With children's programmes at weekend currently in decline, STV up in Scotland appear to have the solution. Or do they?
Last weekend saw the launch of "wknd@STV" (to be pronounced in the same way as an American radio station), a back to back strand of children's programmes
that Scottish Television must have uncovered loads of cobwebs to get hold of.
The shows include the animated obscurity "Captain Zed and The Zee Zone", and the rather adventurous game show "Get Wet" as co-presented by Simeon Courtie, an escapee from CBBC now to be found DJing on BFBS.
Although I'm not in the region of course, they have a catch up service as shown above and they have gone for the tried, tested and in most cases failed option of getting fourteen year olds to present.
With the possible exception of the Disney Club which launched Fearne Cotton onto us (thanks) I've never liked that concept at all and the presenters come across as false and unconvincing.
If our own Steven McIntosh decides to return to Scotland after finishing University,
he should get on that show and give an idea of how presenting should be done
as he's one of the few people on the radio course who would work well
in front of the cameras as well.
He's definitely got more personality than any of those that STV appear to have
hastily hired.
As a quick aside, I know STV have had their current branding (expanding to the Grampian region as well) for almost three years, but I think the "S" symbol is very similar
to that of British Steel.
In the same way that TVS's "flower" was basically the Atari logo upside down.
In fact it also looks rather like the Daewoo symbol on their cars.
I've never seen Scottish Television's regional presentation before, but I did see the Grampian generic ITV ident in a coffee shop at the top of the Nevis Range whilst on holiday in Scotland in 1992. I'd say that was probably the highlight of it all.
Grampian were the only ITV company in the network to use their generic ident for the logo's entire reign from September 1989 to October 1998.
They continued to use David Dundas's music for the following ident which ran at the same time Dundas's new theme for the network was introduced in England in November 1999.
Anyway enough rambling, there's a discussion about this on Digital Spy which brought the show to my attention and one user made a comment of the usual nostalgic nature, urging for them to bring back "Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade".
Unless you're from North of the Border you'll have no idea what that is, but basically it was a strand that went out on Sunday Mornings in the Scottish Television region for the best part of 30 years involving comedian Glen Michael linking into cartoons.
I've managed to find an edition from 1982 on Google Video lasting about 45 minutes so I may get round to having a gander at it later in the semester when there's fewer distractions.
One of the stand out points however is that fantastic music, which you may recognise as it's used quite a bit on television and radio, as I heard it being used on Radio 2 last December on a trailer for Alan Carr's Christmas Special.
If anyone knows the name of that tune it would be very useful.
There's also a later episode on Youtube from 1993 containing a remixed version of the theme "specially for the 90s" although Scottish Television decided to axe Glen from their Sunday morning schedules shortly after.
One of the stand out points of the above episode is a visit to Blackpool's Tower Ballroom and an appearance by the infamous Wurlitzer Organ.
I don't know what sounds worse, either that or a primary school assembly with a group of children playing "The Skye Boat Song" on recorders.
One of the editions of the first series of Strictly Come Dancing came from Blackpool and band leader Laurie Holloway attemepted to have a go at playing the Wurlitzer.
I could say that it's one of his crimes towards music apart from composing the theme to "Blind Date".
Seriously though, he does have an interesting website which contains audio of a rather nice jazz piano rendition of "The Surrey With A Fringe On The Top" from Oklahoma.
Overall, with regards to "Cartoon Cavalcade" it fits perfectly into my current but quietly long standing obsession with cosiness and "cutesy-poo", and a reminder of how those introducing the programmes were more than just voices.
I guess the same can be said for radio as well in some cases.
Moving onwards, and it appears that this week, Kelly Brook has been given 100k compensation after being booted off the BGT judging panel and has also been given the presenter role on the ITV2 sister show.
She's not too bad really and comes from near my neck of the woods, but it's mainly because the time that she hosted the Big Breakfast was one of my most depressing periods.
However on the plus side it turns out Trinny and Suzannah have been axed by ITV after their last series bombed.
I've never been a fan of those over opinionated trouts in all honesty and I bet I wasn't the only one cheering when John Barrowman blasted their android heads off in Doctor Who.
Who says TV isn't getting better?
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Academic Correspondence
Robbie was on top form again this morning with one of the highlights being Dianne Reeves with "Hello" produced by her cousin George Duke, from the 1994 album "Quiet After The Storm".
As a matter of fact, BBC 2 are showing "Good Night And Good Luck" tonight starring George Clooney set in the 1940s where Dianne can be heard singing in musical interludes during the film with the various songs from the period.
I'd say that she's probably better than Sassy, or Ella around that time.
I saw the film originally on my final visit to the Venice Film Festival in late August 2005 and it was one of my favourites, apart from probably "Elizabethtown" which I must get on DVD sometime.
It's not the sort of film I'd usually want to see but it has that certain something.
Whilst listening I read Paddy Scannell's book which Anastasia reccomended to me, although I didn't really find anything that was related to my dissertation.
However there was a really good chapter on Identity which made use of the late Graham Brand's analysis on Tony Blackburn in the mid 80s and the different types of voices he uses on his show.
It contains quite a few transcripts and quotes from the shows where he spent quite a lot of time slagging off Radio 1 where he resigned from in 1984.
To be fair, around that time Radio 1 was pretty rubbish with Mike Read on breakfast, and considering Tony's show was up against Simon Bates, I'd rather listen to Tony talking dirty to callers than Simon telling a made up sob story.
I don't think the station started picking itself up until around 1988 when Simon Mayo started on breakfast and the station started broadcasting on FM permanantley.
One quote I wasn't sure about was when a caller was suggesting that there weren't any other good broadcasters around to which Tone responded "I suppose there's Robbie Vincent, but he's not such a genius is he though?".
If I had to choose between either of them in terms of soul music I'd go with Robbie all the way as Tony's soul shows are far too repetetive and I don't want to hear
"You Know How To Love Me" being played every week.
As an aside, I recieved an e-mail from Simon, one of my lecturers at college and who I hold responsible as one of the men who introduced me to Shane Meadows and more specifically "Dead Man's Shoes".
The whole thing came about in 2005 when we were in a film studies lecture and pitching our ideas for what films we would analyse. A fella called Kacem who looked like Chris Martin out of Coldplay proposed Dead Man's Shoes and showed us the scene where Richard confronts Sonny with that brilliant opening line;
Sonny: "Ere some of the lads had this ridiculous idea that..."
Richard: "Yeah, it was me"
Although Simon wasn't the lecturer for that part of the course, he heard about him wanting to analyse and on a Tuesday afternoon the following week, we watched the film and I was laughing so much I almost fell of my chair.
I was rather annoyed that Kacem at the last minute decided not to analyse that film and opt for "Goodfellas" instead as I would have loved to have analysed that film for a media essay.
The one I chose was Fargo which got quite good marks and there's a brilliant book of other studies of the film compiled by William Luhr called "The Coen Brothers Fargo".
One of the many books I brought back from Canterbury this weekend.
I spent most of the summer of 2005 after College watching some of Shane's other films and was very pleased that quite a lot of people at Westminster were fans of the film as I found out just after starting there.
Anyway, back to the e-mail and Simon nowadays is working as an Advance Practitioner at the college in their Quality and Standards department, designed to improve and provide training for staff.
It turns out that he's a fan of The Wire as well which I reckon my Dad will be pleased about although I'm not too surprised as Simon was into TV series such as "Oz" and "The Sopranos" as well.
It turns out he was also a fan of YTV's Beiderbecke series when during a break in a lecture I played an audio clip of James Bolam yelling "I'll have some bloody loud jazz, and the bloody neighbours can bog off!".
We had plenty of long and interesting conversations about similar things whilst on my first visit to New York with the college in Feburary 2004.
For some reason he decided not to go on the 2005 visit but ended up having to reprimand Kacem after he exposed himself on the visit the following year which I was furious about.
I'm sure he didn't mean any harm but I draw the line at that sort of behaviour.
Overall though, they were really pleasant memories and I think that in terms of getting out to different places, my time at college was a lot more adventurous than University.
As a matter of fact, BBC 2 are showing "Good Night And Good Luck" tonight starring George Clooney set in the 1940s where Dianne can be heard singing in musical interludes during the film with the various songs from the period.
I'd say that she's probably better than Sassy, or Ella around that time.
I saw the film originally on my final visit to the Venice Film Festival in late August 2005 and it was one of my favourites, apart from probably "Elizabethtown" which I must get on DVD sometime.
It's not the sort of film I'd usually want to see but it has that certain something.
Whilst listening I read Paddy Scannell's book which Anastasia reccomended to me, although I didn't really find anything that was related to my dissertation.
However there was a really good chapter on Identity which made use of the late Graham Brand's analysis on Tony Blackburn in the mid 80s and the different types of voices he uses on his show.
It contains quite a few transcripts and quotes from the shows where he spent quite a lot of time slagging off Radio 1 where he resigned from in 1984.
To be fair, around that time Radio 1 was pretty rubbish with Mike Read on breakfast, and considering Tony's show was up against Simon Bates, I'd rather listen to Tony talking dirty to callers than Simon telling a made up sob story.
I don't think the station started picking itself up until around 1988 when Simon Mayo started on breakfast and the station started broadcasting on FM permanantley.
One quote I wasn't sure about was when a caller was suggesting that there weren't any other good broadcasters around to which Tone responded "I suppose there's Robbie Vincent, but he's not such a genius is he though?".
If I had to choose between either of them in terms of soul music I'd go with Robbie all the way as Tony's soul shows are far too repetetive and I don't want to hear
"You Know How To Love Me" being played every week.
As an aside, I recieved an e-mail from Simon, one of my lecturers at college and who I hold responsible as one of the men who introduced me to Shane Meadows and more specifically "Dead Man's Shoes".
The whole thing came about in 2005 when we were in a film studies lecture and pitching our ideas for what films we would analyse. A fella called Kacem who looked like Chris Martin out of Coldplay proposed Dead Man's Shoes and showed us the scene where Richard confronts Sonny with that brilliant opening line;
Sonny: "Ere some of the lads had this ridiculous idea that..."
Richard: "Yeah, it was me"
Although Simon wasn't the lecturer for that part of the course, he heard about him wanting to analyse and on a Tuesday afternoon the following week, we watched the film and I was laughing so much I almost fell of my chair.
I was rather annoyed that Kacem at the last minute decided not to analyse that film and opt for "Goodfellas" instead as I would have loved to have analysed that film for a media essay.
The one I chose was Fargo which got quite good marks and there's a brilliant book of other studies of the film compiled by William Luhr called "The Coen Brothers Fargo".
One of the many books I brought back from Canterbury this weekend.
I spent most of the summer of 2005 after College watching some of Shane's other films and was very pleased that quite a lot of people at Westminster were fans of the film as I found out just after starting there.
Anyway, back to the e-mail and Simon nowadays is working as an Advance Practitioner at the college in their Quality and Standards department, designed to improve and provide training for staff.
It turns out that he's a fan of The Wire as well which I reckon my Dad will be pleased about although I'm not too surprised as Simon was into TV series such as "Oz" and "The Sopranos" as well.
It turns out he was also a fan of YTV's Beiderbecke series when during a break in a lecture I played an audio clip of James Bolam yelling "I'll have some bloody loud jazz, and the bloody neighbours can bog off!".
We had plenty of long and interesting conversations about similar things whilst on my first visit to New York with the college in Feburary 2004.
For some reason he decided not to go on the 2005 visit but ended up having to reprimand Kacem after he exposed himself on the visit the following year which I was furious about.
I'm sure he didn't mean any harm but I draw the line at that sort of behaviour.
Overall though, they were really pleasant memories and I think that in terms of getting out to different places, my time at college was a lot more adventurous than University.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Oblivious In '06 (From A Television Point Of View)
I've spent tonight going through a VHS labelled 31.12.06 which includes the BBC's inferior answer to Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz, called "The Big Finish".
Hosted by Graham Norton this was dreadfully strung out and the rounds were all over the place with five teams consisting of newsreaders, sportsmen (yes I can say that cause they were all male) TV judges, showbiz and soap stars.
The newsreaders team featured Bill Turnbull, Penny Smith and Jeremy Bowen, sport had Colin Jackson, "Posh Ben" Fogle, and fellow Strictly star and in the words of Dale Winton "Everyone's favourite cricketer" Darren Gough pre Hole In The Wall.
The judges were Craig Revel-Horwood, Louis Walsh, and John Barrowman, showbiz had Myleene Klass, Bill Oddie and Big Brother 7's Nikki Grahame, whilst the soap team was the recently departed Wendy Richard from Eastenders, one of my favourite women on television Sally Lindsay and fellow Corrie actor Richard Fleeshman who in 2007 attempted to become a popstar.
This lead to an amusing appearance on Buzzcocks near the end of the year where he got a bit of stick for impersonating Will Young on Stars In Their Eyes.
One of the Next Lines was "I'd think I'd better leave right now" which Richard didn't get leading to taunts from Simon Amstell, to which Richard responded something along the lines of
"For your information, I did 'Evergreen'",
which he then followed with "Lamarr would have done his research".
Back to Graham, and the show plodded on with one of the questions involving having to spot the real Guy Kewney in a line up, after they showed the clip of Guy Goma on BBC News 24.
Goma appeared as a guest on Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz Of The Year where Jimmy Carr got a bit pissed off when the panellists said he'd be a better host than him.
However the funniest joke from Graham Norton was when he said that David Blaine despite failing his underwater stunt, did get into the Guinness Book Of Records
as "The Biggest Twat In The World".
I'd say it's either him or Steve McLaren after that stupid attempt at a Dutch accent last year.
I immediately followed this by re-viewing the 2006 into 2007 Hootenanny where the performers this year included Lily Allen, The Kooks, and oddly enough The Zutons and Amy Winehouse on the same show. Although they didn't perform together of course.
Amy did do a duet with Paul Weller though which was pretty good although last year he did an exclusive performance for the BBC dueting with Adele. Just goes to show the someone thinks she's the new Amy Winehouse.
