I won!

It's early 1988 and the if you're into alternative music (i.e. not Stock, Aitken & Waterman), the local radio landscape is pretty bleak. It's a matter of waiting around for Radio 1's evening shows to kick in and get some relief (ooer, missus) from Janice Long and the legend himself, Peelie. But wait, from 6-7pm there's The Noise with Tony Snell on Radio City. With an emphasis on local music - anyone remember It's Immaterial? Thought not - it's a bit of a forerunner of some of the better regional music shows, such as Hit the North which launched the career of Mark Radcliffe.

(edit: found another Radio City Tribute site)


Anyway, I used to try to listen to Snelly before my dad got home from work and wanted to hear the news (Radio 4 of course). One evening, they had a competition to win tickets to see the Alarm. The question was "When did the Alarm have the spirit?" or some such. That's easy, I thought, so called up. 1976 I said to the scally at the end of the line, and lo and behold I won. The show was that night, so I called John B and after some persuasion (it was a school night and he rightly thought they were shit), managed to get him to come with me.

Note - how can I remember the question I was asked for some inconsequential radio phone-in over 16 years ago, despite all the memory-loss inducing activities in between, yet I consistently forget the name of anyone I am introduced to nowadays?

We had to go up to Stanley Street to pick up the tickets, before another trek to the Royal Court. This time, they were playing a lot of new (and quite wimpy) songs from the Eye of the Hurricane album. Still, there were the old fave singalongs, and it was a night out.

Afterwards, my girlfriend at the time, the incomparably prudish Iggy, was all annoyed that I hadn't asked her to go with me. I guess she was down with the whole christian rock vibe, which explained her no sex before marriage stance. How bloody naive was I to think I'd be able to change that?

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