I left the library at around 3pm although the time just sped by in there, so I may make a habit out of this for the next few weeks as it was worth getting up at 5:45am.
I stayed in and listened to PY as usual where there were three back to back records by Dianne Reeves which were all collaborations. One of them being a cover of "Someday We'll All Be Free" by Donnie Hathaway as performed with trumpeter Tom Browne. Not too bad a version but nothing can beat the Alicia Keys version.
The Soul Cellar started earlier this week so I headed down to Sainsbury's to get some cooking stuff that will hopefully last until Tuesday.
I should explain that the reason I normally switch off when the Soul Cellar comes from is because most of it comes from the 1960s and in some cases the 1950s and I've never really gotten into soul music from that particular era to a detailed extent.
It's too bluesy in places and I tend to like soul from a slightly jazzy angle, but without all the nonsensical jamming.
Although you can't deny PY's passion for that era of music, and that many other people listen in just for that part of the show.
The plan for tonight was to make a pork stew but it wasn't until I got back that I found I'd brought two packets of Coq Au Vin powder by accident. Undeterrred I've mixed it in anyway and it should be interesting to taste the results.
On a different note, Suzette one of my housemates happens to know Emily Newell who is the daughter of Peter and his wife Alison who my mum used to go to school with.
Suze happens to live in nearby Colchester and is still in touch with Emily who's now at University in her hometown of Norwich.
I haven't been to their house for a very long time although they've made a few visits to us once a year at least where I think the last time I can remember was on the same day as Live Earth and we chatted about when Alison met Maureen Lipman.
It was also the same weekend as the Tour De France was in Canterbury.
The last time I went to Colchester was in May 2001 as it was the same day as the FA Cup final where Liverpool managed to beat Arsenal.
It was very hot as well and an ideal day to have a gander round the city
although most of the time was spent listening to Vibe FM on my walkman.
That's how far we're going back.
The station was actually going through a few changes with one of the bosses departed and some of the weekend shows being slightly changed.
"Lost In Music" on Sundays was now replaced by "The Best Of Blonde" which was a selection of the week's highlights from the breakfast show but it didn't mean that
the 70s and 80s disco and rare groove tracks had disapeared.
Well for the time being anyway.
Just over a month later the station re-branded itself as "Non-Stop Vibe"
and removed all the classic dance tracks with a tighter focus on current music.
A very similar scheme to what's happened at a station only a few steps away from
where I type.
I lost interest for Vibe after that and I more or less lost interest in radio in East Anglia overall from then on.
It may explain why my visits there became fewer as well.
It would be nice to visit the coastal parts again, especially North Norfolk with either Hunstanton, Cromer or Wells in the warmer months.
With the economic situation in the state it is it would be an ideal holiday destination fitting in with my obsession with cosiness and simple luxuries.
As for tonight they'll definitely be a good blend of old and new at Sarah's birthday party tonight as well as the Big Phat Party on Monday.
Whilst tonight is mainly for Sarah, we'll make sure that Monday's do will please everyone,
not just ourselves.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
"Scratch!, (Waka Waka Waka!) Yeeeeaaah!"
I continued my nostalgic trawl with the best of 1983 as hosted by television's most famous rodent.
During the section about the rat himself it featured a few vintage clips of Roland presenting in the TV-AM sewer, one of which made it into the very beginning of Shane Meadow's "This Is England".
I still find the clip of Nicholas Witchell on the BBC's 6 O'Clock News hilarious where he announces Roland's move to the BBC in a very serious, stern manner.
Roland made the switch in October 1985 and got his own show the following year
"Roland Rat The Series" which included a theme tune by Stock Aitken and Watermen.
Pete himself mentioned that a few of the songs performed by Roland on the show later went onto become hits for artists such as Mel & Kim and the theme tune itself did sound very similar to their song "Get Fresh At The Weekend".
On the subject of Breakfast Television, there was an item on work out girls such as "Green Goddess" Diana Moran, and over on TV-AM Mad Lizzie Webb who both appeared talking about what it was like to broadcast at that time of the morning.
It looks like there's a bit of a revival at the moment what with Mr Motivator's recent return to our screens.
Also included was a feature on Wham! which had contributions from radio DJ Gary Crowley who's now at BBC London and has said quite a few good words about a certain Dan Roberts.
Stewart Maconie also mentioned that he thought George Michael was better in Wham! than as a solo artist.
Another item was about He-Man the animated series/30 minute toy commercials which gripped many of the younger viewers around the mid 80s. And I reckon I can do Skeletor's voice perfectly.
Other contributors included Peter Kay, Kate Thornton, Robert Elms and even Peter York, the well spoken journalist and contributor to BBC 2's "The Late Show" in the early 90s.
Peter can be seen here in what must have been a treat for television fans back in 1989, a history of television identity symbols, courtesy of Mark Prosser.
You have to remember that very few people were that nostalgic in 1989 and not many of those outside of television knew what idents were until they saw this.
It was an interesting time however as with the 1990 Broadcasting Bill approaching,
ITV had to up it's game and had recently introduced a corporate image across the network.
Not all companies wanted to take part, including Central who's variant can be seen in the above video, as well as TVS, Anglia, and TSW in the South West.
Actually, Central did use the ident but used their own and in my opinion inferior sig tune instead of David Dundas's music as seen above.
After the 1983 programme I found another VHS looking from March 2001 of Channel 4's Top 10 Duets hosted by Richard and Judy.
This was just two months before the pair signed to join Channel 4 permantley in what was a shaky start at first.
Amongst the duets featured were Peters and Lee who were one of the few success stories from Opportunity Knocks. Although for me, the song "Welcome Home" always reminds me of 1995 for two reasons, the first being it's use in an ad for Walkers Crisps which saw Gary Lineker return to his hometown of Leicester and prove that there was "No More Mr Nice Guy".
The second was Chris Evans on Radio 1 when he'd just taken over the breakfast show and that was the first record he played in order to tell listeners it was "safe to listen to Radio 1 again".
Although from my perspective it was the beginning of the end for the station overall, even if they've now got Moyles as a saving grace.
Back to the duets and another one they had was Dollar with interviews with both
David Van Day and Therese Bazarr.
This was two years before they reformed for "Reborn In The USA"
and David as you would expect came across as rather pompous.
Around the time the show was transmitted he was appearing in an ad for Virgin Money which I'm sure I've mentioned on the site before showing the consequences of not investing your money with him working on a burger van.
Whether his time in the jungle has done him any favours, no one will know.
Or possibly give a toss.
The narrator for the segements themselves on the programme was 80s housewives hero Simon Bates and during a snippet of an unsuccesful duet with Corrie's Johnny Briggs and Amanda Barrie performing "Something Stupid", Simon commented
"Come on Alma, twat him!".
Possibly a rare experience of hearing Simon Bates utter the word "twat" rather than having it aimed at him.
During the section about the rat himself it featured a few vintage clips of Roland presenting in the TV-AM sewer, one of which made it into the very beginning of Shane Meadow's "This Is England".
I still find the clip of Nicholas Witchell on the BBC's 6 O'Clock News hilarious where he announces Roland's move to the BBC in a very serious, stern manner.
Roland made the switch in October 1985 and got his own show the following year
"Roland Rat The Series" which included a theme tune by Stock Aitken and Watermen.
Pete himself mentioned that a few of the songs performed by Roland on the show later went onto become hits for artists such as Mel & Kim and the theme tune itself did sound very similar to their song "Get Fresh At The Weekend".
On the subject of Breakfast Television, there was an item on work out girls such as "Green Goddess" Diana Moran, and over on TV-AM Mad Lizzie Webb who both appeared talking about what it was like to broadcast at that time of the morning.
It looks like there's a bit of a revival at the moment what with Mr Motivator's recent return to our screens.
Also included was a feature on Wham! which had contributions from radio DJ Gary Crowley who's now at BBC London and has said quite a few good words about a certain Dan Roberts.
Stewart Maconie also mentioned that he thought George Michael was better in Wham! than as a solo artist.
Another item was about He-Man the animated series/30 minute toy commercials which gripped many of the younger viewers around the mid 80s. And I reckon I can do Skeletor's voice perfectly.
Other contributors included Peter Kay, Kate Thornton, Robert Elms and even Peter York, the well spoken journalist and contributor to BBC 2's "The Late Show" in the early 90s.
Peter can be seen here in what must have been a treat for television fans back in 1989, a history of television identity symbols, courtesy of Mark Prosser.
You have to remember that very few people were that nostalgic in 1989 and not many of those outside of television knew what idents were until they saw this.
It was an interesting time however as with the 1990 Broadcasting Bill approaching,
ITV had to up it's game and had recently introduced a corporate image across the network.
Not all companies wanted to take part, including Central who's variant can be seen in the above video, as well as TVS, Anglia, and TSW in the South West.
Actually, Central did use the ident but used their own and in my opinion inferior sig tune instead of David Dundas's music as seen above.
After the 1983 programme I found another VHS looking from March 2001 of Channel 4's Top 10 Duets hosted by Richard and Judy.
This was just two months before the pair signed to join Channel 4 permantley in what was a shaky start at first.
Amongst the duets featured were Peters and Lee who were one of the few success stories from Opportunity Knocks. Although for me, the song "Welcome Home" always reminds me of 1995 for two reasons, the first being it's use in an ad for Walkers Crisps which saw Gary Lineker return to his hometown of Leicester and prove that there was "No More Mr Nice Guy".
The second was Chris Evans on Radio 1 when he'd just taken over the breakfast show and that was the first record he played in order to tell listeners it was "safe to listen to Radio 1 again".
Although from my perspective it was the beginning of the end for the station overall, even if they've now got Moyles as a saving grace.
Back to the duets and another one they had was Dollar with interviews with both
David Van Day and Therese Bazarr.
This was two years before they reformed for "Reborn In The USA"
and David as you would expect came across as rather pompous.
Around the time the show was transmitted he was appearing in an ad for Virgin Money which I'm sure I've mentioned on the site before showing the consequences of not investing your money with him working on a burger van.
Whether his time in the jungle has done him any favours, no one will know.
Or possibly give a toss.
The narrator for the segements themselves on the programme was 80s housewives hero Simon Bates and during a snippet of an unsuccesful duet with Corrie's Johnny Briggs and Amanda Barrie performing "Something Stupid", Simon commented
"Come on Alma, twat him!".
Possibly a rare experience of hearing Simon Bates utter the word "twat" rather than having it aimed at him.
Unacceptable From The 80s
Still in the library and I've managed to dig out a VHS containing a couple of episodes from BBC 2's infamous "I Love" series looking back at 1983 and 1985.
I have quite a few episodes of the series back in Canterbury apart from the above two, so it's good to have a look at them for probably the first time since
their original transmission in early 2001.
I started off with 1985 which was presented by Grace Jones.
I personally thought she wasn't that much of a looker but her records were stunning, especially "Slave To The Rhythm".
1985 really was her year as she also made an appearance as one of Bond's villains
in "A View To A Kill" alongside several other pictures.
And yes, they did show the moment from the Russell Harty interview which was mainly the fault of producer Tom Gutteridge who came up with the idea of the two guests sitting side by side of the late chat show host, resulting in Grace taking offence when Russell turned his back to her when talking to the other guest.
Also included was an item on "The Boss" when Bruce Springsteen's album "Born In The USA" brought him to mainstream stardom. Amongst those speaking in that section were David Hepworth who presented "Whistle Test" in the mid-late 80s and long time concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith who is still sorting out concerts for the performer to this day.
1985 was also the year when McDonalds spread it's golden arches beyond London, bringing the American restaurant (if you can call it that) chain to the other big cities in the UK.
Some of the talking heads including Vernon Kay, and poet Lemm Sissay mentioned about the excitement of it's arrival and how it was always a big deal to sit upstairs rather than on the ground floor.
And the french fries back then were a lot better than they are now.
A few vintage adverts from the year were shown such as Toshiba's send up of the Alexei Sayle song which went "Ullo Tosh, Gotta Toshiba?". I'm pretty certain the late Ian Dury did the voice for that ad.
There was also one which featured Joe Brown compering the Pepsi challenge which involved members of the public doing random taste tests. Why they got the old rocker to do the ads I've no idea.
One part of the programme that I found particularly interesting was about Paul Hardcastle's number 1 hit "19". Not only was the man himself interviewed but there was also a rare television appearance by radio presenter Charlie Gillett who had a hand in the record's success.
I met Charlie at WOMAD 5 years ago and he's definitely one of the most underrated radio broadcasters from the last 30 years.
In terms of TV shows, Spitting Image had reached it's popularity by 1985 where rather than offended, most politicians were flattered by their rubber caricatures.
Well, with the excepetion of then Liberal leader David Steele, who's puppet had David Owen in his pocket.
They also played a bit of the top 10 hit "The Chicken Song" from the series which ended up being sung in an episode of Grange Hill not long after.
The final part of the programme looked at the Live Aid concert from July of that year which featured a few clips from the BBC's TV coverage with wrong cues, and Bob Geldof telling David Hepworth to "fuck the postal address" in order to get more people to donate by phone.
It was rather amusing seeing Richard Skinner getting Nik Kershaw confused with Andy Kershaw although looking at Andy from back then he bares a rather striking resemblance to one of our Northern radio alumni Jon Lamb.
I reckon he should be flattered by that but considering what Andy's been through in the last two years I'm not so sure.
As for now I'm about to have a gander at the 1983 episode as presented by
the legend that is Roland Rat. Yeeeeeeaah Rat Fans!
I have quite a few episodes of the series back in Canterbury apart from the above two, so it's good to have a look at them for probably the first time since
their original transmission in early 2001.
I started off with 1985 which was presented by Grace Jones.
I personally thought she wasn't that much of a looker but her records were stunning, especially "Slave To The Rhythm".
1985 really was her year as she also made an appearance as one of Bond's villains
in "A View To A Kill" alongside several other pictures.
And yes, they did show the moment from the Russell Harty interview which was mainly the fault of producer Tom Gutteridge who came up with the idea of the two guests sitting side by side of the late chat show host, resulting in Grace taking offence when Russell turned his back to her when talking to the other guest.
Also included was an item on "The Boss" when Bruce Springsteen's album "Born In The USA" brought him to mainstream stardom. Amongst those speaking in that section were David Hepworth who presented "Whistle Test" in the mid-late 80s and long time concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith who is still sorting out concerts for the performer to this day.
1985 was also the year when McDonalds spread it's golden arches beyond London, bringing the American restaurant (if you can call it that) chain to the other big cities in the UK.
Some of the talking heads including Vernon Kay, and poet Lemm Sissay mentioned about the excitement of it's arrival and how it was always a big deal to sit upstairs rather than on the ground floor.
And the french fries back then were a lot better than they are now.
A few vintage adverts from the year were shown such as Toshiba's send up of the Alexei Sayle song which went "Ullo Tosh, Gotta Toshiba?". I'm pretty certain the late Ian Dury did the voice for that ad.
There was also one which featured Joe Brown compering the Pepsi challenge which involved members of the public doing random taste tests. Why they got the old rocker to do the ads I've no idea.
One part of the programme that I found particularly interesting was about Paul Hardcastle's number 1 hit "19". Not only was the man himself interviewed but there was also a rare television appearance by radio presenter Charlie Gillett who had a hand in the record's success.
I met Charlie at WOMAD 5 years ago and he's definitely one of the most underrated radio broadcasters from the last 30 years.
In terms of TV shows, Spitting Image had reached it's popularity by 1985 where rather than offended, most politicians were flattered by their rubber caricatures.
Well, with the excepetion of then Liberal leader David Steele, who's puppet had David Owen in his pocket.
They also played a bit of the top 10 hit "The Chicken Song" from the series which ended up being sung in an episode of Grange Hill not long after.
The final part of the programme looked at the Live Aid concert from July of that year which featured a few clips from the BBC's TV coverage with wrong cues, and Bob Geldof telling David Hepworth to "fuck the postal address" in order to get more people to donate by phone.
It was rather amusing seeing Richard Skinner getting Nik Kershaw confused with Andy Kershaw although looking at Andy from back then he bares a rather striking resemblance to one of our Northern radio alumni Jon Lamb.
I reckon he should be flattered by that but considering what Andy's been through in the last two years I'm not so sure.
As for now I'm about to have a gander at the 1983 episode as presented by
the legend that is Roland Rat. Yeeeeeeaah Rat Fans!
"Rock On Tommy!"
I had quite an early night yesterday and didn't really get to sleep for about two hours as I was pondering over my time here at Uni for the last four years and certain incidents kept on sticking in mind.
Before that I managed to find a vintage edtition of Jonathan Ross's
"It's Only TV But I Like It" from 2002 where the guests were Patsy Palmer,
Stuart Hall, Gina Yashere and Cannon and Ball.
As you would expect, the comedy duo got a lot of stick including a joke at the beginning where Jonathan mentioned that their film "The Boys In Blue" had been released on DVD and was the only one as such to contain the option "Less Scenes".