Not that I'm a huge fan of either.
One of the less entertaining performances came from Prick Reeves who was just unfunny as always, although Ade Edmondson gave a big band performance of "Anarchy In The UK".
I reckon that if he got into the final two of Comic Relief Does Fame Academy in 2005, then he would have done that very song as Jools Holland and his band were the house band on the night itself including Rowland Rivron on drums.
Ade just missed out with the final two performances between Edith Bowman and Kim Medcalf from Eastenders. Edith won although I can't remember the song she did, but Kim gave a really lovely rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" similar to Eva Cassidy but more with a Big Band angle.
Anyway, into 2007 and one of the guests Phill Jupitus predicted that one of the bands to look out for that year were The Hold Steady. It proved to be right as two years later they were on that very show.
However the stand out performance was a man who at the time I'd never heard before, Seasick Steve making plenty of noise with a guitar with only three strings.
It turns out he's been nominated for a Brit Award this year in the International category which should please alumni Paul Calvert, and second year Jake Franks who's also a fan.
I don't have that many VHS's with '06 dated on them and I definitely got back into the habit of watching more television after my illness last year as I felt a lack of television was partly responsible and I forgot what helped inspire me to want to do the Media Course at Westminster.
It came to a point when during the first year I found out that Carol Thatcher had won that year's "Celebrity" via a text message from Tim Pryor's parents whilst we were at the Undercroft on a Monday night.
I barely watched any of that show or Strictly Come Dancing during 2006 although I did watch some of the early audtions in the X Factor partly because I was still in Canterbury when they were showing.
And also because Ricky wanted me to get audio clips of Simon Cowell for him and Goodlass's "Fresh Factor" feature that didn't really work in the way they wanted it too, in terms of participation.
The best one was Tudor's Death Metal nursery rhymes which was the same show they did a vote to find out whether Richard O'Brien was "Cult Or Crap".
I cracked up laughing when Ross G announced "Richard O'Brien.... is a CULT ladies and gentlemen!" with heavy emphasis on the C.
Overall the stack of VHS's dating from 08-09 is probably the highest I've had whilst at Uni.
Hosted by Graham Norton this was dreadfully strung out and the rounds were all over the place with five teams consisting of newsreaders, sportsmen (yes I can say that cause they were all male) TV judges, showbiz and soap stars.
The newsreaders team featured Bill Turnbull, Penny Smith and Jeremy Bowen, sport had Colin Jackson, "Posh Ben" Fogle, and fellow Strictly star and in the words of Dale Winton "Everyone's favourite cricketer" Darren Gough pre Hole In The Wall.
The judges were Craig Revel-Horwood, Louis Walsh, and John Barrowman, showbiz had Myleene Klass, Bill Oddie and Big Brother 7's Nikki Grahame, whilst the soap team was the recently departed Wendy Richard from Eastenders, one of my favourite women on television Sally Lindsay and fellow Corrie actor Richard Fleeshman who in 2007 attempted to become a popstar.
This lead to an amusing appearance on Buzzcocks near the end of the year where he got a bit of stick for impersonating Will Young on Stars In Their Eyes.
One of the Next Lines was "I'd think I'd better leave right now" which Richard didn't get leading to taunts from Simon Amstell, to which Richard responded something along the lines of
"For your information, I did 'Evergreen'",
which he then followed with "Lamarr would have done his research".
Back to Graham, and the show plodded on with one of the questions involving having to spot the real Guy Kewney in a line up, after they showed the clip of Guy Goma on BBC News 24.
Goma appeared as a guest on Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz Of The Year where Jimmy Carr got a bit pissed off when the panellists said he'd be a better host than him.
However the funniest joke from Graham Norton was when he said that David Blaine despite failing his underwater stunt, did get into the Guinness Book Of Records
as "The Biggest Twat In The World".
I'd say it's either him or Steve McLaren after that stupid attempt at a Dutch accent last year.
I immediately followed this by re-viewing the 2006 into 2007 Hootenanny where the performers this year included Lily Allen, The Kooks, and oddly enough The Zutons and Amy Winehouse on the same show. Although they didn't perform together of course.
Amy did do a duet with Paul Weller though which was pretty good although last year he did an exclusive performance for the BBC dueting with Adele. Just goes to show the someone thinks she's the new Amy Winehouse.
Not that I'm a huge fan of either.
One of the less entertaining performances came from Prick Reeves who was just unfunny as always, although Ade Edmondson gave a big band performance of "Anarchy In The UK".
I reckon that if he got into the final two of Comic Relief Does Fame Academy in 2005, then he would have done that very song as Jools Holland and his band were the house band on the night itself including Rowland Rivron on drums.
Ade just missed out with the final two performances between Edith Bowman and Kim Medcalf from Eastenders. Edith won although I can't remember the song she did, but Kim gave a really lovely rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" similar to Eva Cassidy but more with a Big Band angle.
Anyway, into 2007 and one of the guests Phill Jupitus predicted that one of the bands to look out for that year were The Hold Steady. It proved to be right as two years later they were on that very show.
However the stand out performance was a man who at the time I'd never heard before, Seasick Steve making plenty of noise with a guitar with only three strings.
It turns out he's been nominated for a Brit Award this year in the International category which should please alumni Paul Calvert, and second year Jake Franks who's also a fan.
I don't have that many VHS's with '06 dated on them and I definitely got back into the habit of watching more television after my illness last year as I felt a lack of television was partly responsible and I forgot what helped inspire me to want to do the Media Course at Westminster.
It came to a point when during the first year I found out that Carol Thatcher had won that year's "Celebrity" via a text message from Tim Pryor's parents whilst we were at the Undercroft on a Monday night.
I barely watched any of that show or Strictly Come Dancing during 2006 although I did watch some of the early audtions in the X Factor partly because I was still in Canterbury when they were showing.
And also because Ricky wanted me to get audio clips of Simon Cowell for him and Goodlass's "Fresh Factor" feature that didn't really work in the way they wanted it too, in terms of participation.
The best one was Tudor's Death Metal nursery rhymes which was the same show they did a vote to find out whether Richard O'Brien was "Cult Or Crap".
I cracked up laughing when Ross G announced "Richard O'Brien.... is a CULT ladies and gentlemen!" with heavy emphasis on the C.
Overall the stack of VHS's dating from 08-09 is probably the highest I've had whilst at Uni.
"#Tonight With Jonathan Rooss! Tonight With Jonathan Rooss"
I managed to get round to what I should have been watching at 1am last night, through the online media players.
Starting off with Tonight on ITV1 with the title "Is TV Too Rude?" where reporter and former Eurovision flop Jonathan Maitland conducted an experiment involving a cross section of the public from all ages from 20-60 odd, to find out what they thought was offensive on television.
This was done in a Britain's Got Talent-esque scenario where any member could buzz if they found something offensive.
There were also interviews with those responsible for letting the offending material go out such as Jana Bennett from the BBC, and Peter Fincham from ITV.
The first clip they showed was Jonathan Ross's interview with David Cameron in June 2006 where he asked the tory leader if he ever masturbated over Margaret Thatcher.
He didn't use those words of course but from a personal point of view, I find the word "masturbate" funnier than "wank" for some reason.
I once got told off for laughing at a sketch on the Fast Show where a George Formby caricature was singing Prince songs in the ukelele player's style and one of the songs was "Darling Nikki" which went;
"I knew a girl named Nikki, you could say she was a sex fiend. I met her in a hotel lobby masturbating in a magazine"
The actual lyrics were "with a magazine" rather than in but I still found the whole thing hilarious despite the fact it was from a Prince song.
There was another sketch where he played three staccato chords on his ukelele and went "You Sexy Motherf-" and then it disorted.
Unforntunately they didn't put those scenes on video or DVD due to licensing issues but it's still one of my favourite send ups.
Back to the documentary and other examples included the naked gay men from Little Britain USA. I don't find the show offensive, just revolting and sometimes overall crap that has past it's sell by date.
Radio presenter Jon Gaunt on the other hand thought it was one of the most offensive things he had seen.
Yeah, and calling a public figure a Nazi is perfectly OK isn't it?
Other examples included Jamie Oliver and I was with the panel on this one as a lot of them thought that the chef just swore for the sake of it. I'm not saying he should stop doing it overall but why does he have to put over 20 fucks into each sentence?
Also included was Gordon Ramsay but in his case bad language helps to show his frustration with incompetent people he has to work with.
Finally they showed the clip of Jon and Russ themselves although I thought this deviated from the subject of the programme as it was looking primarily at television.
Whenever I think about what was actually said, it reminds me of a sketch on Channel 4's 11 O'Clock Show in Feburary 2000 with a spoof Daz advert involving Dr Shipman's wife;
Shane Richie: "Ello luv! While you're husband's at work, would you mind trying out our new washing powder!"
Mrs Shipman: "No, OK?"
Shane Richie "#You fucked a monster!"
The difference however was that it wasn't really done with Primrose Shipman, and Harold had been banged up by then so it wouldn't have come under Contempt of Court.
That sketch happened to be written by Charlie Brooker oddly enough,
a man who makes me look like Nicki Chapman when it comes to his opinions.
With regards to this blog, there is a fair bit of bad language but I make sure I put stars in whenever I hint around the C-word as I know it still offends some people.
The only exception being my comments on the Daily Mail in my last post of 2008.
Onto Wossy itself and nothings really changed, the set, the titles, even the Four Poofs are still there although it would be good if they made minor presentation changes sometime without ruining the show.
The guests were pretty good including Lee Evans who revealed that he'll be appearing in Doctor Who as a professor. Although I think the word "mad" would be an understatement.
Stephen Fry also talked about his new TV series visiting animals around the world nearing extinction. There was a really nice story as well, fitting into the category of "cutesy-poo" which goes down well with me, involving a chick being born out of an egg and thinking that the first person or animal it sees is it's mother.
A scenario seen in a Tom & Jerry cartoon, as mentioned by Stephen Fry.
I fast forwarded the Tom Cruise interview as I'm not the biggest movie fan and don't really want to find out what the pint sized scientologist has been up to.
But overall it's good to have Wossy back on our screens and it feels like he hasn't disapeared at all.
Starting off with Tonight on ITV1 with the title "Is TV Too Rude?" where reporter and former Eurovision flop Jonathan Maitland conducted an experiment involving a cross section of the public from all ages from 20-60 odd, to find out what they thought was offensive on television.
This was done in a Britain's Got Talent-esque scenario where any member could buzz if they found something offensive.
There were also interviews with those responsible for letting the offending material go out such as Jana Bennett from the BBC, and Peter Fincham from ITV.
The first clip they showed was Jonathan Ross's interview with David Cameron in June 2006 where he asked the tory leader if he ever masturbated over Margaret Thatcher.
He didn't use those words of course but from a personal point of view, I find the word "masturbate" funnier than "wank" for some reason.
I once got told off for laughing at a sketch on the Fast Show where a George Formby caricature was singing Prince songs in the ukelele player's style and one of the songs was "Darling Nikki" which went;
"I knew a girl named Nikki, you could say she was a sex fiend. I met her in a hotel lobby masturbating in a magazine"
The actual lyrics were "with a magazine" rather than in but I still found the whole thing hilarious despite the fact it was from a Prince song.
There was another sketch where he played three staccato chords on his ukelele and went "You Sexy Motherf-" and then it disorted.
Unforntunately they didn't put those scenes on video or DVD due to licensing issues but it's still one of my favourite send ups.
Back to the documentary and other examples included the naked gay men from Little Britain USA. I don't find the show offensive, just revolting and sometimes overall crap that has past it's sell by date.
Radio presenter Jon Gaunt on the other hand thought it was one of the most offensive things he had seen.
Yeah, and calling a public figure a Nazi is perfectly OK isn't it?
Other examples included Jamie Oliver and I was with the panel on this one as a lot of them thought that the chef just swore for the sake of it. I'm not saying he should stop doing it overall but why does he have to put over 20 fucks into each sentence?
Also included was Gordon Ramsay but in his case bad language helps to show his frustration with incompetent people he has to work with.
Finally they showed the clip of Jon and Russ themselves although I thought this deviated from the subject of the programme as it was looking primarily at television.
Whenever I think about what was actually said, it reminds me of a sketch on Channel 4's 11 O'Clock Show in Feburary 2000 with a spoof Daz advert involving Dr Shipman's wife;
Shane Richie: "Ello luv! While you're husband's at work, would you mind trying out our new washing powder!"
Mrs Shipman: "No, OK?"
Shane Richie "#You fucked a monster!"
The difference however was that it wasn't really done with Primrose Shipman, and Harold had been banged up by then so it wouldn't have come under Contempt of Court.
That sketch happened to be written by Charlie Brooker oddly enough,
a man who makes me look like Nicki Chapman when it comes to his opinions.
With regards to this blog, there is a fair bit of bad language but I make sure I put stars in whenever I hint around the C-word as I know it still offends some people.
The only exception being my comments on the Daily Mail in my last post of 2008.
Onto Wossy itself and nothings really changed, the set, the titles, even the Four Poofs are still there although it would be good if they made minor presentation changes sometime without ruining the show.
The guests were pretty good including Lee Evans who revealed that he'll be appearing in Doctor Who as a professor. Although I think the word "mad" would be an understatement.
Stephen Fry also talked about his new TV series visiting animals around the world nearing extinction. There was a really nice story as well, fitting into the category of "cutesy-poo" which goes down well with me, involving a chick being born out of an egg and thinking that the first person or animal it sees is it's mother.
A scenario seen in a Tom & Jerry cartoon, as mentioned by Stephen Fry.
I fast forwarded the Tom Cruise interview as I'm not the biggest movie fan and don't really want to find out what the pint sized scientologist has been up to.
But overall it's good to have Wossy back on our screens and it feels like he hasn't disapeared at all.
"Leave The Girl. It's The Man I Want"
So I've come to the end of what you could call an equivalent of a Sci-Fi panto, that being Sylvester McCoy's debut as the Doctor, "Time And The Rani".
