mostly david ephgrave

I didn’t intend to listen to tonight’s episode of In Your Inner Ear as, to be honest, I was a little sick of my own voice and thought processes (I’d spent a few hours, trying - and failing - to write), but I’m glad I did, as it cheered me up. That wasn’t meant to sound arrogant. What I enjoyed was hearing back the banter from my two favourite funny friends (glib) Glyn and Stephen, and the sense that, however unplanned it may be, it comes out sounding like a show. I’m often nervous before the programme airs, because I haven’t heard it. We record it in real time in a two-hour block, as the station no longer supports a live broadcast, with no time to do a retake, so there’s always a risk that it might be shit. It’s yet to be that, but watch this space: [                          ] My favourite part of tonight’s show was the least prepared bit: m...

Tonight, we pre-recorded a new episode of our radio show In Your Inner Ear, after a ridiculously long hiatus. I knew it had been a while since the last new programme went out, but it wasn’t until I saw the filename of a jingle I’d recorded for it that I realised it was originally meant to air on the 23 rd of August. That’s nearly four months ago, which doesn’t quite live up to our intended weekly remit. In truth, it couldn’t be helped, as the studio has had to move premises, but it’s a shame to have had such a gap, when we were just getting into the swing of things. Despite arriving at the studio for 7:00pm, with Steve joining us at 8:00pm, we didn’t actually start the recording until 9:30pm, due to technical problems, which was a little frustrating for a two-hour show. Once we’d got going, everything worked, which was a relief. I had visions of us pulling an 'all-nighter'. While we certainly weren’t as slick as we were a few month...

I’m currently sitting on my sofa with my cat on my lap, about to enjoy a celebratory Mr Kipling Mini Battenberg and a mug of Sainsbury’s own-brand camomile tea, after successfully pre-recording this Sunday’s In Your Inner Ear. Tonight’s topic of conversation was 'cool’: more specifically, the very few times in our lives when we’ve felt trendy, funky, with-it or hip. Judging from our previous content – and that list of words – you might think this would have made for slim pickings. Surprisingly, we had a lot to discuss, though whether our stories made us sound cool or not will be in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. It’s strange to have reached our twelfth show so soon, though it makes sense, as we’ve been doing it for twelve weeks. We’ve settled into a comfortable format. Our co-host Stephen mentioned before the recording how his mum listened to the show for the first time the other day, by streaming a little of episode one. I cringed inwardly as I thought of how much ...

We prerecorded another episode of our radio show tonight. It was an enjoyable recording. We’re starting to get into the swing of things and relax into what we’re doing. The show is taking less time to plan, and, while we have to work hard for the two hours we’re broadcasting / recording and keep thinking on our feet, it’s satisfying to get to the other end of it. It’s good that it’s self-contained; once a recording or a broadcasting is finished, the show is done and dusted and we can move onto the next thing. We’re prerecording a few here and there over the next month, which isn’t a bad thing. It gives us time to settle in. The downside is we're having to plan a lot of shows at once. By the time our little off / on stint of prerecording is done with, we should be able to sit back a bit. I’m looking forward to this. The theme of tonight’s show was ‘digs’: i.e. the various ridiculous places we’ve stayed whilst touring. Many of these stories could make up blogs in and ...

We prerecorded the second In Your Inner Ear show last night, which will be aired on Sunday - but don’t tell anyone it won’t be live, as it’s a secret. We did it in advance because I have a gig on Sunday, plus it’s my wife’s birthday, so I had two reasons I couldn’t be there. That’s not to say that stand-up takes precedence over her special day; it was the first solo spot I was offered, months ago, and I ran it past her before I confirmed it. We’ll do something nice too, so I won’t be deserting her, I promise. The recording was more relaxed than Sunday’s live broadcast, mainly because we were familiar with the set up. We did it straight through in one go, as if it was going out, which created enough tension to keep us on our toes; it may as well be live when you hear it. (If you hear it. Please hear it.) It was a fun one. Personally, I think the content was better than the first show. While we decided the topics we’d discuss in advance collectively (this time opting f...