Don't expect things to happen right at the beginning.
It really does take time into making things.
Jonathan Wolfert's learnt this, Noel Edmonds has, as well as Phillip Schofield.
It's no good just making up songs about just anything because
you have to get to know them first.
This example has answered a lot of questions.
And I'm afraid I'm going to have to be subtle....
I always wondered why I loved the initials "FM"...
Here goes:
BBC Radio 1's First Top 40,
With Simon Bates
88-91 VHF
(Or why I possibly hate Sundays....)
You really don't have to listen if you don't want to.
http://www.smoke-radio.co.uk/s_bates_first_5pm_top40.mp3
But if you did...
Friendly Radio! What A Load Of Old Rubbish!
Literally.
That is what I believe to be known in the industry as "talking at the listener".
Or even worse, "talking down to the listener"
Something I've been guilty of for too long.
Because I've hated people doing it to me for too long and I know it doesn't get me anywhere neither.
Now you know why I do not want to hear that piece of audio EVER again.
Did that put you in a good mood for school on Monday?
Hell, no.
And I really can't listen back to that anymore I'm afraid.
Partly because it's why I hated working at ASDA on a Sunday.
But more importantly why I enjoyed my first attempt at a proper show on a Sunday last year at Smoke Radio.
And not just Sunday, whenever the time is right for what I like doing.
I'm not doing it for the money.
Radio, communication and music are my ways of relaxing.
Listening to it, presenting myself and the music to listeners AND speaking to them.
One to one.
But only more than one in a friendly social situation.
Because we'll all be happy!
And most importantly, putting my heart and soul into making things that would sound great for the listeners.
Because I've been listening for too long.
I want to start speaking to people in radio, beyond radio.
And find out what they like doing to keep the passion.
And here's the same presenter on Radio 1, on the 1st of October, 1987.
One day after Radio 1's 20th birthday.
Just before 5am...
and it's in AM quality for a very good reason.
This proves that radio can only be emotional and fun as 1, with the right balance between the 2!
It could be why I love my baby sister born a couple of months later in that same year.
And why I love my baby brother who was born on the 9th of July 1990.
Because I got to hear even more of Radio 1 as a solitary listener.
I'm guessing why I found Radio to be more interesting!
Because it talked to me a lot more, than anything else that I heard becuase it knew how to balance music and sound overall with talking to the listener.
It had passion, it was exciting, it was fresh.
But that was my problem!
Not theirs.
Both Kate and Olly have learnt to accept what I like and what I don't like.
And I can now accept that radio is not funny. It's very serious.
This explains why I don't eat the pips in apples.
I do it by accident.
Without noticing.
And this jingle below explains why I love the Greenwich Time Signal.
http://www.smoke-radio.co.uk/r1-87-track10.mp3
I've got to put my heart and soul into this.
One of the most fantastic and moving jingles ever, Full Stop.
This is why for many listeners, waking up early was never a problem.
I'm sure that particular jingle is on top of many people's JAM personal cut choices!
But my name wouldn't fit in.
I went with this one because I heard it for a station that had "FM" inside it.
http://www.smoke-radio.co.uk/rb-freshkiis09.mp3
Because that scans a lot nicer than Radio 1.
It flows "off of" the tounge.
But I could fulfill my dream at any time, and so can you!
http://www.smoke-radio.co.uk/r1-blamires-style!.mp3
(Thanks to Simon Hirst for giving me the idea!)
But I'm going to have to stop there.
The 1987 Radio 1 Jingle Package by JAM Creative Productions in Dallas,
is very special to a lot of people because it FINALLY, proved that the UK was capable of producing GREAT radio on a national scale in terms of music.
They just never got the "aural communication" bit right, did they?
But those in Dallas didn't know it either until Jon Wolfert decided to leave New York and stay in the city.
But I know where I belong and that's London.
And that's because Radio 1 is a national radio station which has to cater for many different people at different times.
I just want to do what feels right for me, just outside the busy city.
Because it will always be waiting for me when I want to go for a visit.
But I'll also have somewhere to enjoy myself and a proper job just wouldn't fit the bill for my social interests.
It's all "work, work, work".
But I'm not going to let that affect my decision.
And I don't want to tell other people how they "should be doing it".
It really isn't fair on them.
Those jingles were functional in many ways.
And it showed the way forward for Radio 1 under the caring eye of Johnny Beerling.
A man who had produced the first ever programme on the station.
I would really love to meet him, and Jonathan Wolfert.
Just to have a friendly chat and socialise, where they feel comfortable.
They know and love great radio and have done so for a long time.
And there's lots of other passionate people I'd like to meet to whenever they have the time.
Because I really do want to use my time the best way I can.
And with Jon Wolfert, they proved that that Radio 1 really was Britain's Favourite, with passion.
But we have to move with the times,
Or do we?
No we don't. We'll let radio move with the times the way we want to.
And that's a fact! (Thank you Steven Jones!)
I'm proud that I have such a great name. Because it was designed for broadcasting and I like doing it as a hobby. And will probably continue to do so for quite a bit....
Nah, Bollocks to it!
I'm going to balance both social and radio life together. Keeping the good things in mind.
That's why I love radio jingles.
Not just "jingles".
Radio Jingles
And I really do believe that I've NEVER been afraid of them.
But also understand why others might be.
Us British Broadcasters just didn't get the "No Nonsense" approach to radio and I believe the Americans found it very difficult as well.
I've learnt that the easy way which I'm fully grateful for.
And Kate if you're reading this, I hope you'll be really happy when you get back and head over to University to realise you dreams.
You did it the hard way because at times I can get scared to a point which I immediately forget all my other thoughts.
But being happy does that too!
And I focus more on what makes me happier in life!
And talking to people is about to be one of them.
Not because I've had a drink of alcohol!
Water will do just nicely.
At any time.
I'd best get on with the cooking downstairs.
But I'm ready to speak to you.
Whenever you are comfortable.
And most importantly,
Thank you for reading. x x x
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
An Animation Reccomendation!
Ooh, it's definitely worth having a look at this classic (for the right reasons) animation.
Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in "Rocket Squad" back in (John Wells (1FM) Voice) 1956!
This is an example of a cartoon showing you how NOT to do things in any circumstances!
And it's just a bit of fun really.
Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in "Rocket Squad" back in (John Wells (1FM) Voice) 1956!
This is an example of a cartoon showing you how NOT to do things in any circumstances!
And it's just a bit of fun really.
My First "Proper" Blog Post
Please don't take what I write too seriously!
I never took my mum and dad seriously and when I did, I really was going round in circles.
But they don't have to be big circles if you stay focused.
I'm tempted to write things but, well. Some things are better left unsaid.
Jonathan Ross says so because he cares.
I'm not a fan of him on the radio and that's a fact. It's too in-jokey!
But that's his style.
Radio 1 used to mean Bruno Brookes on the UK Top 40.
He knew bugger all about the music itself but bloody hell, he knew how to count them down!
Credit where due!
I do it because I enjoy it.
And you know what, I also enjoy cooking.
We haven't had rice for quite a while, so errrm.
That's what I'll be making with my curry tonight!
A proper one and all!
But I can adapt. It's the only way to do so and I can live with that.
I'll try not to do these too often.
But that really is what happens to me and I like to be honest.
I blog because I love radio. What you read on here is complete and utter rubbish.
Which I didn't really understand before (Ooh lovely Nouvelle Vague, "Blue Monday")
I've played that on the soul show and I have no problem with other people playing it on theirs.
But you don't say that on t'wireless, Ooooh no!
If I want to leave a station I will tell who I can trust. Maybe not ON the station itself, oooh no!
You'll get a fuck of a lot of stick if you do and I mean that.
This is my act, And I'm trying to keep the reader in mind.
If it gets you THAT physically, just carry on doing it!
I never took my mum and dad seriously and when I did, I really was going round in circles.
But they don't have to be big circles if you stay focused.
I'm tempted to write things but, well. Some things are better left unsaid.
Jonathan Ross says so because he cares.
I'm not a fan of him on the radio and that's a fact. It's too in-jokey!
But that's his style.
Radio 1 used to mean Bruno Brookes on the UK Top 40.
He knew bugger all about the music itself but bloody hell, he knew how to count them down!
Credit where due!
I do it because I enjoy it.
And you know what, I also enjoy cooking.
We haven't had rice for quite a while, so errrm.
That's what I'll be making with my curry tonight!
A proper one and all!
But I can adapt. It's the only way to do so and I can live with that.
I'll try not to do these too often.
But that really is what happens to me and I like to be honest.
I blog because I love radio. What you read on here is complete and utter rubbish.
Which I didn't really understand before (Ooh lovely Nouvelle Vague, "Blue Monday")
I've played that on the soul show and I have no problem with other people playing it on theirs.
But you don't say that on t'wireless, Ooooh no!
If I want to leave a station I will tell who I can trust. Maybe not ON the station itself, oooh no!
You'll get a fuck of a lot of stick if you do and I mean that.
This is my act, And I'm trying to keep the reader in mind.
If it gets you THAT physically, just carry on doing it!
No Light In Pinner!
Ooh, it's a bit weird being up at 2 in the morning in all honesty.
Things either go really quickly or slowly.
But luckily nothing's genuine. The font you see on screen isn't what I'm seeing I'm afraid.
But it has to be like that. And that's the way to go through it all really.
Bearing it all in mind!
Paragraph's just don't appear like that!
But they do...
I know that you must be really careful with meanings and music.
Which is why I make sure that the two are always matched together.
Otherwise your fucked.
Money DOESN'T grow on trees!
But it can be found on branches if you're lucky!
Sometimes you have to steal.
And adapt.
And I always like to end blog posts on a high even if it does sound like spiritual bollocks.
And I know where not to find it if rules aren't followed!
Hehhehehehe!
Things either go really quickly or slowly.
But luckily nothing's genuine. The font you see on screen isn't what I'm seeing I'm afraid.
But it has to be like that. And that's the way to go through it all really.
Bearing it all in mind!
Paragraph's just don't appear like that!
But they do...
I know that you must be really careful with meanings and music.
Which is why I make sure that the two are always matched together.
Otherwise your fucked.
Money DOESN'T grow on trees!
But it can be found on branches if you're lucky!
Sometimes you have to steal.
And adapt.
And I always like to end blog posts on a high even if it does sound like spiritual bollocks.
And I know where not to find it if rules aren't followed!
Hehhehehehe!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
"Not A Chance!"
Ooh today's been a good one!
I'm going to savour in a few lovely things tonight, although tomorrow doesn't look so good.
I've also got to do the cooking again (but it's fun).
Seriously, I musn't give up, I must stay grounded because it could be a hell of a lot worse.
I'm just going to go with the flow.
Oooh yes....
I really don't want to give up writing this blog because it's my own personal home with my own choice of colours.
Secondary colours interesting enough.
And isn't Steve Lamacq fantastic!
With Harvey Cooke reading the news!
All the best broadcasters.
Jingles, overseen by the legend that is Mark Goodier!
And I will always be a listener.
I'm not a broadcaster.
And could never be I'm afraid.
But I want to give it my all this year, without anything getting me down.
I know where I want to be. Lovely London.
And I've treasured every minute there and here in Kent.
Because great memories keep me going.
And knowing where to stop is good as well.
and you know what, it's not just me.
I'm going to savour in a few lovely things tonight, although tomorrow doesn't look so good.
I've also got to do the cooking again (but it's fun).
Seriously, I musn't give up, I must stay grounded because it could be a hell of a lot worse.
I'm just going to go with the flow.
Oooh yes....
I really don't want to give up writing this blog because it's my own personal home with my own choice of colours.
Secondary colours interesting enough.
And isn't Steve Lamacq fantastic!
With Harvey Cooke reading the news!
All the best broadcasters.
Jingles, overseen by the legend that is Mark Goodier!
And I will always be a listener.
I'm not a broadcaster.
And could never be I'm afraid.
But I want to give it my all this year, without anything getting me down.
I know where I want to be. Lovely London.
And I've treasured every minute there and here in Kent.
Because great memories keep me going.
And knowing where to stop is good as well.
and you know what, it's not just me.
Monday, August 06, 2007
The Last One, Honest!
You know what, I'm going to put the laptop down, next to my bed because as soon as something comes into mind. I have to write about it. Even the RSS feed can't keep up with these endless updates.
My likes and guilty pleasures are certainly not coincidental.
One of the videos I saw on the edition of The Chart Show from October '91 last night was "Change" by Lisa Stansfield.
Halfway through the video it revealed that one of Lisa's favourite delights was
"chips, with peas and gravy in a roll". Now in the rather relaxed mood I'm in now with the windows open, warm breeze, something similar would not go amiss.
But that doesn't mean I'd want to indulge in such a thing at any time!
Let me try it now,
Spaghetti, with mince, bacon and mushrooms with tomato puree!
Apple strudel with sultanas, currants and a very sweet sauce!
A lamb stew with rice, mushroooms, potatoes, and lovely green peas!
Delicious sultana and rye bread (Oh shit, I brought six of them in Morrisons this morning and have't eaten any of them!)
As Neil Buchanan would say "Try It Yourself!"
Anyway, balanced diets.
That's why Lisa's always looked so good and sounded great because I'm sure she's lead a balanced but passionate life.
It's probably also why she's always cracking up in interviews and never afraid for the mickey to be taken out of her.
If you've ever brought one of her albums you'll know exactly why. She's made it big "All Around The World" but she still clings on to her Rochdale roots and I can understand why that particular munchie is a favourite up North and it makes me glad that of half of my family are from the North Of England.
That's what's been bugging me. I'm afraid to let out more of my passions because not even my family can share them with me in the same way!
Passions can't be solitary. That's the overall reason why I started writing the blog and kept at it.
In order for me to fully understand why life is worth living I made a start on keeping my first proper attempt at a diary as I can't stand writing with a pen or pencil.
I adore doodling (there's another one!) but that's different. There's no skill involved in doodling and anyone can do it. That's what Christina, a really lovely nurse who I used to visit at George Turle house helped me to understand during the later parts of school and on my AVCE College Course. And I'm gutted, no furious, that I used her visits as an excuse for going on about what were my obsessions then, but have now become passions.
There is a difference between the two. Obsessions are areas you develop really big interests that dominate your life for months on end and then you grow out of them.
Passions are areas of your life that never go away, you come back to them now and again and when you get bored of them, you move onto something else. But they'll always be with you whenver you need them and that's why I've got a lot of audio and visual ones safe on my external hard drives and CD-Rs.
In fact all my genuine long term crushes have been those who have fitted into the category of passionate and I can fully accept that. And if you can keep relaxed and not become lost for words constantly, then the crushes themselves will understand and laugh with you!
I tell you what. I've actually just finished reading this out loud now and it's not even been published! Every word means a lot to me and I can read it myself and feel good rather than having someone else do it for me. Even if it is a crush.
Who'd have thought loving yourself was a good thing?!
No, I'm loving the life and will continue to do so!
Noel McKoy and JTQ summed it all up: "Love The Life"
I’m a man with common sense – and I’m looking for some fun
So don’t give me none of that – stop being ignorant
You think you’re cool and I’m a fool – but it don’t even come with that
See, I know your game – I know what you’re about
Let it be known, let it be said…
I live the life for love, win or lose – that’s the way I choose
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love
When I saw you on the dance floor – I knew that you had the groove
So I made up my mind – what two free should do
After this be my place, a glass of wine – and now we can snuggle up tight
See, I know your game – I need to know before midnight
Let it be known, let it be said…
I live the life for love, win or lose – that’s the way I choose
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love
Relax, make you mind – free from all trips
Trust and believe – let your mind be your guide
Let your mind be your guide
Sock it to me – right on to…
Let it be known, let it be said…
I live the life for love, win or lose – that’s the way I choose
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love…
(Lyrics By Noel McKoy/James Taylor)
Why on earth didn't I heed what Noel McKoy was singing, rather than just play it to death back in October 2001?!
Or even buy the CD single in time for my 8th birthday on it's original release after seeing it on TV countless times!
This song is special. The first verse reccounts many experiences I've had with arrogant, snide, ignorant people and the second verse is the same for the many women I've had crushes on and that's what I need to be doing.
The bridge before the third chorus is advice for anyone wanting to continue living and loving the life.
I've lived through the first and second verse many times but I'm now confident I want to live the rest of my life through the chorus and keeping the bridges in mind.
That's going to be the first record I play on the Soul Show when I get back in September and I fucking mean this. It's not just a record it's a guide to life after 16 that I should have taken a lot earlier. And if you're feeling daring, not a problem.
Many great broadcasters dropped out of, and were even expelled from school and didn't let it get them down.
But I'm going to stick at my degree and balance that with my love of radio and that's confirmed. "Written In The Stone" as Maurice White once sang.
I now know that I really have to stay passionate in order to continue this way.
And every word from Noel in that song really stands out.
I'm gonna carry on enjoying my existence (for warrant of another phrase!)
The meaning of life? Passion.
Good night. (And don't feel brainwashed, the blogs will return soon!
Just give me a week to prove myself and I'll be back "weaker" than ever!)
My likes and guilty pleasures are certainly not coincidental.
One of the videos I saw on the edition of The Chart Show from October '91 last night was "Change" by Lisa Stansfield.
Halfway through the video it revealed that one of Lisa's favourite delights was
"chips, with peas and gravy in a roll". Now in the rather relaxed mood I'm in now with the windows open, warm breeze, something similar would not go amiss.
But that doesn't mean I'd want to indulge in such a thing at any time!
Let me try it now,
Spaghetti, with mince, bacon and mushrooms with tomato puree!
Apple strudel with sultanas, currants and a very sweet sauce!
A lamb stew with rice, mushroooms, potatoes, and lovely green peas!
Delicious sultana and rye bread (Oh shit, I brought six of them in Morrisons this morning and have't eaten any of them!)
As Neil Buchanan would say "Try It Yourself!"
Anyway, balanced diets.
That's why Lisa's always looked so good and sounded great because I'm sure she's lead a balanced but passionate life.
It's probably also why she's always cracking up in interviews and never afraid for the mickey to be taken out of her.
If you've ever brought one of her albums you'll know exactly why. She's made it big "All Around The World" but she still clings on to her Rochdale roots and I can understand why that particular munchie is a favourite up North and it makes me glad that of half of my family are from the North Of England.
That's what's been bugging me. I'm afraid to let out more of my passions because not even my family can share them with me in the same way!
Passions can't be solitary. That's the overall reason why I started writing the blog and kept at it.
In order for me to fully understand why life is worth living I made a start on keeping my first proper attempt at a diary as I can't stand writing with a pen or pencil.
I adore doodling (there's another one!) but that's different. There's no skill involved in doodling and anyone can do it. That's what Christina, a really lovely nurse who I used to visit at George Turle house helped me to understand during the later parts of school and on my AVCE College Course. And I'm gutted, no furious, that I used her visits as an excuse for going on about what were my obsessions then, but have now become passions.
There is a difference between the two. Obsessions are areas you develop really big interests that dominate your life for months on end and then you grow out of them.
Passions are areas of your life that never go away, you come back to them now and again and when you get bored of them, you move onto something else. But they'll always be with you whenver you need them and that's why I've got a lot of audio and visual ones safe on my external hard drives and CD-Rs.
