Alrewas Canal And Music Festival

So here we are at the end of an absolutely brilliant 5 days of radio, music, beer and community spirit. With regards to the post I wrote last weekend about The Alrewas show, I just wanted to expand on a few points.

There is one thing that always gets me about this village that I live in. There is a great amount of different groups and organisations in the village that do lots of good things for the village. Now it is all very well and good having this, but what makes thing extra special is when they all get together in 1 big event like the Alrewas Show or the Arts Festival or the Canal and Music Festival, each part encorperating a different part of our village heritage: the canals, the arts and the creativity and the agricultural side of the village community, that pays tribute to the fact that the village was once upon a time just a group of farm buildings.

There are plenty of other things that inspire me about this type of event. Just general people trying to make a difference to the world in which they live in, starting with the local community. Not only are there lots of hassles involved with organising these type of events, but they are also very time consuming and require a lot of dedication and commitment from lots of people involved, to the point where people are sleeping in marquees to make sure nobody pinches the beer in the middle of the night!

These type of events inevitably come with their own problems to sort out and with organising so many people together, if one person doesn't pull their weight then the whole thing could have a negative effect on the whole chain of things.

Having organised the radio for this event and others similar, there is so much of it that can prove to be so tricky and time-consuming that to be organising the whole event is a mammoth task in itself!

However, it is the end result that is really something inspiring. If you achieve something as succesful and as memorable as you achieve with these events, not only making people aware of the great things that go on in the village, but also raising so much money for the local community, organisations and groups is an absolutely brilliant thing to have and something that is really good for us to be able to say that we have been part of.

And it is for those reasons that I am proud to say that I am from Alrewas. Community participation and generosity of time, to make things happen for the good of the entire community, that I will miss when I go off to university in September and leave the village.

Thank you for reading:
Follow me on twitter: @peachy146
Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio
Follow Alrewas Canal And Music Festival on twitter: @alrewasboatfest
Follow Alrewas Arts Festival on twitter: @AlrewasArtsFest

Alrewas Radio Update 27/07/13

Well here we are on the barge on the 4th day of this stint of Alrewas Radio, and everything is going smoothly. At least it was until about 5 minutes ago, when Jamie decided it would be a good idea to remove the power from the internet router and see what that did. Turns out it turns the internet off, freezes the computer and stops the broadcast. Oh dear.

Despite the technical trouble, we are just reflecting on how good the actual quality of the radio, and the quality of the broadcasting is this time round. With the new set up, of micing up each presenter individually, and also using a mixer box with preamps and xlr signals means that we can actually be more focused and comfortable on what we are doing and therefore there is more room for banter in this situation.

The interactions between the presenters on their shows is also a lot better. Everyone is more confident at being on air and that means that they can be relaxed and have more fluent conversations. 

Also the allocation of shows means that there is a more regular and reliable, within reason of people being ill and people having to work of course, but we have done this for 3 runs, so we are starting to establish a balance of the presenters that work really well and flow nicely. 

In retrospect, the one show that has been a bit dodgy has been the decades hour at the end of the day. It hasn't at all been the decades it was supposed to be and has turned more into an "anybody and anything" show. Maybe we should just leave this open as one of those shows, or maybe find somebody else to do it, as opposed to people who have already done a show during the day.

We would really like to know what you think and any suggestions that you have so please let us know, you can email them to alrewasradio@hotmail.co.uk, or you can write on the page or in the group on facebook: www.facebook.com/alrewasradio or you can tweet us @AlrewasRadio

Thank you very much for your continued support and loyalty to your local internet radio station.

Alrewas Radio... Yesturday: 24/7/13

This post is basically to reflect on the events of yesterday and to fill you in on all the latest behind the scenes action. I mean, for a start everything went without a technical hitch, so that was the first thing that amazed us all and really started the day in the very best possible way. Not only that, but it was lovely to be able to be on the boat. I mean what a brilliant way of getting around. It is slow and effortless, and nothing happens at any pac on the canals, it is all so relaxed.

One of the things that was really nice about actually being on the boat is the fact that we had a space we could call ours. Not someone else's cupboard or garage, but a proper Alrewas Radio HQ.

What was also nice about yesterday was the way that people instantly fell back into being on the radio and were able to pick where they left off last time and move back into DJing with ease. 

The 3rd and final thing that I would like to comment on about yesterday was the participation from you guys, the listeners. There were so many tweets and requests and things coming in that we didn't have enough time to read them and play them all, but it was just so nice as the presenters to have that level of participation from our listenership. 

There was also things which we can improve on and will improve on today. For example, little teething troubles with the new mics, and also the operators who are using them as to where they speak from, whether it be too close or too far away, and also actually remembering to turn his co-presenters microphone actually on!

Thanks for listening yesterday if you did, and if you didn't then make sure you do today, by simply clicking on this link below: 

tinyurl.com/alrewasradio

Thanks for reading, 

Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio

Like us on facebook: www.facebook.com/alrewasradio

Bye!

Alrewas Radio Update 24/7/13: From the Barge

I would just like to make one thing very clear actually before we start so as not to annoy our host, but we are not actually technically on a barge, we are on a narrowboat, as we are not carry goods on UK waterways...

However, we are so so pleased to be here, live from the boat 2013, to accompany the Alrewas Canal And Music Festival. Things did look a little bit dicey, but not to worry, the boat moored at it's designated spot at approximately 6.30 this morning, which is of much relief to the Alrewas Radio team! 

Nonetheless, after a brief dry run about 30 minutes ago, I can confirm, that everything works, for once in the history of Alrewas Radio. Still I better not get too ahead of myself as everything could still go wrong! We still a million miles ahead by normal standards, so everything could go well!

The newfound, borrowed, begged and stolen (only joking) gear that we have is doing to job absolutely marvellously and has really helped us out with logistics here in the studio. The only one thing left to do now, is to press PLAY and off we go!
We hope you will be tuning in from 10am-5pm for the next 5 days, including today, here is a brief reminder of the line-up

10-11: James Richardson
A radio veteran starting the day with some well loved and remembered features as well as some new stuff.