Tommy took the jokes really well but Bobby seemed to get rather annoyed with Jonathan's digs but I think that was part of the act. One such moment being when
Bobby was complaining about some of the props being too big
in the "Channel Hopping" round.
This was where the guests had to act out TV programme titles to the team captain who was wearing ear-muffs so they couldn't hear the theme tunes
Jonathan responded by saying "There's nothing you can do about your height,
you're almost dead!", with Tommy telling his partner to stop complaining
by mentioning I used to be that height once. When I was six".
Quite a lot of my family saw the duo in Panto in Derbyshire (appropriately enough if you consider Tommy's real name) in 2001, six months before their appearance on this show and I don't think they were too impressed by the duo.
Although I didn't go myself, I still think they were one of the better "old-school" double acts and they appeared on a documentary about Ant & Dec recently saying that
"Morecambe and Wise were Morecambe and Wise, Little and Large were Little and Large,
Ant & Dec are Ant & Dec" and so on.
Anyway, one of the other rounds involved a look back at public information films in particular "Charley Says" which the teams had to guess what the cat was saying.
One of which involved the moggy getting scalded by hot water from a teapot
which resulted in the audience feeling sorry for him prompting Jonathan Ross to retort
"It's not even a real cat!".
He did mention that Charlie later died in the making of
'Charley Says don't go to sleep in the wheel arch of your Dad's car'.
There have been rumours over the years that the animated cat's voice was done by the late Kenny Everett although the PIFs were also featured in Channel 4's countdown of the "100 Greatest Scary Moments" in 2003.
That I can understand because of the grainy picture quality and the muddled voices which ended up being sampled by the Prodigy for their debut single in 1991.
Lightening things up a bit I've found a video courtesy of James2001 of SMTV's
Garbage Hunt with presenter Des Clarke as David Dustbinman.
As mentioned a couple of days ago, it was probably one of the rudest sketches on the show but also very funny where in this one from December 2003 the guests making an appearance are The Cheeky Girls.
It makes me think as to whether they were still around in late 2003 but I'm guessing they were reaching the end of their bum touching tenure.
I wouldn't remember seeing this at the time as I was now working in ASDA on Saturdays but despite no longer having to work the following day, it was a pretty depressing time anyway due to the demands of my HND Media course where I was quite literally drowning.
If I remember correctly I ended up getting to leave early on one of my Thursday shifts around this time due to cutdowns on our bonuses but it didn't really make things any better.
However on the plus side with Christmas and New Year's day falling on a Thursday that year it meant that I was only working on Saturday's during the holiday period and as the special days fell on a Saturday the following year it made things just as convinient the following year.
As I was now on Fridays I ended up working on Christmas and New Year's Eve in 2004 although it actually wasn't too bad and not as chaotic as I thought it would be.
My younger sister Kate on the other hand was temping in Boots at the time and had to work on New Year's Day of 2005, but didn't turn up to work as she was suffering the side effects of the night before. Mum wasn't too impressed but it was only a temporary position in all fairness.
There's no way however that I'll return to either of those places after leaving Uni (although I never actually worked at Boots myself and don't have anything against it really).
No, I'll probably end up in Lidl instead and may lose the will to live.
Before that I managed to find a vintage edtition of Jonathan Ross's
"It's Only TV But I Like It" from 2002 where the guests were Patsy Palmer,
Stuart Hall, Gina Yashere and Cannon and Ball.
As you would expect, the comedy duo got a lot of stick including a joke at the beginning where Jonathan mentioned that their film "The Boys In Blue" had been released on DVD and was the only one as such to contain the option "Less Scenes".
Tommy took the jokes really well but Bobby seemed to get rather annoyed with Jonathan's digs but I think that was part of the act. One such moment being when
Bobby was complaining about some of the props being too big
in the "Channel Hopping" round.
This was where the guests had to act out TV programme titles to the team captain who was wearing ear-muffs so they couldn't hear the theme tunes
Jonathan responded by saying "There's nothing you can do about your height,
you're almost dead!", with Tommy telling his partner to stop complaining
by mentioning I used to be that height once. When I was six".
Quite a lot of my family saw the duo in Panto in Derbyshire (appropriately enough if you consider Tommy's real name) in 2001, six months before their appearance on this show and I don't think they were too impressed by the duo.
Although I didn't go myself, I still think they were one of the better "old-school" double acts and they appeared on a documentary about Ant & Dec recently saying that
"Morecambe and Wise were Morecambe and Wise, Little and Large were Little and Large,
Ant & Dec are Ant & Dec" and so on.
Anyway, one of the other rounds involved a look back at public information films in particular "Charley Says" which the teams had to guess what the cat was saying.
One of which involved the moggy getting scalded by hot water from a teapot
which resulted in the audience feeling sorry for him prompting Jonathan Ross to retort
"It's not even a real cat!".
He did mention that Charlie later died in the making of
'Charley Says don't go to sleep in the wheel arch of your Dad's car'.
There have been rumours over the years that the animated cat's voice was done by the late Kenny Everett although the PIFs were also featured in Channel 4's countdown of the "100 Greatest Scary Moments" in 2003.
That I can understand because of the grainy picture quality and the muddled voices which ended up being sampled by the Prodigy for their debut single in 1991.
Lightening things up a bit I've found a video courtesy of James2001 of SMTV's
Garbage Hunt with presenter Des Clarke as David Dustbinman.
As mentioned a couple of days ago, it was probably one of the rudest sketches on the show but also very funny where in this one from December 2003 the guests making an appearance are The Cheeky Girls.
It makes me think as to whether they were still around in late 2003 but I'm guessing they were reaching the end of their bum touching tenure.
I wouldn't remember seeing this at the time as I was now working in ASDA on Saturdays but despite no longer having to work the following day, it was a pretty depressing time anyway due to the demands of my HND Media course where I was quite literally drowning.
If I remember correctly I ended up getting to leave early on one of my Thursday shifts around this time due to cutdowns on our bonuses but it didn't really make things any better.
However on the plus side with Christmas and New Year's day falling on a Thursday that year it meant that I was only working on Saturday's during the holiday period and as the special days fell on a Saturday the following year it made things just as convinient the following year.
As I was now on Fridays I ended up working on Christmas and New Year's Eve in 2004 although it actually wasn't too bad and not as chaotic as I thought it would be.
My younger sister Kate on the other hand was temping in Boots at the time and had to work on New Year's Day of 2005, but didn't turn up to work as she was suffering the side effects of the night before. Mum wasn't too impressed but it was only a temporary position in all fairness.
There's no way however that I'll return to either of those places after leaving Uni (although I never actually worked at Boots myself and don't have anything against it really).
No, I'll probably end up in Lidl instead and may lose the will to live.
Friday, January 30, 2009
A Lighter Night At The Undercroft
Tonight saw quite a few familiar faces gathered to remember Ben.
These included Carl from the third year CMP course, John one of the bar staff who spent quite a bit of time on the quiz machine, and Mattie was providing the music.
All of Mattie's housemates were there as well including Matt, Mike, and Josh
who I haven't seen for a while and it appears to be a
rather demanding time for them on their commercial music course
as it reaches it's end.
No photos tonight as it was a rather downbeat event, but I can guarantee that tomorrow will be a return to form for Sarah's birthday party which should be really enjoyable.
She seemed very enthusiastic about it so let's hope it stays that way for tomorrow.
I left just as they were playing "Live Forever" by Oasis which if I'm being honest, I've never really been a fan of that song but it was very fitting for tonight.
As for tomorrow it will be quite a long morning in the library having another trawl through their video and music archives so I'll call it a night for now.
And it was really good of all of his friends to organise this informal get together for Ben.
1986-2009
These included Carl from the third year CMP course, John one of the bar staff who spent quite a bit of time on the quiz machine, and Mattie was providing the music.
All of Mattie's housemates were there as well including Matt, Mike, and Josh
who I haven't seen for a while and it appears to be a
rather demanding time for them on their commercial music course
as it reaches it's end.
No photos tonight as it was a rather downbeat event, but I can guarantee that tomorrow will be a return to form for Sarah's birthday party which should be really enjoyable.
She seemed very enthusiastic about it so let's hope it stays that way for tomorrow.
I left just as they were playing "Live Forever" by Oasis which if I'm being honest, I've never really been a fan of that song but it was very fitting for tonight.
As for tomorrow it will be quite a long morning in the library having another trawl through their video and music archives so I'll call it a night for now.
And it was really good of all of his friends to organise this informal get together for Ben.
1986-2009
Constant Organsising
Pretty unmemorable day really, just tagging and tidying files on my laptop.
I did take a break to watch the final of the Champion Of Champions on Countdown where Series 59 finalist Charlie was up against octo-champ Steve Briers who reached the quarter finals in Series 55 when Des Lynam was still presenting.
The good news for me was that the Cambridge student was beaten once again with Steven collecting the trophy for the latest set of Champion of Champions contests.
I'd imagine the next one will take place in around two or three years although whether Jeff is still in the chair will be another thing.
I think he's doing well though and it's brought my attention to the cult following that is Soccer Saturday on Sky One where he really comes into his own.
As for the game itself I managed to get a few six letter words, with one of them being "toerag".
I really hope that one day I'll be able to solve the main conundrum in the game which is something I've never been able to do despite watching the show on and off for 18 years.
As for tonight I will shortly be heading down to the Undercroft where they'll be plenty of drinking and DJing in memory of the late Ben Airey who used to study here.
It will be the first time I've seen Mattie Bennett in quite a while so I hope he's doing alright and coming to terms with things.
However Linzi one of our alumni spoke to him on Facebook saying that he couldn't keep greiving forever and I hope that tonight brings him back to his usual fun, raucous and slightly arrogant self.
And I'm sure Ben would be thinking exactly the same way so they'll be plenty of drinking for him tonight.
I did take a break to watch the final of the Champion Of Champions on Countdown where Series 59 finalist Charlie was up against octo-champ Steve Briers who reached the quarter finals in Series 55 when Des Lynam was still presenting.
The good news for me was that the Cambridge student was beaten once again with Steven collecting the trophy for the latest set of Champion of Champions contests.
I'd imagine the next one will take place in around two or three years although whether Jeff is still in the chair will be another thing.
I think he's doing well though and it's brought my attention to the cult following that is Soccer Saturday on Sky One where he really comes into his own.
As for the game itself I managed to get a few six letter words, with one of them being "toerag".
I really hope that one day I'll be able to solve the main conundrum in the game which is something I've never been able to do despite watching the show on and off for 18 years.
As for tonight I will shortly be heading down to the Undercroft where they'll be plenty of drinking and DJing in memory of the late Ben Airey who used to study here.
It will be the first time I've seen Mattie Bennett in quite a while so I hope he's doing alright and coming to terms with things.
However Linzi one of our alumni spoke to him on Facebook saying that he couldn't keep greiving forever and I hope that tonight brings him back to his usual fun, raucous and slightly arrogant self.
And I'm sure Ben would be thinking exactly the same way so they'll be plenty of drinking for him tonight.
Inter:Mission Possible
The good news is that it turns out my camera is OK after all and just needed some fresh new batteries. I've also found out how to use my battery charger although the instructions on how to use weren't laid out very well.
Hopefully they'll be a few photos tonight although I fully understand the circumstances of why it's all happening.
On a low note I'm a bit overdrawn, not to a serious extent but it looks as if I'll need to cut down on spending.
I guess it means that instead of VKs I'll be buying orange Fantas but there's no way I'm switching from Sainsbury's/Tesco to Iceland. Not a chance.
Then again I seem to get more enjoyment nowadays back in the flat listening to music whilst reading, rather than being in a crowded scout hut, sorry night club at Uni, being told to piss off by people in their own deluded close circles.
Having said that last night at Inter:Mission wasn't too bad, those in attendance were Oli P, Spikey G, Sophie, Alice, their housemate Meg who has a really dirty laugh,
and our "head of events" AKA "# Holding Back The Yeeeears".
In all fairness he was a bit knackered but I wasn't impressed with him making negative comments about Fiz's DJ set consisting mainly of what's become known as "funky house" such as T2, H20, Wiley etc.
Although to be fair I wasn't exactly that enthusiastic at last week's Area night but each to their own.
I had a good chat with Spike throughout the night about the Music Radio module that his year are now doing and the thought of writing a book about my Smoke Radio memoirs giving the dirt on what really happened that I can't write on this site.
I may actually do so after I've finished this year, and send it out to a few people who may be interested but it really will be warts and all if it comes to place.
Back to Inter:Mission and Danny Robs turned up to join in on the chaos including Spikey G attempting to flip over as many Smoke Radio beer mats as possible.
The beer mats themselves came in pretty handy when I think it was Dan, knocked over a pint of beer making quite a mess and even getting onto Alice's dress despite her being nowhere near the table.
Fiz had joined us by this point as someone else had taken over spinning the records and was playing almost exactly the same stuff that Fiz was playing an hour ago including Wiley, Kid Cudi, and Dizzee Rascal.
As for today I'll be doing some more tagging and will be heading over to the Underpants later tonight for Ben Airey's memorial piss up which I'm certain will be quite a night.
Hopefully they'll be a few photos tonight although I fully understand the circumstances of why it's all happening.
On a low note I'm a bit overdrawn, not to a serious extent but it looks as if I'll need to cut down on spending.
I guess it means that instead of VKs I'll be buying orange Fantas but there's no way I'm switching from Sainsbury's/Tesco to Iceland. Not a chance.
Then again I seem to get more enjoyment nowadays back in the flat listening to music whilst reading, rather than being in a crowded scout hut, sorry night club at Uni, being told to piss off by people in their own deluded close circles.
Having said that last night at Inter:Mission wasn't too bad, those in attendance were Oli P, Spikey G, Sophie, Alice, their housemate Meg who has a really dirty laugh,
and our "head of events" AKA "# Holding Back The Yeeeears".
In all fairness he was a bit knackered but I wasn't impressed with him making negative comments about Fiz's DJ set consisting mainly of what's become known as "funky house" such as T2, H20, Wiley etc.
Although to be fair I wasn't exactly that enthusiastic at last week's Area night but each to their own.
I had a good chat with Spike throughout the night about the Music Radio module that his year are now doing and the thought of writing a book about my Smoke Radio memoirs giving the dirt on what really happened that I can't write on this site.
I may actually do so after I've finished this year, and send it out to a few people who may be interested but it really will be warts and all if it comes to place.
Back to Inter:Mission and Danny Robs turned up to join in on the chaos including Spikey G attempting to flip over as many Smoke Radio beer mats as possible.
The beer mats themselves came in pretty handy when I think it was Dan, knocked over a pint of beer making quite a mess and even getting onto Alice's dress despite her being nowhere near the table.
Fiz had joined us by this point as someone else had taken over spinning the records and was playing almost exactly the same stuff that Fiz was playing an hour ago including Wiley, Kid Cudi, and Dizzee Rascal.
As for today I'll be doing some more tagging and will be heading over to the Underpants later tonight for Ben Airey's memorial piss up which I'm certain will be quite a night.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Photo Finished?
What was a perfectly good night out at Inter:Mission has just been ruined by finding out that my camera has stopped working.
I found out whilst I was there and initially thought that the batteries had run out, but after trying it with a few other spare AAs it still isn't working.
To make things worse my battery charger isn't bothering to work regardless of which way I put the batteries in, and it doesn't help that it's been designed rather poorly as well.
I really don't know how it buggered up but I certainly didn't knock it around or anything despite it not being in a carry case.
First thing tomorrow I will be returning it to Curry's Digital in Harrow as luckily I still have the reciept and they will refund or replace any faulty product.
I was succesfull with an external hard drive a few years ago that put me into a similar position although I'm not sure if I want to replace my camera in these rather tight times in terms of money.
I should have asked for one at Christmas and that would have really worked out better.
I'm definitely having a "stupid little child" moment as I type and it would be best if I got some shut eye around now.
Good night.
I found out whilst I was there and initially thought that the batteries had run out, but after trying it with a few other spare AAs it still isn't working.
To make things worse my battery charger isn't bothering to work regardless of which way I put the batteries in, and it doesn't help that it's been designed rather poorly as well.
I really don't know how it buggered up but I certainly didn't knock it around or anything despite it not being in a carry case.
First thing tomorrow I will be returning it to Curry's Digital in Harrow as luckily I still have the reciept and they will refund or replace any faulty product.
I was succesfull with an external hard drive a few years ago that put me into a similar position although I'm not sure if I want to replace my camera in these rather tight times in terms of money.
I should have asked for one at Christmas and that would have really worked out better.
I'm definitely having a "stupid little child" moment as I type and it would be best if I got some shut eye around now.
Good night.
20 Years Improved?
I recieved a reply from Anastasia about my dissertation proposal and it appears to have paid off with just a few of the questions needing a bit of altering.
I've been asked to make a start on writing the literature review which is good so hopefully I'll come up with some sort of draft by next week even if it's not 100% brilliant.
