I’d spent the morning/early afternoon in London looking at shows since my tutor suggested it might be a good strategy to spend a week going to exhibitions as a way of figuring out ways of displaying work for the degree show. 

I went home, had a cup of tea, picked up my stuff and headed out to uni. 

A bit before six I went over to the hospital since I hadn’t been able to go in last week.  I’d planned to go last Wednesday but wasn’t able to.  Anna said she was going to bring over a CD of the band she sings with for Ash and I to play on the show so I went in today on the off-chance she’d be in since I’d not been able to pick this up last week.  She wasn’t in and neither was Isiah.  I saw Newworld and we had a chat which was fun although he seemed really busy.  I wrote a note asking if Anna wanted to do something for the show on Friday, like a live performance of music possibly!?  Newworld offered to pass this on so hopefully she’ll get in contact.  Sadly the studios are going to be closed for about three weeks since these are being refitted with new equipment (exciting!) which means we won’t be able to do much radio-wise during this time.  It would be great if the final show Ash and I do before the studios close had some live  music in it!

Andreas and Anna visited the studio on Friday.  I went into Newworld’s office a bit after 7 to see if he was in because I wanted to say Hie.  I asked a guy who was in the office and I explained how I knew Newworld.  I said “what’s your name?” - “Andreas” he said.  I asked him if he wanted to visit the station and he said he would but he was working and so would need to get someone to cover for him.  Andreas had worked at the hospital for a few months but didn’t know about the radio station so it was a bit of a surprise for him that the studio existed opposite the office where he was.

Ash and I started the show as usual then I made the trip over the corridor to see if Andreas was ready.  I met Anna too so I asked if she wanted to come along.  Anna and Andreas are both really vibrant characters and they seemed to have an enjoyable time in the studio.  I showed them the record library and the other studio then we spoke on air.  Whilst we were playing some Jackson Five I found out that Anna sings in a band with some of her colleagues at the hospital.  This is really exciting and it would be brilliant to try and have them in and play some music live on the show (or in the hospital even!).

What I found really exciting about Friday was that Andreas and Anna were both enthused about the radio station, that there was this communal space which served as a link between the different areas of the hospital community and also a place for personal expression.  Anna said of the station that “it’s the bomb”.  I’m totally excited about hearing her band play.

The radio station is being refurbished in April so I’ll have to make the most of the weeks left for fun stuff to happen with the station. 

Today it’s been incredibly bright and it’s finally starting to feel like the weather might begin to warm up.  This weekend we had a house party so I was wasn’t able to put up a detailed account of what’s been going on at the hospital, but here it is now.

I told Maria about the hospital and she said she’d been an outpatient at Barnet General a few times so I asked her if she wanted to visit the station and speak on our show on Friday. 

Ash had invited his friend Ben along also so it was quite a full studio.  I began the show, taking over from Alan early since he had to leave for a reason I can’t remember.  I began with some soul - I think it was ‘Love Lifted Me’ by Jessy Dixon - then Ash and Ben arrived.  I continued the show and did a short mic break with Maria whilst Ash showed Ben the studio.

I suggested we play a game since there were four of us in the studio that night, it was similar to ‘20 Questions’ but with fewer questions. I offered to play first, Ash wrote the name of a music person on a piece of paper and stuck it to my head, during the next mic break I was to ask questions and attempt to guess at who ‘I was’.  I asked questions - “am I still actively making music?”, “am I a man or a woman?” - I found out I was Michael Jackson.

I did the same with Maria - it should have been easy for her since she’d mentioned The Kinks earlier on in the evening.  I ended up giving it away since we weren’t sure if they were from London or not, foolishly I said “Oh I don’t know if the Kinks were based in London or not”.

Given away.

We did the same with Ash and Ben.  Ash was David Bowie.  Ben was Mariah Carey.

It turns out Ben and Maria had both spent time in Russia and so we invited them to talk about these experiences on the show.

I was hoping the wards would have re-opened when I went to the hospital on Wednesday.  Unfortunately there’s still a restriction on ward visitors so John and I weren’t able to see any of the patients that night. 

I got to the studio at about 7, John was already there and I told him about the show I’d done with Ash last week and of our plans for making the station more visible.  We then went up to the wards to see if they had all been closed to visitors or whether it was merely a few of them. 

The whole hospital was restricted so we went back to the studio.  I asked John if I could interview him and make a recording since I wanted to know if he had any good stories from his time as a volunteer with HRB.  I ended up interviewing most of the Wednesday night volunteers that night and made recordings of Karen, Phil, Simon and John.

Phil and Karen have both been at the radio station since before the new hospital was built and they had good stories from the older building.  Phil told me about the ‘Ward 2 Escape Committee’ - this was the male orthopedic ward that used the radio station as a way of coordinating escape strategies.  Particular songs would be played as code-words for when it was safe to make an attempted escape and the station gave updates about which of the sisters was on duty each night so they knew when they could plan these.

