After listening to Tony Blackburn, I tuned in to Robbie Vincent's weekly helping of Sunday morning soul where there were some top tunes including Donald Byrd's "Think Twice" as covered by Ralph Myerz, Kool and The Gang's "Funky Stuff" and the Brothers Johnson cover of "Strawberry Letter 23".
I prefer the Shuggie Otis version however, which was introduced to me nearly two years ago when the Funk Soul Nation team included it within their show during the Music Radio module and they positioned it near the end of the show which was a superb tune to finish with.
There were also a few seasonal tunes such as the late Grover Washington Jnr's take on "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and Ella Fitzgerald's "Silent Night" which would show Alexandra something. Although I wouldn't mind if either of them were at my door singing that song around this time of year.
The highlight however was a smooth jazz stunner from saxophonist Donald Harrison who's a new name to me but has been around for quite a while as the track that was played proved. The tune in question was "Tropic Of Cool" and the reason it sounded so good was that it was written by guitarist Chuck Loeb and contained synth pizzicato strings that really proved to be another one of those of their time stunners.
At around 1pm I headed over to radio where Sirin and Northern Dave were present editing their features. The plan was to listen back to the current edit over the big speakers in the studio but the computer in Studio 6 is fucked as everytime I turn up it's fader it makes a dreadful distortion noise.
I went into 5 where a mic had gone missing for whatever reason so I went into the booth and took one from there which I hope will cover us and stop the techies from having a whinge.
As I listened to the the feature I made notes on what parts should have their volume levels altered and I went back into the SADiE room to make those finishing touches.
At this point Caroline, Chris, Phil H and Denis had arrived although Stewart's not too well having appeared to be one of the worst ones affected by the lergy that's going round.
They were pretty distracting as well as I was trying to correct the volume levels but I did it in the end and it's just about completed and ready to burn to CD.
Chris couldn't stop singing "Hallelujah" from last night's X Factor and has actually downloaded a copy of the Alexndra's single, although it also appears that Jeff Buckley's version will hit the top 10 and possibly Leonard Cohen's original.
Denis on the other hand made a start on editing his feature on ticket touts which may feature a few football songs including the infamous "Football Crazy". However with everything sorted I headed off to Nisa to buy some fizzy stuff and long grain rice for tonight and now I'm about to sit back and watch one of the best family pictures from the last 40 years.
To give you a few further clues it really would look perverted nowadays if an older man addressed children by whistling.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
"It's Smooooth Sailing"
Once again, I'm up pretty early and still have a bloody cold. Although it doesn't feel too good, at least it's given me an excuse to have listen to Tony Blackburn on Smooth due to his absence from the Kentish airwaves this afternoon and it's even better as he's live.
The jingles haven't really had much effort in terms of being seasonal as they've just gone for the old trick of adding sleighbells to their existing Bespoke jingles. And considering they're so cheap to make (or sound that way anyway) you'd think they'd make the effort.
Ex-station employee Len Groat on the news the Tony was joining the station suggested that he should invest in a resing of the legendary PAMS "Smooth Sailing" jingle from series 17 as used on Radio London in the 1960s and brought by Len for GEM AM in 1988 amongst several other "cherry picked" PAMS classics.
It would just have the last line changed to "with Tony Blackburn, On Smooth Radioooooo!".
I may consider getting that cut down myself towards the end of my tenure on Smoke if I have enough money.
Len seems to have an obsession of wanting UK stations to bring back Dallas jingles regardless of how dated they sound.
One example being his ex-colleague David Lloyd when he was at LBC and they had a stunning package from IQ Beats in Seattle which musically sounded great, although Len desperately tried to convince him into buying JAM's "Top News" package for WABC in New York.
If you look at his post on Jinglemad I'm not sure if the lyrics would work and the reason the package works for WABC is because it has a heritage of using JAM jingles for over
30 years, most of the presenters have been there for a long time and it's still very succesfull.
LBC on the other hand aim to reflect the views of London and living there overall and the IDs on the station have to be the best I know of on any radio station in the city.
Credit of course to Chris Lowrie AKA "Heather Jingles" for having the vision.
Back to Tony and he's definitely got a few things to say about last night's SCD and believes that Tom Chambers wasn't good enough to make it into the final of the show next week. Tony doesn't think the outcome was fair and was a "disaster" but if they had gone ahead with a dance off it would have been a riot in the BBC press office with viewers complaints, even though it did take me a while to work out why it wasn't possible for the Holby City star to avoid the dance off.
As for the X Factor Steven will probably agree with his opinions of Alexandra winning as he described her as "like Leona Lewis, but with more personality".
He also took the mickey out of the overly dramatic taglines at the start as read by Peter Dixon,
"IT'S THE ONE YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR", "No it's not".
Immediately after I posted my thought's on last night's final, Steven didn't hesitate to make comments and we had a bit of a chat on Windows Live Messenger where I got quite a ribbing for describing Alexandra's duet with Beyonce as a "dull ballad" as Steven said that the song performed was one of the most emotional soul songs of our generation.
Then again I could say the same about Patti Austin's "First Time Love" from 1990 which is my favourite soul ballad ever in terms of both words and music but I doubt Steven would agree for obvious reasons. It's weird though as the song started off as a delightful instrumental on composer Dave Grusin's album "Migration" in 1989 and Patti added her lyrics to the song which are just magical such as "It's so hard to remember my sad yesterdays, but from now till December it's Christmas always".
In fact I'll say it's the best love song ever, period.
Anyway, back to the X Factor and whilst I got a bit of stick for condeming probably the best performance of the night, I still have no shame in saying that enjoyed Eggnog's duet with Boyzone as at least it wasn't one of their crap ballads i.e. "No Matter What" and I won't complain if people give me stick for liking their rendition of "Picture Of You".
I can remember exactly two years ago where myself and Tim Pryor were chatting on MSN when Leona won and I was actually in awe of her victory as her song really sounded like a classic early 90s soul ballad. However in the last two years she's just grown to be annoying with her constant note changes although I still think "Bleeding Love" is one of the more catchier songs released by a winner of the competition.
Before heading off to bed Steven said that he'd be definitely chatting to me more about this later today when I head up to SADiE, although that's probably not going to be the case until this afternoon as there's no way I can miss Robbie Vincent's "Sunday Morning Soul" on Jazz FM.
I may also continue writing my critical report where I plan to analyse what has to be one of my favourite radio features I've heard since being on the radio course.
That being an episode of Radio 3's "Between The Ears" called "A House Is Not A Home" which features interviews with people who have had to sell their houses or have them reposessed and in the cases of some having to live on the streets.
The stories are interspersed with a song about the luxuries of living under a roof by the delightfully silly Lorraine Bowen who Matthew used to work with at GLR in the early 90s.
It was Chris Evans who gave her the exposure on his show "Round At Chris's (And His Missus) so we've all got him to thank overall.
Basically her act consisted of novelty songs performed by her on a portable keyboard with such examples including "The Crumble Song", "Julie Christie", and "Space".
Vastly underrated and she even appeared on programmes such as The Big Breakfast
on Channel 4 and The O-Zone on CBBC around the early to mid 90s.
Speaking of which I've managed to find the titles to the show from 1993-1994 with a theme tune composed by Gary Barlow.
According to the programme's TX File that was released alongside plenty of other BBC shows in a "Fun Fax-esque" folder in the mid 90s, the title of the tune was "Banoffee Pie" as Gary happened to be making one when taking a break from recording the tune.
There were two versions of the theme although I preferred the second version which I hope will be uploaded to Youtube in the not too distant future.
This particular edition features the vastly underrated Pauline Henry who was originally in the Chimes who in 1990 did a stunning soulful cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" although as a solo artist she became a bit more rockier and is still one of my favourite female vocalists of the decade.
Anyway, if I do head up to the radio rooms this afternoon it probably won't be for too long as I only really need to sort out the volume levels which is quite a task, and also because I plan to spend the afternoon watching the film that I've brought Kate as a birthday present in order to see if I can watch it in full without falling asleep.
I won't say what it is but I'm pretty certain you know already.
The jingles haven't really had much effort in terms of being seasonal as they've just gone for the old trick of adding sleighbells to their existing Bespoke jingles. And considering they're so cheap to make (or sound that way anyway) you'd think they'd make the effort.
Ex-station employee Len Groat on the news the Tony was joining the station suggested that he should invest in a resing of the legendary PAMS "Smooth Sailing" jingle from series 17 as used on Radio London in the 1960s and brought by Len for GEM AM in 1988 amongst several other "cherry picked" PAMS classics.
It would just have the last line changed to "with Tony Blackburn, On Smooth Radioooooo!".
I may consider getting that cut down myself towards the end of my tenure on Smoke if I have enough money.
Len seems to have an obsession of wanting UK stations to bring back Dallas jingles regardless of how dated they sound.
One example being his ex-colleague David Lloyd when he was at LBC and they had a stunning package from IQ Beats in Seattle which musically sounded great, although Len desperately tried to convince him into buying JAM's "Top News" package for WABC in New York.
If you look at his post on Jinglemad I'm not sure if the lyrics would work and the reason the package works for WABC is because it has a heritage of using JAM jingles for over
30 years, most of the presenters have been there for a long time and it's still very succesfull.
LBC on the other hand aim to reflect the views of London and living there overall and the IDs on the station have to be the best I know of on any radio station in the city.
Credit of course to Chris Lowrie AKA "Heather Jingles" for having the vision.
Back to Tony and he's definitely got a few things to say about last night's SCD and believes that Tom Chambers wasn't good enough to make it into the final of the show next week. Tony doesn't think the outcome was fair and was a "disaster" but if they had gone ahead with a dance off it would have been a riot in the BBC press office with viewers complaints, even though it did take me a while to work out why it wasn't possible for the Holby City star to avoid the dance off.
As for the X Factor Steven will probably agree with his opinions of Alexandra winning as he described her as "like Leona Lewis, but with more personality".
He also took the mickey out of the overly dramatic taglines at the start as read by Peter Dixon,
"IT'S THE ONE YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR", "No it's not".
Immediately after I posted my thought's on last night's final, Steven didn't hesitate to make comments and we had a bit of a chat on Windows Live Messenger where I got quite a ribbing for describing Alexandra's duet with Beyonce as a "dull ballad" as Steven said that the song performed was one of the most emotional soul songs of our generation.
Then again I could say the same about Patti Austin's "First Time Love" from 1990 which is my favourite soul ballad ever in terms of both words and music but I doubt Steven would agree for obvious reasons. It's weird though as the song started off as a delightful instrumental on composer Dave Grusin's album "Migration" in 1989 and Patti added her lyrics to the song which are just magical such as "It's so hard to remember my sad yesterdays, but from now till December it's Christmas always".
In fact I'll say it's the best love song ever, period.
Anyway, back to the X Factor and whilst I got a bit of stick for condeming probably the best performance of the night, I still have no shame in saying that enjoyed Eggnog's duet with Boyzone as at least it wasn't one of their crap ballads i.e. "No Matter What" and I won't complain if people give me stick for liking their rendition of "Picture Of You".
I can remember exactly two years ago where myself and Tim Pryor were chatting on MSN when Leona won and I was actually in awe of her victory as her song really sounded like a classic early 90s soul ballad. However in the last two years she's just grown to be annoying with her constant note changes although I still think "Bleeding Love" is one of the more catchier songs released by a winner of the competition.
Before heading off to bed Steven said that he'd be definitely chatting to me more about this later today when I head up to SADiE, although that's probably not going to be the case until this afternoon as there's no way I can miss Robbie Vincent's "Sunday Morning Soul" on Jazz FM.
I may also continue writing my critical report where I plan to analyse what has to be one of my favourite radio features I've heard since being on the radio course.
That being an episode of Radio 3's "Between The Ears" called "A House Is Not A Home" which features interviews with people who have had to sell their houses or have them reposessed and in the cases of some having to live on the streets.
The stories are interspersed with a song about the luxuries of living under a roof by the delightfully silly Lorraine Bowen who Matthew used to work with at GLR in the early 90s.
It was Chris Evans who gave her the exposure on his show "Round At Chris's (And His Missus) so we've all got him to thank overall.
Basically her act consisted of novelty songs performed by her on a portable keyboard with such examples including "The Crumble Song", "Julie Christie", and "Space".
Vastly underrated and she even appeared on programmes such as The Big Breakfast
on Channel 4 and The O-Zone on CBBC around the early to mid 90s.
Speaking of which I've managed to find the titles to the show from 1993-1994 with a theme tune composed by Gary Barlow.
According to the programme's TX File that was released alongside plenty of other BBC shows in a "Fun Fax-esque" folder in the mid 90s, the title of the tune was "Banoffee Pie" as Gary happened to be making one when taking a break from recording the tune.
There were two versions of the theme although I preferred the second version which I hope will be uploaded to Youtube in the not too distant future.
This particular edition features the vastly underrated Pauline Henry who was originally in the Chimes who in 1990 did a stunning soulful cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" although as a solo artist she became a bit more rockier and is still one of my favourite female vocalists of the decade.
Anyway, if I do head up to the radio rooms this afternoon it probably won't be for too long as I only really need to sort out the volume levels which is quite a task, and also because I plan to spend the afternoon watching the film that I've brought Kate as a birthday present in order to see if I can watch it in full without falling asleep.
I won't say what it is but I'm pretty certain you know already.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Strictly Sensational And X-ellent!
Tonight really was an emotional evening in front of the television with both Strictly and The X Factor final managing to provide overall entertainment with a few unexpected moments.
Before I go onto them however, both BBC 1 and ITV1 revealed their Christmas idents on what I reckon is the earliest time they've been put on air.
BBC 1's features Wallace and Gromit with the mongrel skiing up and down a round shaped hill, whilst ITV1 have a CGI abstract Christmas tree accompanied by the same rather dull music that accompanies the normal idents.
How they've managed to survive on our screens for over two years beats me.
Prior to 1999 the BBC wouldn't reveal their Christmas ident until Christmas Eve, sometimes not until the evening programmes and it would stay on air until Boxing Day, whereas now it more or less stays on our screens from mid December until New Years Day.
However it probably goes to show how more and more people value the idents on television in the present day and these are normal viewers too.
Anyway, onto the Strictly semi-final where tonight the judges seemed to be rather crictical of the contestants which is probably why for each of the three couples,
Bruce said that they were "his favourites" which he hasn't said on the show for a few weeks.
The most surprising result came when Lisa and Brendan decided to take a difficult decision to perform another quickstep despite that being the dance they did last week which got low marks from the judges and resulted in Brendan storming off.
However this week it resulted in a perfect 10 and helped to show that Lisa is a strong contender for the final.
Amongst those appearing in the audience this week were Noddy Holder making a return appearance, Johnny Vegas, and even comedy actor Nick Frost who I reckon first year radio student Matty ID bares quite a resemblance to.
There was also an appearance from Austin Healy who bowed out last week who said to Bruce "I'm never gonna dance again" and I couldn't help but sing "guilty feet have got no rhythm".
As the results show was shown tonight it really felt like a return to the old days of the show and for more reasons than one.
Because both Rachel and Lisa had come joint first, it wouldn't have been fair to have undergone a dance-off due to there being no chance of phone votes for Tom Chambers overiding the judges original scores to avoid the dance off.
And because of this it was decided that all three of tonight's couples would be going through to next week's final with all of the votes from this week accumilating into the end result.
Although it sounds rather complex it proves that for once, the BBC have got something right behind the scenes.
I also noticed that when lines were frozen, neither Bruce or Tess mentioned the consequences of what would happen should people ring in, in which is probably the first programme on television to do so since phone in competitions on the BBC were suspended in July last year.
As I won't have internet access when it's the final next week it's worth mentioning up to this series no one has really taken much notice as to how Len says "SeVEN!" despite him saying it since the first series.
This is shown by Tess impersonating him after a couple gets one from him and Bruce's jokes about it in the last couple of weeks including a correction, as the river that goes through Bristol is "aVON!".
Overall next week's final should be worth viewing with Rachel Stevens, Lisa Snowdon and Phil Landers, sorry, Tom Chambers fighting it out.
Onto the more important stuff now with the X-Factor final which kicked off brilliantly with all the 12 finalists performing a rendition of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" which admittedly, had me in tears.
However the only soloists and duets during the verses were standouts Austin, Laura, Ruth and Rachel, with the likes of Daniel, Diana, Scott and even Bad Lashes and Girlband coming in as a whole later on.
Moving onto the performances and each act would do three songs each, one of them being a seasonal tune, the second being a duet with a "special guest" and the third being their favourite song from the series.
For the Christmas songs, Eoghan performed "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" along with a few children on backing vocalists who looked older than the main performer.
Alexandra gave a good rendition of "Silent Night" but the best one was JLS's version of Wham!'s "Last Christmas" all because of I think it was JB, who instead of whispering George Michael's line provided an emphatic "Merry Christmas!".
The star duets weren't great although for me Leon Jackson's duet with Kylie last year on a swing version of her song "Better The Devil You Know" will be unbeatable.
Eoghan was the best out of a bad bunch performing with Boyzone on one of their better songs "Picture With You" as featured in the Mr Bean movie in 1997 and I was disapointed that Eggnog didn't dress up like him, as Ronan and co did in the video.
JLS however ended up performing with Wastelife on a rendition of "Flying Without Wings" which really was poor although I doubt it would have been possible to bring Damage back together where they could have performed their cover of "Wonderful Tonight" which I actually think is better than the Eric Clapton original.
Alexandra was seen performing with Beyonce on one of her lesser known otherwise dull ballads and for the first of many times tonight ended up breaking down. I can't think of anything else to write there.
Finally was the contestants song choices from the series with Eoghan going for that bloody song off of High School Musical, JLS performing that tedious Lonestar/Westlife ballad, and Alexandra performing what I think was one of her best song choices "You Are So Beautiful".
There was also footage of all the contestants going around in limos to special appearances and visits back to there hometowns and I never knew that Aston from JLS is from Peterborough.