In fact all my genuine long term crushes have been those who have fitted into the category of passionate and I can fully accept that. And if you can keep relaxed and not become lost for words constantly, then the crushes themselves will understand and laugh with you!
I tell you what. I've actually just finished reading this out loud now and it's not even been published! Every word means a lot to me and I can read it myself and feel good rather than having someone else do it for me. Even if it is a crush.
Who'd have thought loving yourself was a good thing?!
No, I'm loving the life and will continue to do so!
Noel McKoy and JTQ summed it all up: "Love The Life"
I’m a man with common sense – and I’m looking for some fun
So don’t give me none of that – stop being ignorant
You think you’re cool and I’m a fool – but it don’t even come with that
See, I know your game – I know what you’re about
Let it be known, let it be said…
I live the life for love, win or lose – that’s the way I choose
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love
When I saw you on the dance floor – I knew that you had the groove
So I made up my mind – what two free should do
After this be my place, a glass of wine – and now we can snuggle up tight
See, I know your game – I need to know before midnight
Let it be known, let it be said…
I live the life for love, win or lose – that’s the way I choose
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love
Relax, make you mind – free from all trips
Trust and believe – let your mind be your guide
Let your mind be your guide
Sock it to me – right on to…
Let it be known, let it be said…
I live the life for love, win or lose – that’s the way I choose
If you love the life that you live – then you will live the life for love…
(Lyrics By Noel McKoy/James Taylor)
Why on earth didn't I heed what Noel McKoy was singing, rather than just play it to death back in October 2001?!
Or even buy the CD single in time for my 8th birthday on it's original release after seeing it on TV countless times!
This song is special. The first verse reccounts many experiences I've had with arrogant, snide, ignorant people and the second verse is the same for the many women I've had crushes on and that's what I need to be doing.
The bridge before the third chorus is advice for anyone wanting to continue living and loving the life.
I've lived through the first and second verse many times but I'm now confident I want to live the rest of my life through the chorus and keeping the bridges in mind.
That's going to be the first record I play on the Soul Show when I get back in September and I fucking mean this. It's not just a record it's a guide to life after 16 that I should have taken a lot earlier. And if you're feeling daring, not a problem.
Many great broadcasters dropped out of, and were even expelled from school and didn't let it get them down.
But I'm going to stick at my degree and balance that with my love of radio and that's confirmed. "Written In The Stone" as Maurice White once sang.
I now know that I really have to stay passionate in order to continue this way.
And every word from Noel in that song really stands out.
I'm gonna carry on enjoying my existence (for warrant of another phrase!)
The meaning of life? Passion.
Good night. (And don't feel brainwashed, the blogs will return soon!
Just give me a week to prove myself and I'll be back "weaker" than ever!)
"Live The Life For Love!"
I've had a look back at my "Crush" post and am reading it out loud emphatically.
I am playing back the Brian Hayes jingle constantly because the vocal harmonies are lovely and am talking about my love for haddock and salmon like I could never physically do in front of Mum and Dad!
This makes me realise how lucky I am that I've still got one more year left at University and it's going to be the best year ever. I really mean this.
Don't be afraid to admit liking things you wouldn't dream of liking.
I may make this a feature on the radio if I get given the green light (or red light in radio terms!) to go to daytime. People starting University in London this Autumn should realise how great the city is. Having lived their myself before, I was up for it right from the beginning.
But I can really understand how others have never lived away from London before and are very nervous in their first week. That's why I want this Freshers Week to be the dog's ping pongs.
In order for something to be a success it has to tug at the heart. Smoke's Out 4 Summer did this perfectly and to repeat something on an even bigger scale will be fantastic!
And all the fun of University doesn't end when Freshers Week is done with.
Not all of us have jobs, and not all of us need money. For me it's a case of cutting down and if I can do the same at home, why can't I do so at Uni.
I end up buying wholemeal bread that goes fucking stale after two days and my biscuit tin is still the same weight as it was in May.
People like Tim, Aussie Ashlee, The "Big Gay Housemates", Sam and Stevie and a few others stand out as those who really want to enjoy themselves and keep me going because they're happy. Even when they're down in the dumps I know they'll be on their toes sooner or later.
I don't judge people, I look for the positive and if there's too much negative then it's not worth them.
I'm worried that I'm going to break into song and turn into bleeding Lizzie, the marionette of Playdays! "I'm Happy!, When The Music Plays..."
That's horrible. There was too much of an overdose of that when I was younger.
Rainbow was so much better and I can even watch that now, as it dealt with things such as Zippy having a crush on Debbie Shore, then from CITV, and Bungle getting "high and mighty" over a party invitation.
The sad thing is, I can relate to all of them and it does lead to results in the end, if you're really focused. And that those who stay "high and mighty" don't often succeed.
I can remember Geoffrey at the end of that particular episode saying "and don't you be all high and mighty like Bungle! Or you might lose some of your friends"
That still applies today and I always keep that in mind, but also because Zippy is one of the funniest things ever!
As Take That put it "Never forget where you've come here from"
I am playing back the Brian Hayes jingle constantly because the vocal harmonies are lovely and am talking about my love for haddock and salmon like I could never physically do in front of Mum and Dad!
This makes me realise how lucky I am that I've still got one more year left at University and it's going to be the best year ever. I really mean this.
Don't be afraid to admit liking things you wouldn't dream of liking.
I may make this a feature on the radio if I get given the green light (or red light in radio terms!) to go to daytime. People starting University in London this Autumn should realise how great the city is. Having lived their myself before, I was up for it right from the beginning.
But I can really understand how others have never lived away from London before and are very nervous in their first week. That's why I want this Freshers Week to be the dog's ping pongs.
In order for something to be a success it has to tug at the heart. Smoke's Out 4 Summer did this perfectly and to repeat something on an even bigger scale will be fantastic!
And all the fun of University doesn't end when Freshers Week is done with.
Not all of us have jobs, and not all of us need money. For me it's a case of cutting down and if I can do the same at home, why can't I do so at Uni.
I end up buying wholemeal bread that goes fucking stale after two days and my biscuit tin is still the same weight as it was in May.
People like Tim, Aussie Ashlee, The "Big Gay Housemates", Sam and Stevie and a few others stand out as those who really want to enjoy themselves and keep me going because they're happy. Even when they're down in the dumps I know they'll be on their toes sooner or later.
I don't judge people, I look for the positive and if there's too much negative then it's not worth them.
I'm worried that I'm going to break into song and turn into bleeding Lizzie, the marionette of Playdays! "I'm Happy!, When The Music Plays..."
That's horrible. There was too much of an overdose of that when I was younger.
Rainbow was so much better and I can even watch that now, as it dealt with things such as Zippy having a crush on Debbie Shore, then from CITV, and Bungle getting "high and mighty" over a party invitation.
The sad thing is, I can relate to all of them and it does lead to results in the end, if you're really focused. And that those who stay "high and mighty" don't often succeed.
I can remember Geoffrey at the end of that particular episode saying "and don't you be all high and mighty like Bungle! Or you might lose some of your friends"
That still applies today and I always keep that in mind, but also because Zippy is one of the funniest things ever!
As Take That put it "Never forget where you've come here from"
"I Don't Want To Be Lectured" (You're The Real Lecturer For Goodness Sake!)
Trying to get mum and dad to think in the same way as me isn't going to work.
Dad seems like he wants to put me down and be as miserable as him (why?) and mum just doesn't want to change.
Let's put this into perspective, I'm not working this summer and am loving the freedom of being able to think things through in detail with nowt getting in the way. Or being prepared for things to get in the way (such as Dad moaning at me to come down and finish the washing up).
Just because your parents think in a certain way doesn't mean you should think the same.
Only share feelings with those who have overall optimisim and very little cynicism.
Dad's excuse is always about him being tired. That's rubbish. The only time to feel tired from my perspective is after 10pm at night.
I only, have only, tended to crash out if I've come home from a miserable day at ASDA (on a Sunday especially), gotten out of a rotten taxi ride home without Mark or Jay, been rejected by a crush over an offer (well crush victim sounds to harsh and "crush" on it's own sounds cuter. Be proud of that word it reminds me of fizzy orange!) or when I've found out mum's making vegetarian sausages on getting back in. Ugh!
I've let my anxieties go out of control at the worst of times. I've come to the conclusion that my parents will always be cynical about my passions but not to hold it against them. Just don't over-egg the passions in a mealtime conversation!
I still haven't finished reading the first Asperger Adventure after getting caught up in all this talk about jingles, tomato puree, chip butties, smiling faces (the real things not that other bloody potato based "treat"!), and dreadful dentures.
Everything has a positive aspect to them and eliminating negative connotations is a piece of piss.
Now I know what Rik meant in the Young Ones about the graffiti "Killjoy was here". Or why happiness is nothing without sadness as found out in "The Happiness Patrol" in Doctor Who.
I'm going to have to buy another to do notepad.
Dad seems like he wants to put me down and be as miserable as him (why?) and mum just doesn't want to change.
Let's put this into perspective, I'm not working this summer and am loving the freedom of being able to think things through in detail with nowt getting in the way. Or being prepared for things to get in the way (such as Dad moaning at me to come down and finish the washing up).
Just because your parents think in a certain way doesn't mean you should think the same.
Only share feelings with those who have overall optimisim and very little cynicism.
Dad's excuse is always about him being tired. That's rubbish. The only time to feel tired from my perspective is after 10pm at night.
I only, have only, tended to crash out if I've come home from a miserable day at ASDA (on a Sunday especially), gotten out of a rotten taxi ride home without Mark or Jay, been rejected by a crush over an offer (well crush victim sounds to harsh and "crush" on it's own sounds cuter. Be proud of that word it reminds me of fizzy orange!) or when I've found out mum's making vegetarian sausages on getting back in. Ugh!
I've let my anxieties go out of control at the worst of times. I've come to the conclusion that my parents will always be cynical about my passions but not to hold it against them. Just don't over-egg the passions in a mealtime conversation!
I still haven't finished reading the first Asperger Adventure after getting caught up in all this talk about jingles, tomato puree, chip butties, smiling faces (the real things not that other bloody potato based "treat"!), and dreadful dentures.
Everything has a positive aspect to them and eliminating negative connotations is a piece of piss.
Now I know what Rik meant in the Young Ones about the graffiti "Killjoy was here". Or why happiness is nothing without sadness as found out in "The Happiness Patrol" in Doctor Who.
I'm going to have to buy another to do notepad.
Crushes Can Be Crushing (If You Don't Deal With Them!)
They probably know this themselves but my parents have never been as enthusiastic about radio as I have.
Mum has always been a Radio 2 listener and that's more or less been the case since the days when Derek Jameson was on Breakfast as I was too young to remember Terry Wogan first time round.
Admittedly Frances Line was in her position as controller for too long.
The only good thing about it from a younger perspective were the jingles and an ever-growing set which is still the case today.
Only that these were from JAM and the ones done now are either from Groove Addicts in LA or Wise Buddah in the UK.
Nicky Schiller once said to me in an e-mail that the Groove Addicts jingles
(which get sung everywhere!) had grown on him but the JAM stuff could not be beaten.
Especially the many variants of the presenter jingles such as this really lovely one for the not as lovely Brian Hayes. That affects me more emotionally than any of the current jingles on the station.
Here's another variant, this time for Ken Bruce when he moved to lates for a short while.
I loved how each presenter could have there own different style of jingle with "Radio 2" sung in many different ways but it always ended with the presenter ID being sung in the key of E major with the chord structure being roughly the same, vocally and orchestrally.
I do wish I had a version of the Brian Hayes cut without the name tag at the end so I could stick one of my acapellas over it! The first ever jingle I played on t'wireless was exactly that and I can understand why Matthew Linfoot wasn't too sure! Especially with my terribly staged introduction beforehand which I am keeping away from this blog!
But I got the idea for this post after coming across a thread on Digital Spy covering the ever-continuing argument as to Radio 2's balance between light and "trendy".
Crushes were the worst things to have at weekends, as whenever I'd walk through the dining room on a Sunday I would either be hearing a dreadful Wurlitzer tune, or Charles Trenet as brought to you by the likes of Russell Davies or the late Richard Baker.
I really wanted whoever the current crush was to be there with me especially if it was as part of a bloody long car journey!
In fact I'll admit it, unless it involves beans on toast, vegetarian mince, any loud innapropriate noises, I would do anything I normally wouldn't be seen dead doing with my parents if I was with the right people at the right time.
I'm letting it out now!
The current Sunday schedule has improved with high points being Dale's Pick of the Pops and Johnnie Walker, but there ain't half a load of tosh. Elaine Paige, why? I've said this before but I came across the perfect description on Digital Spy;
"about as posh as a chip butty"
I was in stitches after reading that but to be honest, that latter in comparison would be even more comforting on a cosy Sunday in winter if everything was right.
I'm getting a bloody craving now. Arrrgh! Not to worry, just put either the crush, or pasta into perspective. I'm feeling better already.
I have a craving for pasta as a lot of lesser people do with chips. It doesn't work on it's own and sometimes I have to eat it by hand. That's what Hannah D once told me and I can't blame her.
I adore tomato puree as in the same way as they would with ketchup.
And I have to have any sort of meat or fish to be served with it.
I've come out of the closet again and am very selective over various types of fish.
I love mackarel provided there aren't too many bones, haddock is gorge, really strong stuff and my favourite has to be salmon. Mainly because of it's lovely colour.
But I'm not into cod. Like C-90 audio tapes, it's too flaky. No wonder there's a shortage of both!
Looks like I may be spending slightly more money on my culinary needs next year at Uni!
I bloody wish I went back to ASDA now!
Actually could I have survived there every day? No, I doubt it.
Sundays at ASDA were awful too. None of the nice people were there, only the horrible or gormless ones. This was between March and September 2003. The longest six months of my life.
There was a really nice woman who operated the checkout of the restaurant when I started who was there on weekdays. Her name was Justine and with a smile like that,
I can understand how she managed to get off working at weekends.
And before you ask, Michaela Strachan.
Justine was only there for a year since I joined as she left to have a baby which timing wise was perfect as it was when the restaurant closed and I went onto Home and Leisure for two months.
Jan, one of the other restaurant colleagues revealed to me about a month later with pride as I was rumbling the drinks machine that the baby's name was Robin!
My time on home and leisure didn't last long though. Everyone seemed really gutted when Sadie the supervisor revealed I would be leaving and I didn't have the guts to ask if I could be promoted, in fear that my rota would be affected. Thursday's and Saturday's between 9 and 5, bloody perfect! And despite the shoddy management they changed my shift to a Friday rather promptly after the days changed on my college course. Why didn't I do so during the summer?
For the next two weeks I was go-getting which meant having to wear a dreadful yellow t-shirt and showing shoppers round the store. This was bollocks. The aisles kept changing every fucking week and I was only working for two days! I've still got that T-shirt actually!
Then it came, the customer restaurant was refurbished and not for the better. Everything was bloody well cluttered, customers weren't happy, staff weren't happy and I kept getting blamed for other people's mistakes. Even Justine when she paid a visit to us was not impressed but she was still smiling.
But the restuarant wasn't the only problem, Lorraine, one of the lovely women
who hired me (Denise Van Outen) had left and I found out a year later that it was because she was going to sue ASDA for an accident that resulted in an ankle or leg injury. I don't know the exact details.
But she had the heart to pop over and say goodbye to us properly before transferring to the George in the Ashford store. Go on girl!
She's the only person apart from Justine who I had the heart to give presents to on her departure and I'd love to find out how she's getting on. I'm gutted I didn't take her e-mail address that she offered on the day.
And I'm afraid the many people who took over from her weren't up to her standards.
This resulted in having to wear white jackets that I HATED, and the fear that I would end up having to serve the crap that was dished out to the idiots. But if these were crush circumstances,
I would probably give in to going there myself!
Anyway, whilst the management kept on changing, the one thing I'm very grateful for was that they never refused any of my holiday requests. Although in all fairness they were booked in advance and I made sure that I didn't have to go into work the weekends before and after I finished my HND course, otherwise I would have been in real agony. And it meant I got to watch Live 8!
I did return to the store during Xmas 2005 which probably wasn't a good idea but I had almost reached the final straw when I got a phone call before Easter from the restaurant supervisor telling me that they were unable to offer me any work that period. I wasn't gutted at all. Oh no.
But I gave in for the summer of that year and was annoyed to find out that they were actually short staffed throughout the whole of the Easter! That and the lack of Justine, Lorraine and now Jan made my time there a misery and I'm fully determined never to return.
Well not as an employee but it was good to see all the others yesterday.
Quite a lot of people on the radio course would be great ASDA employees in the same way as some of the guys and girls at ASDA would be great on the radio! Although if you work at ASDA, I'm sure you're aware that in the store, the two don't appear to blend in well together!
Seriously, both jobs involve communication and smiles and provided the circumstances were right, without being patronising or hypocritical (I'm glad I didn't have to do group selection) I would love it either way.
If everyone would co-operate then I'd have no problem working on Sundays.
Provided I'm working closely with just as nice people at the same time.
That way we're all happy!
Mum has always been a Radio 2 listener and that's more or less been the case since the days when Derek Jameson was on Breakfast as I was too young to remember Terry Wogan first time round.
Admittedly Frances Line was in her position as controller for too long.
The only good thing about it from a younger perspective were the jingles and an ever-growing set which is still the case today.
Only that these were from JAM and the ones done now are either from Groove Addicts in LA or Wise Buddah in the UK.
Nicky Schiller once said to me in an e-mail that the Groove Addicts jingles
(which get sung everywhere!) had grown on him but the JAM stuff could not be beaten.
Especially the many variants of the presenter jingles such as this really lovely one for the not as lovely Brian Hayes. That affects me more emotionally than any of the current jingles on the station.
Here's another variant, this time for Ken Bruce when he moved to lates for a short while.
I loved how each presenter could have there own different style of jingle with "Radio 2" sung in many different ways but it always ended with the presenter ID being sung in the key of E major with the chord structure being roughly the same, vocally and orchestrally.
I do wish I had a version of the Brian Hayes cut without the name tag at the end so I could stick one of my acapellas over it! The first ever jingle I played on t'wireless was exactly that and I can understand why Matthew Linfoot wasn't too sure! Especially with my terribly staged introduction beforehand which I am keeping away from this blog!
But I got the idea for this post after coming across a thread on Digital Spy covering the ever-continuing argument as to Radio 2's balance between light and "trendy".
Crushes were the worst things to have at weekends, as whenever I'd walk through the dining room on a Sunday I would either be hearing a dreadful Wurlitzer tune, or Charles Trenet as brought to you by the likes of Russell Davies or the late Richard Baker.
I really wanted whoever the current crush was to be there with me especially if it was as part of a bloody long car journey!
In fact I'll admit it, unless it involves beans on toast, vegetarian mince, any loud innapropriate noises, I would do anything I normally wouldn't be seen dead doing with my parents if I was with the right people at the right time.
I'm letting it out now!
The current Sunday schedule has improved with high points being Dale's Pick of the Pops and Johnnie Walker, but there ain't half a load of tosh. Elaine Paige, why? I've said this before but I came across the perfect description on Digital Spy;
"about as posh as a chip butty"
I was in stitches after reading that but to be honest, that latter in comparison would be even more comforting on a cosy Sunday in winter if everything was right.
