Jonathan Dutton - TV Talk

The Return of the..... Great Series

2012-02-10T12:15:00.000Z

The schedules on Monday and Tuesday this week were to my TV tastes very bare and even my housemates struggled to find good TV to watch. They did watch 'Geordie Shore', but I simply refuse to watch a rip off of a disgraceful format.

This lack of good programming led me to watching a film on Tuesday night, this is a rarity for me, and the film I chose to watch was a huge mistake. I remember seeing the adverts for 'Jumper' starring Hayden Christensen (off Anakin Skywalker fame) when it first came out and really wanted to see it. But like many films I missed it. So on Tuesday night I put it in my laptop and sat in my room and watched it. I genuinely thought it was terrible. It reminded me of a sequel, I kept thinking those thoughts of the first one must have been better but the first one doesn't exist. Even Samuel LLLLL Jackson couldn't save this one, the acting wasn't bad but I thought there wasn't even a story there, as unlikely as the power to move yourself around the world in a second is, the relationships developed in the film are even more unlikely. Really didn't enjoy it, the one thing it did have going for it was that it is very short.

After that traumatic experience, Wednesday offered me shed loads of my favourite programmes 'Masterchef', 'How To Cook Like Heston' and the return of my stand out show from 2011 '10 o' Clock Live'.

I must state I watched all of these programmes on their individual online players, therefore I didn't watch '10 o' Clock Live' live. I mentioned this programme last year towards the end of one of my posts http://jonathandutton.blogspot.com/2011/01/tv-is-all-around-me-its-everywhere-i-go.html. I enjoyed it last year, casting a fun, sarcastic, raw and sometimes over the top view on the news. With star names such as Jimmy Carr, David Mitchell and Charlie Brooker, three of my favourite men on tele, and Lauren Laverne who despite my love for this show I still don't find her funny. Still a token lady on the panle in my opinion.

If you haven't seen the programme, it is basically a live studio show that takes an alternative and comical look at the week's news. This is done through sketches, round-ups, rants and discussions led by the very argumentative and intelligent David Mitchell. It is the exact sort of programme the TV world needs and that the audience needs in this time of moaning and groaning about literally everything.

And it's return on Wed night was also a success, some slight format changes and a fantastic 'Putin' live sketch by Jimmy Carr. Along with a hilariously informative discussion between Mitchell and Alistair Campbell about football. It is light-hearted, fun but also offers an alternative to the mainstream news.

If you havent watched it, please do, you won't be dissapointed http://www.channel4.com/programmes/10-oclock-live/4od

Another programme returned last night 'Celeb Juice' it is still the only programme apart from 'Ford Super Sunday' that my housemates and me all gather to watch together and last night's episode was as funny as ever. It is guaranteed entertainment everytime.

Thankyou for reading.

Pride and Cooking

2012-02-01T16:55:00.001Z

Frequent readers of my blog will know in the summer I worked on a programme called 'Talent Show Story' at Shiver Productions here in Leeds. The 5 part series is being broadcast on Saturday evenings currently on ITV1. I really enjoyed my work experience and subsequent paid contract with Shiver and working on the programme was brilliant, but this picture below has made me so happy:

As you can see, top of that list is my VERY first TV credit, I was so excited, hence why the picture was screen grabbed and put on Facebook! I felt a massive sense of pride seeing my name on that list. I do hope it is the very first of many to come in the future.

Ok, TV programmes I have watched and enjoyed. I have recovered from my BBC drama obsession ('Sherlock' and 'Public Enemies') and a few old friends have recieved my attention. 'Masterchef' has returned and I do love 'Masterchef', the food, the competition, the challenges, the ever-increasing production values and ofcourse Mr Wallace and Mr Torode with their hilarious put downs and comments as they chomp on pork belly served with everything in the cupboard. The show genuinely makes me salivate and it does what it is supposed to...it entertains.

Another cookery programme I have enjoyed is 'How to Cook Like Heston', it's about time one of these rich chefs showed us how to cook. I will admit he still uses dry ice and blowtorches which aren't neccessarily items in my kitchen, but the techniques he explains are easy to follow and my housemates and me are planning to make truffles and cook steak 'Heston's' way very soon. The programme is fairly quirky like Heston himself, with funny moving kitchen object cutaways. It is easy to watch and 20 mins on 4oD is time well spent.

The return of 'Top Gear' has failed to get me excited, in fact I missed it and I am not too bothered, as I mentioned about the Xmas Special, I am unsure how long 'Top Gear' will remain popular without a change or three. Well that is all for this time around, hope you enjoyed reading. I am back at uni now studying 'The Making of Screen Fact', 'The Making of Screen Fiction' and I am back in the TV studio this semester, hoping to improve my directing and vision mixing skills.

Thanks for reading!

If Carslberg Did Adaptations....

2012-01-20T09:49:00.000Z

Why didn't I see the series of this programme? How did I miss the hype? Where can I watch the first series? How do Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss take ancient tales and more than successfully bring them up to date without having to change the characters?

I am sure you have guessed the topic for this blog post: 'Sherlock'. I will stick my neck out and say, I can't think of a drama series I have enjoyed watching more. And it annoys me that I missed the whole first series. The programme is so beautifully constructed, written and acted. But the plaudits must go to the adaptation, it was the movie starring Robert Downey Jnr. that got me excited about 'Sherlock' (although I still havent seen the second film). The movie is ofcourse a remake but it is set in the time of 'Sherlock Holmes', I really enjoyed the film, lot's of action and you instantly fall in love with Arthur Conan Doyle's character. But to adapt not just the story, but the characters and settings into the 21st century for television is an amazing achievement.

I turned my laptop on and plugged it into my TV and clicked the 'watch Sherlock in HD' button (which I must reccommend if your laptop is powerful enough, the programme looked perfect and only buffered twice), from the very beginning both my girlfriend and I were hooked. The scripting is just so clever, you instantly develop a love/hate relationship with 'Sherlock' and begin to sympathise with Watson. 'Sherlock's' sharp quips towards the supporting cast are brilliant and Watson's simple looks and sighs are enough to produce laughter.

The actors, I like it when the main actor is less famous than the supporting actor and in this programme it works brilliantly, Benedict Cumberbatch is obviously a very skilled actor and Martin Freeman has such a long credit list it is untrue. The casting is genius due to the height difference although sometimes the camera will shoot Sherlock from a low angle to reduce his status in relation to Watson.

The modernisation is suberb, one of my favourite parts (because it is just simple) is the text messages appearing on screen. It is used in programmes like 'Hollyoaks' and looks like a desperate attempt to keep up with the times. But in 'Sherlock' it adds to the mystery which is being recounted in a modern age. I loved the 'thought castle' that 'Sherlock' uses it so close to being a computer programme in his brain and it just another way of cleverly incorporating the 21st first century to the story. The clever transformation of 'Baskerville' into a research facility and I particularly enjoyed Morriati's attempt at using the media to destroy Holmes, this reminded mea bit of what 'Black Mirror' was trying to say. A person can be publicly destroyed or killed by the media but still live on in hiding.

The programme truly is a masterpiece, the cinematography is very high end as is the editing and it seems that no expense has been spared by the cost-cutting BBC. 'Sherlock' is an example of a programme that can justify the licence fee, there isn't many but this is one of them. If you haven't seen it..watch it and if you have the series 1 box set can I borrow it please?

If Carlsberg did adaptations...Sherlock would be it's first!!!

A quick brief note before I publish, still on the topic of the 'Beeb', I read in Broadcast Now, that the BBC are planning to bring in PPV (pay per view) for their online archive programmes, what are your opinions? I think it's a good idea which could bring vital income into the BBC, whether I would pay x amount a year extra on top of my licence fee to watch 'Sherlock' series 1 in 3 years time...oh wait a minute.

Finally I was going to mention the SOPA and PIPA debate but at the moment I am slightly underinformed so I will not pass comment, but I will say piracy is bad in any form to the media industries.

And don't miss the 'Talent Show Story' Saturday 8.30 pm, part 3 covers the changing role of the talent show host and takes a look at 'Opportunity Knocks' the first big UK talent show!

Brilliant BBC Drama

2012-01-13T17:27:00.000Z

A recommendation from my studio tutor led me to watching 'Public Enemies' on BBC1 (I watched all 3 episodes online on the Iplayer, in case you are obssessed with how the audience watches programmes). The 3 part drama was written by the ever-present Tony Marchant and explores the relationship between a convicted murderer and his probation worker.

The programme stars the beautiful Anna Friel and Daniel Mays, who are in fine form in protraying this unbelievable story. Steve November (Head of Continuing Drama) at ITV in a lecture stated that TV dramas are still about the story and this is a great story.

A probation worker is given a second chance after messing up with her previous ward, and she meets 'Eddie Mottram' who pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend and spent ten years in prison. Great acting not only from Friel and Mays but the fairly large supporting cast was also excellent in adding may twists and turns to the narrative.

I won't call it a ground-breaking drama, it was just a fairly simple production with very few sets, long dialogue and an brilliant script. And it is definetly the script that makes 'Public Enemies' a brilliant programme. I will mention a certain aspect of the shooting of the programme, I did enjoy the pull focuses on inanimate objects, mainly used as cutaways or to start scenes. It reminded me of a similar feature of 'The Shadowline', which was another BBC drama that I loved.

I won't add any plot-spoilers to this blog post, but the programme had the perfect blend of tension, twists, cliffhangers between episodes and even some light comedy. All of this can be directly attributed to Tony Marchant's great script. The music used, helped to create intense moods and the feeling of something was about to happen and the ending was nowhere near predictable despite the hints the programme give me, I just didnt see it coming.

To sum up, 'Public Enemies' is a brilliantly written drama, with enough freshness and twists to make it interesting. It is well acted and in particular the performance of the beautiful Anna Friel is outstanding, it is still on Iplayer I believe, I recommend you watch it. It's refreshing for a drama to be amazing for not trying to break boundaries but for a great script.

Thanks for reading, let me know your opinions!

Xmas and New Year TV

2012-01-10T00:18:00.000Z

A post that has taken a long time to come, and now it is going to be excrutiatingly long and painful for all involved. This epic post will cover the TV I have watched over the Xmas period and since 2012 has begun.

I think I will try and work in chronological order but no promises. I have just watched the 2nd episode of 'Public Enemies' (with the delightful Anna Friel) on iplayer and I am really enjoying it, but I think it may deserve its own post once I have seen the conclusion.

