Yes, it’s true – Radio Leicester came to Sound Cafe yesterday and recorded the whole thing LIVE! Eek! I hadn’t realised it was going to be live, so that made me twice as nervous – goodness knows how Helen was feeling, having to co-ordinate the whole thing, but it went swimmingly. I love Sound Cafe – it’s a place where things are just allowed to evolve and where the ‘clients’ – horrible word which nobody uses so let’s find a better one – the people who come, shall we say – take charge and organise and produce work just as much as the official organisers.
The music’s coming along well: we’re practising about half a dozen songs to do for a January concert at the Cathedral when we will be a properly constituted choir. I’m hoping there will be some poetry there as well, but for now it was enough to be on the radio. I was full of admiration for Rupal, the presenter, as she had to juggle an evolving live situation without proper timings and slot in news, weather and transport; playing some records and holding interviews – and get it all into a two-hour slot. That’s some feat. She was followed round by an assistant carrying a timer on an electronic device, rather like those things they have at Olympic swimming events, to make sure she got the timings right.
And it was all terrific! You can listen to it here – just click on the link. Our bit kicks off at about 8 minutes in, and the poetry is about 40 minutes in, followed by an interview with me.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02b7xt5
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 