Rather coincidentally, one of my fellow jingle collectors also happens to be called Aston and is from the same city, although he's about 25 years older, has a love of the Darkness, an encyclopeadic knowledge of IRN newsreaders from the 70s and 80s and a brilliant sense of humour.
He also appeared on the Weakest Link in 2001 providing what has to be one of the funniest responses to a question:
Anne Robinson: "On TV which member of the Royal Family appeared on the 200th edition of A Question Of Sport?"
Aston McNeal: "Ricky Tomlinson?"
The answer of course was Princess Anne or possibly Shergar.
Moving back onto the finalists publicity and depsite the overblown style of the show,
I was surprised that none of the finalists had the equivalent of the luxury Battle Buses that Will and Gareth had in the week leading up to the final of the first Pop Idol in 2002.
However the crowds of fans were big as shown by the live O/Bs with Jeff Brazier and the JLS supporters, Kym Marsh with Alexandra supporters and Michael Underwood with a very loud set of fans supporting Eoghan to the point that he was drowned out at one time. You would have thought he'd done what Cat Deeley did in Peter Kay's send up by telling them to "FUCKING SHUT UP!" which I'm sure any wannabe presenter would love to do if they hosted a show like this.
On a similar note the advertisers were really taking advantage of tonight with one of them being for the Strictly live tour which I've already booked my tickets for, although the X Factor one may be a possiblity as well especially if they perform that Ashford and Simpson classic again.
And there was also a plug for tomorrow's repeat of Peter Kay's long titled spoof tomorrow on Channel 4 although it seems he'll do anything to get attention nowadays by releasing DVDs of the same material year after year. If you look at the amount of
1 star reviews for his latest release on Amazon you'll know what I'm talking about, although I still respect him for coming up with some of the best television shows this decade.
To all those who have suggested that I should become a journalist, I'm sure I would be sacked immediatley as these posts have a habit of turning into tangents that are unrelated to the main topic.
In the usual tradition there was the performance by the really bad auditionees although tonight, instead of having the ones from this series, they brought back a selection of those from the last 5 series to perform an out of tune and out of time rendition of ABBA's "I Have A Dream".
These included Robert Unwin, the chicken factory worker/Bee Gees impersonator from Series 1, the menacing old woman who threatened Simon for laughing at her daughter in Series 3, the "graveyard twins" from Series 4 and of course Ant & Seb from the current series and the guy who held a note long enough to beat Bill Withers and unsuprisingly sang the line "I Belieeeeeeeve" although he lasted for well over 30 seconds.
Very good stuff and really fitting as it's the last time I'll get to see this whilst I'm at University with the series having been running almost since I started.
It feels like that as in 2004 despite not being at Uni at the time, the first episode was broadcast after I'd been into London for the day where amongst other things I brought Incognito's latest album.
The rest of my family were away for the weekend at my Aunt Helen's house in Norwich and I was enjoying a two week break from ASDA so these really were good times.
And even back then despite only working in the store for two days a week, the holidays meant a lot to me.
Moving onto the Results Show and it was bye bye to Eoghan although he was nowhere near as distraught as he was when Diana was booted out. After he performed his High School Musical routine he mentioned that he'd like to do big production numbers and act in musicals, and I reckon that's very unlikely to be off the cards in the next two years considering the likes of series 3 runner up Ray Quinn who's appeared in "Grease".
This left Alexandra and JLS to battle it out with their versions of what would be the winners single, a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Both of them were pretty unmemorable but it was Alexandra who managed to come out on tops as this years winner with the single being released on download tonight.
Fastest selling single of the year? Well probably not tonight anyway, although you never know.
As for JLS, I very much doubt it will be the last we see of them and hopefully by the end of 2009 they'll be this decade's long awaited answer to the Pasadenas.
As for what I've learnt this series, you know when they're going to go to a break whenever the background behind Dermot changes from blue to red, Simon Cowell's comments on Louis song choices are always right, and Cheryl Cole has really been the surprising stunner of the year.
Overall a superb grand final and thank goodness it's now come to an end as amongst other things, Peter Dixon's voice has given me a headache. Although considering he's on everything else I can't see him in the dole cue for eternity.
Before I go onto them however, both BBC 1 and ITV1 revealed their Christmas idents on what I reckon is the earliest time they've been put on air.
BBC 1's features Wallace and Gromit with the mongrel skiing up and down a round shaped hill, whilst ITV1 have a CGI abstract Christmas tree accompanied by the same rather dull music that accompanies the normal idents.
How they've managed to survive on our screens for over two years beats me.
Prior to 1999 the BBC wouldn't reveal their Christmas ident until Christmas Eve, sometimes not until the evening programmes and it would stay on air until Boxing Day, whereas now it more or less stays on our screens from mid December until New Years Day.
However it probably goes to show how more and more people value the idents on television in the present day and these are normal viewers too.
Anyway, onto the Strictly semi-final where tonight the judges seemed to be rather crictical of the contestants which is probably why for each of the three couples,
Bruce said that they were "his favourites" which he hasn't said on the show for a few weeks.
The most surprising result came when Lisa and Brendan decided to take a difficult decision to perform another quickstep despite that being the dance they did last week which got low marks from the judges and resulted in Brendan storming off.
However this week it resulted in a perfect 10 and helped to show that Lisa is a strong contender for the final.
Amongst those appearing in the audience this week were Noddy Holder making a return appearance, Johnny Vegas, and even comedy actor Nick Frost who I reckon first year radio student Matty ID bares quite a resemblance to.
There was also an appearance from Austin Healy who bowed out last week who said to Bruce "I'm never gonna dance again" and I couldn't help but sing "guilty feet have got no rhythm".
As the results show was shown tonight it really felt like a return to the old days of the show and for more reasons than one.
Because both Rachel and Lisa had come joint first, it wouldn't have been fair to have undergone a dance-off due to there being no chance of phone votes for Tom Chambers overiding the judges original scores to avoid the dance off.
And because of this it was decided that all three of tonight's couples would be going through to next week's final with all of the votes from this week accumilating into the end result.
Although it sounds rather complex it proves that for once, the BBC have got something right behind the scenes.
I also noticed that when lines were frozen, neither Bruce or Tess mentioned the consequences of what would happen should people ring in, in which is probably the first programme on television to do so since phone in competitions on the BBC were suspended in July last year.
As I won't have internet access when it's the final next week it's worth mentioning up to this series no one has really taken much notice as to how Len says "SeVEN!" despite him saying it since the first series.
This is shown by Tess impersonating him after a couple gets one from him and Bruce's jokes about it in the last couple of weeks including a correction, as the river that goes through Bristol is "aVON!".
Overall next week's final should be worth viewing with Rachel Stevens, Lisa Snowdon and Phil Landers, sorry, Tom Chambers fighting it out.
Onto the more important stuff now with the X-Factor final which kicked off brilliantly with all the 12 finalists performing a rendition of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" which admittedly, had me in tears.
However the only soloists and duets during the verses were standouts Austin, Laura, Ruth and Rachel, with the likes of Daniel, Diana, Scott and even Bad Lashes and Girlband coming in as a whole later on.
Moving onto the performances and each act would do three songs each, one of them being a seasonal tune, the second being a duet with a "special guest" and the third being their favourite song from the series.
For the Christmas songs, Eoghan performed "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" along with a few children on backing vocalists who looked older than the main performer.
Alexandra gave a good rendition of "Silent Night" but the best one was JLS's version of Wham!'s "Last Christmas" all because of I think it was JB, who instead of whispering George Michael's line provided an emphatic "Merry Christmas!".
The star duets weren't great although for me Leon Jackson's duet with Kylie last year on a swing version of her song "Better The Devil You Know" will be unbeatable.
Eoghan was the best out of a bad bunch performing with Boyzone on one of their better songs "Picture With You" as featured in the Mr Bean movie in 1997 and I was disapointed that Eggnog didn't dress up like him, as Ronan and co did in the video.
JLS however ended up performing with Wastelife on a rendition of "Flying Without Wings" which really was poor although I doubt it would have been possible to bring Damage back together where they could have performed their cover of "Wonderful Tonight" which I actually think is better than the Eric Clapton original.
Alexandra was seen performing with Beyonce on one of her lesser known otherwise dull ballads and for the first of many times tonight ended up breaking down. I can't think of anything else to write there.
Finally was the contestants song choices from the series with Eoghan going for that bloody song off of High School Musical, JLS performing that tedious Lonestar/Westlife ballad, and Alexandra performing what I think was one of her best song choices "You Are So Beautiful".
There was also footage of all the contestants going around in limos to special appearances and visits back to there hometowns and I never knew that Aston from JLS is from Peterborough.
Rather coincidentally, one of my fellow jingle collectors also happens to be called Aston and is from the same city, although he's about 25 years older, has a love of the Darkness, an encyclopeadic knowledge of IRN newsreaders from the 70s and 80s and a brilliant sense of humour.
He also appeared on the Weakest Link in 2001 providing what has to be one of the funniest responses to a question:
Anne Robinson: "On TV which member of the Royal Family appeared on the 200th edition of A Question Of Sport?"
Aston McNeal: "Ricky Tomlinson?"
The answer of course was Princess Anne or possibly Shergar.
Moving back onto the finalists publicity and depsite the overblown style of the show,
I was surprised that none of the finalists had the equivalent of the luxury Battle Buses that Will and Gareth had in the week leading up to the final of the first Pop Idol in 2002.
However the crowds of fans were big as shown by the live O/Bs with Jeff Brazier and the JLS supporters, Kym Marsh with Alexandra supporters and Michael Underwood with a very loud set of fans supporting Eoghan to the point that he was drowned out at one time. You would have thought he'd done what Cat Deeley did in Peter Kay's send up by telling them to "FUCKING SHUT UP!" which I'm sure any wannabe presenter would love to do if they hosted a show like this.
On a similar note the advertisers were really taking advantage of tonight with one of them being for the Strictly live tour which I've already booked my tickets for, although the X Factor one may be a possiblity as well especially if they perform that Ashford and Simpson classic again.
And there was also a plug for tomorrow's repeat of Peter Kay's long titled spoof tomorrow on Channel 4 although it seems he'll do anything to get attention nowadays by releasing DVDs of the same material year after year. If you look at the amount of
1 star reviews for his latest release on Amazon you'll know what I'm talking about, although I still respect him for coming up with some of the best television shows this decade.
To all those who have suggested that I should become a journalist, I'm sure I would be sacked immediatley as these posts have a habit of turning into tangents that are unrelated to the main topic.
In the usual tradition there was the performance by the really bad auditionees although tonight, instead of having the ones from this series, they brought back a selection of those from the last 5 series to perform an out of tune and out of time rendition of ABBA's "I Have A Dream".
These included Robert Unwin, the chicken factory worker/Bee Gees impersonator from Series 1, the menacing old woman who threatened Simon for laughing at her daughter in Series 3, the "graveyard twins" from Series 4 and of course Ant & Seb from the current series and the guy who held a note long enough to beat Bill Withers and unsuprisingly sang the line "I Belieeeeeeeve" although he lasted for well over 30 seconds.
Very good stuff and really fitting as it's the last time I'll get to see this whilst I'm at University with the series having been running almost since I started.
It feels like that as in 2004 despite not being at Uni at the time, the first episode was broadcast after I'd been into London for the day where amongst other things I brought Incognito's latest album.
The rest of my family were away for the weekend at my Aunt Helen's house in Norwich and I was enjoying a two week break from ASDA so these really were good times.
And even back then despite only working in the store for two days a week, the holidays meant a lot to me.
Moving onto the Results Show and it was bye bye to Eoghan although he was nowhere near as distraught as he was when Diana was booted out. After he performed his High School Musical routine he mentioned that he'd like to do big production numbers and act in musicals, and I reckon that's very unlikely to be off the cards in the next two years considering the likes of series 3 runner up Ray Quinn who's appeared in "Grease".
This left Alexandra and JLS to battle it out with their versions of what would be the winners single, a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Both of them were pretty unmemorable but it was Alexandra who managed to come out on tops as this years winner with the single being released on download tonight.
Fastest selling single of the year? Well probably not tonight anyway, although you never know.
As for JLS, I very much doubt it will be the last we see of them and hopefully by the end of 2009 they'll be this decade's long awaited answer to the Pasadenas.
As for what I've learnt this series, you know when they're going to go to a break whenever the background behind Dermot changes from blue to red, Simon Cowell's comments on Louis song choices are always right, and Cheryl Cole has really been the surprising stunner of the year.
Overall a superb grand final and thank goodness it's now come to an end as amongst other things, Peter Dixon's voice has given me a headache. Although considering he's on everything else I can't see him in the dole cue for eternity.
Big L=Big Losers
After appearing as a guest on The ONE Show on Monday it appears that Tony Blackburn has fallen ill so in his place on his KMFM Sunday show will be Mike Read.
God help the Garden of England.
As the show's pre recorded earlier in the week Tony's a bit better now as he was doing the weekend breakfast show on Smooth Radio this morning and will probably be back again tomorrow and and on his Sunday Show on BBC London 94.9.
On the subject of Mike Read, E4 have been repeating Harvey Goldsmith's "Get Your Act Together" series from last year and on his visit to the ailing radio station "Big L" in Frinton Mike tried so desperately in front of the camera to present himself as an "ideas man".
I only wish that there were stronger words than "bollocks" to describe that above statement.
When you look at Mike and all the other dinosaurs at Big L such as "Divvy" David Hamilton,
it shows that even if his act hasn't really changed, Tony has survived because he's the best at what he does, and is more than happy to take the mickey out of himself at any time, whereas the likes of Read and Hamilton just can't get it into their brains that they are stuck in the past and take it all rather seriously.
Even worse is Steve Wright on Radio 2 and I've no clue as to why he's survived as he still sounds like if he's stuck in 1985.
I've heard from others that you must never look him in the eye whilst he's "in the zone" and that he is very protective over how the show is done.
I haven't seen him on television for a long time either which may explain a few things although I imagine his voice will be popping up on TOTP2 again this Christmas which I don't think he's too bad at actually.
Moving back to the Big L documentary and the worst protagonist was the station manager Chris Vesey, and it would be very difficult for me not to use the C-word to describe him. Especially after bollocking a presenter on air just for getting a link slightly wrong, which for me is one of my golden rules of radio, never to reprimand or do anything similar to a presenter during a show.
Although as mentioned yesterday I do tend to do so in a jokey manner to certain people on Smoke although overall I'm laughing with them at the whatever the naughty joke is that they've told on air.
I'm also looking forward to watching how Harvey gets on with the likes of aged rock band Saxon, Pablo's Circus, and singer and Irish babe Samantha Mumba.
Samantha of course ended up as one of the contestants on this year's Dancing On Ice although whether that did any favours for her career I'm not sure.
It's a shame as she did some really good tunes such as "Gotta Tell You" and "Always Come Back To Your Love" although we'll try and forget her song which half inched David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes" which went by the title of "Body 2 Body".
That and her younger brother Omero who did a rather dodgy rap record to the tune of Lucy Pearl's "Don't Mess With My Man" which also happened to be covered by Booty Luv last year which wasn't too bad but nowhere as good as the original.
I'd have definitely loved to have heard more from them.
God help the Garden of England.
As the show's pre recorded earlier in the week Tony's a bit better now as he was doing the weekend breakfast show on Smooth Radio this morning and will probably be back again tomorrow and and on his Sunday Show on BBC London 94.9.
On the subject of Mike Read, E4 have been repeating Harvey Goldsmith's "Get Your Act Together" series from last year and on his visit to the ailing radio station "Big L" in Frinton Mike tried so desperately in front of the camera to present himself as an "ideas man".
I only wish that there were stronger words than "bollocks" to describe that above statement.
When you look at Mike and all the other dinosaurs at Big L such as "Divvy" David Hamilton,
it shows that even if his act hasn't really changed, Tony has survived because he's the best at what he does, and is more than happy to take the mickey out of himself at any time, whereas the likes of Read and Hamilton just can't get it into their brains that they are stuck in the past and take it all rather seriously.
Even worse is Steve Wright on Radio 2 and I've no clue as to why he's survived as he still sounds like if he's stuck in 1985.
I've heard from others that you must never look him in the eye whilst he's "in the zone" and that he is very protective over how the show is done.
I haven't seen him on television for a long time either which may explain a few things although I imagine his voice will be popping up on TOTP2 again this Christmas which I don't think he's too bad at actually.
Moving back to the Big L documentary and the worst protagonist was the station manager Chris Vesey, and it would be very difficult for me not to use the C-word to describe him. Especially after bollocking a presenter on air just for getting a link slightly wrong, which for me is one of my golden rules of radio, never to reprimand or do anything similar to a presenter during a show.
Although as mentioned yesterday I do tend to do so in a jokey manner to certain people on Smoke although overall I'm laughing with them at the whatever the naughty joke is that they've told on air.
I'm also looking forward to watching how Harvey gets on with the likes of aged rock band Saxon, Pablo's Circus, and singer and Irish babe Samantha Mumba.
Samantha of course ended up as one of the contestants on this year's Dancing On Ice although whether that did any favours for her career I'm not sure.
It's a shame as she did some really good tunes such as "Gotta Tell You" and "Always Come Back To Your Love" although we'll try and forget her song which half inched David Bowie's "Ashes To Ashes" which went by the title of "Body 2 Body".
That and her younger brother Omero who did a rather dodgy rap record to the tune of Lucy Pearl's "Don't Mess With My Man" which also happened to be covered by Booty Luv last year which wasn't too bad but nowhere as good as the original.
I'd have definitely loved to have heard more from them.
Fighting The Phlegm
I wasn't in the best of conditions this morning after waking up with an annoying cold and sore throat. However I was not going to let that get in the way of getting the important tasks done including going to buy a parcel to send Kate's birthday present, and posting the cheque for my credit card bill.