Here we go then! I will take you all back to before Xmas, on the 12th of December I assisted in submitting a short film which dominated my life for near 2 months. It caused me alot of stress and anxiety, and having it out of my life is a huge relief. But I must admit I am very proud of it, I was the producer tasked with completing in-depth call sheets, risk assessments and all location agreements, as well as the booking of equipment. If you have 5 minutes please watch it, it was a labour of love and hate but the finished film looks amazing, please let us know what you think. Click the link below. The film is a short drama called 'Nuts'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMGsoOovkB8

Now we move closer to Xmas as I move onto to discuss ITV's festive charity entertainment programme 'Text Santa'. A sort of ITV version of Children In Need. Not a huge ratings success it has to be said and in all fairness I didnt see all of it. But I did really enjoy the appreciation of people who have given up their Xmases. The old lady who had Russell Watson sing to her and was kissed by Eric Pollard , it was just a nice story and the whole show was extremely feel good and it raised alot of money. Two shows, the one with Ant and Dec on Xmas Eve was better but I have no complaints about ITV showing great entertainment in order to raise money and the way the whole of ITV supported it in the run up was brilliant. Thumbs up from me!

A couple of Xmassy themed offerings from the BBC,shown on Xmas Eve, ofcourse Im talking about 'Lapland' and 'Outnumbered'. I had been planning to watch 'Lapland' for weeks, as soon as I heard the cast, featuring Sue Johnston, Stephen Graham and a few from Waterloo Road and not forgetting the girl from 'Fresh Meat' who played Jignle Jill. It really reminded me of a Xmas film, it was fun, light-hearted but with all the emotion that a good Xmas film needs. Its family orientation made it appealing to a large audience (6.89 million). The characters were good but maybe too obviously different in order to create the clashes. I did enjoy it and it made me laugh but I think it maybe could have been split into 2 parts.

'Outnumbered' one of my favourite TV programmes, the Xmas special was a dissapointing. On paper it seemed hilarious....going on holiday on Xmas day is never going to work. But it just didn't produce the enjoyment for me that it normally does. I can't really put my finger on what it was, it could be the children being too old now, maybe it is just more scripted than improvised or maybe the writers are running out of funny situations. In all fairness they have already done an episode or two revolving around holidays. The only part I can recall that made me actually LOL was the Grandad singing and bein generally demented. I was not happy that I found this funny as it is not a nice thing dementia. Maybe that it why I didn't like the programme, taking the mick out of demented people isn't funny. Glad I conlcuded that one. Quit while your ahead comes to mind for 'Outnumbered' in my opinion!

I didn't get to watch 'Michael Mcintyre's Comedy Roadshow' on Xmas Day as I was watching 'The Hangover 2' for the first time (better than the first I thought). I watched it a couple of days later and as always found it hilarious. I had been to see Michael practice some of the jokes he used in Leeds in November and he was brilliant and I still found them funny the second time. His performance of 'Fairytale of New York' with the delightful Pixie Lott was a treat and obviously the all-star line up of comedians added to a great show. And no-one can say they don't enjoy a bit of Kylie!

Before I talk about the post-Xmas television I will draw your attention to some programmes I missed which I wanted to watch. I did want to watch 'The Borrowers' mainly due to the cast, and I have missed every episode of 'The Royal Bodyguard' with David Jason, maybe too late to watch them all now.I also wished to watch 'London's Burning' the drama about the riots, but a rather blunt response on Twitter made me decide to give it a miss.

Now to after-Xmas and two pieces of dissapointment for me, 'Top Gear', a programme I have watched consecutively for many years. I am the first to defend Clarkson when he says somethign stupid, but after watching their very long Indian Special, I am considering the same thoughts I feel towards 'Outnumbered'. Nothing is new, the specials feature all the same jokes and humour except just in different countries and usually with different transport. And boy was it long, an hour and a halfdoesn't make it a special, it made it boring. It needs a revamp of some kind it my opinion as even last year's Xmas Special in Iraq wasn't as fun asones that went before. Maybe it isn't the show is boring maybe their previous successes are hard to beat, therefore they need to try harder.

Some almost heart-breaking news reached my ears the other day. 'Something For The Weekend' is to be axed at the end of it's run in March. genuinely my fave TV programme, nothing can beat a live studio show on a Sunday morning. Lovejoy and 'Lou' (as my Mum affectionately refers to her) and Simon and Will the cocktail man. I will miss this show! It's so light-hearted and really does start a Sunday of perfectly, I was hoping to one day work on this show but the cost-cutting Beeb have in my opinion cut the wrong show. They will blame the governments osterity measures, but there is worse shows to cut. But all is not lost, see this website and email Mr Mark Thompson (Director General) himself. Hopefully the power of social media can prevail again.

http://www.facebook.com/SaveSFTW

Finally I must draw your attention to a suberb ITV prime-time documentary co-produced by the wonderful folk at Shiver Productions here in Leeds. It is a five-part 'talking head' documentary telling the long tail of the talent show! The first episode was really brilliant and I thoroughly enjoyed it, so many star names discussing their experiences...from Les Dennis to SUBO. Oh yeah and I worked on it for 8 weeks in the summer. I am so proud...check it out!!

http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=299211

That concludes my rather long post about Xmas and New Year TV, I am looking forward to 'Wild At Heart' (missed first ep.), 'Titanic', the return of 'Masterchef' and also getting my essay and exam done so I can start scriptwriting and studio producing in semester 2. Please comment folks!

National TV Awards Votes

2012-01-02T12:38:00.000Z

With the NTAs fast approaching I thought I would share with the readers of this blog some of my votes. I don't intend to influence your choices but I would like to let you know who I have voted for, for each category with a short reason why.

Talent Show - X Factor
Although not the best year for the X Factor with all its changes, I couldn't give my vote to BGT or Strictly as I never watch them and although my Mum watches it every year X Factor is better than Dancing on Ice.

Comedy Panel Show - Celebrity Juice
I love comedy panel shows, another of the nominations Mock The Week unfortunately isn't the same these days without Frankie Boyle and coming in close second in this section was QI. But Celeb Juice is hilarious, week after week it is the only programme me and 4 housemates sit down and watch together. As long as there is celebrities this programme isn't going away.

Drama - Waterloo Road
I will be honest if you have read my previous blog posts about Waterloo Road this series, it wasn't the best, but as an avid fan and mainly becuase I have never watched Merlin my vote goes to Waterloo Road.

Drama Performance (Male) - Martin Clunes (Doc Martin)
Still a truly great actor and more recently documentary presenter. And the character of Doc Martin has been entertaining audiences including me for many years. And the recent series of Doc Martin was as good as any.

Talk Show - Jonathan Ross Show
The big move from the Beeb seems to have been a success, whether it's him that made the show a success, or whether so many celebs have stuff to promoten and what to do it in primetime slots on ITV1. I still like it, its entertaining and I really like the live music. But I will say Chatty Man is a close second.

Factual - An Idiot Abroad
The first time I havent voted for Top Gear, not because Top Gear has been rubbish (if not controversial), but An Idio Abroad was hilarious. The midas touch of Gervais and Co. has struck again and the second series was just as funny if not funnier than the first.

Sitcom - Outnumbered
Still my favourite partly-improvised sitcom, Hugh Dennis is brilliant and the kids despite being older are still fantastic and the writers keep coming up with funny storylines for the problematic family. But the Xmas Special was a bit of a let down.

Serial Drama - Emmerdale
Controversial but I have simply chosen the programme I have watched most episodes of this year and I did enjoy the who nearly killed Cain storyline. I do feel Emmerdale is starting to close down the dominance of Corrie and Eastenders.

Serial Drama Performance - Katherine Kelly (Corrie)
Despite the above vote I did not vote for Aaron Livesey, I love the character of Becky and she has been given big storyline after big storyline for a couple of years now and she was brilliant and it is a shame if it is true that she is leaving.

Reality Programme - The Apprentice
This year was the first time I have ever watched The Apprentice and I loved it, in fact I loved Nick Hewer that much that I am not overly upset that he has replaced Jeff on Countdown. There was no way in hell I was going to waste a vote on The Only Way is Essex, but for the first time in a few years I enjoyed Im A Celebrity.

Entertainment - TV Burp
This category was a tough one but Harry Hill's TV Burp has held it's Saturday spot for years and it still makes me laugh and it probably isnt the most difficult programme to write or produce.

There you go, there are some of my votes for the NTAs, coming soon I will be reviewing the Xmas television I watched and missed.

One Four One and Four For All

2011-12-21T13:59:00.000Z

A channel 4 special, just before the Xmas programming takes my mind away from the great drama that has graced 4.

The 'Isaacs Model' refers to an edgy channel that provides the viewers with an alternative and boy has channel 4 been showing it's alternative/edgy/gritty side. This review refers to two great programmes I have watched over the last couple of weeks. The first being Charlie Brooker's brainchild Black Mirror, the second is the 3rd installment from Shane Meadows: This Is England 88'.

Black Mirror, if I was to review the show in three words I would say honest, thought-provoking (that counts as one word) and powerful. This programme proves what TV students are taught, a programme is all about the story. All three parts of this almost ground-breaking drama have an amazing or out-of this world idea, which then a serious drama is built around. Like the 3rd installment is about every human having the ability to replay and zoom in on any memory that has happened in their lives, through a chip in their head. So the idea is ludicrous and impossible but a conventionallay styled drama is built around it, making the impossible seem real.

The first two programmes scream of Charlie Brooker's extreme views, for example Mr Brooker has always shared his opinions on talent shows and our human obsession with 'stuff' and the episode written by Charlie Brooker and Konnie Huq is brilliant and is very satirical. Obviously Konnie must have given her hubby the inside info about X Factor to base that particular episode on.

Not only are the writing and the ideas brilliant but so is the acting, a really really good programme with no negatives to note. The first episode was amazing, it really does open your eyes to the power of the media and if you don't enjoy the thought of the primeminsiter having sex with a pig, the programme will definetly make you think.

Next up This Is England '88, the film was awesome, '86 was great, but I do have to wonder with talk of '90 appearing and the story of '88 being a bit weak. Should Mr Meadows stop whilst he is ahead?

I won't be overly negative as I did enjoy This Is England '88, it had that gritty Northern edge that the franchise has always had, the ensemble cast was brillaint again. And as an audience member you almost feel part of the gang. But this could be part of the problem, obviously '86 focused on the rape storyline, which may have been a blocker for the writing as it needed to carry on. But the problem is: the best part in my opinion of This Is England is the story of Shaun growing up and interacting with the cast. But the focus of '88 was overtly about Lol.

I enjoyed watching it, but I think I was more excited about the prospect of the programme than I enjoyed the programme overall. In my opinion This Is England is getting to the point where it is about to lose it's way.

