Piling On The Bowie Excitement

Worldwide official press release:

As March is already being referred to as 'Bowie Month', it is with perfect timing that we can announce the return of the ultimate David Bowie podcast Moonage Daydream. Originally presented by mysterious Bowie blogger Jean Genie, the return sees a new presenter in the form of the show's producer Steve Oliver.

Steve Oliver's name won't mean much outside of his hometown of Nottingham England, where he is a hugely influential broadcaster nicknamed 'Nottingham's Mr Radio'. He hosts NottinghamLIVE on the local station Trent Sound, and also takes Nottingham music to an American audience with his show The Sound Of Nottingham UK, on the Connecticut station Robin Hood Radio (see the link?), which is played twice a week to the East Coast on FM, AM, and satellite television. The show also has a cult following in Nottingham itself.

Around the world, his name is best associated with The Sunday Alternative. Earning him the mantle of John Peel's successor, Steve's Sunday night shows were compulsive listening around the world. It broadcast from Trent Sound in Nottingham every Sunday at 9pm-12am UK time, and featured the most eclectic range of music imaginable, from unsigned artists, live sessions, punk, ska, rockabilly, country, hip-hop, and for good measure, an old music hall song or two. One of his later features was Steve's Big Bag Full Of Bowie, in which three Bowie tracks were played together uninterrupted.

"The Sunday Alternative is the reason computers have speakers"

"The best BBC 6 Music show that isn't on BBC 6 Music, yet"

Something of a podcast factory himself, Steve started producing Moonage Daydream last year. Failing in his attempts to persuade Jean Genie to bring it back, he sought permission to present it himself, also taking over writing and researching duties. The show will be released twice a month, due to Steve's other radio and writing commitments.

Steve Oliver: "I'm very excited to be doing Moonage Daydream and becoming part of the Bowie canon. It's a popular show, so I hope I can do it justice and carry on the great work of Jean Genie and finish the David Bowie story to date".

Moonage Daydream will return with a look at the Ziggy Stardust era of 1972 into 1973. Each episode will centre around an album, but also tell the story of that particular time. There will also be episodes devoted to films, and even his 'Dancing In The Street' duet with Mick Jagger will get a mention, as will Tin Machine. The series will conclude with The Next Day, and the excitement surrounding Bowie's surprise birthday comeback in his 66th birthday.



Steve Oliver is available for publicity interviews, and can be contacted direct:

Punk, Pop, And Puppets

The second series of my podcast Steve's LP Box has finally arrived. Below is the official statement/press release.

Originally a third hour strand of the legendary radio show The Sunday Alternative, and now a podcast unfettered by the 58 minute restriction, Steve's LP Box continues to surprise. That is certainly the case with this series of six, which might just blow apart Steve's super-cool, Mr Indie, music snob, image. Acknowledging that good pop is better than bad (insert your preference here), Steve has included Kylie Minogue's debut album alongside Madonna's True Blue. To restore things slightly, there's also Nine Inch Nails, Blondie, The Clash, and The Muppets!

The podcasts were written and recorded in this order:

Madonna True Blue
Blondie Parallel Lines
Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine
Kylie Minogue Kylie
The Muppets The Muppet Show Album
The Clash Give 'Em Enough Rope

They are all available to listen to from here.

For promotional interviews, quotes or whatever, contact anothersteveoliver@gmail.com

New Book: First Draft

My latest book First Draft is now available to download to your Kindle from here.

The audio book version is available to download, either free or pay whatever you like, (I said pay what ever you like. By the way, PayPal take just shy of half, just saying), from here.

I write music and comedy reviews from time to time for The Nottingham Evening Post, (as I still call it), and usually am required to write 200, 250, 300, or 350 words. My trouble is that I write far too many notes during gigs, and think up clever lines on the way home. The finished product has to be emailed to my editor overnight, so I write it up as soon as I get home. Hitting the 'word count' button usually tells me that I have written far too much, and the agonising process of chopping the article to bits follows. This can take longer than actually writing the bloody thing. I thought it a shame to waste all those poor rejected words, so I decided to put together the reviews from 2012 in their pre-edited form.

There are a few reviews that aren't included, this is because like a twat I hit 'save' instead of 'save as' and the originals disappeared.

Going back through the reviews and attempting to put them in order was a bit of a task. They are saved on my computer as 'Gig name first draft' and 'gig name final draft', but I haven't dated or numbered them. I therefore had to go through my 2012 appointments diary to put them in order. It's funny how long a year is when you go back over it in such a way; I remember how cold it was at The Nottingham Playhouse in February, how we seemed to go in phases of visiting the same venue, and how my girlfriend stopped me from having sex with a member of my laminate five.

Enjoy the book, if you're not inclined to read then you can listen to the audio book as a whole album. I have set the Kindle price to be as cheap as possible, and I only get a 30% royalty.

I don't want to clog up mine or anyone elses Twitter timeline with a stream of advertisements, so I've put together a newsletter instead. I haven't done this for a while...

Free Things

The Sunday Alternative lives on as a podcast, and as an hour long show on Top Wave Radio, Sundays 7pm-8pm.

The Sound of Nottingham UK (the home of Robin Hood, on Robin Hood Radio) broadcasts in the new time of 11pm Friday night (4am Saturday UK) and as usual on Sunday 1pm (6pm UK). If you live outside Robin Hood Radio's FM catchment, then listen online.

My radio and podcast archive can be found on the side links on my main blog. I'm working on getting the Sherwood Radio archive online, but The Sunday Alternative, Covermount, and Steve's LP Box can all be found there too.

I have turned my blog into a website of sorts, as my website wasn't really being used, so now you can find links to my newspaper reviews, photos, and anything else of importance.