I'm getting a bloody craving now. Arrrgh! Not to worry, just put either the crush, or pasta into perspective. I'm feeling better already.
I have a craving for pasta as a lot of lesser people do with chips. It doesn't work on it's own and sometimes I have to eat it by hand. That's what Hannah D once told me and I can't blame her.
I adore tomato puree as in the same way as they would with ketchup.
And I have to have any sort of meat or fish to be served with it.
I've come out of the closet again and am very selective over various types of fish.
I love mackarel provided there aren't too many bones, haddock is gorge, really strong stuff and my favourite has to be salmon. Mainly because of it's lovely colour.
But I'm not into cod. Like C-90 audio tapes, it's too flaky. No wonder there's a shortage of both!
Looks like I may be spending slightly more money on my culinary needs next year at Uni!
I bloody wish I went back to ASDA now!
Actually could I have survived there every day? No, I doubt it.
Sundays at ASDA were awful too. None of the nice people were there, only the horrible or gormless ones. This was between March and September 2003. The longest six months of my life.
There was a really nice woman who operated the checkout of the restaurant when I started who was there on weekdays. Her name was Justine and with a smile like that,
I can understand how she managed to get off working at weekends.
And before you ask, Michaela Strachan.
Justine was only there for a year since I joined as she left to have a baby which timing wise was perfect as it was when the restaurant closed and I went onto Home and Leisure for two months.
Jan, one of the other restaurant colleagues revealed to me about a month later with pride as I was rumbling the drinks machine that the baby's name was Robin!
My time on home and leisure didn't last long though. Everyone seemed really gutted when Sadie the supervisor revealed I would be leaving and I didn't have the guts to ask if I could be promoted, in fear that my rota would be affected. Thursday's and Saturday's between 9 and 5, bloody perfect! And despite the shoddy management they changed my shift to a Friday rather promptly after the days changed on my college course. Why didn't I do so during the summer?
For the next two weeks I was go-getting which meant having to wear a dreadful yellow t-shirt and showing shoppers round the store. This was bollocks. The aisles kept changing every fucking week and I was only working for two days! I've still got that T-shirt actually!
Then it came, the customer restaurant was refurbished and not for the better. Everything was bloody well cluttered, customers weren't happy, staff weren't happy and I kept getting blamed for other people's mistakes. Even Justine when she paid a visit to us was not impressed but she was still smiling.
But the restuarant wasn't the only problem, Lorraine, one of the lovely women
who hired me (Denise Van Outen) had left and I found out a year later that it was because she was going to sue ASDA for an accident that resulted in an ankle or leg injury. I don't know the exact details.
But she had the heart to pop over and say goodbye to us properly before transferring to the George in the Ashford store. Go on girl!
She's the only person apart from Justine who I had the heart to give presents to on her departure and I'd love to find out how she's getting on. I'm gutted I didn't take her e-mail address that she offered on the day.
And I'm afraid the many people who took over from her weren't up to her standards.
This resulted in having to wear white jackets that I HATED, and the fear that I would end up having to serve the crap that was dished out to the idiots. But if these were crush circumstances,
I would probably give in to going there myself!
Anyway, whilst the management kept on changing, the one thing I'm very grateful for was that they never refused any of my holiday requests. Although in all fairness they were booked in advance and I made sure that I didn't have to go into work the weekends before and after I finished my HND course, otherwise I would have been in real agony. And it meant I got to watch Live 8!
I did return to the store during Xmas 2005 which probably wasn't a good idea but I had almost reached the final straw when I got a phone call before Easter from the restaurant supervisor telling me that they were unable to offer me any work that period. I wasn't gutted at all. Oh no.
But I gave in for the summer of that year and was annoyed to find out that they were actually short staffed throughout the whole of the Easter! That and the lack of Justine, Lorraine and now Jan made my time there a misery and I'm fully determined never to return.
Well not as an employee but it was good to see all the others yesterday.
Quite a lot of people on the radio course would be great ASDA employees in the same way as some of the guys and girls at ASDA would be great on the radio! Although if you work at ASDA, I'm sure you're aware that in the store, the two don't appear to blend in well together!
Seriously, both jobs involve communication and smiles and provided the circumstances were right, without being patronising or hypocritical (I'm glad I didn't have to do group selection) I would love it either way.
If everyone would co-operate then I'd have no problem working on Sundays.
Provided I'm working closely with just as nice people at the same time.
That way we're all happy!
The Jingle Collecting Rant: Part 2
Now it's getting even more stupid.
I'm starting to realise that whilst these books give you an idea on how to deal with people with Asperger's Syndrome, that doesn't mean that anyone else in the same working or learning environment should be treated differently. Provided they play it straight and are understanding.
There are people on my radio course who predominantly act as if they don't give a shit. They're not bothered. They don't want to know.
I'm not to offended by the ones with curses as I tend to use them for jokey purposes, but one of my teachers at secondary school had every right to be upset when speaking out loud about feeling upset when making suggestions and people were responding back to them saying that they didn't care.
Anyone who has responded like that to me, especially when trying to speak to them about my interest has ended up on my black list. There were even people at a Jingle Mad meet in London who were like that and they ended up leaving the pub earlier than myself, a guy from Peterborough called Aston who's insane "Freq-ky" in his own words, and two Daves. Dave from Jersey who has a great black book, (not black list!) of people in radio such as John Wells, Bruno Brookes, Adrian Juste and so on.
And another Dave, "Big Dave Nightingale" from Sheffield and I think his own jingle says it all!
These are great guys and because of the arrogance of other jingle collectors who will only collect stuff in super hi-quality, and are very specific on the amount of cuts that are in the package traded, I haven't really made as much effort to get to know them even further, despite going more further than anyone before.
Anyway, at that said meet up on a sunny Sunday in Central London I was in awe throughout.
I left cloudy Canterbury early that morning and headed into Central London and made my steady journey towards the George in Great Portland Street by going across the South Bank from Waterloo, relishing the lovely pain aux raisin I'd savoured, and crossed over the Westminster bridge where as I got to the end a six year old kid exclaimed "this is where Doctor Who stood!"
I knew already that this was going to be a brilliant day.
I arrived at the George at 12:15 to be welcomed by Freq-ky, Big Dave, and Dave from Jersey and another fella from Kent bordering into London, Martin Lester.
Shortly we saw the arrival of another legend, Simon Hirst who only had 4 hours before he was due to go on air with Katy Hill on Hit 40 UK!
And Sean Martin, who travelled all the way from Switzerland to be there and has to be one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He was responsible for getting this cut from JonesTM done for me as part of the iJingles project he runs.
Sean revealed to me a lot earlier that he used to be a psychiatric nurse and knew fully well what Asperger's Syndrome was all about. But unlike my dad he wouldn't get offended if I raised my voice about something that irritated me but was impressed that I could correct myself immediately, which I've started to develop a habit of doing in written form.
Sean also explained to me that a lot of people wouldn't "come out of the closet" about their Asperger's Syndrome and that it could "scare people" but explained to me that he didn't fit into the profile of a "traditional jingle collector" and has sent me tons of stuff and nicely labeled too!
Anyway, that Sunday afternoon...
A tradition of Jinglemad meet ups is when we record name shouts for each other and people who can't be there in person who can only dream of them! If I can find it I'll upload a video of us in action from that day and it's what I'd describe as comedy gold.
Instead of pissing everyone off in the pub itself, we went into a secluded staircase (which I've fallen down quite a few times) with the toilet door as our reverb chamber!
They recorded one for me as suggested by fellow collector Stacey Harris which went "Blammo In Harrow!" which I've never used for the life of me!
At around 3:00 quite a few of the "serious lot" decided to leave although so did Freq-ky but that was because he had to be up pretty early the next morning.
Myself, the two Dave's, Martin and Pete Wilson (and his missus) stuck around and I was interested at how open they got about the disapointment of them leaving early. This was a big day for jingle collectors which sorted out the men from the boys (rather ironic thing to say!).
We then divulged into other interests and I found out that I wasn't the only one who loved Swing Out Sister and Incognito! In fact Martin had even seen Swing Out Sister at the Jazz Cafe in the early 90s and I was ready to do the same in a couple of months.
Come 7pm we decided to head over to Leicester Square and the Yates Bar outside Capital Radio HQ. And the look on my face, Simon Hirst and Katy Hill! This was brilliant!
Katy even had the heart to end her mobile call and speak to us all and she was just as lovely as she was on televison and radio!
I can remember a certain Ross Powell a couple of months later on his show on Smoke with Dave Baldwin that "Blue Peter was never the same since Katy Hill left..."
Our next stop off point was the Boudicea bar at Charing Cross Station where we stopped off as I waited for my train back to Canterbury. At this point the bar was rammed by some very happy Chelsea supporters making a lot of noise entirely through the use of their chants!
The Blues had beaten Arsenal for the first time in years with the debut of Michael Essien and having always hated Arsenal, I was now fully converted. I even fell off my bar stool when they sung the chant about Arsene Wenger and the packet of sweets!
Everyone was laughing but I didn't take it personally. Luckily on the message board the next day I got this lovely response from Aston:
"Good to see you all and my apologies for not being able to stay the full hog this year.(Glad to hear about Katy Hill).
I'm was very sad to hear about Robin's little incident.Especially as Arsenal are not wearing red this season (It's redcurrent (or dark marroon) due to the team playing their final season at Highbury).Robin,the people who tried to antagonise you showed themselves up for what they are.Morons !!!!
I did manage to get through some of the CDs yesterday evening and so far,it's Mssrs Bolton & Furness that had me crying.(The Broadland & Metro stuff respectively).
I've placed a post it note on my computer this morning reminding of Mr Wilsons request and attempting to burn a CD for the benefit of Mr McGrath.
Finally,my prize received a nervous look from a couple of Americans sitting in the opposite aisle.(Ever get the feeling Arbitron strikes terror in the US more than ol' Bin Laden).
Oh well,back to work.TTFN."
I met up with Aston and Big Dave in Birmingham again in mid November on a cold but lovely day overlooking the canal in a pub on Broad Street near BRMB and Central.
This was much needed relief after a dreadful week trying and eventually succeeding to get an interview for my first radio assignment and two days before I recorded my first ever Soul Expression.
The guys were really supportive and we could balance happy and sad things but not let depression take over.
Being keen travellers (well UK wide anyway) we could link jingles, radio and television to events such as the Manchester bombings in 1996 and the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
In fact this selection should give you a very clear perspective of the latter and the innapropriate use of the ITV's Results theme. You can't take everything seriously.
One year later when the second year radio lot were on our day trip to Richmond,
Jon was talking to us about his "work experience" at Radio Aire and I can remember him saying "'ere I've erd about Simon 'irst, he spends his time in pubs going on about radio jingles..."
I then realised rather sadly that I seemed to be the only one really interested in radio and everything that it was associated with.
But that didn't put me off going to these pub meets, the last one being in October which I hot footed it from Blandford to be there and still answering calls from soon to be departed Smoke Radio members at the same time!
Anyway, Sean was there as were Freq-ky, Big Dave and the Hodgey brothers, Mark and Ian from Doncaster. Big Dave had brought his laptop with him and I'd brought my hard drive so the jingles were really flowing! As was the beer of course! Didn't really eat much however, I'm more of a liquid person at these dos.
The next meet up should be in Newcastle in early October after the Great North Run and I'm definitely looking forward to the fifth of the Jingle Days since it's inaugaration in September 2003.
And these are not just trainspotters, well, they're not trainspotters at all. They know how to have a good time!
And yes, there will be a part 3!
I'm starting to realise that whilst these books give you an idea on how to deal with people with Asperger's Syndrome, that doesn't mean that anyone else in the same working or learning environment should be treated differently. Provided they play it straight and are understanding.
There are people on my radio course who predominantly act as if they don't give a shit. They're not bothered. They don't want to know.
I'm not to offended by the ones with curses as I tend to use them for jokey purposes, but one of my teachers at secondary school had every right to be upset when speaking out loud about feeling upset when making suggestions and people were responding back to them saying that they didn't care.
Anyone who has responded like that to me, especially when trying to speak to them about my interest has ended up on my black list. There were even people at a Jingle Mad meet in London who were like that and they ended up leaving the pub earlier than myself, a guy from Peterborough called Aston who's insane "Freq-ky" in his own words, and two Daves. Dave from Jersey who has a great black book, (not black list!) of people in radio such as John Wells, Bruno Brookes, Adrian Juste and so on.
And another Dave, "Big Dave Nightingale" from Sheffield and I think his own jingle says it all!
These are great guys and because of the arrogance of other jingle collectors who will only collect stuff in super hi-quality, and are very specific on the amount of cuts that are in the package traded, I haven't really made as much effort to get to know them even further, despite going more further than anyone before.
Anyway, at that said meet up on a sunny Sunday in Central London I was in awe throughout.
I left cloudy Canterbury early that morning and headed into Central London and made my steady journey towards the George in Great Portland Street by going across the South Bank from Waterloo, relishing the lovely pain aux raisin I'd savoured, and crossed over the Westminster bridge where as I got to the end a six year old kid exclaimed "this is where Doctor Who stood!"
I knew already that this was going to be a brilliant day.
I arrived at the George at 12:15 to be welcomed by Freq-ky, Big Dave, and Dave from Jersey and another fella from Kent bordering into London, Martin Lester.
Shortly we saw the arrival of another legend, Simon Hirst who only had 4 hours before he was due to go on air with Katy Hill on Hit 40 UK!
And Sean Martin, who travelled all the way from Switzerland to be there and has to be one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He was responsible for getting this cut from JonesTM done for me as part of the iJingles project he runs.
Sean revealed to me a lot earlier that he used to be a psychiatric nurse and knew fully well what Asperger's Syndrome was all about. But unlike my dad he wouldn't get offended if I raised my voice about something that irritated me but was impressed that I could correct myself immediately, which I've started to develop a habit of doing in written form.
Sean also explained to me that a lot of people wouldn't "come out of the closet" about their Asperger's Syndrome and that it could "scare people" but explained to me that he didn't fit into the profile of a "traditional jingle collector" and has sent me tons of stuff and nicely labeled too!
Anyway, that Sunday afternoon...
A tradition of Jinglemad meet ups is when we record name shouts for each other and people who can't be there in person who can only dream of them! If I can find it I'll upload a video of us in action from that day and it's what I'd describe as comedy gold.
Instead of pissing everyone off in the pub itself, we went into a secluded staircase (which I've fallen down quite a few times) with the toilet door as our reverb chamber!
They recorded one for me as suggested by fellow collector Stacey Harris which went "Blammo In Harrow!" which I've never used for the life of me!
At around 3:00 quite a few of the "serious lot" decided to leave although so did Freq-ky but that was because he had to be up pretty early the next morning.
Myself, the two Dave's, Martin and Pete Wilson (and his missus) stuck around and I was interested at how open they got about the disapointment of them leaving early. This was a big day for jingle collectors which sorted out the men from the boys (rather ironic thing to say!).
We then divulged into other interests and I found out that I wasn't the only one who loved Swing Out Sister and Incognito! In fact Martin had even seen Swing Out Sister at the Jazz Cafe in the early 90s and I was ready to do the same in a couple of months.
Come 7pm we decided to head over to Leicester Square and the Yates Bar outside Capital Radio HQ. And the look on my face, Simon Hirst and Katy Hill! This was brilliant!
Katy even had the heart to end her mobile call and speak to us all and she was just as lovely as she was on televison and radio!
I can remember a certain Ross Powell a couple of months later on his show on Smoke with Dave Baldwin that "Blue Peter was never the same since Katy Hill left..."
Our next stop off point was the Boudicea bar at Charing Cross Station where we stopped off as I waited for my train back to Canterbury. At this point the bar was rammed by some very happy Chelsea supporters making a lot of noise entirely through the use of their chants!
The Blues had beaten Arsenal for the first time in years with the debut of Michael Essien and having always hated Arsenal, I was now fully converted. I even fell off my bar stool when they sung the chant about Arsene Wenger and the packet of sweets!
Everyone was laughing but I didn't take it personally. Luckily on the message board the next day I got this lovely response from Aston:
"Good to see you all and my apologies for not being able to stay the full hog this year.(Glad to hear about Katy Hill).
I'm was very sad to hear about Robin's little incident.Especially as Arsenal are not wearing red this season (It's redcurrent (or dark marroon) due to the team playing their final season at Highbury).Robin,the people who tried to antagonise you showed themselves up for what they are.Morons !!!!
I did manage to get through some of the CDs yesterday evening and so far,it's Mssrs Bolton & Furness that had me crying.(The Broadland & Metro stuff respectively).
I've placed a post it note on my computer this morning reminding of Mr Wilsons request and attempting to burn a CD for the benefit of Mr McGrath.
Finally,my prize received a nervous look from a couple of Americans sitting in the opposite aisle.(Ever get the feeling Arbitron strikes terror in the US more than ol' Bin Laden).
Oh well,back to work.TTFN."
I met up with Aston and Big Dave in Birmingham again in mid November on a cold but lovely day overlooking the canal in a pub on Broad Street near BRMB and Central.
This was much needed relief after a dreadful week trying and eventually succeeding to get an interview for my first radio assignment and two days before I recorded my first ever Soul Expression.
The guys were really supportive and we could balance happy and sad things but not let depression take over.
Being keen travellers (well UK wide anyway) we could link jingles, radio and television to events such as the Manchester bombings in 1996 and the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
In fact this selection should give you a very clear perspective of the latter and the innapropriate use of the ITV's Results theme. You can't take everything seriously.
One year later when the second year radio lot were on our day trip to Richmond,
Jon was talking to us about his "work experience" at Radio Aire and I can remember him saying "'ere I've erd about Simon 'irst, he spends his time in pubs going on about radio jingles..."
I then realised rather sadly that I seemed to be the only one really interested in radio and everything that it was associated with.
But that didn't put me off going to these pub meets, the last one being in October which I hot footed it from Blandford to be there and still answering calls from soon to be departed Smoke Radio members at the same time!
Anyway, Sean was there as were Freq-ky, Big Dave and the Hodgey brothers, Mark and Ian from Doncaster. Big Dave had brought his laptop with him and I'd brought my hard drive so the jingles were really flowing! As was the beer of course! Didn't really eat much however, I'm more of a liquid person at these dos.
The next meet up should be in Newcastle in early October after the Great North Run and I'm definitely looking forward to the fifth of the Jingle Days since it's inaugaration in September 2003.
And these are not just trainspotters, well, they're not trainspotters at all. They know how to have a good time!
And yes, there will be a part 3!
Genuine Pearls Of B.S.
Today's going to be a record as far as blog posts go.
I am determined to make sure that everyone, including Matthew, the occupants of "the big gay house", no, everyone I know and will get to know on the radio course will have the heart to read all of Kathy Hoopmann's books. They don't take that long to read and every time you read them you're learning something different, not just about the characters but how you relate to them.
No, how you should relate to them.
The characters of the bullies are written like that so you are meant to hate them.
Not dislike, hate.
