The year seems to be flying by to me. The weeks are passing by so quickly, it does not feel like fourteen days since we last spoke. I think part of the reason for that might be when the world reopened again after the lockdowns, due to the fact we felt aggrieved at not being able to do anything, we just said yes to everything we could and our diary rapidly filled up. You know you must be pretty busy when you actually have to book a quiet weekend of not doing much into your schedule. I have always liked keeping active and experiencing as many different things as I can but I seem to have upped the ante a bit so far this year. I am not complaining, just reflecting.

Two Saturdays ago Lynda and I went to The Rex in Berkhamsted. She had been there before but this was my first visit. Obviously we went for a nice meal in the area first. As ever our restaurant choice was fuelled by my gluten free requirements. We ate at a Lussmanns which was just a five minute walk from the art deco cinema where we were going. The food and service were both great. I always like to ideally round off any meal with a dessert. They had a few coeliac friendly options on the menu and I went for the panna cotta with chocolate. I will be honest I just expected a little dribble of melted chocolate on the top, however the whole plate was swimming in the stuff and it was amazing!

The Rex is tucked away just off the High Street. The entrance looks quite low key really but when you walk into the auditorium it is very impressive. The top level is just set up like a standard cinema but the two levels below that have big red comfy chairs in groups of four set around tables. This is the area where we sat and one of the reasons I wanted to go, as even I liked the idea of watching a film sat at a table in nice surroundings while having some wine. That is the other great thing about the place it has a bar in the auditorium where you can get drinks as you enjoy the action on the big screen.

The film we were seeing was Kenneth Branagh’s new version of the Agatha Christie classic Death On The Nile. As well as directing it Kenneth also played the lead Hercule Poirot. The cast included Gal Gadot, Tom Bateman, Russell Brand plus French and Saunders. I am not sure if this was just the surroundings or the nice glass of Rioja I had during it, but I really enjoyed it. There was quite a lot of humour for a film that in the end had a fairly impressive body count. I must admit I have not seen the original so have nothing to compare it to but it kept my attention. I did like the atmosphere and feel of the place, seeing a movie there felt like an occasion. I would happily go back and watch something else.

The following night a mate of mine who runs quite a lot of comedy events around the Hemel Hempstead area had one on at Boxmoor Social Club. I had been meaning to catch up with him for ages so Lynda and I went along. We got there quite late so ended up at the front to the side of the stage, which can sometimes be dangerous unless you know the organiser, compere and some of the acts. Then it is totally safe to be that close to the action. It was a bit like an old fashioned working man’s club everyone there was nice and friendly.

The host for the night was Matt Hake who I have gigged with a few times in the past and like me is a former attendee of a Logan Murray Comedy Course and a Tringfest Roving comedian. Both of which were amazing fun for the record. He was great as always. The two opening acts were both good and set the tone for the night perfectly. Having tried it myself there is nothing harder than making a room full of people laugh and they achieved that. The closing act for part one was someone I have seen a few times before called Stu Turner. He combines comedy with magic. That is a winning combination in my book. I always enjoy his act and like most comedy magicians he actually does a few very impressive tricks.

The headline act was somebody I had admired from a far for many years and who I remember watching as a child on television. He even appeared in an episode of one of my favourite programmes Only Fools and Horses, playing a comedian at The Nags Head. I was not disappointed I thought he was excellent. It is always a good sign when you are watching a comic and your face is aching from laughing so much. His name is Jeff Stevenson, he has been in show business a long time and even appeared in the 1976 version of Bugsy Malone as a fourteen year old. He does a lot of work on Cruise Ships so if they are your thing keep an eye out for him while on board. It was great to see him in action. The whole night was good fun, well done to Lee Bryant for putting it all together.

I have been working in the Radio Industry in some form or another since I was twenty which it is fair to say is a long time now. In all of that time I had never been to what were the Sony Awards and now are the Arias. My old boss and I Steve Carpenter did go to an event in London where they announced the nominee’s in 2007 as we had entered and we felt we might have a chance of being shortlisted. We were not in the end but we had a nice afternoon out and got to meet a few people. A last minute opportunity arose this year to go to the ceremony at the Adelphi Theatre in London. It was a bit of a rush to get there from work but I arrived about ten minutes before The Radio Academy Audio and Radio Industry Awards began.