Money Things

Please remember that we all need to eat

If Santa is bringing you a Kindle, then why not pop along to pick up your copy of Musings?

The sequal to Musings is also available, so how about downloading Christmas Musings?

As you're getting a Kindle anyway, you don't have to read my daily blog for free anymore. For a mere 99p a month, (about 3p a day), you can get it delivered to your Kindle.

The audiobook version of my famous blog Last Christmas is available to download.

December Dickens: Over the month of December, I aim to watch/listen to a different version of A Christmas Carol. This project is for a book due for Christmas 2013. I aim to do more, but at the moment you can download my version of A Christmas Carol.

The audio books are available to download for free or pay-what-you-like. Please consider this while choosing. I put out a lot of free content, and intend to continue in the new year. Please give what you can, however big or small. By earning from the audio books and Kindle books, I am able to put free stuff out. The donate button on my blog is there for that reason too, the more money I receive, the more likely I am to give stuff away free.

If my work makes a million pounds before Christmas, I will give 3/4 to charity, (£250,000 is enough), and dance naked in the fountains on Boxing Day.

Happy Birthday Appetite For Destruction

On Sunday 5th August, The Sunday Alternative will only be a two hour show. From 11pm until midnight, I present Happy Birthday Appetite For Destruction, in which I play and talk about one of (if not the) greatest rock album of all time.

Hello America!

I am starting a new hour long show for the Connecticut based station Robin Hood Radio, playing songs by Nottingham based bands and musicians. I'm not sure how they came to be named after Robin Hood, but the idea of the show is an attempt to link Robin Hood Radio with the home of Robin Hood.

Obviously the show is pre-recorded, as it would be a hell of a commute, and although a fairly easy show to do, (no need to be date specific or mention upcoming gigs for example) it presents a good opportunity for me to get my voice heard in America. We do of course have listeners to The Sunday Alternative all over the world, but appearing on an American station is something different altogether.

"The sound of Nottingham UK, the home of Robin Hood, on Robin Hood radio"
I came up with that myself!

My show broadcasts Saturday 1am and is repeated Sunday 1pm, those times are their times. Over here it'll be Saturday 6am and Sunday 6pm, and of course you can listen online!

More Radio Randoms

On the 19th May 2012, I co-presented Nottingham LACE on Trent Sound with Rapunzel MAP. We might have mentioned that we were going to see Guns and Roses in concert later that night.

Hour one
Hour Two
Hour Three

Radio Randoms

I don't want to upload these to The Sunday Alternative mixcloud site, as they aren't really 'canon'.

Nottingham Lace, 12th May 2012: I co-presented with Jason Loftus this week, you can listen again to the show.
Hour one
Hour two
Hour three

Trent Sound morning show: I sat in for Andy Lloyd on the morning show on two occasions. I tried to sneak in as many of my own song choices as possible just to try and liven things up.
29th February 2012, hour one. Only the first hour survived on this day.

27th January 2012:
Hour one
Hour two
Hour three

Happy Birthday Dickens (contains a plug)

On the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, I am happy to announce (very early) that this coming Christmas will see the release of my audiobook series Charles Dickens Christmas Books.

They will appear, one story at a time, advent calender style, from 1st December. The books will be available to download on a 'pay what you like' basis.

Blog Now Available On Kindle

I'm not sure how this will work, or if it will be worth it, but my daily blog is now available to subscribe to on the Kindle for a mere 99p a month.

You can of course just read it for free on this blogger profile, it is up to you.

Christmas Musings Available Now

A good reason to ask Santa for a kindle, my new book Christmas Musings is available to download now. If you're buying a kindle for a loved one, why not pre-load it with both of my titles?

More titles to come over the course of next year, only on kindle. At a price that's right!

Christmas Musings is available from here

Musings is available from here

Back On Radio

I am pleased to announce that I will be returning to radio, on the Internet station Trent Sound. There won't be a lot of difference between the new show and the old Sherwood Radio show, although I am bringing in a few changes to keep everything fresh.

The high standard of music will remain; the best selection of unsigned bands, alternative classics, punk, ska, reggae, rockabilly... the list goes on. Basically, anything good, an intelligent and eclectic blend of music you won't hear on your bland commercial 'same six songs, all day long' local radio shows, or Radio 1. In addition to the music, there will also be classic comedy clips and live bands in session.

A new twist will be that I will be joined by a different guest co-host every week, that I have personally invited, from the worlds of creativity.

The twitter hashtag #steveradio will be re-introduced, and for those of you who haven't joined twitter yet (it is 2011, what is wrong?), there will be a facebook page. This will open on the day itself. The Oliver Sessions blog, and youtube channel, will be brought out of mothballs for use on the new station.

If there are any features from the old show that you would like to see come back, (no promises), then let me know and I may consider it.

The show is Sunday nights, from 9pm to 11pm, starting on September 11th.

Steve Oliver's Covermount Cassette Show

In the last newsletter I mentioned my four part series based on the NME tapes C81 and C86. These short programmes are now expanding into a permanent series.

Steve Oliver's Covermount Cassette Show broadcasts on Monday night at 10pm on Sherwood Radio.

If you missed it then it is available as a podcast here.

New Radio Series

I will be presenting a four part series paying tribute to the legendary C81 and C86 cassettes, that were given away with the NME in 1981 and 1986 (hence the titles). The first show, C81 Side One, is broadcast on Monday 4th April at around ten o'clock.

DVD News

The new DVD from comedian Richard Herring is available to buy from here and in the shops. It is best to buy it from GFS though, as because they are an indie label, they need our help to keep going.

On the GFS version of Hitler Moustache, you get three discs of features including as an Easter egg on disc three, my interview with Richard from backstage at the Nottingham Playhouse in January.