11-1. The terrible 2 return back to Alrewas Radio with Barge Or No Barge, as well as hoping to get a real insight into what is going on at the festival and talking to loads of people within the local community.

1-2: Rob Spalls Lunchtime
Rob will be taking a break from the usual news and weather for his very own show at Lunchtime, while the rest of us head of to the chip shop to keep him refuelled and rearing to go!

2-3: The Ruttleys Canal time Quiz and Music
The Ruttley Bros. inc. Were new at Christmas and are back again for another run on the radio with some topical music and talk about the canal, as well as some laughs along the way. Very much looking forward to hearing them again!

3-4: The Tom Leedham Show
Playing alternative music for an hour, with some great new music to introduce you to! 

4-5: The Decades Hour
The decades will take a bit of twist this time, with some topical music to the weather and the time of year, as well as the event, as we take a walk through musical history every day.

I hope you love Alrewas Radio this time as we have so much for you to listen to and enjoy!

Thanks for reading and I hope you all tune in: 10-5, 24th-28th July. For further updates:

Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @peachy146
Like us on facebook: www.facebook.com/alrewasradio

LISTEN AT: tinyurl.com/alrewasradio

Alrewas Radio Film?

With all this modernisation to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook that seems to be going on, not to even mention Instagram and Vine and all of this, I am thinking about making an Alrewas Radio Behind The Scenes type film at the Alrewas Canal And Music Festival.

This will hopefully include some of the stuff that we do, filmed from our perspective. I know that Jim and Pete Ralley are hopefully going to make a video too, but I want this one to be a bit vloggy and a bit rough around the edges, for us to be able to tell you about how we do things. 

If you think this is a good idea, then please tweet us @AlrewasRadio or comment on this post with anything you would like to see in the video, to give us some ideas of what you guys want to see as well as what we want to show you!

Thanks for supporting Alrewas Radio! For continued updates: 

Follow us on twitter: @AlrewasRadio
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/alrewasradio

New Music On Alrewas Radio

One of the whole things with Alrewas Radio is that it is a local radio station. Now we can sit here and play the Beatles and Queen all day long, because there is enough of their music to do that with on the radio macbook, but the thing is, it doesn't really embrace the whole point of the radio. 

We are first and foremost, the community's radio station, and run by Alrewas Arts Festival. Trying to encourage music and the arts within the village and local community is therefore something we really want to do.

And there is so much musical talent in the local area. We already have 1 band on board, who have 2 EPs on iTunes. That in itself is something special.

So, if you have some tunes that you want us to play on Alrewas Radio, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. We want to be able to support as many local artists as possible.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from lots of you soon,

Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio
Like Alrewas Radio on facebook: facebook.com/alewasradio

The Trials and Tribulations of Running A Radio Station: Part1

As part of Alrewas Radio, we experience the highs and lows of any community project, and while the satisfaction and accomplishment of what you end up with at the end is something that cannot be compared to with anything else, there are 2 main issues that you always find within these things.

The first is time. The point with community run voluntary projects is that people do them over and above what they would be doing on a day to day basis. This means that these projects are never anybody's first priority. Whilst it is great to get people involved, this does cause a lot of issues with actually getting stuff done. I mean I have been off school and doing basically nothing else with my life and I still haven't managed to get everything done that I wanted to!

This leads to another problem. When people don't have time to do stuff, they often don't have time to be in constant email contact either. This proves difficult when trying to get stuff done. You try and contact a person but they are busy doing other things, so you can't do that thing and everything ends up working it's way further and further down the job list.

Don't get me wrong though. I absolutely love getting involved with things. I like being busy, and I like helping people, I like making a difference. It is that which gives us the drive and determination to achieve something, whether it be a little radio on a boat or wether it be a massive jam packed arts fetsival across an entire 9 days, it is all worth it and good fun in the end. To see a whole community pull together to actually make a wonderful event is something which is so amazing to see, and is what I would say is the best in human nature.

Thanks for reading,

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Alrewas Radio Update 22/7/13

I HAVE SOME VEY EXCITING NEWS!

ALREWAS RADIO IS READY TO BROADCAST!

I have this morning received communications from our hosting company to say they have re-instated the hosting and it now works beautifully, I have been broadcasting to it and listening and testing this morning! It is all really working out well!

This is all making me even more excited for wednesday. It is becoming ever closer and ever more possible!

The new kit which has been borrowed to do this has been really great and has made the radio a lot more professional with a lot more possibilities and options for us to achieve.

However it does all seem to be going TOO well! We will have to see how the next few days pan out to see what actually happens and whether we do actually make it to wednesday all going well!

I will be keeping you up to date on this blog so please keep coming and reading every once in a while to find out the latest on Alrewas Radio!

Thanks very much for reading this blog and your continued support! we look forward to seeing you at the weekend!

Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio
Like Alrewas Radio on twitter: facebook.com/alrewasradio

Alrewas Radio Update 21/7/13

So it has been 2 days since our last catch up, and since then, well not too much has happened. Apart from a very own Dan Ruttley came back from swanning around on holiday in Sicily to join us for Alrewas Radio!

Also, there was so very special advertising done at the Alrewas Show yesterday: Lucy The Moggy Minor became The Alrewas Radio Car, a proud advertisement in the vintage classics parade and a picture to hopefully be put into the Lichfield Mercury this week as advertising!

Here is a  picture of me and my sister posing with here next to the ring:

In addition to this you can just about make out the new #AlrewasRadio fashion that I am wearing, The Alrewas Radio T-Shirt, prepped and ready to go for this coming wednesday.

So on that note, make sure you are there, listening, and actively supporting your favourite local radio station this week, as we go live again for the first time again this year. This is something that we are all really excited about and I hope that it goes really well!

Still there is so much to do though, so I better get cracking.

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY:

LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE: www.facebook.com/alrewasradio

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @AlrewasRadio

Alrewas Show - What A Day...