One amazing programme and one good programme, but channel 4 is providing us with some great programming. I will be blogging about the Xmas programmes I watch after much drink and eating!!!!!!

The Big PP

2011-12-16T17:49:00.000Z

Sat down to watch 'Corrie' last night (I am not an avid viewer, but the girlfriend wanted to watch it so...) and the 'P' appeared on the screen, meaning the programme I was about to watch contained product placement.

How exciting, I believe it was February this year that the rules changed allowing product placement to happen on UK television. But one of the rules attached to the change of policy was that this 'P' symbol has to be shown at the beginning and end of programmes to alert the viewer to the underhand form of advertising come there way.

I want to make it clear I have no problem with product placement (as long as it doesn't get silly) in fact I have developed a game to play when you see the 'P' at the beginning of the programme, you can play it with a friend. The rules are simple the first to notice the placed product wins, there is no significant prize for winning except pride.

So I decided to play my newly created game with myself last night, and I am unsure bu I think the placed product was 'Facebook' (this information could be wrong). But Lloyd played by Craig Charles mentioned Facebook and I have never heard it mentioned in a drama (soap) before. So I won the game unless there was Fruit Pastilles in shot later on and I missed them.

Another rule about product placement is that the placed product can not effect the programme editorially (i.e Norris holding a can of coke above his head for no apparent reason), and I don't think the use above can be seen as effecting the programme editorially despite it obviously being incorporated into the script.

I probably found this more interesting than you did but please comment on your opinions on product placement and play 'The Big 'P'' game!!

Apparently the mention of Facebook is not the product placed by 'Corrie', the deal is actually with Nationwide which is incorporated to the programme via a cash machine in the Dev's shop. So I technically lost at my own game!

Cold Tactics on the BBC

2011-12-14T19:28:00.000Z

Im sure you have seen the headlines, 'Frozen Planet' (which until last week, was by miles by favourite programme of the year) has apparently not been completely truthful in its filming of Arctic and Antarctic animals. According to reports polar bears were filmed in captivity but the programme made not attempt to let the audience know about this. Instead they crosscut the 'faked shots' with real shots from the real locations. Also the eagle-eyed have noticed flaws in the stories of certain animals, narrated perfectly by Sir David Attenborough, apparently families of penguins were differed when a story about one family was being told.

This can't be right! The BBC: the high and mighty of truth and integrity showing a programme that isn't being entirely truthful. According to the Beeb the 'Frozen Planet' website did mention that some footage had been shot of animals in captivity. But really a little mention of this before or after the programme would be a great idea. As a student of television (and unfortunately ethics) misleading an audience is certainly a bad thing and especially in the BBC.

But and this is a huge but............the programme in question was unbelievable and these reports are just a blemish on the face of a show that was ground-breaking in giving the audience access to images that we would never be able to see. The landscape time lapse shots and the helicopter/plane shots were awesome and the part at the end where we got to see the hard times the crews have to experience to get these amazing shots were my favourite bit.

Just looks like a case of a great programme using a couple of sneaky production techniques to provide entertainment for the audience. This brings up an interesting debate I have studied this year: 'the dumbing down' of television. 'Frozen Planet' on the surface is a documentary, showing the public what the far areas of the world look like with the helpful and informative narration of a true legend David Attenborough. But if you look at the structure of 'Frozen Planet' it defintely has some very noticeable drama conventions.

All types of programme have to entertain, even the news, and 'Frozen Planet' is no exception, by creating stories for the animals they are almost personified and turned into characters like on a soap. Drama is a more entertaining genre and documentaries instead of staying true to informing and educating they choose to borrow conventions, like having characters instead of subjects.

This could be an example of broadcasters trying to pull in an audience via more entertaining formats, and in doing this (filming in a zoo in Germany) they have cut a few corners. But there is no doubt in my mind that 'Frozen Planet' was a visually stunning programme and despite these reports nothing can change that.

Top 5 TV Shows of September

2011-10-04T17:31:00.000+01:00

(In my opinion). Once again I must apologize for my lack of blogging, its been over a month and I think I won't promise to blog more than I currently do as it is blatently obvious I won't do it. So here is my Top 5 TV update from September, I am doing it as a Top 5, because well...I don't really have a reason. By the way 5 is bad and 1 is good!

5) This Is Jinsy - Sky1
What the hell is this? One of my housemates liked the look of this freaky Sky 1 comedy, so we sat down to watch it. Hmm...apart from not understanding it at all, I didnt find it funny and genuinely didnt know what I was watching. A way to explain it is a cross between your most crazy dream, Willy Wonka and a load of rubbish. My housemate seemed to enjoy it but he is slightly weird.

4) Planet Dinosaur - BBC1
I really like dinosaurs and all that science fiction stuff, Jurassic Park, Walking With Dinosaurs and now Planet Dinosaur. This show was different as it focused more on the science and the archaelogical discovery of the fossils that the pretty cool CGI depicted. Parts were like a Sir David Attenborough documentary, this part was the viewing of the animals. Then it would freeze and a cool graphic would appear along with a picture of the real fossil that was discovered. The voiceover was slightly dull and this contributed to in the end me not watching it every week. It's on series link but I doubt I will watch the remainign episodes.

3) Waterloo Road - BBC1
A frequent TV viewing of mine, every single year, every series, through the numerous staffing changes in the school. I have been there watching this drama. But the reason Waterloo Road is not 2nd or 1st is that I think the storylines for this show are running very very thin, the show is getting more and more predictable as the series continue. I don't like the new headteacher, I do like the addition of 'Seargeant Smith' from The Bill. And Im glad Mark Benson has stayed on without Robson Green. I think the show will struggle to keep producing great episodes, but despite this I will probably continue watching it.

2) Strike Back: Project Dawn - Sky 1
Great programme, saw the ad for it, the ad depicted lots of violence, a fair bit of sex and lots of explosions and high octance action. So my housemate and me sat down to watch it. Lots of tension, lots of guns and lots of bombs. Its based on a Chris Ryan story and is about a secret team of terrorist fighters setting out to find major players in the terrorist network. If you like violence and fighting and pretty good cast, then I would recommend you watch this. I am two episodes behind, so if you comment dont tell me what has happened in episodes 6 or 7.

1) Fresh Meat - C4
Channel 4 has found another great student aimed comedy/drama, its a brilliant programme starring a star of 'Inbetweeners' and comedian Jack Whitehall. It is about a group of students who miss out on halls of residents who move into a poor-looking student house. It follows them as they deal with the awkwardness of living with strangers and the relationships that occur from this. It is really really good and very funny. Jack Whitehall is surprisingly brilliant and the writers have put together a great script and the awkwardness that the cast create is so realisitic. 2 episodes in and me an my housemates love it. Watch it.

That's it then, aprat from I STILL LOVE THE X FACTOR, and I dont care who knows it!

On The Move Blogging with Good Reason

2011-08-30T21:40:00.000+01:00

Truth be told this post is 10 days old, I wrote it and forgot to upload it...sorry!

The last post I did, I was travelling home from Leeds to Liverpool, following a successful work experience placement at ITV Yorkshire. I was travelling home to enjoy the rest of my summer. I am now on a train back to Leeds writing this post. 5 days at home and I received a phone call from ITV…….and to my surprise and delight, I was offered a 4 week paid contract with Shiver Productions (the same company I did my work exp. with) as a runner.

So I am returning to Leeds now to assist the archive assistant producer, on the same programme I was working on whilst on my placement. My jobs will include viewing lots and lots of old footage, logging a lot of it and also maintaining an organized tape list. And when needed be able to advise or share info with the producers about the programmes I have viewed.

I am so happy to be given my first job in TV, when I have only just finished my first year of uni. The contract takes me right up till I return to uni, but it was a too good of opportunity to turn down and I hope to learn more a make a good contribution to the programme as it enters the filming and offline editing stages in the coming weeks.

Very exciting news, I will blog about some TV bits that need my attention later in the week.

Thanks for reading!!!

I’m Sitting On A Coach Writing This…..

2011-08-13T14:38:00.003+01:00

Ofcourse I will be saving this blog post then uploading it when I get home, as I don’t think National Express supply free wi-fi.
Usually the title of my blog gives some clue to what I will be writing about, but this post is going to be so varied and unbelievably exciting that there is no title worthy of covering the many things I wish to talk about.

Part 1, as the beautiful Yorkshire countryside passes me on either side as I head home to Liverpool, I can reflect on the more than awesome 4 weeks I have spent with Shiver Productions at ITV in Leeds. I cannot talk about the show I worked on but I can tell you it was bloody brilliant.

I basically took up the job of an archive researcher and content researcher whilst I was there, carrying out jobs for two assistant producers and an archive assistant producer. I have watched and logged about 40 programmes over the course of the 4 weeks and researched numerous people and locations. I genuinely think that I have made a contribution to the programme and when it appears on TV in the New Year I will be looking out for parts I researched or archive footage that I logged.

I learnt so much whilst I was there, I learnt the basics of the production process and how pre-production stages lead up to the research phase for big programme series. I got to attend an ITV Factuals development meeting where we were tasked with developing some new ideas for programmes for 2012. And on my final day I got to visit the Emmerdale studios set. Without sounding too geeky it was so cool. I got to stand in the Woolpack bar and sit in the Dingles house, the studio was huge but the sets so small. The way the show is filmed is very deceiving they make tiny areas look massive by just removing walls to film. The best part is that the staff I worked with said I did a good job and have welcomed me back for a couple of days in the autumn to see the show go into the edit!
To conclude my review of my 4 weeks work experience placement, it was brilliant. And factual programming is something I will now definitely consider when I finish my degree, I will let you know what the programme is when I am allowed to.

Now for some programme reviews, my first 2 weeks in Leeds were TV-less, as we awaited our Sky TV and Internet installation so I watched a lot of films. But last week normal excessive TV viewing was resumed. Starting with the new series of ‘Hell’s Kichen USA’.

Regular readers of my blog will know how much I love Mr. Ramsay’s programmes, and I have to say I love seeing Gordon shout at American’s even more. As is seemingly the case with all TV today everything is getting more and more over the top. Gordon swears and swears and swear and shouts really loudly and the Americans all have personalities which would get you in the Big Brother house. The most OTT part of the whole show is the titles, some kind of Pinball machine that Gordon is playing with the contestants in. It was so cheesy that I did nearly hurl, but then the challenges set by Gordon and the prizes the winning team gets, combined with the familiar over-reactions from Ramsay when a piece of fish is burnt it makes for compelling viewing.

And with Kitchen Nightmares USA currently showing on Channel 4, you can’t escape the Ramsay juggernaut which does not seem to be slowing.