As for tonight I've spent most of it so far tagging MP3s and watching tonight's
Krypton Factor which seems to be improving throughout the series.
I've noticed they've added a progression meter to the mental agililty round rather than just displaying the score which adds more tension,
whilst the camera angles on the assault course aren't as shaky and there are no cutaways to the shitty helmet cameras that were evident on the first show.
I still think the course itself is rather cheap compared to the original.
On that subject, one of tonight's contestants had appeared on the show before in 1988 who was Andy Eden who ended up coming third in the heats.
He didn't do that well on tonight's show either coming fourth but as Ben Sheperd pointed out, at least he didn't have the hair from back then.
I probably saw the show when FTN repeated it two years ago and may even have it on VHS along with many other episodes that were shown.
It's worth noting that there are no adverts shown in the programme but unlike most of the original series, they have to have a break in order to show the sponsor ident at the right times in the show.
As for the rest of tonight I plan to finish my lamb stew with pasta, and then head over to Intermission for a bit as apart from Autumn '07 I've never really missed a Smoke Radio event and tonight should be no exception.
Probably the classiest drinking spot on all four campuses.
I've been asked to make a start on writing the literature review which is good so hopefully I'll come up with some sort of draft by next week even if it's not 100% brilliant.
As for tonight I've spent most of it so far tagging MP3s and watching tonight's
Krypton Factor which seems to be improving throughout the series.
I've noticed they've added a progression meter to the mental agililty round rather than just displaying the score which adds more tension,
whilst the camera angles on the assault course aren't as shaky and there are no cutaways to the shitty helmet cameras that were evident on the first show.
I still think the course itself is rather cheap compared to the original.
On that subject, one of tonight's contestants had appeared on the show before in 1988 who was Andy Eden who ended up coming third in the heats.
He didn't do that well on tonight's show either coming fourth but as Ben Sheperd pointed out, at least he didn't have the hair from back then.
I probably saw the show when FTN repeated it two years ago and may even have it on VHS along with many other episodes that were shown.
It's worth noting that there are no adverts shown in the programme but unlike most of the original series, they have to have a break in order to show the sponsor ident at the right times in the show.
As for the rest of tonight I plan to finish my lamb stew with pasta, and then head over to Intermission for a bit as apart from Autumn '07 I've never really missed a Smoke Radio event and tonight should be no exception.
Probably the classiest drinking spot on all four campuses.
"We Never Had A Cinema In Buurmingham"
Another trawl through a VHS was the order of this afternoon, in this case one dating from April 2002 with Catherine Noddy Slade Deeley's final SMTV Live.
This was a more lightweight departure than Ant & Dec, especially in terms of guests who included Atomic Kitten, Jeremy Edwards, Cat's "best mate" Edith Bowman who was pretty unknown at the time, H & Claire who would take over as presenters the following week,
and Louise Redknapp, one of the loveliest and luckiest women in the UK.
It was probably not as big a departure because Cat would still be presenting CD:UK but there were a few surprises including Cilla Black making a surprise appearance during the Brian's Brain section of the show.
Instead of Brian Dowling, Cat would be answering the questions which this time round were about her SMTV past, asked by Kirsty who was the girl who answered the phones with Ant in the Dec Says sketches.
It did drag on for quite a bit as it involved plenty of archive clips including the first ever show in August 1998 where Cat really did look younger.
The sketches that took place in the show were "Casually" where Cat's character "Sister Sledge" ended up dying accompanied by a video montage which had been hastily edited to make sure there was no footage of sacked presenter James Redmond.
This was accompanied by "Seasons In The Sun" which the studio audience felt the need to clap along with in the ever innapropriate manner.
There was also the final outing for "The Further Adventures Of Cat The Dog" which brought it to a nice end.
Basically this was a sketch that started off in May 2001 when Louise stepped in to co-host the show for six weeks whilst Ant & Dec were doing there Saturday night disaster "Slap Bang", and involved Cat and her "bestest ever friend" Louise going to ballet classes, shoplifting a clothes shop, or wating in line to see George Michael and Wham!.
The final sketch was set at a school disco where Jeremy Edwards ended up falling for Ms Deeley and Louise took her into town to get a makeover which saw the removal of the permed black wig and the bomber jacket, for the lovely blonde bombshell she ended up as.
Although she still had the heavy "Buurrmingham!" accent.
Towards the end of the show there was another surpise appearance this time from Ant & Dec who chatted to Cat about her embarassing moments, leading up to the obligatory highlights VT.
The boys made a few more occasional appearances on the show later in the year including one transmitted on the Bank Holiday Monday of the Queen's Jubilee weekend as a result of the coverage of the 2002 World Cup.
They appeared to take part in "Eat My Goal" although Ant wasn't in goal this time, and they promoted their ever infamous single "We're On The Ball", now known by the likes of Fiz and Sammy C as "We Are The Boys!"
Immediately after Cat's farewell on the tape was the following week's show with H & Claire making their debut and what for me was the beginning of the end for SMTV.
As if Brian wasn't annoying enough we now had the most irritating member of the countries most hated bands presenting, although unlike Brian we didn't know that Ian (to give him his real name) was out.
Claire had presented the show before as a stand in for Cat in the first series back in 1999 but I really didn't think that the pair fitted into the show and were that likeable as presenters.
Let's face it I doubt they were that likeable as pop stars but Claire was always my favourite member of Steps. Partly because she reminded me of Cheryl Baker.
It turns out that Claire's actually from Hillingdon, not too far from here but she has more of an East London accent, slightly similar to first year radio student Nicola who's from Ilford.
On that note, the guests included two of the Pop Idol finalists Hayley and Zoe which I was pleased about at the time because those were the two I fancied the most.
Sorry Gareth.
They ended up taking part in "Men In Splat" which was exactly the same as "Splatoon" but without the innuendos and with a "Men In Black" theme to tie in with the animated cartoon they were showing.
More or less in the same way that "Brian's Brain" was "Challenge Ant" but with a different name and still using the chant if Brian lost the killer question.
Other guests included the S Club Juniors performing their rather impressive "One Step Closer To Heaven" and promoted a competition where a viewer could win the chance to have them performing at their house.
I bet Chris Langham was one of those who entered.
This brings to mind when Simon Amstell appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks first time round as a guest where he told Mark Lamarr when the S Club Juniors appeared on Popworld and one of them was having a "becoming a woman experience".
This resulted in Simon's introduction being "the best band in the world, period".
Back to H & Claire and the only sketch they had in the show was "Casually: The Clinic" which was a spin off from the hospital spoof, only a lot worse.
Brian and Tess's characters were brought back whilst H appeared as gospel singer
"Dr Hollywood" with the catchphrase (to be sung in a high voice) "Hollywoooood, Yeah!",
whilst Claire played the malevolent Nurse Ranker,
"It's going to be a nightmare when Jonathan Ross checks in..."
The sketch was so dreadful it was dropped after two shows and replaced with even worse material such as "Table Footballers Wives" and "Big Bother" which completely lacked laughs.
Although to be fair, most of the new sketches that Ant & Dec did a few months before the end of their reign weren't that good either such as "SMTV 2099" and
"Animals That Would Knack You In A Fight" which involved Ant playing a send up
of the late Steve Irwin.
Cat was still presenting CD:UK immediately after, cut down to half an hour because of the F1 Qualifying. Acts included the presenters themselves performing their new single "DJ" as well as another offshoot from Steps "3SL" which were made up of a band consisting of Lisa Scott Lee's brothers.
One of them, Andy went onto be a finalist in the second series of Pop Idol although now he's more of a target for ridicule along with most of the others from the "difficult second series".
As for H & Claire, the Steps rejects left Saturday Mornings in October of 2002 to "concentrate on their music careers" which thankfully never happened to a great scale.
The show itself went through even more awkward patches especially with Fearne and Simon over on The Saturday Show giving the ailing BBC programme a kick up the backside although probably not to the extent of being as great as Live & Kicking was.
SMTV was a complete shambles with a succesion of guest presenters with Brian and Tess, along with even more unfunny sketches such as "Brian The Builder", "Delia Whiff" which involved a lot of farting, and "The Vicar Of Dribbly" which..., you can probably guess.
By 2003 they decided to relaunch the show by taking the "Live" out of the title and introducing two new hosts, them being Scottish comedian Des Clarke, and
New Zealander Shavaghan Raukere who I thought weren't too bad,
and gave the show a freshen up.
Especially Des's character "David Dustbinman" with "Garbage Hunt" which involved him searching through celebrities dustbins with plenty of tounge in cheek gags;
"Next week we'll be having 'One True Voice' and from what I've heard, they can produce a right load of rubbish".
However they seemed to be giving up before long with Brian and Tess leaving during the summer and a sudden departure of Shavaughn which wasn't really explained, resulting in the show being axed in August 2003.
As you'd expect I've brought back the final show from December of that year as well as Tess Daly's final show from August which was funny in places due to guests Vernon Kay and Federico from Big Brother 4 making snide comments at regular intervals.
As mentioned in an earlier video post, I hope someone writes a book charting the history of Saturday Mornings on UK television and they are more than welcome to steal bits from this site if needed.
This was a more lightweight departure than Ant & Dec, especially in terms of guests who included Atomic Kitten, Jeremy Edwards, Cat's "best mate" Edith Bowman who was pretty unknown at the time, H & Claire who would take over as presenters the following week,
and Louise Redknapp, one of the loveliest and luckiest women in the UK.
It was probably not as big a departure because Cat would still be presenting CD:UK but there were a few surprises including Cilla Black making a surprise appearance during the Brian's Brain section of the show.
Instead of Brian Dowling, Cat would be answering the questions which this time round were about her SMTV past, asked by Kirsty who was the girl who answered the phones with Ant in the Dec Says sketches.
It did drag on for quite a bit as it involved plenty of archive clips including the first ever show in August 1998 where Cat really did look younger.
The sketches that took place in the show were "Casually" where Cat's character "Sister Sledge" ended up dying accompanied by a video montage which had been hastily edited to make sure there was no footage of sacked presenter James Redmond.
This was accompanied by "Seasons In The Sun" which the studio audience felt the need to clap along with in the ever innapropriate manner.
There was also the final outing for "The Further Adventures Of Cat The Dog" which brought it to a nice end.
Basically this was a sketch that started off in May 2001 when Louise stepped in to co-host the show for six weeks whilst Ant & Dec were doing there Saturday night disaster "Slap Bang", and involved Cat and her "bestest ever friend" Louise going to ballet classes, shoplifting a clothes shop, or wating in line to see George Michael and Wham!.
The final sketch was set at a school disco where Jeremy Edwards ended up falling for Ms Deeley and Louise took her into town to get a makeover which saw the removal of the permed black wig and the bomber jacket, for the lovely blonde bombshell she ended up as.
Although she still had the heavy "Buurrmingham!" accent.
Towards the end of the show there was another surpise appearance this time from Ant & Dec who chatted to Cat about her embarassing moments, leading up to the obligatory highlights VT.
The boys made a few more occasional appearances on the show later in the year including one transmitted on the Bank Holiday Monday of the Queen's Jubilee weekend as a result of the coverage of the 2002 World Cup.
They appeared to take part in "Eat My Goal" although Ant wasn't in goal this time, and they promoted their ever infamous single "We're On The Ball", now known by the likes of Fiz and Sammy C as "We Are The Boys!"
Immediately after Cat's farewell on the tape was the following week's show with H & Claire making their debut and what for me was the beginning of the end for SMTV.
As if Brian wasn't annoying enough we now had the most irritating member of the countries most hated bands presenting, although unlike Brian we didn't know that Ian (to give him his real name) was out.
Claire had presented the show before as a stand in for Cat in the first series back in 1999 but I really didn't think that the pair fitted into the show and were that likeable as presenters.
Let's face it I doubt they were that likeable as pop stars but Claire was always my favourite member of Steps. Partly because she reminded me of Cheryl Baker.
It turns out that Claire's actually from Hillingdon, not too far from here but she has more of an East London accent, slightly similar to first year radio student Nicola who's from Ilford.
On that note, the guests included two of the Pop Idol finalists Hayley and Zoe which I was pleased about at the time because those were the two I fancied the most.
Sorry Gareth.
They ended up taking part in "Men In Splat" which was exactly the same as "Splatoon" but without the innuendos and with a "Men In Black" theme to tie in with the animated cartoon they were showing.
More or less in the same way that "Brian's Brain" was "Challenge Ant" but with a different name and still using the chant if Brian lost the killer question.
Other guests included the S Club Juniors performing their rather impressive "One Step Closer To Heaven" and promoted a competition where a viewer could win the chance to have them performing at their house.
I bet Chris Langham was one of those who entered.
This brings to mind when Simon Amstell appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks first time round as a guest where he told Mark Lamarr when the S Club Juniors appeared on Popworld and one of them was having a "becoming a woman experience".
This resulted in Simon's introduction being "the best band in the world, period".
Back to H & Claire and the only sketch they had in the show was "Casually: The Clinic" which was a spin off from the hospital spoof, only a lot worse.
Brian and Tess's characters were brought back whilst H appeared as gospel singer
"Dr Hollywood" with the catchphrase (to be sung in a high voice) "Hollywoooood, Yeah!",
whilst Claire played the malevolent Nurse Ranker,
"It's going to be a nightmare when Jonathan Ross checks in..."
The sketch was so dreadful it was dropped after two shows and replaced with even worse material such as "Table Footballers Wives" and "Big Bother" which completely lacked laughs.
Although to be fair, most of the new sketches that Ant & Dec did a few months before the end of their reign weren't that good either such as "SMTV 2099" and
"Animals That Would Knack You In A Fight" which involved Ant playing a send up
of the late Steve Irwin.
Cat was still presenting CD:UK immediately after, cut down to half an hour because of the F1 Qualifying. Acts included the presenters themselves performing their new single "DJ" as well as another offshoot from Steps "3SL" which were made up of a band consisting of Lisa Scott Lee's brothers.
One of them, Andy went onto be a finalist in the second series of Pop Idol although now he's more of a target for ridicule along with most of the others from the "difficult second series".
As for H & Claire, the Steps rejects left Saturday Mornings in October of 2002 to "concentrate on their music careers" which thankfully never happened to a great scale.
The show itself went through even more awkward patches especially with Fearne and Simon over on The Saturday Show giving the ailing BBC programme a kick up the backside although probably not to the extent of being as great as Live & Kicking was.
SMTV was a complete shambles with a succesion of guest presenters with Brian and Tess, along with even more unfunny sketches such as "Brian The Builder", "Delia Whiff" which involved a lot of farting, and "The Vicar Of Dribbly" which..., you can probably guess.
By 2003 they decided to relaunch the show by taking the "Live" out of the title and introducing two new hosts, them being Scottish comedian Des Clarke, and
New Zealander Shavaghan Raukere who I thought weren't too bad,
and gave the show a freshen up.
Especially Des's character "David Dustbinman" with "Garbage Hunt" which involved him searching through celebrities dustbins with plenty of tounge in cheek gags;
"Next week we'll be having 'One True Voice' and from what I've heard, they can produce a right load of rubbish".
However they seemed to be giving up before long with Brian and Tess leaving during the summer and a sudden departure of Shavaughn which wasn't really explained, resulting in the show being axed in August 2003.
As you'd expect I've brought back the final show from December of that year as well as Tess Daly's final show from August which was funny in places due to guests Vernon Kay and Federico from Big Brother 4 making snide comments at regular intervals.
As mentioned in an earlier video post, I hope someone writes a book charting the history of Saturday Mornings on UK television and they are more than welcome to steal bits from this site if needed.
A Woman Who Can Definitely "Sing"
I've spent the last few hours of tonight listening to Vivienne McKone's album from 1992 and it definitely proves that she was the British Brenda Russell.
The album contains some good personnel including top jazz guitarist Ronny Jordan.
Apart from the superb "Sing" there's also a few other really good tunes such as "Beware" which musically sounds like something off one of Salif Keita's albums in the late 80s, and "Heading Right Back To You" that's a bit more sultry and similar to En Vogue, S.W.V. and was also used (and probably still is) in a music sweeper on Solar Radio.
She's still making music now which can be heard via her own website which I may sign up to later on.
Another track that stands out is "Reaching Your Goals" which sounds almost identical to Jesse Harris's "Don't Know Why" made famous by Norah Jones.
Although in all fairness this album was made 10 years before Norah released her's but the tune is very similar.
I don't mind Norah but I wouldn't put her as one of the best jazz vocalists of our generation.
I almost fell asleep halfway through "Come Away With Me" when I brought the album
and I wasn't even tired in the first place.
Although Norah isn't one of the worst and I do have quite a lot of her other stuff such as "The Little Willies", another "line" analogy comes to mind, this time being a line between music being chilled and relaxing as opposed to just dull.
One man who falls into this category has been mentioned quite a few times on this site and shares his surname with a cartoon mouse with fast legs and a Mexican accent.