I also made a start on writing my critical report with the listening analysis where I chose to analyse a documentary on the Disappearing Art Of The Mixtape presented by David Quantick and was brought to my attention by Matthew a few weeks ago.
It looked into how serious an art form making mix tapes was, and featured contributions from people such as writer Simon Armitage and Becky Garvey, sister of Guy from the band Elbow who was one of the many experts on creating mixtapes and would go as far as getting out of a car driven by someone playing a really bad one.
I've also got quite a few other documentaries and features I plan to analyse although I can guarantee that "The Change In Farming" won't be one of them as I do not want to hear that dreadful song again. If you could call it a "song" at that.
I went into SADiE to make the final touches to my feature although the big task now is getting the levels right which I probably won't get completed until Monday at the latest.
I was also surprised as to the lack of people in there the only one there was Emma Picton who's got what seems like stacks of audio to edit on her feature on breast feeding.
I left at around 3pm to get back in time for PY on Jazz FM where this week he plans to play a few soulful tunes from the Big Screen. I'm hoping it will be a lot more than the likes of "Shaft" and "Superfly"
Later on of course will be a big night in terms of TV viewing as it's the semi final of Strictly Come Dancing tonight, but even more importantly it's the grand final of X Factor with JLS, Alexandra and Eggnog up against each other although I don't really think much of the guests who I've heard are meant to be Rihanna, Boyzone, and Beyonce, the latter of which isn't too bad.
Both shows are scheduled perfectly so that they're not on at the same time, especially as this weeks dance off on Strictly takes place live tonight because of the Sports Review Of The Year tomorrow evening.
Rather controversially Adrian Chiles isn't one of the presenters with CBBC reject
Jake Humphrey in his place.
Although he happens to be from Norwich and is a Norwich City supporter, I didn't really think much of him on the BBC's Olympic coverage this year and is to be the main presenter for the BBC's F1 coverage when that begins in Spring 2009.
Although it's weird to think how far he's come from since starting off on Rapture Television's "Gamers" shown in some regions after CD:UK on Saturday lunchtimes almost a decade ago.
I also made a start on writing my critical report with the listening analysis where I chose to analyse a documentary on the Disappearing Art Of The Mixtape presented by David Quantick and was brought to my attention by Matthew a few weeks ago.
It looked into how serious an art form making mix tapes was, and featured contributions from people such as writer Simon Armitage and Becky Garvey, sister of Guy from the band Elbow who was one of the many experts on creating mixtapes and would go as far as getting out of a car driven by someone playing a really bad one.
I've also got quite a few other documentaries and features I plan to analyse although I can guarantee that "The Change In Farming" won't be one of them as I do not want to hear that dreadful song again. If you could call it a "song" at that.
I went into SADiE to make the final touches to my feature although the big task now is getting the levels right which I probably won't get completed until Monday at the latest.
I was also surprised as to the lack of people in there the only one there was Emma Picton who's got what seems like stacks of audio to edit on her feature on breast feeding.
I left at around 3pm to get back in time for PY on Jazz FM where this week he plans to play a few soulful tunes from the Big Screen. I'm hoping it will be a lot more than the likes of "Shaft" and "Superfly"
Later on of course will be a big night in terms of TV viewing as it's the semi final of Strictly Come Dancing tonight, but even more importantly it's the grand final of X Factor with JLS, Alexandra and Eggnog up against each other although I don't really think much of the guests who I've heard are meant to be Rihanna, Boyzone, and Beyonce, the latter of which isn't too bad.
Both shows are scheduled perfectly so that they're not on at the same time, especially as this weeks dance off on Strictly takes place live tonight because of the Sports Review Of The Year tomorrow evening.
Rather controversially Adrian Chiles isn't one of the presenters with CBBC reject
Jake Humphrey in his place.
Although he happens to be from Norwich and is a Norwich City supporter, I didn't really think much of him on the BBC's Olympic coverage this year and is to be the main presenter for the BBC's F1 coverage when that begins in Spring 2009.
Although it's weird to think how far he's come from since starting off on Rapture Television's "Gamers" shown in some regions after CD:UK on Saturday lunchtimes almost a decade ago.
"You're Back In Play, Keep Pressing!"
Another example of one of the finest theme tunes to a gameshow, this time being
the end credits to an episode of Catchphrase from the series transmitted in Winter 1989.
Many people will agree with me when I say that Ed Welch's theme from when TVS made the show was a lot better than the ones used when Carlton produced the show from 1994 onwards.
This particular series moved back to being shown on Sunday nights after Highway,
after a succesfull run on Saturdays the previous year although when it would return for a second series in the Autumn it would be back on the Saturday night schedule which I can rather clearly remember being on before Blind Date.
Although for many reasons in my house we would be more likely to be tuned to the likes of Monkhouse and Edmonds on a Saturday night from then onwards.
One of them being I didn't like the noise it made when a contestant failed the endgame although having watched the programme many years later it's really inoffensive and more of a signifier of relief after struggling to guess that rather tough animated image.
And it's nowhere near as bad as the sound it made if a player landed on a bankrupt on the UK version of the Wheel Of Fortune.
When the show moved to Carlton, they changed the time-up noise to what sounded like an electronic sound of water dripping, to give a better description, although I was more nervous of the sound it made in the Ready Money Round when they had to speed things up and remove all the squares in the bonus.
And there's no better example than what I'm sure everyone has seen, the legendary "Snake Charmer" catchphrase which has had me in stiches many times.
Well, since I understood what was actually happening.
This actually ended up being shown as part of the programme too.
Although the most famous sound effect from the show continues to be heard quite often in the radio rooms, as Phil Harris has the contestants buzzer as his text message sound on his mobile.
On another note it's worth mentioning that although an American format, it was a lot more succesfull over here than in the states as it only had one series there and on our shores it lasted for 16 years, although the first 14 tend to be regarded a lot better when Roy hosted the show.
It's worth posting a link to an episode of the American version which is notable for a few things as despite looking exactly the same, the show's mascot Mr Chips is called "Herbie" and one of the contestants happens to have the same name as one of our students
"Mary Lopez".
She's nowhere near as good looking however and I very much doubt that she would want to be called "Maz".
Roy Walker made an appearance in Edinburgh earlier this year and can be seen in this interview where he reveals that many fans of the show can remember where they were and what they were eating whilst the show was on which would normally be along the lines of spaghetti on toast, or egg and cress sandwiches as mentioned.
Roy of course is now pretty much a big star on the radio not just on
The Chris Moyles Show, but he's also currently appearing on as one of the captains on a Radio 4 comedy quiz called "Act Your Age" hosted by Simon Mayo and also featuring
Lucy Porter.
I very much doubt it will be the last we'll be hearing from "The Legend".
the end credits to an episode of Catchphrase from the series transmitted in Winter 1989.
Many people will agree with me when I say that Ed Welch's theme from when TVS made the show was a lot better than the ones used when Carlton produced the show from 1994 onwards.
This particular series moved back to being shown on Sunday nights after Highway,
after a succesfull run on Saturdays the previous year although when it would return for a second series in the Autumn it would be back on the Saturday night schedule which I can rather clearly remember being on before Blind Date.
Although for many reasons in my house we would be more likely to be tuned to the likes of Monkhouse and Edmonds on a Saturday night from then onwards.
One of them being I didn't like the noise it made when a contestant failed the endgame although having watched the programme many years later it's really inoffensive and more of a signifier of relief after struggling to guess that rather tough animated image.
And it's nowhere near as bad as the sound it made if a player landed on a bankrupt on the UK version of the Wheel Of Fortune.
When the show moved to Carlton, they changed the time-up noise to what sounded like an electronic sound of water dripping, to give a better description, although I was more nervous of the sound it made in the Ready Money Round when they had to speed things up and remove all the squares in the bonus.
And there's no better example than what I'm sure everyone has seen, the legendary "Snake Charmer" catchphrase which has had me in stiches many times.
Well, since I understood what was actually happening.
This actually ended up being shown as part of the programme too.
Although the most famous sound effect from the show continues to be heard quite often in the radio rooms, as Phil Harris has the contestants buzzer as his text message sound on his mobile.
On another note it's worth mentioning that although an American format, it was a lot more succesfull over here than in the states as it only had one series there and on our shores it lasted for 16 years, although the first 14 tend to be regarded a lot better when Roy hosted the show.
It's worth posting a link to an episode of the American version which is notable for a few things as despite looking exactly the same, the show's mascot Mr Chips is called "Herbie" and one of the contestants happens to have the same name as one of our students
"Mary Lopez".
She's nowhere near as good looking however and I very much doubt that she would want to be called "Maz".
Roy Walker made an appearance in Edinburgh earlier this year and can be seen in this interview where he reveals that many fans of the show can remember where they were and what they were eating whilst the show was on which would normally be along the lines of spaghetti on toast, or egg and cress sandwiches as mentioned.
Roy of course is now pretty much a big star on the radio not just on
The Chris Moyles Show, but he's also currently appearing on as one of the captains on a Radio 4 comedy quiz called "Act Your Age" hosted by Simon Mayo and also featuring
Lucy Porter.
I very much doubt it will be the last we'll be hearing from "The Legend".
Friday, December 12, 2008
"Holding Back The Ears..."
Tonight's HIGNFY was presented by Jerry Springer who didn't do too bad a job with guests including Katy Brand and Ken Livingstone. Although Ken's appeared as a guest quite a lot of times, it's actually his first appearance on the show since he appeared on the one about Angus's first tabloid scandal in May 2002.
Highlights included their taken on David Cameron meeting Barack Obama although the most interesting part was the odd one out round consisting of West Ham United, a whale and the Tardis and something else I can't remember.
The Tardis was the odd one out as all the others were associated with bubbles although that's not exactly true as in the opening titles to Doctor Who from 1987 when Sylvester McCoy played the part there was a CGI Tardis inside a bubble of some sort.
Why that was the case I have no idea although it's probably the most ambitious title sequence from the original series.
The titles themselves were designed by BBC graphic designer Oliver Elmes who also made the iconic stripy BBC 2 ident from the early-mid 80s.
Anyway, after that I managed to watch Gavin and Stacey for the first time and although it wasn't laugh out loud funny, it didn't fall into the category of Chris Moyles and The ONE Show earlier today as it kept me watching and had it's moments. There was also some good music included as well such as "Brianstorm" by The Artic Monkeys in the bowling scene and Another Level's "Freak Me" playing when Smithy and the tubby welsh girl were sharing a KFC meal.
After that I managed to see Peter Kay's new video as Geraldine for her Christmas single, although where exactly were the jokes? It's probably an ongoing sign of the comedian running out of steam, although it is a music video and the proceeds for the single will be going to the NSPCC.
The video itself reminded me of his character Marc Park's song "Christmas 2000" from the final episode of "That Peter Kay Thing" despite the fact that the song was to be released in 1999.
Ironically the episode was called "Lonely At The Top" which if you consider Peter's relationships with co-writers over the years is pretty appropriate.
Hopefully next Friday's special will be enjoyable and they'll be showing the original show again on Sunday which I'll definitely be seeing as it was very well observed and had some really funny moments.
The highlight of tonight however was Live At The Apollo with Sean Lock and Jason Manford. Jason in particular talked about things such as when he worked and got sacked from a cinema call center, how he was attached to the news of his team
Manchester City being brought by a Sheik, and how if he won the lottery he would spend the money buying all the seats for a Mick Hucknall concert and not turning up.
Mick has actually recieved a lifetime achievement award from John Myers and the GMG Radio Group which is rather appropriate considering how much of his stuff is played on Smooth Radio. I know he gets a lot of stick but a lot of his albums were on top form before in my opinion he started to decline after publishing stuff on his own label.
The superb "Stars" album was one of those featured on BBC 2's "Classic Albums" series and Mick said about how he really couldn't care less about the critics, with journalists writing down articles which obviously showed they were jealous about him getting involved with good looking girls and asking "why can't I get a bird!" with Mick saying that he just thought "you poor little twat!"
Although I probably come from that same point of view of those journalists with regards to other people in my class getting into the radio industry when I should be pulling my finger out.
I definitely need plenty of shut eye ahead of tomorrow, when I plan to start wrting my critical report for my feature, and hopefully get the whole thing done, Bish Bash Bosh.
But to finish with tonight, another offering from the Broom Cupboard and one of my favourite Edd The Duck moments with Lottie's presenter double making an appearance.
Highlights included their taken on David Cameron meeting Barack Obama although the most interesting part was the odd one out round consisting of West Ham United, a whale and the Tardis and something else I can't remember.
The Tardis was the odd one out as all the others were associated with bubbles although that's not exactly true as in the opening titles to Doctor Who from 1987 when Sylvester McCoy played the part there was a CGI Tardis inside a bubble of some sort.
Why that was the case I have no idea although it's probably the most ambitious title sequence from the original series.
The titles themselves were designed by BBC graphic designer Oliver Elmes who also made the iconic stripy BBC 2 ident from the early-mid 80s.
Anyway, after that I managed to watch Gavin and Stacey for the first time and although it wasn't laugh out loud funny, it didn't fall into the category of Chris Moyles and The ONE Show earlier today as it kept me watching and had it's moments. There was also some good music included as well such as "Brianstorm" by The Artic Monkeys in the bowling scene and Another Level's "Freak Me" playing when Smithy and the tubby welsh girl were sharing a KFC meal.
After that I managed to see Peter Kay's new video as Geraldine for her Christmas single, although where exactly were the jokes? It's probably an ongoing sign of the comedian running out of steam, although it is a music video and the proceeds for the single will be going to the NSPCC.
The video itself reminded me of his character Marc Park's song "Christmas 2000" from the final episode of "That Peter Kay Thing" despite the fact that the song was to be released in 1999.
Ironically the episode was called "Lonely At The Top" which if you consider Peter's relationships with co-writers over the years is pretty appropriate.
Hopefully next Friday's special will be enjoyable and they'll be showing the original show again on Sunday which I'll definitely be seeing as it was very well observed and had some really funny moments.
The highlight of tonight however was Live At The Apollo with Sean Lock and Jason Manford. Jason in particular talked about things such as when he worked and got sacked from a cinema call center, how he was attached to the news of his team
Manchester City being brought by a Sheik, and how if he won the lottery he would spend the money buying all the seats for a Mick Hucknall concert and not turning up.
Mick has actually recieved a lifetime achievement award from John Myers and the GMG Radio Group which is rather appropriate considering how much of his stuff is played on Smooth Radio. I know he gets a lot of stick but a lot of his albums were on top form before in my opinion he started to decline after publishing stuff on his own label.
The superb "Stars" album was one of those featured on BBC 2's "Classic Albums" series and Mick said about how he really couldn't care less about the critics, with journalists writing down articles which obviously showed they were jealous about him getting involved with good looking girls and asking "why can't I get a bird!" with Mick saying that he just thought "you poor little twat!"
Although I probably come from that same point of view of those journalists with regards to other people in my class getting into the radio industry when I should be pulling my finger out.
I definitely need plenty of shut eye ahead of tomorrow, when I plan to start wrting my critical report for my feature, and hopefully get the whole thing done, Bish Bash Bosh.
But to finish with tonight, another offering from the Broom Cupboard and one of my favourite Edd The Duck moments with Lottie's presenter double making an appearance.
"In Bingo Lingo Clickety Clicks, It's Time To Take Your Pick Of The Six!"
I'm really knackered for the second time today as I fell asleep for an hour at the wrong time, this time halfway through tonight's edition of The ONE Show as it wasn't really that interesting tonight and partly because I didn't have any proper sleep at after last night's chaos at Area.
Hopefully I'll get some well earned rest tonight ahead of what looks set to be another busy day tomorrow.
Earlier today I managed to find an article about the late Bob Monkhouse owning several tapes of his shows and many other artefacts of television up to the early 80s including rare examples of presentation and continuity that many a television fan would love to see.
Unlike many others who owned video recorders, Bob owned this footage on 16mm film and reel to reel tapes which would be quite a task to transfer but I know I'm not the only one who believes it would be worth every second of restoration.
The best part is that the title of the article relates to what I believe was not just Bob Monkhouse's finest programme, but what could be the best gameshow/quiz show ever made.
That being Bob's Full House, the original bingo based quiz which ran on Saturday nights on BBC 1 between 1984 and early 1990.
It had the perfect quick fire general knowledge format, Bob was able to crack jokes at any time, the audience could join in with all the different bingo numbers, and there was the noise the contestants buzzers made which sounded very similar to the sound a Blackberry makes when recieving a text message.
But what stood out overall was the music as composed by John Mealing, with not just the superb theme tune but the musical stings used for the prize cues as such, and the music used to introduce the Monkhouse Mastercard being one of my favourites, a round of which can be seen in this clip of the 1984 Christmas Special.
Along with the Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow, this was the highlight on many Saturday nights in front of the television in the late 80s and the format has been copied so many times but no one could pull it off in the same way as Bob.
Always able to joke about any subject, one of which being his battle with cancer when interviewed by Michael Parkinson in 2002, one year before his death in which the joke involved him going the doctors and asking "How long have I got to live?" to which the doctor replied "Five" and Bob asked "Five what, years?, months?" and the doctor said "four, three, two..."
Five years after his death he continues to be remembered as the definitive all round entertainer.
Hopefully I'll get some well earned rest tonight ahead of what looks set to be another busy day tomorrow.
Earlier today I managed to find an article about the late Bob Monkhouse owning several tapes of his shows and many other artefacts of television up to the early 80s including rare examples of presentation and continuity that many a television fan would love to see.
Unlike many others who owned video recorders, Bob owned this footage on 16mm film and reel to reel tapes which would be quite a task to transfer but I know I'm not the only one who believes it would be worth every second of restoration.
The best part is that the title of the article relates to what I believe was not just Bob Monkhouse's finest programme, but what could be the best gameshow/quiz show ever made.
That being Bob's Full House, the original bingo based quiz which ran on Saturday nights on BBC 1 between 1984 and early 1990.
