Working with the BBC

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Working with the BBC

Hi Guys,

I’ve been working with the BBC. While I’m sitting down having a chilled coffee in the sunshine before my next live show, I thought I would share my thoughts & specifically the BBC live show experience with you.

Imagine (if you will), a pop up surprise festival in anticipation for the ‘BBC’s Biggest Weekend Festival’. As a music lover I think this concept is amazing. As if that in itself isn’t already an amazing idea for Stratford-Upon-Avon. Imagine having a festival funded & hosted by BBC. Recorded live & air’d on BBC radio / social media. To top it all off, the location of this pop up festival was on a ferry (Yes, a FERRY, across the water!) Taking gig ready passengers across the river Avon in (musical) style. Amazing. (For the less imaginative, there are pictures & videos later in this blog).

We started the event with an interesting setup, as you would imagine setting up a pop up festival on a ferry is very different from setting things up on stage. As I was the exclusive musician for the event I setup and sound checked the wireless rig/PA system as ferry’s do not have power. Achieving a great live sound on wood (ferry) and water (Avon) was an interesting task actually & my inner studio engineer / music producer side loved the challenge.

I then proceeded to be interviewed about my music. This will air on BBC radio the morning of 24.05.18 along with playing a few of my records on the radio. Hopefully you enjoy the interview if you get the chance to hear it!

The next bit is the fun bit, the live music! So I performed while crowds of people were taken along the river by ferry. There was percussion, there was singing & there was most definitely dancing. Here’s a fun video I captured during the adventure.

I do understand that pictures (And videos) say a thousand words so I am going to leave you with these 450+ words &  some pictures at the bottom of this blog. Thanks again for reading the blog & supporting my music.

I would like to quickly thank Marian & all of the team on the ground / in the office at the BBC for looking after me so well on the day. I don’t have a rider (musicians list of requirements for a live performance) for the reason that venues and hosts ALWAYS look after me so well. I’m pleased to say I didn’t need one for this show either, the kind help & support on the day was fantastic. Thank you also to the legend that is ‘Frank the Crank’ the ferry owner for kindly donating free ferry rides for life. Hero! A final thank you to the many people I met on the day who were so complimentary about my music. You really killed me with kindness & positive vibes, I cant thank you enough.

See you in the next blog!

Matt