Now I know that the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the 132nd Annual Agricultural and Horticultural Village Show is sad and boring, but I want to give you a brief resume on how it actually is, the Alrewas Way.

Now you must firstly understand how the populous of the village is made up. There is a core group of "oldies" who regularly frequent the George And Dragon and queue up outside the co-op at 7am to but their paper. These are mostly people who have lived in the village all of their life and are really important people in the history of the village. So much have changed and developed and grown in such a relatively short time in history for these people to be able to tell the tales of.

There is another band of people in the village who are the true heart of the things that go on in the village. These people often have differing views. Some are from the previously mentioned group of folk, and others are new-comers to the village and some the second, third and more generations of village families and names. The sort of names that crop up regularly throughout the churchyard.

These are the people who organise so much stuff in the village. We are in a very privileged position to have so many people in this group of people who do stuff for the community. There is the Arts Festival Committee, the Alrewas Show Committee, the Civic Society, The Village Hall, The Scouts, The Arts Council and many other people who do stuff for all of these different groups and are little off-shoots of these groups. With so many events on the annual calendar including the Village Show, Bonfire Night, The Arts Fest, The Canal And Music Fest, there is so much going on that allows people to really enjoy village life to it's full.

And that was at it's most obvious yesterday at the Alrewas Show. Not only did the committee do an absolutely amazing job under the new chairmanship but the community participation and collaborations  with Arts Fest providing the bar, scouts doing BBQs and the whole village really pulling together to make a day very special in the village calendar.

I was dutifully at work at 6.30 this morning, after a really enjoyable evening at the show after party, and all I heard was how amazing this day had been. That, with the combination of last year's Arts Fest and the coming Canal Festival, the events put on by village folk are really coming on leaps and bounds in variety, fun, interest and success. 

The village however, have really captured the essence of all of this fundrasing in the most effective formula, simply: Cheap Beer. Good Music. Good Night. 

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Alrewas Radio Update: 19/7/13

As the eve of the week of Alrewas Radio On A Boat 2013 approached, I want to reflect a little on the progress that has been made so far.

So we started off behind a bookcase in the lobby at the village hall just less than a year ago, not knowing what to do, how to talk on radio, and how the whole thing would pan out, sat at a mic nervously reading out the names of songs and the programme for the Arts Festival. By the end of the week we were living our lives on radio, pretending we were constantly commentating on the events around us.

So much so that when it came to re-opening Alrewas radio for christmas, it was like we had never been away! At least this time we had our own room, albeit the garage in the middle of winter...

Still we had a really good few days and the response to the radio was amazing. It was at christmas that people really started to know about the radio and support it. While the highest listener count was lower than in the summer, there was a larger amount of people who listened in total, and I think on the whole we did much better radio.

It was shortly after that that Will Chapman got in touch with us about the radio for Alrewas Canal and Music Festival, and since then the time has flown. Not only did he offer us a little bit of cash for the funds, but he also told us that beer was only £2 a pint! We were on board from the word go and here we are now.

I have been making posters to put up at Alrewas Show all day, and I have been involved with radio things in the primary school ever since I finished my exams, runnning little workshops and things. All of this experience in organising, producing and presenting I am hoping will make us a much better team when it comes to the actual thing in 5 days time.

Until then though there is many things to do: Today I sorted out some extra microphones and was in conversation with Jim Ralley about the hosting, and T-Shirts have been allocated to presenters!

The job list is still long though, I have to sort out our internet connection, getting all the kit to work together as well as making sure everything is checked and double checked, not to mention the music and playlists and interviews and such like!

I hope you are all very much looking forward to it, and don't forget to follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio and also make sure you like our facebook page for many photos and updates while we are on air: www.facebook.com/alrewasradio. Alongside this, if you actually want to listen to us (which you definitely do by the way) the link to the station is tinyurl.com/alrewasradio.

Don't worry though, you will be seeing that link plenty of times on twitter and facebook before we go live for the first time in 2013!

Thanks for reading, remember to follow this blog to stay up to date!

Setting Up An Internet Radio: Part 3 - Where To Get Music From

This post is going to be about where you can get all the music you want to play from, and my advice gathered from experiences that I have had.

The thing with music on all radio stations, is that they don't play that much music at all. If you look at the Radio 1 playlist, they only have about 40 songs that they play throughout an entire week. The thing with this is that the more songs big radio stations play, the more money they have to pay out in royalties. We have a benefit as a smaller radio station that we are able to play any music without having to pay any royalties, so long as no money is made off of the radio station. The best thing about this is we can pretty much play whatever music we want.

However, whilst this allows us such a great range of music to play, we end up with a difficult situation where we have to find lots of music to play. I will give you one tip: the more people's iTunes libraries you converge, the amount of songs you have grows exponentially. Between 5 of us, we have gained a total of 20,000 songs on our playlist. The thing to remember is that these days we have such a great resource of YouTube at our fingertips. While a large amount of our music came from different people's iTunes, another large part of the music came from youtube. This is something that must be done in advance, but the best thing to do is to download a free youtube to mp3 converter. This will take the video on youtube and make it into an mp3 file, which means that songs on youtube can be immediately taken and created into an audio track. 2 things to remember with this: Always test your tunes before you play them on air, as I can't tell you the amount of times I have queued up a song on the radio and it has ended up not having converted properly; and secondly always proof check the songs you download. A large amount of our songs ripped off of youtube have other DJs at the start and end, as well as not being a censored as I would have liked them to be. This is a big thing with music these days, there is way too many swear words in them and always search for the radio edit.

So there you go. Use youtube to your advantage and let time pass, you think of songs you want to play and new songs come out, keep up to date with the charts, and soon enough you have an iTunes Library with over 30,000 songs on it that you never even knew was possible. 

