Disappointment

There’s nothing like having something really built up, only for you to be let down at the last moment. I feel a bit of a heel for saying this, but that’s a reasonably accurate reflection of me earlier this evening.
I was at the evening do for the Radio Academy’s Production ’07 conference. After a day of discussing issues relevant to the radio industry (I really hate the fact that what we do is an “industry”, but there you are), some awards are handed out and some musicians “play” for us.
I didn’t attend the conference proper – mainly because it’s not entirely relevant to what I do for a living. In any case, I was too busy summarising the Future of Radio. But Mediaguardian had a helpful blog of events.
The awards include best pluggers (national and regional – they’re the people who try to get radio stations to actually play their clients’ music) as well as industry achievement awards. The John Peel award, for example, went to Mark Story of Emap. He’s been in radio for donkeys’ years, and was the first programme director I experienced at Virgin Radio.
We also had music from Sophie Ellis Bextor (impossibly thin, great voice, and woefully fake music-playing by her band), Gareth Gates (you can tell this is a class affair can’t you? I’ve got to hand it to him though, he can sing), one of the Sugababes who’s gone solo (not Mutya – buy Siobhán Donaghy), and Simon Webbe (ex-member of boyband Blue, but – and I amaze myself for saying this – a really good singer with a charismatic stage presence).
But the key award of the evening, which was hosted ably by Richard Bacon, was the Lifetime Achievement Award. It slowly became clear that it was going to go to Sir Paul McCartney!
I was standing near the front of the stage in the small and intimate confines of the Café de Paris, and was beginning to get annoyed with myself that my camera’s batteries were flat, and in any case, it was in my bag in the cloakroom. This was going to be great. Sir Paul in our presence!
The eulogy was long and great. The wonderful music he’s made over the decades. The crowd was hushed – which is always hard at these things when there’s a free bar.
You know where I’m going with this don’t you?
A friend from work pushed forward with his camera in hand – he wanted a picture… (copyright free with his Creative Commons Flickr licence).
And then came the letdown.
Sir Paul wasn’t here tonight. He’d missed all our talented musical guests, and sent a message instead.
What a letdown! What a disappointment!
I’d actually been annoyed that The Geoff Show was off air this week and Geoff wasn’t going to be able to see this (there was the small matter that Geoff should have been on-air around the time of the award presentation, but that’s a mere detail).
It didn’t matter – Sir Paul had been unable to make it. He’d sent a note which the presenter read out, but the disappointment in the room was palpable.
[I should, I suppose note, that I did very literally nearly run into him once. It was when he’d come in to be interviewed by Pete & Geoff. I came out of the lift, pretty much unaware that a rock superstar was in the building, and noticed a man who seemed somehow familiar, coming out of the studio and ready to get into the lift. It actually took me a few seconds to clock who I’d just seen. I think all I did was smile – it’s a safe fall-back for just about any situation, after all. But it was a small brush with fame, nonetheless!]


Posted

in

Tags:

Comments

17 responses to “Disappointment”

  1. anita sweetman avatar
    anita sweetman

    i love gareth gates his music is fantastic thank you

  2. Adam Bowie avatar

    Well he’s got a new album coming soon, so you’ll be very happy!

  3. Carol Creasey avatar
    Carol Creasey

    Gareth Gates is a very talented musician, so you were lucky if he was on your show!

  4. Emma Walker avatar
    Emma Walker

    Gareth Gates is fantastic and is very talented. He his new album is coming out soon which im sure will be great.

  5. LOTTIE KILBY avatar
    LOTTIE KILBY

    GLAD TO HEAR GARETH WAS ON THE SHOW,YOU WERE VERY LUCKY I THINK HE IS GREAT. I AM ALSO PLEASED THAT YOU SAID HE WAS A GOOD SINGER THANK YOU.

  6. Maureen Hibbert avatar
    Maureen Hibbert

    I agree Gareth Gates is certainly a class act.He excels in live performances.
    looking forward to his new album due out in June 07

  7. stella avatar
    stella

    oh you poor thing! fancy having to listen to that idiot GG.

  8. Elaine Rollins avatar
    Elaine Rollins

    Gareth Gates is very nuch in demand at the moment, so you were lucky he had time to put in an appearance.
    He allways goes down brilliant live and certainly is a class act.

  9. Zena Francis avatar
    Zena Francis

    Great you saw and heard the gorgeous Gareth Gates. (Lucky you) Great singer and a first class guy.
    Don’t know where the idiot came from Stella. Obviously you don’t know class when you see it.

  10. Alicia Green avatar
    Alicia Green

    Great news about Gareth Gates. Could to see him back after three years away. He has also worked hard on his speech on which he should be congratulated as well as his music. I wish him every success as he deserves it.
    As for Stella some people are only happy when they are running other people down. Sad really.

  11. James Cridland avatar

    I LOVE GARETH GATES HE’S REALLY GOOD
    Meanwhile…
    http://james.cridland.net/blog/2007/04/20/and-the-award-for-disappointment-goes-to/
    Relive that disappointment again, with my licence-free photograph…

  12. Linda avatar
    Linda

    Gareth gates is a fantastic live performer so glad he is back with us. Loving his new music and looking forward to his album that will be out soon.

  13. Adam Bowie avatar

    Somehow, I get the feeling that I may have rubbed up some Gareth Gates fans the wrong way… This is easily the most commented blog entry I’ve ever had!

  14. Paul Easton avatar
    Paul Easton

    I’m another who was disappointed at the non-appearance.
    Like you I was also pleasantly surprised – and impressed – by Simon Webbe. His backing singers were rather good too, I thought.
    Liked Richard Bacon’s introduction of Sophie Ellis-Bextor – “Her mother and I have something in common – we both left Blue Peter in disgrace!”

  15. pat fitzgerald avatar
    pat fitzgerald

    So pleased to see Gaz Gates back with his new music. Live, he’s a class act and deserves special credit for his speech. Can’t wait for his album in the summer.

  16. Maisie Brown avatar
    Maisie Brown

    WOW. Gareth Gates – fantastic. Great singer, tall, dark and handsome, sexy, charasmatic. What more could a girl want? Lucky Suzanne.
    Maisie

  17. Louise avatar
    Louise

    Ignore the Gareth Gates fanatics, never a truer definition of the word, they won’t have a wrong word said about their hero! I find it quite sickening actually that the old hens (and I mean OLD as the oldest has to be 80 if she’s a day!)follow him about the country and make sexual suggestions about him! Nice blog by the way! ;0)