They have no feelings at all, although, they may have had a bad upbringing and I'm certain that my upbringing, although not great was a million times better than at least every 5 people I went to school with.
The amount of angry parents I've seen at a school reception swearing at the headteacher is immense. You know the type, ones who look as if they haven't washed, wear denim and sound like either Janet Street Porter or anyone from Eastenders.
I'm sorry if my posts sound aggressive but I've realised this weekend that I'm fed up with being lied to.
Those who I've spoken too on MSN who have been in this situation in the past are fully understanding and I have no ill feelings for them whatsoever, regardless of what they've done to me before. They've just got to think about themselves, and how they act outside working environments.
You don't have to be as bonkers as me, always taking the trouble at the most antisocial times. That's a characteristic of Asperger's Syndrome as illustrated in Kathy's books.
And I've used the word bonkers. Having heard it several times, and the fact I tend to associate it more with a sketch that Trev and Simon used to do on Live and Kicking than as an insult.
To be honest (and here comes another tangent) I was gutted that they cut the clip of it out of the repeat of the Swap Shop documentary where the audience would go insane and make as much noise as possible whenever a magic word was said.
Trev had a megaphone and Simon had a hooter which proably would have scared me if I was in the studio with them, but it tended to get drowned out by loud barrel organ music and that other hooter noise that is synominous with Going Live!, CBBC and even Quizmania if I remember rightly.
That reminds me of the fun I had with the megaphone during SO4S by using it to annoy
a right nasty bunch of guys on the courtyard! And they did look as if they wanted to punch me!
But at the end of the day, they'd be the ones in trouble. Verbal injuries are nowhere near as bad as physical injuries. Again a topic that's up for debate.
It proves that you don't need messy stuff to have a good time.
I am determined to make sure that everyone, including Matthew, the occupants of "the big gay house", no, everyone I know and will get to know on the radio course will have the heart to read all of Kathy Hoopmann's books. They don't take that long to read and every time you read them you're learning something different, not just about the characters but how you relate to them.
No, how you should relate to them.
The characters of the bullies are written like that so you are meant to hate them.
Not dislike, hate.
They have no feelings at all, although, they may have had a bad upbringing and I'm certain that my upbringing, although not great was a million times better than at least every 5 people I went to school with.
The amount of angry parents I've seen at a school reception swearing at the headteacher is immense. You know the type, ones who look as if they haven't washed, wear denim and sound like either Janet Street Porter or anyone from Eastenders.
I'm sorry if my posts sound aggressive but I've realised this weekend that I'm fed up with being lied to.
Those who I've spoken too on MSN who have been in this situation in the past are fully understanding and I have no ill feelings for them whatsoever, regardless of what they've done to me before. They've just got to think about themselves, and how they act outside working environments.
You don't have to be as bonkers as me, always taking the trouble at the most antisocial times. That's a characteristic of Asperger's Syndrome as illustrated in Kathy's books.
And I've used the word bonkers. Having heard it several times, and the fact I tend to associate it more with a sketch that Trev and Simon used to do on Live and Kicking than as an insult.
To be honest (and here comes another tangent) I was gutted that they cut the clip of it out of the repeat of the Swap Shop documentary where the audience would go insane and make as much noise as possible whenever a magic word was said.
Trev had a megaphone and Simon had a hooter which proably would have scared me if I was in the studio with them, but it tended to get drowned out by loud barrel organ music and that other hooter noise that is synominous with Going Live!, CBBC and even Quizmania if I remember rightly.
That reminds me of the fun I had with the megaphone during SO4S by using it to annoy
a right nasty bunch of guys on the courtyard! And they did look as if they wanted to punch me!
But at the end of the day, they'd be the ones in trouble. Verbal injuries are nowhere near as bad as physical injuries. Again a topic that's up for debate.
It proves that you don't need messy stuff to have a good time.
Kathy Hoopmann=Genius!
I've only just reached the second chapter of "Blue Bottle Mystery" and Kathy Hoopmann proves her knowledge of Asperger's Syndrome throughout. She puts the reader in the main character Ben's point of view. She gives every detail of his actions and how a teacher or peer would speak to him.
When I read her biography on the blurb of the book first time round I nearly broke down. She has a lovely family and shares property of wild animals and birds.
You're never to old to enjoy such things provided that you avoid connotations with annoying nursery rhymes!
I'd have a gander at the Level 42 documentary from 1984 to hear Mark King and the guys making similar points.
And Esther Rantzen can fuck off. Bernard Manning and Victor Lewis Smith had every right to rip the piss out of her, face to face, or verbally in their own respects.
The phrase "That's Life" is the same as "It's Only Radio". Rubbish.
Radio for me is life because the people who I tend to help out with and have visited at other stations are very sociable. I try to make my phone calls, and e-mails meaningful and whenever I have, I've always got a response, whether it's an on-air mention or even an e-mail back from the presenter. And there's nothing wrong with being yourself at all times as long as you're happy on air.
When I rang up Sam at Mix 107 a few months ago she sounded like she was going to cry.
This was because it was her final show before her USA expedition and whilst I was wanting to speak to her as a listener in response to what she said on air about what I was doing that weekend and so on, she asked me if I was going to be at the Undercroft on Monday and if I was looking forward to it.
And when she mentioned me on air it was like none of that had happened.
Someone really needs to write a book in the same way as Kathy Hoopmann about the postive aspects of Asperger's Syndrome beyond the classroom, sorry, finishing school and onwards.
And if no one does then I will! It did great favours for Luke Jackson.
When I read her biography on the blurb of the book first time round I nearly broke down. She has a lovely family and shares property of wild animals and birds.
You're never to old to enjoy such things provided that you avoid connotations with annoying nursery rhymes!
I'd have a gander at the Level 42 documentary from 1984 to hear Mark King and the guys making similar points.
And Esther Rantzen can fuck off. Bernard Manning and Victor Lewis Smith had every right to rip the piss out of her, face to face, or verbally in their own respects.
The phrase "That's Life" is the same as "It's Only Radio". Rubbish.
Radio for me is life because the people who I tend to help out with and have visited at other stations are very sociable. I try to make my phone calls, and e-mails meaningful and whenever I have, I've always got a response, whether it's an on-air mention or even an e-mail back from the presenter. And there's nothing wrong with being yourself at all times as long as you're happy on air.
When I rang up Sam at Mix 107 a few months ago she sounded like she was going to cry.
This was because it was her final show before her USA expedition and whilst I was wanting to speak to her as a listener in response to what she said on air about what I was doing that weekend and so on, she asked me if I was going to be at the Undercroft on Monday and if I was looking forward to it.
And when she mentioned me on air it was like none of that had happened.
Someone really needs to write a book in the same way as Kathy Hoopmann about the postive aspects of Asperger's Syndrome beyond the classroom, sorry, finishing school and onwards.
And if no one does then I will! It did great favours for Luke Jackson.
Spotty Presenters Of A Different Sort!
There's no denying it. Even Noel Edmonds can't forget his first love!
A lot of Gotchas including the first ever one on The Saturday Roadshow in 1988 were based within radio, with the first recipient in question being Gloria Hunniford, coping with a B.A. who smashed up a record that was playing midway through on her Radio 2 show.
Four years later there was DLT's outburst, and then in 1993 Gary Davies was lured into Blobbyland to teach Mr Blobby how to become a DJ. Of course this was when Mr Blobby was funny as just part of the gotchas which a lot of people tend to forget before the whole thing went out of control stopping Take That from getting Xmas Number One.
And here we go with another of my prized possessions. The VHS of "One on 1" a documentary produced in 1988 based around a day in the life of BBC Radio 1. I'll never forget Gary Davies's part when he said that he hated having to record a radio show and nothing beat the buzz of live broadcasting. That and "Iiit's Just Coming Up To 12:45!" before hitting the jingle machine.
Gary wasn't treated very fairly at Radio 1. In 1992 he moved from his Bit In The Middle to Weekend Breakfast and a late night album tracks show where he played records from the likes of Steely Dan, Swing Out Sister and Eric Clapton. And a lot of Eric Clapton.
No seriously, the bosses at the top came in too soon after he started reiniventing himself and in December 1993 he was booted from Radio 1 joining Virgin 1215 which he wasn't afraid to reveal on air during his final shows.
Danny Baker who had by now taken over from DLT on weekend mornings said that "If you wanted to hear Layla over and over again, you could always listen to Virgin..." and guess who later ended up there!
Danny's reinvented himself however, and despite heavy use of "The Candyman" from Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory he's interviewed some great guests at BBC London including Ross Noble, Carleen Anderson, Sylvester McCoy and has always seemed really interested in them.
That's another addition to my to do list. Revisit the Blood on The Carpet documentary about Matthew Bannister's tenure at Radio 1 made in 2001. That was an interesting if slightly biased insight as the only DJ from the pre-Bannister era they interviewed was Adrian Juste!
A nice enough guy but he spent too much time using comedy clips from Monty Python, Morecambe and Wise and the Two Ronnies for my liking.
I did however end up laughing when he revealed how he resigned from the station and it made me realise that in some cases, DJs tend to have bigger egos than the management.
But then again Matthew did make quite a few drastic moves on his arrival at the station although that's understanding having been employed there 10 years earlier as a newsreader.
I've respected what Matthew Bannister did since his arrival as he always came across as relaxed when appearing in interviews including a couple on Live and Kicking with both Emma Forbes, and Zoe and Jamie respectively. And there were plenty of high points including Simon Mayo, Mark Goodier, Dave Pearce with "Mr Whippy's Organ", and those who came and went such as Clive Warren and Charlie Jordan.
I even remember her ID "She may have the same name as a bloke! But she's all woman!"
And I think I could use that line in one way or another come Freshers!
A lot of Gotchas including the first ever one on The Saturday Roadshow in 1988 were based within radio, with the first recipient in question being Gloria Hunniford, coping with a B.A. who smashed up a record that was playing midway through on her Radio 2 show.
Four years later there was DLT's outburst, and then in 1993 Gary Davies was lured into Blobbyland to teach Mr Blobby how to become a DJ. Of course this was when Mr Blobby was funny as just part of the gotchas which a lot of people tend to forget before the whole thing went out of control stopping Take That from getting Xmas Number One.
And here we go with another of my prized possessions. The VHS of "One on 1" a documentary produced in 1988 based around a day in the life of BBC Radio 1. I'll never forget Gary Davies's part when he said that he hated having to record a radio show and nothing beat the buzz of live broadcasting. That and "Iiit's Just Coming Up To 12:45!" before hitting the jingle machine.
Gary wasn't treated very fairly at Radio 1. In 1992 he moved from his Bit In The Middle to Weekend Breakfast and a late night album tracks show where he played records from the likes of Steely Dan, Swing Out Sister and Eric Clapton. And a lot of Eric Clapton.
No seriously, the bosses at the top came in too soon after he started reiniventing himself and in December 1993 he was booted from Radio 1 joining Virgin 1215 which he wasn't afraid to reveal on air during his final shows.
Danny Baker who had by now taken over from DLT on weekend mornings said that "If you wanted to hear Layla over and over again, you could always listen to Virgin..." and guess who later ended up there!
Danny's reinvented himself however, and despite heavy use of "The Candyman" from Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory he's interviewed some great guests at BBC London including Ross Noble, Carleen Anderson, Sylvester McCoy and has always seemed really interested in them.
That's another addition to my to do list. Revisit the Blood on The Carpet documentary about Matthew Bannister's tenure at Radio 1 made in 2001. That was an interesting if slightly biased insight as the only DJ from the pre-Bannister era they interviewed was Adrian Juste!
A nice enough guy but he spent too much time using comedy clips from Monty Python, Morecambe and Wise and the Two Ronnies for my liking.
I did however end up laughing when he revealed how he resigned from the station and it made me realise that in some cases, DJs tend to have bigger egos than the management.
But then again Matthew did make quite a few drastic moves on his arrival at the station although that's understanding having been employed there 10 years earlier as a newsreader.
I've respected what Matthew Bannister did since his arrival as he always came across as relaxed when appearing in interviews including a couple on Live and Kicking with both Emma Forbes, and Zoe and Jamie respectively. And there were plenty of high points including Simon Mayo, Mark Goodier, Dave Pearce with "Mr Whippy's Organ", and those who came and went such as Clive Warren and Charlie Jordan.
I even remember her ID "She may have the same name as a bloke! But she's all woman!"
And I think I could use that line in one way or another come Freshers!
Giving Away The Secrets Of Great Radio!
I can't believe I'm doing this. I've just written a set of guidelines for me to bring with me the next time I set foot behind the microphone of a radio studio. They can be downloaded here (ooooh!) but remember, these are not instructions from a pro!
"Pro's" won't normally take the time to write guidelines of making potentially great radio because they are scared of people becoming better than them!
Anyone reading this is more than welcome to make changes to the document and rip the piss if they want to because I know that not everyone wanting to get into radio is serious about it in the long term. I'm writing this with Cindi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" playing in the background which I can remember using for one of the worst trails I've ever produced for The 80s Team. And this was when it really was a team! Ina was joined by the ever capable Cat Bonner but nerves got the better of them not just in the promo but in the show.
I know that they were only just starting but when you've got a station full of vibrant presenters (which at the time I really wanted to be part of) it's difficult to show the same enthusiasm for those who aren't so vibrant.
This is why once again, I'm glad we've got the right person helping out with the programming role this year. The enthusiasm of them will blend into the presenter if trained properly and if they're not as enthusiastic towards them, then the same will happen to the shy presenter.
That's what happened to me at Canterbury Hospital Radio.
No disrespect to Tim, but I think he gave me the wrong idea about making promos when rather than getting the presenter to promote the show and it's highlights, you put them into a booth and they either crack up laughing or are like "I don't know what I'm gonna say...". And in those cirumstances you just end up using whatever audio you can in the promo whether it makes sense or not. Although the first promo I ever produced at the station for "Matthew's Easy Hour" is a bit of both and even Matthew himself was happy enough to suggest how it could be better!
Anyway, I think the Anthea Turner comparison I made in the first year was a bit unfair but I was thinking of Anthea when she was on Blue Peter.
Anthea was 32 when she joined the programme with a hefty resume but was very fresh faced and looked a lot different to how she did when on Top Of The Pops only a year ago.
The show's then editor Lewis Bronze said in an interview 4 years ago that Anthea's best television was on that show and I can remember being really disapointed when she dropped the bright lights of TC3 in favour of the GMTV sofa. Especially as I'd met her a month before her departure.
She was great on the Spanish roadshows but with Eamonn? Not so good.
And don't get me started about The National Lottery Live or The Big Ticket.
It didn't get any better until a superb guest appearance on Simon Amstell's first Never Mind The Buzzcocks last year where she was more than happy to laugh at her "sell out autobiography" unlike a member of the Ordinary Boys was in the second series!
And why was Anthea so good? She started off in radio as well!
Yes, she was at Chesire's Signal Radio (an old haunt of Chris Moyles) and laterly BBC Radio Stoke where ex-boyfriend (and Moyles's ex-manager) Bruno Brookes also used to present where he made this geographical error on air! I'd best keep that away from Ricky Marshall!
But then again even the greatest have had to find their feet and lift themselves up when they get thrown down.
I really need to give Ina a better idea on how to use her beds and jingles that I produced for the show. I've even done a few more actually, she needs to listen to them and understand why they're so good, if a little cheesy!
Now Playing: 808 State: "Pacific 202" (Goorrrge!)
"Pro's" won't normally take the time to write guidelines of making potentially great radio because they are scared of people becoming better than them!
Anyone reading this is more than welcome to make changes to the document and rip the piss if they want to because I know that not everyone wanting to get into radio is serious about it in the long term. I'm writing this with Cindi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" playing in the background which I can remember using for one of the worst trails I've ever produced for The 80s Team. And this was when it really was a team! Ina was joined by the ever capable Cat Bonner but nerves got the better of them not just in the promo but in the show.
I know that they were only just starting but when you've got a station full of vibrant presenters (which at the time I really wanted to be part of) it's difficult to show the same enthusiasm for those who aren't so vibrant.
This is why once again, I'm glad we've got the right person helping out with the programming role this year. The enthusiasm of them will blend into the presenter if trained properly and if they're not as enthusiastic towards them, then the same will happen to the shy presenter.
That's what happened to me at Canterbury Hospital Radio.
No disrespect to Tim, but I think he gave me the wrong idea about making promos when rather than getting the presenter to promote the show and it's highlights, you put them into a booth and they either crack up laughing or are like "I don't know what I'm gonna say...". And in those cirumstances you just end up using whatever audio you can in the promo whether it makes sense or not. Although the first promo I ever produced at the station for "Matthew's Easy Hour" is a bit of both and even Matthew himself was happy enough to suggest how it could be better!
Anyway, I think the Anthea Turner comparison I made in the first year was a bit unfair but I was thinking of Anthea when she was on Blue Peter.
Anthea was 32 when she joined the programme with a hefty resume but was very fresh faced and looked a lot different to how she did when on Top Of The Pops only a year ago.
The show's then editor Lewis Bronze said in an interview 4 years ago that Anthea's best television was on that show and I can remember being really disapointed when she dropped the bright lights of TC3 in favour of the GMTV sofa. Especially as I'd met her a month before her departure.
She was great on the Spanish roadshows but with Eamonn? Not so good.
And don't get me started about The National Lottery Live or The Big Ticket.
It didn't get any better until a superb guest appearance on Simon Amstell's first Never Mind The Buzzcocks last year where she was more than happy to laugh at her "sell out autobiography" unlike a member of the Ordinary Boys was in the second series!
And why was Anthea so good? She started off in radio as well!
Yes, she was at Chesire's Signal Radio (an old haunt of Chris Moyles) and laterly BBC Radio Stoke where ex-boyfriend (and Moyles's ex-manager) Bruno Brookes also used to present where he made this geographical error on air! I'd best keep that away from Ricky Marshall!
But then again even the greatest have had to find their feet and lift themselves up when they get thrown down.
I really need to give Ina a better idea on how to use her beds and jingles that I produced for the show. I've even done a few more actually, she needs to listen to them and understand why they're so good, if a little cheesy!
Now Playing: 808 State: "Pacific 202" (Goorrrge!)
Musical Chairs
I'm listening to KCFM's Double Top 10 with Clare, and she's playing Richard Harris and "Macarthur Park".
For those who have never heard the song (which I can understand why) there's a great instrumental break where it goes all uptempo and jazzy.
And I bet you that Pete Moore was inspired by that song to write the legendary theme for Pearl And Dean! I have Victor Lewis Smith to thank for that observation after it was used as the theme to STOIC (Student Television Of Imperial College, London) along with a cheap imitation of the BBC 1 mechanical globe.
To be honest I was deprived of that theme for most of my life and never heard it an actual cinema until I started Uni although I was aware it had and still has cult status.
Thankfully the current version of the theme is a lot less scarier than the original and having got a few old cinema ads on DVD I can relate to that.
Ross G and Ricky were talking about this on their Red Nose Day show during the 24 hour broadcast and Ross said that at his cinema they had an 80s esque intro which I'm guessing was for Rank Screen Advertising.
TV Offal was brilliant, it may be seen by some as a lawyers nightmare but it helped me to look at things brightly when it was repeated as TV Offal Prime Cuts in October/November 1999.