Next up, the anticipation and excitement is building for the arrival of Celebrity Big Bro later this month on it’s new home at Channel 5. Brian Dowling has been named as the host, hardly a surprising selection, but a good one. The advert is clever, bringing back all that BB nostalgia to persuade the viewers to click the channel up button. It can’t fail on C5 even if the ratings are poor compared with Channel 4, it will still get the biggest ever audience for C5. I have mentioned already that Mr. Desmond made a wise move purchasing the rights to this show and I am 90% sure I will be watching all summer.

And finally the last show I wish to mention is the new Sky1 original comedy ‘Trollied’. A sitcom featuring Mark Addy based in a bargain supermarket in the North but filmed in Bristol. A huge ensemble cast of some interesting characters paired with some good actors. I watched the double bill the first week and was happy to watch it again the next week, but that was it. I can’t really used the word impressed. It has maybe had to LOL moments but other than that….well yeah.

It’s a strange one, the writers have focused more on making the comedy supermarket related instead of character based, I think that could be the problem, some of the characters are funny but the scripts are focused on the situation. Worth a watch but if you want LOL moments watch My Family or Chris Moyles Quiz Night.

Thanks for reading ladies and gentlemen!!!

I Actually Like Robots

2011-07-14T21:11:00.000+01:00

Went to see Transformers 3 in 3D this week, I waited too long to see it and I knew going to see this film would finally let me know if I am a fan of cars that transform into talking robots.

Why you say? Well Megan Fox is not in the 3rd film, and her not being in this one meant I would discover whether my obsession and love for Transformers was based on a love of Miss Fox in leather or actually liking the special effects, story and the power of Michael Bay.

The result is as follows: I love Transformers, I love Bumblebee, I love Optimus Prime's speeches, I love the acting from the human actors, I love the sound effects and music and I love watching robots kill each other. I know love is a strong word, but so is hate and I hate Loose Women (the TV programme)! It was such an amazing 3rd installment of such a successful trilogy, and in 3D it just added to the experience. If you havent seen it, you really need to...oh yeah and Shia Lebeof's new love interest is nearly as good as Megan Fox and she drives a Mercedes. Oh and for the girls, that guy who Reese Witherspoon jilts in Sweet Home Alabama is in it as well.

Moving away from cinema to television, I watched channel 5 yesterday. It was terrible. I really want C5 to raise it's populairty and I still think BB this autumn will help towards that but OMG (apologies for using that) it was dreadful. I tuned into new (Richard Desmond influenced) OK!TV with some girl and Jeff Brazier. The girl was not too bad her interview with David Schwimmer was the only reason I stayed watching for more than 5 minutes. But Mr Brazier talking about celebs is nearly as annoying Kerry Katona talking about divorce. I have completed one module of studio skills on my degree, which included shooting magazine programmes. And one thing that was not hard to remember is when you have a multi-camera studio it is boring to hold one shot for too long. It was to my disbelief that I sat watching these two amateur presenters in medium close up, sat too near each other for nearly three minues with nothing more than a random introduction of an Ipad to get me excited. Sort it out channel 5, it's not hard to cut to another camera, unless your in an automated studio run by robots (see linked this section to title).

That is all and sadly I won't be blogging for a couple of weeks, first and foremost as I am starting my work experience with Shiver Productions at ITV Leeds, but also as my new house in Leeds does not have internet or an ariel to watch TV on.

Thanks for reading!

Planned on A Plane

2011-07-03T14:30:00.000+01:00

An intriguing title I am sure you will admit. Well the reason behind it is exactly what the title suggests I planned this blog post whilst listening to the MediaTalk podcast on my very late and long flight to Tenerife last week.

This post almost directly responds to the podcast I was listening to, which made me very agitated, mainly due to the skeptical look at certain programmes by TV editor for The Guardian; Vicki Frost. I have already disagreed with this lady on this here blog, when I wrote my elongated defence of 'The Shadowline' which finished in style a couple of weeks ago.

This brings me to Miss Frost's u-turn, as obvious as The Conservatives postponement of white papers, on the podcast she mentioned how brilliant the finale of 'The Shadowline' was following 7 weeks of bad press for it. It pleased me to hear her admit the programme was very good and also pleased me she had made a bad judgement in the first place. The ending itself was so unexpected not even the most die hard of TV drama fans could have predicted what was coming.

My second point relates to Camelot, the new 'sexy' Channel 4 drama depciting Arthur's ascendency to the throne under the guidance of Merlin. Vicki Frost gave this a hard time saying it was just porn with a bit of history involved. But I liked it! I watched the feature length double episode to start the series and was very impressed by the sets and filming along with the actors performances. I thought I would be tuning in every week. I was wrong, usually if I love a programme I watch it without fail every week. Like The Apprentice and Top Gear (or even the Shadowline). But I have missed 2 episodes now and have not been compelled to get onto 4OD and catch up. Therfore I can conclude I don't like it that much.

And finally 'In With The Flynns' is a good sitcom that week by week as I get to know the characters is making me laugh more and more. Mediocre serial sitcom actor Will Mellor returns to 'Two Pints' standards instead of 'White Van Man' standards and I have really enjoyed it despite it being set in Manchester.

Last droplet of news, I will be carrying out at least 2 weeks work experience with Shiver Productions based in ITV Yorkshire in Leeds from the 18th of July, I am extremely excited to get started now and begin my TV career.

Thanks for reading!

No Positives This Week

2011-06-13T15:40:00.000+01:00

Except one....I am finding out when I am doing my work experience with ITV later in the week.

Now for TV, starting with the biggest moan. When you watch Jeremy Kyle you wonder why do these people appear on our screens showcasing their problems to the public. There is no justified answer, becuase not many care about a 20 year old girl who is picking a father from three whilst her sister calls them everything under the sun. Then Jeremy steps in and shouts and frowns at everyone on the stage before sending them to Graham to actually 'sort it out'.

The above paragraph is not even my moan, another programme uses this format but it is far more offensive, repulsive and impossible to watch, it is 'Embarassing Bodies'. A live programme which consists of two 'TV doctors' looking at men and women (mostly naked) on Skype, giving rubbish advice or careful diagnosis before telling them to go to their GP. Sounds very familiar to the above format. Why do these people get their genitals out in front of 2 million people to then be told go to your GP anyway? I physically can't watch it, it is like a cross between Casualty and Babestation. Watch it and when doctor useless says drop your pants you will shudder.

NEXT! Boohoo my favourite TV programme of the last 9 months has finished, The Event's first season has finished and in true US drama style it has been cancelled with the season finishing on a cliffhanger. You would think I would be overcome with rage and urging it to be re-commissioned somewhere else. You would be wrong sadly. 21 episodes of loyal viewing, I even endured the mid-season break (read back to my earlier posts). And they reward me with a narrative ending that seemed to have been thought up by monkeys. I am so annoyed, the good guys stop the bad virus infecting the world, the president is back but then Sophia still brings her people over. The programme finished with hints of the aliens morphing into something terrible and a shot of the planets linked by the light from the portal array. Very dissapointed if it does come back I hope they re-think the storyline.

Saw and advert whilst watching Sky 1 on Saturday for a TV that incorporates the internet and all multimedia, the future has arrived but is it wanted. For years the ultimate convergence has been predicted where everything will be in one place, phones, internet, TV, films. But from the development over the last few years is it wanted? The talk in the industry is that consumers now multi-task i.e. surf internet on their ipad whilst watching Deal or No Deal on their TV sets. Or watching X Factor whilst tweeting from your smartphone about the singers. Can you do both at the same time if it's all on the one screen..I doubt it. So the future was predicted correctly, it looks like everything will be in one place but is it what the audience wants is up for debate.

Sorry for the moany blog post, but nothing TV related has made me happy this week, apart from The Shadowline but that as already had its own blog post. On the upside my exams are done and I go on holiday next week and have a summer of work experience and doing nothing to enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

The Shadow Line

2011-05-20T17:19:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about a new BBC2 drama 'The Shadow Line', I wrote how I liked it and now 3 episodes in I am going to present an extensive review of my opinions on this programme. Why this show you may ask, well it is becuase of the MediaTalk podcast team giving it a slight dressing down after it lost a huge chunk of it's audience. So this is for you Vicki Frost and Matt Wells.

It seems the police/detective drama genre is becoming tired, only this week we heard that Taggart is being axed, we lost The Bill last year. And you can watch CSI re-runs to your hearts content on Channel 5 if that floats your boat. So if a new murder investigation drama arrives on BBC 2 taking a new angle why is it getting a rough ride?

My theory is that it is getting a rough ride not becuase of the 'poor dialogue' as Miss Frost said on last week's podcast but really because it goes against the audience's expectations of a programme from the genre. So what makes it different? And by saying what makes it difference I am also stating what makes it a good programme.

A rarely used format is to have a murder investigated from both sides, i.e. the police and criminals investigating the death of a criminal. The Shadow Line has took this approach but added in multiple-strands to the narrative. A brief look suggests this programme isn't just about the investigation but the private lives of the principal characters are brought to the attention of the viewer. Something which police dramas tend to omit.

The main characters all have demons in their closets or personal things they need to sort out, we are up to episode 3 and already the plot has thickened so much that I have no idea where the programme is heading. Which in my opinion similar to Dalziel and Pascoe is a good thing with a detective drama. Jonah Gabriel the detective heading up the investigation for the police has a wife who he can't get pregnant, a child with another woman, a case full of money in his wardrobe and a murky past that involved him getting shot. To add to the mystery the bullet is in the back of his head.

It's this sort of detail to the script that makes the show so mysterious and therefore captivating. Another one is, the man now heading up the drug dealers has a wife with Alzheimers which provides his motivation to do one more deal to get in and out. These individual strands make you think, why and when will something relating to this happen. Unlike with other police dramas were all you ask is who did it? In my opinion I am not really interested who killed the guy at the moment, because the other stories are more interesting.

This is why I think the programme is getting some stick, it's because the show doesn't do what it says on the tin, and surely with all the channels we have, if a programme wants to go in a new direction we should embrace it. If you are going to watch the programme, you will enjoy the music, the crazy narrative structure, which casually flitters and changes with clever in scene cuts and one of my favourite things about this programme is the seemingly random close ups of inanimate objects at times of intensity, you will spot them now you have read this.

So there it is my defence of The Shadow Line, a programme trying to be different and succeeding, I am a big fan and will be watching as it conludes over the coming weeks. If you read this Matthew Wells please comment as I did on your views.

Thanks for reading.

