24 Hour Inspire and the Pop up Radio Station

Mark Clowes

Andy Tattersall

For the last five years the University of Sheffield have hosted 24 hours of back to back 30 minute lectures in aid of local cancer charities. The event was started in 2012 by Tim Richardson who delivered 48 lectures over the course of 24 hours. Sadly Tim passed away in the following year due to the condition he was raising money to fight against. The event has continued with the support of many of Tim's colleagues and friends under the stewardship of Catherine Annabel. This year Andy Tattersall and Mark Clowes brought with them a pop up radio station to compliment this wonderful event.

Still standing after no/little sleep

The idea was simple, create a pop up radio station that played virtually nothing but vinyl records (well they are trendy again according to the young folks). Andy approached Catherine Annabel over a coffee some months earlier and she was instantly behind it. The idea was to use the student radio stream from Forge FM and take it over with staff playing tracks from their own collections, the only rule being 'vinyl playlists' or thereabouts. Mark and Andy are no strangers to playing on the radio and in clubs, both have a secret (well until now) hobby of collecting vinyl and playing on the airwaves and in clubs. Andy spent six years on the pirate radio stations overlooking Sheffield and playing up and down the country in underground clubs over a 12 year period, and currently hosts his own monthly radio show on the disco balearic station Purple Radio. Whilst Mark has also played at many parties and nights and releases a monthly podcast via his Mixcloud page under the guide of The Vinyl Librarian.

Dr Chris Sexton picks tracks for her Desert Island Disco

All of this could not be achieved without the support of many colleagues who were encouraged to come along and play their own records. We had Hadrian Cawthorne dropping some quality jazz-funk and Matt Robson playing indie classics from Journalism Studies. Whilst Chella Quint played a varied selection, busting out a few dance moves in the process. Whilst Chris Howett from the Student Union took listeners on a memory trip back to when he ran the seminal NY Sushi Night. Recently retired Stuart Barkworth from CiCS dusted down his trusty records in his attic to take listeners on an early morning journey through the late sixties and early seventies. Finally Graham McEleanery went post punk and electronic on the Thursday evening. All of this was made possible by Ian Knowles from CiCS who did all the fancy technical work and made sure the station ran well with support from colleagues. The Director of CiCS, Chris Sexton was always on hand, as an avid supporter of Inspiration for Life, bringing in food and snacks and listening to the live broadcasts as they happened.

Andy Interviewing Tony Ryan OBE

In addition we had various guests pop in to see us and chat whilst the real highlights were the five Desert Island Discos where guests picked six tracks, a book and luxury item to take to a desert island. The guests included, Dr Chris Sexton, Dr Mike Weir, Professor Tony Ryan OBE, Chella Quint and Catherine Annabel. 

Mark Clowes ran his own Sheffield pop music quiz which Pete Mella from CiCS won after a very tense tie-break. The manager of Forge FM, Luke Wilson (who provided us with the radio stream and licence) brought in his own records for a roundtable review. Being a student and liking new popular beat combos, his choices reviewed by a panel of four 'experts' with our own Artic Monkeys coming out on top, everything else was trashed.

The roundtable review panel

On top of that, Andy delivered a lecture as part of the proceedings in the main room on 'How to be a Digital Academic'. Already plans are afoot to run the radio station again with everyone who was involved last year to be part of the 2017 radio station. Whilst there are no shortage of potential candidates for the Desert Island Disco, so watch this space. It's not too late to donate, so if you want to help local teenage cancer charities, please go to the link below. Many thanks.

http://www.inspirationforlife.co.uk/ 

We hope to get audio feeds of the shows, which ran from 3pm on Thursday till 5pm on Friday, but for now enjoy Mark Clowes very early morning shows.