And Kate O'Mara's character was definitely the equivalent of a panto villain and I'm certain she's appeared as a wicked Queen for at least one Christmas.
Basically, the story involves the Doctor and Melanie crash landing in Lakertya, causing the Doctor to regenerate. To make things more confusing the Rani injects a drug into him causing short term amnesia in order for him to assist her in setting up a piece of equipment to enable her plan of putting together a large brain consisting of the minds of geniuses throughout time including Louis Pasteur and Einstein.
During the process, she disguises herself as Mel and the Doctor in his bumbling persona goes ahead gradually realising what's really happening.
The real Mel befriends escaped Lakertyan Ikona who refuses to be one of the Rani's hostages in her evil plans although it's difficult for her to do at least one scene without screaming.
No wonder the series was in deep do-do around this time.
The conventions of the episode include the Doctor getting his sayings muddled up
such as "Fit As A Trombone", and "Absence Makes The Nose Grow Longer".
After the first episode aired, it didn't go down with the viewing public with Nina Myskow of the Sun giving McCoy the infamous title of "Wally Of The Week".
If I had been watching at my current age back in 1987 I doubt I'd have been impressed either, particuarly with the regeneration sequence which was played before the titles rolled, quite rare in those days of Doctor Who.
Colin Baker had refused to appear, so they resorted to Sylv wearing a blonde wig in the Sixth Doctor's costume.
Writers Pip and Jane Baker explained that it would have looked silly to show the regeneration after the opening titles, which for this series were probably the most ambitious and featured a computer generated face of McCoy winking.
An image that stuck in mind from an early age.
The pair later went on to write the amusing CBBC sitcom "Watt On Earth" in the early 90s.
Keff McCulloch who re-arranged the theme music, provided the episode's incidental music which I thought had quite an overdose on orchestra hits, and synth choirs.
On a more positive note, the line at the end of the final episode is rather amusing;
Doctor: "Well, time and tide melts the snowman"
Mel: "Waits for no man!"
Doctor: "Who's waiting, I'm ready!"
Mel: "You're going to take a bit of getting used to"
Doctor: "I'll grown on you Mel, I'll grow on you!"
It definitely was a hint of what was to come but by the end of the series Bonnie Langford made her departure and was replaced by a companion who was a thousand times better and more ballsier, Sophie Aldred as "Ace".
It will probably be at least 10 years before I decide to view this episode again.
And Kate O'Mara's character was definitely the equivalent of a panto villain and I'm certain she's appeared as a wicked Queen for at least one Christmas.
Basically, the story involves the Doctor and Melanie crash landing in Lakertya, causing the Doctor to regenerate. To make things more confusing the Rani injects a drug into him causing short term amnesia in order for him to assist her in setting up a piece of equipment to enable her plan of putting together a large brain consisting of the minds of geniuses throughout time including Louis Pasteur and Einstein.
During the process, she disguises herself as Mel and the Doctor in his bumbling persona goes ahead gradually realising what's really happening.
The real Mel befriends escaped Lakertyan Ikona who refuses to be one of the Rani's hostages in her evil plans although it's difficult for her to do at least one scene without screaming.
No wonder the series was in deep do-do around this time.
The conventions of the episode include the Doctor getting his sayings muddled up
such as "Fit As A Trombone", and "Absence Makes The Nose Grow Longer".
After the first episode aired, it didn't go down with the viewing public with Nina Myskow of the Sun giving McCoy the infamous title of "Wally Of The Week".
If I had been watching at my current age back in 1987 I doubt I'd have been impressed either, particuarly with the regeneration sequence which was played before the titles rolled, quite rare in those days of Doctor Who.
Colin Baker had refused to appear, so they resorted to Sylv wearing a blonde wig in the Sixth Doctor's costume.
Writers Pip and Jane Baker explained that it would have looked silly to show the regeneration after the opening titles, which for this series were probably the most ambitious and featured a computer generated face of McCoy winking.
An image that stuck in mind from an early age.
The pair later went on to write the amusing CBBC sitcom "Watt On Earth" in the early 90s.
Keff McCulloch who re-arranged the theme music, provided the episode's incidental music which I thought had quite an overdose on orchestra hits, and synth choirs.
On a more positive note, the line at the end of the final episode is rather amusing;
Doctor: "Well, time and tide melts the snowman"
Mel: "Waits for no man!"
Doctor: "Who's waiting, I'm ready!"
Mel: "You're going to take a bit of getting used to"
Doctor: "I'll grown on you Mel, I'll grow on you!"
It definitely was a hint of what was to come but by the end of the series Bonnie Langford made her departure and was replaced by a companion who was a thousand times better and more ballsier, Sophie Aldred as "Ace".
It will probably be at least 10 years before I decide to view this episode again.
Tidying The Despatchments
This afternoon as always has been spent listening to PY on Jazz FM where it started off with a brilliant version of the jazz funk favourite "New York Afternoon" by Rare Silk. I always thought that the Mondo Kane version of the song sounded very similar to "Half A Minute" by Matt Bianco but not as good.
There was also a tribute to the late musician David "Fathead" Newman who died earlier this week, with one of the tunes played being "I Got A Woman" by Ray Charles which David played sax on. The song now known by many as the hook for Kanye West's "Golddigger".
This week's "Buy 1 Get 2 Free" artist was George Benson although the other two tracks weren't covers of Benson tunes but original versions with one of them being Bobby Womack's "Breezin'" and the other one was "Love Ballad" by Skip Scarborough.
It would be interesting to hear a cover of one of Benson's own tunes although two years ago there was the album with him and Al Jarreau which had covers of various songs from either artist and a few others including their brilliant version of "Summer Breeze" by the Isley Brothers that I played on my summer soul show at the end of the 2007 academic year.
Whilst listening to the show I've been burning the CDs I've brought back with me onto my laptop including one I recived in the mail, that being Vivienne McKone's 1992 album which should be a very worthy listen.
I haven't recieved the Don-E album at present though, but I hope it won't be too long before it arrives.
The oven's now working in the Halls kitchen but the hole hasn't been repaired so god knows how long it will be until someone buggers it up again.
However the plan for this evening is to start off a somewhat stripped Doctor Who marathon which will probably last on and off throughout the semester.
Beginning with Sylvester McCoy's first story (and a rather poor one at that) "Time And The Rani" with Kate O'Mara returning as the enemy timelord.
Not to mention Bonnie Langford who TV Cream describe her scream as higher than the melody of Doctor Who theme tune.
There was also a tribute to the late musician David "Fathead" Newman who died earlier this week, with one of the tunes played being "I Got A Woman" by Ray Charles which David played sax on. The song now known by many as the hook for Kanye West's "Golddigger".
This week's "Buy 1 Get 2 Free" artist was George Benson although the other two tracks weren't covers of Benson tunes but original versions with one of them being Bobby Womack's "Breezin'" and the other one was "Love Ballad" by Skip Scarborough.
It would be interesting to hear a cover of one of Benson's own tunes although two years ago there was the album with him and Al Jarreau which had covers of various songs from either artist and a few others including their brilliant version of "Summer Breeze" by the Isley Brothers that I played on my summer soul show at the end of the 2007 academic year.
Whilst listening to the show I've been burning the CDs I've brought back with me onto my laptop including one I recived in the mail, that being Vivienne McKone's 1992 album which should be a very worthy listen.
I haven't recieved the Don-E album at present though, but I hope it won't be too long before it arrives.
The oven's now working in the Halls kitchen but the hole hasn't been repaired so god knows how long it will be until someone buggers it up again.
However the plan for this evening is to start off a somewhat stripped Doctor Who marathon which will probably last on and off throughout the semester.
Beginning with Sylvester McCoy's first story (and a rather poor one at that) "Time And The Rani" with Kate O'Mara returning as the enemy timelord.
Not to mention Bonnie Langford who TV Cream describe her scream as higher than the melody of Doctor Who theme tune.
Video Post - The Great Big Despatchment
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hc2RTviPtx0
Once again, sorry for the late start and early finish (that used to be a reward at ASDA when I worked there...)
Once again, sorry for the late start and early finish (that used to be a reward at ASDA when I worked there...)
"Bog Off You Moron!"
The journey back was worth it as the head WH Smith head cleaner did the job better than the one I bought at Maplins in Harrow yesterday. Possibly because it doesn't need any stupid liquid inserted into the tape.
Mum and Dad weren't home because they were taking Kate back up to Nottingham and it looks like my visit to Centre Parcs won't be the only visit to the area this year.
This is because just over a month later, the next Jingle Day will be taking place where I hope to meet the likes of Aston, Big Dave, Sean Martin from iJingles and many other like minded people chatting about radio along with a few beers. Or WKDs in my case.
Continuing with the radio theme I was chatting to Barry last night on the way to Moons about James Whale so I thought I'd take his autobiography to read on the train and it helped pass the time.
It's an interesting account of the radio presenters rise to the top and the many obstacles and setbacks he's had to face over his career, including an extra chapter about his sacking from TalkSport last year.
You have to hand it to his wife Melinda who throughout their 40 year relationship has managed to cope with the endless demands of location changes, new houses and has been ever supportive.
I never knew that James was responsible for starting up Radio Top Shop in Oxford Circus where one of the highlights was when a certain Paul Gadd came in with a record called "Rock And Roll".
The song turned out to be very popular with shoppers and resulted in a single release and an special in store appearance, the first of it's kind for the man who would go on to become Gary Glitter. And sadly for him, even worse things than that.
As you'd expect, the broadcaster is not afraid to give his opinions on others, including one Edwina Currie, who after her 1988 resignation as an MP, was invited by James to appear on his late night show on Radio Aire because she was a gutsy speaker and coincidentally had a love of currys oddly enough, and Leeds had (and probably still does) some of the best Indian restuarants in the country.
Unfortunately she had brought a large entourage with her, which ruined the intimacy, and by the late 90s she was presenting a weekend phone in show on 5 Live called "Late Night Currie" which I thought was appalling.
I'd risk saying that she could make Dotun Adebayo sound good.
Anyway she appeared with James at a talk discussing what made great speech radio and mentioned that James inspired her to get into radio. He wasn't impressed however partly because he thought it was stupid that a failed politician was asked to talk about how to make "great radio".
Thankfully her show was dropped around 2004 and was replaced by Richard Bacon.
Fellow Radio Aire colleague Chris Moyles however does get a few good words from the man who could be his father, partly because he's repaying the favour for what he said in "The Gospel According To Chris Moyles".
There was also a chapter on James's transfer to television with a late night version of his radio show produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in the early 90s which got 3 million viewers a week.
The idea came from YTV producer Ian Bolt who had worked on shows such as "3-2-1" and "Through The Keyhole" and this lead to a very amusing moment involving a caller just mucking about;
Caller: "Hello?"
James: "Yeah, hello Barry?"
Caller: "Right, can I order the number 32, and a tikka masala..."
James: "Barry hang on, this isn't, we're talking about sex Barry"
Caller: "...and some large spring rolls"
James: "Barry, BARRY!, We are talking about sex! This is not a Chinese Takeaway!"
Caller: "Then do you do pizzas then?"
James: "Bog off Barry!"
I've only listened to James a few times but I was lucky enough to hear one of his shows after I'd bought my Bug in September 2004, when he started singing the song,
"# I am the morning DJ! At WJJD!"
A caller then rang up and pointed out it was actually "W.O.L.D" which was a song by Harry Chapin and it lead to an interesting discussion where James talked about when he worked at Metro Radio and fellow colleague Len Groat was a big fan of the song
(as you would expect) and used to sing the chorus in the same style as a radio jingle.
I'd only just found out about the song as a year earlier, Noel Edmonds made a return to the radio covering for Johnnie Walker on Radio 2 whilst he was recovering from cancer, and that was the first record he played.
I seemed to remember that Johnnie wasn't too impressed by his stint, highlighted by the fact that on his return he thanked Stuart Maconie for covering him but not Edmonds.
Back to Whale, and the book mentions that he was a big fan and friend of the late Bernard Manning who once appeared on his TV show along with Glenys Kinnock. The Manchester funnyman actually tried to defend his fellow guest when James started taking the mickey out of Glenys although that's probably because Bernard rather bizarrely was a Labour voter throughout his life.
I fully agree with James' views on Bernard Manning being a lot funnier than the alternative comedians that rose in the 80s as Arthur Smith would never sell as many DVDs as Bernard's videos.
Along with Tony Blackburn, I won't let James slightly right wing political views get in the way of my appreciation for him and I really agree with a sub-chapter in his book about immigration and those who come to stay in our country.
His main grudge was that he thought it was rude of people from countries in Asia to come here and not adapt to our culture through the clothes they wear and the food they eat. Or in other words, enforce their culture on us.
It would be like him going over to Italy, or China and insistent on only eating roast beef and Yorkshire puddings which is a fair point.
I also didn't realise that his real name was Michael, although he had to change it partly because there was another Michael Whale who used to read the sport on London Plus and then Newsroom South East.
Which leads on to another book that I'd recieved in the mail which was Johnny Beerling's book about Radio 1. However as my Paypal account has Dad's name on it Johnny signed the book with his name on it, so I may adapt Michael as my middle name from now on although I won't get arsey about it like the late Tony Wilson, or "Anthony H Wilson" as he was sometimes known.
There's also a lot of other stuff I brought back including loads of audio tapes, loads of DVDs/DVD-Rs and quite a few more VHS's as well.
I'll go through the more interesting stuff in the next post which will be a long awaited video post.
However, I've got the VCR sorted so I won't have to by a new one, and I aim not to leave the flat until Monday as I'm bloody tired.
Mum and Dad weren't home because they were taking Kate back up to Nottingham and it looks like my visit to Centre Parcs won't be the only visit to the area this year.
This is because just over a month later, the next Jingle Day will be taking place where I hope to meet the likes of Aston, Big Dave, Sean Martin from iJingles and many other like minded people chatting about radio along with a few beers. Or WKDs in my case.
