Ali, trying to portray a CEO of gravitas went with Dire Straits, quite possibly the most middle of the road band in history.

Youth workers consider themselves young at heart, being 'down with' young people, and some even consider themselves cool. Well that was completely shattered in September when three of our staff made an appearance on BBC Radio Bristol!

They were on air to talk about the work we do with young people in South Bristol, and have done so throughout lockdown. From zoom mentoring, to delivering food parcels, to taking them to the Roundhouse to grow veg.

BUT they also chose the music.

And that was where any street cred they may have had disappeared completely.

Our CEO Ali, our oldest and most experienced worker Paul, and one of our youngest Laura made an appearance on the Mid Morning show presented by Laura Rawlings on Sunday 13 September. The programme showcases a different community organisation each week, highlighting the work they do. Its conversational, confessional and a nice friendly chat as the audience can listen and potter around the kitchen having a late Sunday breakfast. 

The great part, a bit like Desert Island discs, is that each organisation and their staff get to pick the music, so you can to see a bit of the human behind the professional role. So the Youth Moves team did just that.

Paul chose the one of longest recorded tracks in history, Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf, the album version coming in at a cool 9 minutes and 52 seconds, much to the presenter's amusement. Ali, trying to portray a CEO of gravitas went with Dire Straits, quite possibly the most middle of the road band in history. And as we all hoped that Laura would give a semblance of cool, the youth, maybe some grime, some hip hop or drum and bass. No...she popped up with some old soul, and ruined that!

We jest!

In fairness the music got better, and there were some lovely personal sentiments, in particular Paul and Laura with some tracks closely connected to family memories. The whole interview was very profound, moving and an interesting insight into the work we do, laced with great humour. So we are very proud of them, and love them dearly really! lol

And don't worry young people, if you turn up to a session it won't be Dire Straits or Meatloaf playing, it will be youth led and your call what you want to listen to. Honest! 

So thanks to BBC Radio Bristol and Laura Rawlings for having us on - it was truly great.

Find out what Ali, Paul, and Laura's other choices were, and what they had to say about the fantastic work we do in the full interview here. Starts at 1 hour 11 minutes. Enjoy x

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08q7yff