The 100th Post

2011-05-13T20:42:00.000+01:00

Seems a long time ago I started writing this blog, think it's been 2 years of weekly..ish blogging and here it is the highly coveted 100th post, what a moment! To celebrate I am listening to the Noah and The Whale album (which is awesome) and will present below a wonderful blog post.

Firstly what a day I had today. My first hint of live TV, a small audience of a maximum of 20 but still pressurizing. Today I helped out with the second years' 3 hour live production in the Leeds University TV studio of 'Friday the 13th'. Aptly named, it was a 3 hour live show in three parts with 3 (almost) different crews. It was basically a complimation of work from ICS (Institute of Communication Studies) with live links and quiz things in between. The 2nd years had scripted it and planned it all and then directed, produced or crewed. I showed up with the intention of doing an hour on a cmaera and instead ended up manning 3 cameras for 2 hours and then operating the VT machine (turbo) for the final hour.

Despite the tiring nature and pressure of being in charge of adjusting 3 cameras for 2 hours in the middle of a live show, I really enjoyed it. Live TV is something that interests me alot, it is the butterflies you get knowing that one false move can look terrible and can ruin a show. But the key today was keeping calm and carrying on. Just saying that I avoided mistakes but I didn't half feel sorry for some people when they played the wrong VT or didnt cut from a camera that was adjusting.

But the 3 hours was a triumph, if more crew were available instead of people multi-tasking (some for 3 hours) theshow may have been smoother but the producers and directors can be very proud and I was proud to be apart of such a huge production and it has made me seriously think about live TV as the way I want to go. (Also the whole thing was a welcome excuse to get away from revision).

Bit of TV analysis now for my 100th blog post, firstly historical dramas. Yeah I know what you're thinking, I watched 2 this week. 1066 a small budget historical epic, about a group of farmers who join Harold's armies to fight the Vkings. Well that was the first episode, sadly it wasn't good enough to make me watch the 2nd part where they fight Willy the Conqueror. The violence was fun and I applaud the clever camerawork to make 20 men look like 100 and the costumes and weapons were realistic, but if money is to be spent on a drama about great battles then alot of money should be thrown at it. If you wish to watch it, it is on 4OD.

Now to a historical drama-doc which certainly did splash out on sets, costumes and then probabaly moreso CGI. I am talking about Atlantis which got good ratings on the BBC. It consists of a voiceover discussing the sciency side of the quake and volcano that sunk the city of Atlantis. Whilst a love-driven story pushes the narrative along. I did like it, to a point. The story was weak but the sciency side presented with some fairly brilliant CGI was captivating. Drama-docs are strange as you don't know what you're watching till it finishes but I would say this one was good and more should follow. If we have the technology why don't we use it to bring the past back to life.

Finally, I was going to mention about a story I heard about, apparently the boss of soaps at the Beeb has said Eastenders is not realistic, I was going to disucuss this but instead I just want to say "No sh** sherlock". Another quickie I have once again loved watching BBC Radio 1.

To finish how did I miss the boat, that sets sail every year involving a wealthy man setting business challenges to a bunch of posh muppets. Yes I have joined the steam-roller that is The Apprentice. I have genuinely never watched it, and although I enjoyed it this week, it has big faults. I like the challenges and Alan Sugar's attitude. But the competitors are obviously picked for their arrogance and their arsey nature. Just like Jedward were picked for being stupidly annoying and Nadia for being a lady-man. So although the show is presented as more of a documentary it has many BB features and the people in it including Karen Brady are idiots. But I will watch all 12 episodes as with Masterchef I now want to see who wins. Maybe it will grow on me.

I promise to finish now, I would recommend watching Shadow Line on BBC iplayer, it is a very good investigative drama with a few twists, if you watch it let me know what you think, I will be blogging about it next week. As for now two exams then my 1st year of university as a TV Production student is over.

This has been my 100th blog post, you are too kind, please comment and discuss and thanks for reading.

Still Have Time For TV

2011-05-04T16:04:00.000+01:00

Late post, should have been done last week when what I wanted to write was fresh in my mind, instead this may be lacking detail.

Managed to get my work done to hand in tommorow, avoided any stress really, my video project is proving to be fairly stressful. Big filming day tommorow then get it edited by next Thursday. But despite lots of work I have watched a fair old bit of TV.

Top of my list of things to discuss is Two Pints of Lager. New series started last week with a double-bill. Only Gaz and Donna survive from the original cast now, and two new people have joined the camp man behind the bar to complete a decent ensemble cast.

Gaz is now in a wheelchair and Donna is un-employed, Billy is a 21st century man, with a rather annoying scouse twang, but that is exactly what he is there for. I have seen the 1st 3 episodes and I have to admit despite my initial scepticism it is actually really funny and I will be watching every week. It's success it obviously down to the fact it is still the same brilliant creator who us writing it, good TV....watch it.

Must mention the Masterchef finale, the series has not been loved with it's new style, but I watched every week and was glad to see Tim win. It will be interesting to see what happens with it next year. It came up against a fair amount of criticism but finished on a series high rating. I enjoyed it but whether the series has legs for more years to come is another matter.

Next little thing I must mention is the small matter of a certain wedding. My original plan was to watch a bit of it on each channel and compare and provide an insightful blog post but instead I stuck with Huw Edwards and BBC. It just seemed ike the right thing to do. The BBC is a national institution and the wedding was a national holiday. My only criticism is the anonymity of some of the 'roving reporters'. Ofcourse they had Fearne Cotton but some of the other I had never heard of. Despite this the coverage was extensive and the commentary was informative. Well done Beeb.

That's all for this week, revision, revision, revision for me and working in the pub for the next few weeks, I will atempt to blog if something catches my eye. Speaking of which Mr. Cowell's new gameshow for ITV has just been unveiled, don't understand what it is about yet all I know is Ant and Dec are involved and it's called 'Black and Red' and is based on betting on events.

Lovely little gem at the end for you there, thanks for reading......byeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The New and (improved) ITV Saturday Night

2011-04-19T14:52:00.000+01:00

Have to admit I was quite looking forward to viewing the new line up for Saturday nights on ITV. Mainly because I wanted to cast my cynical eye on whether ITV could provide something other than X Factor or Take Me Out that could be equally entertaining..well the answer is yes and no!

No first as this programme was on first. In all fairness I had my doubts about 'Sing If You Can', firstly due to the fact it depends on celebs (again) to provide the entertainment, which doesn't always happen ('Celeb Love Island'). The second was the hosts, Keith Lemon (aka Leigh Francis aka Avid Merrion). Keith Lemon's Celeb Juice is becoming cult TV programme on ITV2 and is gaining a bigger audience every series. The Shows success is not the celebs who appear (although they do help) but it is Lemon's treatment of his guests and his rude and obscene demeanour that I have stated earlier this year has be laughing out loud every week. My concern was can Keith bring this humour to a pre-watershead and family-based audience the answer to this question is a resounding no. Take away his swearing and rude catchphrases and his mick-taking attitude, Lemon just looks like a starnge looking presenter like Anton Du Beke.

It really didn't work the scripted arguments with pointless co-host Stacey Solomon were not funny, the judging panel was pointless and the celebs were seemingly all ex-popstarts who need a celebrity rating boost. It was not a good programme. I didn't watch it live but I can't see this making a difference. I was literally waiting for it to finish so I could put BGT on ITV player straight after. So in summary I won't be watching it next week, and Keith Lemon should stick to his usual audience 10 o clock on ITV2, he is certainly no Paul o' Grady.

Moving on to the more successful part of ITV's Saturday night. Britain's Got Talent returned with it's 3rd biggest audience figures for the 1st episode since the programme begun. New judges, not much change to format, but there didn't need to be the formula worked. Ok so the judges, I have always disliked Amanda Holden but Im glad that she doesn't have Piers and Simon to flirt with as it used to make me gag. Michael Mcintyre is a legend and his addition to the panel is one of genius he adds comedy effortlessly. My favourite moment of this week was when he got the people of Liverpool singing 'Hey Jude'. He is hilarious and if the programme is as successful as before he could have something to do with it as he is probably the most popular comedian in Britain at the moment. The Hoff seems to be a 'who else can do the job of judging, is mildly popular and American (to change things a bit more)' David Hasselhoff is the answer. He is enthusiastic and fun and I can put up with him.

Can't forget the final part of the formula (aprat from the talent ofcourse) Ant and Dec as always do what they do best as they have always done. Cheeky lines and sarcasm just add to the overall production perfectly. Along with the unbelievable range of stupid talents this programme is still as good as it was and will no doubt kick the BBC's offering of 'So You Thing You Can Dance' into obilvion every week without fail. If Simon can re-invent the X Factor in the same way, I think this too will be a success come the Autumn.

That is all for now, I am back home on the glouriously suny Wirral, sitting in the sun writing this, thanks for reading!

Awesome, Good, Bad and Absolutely Awful

2011-04-14T17:01:00.000+01:00

The IT Crowd why had I never watched this? You know what I am like I start watching a new series then watch every episode from every series on demand in quick succession. Not exactly how the TV industry wants you to do it. But I love the programme. Brilliant writing, excellent characters, but not just the individuals the chemistry between the characters is hilarious. Up to end of series 3 now and will no doubt have watched the remaining few episodes available by the end of the week.

Good news, I wrote a few weeks back about BB heading to Desmond's Channel 5. Well it has happened and speculation has begun on who will be the new host. The speculation is not as huge as the US X Factor Judges speculation but some interesting names are being tossed around. Personally I would like a former housemate i.e. Brian Dowling or Michael Barrymore. I have never been a huge year fater year fan but I am looking forward to the celeb version in the summer. I can't see there being much change as it is still Endemol's format, but I can't wait to pick up the Star and The Express for the BB exclusives.

My fave programme of the last year has been Misfits and just as I catch up with the trend, Misfits as we know it is about to crash. The funny Irish actor (Sheehan) is apparently quitting and being written out in a special online episode prior to the new series. I am assuming following his appearance in Killing Bono he wants to focus on Hollywood. Bad thing is, he was my fave part of the show, take out everything he says and does and the cast is very boring and the plot seems a bit dull. We will have to wait and see.

The absolutely awful is Campus, a new sitcom on C4 based on a rubbish uni. It is terrible, the script is barely humourous and has some very 'Frankieboylesque' lines from the Vice Chancellor character regarding race. I watched half an hour that was enough. My advice don't watch it.

On Second Thoughts

2011-04-07T17:21:00.000+01:00

If I had wrote this post last week like a good boy then I would be telling you how much I love Law and Order UK and White Van Man. Since then I have watched more episodes of these two, my opinion has changed.