Continuing with the radio theme I was chatting to Barry last night on the way to Moons about James Whale so I thought I'd take his autobiography to read on the train and it helped pass the time.
It's an interesting account of the radio presenters rise to the top and the many obstacles and setbacks he's had to face over his career, including an extra chapter about his sacking from TalkSport last year.
You have to hand it to his wife Melinda who throughout their 40 year relationship has managed to cope with the endless demands of location changes, new houses and has been ever supportive.
I never knew that James was responsible for starting up Radio Top Shop in Oxford Circus where one of the highlights was when a certain Paul Gadd came in with a record called "Rock And Roll".
The song turned out to be very popular with shoppers and resulted in a single release and an special in store appearance, the first of it's kind for the man who would go on to become Gary Glitter. And sadly for him, even worse things than that.
As you'd expect, the broadcaster is not afraid to give his opinions on others, including one Edwina Currie, who after her 1988 resignation as an MP, was invited by James to appear on his late night show on Radio Aire because she was a gutsy speaker and coincidentally had a love of currys oddly enough, and Leeds had (and probably still does) some of the best Indian restuarants in the country.
Unfortunately she had brought a large entourage with her, which ruined the intimacy, and by the late 90s she was presenting a weekend phone in show on 5 Live called "Late Night Currie" which I thought was appalling.
I'd risk saying that she could make Dotun Adebayo sound good.
Anyway she appeared with James at a talk discussing what made great speech radio and mentioned that James inspired her to get into radio. He wasn't impressed however partly because he thought it was stupid that a failed politician was asked to talk about how to make "great radio".
Thankfully her show was dropped around 2004 and was replaced by Richard Bacon.
Fellow Radio Aire colleague Chris Moyles however does get a few good words from the man who could be his father, partly because he's repaying the favour for what he said in "The Gospel According To Chris Moyles".
There was also a chapter on James's transfer to television with a late night version of his radio show produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in the early 90s which got 3 million viewers a week.
The idea came from YTV producer Ian Bolt who had worked on shows such as "3-2-1" and "Through The Keyhole" and this lead to a very amusing moment involving a caller just mucking about;
Caller: "Hello?"
James: "Yeah, hello Barry?"
Caller: "Right, can I order the number 32, and a tikka masala..."
James: "Barry hang on, this isn't, we're talking about sex Barry"
Caller: "...and some large spring rolls"
James: "Barry, BARRY!, We are talking about sex! This is not a Chinese Takeaway!"
Caller: "Then do you do pizzas then?"
James: "Bog off Barry!"
I've only listened to James a few times but I was lucky enough to hear one of his shows after I'd bought my Bug in September 2004, when he started singing the song,
"# I am the morning DJ! At WJJD!"
A caller then rang up and pointed out it was actually "W.O.L.D" which was a song by Harry Chapin and it lead to an interesting discussion where James talked about when he worked at Metro Radio and fellow colleague Len Groat was a big fan of the song
(as you would expect) and used to sing the chorus in the same style as a radio jingle.
I'd only just found out about the song as a year earlier, Noel Edmonds made a return to the radio covering for Johnnie Walker on Radio 2 whilst he was recovering from cancer, and that was the first record he played.
I seemed to remember that Johnnie wasn't too impressed by his stint, highlighted by the fact that on his return he thanked Stuart Maconie for covering him but not Edmonds.
Back to Whale, and the book mentions that he was a big fan and friend of the late Bernard Manning who once appeared on his TV show along with Glenys Kinnock. The Manchester funnyman actually tried to defend his fellow guest when James started taking the mickey out of Glenys although that's probably because Bernard rather bizarrely was a Labour voter throughout his life.
I fully agree with James' views on Bernard Manning being a lot funnier than the alternative comedians that rose in the 80s as Arthur Smith would never sell as many DVDs as Bernard's videos.
Along with Tony Blackburn, I won't let James slightly right wing political views get in the way of my appreciation for him and I really agree with a sub-chapter in his book about immigration and those who come to stay in our country.
His main grudge was that he thought it was rude of people from countries in Asia to come here and not adapt to our culture through the clothes they wear and the food they eat. Or in other words, enforce their culture on us.
It would be like him going over to Italy, or China and insistent on only eating roast beef and Yorkshire puddings which is a fair point.
I also didn't realise that his real name was Michael, although he had to change it partly because there was another Michael Whale who used to read the sport on London Plus and then Newsroom South East.
Which leads on to another book that I'd recieved in the mail which was Johnny Beerling's book about Radio 1. However as my Paypal account has Dad's name on it Johnny signed the book with his name on it, so I may adapt Michael as my middle name from now on although I won't get arsey about it like the late Tony Wilson, or "Anthony H Wilson" as he was sometimes known.
There's also a lot of other stuff I brought back including loads of audio tapes, loads of DVDs/DVD-Rs and quite a few more VHS's as well.
I'll go through the more interesting stuff in the next post which will be a long awaited video post.
However, I've got the VCR sorted so I won't have to by a new one, and I aim not to leave the flat until Monday as I'm bloody tired.
Doing My Heads In
I'm really not in the best of moods. I attempted to watch last night's videotape of Jonathan Ross as soon as I got in, only to find that the picture quality was shite. You couldn't see anything at at all and it's made me realise that the head cleaner I brought was rubbish.
It also effected the Tonight documentary about swearing on television which I was pretty peeved about as well.
Both shows are online so I attempted to watch Wossy via the iPlayer until my internet got cut off which was nonsense. It's working OK now after a good night in bed but because the VHS won't play in the library either I'm at my wits end and am going back to Canterbury to get the head cleaner I brought before returning to Uni which I should have brought with me.
If it solves the problem then I'll be happy but if not, I'll have to buy a new television.
Then again I imagine TV/Video combinations aren't that expensive these days.
Both programmes are repeated this weekend thankfully, but I can't be arsed to search round London looking for a head cleaner when I know that I've got one at home.
It's pretty much going to be a back and forth journey which means I won't be bringing the laptop with me.
However there's quite a bit of stuff I need to bring back anyway so hopefully the journey will be worthwhile.
I may as well head off now.
It also effected the Tonight documentary about swearing on television which I was pretty peeved about as well.
Both shows are online so I attempted to watch Wossy via the iPlayer until my internet got cut off which was nonsense. It's working OK now after a good night in bed but because the VHS won't play in the library either I'm at my wits end and am going back to Canterbury to get the head cleaner I brought before returning to Uni which I should have brought with me.
If it solves the problem then I'll be happy but if not, I'll have to buy a new television.
Then again I imagine TV/Video combinations aren't that expensive these days.
Both programmes are repeated this weekend thankfully, but I can't be arsed to search round London looking for a head cleaner when I know that I've got one at home.
It's pretty much going to be a back and forth journey which means I won't be bringing the laptop with me.
However there's quite a bit of stuff I need to bring back anyway so hopefully the journey will be worthwhile.
I may as well head off now.
Keys To The Door
I arrived with a rather dodgy bottle of citrus flavoured alcopops at around 6:30pm where those present included the birthday boy himself, Denis, Barry and other guests Tudor and Stevie McIntosh.
We headed over to Moons along with Aoife, Phil, and Annabel where we were joined by Chris's mate from back in Lynn "Bog". I don't know how he got his nickname but he's known Chris for more or less the majority of his life. The man himself was responsible for a few accidents where I tripped over his holdall whilst going to the bar which caused some hilarity but there were no injuries.
Fiz was present, pulling the pints and he'll be one of those spinning the discs at Phil's next do at the Undercroft in a couple of weeks along with myself and Deevah Steevah.
I found out a bit more as to what happened after I left Area last night, which included Phil going up to the DJ booth and asking Synamatix to play "YMCA". I bet he wasn't too pleased about that.
Chris also got on the wrong (or quite possibly right) side of an argument with one of the comittee members after they overheard him and Jim Chapman saying that the music wasn't up to standard. I won't say who it was, but it wasn't Lottie or Sophie.
In all fairness however, the majority of non radio people I have spoken to today also weren't too keen on the obscure tunes that were played last night, especially those in my flat.
The only people that they are pleasing are those running the station, and the very close circles of second year commercial music students who know the DJs rather well.
I've mentioned "fine lines" several times recently and in this case, with specialist music shows, and DJ sets there is a difference between being knowledgable about music as opposed to being just arrogant.
On a more serious note though I should apologise for a joke I made earlier in the week with regards to the station and went a bit out of hand.
Especially as things have been running a lot betterthis week and everyone's been a bit more laid back than usual making me feel a tiny bit guilty.
I hope this relaxed but enthusiastic atmosphere remains during the rest of the semester, although as Lottie mentioned, it would nice to see more energy within some of the shows.
I doubt Dan Roberts will have to worry about that.
Back to tonight and after Moons we stopped back at the boys house where we watched a few music videos although they weren't impressed when I got enthusiastic about the video for Dannii Minogue's 1991 debut "Love And Kisses".
They did bring in Chris's birthday presents which included a set of fake moustaches, some socks, and a copy of Singstar along with two microphones.
I hope we'll be having a few games before long, especially as one of the songs on their is Motorhead's "Ace Of Spades" which will be the one I'm taking!
We then made our way to Central although by the time we got on the train it was just me, Chilvers, Bog, Denis and Barry.
The club we went to was "Roadhouse" in Covent Garden where the music was mainly current stuff blended in with a few classics such as "Billie Jean" and Aretha Franklin's "Respect".
I doubt I'll ever be in a club where they play the Adeva version.
I didn't stick around for too long and headed back after about an hour along with Denis and Barry as they had work the next morning.
And now that I'm back here I will finally get round to watching Jonathan Ross's much awaited return!
We headed over to Moons along with Aoife, Phil, and Annabel where we were joined by Chris's mate from back in Lynn "Bog". I don't know how he got his nickname but he's known Chris for more or less the majority of his life. The man himself was responsible for a few accidents where I tripped over his holdall whilst going to the bar which caused some hilarity but there were no injuries.
Fiz was present, pulling the pints and he'll be one of those spinning the discs at Phil's next do at the Undercroft in a couple of weeks along with myself and Deevah Steevah.
I found out a bit more as to what happened after I left Area last night, which included Phil going up to the DJ booth and asking Synamatix to play "YMCA". I bet he wasn't too pleased about that.
Chris also got on the wrong (or quite possibly right) side of an argument with one of the comittee members after they overheard him and Jim Chapman saying that the music wasn't up to standard. I won't say who it was, but it wasn't Lottie or Sophie.
In all fairness however, the majority of non radio people I have spoken to today also weren't too keen on the obscure tunes that were played last night, especially those in my flat.
The only people that they are pleasing are those running the station, and the very close circles of second year commercial music students who know the DJs rather well.
I've mentioned "fine lines" several times recently and in this case, with specialist music shows, and DJ sets there is a difference between being knowledgable about music as opposed to being just arrogant.
On a more serious note though I should apologise for a joke I made earlier in the week with regards to the station and went a bit out of hand.
Especially as things have been running a lot betterthis week and everyone's been a bit more laid back than usual making me feel a tiny bit guilty.
I hope this relaxed but enthusiastic atmosphere remains during the rest of the semester, although as Lottie mentioned, it would nice to see more energy within some of the shows.
I doubt Dan Roberts will have to worry about that.
Back to tonight and after Moons we stopped back at the boys house where we watched a few music videos although they weren't impressed when I got enthusiastic about the video for Dannii Minogue's 1991 debut "Love And Kisses".
They did bring in Chris's birthday presents which included a set of fake moustaches, some socks, and a copy of Singstar along with two microphones.
I hope we'll be having a few games before long, especially as one of the songs on their is Motorhead's "Ace Of Spades" which will be the one I'm taking!
We then made our way to Central although by the time we got on the train it was just me, Chilvers, Bog, Denis and Barry.
The club we went to was "Roadhouse" in Covent Garden where the music was mainly current stuff blended in with a few classics such as "Billie Jean" and Aretha Franklin's "Respect".
I doubt I'll ever be in a club where they play the Adeva version.
I didn't stick around for too long and headed back after about an hour along with Denis and Barry as they had work the next morning.
And now that I'm back here I will finally get round to watching Jonathan Ross's much awaited return!
Friday, January 23, 2009
"The Way It Really Was, Was A Very Different Story..."
Prior to the final SMTV with Ant & Dec on my rather worn out VHS copy was the first 10 minutes of BBC 1's "The Saturday Show" with Dani Behr and Joe Mace. Their "sterling guest line up" conisisted of Emma Bunton (with a dreadful barnett), The Tweenies, Bret 'Hitman' Hart, and Daniel McPherson from Neighbours who was starring at the panto in Canterbury that year.
Compelling entertainment I'm sure you'll agree.
There was also the last five minutes of "Diggit" which was quite amusing featuring "Des" and a couple of other presenters. Des or to give him his real name Paul can apparently be found as a reporter on CBBC's Sportsround so I may have a gander tomorrow morning to see if he's grown up yet.
Onto the show itself which started off with what sounded like a rocky version of "Well Did You 'Evah" which included the line from Frank Skinner and David Baddiel;
David: "We all came, to show we care"
Frank: "Right! Which one of you's Dani Behr?"
The other guests included Blue, Liberty (without the X), Samantha Mumba, Amanda Holden, Denise Van Outen, Dane Bowers, Michael Greco, Mark Lamarr, and Carol Vorderman.
And Hear'say.
There was also a big band perfomance from Robbie Williams and his "best mate" Jonathan Wilkes. I actually thought Jonathan had the better voice oddly enough, although he decided to give that up and host You've Been Framed.
There was also a special edition of "The Secret Of My Success" which involved a flashback to the boys on Byker Grove, where "Downright Dirty Donnelly" wouldn't stick to the script and just messed about. "Cat The Dog" appeared as a new arrival from "Burrmingham!" whilst Denise Van Outen, Amanda Holden and Carol Vorderman were dressed as heavilly permed Geordies.
Best of all though was Frank Skinner as Geoff although he didn't have the beard.
