Huzzah! Blogging again, and once more it’s for a reason other than “it’s Monday, best write something.” Today is roughly the one year anniversary of For Your Ears Only, due to Episode #13 being released today. But what is FYEO, and why should you care?
The sting of giving up on the pursuit of a radio career was considerably eased by the fact that I was a contributor to the official podcast of Earth-2.net, as their Comic Book Movie correspondent. Not down to any specific vocal talent: I was a diversity hire as it’s an American-based site and I always got a good response by exaggerating my already plumy, absurd voice/accent. Michael Sims, the site’s owner & editor, got in contact with me soon after I’d started thinking up other career options in January last year, a bit before the UK Tour began. Whilst Earth-2 is in no way big enough to support anyone financially, Mike was looking for more podcasts to run and had approached me about turning my segment – Comic Reel-lief – into its own regular podcast. I was surprisingly hesitant about it as I didn’t think I had the stamina to seek out and review a film every fortnight or so, and was even less certain about doing it on my own. My radio show at Bailrigg FM was a whole different kettle of fish as that was largely music-based with me showing off my musical knowledge between songs.
Having done a lot of student radio, I had to think in those terms what would make a half-decent podcast. I needed a regular co-presenter, I needed someone who would actually embrace the idea of doing a podcast and I needed someone with whom I shared a mutual interest in something to base the podcast around. In short, I needed Adham Fisher.
Everyone has a crazy friend, and for most people I know in Leicester, Adham is that friend. In that I want to keep our working relationship sound, I’m not going list Adham’s MANY adventures here, but rest assured, Adham was the man for the job. The only thing was what to engage him with. I personally don’t give a damn about electronic music and he was hardly going to start a podcast with me if it was going to be about South Park. Whilst I was wondering how long I could feasibly stretch out a Blackadder podcast, it suddenly hit me what Adham was obsessed with when I first met him, and what I was quite a fan of myself: James Bond films. They’re not my favourite films ever, nor even my favourite British film series (the Carry Ons will always have a special place in my heart), but I like them for the brainless fun that they provide British men – big stunts, big explosions and beautiful women. We had our subject and once I conned Mike into thinking that it was sufficiently “geek culture” enough, we had our podcast.
It’s a pretty even split of the workload. I pitched the podcast, Adham came up with the name. Adham provides the recording equipment, I host the recording software. I spend hours editing the episodes together, Adham spends time getting to Fort Wilson once a month. He brings the background information, the singing and general misogyny, I play the moderator, narrator and get in the odd witticism myself. Aside from the fact we had to re-record the entire first episode after the sound quality was buggered, May 2008 saw the debut of For Your Ears Only, Earth-2.net’s monthly James Bond podcast, hosted by two genuine British people.
Since then, the podcast’s progression has been interesting. The shows have typically got longer, partially through deeper analysis and partially because we enjoy arsing about. And the strange thing is, people like listening to Adham and I talking as we would normally – the only difference being that it’s structured around a film discussion. We genuinely have listeners from mainland America, Alaska, France, Germany and Australia as well as in good ol’ Blighty, which is amazing. The show has also seen guest host appearances from my brother as well as an interview Adham did with Professor James Chapman of the University of Leicester, on the grounds that he wrote a book on the cultural impact of James Bond. Despite that, every single episode has been rated as “Explicit” and with good reason, as I wouldn’t let children, animals or certainly my parents listen to For Your Ears Only. It’s not just Adham who’s responsible for this, in fairness – the rest of the time it’s Pandy. Still, I’m not whiter than white, unless you count my performance 30 minutes into Episode #13, which was released today, because that could well be the definition of “white”.
It does have a shelf-life though. It will keep going whilst I’m at Newcastle through the magic of Skype, but the film series will inevitably run out. After Quantum of Solace gets the review treatment in February next year, and we look back at the official films the next month, the podcast will end when Adham and I get bored of reviewing unofficial films and similar films. The end of FYEO is unlikely to mean the end of me podcasting – heck, Adham and I might start a new one, Pandy and I might start one, or I could start one with someone else. I’m pretty bad at predicting the future so we’ll have to see how things go. In the meantime though, it’s a lot of fun and winning Earth-2’s Best New Podcast award earlier in the year indicates we’re doing something right.
By all means give FYEO a listen if you haven’t before. I work an office job that doesn’t require brain power so I can go through a 2 or 3 hour podcast pretty easily. If the same isn’t true for you, Episodes #3 & #4 are fairly short and not too bad despite being pretty early into the podcast’s lifespan. If you do have a bit more time on your hands, Episodes #6, #8 and #11 are particular recommendations - #6 was voted our best early episode, #8 features the debut of Pandy and #11 is where Adham and I lay waste to Moonraker. If it isn’t your thing, then fair enough, but it’s the closest thing I do to radio nowadays and as such, it makes me a very happy camper!