It had the perfect quick fire general knowledge format, Bob was able to crack jokes at any time, the audience could join in with all the different bingo numbers, and there was the noise the contestants buzzers made which sounded very similar to the sound a Blackberry makes when recieving a text message.
But what stood out overall was the music as composed by John Mealing, with not just the superb theme tune but the musical stings used for the prize cues as such, and the music used to introduce the Monkhouse Mastercard being one of my favourites, a round of which can be seen in this clip of the 1984 Christmas Special.
Along with the Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow, this was the highlight on many Saturday nights in front of the television in the late 80s and the format has been copied so many times but no one could pull it off in the same way as Bob.
Always able to joke about any subject, one of which being his battle with cancer when interviewed by Michael Parkinson in 2002, one year before his death in which the joke involved him going the doctors and asking "How long have I got to live?" to which the doctor replied "Five" and Bob asked "Five what, years?, months?" and the doctor said "four, three, two..."
Five years after his death he continues to be remembered as the definitive all round entertainer.
The Last Vowel And Consonant
As planned I managed to watch (and record of course) Carol Vorderman's final edition of Countdown and before that I saw "One More Consonant" which was a light hearted interview from Giles Brandeth done in front of an audience. I liked how Giles introduced Carol as probably the most seen woman on television possibly only beaten by another Carol, that being the girl who played noughts and crosses at regular interludes throughout the 70s and early 80s.
There were also special guests including Kathy Hytner who was the original "letters girl" on the series when it started in 1982, Dictionary Corner guests Barry Norman, Paul Zenon and Rick Wakeman, Richard Whiteley's wife Katherine Apanowicz and of course Susie Dent.
There were plenty of vintage moments including plenty of funny bits involving both Carol and Richard who is still mentioned on the show today whenever his favourite word "Moonset" appears in the selection of letters chosen.
In fact along with Bob Holness, it's a show which has allowed many of it's younger viewers to learn their alphabet just by watching the programme.
The final show itself was done with no major frills and was a great grand final overall with two contestants from Oxford and Cambridge University respectively and I was fully behind Junaid who was from Oxford as I have a bit of a dislike for Cambridge University.
This is entirely down to the arrogance of CUR 1350 at this year's Student Radio Awards on picking up the award for "Best Chart Show" and urged the audience to listen to them and "hear how it should be done" which didn't really go down well.
Another reason is that Concha's son Tony has started at Oxford this semester although he came home last Friday and had to take all his belongings from his room as they're doing an inspection over Christmas.
The guest in dictionary corner for the final show was quite naturally Giles Brandreth who known for his bizarre jumpers was wearing an Oxford University t-shirt and it was well chosen as Junaid won what was a well played contest by both contestants although it didn't end in a crucial conundrum.
As usual I couldn't get any words as long as five letters although I did manage to guess the first teaser into the break which was "DDESOOSING" and the clue was something along the lines of "Gracious Me" which more or less gave it away.
Des's farewell consisted of a 30 second montage of the funniest moments over the last two years and Carol did get a bit tearful near the end and I felt a bit of the same as well.
Having watched the programme on and off for 17 years, it will be difficult to imagine the series without Carol putting up the letters and solving the numbers puzzles but I'm looking forward to seeing how Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley take the reigns in exactly one month today.
I managed to do my shopping and make a start on my cooking soon after by sorting out what I hope will be a lovely lamb and mushroom stew which I may have with conchiglie (jagged shell shaped) pasta.
After that it will probably be an evening spent in front of The ONE Show, Have I Got News For You with Jerry Springer as the host and Live At The Apollo featuring Sean Lock and Jason Manford both off of 8 Out Of Ten Cats.
In between the last two shows will be the premier of the video for Geraldine McQueen AKA Peter Kay's new Xmas single that would hilarious if that ended up knocking off the winner of the official X Factor final. Especially if it's Eggnog who wins.
Definitely a warm up for the follow-up programme next Friday which will feature
Ben Shepard following the progress of Geraldine after her victory on the spoof talent show.
Speaking of which New Year's Day sees Ben hosting the long awaited return of
The Krypton Factor on ITV1 which may make a bit more sense to people as to why I constantly refer to the programme when walking over the bike posts on the way back from a Monday night at the Underpants.
It's been scheduled in a rather strong slot up against Eastenders although considering it's the most popular show on television I'd prefer it if they moved Emmerdale to elsewhere in the schedule as it's on way too many times a week and the programme did really well in it's 7pm timeslot on a Monday night for many years.
I've also managed to find out who will be taking part in 2008's Big Fat Quiz Of The Year which will consist of Dara O'Brain, Davina McCall, Sean Lock, Michael McIntyre, James Corden and a woman who could possibly be one of Davina's doppelgangers that being Claudia Winkelman, although she has been really good when appearing on 8 Out Of 10 Cats.
As I type I'm in the SADiE room where I haven't been doing any editing as such but have helped a few of the others out including Phil H who wanted me to put together a loop of the intro to Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" for his feature on making the perfect party. It's now stuck in my head to annoying extent although I like the idea on how Phil plans to use it by having it as the music to illustrate travelling from one location to another.
I personally prefer ZZ Top's version.
There were also special guests including Kathy Hytner who was the original "letters girl" on the series when it started in 1982, Dictionary Corner guests Barry Norman, Paul Zenon and Rick Wakeman, Richard Whiteley's wife Katherine Apanowicz and of course Susie Dent.
There were plenty of vintage moments including plenty of funny bits involving both Carol and Richard who is still mentioned on the show today whenever his favourite word "Moonset" appears in the selection of letters chosen.
In fact along with Bob Holness, it's a show which has allowed many of it's younger viewers to learn their alphabet just by watching the programme.
The final show itself was done with no major frills and was a great grand final overall with two contestants from Oxford and Cambridge University respectively and I was fully behind Junaid who was from Oxford as I have a bit of a dislike for Cambridge University.
This is entirely down to the arrogance of CUR 1350 at this year's Student Radio Awards on picking up the award for "Best Chart Show" and urged the audience to listen to them and "hear how it should be done" which didn't really go down well.
Another reason is that Concha's son Tony has started at Oxford this semester although he came home last Friday and had to take all his belongings from his room as they're doing an inspection over Christmas.
The guest in dictionary corner for the final show was quite naturally Giles Brandreth who known for his bizarre jumpers was wearing an Oxford University t-shirt and it was well chosen as Junaid won what was a well played contest by both contestants although it didn't end in a crucial conundrum.
As usual I couldn't get any words as long as five letters although I did manage to guess the first teaser into the break which was "DDESOOSING" and the clue was something along the lines of "Gracious Me" which more or less gave it away.
Des's farewell consisted of a 30 second montage of the funniest moments over the last two years and Carol did get a bit tearful near the end and I felt a bit of the same as well.
Having watched the programme on and off for 17 years, it will be difficult to imagine the series without Carol putting up the letters and solving the numbers puzzles but I'm looking forward to seeing how Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley take the reigns in exactly one month today.
I managed to do my shopping and make a start on my cooking soon after by sorting out what I hope will be a lovely lamb and mushroom stew which I may have with conchiglie (jagged shell shaped) pasta.
After that it will probably be an evening spent in front of The ONE Show, Have I Got News For You with Jerry Springer as the host and Live At The Apollo featuring Sean Lock and Jason Manford both off of 8 Out Of Ten Cats.
In between the last two shows will be the premier of the video for Geraldine McQueen AKA Peter Kay's new Xmas single that would hilarious if that ended up knocking off the winner of the official X Factor final. Especially if it's Eggnog who wins.
Definitely a warm up for the follow-up programme next Friday which will feature
Ben Shepard following the progress of Geraldine after her victory on the spoof talent show.
Speaking of which New Year's Day sees Ben hosting the long awaited return of
The Krypton Factor on ITV1 which may make a bit more sense to people as to why I constantly refer to the programme when walking over the bike posts on the way back from a Monday night at the Underpants.
It's been scheduled in a rather strong slot up against Eastenders although considering it's the most popular show on television I'd prefer it if they moved Emmerdale to elsewhere in the schedule as it's on way too many times a week and the programme did really well in it's 7pm timeslot on a Monday night for many years.
I've also managed to find out who will be taking part in 2008's Big Fat Quiz Of The Year which will consist of Dara O'Brain, Davina McCall, Sean Lock, Michael McIntyre, James Corden and a woman who could possibly be one of Davina's doppelgangers that being Claudia Winkelman, although she has been really good when appearing on 8 Out Of 10 Cats.
As I type I'm in the SADiE room where I haven't been doing any editing as such but have helped a few of the others out including Phil H who wanted me to put together a loop of the intro to Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" for his feature on making the perfect party. It's now stuck in my head to annoying extent although I like the idea on how Phil plans to use it by having it as the music to illustrate travelling from one location to another.
I personally prefer ZZ Top's version.
"We're Heading For Venus"
As soon as I was about to head into town leaving the SADiE room
after four hours I was thinking "where's the weather gone?" as there was no sign of the lovely skies that were evident this morning on waking up.
Regardless of that I went into Harrow town centre which is completely decorated
and keeping me in a not too overly festive but postive mood for the first time in a few years.
I managed to buy Kate's birthday present which is a DVD, and I won't say which film it's of but the case wasn't sealed so I may have a gander at it this weekend and see if I can watch the said film for the first time without falling asleep halfway through.
Before I left I was having a listen to Matt and Rob's final show before Christmas on Smoke where they weren't happy about their photos from a few weeks ago not being added to the website so they rang up Manish who's helping to look after the site and ended up going to his voicemail.
Sound familiar?
What made it funnier was that after they finished the message one of them asked
"if Manish has a granddaughter" which resulted in everyone in the studio in stitches and resulted in me coming in when the mics went down and saying to them in a jokey manner "you can't do that!".
Something I normally do during Chas and Dave's show although it's all a bit of fun really.
In a few minutes I'll be heading back over to the flat to watch Carol Vorderman's special interview with Giles Brandreth prior to her last edition of Countdown which will be quite an interesting watch I'm sure. Hopefully her departure won't overshadow the winner of the final of the 59th series too much but I'm sure it will be a very significant moment in television to happen this year.
Afterwards I plan to head to Sainsbury's to buy a few wares and try my best to get hold of the oven as early as possible as I understand Suze is planning a rather big meal for the rest of the flat tonight.
As the saying goes "you snooze, you lose" a phrase often used by Iain Lee at LBC which I used to listen to a lot during my first year and even did a seminar on his show in one of the theory modules that went down well.
I've still got to get round to listening to the rather lengthy podcasts I have of his shows from Absolute Radio which are more or less in the same vein.
after four hours I was thinking "where's the weather gone?" as there was no sign of the lovely skies that were evident this morning on waking up.
Regardless of that I went into Harrow town centre which is completely decorated
and keeping me in a not too overly festive but postive mood for the first time in a few years.
I managed to buy Kate's birthday present which is a DVD, and I won't say which film it's of but the case wasn't sealed so I may have a gander at it this weekend and see if I can watch the said film for the first time without falling asleep halfway through.
Before I left I was having a listen to Matt and Rob's final show before Christmas on Smoke where they weren't happy about their photos from a few weeks ago not being added to the website so they rang up Manish who's helping to look after the site and ended up going to his voicemail.
Sound familiar?
What made it funnier was that after they finished the message one of them asked
"if Manish has a granddaughter" which resulted in everyone in the studio in stitches and resulted in me coming in when the mics went down and saying to them in a jokey manner "you can't do that!".
Something I normally do during Chas and Dave's show although it's all a bit of fun really.
In a few minutes I'll be heading back over to the flat to watch Carol Vorderman's special interview with Giles Brandreth prior to her last edition of Countdown which will be quite an interesting watch I'm sure. Hopefully her departure won't overshadow the winner of the final of the 59th series too much but I'm sure it will be a very significant moment in television to happen this year.
Afterwards I plan to head to Sainsbury's to buy a few wares and try my best to get hold of the oven as early as possible as I understand Suze is planning a rather big meal for the rest of the flat tonight.
As the saying goes "you snooze, you lose" a phrase often used by Iain Lee at LBC which I used to listen to a lot during my first year and even did a seminar on his show in one of the theory modules that went down well.
I've still got to get round to listening to the rather lengthy podcasts I have of his shows from Absolute Radio which are more or less in the same vein.
The Friday Comedown
Whenever I arrive in the radio rooms early I use every advantage I can to make use of the facilities before other people arrive. As well as recording my links I also recorded of my favourite quotes from last week's Strictly Come Dancing off iPlayer
including Bruce's reference to the Killer's "Human" and Len Goodman's utterance of the word "NeVER!".
I've also added some extra audio to my feature including the interview with Oli from yesterday although I feel I really need to re-record some of my links as I sound rather low in some of them.
The question is getting access to a studio as the second years are using them for their News and Magazine programmes although it didn't look as if they were even going to turn up due to last night's antics at Area.
Charles Carroll wasn't too pleased as punctuality is a requirement of the News part of the module and people can be marked down if they turn up late at any time.
I've brought both of my external hard drives in today so I can go through all my albums that I have to find any relevant music. One of the tracks I wanted to include was "Nana" by Jazztronik which I listened to this morning, although it didn't really fit in properly, so instead I decided to include the beginning of "There's Nothing Like This" by Omar in the part where I'm introducing Concha, as Omar grew up in Canterbury and the song itself fits in rather well.
I plan to end the feature with a slightly sped up version of David Bowie's "Heroes", to correspond with my own activity although you would think "The Laughing Gnome" would be more appropriate.
I may end up coming in over the weekend to do my links as this afternoon will be reserved for watching Carol Vorderman's final edition of Countdown after 26 years.
It's also Des's final show as well but when speaking to them at Area last night, Phil Landers and Spike were very positive about Jeff Stelling taking over as host as they see him reguarly on Sky Sports.
I guess I'll get used to him in a matter of time like I did with Des O'Connor although I very much doubt he'll be the equivalent of the rather monotone Des Lynam.
including Bruce's reference to the Killer's "Human" and Len Goodman's utterance of the word "NeVER!".
I've also added some extra audio to my feature including the interview with Oli from yesterday although I feel I really need to re-record some of my links as I sound rather low in some of them.
The question is getting access to a studio as the second years are using them for their News and Magazine programmes although it didn't look as if they were even going to turn up due to last night's antics at Area.
Charles Carroll wasn't too pleased as punctuality is a requirement of the News part of the module and people can be marked down if they turn up late at any time.
I've brought both of my external hard drives in today so I can go through all my albums that I have to find any relevant music. One of the tracks I wanted to include was "Nana" by Jazztronik which I listened to this morning, although it didn't really fit in properly, so instead I decided to include the beginning of "There's Nothing Like This" by Omar in the part where I'm introducing Concha, as Omar grew up in Canterbury and the song itself fits in rather well.
I plan to end the feature with a slightly sped up version of David Bowie's "Heroes", to correspond with my own activity although you would think "The Laughing Gnome" would be more appropriate.
I may end up coming in over the weekend to do my links as this afternoon will be reserved for watching Carol Vorderman's final edition of Countdown after 26 years.
It's also Des's final show as well but when speaking to them at Area last night, Phil Landers and Spike were very positive about Jeff Stelling taking over as host as they see him reguarly on Sky Sports.
I guess I'll get used to him in a matter of time like I did with Des O'Connor although I very much doubt he'll be the equivalent of the rather monotone Des Lynam.
"Westminster's Wonderland"
Due to all the excitement last night I didn't really get any sleep and pretty much stayed up for the rest of the night listening to music ranging from Take That's earlier less than succesfull hits i.e. "Once You've Tasted Love" to Paul Young's "Come Back And Stay" with a bit of Jazztronik and George Benson in between.
As it was approaching that time I decided to listen to a bit of Moyles although to use a rather bad pun, the opening link really was rather tedious and resulted in me falling asleep for the next hour only to be woken by my mobile going off just about 10 minutes ago.
However the "Brand New Cheesy Song" had a seasonal makeover with the addition of sleigh bells and has actually put me in a proper festive mood and well as the lovely pink sky outside with the frosty looking grass over Harrow Halls.
I'm just about to head over to the main campus to start work on hopefully completing my feature. Matthew isn't around today but will be on Monday although I really wouldn't want him to hear my feature so near towards the deadline.
I wouldn't be able to anyway because it will be almost to the point of completed and it would be to tempting for him to suggest what sort of mark it would get.
Here's hoping it's still icy on the opposite end of Harrow Halls.
As it was approaching that time I decided to listen to a bit of Moyles although to use a rather bad pun, the opening link really was rather tedious and resulted in me falling asleep for the next hour only to be woken by my mobile going off just about 10 minutes ago.
However the "Brand New Cheesy Song" had a seasonal makeover with the addition of sleigh bells and has actually put me in a proper festive mood and well as the lovely pink sky outside with the frosty looking grass over Harrow Halls.
I'm just about to head over to the main campus to start work on hopefully completing my feature. Matthew isn't around today but will be on Monday although I really wouldn't want him to hear my feature so near towards the deadline.
I wouldn't be able to anyway because it will be almost to the point of completed and it would be to tempting for him to suggest what sort of mark it would get.
Here's hoping it's still icy on the opposite end of Harrow Halls.
"Area! Area!"
As planned my night started off with the final edition of the current series Never Mind The Buzzcocks which for me ended with a whimper. Omid Djalili was disapointing as team captain although the majority of the limelight on tonight's show was directed at
Josh Groban, who Simon Amstell referred to as "the American equivalent of Paul Potts".
The show ended with a rather self indulgent rendition of the ever dreadful
"You Raise Me Up" from Simon which was nowhere near as funny as the send up of
"No Air" that both him and Phill performed at the start of the series.
I think the idea of guest captains has been mixed with the really good ones including Frank Skinner, Jack Dee, James Corden, and possibly Russell Brand if his episode will ever be transmitted. The less than impressive ones have included Mark Ronson,
Knob Mortimer and Davina McCall although for me, the ideal replacement for Bill would be Noel Fielding as proved last series as he's a lot better on that show as he is on The Mighty Boosh.