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Setting Up An Internet Radio: Part 2 - About The Server

If you have bought hosting, then you will have some addresses that will lead you to a server. This is what listeners tune into to listen to your radio. However stuff news to get on there. And that is what your encoding/streaming software does. You will be given a server IP, as well as a link to where you can listen to the server. Both of these things are important:

Firstly, concerning the server IP:

In the encoding and streaming software you have chosen, you will be able to configure the settings to tell the server that you want that program to put stuff to it. On nicecast on mac, this is configured by going to Window> Show Server. When you are here, the little popup window at the side shows you a list of the servers that you will be connected to. You need to click the plus at the bottom and you will be presented with a window with a number of fields to fill in. You want to make sure that you fill in the fields called sever type (With the the type of server your hosting is: This info should be provided but the host), the account and password (if you don't have any other information, use the account name source, and then the encoder password should be provided for you by your hosting company) and the address field (This is the server IP).

Once you have filled in all of this information, you should be good to go. In terms of any issues, the best troubleshooting advice is to make sure firstly everything is turned on, and then secondly to make sure that you have selected the right server. Other things to watch out for is to make sure the right account and password are entered. If you can't find this information, then you need to send an email to your hoisters to find it out so you can use either this software or edcast.

If you are using edcast, the best thing to do is to follow these instructions as they are a little harder to get your head around, and some things may get lost if I just tell you what that says: http://www.fastserv.com/kb/article/edcast_winamp_-_easy_steps_to_streaming_to_icecast_or_shoutcast/

Onto the Listener Address:

This website URL will actually download the live.mp3 file and play it automatically on somebody's default media browser. This is something that people need to be able to click on in order to actually get there. For our radio, we shortened the link using tiny url.com, so that people could hear it or see and then type it into their browser when they got home, as it was for a festival and flyers were being handed out around and about. This however is also something that you can imbed into a website either via a link or via an actual online media player, however if you want to do that, it is probably best to speak to somebody a little bit more knowledgable about websites than me!

If you are interested about setting up a community radio station then make sure you look at my further posts, follow my blog and also follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Setting Up An Internet Radio: Part 1 - What You Need

So, you have got to the point whereby you want to start a radio station. Whether this be for your community, or for your personal interests and fun, there are many ways you can do this.

The first point we need to cover is liscenses. Unfortunately, here in the UK you can't broadcast without having a liscense. You can apply to your local authority for a community radio license, and this is the same principal in many countries. I am afriad I do not have the time or knowledge to go into this, so it is best before you start to check this out with your authorities.

The second step is to establish some stuf to broadcast from. All you need is a laptop, as a bare minimum. There is lots of software however that will do the wonderful job of broadcasting for you.

Once you have got the kit, you need somewhere to put your radio station. There are lots of different price ranges and features between different internet radio hostings, and that is something that you need to be aware of. My favourite of them all, however is Canstream. This company offers a personal service that is very easy to use, whereby a real person will set up the hosting then give you all your details to access you CPanel and your hosting server.

For me, when doing the radio, this feature is fantastic as it allows us to stop and start the hosting whenever we want, meaning we are not tied into any contracts or any long term things, so we can litterally just broadcast whenever we want to. Also in all the times we have had technical difficulties we have been able to fix it very quickly with an email, as apposed to any pre-recorded helplines or FAQs, that never really help anyway.

I mentioned earlier about software. Now there are 2 pieces of software that I use: Both of which I paid for and both of which don't work very well. But they are the best that I can find. Now this is where opinions split over software, as they always will do, but for me, the best actual program to make the radio is a program called Radiologik. It is really easy to use and links very well with iTunes music library, as well as the navigation system within the program being very easy to use. Now there is a difference in software depending on whether you have a PC or a Mac. For mac there is a program called Nicecast, and for windows it is called edcast. These programs are your broadcasting program, that allows you to put the radio on the server and for people to then download it and listen to it.

Nicecast is paid for software, whereas Edcast is freeware, however both work equally well for their respective operating systems.

And there you have you basic kitlist

-Laptop

-Microphone

-Radio Hosting (canstream or similar)

-Radiologik

-Broadcasting Software (Nicecast/ Edcast)

I will look in other articles to talk about video streaming on things like ustream, adn the posibility of a radio station on this, but for now this should get you started.

In the next article I will talk about actually getting your radio broadcasting, so that you can finally get your show on the road.

I hope this article has been helpful. For updates on this blog please follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Thank you for reading!

Those Lads Holidays.

Every year, there is an influx of young visitors to those Mediterranean resorts like Zante, Malia, Malaga and Ibiza, and this year, it was the turn of my peers to jet off to Greece, get drunk for 7 days, then fly home with the most horrendous hangover!

I have just met up with a friend who has been out there. He is not the type to get overly excited about things, so when I asked him how it was, his response was: "Well, it's a bit tiring going out every night isn't it?" which just about sums up my attitude to this type of holiday.

I have no issues with people who do, but I am not the type for clubbing. I am the kind of guy who likes to be in bed by 10.30, and likes going camping at the weekends, spends all of his spare time fixing my car and writing pointless stuff on the internet. To do that, you definitely have to be a special type of person!

So naturally, a whole week of this, would just be ridiculous. So, between me and my friends I have come up with a little plan that I hope will sort all these issues out. Instead of getting on a rubber band airlines plane to Cyprus, we will be getting in our little cars, and heading up the M1, following the signs for "The North." A crazy idea I know, but we have chosen to go and have a good old lads holiday in sunny yorkshire. And if you are an Ale drinker you will have heard of Theakston's, and if you are an Ale boffin you will also know that a Theakston's brother makes a beer called Black Sheep, both breweries are located within 10 miles, as well as Wensleydale Brewery and many other lovely beers, brewed in and around Wensleydale with the lovely soft water that the marshes provide.

We will be camping in a field, with nothing but a few matches (and a ton of lighter fluid but don't tell anyone, that would be cheating), a few tents and some sleeping bags, for just under a week. This is something that we will really enjoy, I can tell you that, and something that we would much rather be doing that going over the water to Ayia Napa or something like that!