Which reminds me, despite bringing back my Looney Tunes boxsets, I forgot to bring the one solely devoted to toons featuring the rodent and his battles with either Sylvester or Daffy.
From what I heard they got banned from a satellite channel in America as they were offending Mexicans.
However to finish with a routine from one of Ireland's favourite funnymen Hal Roach,
and quite possibly the main source of jokes that I tell in my video posts.
Good night.
The album contains some good personnel including top jazz guitarist Ronny Jordan.
Apart from the superb "Sing" there's also a few other really good tunes such as "Beware" which musically sounds like something off one of Salif Keita's albums in the late 80s, and "Heading Right Back To You" that's a bit more sultry and similar to En Vogue, S.W.V. and was also used (and probably still is) in a music sweeper on Solar Radio.
She's still making music now which can be heard via her own website which I may sign up to later on.
Another track that stands out is "Reaching Your Goals" which sounds almost identical to Jesse Harris's "Don't Know Why" made famous by Norah Jones.
Although in all fairness this album was made 10 years before Norah released her's but the tune is very similar.
I don't mind Norah but I wouldn't put her as one of the best jazz vocalists of our generation.
I almost fell asleep halfway through "Come Away With Me" when I brought the album
and I wasn't even tired in the first place.
Although Norah isn't one of the worst and I do have quite a lot of her other stuff such as "The Little Willies", another "line" analogy comes to mind, this time being a line between music being chilled and relaxing as opposed to just dull.
One man who falls into this category has been mentioned quite a few times on this site and shares his surname with a cartoon mouse with fast legs and a Mexican accent.
Which reminds me, despite bringing back my Looney Tunes boxsets, I forgot to bring the one solely devoted to toons featuring the rodent and his battles with either Sylvester or Daffy.
From what I heard they got banned from a satellite channel in America as they were offending Mexicans.
However to finish with a routine from one of Ireland's favourite funnymen Hal Roach,
and quite possibly the main source of jokes that I tell in my video posts.
Good night.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Shuffle Sails Away
Tonight was a rather significant night for Smoke Radio, well at least my tenure there anyway as the Shuffle Boys were here to present their final show for a few months.
The theme of tonight's show was based around the instrument which I can't remember the name of, used to do the high pitched sound on "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys which was one of the songs included.
There were also records from the White Stripes, UNKLE, and a dodgy remix of the Grandstand theme which is probably a first for the Shuffle show because it's a record they've played that I've actually hated.
Overall though it's been great working with Adam & Zo over the last four years at the station, sharing anecdotes about music and having a good laugh overall.
I'm hoping we'll meet up for a drink later in the year.
If I had it my way I'd move the boys back onto Thursdays because without naming names, one of the shows hasn't turned up since November and it shows a disapointing lack of commitment.
Yes I know there are assignments, I know there are deadlines, but isn't it possible to plan your fucking time around those obstacles?
Sorry if that's a bit heavy handed but I've learnt since the beginning not to let personal angsts get in the way of my shows and it's a very important thing to have if you were to get a job in professional radio.
Something that seems very unlikely in my case.
And on the subject of unprofessional radio, my show immediately followed the Shuffle Boys where it went pretty well, nothing too special but good times.
However the computer I was using to record the show was set to 32000 hz and me being very picky had to go through the long wounded process of saving the show the harder way.
As if things couldn't get any worse the security guard arrived at around 9:20pm so I left the computer to finish the job which means an early start tomorrow morning in hope that they haven't been switched off.
I won't let what will probably be the final Shuffle Show during my time at Westminster go to waste.
I hope that whoever they get to replace them will be welcoming and enthusiastic, and not arrogant, although it would be tricky transferring one of the shows after 9pm to an earlier slot due to the content containing a lot of sweary songs.
I guess that means Matt Cooper's "Dumpster Punk" is out of the running despite being one of the funniest shows on the station.
There's probably Jonny Wei's Chillout Show but I think that works well in it's late night slot on Tuesday and 7pm's more of a time for getting ready to go out music.
Speaking of which I'm considering going to Smoke's Intermission Night tomorrow, just for a couple of drinks but looking on the Facebook event there's hardly any bugger on there I know who's going.
On the plus side at least it means that we've grabbed the attention of those on the Central campuses but I've never really befriended anyone who goes to the University that isn't in Harrow.
Overall, I know the dissertation is the main priority, but I'm not going to let the struggles of it get in the way of everything else that's happening.
Maybe a bit of altering to the proposal wouldn't go amiss as a first step.
The theme of tonight's show was based around the instrument which I can't remember the name of, used to do the high pitched sound on "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys which was one of the songs included.
There were also records from the White Stripes, UNKLE, and a dodgy remix of the Grandstand theme which is probably a first for the Shuffle show because it's a record they've played that I've actually hated.
Overall though it's been great working with Adam & Zo over the last four years at the station, sharing anecdotes about music and having a good laugh overall.
I'm hoping we'll meet up for a drink later in the year.
If I had it my way I'd move the boys back onto Thursdays because without naming names, one of the shows hasn't turned up since November and it shows a disapointing lack of commitment.
Yes I know there are assignments, I know there are deadlines, but isn't it possible to plan your fucking time around those obstacles?
Sorry if that's a bit heavy handed but I've learnt since the beginning not to let personal angsts get in the way of my shows and it's a very important thing to have if you were to get a job in professional radio.
Something that seems very unlikely in my case.
And on the subject of unprofessional radio, my show immediately followed the Shuffle Boys where it went pretty well, nothing too special but good times.
However the computer I was using to record the show was set to 32000 hz and me being very picky had to go through the long wounded process of saving the show the harder way.
As if things couldn't get any worse the security guard arrived at around 9:20pm so I left the computer to finish the job which means an early start tomorrow morning in hope that they haven't been switched off.
I won't let what will probably be the final Shuffle Show during my time at Westminster go to waste.
I hope that whoever they get to replace them will be welcoming and enthusiastic, and not arrogant, although it would be tricky transferring one of the shows after 9pm to an earlier slot due to the content containing a lot of sweary songs.
I guess that means Matt Cooper's "Dumpster Punk" is out of the running despite being one of the funniest shows on the station.
There's probably Jonny Wei's Chillout Show but I think that works well in it's late night slot on Tuesday and 7pm's more of a time for getting ready to go out music.
Speaking of which I'm considering going to Smoke's Intermission Night tomorrow, just for a couple of drinks but looking on the Facebook event there's hardly any bugger on there I know who's going.
On the plus side at least it means that we've grabbed the attention of those on the Central campuses but I've never really befriended anyone who goes to the University that isn't in Harrow.
Overall, I know the dissertation is the main priority, but I'm not going to let the struggles of it get in the way of everything else that's happening.
Maybe a bit of altering to the proposal wouldn't go amiss as a first step.
Theoretical Nonsense
Well this is even more interesting, fellow radio student Chris Chilvers now finally has
a blog of his own which I hope will provide even further light into what goes on
with one of the most prominent players on the radio course.
And contrary to what he's written in his first post, I don't think Lynn's too bad a place although I could say his exact words, only about Canterbury.
I've just put together the show for tonight which at the request of some listeners in nearby Norwich, I will be playing something by Barry White but because they didn't give me a specific song, it will be another one from his 1989 LP "The Man Is Back" which I doubt will be to their tastes.
I also need to be careful with Master Control tonight as I buggered up the running order last week meaning the pre-recs didn't go out, but because Eric's back this week with his "shocking" Electro show immediately after mine, I'll make sure that everyone goes out as planned.
On that note I've got a record by DJ Circle on the show tonight which I'll play near the end and I reckon will fit in nicely as it's got a few dated sounding synth bits in it which otherwise sound superb.
There's also a few other surprises so if the hour between 8 and 9pm tonight is empty, spend it wisely.
As for tomorrow I'll try re-writing by diss proposal and try and specify what I want to be finding out.
No disrespect in any way but because my tutor's foreign, it makes it hard for me to talk about various examples of British texts and ideas to her.
Although to be perfectly honest a lot of the lecturers here including Matthew, and Maria Way have poo-pooed my ideas in the past due to them having nothing in the way of dare I say it "poncey theories".
You really can't win with theory assignments, but I'm sure this is just a temporary phase of uncertainty.
a blog of his own which I hope will provide even further light into what goes on
with one of the most prominent players on the radio course.
And contrary to what he's written in his first post, I don't think Lynn's too bad a place although I could say his exact words, only about Canterbury.
I've just put together the show for tonight which at the request of some listeners in nearby Norwich, I will be playing something by Barry White but because they didn't give me a specific song, it will be another one from his 1989 LP "The Man Is Back" which I doubt will be to their tastes.
I also need to be careful with Master Control tonight as I buggered up the running order last week meaning the pre-recs didn't go out, but because Eric's back this week with his "shocking" Electro show immediately after mine, I'll make sure that everyone goes out as planned.
On that note I've got a record by DJ Circle on the show tonight which I'll play near the end and I reckon will fit in nicely as it's got a few dated sounding synth bits in it which otherwise sound superb.
There's also a few other surprises so if the hour between 8 and 9pm tonight is empty, spend it wisely.
As for tomorrow I'll try re-writing by diss proposal and try and specify what I want to be finding out.
No disrespect in any way but because my tutor's foreign, it makes it hard for me to talk about various examples of British texts and ideas to her.
Although to be perfectly honest a lot of the lecturers here including Matthew, and Maria Way have poo-pooed my ideas in the past due to them having nothing in the way of dare I say it "poncey theories".
You really can't win with theory assignments, but I'm sure this is just a temporary phase of uncertainty.
Dissertation Despair
I went for my meeting with Anastasia this morning and unfortunately she had a very sore throat.
This made it rather difficult for me to understand what she was saying but I was told I needed to be more specific in what I wanted to be doing in my dissertation and decide what angle I should be taking.
I really don't know how to go about it at all and am starting to feel rather stressed about the whole thing although probably not to the point of being depressed as I was about a year ago.
It's just because I've not done any assignment involving primary research for five years and not knowing what sort of thing I should be focusing on specifically and finding it a tiny bit difficult to understand Anastasia it has put me into a whole muddle completely.
I've been told not to stress about it however and hope it will all come together eventually,
but overall I don't think either of us know what I want to achieve.
Another idea that daunted me was that of interviewing people within television which would be useful but actually getting them to take part would be an absolute bugger.
I reckon they get so many people asking them for similar things and most of the people I know working for the BBC would be rather reluctant to do so.
I may give it a go, but at this stage it's safe to say that as far as the dissertation goes,
I have no fucking clue.
This made it rather difficult for me to understand what she was saying but I was told I needed to be more specific in what I wanted to be doing in my dissertation and decide what angle I should be taking.
I really don't know how to go about it at all and am starting to feel rather stressed about the whole thing although probably not to the point of being depressed as I was about a year ago.
It's just because I've not done any assignment involving primary research for five years and not knowing what sort of thing I should be focusing on specifically and finding it a tiny bit difficult to understand Anastasia it has put me into a whole muddle completely.
I've been told not to stress about it however and hope it will all come together eventually,
but overall I don't think either of us know what I want to achieve.
Another idea that daunted me was that of interviewing people within television which would be useful but actually getting them to take part would be an absolute bugger.
I reckon they get so many people asking them for similar things and most of the people I know working for the BBC would be rather reluctant to do so.
I may give it a go, but at this stage it's safe to say that as far as the dissertation goes,
I have no fucking clue.
Bashing The Box
I continued through my trawl through "Screen Burn" towards the end of last night where one of the parts the stood out was Charlie's take on what was to be the final series of Blind Date in 2002.
The programme was already tired as it was but in October 2002 they decided to give it yet another relaunch, this time with a new feature "Date Or Ditch" where the contestant choosing the date could dump their first choice if they weren't impressed.
The changes to format resulted in "Our Graham" Skidmore being sacked as the announcer and at the beginning of a live show in the new year, Cilla herself made a surprise announcement that this would be her last series of Blind Date.
A year later saw a disastrous replacement in the form of "Love On A Saturday Night" and having Davina McCall as the host was one indicator that I wouldn't be watching.
The series was split into two with Ant & Dec's Takeaway being shown for six weeks in between which was a much needed relief, but for what I can remember, one of the games in the mish-mash of of a format, involved a contest choosing from three people wearing what looked like gas masks so the audience couldn't see who they were.
I still haven't read Steve and Graham's book on Saturday Night Television yet and I must do so really soon as I'm sure it will have me groaning at some of the other Saturday night flops I thought I'd forgotten.
This also reminds of a show that used to go out on ITV Night Time in the late 90s called "The Haunted Fishtank" which was an irreverant TV review show hosted by Ed Hall.
I can remember one show from around early to mid 1999 when they looked at sitcoms and the BBC had recently had plenty of unsuccessful ones such as "Bloomin' Marvellous" with Clive Mantle, "Kiss Me Kate" starring Caroline Quentin, and Chris Barrie's disastrous "A Prince Among Men".
Ed went on to comment that the BBC used to be the leaders in the genre but they'd now forgotten that sitcom stood for "situation comedy"
and not "situation complete bollocks".
The show decided to do it's own spoof involving plenty of innuendos and an unfortunate scene where the Dad got a sausage stuck between his flies and the vicar caught the son trying to pull it out.
The review show overall was slightly funnier than TV Burp but nowhere near as coarse as Charlie Brooker's "Screen Wipe".
Overall it's a reminder of a time when ITV actually bothered
to make shows aimed specially for people watching at that time of night, with a more infamous example being Colin Bennett's "Night Shift".
Another moment I liked from the Fishtank was when they took the piss out of a headline where Corrie's Adam Rickett revealed in a tabloid newspaper that he hadn't had sex in 18 months but claimed he "wasn't gay".
This lead to a sketch taking the mickey out of him launching his pop career, where he walked into the record boss's office who gave him the lyrics to his new single, which Adam read out the following in a dry manner.
"It's fun to stay at the YMCA,
It's fun to stay at the YMCA,
They have everything there for young men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all... the.. boys?"
I thought that would be a good excuse to put up that rather off putting video for what was to be Adam's real debut single "I Breathe Again".
Back to Brooker, and whilst reading his book, to get over the disapointment of
the Lars Bartkuhn album I gave the Bennson album a spin and it's the first time
I've listened to it in full and am really impressed.
I hope it's only the beginning as they are up there with Incognito and
the Sunburst Band proving it is still possible to produce really good happy music.
I may play one of their's on the show tonight as well as a bit of Barry White for my Aunt who may be listening.
The programme was already tired as it was but in October 2002 they decided to give it yet another relaunch, this time with a new feature "Date Or Ditch" where the contestant choosing the date could dump their first choice if they weren't impressed.
The changes to format resulted in "Our Graham" Skidmore being sacked as the announcer and at the beginning of a live show in the new year, Cilla herself made a surprise announcement that this would be her last series of Blind Date.
A year later saw a disastrous replacement in the form of "Love On A Saturday Night" and having Davina McCall as the host was one indicator that I wouldn't be watching.
The series was split into two with Ant & Dec's Takeaway being shown for six weeks in between which was a much needed relief, but for what I can remember, one of the games in the mish-mash of of a format, involved a contest choosing from three people wearing what looked like gas masks so the audience couldn't see who they were.
I still haven't read Steve and Graham's book on Saturday Night Television yet and I must do so really soon as I'm sure it will have me groaning at some of the other Saturday night flops I thought I'd forgotten.
This also reminds of a show that used to go out on ITV Night Time in the late 90s called "The Haunted Fishtank" which was an irreverant TV review show hosted by Ed Hall.
I can remember one show from around early to mid 1999 when they looked at sitcoms and the BBC had recently had plenty of unsuccessful ones such as "Bloomin' Marvellous" with Clive Mantle, "Kiss Me Kate" starring Caroline Quentin, and Chris Barrie's disastrous "A Prince Among Men".
Ed went on to comment that the BBC used to be the leaders in the genre but they'd now forgotten that sitcom stood for "situation comedy"
and not "situation complete bollocks".
The show decided to do it's own spoof involving plenty of innuendos and an unfortunate scene where the Dad got a sausage stuck between his flies and the vicar caught the son trying to pull it out.
The review show overall was slightly funnier than TV Burp but nowhere near as coarse as Charlie Brooker's "Screen Wipe".
Overall it's a reminder of a time when ITV actually bothered
to make shows aimed specially for people watching at that time of night, with a more infamous example being Colin Bennett's "Night Shift".
Another moment I liked from the Fishtank was when they took the piss out of a headline where Corrie's Adam Rickett revealed in a tabloid newspaper that he hadn't had sex in 18 months but claimed he "wasn't gay".
This lead to a sketch taking the mickey out of him launching his pop career, where he walked into the record boss's office who gave him the lyrics to his new single, which Adam read out the following in a dry manner.
"It's fun to stay at the YMCA,
It's fun to stay at the YMCA,
They have everything there for young men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all... the.. boys?"
I thought that would be a good excuse to put up that rather off putting video for what was to be Adam's real debut single "I Breathe Again".
