The day Radio Sheffield’s Rob Rouse Roadshow came to visit Harland Works!

Last Friday Radio Sheffield’s Rob Rouse, and the show producer Jamie Campbell, came to visit Harland Works. They were recording for their Sunday morning show called the Rob Rouse Roadshow - you can catch up with previous episodes here

It was great to have them - they did a whirlwind tour capturing interviews with a whole host of Harland Works folk in a couple of hours. They spoke to:

• Johnny of furniture makers Fallen Giants

• Lee of Just Works who is Harland Works’ cleaner

• Ben of Creative in Crystal, who make amazing bespoke items for very famous celebrities among others

• Wallace of Flycheese Animation Studios

• The whole team at Skeet and Coutie Architects

• Chris Halstead the Bowmaker

• Monica who runs Zag Yoga

They were both lovely and - despite being a bit nervous beforehand - everyone seemed to enjoy the experience of being interviewed for radio. 

Johnny spoke about turning his love of making things into a business, firstly by building a boat (now owned by a wealthy yacht owner) and now by making beautifully crafted bespoke pieces of furniture.

Lee spoke very movingly of his previous experiences of being homeless and how, through the social enterprise Just Works he’s been supported into work and is now the best cleaner we have ever had at Harland Works (and its no easy building to keep clean!).

Ben let slip a few of the celebrities that he’s designed bespoke pieces for. He does not often talk about it but his roster includes a Spice Girl and Beyonce … among others!

Wallace had to find a minute in between looking after her super-keen students who are keener on cracking on with the lessons than allowing her time to be interviewed for the radio! She talked about how Flycheese offers people who need support to live their lives the opportunity to develop some amazing animation skills and create work which is of a professional standard. Rob was amazed to meet Greg who is often at Flycheese and who’s history in animation includes working on the animation for Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer video (MTVs most played music video of all time apparently).

The Skeet and Coutie team talked about all the things they had done before training to be architects! Training for an architect seems to take as long as training to be a doctor - and Rob and Alistair had still managed to fit in alternative careers as a saxophonist and a cabinet maker first which was quite impressive. New recruit Susannah seems to be taking a more direct approach.

Chris talked about the bows he makes and how good bows are all made from a Brazilian wood called pernambuco and use Mongolian mares’ tail hair (not sure if that means that Chris isn’t too worried that Brexit will disrupt his supply chain!).

And Monica gave them a quick run through some yoga poses that could help Jamie with his back (too many years hunched over a microphone!). Rob even had a go on her ropes which gave us a good photo opportunity.

After visiting us Rob was off over to Manchester to do an evening comedy gig - his energy was impressive. 

And now we’re all looking forward to hearing how we sound on the show next Sunday… and hoping we were right not to be nervous!