I will make sure I keep you posted on how we get on!

What makes me laugh is even as I write this blog, Holst came on shuffle on my iTunes. I really am a sad old man before my time.

Thanks for reading,

Please follow me on twitter: @peachy146

The Great Ukulele Orchestra...

As any teenager these days, I dabble in a bit of Ukulele playing. Now as I am an a Level musician, people seem to expect that I am very good at this. The truth is, I am not.

So when a friend suggested to me, shall we do a ukulele thing with one of our other friends, for the last ever summer concert, I obligingly said yes. On the one condition that my bit wasn't too hard to play.

Now considering that out concert in on tuesday, I really haven't left myself very much practicing time. So when he brings round the music to a rehearsal we had for this, and I can't play any of it, this concerns me.

However, we bashed through it, and I got a lot of it wrong, and they tried o show me, and I still got it wrong, but we got there in the end I think, and I hope too! We have 3 days to get it right before we are to perform and we are making good progress.

It just goes to show I think that anything really is possible when you put your mind to it, maybe a little tangled and struggled and messy, but you will get there in the end! I will o out on tuesday night and play as well as I can play it. I don't think you can let things you can't do stop you from doing things that you want to do!

Thanks for reading,

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

July/ August Minor Matters Has Arrived!

When the post came through the letterbox this morning I was very excited to see that the July/ August edition of the Morris Minor Owners Club Bimonthly magasine has been issued!

I am especially excited for this issue for 2 reasons. Firstly the National Rally at Cornbury Park took place the other weekend and the magasine was packed full of stories and reviews from that, which were really great to read and relive the moment.

Also, as happens every year, a group of Morris Minor owners hop on a ferry across the channel and drive round France for a week. This is something which always catches my attention and is something that I would really like to do next year, so I was looking forward to reading all about it this year, to get excited for next and try and gain some sneaky peaks at where they might be staying next year.

This is something that has become a well established tradition within the owners club and is something that is really a social highlight of the Owners Club calender. This, to ordinary folk, really will epitomise their distaste for classic car owners: Boring, old and sad. True, ture and true.

But I am proud to call myself one, not least because it is a sense of belonging that owning a classic car brings. There are not many times these days when another motorist will stop and help you if you are broken down, but Morris Minor Owners always do that. It is a recognised thing from one owner to another to pip the horn and wave like a mad-man, or maybe in a slightly more toned down way if there is a girfriend present in the car, and it is something which we call all relate to other people with.

It may seem all weird and creepy and like an old man's club, but really, it is just the same as any football club or social event that happens down the pub. And it is for that reason that I love owning a Morris Minor. Not only can I take pride in what I drive, but I can be part of something that I enjoy. And that is the fun of the Minor.

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

The Sun Is Shining...

There ain't a cloud in sigh, it's stopped raining wehey hey, It's a beautiful new day...

Sorry, excuse me, I got a bit carried away of the whole Mr Blue Sky. 

I have to admit, because I am about 50 years older than I actually am (mind officially boggled) I don't really like the sun, or any heat. So this unmitigated outbreak of sunshine is not entirely welcomed by me.

However, even though I now have sunburn on my neck, legs and feet (which really hurts by the way, not a good idea) I am quite enjoying it. I think it puts everybody in a really happy mood and the makes life a lot more enjoyable.

I have also been able to get lot's done. I feel in a way more productive. Not only have I revarnished the car, but I have been asking a podcast with the Year 6s at the local primary school as part of a music project, which has been really good and productive and creative, and I have also been enjoying bike rides and little job around and about.

I mean don't get me wrong, I love the winter, the crisp cold of a bleak winter's morning, however in the summer there is almost a complete change in atmosphere of the entire population.

Not only that, but it means BBQs, salads and ice cold beers are a lot more regular and fre flowing, which is never a bad thing. It is strange in a way to think that our diet can change so much between seasons just because of the weather.

I watched a program the other night about supermarkets, and they can predict sales to a very accurate percentage based on a long range weather forecast. I mean that is mad right?

So here is to hopefully a reasonably decent summer this year, let's hope it doesnt turn out as wet and miserable as usual!

Thanks for reading.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Alrewas Radio Update 10/7/13

Seeing as we lie only 14 days from the launch of Alrewas Radio's summer 2013, I thought I better bring you right up to date with what is going on.

As of the 24th of July you will be able to listen live to the wonderful Alrewas Radio between the hours of 10am-5pm at tinyurl.com/alrewasradio to a great variety of music and chat with local presenters and artists alongside the Alrewas Canal and Music Festival 2013. This is something we have been planning for a while and something that all the guys at Alrewas Radio are really looking forward to it.

The schedule is as follows: 
Broadcasting from the Wednesday 24th July - Sunday 28th July:

James Richardson starts the morning 10-11 with his brunch show, a great way to start off the day on the Alrewas Radio Barge, with lots of special guests popping in for a hongover recovery bacon sarnie and a shower.

Tom and Jamie then take over from 11-1pm with returning features such as Barge of No Barge, as well as some interviews with local artists and organisers of the Alrewas Barge Fest, and hopefully talking to a spokesperson from the Neighbourhood Plan going on in the village at the minute.

Then it is over to Rob to take you through lunch, with some light and relaxing tunes while you enjoy your Hog Roast or your chips or a great british pup lunch, maybe some award winning sausages and pork pie from Peter Coates Butchers.

Dan and James Ruttley, the terrible 2, will be progressing on into the afternoon, 2-3pm. They are new presenters to Alrewas Radio and great things to expect from them.

Tom Leedham, and old favourite, 3-4pm, returning with the Tom Leedham Show, aptly names because his name is Tom Leedham and he is doing a show.

Rounded off untill 5pm with Tom and James, with the decades show, a feature that was part of Alrewas Radio Summer 2012 as part of the 4th Alrewas Arts Festival. Taking a slightly different stance this time, looking for some really good tunes and hopefully some special guests too!

