Pinch and a punch for the first day of the month! 

The 1st of June has come around incredibly (and rather scarily) quickly! meaning a lovely bank holiday weekend full of pure patriotism for the Queens Jubilee and also the Radio 1 and 1Xtra academy! What an excited year we are having!

The academy starts today with Q&A’s from the industry top dogs ready and raring to give the most valuable and inspiring advice to young people like me and you!

Professor Green is performing live from the Hackney Academy live lounge as I type. It seems incredible that so many have the opportunity of getting so up close and personal with the people we hear on the Radio and see on the TV!

So, now you know how incredible this all is, get yourself down there! I know I will be!

So this evening we went on down to Radio 1 and 1xtra. Lovely Amy Redmond took us on a tour through the station which was very interesting!

We had pretty good timing also, as when we went down to the Live lounge we got invited into both West woods and Greg James’ shows. Whilst in the studio with Westwood I managed to get a shout out, which I felt had to go to my Father as many think he looks like Westwood…

Do you see the resemblance? I’m not totally convinced myself…

Westwood did in fact admit he was my Father on national radio which was very surreal. Here’s the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01h5rtd

About 2.19 minutes in! 

Was great to see the ins and outs of Radio One and what goes into making the shows as smooth and entertaining as they are. 

Finally, if you want to get involved in all the entertaining Radio antics, come on down to the Academy!

So yesterday we saw the announcement of the Radio 1 academy line up.

The Radio 1 academy is a huge opportunity for all us youngsters across London, and of course anyone who wants to check it out. The doors will be opening from the 1st of June for the three weeks leading up to the huge Hackney weekend!

During the three weeks, there will be silly amounts of home grown talent ready to give you top tips on how to make your break into the industry, straight from the horses mouth! Expect to see some of these faces…

Pretty incredible eh? This lovely bunch & more will be sharing their experiences, doing masterclasses and Q&A’s on how they got themselves into the industry, that so many want to break into!

Its great to have so much support from the people who do it best right on our doorsteps. The academy will be covering areas such as; Radio, Music, Film, Comedy, Journalism, Gaming and Programming, Fashion, Business and Career development.

If I were you I would embrace this opportunity with open arms and get on down to the Academy! Check this link for regular updates - and of course my blog!

Take it on!

See you at the Academy…

So this isn’t very Olympic based. I just stumbled across this atrocity. It makes me wonder who hires these journalists? What a humongous error to make on a national news paper (Daily Mail). 

Alive hours before she died? What a shocker!

Yes, It is very deflating when you fail to grab a ticket for a gig with just about everyone you know in the music industry (Radio Ones Hackney weekend) and you live down the road.

But no longer will we have those big weekend blues! London - and the rest of the UK - have so much in store for us over the summer, we would be silly to be sulking when we should be out embracing London in this exciting time!

Get down to the torch relay finale at Hyde park with the likes of Dizzee Rascal, The Wanted, Katy B and many more performing! Great music, beautiful weather (hopefully), exciting Olympic atmosphere and only 15 squid! Doesn’t sound to shabby to me!

For as long as I can remember (I started listening to Radio one very young) every year I have been desperate to go to their ‘Big weekend’ although for me it has always been a big disappointment as I have never managed to bag any tickets!

I have since escaped my small island far, far away and I am now living in Newham, one of the Olympic boroughs. Of course this gave me huge confidence that I would be one of the lucky few and actually grab a couple of tickets for the inevitably incredible weekend… Alas, I am well and truly gutted as I didn’t win the race against time and the tickets sold out as I was filling in my payment details! Radio one big weekend blues strike again!

I’m sure I will be able to hear the festival from my bedroom window, and watch it on television, and hear all about it from my friends - but it seems a shame that London 2012 is all about the young people and the community but so many are left to disappointment!