Heather Small kicked things off with a live performance of Proud. The event was hosted by Rylan with Fleur East as the live voiceover who did make a few appearances on stage to. It is just like every other single industry awards in that they encourage people not to make the acceptance speeches too long and it seems to go on for way longer than it should. It was nice to see so many broadcasters both presenting and receiving prizes. Tony Blackburn as you would expect was on top form, as was Scott Mills and Shaun Keaveny. The first person to swear was Vanessa Feltz and it was lovely to see the wonderful Adele Roberts win the special moment award for her honest and emotional return to Radio 1 after her Bowel Cancer treatment.

We also got music performances from Tom Odell and Callum Scott plus a surprise live link up with Lyse Doucet in Ukraine. I have had the pleasure of working with her at the World Service in the past and she is an exceptional person and journalist. Rylan did a great job hosting the event being funny and entertaining while moving things along when he had to, which was not always easy at times. There was of course an after show party. They had hired out an entire pub just around the corner. I did get a very quick word with Rylan as I was arriving at that. There were a few live DJ sets and the chance to catch up with some radio people who I had not seen for a while including my former Ivel fm colleague Scott Temple. He was there with his current station Pirate fm as they had been nominated for an award. It was great to see him and I look forward to hopefully being there again next year.

Lynda managed to get us a couple of tickets to see Blondie in Birmingham last weekend. The gig was on the Saturday night so we thought that we would make the most of it and book a hotel nearby so we could have dinner and a few drinks before the concert. We found a place to stay that was near several decent bars and just a five minute walk from the music venue. On the way to dinner we found a nice bar by the canal to have a cocktail each to kick start proceedings. Then we ate at one of my new favourite places Miller and Carter. They are Coeliac accredited so I am safe to eat there plus they do have a fantastic range of aged steaks and a pretty decent wine selection.

We arrived at the Utilita Arena just as the support act was starting. It was Johnny Marr and he was brilliant. He played a lot of the old Smith’s stuff which went down very well with the crowd. Not only is he a great guitarist he can really sing, do not say this too loud but I think I might prefer his voice to Morrisey’s. The queues for the bars were massive but we noticed the food places did a limited selection of drinks so got ours from there to save time. We had great seats in the second block back and right on the end of the row which meant it was easy to pop out for drinks or comfort breaks.

Blondie were on at nine and made a great entrance they almost just materialised on stage. They played for an hour and forty minutes and did all of the big hits as you would expect. I really like their late seventies and early eighties stuff and of course Maria from the big comeback in nineties. They are not all the original members of the band they have got in a little bit of youth in a few areas. Their former bass player grew up near my parents until he moved to America and then joined the group. They had Glen Matlock from The Sex Pistols on bass guitar for this gig.

They sounded great. Clem Burke is clearly the musical driving force behind their sound. That is the first time I have seen him close up. He is sensational, must be up there with the greatest drummers of all time, so much energy. Talking of which Debbie Harry of course still fronts the band and let us face it she is basically Blondie. Now seventy-six years old she puts in a high octane performance still dancing around the stage while belting out all those well known hits. Although she did have to remove her heels three songs in but I am more than happy to accept that as being perfectly reasonable. It was an enjoyable night listening to some iconic music. Needless to say we may have gone out for a few more cocktails after the gig, well if a seventy plus year old can still be rock and roll so can we!

When we had arrived in Birmingham my oldest friend and his wife noticed from our social media that we were there and messaged me as they were coming to the city for a different concert the next day. As luck would have it their train got in an hour before ours left so we arranged to meet up for a tea at the station for a bit. It was great to see them both and catch up on what has been going on in our lives. In the end we got to spend a bit more time with them as our train was cancelled and the next one that we could get was an hour later, so that actually worked out brilliantly, a very happy coincidence that we both happened to be randomly there at the same time. We are going to see them for the weekend in a month’s time and I am really looking forward to it.

We are now getting to the business end of the football season with just two games to go. I have renewed my season ticket so I will be there at the matches during the next campaign cheering them on through the highs and lows. Oh the joys of being a football fan. I hope that Antonio Conte stays and the club back his plans as I think he could really make an impact at Tottenham given the time and support. I was of course at the North London Derby in the week the atmosphere in the ground was sensational and as ever it was great to beat Arsenal and pretty comfortably on this occasion. We just need to win our last two games and see what they do. We still have an outside chance of Champions League football next season.

A quick reminder that you can listen to me every Saturday afternoon between 2pm – 4pm on Radio Ninesprings https://www.radioninesprings.co.uk/

Have fun and we will catch up again soon. Stay safe! Cheers Neil.