Wednesday 18 October 2017

Somewhere along the way. I've completely forgotten to blog!
I think I plead business as the main reason for such slackness, but somehow from the haze has appeared forward progress, as outlined below.

Phonic FM will be on-air until 2023. 

We've had to reapply for our five year licence twice before, but just to make in more interesting (and therefore more difficult) OFCOM came up with an entirely different format for re-application. This required not only much more detailed financial information (which thanks to Director Paul Giblin and new Accountant Dean Barrow we managed to gather together) including the notoriously difficult question of forward financial planning , all the more difficult when you're trying to be self-sufficient.
However that paled into insignificance against the need to estimate the value of our the contributions made by volunteers. Thanks to Director John Wigzell we were able to satisfy the regulator with some probably wildly inaccurate figures. Time consuming, but ultimately worthwhile.

The treadmill of Academic Papers has re-appeared.

I thought the dash for academic papers had subsided into a slow walk, until I produced a paper which in its own sphere has gone viral. Cue pressure for more papers, short deadlines and a plethora of invitations to talk to assorted groups of academics, undergraduates and post-graduates. All very time consuming, and though not unwelcome in some ways, puts enormous pressure when you're trying to do other things that need constant attention-see above. I'd just moan that the sooner that all publishers start to use same format the better!

You haven't mentioned much jazz yet!

The thought that I'll have to start picking a top ten for the year in about six weeks time fills me with dread. Not because there hasn't been some cosmic stuff, but because there's been so much of it. I already have a fair idea of what will appear, but currently I'm casting the net pretty wide. I love the excellent Leo Richardson album "The Chase". bet then ask how do you rate it against Bugge & Company. Then again Cecile McLorin Salvant's album "Dreams and daggers" is excellent, and that's from someone who doesn't usually like 'live albums' - especially if the audience is American, they tend to whoop and holler in inappropriate places! Yet again, how do you start to try and compare Christian McBride Big Band, with Joseph Shabison, especially as I know so little about the latter.
I'm also playing the Brass Funkey's album a lot and am looking forward to ,talking to Tom Green at the end of the week. I'm sure that as the push towards the "C" period starts to get under way there'll another plethora of tracks to write about. Incidentally I claim to have seen the first "Book your Christmas event" sign of 25th July.

If all goes well (why should it?) there'll be another blog before the end of October.