Frank also gave the pair an irreverent interview which included a VT of some of the worst moments from the show, mainly from the first series.
There were also some very amusing questions such as "How did you feel when you destroyed 'Live & Kicking'?" and "Will you be going on a big bender next week, and are you prepared to name him?".
There was a return of the football based competition "Eat My Goal" which featured Robbie Williams, Jonathan Wilkes, Michael Greco, and even Peter Beardsley attempting to get the ball past goalkeeper Ant.
Although just as the item was finishing Robbie decided to show his arse to the camera, which laterly got ITV into a bit of trouble with the ITC.
The final episode of Chums featured a guest appearance by Mariah Carey as Cat's maid of honour in her marriage to Dec. This was around the time Mariah had released her succesful film "Glitter" and if her acting in Chums was anything to go by, no wonder it bombed.
The boys final CD:UK was also pretty good with performances from Starsailor, and Jamiroquai performing one of their album tracks "Main Vein" with guest vocals by Beverley Knight.
Well they weren't really vocals, more of a wail.
There were also VT packages with pop stars wishing the guys good luck ranging from Mis-Teeq, Kylie Minogue, Paul McCartney, and even Jay Z, and Robert Smith.
The show ended with a highlights package which contained one of my favourite outbursts from Dec in a game of "Wonkey Donkey";
Dec: "Who is that in the background?"
Caller: "My mum!"
Dec: "Yer, mum's rubbish as well"
It ended brilliantly with slow motion clips accompanied by "Nobody Does It Better" a song that I'm not normally a fan of, but in this case it worked perfectly.
The show ended with the boys performance of "Let's Get Ready To Rhumble" on the 100th show from July 2000 which was what everyone really wanted to see on the final show.
And there's no denying that it's one of the greatest pop songs of the last 15 years.
As for tonight, I'm just about to head off to the "Big Gay House" which is the launch point for tonight's 21st birthday festivities for Chris Chilvers.
I can't get around my head that he's finally reached that age but I doubt it will see an end to him making innuedos and resorting to schoolboy jokes at my expense.
I'll be bringing a bottle of pineapple vodka or whatever it is I normally bring to such events.
Compelling entertainment I'm sure you'll agree.
There was also the last five minutes of "Diggit" which was quite amusing featuring "Des" and a couple of other presenters. Des or to give him his real name Paul can apparently be found as a reporter on CBBC's Sportsround so I may have a gander tomorrow morning to see if he's grown up yet.
Onto the show itself which started off with what sounded like a rocky version of "Well Did You 'Evah" which included the line from Frank Skinner and David Baddiel;
David: "We all came, to show we care"
Frank: "Right! Which one of you's Dani Behr?"
The other guests included Blue, Liberty (without the X), Samantha Mumba, Amanda Holden, Denise Van Outen, Dane Bowers, Michael Greco, Mark Lamarr, and Carol Vorderman.
And Hear'say.
There was also a big band perfomance from Robbie Williams and his "best mate" Jonathan Wilkes. I actually thought Jonathan had the better voice oddly enough, although he decided to give that up and host You've Been Framed.
There was also a special edition of "The Secret Of My Success" which involved a flashback to the boys on Byker Grove, where "Downright Dirty Donnelly" wouldn't stick to the script and just messed about. "Cat The Dog" appeared as a new arrival from "Burrmingham!" whilst Denise Van Outen, Amanda Holden and Carol Vorderman were dressed as heavilly permed Geordies.
Best of all though was Frank Skinner as Geoff although he didn't have the beard.
Frank also gave the pair an irreverent interview which included a VT of some of the worst moments from the show, mainly from the first series.
There were also some very amusing questions such as "How did you feel when you destroyed 'Live & Kicking'?" and "Will you be going on a big bender next week, and are you prepared to name him?".
There was a return of the football based competition "Eat My Goal" which featured Robbie Williams, Jonathan Wilkes, Michael Greco, and even Peter Beardsley attempting to get the ball past goalkeeper Ant.
Although just as the item was finishing Robbie decided to show his arse to the camera, which laterly got ITV into a bit of trouble with the ITC.
The final episode of Chums featured a guest appearance by Mariah Carey as Cat's maid of honour in her marriage to Dec. This was around the time Mariah had released her succesful film "Glitter" and if her acting in Chums was anything to go by, no wonder it bombed.
The boys final CD:UK was also pretty good with performances from Starsailor, and Jamiroquai performing one of their album tracks "Main Vein" with guest vocals by Beverley Knight.
Well they weren't really vocals, more of a wail.
There were also VT packages with pop stars wishing the guys good luck ranging from Mis-Teeq, Kylie Minogue, Paul McCartney, and even Jay Z, and Robert Smith.
The show ended with a highlights package which contained one of my favourite outbursts from Dec in a game of "Wonkey Donkey";
Dec: "Who is that in the background?"
Caller: "My mum!"
Dec: "Yer, mum's rubbish as well"
It ended brilliantly with slow motion clips accompanied by "Nobody Does It Better" a song that I'm not normally a fan of, but in this case it worked perfectly.
The show ended with the boys performance of "Let's Get Ready To Rhumble" on the 100th show from July 2000 which was what everyone really wanted to see on the final show.
And there's no denying that it's one of the greatest pop songs of the last 15 years.
As for tonight, I'm just about to head off to the "Big Gay House" which is the launch point for tonight's 21st birthday festivities for Chris Chilvers.
I can't get around my head that he's finally reached that age but I doubt it will see an end to him making innuedos and resorting to schoolboy jokes at my expense.
I'll be bringing a bottle of pineapple vodka or whatever it is I normally bring to such events.
"You Know Where It's At!"
I've just started rummaging through the VHS with the Geordie Boys final SM:TV although the tape itself contains a few other surprises.
One of them being the opening to the first ever edition of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross in early November 2001 where the studio set and the theme tune are the same but the opening titles consist of a bizarre pop art sequence involving images of Andy Pandy, a Dalek, Barbara Windsor, Elton John, Valerie Singleton and Basil Brush along with "Mr Roy".
The other notable difference was the addition of Jonathan's sidekick Andy Davies from the Radio 2 which was rather awkward as they shared anecdotes together in between the interviews and it didn't really work, especially as Andy had to vacate the chair for when each guest came on, with occasional cutaways to him laughing as he does.
They solved the problem in series two by getting a long leather sofa so he could stay throughout the whole show but by series 3 he was dropped completely and the show's remained the same since.
Also on the tape is the episode of SM:TV from the day after where the guests included Matt Hardy and Lita from WWE promoting their UK pay per view taking place that evening.
If I remember correctly it was two weeks before the 2001 Survivor Series with the key match being a "Winner Takes All" fight between WWF (as they were known then) and "The Alliance" which was an amalgamation between WCW and ECW as earlier in the year Vince McMahon had brought WCW only for it to be poached by his son Shane.
As you'd expect WWF came up trumps resulting in both companies in the Alliance going bust.
The real reason however, was because TNT in America were dropping WCW from their schedules and this lead to the purchase and shortly after the demise of the company.
Back to Ant & Dec, and their other guest was erstwhile Saturday Morning legend Neil Buchanan promoting the new series of Art Attack and making a guest appearance in Ant's send up "F'art Attack" which was superb and proved he was a good sport willing to send himself up.
Basically the sketch usally involved Ant as "Neil Pump-cannon" and involved plenty of flatuence jokes whenever Ant uttered a phrase such as "trouser badger".
The other highlight was an important match of Challenge Ant where Ant was hoping to make it five wins in a row. The tall half of the pair made his entrance by doing a hilarious dance to the tune of Manfred Mann's "5-4-3-2-1" complete with Ted Rogers esque hand movements.
Just this once I was wanting him to win, only to see him to the dance again.
T4 did a competition called "5-4-3-2-1" around the same time and had a sting which was loosely based around the Manfred's song but they had to change the notes for various reasons.
Overall I still find myself laughing at the antics of Ant, Dec & Cat in the same way as I did 9 years ago which proves that since their departure, hilarity at that time of the morning has never really been the same.
Especially with sketches such as "Anty & Decky The Garden Goblins" with plenty of analogies to "dizzy water" and Cat playing the "Giggle Fairy" who used to be called Prozac but they had to drop the name shortly after.
I'm just about to finally start viewing the pairs swan song and from what I remember it was pretty much a star studded affair.
One of them being the opening to the first ever edition of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross in early November 2001 where the studio set and the theme tune are the same but the opening titles consist of a bizarre pop art sequence involving images of Andy Pandy, a Dalek, Barbara Windsor, Elton John, Valerie Singleton and Basil Brush along with "Mr Roy".
The other notable difference was the addition of Jonathan's sidekick Andy Davies from the Radio 2 which was rather awkward as they shared anecdotes together in between the interviews and it didn't really work, especially as Andy had to vacate the chair for when each guest came on, with occasional cutaways to him laughing as he does.
They solved the problem in series two by getting a long leather sofa so he could stay throughout the whole show but by series 3 he was dropped completely and the show's remained the same since.
Also on the tape is the episode of SM:TV from the day after where the guests included Matt Hardy and Lita from WWE promoting their UK pay per view taking place that evening.
If I remember correctly it was two weeks before the 2001 Survivor Series with the key match being a "Winner Takes All" fight between WWF (as they were known then) and "The Alliance" which was an amalgamation between WCW and ECW as earlier in the year Vince McMahon had brought WCW only for it to be poached by his son Shane.
As you'd expect WWF came up trumps resulting in both companies in the Alliance going bust.
The real reason however, was because TNT in America were dropping WCW from their schedules and this lead to the purchase and shortly after the demise of the company.
Back to Ant & Dec, and their other guest was erstwhile Saturday Morning legend Neil Buchanan promoting the new series of Art Attack and making a guest appearance in Ant's send up "F'art Attack" which was superb and proved he was a good sport willing to send himself up.
Basically the sketch usally involved Ant as "Neil Pump-cannon" and involved plenty of flatuence jokes whenever Ant uttered a phrase such as "trouser badger".
The other highlight was an important match of Challenge Ant where Ant was hoping to make it five wins in a row. The tall half of the pair made his entrance by doing a hilarious dance to the tune of Manfred Mann's "5-4-3-2-1" complete with Ted Rogers esque hand movements.
Just this once I was wanting him to win, only to see him to the dance again.
T4 did a competition called "5-4-3-2-1" around the same time and had a sting which was loosely based around the Manfred's song but they had to change the notes for various reasons.
Overall I still find myself laughing at the antics of Ant, Dec & Cat in the same way as I did 9 years ago which proves that since their departure, hilarity at that time of the morning has never really been the same.
Especially with sketches such as "Anty & Decky The Garden Goblins" with plenty of analogies to "dizzy water" and Cat playing the "Giggle Fairy" who used to be called Prozac but they had to drop the name shortly after.
I'm just about to finally start viewing the pairs swan song and from what I remember it was pretty much a star studded affair.
"Twitter Ye Not?"
I met up with the delightful Ellena from Prospects this morning, and went through a few work experience letters.
I was a bit discouraged when finding out that some places I wanted to apply for said that they didn't undertake internships as such, one of them being Jazz FM but to be fair they're going through quite a lot right now with regards to management changes and possible re-location.
In fact their output comes from all over the place really as Steve Quirk's show comes from up North and possibly Mike Chadwick does as well, whereas Robbie Vincent does his show via ISDN from KMFM's Tonbridge studios.
With regards to KMFM, it appears that things are declining even further
as following Richard Walters departure to XFM London and the loss of the Rock Show,
it appears that Chris Finn's Chill Out show has disapeared from the schedule as well,
resulting in the Saturday night dance show being extended.
Which means that practically all the best or should I say stand out shows on the network have gone so that gives me an even bigger reason for not wanting to go back to Canterbury.
They still have Tony Blackburn on Sunday, but he's also on Smooth Radio,
and BBC London over here so it's not too big a deal really.
Thankfully, our very own Steven McIntosh has come up with the remedy for the loss of Finny's Chill Out show in the form of a list on Facebook of albums of a similar nature to help ease dissertation stress.
They include the superb debut by Zero 7 from 2001 which I've used in many a radio feature, Royksopp's "Melody A.M" which brings back many memories of Summer 2002, "Mama's Gun" by Erykah Badu and the ever superb "Moon Safari" by Air.
Others that will probably get me through the next few months will include "Since I Left You" by The Avalanches which I was chatting to Phil H about just a couple of days ago, anything from Nightmares On Wax and Quantic, both of Jiva's albums of course, and 4hero's "Creating Patterns". In fact anything by them as well.
However I certainly won't be listening to anything by Jose Gonzales, or that dreadful cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop" by Newton Faulkner which came out towards the end of 2007.
The original version of that song was used by a lot of people on my college course for their short films and I imagine quite a few people at Uni use it as well.
One of our alumni Mark Jackson also used it on his second year radio feature about "Love On The Underground" which is probably one of my favourite radio features done by a student on the course.
As an aside I've just started using Twitter which despite not having internet on my mobile I'm becoming rather addicted to.
Amongst those I've started following are Chilvers, Ross T, Stoobie, Spikey G and a few famous people such as "Wossy" and Phillip Schofield.
I've also added Media UK's radio job vacancies which will come in useful, and of course Jazz FM.
It looks like there will be two permanent tabs on my web browser with Facebook being the other.
As for the rest of today, I plan to reminisce back to late 2001 and Ant & Dec's last ever edition of Saturday Morning Television Live.
It should be a good laugh.
I was a bit discouraged when finding out that some places I wanted to apply for said that they didn't undertake internships as such, one of them being Jazz FM but to be fair they're going through quite a lot right now with regards to management changes and possible re-location.
In fact their output comes from all over the place really as Steve Quirk's show comes from up North and possibly Mike Chadwick does as well, whereas Robbie Vincent does his show via ISDN from KMFM's Tonbridge studios.