So that is how the Alrewas Radio Canal and Music Festival Station is shaping up, and it is certainly something that we are all really looking forward to and we hope you are too!

After that, as the summer gets properly underway, we are looking to do a week of Radio, to introduce lots of new presenters and also to establish some new tech that we are hoping to invest in, and train everybody on how to use that. It should be a great opportunity for new people from in and around the village to get involved and we hope to encourage a lot of talent there is in the village to participate in something in the community.

Thanks for reading.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio

My Advancing DIY Skills

With all this free time and all these things that I want to get done on my car, over the past 6 months I have been trying to make myself a more manly man. Being able to fix things is the forefront of this really. This I have tried to apply throughout my entire life, at home, on my car, at work, at school, being a more mature and a more practical kinda guy.

I suppose it is all part of the search that every 18 year old goes through on their road to university and the real world, to develop and mature and become an independent person in their own right, with their own skills, talents, personality and qualities. In a wishy-washy sense that I dislike so much, it is finding yourself.

I digress, as per normal, from the main point I was talking about. Being practical. It started with the car really, realising that classic cars don't look after themselves and having to learn about it to really understand when things go wrong. I have tried in the past to be a bit more practical, and to be honest, I did do quite a good job. My first ever woodwork/ DIY task was to build a run for the chikens in the garden. I did everything, from designing the frames to choosing the screws to laying the block paving base. I have to say for myself, that even the door of the chicken run fits better than the gate Dad made!

I proved to myself that I had the capacity to be able to do stuff, albeit with guidance from my "Bodgit And Scarper" grandad (as all grandads have to be) and it is from this that I have found inspiration to start revarnishing the woodwork on my car.

I also spent an entire week, getting up early and starting with a cup of tea in hand to redecorate a 2 bedroom cottage in North Yorkshire from top to bottom: wallpapering walls, painting ceilings, repairing window frames, weeding and decluttering outside. It was a great achievement at the end of the week for all of us who got stuck in, and I think this satisfaction is something that young people often overlook when doing things in their free time, but it really is worth it in the end.

And I suppose that is what maturity is to me: realising that short-term loss is very much long-term gain, and putting a lot of hard work will give you much more staisfaction in the end, as apposed to gaming and things like that, that provide instant gratification, but you never really achieve anything by it. The next step on from this of course is being able to apply this, and that is what I am currently working on. I tend to get bored of things very easily, but this time I am not going to get distracted or anything like that.

All the woodwork on my car is almost all revarnished and looking as beautiful as ever, and Alrewas Radio looms. This is something that I am definitely going to throw myself at and really see it through to the bitter end, even if it kills me, which it very much might do...

Thanks for reading.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

9/7/13: Moggy Update

Despite my slightly off-putting start yesturday morning, I have soldiered on today, sanding and varnishing the back and the other side of my car to yesturday, meaning that I only have 1 more bit, and load of coats of varnish, to finish the job.

This is a prospect that excvites me greatly as I am not ery good at finishing a job, so the idea of actually getting there is great! I have also had a lot of fun doing it today. There is something quite theraputic about it, and I now feel a lot closer to the car, I feel like I should be taking a bit more care when driving and looking after it. This is all good stuff.

I have also been thinking a lot about what Ishould be doing as the next steps with the car too. I know I need to do the wheels, and I would really like to build a caravan or a trailer of some sort, but it is what and how that is puzzling me. I quite like the idea of a teardrop trailer, yet I also like the idea of it looking a little bit like a chicken run, seeing as the car has been a farm runaround for a large part of its life. 

However thinking into the long term, I thought about the wood and the bodywork. The trouble is, to replace all the wood and respray the bodywork, it seems to me like you take away all the character of the car. That little bit of a scratch adn a dent here and there tells a story of the cars working past, and the discolouration in the wood adds to the authenticity of the car. In fact, I think I will preserve the little scratches and lumps and bumps, it is a part of the cars heritage and that is something I should be proud to be driving round in.

So really the work on my part is going to be in making the car look as wacky as I can: roof racks; suitcases and picnic hampers; floral galands and dreamcatchers; things like number plates, wheel trims and seat covers; and finally trailers and other addons.

I defintely feel the need for another post about the trailer. Imagine how cool it would be to drive around towing a little chicken run, which is actually a fully operating caravanette, with bed, cooker, storage and even some little gadgets and stuff!

Thanks for reading!

Moggy Update 8/7/13

I thought, after a hard morning's labour, I would fill you in as to my progress today. It has been, well, frustrating. It started off really well, with a tour of Burton Industrial Park to find Screwfix, Wickes and B and Q, to source some wood filler for me and a massive tarporlin for my friend Freddo, who decided the lovely weather was a calling for a giant makeshift water-slide.

We returned, laden with the requested items, plus a MacDonalds snack wrap each, and set to work. First we scraped off the middle beam of the wood frame, thinking it would be the easiest. Then we flicked out all the little flaky bits of wood filler, and revealed the problem... A massive amount of rot...

We scraped out so much rotten wood and rubber, that my drive is now a sea of it. The issue that we have is that we have to now put the metal beading that holds in the windows back in place. The next issue.

Sealant doesn't work, wood filler doesn't work, glue gun doesn't work, not even supper glue works. If I wasn't so skint I would be buying a whole new bit of wood, along with a couple of strips of the metal beading so that it would all fit nicely together.

The trouble with fixing something is that if you don't know how it works, you can't really fix it. This is something that me and freddo found out. Not only this, but neither of us knew how to do anything.

To give us one piece of credit for ingenuity, and persavereance would be a kind thing to do. 2 18 year olds, of the hottest day of the year, stood on my drive holding a piece of metal next to a piece of wood, hoping that it would just kind of fuse together maybe...

I am starting to think the project of building a carvan before the end of the summer may be a step to far in my DIY skills.

Not to worry, dad is on his way home. Dad's fix everything!

Thanks for reading.

Please follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Crazy British Weather

As a British citizen,  have a duty to uphold the internationally renowned reputation of talking about the weather. I have pretty much talked about the weather in every single post, so I am not going to start to change that.