The same can also be said about his hilarious partnership with Russell Brand as "The Goth Dectectives".
Star Stories on the other hand was once again on top form, mainly as Kevin Bishop took a backseat this week with the part of Paul McCartney being played brilliantly by Steve Edge.
He was definitely wasted all those years ago on Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, and I'm pretty certain that he was one of many to have fallen out with the Bolton comedian over his career.
I actually thought Steve was better in his role as "Alan" in the precusor "That Peter Kay Thing" who appeared every week in a cameo role with some superb lines. I'm definitely looking forward to rewatching that series when I get round to it.
Back to Star Stories and the overall highlight was the portrayal of Ringo Starr who I believe actually colaborated with Paul on a few of his solo singles including
"Beautiful Night" according to the TV Cream Podcast which was mentioned here a few weeks ago.
The actor playing him got his voice spot on and I was wating for him to say
"and now here's Percy!"
I still can't think of him now without thinking of Simon Amstell's joke on Buzzcocks about how people responded to his plea to stop everyone sending fan mail to him.
Now on to the much awaited Area night and oh my, it was a lot better than I expected it to be.
As I arrived it was pretty bare although it picked up very quickly, with the first years sat round a table playing spin the bottle and Fiz spinning the rather groovy tunes from the likes of Neyo and Run DMC's "It's Like That" amongst others.
Phil Harris was outside recording more interviews for his feature on how to make the perfect party which features a contribution from the one and only Trevor Nelson and the CMP people including Emma Bannister and Bex were selling chocolates and sweeties to raise money for their project.
Matty ID and co-host Dani were on the cash register at the entrance before Sophie and Amy arrived to take over, and Bracey, Brinicombe and Emma Picton were there and on top form.
Rather oddly two of the Irish lads who don't actually go to our Uni turned up, them being Barry and Jay although Denis wasn't with them as like Chris he's probably tied up with his feature.
And Rogez and Rownez were there with James actually filming the event on a camera which I imagine is part of a project on his Film and TV course.
The VKs were £1 as promised although they sold out very quickly and I made sure that I brought the last 3 apple flavoured bottles. Being me however I accidentally ended up spilling them although it didn't do too much harm.
As the night went on Synamatix came on spinning some rather obscure beats which myself and Phil H took the mickey out of by pretending it was a special remix of "Jingle Bells" or "Winter Wonderland". Not directly of course.
However after midnight a true DJ champion came on, that being Decio who I'm glad was the headline act although I'd preferred it if he didn't shout and swear his head off into the mic as usual. We definitely got "the full 360" of music from him although I felt the need to start singing random song lyrics to tunes such as "The Hokey Cokey" being sung to Timbaland's "The Way I Are" and "Always There" by Incognito to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which has a very similar chord structure.
With all the stunning tunes coming one after the other, I ended up pretending to be Chris Tarrant on Tiswas by screeching "This Is What They Want!" and we even got a few Christmas tunes thrown in including Mariah of course, and Wham's "Last Christmas" which Phil actually refused to play on Monday night despite Chilvers hassling him to do so.
Towards the end of the night we got a medley of mid 90s anthems such as Bobby Brown, The Bucketheads and The Original's "I Luv U Baby" before the night came to an end with several seasonal tunes being played as the house lights came on including Slade, "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" and Wizzard before slowly fading out with another spin of Mariah which most of us where straining our throats to way after the song had disapeared.
As always in this sort of situation, most of us headed over to a flat party in halls with myself, Charles from the Chas and Dave Show, Matty ID, Matt from Leeds, Jade and Nicola amongst others heading to Flat 55 to start off with where we were joined by Bracey, Brincombe and Emma. It got a bit chaotic as a few people tried to smuggle themselves into one of the rooms where a few "intimate goings on" were taking place.
I stayed out of it as earlier this year a similar but less suggestive incident happened outside Area where I got told to "fuck off" and was actually really upset as there was no need for that as I just happened to walk past. If you want to be on your own, then take your personal activities to the bedroom rather than at the back of a "nightclub".
We didn't stay for too long as we headed off to Flat 22 near in the same building as my own flat where things got even more chaotic when they started to play a few uptempo tunes such as YMCA, a bit of Kelly Clarkson, and The Clash to name a few. Jade and Nicola decided to head off just before 3am and in good timing as well as shortly after we got a visit from the police.
One of the people in their rather foolishly decided to joke about with them which didn't get him into serious trouble but it wasn't really the right thing to do, especially in front of a police officer. I immediately headed back to my flat and I may end up having an all nighter as I need to be up at 8am to record more links for my feature which I hope to get completed by tomorrow.
I'm sure I'll want to make more changes to it over the weekend however although by Monday at the latest it will be all done and kaput.
Now I've got to start thinking of a cue....
Josh Groban, who Simon Amstell referred to as "the American equivalent of Paul Potts".
The show ended with a rather self indulgent rendition of the ever dreadful
"You Raise Me Up" from Simon which was nowhere near as funny as the send up of
"No Air" that both him and Phill performed at the start of the series.
I think the idea of guest captains has been mixed with the really good ones including Frank Skinner, Jack Dee, James Corden, and possibly Russell Brand if his episode will ever be transmitted. The less than impressive ones have included Mark Ronson,
Knob Mortimer and Davina McCall although for me, the ideal replacement for Bill would be Noel Fielding as proved last series as he's a lot better on that show as he is on The Mighty Boosh.
The same can also be said about his hilarious partnership with Russell Brand as "The Goth Dectectives".
Star Stories on the other hand was once again on top form, mainly as Kevin Bishop took a backseat this week with the part of Paul McCartney being played brilliantly by Steve Edge.
He was definitely wasted all those years ago on Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, and I'm pretty certain that he was one of many to have fallen out with the Bolton comedian over his career.
I actually thought Steve was better in his role as "Alan" in the precusor "That Peter Kay Thing" who appeared every week in a cameo role with some superb lines. I'm definitely looking forward to rewatching that series when I get round to it.
Back to Star Stories and the overall highlight was the portrayal of Ringo Starr who I believe actually colaborated with Paul on a few of his solo singles including
"Beautiful Night" according to the TV Cream Podcast which was mentioned here a few weeks ago.
The actor playing him got his voice spot on and I was wating for him to say
"and now here's Percy!"
I still can't think of him now without thinking of Simon Amstell's joke on Buzzcocks about how people responded to his plea to stop everyone sending fan mail to him.
Now on to the much awaited Area night and oh my, it was a lot better than I expected it to be.
As I arrived it was pretty bare although it picked up very quickly, with the first years sat round a table playing spin the bottle and Fiz spinning the rather groovy tunes from the likes of Neyo and Run DMC's "It's Like That" amongst others.
Phil Harris was outside recording more interviews for his feature on how to make the perfect party which features a contribution from the one and only Trevor Nelson and the CMP people including Emma Bannister and Bex were selling chocolates and sweeties to raise money for their project.
Matty ID and co-host Dani were on the cash register at the entrance before Sophie and Amy arrived to take over, and Bracey, Brinicombe and Emma Picton were there and on top form.
Rather oddly two of the Irish lads who don't actually go to our Uni turned up, them being Barry and Jay although Denis wasn't with them as like Chris he's probably tied up with his feature.
And Rogez and Rownez were there with James actually filming the event on a camera which I imagine is part of a project on his Film and TV course.
The VKs were £1 as promised although they sold out very quickly and I made sure that I brought the last 3 apple flavoured bottles. Being me however I accidentally ended up spilling them although it didn't do too much harm.
As the night went on Synamatix came on spinning some rather obscure beats which myself and Phil H took the mickey out of by pretending it was a special remix of "Jingle Bells" or "Winter Wonderland". Not directly of course.
However after midnight a true DJ champion came on, that being Decio who I'm glad was the headline act although I'd preferred it if he didn't shout and swear his head off into the mic as usual. We definitely got "the full 360" of music from him although I felt the need to start singing random song lyrics to tunes such as "The Hokey Cokey" being sung to Timbaland's "The Way I Are" and "Always There" by Incognito to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which has a very similar chord structure.
With all the stunning tunes coming one after the other, I ended up pretending to be Chris Tarrant on Tiswas by screeching "This Is What They Want!" and we even got a few Christmas tunes thrown in including Mariah of course, and Wham's "Last Christmas" which Phil actually refused to play on Monday night despite Chilvers hassling him to do so.
Towards the end of the night we got a medley of mid 90s anthems such as Bobby Brown, The Bucketheads and The Original's "I Luv U Baby" before the night came to an end with several seasonal tunes being played as the house lights came on including Slade, "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" and Wizzard before slowly fading out with another spin of Mariah which most of us where straining our throats to way after the song had disapeared.
As always in this sort of situation, most of us headed over to a flat party in halls with myself, Charles from the Chas and Dave Show, Matty ID, Matt from Leeds, Jade and Nicola amongst others heading to Flat 55 to start off with where we were joined by Bracey, Brincombe and Emma. It got a bit chaotic as a few people tried to smuggle themselves into one of the rooms where a few "intimate goings on" were taking place.
I stayed out of it as earlier this year a similar but less suggestive incident happened outside Area where I got told to "fuck off" and was actually really upset as there was no need for that as I just happened to walk past. If you want to be on your own, then take your personal activities to the bedroom rather than at the back of a "nightclub".
We didn't stay for too long as we headed off to Flat 22 near in the same building as my own flat where things got even more chaotic when they started to play a few uptempo tunes such as YMCA, a bit of Kelly Clarkson, and The Clash to name a few. Jade and Nicola decided to head off just before 3am and in good timing as well as shortly after we got a visit from the police.
One of the people in their rather foolishly decided to joke about with them which didn't get him into serious trouble but it wasn't really the right thing to do, especially in front of a police officer. I immediately headed back to my flat and I may end up having an all nighter as I need to be up at 8am to record more links for my feature which I hope to get completed by tomorrow.
I'm sure I'll want to make more changes to it over the weekend however although by Monday at the latest it will be all done and kaput.
Now I've got to start thinking of a cue....
Thursday, December 11, 2008
"Stop Your Messing Around"
The ideal recovery from a long day is definitely being sat in front of The ONE Show.
Tonight's edition happened to feature legendary rockers Status Quo as the guests and there was an item on online ticket touting which I'm sure Denis would find interesting as he happens to be doing his feature on that very subject.
I haven't seen him in the SADiE rooms at all however so I'm hoping it's not going more tougher than expected.
On the subject of tickets however I managed to order ones for the Specials gig at the Brixton Academy on the 12th of May which I'm definitely looking forward to and could possibly be one of the biggest performances I go to this year.
Once again I've gone for the option of printing the tickets out but the printer in RP1 is absolutley shite.
It will probably be a case of having to print them out back in Canterbury but there's plenty of time for that.
I also need to print out my SCD tickets as well which is a lot closer, so that will be one of my main aims when back in Canterbury this Christmas.
Well I won't actually be in Canterbury this Christmas but I'm sure you know where I'm coming from.
Tonight's edition happened to feature legendary rockers Status Quo as the guests and there was an item on online ticket touting which I'm sure Denis would find interesting as he happens to be doing his feature on that very subject.
I haven't seen him in the SADiE rooms at all however so I'm hoping it's not going more tougher than expected.
On the subject of tickets however I managed to order ones for the Specials gig at the Brixton Academy on the 12th of May which I'm definitely looking forward to and could possibly be one of the biggest performances I go to this year.
Once again I've gone for the option of printing the tickets out but the printer in RP1 is absolutley shite.
It will probably be a case of having to print them out back in Canterbury but there's plenty of time for that.
I also need to print out my SCD tickets as well which is a lot closer, so that will be one of my main aims when back in Canterbury this Christmas.
Well I won't actually be in Canterbury this Christmas but I'm sure you know where I'm coming from.
Party Mood?
As mentioned many times it's the big end of termer at Area 51 tonight but hardly anyone in the radio rooms seem that enthusiastic about it.
That's the right sort of encouragement to persuade me to come along, oh yes.
Then again Monday was an absolute riot, well maybe that's a too far way to put it but it will be interesting to see how it all goes in terms of everyone going insane.
I won't be going however until I've watched tonight's edition of Buzzcocks with Omid Djalili as the guest captain and Star Stories which this week features Heather Mills being lampooned.
With regards to the former, I wasn't too keen on Omid's own series but thought he was brilliant as a guest host last year on Have I Got News For You.
I think it was the first thing I actually laughed at after I fell ill, although it was mainly because of his "Iranian dancing".
Although his finest musical moment was in the trail for his own show and an amusing take on a Sting song. And I'm sure that's Amy Winehouse who appears at 0:50.
With regards to the guest list none of us third years are getting in for free which is rather ungrateful considering what Phil did for them at his Area events, although in my case I probably don't deserve to get in for free. They'll probably charge me twice the price I'd imagine.
Stewart's the only expection although he's actually working behind the bar and hopefully they'll have some Smirnoff Ices there.
As for the DJ's I'm only really looking forward to Fiz, and the legend that is Decio who I hope will be spinning a wide range of party tunes in his usual manner.
The big problem is getting up the next day as I aim to be up at around 8am to record more links for my feature and if it's really packed I'm bound to start boogieing.
That's the right sort of encouragement to persuade me to come along, oh yes.
Then again Monday was an absolute riot, well maybe that's a too far way to put it but it will be interesting to see how it all goes in terms of everyone going insane.
I won't be going however until I've watched tonight's edition of Buzzcocks with Omid Djalili as the guest captain and Star Stories which this week features Heather Mills being lampooned.
With regards to the former, I wasn't too keen on Omid's own series but thought he was brilliant as a guest host last year on Have I Got News For You.
I think it was the first thing I actually laughed at after I fell ill, although it was mainly because of his "Iranian dancing".
Although his finest musical moment was in the trail for his own show and an amusing take on a Sting song. And I'm sure that's Amy Winehouse who appears at 0:50.
With regards to the guest list none of us third years are getting in for free which is rather ungrateful considering what Phil did for them at his Area events, although in my case I probably don't deserve to get in for free. They'll probably charge me twice the price I'd imagine.
Stewart's the only expection although he's actually working behind the bar and hopefully they'll have some Smirnoff Ices there.
As for the DJ's I'm only really looking forward to Fiz, and the legend that is Decio who I hope will be spinning a wide range of party tunes in his usual manner.
The big problem is getting up the next day as I aim to be up at around 8am to record more links for my feature and if it's really packed I'm bound to start boogieing.
The "Heart" Of East England?
I've spent most of the day in the SADiE room where Sam has come in to edit her feature alongside a few of the others.
She told me about how at the TLRC Xmas party last night that she's likely to go redundant again due to a possible merger between her station South Bucks Mix 107 and Mix 96 in Aylesbury which means that they'll probably move into the Aylesbury headquarters.
As Sam's been a freelancer since last May she isn't getting any money as part of the redundancy and instead got some chocolates before the person giving it to her revealed what was going to happen.
What's more concerning is that it could have effects on Jazz FM as they come from the same studios as Mix 107 although they do have shows recorded up north such as Steve Quirk's show, and Robbie Vincent does his show from one of the KMFM studios in North Kent as he lives in that area.
This really is a dark time for radio as according to Radio Today the first Heart rebrandings are due to take place on the 5th of January in the East of England with long standing names such as Radio Broadland, Hereward FM, and Chiltern Radio disapearing alongside SGR and Northants 96.
The visit to Norfolk this Christmas really will be the last time I will get to hear those stations under those names and it's just another nail in the coffin for the long decline of commercial radio in the UK.
I'm really not feeling it today with what's happening although I hope things brighten up at the Area night tonight.
And to any of those DJing, please can we have at least one Christmas tune near the end?
She told me about how at the TLRC Xmas party last night that she's likely to go redundant again due to a possible merger between her station South Bucks Mix 107 and Mix 96 in Aylesbury which means that they'll probably move into the Aylesbury headquarters.
As Sam's been a freelancer since last May she isn't getting any money as part of the redundancy and instead got some chocolates before the person giving it to her revealed what was going to happen.
What's more concerning is that it could have effects on Jazz FM as they come from the same studios as Mix 107 although they do have shows recorded up north such as Steve Quirk's show, and Robbie Vincent does his show from one of the KMFM studios in North Kent as he lives in that area.
This really is a dark time for radio as according to Radio Today the first Heart rebrandings are due to take place on the 5th of January in the East of England with long standing names such as Radio Broadland, Hereward FM, and Chiltern Radio disapearing alongside SGR and Northants 96.
The visit to Norfolk this Christmas really will be the last time I will get to hear those stations under those names and it's just another nail in the coffin for the long decline of commercial radio in the UK.
I'm really not feeling it today with what's happening although I hope things brighten up at the Area night tonight.
And to any of those DJing, please can we have at least one Christmas tune near the end?
Solitary Setbacks
I could see it coming eventually but I'm not too discouraged.
Basically Laura, my interviewee for later has ended up working in Hounslow today due to the nature of her job and will be finishing much later than planned so we've had to abandon the planned interview which is a bit of a setback. However it will be something to write about in the critical report and at present I've got about 14 and a half minutes of material edited anyway so when I put in the rest of my links, I'll probably have to cut out some of the stuff anyway.
However I wouldn't want to play what I've got to Matthew at this time as it will probably make things even more stressfull and with regards to what's happened.
It's actually our final chance to play what we've edited so far to Matthew so hopefully a few more people will turn up. Then again, some haven't even started editing so it could be even more complicated.
I may actually grab Oli P sometime today just to get a few words from him on Caporeira, as it was him who got me the interview with the instructor and I reckon it would be good to use him in the introduction with people saying why they enjoy doing things on their own.
Making a radio feature on the course will always have it's setbacks but with the interviews that I've got, I should be able to carry the whole thing off well and I'm hoping it will get at least 60%.