With regards to KMFM, it appears that things are declining even further
as following Richard Walters departure to XFM London and the loss of the Rock Show,
it appears that Chris Finn's Chill Out show has disapeared from the schedule as well,
resulting in the Saturday night dance show being extended.
Which means that practically all the best or should I say stand out shows on the network have gone so that gives me an even bigger reason for not wanting to go back to Canterbury.
They still have Tony Blackburn on Sunday, but he's also on Smooth Radio,
and BBC London over here so it's not too big a deal really.
Thankfully, our very own Steven McIntosh has come up with the remedy for the loss of Finny's Chill Out show in the form of a list on Facebook of albums of a similar nature to help ease dissertation stress.
They include the superb debut by Zero 7 from 2001 which I've used in many a radio feature, Royksopp's "Melody A.M" which brings back many memories of Summer 2002, "Mama's Gun" by Erykah Badu and the ever superb "Moon Safari" by Air.
Others that will probably get me through the next few months will include "Since I Left You" by The Avalanches which I was chatting to Phil H about just a couple of days ago, anything from Nightmares On Wax and Quantic, both of Jiva's albums of course, and 4hero's "Creating Patterns". In fact anything by them as well.
However I certainly won't be listening to anything by Jose Gonzales, or that dreadful cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop" by Newton Faulkner which came out towards the end of 2007.
The original version of that song was used by a lot of people on my college course for their short films and I imagine quite a few people at Uni use it as well.
One of our alumni Mark Jackson also used it on his second year radio feature about "Love On The Underground" which is probably one of my favourite radio features done by a student on the course.
As an aside I've just started using Twitter which despite not having internet on my mobile I'm becoming rather addicted to.
Amongst those I've started following are Chilvers, Ross T, Stoobie, Spikey G and a few famous people such as "Wossy" and Phillip Schofield.
I've also added Media UK's radio job vacancies which will come in useful, and of course Jazz FM.
It looks like there will be two permanent tabs on my web browser with Facebook being the other.
As for the rest of today, I plan to reminisce back to late 2001 and Ant & Dec's last ever edition of Saturday Morning Television Live.
It should be a good laugh.
"Butch And Sincere!"
Heading back early was the right thing to do as I managed to get a good night in bed and wasn't woken up by any lary people getting back from Area.
The fire alarm didn't even go off although I'll need to make sure I go to Sainsbury's at around 11am to deliberately avoid the weekly alarm testing.
I had Moyles switched on, waking up at around 6:30am but I was half asleep and didn't really wake up properly until they started doing The Golden Hour as they do every Friday.
The first half hour involved a top selection of tunes from 1999 although all of them were from the earlier half when things for me weren't too good, mainly because of a stern classroom assistant who I've mentioned on this blog quite a few times.
Anyway the tunes included the superb "One Week" by The Barenaked Ladies,
"Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai, "Red Alert" by Basement Jaxx
(although I would have preferred Rendez-Vu), and even "Flat Beat" my Mr Oizo.
I was a tiny bit disapointed that they didn't play the best record released that year, which was "You Get What You Give" by the New Radicals.
Possibly the greatest one hit wonder ever, although lead singer Greg Alexander went on to become a top songwriter for other people with hits such as Ronan Keating's "Life Is A Rollercoaster".
As always, the second half saw all the team members choose the songs with Dom's being "Man In The Mirror" by Michael Jackson, Carrie's was Montel Jordan's "This Is How We Do It", Chris's was "Dude Looks Like A Lady" by Aerosmith, Rachel chose the original remix (?!) of "You Got The Love" by the Source and Candi Staton, and Aled went for "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" by C&C Music Factory and Freedom Williams.
I bet they didn't play that at Area last night after I left.
I quite like the new theme for the Golden Hour as done by Music 4 in the latest set of jingles for Moyles, and they also played a few of the old JAM jingles, and the stab with the orchestra hits voiced by John Wells.
I happen to use a doctored version of that cut at the beginning of my show each week,
but I'd love to get John to voice it himself. I'll see what sort of rates he works at.
On a rather sad note however, I've found out that one of Radio 1's former presenters Vicky Marsden died last November at just 33 years old after losing a battle with cancer.
Formerly a presenter at Leicester Sound, Victoria used to present an early show on the station around the same time as Emma B, Nemone, and Sarah HB were there, and moved to Dubai in 2004 to present at Dubai 92.
A more detailed profile can be found here, but I'm rather stunned I didn't find out about this until now.
Definitely a woman who was underused at Radio 1 in the days when they actually bothered to get experienced radio presenters in rather than the likes of Kelly Osbourne and Fearne Cotton.
Overall, an unexpected loss.
The fire alarm didn't even go off although I'll need to make sure I go to Sainsbury's at around 11am to deliberately avoid the weekly alarm testing.
I had Moyles switched on, waking up at around 6:30am but I was half asleep and didn't really wake up properly until they started doing The Golden Hour as they do every Friday.
The first half hour involved a top selection of tunes from 1999 although all of them were from the earlier half when things for me weren't too good, mainly because of a stern classroom assistant who I've mentioned on this blog quite a few times.
Anyway the tunes included the superb "One Week" by The Barenaked Ladies,
"Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai, "Red Alert" by Basement Jaxx
(although I would have preferred Rendez-Vu), and even "Flat Beat" my Mr Oizo.
I was a tiny bit disapointed that they didn't play the best record released that year, which was "You Get What You Give" by the New Radicals.
Possibly the greatest one hit wonder ever, although lead singer Greg Alexander went on to become a top songwriter for other people with hits such as Ronan Keating's "Life Is A Rollercoaster".
As always, the second half saw all the team members choose the songs with Dom's being "Man In The Mirror" by Michael Jackson, Carrie's was Montel Jordan's "This Is How We Do It", Chris's was "Dude Looks Like A Lady" by Aerosmith, Rachel chose the original remix (?!) of "You Got The Love" by the Source and Candi Staton, and Aled went for "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" by C&C Music Factory and Freedom Williams.
I bet they didn't play that at Area last night after I left.
I quite like the new theme for the Golden Hour as done by Music 4 in the latest set of jingles for Moyles, and they also played a few of the old JAM jingles, and the stab with the orchestra hits voiced by John Wells.
I happen to use a doctored version of that cut at the beginning of my show each week,
but I'd love to get John to voice it himself. I'll see what sort of rates he works at.
On a rather sad note however, I've found out that one of Radio 1's former presenters Vicky Marsden died last November at just 33 years old after losing a battle with cancer.
Formerly a presenter at Leicester Sound, Victoria used to present an early show on the station around the same time as Emma B, Nemone, and Sarah HB were there, and moved to Dubai in 2004 to present at Dubai 92.
A more detailed profile can be found here, but I'm rather stunned I didn't find out about this until now.
Definitely a woman who was underused at Radio 1 in the days when they actually bothered to get experienced radio presenters in rather than the likes of Kelly Osbourne and Fearne Cotton.
Overall, an unexpected loss.
Partying At Proud
Tonight's events started off with the Smoke Radio meeting which was interesting to say the least.
The issues that were covered included the current problems stopping us from using the studios on Thursdays and Fridays which is a bit of a bugger, making sure shows get recorded, and putting in "more energy" into the shows themselves.
They also explained the reasoning for the recent changes such as the on and off air branding, the playlist and so on but I didn't really think the reasons were justifiable.
My main objection is the fact that all the records from the G list were omitted since last Autumn which is ridiculous as a lot of students appreciate older tracks as well as the latest releases.
Especially with those on campus who are big fans of acts such as The Smiths, The Cure, New Order etc.
Phil Harris was definitely the most outspoken which didn't go down well with Sophie C although he did have a few fair points and it was rather funny to be honest.
The Dumpster Punk boys had a few things to say with regards to not being allowed to swear on air, although a bigger issue was libel, as we've been told to be very careful to avoid getting into the same sort of problems that Burn FM in Birmingham did last year, when two of their presenters got into big trouble for libelling Des O'Connor's daughter.
This resulted in the station and the students union being fined and got into big trouble with the Student Radio Association, although it was a bigger problem because they were an FM station as well.
However we've been told to be careful with regards to anything libellous as the Listen Again feature will be introduced pretty soon.
The good news is that there will be another 24 hour Broadcast in March, and a Summer Send Off as always. They also mentioned that they would start looking for potential comittee members for 2009/2010 although Lottie mentioned that she would not have any arse licking.
Her words, not mine, but I hope that remains the case.
After the meeting I went with Chris and Phil to see Stoobs pulling the pints at the Undercroft and it looks like things are going well events wise as Phil's arranged a "Big Phat Party" for February the 2nd just two days after Sarah's birthday do, and Jim Chappety-Chapman wants me to spin the soul for another night later in the month.
It should be good times and we'll put the fun back into Uni once again.
On a lower note it appears that Adam & Zo's transfer to Tuesdays may not be easy as it seems as both shows are live that night including Sam's dance show.
I'm hoping that this won't result in an early departure but it can be a bugger to pre-rec shows and if they do end up leaving, I may see if I can move the show an hour earlier as I'll probably get bored up in the radio rooms on my own at that time of evening.
Alternatively I could just spend my Wednesdays in the flat until 8pm rather than be up in M-Block although Lottie was grateful that I'd recorded all of yesterday's shows.
It's just rather tough times with regards to schedule changes and studio availabilty which is beyond our control.
I headed off to Camden and the Proud Gallery where Joey was holding his Big Sur night.
There were a few old faces as well including Chris Jones, Lucy Tate and even Ricky turned up but I was rather disapointed that he didn't really acknowledge my presence.
Maybe he wasn't too happy about my joke about him stealing a Sony Award.
However I really couldn't imagine him saying what Lottie said in today's meeting with regards to getting the programming position at the station.
That would be like me saying that I'm Andrew Lloyd Webber's biggest fan.
It was a good night however with the bands and other acts being top notch with the best part being Rosie And The Goldbug, and poet Mr G.
I also chatted to Chris and Lucy where Chris revealed he's now working for Will McDonald who used to be on TFI Friday. Unsuprisingly he hates it when everyone starts saying "Wiiiiiiiill!" at him.
And on that note, one of the other punters at Proud was noneother than Chris Evans himself who I met and he's a really lovely fella. He even introduced me as well as Joe to one of his mates when they turned up.
Definitely worth the visit overall and good to catch up with a few old faces.
I made it back to Northwick Park at 11:30pm and headed up to Area where quite a lot of people were there including most of the first years and second years from radio. Even Nick SD was present which was amusing in places.
Stewart was wearing his famous light up t-shirt as brought from IWOOT.com and Chris and Phil H were also there too.
As planned we started singing random songs to the rather noisy beats such as "YMCA", "It Must Be Love" and "It's Raining Men". I decided to head back at this point, not least because it's Chris's 21st birthday do tomorrow and it would be best if I paced myself.
Not to mention that I'm pretty skint, but not to the point of me being poor this semester.
Good night.
The issues that were covered included the current problems stopping us from using the studios on Thursdays and Fridays which is a bit of a bugger, making sure shows get recorded, and putting in "more energy" into the shows themselves.
They also explained the reasoning for the recent changes such as the on and off air branding, the playlist and so on but I didn't really think the reasons were justifiable.
My main objection is the fact that all the records from the G list were omitted since last Autumn which is ridiculous as a lot of students appreciate older tracks as well as the latest releases.
Especially with those on campus who are big fans of acts such as The Smiths, The Cure, New Order etc.
Phil Harris was definitely the most outspoken which didn't go down well with Sophie C although he did have a few fair points and it was rather funny to be honest.
The Dumpster Punk boys had a few things to say with regards to not being allowed to swear on air, although a bigger issue was libel, as we've been told to be very careful to avoid getting into the same sort of problems that Burn FM in Birmingham did last year, when two of their presenters got into big trouble for libelling Des O'Connor's daughter.
This resulted in the station and the students union being fined and got into big trouble with the Student Radio Association, although it was a bigger problem because they were an FM station as well.
However we've been told to be careful with regards to anything libellous as the Listen Again feature will be introduced pretty soon.
The good news is that there will be another 24 hour Broadcast in March, and a Summer Send Off as always. They also mentioned that they would start looking for potential comittee members for 2009/2010 although Lottie mentioned that she would not have any arse licking.
Her words, not mine, but I hope that remains the case.
After the meeting I went with Chris and Phil to see Stoobs pulling the pints at the Undercroft and it looks like things are going well events wise as Phil's arranged a "Big Phat Party" for February the 2nd just two days after Sarah's birthday do, and Jim Chappety-Chapman wants me to spin the soul for another night later in the month.
It should be good times and we'll put the fun back into Uni once again.
On a lower note it appears that Adam & Zo's transfer to Tuesdays may not be easy as it seems as both shows are live that night including Sam's dance show.
I'm hoping that this won't result in an early departure but it can be a bugger to pre-rec shows and if they do end up leaving, I may see if I can move the show an hour earlier as I'll probably get bored up in the radio rooms on my own at that time of evening.
Alternatively I could just spend my Wednesdays in the flat until 8pm rather than be up in M-Block although Lottie was grateful that I'd recorded all of yesterday's shows.
It's just rather tough times with regards to schedule changes and studio availabilty which is beyond our control.
I headed off to Camden and the Proud Gallery where Joey was holding his Big Sur night.
There were a few old faces as well including Chris Jones, Lucy Tate and even Ricky turned up but I was rather disapointed that he didn't really acknowledge my presence.
Maybe he wasn't too happy about my joke about him stealing a Sony Award.
However I really couldn't imagine him saying what Lottie said in today's meeting with regards to getting the programming position at the station.
That would be like me saying that I'm Andrew Lloyd Webber's biggest fan.
It was a good night however with the bands and other acts being top notch with the best part being Rosie And The Goldbug, and poet Mr G.
I also chatted to Chris and Lucy where Chris revealed he's now working for Will McDonald who used to be on TFI Friday. Unsuprisingly he hates it when everyone starts saying "Wiiiiiiiill!" at him.
And on that note, one of the other punters at Proud was noneother than Chris Evans himself who I met and he's a really lovely fella. He even introduced me as well as Joe to one of his mates when they turned up.