But first to mention a new TV programme produced by Shiver Productions up here in Leeds called 'The Dales'. It's a new 12 part observational documentary Mondays on ITV. It's really quite interesting as Adrian Admonson guides you cheerfully around the forgotten places of the Yorkshire Dales. Along the way meeting people with fascinating stories. Ofcourse the scenery itself creates alot of the marvel and epic camerawork isn't needed when Yorkshire is so beautiful anyway. But the format is simple, done in an almost magazine format with Edmonson reminding of what is still to come. Not usually my thing but two episodes in and this programme I will continue to watch, which is more than can be said about the next two.

I saw a preview for White Van Man on my favourite Sunday morning programme Something For The Weekend a few weeks back then I forgot about it. Then last week I remembered it whilst browsing on Iplayer in the comedy section. I watched the first episode and mainly because I was bored watched another two. It's basically a low-budget sitcom following the life of Will Mellor who has just taken over his annoying Dad's 'handyman' business. There is 3 other supporting characters who add their own humour through their stupid or annoying personalities. I.e Darren, the 2nd in command is really sceptical of whether Mellor's character (whose name I can't remember) can do the job his Dad did. First 3 episodes where ok, but now on reflection did I enjoy them because I was painstakingly bored, well the answer is yes. Last night I had the option of either playing Football Manager or watching White Van Man. I chose the latter and I very nearly turned it off before it had finished.

Almost identically if I had blogged last week after watching 1 episode of Law and Order UK, I would have been telling you how much I love Bradley Walsh and the show's format, but after falling asleep watching an episode last night (due to boredom) I cannot. Instead I find the format slightly annoying, because I like the first half then could quite happily turn off when it switches to the lawyers side.

So Jon's top tip if you really enjoy a programme after one viewing don't watch anymore, you will ruin it. There are exceptions i.e The Event (which since i'ts return keeps getting better, the shizz has hit the fan in that plot).

Thanks for reading, please comment, if you wish.

Ooops nearly forgot I am no longer a fan of Come Dine With Me, used to be one of my fave shows but it's longevity has meant every personality in Britian has been covered, meaning the programme despite being on it's 22nd series is getting repetetive. Time to give up or revitalise and take Deal Or No Deal with you.

Goodbye!

Gettin' Ready 26th March 2011

2011-03-27T13:54:00.000+01:00

Last show before the Easter break, I was so tired after a pub crawl the night before and then work yesterday morning but I really had fun with this one, focused on the dance classics and a few indie tunes and brought back a feature from my days at Arrowesound Hospital Radio.

Kicked off the show with Bob Marley VS Funkstar Deluxe, almost making an epic mistake but I recovered well.

At about 20 past (everything ran a bit late as the group before finished at like 5 past, very unprofessional, Im only joking) I did a run down of What's On in Leeds, discussin everywhere from the Union to Propaganda which smoothy linked to Mumford and Sons.

More awesome dance tracks from the 90's including the very first single I owned (not bought) it was more donated, No Limit (or the no-no song as I called it in my youth).

I then introduced my song For All Those Staying In (or going to an indie night) by playing Mr. Nutini with Pencil Full Of Lead from his awesome Sunny Side Up Album.

Then came my favourite part of the show, the return of a feature I buried when I left Arrowesound Hospital Radio (apart from maybe one cameo on Ice Radio 87.7fm) the 2 minute chart. Which I obviously manipulated to suit my show it was 'the 2 minute dance chart'. Wow it was close I named Black Eyed Peas at top literally on the last second, probably the closest ever, was nervous I would fail on the first week.

After that Jamboo arrived with his entourage of useless people (just kidding again) to set up his DJ equipment, I chatted with his boys and we wondered why he was called Jamboo when his real name is Nathan.

I wrapped up the show wishing everyone an awesome Easter and I look forward to returning to LSR for 2 more shows after Easter at the beginning of May.

Gettin' Ready 26/03/11
1) Rainbow Country - Bob Marley VS Funkstar Deluxe
2) Better Off Alone - DJ Jurgen feat. Alice Deejay
3) What Is Love - Haddaway
4) The Cave - Mumford and Sons
5) Call On Me - Eric Prydz
6) No Limit - 2 Unlimited
7) Pencil Full of Lead - Paolo Nutini
8) Pump Up The Volume - M/A/R/R/S
9) Groovejet (If This Aint Love) - Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis Bextor
10) We R Who We R - Ke$ha
11) Don't Give Me Your Life - Alex Party
12) Place Your Hands - Reef

Good weather, plus some good news!

2011-03-25T13:30:00.000Z

Well the weather in Leeds has been beautfiul recently (well I mean the last 3 days, its been warm and sunny). And with this I have got good news to share.

I recieved a phone call yesterday asking me to go meet production managers at ITV Yorkshire in a sort of interview situation. Apparently they were impressed with my CV and wished to offer me a work experience placement at the Leeds ITV studios.

So I went along uber-uber excited, and I did well as I have a placement and I will be doing it with Shiver Productions (a production company based in the Leeds Studios) either in Easter or more likely for one or two weeks in the summer, to say I am happy and excited would be a dramatic understatement.

Brilliant, brilliant stuff, didn't see much of the studios today bus I await a call to see when I will be doing my placement.

Ok moving on, good telly this week, The Event...it is getting better and I am hooked. One week is too long between episodes I have decided but I shouldn't complain too much as it did disappear for 3 months, I should be grateful it is back in my life. More good telly Masterchef, it isn't good telly but ok telly I would say, I will watch it every week, but not so much as I love it but more becuase now I feel like I must. Celeb Juice keeps impressing me one of the few shows that makes me laugh out loud (or LOL).

What am I up to? Easter fast approaches which means so do dealines (boooo). AV project is half filmed and we begin editing today, got till 12th of May to get that done. Studio script and floor plan is due for 5th along with a reflective log and essay for Screen Fiction. Not very fun!

As well as this I have one more show this Saturday on LSR, 7pm til 8pm, last one bfore Easter then I believe there will be 2 more in May. SO tune in, before it's too late.

I think that is all, thanks for reading!

Gettin' Ready 19th March 2011

2011-03-20T09:52:00.000Z

I was back this week live on Leeds Student Radio 7pm til 8pm with my show Gettin' Ready. I played lots of dance mixes the odd indie tune and then a new addition music-wise some classic dance floorfillers from the last 20 years. I enjoyed the show despite being quite tired, took me a while to get into it and I lost track of time a few times, due to the fact I was enjoying the music I was playing.

Kicked off the show with a some Tinchy Stryder then played one of my all time fave dance tracks by Baby D. At qabout 20 past the hour about 10 mins late I played my song 'For All Those Staying In', this week it was the fairly inconsistent Kooks with their song 'You Don't Love Me'.

Then I introduced our silly and pointless game 'Can I See Your ID Please?' Our resident Union bouncer Mick read out some clues describing the celeb he had stopped at the door, I asked the audience to text and e-mail in with their answers. This week it was Leona Lewis.

More floorfillers later, Jamboo arrived in the studio setting up his DJ equipment for the start of his show at 8pm and I did a quick round up of what was on and in which clubs around Leeds tonight, before winding up the show with a song that reminds me off the World Cup.

I enjoyed the show last night, thinking of adding a couple of extra features in for the remaining weeks of term.

Gettin' Ready Playlist 19/03/2011

1) Let It Rain - Tinchy Stryder
2) Let Me Be Your Fantasy - Baby D
3) Blue Da Ba Dee - Eiffel 65
4) What's My Name - Rhianna feat. Drake
5) Rock Ya Body - MVP
6) You Don't Love Me - The Kooks
7) Rhythm of The Night - Corona
8) Shot You Down - Audio Bullys feat. Nancy Sinatra
9) Dreaming of You - The Coral
10) Castles in The Sky - Ian Van Dahl
11) Re- Wind - Artful Dodger
12) Tubthumping - Chumbawumba
13) Make Luv - Room 5 feat. Oliver Cheatham
14) Kickstarts - Example

Some Great Achievements

2011-03-19T18:01:00.000Z

First of all a huge salute to David Walliams and even more so Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave Vitty for their awesome Comic Relief achievements. Records smashed all in the name of charity, both inspired me to do something marathon like either radio or TV film related.

Not only were the achievements massive but also the quality was brilliant, the panel show marathon was brilliant, it wasnt really advertised well enough as I didnt know it had happened until I found the highlight programmes on Iplayer. Absolutely loved seeing 'They Think It's All Over' and 'Whose Line' back on my screen. And what can be said about the Chris Moyles Show...eternally brilliant and if the rumours are true that the show is on it's last legs I think Radio 1 will struggle endlessly to replace it!

Back to television, some programmes that I rarely watched but now have me hooked, 'Celebrity Juice' somehow I missed the orginal student obsession and always missed out on the jokes. But following watching for the last month, every week without fail it has me in bits. I have also been loving the return of 'The Event'. As you will have read on my blog I have been awaiting the rteurn of this US sci-fi drama and I am so glad it's back. Two epsiodes back to back on Monday which was awesome, I waited for my girlfriend to fall asleep then watched both, I was not dissapointed, its too complicated to explain now, but get onto 4OD and watch it!

Next point, on Thursday I was in my studio skills practical withmy grup ready to film my studio item 'Loose Men'. After endless editing and refining of the script for the 3 minute piece finally on Thurs I got the chance to get in the gallery and direct my own creation. I chose my own crew in relation to their skills then directed everyone through 1 rehearsal and then the record. It went really well and I am starting to develop a love of the role of the director in a studio (I hope to get a copy of the recorded item to put on Youtube).

Linking in smoothly, almost forgot to congratulate the actual Comic Relief programme which I watched this morning in 3 parts on Iplayer, not only a studio success but all of the comedy inserts were ingenious none more so than Smithy with all the celebs...true brilliance.

Right got to go now got my radio show 'Gettin' Ready on Leeds Student Radio (www.lsrfm.com) at 7pm, got to head up to the studio now. Another post about the show will follow this evening.......

Thanks for reading|!!!!!!!!!!!1

Gettin' Ready 5th March 2011

2011-03-05T22:20:00.000Z

Another show down, this one presented with a bit of a hangover. But despite the slight headache I loved the show, it was good fun, brought back my silly style of varying my voice a bit and brought back my sarcstic jibes which begub on MEM 2 years ago at the hospital radio. Plus I played more indie tuneage this week.

Kicked off the show with a lively intro and some great mainstream music dance mixe, I then introduced the silly (just for fun) game 'Can I See Your ID Please'. Mick our moody LUU bouncer has stopped a celeb at the door, he gave a description in his strong untraceable accent that the celeb was male, 46, was in a cult sitcom and is a scouser in Corrie. After some right and wrong answers from listeners, Mick revealed it was Craig Charles.