And the thing is, as a society, our natural instinct is to talk about the weather. There is nothing anybody can do about it. When we try and have a conversation with somebody without making reference to the weather, there ends up with awkward silences until somebody spurts out THE phrase... "Bloomin' weather can't make up it's mind."

And unfortunately this is just something that us brits will have to live with for the rest of our existence  We can't have a conversation without talking about the weather. End of.

I have tried to think of the reasons why we always talk about the weather, not least always moan about the weather...

And there aren't really any reasons why. I mean yes in Britain we can go through all 4 seasons in 1 day, and the weather is, to quote, 'very changeable' but that doesn't give us an excuse to talk about the weather so much.

And it isn't like there isn't plenty else to talk about. I think it just boils down to tradition. People have always talked about the weather as a way of creating small-talk, and that is how we now think. We have to use the weather as a conversation starter, so that is what we do.

But hey, that's what makes us British.

It's too hot for me. I mean I like it warm but this is too sticky for me...

And they are biting, little things are biting...

Thanks for reading,
Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Moggy Update 7/7/13

After spending an absolutely scorching afternoon in England (we only get 2 a year so I have to let everyone know) in a Park with LOADS AND LOADS of cars, I thought I would take this moment of inspiration to fill you in on the progress (or not-so-progress) on Lucy.

I always like talking about things I am going to do. It means I can sound like a very busy person, when, in reality, I do bugger all. Until now. Tomorrow is D-Day. That's right, the weather forecast says 27 degrees, working party has been gathered and the order has been placed at the chippy and the tab opened at the pub.

We Are Ready.

About 8.30 tomorrow morning I will be starting to strip Lucy ( naughty :0 ) of her varnish, and make her look really stunning with a new coat of the finest UV Waterproof Protection Oil, and some standard issue brown wood filler, to get this baby looking hot. 

As I sit here listening the Gentlemen by PSY, I can't help but feel inspired. If you are unsure as to what I mean (which you should be, I will put it that way) just watch the video on YouTube, along with the other 50 bilion people, and imagine Lucy in that film... And also not Korean...

So I will by seeing my fellow Morris Minor Enthusiasts bright and early in the morning, where we will finally get this bloomin' job done. 

I can't wait to make some progress to be honest with you, and hope this will be a catalyst to loads more good work to come.

To keep up to date with tomorrow's progress, follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Thanks for reading!

My Amazing Cooking Tips

I have always fancied myself as a bit of a chef, with the chequered trousers and the floppy hat. Trouble is I am not all that good at cooking, I just pretend to be.

However I have a new revelation. At the co-op they do stir-fry make your own ready meal type things, with a pack of stir fry veg, fresh noodles and sauce. This is very fun to do and it does taste pretty damn good... I shall have to cook it for you some time ;)

Anyway, I also do some chicken with this. Nothing to complicated, but I have a secret trick which I now apply to everything. Lob a load of sweet chilli dipping sauce on the meat, and hey presto! You have very tasty meat with a sweet and flavoursome glaze.

So I apply this to literally everything now. Burgers on the barbie, prawns on the barbie, and now, introducing the all new to the Tom Peach Barbecue Range (tweet me if you want to buy any stock, big supermarkets), it the Mushroom, Pepper and Chicken BBQ Skewers, marinated in Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce. Trust me, that stuff works with everything, this has got to work. It's FOOLPROOF.

Anyway, I am off to cook them now. I might let you know how they taste! Jamie Oliver eat your heart out...

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Radio Fever

The first thing anybody will know about me, is that I am a massive nerd. No matter how much I try and disguise this by wearing my sunglasses on my head and buying clothes that are vaguely in fashion, I have to confess, I am the a massive geek. This I think is really quantified and solidified when it comes to technology. Not only do I have to be able to talk fluently about anything and everything to do with technology, that has involved hours and days of me sat, reading through the entire wikipedia website to learn about how a computer works and what all the funny little cables do, I also get far to excited about it when it comes to new gadgets. The perfect example of this is when we run Alrewas Radio. I spend hours and hours of my life just looking through websites at all the different kit, miss, mixers, software and broadcasting hosting packages to find out about them all and what all the features of the are and do.

There is something about the radio kit which fills and little hole in my heart with liquid honey and boyish excitement. This is very hard for me to portray to the regular listener, because it is so weird, but there we are. This is something which I am very proud of, mainly because I get really excited about it, and the circle repeats…

Anyway, I really want to tell you about what I have found out, in the name of Alrewas Radio. I have been speaking to a few people about upgrading the microphones that we use here at Radio Towers, as we currently only have 1. We would quite like 2, however that would require us to have the inputs via a mixer board, so we could use more than one microphone. Keep up with the thought processes… If we are expanding our inputs to 2, it seems sensible to try and get as many inputs as possible so that we can have plenty of inputs from guitars and other live musician type things, because we would love to get some awesome live music here on the Radio.

So I have been looking at a Behringer XENYX 1204 USB Mixer, which has all the FX sliders and controllers, along with 12 inputs, 4 of which are for microphones and then the other 8 are for things like guitars. The thought process behind this £160 bit of kit is that it will really allow us to be able to expand the Radio, maybe be able to mic up a whole band to play some awesome music live and local. This is something which excites me.

The next port of call after this is decided then is the microphones. Now originally I was thinking about a £120 condenser microphone, which is at an intermediate level, not the most basic by any stretch of the imagination. This was a thought that went along the lines of price is quality, however after talking to people about this, they have all advised me that unless we are in a completely soundproof professional studio, which would be lovely but is a million miles away yet, the difference between a £60 and a £100 condenser mic is pretty much non-existent. The very fact that it is a condenser microphone, means that the frequencies are much flatter and therefore beautifully realistic and crystal clear, which is what we want for radio. So that decided, we have our shopping list…

Apart from one more thing… We are professionals here at Alrewas Radio and we have to look the part as well as sound the part, and that requires some lovely microphone stands, which clip to our desk, and act like a boom scissor arm, which will stretch in front of our face and away from very smoothly, with the proper elastic suspension microphone mounts which allow us to not pick up any vibrations from putting your tea down on the table mid-link.