Victor may be seen as a failed performer turned TV critic by some, but I can understand why he wanted to pick on people such as Esther Rantzen, Vanessa Feltz and Noel Edmonds.
A comedy genius and a great ear for music if any as the programme featured some brilliant jingles by JAM as well as Victor's own close harmonies that would have made Kenny Everett cringe.
I may revisit them later today although I really want to spend the afternoon reading my two "Asperger Adventures" by Australian author Kathy Hoopman.
I urge everyone to buy these books, and I understand she's written some more since these were published in 2001 and I can relate to everything that happens in the stories, and how many people with autism/asperger's syndrome misunderstand the concept of "right place at the right time".
The comments on the Amazon review are genuine and all the support assistants I lent the books to in school and at college could return them to me only just a day after and relate to them perfectly understanding where Kathy was coming from.
In fact I'd say Kathy probably knows a lot more about Aspergers and Autism than my mum and dad do. Well she's certainly a lot more understanding then they could ever be when I was down.
Now Playing: Mel and Kim - "FLM" (Stunning!)
For those who have never heard the song (which I can understand why) there's a great instrumental break where it goes all uptempo and jazzy.
And I bet you that Pete Moore was inspired by that song to write the legendary theme for Pearl And Dean! I have Victor Lewis Smith to thank for that observation after it was used as the theme to STOIC (Student Television Of Imperial College, London) along with a cheap imitation of the BBC 1 mechanical globe.
To be honest I was deprived of that theme for most of my life and never heard it an actual cinema until I started Uni although I was aware it had and still has cult status.
Thankfully the current version of the theme is a lot less scarier than the original and having got a few old cinema ads on DVD I can relate to that.
Ross G and Ricky were talking about this on their Red Nose Day show during the 24 hour broadcast and Ross said that at his cinema they had an 80s esque intro which I'm guessing was for Rank Screen Advertising.
TV Offal was brilliant, it may be seen by some as a lawyers nightmare but it helped me to look at things brightly when it was repeated as TV Offal Prime Cuts in October/November 1999.
Victor may be seen as a failed performer turned TV critic by some, but I can understand why he wanted to pick on people such as Esther Rantzen, Vanessa Feltz and Noel Edmonds.
A comedy genius and a great ear for music if any as the programme featured some brilliant jingles by JAM as well as Victor's own close harmonies that would have made Kenny Everett cringe.
I may revisit them later today although I really want to spend the afternoon reading my two "Asperger Adventures" by Australian author Kathy Hoopman.
I urge everyone to buy these books, and I understand she's written some more since these were published in 2001 and I can relate to everything that happens in the stories, and how many people with autism/asperger's syndrome misunderstand the concept of "right place at the right time".
The comments on the Amazon review are genuine and all the support assistants I lent the books to in school and at college could return them to me only just a day after and relate to them perfectly understanding where Kathy was coming from.
In fact I'd say Kathy probably knows a lot more about Aspergers and Autism than my mum and dad do. Well she's certainly a lot more understanding then they could ever be when I was down.
Now Playing: Mel and Kim - "FLM" (Stunning!)
Let It Out!
I have spoken to and traded jingles with many interesting people within this radio hobby.
And they have interesting backgrounds and occupations, two of them being teachers!
I would have loved to have had them teaching me, although in a later post I'll probably wax lyrical at those who came close as there were quite a few!
One being a fella called Andrew Rogers, born in Bristol and now teaching in Birmingham if I remember correctly who set up a website back in 2001 looking back at erstwhile station Radio West. You can really understand his fondness for radio and Radio West in particular through his website although he never takes things too seriously!
Another potential radio presenter who is now a headmaster oddly enough at a school in East Anglia is Geoff Barton who has a great selection of jingles to his bow from Alfasound all the way to JAM and I reckon his versions are better than the originals!
Geoff's site made me realise two years ago that I wasn't the only one who could find radio to be bland at the worst of times. Having left Canterbury Hospital Radio, I knew it's not what I wanted to be doing as the people there were very old fashioned and not very supportive.
But once again, that's for a later post!
Geoff puts it into a better perspective than me with Radio Blandshire, a spoof documentary not too dismilar to those made by the Bastard Brothers.
I'll try and dig out a few more from them as well, if you want to get into radio then watch or listen to as many radio send-ups as possible but don't do what they do!
I sound like Mr Motivator when he was on GMTV introducing the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
And they have interesting backgrounds and occupations, two of them being teachers!
I would have loved to have had them teaching me, although in a later post I'll probably wax lyrical at those who came close as there were quite a few!
One being a fella called Andrew Rogers, born in Bristol and now teaching in Birmingham if I remember correctly who set up a website back in 2001 looking back at erstwhile station Radio West. You can really understand his fondness for radio and Radio West in particular through his website although he never takes things too seriously!
Another potential radio presenter who is now a headmaster oddly enough at a school in East Anglia is Geoff Barton who has a great selection of jingles to his bow from Alfasound all the way to JAM and I reckon his versions are better than the originals!
Geoff's site made me realise two years ago that I wasn't the only one who could find radio to be bland at the worst of times. Having left Canterbury Hospital Radio, I knew it's not what I wanted to be doing as the people there were very old fashioned and not very supportive.
But once again, that's for a later post!
Geoff puts it into a better perspective than me with Radio Blandshire, a spoof documentary not too dismilar to those made by the Bastard Brothers.
I'll try and dig out a few more from them as well, if you want to get into radio then watch or listen to as many radio send-ups as possible but don't do what they do!
I sound like Mr Motivator when he was on GMTV introducing the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
"A Love Like Ours Can Surely Last, Untiil Theee Eeend Off Tyyyeeeeaahhhme!"
I'm in one of those moods, although I'm trying hard not to wake up the rest of the house at the same time.
I've just listened to the live version of "Everyday" from Incognito's Tokyo Live album which is special because it's played in the key of B flat and Imaani's vocals make it that extra bit emotional.
I'm now starting to realise that I sound like Imaani when singing this, but end up cracking up when I hit a bum note! There goes my X-Factor audition.
Seriously, I really think they should re-record the original and put Imaani's vocals on there.
And that's not to say that Pamela Anderson (Carleen's cousin) wasn't as good.
Pamela was more soulful, more Aretha Franklin without over-egging it, and Imaani is really jazzy in the same way as Carmen Lundy, Monday Michiru, her voice could make the tightest of bastards burst into tears.
But I'm not the only one who feels this way. Phillip Schofield used to sing along to Mysterious Cities Of Gold and "Ulysseeeeeeees!" 31 when he was in the Broom Cupboard, and Andy Crane did the same for Around The World With Willy Fogg.
Courtesy of Greg Taylor's fantastic site about the Broom Cupboard, here's the man in action and he's definitely not serious!
This leads onto the subject of my favourite college lecturer Mike Moss, who himself spent quite a lot of time in the Broom Cupboard whilst working as an engineer on Grandstand.
I'm not sure what it was, but he had something in his mouth that made him unable to pronounce "world" properly. Here's the proof.
But he was a pro, he could put up with a coachload of students singing
"Been Around The Werrald and I-Yi!" In fact I even used the theme to that animation to give the Mike Moss touch!
That and Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World", "World In Motion", and even "Galvanise" by the Chemical Brothers!
I'm prepared for the same to happen to me in the third year as I've said some really stupid things over the last two years.
I've just listened to the live version of "Everyday" from Incognito's Tokyo Live album which is special because it's played in the key of B flat and Imaani's vocals make it that extra bit emotional.
I'm now starting to realise that I sound like Imaani when singing this, but end up cracking up when I hit a bum note! There goes my X-Factor audition.
Seriously, I really think they should re-record the original and put Imaani's vocals on there.
And that's not to say that Pamela Anderson (Carleen's cousin) wasn't as good.
Pamela was more soulful, more Aretha Franklin without over-egging it, and Imaani is really jazzy in the same way as Carmen Lundy, Monday Michiru, her voice could make the tightest of bastards burst into tears.
But I'm not the only one who feels this way. Phillip Schofield used to sing along to Mysterious Cities Of Gold and "Ulysseeeeeeees!" 31 when he was in the Broom Cupboard, and Andy Crane did the same for Around The World With Willy Fogg.
Courtesy of Greg Taylor's fantastic site about the Broom Cupboard, here's the man in action and he's definitely not serious!
This leads onto the subject of my favourite college lecturer Mike Moss, who himself spent quite a lot of time in the Broom Cupboard whilst working as an engineer on Grandstand.
I'm not sure what it was, but he had something in his mouth that made him unable to pronounce "world" properly. Here's the proof.
But he was a pro, he could put up with a coachload of students singing
"Been Around The Werrald and I-Yi!" In fact I even used the theme to that animation to give the Mike Moss touch!
That and Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World", "World In Motion", and even "Galvanise" by the Chemical Brothers!
I'm prepared for the same to happen to me in the third year as I've said some really stupid things over the last two years.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
"Life's A Piece Of Sh*t,, When You Look At It"
Another Sunday night and a craving for nostalgia. Not a problem.
A look back at the videos of October the 12th 1991 did the job!
And what crackers as always, Slade, Lisa Stansfield, CeCe Peniston, Enya, PM Dawn,
Level 42, Marillion and Extreme in the Rock Chart, The Specials as the Vintage Video and a classy Hot Shot from Julian Joseph!
Ghost Town for me sums up last year at the University of Westminster. Especially at weekends.
If people are willing to co-operate I'd love Smoke Radio to be as vibrant as it was during SO4S at weekends as well. That's one of my major aims for next year and it won't get in the way of other things. If the security guards are willing to co-operate.
Whenever Carl did his Gospel show on a bright Sunday afternoon with RP1 full of students (BAMS of course!) it really spread through!
Anyway, The Top Ten, pretty mixed. Kiri Te Kanawa and her version of "World In Union" who in that sweater looked very similar to Mad Lizzie from TV-AM! Also in there was Kenny Thomas who's a big fan of the Pink Panther films with Peter Sellers. I've got all the animated shorts on DVD and I may be tempted to buy the original features on DVD which I'd imagine are going cheap.
And at Number 2 was Monty Python and "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" adding a bit of humour to proceedings before a rather dreary number 1, "Wind Of Change" by the Scorpions.
I may give the countdowns a rest for another short while, for about a month at least.
I've got stacks of MP3s to lable as well so the musical mission doesn't show any signs of stopping!
I don't know how I'll get any sleep tonight. It may be the first night this year I'm on top of the bed covers!
A look back at the videos of October the 12th 1991 did the job!
And what crackers as always, Slade, Lisa Stansfield, CeCe Peniston, Enya, PM Dawn,
Level 42, Marillion and Extreme in the Rock Chart, The Specials as the Vintage Video and a classy Hot Shot from Julian Joseph!
Ghost Town for me sums up last year at the University of Westminster. Especially at weekends.
If people are willing to co-operate I'd love Smoke Radio to be as vibrant as it was during SO4S at weekends as well. That's one of my major aims for next year and it won't get in the way of other things. If the security guards are willing to co-operate.
Whenever Carl did his Gospel show on a bright Sunday afternoon with RP1 full of students (BAMS of course!) it really spread through!
Anyway, The Top Ten, pretty mixed. Kiri Te Kanawa and her version of "World In Union" who in that sweater looked very similar to Mad Lizzie from TV-AM! Also in there was Kenny Thomas who's a big fan of the Pink Panther films with Peter Sellers. I've got all the animated shorts on DVD and I may be tempted to buy the original features on DVD which I'd imagine are going cheap.
And at Number 2 was Monty Python and "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" adding a bit of humour to proceedings before a rather dreary number 1, "Wind Of Change" by the Scorpions.
I may give the countdowns a rest for another short while, for about a month at least.
I've got stacks of MP3s to lable as well so the musical mission doesn't show any signs of stopping!
I don't know how I'll get any sleep tonight. It may be the first night this year I'm on top of the bed covers!
My Radio Journey - Part 3: "Who Needs Radio" (Audio As Always, Still To Come!)
So where did we leave off? Oh yes, an actor/taxi driver who didn't understand the meaning of "right place at the right time". And in all honesty, neither did I, not in radio, not in life.
I always got intimidated when a radio was brought into the classroom as I was never in the mood.
This lead to several misunderstandings and people thinking I was a hypocrite.
But then again these idiots idea of comedy was me reacting to sitting on drawing pins being put on my chair.
And I still haven't found the heart to forgive those who did so.
One of the senior teachers came into that lesson, furious about the incident and was adamant that we took things seriously and were consistent. I was trying hard not to laugh when he finished by unintentionally impersonating Paul Daniels,
telling us that "Every Lesson Counts".
But that stuck in mind and I managed to balance revision with social life. Well not a social life as such but it was starting to come to place when I got in touch with Hannah who had joined a befriending scheme and was very bright, uptempo and enthusiastic, more so than anyone else I knew who was the same age as me.
Well, Hannah was 5 years older than me but I was not jealous but disheartened that she had done a lot of radio work at the exact age I was and even earlier.
My path into radio could have been so much easier. Invicta FM were literally 100 steps away when I moved into Canterbury and even in 1991 they were at their very best.
In fact this has to be one of the most important and prolific jingles ever heard on the station which people still sing today whenever the station comes up in conversation.
Simple but effective.
But what's more important, no, crucial is the Doc Morgan liner halfway through and he sounds like he really means what he's saying in his voice.
"24 Hours A Day The Best Music, News, Personality and Fun, Anywhere In The South East!"
And the singers really sound like they're enjoying the whole thing, especially at the end "The Beehhst Muusic In-viicta F-M!" And if Tim Stewart or Johnny Lewis who were there at the recording session are reading this, were the singers scripts written like that? Because they knew what really sounded good.
And that's not just Kent, the South East as a whole. Even people in Essex, London, Surrey wherever Invicta FM could be recieved would tune in and even the team back in Station Road East would return the favour by providing everything that Doc Morgan said in that jingle.
This is what I look for in every radio station I listen to and back in 2001 I found sod all.
Everyone encouraged me to try and ask for possible work experience at 106 CTFM which had been running for 4 years by now but something wasn't quite there.
Yes it had ex Invicta jocks on board but none that I was particuarly fond of.
They were all on Neptune Radio in Dover which I'd only just been able to start recieving again by now but quite a few things had changed since October 2000.
The guys at the station had started to roll in the money and spent an awful lot on bidding for the Maidstone license with Maid FM which had a succesfull RSL that Autumn of 2000.
This meant a new jingle package by Steve England which tried too much to sound trendy but didn't have the warmth of the previous package by ALFA who went into liquidation not long after the station launched. The 2001 jingles were like pictures in a colouring book that hadn't been filled in. Clothes out of a washing machine with their colours faded.
I was also disapointed that they had changed the 7-10 bit to an automated show which I was gutted about. This was really popular with the Instant Jukebox which was now demoted to just an hour on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
On the plus side Tim Stewart made a return to the station on the daytime slot bringing along his name shout "Tiim Steewart!" and new talent on board in the form of Kirstyn Read who I've nothing but good words for.
Geoff Fitch still made occasional appearances who him and his family were good friends of with Hannah although he eventually left by the end of 2001 to "get a proper job" as a fully trained paramedic.
Not just a disk jockey, he made me laugh with such exchanges as this from a guy at the nearby Silver Spring lemonade factory:
GF: "So if the answers wrong they're gonna blame you, and if you're right they'll take all the credit"
Caller: "Yeah that's right"
GF: "Ok..."
Caller: "Wrong is it?"
GF: "You're right..."
Caller: "WE'RE RIGHT?!"
GF: "...it's wrong!"
Caller "Oh you dipstick..."
GF: (Uncontrollable laughter)
That's how you make great radio. Get the right callers!
Another one rang up fellow presenter Richard Adams, he was a plasterer in Herne Bay and Richard asked him "shouldn't you be listening to that other station?" in a jokey manner to which the caller responded "no it's a load of..." Of course that call didn't get taken to air!
To be fair though I can only remember the names Tim Stewart and Geoff Fitch because of their versions of Cut 17 from the Steamroller package used on Invicta FM
"Tim Steeewaarrt, Invicta Eeehfffeehhhm!"
By the time I started college I went off Neptune and almost radio overall to an extent.
The only programmes I really liked were the request shows which were now going out on both Thanet's TLR and 106 CTFM and were very entertaining with Toby Mackenzie, Patrick Foster and Invicta FM reject Becky Haywood all doing a top job.
And you can't forget Barry Bethell who joined the stations now under control of the Kent Messenger Group with the BBC. The Barry Bethell Club!
He had every right to take the mickey out of his former employers who had sacked him from Radio Kent due to the new broom apparently not liking Rock and Roll. His replacement was Dave Cash who brought the genre back to the airwaves eventually alongside his country show which he's still doing now.
Barry's show, whilst not as good as the Carwash was great fun every week with a great blend of rock and roll, disco and love songs including a brilliant one from the latter Gino Vanelli and "I Just Wanna Stop". Gorge!
He would always finish the show with "I'll See You In My Dreams" by Joe Brown which has been deleted but that made it even more special.
I'd love to find out what he's up to know although I do have his son Dave as a Myspace friend who occasionally presents at Invicta FM, where he started as a nine year old back in 1989!
Oh and Hannah D knows him too so it could be even more easy!
Fellow Westminster student Stephen Sullivan from the Fridge is also on my Myspace friends! He's come a long way since starting the Fridge back in 2001 with Taz and it's definitely one of the stand out shows on the station.
By 2003 all the smaller stations in Kent had re-branded to KMFM but I wasn't completely converted into wanting to listen for longer. This was mainly because I had been given a laptop by the college and loved mucking about with my Goldwave editing application to listen to music how I wanted to.
But at the same time I'd managed to find a specialist show on Listen Again that would change my overall outlook on radio for quite a while...
I always got intimidated when a radio was brought into the classroom as I was never in the mood.
This lead to several misunderstandings and people thinking I was a hypocrite.
But then again these idiots idea of comedy was me reacting to sitting on drawing pins being put on my chair.
And I still haven't found the heart to forgive those who did so.
One of the senior teachers came into that lesson, furious about the incident and was adamant that we took things seriously and were consistent. I was trying hard not to laugh when he finished by unintentionally impersonating Paul Daniels,
telling us that "Every Lesson Counts".
But that stuck in mind and I managed to balance revision with social life. Well not a social life as such but it was starting to come to place when I got in touch with Hannah who had joined a befriending scheme and was very bright, uptempo and enthusiastic, more so than anyone else I knew who was the same age as me.
Well, Hannah was 5 years older than me but I was not jealous but disheartened that she had done a lot of radio work at the exact age I was and even earlier.
My path into radio could have been so much easier. Invicta FM were literally 100 steps away when I moved into Canterbury and even in 1991 they were at their very best.
In fact this has to be one of the most important and prolific jingles ever heard on the station which people still sing today whenever the station comes up in conversation.
Simple but effective.
But what's more important, no, crucial is the Doc Morgan liner halfway through and he sounds like he really means what he's saying in his voice.
"24 Hours A Day The Best Music, News, Personality and Fun, Anywhere In The South East!"
