business works.

A combination of apathy and cliques are stifling Nottingham, as is the closed door policy of certain organisations. The Nottingham Post were good enough to run a story when I first started doing the show, it was a good angle to have a show for Nottingham musicians to receive their first American airplay, but no other media organisation got on board. I can't be too harsh on a certain arts magazine as they are still only just getting used to covering music, having only done so for the last three years of their ten year history. If I ran a cocktail bar they would have written pages about that. If I knew nothing about music and never went to gigs, I might have been asked to judge their talent shows too!

Nottingham musicians will still be played on The Sunday Alternative, which receives hits from all over the world and they will also be invited onto the new video version. I will continue to give my support to the local music scene, nothing has changed there, I am perhaps the most active supporter.

My advice to the new bands and artists is to try not to become part of a clique, and don't take any arsehole tablets as they are highly addictive.

It has been a pleasure doing the show, and despite the minority of twats I am proud to be part of the Nottingham music scene. My final show will be my favourites, and the version of the show that appears on Mixcloud will be half an hour longer.