After another fun 6Music show Andrew and me headed to the front of Broadcasting House to address the crowd that had once again gathered to protest against the proposed closure of the 6Music and the Asian Network. It was a carnival atmosphere and spirits were high. A lone policeman was patrolling amongst the protestors but it was fairly clear nothing was going to kick off here. If the fans of every radio station in the world got together to have a fight I think it's fairly likely that the 6Music listeners would be the first to be pummeled to death.
I had set off early this morning and had not anticipated such fine weather and was conspicuous under a heavy winter coat.
As we arrived some supporters of the Asian Network (certainly cooler than the 6Music fans and more lively when it came to dancing to some music playing from the van behind them - one suspected that if the 6Music fans were ever to dance they would simply shuffle from side to side awkwardly whilst looking at their feet), were on the stage, but the Gods were against these exuberant people and in a telling metaphor for what the BBC were planning there was a sudden power cut as the generator ran out of fuel. For a few minutes nothing worked and all was silent (and BBC bigwigs, silence is not a good thing on the radio, so please don't turn these stations off) and the smell of petrol filled the air. I wondered if some crazy protestor had planned a spectacle to get Mark Thompson's attention and was about to blow the lot of us sky high. I would probably work. Although we'd lose a lot of the staff of the stations I think the atrocity would be enough to convince the stations to continue in honour of the dead. Our deaths would not be meaningless and would mean that a few thousand people got to listen to obscure records and Bhangra beats long into the future. Personally I don't like 6Music enough to die for it, but it's Tiny Andrew Collings' only source of income and if he could survive the fireball I would be happy to give up my existence in order to facilitate his continued career.
As it happened the generator did not explode and we got to go on stage where I had been encouraged to swear (but in the end only dropped in one usage of the word "motherfuckers") and Collings recited a long list of puns about other 6Music presenters which went down to general indifference - which with a crowd as worked up and excited as this one was quite an achievement.
I went home with the intention of writing a bit of AIOTM, but it seemed such a shame to be indoors on a glorious day like today. I was taken back to my O and A level revision where I remember sitting at the dining room table, looking out over my folders and notebooks at the sunny outside world and kids cycling by, envying them their freedom, looking forward to the time when my time would be my own again. But I realised too late today that that would never happen. That I might have felt it was important to work hard then to ensure I had a better life as an adult, but all my hard work did was to ensure that there would be many more times in the future when I was unable to go out in the sunshine because of some other deadline or other. I would never have the freedom of those younger kids or the kids who couldn't be arsed to revise. I would spend the rest of my life indoors on sunny days trying to give myself a better future and only be allowed out when I was much to old to enjoy it.
Then I went inside and failed to get any work done and fell asleep on the sofa watching Junior Apprentice.
Of course I have much more freedom than most to play out in the sun and yet I tend to waste this time and stay inside anyway. This is just who I am - a fucking idiot. I could easily have lolled around on Shepherd's Bush Grey instead of trying and failing to work. But now I will have to stay indoors instead of lolling around tomorrow.
Or I suppose I could work outside.
But I am a comedy martyr and I like to act like I am giving up so much for my art.