And the singers really sound like they're enjoying the whole thing, especially at the end "The Beehhst Muusic In-viicta F-M!" And if Tim Stewart or Johnny Lewis who were there at the recording session are reading this, were the singers scripts written like that? Because they knew what really sounded good.
And that's not just Kent, the South East as a whole. Even people in Essex, London, Surrey wherever Invicta FM could be recieved would tune in and even the team back in Station Road East would return the favour by providing everything that Doc Morgan said in that jingle.
This is what I look for in every radio station I listen to and back in 2001 I found sod all.
Everyone encouraged me to try and ask for possible work experience at 106 CTFM which had been running for 4 years by now but something wasn't quite there.
Yes it had ex Invicta jocks on board but none that I was particuarly fond of.
They were all on Neptune Radio in Dover which I'd only just been able to start recieving again by now but quite a few things had changed since October 2000.
The guys at the station had started to roll in the money and spent an awful lot on bidding for the Maidstone license with Maid FM which had a succesfull RSL that Autumn of 2000.
This meant a new jingle package by Steve England which tried too much to sound trendy but didn't have the warmth of the previous package by ALFA who went into liquidation not long after the station launched. The 2001 jingles were like pictures in a colouring book that hadn't been filled in. Clothes out of a washing machine with their colours faded.
I was also disapointed that they had changed the 7-10 bit to an automated show which I was gutted about. This was really popular with the Instant Jukebox which was now demoted to just an hour on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
On the plus side Tim Stewart made a return to the station on the daytime slot bringing along his name shout "Tiim Steewart!" and new talent on board in the form of Kirstyn Read who I've nothing but good words for.
Geoff Fitch still made occasional appearances who him and his family were good friends of with Hannah although he eventually left by the end of 2001 to "get a proper job" as a fully trained paramedic.
Not just a disk jockey, he made me laugh with such exchanges as this from a guy at the nearby Silver Spring lemonade factory:
GF: "So if the answers wrong they're gonna blame you, and if you're right they'll take all the credit"
Caller: "Yeah that's right"
GF: "Ok..."
Caller: "Wrong is it?"
GF: "You're right..."
Caller: "WE'RE RIGHT?!"
GF: "...it's wrong!"
Caller "Oh you dipstick..."
GF: (Uncontrollable laughter)
That's how you make great radio. Get the right callers!
Another one rang up fellow presenter Richard Adams, he was a plasterer in Herne Bay and Richard asked him "shouldn't you be listening to that other station?" in a jokey manner to which the caller responded "no it's a load of..." Of course that call didn't get taken to air!
To be fair though I can only remember the names Tim Stewart and Geoff Fitch because of their versions of Cut 17 from the Steamroller package used on Invicta FM
"Tim Steeewaarrt, Invicta Eeehfffeehhhm!"
By the time I started college I went off Neptune and almost radio overall to an extent.
The only programmes I really liked were the request shows which were now going out on both Thanet's TLR and 106 CTFM and were very entertaining with Toby Mackenzie, Patrick Foster and Invicta FM reject Becky Haywood all doing a top job.
And you can't forget Barry Bethell who joined the stations now under control of the Kent Messenger Group with the BBC. The Barry Bethell Club!
He had every right to take the mickey out of his former employers who had sacked him from Radio Kent due to the new broom apparently not liking Rock and Roll. His replacement was Dave Cash who brought the genre back to the airwaves eventually alongside his country show which he's still doing now.
Barry's show, whilst not as good as the Carwash was great fun every week with a great blend of rock and roll, disco and love songs including a brilliant one from the latter Gino Vanelli and "I Just Wanna Stop". Gorge!
He would always finish the show with "I'll See You In My Dreams" by Joe Brown which has been deleted but that made it even more special.
I'd love to find out what he's up to know although I do have his son Dave as a Myspace friend who occasionally presents at Invicta FM, where he started as a nine year old back in 1989!
Oh and Hannah D knows him too so it could be even more easy!
Fellow Westminster student Stephen Sullivan from the Fridge is also on my Myspace friends! He's come a long way since starting the Fridge back in 2001 with Taz and it's definitely one of the stand out shows on the station.
By 2003 all the smaller stations in Kent had re-branded to KMFM but I wasn't completely converted into wanting to listen for longer. This was mainly because I had been given a laptop by the college and loved mucking about with my Goldwave editing application to listen to music how I wanted to.
But at the same time I'd managed to find a specialist show on Listen Again that would change my overall outlook on radio for quite a while...
"No Don't Switch Off! It Might Be Good!"
This is scary. My last post was over 2,500 words! And it took me just over an hour to write it as well! Why can't I write essays like that either? The dissertation's going to be a doddle, just change the dialect, instead of "don't" write "do not". That boosts the word count instantly!
Sorry Maria if I'm stealing your job!
Tony Blackburn's show on KMFM is fantastic. I'm listening to it now and he kicked off in style with his legendary JAM acapella from the 70s followed by the lovely Lisa Stansfield with "All Around The World". I always used to think Lisa Stansfield looked similar to my Aunt Helen and it's interesting because both women are big fans of Barry White.
However having watched the video with the two on Lisa's DVD, Barry ruins that song when he duets with Lisa. That's what happens when you don't properly think out how to meet your idol, whoever they may be.
Back to Tony and this guy knows great music even if there is a bias towards soul, but it's not called soul music for nothing.
It may as well be called "Heart" music but I wouldn't want to go that far!
I have it on authority that Tony's not live, he said in "The Radio 1 Story" broadcast in 1997 that he hated working at weekends after being demoted to Junior Choice and The Top 40 before leaving Radio 1 in 1984. I still have the Channel 4 documentary about him from 2002 on VHS and I fully understand about why he's always wanted to be number 1.
And more importantly, why no one can be number 1 if they are obsessed with it.
I'm not sure about it being exclusive to KMFM, he hasn't mentioned the station name and has even asked people to text in! Nah, it's Tony Blackburn, I'll just carry on enjoying the music which is what is what it's about really. Oh and he's mentioned the e-mail adress so it is well and truly exclusive. First night nerves I guess.
That's something I've fully realised, I can't always be the best but I don't want to lose the passion. Tony's done just that but unlike him I wouldn't mind presenting a radio show on a Sunday. In fact that's why I loved presenting in that slot on Smoke before Christmas as there's something intimate about presenting on that day.
Even when Sam got her presenting gig at Mix 107 back in May two years ago she had a two hour slot on Sunday, and by the time she joined Westminster she had been promoted to Saturday breakfast. I can remember meeting her for the first time at the Undercroft during Freshers Week and she stood out from the crowd and I can remember Ross G also being impressed.
I'm really happy that she's in charge of programming and am looking forward to working with her throughout next year. Having spoken to her in person, on the phone and on MSN I can fully understand what she's wanting and is very open and won't take no nonsense. That's the attitude girl!
This leads onto something else that has annoyed me since the beginning of University. Several people either shunning or taking advantage of people who have presented on local or community radio.
Just after Sam started on the station, Ross T asked if she wanted to do a gay and lesbian show with him. Arrgh!
Ross did ask Matthew about the idea but he admitted himself later that it wasn't really thought through.
Like a lot of people at Uni and in life, I never realised I had so much in common with Matthew!
I have always been impressed if I'm co-presenting with someone who has presented previously at any station because that way, I know they can be trusted. Sam falls into that catergory straight in at Number 1 with Heena from BXFM coming close second.
I'm hoping that the list will get even bigger in the next year! And I've said year, I don't reckon I'll be doing this forever.
Nah forget the negative bastards, just keep enjoying the music that they don't have the heart to even listen to.
I know you shouldn't judge people from where they work or what their position is but if it's with a well respected company and they do a good job, keep encouraging them!
This is not backside licking. I've had to put up with a lot of that in the last year and throughout my life I've surprised a lot of people over the years with how much more I know about them than they do themselves! That's fucking scary.
This reminds of the final edition of Channel 4's Big Breakfast in March 2002 where they had a section of the show called "Superfans", a University Challenge esque competition in which six big fans of the morning show answered questions on the show's trivia in an ever irreverent manner.
Linton, one of the crew members heckled "Sad!" during the item
prompting Richard Bacon to respond "No!, they're not sad!, they're our fans
and we love them!"
The same goes for Trekkies and Whovians. You may get your crazy set of them with the apparrel but most of them do have a heart.
That's who Sam reminds me of! Sophie Aldred, not just a talented actress, but singer, musician, TV presenter, Mini Magician...
Whenever I wake up feeling poorly or have downed a glass of lemonade after getting back from Morrisons, I end up uttering "ooh dear, ooh dear" in the same style as Minnie The Mini Magician who was Sophie's character in the popular children's series Zzzap!!
Immediately it makes me feel better.
I'm really gutted I didn't attend any conventions in Kent back in 1996 as Sophie tended to appear at quite a lot of them, as a result of also presenting the Saturday Morning show "WOW!" on ITV at the same time.
Now that was underrated, a modern day Tiswas with from the team who brought us Motormouth and laterly MOM.
It bombed mainly because it was sidelined with Andi Peter's music vehicle "The Noise" which was pointless as it was broadcast at 11am straight after for half an hour and then followed by the Chart Show!
Sophie was brilliant on anything she did, I used to have a video clip of her on the CBBC series "Corners" seeing how Keff McCulloch composed the 1987 Doctor Who theme and when she tried playing the bassline on Keff's Prophet 5, she was note perfect, despite pretending not to be!
Once again another proud posession. The 25th anniversary album which contains quite a lot of Keff's compostitions falling into that legendary category of "80s music gone wrong".
I may try and hunt for the square shaped CD which contains the Latin version of the theme which has caused hilarity in many places!
It's boiling in here, I've got no problem with "Long Hot Summer" by the Style Council being played twice in the same hour, on seperate shows obviously! My sweat for some reason has been smelling of blueberries. I don't exactly know why.
Ooh! I've forgotten about those apple filled doughnuts. I'll go and indulge now.
Sorry Maria if I'm stealing your job!
Tony Blackburn's show on KMFM is fantastic. I'm listening to it now and he kicked off in style with his legendary JAM acapella from the 70s followed by the lovely Lisa Stansfield with "All Around The World". I always used to think Lisa Stansfield looked similar to my Aunt Helen and it's interesting because both women are big fans of Barry White.
However having watched the video with the two on Lisa's DVD, Barry ruins that song when he duets with Lisa. That's what happens when you don't properly think out how to meet your idol, whoever they may be.
Back to Tony and this guy knows great music even if there is a bias towards soul, but it's not called soul music for nothing.
It may as well be called "Heart" music but I wouldn't want to go that far!
I have it on authority that Tony's not live, he said in "The Radio 1 Story" broadcast in 1997 that he hated working at weekends after being demoted to Junior Choice and The Top 40 before leaving Radio 1 in 1984. I still have the Channel 4 documentary about him from 2002 on VHS and I fully understand about why he's always wanted to be number 1.
And more importantly, why no one can be number 1 if they are obsessed with it.
I'm not sure about it being exclusive to KMFM, he hasn't mentioned the station name and has even asked people to text in! Nah, it's Tony Blackburn, I'll just carry on enjoying the music which is what is what it's about really. Oh and he's mentioned the e-mail adress so it is well and truly exclusive. First night nerves I guess.
That's something I've fully realised, I can't always be the best but I don't want to lose the passion. Tony's done just that but unlike him I wouldn't mind presenting a radio show on a Sunday. In fact that's why I loved presenting in that slot on Smoke before Christmas as there's something intimate about presenting on that day.
Even when Sam got her presenting gig at Mix 107 back in May two years ago she had a two hour slot on Sunday, and by the time she joined Westminster she had been promoted to Saturday breakfast. I can remember meeting her for the first time at the Undercroft during Freshers Week and she stood out from the crowd and I can remember Ross G also being impressed.
I'm really happy that she's in charge of programming and am looking forward to working with her throughout next year. Having spoken to her in person, on the phone and on MSN I can fully understand what she's wanting and is very open and won't take no nonsense. That's the attitude girl!
This leads onto something else that has annoyed me since the beginning of University. Several people either shunning or taking advantage of people who have presented on local or community radio.
Just after Sam started on the station, Ross T asked if she wanted to do a gay and lesbian show with him. Arrgh!
Ross did ask Matthew about the idea but he admitted himself later that it wasn't really thought through.
Like a lot of people at Uni and in life, I never realised I had so much in common with Matthew!
I have always been impressed if I'm co-presenting with someone who has presented previously at any station because that way, I know they can be trusted. Sam falls into that catergory straight in at Number 1 with Heena from BXFM coming close second.
I'm hoping that the list will get even bigger in the next year! And I've said year, I don't reckon I'll be doing this forever.
Nah forget the negative bastards, just keep enjoying the music that they don't have the heart to even listen to.
I know you shouldn't judge people from where they work or what their position is but if it's with a well respected company and they do a good job, keep encouraging them!
This is not backside licking. I've had to put up with a lot of that in the last year and throughout my life I've surprised a lot of people over the years with how much more I know about them than they do themselves! That's fucking scary.
This reminds of the final edition of Channel 4's Big Breakfast in March 2002 where they had a section of the show called "Superfans", a University Challenge esque competition in which six big fans of the morning show answered questions on the show's trivia in an ever irreverent manner.
Linton, one of the crew members heckled "Sad!" during the item
prompting Richard Bacon to respond "No!, they're not sad!, they're our fans
and we love them!"
The same goes for Trekkies and Whovians. You may get your crazy set of them with the apparrel but most of them do have a heart.
- Those who don't get uppity if you get a transmission date wrong.
- Those who want to get to know about you as a person
- Those who like a good drink!
That's who Sam reminds me of! Sophie Aldred, not just a talented actress, but singer, musician, TV presenter, Mini Magician...
Whenever I wake up feeling poorly or have downed a glass of lemonade after getting back from Morrisons, I end up uttering "ooh dear, ooh dear" in the same style as Minnie The Mini Magician who was Sophie's character in the popular children's series Zzzap!!
Immediately it makes me feel better.
I'm really gutted I didn't attend any conventions in Kent back in 1996 as Sophie tended to appear at quite a lot of them, as a result of also presenting the Saturday Morning show "WOW!" on ITV at the same time.
Now that was underrated, a modern day Tiswas with from the team who brought us Motormouth and laterly MOM.
It bombed mainly because it was sidelined with Andi Peter's music vehicle "The Noise" which was pointless as it was broadcast at 11am straight after for half an hour and then followed by the Chart Show!
Sophie was brilliant on anything she did, I used to have a video clip of her on the CBBC series "Corners" seeing how Keff McCulloch composed the 1987 Doctor Who theme and when she tried playing the bassline on Keff's Prophet 5, she was note perfect, despite pretending not to be!
Once again another proud posession. The 25th anniversary album which contains quite a lot of Keff's compostitions falling into that legendary category of "80s music gone wrong".
I may try and hunt for the square shaped CD which contains the Latin version of the theme which has caused hilarity in many places!
It's boiling in here, I've got no problem with "Long Hot Summer" by the Style Council being played twice in the same hour, on seperate shows obviously! My sweat for some reason has been smelling of blueberries. I don't exactly know why.
Ooh! I've forgotten about those apple filled doughnuts. I'll go and indulge now.
Fast (FWD) But Not Furious
This was an interesting discovery, Anglia Television from 1988 (I'm guessing this was the exact period that the flag took over from the knight) into the ITN News at 545. Bloody hell, were they still using those titles as far towards 1988?
They were replaced (as were quite a few other idents and graphics) in the same year having been used since 1979 but the longer a logo or ident runs, the longer it will stick in the viewer/listener's mind.
The same with Thames Television in London, most people including those who weren't even alive when the ident was running will always associate Thames with St Paul's Cathedral.
The petty ITC who had taken over from the IBA just would not respect the heritage or success of any of the companies they removed the franchises of and judged it all in terms of bidding and that evil word: money.
As a matter of fact, I've found a documentary about the 1991 franchise auctions on Youtube so expect a review in the next post!
Mike Morris at TV-AM had every right to be gutted, along with Bruce Gyngell and the rest of the staff. But then again Bruce Gyngell wasn't perfect himself to be honest as I think he let the bitterness of TV-AM's franchise loss get to him when he joined Yorkshire Tyne Tees as their chairman.
He wanted to blend the networks together as "Channel 3" which was fair enough but was a bit hasty, re-branding Tyne Tees to "Channel 3 North East" and using the Tyne Tees name at the same time! Yorkshire however kept their name on screen although their ident did make use of the channel 3 image. But for me that was a very moving ident as it brought back the legendary "daah, da,da, da, daahh!" jingle that is part of Yorkshire as a whole. I always preferred Chris Gunning's arrangement from 1982 onwards in the key of E major but the 1996 version did have me in tears when seeing it first time on a visit to Grandma's in Haworth back in late November 1996. Especially as it was preceeding an edition of The ITV Chart Show which I always thought was their programme as they were the ITV company presenting it.
They were definitely big on the ITV brand throughout the 90s.
Composed by Derek New who also wrote the theme to University Challenge,
YTV's signature was based on the song "On Ilkley Moor Bah Tat" and I've heard plenty of stories about the logo scaring many now 30-40 year olds. I can honestly say that I've had nothing but affection for Yorkshire Television and the golden chevron and got rather excited when seeing someone's suitcase in town this morning with a yellow Diadora logo! I was almost that red in the face.
Christian Spooner at Real Radio put together a great package on the loss of YTV as an on air brand in October 2002 which if my FTP equipment was working I would upload but I'll try and sum it up in my own words.
Basically it looked how treasured as a brand the station and the chevron were and how it was always YTV despite the company adapting generic brands from ITV over the years.
As shown in the first clip above they even altered their 1989 generic ident to include the chevron in full!
Contributors to the piece included MP and former Calendar presenter Austin Mitchell and the late Richard Whitely who even gave his own rendition of the "daa, da,da, da,daah!"although he did mention that the jingle was no longer used. That wasn't necessarily true, although it was a shadow of it's former self, the jingle was used in idents that preceeded local programmes on the station.
But moving onto the point about the News at 545 titles, I've found an extract from the third edtion of the Chart Show broadcast in January 1989 featuring The Style Council and I immediately thought "were they still around in 1989?"
I think it's a good time to explain why I have an enthusiastic interest for The ITV Chart Show and the fairground era in particular. And I will get there eventually!
The reason I've referred to it as the ITV Chart Show probably proves a point on how much the generic look meant to me and how the people at the top planned this in advance as way back as 1987.
To be honest it's the only corporate decision I've fully agreed with as it made things a lot easy for me to understand when I was younger although I had the ITV brand firmly inside my head months before the generic look was introduced. It's shocking, when you put my age into consideration but it was true.
All these changes were not coincidental. The idents before programmes were removed from the first of January 1988 which didn't please all ITV companies. Some including TSW who had a right to be proud of their local heritage still prefixed their programmes with their ident although it was nowhere near as good as the first one with the tune "That's Soul Write". Composed by Will Malone and brought to life by the legendary, underrated, a man who really knows a thing or two about music that is Ed Welch.
This trailer from 1987 proves a point, the announcer says ITV but on screen it's TSW.
And I'm very tempted to go off on another rant about Diddy David Hamilton but I'll try and avoid doing so. "More Madonna and less Mantovani!"