Definitely worth the visit overall and good to catch up with a few old faces.
I made it back to Northwick Park at 11:30pm and headed up to Area where quite a lot of people were there including most of the first years and second years from radio. Even Nick SD was present which was amusing in places.
Stewart was wearing his famous light up t-shirt as brought from IWOOT.com and Chris and Phil H were also there too.
As planned we started singing random songs to the rather noisy beats such as "YMCA", "It Must Be Love" and "It's Raining Men". I decided to head back at this point, not least because it's Chris's 21st birthday do tomorrow and it would be best if I paced myself.
Not to mention that I'm pretty skint, but not to the point of me being poor this semester.
Good night.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
"So Much For The City"
Not long to go before the Smoke Radio meeting takes place where amongst the third years attending will be myself, Chilvers and Phil Harris. Steven won't be there as he's at Newsbeat this afternoon and Stoobie's serving drinks down the Undercroft but I'm hoping that there will be interested and possibly heated in places.
Well, if there's anything I don't agree with I will raise my hand but I wouldn't want to cause a riot or anything like that.
The good news is that Lottie is offering to take a us for a drink at the Undercroft afterwards which I may do before heading over to "The Big Sur" in Central as organised by Joey.
I'll probably stay there until 11-11:30pm before getting the train back to Harrow and the Geek Chic do at Area.
However I'm very tempted during the DJ sets prior to Fiz to shout "Play something we know!" to the tune of "Knees Up Mother Brown" or in the case of the international football terraces "We're not going home!". Or alternatively I may do what myself and Phil did last time during Synge-amatix's set by dancing manically and singing the Hokey Cokey because we'll have had a lot to drink by then.
Overall, it will show that we're enjoying ourself.
As for tomorrow night it will be Chris's 21st birthday do, taking place in both Kenton, and in the centre of London en route to his nightshift at Classic FM which I'm definitely looking forward to and getting a chance to catch up with Denis and the Irish lads, although I saw Den on Monday at the Underpants where I was really out of it.
Maybe I should stay on the soft stuff tomorrow night.
Well, if there's anything I don't agree with I will raise my hand but I wouldn't want to cause a riot or anything like that.
The good news is that Lottie is offering to take a us for a drink at the Undercroft afterwards which I may do before heading over to "The Big Sur" in Central as organised by Joey.
I'll probably stay there until 11-11:30pm before getting the train back to Harrow and the Geek Chic do at Area.
However I'm very tempted during the DJ sets prior to Fiz to shout "Play something we know!" to the tune of "Knees Up Mother Brown" or in the case of the international football terraces "We're not going home!". Or alternatively I may do what myself and Phil did last time during Synge-amatix's set by dancing manically and singing the Hokey Cokey because we'll have had a lot to drink by then.
Overall, it will show that we're enjoying ourself.
As for tomorrow night it will be Chris's 21st birthday do, taking place in both Kenton, and in the centre of London en route to his nightshift at Classic FM which I'm definitely looking forward to and getting a chance to catch up with Denis and the Irish lads, although I saw Den on Monday at the Underpants where I was really out of it.
Maybe I should stay on the soft stuff tomorrow night.
"That'll Ding Dang Do For Me!"
Continuing the adventures of the Bolton doormen and episode four where the boys are now banged up.
Paddy's unlucky enough to be sharing a cell with a man who thinks he's Cliff Richard and I reckon they should have got Mike Read the disk jockey to play that part.
Then again apart from an appearance on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Mike very rarely has the guts to appear on a comedy show and be brave enough to send himself up.
Probably because he's already a send up as it is, whenever he appears on television, or on camera for that matter as seen in this promotion
for the new internet station Wight FM.
There are actually guest appearances from two other DJs in the episode,
them being JK & Joel AKA the radio equivalent of Little and Large.
They appear in the background as two prisoners waiting in the queue for the payphone although at the time of filming they hadn't joined Radio 1
as they were still the breakfast presenters on Manchester's Key 103.
The main story itself involves Max and Paddy trying to pass themselves off to the other inmates, as a pair of hardmen known as "The Phoenix Twins" although it doesn't end up being succesfull.
They also attempt to get Max's ex Tina to set them free but she refuses to do so, despite Max's adamance.
However, they get a visit from another old face, that being Brian Potter who the boys don't want to be involved with despite setting up a website, printing t-shirts, and giving them a cake, originally made for Jerry's 60th birthday.
Brian gives in however, and issues a single made by Marc Park from "That Peter Kay Thing" which is a cover of "Back For Good" along with the club's house band "Les Alanos". Also appearing are Holy Mary and Joyce, the latter barely says a word as normal, and a brilliant appearance by "Rabbi Kenny Sr".
The boys get out of jail in the end but not before being humiliated when it's revealed that Max's surname is "Bygraves".
It turns out that Tina has arranged for the boys to be let out, by saying that Max was driving the vehicle under emotional distress, and the pair get their own back on Potter by informing the Home Office that he has biological weapons in his club.
Episode 5 is one of the weakest, with a plot that involves the boys accidentally killing a cow on the road. With their vehicle damaged they go to the nearby farm and ask the farmer for money towards the repairs, but instead he gives them one of his pigs for £100 which they can sell for £300.
They find out that they've been ripped off when they find out that the pig is nearing it's end and take it back to the farm in order to get their money back, but find out that the man who sold them is the father of the real owner and sold the money to the pub, and the owner isn't happy about one of his cows being murdered.
The final episode starts off with the boys defacing a speed camera, although the main plot involves them journeying to Newcastle to meet Billy "The Butcher" Shannon, an old friend of Max who used to work with him on the doors until he got arrested and Paddy took over.
Paddy takes an instant dislike to the man and Billy is desperate to erase him out of the picture in order for him and Max to come back together "but not in a gay way".
It turns out that he's still a vicious murderer and threatens a waitress at a Little Chef in the middle of the night to open up for them, and the boys unaware that he's a murderer enjoy a full English.
The next day they stop off at a service station where Paddy finds all of his weapons and a chase ensues resulting in Paddy getting shot but it turns out he's alive when he hits Billy with a traffic cone yelling Peter's catchphrase from the John Smiths adverts;
"Ave It!".
Guest appearances in the episode include Alex Hall currently a presenter at BBC Tees, playing Brenda the shaky Little Chef waitress, and Stuart Maconie returns as the presenter of Crimetime revealing the incident with the speed camera at the end of the episode.
I personally think that Paddy comes across as the better performer in the series as opposed to Peter and I think this is shown in the script with storylines such as Max's mates making fun of him in Episode 3, and Billy's hatred for Paddy in Episode 6.
The music as composed by Toni Baker is as good as ever, with arrangements of the theme tune done in the style of Mission Impossible in Episode 1, Last Of The Summer Wine in Episode 2, "Dueling Banjos" in Episode 5, and Golden Earring's "Radar Love" during the chase in the service station in the final episode.
There's also good use of actual songs such as Boyzone's version of "Father And Son" in Episode 3 when Max is trying to find his son, and "Do It Again" by Steely Dan in Episode 6.
The outtakes on the DVD are pretty funny as well, especially when Paddy accidentally calls the Cliff Richard lookalike "Tony" resulting in Peter yelling
"Tony!, Who's f**king Tony?!".
I'm glad they've got an option to have the swearwords bleeped as it seems funnier when watching it like that, giving the idea that it really is naughty to use such words.
Not that I'd want it done all the time on television of course, which if the Daily Mail get their way, could well happen.
Paddy's unlucky enough to be sharing a cell with a man who thinks he's Cliff Richard and I reckon they should have got Mike Read the disk jockey to play that part.
Then again apart from an appearance on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Mike very rarely has the guts to appear on a comedy show and be brave enough to send himself up.
Probably because he's already a send up as it is, whenever he appears on television, or on camera for that matter as seen in this promotion
for the new internet station Wight FM.
There are actually guest appearances from two other DJs in the episode,
them being JK & Joel AKA the radio equivalent of Little and Large.
They appear in the background as two prisoners waiting in the queue for the payphone although at the time of filming they hadn't joined Radio 1
as they were still the breakfast presenters on Manchester's Key 103.
The main story itself involves Max and Paddy trying to pass themselves off to the other inmates, as a pair of hardmen known as "The Phoenix Twins" although it doesn't end up being succesfull.
They also attempt to get Max's ex Tina to set them free but she refuses to do so, despite Max's adamance.
However, they get a visit from another old face, that being Brian Potter who the boys don't want to be involved with despite setting up a website, printing t-shirts, and giving them a cake, originally made for Jerry's 60th birthday.
Brian gives in however, and issues a single made by Marc Park from "That Peter Kay Thing" which is a cover of "Back For Good" along with the club's house band "Les Alanos". Also appearing are Holy Mary and Joyce, the latter barely says a word as normal, and a brilliant appearance by "Rabbi Kenny Sr".
The boys get out of jail in the end but not before being humiliated when it's revealed that Max's surname is "Bygraves".
It turns out that Tina has arranged for the boys to be let out, by saying that Max was driving the vehicle under emotional distress, and the pair get their own back on Potter by informing the Home Office that he has biological weapons in his club.
Episode 5 is one of the weakest, with a plot that involves the boys accidentally killing a cow on the road. With their vehicle damaged they go to the nearby farm and ask the farmer for money towards the repairs, but instead he gives them one of his pigs for £100 which they can sell for £300.
They find out that they've been ripped off when they find out that the pig is nearing it's end and take it back to the farm in order to get their money back, but find out that the man who sold them is the father of the real owner and sold the money to the pub, and the owner isn't happy about one of his cows being murdered.
The final episode starts off with the boys defacing a speed camera, although the main plot involves them journeying to Newcastle to meet Billy "The Butcher" Shannon, an old friend of Max who used to work with him on the doors until he got arrested and Paddy took over.
Paddy takes an instant dislike to the man and Billy is desperate to erase him out of the picture in order for him and Max to come back together "but not in a gay way".
It turns out that he's still a vicious murderer and threatens a waitress at a Little Chef in the middle of the night to open up for them, and the boys unaware that he's a murderer enjoy a full English.
The next day they stop off at a service station where Paddy finds all of his weapons and a chase ensues resulting in Paddy getting shot but it turns out he's alive when he hits Billy with a traffic cone yelling Peter's catchphrase from the John Smiths adverts;
"Ave It!".
Guest appearances in the episode include Alex Hall currently a presenter at BBC Tees, playing Brenda the shaky Little Chef waitress, and Stuart Maconie returns as the presenter of Crimetime revealing the incident with the speed camera at the end of the episode.
I personally think that Paddy comes across as the better performer in the series as opposed to Peter and I think this is shown in the script with storylines such as Max's mates making fun of him in Episode 3, and Billy's hatred for Paddy in Episode 6.
The music as composed by Toni Baker is as good as ever, with arrangements of the theme tune done in the style of Mission Impossible in Episode 1, Last Of The Summer Wine in Episode 2, "Dueling Banjos" in Episode 5, and Golden Earring's "Radar Love" during the chase in the service station in the final episode.
There's also good use of actual songs such as Boyzone's version of "Father And Son" in Episode 3 when Max is trying to find his son, and "Do It Again" by Steely Dan in Episode 6.
The outtakes on the DVD are pretty funny as well, especially when Paddy accidentally calls the Cliff Richard lookalike "Tony" resulting in Peter yelling
"Tony!, Who's f**king Tony?!".
I'm glad they've got an option to have the swearwords bleeped as it seems funnier when watching it like that, giving the idea that it really is naughty to use such words.
Not that I'd want it done all the time on television of course, which if the Daily Mail get their way, could well happen.
"I'm Paddy The Sailor Man!"
I'm halfway through the Max & Paddy DVD and I reckon it's funnier than when I saw it first time round in November 2004.
Although that's probably because the episodes work better when watching them back to back.
Episode 1 starts off with the boys stopping off at Gypsy Joe's, an Irish salesman who reminds me of Barry, one of the housemates with Chris, Stoobie and Denis etc.
They want to buy a plasma flat screen TV although this involves a bit of extra work on an undercover mission in a shopping centre where they steal a TV disguised as teddy bears using the TV as a stretcher, inevitably tipping Joe off a wall.
Peter's mum Deirdre makes a brief appearance in the shopping centre scene in one of her usual blink and you'll miss it moments.
The only problem with the TV is that they need surround sound speakers to use it properly and they've only got a really bad pair of headphones.
The pair then go to a night club where Paddy's dated chat-up lines fail to impress the ladies until Max helps him along. Things appear to be going well until Max gets involved in a punch up after his bad dancing ends up accidentally knocking someone out.
I can't listen to the song "Instant Replay" in the same way after seeing that episode.
Paddy shows Max how to dance properly in a very amusing scene accompanied by Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It For The Boy" which is brilliantly done and very funny, particuarly the part where a family on holiday see the boys in an initimate position and the dad covers his son's eyes.
There are a few clever jokes such as Max getting the band Boyzone confused with
"Blue Zone" who were Lisa Stansfield's band with her soon to be husband Ian Devaney,
and Andy Morris before they decided to take a backseat and let Lisa be the selling point.
Bob Carolgees also got a mention whilst Paddy was retuning the radio, although I liked who the frequency was tuned to 95.1 which up North is BBC Radio Manchester's frequency.
At the time however it was still called GMR which brings to mind these jingles from the station's launch in 1988 by Alfasound which feature the vocals of noneother
than Lisa Stansfield herself.
Back to Max & Paddy and the pair go to the night club dressed in sailor's outfits which results in the following line which my younger brother Olly found funny when we watched it first time round;
Paddy: "Women love men in uniform!"
Max: "Well we might as well go dressed as a couple of Nazis!"
Bearing in mind this was two months before Prince Harry got into trouble for doing exactly that.
This time the pair are more luckier in the search for women although it turns out that the girls who they cop off with are two thieves who have escaped from prison.