Back to Brooker, and whilst reading his book, to get over the disapointment of
the Lars Bartkuhn album I gave the Bennson album a spin and it's the first time
I've listened to it in full and am really impressed.
I hope it's only the beginning as they are up there with Incognito and
the Sunburst Band proving it is still possible to produce really good happy music.
I may play one of their's on the show tonight as well as a bit of Barry White for my Aunt who may be listening.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Foot Through The TV Screen
Fellow radio student Eric Whelan mentions in his Facebook profile that he reckons Charlie Brooker is the funniest man on the planet.
I'm not sure if I'd go that far although I was in stitches at his slating of Brittannia High;
Danny: "#I'm The Man!"
Charlie Brooker: "No you're a c**t"
I definitely think his opinions are spot on and I reckon he deserves a long holiday
at some point for having to endure some of the worst television broadcast
in the last 15 or so years.
The Screen Burn book contains a selection of reviews from his section in The Guide supplement of the Guardian which I must have several copies of under my bed in Canterbury.
Some of the reviews remind how utter shite Saturday night television was in the early noughties with examples such as "Star For A Night" with Jane McDonald which we have to thank for unleashing Joss Stone onto the nation, and the disastrous "Hotel Getaway" with Matthew Kelly.
I've probably got a shameful encyclopeadic knowledge of Saturday night flops from this era such as Davina McCall's "Oblivious" transmitted on ITV in July 2001 at a time when things couldn't get any worse for me as I'd just left secondary school and felt rather depressed over the fact I'd never seen any of the crushes there again.
Especially as they were all classroom assistants.
Anyway, Charlie has probably added a new word to my vocabulary "Un-tertainment" and it's variations when reviewing a bank holiday special featuring Steps on BBC1 in August 2000.
Luckily I don't remember that at all although for my sins I do remember a special in a similar but more toe curling vein to the Will Young special I watched earlier.
"Meet The Popstars" transmitted on ITV in April 2001 was a god-awful special featuring Hear'say and was presented by Davina McCall who Brooker describes as like a matlepiece ornament. I remember the show for a rather sickly rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" as originally performed in the auditions, only this time it was done live with Myleene playing the piano.
I like Charlie's comment on Welsh band member Noel Sullivan's face looking like Dizzy from the Codemasters games although back in April 2001 as Shrek hadn't made his mark,
we had nothing to compare Danny Foster to.
The programme also had a contrived live link-up to "Nasty" Nigel Lythgoe who was on location preparing for the filming of his flop "Survivor".
By the time Pop Idol started Simon Cowell made Nigel who was the executive producer of the show look like the nicest man around.
One Saturday night show that gets the most bashing from Brooker quite rightly
is the end of the pier shambles that was Jim Davidson's Generation Game.
Basically this was the show that ticked all the wrong boxes with Z-list celebrities such as Bucks Fizz, the pointless addtion of Mr Blobby, and gungings for the sake of gunging.
It was obvious when the programme was scheduled up against Pop Idol that there was absolutely no place for cuddly toys and all that crap on our screens.
Another review that grabbed my interest was Sky 1's "succesfull" transfer of Simon Bates's "Our Tune" to television. Even to this day whenever someone at Uni or anywhere tries to make people feel sorry for them, they'll just start humming the Our Tune theme at them which says a thing about how things are.
Brooker compared Bates's on-screen presence to when he used to introduce film classification warnings on videos which instantly reminds me of Harry Enfield's lampooning using Dave Nice which after watching it first time round, resulted in me being sent out of the living room for laughing too much;
"This film may also contain swearwords. These include bollocks, wanker..."
One article included in the book which I can also remember reading first time round in April 2003 was a rundown of some of the worst shows in the last 10 years.
These included "Hotel Babylon" produced by the makers of the Word and transmitted in the early hours on ITV back in 1996. This featured Dani Behr presenting but was basically a half hour long advert for the programme's sponsors Heineken who insisted in their drinks being shown in almost every shot.
Also included were Hale and Pace's career killing "h&p@thebbc" from 1999, and the ultra bland "Harbour Lights" from 1999 which saw Nick Berry solve cases on a rather grotty village sea front.
Another one mentioned at the end , in Charlie's own words was "The Late Bastard Bastard Bastard Review". I'd imagine Charlie's seen Adam & Joe's brilliant pisstake of it on their Channel 4 show which they called "Toy Review" presented by "Humpty Lawson" which has become my permanent nickname for the Front Row presenter;
"Tonight, we show more clips from television and talk bollocks between each one".
The only show I don't agree with in that list is They Think It's All Over which was included because Charlie hates sport and "blokes shouting in pubs".
To be fair though, after Gary Lineker and David Gower left the show started declining and the departure of Nick Hancock in 2004 sealed the nail in the coffin.
There was one stand out moment in late 2004 during the Treble round where you had to connect a golf buggy, a centipede and a knife (i think) to Kelly Holmes, David Beckham and Ron Atkinson.
This resulted in team captain Ian Wright asking if the objects were "things you could stuff up Ron Atkinson's arse".
Nick asked Ian how he thought about his slip of the tounge and the ex Arsenal player said that he was disapointed mainly because whilst at West Brom, Ron brought black players at a time it would never have happened such as Brendon Batsun and the late Laurie Cunningham.
However Ian then went on to mention that when he worked with Ron at ITV Sport he was prone to making dodgy comments off mic, so when he was caught out "it served him right".
A few years ago after seeing Ron as a dweller on Countdown, I asked fellow radio alumni Tim how he felt about the whole thing and he said that he would be more than happy to give him a second chance.
In my opinion though I always thought that Ron came across as gormless especially when appearing on chat shows and programmes such as Room 101.
I think I also said on this site a few years ago that instead of Ray Stubbs, for Sport Relief they showed have hurled Ron into a bag of manure.
That's more or less sprung off the topic of Charlie Brooker and I haven't actually finished reading the book yet, but it's brought to mind another article from Off The Telly by Steve Williams called "To Hell And Back".
Basically this looks at some of the worst television up to 2002 splitting the into well thought sections especially "Right Presenter, Wrong Show" where you've just signed up a big name presenter but you can't find the right vehicle for them.
I hope Steve decides to write an updated version of that article sometime as there's been a lot of rubbish on our screens ever since.
I'm not sure if I'd go that far although I was in stitches at his slating of Brittannia High;
Danny: "#I'm The Man!"
Charlie Brooker: "No you're a c**t"
I definitely think his opinions are spot on and I reckon he deserves a long holiday
at some point for having to endure some of the worst television broadcast
in the last 15 or so years.
The Screen Burn book contains a selection of reviews from his section in The Guide supplement of the Guardian which I must have several copies of under my bed in Canterbury.
Some of the reviews remind how utter shite Saturday night television was in the early noughties with examples such as "Star For A Night" with Jane McDonald which we have to thank for unleashing Joss Stone onto the nation, and the disastrous "Hotel Getaway" with Matthew Kelly.
I've probably got a shameful encyclopeadic knowledge of Saturday night flops from this era such as Davina McCall's "Oblivious" transmitted on ITV in July 2001 at a time when things couldn't get any worse for me as I'd just left secondary school and felt rather depressed over the fact I'd never seen any of the crushes there again.
Especially as they were all classroom assistants.
Anyway, Charlie has probably added a new word to my vocabulary "Un-tertainment" and it's variations when reviewing a bank holiday special featuring Steps on BBC1 in August 2000.
Luckily I don't remember that at all although for my sins I do remember a special in a similar but more toe curling vein to the Will Young special I watched earlier.
"Meet The Popstars" transmitted on ITV in April 2001 was a god-awful special featuring Hear'say and was presented by Davina McCall who Brooker describes as like a matlepiece ornament. I remember the show for a rather sickly rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" as originally performed in the auditions, only this time it was done live with Myleene playing the piano.
I like Charlie's comment on Welsh band member Noel Sullivan's face looking like Dizzy from the Codemasters games although back in April 2001 as Shrek hadn't made his mark,
we had nothing to compare Danny Foster to.
The programme also had a contrived live link-up to "Nasty" Nigel Lythgoe who was on location preparing for the filming of his flop "Survivor".
By the time Pop Idol started Simon Cowell made Nigel who was the executive producer of the show look like the nicest man around.
One Saturday night show that gets the most bashing from Brooker quite rightly
is the end of the pier shambles that was Jim Davidson's Generation Game.
Basically this was the show that ticked all the wrong boxes with Z-list celebrities such as Bucks Fizz, the pointless addtion of Mr Blobby, and gungings for the sake of gunging.
It was obvious when the programme was scheduled up against Pop Idol that there was absolutely no place for cuddly toys and all that crap on our screens.
Another review that grabbed my interest was Sky 1's "succesfull" transfer of Simon Bates's "Our Tune" to television. Even to this day whenever someone at Uni or anywhere tries to make people feel sorry for them, they'll just start humming the Our Tune theme at them which says a thing about how things are.
Brooker compared Bates's on-screen presence to when he used to introduce film classification warnings on videos which instantly reminds me of Harry Enfield's lampooning using Dave Nice which after watching it first time round, resulted in me being sent out of the living room for laughing too much;
"This film may also contain swearwords. These include bollocks, wanker..."
One article included in the book which I can also remember reading first time round in April 2003 was a rundown of some of the worst shows in the last 10 years.
These included "Hotel Babylon" produced by the makers of the Word and transmitted in the early hours on ITV back in 1996. This featured Dani Behr presenting but was basically a half hour long advert for the programme's sponsors Heineken who insisted in their drinks being shown in almost every shot.
Also included were Hale and Pace's career killing "h&p@thebbc" from 1999, and the ultra bland "Harbour Lights" from 1999 which saw Nick Berry solve cases on a rather grotty village sea front.
Another one mentioned at the end , in Charlie's own words was "The Late Bastard Bastard Bastard Review". I'd imagine Charlie's seen Adam & Joe's brilliant pisstake of it on their Channel 4 show which they called "Toy Review" presented by "Humpty Lawson" which has become my permanent nickname for the Front Row presenter;
"Tonight, we show more clips from television and talk bollocks between each one".
The only show I don't agree with in that list is They Think It's All Over which was included because Charlie hates sport and "blokes shouting in pubs".
To be fair though, after Gary Lineker and David Gower left the show started declining and the departure of Nick Hancock in 2004 sealed the nail in the coffin.
There was one stand out moment in late 2004 during the Treble round where you had to connect a golf buggy, a centipede and a knife (i think) to Kelly Holmes, David Beckham and Ron Atkinson.
This resulted in team captain Ian Wright asking if the objects were "things you could stuff up Ron Atkinson's arse".
Nick asked Ian how he thought about his slip of the tounge and the ex Arsenal player said that he was disapointed mainly because whilst at West Brom, Ron brought black players at a time it would never have happened such as Brendon Batsun and the late Laurie Cunningham.
However Ian then went on to mention that when he worked with Ron at ITV Sport he was prone to making dodgy comments off mic, so when he was caught out "it served him right".
A few years ago after seeing Ron as a dweller on Countdown, I asked fellow radio alumni Tim how he felt about the whole thing and he said that he would be more than happy to give him a second chance.
In my opinion though I always thought that Ron came across as gormless especially when appearing on chat shows and programmes such as Room 101.
I think I also said on this site a few years ago that instead of Ray Stubbs, for Sport Relief they showed have hurled Ron into a bag of manure.
That's more or less sprung off the topic of Charlie Brooker and I haven't actually finished reading the book yet, but it's brought to mind another article from Off The Telly by Steve Williams called "To Hell And Back".
Basically this looks at some of the worst television up to 2002 splitting the into well thought sections especially "Right Presenter, Wrong Show" where you've just signed up a big name presenter but you can't find the right vehicle for them.
I hope Steve decides to write an updated version of that article sometime as there's been a lot of rubbish on our screens ever since.
Over Sensitive Censorship
I started off tonight by watching the follow up show from the Pop Idol final focused on it's winner Will Young which was a show presented by Ant & Dec, featuring special performances from the various contestants in the series, mainly the top 5 finalists.
Will perfomed two duets, one with the delightful Hayley Evetts, who auditioned for Popstars in 2001 and came back in style on her own later in the year.
The song was "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" although as you'd expect me to say,
it wasn't one to beat the Inner Life version.
There was also the first performance of the duet with Gareth of "The Long And Winding Road" which became a single in the autumn of 2002.
I seem to remember the Corrs performing the song at the Queen's Jubilee Concert
in May of that year and their version of the Beatles ballad was slightly better.
Back to Pop Idol, and Darius came back to perform "It's Not Unusual", whilst the delightful Zoe Birkett made an appearance in a lovely green dress with "I've Got You Under My Skin".
Only 16 years old and the youngest finalist in the series Zoe had a bit of a fling with Gareth if I remember correctly.
However on the night I went to see the live show Zoe wasn't well so Darius performed the Sinatra song as well as his own version of "Let There Be Love" whilst Hayley did the duet with Gareth.
Ant & Dec weren't presenting either as this time round it was Nicki Chapman and Doctor Fox.
A very entertaining show though.
Immediately after I watched last night's Panorama documentary looking at bad language on TV and I liked how during the statistics, the music played was old radio themes such as "Desert Island Discs" and "Sailing By", that infamous tune played before the Shipping Forecast at night.
Some of those interviewed included Jana Bennett from BBC Vision, Michael Grade from ITV, Al Murray who's probably a bit too clean to the point of unfunny to my liking, and the worst offender and probably one of my most hated men in the media,
John Beyer from campaign body Mediawatch.
They also interviewed Roy Chubby Brown who I thought had a nerve to criticise Jamie Oliver for his constant effing and blinding
when the comedian makes a living out of it every 5 seconds on his stage show.
When it comes to overall censorship on television, I think ITV are the worst offenders especially with the last series of "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" where
even words such as "arse" and "tit" got bleeped.
Then again I reckon they want to move away from the fact that the third series included an accidental use of the worse word that can possibly be said on television by a former Sex Pistol.
I never realised that Chris Rock actually said the word "motherfucker" on the
BBC's Live Coverage of Live Earth in July 2007, before 9pm.
I have parts of it on tape although I didn't really watch the event itself as I was too busy elevating and in a world of my own leading up to what happened the following month.
Overall an interesting documentary and I'm glad the focus group at the end said it would be stupid to remove swearing from television altogether.
The transfer of folders from my old hard drive to the new is taking quite a long time but I've switched USB leads to make the transfer a bit faster which doesn't mean I'll risk not even having a show tomorrow due to being unable to bring my hard drive into Uni to burn the CDs.
Whilst doing this I'm reading Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn book and listening to Lars Bartkuhn's new album.
I'll go onto Brooker in the next post but I think that Lars's latest LP suffers from
"third album syndrome" in the same way as Zero 7's "The Garden" in 2006.
It's not really jazzy or loungey enough as I thought it would be which may mean I'll have to start searching for another album to feature on the show in February due to it being rather bland.
At least it's not got Jose Gonzales doing the vocals like Zero 7's album.
Will perfomed two duets, one with the delightful Hayley Evetts, who auditioned for Popstars in 2001 and came back in style on her own later in the year.
The song was "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" although as you'd expect me to say,
it wasn't one to beat the Inner Life version.
There was also the first performance of the duet with Gareth of "The Long And Winding Road" which became a single in the autumn of 2002.
I seem to remember the Corrs performing the song at the Queen's Jubilee Concert
in May of that year and their version of the Beatles ballad was slightly better.
Back to Pop Idol, and Darius came back to perform "It's Not Unusual", whilst the delightful Zoe Birkett made an appearance in a lovely green dress with "I've Got You Under My Skin".
Only 16 years old and the youngest finalist in the series Zoe had a bit of a fling with Gareth if I remember correctly.
However on the night I went to see the live show Zoe wasn't well so Darius performed the Sinatra song as well as his own version of "Let There Be Love" whilst Hayley did the duet with Gareth.
Ant & Dec weren't presenting either as this time round it was Nicki Chapman and Doctor Fox.
A very entertaining show though.
Immediately after I watched last night's Panorama documentary looking at bad language on TV and I liked how during the statistics, the music played was old radio themes such as "Desert Island Discs" and "Sailing By", that infamous tune played before the Shipping Forecast at night.
Some of those interviewed included Jana Bennett from BBC Vision, Michael Grade from ITV, Al Murray who's probably a bit too clean to the point of unfunny to my liking, and the worst offender and probably one of my most hated men in the media,
John Beyer from campaign body Mediawatch.
They also interviewed Roy Chubby Brown who I thought had a nerve to criticise Jamie Oliver for his constant effing and blinding
when the comedian makes a living out of it every 5 seconds on his stage show.
When it comes to overall censorship on television, I think ITV are the worst offenders especially with the last series of "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" where
even words such as "arse" and "tit" got bleeped.
Then again I reckon they want to move away from the fact that the third series included an accidental use of the worse word that can possibly be said on television by a former Sex Pistol.
I never realised that Chris Rock actually said the word "motherfucker" on the
BBC's Live Coverage of Live Earth in July 2007, before 9pm.
