My Exciting Life In ROCK (part 1): 30/4/00 - The Eagle Radio, Bristol

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As part of the Big Promotional Push For The Album (Title Case makes it more EFFECTIVE) we hired a radio plugging company. PROFESSIONAL! The job of pluggers is to get your music onto radio, and they traditionally do this By Any Means Possible - blagging their way into studios, shoving records on unsuspecting DJs at parties or in pubs, and generally ANNOYING people into playing your songs.

Our pluggers didn't do that sort of thing, as they were OLD PUNKS. I'd highly recommend dealing with Old Punks whenever you can, as they're always honourable and decent, although they can be a little STERN at times if they think you're being insufficiently PUNK. Also, they do have quite a LOT of stories about having FITES in 1978, which they will tell you and, if occurring in a pub, ACT OUT, which does get a bit scary. They may not lie their way into Broadcasting House and force Steve Wright to play your record, but if you're the sort of person who WANTS that sort of thing, hire wankers instead.

Every week they'd send me a plugging report, showing who'd been playing the record, what they'd played, and what they thought of it. This was VERY good for the old ego as if people didn't like it they didn't say anything, and you tended to get the BEST stuff from the far-off tiny radio stations who were grateful to get ANYTHING. Nevis Radio, for instance, called it "a decent album with some live beats, clear vocals plus fine instrumentation and nifty rhythm guitar work." TRIFFIC!

The STERN bit would always be at the end, where they'd say things like "This campaign would do even better if supported by the ability to play radio sessions" - local radio, like local newspapers, is always DESPERATE for news stories anyway, and the people who do the Local Music Shows are usually MANICALLY KEEN on having touring bands in for sessions. It always felt like this section of the report was FROWNING at me when I read it, as if to say that if local radio sessions were good enough for Jimmy Pursey, they were good enough for the likes of ME.

Suitably chastened, and aware that we didn't have that many gigs booked, I told them that I'd travel ANYWHERE to play for anyone who'd have me. I was seeking Punk Validation, but the first thing I GOT was a FOUR HOUR train journey one Sunday from Leicester to Bristol. I was met by Mr Gary Smith, then of The Eagle, Bristol's local commercial radio station. When commercial stations get their licence they usually feature a commitment to "local music", and so are FORCED to let people like Gary have some air-time to be REALLY KEEN about gigs and The Local Scene. They usually put the shows on air on a Saturday night, when everybody who'd be interested is actually AT gigs, but still, it's the Contractual Obligation Fulfilment that counts.

We sped off to the station's offices where he sat me before a microphone to do three songs and have a LENGTHY chat. I've done a few of these with Gary since then and he is GRATE for having a Lengthy Chat with, although it's WISE that he always pre-records them. As anyone who's seen me live will know, I can GO ON a little bit. The BEST bit about the whole day, however, was doing IDENTS. These are GRATE - you know when people say "HI! I am That Bloke Off The Telly, and you're listening to THE RADIO"? THEM! I could have sat and recorded them all day, but I only had an hour before we had to DASH back to the station to get me on the last train home.

Hi! This is MJ Hibbett, saying - eight hours travelling for one hour's ROCKING? COMPLETELY worth it!

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