In order to stop them going to the cops, the girls agree to disguise themselves as teddy bears and steal some speakers from the same shopping centre, allowing Paddy to watch his dodgy porn films in his preferred manner.
Episode 2 starts off with "Lord Loverocket" turning up for a film shoot only to find it's a gay porno film caled "Willy Wanker And The Chocolate Factory".
Noddy Holder makes a guest appearance as Mick Bustin, a car mechanic who offers to repair Max & Paddy's motor home after it breaks down, leaving the pair homeless and resorting to rambling in a nearby wood.
Whilst in there, Max tells Paddy about his crime fighting duo "Magnet And Steel" and shows him a few of his drawings of them. However they need to start a fire so when Max's back is turned, Paddy ends up using his drawings to set the blaze much to Max's annoyance.
In part 2 of the episode Max tells Paddy about his relationship with Tina who he describes as "A kind of midget" to which Paddy responds "Isn't that a Queen song?".
In the flashback we see a younger Max at one of Brian's former nightclubs and the owner makes an appearance himself sans wheelchair.
The relationship doesn't last however as Tina overhears Max and his fellow bouncers making jokes about her height.
When the pair return to the mechanics, Mick won't let them take their van without paying him £500 so the pair break into the building and recover all the stolen keys from other vehicles he's damaged. The action accompanied brilliantly by The A Team theme tune.
The escape isn't too succesfull however as the pair end up breaking down again, outside the offices of a breakdown firm to amusing results.
I reckon Noddy's character especially with the teeth reminds me of Cat Deeley's "Cat The Dog" character on SM:TV which is rather fitting as towards the end of her time on the show she adapted her name as "Catherine Noddy Slade Deeley". Rather fitting considering her routes in Sutton Colfield.
Noddy even appeared in one of the Dec Says sketches on the show including a joke formerly done by Spike Milligan without the Irish references.
Also making a guest appearance is Stuart Wofenden as one of the bouncers in Max's flashback, who's better known as Herbie in "Dead Man's Shoes".
In case you can't remember, he's the fella who Paddy Considine calls a c**t
in the scene in the youth club.
Episode 3 is the first of a two parter, starting off in London with a very funny but slightly crude joke involving a bucket and a policeman.
The pair turn up to the 40th birthday party of Max's old mate "Wolfster" much to the chagrin of Paddy who has to endure taunts of "Spazzy Paddy" from Max's mates. A few people at college thought it was "Paddy Poofter" which I would have preferred them to have used in the show.
There's then an unexpected appearance by Tina to Max's surprise although it turns out that she's married to Wolfster and has a son that was from Max.
This episode is probably my least favourite, mainly because of the stupid, self indulgent performance by Peter of "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" which is a waste of space and the sort of thing that should have been left as a DVD extra.
The scene ends with him being pushed off the stage by a drunk fella who gives a rendition of "The First Cut Is The Deepest" another record that I'm not too keen on, especially when performed by Rod Stewart.
Despite being told to stay away, Max is determined to find his son so he takes the motorhome to his school and him and Paddy hi-jack a bus, only to find it's not the one that his son's on.
This results in the pair getting arrested and jailed in custody.
And that's more or less where I'm about to catch up from in getting the rest of the series done with.
Although that's probably because the episodes work better when watching them back to back.
Episode 1 starts off with the boys stopping off at Gypsy Joe's, an Irish salesman who reminds me of Barry, one of the housemates with Chris, Stoobie and Denis etc.
They want to buy a plasma flat screen TV although this involves a bit of extra work on an undercover mission in a shopping centre where they steal a TV disguised as teddy bears using the TV as a stretcher, inevitably tipping Joe off a wall.
Peter's mum Deirdre makes a brief appearance in the shopping centre scene in one of her usual blink and you'll miss it moments.
The only problem with the TV is that they need surround sound speakers to use it properly and they've only got a really bad pair of headphones.
The pair then go to a night club where Paddy's dated chat-up lines fail to impress the ladies until Max helps him along. Things appear to be going well until Max gets involved in a punch up after his bad dancing ends up accidentally knocking someone out.
I can't listen to the song "Instant Replay" in the same way after seeing that episode.
Paddy shows Max how to dance properly in a very amusing scene accompanied by Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It For The Boy" which is brilliantly done and very funny, particuarly the part where a family on holiday see the boys in an initimate position and the dad covers his son's eyes.
There are a few clever jokes such as Max getting the band Boyzone confused with
"Blue Zone" who were Lisa Stansfield's band with her soon to be husband Ian Devaney,
and Andy Morris before they decided to take a backseat and let Lisa be the selling point.
Bob Carolgees also got a mention whilst Paddy was retuning the radio, although I liked who the frequency was tuned to 95.1 which up North is BBC Radio Manchester's frequency.
At the time however it was still called GMR which brings to mind these jingles from the station's launch in 1988 by Alfasound which feature the vocals of noneother
than Lisa Stansfield herself.
Back to Max & Paddy and the pair go to the night club dressed in sailor's outfits which results in the following line which my younger brother Olly found funny when we watched it first time round;
Paddy: "Women love men in uniform!"
Max: "Well we might as well go dressed as a couple of Nazis!"
Bearing in mind this was two months before Prince Harry got into trouble for doing exactly that.
This time the pair are more luckier in the search for women although it turns out that the girls who they cop off with are two thieves who have escaped from prison.
In order to stop them going to the cops, the girls agree to disguise themselves as teddy bears and steal some speakers from the same shopping centre, allowing Paddy to watch his dodgy porn films in his preferred manner.
Episode 2 starts off with "Lord Loverocket" turning up for a film shoot only to find it's a gay porno film caled "Willy Wanker And The Chocolate Factory".
Noddy Holder makes a guest appearance as Mick Bustin, a car mechanic who offers to repair Max & Paddy's motor home after it breaks down, leaving the pair homeless and resorting to rambling in a nearby wood.
Whilst in there, Max tells Paddy about his crime fighting duo "Magnet And Steel" and shows him a few of his drawings of them. However they need to start a fire so when Max's back is turned, Paddy ends up using his drawings to set the blaze much to Max's annoyance.
In part 2 of the episode Max tells Paddy about his relationship with Tina who he describes as "A kind of midget" to which Paddy responds "Isn't that a Queen song?".
In the flashback we see a younger Max at one of Brian's former nightclubs and the owner makes an appearance himself sans wheelchair.
The relationship doesn't last however as Tina overhears Max and his fellow bouncers making jokes about her height.
When the pair return to the mechanics, Mick won't let them take their van without paying him £500 so the pair break into the building and recover all the stolen keys from other vehicles he's damaged. The action accompanied brilliantly by The A Team theme tune.
The escape isn't too succesfull however as the pair end up breaking down again, outside the offices of a breakdown firm to amusing results.
I reckon Noddy's character especially with the teeth reminds me of Cat Deeley's "Cat The Dog" character on SM:TV which is rather fitting as towards the end of her time on the show she adapted her name as "Catherine Noddy Slade Deeley". Rather fitting considering her routes in Sutton Colfield.
Noddy even appeared in one of the Dec Says sketches on the show including a joke formerly done by Spike Milligan without the Irish references.
Also making a guest appearance is Stuart Wofenden as one of the bouncers in Max's flashback, who's better known as Herbie in "Dead Man's Shoes".
In case you can't remember, he's the fella who Paddy Considine calls a c**t
in the scene in the youth club.
Episode 3 is the first of a two parter, starting off in London with a very funny but slightly crude joke involving a bucket and a policeman.
The pair turn up to the 40th birthday party of Max's old mate "Wolfster" much to the chagrin of Paddy who has to endure taunts of "Spazzy Paddy" from Max's mates. A few people at college thought it was "Paddy Poofter" which I would have preferred them to have used in the show.
There's then an unexpected appearance by Tina to Max's surprise although it turns out that she's married to Wolfster and has a son that was from Max.
This episode is probably my least favourite, mainly because of the stupid, self indulgent performance by Peter of "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" which is a waste of space and the sort of thing that should have been left as a DVD extra.
The scene ends with him being pushed off the stage by a drunk fella who gives a rendition of "The First Cut Is The Deepest" another record that I'm not too keen on, especially when performed by Rod Stewart.
Despite being told to stay away, Max is determined to find his son so he takes the motorhome to his school and him and Paddy hi-jack a bus, only to find it's not the one that his son's on.
This results in the pair getting arrested and jailed in custody.
And that's more or less where I'm about to catch up from in getting the rest of the series done with.
"Runaround! Now!"
This was another worthy find, and quite a rarity as well from GranadaGreg, an episode of Southern Television's Runaround from 1977 not with Mike Reid, but Leslie Crowther.
The future host of Stars In Their Eyes had already worked with children on television when he was one of the presenters on the BBC's "Crackerjack" and comes across as rather strict in comparison to the East End comedian, in addition to the fact that the famous catchphrase that makes up the title of the post is absent.
Quite a lot of programmes from the Southern Television archive have been deleted which I imagine includes quite a lot of episodes of "How" which was the precursor to How 2 in the 1970s with Fred Dinenage and the team.
I'd imagine the Portsmouth FC supporter is still doing the local news in the Central South part of the Meridian region.
As the cooker's working again, I plan to start making a chilli as suggested earlier although I'll probably have it this afternoon as my evening's going to be rammed.
I also plan to watch (and possibly review in the next post) the DVD of Peter Kay's 2004 series "Max And Paddy's Road To Nowhere" which I know fellow radio student Caroline is quite a fan of.
The first episode is probably my favourite where Max gets chucked out of a nightclub for fighting, whilst trying to impress women.
Not to mention the Footloose spoof with good use of the Deniece Williams song.
The future host of Stars In Their Eyes had already worked with children on television when he was one of the presenters on the BBC's "Crackerjack" and comes across as rather strict in comparison to the East End comedian, in addition to the fact that the famous catchphrase that makes up the title of the post is absent.
Quite a lot of programmes from the Southern Television archive have been deleted which I imagine includes quite a lot of episodes of "How" which was the precursor to How 2 in the 1970s with Fred Dinenage and the team.
I'd imagine the Portsmouth FC supporter is still doing the local news in the Central South part of the Meridian region.
As the cooker's working again, I plan to start making a chilli as suggested earlier although I'll probably have it this afternoon as my evening's going to be rammed.
I also plan to watch (and possibly review in the next post) the DVD of Peter Kay's 2004 series "Max And Paddy's Road To Nowhere" which I know fellow radio student Caroline is quite a fan of.
The first episode is probably my favourite where Max gets chucked out of a nightclub for fighting, whilst trying to impress women.
Not to mention the Footloose spoof with good use of the Deniece Williams song.
"Bass In The Place London!"
I was up rather early as I needed to get into M Block and seperate the shows on Audtion as I had recorded them all together from Mark's Midweek Sports Show to my Soul Show lasting a total of 5 hours.
The reason being was because RP1 will be rammed for most of today and Friday because not just the second year radio students, but those doing the radio journalism module on the Journalism course will also be using the facilities for the next 6 weeks.
Although those doing radio won't actually be here as today they'll be going on the annual visit to Global as part of the Music Radio module.
Somewhere I doubt Phil Landers will work for after what happened at the Student Radio Awards last year.
I can remember when my old year went to Leicester Square and met Classic FM's Jamie Crick and his producer, and his producer was unlucky enough to stumble on this very site with regards to comments made about sister stations Chill and "theJazz".
I can remember being very throaty on that day and things didn't get any better as the weekend went on, after the visit.
The following year when Chilvers, Stoobie etc went, they had a talk from a rather arrogant employee who was talking about how he had been promoted to a senior role at theJazz.
Ironically for him the station shut down a couple of weeks later.
However the visit was very useful for Chris as it lead to him getting a B.A role at Classic FM in addition to other roles within Global such as working with the legend that is Tony Blackburn's son Pat Sharp.
As for tonight, I'll pretty much be back and forth around London winding up at Smoke Radio's Geek Chic night at Area.
With regards to events overall, it brings to mind this amusing bit of audio from
Chris Moyles taking the piss out of the "Pirate Radio Echo".
We happen to have an echo machine in Studio 4 capable of producing similar effects although it's only really Dan Roberts who uses it.
However if the ad done by Chris was to be used for real, I reckon it would sound like this.
As this was originally done in 2004, I've kept that in mind whilst at Smoke as an example of how not to do a promo on the station.
No, I've ended up producing examples that are a lot worse such as this.
Once again, make your own jokes.
The reason being was because RP1 will be rammed for most of today and Friday because not just the second year radio students, but those doing the radio journalism module on the Journalism course will also be using the facilities for the next 6 weeks.
Although those doing radio won't actually be here as today they'll be going on the annual visit to Global as part of the Music Radio module.
Somewhere I doubt Phil Landers will work for after what happened at the Student Radio Awards last year.
I can remember when my old year went to Leicester Square and met Classic FM's Jamie Crick and his producer, and his producer was unlucky enough to stumble on this very site with regards to comments made about sister stations Chill and "theJazz".
I can remember being very throaty on that day and things didn't get any better as the weekend went on, after the visit.
The following year when Chilvers, Stoobie etc went, they had a talk from a rather arrogant employee who was talking about how he had been promoted to a senior role at theJazz.
Ironically for him the station shut down a couple of weeks later.
However the visit was very useful for Chris as it lead to him getting a B.A role at Classic FM in addition to other roles within Global such as working with the legend that is Tony Blackburn's son Pat Sharp.
As for tonight, I'll pretty much be back and forth around London winding up at Smoke Radio's Geek Chic night at Area.
With regards to events overall, it brings to mind this amusing bit of audio from
Chris Moyles taking the piss out of the "Pirate Radio Echo".
We happen to have an echo machine in Studio 4 capable of producing similar effects although it's only really Dan Roberts who uses it.
However if the ad done by Chris was to be used for real, I reckon it would sound like this.
As this was originally done in 2004, I've kept that in mind whilst at Smoke as an example of how not to do a promo on the station.
No, I've ended up producing examples that are a lot worse such as this.
Once again, make your own jokes.
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