Then did a run down of what is on and where in Leeds on this fine Saturday night, got more detail this week like drinks offers and closing times in.

As Jamboo arrived setting up his equipment, I played the song for those staying in, which I had fun singing along to it was 'Dont Look Back In Anger'. I interrupted the song alot to tell eveyone to sing. I then handed over to Jamboo and walked home peased with my efforts and as I sit writing this my hangover has all but gone now, so I will watchTV.

Comment if you wish, back on LSR next Saturday night 7pm til 8pm, thanks for reading.

Gettin' Ready Playlist 5/03/11
1) Heart on My Sleeve - Olly Murs
2) Kickstarts - Example
3) The Flood - Cheryl Cole
4) Glow - Cirez D
5) Mr Brightside - The Killers
6) Let It Rain - Tinchy Stryder
7) Fill U Up - Sidney Samson
8) Fire - Kasabian
9) Bangduck - Afrojack
10) More - Usher
11) Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis
12) Well, Well, Well - Duffy
13) Do It Like A Dude - Jessie J

2 for Price of 1

2011-02-27T19:18:00.000Z

Yes another blog post for you all, how lucky you must be. This is one is about TV the other radio...simples.

So on Friday evening I headed down with my cameraman and presenter Josh to film the first installment of my brainchild 'Sport in Focus'. A show that advertises uni sports societies whilst providing entertainment and humour in the form of a moaning Mancunian presenter.

The programme is for Leeds Student TV (http://www.lstv.com/) and I am hoping may be broadcast this week if I get it edited. This week we went down to the men's basketball practice and Josh our presenter joined in as we set up various things for him and interviewed the coach. I won't give too much way but watch this blog or check out my youtube channel for when it will appear.

I went up to LSTV today, to begin the editing of the show, 3 hours and one numb bumb later, the basic structure of footage is done, hope to finish it tommorow by adding captions and voiceover and I need to creat a title sequence (on reflection it won't be ready this week.)

Before I go, TV roundup:

Like
Top Gear
Madagascar
QI
Misfits (No finished watching all the series)

Dislike
Fast and Loose (changed my mind about this one)

Thanks for reading!

Gettin' Ready 26th February 2011

2011-02-27T19:08:00.001Z

Second show on my new home at Leeds Student Radio (www.lsrfm.com), loved it even more this week, lots of interaction from listeners planning their nights out.

Kicked things off by playing some great dance songs, inlcuding a strange but enjoyable version of The Wombats' 'Tokyo'.

After my intros and what not I introduced our game this week (just for fun) it was called 'Can I See Your ID Please?' Where Mick our imaginary bouncer outside the union has stopped a celebrity and the celeb is only allowed in, if listeners texted or email in with who it is from various clues. Quite a few got in touch with thier answers, from all over Leeds, most got it right except for Steven who said it was Jordan when it was really Kerry Katona.

I then played an awesome track as our tune 'For All Those Staying In', it was the Vaccines with Post Break-Up Sex, really good song for those chilling out instead on a Saturday night.

Before the end of the show I played loads of more dance mixes of current chart hits plus an odd classic dance tunes. I then gave the lowdown on what was going on around Leeds last night, I discussed everything from Birdcage to the Union.

I ended the show and handed over to Jamboo and his entourage for his DJ set, great show only 1 mistake (2 secs of silence) and lots of texts and e-mails. Really enjoying being back on the radio, planning some interviews for the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for reading!

Gettin' Ready Playlist 26/02/11
1) Corrected - Mason
2) Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves) - The Wombats
3) Bangduck - Afrojack
4) Let It Rain - Tinchy Stryder
5) Lose My Mind - The Wanted
6) Planet Earth - Danny Byrd
7) Last Ones Standing - Example
8) Post Break Up Sex - The Vaccines
9) The Flood - Cheryl Cole
10) Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim
11) What's My Name - Rhianna feat. Drake
12) Well, Well, Well - Duffy
13) Eyes Wide Shut - JLS feat. Tinie Tempah

Gettin' Ready 19th February 2011

2011-02-20T15:37:00.001Z

Back on radio last night on http://www.lsrfm.com/ for Leeds Student Radio with a brand new show for Saturday nights called Gettin' Ready.

Was so good being back on the radio, didn't really realise how much I'd missed it and you will be glad to know the show went really well. The idea of the show is simple, a show for those going out on a Saturday night in Leeds. Playing a mix of RnB, dance and the odd indie tune.

Went live at 7pm, preperation for the show was easy, spent a bit of time before I went on air reminding myself of how to use the desk which I had recieved a 5 minute crash course on the day before. I introduced my first feature by asking the audience to e-mail/text in about where they are going out tonight, a fair few people got in touch.

At half past following some great dance mixes, I gave a rundown of a few places people could go out, including Chilli Whites, Wire and the union.

Played some more songs than played my song for those that were staying in this week it was Dakota by Stereophonics.

Closed the show by introducing the next DJ and said my goodbyes.

Overall, a brilliant show, especially for a first one in a new studio, as I say it was simple but there is scope to make it more complicated and I think I will next week. Really enjoyed it though and Im looking forward to next weeks show.

Gettin' Ready Playlist 19/02/11
1. Do it Like A Dude - Jessie J
2. Higher - Taio Cruz and Kylie ft. Travie Mcoy
3. Satisfaction - Benni Benassi
4. Like U Like - Aggros Santos ft. Kimberly Walsh
5. Fill U Up - Sidney Samson
6. Place Your Hands - Reef
7. Last Ones Standing - Example
8. Niton - Eric Prydz
9. Heart On My Sleeve - Olly Murs
10. More - Usher
11. We R Who We R - Kesha
12. Dakota - Sterophonics
13. I Like To Move It - Reel 2 Real

The BIG One!!!!!

2011-02-15T19:54:00.000Z

This blog post promises to be the most interesting or boring ever as I have noted down no fewer than 8 things to talk about ranging from TV to film through to me! Let's go then, if you get bored take a breather, get a coffee and continue reading.

Firstly, I'll start with television seens as though my career is heading towards this magnificent industry and my first notes concerns the seemingly new improvisation show on the BBC called Fast and Loose. I watched the first episode hosted by Hugh Dennis casting his usual sarcastic view on proceedings as 6 performers (all unknown bar one) take part in improvisational games for the entertainment of the audience, one of which involves bad things to say when speed dating...wait! Sounds a bit familiar....oh yeah Whose Line Is It Anyway?! Well, I continued watching, some of the performers were evry good and genuinely funny..others were not and some of the games are let's say uninspiring. Also Hugh's presenting I'd go as far to say is not needed, he introduces the shortest of games asking questions then that is it. Nothing like Clive Anderson! Despite this, I have watched 3 episodes on Iplayer now and plan to watch it next week..it is more but entertaining TV and I do love the 'magic mat' game (its worth watching just for this). So it's a more man's 'Whose Line' but will entertain you and come the end of the programme have read who the series producer is and you will understand the similarities!

Next a moan....where is 'The Event' well 409 complaints down the line and C4 has the answer. The sci-fi thriller that has encapsulated moderate British audiences which I have previously blogged about is returning to C4 thank god. It is set to return to NBC at the end of this month and should be back with us soon after. But the gripes are that everyone will have forgotten what has happened over the something-season break...apparently they have them in the US. I can't wait for it's return, me and my mates are checking the TV guide daily.

Continuing, David Attenborough is a broadcasting legend with a capital B and his new programme 'Madagascar' is as brilliant as any. Awesome landscapes captured by brillaint helicopter shots and some of the most interesting wildlife on the planet up close and personal thanks to some ingenious camerawork not by D.A himself but by his team. Whom at the end show how they struggled to get shots of these water-dwelling lemurs. I won't say you should watch this, because there is no excuse for not watching it.

Coronation Street has smashed (excuse the Richard Keysism) Eastenders this year! Not just with the live tram crash which easily outshone Eastenders live episode, not just in awards. But also in the following storylines, last night's episodes were epic and the regular Monday double worked a treat as always! I won't spoil it but the shizz hits the fan over Peter and Leanne in dramatic style, worth a watch! Eastenders with it's apalling and sickening baby swap storyline, got a huge slap in the face and I think (maybe Im being hasty) the cast needs a shake up. For example Phil Mitchell no-one cared if he had an alcohol problem he has been through worse. But Peter Barlow everyone felt for him as Nick pushed him towards the devils juice. Time for a change for the Southern soap I think as the North West in reigning supreme.

That's all for TV then, now for an awesome film. I was a bit behind on the uptake for the Oscar-winning 'Hurt Locker'. But wow it was worth the wait. Best film I've seen I think...I know I said this about her ex-hubby's film but this was amazing. Edge of the seat tension followed by intense emotion along with simple camerawork and editing to reflect the small budget..an absolute triumph if you haven't seen it...you need to!

No to talk about numero uno. I have a new radio show starting on Saturday for Leeds University's student station LSRfm. Where did that come from? Well, just decided when at home for the weekend I missed radio and good music, so I enquired and just as quick the station manager wants me to start this week, in the planning stage now but working title is 'Gettin' Ready' as it's on 7pm til 8pm. Good music and night out info for all students is the plan. So excited for my first show! Tune in this Saturday 7pm til 8pm on lsrfm.com.

Nearly there, you will have read that I was going to film darts for LS:TV last week, I did, was a tricky first filming session for the station as me and another new boy were left to gather the footage and links for the news programme. We did our best in the poor lighting an managed to get some great stuff, including a perfectly framed interview and some great dartsboard close ups. I edited the footage down for the head of news, who was very impressed. Well done Jon is what you should comment and say. My sports programme has passed the planning stage but is on hold till March due to a busy LSTV schedule ahead of the National Student TV Awards. But watch this space..or blog!

So that is it a mammoth blog for a mammoth couple of weeks, please comment and tune into to lsrfm.com this Saturday 7pm til 8pm for my new radio show. I will be blogging like the old days at ArroweSound Sunday morning, depending on how bad my hangover is, thanks for reading!

Don't Say Anything Bad About Women or BB will Come Back!

2011-02-02T23:10:00.000Z

Fairly broad post today, concerning many happenings, inlcuding radio, TV, sexism and filming for a student TV station.

First of all and most importantly I must say that SkySports have lost 2 broadcasting legends; Andy Gray and Richard Keys. Sitting in my flat on Twiiter I noticed that Richard Keys was trending...completely oblivious to the news I was shocked to see such a quiet conservative broadcaster splattered on every paper and website known to man. Following hearing the story in full in the words of Keys himself, the world went mad.