I have parts of it on tape although I didn't really watch the event itself as I was too busy elevating and in a world of my own leading up to what happened the following month.
Overall an interesting documentary and I'm glad the focus group at the end said it would be stupid to remove swearing from television altogether.
The transfer of folders from my old hard drive to the new is taking quite a long time but I've switched USB leads to make the transfer a bit faster which doesn't mean I'll risk not even having a show tomorrow due to being unable to bring my hard drive into Uni to burn the CDs.
Whilst doing this I'm reading Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn book and listening to Lars Bartkuhn's new album.
I'll go onto Brooker in the next post but I think that Lars's latest LP suffers from
"third album syndrome" in the same way as Zero 7's "The Garden" in 2006.
It's not really jazzy or loungey enough as I thought it would be which may mean I'll have to start searching for another album to feature on the show in February due to it being rather bland.
At least it's not got Jose Gonzales doing the vocals like Zero 7's album.
Snideness In SADiE
The rest of the afternoon until the mid-evening was spent in the radio rooms where I was caught up in more flaky dubbing. You'd think that the Uni would invest in a better tape player.
However now that I'm nearing the end of my Jingle Demos and pacakges,
I'll soon get round to recording a few of my own recordings and piss-takes from an early age,
not for those of a nervous disposition.
Matty ID and Jake were still about in the SADiE room and it was while we were browsing on the Radio 1 website that Jake discovered a link to a feature involving various Radio 1 presenters doing things for money as part of a money awareness week. One of them was Greg James attempting to earn some bob as a busker at Leicester Square tube station which had the banner "Will Greg Make It As A Busker?".
I immediately responded by saying that I was surprised that he made it as a disk jockey which didn't go down too well with most of the others in the room.
As you'd expect, I was laughing with at their disaproval but as far as I'm concerned,
Greg's OK but not great.
On a similar note, Phil H and Chilvers have gone into Central for a meeting discussing
"The Future Of Radio" which if I'd put a bit more thought into, I'd have liked to have gone to but I guess it's saving a bit of money in terms of travelling.
It's also unlikely that I'll be going to Smoke Radio's Intermission Night at the Marylebone Campus on Thursday, partly because I'm worried about it being musically similar to last Thursday which in all fairness isn't to my taste, and also because it will mean having to head back to Harrow on the N18 which I'm really not up for.
Anyway here's a few more photos I took this afternoon starting off with the man who could be our very own Greg James, only a lot better.
Danny Robs, a genius at work.
Stewart "Lofty" Paske with his new glasses.
General planning in the SADiE room.
And our very own "Phillip and Sarah", Maz and Oli.
Danielle from Dezza was also around to read the news during Maz and Oli's show and I hope to see her quite a bit this semester, even if she's just doing the advertising module this year.
As for tonight I plan to watch last night's Panorama documentary about rudeness on television, and have a listen to Lars Bartkuhn's latest album which if it gets my nod will be the featured album for February on the Soul Show.
It looks set to be promising.
And I may also make a start on transferring various crap off my hard drive.
However now that I'm nearing the end of my Jingle Demos and pacakges,
I'll soon get round to recording a few of my own recordings and piss-takes from an early age,
not for those of a nervous disposition.
Matty ID and Jake were still about in the SADiE room and it was while we were browsing on the Radio 1 website that Jake discovered a link to a feature involving various Radio 1 presenters doing things for money as part of a money awareness week. One of them was Greg James attempting to earn some bob as a busker at Leicester Square tube station which had the banner "Will Greg Make It As A Busker?".
I immediately responded by saying that I was surprised that he made it as a disk jockey which didn't go down too well with most of the others in the room.
As you'd expect, I was laughing with at their disaproval but as far as I'm concerned,
Greg's OK but not great.
On a similar note, Phil H and Chilvers have gone into Central for a meeting discussing
"The Future Of Radio" which if I'd put a bit more thought into, I'd have liked to have gone to but I guess it's saving a bit of money in terms of travelling.
It's also unlikely that I'll be going to Smoke Radio's Intermission Night at the Marylebone Campus on Thursday, partly because I'm worried about it being musically similar to last Thursday which in all fairness isn't to my taste, and also because it will mean having to head back to Harrow on the N18 which I'm really not up for.
Anyway here's a few more photos I took this afternoon starting off with the man who could be our very own Greg James, only a lot better.
Danny Robs, a genius at work.
Stewart "Lofty" Paske with his new glasses.
General planning in the SADiE room.
And our very own "Phillip and Sarah", Maz and Oli.
Danielle from Dezza was also around to read the news during Maz and Oli's show and I hope to see her quite a bit this semester, even if she's just doing the advertising module this year.
As for tonight I plan to watch last night's Panorama documentary about rudeness on television, and have a listen to Lars Bartkuhn's latest album which if it gets my nod will be the featured album for February on the Soul Show.
It looks set to be promising.
And I may also make a start on transferring various crap off my hard drive.
2007 Revisited?
I've ended up locking myself out of my flat by forgetting to take the keys with me before heading to Staples Corner. This is probably the first time I've done this since that fateful day in September 2007 and the worst Freshers Week I've ever had here.
Undeterred I went to PC World where I was disapointed with the lack of hard drives in store, so I went to the nearby Curry's where I managed to get at 320GB portable hard drive for a really good price, a lot better than what PC World had with a 160GB portable drive for just unde £120.
Load of bollocks indeed.
The Refresher's Fayre on campus hasn't been brilliant although much to my annoyance in terms of money spending, there's a stall selling some neat looking t-shirts. Those from the station giving out keyrings and beer mats including Matty ID and Manish although they didn't have too long as they needed to get up to the studios to do this week's Request Show.
With Manish's former co-host Matt from Leeds now solely doing the Matt and Rob show,
I hope him and Deller become a permanent double act, although it turns out that due to Dani's absence, Matty's own show on Monday next week will be co-hosted by the fella known as "Manfish".
In fact Matty's started running his own podcast for the show which can be found here.
I also managed to see Matthew Linfoot for the first time since before Christmas and chatted amongst other things about the hiring of Bob Shennan as controller of Radio 2. Both Matthew and fellow lecturer/Radio 2 newsreader Charles Carroll aren't so sure about the hiring due to his lack of experience in Music Radio and are worried he may try to increase the speech output which would be totally wrong.
Especially as it's speech that got the last controller into trouble a the station.
Following one of my Youtube videos I've been prompted to joining this, The Sylvester McCoy Appreciation Society and many members agree that Bonnie Langford screamed far too much, especially in "Time And The Rani".
I wouldn't know which is higher, Minnie Ripperton, or Bonnie Langford's scream.
Stewart's also returned with a new pair of glasses, two in fact due to a deal on frames at Specsavers. He's having a bit of fun taking them on and off to see the difference between sharp and distorted sight which was more or less what I was doing around this time two years ago on purchasing my glasses.
Oddly enough a lot of people including those here since 2006 can't imagine me without them although during that difficult period later in the year, I was to the point where I couldn't be bothered to put them on or forgot I even had glasses.
Personally I think Stoobs looks a bit like Tom Watt, when he used to play Lofty in Eastenders.
As for the rest of today, provided I can get back into my flat I shall start another great big despatchement to my new hard drives and grab a few more audio tapes to dub including Alfasound Volume 18 which contains packages for City FM in Liverpool,
Invicta Supergold, Hallam FM in Sheffield and Severn Sound in Gloucesteshire
all from around 1991.
I'll probably have the full Alfasound set before too long.
Undeterred I went to PC World where I was disapointed with the lack of hard drives in store, so I went to the nearby Curry's where I managed to get at 320GB portable hard drive for a really good price, a lot better than what PC World had with a 160GB portable drive for just unde £120.
Load of bollocks indeed.
The Refresher's Fayre on campus hasn't been brilliant although much to my annoyance in terms of money spending, there's a stall selling some neat looking t-shirts. Those from the station giving out keyrings and beer mats including Matty ID and Manish although they didn't have too long as they needed to get up to the studios to do this week's Request Show.
With Manish's former co-host Matt from Leeds now solely doing the Matt and Rob show,
I hope him and Deller become a permanent double act, although it turns out that due to Dani's absence, Matty's own show on Monday next week will be co-hosted by the fella known as "Manfish".
In fact Matty's started running his own podcast for the show which can be found here.
I also managed to see Matthew Linfoot for the first time since before Christmas and chatted amongst other things about the hiring of Bob Shennan as controller of Radio 2. Both Matthew and fellow lecturer/Radio 2 newsreader Charles Carroll aren't so sure about the hiring due to his lack of experience in Music Radio and are worried he may try to increase the speech output which would be totally wrong.
Especially as it's speech that got the last controller into trouble a the station.
Following one of my Youtube videos I've been prompted to joining this, The Sylvester McCoy Appreciation Society and many members agree that Bonnie Langford screamed far too much, especially in "Time And The Rani".
I wouldn't know which is higher, Minnie Ripperton, or Bonnie Langford's scream.
Stewart's also returned with a new pair of glasses, two in fact due to a deal on frames at Specsavers. He's having a bit of fun taking them on and off to see the difference between sharp and distorted sight which was more or less what I was doing around this time two years ago on purchasing my glasses.
Oddly enough a lot of people including those here since 2006 can't imagine me without them although during that difficult period later in the year, I was to the point where I couldn't be bothered to put them on or forgot I even had glasses.
Personally I think Stoobs looks a bit like Tom Watt, when he used to play Lofty in Eastenders.
As for the rest of today, provided I can get back into my flat I shall start another great big despatchement to my new hard drives and grab a few more audio tapes to dub including Alfasound Volume 18 which contains packages for City FM in Liverpool,
Invicta Supergold, Hallam FM in Sheffield and Severn Sound in Gloucesteshire
all from around 1991.
I'll probably have the full Alfasound set before too long.
The Biggest Challenge In Radio?
Well this is bizarre, the new controller of BBC Radio 2 has been announced as
Bob Shennan who I thought was out of the running due to the fact
he hasn't worked in music radio before.
His track record includes 8 years as the controller of BBC 5 Live as well as being involved for the plans for the ill-fated Channel 4 Radio proposal that went kaput last Autumn.
The position also involves the running of BBC 6 Music so it will be interesting to see what will happen in Bob's reign over the next year or so.
Interesting times.
Also, a few days ago it was announced that on the 23rd of March Global will unleash their Heart Attack on the South West and Western parts of the country with long standing names such as Gemini, Lantern FM, Plymouth Sound, Fox FM, 2-Ten FM, Severn Sound and even GWR succombing to the radio grave.
And the good news for radio fans is that I'll be attempting to give tributes in the same way as the East Anglia posts earlier this year with plenty of old jingles.
Bob Shennan who I thought was out of the running due to the fact
he hasn't worked in music radio before.
His track record includes 8 years as the controller of BBC 5 Live as well as being involved for the plans for the ill-fated Channel 4 Radio proposal that went kaput last Autumn.
The position also involves the running of BBC 6 Music so it will be interesting to see what will happen in Bob's reign over the next year or so.
Interesting times.
Also, a few days ago it was announced that on the 23rd of March Global will unleash their Heart Attack on the South West and Western parts of the country with long standing names such as Gemini, Lantern FM, Plymouth Sound, Fox FM, 2-Ten FM, Severn Sound and even GWR succombing to the radio grave.
And the good news for radio fans is that I'll be attempting to give tributes in the same way as the East Anglia posts earlier this year with plenty of old jingles.
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Big Phat Warm Up
First of all as promised, a selection of photos as taken up in M-Block earlier this evening.
Clicking on them will allow you to see the bigger picture.
RP2, not the most exiciting place but it will be a familiar location for me in the next few weeks.
The SADiE room, a popular relaxation place for most of us radio lot.
Studio 6, the best place in Uni to broadcast, period.
The similar looking Studio 5 with Alice editing some audio.
And finally Studio 4 with "Friends of Tomorrow" Jade and Ana.
I spent the evening until 9pm dubbing my cassettes of jingle demos and packages in RP2 and oh my, the quality wasn't brilliant. Either it was the tape itself or the player made it sound really flaky and out of tune.
The pitch can be sorted out no problem, but I don't think anything can digitally remove the flaky and slightly wobbly audio quality which is disapointing for what appears to be a top of the range tape deck with a digital LCD display.
After that I headed over to the Underpants where amongst those in attendance were Jake, Oli P, Will Rodders, and JC who wasn't pulling the pints this time round.
Later saw the arrival of Stoobie, Phil H, Barry and Annabel with Phil sounding very confident about next week's Big Phat Party.
It appears that it won't be the next time I'll be at the Undercroft as it's Sarah's birthday on Saturday, and on Friday I've been invited to a special drinking evening in memory of Ben Airey, which Mattie Bennett and the third year commercial music students have organised.
I hope Mattie's doing OK as I didn't see him in radio tonight and it's good that he's arranged this party which will feature a few DJs playing a selection of tunes
that Ben enjoyed.
Back to tonight and later saw the arrival of Potty, Alice, Spikey G and Fiz, the latter two along with J-Dogg, and Oli P decided to form a collective known as "Blood Sweat And Beers".
I was disapointed that none of the first year radio lot showed up, although if I'm being honest, I think there's a bit of a close circle with them which I'm rather upset about as it involves a lot of in-jokes with a many of them making it to the air on Smoke which I find alienating and rather rude to an extent.
Not rude as in "dirty" but not acknowledging anyone who won't get the jokes.
I really hope that this fades out by the end of the year, because as far as I'm concerned all of us should be laughing alongside each other and people such as Rob from Leeds,
and Jadey Babes are actually really lovely people inside.
Then again it's not the first time I've felt this was as I thought the likes of Ricky, Lamby and a few others in my old year were more of the same and I felt rather left out of their sense of humour if I'm being honest.
It didn't help at that year's awards either in 2007 when the majority of gongs
(or gold microphones) went to a lot of 'drinking buddies' rather than those
who put in the effort.
The only in-jokes I find funny are those related to television or radio, and to be honest most of them can be pretty naughty which goes down well with me.
Back to tonight and the music that was playing was mainly dance with a bit of heavy bass featuring remixes of "Baker Street", and "Jump Around" to name a few.
When the exterior parts started closing at 11pm myself Phil H, Annabel and Barry decided to head off but not before undertaking "The Krypton Factor" which I attempted to get on video but the lighting wasn't too good.
Next week looks set to be a hoot overall and everyone should know about it too, judging by the amount of stickers advertsing the event on pints of beer.
Tomorrow I shall pop over to the Refreshers Fayre on the Harrow Campus to have a look at the various stalls and societies, before heading over to Brent Cross to buy a new external hard drive.
After that, the expensive spending is kaput, and I mean this. Well unless there's a useful book I need to get for the diss that isn't in the Harrow library.
I really shouldn't spend money on things that could be birthday presents, especially as in the last year I've only got money for my birthday.
Unless you count two years ago when on the week itself I got Richard Herring's "Yoghurt" DVD along with the first editions of The Chart Show from ITV in 1989, from James TV 2001.
Which are now on new discs, safely sealed in my turquoise wallet and guaranteed not to go walkabout.
Let's hope that there won't be a repeat of August 2007 although the earlier half was pretty good when I could go on endlessly about the simpler luxuries and passions in life.
Which is what I should really be sticking to in these times of recession.
Clicking on them will allow you to see the bigger picture.
RP2, not the most exiciting place but it will be a familiar location for me in the next few weeks.
The SADiE room, a popular relaxation place for most of us radio lot.
Studio 6, the best place in Uni to broadcast, period.
The similar looking Studio 5 with Alice editing some audio.
And finally Studio 4 with "Friends of Tomorrow" Jade and Ana.
I spent the evening until 9pm dubbing my cassettes of jingle demos and packages in RP2 and oh my, the quality wasn't brilliant. Either it was the tape itself or the player made it sound really flaky and out of tune.
The pitch can be sorted out no problem, but I don't think anything can digitally remove the flaky and slightly wobbly audio quality which is disapointing for what appears to be a top of the range tape deck with a digital LCD display.
After that I headed over to the Underpants where amongst those in attendance were Jake, Oli P, Will Rodders, and JC who wasn't pulling the pints this time round.
Later saw the arrival of Stoobie, Phil H, Barry and Annabel with Phil sounding very confident about next week's Big Phat Party.
It appears that it won't be the next time I'll be at the Undercroft as it's Sarah's birthday on Saturday, and on Friday I've been invited to a special drinking evening in memory of Ben Airey, which Mattie Bennett and the third year commercial music students have organised.
I hope Mattie's doing OK as I didn't see him in radio tonight and it's good that he's arranged this party which will feature a few DJs playing a selection of tunes
that Ben enjoyed.
Back to tonight and later saw the arrival of Potty, Alice, Spikey G and Fiz, the latter two along with J-Dogg, and Oli P decided to form a collective known as "Blood Sweat And Beers".
