The Last Two Weeks Have Been the Greatest of My Life
You heard me.
Right now I’m high on life. I’ve just had a whirlwind two weeks that I think might possibly be the greatest, most full-on of my life. Gigs, radio, hard work paying off, nights out, revisiting Nottingham, and Spurs. Sorry but I have to mention Spurs. I need to talk about it all somewhere so I thought why not here?
Worky Stuff
The past couple of weeks have been unbelievable in terms of radio-adjacent achievements. It’s been tough to get the ball rolling since graduating but it feels like something’s finally happening now.
For starters, I got an SRA nomination! Ever since attending last year and seeing the work of the incredibly talented and hard working student radio community across the country, I’ve been desperate to prove myself amongst the best. With Soundsystem (an event myself and a team of too many to count pulled out all the stops for) getting nominated for Best Multiplatform Initiative, I finally ticked an SRA nomination off the bucket list. Being able to share that moment with Emily, who worked so hard on the event and application with me, was very special. Seeing URN get 9 total nominations too is an testament to the incredible talent and people in that wonderful station. Best in the biz.
On the topic of radio, I also went to Chapel FM’s Radio Maker Festival last weekend where I met so many beautiful, talented and interesting people from all sorts of backgrounds. We spent the entire weekend sharing ideas and moments and I think everyone left feeling inspired and a new mindset on the creative process. My idea of the audio I want to create now differs so much from my previous idea of what radio should be. A really special highlight was the visiting French musicians Tire-Laine who sparked joy in every room they entered, serenading each other and us, throughout. I could go on and on about how special this weekend was, I think it really changed my approach to so many different aspects of creativity. Overall, it was just the most perfect sanctuary. I wanted it to never end. If I could do it all again, I’d change absolutely nothing about it.
Finally for this long-winded worky segment, I’d like to talk about this website, which launches officially to the world tomorrow! I think it was first discussed while Liam and I were interrailing and it’s finally ready to share with the world after months and months of hard work. With Tom and I leaving uni and, in turn, the show, we originally wanted to start doing extra content on the socials. I’m not sure when we actually saw a website as a viable possibility to host everything we do, but I can’t tell you how excited I am that it’s finally here. How bloody cool is it that this exists? It’s so nice to be able to carry on developing Deadly Demos and I can’t wait to see what we can create together and where this all goes.
Gigs
Another significant contributing factor to the perfect two weeks I’ve had is the gigs I’ve been to. On Monday, still on a high from the previous weekend’s Radio Maker Festival, I saw The Strokes at Co-op Live. The Strokes are one of my all time favourite bands and they’ve sat comfortably at the top of the list of bands I want to see live for quite some time. They played a perfect set to a raucous crowd, saving my two favourites New York City Cops and Ode To The Mets for the encore. Supporting them was another special band to me, Fat White Family. I first saw them at Green Man in 2019, and I credit them as being the first cool artist I was into as well as the band that opened the door to my interest in alternative music.
Then on Friday, (spoiler alert!) after my visit to Nottingham, I went straight to Adult DVD’s hometown gig at Project House as they tour their debut album ‘Adult DVD’. They put on a barnstorming show and had me wondering why nightclubs don’t hire bands like them to play live rather than the same old DJs playing the same old music every night. It really felt like a rave. They had three supports, two from Leeds too - KiosK and Group A. D.. It’s really cool that Leeds has a scene again, especially one so influenced by dance and electronic music. The other support was Brighton’s Lemonsuckr, an unbelievable live act and one I wouldn’t be surprised to see make it big soon.
Nottingham
These last two weeks were already great, then I went back to Notts for the first time since graduating. It was a whirlwind trip full of plans, seeing lots of friends, revisiting old spots, doing the show again, and going to Liam’s first Soundsystem (which he absolutely smashed, by the way). We crammed so much into three days. It was great to get back to all the places that made my time at uni so incredible so shoutout Movers, Pizzamisu and Sneinton Market especially. As I mentioned, myself and Tom jumped on-air with Liam and his new Deadly co-host Ewan for a spooky special. It was nice to be back being silly on the show and so great to see how much Liam has grown into the role since we started two years ago. Then we headed to Soundsystem, an event I organised twice and one that’s so important to my time at URN and close to my heart, now being organised by Liam. It was an unbelievable night and seeing so many mates I haven’t seen for months was wonderful. I miss it all. It was also a lot of fun revisiting a lot of places Amelia and I went to on our early dates. To relive those moments with her on our 6 month anniversary was really special.
*Cough Cough* Spurs
The main highlights of the past fortnight are music-related so I thought they have a place here. I’ll keep this bit brief.
Spurs have won three games in a row! I never thought I’d see the day again. Not only that, but we beat Chelsea away. That never happens. I know the vast majority of people reading this don’t give a flying fuck but this is the best two weeks of my life, so Spurs winning three games in a row, alongside everything else, has put me in heaven. I’m not sure why I saved this until last. I suppose I thought you’d click off if this was any higher up. But you’re here now. If anyone wants to watch a Spurs game with me, now’s the time.
Cheers for reading this incredibly self-indulgent post. It’s not really an article, nor is it specifically music-related… more just a culmination of my amazing two weeks and excitement for the website finally being here splurged onto a page.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed. See you all very soon x