Central weren't happy neither but they came to the conclusion that if they couldn't put their ident on at the beginning, they would put it on at the end! That resulted in this endcap (apologies for the quality) which I found so scary, I found it difficult to watch Blockbusters, or Family Fortunes again. It's shocking to think how short the period was that the endcap was used but it made a mark on me and many other viewers. Memorable but not for the same reasons!
Although the tune does sound very similar to the theme to Family Fortunes!
Anglia, Scottish and YTV also followed suit by using animated endcaps which weren't as scary as Central's but on the 1st of September 1989 the bosses at the top said kaput. Although I think Central still used their endcap for local programmes having produced the some of the best graphics ever seen on the ITV network. A short gardening programme which sneaked through the regions being one of them.
The day was planned heavilly in advance, if I remember correctly the generic look was introduced to the network after Children's ITV finished that afternoon as according to a Tyne Tees viewer, Bill Steel was in the blue studio in the morning and after 5 was in a yellow studio for his annoucements.
The whole look for me was a great way of bringing things together and "getting ready" for the 90s with a logo and accompanying tune that used more in the name of real instruments and people and less so of computers and synthesisers. A selection of idents can be seen here although TSW, TVS, Anglia, and Channel refused to use their idents full stop.
I didn't take notice of it until the following Monday before the Krypton Factor and if I'm being honest it was a refreshing change from the rather unnerving fanfare previously used by Thames. Although that had already been removed two months earlier, as in July Thames introduced a special ident for their 21st anniversary that used an updated version of the Thames signature tune but with the logo encased in a triangle. Now that's what you call a seamless transition!
I've kept that in mind for whenever I've wanted to make changes to my show on Smoke Radio not to be hasty with changes, unless the show has taken a long break. That's probably why I'm still the head of production as without sounding arrogant, it's easy to identify if I've produced a jingle as to someone else's effort.
Now finally, I'll explain how I believe this is connected with the ITV Chart Show!
Basically it's probably because of desperate station controllers as the Roxy was launched as a rival to Top Of The Pops in Spring 1987 with Kid Jensen at the helm. Whilst it was very bright and enthusiastic, it didn't do too well due to various ITV companies messing about with it in the schedules, leading to its demise a year later.
Channel 4 on the other hand had found a long term replacement for the Tube in The Chart Show after a succesfull (well, it could have been even better if the Musician's Union hadn't gotten in the way) first run in the Summer of 1986.
The programme had a simple enough name but a very distinct format and stood out for itself. I never bothered comparing it with other programmes on the television because it was very unique in the fact that computer graphics held the show together and there were no presenters or voiceovers.
And I bet ITV were jealous of their success so in September 1988 the Chart Show went on hiatus making it's final bow from Channel 4 on the 2nd of January 1989.
And it definitely looked like ITV had a very big influence on the programme when it returned at 12:00pm on Saturday the 7th of January with new opening titles and stings that were more vibrant, more exciting, more catchier than what had been on the Channel 4 equivalent emphasising on the fairground theme by basing the opening titles mainly on a rollercoaster as opposed to the dodgems that were used on Channel 4. And the music was also the bollocks and matched the vibrancy of the graphics they accompanied which in the case of the theme music even covered up the lazy editing towards the end of the titles!
You could actually sing along to the stings as well, they were and still are that catchy!
The graphics introducing the show features were also legendary as they affected you as a viewer both physically and emotionally. Watching old episodes lying in bed and close to the screen wearing headphones really has that effect and on viewing the episode I saw on Wednesday I yelled rather loudly when the train graphic came up when I least expected it! But the timing was spot on, the HUD display came up on screen during a middle 8 or instrumental break and a sting would only start after a refrain or verse.
The people behind the scenes definitley knew how music worked functionally.
But that's only part of the story. The HUD display used in the middle of the videos was changed once again and those icons would be used for the next 7 and a half years despite a brief change one week to animated icons for the first show sponsored by Pepe Jeanswear which I still have lurking on DVD.
Back to 1989 and the Star Chart even had it's own icons representing the Star Signs!
ITV obviously kept a close eye on the programme as the End To End feature was dropped after the first show and replaced by "The Hot Shot", another excuse for an exclusive really.
And when the generic look came in in September the Chart Show rebranded to becoming The ITV Chart Show where new features such as The Chart News were introduced and the specialist chart was moved to the second part of the programme. Also introduced was the Vintage Video and according to Off The Telly, the reason for this was so the programme could be previewed fairly in the TV Times before they went to print.
But the biggest change was how the charts were ran down. Before hand they would show snippets of all the songs in the rundown and then stop at Number 1 (or number 2 in the Top 10) then rewind to show a selected video in full.
This all came to an end in September 1989 for the better and from that point onwards the Top Ten took up the majority of part 3. This resulted in both the Singles Chart sting with the Big Wheel and the Top Ten one with balloons being joined together and as I'm sure you'll have heard me say, the result is fantastic! And I've used the word "is" which means I still love it!
The subsequent graphics used were not as good as the fairground ones but I still carried on watching the show, mainly during the summer months when Going Live!/Live and Kicking was taking a break and it always made little changes to the structure, graphics over time to stay fresh.
That was until 1998 when ITV realised that it's preceeding programmes in the 9:25 slot were doing really badly and Ant & Dec along with Nigel Pickard and Ric Blaxill came up with an idea for a three hour Saturday Morning show to wipe the floor of previous efforts such as "Tricky", "It's Not Just Saturday" and so on. And I'll definitely be talking about those programmes in a future post!
With names like that, ITV couldn't refuse and this meant the untimely demise of The Chart Show (now without it's ITV tag) on the 24th of August 1998. I even set the video to record it whilst we were on holiday in France and it was on the top of my mind throughout!
They didn't get too nostalgic apart from a self made video for Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You" consisting of classic graphics from the show's 12 years and ended with the first ever video shown, "Addicted To Love" by Robert Palmer.
I now have that episode on DVD and treasure it well, along with the first one shown on ITV back in 1989.
As metioned before, CD:UK despite it's moments was never as good and even had the nerve to nick some of it's features! "Hot Shots"?! The magpies!
SM:tv on the other hand despite a shaky start went onto becoming one of the best Saturday shows ever "destroying" in Frank Skinner's words, Live And Kicking. And I may be tempted to revisit Ant and Dec's final show from December 2001 after joining a Facebook group set up by fellow Uni student Steph reminiscing about the programme.
Whist the two programmes were strongly connected from the start (even having very similar sig tunes for the first three weeks) by the time of SM:tv's demise they were like two seperate shows and this more or less continued throughout MOM/Saturday Showdown.
Although the catchphrase "You Know Where It's At!" will always remind me of when I was about to do my shopping in Canterbury City Centre!
I won't be doing the same as Steph for The ITV Chart Show however. I'm not desperate for other people to remind me how good it was when this rather long tangent explains just about everything that springs to mind.
This whole blog is turning into a fucking encylopedia! And I know that quite a lot of people don't tend to like looking inside them!
Overall it's something for me to look back on as to why I love radio, television and most importantly music so much.
They were replaced (as were quite a few other idents and graphics) in the same year having been used since 1979 but the longer a logo or ident runs, the longer it will stick in the viewer/listener's mind.
The same with Thames Television in London, most people including those who weren't even alive when the ident was running will always associate Thames with St Paul's Cathedral.
The petty ITC who had taken over from the IBA just would not respect the heritage or success of any of the companies they removed the franchises of and judged it all in terms of bidding and that evil word: money.
As a matter of fact, I've found a documentary about the 1991 franchise auctions on Youtube so expect a review in the next post!
Mike Morris at TV-AM had every right to be gutted, along with Bruce Gyngell and the rest of the staff. But then again Bruce Gyngell wasn't perfect himself to be honest as I think he let the bitterness of TV-AM's franchise loss get to him when he joined Yorkshire Tyne Tees as their chairman.
He wanted to blend the networks together as "Channel 3" which was fair enough but was a bit hasty, re-branding Tyne Tees to "Channel 3 North East" and using the Tyne Tees name at the same time! Yorkshire however kept their name on screen although their ident did make use of the channel 3 image. But for me that was a very moving ident as it brought back the legendary "daah, da,da, da, daahh!" jingle that is part of Yorkshire as a whole. I always preferred Chris Gunning's arrangement from 1982 onwards in the key of E major but the 1996 version did have me in tears when seeing it first time on a visit to Grandma's in Haworth back in late November 1996. Especially as it was preceeding an edition of The ITV Chart Show which I always thought was their programme as they were the ITV company presenting it.
They were definitely big on the ITV brand throughout the 90s.
Composed by Derek New who also wrote the theme to University Challenge,
YTV's signature was based on the song "On Ilkley Moor Bah Tat" and I've heard plenty of stories about the logo scaring many now 30-40 year olds. I can honestly say that I've had nothing but affection for Yorkshire Television and the golden chevron and got rather excited when seeing someone's suitcase in town this morning with a yellow Diadora logo! I was almost that red in the face.
Christian Spooner at Real Radio put together a great package on the loss of YTV as an on air brand in October 2002 which if my FTP equipment was working I would upload but I'll try and sum it up in my own words.
Basically it looked how treasured as a brand the station and the chevron were and how it was always YTV despite the company adapting generic brands from ITV over the years.
As shown in the first clip above they even altered their 1989 generic ident to include the chevron in full!
Contributors to the piece included MP and former Calendar presenter Austin Mitchell and the late Richard Whitely who even gave his own rendition of the "daa, da,da, da,daah!"although he did mention that the jingle was no longer used. That wasn't necessarily true, although it was a shadow of it's former self, the jingle was used in idents that preceeded local programmes on the station.
But moving onto the point about the News at 545 titles, I've found an extract from the third edtion of the Chart Show broadcast in January 1989 featuring The Style Council and I immediately thought "were they still around in 1989?"
I think it's a good time to explain why I have an enthusiastic interest for The ITV Chart Show and the fairground era in particular. And I will get there eventually!
The reason I've referred to it as the ITV Chart Show probably proves a point on how much the generic look meant to me and how the people at the top planned this in advance as way back as 1987.
To be honest it's the only corporate decision I've fully agreed with as it made things a lot easy for me to understand when I was younger although I had the ITV brand firmly inside my head months before the generic look was introduced. It's shocking, when you put my age into consideration but it was true.
All these changes were not coincidental. The idents before programmes were removed from the first of January 1988 which didn't please all ITV companies. Some including TSW who had a right to be proud of their local heritage still prefixed their programmes with their ident although it was nowhere near as good as the first one with the tune "That's Soul Write". Composed by Will Malone and brought to life by the legendary, underrated, a man who really knows a thing or two about music that is Ed Welch.
This trailer from 1987 proves a point, the announcer says ITV but on screen it's TSW.
And I'm very tempted to go off on another rant about Diddy David Hamilton but I'll try and avoid doing so. "More Madonna and less Mantovani!"
Central weren't happy neither but they came to the conclusion that if they couldn't put their ident on at the beginning, they would put it on at the end! That resulted in this endcap (apologies for the quality) which I found so scary, I found it difficult to watch Blockbusters, or Family Fortunes again. It's shocking to think how short the period was that the endcap was used but it made a mark on me and many other viewers. Memorable but not for the same reasons!
Although the tune does sound very similar to the theme to Family Fortunes!
Anglia, Scottish and YTV also followed suit by using animated endcaps which weren't as scary as Central's but on the 1st of September 1989 the bosses at the top said kaput. Although I think Central still used their endcap for local programmes having produced the some of the best graphics ever seen on the ITV network. A short gardening programme which sneaked through the regions being one of them.
The day was planned heavilly in advance, if I remember correctly the generic look was introduced to the network after Children's ITV finished that afternoon as according to a Tyne Tees viewer, Bill Steel was in the blue studio in the morning and after 5 was in a yellow studio for his annoucements.
The whole look for me was a great way of bringing things together and "getting ready" for the 90s with a logo and accompanying tune that used more in the name of real instruments and people and less so of computers and synthesisers. A selection of idents can be seen here although TSW, TVS, Anglia, and Channel refused to use their idents full stop.
I didn't take notice of it until the following Monday before the Krypton Factor and if I'm being honest it was a refreshing change from the rather unnerving fanfare previously used by Thames. Although that had already been removed two months earlier, as in July Thames introduced a special ident for their 21st anniversary that used an updated version of the Thames signature tune but with the logo encased in a triangle. Now that's what you call a seamless transition!
I've kept that in mind for whenever I've wanted to make changes to my show on Smoke Radio not to be hasty with changes, unless the show has taken a long break. That's probably why I'm still the head of production as without sounding arrogant, it's easy to identify if I've produced a jingle as to someone else's effort.
Now finally, I'll explain how I believe this is connected with the ITV Chart Show!
Basically it's probably because of desperate station controllers as the Roxy was launched as a rival to Top Of The Pops in Spring 1987 with Kid Jensen at the helm. Whilst it was very bright and enthusiastic, it didn't do too well due to various ITV companies messing about with it in the schedules, leading to its demise a year later.
Channel 4 on the other hand had found a long term replacement for the Tube in The Chart Show after a succesfull (well, it could have been even better if the Musician's Union hadn't gotten in the way) first run in the Summer of 1986.
The programme had a simple enough name but a very distinct format and stood out for itself. I never bothered comparing it with other programmes on the television because it was very unique in the fact that computer graphics held the show together and there were no presenters or voiceovers.
And I bet ITV were jealous of their success so in September 1988 the Chart Show went on hiatus making it's final bow from Channel 4 on the 2nd of January 1989.
And it definitely looked like ITV had a very big influence on the programme when it returned at 12:00pm on Saturday the 7th of January with new opening titles and stings that were more vibrant, more exciting, more catchier than what had been on the Channel 4 equivalent emphasising on the fairground theme by basing the opening titles mainly on a rollercoaster as opposed to the dodgems that were used on Channel 4. And the music was also the bollocks and matched the vibrancy of the graphics they accompanied which in the case of the theme music even covered up the lazy editing towards the end of the titles!
You could actually sing along to the stings as well, they were and still are that catchy!
The graphics introducing the show features were also legendary as they affected you as a viewer both physically and emotionally. Watching old episodes lying in bed and close to the screen wearing headphones really has that effect and on viewing the episode I saw on Wednesday I yelled rather loudly when the train graphic came up when I least expected it! But the timing was spot on, the HUD display came up on screen during a middle 8 or instrumental break and a sting would only start after a refrain or verse.
The people behind the scenes definitley knew how music worked functionally.
But that's only part of the story. The HUD display used in the middle of the videos was changed once again and those icons would be used for the next 7 and a half years despite a brief change one week to animated icons for the first show sponsored by Pepe Jeanswear which I still have lurking on DVD.
Back to 1989 and the Star Chart even had it's own icons representing the Star Signs!
ITV obviously kept a close eye on the programme as the End To End feature was dropped after the first show and replaced by "The Hot Shot", another excuse for an exclusive really.
And when the generic look came in in September the Chart Show rebranded to becoming The ITV Chart Show where new features such as The Chart News were introduced and the specialist chart was moved to the second part of the programme. Also introduced was the Vintage Video and according to Off The Telly, the reason for this was so the programme could be previewed fairly in the TV Times before they went to print.
But the biggest change was how the charts were ran down. Before hand they would show snippets of all the songs in the rundown and then stop at Number 1 (or number 2 in the Top 10) then rewind to show a selected video in full.
This all came to an end in September 1989 for the better and from that point onwards the Top Ten took up the majority of part 3. This resulted in both the Singles Chart sting with the Big Wheel and the Top Ten one with balloons being joined together and as I'm sure you'll have heard me say, the result is fantastic! And I've used the word "is" which means I still love it!
The subsequent graphics used were not as good as the fairground ones but I still carried on watching the show, mainly during the summer months when Going Live!/Live and Kicking was taking a break and it always made little changes to the structure, graphics over time to stay fresh.
That was until 1998 when ITV realised that it's preceeding programmes in the 9:25 slot were doing really badly and Ant & Dec along with Nigel Pickard and Ric Blaxill came up with an idea for a three hour Saturday Morning show to wipe the floor of previous efforts such as "Tricky", "It's Not Just Saturday" and so on. And I'll definitely be talking about those programmes in a future post!
With names like that, ITV couldn't refuse and this meant the untimely demise of The Chart Show (now without it's ITV tag) on the 24th of August 1998. I even set the video to record it whilst we were on holiday in France and it was on the top of my mind throughout!
They didn't get too nostalgic apart from a self made video for Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You" consisting of classic graphics from the show's 12 years and ended with the first ever video shown, "Addicted To Love" by Robert Palmer.
I now have that episode on DVD and treasure it well, along with the first one shown on ITV back in 1989.
As metioned before, CD:UK despite it's moments was never as good and even had the nerve to nick some of it's features! "Hot Shots"?! The magpies!
SM:tv on the other hand despite a shaky start went onto becoming one of the best Saturday shows ever "destroying" in Frank Skinner's words, Live And Kicking. And I may be tempted to revisit Ant and Dec's final show from December 2001 after joining a Facebook group set up by fellow Uni student Steph reminiscing about the programme.
Whist the two programmes were strongly connected from the start (even having very similar sig tunes for the first three weeks) by the time of SM:tv's demise they were like two seperate shows and this more or less continued throughout MOM/Saturday Showdown.
Although the catchphrase "You Know Where It's At!" will always remind me of when I was about to do my shopping in Canterbury City Centre!
I won't be doing the same as Steph for The ITV Chart Show however. I'm not desperate for other people to remind me how good it was when this rather long tangent explains just about everything that springs to mind.
This whole blog is turning into a fucking encylopedia! And I know that quite a lot of people don't tend to like looking inside them!
Overall it's something for me to look back on as to why I love radio, television and most importantly music so much.
Revisting My Positive Past
Taking a break from my radio journey, I went into ASDA for probably the first time this summer!
Only this time I wasn't there to laugh at my ex-colleagues but to laugh with them as there were no idiots in sight. Bearing in mind that it's a Sunday morning and very warm outside. I brought myself a bottle of Tango, probably the first thing I've actually brought from the customer restaurant and drank it steadily as I went through Sturry into Canterbury.
Whilst in the town center I bumped into Kacem, one of if not the characters from my HND Media Course who's thinking about moving to London as well although he's determined not to move anywhere near Central! He did offer for me to go to the Electric Gardens where the Happy Mondays are performing but I decided not to in a rather naughty laugh manner!
It's good to see how everyone's getting on however and I'm hoping I get to meet more people who have come up in my "radio journey" over time.
Once again, the song stays in mind "Divided/United".
Only this time I wasn't there to laugh at my ex-colleagues but to laugh with them as there were no idiots in sight. Bearing in mind that it's a Sunday morning and very warm outside. I brought myself a bottle of Tango, probably the first thing I've actually brought from the customer restaurant and drank it steadily as I went through Sturry into Canterbury.
Whilst in the town center I bumped into Kacem, one of if not the characters from my HND Media Course who's thinking about moving to London as well although he's determined not to move anywhere near Central! He did offer for me to go to the Electric Gardens where the Happy Mondays are performing but I decided not to in a rather naughty laugh manner!
