Nick Arkell

Weekdays and Silk’s Saturday Night Party

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During the week, Nick loves to help people drive home without getting stuck in a queue. He’s also a bit of a geek with an interest in the latest gadgets and scientific stuff. If Nick was not on the radio, some of his dream jobs would be to train as an astronaut, design cars, work as an architect or be a chocolate taster…

At the weekend, it’s time to wind down and have a party every Saturday night. Whether it’s the warm-up to your big night out or ’quiet’ night in, listen from 6pm for classic 70s disco, 80s gold and top dance tracks from the 90s and 00s. If you don’t fancy a dance, see if you can guess what the ‘Happy New Hour’ track will be from cryptic clues every hour. ‘Clive the fly’ joins Nick every week with ‘The Top 5 With Clive’; essential tips for every social occassion along with three cheesey tracks in a row from ‘Three Cheese Peter’.

If you want to keep up with Nick during the week, you can follow him on Twitter.

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Nick’s Latest News / Blog

Monday 5th September

It’s been a few months since I updated this so please accept my apologies for that! A lot has been going on in and around Cheshire and I have tried to get around and sample some of the events.

Any fans of music from the 80s will probably remember the big concert at Capesthorne Hall in late July. I took my Mum along to join the rest of the crowds there along with other members of Cheshire’s Silk 106.9. We all had a great time as Rick Astley, Tony Hadley and the rest of the line-up kept us reminiscing about the 80s! I posted some of my own photos on Facebook here: Photos of The Big 80s Party at Capesthorne Hall

Manchester Pride

I visited Manchester City Centre a few times over the Bank Holiday weekend and on more than one occasion to see the acts live on stage at this year’s Manchester Pride. It was the event’s 21st birthday this year so they brought in some great artists and I was able to see some great DJs along with Sugababes and Alexandra Burke.

The original Buck’s Fizz were also billed for the main stage along with Blue, creating a Eurovision feel for the final night of Manchester Pride’s ‘Big Weekend’. The event generated well over £100,000 for charity last year so they have hopefully topped that with this year’s efforts.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 event

I also travelled into Manchester (and delayed a holiday) to see Jenson Button having the speed limit raised on a couple of roads especially for his guest appearance in the City Centre. He drove along Deansgate and into Albert Square in a Formula One car, wowing the crowds who came out and watched the event, despite the odd downpour! Two lucky winners of a competition won a ride in the new McLaren road car on the route through Manchester. I have posted photos of the event here on our Facebook group: Photos of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 event in Manchester.

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Saturday 9th July

Hello from Florida and I hope you managed to watch the space shuttle take off yesterday, wherever you are! I was lucky enough to be at the closest public viewing point, the causeway at Kennedy Space Centre. It’s early afternoon in Florida but evening in the UK so you are probably listening to Charlie replacing me today on Saturday Night Party so I will leave you to enjoy that!

Before I sign off though, here are some useful links as promised to view the progress of NASA mission STS-135, space shuttle Atlantis:

Track Atlantis on Google Earth: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/shuttle_google_earth.html

Find out where and when you can see Atlantis and the International Space Station pass over your house: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/region.cgi?country=United_Kingdom&region=England

This site is also useful for similar information (thanks to Dave who e-mailed the studio with a link to this one):

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Finally, here is the photo I hoped to get yesterday and luckily I did:

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Sunday 3rd July

Last night’s Saturday Night Party was dedicated to the launch of the final space shuttle mission, STS-135. Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to take off from the Florida coast on Friday so I selected a few space-related songs to play in last night’s show. DJ Jean with ‘The Launch’ was joined by Starship, Duran Duran and Europe with their track, ‘The Final Countdown’ and who could forget Star Trekkin… I also mentioned that Dave, a listener with an interest in the launch on Friday was in touch via e-mail with times at which you will be able to see the space shuttle pass over Cheshire. Keep an eye on this page for those times and other information that will allow you to be part of this historical event.

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Tuesday 28th June

The NASA FRR (Flight Readiness Review) conference set the launch date of Atlantis today as Friday 8th July 2011. The shuttle will be travelling to the ISS (International Space Station) with extra supplies along with demonstrating the refuelling of satellites using robots. This is the 33rd flight of Atlantis, the 135th and final space shuttle mission and 166th manned flight by NASA.