Tonight Ash and I are putting on another show - last week we christened the show ‘Ash and Gile’s Funtimes Friday Show’ - I think Sam was a big influence since earlier that day I told her I was doing the dissertation and she said it was “Funtimes Friday”.  We’re going to inject some fun into patient’s Friday night yo.

We have some more guests.  Maria said she’d like to speak on the show since she’d been an outpatient at Barnet General.  Ash said he has someone too so it’s going to be busy tonight.

On Friday Ash and I hosted another show.  Beforehand we had a short discussion about different ideas for the show.  We both agreed that having guests on the show worked really well so we planned on having the same this week.  I told Ash my idea for ‘What’s in the Doctor’s Pocket’, I think he thought it a bit bizarre, but I’m going to give it a shot because asking people if they want to enter this competition serves as a reason to speak to them…or at least it will be easier for me to ask “do you want to enter this quiz?” then ask what else they do and find out a bit about them.

Half way through the show, during a song, I went out into the corridor to see if any of the staff were finishing their shift and wanted to speak on the show.  I met a man called Sola who said he couldn’t since he was busy but he introduced me to Newworld who works in the office opposite the station.  Newworld was really friendly, he wanted to speak on the show but had to finish some work he was doing so I went back to the studio and continued with the show, awaiting his arrival.  We waited but Newworld didn’t arrive, I was getting anxious.  Ash was sweating.  we played songs, waiting for Newworld.

I went to the other side of the corridor to see how he was getting on.  The show was heading rapidly to its end and we wanted our guest on the show.  “five more minutes” he said.  I went back to studio.

We continued but we were running out of time if we were to have Newworld speak on the show.  I was sweating, Ash was sweating.  How would we cope with the pain if our guest didn’t arrive?

We were supposed to finish the show shortly, the last song was playing and he arrived.  I was happy and we had a chat on air.  He’d worked at the hospital for quite some time in the room opposite the studio but had never visited the station so I felt like we’d achieved something.  It turns out Newworld and I live in the same area in North London so we discussed that and what we both had planned for the weekend, he requested a final song which was Westlife I think, then we finished the show.

The wards were closed again to visitors last night.  I went to the studio a bit before eight and spoke to Simon and Helena.  I hadn’t seen Helena for quite a whiles since I’d been away from the station for some months before I came back earlier this year, she seemed happy and was finishing off her training with the station that evening.

John is one of the new volunteers, he’d come in last night to hand his test tape to Phil, I’d meant to ask him about joining Ash and myself to make some fun stuff happen with people in the hospital but I was drained after Uni and the issue escaped my brain.  I emailed him today though so we’ll see what happens…

Karen and I went out in to the hospital regardless of the ward closure to see if there were many staff members about.  We were “on the hunt for men” according to Phil.  We found some.

Isaac and Dave are security staff.  I think Karen knew Dave but not Isaac.  Dave was dreaming of Paris, I think he wanted a holiday there, or had lived there at some point…I wasn’t entirely sure since I was eves-dropping on his conversation with Karen whilst I was talking to Isaac.  I’ll ask him about Paris next time I see him.

Isaac was excited about having the next three days off work.  He was finishing at ten and travelled from Camden each day.  I think he’d lived in that area for a long time, ever since his parents moved from Granada.  I asked him if he’d visited Granada much - he said he’d been there about three times but would like to go back soon.

The sky is clear today and it’s sunny

I sent a message to Ash today about having a chat on Friday to plan activities and come up with some ideas for future things at the station.

Ashley and I played some music on Friday.  This is the music we did play.

‘Love is a Battlefield’ - Pat Benatar

‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ - Pink Floyd

‘Jamming’ - Bob Murley

‘Rise’ - Gabriel

‘Eclipse’ - Pink Floyd

‘Goldeneye’ - Tina Turner

‘Coffee and TV’ - Blue

‘A View to a Kill’ - Dooran Dooran

‘Analogue’ - A-Haaa

‘Ain’t Got No/I’ve Got Life’ - Nina Simone

‘Girl’ - Beck

Last Friday was great.  I went in a bit early so I thought I’d go up onto the wards and talk to some people there and see if they wanted to request any music for the show that evening.  I wasn’t able to go on the wards since there were restrictions on visitors that night but I met Yaw again in the corridor outside.  We talked and he seemed interested in learning more about the radio station so I asked him when his shift finished and if he wanted to visit the station so I could show him round.

Ashley was in that evening which was good since it’s so much easier to do mic breaks when you have another person with you there.  Doing shows when you’re on your own often seems a bit lonely.  We started the show and Yaw came along at about 8:15 so I showed him round and he later made a ‘guest appearance’ on the show.

Ashley and I discussed on air the need to have the radio station play a bigger part in the community of the hospital and make it more of an interactive entity.  I’ve been thinking about this lots hence the ideas about upcoming game shows.

We played lots of James Bond themes too.