The sting of giving up on the pursuit of a radio career was considerably eased by the fact that I was a contributor to the official podcast of Earth-2.net, as their Comic Book Movie correspondent. Not down to any specific vocal talent: I was a diversity hire as it’s an American-based site and I always got a good response by exaggerating my already plumy, absurd voice/accent. Michael Sims, the site’s owner & editor, got in contact with me soon after I’d started thinking up other career options in January last year, a bit before the UK Tour began. Whilst Earth-2 is in no way big enough to support anyone financially, Mike was looking for more podcasts to run and had approached me about turning my segment – Comic Reel-lief – into its own regular podcast. I was surprisingly hesitant about it as I didn’t think I had the stamina to seek out and review a film every fortnight or so, and was even less certain about doing it on my own. My radio show at Bailrigg FM was a whole different kettle of fish as that was largely music-based with me showing off my musical knowledge between songs.
Having done a lot of student radio, I had to think in those terms what would make a half-decent podcast. I needed a regular co-presenter, I needed someone who would actually embrace the idea of doing a podcast and I needed someone with whom I shared a mutual interest in something to base the podcast around. In short, I needed Adham Fisher.
Everyone has a crazy friend, and for most people I know in Leicester, Adham is that friend. In that I want to keep our working relationship sound, I’m not going list Adham’s MANY adventures here, but rest assured, Adham was the man for the job. The only thing was what to engage him with. I personally don’t give a damn about electronic music and he was hardly going to start a podcast with me if it was going to be about South Park. Whilst I was wondering how long I could feasibly stretch out a Blackadder podcast, it suddenly hit me what Adham was obsessed with when I first met him, and what I was quite a fan of myself: James Bond films. They’re not my favourite films ever, nor even my favourite British film series (the Carry Ons will always have a special place in my heart), but I like them for the brainless fun that they provide British men – big stunts, big explosions and beautiful women. We had our subject and once I conned Mike into thinking that it was sufficiently “geek culture” enough, we had our podcast.
It’s a pretty even split of the workload. I pitched the podcast, Adham came up with the name. Adham provides the recording equipment, I host the recording software. I spend hours editing the episodes together, Adham spends time getting to Fort Wilson once a month. He brings the background information, the singing and general misogyny, I play the moderator, narrator and get in the odd witticism myself. Aside from the fact we had to re-record the entire first episode after the sound quality was buggered, May 2008 saw the debut of For Your Ears Only, Earth-2.net’s monthly James Bond podcast, hosted by two genuine British people.
Since then, the podcast’s progression has been interesting. The shows have typically got longer, partially through deeper analysis and partially because we enjoy arsing about. And the strange thing is, people like listening to Adham and I talking as we would normally – the only difference being that it’s structured around a film discussion. We genuinely have listeners from mainland America, Alaska, France, Germany and Australia as well as in good ol’ Blighty, which is amazing. The show has also seen guest host appearances from my brother as well as an interview Adham did with Professor James Chapman of the University of Leicester, on the grounds that he wrote a book on the cultural impact of James Bond. Despite that, every single episode has been rated as “Explicit” and with good reason, as I wouldn’t let children, animals or certainly my parents listen to For Your Ears Only. It’s not just Adham who’s responsible for this, in fairness – the rest of the time it’s Pandy. Still, I’m not whiter than white, unless you count my performance 30 minutes into Episode #13, which was released today, because that could well be the definition of “white”.
It does have a shelf-life though. It will keep going whilst I’m at Newcastle through the magic of Skype, but the film series will inevitably run out. After Quantum of Solace gets the review treatment in February next year, and we look back at the official films the next month, the podcast will end when Adham and I get bored of reviewing unofficial films and similar films. The end of FYEO is unlikely to mean the end of me podcasting – heck, Adham and I might start a new one, Pandy and I might start one, or I could start one with someone else. I’m pretty bad at predicting the future so we’ll have to see how things go. In the meantime though, it’s a lot of fun and winning Earth-2’s Best New Podcast award earlier in the year indicates we’re doing something right.
By all means give FYEO a listen if you haven’t before. I work an office job that doesn’t require brain power so I can go through a 2 or 3 hour podcast pretty easily. If the same isn’t true for you, Episodes #3 & #4 are fairly short and not too bad despite being pretty early into the podcast’s lifespan. If you do have a bit more time on your hands, Episodes #6, #8 and #11 are particular recommendations - #6 was voted our best early episode, #8 features the debut of Pandy and #11 is where Adham and I lay waste to Moonraker. If it isn’t your thing, then fair enough, but it’s the closest thing I do to radio nowadays and as such, it makes me a very happy camper!