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Monday 27th June

I’m still focussing on space news. As the launch of space shuttle Atlantis gets closer, a team of technicians are beginning the process of inspecting the aft section (rear) of shuttle. The astronauts involved with this final space shuttle mission (STS-135) continue to train in Houston. It’s hard to imagine what is going through their minds now!

I have been speaking to a NASA photographer Ben Cooper today about the final mission. His website contains some excellent photographs of the previous shuttle mission: http://www.launchphotography.com/STS-134.html.

Remember the NASA website contains a wealth of information about the shuttle programme and everything else they do. Also try searching for ‘STS-135′ on Twitter.

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Tuesday 21st June

Astronaut Mark Kelly has retired from NASA and the United States Navy. What a year to go; with the last flight of space shuttle drawing closer, he was the person who landed space shuttle Endeavour on it’s final flight earlier this year. He has written a full statement about his long and fascinating career here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/captain-mark-kelly/… Remember that while you are on Facebook, you can join us on there too!

I also discovered today that utility companies are becoming too generous. It turns out that paying my bill early will save me a grand total of 89p. Can you imagine what I could spend that on? What is the most creative way of spending 89p? Please let me know via Twitter if you have any good ideas!

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Wednesday 15th June

The Final Inspection Team have been performing its ‘top-to-bottom walkdown’ of space shuttle Atlantis which involves a close look at the tank that helps propel it into space, amongst other equipment.

On a separate note, NASA are releasing images that show views of the planet Mercury tomorrow. That should be very interesting to see! The photos of Mars were big news so it will good to see Mercury up close.

The Apprentice tonight was a good episode if you didn’t watch it. As with past weeks, the result was not obvious until it was revealed. I felt the latest candidate needed to go but not just because of their involvement in tonight’s task. Saying that, there are quite a few other people in this process who are obviously very talented but may not meet Lord Sugar’s requirements to be a business partner.

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Monday 13th June 2011

Have you ever wondered what I do at weekends? There were around 80 cars at this event. What else is a petrolhead to do in the limited British summer?

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Tuesday 7th June 2011

Some spectacular photography has been taken by European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli while travelling back to Earth with Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman. You can see the photos here: http://go.nasa.gov/stationportrait. Keep your eye on the NASA website for the latest developments on Space Shuttle Atlantis. You can follow quite a few of the astronauts involved in the Space Shuttle programme on Twitter too.

Nintendo have released announced their new games console – the Wii U. The name still sounds rude but it looks like a lot has changed since the original Wii including a new controller that has an embedded touchscreen.

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Wednesday 1st June 2011

Space Shuttle Endeavour landed today after completing its final mission (STS-134). It took off back on 16th May and after a safe landing for the crew involved in this mission, NASA will now be focussing on the final flight of Atlantis, bringing an end to the Space Shuttle programme.

Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=JoTBB9gmUkw

Initial preparation of Atlantis including the attachment of  the solid rocket boosters and external tank (the parts that help it reach orbit) has taken place in the past few weeks and the shuttle is now situated at the launch pad being prepared to make history with its final flight.

Watch history in the making as Atlantis is rolled out to the launch pad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=LE3Lc2i3BLw

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Monday 23rd May 2011

Hello! As you probably know, I am a big admirer of anything that pushes the boundaries of science and technology. In the USA, NASA have showed for years what is possible with cutting edge ideas and research, not just on their own soil but more importantly, well beyond this planet! You can follow the progress of NASA’s space research through various means including the NASA website and via their Twitter feed. Don’t forget you can also follow Cheshire’s Silk 106.9 on Twitter.

It is a big milestone this year for the NASA Space Shuttle programme. Over in Florida, one space shuttle has already completed its final flight to space this year and now going into retirement. The missions all have numbers and the spotlight will soon be on STS-135, which is ‘Atlantis’, the final space shuttle to take off, ever! It will be heading to the ISS (International Space Station) to deliver various tools and equipment.

I have been following the movements of those recent missions along with the other journeys into space and will bring you updates here as preparation continues for the final launch of Atlantis.

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Photos

I was at Nantwich Live 2010 with the Silk 106.9 team. Highlights of the night for me were Stavros Flatley, Signature, Danyl Johnson, Ruth Lorenzo and Jamie Archer.

What gets you dancing?

This:

This?

Or maybe this…