Basically Laura, my interviewee for later has ended up working in Hounslow today due to the nature of her job and will be finishing much later than planned so we've had to abandon the planned interview which is a bit of a setback. However it will be something to write about in the critical report and at present I've got about 14 and a half minutes of material edited anyway so when I put in the rest of my links, I'll probably have to cut out some of the stuff anyway.
However I wouldn't want to play what I've got to Matthew at this time as it will probably make things even more stressfull and with regards to what's happened.
It's actually our final chance to play what we've edited so far to Matthew so hopefully a few more people will turn up. Then again, some haven't even started editing so it could be even more complicated.
I may actually grab Oli P sometime today just to get a few words from him on Caporeira, as it was him who got me the interview with the instructor and I reckon it would be good to use him in the introduction with people saying why they enjoy doing things on their own.
Making a radio feature on the course will always have it's setbacks but with the interviews that I've got, I should be able to carry the whole thing off well and I'm hoping it will get at least 60%.
The Best Line Up In Over A Decade?
I finally managed to read the Christmas edition of the Radio Times last night and there's so much good stuff ahead in the next couple of weeks.
Highlights include seasonal editions of The Sunday Night Project with Simon Pegg presenting, Gavin and Stacey who also gave an interview hinting what would happen if they made a third series, and Russell Brand's Ponderland which will probably have me in stitches even if it is juvenile at times.
On the day itself however, BBC 1 really do have the best line up consisting of Doctor Who, Strictly Come Dancing, and the new Wallace and Gromit film "A Matter Of Loaf and Death" sandwiched between the two episodes of Eastenders.
In addition to that there's a new episode of the Royle Family although Ralf Little will be absent, and what looks set to be a very interesting documentary on Blackadder with all of the main actors being interviewed together for the first time.
BBC 2 are even going nostalgic on Boxing Day with the 1975 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special and a festive edtion of The Generation Game from 1973 in the ideal way to remember the late Bill Cotton.
There's also a TV Burp review of the year which should provide a few laughs considering my mums elder sister and her family are big fans of the man with the big collars and to top it all there's the 2008 Big Fat Quiz of the Year with Jimmy Carr which for me is a staple of the Christmas schedule in the same way as Top Of The Pops is on Christmas Day.
I don't know who the celebrities are that will be taking part but I doubt Jonathan Ross will be one of them.
In fact with regards to Top Of The Pops it's making two appearances this year including a New Year Special and BBC 2 will be showing quite a few editions of TOTP2.
Just after the New Year Channel 4 will be bringing back Celebrity Big Brother for 2009 which I'll probably watch the first episode and go off the series after that as the main show itself isn't as fun and irreverent as most other shows of a similar nature.
Big Mouth is coming back on E4 however which is usually good for a laugh.
I'd imagine when watching the launch show I'll be tempted to shout "Who are ya!" at the television screen in the likely situation of any models going in.
Radio on the other hand is pretty disapointing this year although this coming Monday there's a special edition of David Mitchell's "Unbelievable Truth", and Trevor Nelson will be seeing in the New Year in a very soulful manner on Radio 2.
There's also a two part documentary hosted by Paul O'Grady looking at the life of the late Bill Cotton who commisioned shows for the BBC such as Top Of The Pops, Dad's Army and The Two Ronnies amongst many others.
It's also worth mentioning BBC Local Radio as it's the only time of year they let
Peter Stewart in as a presenter as he happens to be appearing on BBC Radio Kent on both Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Whether I'll be able to hear him is another thing but I imagine things will be quite crazy on air considering his presenting style.
But the overall highlight in the radio schedule comes on Friday the 2nd of January where Radio 1 sees the long awaited return of the legendary Ten Hour Takeover allowing listeners to raid the biggest record library in the world. It's got a pretty good presenting line up too (with the possible exception of Colin Murray) consisting of Annie Mac and Greg James who's done really well this year proving that there is possibly a future for radio.
Overall it looks like it's going to be one of the strongest years in terms of entertainment this festive period.
Highlights include seasonal editions of The Sunday Night Project with Simon Pegg presenting, Gavin and Stacey who also gave an interview hinting what would happen if they made a third series, and Russell Brand's Ponderland which will probably have me in stitches even if it is juvenile at times.
On the day itself however, BBC 1 really do have the best line up consisting of Doctor Who, Strictly Come Dancing, and the new Wallace and Gromit film "A Matter Of Loaf and Death" sandwiched between the two episodes of Eastenders.
In addition to that there's a new episode of the Royle Family although Ralf Little will be absent, and what looks set to be a very interesting documentary on Blackadder with all of the main actors being interviewed together for the first time.
BBC 2 are even going nostalgic on Boxing Day with the 1975 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special and a festive edtion of The Generation Game from 1973 in the ideal way to remember the late Bill Cotton.
There's also a TV Burp review of the year which should provide a few laughs considering my mums elder sister and her family are big fans of the man with the big collars and to top it all there's the 2008 Big Fat Quiz of the Year with Jimmy Carr which for me is a staple of the Christmas schedule in the same way as Top Of The Pops is on Christmas Day.
I don't know who the celebrities are that will be taking part but I doubt Jonathan Ross will be one of them.
In fact with regards to Top Of The Pops it's making two appearances this year including a New Year Special and BBC 2 will be showing quite a few editions of TOTP2.
Just after the New Year Channel 4 will be bringing back Celebrity Big Brother for 2009 which I'll probably watch the first episode and go off the series after that as the main show itself isn't as fun and irreverent as most other shows of a similar nature.
Big Mouth is coming back on E4 however which is usually good for a laugh.
I'd imagine when watching the launch show I'll be tempted to shout "Who are ya!" at the television screen in the likely situation of any models going in.
Radio on the other hand is pretty disapointing this year although this coming Monday there's a special edition of David Mitchell's "Unbelievable Truth", and Trevor Nelson will be seeing in the New Year in a very soulful manner on Radio 2.
There's also a two part documentary hosted by Paul O'Grady looking at the life of the late Bill Cotton who commisioned shows for the BBC such as Top Of The Pops, Dad's Army and The Two Ronnies amongst many others.
It's also worth mentioning BBC Local Radio as it's the only time of year they let
Peter Stewart in as a presenter as he happens to be appearing on BBC Radio Kent on both Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Whether I'll be able to hear him is another thing but I imagine things will be quite crazy on air considering his presenting style.
But the overall highlight in the radio schedule comes on Friday the 2nd of January where Radio 1 sees the long awaited return of the legendary Ten Hour Takeover allowing listeners to raid the biggest record library in the world. It's got a pretty good presenting line up too (with the possible exception of Colin Murray) consisting of Annie Mac and Greg James who's done really well this year proving that there is possibly a future for radio.
Overall it looks like it's going to be one of the strongest years in terms of entertainment this festive period.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Far From Regional
With the company or the brand name at least about to go kaput, this clip takes us back to 1996 and continuity from Westcountry in the South West leading into an edition of The Chart Show and I love how the announcer refers to it as
"The Westcountry Chart Show" showing how proud their region was of it's local identity.
Very few of the classic countdowns uploaded onto Youtube have actual continuity beforehand but in most regions it was normally done over a static version of the station ident as opposed to using music, and that really set the anticipation.
It was definitely the case with TVS and LWT at the time when I used to watch the programme.
When I went to visit Westminster alumni Tim in Devon a few years ago he mentioned about one of his ex colleagues at Lantern who became a reporter on Westcountry Live although with all the mergers taking place I'd imagine that he may be one of those affected when the South West merges with the ITV West region which for me will be a sad day as I have a bit of a grudge against the Bristol and Wilstshire area whereas I love the coastal parts of the South West.
Having said that Tim has always had a dislike for Cornwall and has sworn never to work there in his radio career so I guess it stems even closer.
Yorkshire however is staying the same with Calendar still in existance although it's odd to think that prior to 1968, that part of the country was covered by Granada in addition to their Manchester coverage.
Having said that all the regional news programmes have exactly the same set and signature tune based loosely around the original News At Ten theme that has been adapted for ITV's main bulletins.
Although it's only really the four notes that bring any traces of Johnny Pearson's original theme that would still catch me off guard at the worst of times although it's still one of the best television news themes ever.
"The Westcountry Chart Show" showing how proud their region was of it's local identity.
Very few of the classic countdowns uploaded onto Youtube have actual continuity beforehand but in most regions it was normally done over a static version of the station ident as opposed to using music, and that really set the anticipation.
It was definitely the case with TVS and LWT at the time when I used to watch the programme.
When I went to visit Westminster alumni Tim in Devon a few years ago he mentioned about one of his ex colleagues at Lantern who became a reporter on Westcountry Live although with all the mergers taking place I'd imagine that he may be one of those affected when the South West merges with the ITV West region which for me will be a sad day as I have a bit of a grudge against the Bristol and Wilstshire area whereas I love the coastal parts of the South West.
Having said that Tim has always had a dislike for Cornwall and has sworn never to work there in his radio career so I guess it stems even closer.
Yorkshire however is staying the same with Calendar still in existance although it's odd to think that prior to 1968, that part of the country was covered by Granada in addition to their Manchester coverage.
Having said that all the regional news programmes have exactly the same set and signature tune based loosely around the original News At Ten theme that has been adapted for ITV's main bulletins.
Although it's only really the four notes that bring any traces of Johnny Pearson's original theme that would still catch me off guard at the worst of times although it's still one of the best television news themes ever.
"What's That Joker? You'll Be Back?, Somehow I Don't Think You Will Be!"
With the Undercroft closed next week, the halls residential assistants are organising a screening next Monday of The Dark Knight which I may actually go and see as they've got a great big projector and it will be interesting to see how the scenes that were recorded in our very own TV studios on the Harrow Campus last May were interpreted in the film itself.
With regards to Tuesday's Trinity night the blurb that Phil H has put on the Facebook event mentions that "No more radio work ever again!" which in my case probably relates to the long term.
Just before heading to the Undercroft this evening we had a chat with Dan about being able to spot those who will have no chance of getting into the industry.
Danielle's really going to show them what she's made of next year with her no nonsense persona which she's had since starting the course.
As for the tonight, I spent the last hour watching "The Cheryl Cole Factor" on Five which once again came from Ross Goodlass's company Zig Zag Productions. Well, he works for them at least.
The documentary managed to emphasise the fact that she falls into the category of being one of the best looking women in the UK married to one of
the country's biggest twats. I'll go onto that later.
The programme looked at how like Ant & Dec, Cheryl Tweedy to give her her maiden name grew up in a rough council estate in Newcastle and how she found early fame appearing aged 7 in a British Gas advert.
It then went onto her audition and appearances on
Popstars The Rivals (bop, bop, doo waaahh!) or as presenter Davina McCall referred to it; "Popstars: THE RIVALS!"
I thought it was a dreadful series, especially as it followed on from the success of
Pop Idol that had clearly done a better job than the original series, and now they were trying to emulate them unsucessfully.
Harry Hill on TV Burp around the time made some hilarious jokes about Pete Waterman's age with lines such as "he cried when dodos became extinct!, THAT'S how old he is!"
Points were made about how Cheryl stood out in terms of looks out of all the members of Girls Aloud, but until she started appearing on the X-Factor, the band member who fell into that category for me was Irish Nadine. And of course Nicola stood out but not necessarily for those reasons.
It also looked at Cheryl's relationship with Ashley Cole and how she managed to survive despite the controversy of his autobiography which revealed he demanded wages of 60K when playing for Arsenal when he was only getting £55,000 a week.
Definitely one of many who's managed to put the "arse" in Arsenal and the documentary showed that even a lot of the Chelsea fans don't like him.
The wedding photos in OK magazine also reminded me of how in the Ant & Dec documentary, that when Ant got married to Lisa Armstrong from 90s band Deuce, there were no magazines at all and it was just family, friends and ex Byker Grove co-stars who were invited to the wedding showing how despite their success they've very much stayed on the ground.
The contributors to the programme included fellow Geordies Simon Donald from Viz, and
Carole Malone who writes for the News Of The World and was a contestant two years ago on Celebrity Big Brother alongside Donny Tourette and Shilpa Shetty, leaving just before the row with Jade broke out.
There was also quite a bit of Pete Waterman in their as well, who still refers to her as a "kid" like everyone else below his age and I reckon he's still bitter about how they completely outshone One True Voice.
But the most unexpected interviewees appeared near the end of the programme,
that being "Ant & Seb" who auditioned earlier in the current series of X Factor but were really annoyed about being rejected to the point they reportedly refused to appear alongside the rubbish singers in a big musical number at the end of the series in the usual tradition.
However if they're happy to do so on that documentary, here's hoping they'll make an appearance on this Saturday's final.
With regards to Tuesday's Trinity night the blurb that Phil H has put on the Facebook event mentions that "No more radio work ever again!" which in my case probably relates to the long term.
Just before heading to the Undercroft this evening we had a chat with Dan about being able to spot those who will have no chance of getting into the industry.
Danielle's really going to show them what she's made of next year with her no nonsense persona which she's had since starting the course.
As for the tonight, I spent the last hour watching "The Cheryl Cole Factor" on Five which once again came from Ross Goodlass's company Zig Zag Productions. Well, he works for them at least.
The documentary managed to emphasise the fact that she falls into the category of being one of the best looking women in the UK married to one of
the country's biggest twats. I'll go onto that later.
The programme looked at how like Ant & Dec, Cheryl Tweedy to give her her maiden name grew up in a rough council estate in Newcastle and how she found early fame appearing aged 7 in a British Gas advert.
It then went onto her audition and appearances on
Popstars The Rivals (bop, bop, doo waaahh!) or as presenter Davina McCall referred to it; "Popstars: THE RIVALS!"
I thought it was a dreadful series, especially as it followed on from the success of
Pop Idol that had clearly done a better job than the original series, and now they were trying to emulate them unsucessfully.
Harry Hill on TV Burp around the time made some hilarious jokes about Pete Waterman's age with lines such as "he cried when dodos became extinct!, THAT'S how old he is!"
Points were made about how Cheryl stood out in terms of looks out of all the members of Girls Aloud, but until she started appearing on the X-Factor, the band member who fell into that category for me was Irish Nadine. And of course Nicola stood out but not necessarily for those reasons.
It also looked at Cheryl's relationship with Ashley Cole and how she managed to survive despite the controversy of his autobiography which revealed he demanded wages of 60K when playing for Arsenal when he was only getting £55,000 a week.
Definitely one of many who's managed to put the "arse" in Arsenal and the documentary showed that even a lot of the Chelsea fans don't like him.
The wedding photos in OK magazine also reminded me of how in the Ant & Dec documentary, that when Ant got married to Lisa Armstrong from 90s band Deuce, there were no magazines at all and it was just family, friends and ex Byker Grove co-stars who were invited to the wedding showing how despite their success they've very much stayed on the ground.
The contributors to the programme included fellow Geordies Simon Donald from Viz, and
Carole Malone who writes for the News Of The World and was a contestant two years ago on Celebrity Big Brother alongside Donny Tourette and Shilpa Shetty, leaving just before the row with Jade broke out.
There was also quite a bit of Pete Waterman in their as well, who still refers to her as a "kid" like everyone else below his age and I reckon he's still bitter about how they completely outshone One True Voice.
But the most unexpected interviewees appeared near the end of the programme,
that being "Ant & Seb" who auditioned earlier in the current series of X Factor but were really annoyed about being rejected to the point they reportedly refused to appear alongside the rubbish singers in a big musical number at the end of the series in the usual tradition.
However if they're happy to do so on that documentary, here's hoping they'll make an appearance on this Saturday's final.
Contagious Cocktails
We've all been reserved our dissertation supervisors and I've ended up with a woman called Anastasia Kavada who I haven't seen for a long time as she was my seminar leader in the Social Theory module way back in the first year in late 2005.
I've got on with her well however and it will be interesting to see how she takes on my idea and her suggestions for taking it further, or in all honesty making more sense out of it.
Phil Landers, Stewart, and Eric on the other hand have been lucky enough to have Matthew as their dissertation supervisor although in all fairness their ones are probably more radio related than mine, especially Phil's as his one is focusing on the relationship between a producer and the presenter.
I'd definitely reccomend reading Peter Stewart's Essential Radio Skills as it contains an awful lot of information within that area.
With regards to the above, I knew from the beginning that my dissertation would be more television than radio related although I may include examples of radio with regards to developments in entertainment programming in general.
Before tonight's show I headed off down the Undercroft with the two Phils where it was cocktail night and I decided to have "Sex On The Beach" or so to say. One was definitely enough although that didn't stop me from having a few Smirnoff Ices. I'd imagine that they'll have run out at Area tomorrow night.
Speaking of which I made sure to plug that event on my show not just to continue the anticipation, but to repay the favour for Dan and Sophie for mentioning my DJ spot at the Underpants on Monday. I even went to the extent of doing the show with the door open as it can get so hot in the studio at the worst of times.
In addition to that got a phone call from Laura who I hope to be meeting at Liverpool Street station tomorrow although the big question is where I am I going to do the interview?
With that in mind Phil Landers kindly let me borrow his battery charger for his Marantz as he has a habit of leaving it in the SADiE room which hasn't gone down well with the techies but I'm sure that's not a big deal really.
In the unlikely situation of it being nicked he won't have to pay even half as much as Alex Hill did after he drunkenly mislaid a camera at Kebabland during Freshers Week in 2007.
I'm having it easy tonight ahead of the interview and Area tomorrow evening and I'm struggling to decide what sort of pasta to have with last nights mince that I made for my spag bol.
On a similar note one of the aims for the new year is to eat a lot more fish as I've never even thought of doing so whilst I've been at Uni. The ideal meal would be smoked haddock and pasta which oddly enough I've never actually had before although it really sounds appealing.
It probably won't be an early start tomorrow morning as there's barely anything to edit and I need at least one day which doesn't involve me being in the radio rooms from 8am-9pm.