I was disapointed that none of the first year radio lot showed up, although if I'm being honest, I think there's a bit of a close circle with them which I'm rather upset about as it involves a lot of in-jokes with a many of them making it to the air on Smoke which I find alienating and rather rude to an extent.
Not rude as in "dirty" but not acknowledging anyone who won't get the jokes.
I really hope that this fades out by the end of the year, because as far as I'm concerned all of us should be laughing alongside each other and people such as Rob from Leeds,
and Jadey Babes are actually really lovely people inside.
Then again it's not the first time I've felt this was as I thought the likes of Ricky, Lamby and a few others in my old year were more of the same and I felt rather left out of their sense of humour if I'm being honest.
It didn't help at that year's awards either in 2007 when the majority of gongs
(or gold microphones) went to a lot of 'drinking buddies' rather than those
who put in the effort.
The only in-jokes I find funny are those related to television or radio, and to be honest most of them can be pretty naughty which goes down well with me.
Back to tonight and the music that was playing was mainly dance with a bit of heavy bass featuring remixes of "Baker Street", and "Jump Around" to name a few.
When the exterior parts started closing at 11pm myself Phil H, Annabel and Barry decided to head off but not before undertaking "The Krypton Factor" which I attempted to get on video but the lighting wasn't too good.
Next week looks set to be a hoot overall and everyone should know about it too, judging by the amount of stickers advertsing the event on pints of beer.
Tomorrow I shall pop over to the Refreshers Fayre on the Harrow Campus to have a look at the various stalls and societies, before heading over to Brent Cross to buy a new external hard drive.
After that, the expensive spending is kaput, and I mean this. Well unless there's a useful book I need to get for the diss that isn't in the Harrow library.
I really shouldn't spend money on things that could be birthday presents, especially as in the last year I've only got money for my birthday.
Unless you count two years ago when on the week itself I got Richard Herring's "Yoghurt" DVD along with the first editions of The Chart Show from ITV in 1989, from James TV 2001.
Which are now on new discs, safely sealed in my turquoise wallet and guaranteed not to go walkabout.
Let's hope that there won't be a repeat of August 2007 although the earlier half was pretty good when I could go on endlessly about the simpler luxuries and passions in life.
Which is what I should really be sticking to in these times of recession.
Photo Finish (Well Start)
Following my encounter with Chris Evans last week, and as I want to have as much as I can to remember from my final few months here, I spent a bit of money on a digital camera which I hope will become a common tool on my many nights out.
I started by taking a couple of pictures of my room and it's shelves to,
well show off really.
Here's the first one,
A close up of my book shelf,
And my DVD/VHS collection
Expect a few more photos to be taken tonight, a lot of which will end up on Facebook, but others will be exclusive to this very site.
Also my hard drive is running out of space to put any new albums on so I guess it will be a visit to Brent Cross tomorrow and the nearby PC World to buy the cheapest hard drive with the most disk space.
I'm sure it can be done.
I'll need to be a bit more careful with spending but that's normally the case every year and as soon as I've got the hard drive I'll more or less be sorted.
I may even sell one of my older hard drives if anyone's interested.
Anyway, following on from the last post, Smoke Radio have posted an interesting interview with Pop Idol judge and radio legend Neil Fox, where he talks about his beginnings as a DJ on University Radio Bath where he presented a jazz funk show at the time.
I can't really imagine the Westcountry being a place where that sort of music would be popular but at least it showed that Neil did (and probably still does) have musical taste.
I also like his comment saying that student radio is a place where you can find out what you're not so good at in radio.
I know exactly where I could go with that one but I'll stop there.
I started by taking a couple of pictures of my room and it's shelves to,
well show off really.
Here's the first one,
A close up of my book shelf,
And my DVD/VHS collection
Expect a few more photos to be taken tonight, a lot of which will end up on Facebook, but others will be exclusive to this very site.
Also my hard drive is running out of space to put any new albums on so I guess it will be a visit to Brent Cross tomorrow and the nearby PC World to buy the cheapest hard drive with the most disk space.
I'm sure it can be done.
I'll need to be a bit more careful with spending but that's normally the case every year and as soon as I've got the hard drive I'll more or less be sorted.
I may even sell one of my older hard drives if anyone's interested.
Anyway, following on from the last post, Smoke Radio have posted an interesting interview with Pop Idol judge and radio legend Neil Fox, where he talks about his beginnings as a DJ on University Radio Bath where he presented a jazz funk show at the time.
I can't really imagine the Westcountry being a place where that sort of music would be popular but at least it showed that Neil did (and probably still does) have musical taste.
I also like his comment saying that student radio is a place where you can find out what you're not so good at in radio.
I know exactly where I could go with that one but I'll stop there.
"My Name's............................Gareth Gates"
As planned I've just watched the grand final of the first series of Pop Idol from February 2002 where back then it was the essential event of the TV calendar.
However it looked at lot more normal than any episode of the X Factor as for a start the programme began straight with the opening titles without a ridiculous overblown
pre-titles VT with Peter Dixon's voice accompanied by "O Fortuna".
Finallists Will and Gareth had been fighting all week on their very own "Battle Buses" which were specially designed luxury buses with the contestants emblazoned onto them, where the inside contained DVDs, sofas, and plenty of other top of the range products.
In the show itself both the boys performed the two songs featured on the double A-side single that would be released by the winner which were the toe curling "Evergreen" originally written for Westlife, and "Anything Is Possible" which was composed by top songwriter Cathy Dennis.
Many criticised the song choices as they appeared to be aimed towards Gareth but thankfully, the majority of stuff subsequently released by Will (or "William" as the on screen astons had written) was nowhere near as bad.
The programme also included the judges getting their own back on hosts Ant & Dec who had ripped the piss out of them in sketches throughout the series. This involved a rather toe curling sketch with Neil Fox and Simon Cowell dressed up as the Geordie pair and I can't imagine Simon ever doing anything like that again.
The long gap of silence before Ant announced the winner was nowhere near as long as you'd get on this sort of show nowadays although at the time I was on "tenterhooks" and did cheer when it was Will who had won the series.
This was followed by a reprise of "Evergreen" where at the end, not just the final 10 but the final 50 joined Will on stage included Geordie train driver Aaron, future Eurovision competitor Jessica Garlick and even Rik Waller showed up.
I must have seen the clip of Ant announcing Will as the winner more times than The Daily Mail have moaned when someone swears on television.
Unsurprisingly I've only seen Michelle's victory in Series 2 once although I didn't see the live final itself mainly because we were driving up to the Holiday House for Christmas after I'd finished work at ASDA that Saturday.
To be fair though I lost interest in the series by the time they reached the live shows mainly becuase I'd just started my HND Media Course at college and the changes and demanding assignments made me feel very depressed up to the end of 2003.
I'm fearing 2009 could end in a very similar situation although this time, there won't be any light at the end of the tunnel.
Immediately after the final the tape had the opening to the new series of "Michael Barrymore's My Kind Of Music" which was meant to be his comeback show after the swimming pool incident in April 2001.
It wasn't his first appearance on television however as he'd been interviewed by Martin Bashir on ITV's "Tonight" in November 2001.
I can remember the day after it was on TV, when Jonathan Ross was guesting on Christian O'Connell's breakfast show on XFM and said that they cut out part of the interview where he went "Awight! Am I forgiven?".
By September that year when the inquest revealed Barrymore's carelessness to be entirely responsible for Stuart Lubbock's death, ITV pulled the plug on his shows and it was a rather sad end to the professional entertaining career of Michael.
And the appearance on Big Brother in 2006 wouldn't really fit into the above sentence.
As for tonight I plan to make a start on dubbing my audio tapes in M-Block until 9pm where I'll be heading down the Undercroft for Happy Mondaze.
Maybe I'll go easy on the drinks this week although on Saturday I'll be attending and DJing at bar girl Sarah's birthday do which should be a good laugh as you'd expect.
Right now I'm having a listen to Danny Robs do his stuff on Preloaded where for some reason he's still doing his Christmas Cracker competition.
He could still do the game itself with a different name and a different bit of music for the 30 second countdown itself and it would be entertaining without sounding ridiculous.
Let's hope he faces the expected consequences for not taking your Christmas decorations down.
However it looked at lot more normal than any episode of the X Factor as for a start the programme began straight with the opening titles without a ridiculous overblown
pre-titles VT with Peter Dixon's voice accompanied by "O Fortuna".
Finallists Will and Gareth had been fighting all week on their very own "Battle Buses" which were specially designed luxury buses with the contestants emblazoned onto them, where the inside contained DVDs, sofas, and plenty of other top of the range products.
In the show itself both the boys performed the two songs featured on the double A-side single that would be released by the winner which were the toe curling "Evergreen" originally written for Westlife, and "Anything Is Possible" which was composed by top songwriter Cathy Dennis.
Many criticised the song choices as they appeared to be aimed towards Gareth but thankfully, the majority of stuff subsequently released by Will (or "William" as the on screen astons had written) was nowhere near as bad.
The programme also included the judges getting their own back on hosts Ant & Dec who had ripped the piss out of them in sketches throughout the series. This involved a rather toe curling sketch with Neil Fox and Simon Cowell dressed up as the Geordie pair and I can't imagine Simon ever doing anything like that again.
The long gap of silence before Ant announced the winner was nowhere near as long as you'd get on this sort of show nowadays although at the time I was on "tenterhooks" and did cheer when it was Will who had won the series.
This was followed by a reprise of "Evergreen" where at the end, not just the final 10 but the final 50 joined Will on stage included Geordie train driver Aaron, future Eurovision competitor Jessica Garlick and even Rik Waller showed up.
I must have seen the clip of Ant announcing Will as the winner more times than The Daily Mail have moaned when someone swears on television.
Unsurprisingly I've only seen Michelle's victory in Series 2 once although I didn't see the live final itself mainly because we were driving up to the Holiday House for Christmas after I'd finished work at ASDA that Saturday.
To be fair though I lost interest in the series by the time they reached the live shows mainly becuase I'd just started my HND Media Course at college and the changes and demanding assignments made me feel very depressed up to the end of 2003.
I'm fearing 2009 could end in a very similar situation although this time, there won't be any light at the end of the tunnel.
Immediately after the final the tape had the opening to the new series of "Michael Barrymore's My Kind Of Music" which was meant to be his comeback show after the swimming pool incident in April 2001.
It wasn't his first appearance on television however as he'd been interviewed by Martin Bashir on ITV's "Tonight" in November 2001.
I can remember the day after it was on TV, when Jonathan Ross was guesting on Christian O'Connell's breakfast show on XFM and said that they cut out part of the interview where he went "Awight! Am I forgiven?".
By September that year when the inquest revealed Barrymore's carelessness to be entirely responsible for Stuart Lubbock's death, ITV pulled the plug on his shows and it was a rather sad end to the professional entertaining career of Michael.
And the appearance on Big Brother in 2006 wouldn't really fit into the above sentence.
As for tonight I plan to make a start on dubbing my audio tapes in M-Block until 9pm where I'll be heading down the Undercroft for Happy Mondaze.
Maybe I'll go easy on the drinks this week although on Saturday I'll be attending and DJing at bar girl Sarah's birthday do which should be a good laugh as you'd expect.
Right now I'm having a listen to Danny Robs do his stuff on Preloaded where for some reason he's still doing his Christmas Cracker competition.
He could still do the game itself with a different name and a different bit of music for the 30 second countdown itself and it would be entertaining without sounding ridiculous.
Let's hope he faces the expected consequences for not taking your Christmas decorations down.
The Bloody Great Big Tidy Up
After buying a few CD wallets in Harrow, I've decided to start sorting out all my CD and DVD-Rs and put them into their own designated wallets. There's two which contain Smoke Radio shows from the last four years, one with general radio recordings, another with all my music downloads and a brand new turquoise coloured wallet to store all the episodes I have of The ITV Chart Show.
Hopefully this storage will result in my room looking a bit more tidier.
Before that, I had a listen to Matty and Dani on Smoke Radio and I was rather irritated that I missed last night's Royal Rumble that was mentioned on the show.
From what I've heard Matt Hardy actually hit his brother Jeff with a chair in the title match between Edge, which lost Matt the WWE Championship.
The winner of the 30 man Royal Rumble was Randy Orton who fought a close contest with Triple H who was one of the last surviving men in the battle to fight against the champion at Wrestlemania this Spring.
I've always loved the concept of the Royal Rumble and have anticipated a lot more than the Wrestlemania event itself, as I like the idea of a new fighter entering the ring every two minutes, eliminated after someone throws them out.
There's also the rule of "Every Man For Himself" which has seen several partnerships disapear with one including Al Snow and "Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman.
After discovering Phillip Schofield's official website last week I have ended up joining the Schofield Fans Message Board and it's probably the nicest message board I've signed onto.
The fact that a lot of members are female is also good although I'm sure they're sensible enough to understand that Phillip is a married man with two daughters.
Overall it will become one of my regular stop off points on the web.
Hopefully this storage will result in my room looking a bit more tidier.
Before that, I had a listen to Matty and Dani on Smoke Radio and I was rather irritated that I missed last night's Royal Rumble that was mentioned on the show.
From what I've heard Matt Hardy actually hit his brother Jeff with a chair in the title match between Edge, which lost Matt the WWE Championship.
The winner of the 30 man Royal Rumble was Randy Orton who fought a close contest with Triple H who was one of the last surviving men in the battle to fight against the champion at Wrestlemania this Spring.
I've always loved the concept of the Royal Rumble and have anticipated a lot more than the Wrestlemania event itself, as I like the idea of a new fighter entering the ring every two minutes, eliminated after someone throws them out.
There's also the rule of "Every Man For Himself" which has seen several partnerships disapear with one including Al Snow and "Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman.
After discovering Phillip Schofield's official website last week I have ended up joining the Schofield Fans Message Board and it's probably the nicest message board I've signed onto.
The fact that a lot of members are female is also good although I'm sure they're sensible enough to understand that Phillip is a married man with two daughters.
Overall it will become one of my regular stop off points on the web.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Two Left Skates
Tonight saw all of the remaining competitors take to the ice and this week's show was the first in the series to include a Required Element.
This week all the programmes had to include a "Toe Step Sequence" a rather dangerous move involving standing on the ice on tip toes.
As mentioned last week I think the music is very important to a couple's programme and one of my favourites was Ellery Hanley who performed his routine to "5 Years Time"
by Noah and The Whale.
On a rather low note however was Colleen Nolan who performed to "Islands In The Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, AKA "Ghetto Superstar".
As soon as Colleen's partner lifted her I shouted "Drop her!" at the TV screen.
The best performance as you'd expect was Todd Carty who dressed in a jacket that looked like it was stolen from George Formby, the performance turned into slapstick to the point of commentator Tony Gubba in fits of laughter.
Whilst I thought it was entertaining, I reckon a catalyst has started which will result in every celebrity talent show having some sort of buffoon with the aim of not taking it seriously at all.
John Seargant being the most obvious example, but I reckon that there will soon be a time when it just isn't funny any more, as opposed to contrived.
I've also noticed Phillip's rather embarrassing links into encouraging the viewers at home to vote by making use of the song from the respective performance.
Examples include Michael Underwood's programme done to "Fascination"
which resulted in "and if you thought their performance was fascinating...".
The worst one was for Roxanne Pallet who skated to "Genie In A Bottle" to which Phillip retorted "and if you thought their performance was 'genius'....".
I've forgotten that fellow contestant Michael Underwood used to work with co-presenter Holly on the Ministry Of Mayhem in 2004 before he was booted off, and no disrespect to him but the programme improved after his departure.
Then again Holly's barley noticeable on DOI.
Todd once again survived tonight's skate-off leaving Ellery and Jeremy Edwards to fight it out in front of the judges.
They made the right decision once again as Rachel Stevens's ex got booted.
What I like about the show is that whilst it's enjoyable, people don't go on about it like mad as they do with SCD, The X Factor and so on. It's also not over-dramatic like the X Factor is which is also a good thing.
However one thing I don't get is why Philip has to wear the same suit every week.
I think it's a bit too serious and it would be nice if he changed it around each week although preferrably not to the extent of Todd Carty.
On that subject however, it appears that the "Schofe" finally has his own official website containing a blog, photos of his past and a well written biography.
I never knew he presented the Breakfast Show on Radio 1 although I'm guessing it was
as one of Simon Mayo's stand ins.
That's definitely going on the links section of this site.
As for tomorrow I plan to buy a few little things including some more CD wallets to put my recordable CDs/DVD-Rs that I bought back from Canterbury including stuff I thought had disapeared after what happened two summers ago.
These include stuff from SO4S in 2007 including studio schedules, scripts and running orders from Goodlass and Marshall because it would be impossible for them to do a show without a script.
There's also a few "vintage" radio recordings such as Andy Kershaw's guest appearance on Desert Island Discs in March 2007 just months before he left the BBC and got into quite a lot of trouble.
In addition I plan to have a listen to the aural nonsense coming out of M-Block including the long awaited return of Matty and Dani Vs The Universe.