As a young Londoner most of these celebrations seem almost unattainable, which is crazy since I am living slap bang in the middle of it. Although I am delighted that my Mum was successful with tickets to the opening ceremony, it is a rare occurrence among the community!

Yes - I know what you are all thinking but no… Unfortunately I didn’t manage to do a lap of victory around the track, which I was rather disappointed about. Just fooling myself with my cutting and pasting skills…

BUT I did get kindly guided around in a tour bus with our tour guide, lovely Layla!

It was lovely a small taster of what’s in store for us this summer! Unlike most days where I get a small glance of the Olympic park on the tube, this week I had the fantastic opportunity of having a tour of the up and coming location of the 2012 Olympics!

I felt like a bit of a tourist boarding a special tour bus, prepared with an introductory, emotive video! It was nice to have a reminder of the announcement back in 2007 - it sent shivers down my spine! 

The Orbit! I’m hoping others thought the same, but I believed this to be some crazy roller coaster (it is called the Olympic park). Alas, it is a representation of the five Olympic rings, artistic, eh?

This is rather self explanatory, not the girl with a fluffy hat, in front of her… the Olympic Stadium! The place where all the action happens, the opening ceremony, closing ceremony, Althletics and a number of other events will be taking place! It is surrounded by a moat - very special indeed!

A surreal snap of how extremely and slightly uncomfortably close the enormous Olympic park is to the urban, industrial and very normal landscape of Hackney. An underlying issue of the 2012 Olympics - are the people of East London immersed within the Olympics or do they feel threatened by the massive building cite on their doorstep?

On to lighter hearted subjects - THE BIGGEST MCDONALDS IN THE WORLD. YUM. Lots of jobs to be had here! Mcdonalds are a main sponsor of the 2012 Olympics… which I though was rather Ironic… Not sure you will catch the Olympians in there chomping away on a big mac! Get back to your protein shake and leave the hash browns to me!

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my Olympic park experience, I have confidence that come August it will look beautiful and ready for the 3 weeks of Olympic craziness!

156 days to go!

So, I am slightly shocked and rather appalled at this recent article.

As London 2012 is supposed to be a supportive and enjoyable event, it is a bit discouraging that “vulnerable NHS patients” will be made to wait in the traffic jams that will be inevitable this summer whilst the VIPs make their stride of pride down their designated lanes.

Hopefully there will be no medical emergencies through the Olympic season… either that or people might see some sense!

So I’m sure like most people, I awoke later with the ‘its Friday morning, I have a 9AM lecture and no milk for breakfast’ mentality. Alas, my morning changed its tone when I heard the familiar voice of Chris Moyles announcing the line up for Radio ones Hackney weekend! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/hackneyweekend/2012/

Unlike most years when the Radio ones big weekend is somewhere miles and miles away, this year its getting up close and personal in the depths of east London, where the music industry discovered a huge amount of its talent…

Its great to see genuine talent emerging from places like Hackney, and with Discovering new Hackney, I’m sure there will be more coming our way!

Hoping I will be lucky enough to bag myself a ticket, sounds like it is going to be one hell of an event!

The first ever winter youth Olympic games! The lucky 1,058 athletes aged between 14 to 18 from across the globe will be competing in 63 different sporting competitions over the last week until this Sunday! 

The games have created an opportunity for not only success among young athletes but culture and education enrichment for the youth of Innsbruck, great stuff! 

http://youtu.be/lnhJudmNdYk 

Among my friends and age group, the Olympics isn’t the hot topic of conversation…but considering the amount events, celebrations and pride it brings to our country - I wonder why are we still talking about celebrity big brother?!

Innsbruck had the motivation to inspire and raise the youth’s interest and awareness of the Olympics, and it looks like they are having a fantastic time!

Hopefully the high spirits of the Innsbruck Olympics will be passed to the youth of England! 

Seeing how successful the Innsbruck games have been has made me increasingly excited for what is going to be the most electric and memorable experience in just under 190 days, eeeek!