The Pianist - Part 2

I had half expected the phone line to be engaged with the world and his wife calling in to LBC about this and that. Surprisingly though it answered after only two rings. I spoke to a guy at the other end, saying that I had just seen Iain Dale’s tweet about reviewing something on the show and that I’d been to see James Rhodes concert at the Ambassadors Theatre earlier in the week. “That’s great” he said. “Can you email Iain about it and leave your contact details.” This I did and I drafted an email which pretty much described the evening in the same way I did in last week’s update. It was slightly longer than intended but I figured that the better it read, then the more likely I would be to get a response. I wasn’t desperately hopeful of a reply, but what did I have to lose. As it happened, he emailed me back within 5 minutes and asked if I’d like to come on the show to talk about it. He said that the producer would telephone me at around 9:45.

Now for the panic, what would I say? I had visions of my mouth drying up or of gabbling – unable to get the words out fast enough. I was also quite excited though as I had never been on the radio before and in my excitement I updated Twitter and Facebook that I’d be “Going on LBC between 9:30pm and 10pm to talk about the James Rhodes concert this week.” Ok, it was only a phone in, but what the hell.

I clock watched with the intensity of a union official as the minutes ticked by achingly slowly, my mobile phone glaring like a beacon as I looked at the display - 9:45, 9:46, 9:47...”Come on, ring dammit” 9:48 etc etc... I paced my lounge as in my mind I ran through a number of things to say, before finally constructing a nicely thought out little review. “Yep yep, that’ll work” I thought as I settled on a nice idea which abruptly went straight out of my mind as the phone in my hand started ringing. It was the producer - he called to say that the show had overrun and so unfortunately they wouldn’t have time for me that evening. I was slightly gutted, although he did mention that Iain Dale would read out my email. This was a silver lining at least, but I cheekily asked if he might tweet my blog and he said that Iain may well do. This could be something. Iain Dale has over 20,000 followers on Twitter and if he might be kind enough to tweet my blog link, then the potential for gaining new blog readers and getting the blog and therefore my writing noticed, could be immense.

I popped out for locally for a drink with friends. I wasn’t going to be on the radio, but at least my email, which was quite a good one I thought, would be read out. I received a few texts from people who had read my updates on Twitter and Facebook. They said it was a shame they hadn’t heard me but that the email sounded good. I headed home just after midnight with the intention of going straight to bed. Curiosity had got the better of me though and I switched on the PC to see if the blog had been tweeted. Sadly it hadn’t, although I noted that I had one new follower. Would it be someone random I wondered? Would it be someone I knew? Might it even be Iain Dale? I clicked and looked down the list to see my new follower - @JRhodesPianist.