Their shows been cut down to an hour but hopefully the overall entertainment and silliness won't disapear althogether.
They're followed by Matt and Rupert who must have a rather quiet semester this year due to all the practical TV work finished. It's good to have them back on Mondays like they were last year although I still think producer James is the funny one in the team.
To finish with tonight, another offering from the user who uploaded the clip of Cartoon Cavalcade, this time the 70s animated series Marine Boy.
Sadly, the only thing I can remember this series for was a dodgy joke made by
Julian Clary on "It's Only TV But I Like It" which went like this.
Jonathan Ross: "What did Marine Boy chew on in order to breath underwater?"
(BUZZ)
Julian Clary: "Free Willy?"
Jonathan then commented that Julian was the only man who queued for Free Willy and was disapointed to find out it was a movie.
Good Night.
RIP Reg Gutteridge (ITV Boxing Commentator) - 1924-2009
This week all the programmes had to include a "Toe Step Sequence" a rather dangerous move involving standing on the ice on tip toes.
As mentioned last week I think the music is very important to a couple's programme and one of my favourites was Ellery Hanley who performed his routine to "5 Years Time"
by Noah and The Whale.
On a rather low note however was Colleen Nolan who performed to "Islands In The Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, AKA "Ghetto Superstar".
As soon as Colleen's partner lifted her I shouted "Drop her!" at the TV screen.
The best performance as you'd expect was Todd Carty who dressed in a jacket that looked like it was stolen from George Formby, the performance turned into slapstick to the point of commentator Tony Gubba in fits of laughter.
Whilst I thought it was entertaining, I reckon a catalyst has started which will result in every celebrity talent show having some sort of buffoon with the aim of not taking it seriously at all.
John Seargant being the most obvious example, but I reckon that there will soon be a time when it just isn't funny any more, as opposed to contrived.
I've also noticed Phillip's rather embarrassing links into encouraging the viewers at home to vote by making use of the song from the respective performance.
Examples include Michael Underwood's programme done to "Fascination"
which resulted in "and if you thought their performance was fascinating...".
The worst one was for Roxanne Pallet who skated to "Genie In A Bottle" to which Phillip retorted "and if you thought their performance was 'genius'....".
I've forgotten that fellow contestant Michael Underwood used to work with co-presenter Holly on the Ministry Of Mayhem in 2004 before he was booted off, and no disrespect to him but the programme improved after his departure.
Then again Holly's barley noticeable on DOI.
Todd once again survived tonight's skate-off leaving Ellery and Jeremy Edwards to fight it out in front of the judges.
They made the right decision once again as Rachel Stevens's ex got booted.
What I like about the show is that whilst it's enjoyable, people don't go on about it like mad as they do with SCD, The X Factor and so on. It's also not over-dramatic like the X Factor is which is also a good thing.
However one thing I don't get is why Philip has to wear the same suit every week.
I think it's a bit too serious and it would be nice if he changed it around each week although preferrably not to the extent of Todd Carty.
On that subject however, it appears that the "Schofe" finally has his own official website containing a blog, photos of his past and a well written biography.
I never knew he presented the Breakfast Show on Radio 1 although I'm guessing it was
as one of Simon Mayo's stand ins.
That's definitely going on the links section of this site.
As for tomorrow I plan to buy a few little things including some more CD wallets to put my recordable CDs/DVD-Rs that I bought back from Canterbury including stuff I thought had disapeared after what happened two summers ago.
These include stuff from SO4S in 2007 including studio schedules, scripts and running orders from Goodlass and Marshall because it would be impossible for them to do a show without a script.
There's also a few "vintage" radio recordings such as Andy Kershaw's guest appearance on Desert Island Discs in March 2007 just months before he left the BBC and got into quite a lot of trouble.
In addition I plan to have a listen to the aural nonsense coming out of M-Block including the long awaited return of Matty and Dani Vs The Universe.
Their shows been cut down to an hour but hopefully the overall entertainment and silliness won't disapear althogether.
They're followed by Matt and Rupert who must have a rather quiet semester this year due to all the practical TV work finished. It's good to have them back on Mondays like they were last year although I still think producer James is the funny one in the team.
To finish with tonight, another offering from the user who uploaded the clip of Cartoon Cavalcade, this time the 70s animated series Marine Boy.
Sadly, the only thing I can remember this series for was a dodgy joke made by
Julian Clary on "It's Only TV But I Like It" which went like this.
Jonathan Ross: "What did Marine Boy chew on in order to breath underwater?"
(BUZZ)
Julian Clary: "Free Willy?"
Jonathan then commented that Julian was the only man who queued for Free Willy and was disapointed to find out it was a movie.
Good Night.
RIP Reg Gutteridge (ITV Boxing Commentator) - 1924-2009
Four's A Crowd
I've done a bit more tape raiding this afternoon with one labeled 05.01.02.
This was the date that saw ex Hollyoaks actor James Redmond make his debut as a presenter on SM:TV Live as Ant & Dec's replacement.
Prior to the show itself there was a recording of the previous day's This Morning where John Leslie interviewed James, and Cat Deeley about how it felt to fill not two, but four shoes but James seemed pretty confident if a little nervous.
As for John, 2002 went on to be the year his own TV career went down the toilet.
I was pleased that James acknowledged Ant & Dec in the first link saying that he would be "the best presenter ever on the show" apart from them two and Cat.
However it wasn't just him that was part of the new team as there was the addition of the ever wooden Tess Daly, and Big Brother II winner Brian Dowling.
In SMTV's case the saying went along as "Three's company, and four isn't...".
A Max and Paddy reference there.
James, likeable as he was, was a very poor presenter and was far too laid back for the show's style. The problem with that era of the show was mainly because Cat looked like she was taking over too much and there was no real chemistry between the quartet if you can call them that.
Then again they were probably better than those drafted in
to present STV's new "wknd" strand.
In terms of content there was very little done in the studio with too many cartoons and dodgy US imports.
The worst of them being MTV's "Becoming" which was an American show involving teens turning into their favourite pop vocalists like J'Lo, Destiny's Child and so on.
It was more or less a precursor to the show that "Raaass" Tilley appeared on almost to this day three years ago, where he made a surprise appearance as a Bhangra Dancer at that year's Refresher's Ball.
The sketches included a send up of Casualty called "Casually" where James appeared as "Doctor Pretty Boy", Cat was the bizarrely named "Sister Sledge" Tess was "Nurse Emma Ridge", and Brian played Roger, the paramedic who had a habit of loudly impersonating an ambulance siren.
Ironically, James went on to appear in the real Casualty a year after his SMTV sacking which worked out pretty well as he's from Bristol.
There was also the return of the dreadfully unfunny space spoof "SMTV 2099" which they had done last Summer with Ant & Dec and involved a stupid gag involving a transparent navigation board and marker pens made to look like the person standing behind had breasts.
James was also Cat's co-presenter on CD:UK and this was partly what lead to his sacking in March of that year. Basically he preferred to introduce bands such as Radiohead and put barely any enthusiasm into interviewing Britney Spears.
On the first show in particular, the big story was Steps splitting up and at the time we had no idea that two of their member would replace the actor who played Finn in Hollyoaks, as the presenters on SMTV.
It reminds of me of a joke that Frank Skinner made when he said that he'd got a Steps album for Christmas and it was like a CD lens cleaner because "after you've played it,
all your other CDs sound so much better".
I was in Paris around the time James was fired from the show, and when I got back, it made the return to the Canterbury a bit better to come to terms with.
Cat had also announced she was leaving earlier and I happen to have brought back the VHS of her last show so expect a dissection pretty soon.
The main reason that I think SMTV is below Going Live! as my favourite Saturday Morning show is because on Going Live! they had the ability to move quickly from a sketch with Trevor and Simon, straight into a live pop performance seamlessly.
With SM:TV it was too structured with a sofa link going into a cartoon, followed by a sketch, then a commercial break.
Having the presenters as performers in the comedy sketches was a tricky scenario as with Going Live! Phillip and Sarah were the friendly straightforward presenters, whereas Trev And Simon were there to rip the piss out of it all.
And it all blended in well together.
Off The Telly had differing opinions on James's presenting surprisingly
as shown by this review, and they weren't impressed by his sacking
two months after he joined.
After he was sacked, Cat ended up presenting CD:UK on her own and even beyond SMTV's demise although to be honest I thought that around this time it was a pretty poor show, with each week being identical to the last.
They even had the nerve to call their exclusive video feature "Hot Shots" and everytime I hear that phrase it will always remind me of the animation with darts and playing cards as shown on CD:UK's superior predecessor.
The video also has on it the final edition of Sunday Night Heat as transmitted on Channel 4 in the small hours on Monday morning.
Channel 4's handling of the WWF (as they were known then) didn't go down well with fans with Heat starting off in a late afternoon slot on T4 and was then moved to a late night slot in 2001.
Parents complained that the show was too violent, although I thought that the show's bleeping out of the word "ass" was stupid even when it was in the word "jackass".
I can remember that on the 2000 Royal Rumble, Channel 4 went to a break mid way through the Rock's speech and quite a few other parts were cut out at the wrong times.
I believe the last Pay Per View they transmitted was "Invasion" in July 2001 but that's slightly deviating from the original point.
The highlight of this particular editin of "Heat" from 2002 was a clip from that week's Smackdown where CEO Vince McMahon had to endure shouts of "What?!" from the crowd.
To make things a bit clearer, Stone Cold Steve Austin had established the word as his catchphrase and encouraged the crowds to shout it whenever he finished a sentence.
Unfortunately they ended up saying it at people they hated including Kurt Angle, and of course Mr McMahon.
The boss suggested that he should have been made Time Magazine's "Person Of The Year" instead of New York Mayor Rudolph Guilliani, which resulted in boos from the crowd and Vince decided to shut the show down by switching off all the lights.
They came back on when Stone Cold made a surprise appearance and called Vince the "Jack*** of the Year". And yes, that's how it went out on television.
Michael Cole, one of the commentators found the whole thing hilarious, but co-commentator Jerry "The King" Lawler wasn't happy about how the crowd were treating Mr McMahon.
King had only just returned to the commentary box as the previous year he had resigned when at "No Way Out" the "Right To Censor" threatened to make Jerry's girlfriend "The Kat" join them, resulting in King resigning as a commentator and Paul Heyman taking his place.
However Paul ended up joining "The Alliance" that year which was the merger between WCW and ECW which a few WWF wrestlers joined. They went bust after losing the "Winner Takes All Match" at 2001's Survivor Series resulting in Paul getting sacked and a surprise return for the King.
The VHS also has the final of the first series of Pop Idol on their but I'll save that for tomorrow and it may also help me in my dissertation, as back then it really was a big deal in terms of public involvement and who they would choose to get a record contract.
As for tonight however, I'll be having a gander at all the remaining celebs taking to the ice on the show that was almost called "Skating With Celebrities".
Here's hoping Todd Carty survives for a second time.
This was the date that saw ex Hollyoaks actor James Redmond make his debut as a presenter on SM:TV Live as Ant & Dec's replacement.
Prior to the show itself there was a recording of the previous day's This Morning where John Leslie interviewed James, and Cat Deeley about how it felt to fill not two, but four shoes but James seemed pretty confident if a little nervous.
As for John, 2002 went on to be the year his own TV career went down the toilet.
I was pleased that James acknowledged Ant & Dec in the first link saying that he would be "the best presenter ever on the show" apart from them two and Cat.
However it wasn't just him that was part of the new team as there was the addition of the ever wooden Tess Daly, and Big Brother II winner Brian Dowling.
In SMTV's case the saying went along as "Three's company, and four isn't...".
A Max and Paddy reference there.
James, likeable as he was, was a very poor presenter and was far too laid back for the show's style. The problem with that era of the show was mainly because Cat looked like she was taking over too much and there was no real chemistry between the quartet if you can call them that.
Then again they were probably better than those drafted in
to present STV's new "wknd" strand.
In terms of content there was very little done in the studio with too many cartoons and dodgy US imports.
The worst of them being MTV's "Becoming" which was an American show involving teens turning into their favourite pop vocalists like J'Lo, Destiny's Child and so on.
It was more or less a precursor to the show that "Raaass" Tilley appeared on almost to this day three years ago, where he made a surprise appearance as a Bhangra Dancer at that year's Refresher's Ball.
The sketches included a send up of Casualty called "Casually" where James appeared as "Doctor Pretty Boy", Cat was the bizarrely named "Sister Sledge" Tess was "Nurse Emma Ridge", and Brian played Roger, the paramedic who had a habit of loudly impersonating an ambulance siren.
Ironically, James went on to appear in the real Casualty a year after his SMTV sacking which worked out pretty well as he's from Bristol.
There was also the return of the dreadfully unfunny space spoof "SMTV 2099" which they had done last Summer with Ant & Dec and involved a stupid gag involving a transparent navigation board and marker pens made to look like the person standing behind had breasts.
James was also Cat's co-presenter on CD:UK and this was partly what lead to his sacking in March of that year. Basically he preferred to introduce bands such as Radiohead and put barely any enthusiasm into interviewing Britney Spears.
On the first show in particular, the big story was Steps splitting up and at the time we had no idea that two of their member would replace the actor who played Finn in Hollyoaks, as the presenters on SMTV.
It reminds of me of a joke that Frank Skinner made when he said that he'd got a Steps album for Christmas and it was like a CD lens cleaner because "after you've played it,
all your other CDs sound so much better".
I was in Paris around the time James was fired from the show, and when I got back, it made the return to the Canterbury a bit better to come to terms with.
Cat had also announced she was leaving earlier and I happen to have brought back the VHS of her last show so expect a dissection pretty soon.
The main reason that I think SMTV is below Going Live! as my favourite Saturday Morning show is because on Going Live! they had the ability to move quickly from a sketch with Trevor and Simon, straight into a live pop performance seamlessly.
With SM:TV it was too structured with a sofa link going into a cartoon, followed by a sketch, then a commercial break.
Having the presenters as performers in the comedy sketches was a tricky scenario as with Going Live! Phillip and Sarah were the friendly straightforward presenters, whereas Trev And Simon were there to rip the piss out of it all.
And it all blended in well together.
Off The Telly had differing opinions on James's presenting surprisingly
as shown by this review, and they weren't impressed by his sacking
two months after he joined.
After he was sacked, Cat ended up presenting CD:UK on her own and even beyond SMTV's demise although to be honest I thought that around this time it was a pretty poor show, with each week being identical to the last.
They even had the nerve to call their exclusive video feature "Hot Shots" and everytime I hear that phrase it will always remind me of the animation with darts and playing cards as shown on CD:UK's superior predecessor.
The video also has on it the final edition of Sunday Night Heat as transmitted on Channel 4 in the small hours on Monday morning.
Channel 4's handling of the WWF (as they were known then) didn't go down well with fans with Heat starting off in a late afternoon slot on T4 and was then moved to a late night slot in 2001.
Parents complained that the show was too violent, although I thought that the show's bleeping out of the word "ass" was stupid even when it was in the word "jackass".
I can remember that on the 2000 Royal Rumble, Channel 4 went to a break mid way through the Rock's speech and quite a few other parts were cut out at the wrong times.
I believe the last Pay Per View they transmitted was "Invasion" in July 2001 but that's slightly deviating from the original point.
The highlight of this particular editin of "Heat" from 2002 was a clip from that week's Smackdown where CEO Vince McMahon had to endure shouts of "What?!" from the crowd.
To make things a bit clearer, Stone Cold Steve Austin had established the word as his catchphrase and encouraged the crowds to shout it whenever he finished a sentence.
Unfortunately they ended up saying it at people they hated including Kurt Angle, and of course Mr McMahon.
The boss suggested that he should have been made Time Magazine's "Person Of The Year" instead of New York Mayor Rudolph Guilliani, which resulted in boos from the crowd and Vince decided to shut the show down by switching off all the lights.
They came back on when Stone Cold made a surprise appearance and called Vince the "Jack*** of the Year". And yes, that's how it went out on television.
Michael Cole, one of the commentators found the whole thing hilarious, but co-commentator Jerry "The King" Lawler wasn't happy about how the crowd were treating Mr McMahon.
King had only just returned to the commentary box as the previous year he had resigned when at "No Way Out" the "Right To Censor" threatened to make Jerry's girlfriend "The Kat" join them, resulting in King resigning as a commentator and Paul Heyman taking his place.
However Paul ended up joining "The Alliance" that year which was the merger between WCW and ECW which a few WWF wrestlers joined. They went bust after losing the "Winner Takes All Match" at 2001's Survivor Series resulting in Paul getting sacked and a surprise return for the King.
The VHS also has the final of the first series of Pop Idol on their but I'll save that for tomorrow and it may also help me in my dissertation, as back then it really was a big deal in terms of public involvement and who they would choose to get a record contract.
As for tonight however, I'll be having a gander at all the remaining celebs taking to the ice on the show that was almost called "Skating With Celebrities".
Here's hoping Todd Carty survives for a second time.
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