I've got on with her well however and it will be interesting to see how she takes on my idea and her suggestions for taking it further, or in all honesty making more sense out of it.
Phil Landers, Stewart, and Eric on the other hand have been lucky enough to have Matthew as their dissertation supervisor although in all fairness their ones are probably more radio related than mine, especially Phil's as his one is focusing on the relationship between a producer and the presenter.
I'd definitely reccomend reading Peter Stewart's Essential Radio Skills as it contains an awful lot of information within that area.
With regards to the above, I knew from the beginning that my dissertation would be more television than radio related although I may include examples of radio with regards to developments in entertainment programming in general.
Before tonight's show I headed off down the Undercroft with the two Phils where it was cocktail night and I decided to have "Sex On The Beach" or so to say. One was definitely enough although that didn't stop me from having a few Smirnoff Ices. I'd imagine that they'll have run out at Area tomorrow night.
Speaking of which I made sure to plug that event on my show not just to continue the anticipation, but to repay the favour for Dan and Sophie for mentioning my DJ spot at the Underpants on Monday. I even went to the extent of doing the show with the door open as it can get so hot in the studio at the worst of times.
In addition to that got a phone call from Laura who I hope to be meeting at Liverpool Street station tomorrow although the big question is where I am I going to do the interview?
With that in mind Phil Landers kindly let me borrow his battery charger for his Marantz as he has a habit of leaving it in the SADiE room which hasn't gone down well with the techies but I'm sure that's not a big deal really.
In the unlikely situation of it being nicked he won't have to pay even half as much as Alex Hill did after he drunkenly mislaid a camera at Kebabland during Freshers Week in 2007.
I'm having it easy tonight ahead of the interview and Area tomorrow evening and I'm struggling to decide what sort of pasta to have with last nights mince that I made for my spag bol.
On a similar note one of the aims for the new year is to eat a lot more fish as I've never even thought of doing so whilst I've been at Uni. The ideal meal would be smoked haddock and pasta which oddly enough I've never actually had before although it really sounds appealing.
It probably won't be an early start tomorrow morning as there's barely anything to edit and I need at least one day which doesn't involve me being in the radio rooms from 8am-9pm.
The Dezza Babe Returns
Danielle made a visit back to see us and I'm gutted that she had to withdraw the Advanced Radio module this year for personal reasons.
She says she's dyed her hair again although I haven't really noticed any difference and it sounds like she's getting on OK now.
However, this means that she'll now have to repeat the module the following year but she's taking the right route about it by doing what I did, i.e. taking two theory modules this year and returning for the practical project and the dissertation in Autumn 2009.
I'm sure that Lottie, Dan and all that lot will find her really useful when it comes to taking notes from meetings and making sure things overall are organised.
I'm guessing she'll be spending the holidays in her home town of Dereham where we will probably be passing on our way to the holiday house this year.
Phil's sorting out an ideal way to celebrate the handing in of our features in the form of "Trashy Trinity Tuesday" and the fact that I've never been to the club around December time should make things even more special.
I'd best start working on my critical report early as I will literally have no time next week if I'm still editing my feature on Monday, although if I get my planned interview done tomorrow I hope to have it all in the can by Friday.
As for tonight I'm doing the soul show as usual and for the first time in quite a while I'm actually playing something by Barry White, after listening to his 1989 album which Robbie Vincent played a track from last Sunday on Jazz FM.
The album overall is rather bizarre but enjoyable as it has Barry's vocals over late 80s beats in the style of Janet Jackson from that era, although it does contain some lengthy ballads towards the end.
I may need to send a copy of tonight's show onto my Aunt Helen in Norwich as she's a fan of "the walrus".
She says she's dyed her hair again although I haven't really noticed any difference and it sounds like she's getting on OK now.
However, this means that she'll now have to repeat the module the following year but she's taking the right route about it by doing what I did, i.e. taking two theory modules this year and returning for the practical project and the dissertation in Autumn 2009.
I'm sure that Lottie, Dan and all that lot will find her really useful when it comes to taking notes from meetings and making sure things overall are organised.
I'm guessing she'll be spending the holidays in her home town of Dereham where we will probably be passing on our way to the holiday house this year.
Phil's sorting out an ideal way to celebrate the handing in of our features in the form of "Trashy Trinity Tuesday" and the fact that I've never been to the club around December time should make things even more special.
I'd best start working on my critical report early as I will literally have no time next week if I'm still editing my feature on Monday, although if I get my planned interview done tomorrow I hope to have it all in the can by Friday.
As for tonight I'm doing the soul show as usual and for the first time in quite a while I'm actually playing something by Barry White, after listening to his 1989 album which Robbie Vincent played a track from last Sunday on Jazz FM.
The album overall is rather bizarre but enjoyable as it has Barry's vocals over late 80s beats in the style of Janet Jackson from that era, although it does contain some lengthy ballads towards the end.
I may need to send a copy of tonight's show onto my Aunt Helen in Norwich as she's a fan of "the walrus".
The Seven Voice Wonders Of The World
Following on from the earlier post I managed to find more "gems" pardon the pun from one of the most succesfull AM stations in the UK.
In this case being GEM-AM's 1994 package which was actually produced after Len Groat had left the station.
Although Trent FM had been rebranded to fit into GWR's regime, GEM-AM was allowed to continue as normal due to it being very popular as an AM station, and escaped the "Classic Gold" branding for quite a few years.
This meant that the tradition of superb JAM jingles continued as well with the above package rather bizarrely consisting of resings of the old Alfasound Radio Trent jingles from the early 80s with JAM vocals.
Some of those included happened to be jingles that bore very similar resemblances to a few JAM cuts around the time, especially ones that had been used on Radio 1.
Two examples can be heard here.
It could probably highlight how Len really was trying hard for the Nottingham based station to be a clone of Radio 1, but at the time Jon Wolfert at JAM wasn't happy at the Manchester based jingle company ripping off his cuts, despite Steve England from the company, previously working with him on what I believe were the first JAM jingles produced for a UK station, that being Picadilly Radio.
The fact that one of the Alfasound jingles was a rip off of cut 13 from the Dimension 2 package makes the case very evident.
It should be pointed out that until the mid 80s, the Musicians Union wouldn't allow commercial radio stations to use jingles from outside of the UK so this is why companies such as Alfasound came about as no one had really made an effort prior to that in the UK to set up a fully fledged jingle company that worked in a similar way to those in America.
However in 1989 Alfasound became the UK representative for JAM Creative Productions in the UK and both Steve England and Jon have remained very close colleagues and friends.
Whilst the majority of the package features the old Trent jingles, the cuts towards the end are from what has to be my favourite oldies package by JAM which is
"Good Time Radio".
Although the demo was for WGBB in Long Island, most of the jingles from that were originally made as part of the syndicated "Super Radio" package used by stations across the US.
I even had the second to last cut done as a birthday jingle for one of my fellow college students Eloise, which I can barely listen to now but when resung for other stations has sounded superb.
The last cut overall, was also used by Radio 1 as part of their 1987 package for both their 20th and 21st birthday. I'm not sure if the 20th one was used on air as the package wasn't introduced until the 1st of October, one day after Radio 1's birthday.
It would probably be appropriate to upload an interview with Jon Wolfert on GEM AM from 1991 where Len spends an hour talking about jingles and playing a few examples from both PAMS and JAM.
Whilst a lot of it is interesting, I feel it's a bit too chummy and sometimes patronising, and the idea of getting Jon to present a show afterwards would be confusing for the listener.
The above I'd say is really for true radio and jingle enthusiasts!
In this case being GEM-AM's 1994 package which was actually produced after Len Groat had left the station.
Although Trent FM had been rebranded to fit into GWR's regime, GEM-AM was allowed to continue as normal due to it being very popular as an AM station, and escaped the "Classic Gold" branding for quite a few years.
This meant that the tradition of superb JAM jingles continued as well with the above package rather bizarrely consisting of resings of the old Alfasound Radio Trent jingles from the early 80s with JAM vocals.
Some of those included happened to be jingles that bore very similar resemblances to a few JAM cuts around the time, especially ones that had been used on Radio 1.
Two examples can be heard here.
It could probably highlight how Len really was trying hard for the Nottingham based station to be a clone of Radio 1, but at the time Jon Wolfert at JAM wasn't happy at the Manchester based jingle company ripping off his cuts, despite Steve England from the company, previously working with him on what I believe were the first JAM jingles produced for a UK station, that being Picadilly Radio.
The fact that one of the Alfasound jingles was a rip off of cut 13 from the Dimension 2 package makes the case very evident.
It should be pointed out that until the mid 80s, the Musicians Union wouldn't allow commercial radio stations to use jingles from outside of the UK so this is why companies such as Alfasound came about as no one had really made an effort prior to that in the UK to set up a fully fledged jingle company that worked in a similar way to those in America.
However in 1989 Alfasound became the UK representative for JAM Creative Productions in the UK and both Steve England and Jon have remained very close colleagues and friends.
Whilst the majority of the package features the old Trent jingles, the cuts towards the end are from what has to be my favourite oldies package by JAM which is
"Good Time Radio".
Although the demo was for WGBB in Long Island, most of the jingles from that were originally made as part of the syndicated "Super Radio" package used by stations across the US.
I even had the second to last cut done as a birthday jingle for one of my fellow college students Eloise, which I can barely listen to now but when resung for other stations has sounded superb.
The last cut overall, was also used by Radio 1 as part of their 1987 package for both their 20th and 21st birthday. I'm not sure if the 20th one was used on air as the package wasn't introduced until the 1st of October, one day after Radio 1's birthday.
It would probably be appropriate to upload an interview with Jon Wolfert on GEM AM from 1991 where Len spends an hour talking about jingles and playing a few examples from both PAMS and JAM.
Whilst a lot of it is interesting, I feel it's a bit too chummy and sometimes patronising, and the idea of getting Jon to present a show afterwards would be confusing for the listener.
The above I'd say is really for true radio and jingle enthusiasts!
"So Many Lyrics, We're Frightened To Use Them"
I've been up making a few more edits to my feature this morning including the addition of an extract from Mozart's Requiem to complement the part where Concha talks about listening to that piece of music whilst spending time in her own room. In the usual tradition of my features, the music used overall, is more or less ambient with broken beats such as Quantic and The Ballistic Brothers which I think works well as always as it's never too distracting whilst doing the job it's meant to.
I've also managed to catch up with a few shows I've missed this week including last Friday's Have I Got News For You with David Mitchell doing a great job as host. The guests were good as well including Scottish comedienne Sarah Milligan and a welcome return for Andy Hamilton who is probably the smallest Chelsea supporter I know of.
Some of the best bits included their take on the disastrous "Lapland" attraction in Dorset that would "look better at night" and David's comment on the Daily Mail's coverage of the Tory MP getting arrested that got a well deserved applause from the audience.
I've lost count of the amount of times I've referred to the writers of the paper as "bastards".
The highlight however was this week's guest publication which happened to be that for
"The BBC Test Card Club", with one of their headlines being related to the time when "the wrong version of Test Card F" was shown in December 1981.
Radio Times in 1996 once did an article on another club called "The Test Card Circle" where one of the members was quoted saying "We're not anoraks!, We just know how to enjoy ourselves".
This was my first understanding that it wasn't just me who was obssesed with such things television related as the internet was only just starting to take off and shortly after there were CDs issued of the rather stunning music accompanying the girl playing noughts and crosses that I still happen to have stored on one of my external hard drives.
Moving onwards, and via the rather cluttered Demand Five website I managed to watch last week's documentary on TV's answer to Goodlass and Marshall.
The programme itself included quite a lot of interviews originally shown in Ant & Dec's "Showbiz Marriage" documentary from two years earlier that I may still have on VHS, including those with Martine McCutcheon, Tara Palmer Tompkinson, and writer Dean Wilkinson who revealed that it was David Walliams's idea to come up with the controversial "Beat The Barber" item in series 2 of "The Ant & Dec Show" for CBBC in 1996.
The most interesting contributor however, was Mitch Johnson who used to be the voiceover/co-presenter on Live & Kicking and I'm guessing it's one of the rare times you would actually get to see his face on television.
Also included was that paintball incident from Byker Grove which still brings a tear to the eye, and their dive into the pop charts where they were never serious about what they were doing. They did have a couple of really good tunes towards the end of their pop career such as "When I Fall In Love" (an original tune by the way) and the well written "Shout" (again a completely original tune).
It also looked at their love of football and Newcastle United who they've been loyal to despite their current troubles resulting in the Manchester City method of getting managers.
This lead on to their celebrity soccer matches which have been surprisingly successful and proved that they can do no wrong on whatever show they're put on.
I reckon Dane Bowers summed it up towards the end that to split them up would be like a curry without the poppadums. Or in my case without rice.
I'd best get back over to Uni to sort my show out and lend Phil Landers my USB CD burner.
I've also managed to catch up with a few shows I've missed this week including last Friday's Have I Got News For You with David Mitchell doing a great job as host. The guests were good as well including Scottish comedienne Sarah Milligan and a welcome return for Andy Hamilton who is probably the smallest Chelsea supporter I know of.
Some of the best bits included their take on the disastrous "Lapland" attraction in Dorset that would "look better at night" and David's comment on the Daily Mail's coverage of the Tory MP getting arrested that got a well deserved applause from the audience.
I've lost count of the amount of times I've referred to the writers of the paper as "bastards".
The highlight however was this week's guest publication which happened to be that for
"The BBC Test Card Club", with one of their headlines being related to the time when "the wrong version of Test Card F" was shown in December 1981.
Radio Times in 1996 once did an article on another club called "The Test Card Circle" where one of the members was quoted saying "We're not anoraks!, We just know how to enjoy ourselves".
This was my first understanding that it wasn't just me who was obssesed with such things television related as the internet was only just starting to take off and shortly after there were CDs issued of the rather stunning music accompanying the girl playing noughts and crosses that I still happen to have stored on one of my external hard drives.
Moving onwards, and via the rather cluttered Demand Five website I managed to watch last week's documentary on TV's answer to Goodlass and Marshall.
The programme itself included quite a lot of interviews originally shown in Ant & Dec's "Showbiz Marriage" documentary from two years earlier that I may still have on VHS, including those with Martine McCutcheon, Tara Palmer Tompkinson, and writer Dean Wilkinson who revealed that it was David Walliams's idea to come up with the controversial "Beat The Barber" item in series 2 of "The Ant & Dec Show" for CBBC in 1996.
The most interesting contributor however, was Mitch Johnson who used to be the voiceover/co-presenter on Live & Kicking and I'm guessing it's one of the rare times you would actually get to see his face on television.
Also included was that paintball incident from Byker Grove which still brings a tear to the eye, and their dive into the pop charts where they were never serious about what they were doing. They did have a couple of really good tunes towards the end of their pop career such as "When I Fall In Love" (an original tune by the way) and the well written "Shout" (again a completely original tune).
It also looked at their love of football and Newcastle United who they've been loyal to despite their current troubles resulting in the Manchester City method of getting managers.
This lead on to their celebrity soccer matches which have been surprisingly successful and proved that they can do no wrong on whatever show they're put on.
I reckon Dane Bowers summed it up towards the end that to split them up would be like a curry without the poppadums. Or in my case without rice.
I'd best get back over to Uni to sort my show out and lend Phil Landers my USB CD burner.
The Great East Midlands
The response to my Holiday Cut on Jinglemad has been pretty good and despite the fact I've given him a bit of stick on this site, I'm really flattered to have it approved by
a certain Mr Len Groat and it's even written in standard type!.
I reckon he could have benefitted from having a few jingles from that package done for Trent FM as you could easily sing "Stereo Trent eehhh-fehhhhem" over the WNSR melody logo.
Len being Len however gives us a rendition of one of his own resings from JAM's
"The Best Show 2" as done for the Trent FM stations in the early 90s, which like my jingle was also composed by Bruce Upchurch but the lyrics of course were written by Len himself.
Just in case you're interested the solos are done by Chris Kershaw and Abby Holmes, or Abby Anderson as she was known when it was recorded.
I do think that there is a line however between sentimental and cheesy and that's why I'm not such a great fan of jingles which are songs as such, with the possible exception of those done by Chris Moyles and Music 4.
Len actually ordered a Century 21 package for Trent FM and Sound FM in Leicester, almost exactly 20 years ago to this date to be aired from the start of January the following year. These were the first to be recorded with the name "Trent FM" after Radio Trent split it's AM frequencies to become GEM-AM and the package itself consisted of some superb Alfasound custom tracks with Dallas vocals and resings of Century 21's "Proton" and "Miami's WAXY" pacakages that can be heard here.
There were a few cuts from the original Proton demo that weren't included however, and would have sounded great, especially cuts 5, 10, and 14.
10 being another superb example of a seasonal jingle.
However by the end of the year Alfasound were now UK representatives for JAM Creative Productions and with Len being a big fan they went to JAM for their next package which for me was not as good as the Century 21 jingles.
The aim of the previous package was to take the station into the 90s where as the JAM package seems to take the station back 10 years earlier.
However the following JAM package was on top form with more recent JAM demos being resung and some superb station songs mentioning the likes of Madonna, Deacon Blue, and Level 42 in the lyrics. The one near the end as it slows down has actually had me breaking down as it's so well done. Barely any jingles or current records for that matter can have in similar conditions.
Although you would have thought Len would have asked the vocalists to sing the "T" in "Great Britain".
At the same time GEM AM had their first JAM package to complement their earlier PAMS jingles with a song based around the Four Season's "Candy Girl".
And it's more or less obvious that the sports theme is based around "Garden Party" by Mezzoforte.
The news jingle is a bit overly dramatic however and it has "news" sung it, which fits into the criteria of how not to do news jingles.
Although it's nowhere near as bad as Radio 1's from back in the day.
Overall the above examples prove the superb selection of jingles used by the East Midlands stations in the late 80s/early 90s and are still well regarded by jingle fans as such.