It's good to see how everyone's getting on however and I'm hoping I get to meet more people who have come up in my "radio journey" over time.
Once again, the song stays in mind "Divided/United".
My Radio Journey Part 2: Wilderness (Audio Still To Come!)
Rather than just write endless tangents, I'll go through my journey between 2000-2005 station by station. I doubt I'll be able to cover everything but I'll try and go through everything that I think's relevant to why I love this box of noise.
Invicta FM
In July 2000 I was on work experience at the Clover House in Whitstable located on the John Wilson business park. I was their for two reasons, 1: Jo often made visits there and they dealt with education and disabled students which I was interested in but hadn't completely realised it.
2: They were next door to Invicta Radio!
Unsurprisingly the station came up in several conversations with Graham who I worked with and was just superb, and Shirley, the helper provided by the Abbey, who was supporting me most days. One person's name kept on coming up and that was Caesar. Without doubt he was probably the most prolific presenter on Invicta Radio/Invicta FM that the station has ever seen who presented a nightly phone in show in the late 80s/early 90s.
Around the time we moved into Canterbury, Caesar was sacked from the station and there were several reasons as to why the case was. On his own website the man himself stated that the reason for the sacking was because he stole £130 from an Invicta FM charity. But at the same time the station had been brought by Southern Radio and as in all these cases, this incident was not coincidental.
And I fully agree with him. With a pay packet of £1000 a week, why the hell would he want to steal £130?
This lead to bigger problems for the man but I'm pleased he kept his passion for radio throughout at Essex Radio, Kiss 100, and Capital Gold. And he wasn't called Caesar the Boogieman for nothing, he had a great taste in disco music and good things were said about his Saturday night show as well as his nightly phone ins.
Characters included "The Yob" as played by Ian Collins and "Basil The Butler" who was noneother than Barry Bethell!
There were even a few songs including the legendary "Space Monkey" and I think the chorus went like this:
"Spaaace Monkey!, Do the monkey dance!
Spaaace Monkey!, Swinging from the branch
Spaaace Monkey!, Beating on your chest
Peeling a banana and then stopping for a rest!"
Late night radio in Kent has never been the same but I'll go onto that later.
At the start of my second week at Clover House I recieved a mini disc from a lovely fella called Nicky Schiller which contained the 1990 jingle package by Century 21. I now have the orginal CD with those jingles as sold at the much missed East Station radio house and treasure it with awe.
But I had no idea back then that Nicky was best mates with a man called Sandy Beech who is one of the unsung heroes of radio. The man was responsible for the follow up package by WDTM (Who Did That Music?) in Los Angeles and they produced a fresh sounding package to take the place of the Century 21 package which had been used for a long time to be fair. Five years!
To be fair it was really refreshing and if I was a more loyal listener to Invicta FM than I actually was then I would been a lot more appreciative. You got several people at school singing that catchy melody logo but I wouldn't have none of it, I simply missed the Century 21 package that had been the soundtrack to many nights under the bed covers in the Autumn of 1993.
And you know you've got a great jingle package when you can use all the cuts, even the acapellas.
It's like Catchphrase after Roy Walker left, sorry, got sacked.
The public didn't like change and the corporate fuckers at ITV wanted "to take the series into the new millenium".
Roy Walker was guesting on the Big Breakfast shortly after the news broke out in August 1999 and I'm not the only one who can remember watching the programme and seeing him crying because of how he was treated.
But Catchphrase for me, was always an emotional programme.
Once again, that's for another blog post!
I listened to that MD with the Invicta FM jingles constantly, even resorting to tape over sweepers from live tape recordings of the station with the ones from the 1990 package.
It didn't sound great but computer editing was rather elitist for me at the time.
In September 2000, one week after Essex FM relaunched as "Today's Better Music Mix", Invicta FM introduced a new set of sweepers voiced by "Showbiz" Mitch Johnson with the strapline "Today's Best Music For Kent". This resulted in oldies being removed from the station completely apart from "Just 80s" and "Dance Decades" but having found more superior programmes on Essex FM, there was no way I would return to them.
Apart from one week when the fantastic Doc Atherton (and I'd love to know how you got you're first name if you're reading this) covered and played some brilliant tunes with a highlight being Hue And Cry's "Labour Of Love". I felt a bit insulted when he said at the end "and do you know what, I still have that one on vinyl. For those who don't know what vinyl is, it's what we had before CDs..."
Doc was one of the stand out jocks on the station at this time and often popped over to the Media UK forums where we had nothing but good words for him. He was always open to constructive criticism and understood where he went wrong, which didn't happen too often!
Unfortunately by Xmas, Just 80s was ditched in favour of the "Online Hitline" and things got even more depressing. I'd even switched it off as my bedside station around this time after hearing an ad for, I think it was Toyota, which had a load of car horns playing "Ding Dong Merrily On High". Having it positioned within an IRN bulletin at 5am on a Sunday morning was scary knowing that a sternly voiced "Independent Radio News" was approaching.
This was the last weekend in November 2000, where the previous week, I'd been on an outing of mixed emotions to a PGL study weekender in Hindhead, Surrey. I was very pissed off that Dad wouldn't let me take his MD recorder with me to record some of the local radio there including the brilliant 96.4 The Eagle, that had a stunning TOH which I ended up having resung in 2004.
I now hate that jingle with a passion.
One of the highlights of that weekend was when Mr Riley, a really lovely but slightly firm fella told us on the Saturday night at around 10pm that we were all to go to our bedrooms and not allowed out unless we wanted to watch Match Of The Day. Jack Cook, one of the comedians of our year responded to him with this now legendary retort:
"Sir, I haven't mistaken this for a prison camp?"
But even Mr Riley saw the funny side despite sticking to his word.
If I'm being honest I do think that the role playing games, and rounds, (we had bloody rounds!) were patronising and I'm fucking glad I never had to do anything like that again, especially as I avoided the group selection part of my ASDA initiation.
Later that night all the teachers were pissed.
Mr Quantick, my then form tutor burst into my bedroom which I was sharing with a long haired fella called James, and went "ROAAARRRRGH!".
The next day he went home because he felt poorly but was enthusiastic enough to reminisce on my antics in class when we got back on the Tuesday. That's when things got depressing.
It took a bit of time to get over my depression which wasn't helped by the bloody taxi rides! If there's one thing I don't miss about secondary school it's them. Some of the drivers I had were brilliant including two brothers, Mark and Jason North who understood my passion for radio and weren't afraid to muck about at the same time.
I can remember on my 16th birthday, with Mark messing about with a remote controlled fart machine!
Unfortunately some of the ones I got on a bad night weren't so good. One taxi driver who was twice the age of them insisted on having Radio 4 playing on the journey back which wasn't good after a particuarly bad day. I do like the station for it's comedy output and if there's a good guest on Desert Island Discs, but in a taxi with four school pupils? No way.
But he wasn't the worst, oh no. I'm sure many of you reading this will remember a character in Eastenders called Ted Hills who was a very misunderstood single parent who's daughter became a bible basher and son came out of the closet. The amount of people in school who used the term "bible basher" the day after that episode of Eastenders was immense.
But anyway it was a fella called Brian who in September of that year played the part of Fagin in the Marlowe Theatre's production of "Oliver" and four months later was back driving a cab.
I should have been flattered but oh no, I felt very uncomfortable.
I'd better paint a clearer picture, I had to share a taxi with three students who all went to the Autism unit. One was from Ash, another was from Dunkirk and the other lived in Sturry near to ASDA. A really nice part of Canterbury to be honest and I may take a stroll down there this morning actually. Hopefully it won't be too frosty!
There was one Friday afternoon where we dropped Michael off at his house in Dunkirk where his mother Lesley was one of the heads of governors for the Abbey School. Jay was very pissed off when dropping him off and overhearing Lesley say, "we're going off to Tescos..."
I don't blame Jay for getting frustrated. I may have pissed him off a few times but I learnt to reallise that even taxi drivers have bad days as well and he really didn't mean to overeact.
Sometimes it was very funny, one such incident with a bus that didn't know where it was going on the Wincheap Roundabout prompting Jason to utter "bloody bus drivers".
I think he also made an innapropriate hand gesture at a taxi driver who nearly rammed into us and we even had a motorcyclist who went up his arse!
That's right, even driving instructors don't seem to be tough enough.
Anyway back to Brian.
The first week in May before the bank holiday, I was driven back from school by Brian almost everyday. One day I had to endure "The Big Quiz" on Steve Wright and on the Friday, hold your breath.
It was a programme on BBC Radio Three presented by Matt Baker and Simon Thomas from Blue Peter which looked at different types of classical and light music. I'd go as far as saying that they were two of the best male presenters Blue Peter has ever had but once again, there's a time and a place.
I'd had a particularly bad day that afternoon, worrying about the ride back and to make things worse, the taxi arrived fucking 10 minutes later than it should have done! I was used to things like this happening but in these consequences it was even worse. The weather was really nice too just like is is right now so it feels like only yesterday since it happened.
Back to Blue Peter! One of the songs that was played was by a German singer called Ralf Bendix called "Babysitting Boogie". I can even remember Matt Baker's introduction; "Now I suppose the Bach family had to do a lot of babysitting and I'm sure this song would have been helpful, the Babysitting Boogie"
That journey from the Wincheap Roundabout to my house had never been longer in my fucking life. Brian was even joining into the song including those high pitched gurgles and by the time I got back into my house I was in tears.
I knew who I really wanted to speak to and knew where to find them. I rushed out, (I won't say where I went, just to avoid the consequences) and managed to find Dawn who had just left the East Station. She was very understanding, more than mum or dad could ever be and told me to keep her in mind whenver I felt like that again.
I immediately went home feeling more happier and inserted the CD with "Everyday" into my CD player and that was my Bank Holiday weekend sorted! I was thinking at this point, "who needs radio!" and as the next part of what I think is going to be a very long story will reveal. I felt like that for a very long time.
Invicta FM
In July 2000 I was on work experience at the Clover House in Whitstable located on the John Wilson business park. I was their for two reasons, 1: Jo often made visits there and they dealt with education and disabled students which I was interested in but hadn't completely realised it.
2: They were next door to Invicta Radio!
Unsurprisingly the station came up in several conversations with Graham who I worked with and was just superb, and Shirley, the helper provided by the Abbey, who was supporting me most days. One person's name kept on coming up and that was Caesar. Without doubt he was probably the most prolific presenter on Invicta Radio/Invicta FM that the station has ever seen who presented a nightly phone in show in the late 80s/early 90s.
Around the time we moved into Canterbury, Caesar was sacked from the station and there were several reasons as to why the case was. On his own website the man himself stated that the reason for the sacking was because he stole £130 from an Invicta FM charity. But at the same time the station had been brought by Southern Radio and as in all these cases, this incident was not coincidental.
And I fully agree with him. With a pay packet of £1000 a week, why the hell would he want to steal £130?
This lead to bigger problems for the man but I'm pleased he kept his passion for radio throughout at Essex Radio, Kiss 100, and Capital Gold. And he wasn't called Caesar the Boogieman for nothing, he had a great taste in disco music and good things were said about his Saturday night show as well as his nightly phone ins.
Characters included "The Yob" as played by Ian Collins and "Basil The Butler" who was noneother than Barry Bethell!
There were even a few songs including the legendary "Space Monkey" and I think the chorus went like this:
"Spaaace Monkey!, Do the monkey dance!
Spaaace Monkey!, Swinging from the branch
Spaaace Monkey!, Beating on your chest
Peeling a banana and then stopping for a rest!"
Late night radio in Kent has never been the same but I'll go onto that later.
At the start of my second week at Clover House I recieved a mini disc from a lovely fella called Nicky Schiller which contained the 1990 jingle package by Century 21. I now have the orginal CD with those jingles as sold at the much missed East Station radio house and treasure it with awe.
But I had no idea back then that Nicky was best mates with a man called Sandy Beech who is one of the unsung heroes of radio. The man was responsible for the follow up package by WDTM (Who Did That Music?) in Los Angeles and they produced a fresh sounding package to take the place of the Century 21 package which had been used for a long time to be fair. Five years!
To be fair it was really refreshing and if I was a more loyal listener to Invicta FM than I actually was then I would been a lot more appreciative. You got several people at school singing that catchy melody logo but I wouldn't have none of it, I simply missed the Century 21 package that had been the soundtrack to many nights under the bed covers in the Autumn of 1993.
And you know you've got a great jingle package when you can use all the cuts, even the acapellas.
It's like Catchphrase after Roy Walker left, sorry, got sacked.
The public didn't like change and the corporate fuckers at ITV wanted "to take the series into the new millenium".
Roy Walker was guesting on the Big Breakfast shortly after the news broke out in August 1999 and I'm not the only one who can remember watching the programme and seeing him crying because of how he was treated.
But Catchphrase for me, was always an emotional programme.
Once again, that's for another blog post!
I listened to that MD with the Invicta FM jingles constantly, even resorting to tape over sweepers from live tape recordings of the station with the ones from the 1990 package.
It didn't sound great but computer editing was rather elitist for me at the time.
In September 2000, one week after Essex FM relaunched as "Today's Better Music Mix", Invicta FM introduced a new set of sweepers voiced by "Showbiz" Mitch Johnson with the strapline "Today's Best Music For Kent". This resulted in oldies being removed from the station completely apart from "Just 80s" and "Dance Decades" but having found more superior programmes on Essex FM, there was no way I would return to them.
Apart from one week when the fantastic Doc Atherton (and I'd love to know how you got you're first name if you're reading this) covered and played some brilliant tunes with a highlight being Hue And Cry's "Labour Of Love". I felt a bit insulted when he said at the end "and do you know what, I still have that one on vinyl. For those who don't know what vinyl is, it's what we had before CDs..."
Doc was one of the stand out jocks on the station at this time and often popped over to the Media UK forums where we had nothing but good words for him. He was always open to constructive criticism and understood where he went wrong, which didn't happen too often!
Unfortunately by Xmas, Just 80s was ditched in favour of the "Online Hitline" and things got even more depressing. I'd even switched it off as my bedside station around this time after hearing an ad for, I think it was Toyota, which had a load of car horns playing "Ding Dong Merrily On High". Having it positioned within an IRN bulletin at 5am on a Sunday morning was scary knowing that a sternly voiced "Independent Radio News" was approaching.
This was the last weekend in November 2000, where the previous week, I'd been on an outing of mixed emotions to a PGL study weekender in Hindhead, Surrey. I was very pissed off that Dad wouldn't let me take his MD recorder with me to record some of the local radio there including the brilliant 96.4 The Eagle, that had a stunning TOH which I ended up having resung in 2004.
I now hate that jingle with a passion.
One of the highlights of that weekend was when Mr Riley, a really lovely but slightly firm fella told us on the Saturday night at around 10pm that we were all to go to our bedrooms and not allowed out unless we wanted to watch Match Of The Day. Jack Cook, one of the comedians of our year responded to him with this now legendary retort:
"Sir, I haven't mistaken this for a prison camp?"
But even Mr Riley saw the funny side despite sticking to his word.
If I'm being honest I do think that the role playing games, and rounds, (we had bloody rounds!) were patronising and I'm fucking glad I never had to do anything like that again, especially as I avoided the group selection part of my ASDA initiation.
Later that night all the teachers were pissed.
Mr Quantick, my then form tutor burst into my bedroom which I was sharing with a long haired fella called James, and went "ROAAARRRRGH!".
The next day he went home because he felt poorly but was enthusiastic enough to reminisce on my antics in class when we got back on the Tuesday. That's when things got depressing.
It took a bit of time to get over my depression which wasn't helped by the bloody taxi rides! If there's one thing I don't miss about secondary school it's them. Some of the drivers I had were brilliant including two brothers, Mark and Jason North who understood my passion for radio and weren't afraid to muck about at the same time.
I can remember on my 16th birthday, with Mark messing about with a remote controlled fart machine!
Unfortunately some of the ones I got on a bad night weren't so good. One taxi driver who was twice the age of them insisted on having Radio 4 playing on the journey back which wasn't good after a particuarly bad day. I do like the station for it's comedy output and if there's a good guest on Desert Island Discs, but in a taxi with four school pupils? No way.
But he wasn't the worst, oh no. I'm sure many of you reading this will remember a character in Eastenders called Ted Hills who was a very misunderstood single parent who's daughter became a bible basher and son came out of the closet. The amount of people in school who used the term "bible basher" the day after that episode of Eastenders was immense.
But anyway it was a fella called Brian who in September of that year played the part of Fagin in the Marlowe Theatre's production of "Oliver" and four months later was back driving a cab.
I should have been flattered but oh no, I felt very uncomfortable.
I'd better paint a clearer picture, I had to share a taxi with three students who all went to the Autism unit. One was from Ash, another was from Dunkirk and the other lived in Sturry near to ASDA. A really nice part of Canterbury to be honest and I may take a stroll down there this morning actually. Hopefully it won't be too frosty!
There was one Friday afternoon where we dropped Michael off at his house in Dunkirk where his mother Lesley was one of the heads of governors for the Abbey School. Jay was very pissed off when dropping him off and overhearing Lesley say, "we're going off to Tescos..."
I don't blame Jay for getting frustrated. I may have pissed him off a few times but I learnt to reallise that even taxi drivers have bad days as well and he really didn't mean to overeact.
Sometimes it was very funny, one such incident with a bus that didn't know where it was going on the Wincheap Roundabout prompting Jason to utter "bloody bus drivers".
I think he also made an innapropriate hand gesture at a taxi driver who nearly rammed into us and we even had a motorcyclist who went up his arse!
That's right, even driving instructors don't seem to be tough enough.
Anyway back to Brian.
The first week in May before the bank holiday, I was driven back from school by Brian almost everyday. One day I had to endure "The Big Quiz" on Steve Wright and on the Friday, hold your breath.
It was a programme on BBC Radio Three presented by Matt Baker and Simon Thomas from Blue Peter which looked at different types of classical and light music. I'd go as far as saying that they were two of the best male presenters Blue Peter has ever had but once again, there's a time and a place.
I'd had a particularly bad day that afternoon, worrying about the ride back and to make things worse, the taxi arrived fucking 10 minutes later than it should have done! I was used to things like this happening but in these consequences it was even worse. The weather was really nice too just like is is right now so it feels like only yesterday since it happened.
Back to Blue Peter! One of the songs that was played was by a German singer called Ralf Bendix called "Babysitting Boogie". I can even remember Matt Baker's introduction; "Now I suppose the Bach family had to do a lot of babysitting and I'm sure this song would have been helpful, the Babysitting Boogie"
That journey from the Wincheap Roundabout to my house had never been longer in my fucking life. Brian was even joining into the song including those high pitched gurgles and by the time I got back into my house I was in tears.
I knew who I really wanted to speak to and knew where to find them. I rushed out, (I won't say where I went, just to avoid the consequences) and managed to find Dawn who had just left the East Station. She was very understanding, more than mum or dad could ever be and told me to keep her in mind whenver I felt like that again.
I immediately went home feeling more happier and inserted the CD with "Everyday" into my CD player and that was my Bank Holiday weekend sorted! I was thinking at this point, "who needs radio!" and as the next part of what I think is going to be a very long story will reveal. I felt like that for a very long time.
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