So our wish list has really shaped up, and I can't wait to be able to buy at least some of this kit! I told you I get excited about nerdy gadgets, well even writing this I am typing slower than I can think the post because I am that excited! Anyway I am off now to try nd find a rich person to buy us some stuff…

Thanks for reading, 

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio

#AlrewasRadio

Alrewas Radio Update 5/7/13

Long time no posty I am afraid guys, and I do apologise! I have been busy hard at work. Yesterday for example, I did a 7-1 shift in the co-op, then I had 15 minutes for my lunch before I shot off up to the primary school to run radio workshops with some year 6s, for a podcast they are creating for their Leavers Evening!  enjoy doing stuff with the radio, so it is a great opportunity for me to dust off the old macbook and mics. I then dashed straight off to beavers, where we were playing a massive game of capture the flag in a field right next to the canal in a field full of cow poo. Lovely...

But as far as the topic of this post, Alrewas Radio. The last time I wrote, I was just about ta attend a meeting about something completely unrelated, but still very related! There is currently a development of a Village Neighbourhood Plan, to allow people to have a say in the development of the village, and this is something that I have been dragged into, being a young person on the organisers emailing list... But anyway, with a few other young people in the village, we are going to be creating some little short clips to do with our village plan.

At a meeting about this, I discussed with the Alrewas Radio Gods about the possibilities of future expansion of Alrewas Radio, and in the process, I have got a bit caught up in techy hype...

I have also borrowed some mixers and mics from the recording studio we have at school to use during the Alrewas Radio Barge Fest (24th - 28th July, be there or be square) and on the back of that we will have some funding to invest in some new kit.

I have been looking into it and I have found what I think we are looking for. I am thinking about investing in a 8 channel input alongside 2 radio condesner mics that, when used together, will give us a wider range of things to do and also a much better quality.

So, lots of new and exciting things to come from the production side of Alrewas Radio, as well as from the Presenting side! I hope you guys are all looking forward to it as much as I am!

Thanks for reading.
Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio
Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Alrewas Radio 2013 Update

Seeing as the balls have slowly started rolling for Alrewas Radio summer 2013, I thought I might do a quick update to tell you what is happening, when and all the preps for it:

First of all there is the Alrewas Canal and Music Festival which is taking place between the 26th and 28th of July, and Alrewas Radio will be broadcasting alongside that 24th-28th. We are all really excited about that. We are really streamlining our broadcasting style and trying to up the professionalism and overall awesomeness of the radio. 

We are doing all this in the view to expanding the equipment we have here at Alrewas Radio Towers. We are borrowing some microphones and a small mixer to get us through the festival, hopefully trying to record some of the awesome music that will be about that weekend. After this, we hope we will get a small donation from the Barge Fest guys to buy so brand new and exciting kit for us to be able to go forward with and make some awesome podcasts and plenty more radio throughout the year!

As we go off to the big U.N.I in september, me and James will be looking for some folks to look after our baby whilst we are away,and we hope to use a week in august of pure broadcasting for the fun of it to be able to do this! It will be really exciting to pass on our radio knowledge to some more local people who will be able to do the radio hopefully more regularly and really have fun with it!

Thanks for reading.

Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio
Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Moggy Update 3/6/13: Some rusty troubles...

I thought I would update you again with progress of Lucy's life and restoration. Unfortunately, after all my excitement on starting work on the woodwork... it never happened. Bloomin' English weather is all I can say! However I have been keeping a keen eye on the weather forecast and have noticed a significant improvement towards and into the weekend which I am looking forward to finally getting stuck in.

This doesn't mean I haven't been busy though. I seem to have had a few issues, maybe brought on by the winter, others that just used the winter as a catalyst to break stuff. I have been plagued by the unfortunately inevitable rust trouble. This is something non-avoidable on a classic car, so it's a case of if not when. I have been very lucky though as I seem to just get corroded parts, as apposed to the bodywork. As soon as the bodywork starts getting rusty, it travels through it like a virus, attacking everything and leaving nothing but rusty flakes on your drive when you go out the next morning...

I have had 2 things to sort out over the past week. The first, I noticed that my tyres were wearing slightly unevenly, with the worst wear on the inside. So I took it down to the local tyre pace to ask them to balance my tyres. Turns out it wasn't the balancing, it was the tracking. Ahhhh...

So I went back to my local mechanic, who booked Lucy in for the next day and gladly fixed the tracking for all of £15 (how he can do work for the little is beyond me). Turns out she was an absolute mile out, so no wonder the tyres were wearing unevenly!

Anyway, I have also had a bit of a boost in the sound my car makes due to a slightly rusted and broken... So I kind of need to get a new one I think. So my gran, bless her, dutifully went and got a couple of quotes from her favourite mechanics and came back to me, both of whichw ere cheaper than I could buy the part on the internet and fit it myself. So upon this revelation, I went down to my local mechanic and spoke to him. I am currently toying between going for a stainless steel one or just a normal galvanised one. The thing is, seeing as this is a car which I will have for a very long time, no question, I want things to last me a long time, so that means it is a bit of a no-brainer on going for a stainless steel one, as it will last more than twice as long as the bog-standard model. So for an extra £15 (which it seems I have already spent on the tracking so might as well spend it again on an exhaust) I wouldn't mind betting that the stainless steel one is a better option.

So that is where I am up to with dear Lucy. In the process of sorting out the exhaust and a beautifully aligned tracking, I am good to go! And with the prospect of the weather improving enough to actually get down to do some woodwork on her, I am excited! All is well with the world.

Apart from the fact I will have to splash out the best part of £100 at some point in the near future for a new exhaust... Bad times...

Thanks for reading.
Follow me on twitter: @peachy146