Hopefully they'll use the opportunity to bring more sung stuff back on air as they won't be affected by the Heart rebranding.
a certain Mr Len Groat and it's even written in standard type!.
I reckon he could have benefitted from having a few jingles from that package done for Trent FM as you could easily sing "Stereo Trent eehhh-fehhhhem" over the WNSR melody logo.
Len being Len however gives us a rendition of one of his own resings from JAM's
"The Best Show 2" as done for the Trent FM stations in the early 90s, which like my jingle was also composed by Bruce Upchurch but the lyrics of course were written by Len himself.
Just in case you're interested the solos are done by Chris Kershaw and Abby Holmes, or Abby Anderson as she was known when it was recorded.
I do think that there is a line however between sentimental and cheesy and that's why I'm not such a great fan of jingles which are songs as such, with the possible exception of those done by Chris Moyles and Music 4.
Len actually ordered a Century 21 package for Trent FM and Sound FM in Leicester, almost exactly 20 years ago to this date to be aired from the start of January the following year. These were the first to be recorded with the name "Trent FM" after Radio Trent split it's AM frequencies to become GEM-AM and the package itself consisted of some superb Alfasound custom tracks with Dallas vocals and resings of Century 21's "Proton" and "Miami's WAXY" pacakages that can be heard here.
There were a few cuts from the original Proton demo that weren't included however, and would have sounded great, especially cuts 5, 10, and 14.
10 being another superb example of a seasonal jingle.
However by the end of the year Alfasound were now UK representatives for JAM Creative Productions and with Len being a big fan they went to JAM for their next package which for me was not as good as the Century 21 jingles.
The aim of the previous package was to take the station into the 90s where as the JAM package seems to take the station back 10 years earlier.
However the following JAM package was on top form with more recent JAM demos being resung and some superb station songs mentioning the likes of Madonna, Deacon Blue, and Level 42 in the lyrics. The one near the end as it slows down has actually had me breaking down as it's so well done. Barely any jingles or current records for that matter can have in similar conditions.
Although you would have thought Len would have asked the vocalists to sing the "T" in "Great Britain".
At the same time GEM AM had their first JAM package to complement their earlier PAMS jingles with a song based around the Four Season's "Candy Girl".
And it's more or less obvious that the sports theme is based around "Garden Party" by Mezzoforte.
The news jingle is a bit overly dramatic however and it has "news" sung it, which fits into the criteria of how not to do news jingles.
Although it's nowhere near as bad as Radio 1's from back in the day.
Overall the above examples prove the superb selection of jingles used by the East Midlands stations in the late 80s/early 90s and are still well regarded by jingle fans as such.
Hopefully they'll use the opportunity to bring more sung stuff back on air as they won't be affected by the Heart rebranding.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Psssh-t-coof!
With the news of Oliver Postgate's death, it's rather significant as he was a Canterbury resident for quite a long time in his life, especially during the 1970s whilst series such as Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine were shown on television.
There was an exhibtion with some of his work and drawings by both him and Peter Firmin at the Canterbury Heritage Centre not long after I moved to the city, and it's rather sad when looking back at how after the late 80s, television turned it's back on him.
I seem to remember Oliver making an appearance on the first series of SMTV Live with Ant & Dec back in 1999 and they introduced him as "Oliver Postbag" resulting in the audience doing the postbag dance to the tune of "Please Mr Postman". I'm pretty sure I can remember it move for move with the last bit being adlibbed.
Although the most amusing story regarding his career was in the episode of the Clanger's called "The Iron Chicken" where at the start of the episode the door into the moon gets jammed and Major Clanger appears to be whistling "Oh, sod it, the bloody thing's stuck again". The line itself can be heard at about 56 seconds in so you can make up your own minds as to what it's saying.
I've said it before but the above episode has to be one of the cutest animations I have seen and the Iron Chicken itself is pretty adorable.
Bagpuss ended up being voted the best ever children's programme in a poll held by the BBC in 1999, around the same time they were airing the "Small People" promotional campaign.
This featured a little boy travelling through various places with different characters from Auntie's selection of children's programmes from over the years and this lead to
Ian Hislop getting a lot of stick on Have I Got News For You, for bearing an uncanny resemblance to the little boy.
Oddly enough I think Ian's voice sounds like Martin Jarvis's one for William Brown in his retellings of Richmal Crompton's rather amusing stories, although Martin's voice for the lisping Violet Elizabeth Bott sounds not to disimilar to Victor Lewis Smith's Esther Rantzen impression.
But overall Oliver and Peter's contribution to television has definitely made a mark with many generations with DVD sales of their series continuing to be succesfull proving that they'll be enjoyed by anyone of any age.
Oliver Postgate - 1925-2008
There was an exhibtion with some of his work and drawings by both him and Peter Firmin at the Canterbury Heritage Centre not long after I moved to the city, and it's rather sad when looking back at how after the late 80s, television turned it's back on him.
I seem to remember Oliver making an appearance on the first series of SMTV Live with Ant & Dec back in 1999 and they introduced him as "Oliver Postbag" resulting in the audience doing the postbag dance to the tune of "Please Mr Postman". I'm pretty sure I can remember it move for move with the last bit being adlibbed.
Although the most amusing story regarding his career was in the episode of the Clanger's called "The Iron Chicken" where at the start of the episode the door into the moon gets jammed and Major Clanger appears to be whistling "Oh, sod it, the bloody thing's stuck again". The line itself can be heard at about 56 seconds in so you can make up your own minds as to what it's saying.
I've said it before but the above episode has to be one of the cutest animations I have seen and the Iron Chicken itself is pretty adorable.
Bagpuss ended up being voted the best ever children's programme in a poll held by the BBC in 1999, around the same time they were airing the "Small People" promotional campaign.
This featured a little boy travelling through various places with different characters from Auntie's selection of children's programmes from over the years and this lead to
Ian Hislop getting a lot of stick on Have I Got News For You, for bearing an uncanny resemblance to the little boy.
Oddly enough I think Ian's voice sounds like Martin Jarvis's one for William Brown in his retellings of Richmal Crompton's rather amusing stories, although Martin's voice for the lisping Violet Elizabeth Bott sounds not to disimilar to Victor Lewis Smith's Esther Rantzen impression.
But overall Oliver and Peter's contribution to television has definitely made a mark with many generations with DVD sales of their series continuing to be succesfull proving that they'll be enjoyed by anyone of any age.
Oliver Postgate - 1925-2008
Much Needed Festivities
I managed to record my own audio with the help of Oli P, of myself involved in my own solitary activity, i.e. listening to music at a 30% pitch increase and explaining why I did it.
It will mean another early morning tomorrow, getting into the studios and recording my links which I'm hoping won't be too tough a task.
However one of the main aims for next year is not to spend too much time in the radio rooms, especially when rather tired from the night before as it will just cause aggro and I'm getting too involved in the rather heated goings on with the station.
Earlier today we got bollocked by the technicians due to someone taking a microphone from Studio 6 to Studio 4 and not returning it afterwards, and the technicians threatened to take the station off air if it happened again.
That really is going too far and it isn't usually the radio students who are responsible for trashing the place, although I can't really talk having done pretty much that during our 24 hour broadcast last year.
Rather than spend time getting frustrated I could be getting on with more constructive things which in my case, apart from the dissertation would be watching Countdown, and Going For Gold.
On that note however Carol Vorderman is making her bow from the programme this Friday and there's a documentary on before that I'll need to make sure I tape.
I still have Richard's final episode from 2005 which was sandwiched between two very good documentaries about the best presenter to come from Yorkshire.
Also, last night Tony Blackburn happened to be a guest on The ONE Show last night where he featured as the latest in the series of normally dull short films where the more aged guests revisit the house that they grew up in.
With Tony it was more interesting where he went into great detail about how he became a vegetarian at an early age and went into his old bedroome where he created the audition tape that got him the job on Radio Caroline in 1964.
Tony actually made his debut as a guest on Countdown's dictionary corner last year whilst I was recovering from my illness although for Carol's last week they've got the rather tired Jo Brand who always makes joke answers from the letters that come up that aren't exactly side splitting.
On a lighter note, when I got back from our very packed Christmas do at the Undercroft, I managed to recive my seasonal iJingles from TM Studios although I didn't listen to them until this afternoon in the radio rooms so a few of the others could here them which went down pretty well.
I doubt it would fit in with the overall station sound as you can probably hear from the finished result which can be downloaded here.
The jingle itself as mentioned a few posts earlier comes from
Century 21's Holiday Package produced 20 years ago for WNSR in New York, and has also been used on stations nearer to our shores such as 210 FM, Hereward Radio in Peterborough, SGR in Suffolk and even 2FM in Ireland.
There's also a mix out that doesn't contain my name so you could drop in a liner of any of the Smoke presenters and it would work not too badly. Especially in this case where I've decided to include one member of the team who hates the festivities overall.
Normally you have to pay extra to buy more cuts from the package but I've been rather cheeky and had a delve into the other resings I have from the package and have edited them down into the example that can be heard in this selection.
Overall, cheers to Sean at iJingles, and arranger/vocalist Greg Clancy and the team at TM Studios for doing such a top job and continuing to show how jingles should be done.
It will mean another early morning tomorrow, getting into the studios and recording my links which I'm hoping won't be too tough a task.
However one of the main aims for next year is not to spend too much time in the radio rooms, especially when rather tired from the night before as it will just cause aggro and I'm getting too involved in the rather heated goings on with the station.
Earlier today we got bollocked by the technicians due to someone taking a microphone from Studio 6 to Studio 4 and not returning it afterwards, and the technicians threatened to take the station off air if it happened again.
That really is going too far and it isn't usually the radio students who are responsible for trashing the place, although I can't really talk having done pretty much that during our 24 hour broadcast last year.
Rather than spend time getting frustrated I could be getting on with more constructive things which in my case, apart from the dissertation would be watching Countdown, and Going For Gold.
On that note however Carol Vorderman is making her bow from the programme this Friday and there's a documentary on before that I'll need to make sure I tape.
I still have Richard's final episode from 2005 which was sandwiched between two very good documentaries about the best presenter to come from Yorkshire.
Also, last night Tony Blackburn happened to be a guest on The ONE Show last night where he featured as the latest in the series of normally dull short films where the more aged guests revisit the house that they grew up in.
With Tony it was more interesting where he went into great detail about how he became a vegetarian at an early age and went into his old bedroome where he created the audition tape that got him the job on Radio Caroline in 1964.
Tony actually made his debut as a guest on Countdown's dictionary corner last year whilst I was recovering from my illness although for Carol's last week they've got the rather tired Jo Brand who always makes joke answers from the letters that come up that aren't exactly side splitting.
On a lighter note, when I got back from our very packed Christmas do at the Undercroft, I managed to recive my seasonal iJingles from TM Studios although I didn't listen to them until this afternoon in the radio rooms so a few of the others could here them which went down pretty well.
I doubt it would fit in with the overall station sound as you can probably hear from the finished result which can be downloaded here.
The jingle itself as mentioned a few posts earlier comes from
Century 21's Holiday Package produced 20 years ago for WNSR in New York, and has also been used on stations nearer to our shores such as 210 FM, Hereward Radio in Peterborough, SGR in Suffolk and even 2FM in Ireland.
There's also a mix out that doesn't contain my name so you could drop in a liner of any of the Smoke presenters and it would work not too badly. Especially in this case where I've decided to include one member of the team who hates the festivities overall.
Normally you have to pay extra to buy more cuts from the package but I've been rather cheeky and had a delve into the other resings I have from the package and have edited them down into the example that can be heard in this selection.
Overall, cheers to Sean at iJingles, and arranger/vocalist Greg Clancy and the team at TM Studios for doing such a top job and continuing to show how jingles should be done.
Fix Up Dave Sharp!
The internet in halls wasn't working so I ended up coming into the radio rooms earlier than planned and that I don't actually have any editing that I need to be getting on with.
Most of the first years have been doing practise programmes for the 15 minute assessed show next week which is something that my year and possibly those before them never got to do.
It continues to prove how Dave Sharp really is the better lecturer in the radio department and he's definitely been given more of an opportunity to teach the studio based modules in the last couple of years.
I'm hoping to record my own solitary activity in progress, later tonight with the help of one of the other radio students operating the Marantz and that will definitely give me something to get down for tomorrow.
Otherwise, it's a rather empty day.
Most of the first years have been doing practise programmes for the 15 minute assessed show next week which is something that my year and possibly those before them never got to do.
It continues to prove how Dave Sharp really is the better lecturer in the radio department and he's definitely been given more of an opportunity to teach the studio based modules in the last couple of years.
I'm hoping to record my own solitary activity in progress, later tonight with the help of one of the other radio students operating the Marantz and that will definitely give me something to get down for tomorrow.
Otherwise, it's a rather empty day.
"IIIT'S CHRISSTMAAAAAS!"
I really couldn't have thought of a more original title for this post as tonight's Xmas party at the Undercroft gave a much needed kick up the backside to the University and the fun that can be had here overall when you get the right people involved.
Phil H managed to do a top job in getting the right people involved with just about every DJ set going down well and after 9pm it guaranteed people on the dancefloor. In fact it was probably the earliest I've seen the bouncers put the pool tables away as they were doing so during my DJ set at around 8:15pm.
I know it's a tired explanation, but everyone who was everyone managed to turn up and even after 11pm when they shut the doors outside the whole bar was still rammed with people.
Althought the majority of Xmas tunes were played by Chris and Phil, a few of those before slipped in some relevant seasonal tunes appropriate to their genre including in my set where I played Bobby D'Ambrosio's soulful house cover of "O Christmas Tree", and Steven played Destiny's Child's take on "The 12 Days Of Christmas" although I can't remember the actual title due to it not being released here in the UK.
Despite drinking an awful lot of Smirnoff Ices, I reckon I started to sober up by the end of the night and felt rather insecure amongst those around me, mainly those who were first year radio students. Although they could probably say the same about me as it's the first time this year I've probably got too into the spirit of things.
As we were going back I didn't feel up to taking on "The Krypton Factor" which basically involves me walking over the posts to chain up bicycles near the Undercroft.
What you might call a tradition on the journey back from the bar on many a Monday night.
It got even worse on arriving back at the flat as there were several people ramming the corridor and the kitchen with the fire alarms going off just adding to the trauma. They didn't stay on for too long and everyone's now decided to move to Flat 22 so I reckon I can have a proper lie down tonight.
In addition to that I managed to find the provisional marks for the live part of the Advanced Radio module where I managed to get a first which has made things a lot better.
I guess it puts a bit more pressure in getting the feature done to a similar result which will be quite a challenge but I'm sure it can be done.
Overall tonight has to be one of the most succesfull University events that has taken place this year and showing how a great night on this campus should be done.
Phil H managed to do a top job in getting the right people involved with just about every DJ set going down well and after 9pm it guaranteed people on the dancefloor. In fact it was probably the earliest I've seen the bouncers put the pool tables away as they were doing so during my DJ set at around 8:15pm.
I know it's a tired explanation, but everyone who was everyone managed to turn up and even after 11pm when they shut the doors outside the whole bar was still rammed with people.
Althought the majority of Xmas tunes were played by Chris and Phil, a few of those before slipped in some relevant seasonal tunes appropriate to their genre including in my set where I played Bobby D'Ambrosio's soulful house cover of "O Christmas Tree", and Steven played Destiny's Child's take on "The 12 Days Of Christmas" although I can't remember the actual title due to it not being released here in the UK.
Despite drinking an awful lot of Smirnoff Ices, I reckon I started to sober up by the end of the night and felt rather insecure amongst those around me, mainly those who were first year radio students. Although they could probably say the same about me as it's the first time this year I've probably got too into the spirit of things.
As we were going back I didn't feel up to taking on "The Krypton Factor" which basically involves me walking over the posts to chain up bicycles near the Undercroft.
What you might call a tradition on the journey back from the bar on many a Monday night.
It got even worse on arriving back at the flat as there were several people ramming the corridor and the kitchen with the fire alarms going off just adding to the trauma. They didn't stay on for too long and everyone's now decided to move to Flat 22 so I reckon I can have a proper lie down tonight.
In addition to that I managed to find the provisional marks for the live part of the Advanced Radio module where I managed to get a first which has made things a lot better.
I guess it puts a bit more pressure in getting the feature done to a similar result which will be quite a challenge but I'm sure it can be done.
Overall tonight has to be one of the most succesfull University events that has taken place this year and showing how a great night on this campus should be done.
Monday, December 08, 2008
Heading Up The Craic
This afternoon saw the return of an old face as Irish boy Sean came back to see us whilst staying in London for a few days. I went for a few drinks with him and Phil Landers where Phil out of interest for his feature was asking Sean about his childhood memories.
These involved the many times Sean had fainted at an early age, and when he painted his apron and started wiping it all over the blackboard and trying to put the blame on someone else.
Sean's off to see Alan Partridge live tonight although he hopes to be back for the end of tonight's Xmas party at the Undercroft. Despite not being a student here anymore, Stoobie will hopefully sort him out to get Sean in after having a few words with the bouncers.
If successfull I'd imagine he'll be hassling both Chris and Phil to play some Will Smith which he still has quite a big obsession with.
I've sorted out my setlist for tonight and hopefully I'll be able to have a bite to eat before heading down as I'm going to be there for quite a while.
These involved the many times Sean had fainted at an early age, and when he painted his apron and started wiping it all over the blackboard and trying to put the blame on someone else.
Sean's off to see Alan Partridge live tonight although he hopes to be back for the end of tonight's Xmas party at the Undercroft. Despite not being a student here anymore, Stoobie will hopefully sort him out to get Sean in after having a few words with the bouncers.
If successfull I'd imagine he'll be hassling both Chris and Phil to play some Will Smith which he still has quite a big obsession with.
I've sorted out my setlist for tonight and hopefully I'll be able to have a bite to eat before heading down as I'm going to be there for quite a while.
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