We were on the radio yesterday! My apologies for not telling you about it before the event, but we didn't find out what time we were going on till about an hour before hand!

We had fun though, particularly trying to get there on time... 

The studio is situated in the middle of a shopping center in Douglas, (that’s just outside Cork city for those of you who aren't locals,) and it’s unusual location presented us with a unique problem. Having entered the shopping center, we found we could see the studio, (in fact we were almost close enough to touch it,) but due to a huge set of shutters right in the middle of an aisle, we couldn't get to it!

It seems the shutters go down every evening to separate the shops which close after 6pm, from Tesco, which is obviously open later.

We tried to ring our contact in the studio to ask how to get in, but couldn't get through, so presuming there was going to be another entrance, me and Perry then proceeded to drag our instruments and accessories, the entire way round the sizable exterior of the complex, only to end up back where we started again, inside the shopping center but at the wrong side of the giant shutters.

We then tried going upstairs but all that was up there was a giant car park, hmmm??

We were getting a little agitated, knowing we were supposed to be on live radio in about 15 minutes, so I left Perry to look after our instruments, and jogged off down a fire escape in hope of finding a way round.

Round and round a labyrinth of corridors I went, then just as i thought I was getting somewhere, to my great annoyance I again came out just the wrong side of those great white shutters! 

I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I started jumping up and down beside the shutter hoping someone might look out of the studio window and notice me. Then I had a go at lifting up the shutters to see if I could squeeze under them, and it was at this point I noticed a security guard briskly heading in my direction.

Trying to look innocent, I gave him my best puppy dog eyes, and luckily he bought it! Then with an aggrieved look that suggested W!LD weren't the first radio guests to get stuck, told me he’d lift the shutters so we could go though.   

So we made it and just in the nick of time! We had ten minutes to set up our gear and do a very mini sound check, then after two other guests had talked on the first part of the show, we were on!

Surprisingly that part of the evening was pretty straightforward; we did a short interview followed by three songs, and that was that. Oddly it was much less nerve racking than when we did a pre recorded radio show? Maybe it’s just practice.

On the way out we were shown the way we should have come in, and we really would never have found it. Especially well hidden was the bit where you had to climb over some advertising boards, at the back of a car park!  

We'll know for next time though.

Bye for now,

Louis

songcenturyproject.com