Some people are certain that the internet is not changing the media as drastically as first predicted. Would 5 million people have seen the clips over and over again without the aid of the internet? No! Gray and Keys have been the ever-presents of Sky Sports football coverage since day 1 and for them to leave so unceremoniously is somewhat unfortunate and a huge shame. I am a hue fan of both of these icons, Sunday's will never be the same. But it can not be forgotten that their comments were ancient and sexist and they should be punished (I that is enough of a disclaimer...only kidding!). But sacking them or forcing them out was the wrong punishment, tell them off or ban them for a bit. If ITV/BBC or even ESPN get hold of either of these sports legends, Sky will realise what it has lost. By the way Im not oblivious to the fact that the hasty decision making may be coming from very high up i.e. Rupert Murdoch as his company is dogged with issues. Which altogether are not helping his takeover bid one bit! Farewell Gray and Keys..you shall be missed!

Next up, I begun watching Misfits last week, became hooked and now can't find a way to watch the second series...it's brilliant!!

Now, more TV news that I must comment on Big Brother to C5!!! Is it going to happen? Either way Richard Desmond the new C5 owner is a piggin' genius. A show that changed the face of TV, created more controversy than Jacko then lost ratings...blah...blah...blah but came back for a last series with higher ratings. This is a show that C5 needs. If Desmond gets the 5 year deal with Endemol proposed this could be the turning point for C5 which is in all fairness most of the time rubbish! Big Brother will pull in the station's highest ever figures without a doubt and Desmond will get very rich, through promoting BB in his celeb obssessed magazine OK! which is also successful. Could be the marketing coo of the decade if he pulls this off. It will be interesting to see if channel 4 was holding BB back? And if all BB needed was a new home??

Finally, let's talk about me. Hospital radio in Leeds aint gonna happen, not the right sort of station, more request playing than presenting..sadly it would be a step back from producing a show regularly both for internet and FM. LS:TV you will be glad to know I went to the meeting last week, and got myself involved. I am filming the university's darts tournament on Saturday before I play football. I am developing an idea in my skull for a new sports programme I want to create, but for now I will leave my brainchild in my brain.

That's all readers, please comment on anything if you can be bothered, thanks for reading!

TV is all around me, it's everywhere I go!

2011-01-25T00:16:00.002Z

Back in Leeds, back to my studies. Learning about screen fiction and studio skills this semester. Meanwhile the TV industry is catching my attention alot. This entry will bring forward some of these issues

Firstly, I listen to the Media Talk podcast from the Guardian every week with Matt Wells and I was angered this week to hear of the scepticismof Jeremy Hunt's new plans to create a 'channel 6' with a whole load of new regional stations, producing and showing local programmes for the local people. What is wrong with this idea? Maggie Brown and Matt Wells quite explicity disliked the idea questioning it's viability commercially and whether the actual technology was viable. Whether or not it is viable or if indeed it happens, these sort of ideas are what change the TV industry's heritage and culture and help it progress. Although I wasn't around Im sure the same scepticism was shown towards C4 in 1982. I think radical changes needed to be tested, more regional TV is exactly what this country needs, giving an area it's own identity can't be a bad thing.

Moan out the way, now for 2 good bits of TV from the 4 side of the spectrum. Firstly, Tool Academy. On paper and most likely to many academics this programme is worse than the person next to you on a coach eating tuna. In the eyes of the cynical this is more pop culture knowledge that is strangling our society into a dumb Dancing on Ice loving nation. But I love it. Tool Academy could be described as a cross between Jeremy Kyle and X Factor, in short a group of variously stupid lads go out on a night out in order to be crowned ultimate lad, little do they know thier orange face and big boobed girlfriends/wives have set them up to appear as the tools on the Tool Academy. Basically a psychiatrist who is ugly helps to sort out their relationship issues. And the one who fails the embarrassing taks is kicked off each week. It's hilarious. One bloke 'flirty tool' this week was shown heading into a bathroom with a girl on this night out, the footage is shown for the first time to his girlfriend who let's say made Rocky look like a cockroach. The comedy is created by the lads all being..well 'tools' and also their girlfriends aren't the smartest. Definetly worth a watch, you know it's crap but find it entertaining, just like Jeremy Kyle.

Finally, despite some criticism I must congratulate 10 o' Clock Live on C4, in a time were bad news is coming thicker and faster than the cuts a news programme that takes a more comical glance is more than welcome, a great line up apart from Laverne. No one can beat a Charlie Brooker moan or a Mitchell rant or Jimmy Carr's unstoppable one-liners. And the interviews with MP's and experts were brilliant as the comic hosts asked the questions Paxman just wouldn't. Definetly tuning in again next Friday.

Off to start working with LS.TV in the afternoon, get filming or something and still trying to rekindle my fave hobby radio...you stay classy San Diego!

An Amusing 'Music' Panel Show

2011-01-17T11:34:00.002Z

Never Mind The Buzzcocks. When Mark Lemarr left I thought I would never watch the programme again, I thought the show had been decapitated. Lemarr was the head of the show and I thought that was it. Then Amstell came along with his celebrity hating ways and the show’s success continued. Until Phil Jupitus got upset, as he thought guests were being scared away. Once again with Simon going, I thought ‘Buzzcocks’ was finished. But thanks to some inspired guest hosts such as Tim Westwood, Tim Minchin and Terry Wogan the show is still a hit.

The show is a jewel in the BBC’s entertainment eye, the most simple things are always the best. A programme exploiting celebrities, with celebrity captains and now hosted by celebrities, who provide the exploitation of the guests.. In today’s celeb obsessed culture it’s no surprise a show that is so star orientated is such a success.

An uncomplicated format, similar to all comedy panel shows. The questions are asked about music and mostly ignored whilst the host embarrasses the guests and has friendly banter with the team captains, then eventually the music question is answered. But the key to this programme is not the simplicity or the increasingly popular celebrity participants but the writing of the links. Whoever the presenter is they are made funny by the hilarious links that are usually satirical.

Even now as the 2nd series of guest-presented programmes continued the show is till pulling in respectable audiences and is highly entertaining to watch. To pick out my favourite so far of this series, it has got be Wogan, whose lack of knowledge of the show, but the respect the guests had for him made for excellent viewing.

Don't Want to Taste it Again

2011-01-12T00:16:00.000Z

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all (I had a fantastic Xmas and I'm eagerly awaiting my return to Leeds to continue with TV Production!)

Everyone must have done this at some point in their life. You taste something for the 1st time and it tastes horrible, you gag and pretend to vomit for dramatic effect then spit it out. I mean think of the most vile thing in your mouth, like to me it's an olive (horrible salty vegetable). I tried it once and everytime I am offered one I gag again for dramatic effect then reject them. I never want to try one again. I had this same experience with a new ITV TV programme.

Biggest Loser! Wow it tasted bad. People say X Factor is exploiting people and making them look stupid. So what does this programme do, strip a load of overweight people down to shorts then make them be weighed on TV and in front of strangers. Put them through gruelling diets and exercise regimes that even athletes would struggle with (meanwhile they are shouted at by two mean trainers), then the team that loses the least amount of weight (surely the ones who need most help are sent home crying about how they blew their chance!).

Even Davina couldn't make it more tasteful with her reluctant attempts to comfort people as they cry that they have only lost 5lb in a week. This is reality TV at it's worst, an American programme brought over here and Im sorry to say it's not wanted. It's a shame because ITV had a good year last year and has started 2011 with this distasteful monstrosity! The biggest losers here are ITV!

Should have stayed on Mock The Week

2010-12-02T17:34:00.000Z

My opinion on Frankie Boyle's new channel 4 comedy show 'Tramadol Nights'. I love Frankie Boyle, loved him on Mock the Week, love his stand-up but this show as awful.

I heard about it from a billboard in Leeds and with him being in it, I put 4OD on last night fairly excited. It started well, just Frankie with his usual harsh and uncompromising comedy thn it cut to a poorly acted sketch which was only slightly related to what he had been saying.This happened a few times throughout the half an hour show then he went off and I was left feeling dissapointed. The sketches were awful but his jokes were good although I had heard some of them before. It was like a dream the programme all weird and I just didn't get it. If anyone has an interview of him explaining ti please let me know.

Next, Xmas is on it's way and Im very excited to return back to the Wirral for a traditional Dutton family Xmas. And I have to say I am loving the Xmas tunes that are being offered up along with some new releases. Firstly, Ellie Goulding 'Your Song' is amazing I am absolutely love it, perfect for this time of year and such an original cover. Plus she has released her sort of new album 'Bright Lights' which is her 'Lights' album with a few songs added on the end (bit lazy). But the new songs are a triumph just like her whole year. I heard her perform 'Lights' and 'Home' at her gig at the 02 Academy last month and I was excited for the release, both great songs with her usual style. I also downloaded 'Human' which is another catchy one.Other music I am enjoying at the moment is very mainstream, Mcfly, Take That and I love Buble's Hollywood.

What about me at university? 1st semester has gone smoothly, work to hand in next week then those intro modules are gone forever. I have now become a member of LSTV (Leeds Student TV) and next year I will be blogging about the start of a new sports programme that I will be producing for LSTV.

Thanks for reading and in case I dont blog again Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

The Event

2010-11-16T14:22:00.001Z

I had an experience on Saturday night, I was supposed to be having an early night before work on Sunday. I watched the conlcusion of David Attenborough's 'First Life' which wasn't as good as the first one. Then I made the mistake at 10pm to watch ONE episode of the much talked about 'The Event'.

2am in the morning I am still awake and watched 5 episodes of 'The Event' in a row without blinking. Apparently, you can't just one of these episodes, mianly due to the painfully brilliant cliffhangers aat the end of the episodes.

Such a fantastic programme, a compelling narrative although the story is fairly crazy. A won't spoil the plot but even the details that seem ridiculous are believeable and it makes you doubt things you haven't doubted before.

An American Sci-fi thriller is what it is described as and it certainly thrills, well acted by to me unknown actors. And as I mentioned the cliffhangers make it impossible to not watch the next one and Im already so excited for Friday for the next episode.

The plot is so large but everything is kept in check as the two parallel sub-plots run along side each other and are now 5 episodes in getting very close to colliding. All the characters compliment each other and the dialogue subtly reveals clues of things to come. Meanhwile the special effects are awesome along with the make up used in some scenes.

Basically this blog entry is to show my love for The Event which I will be watching with mouth open is amazement again. One down point to finish it's another American import...but well done C4 for finding it!

Great TV

2010-11-13T11:40:00.000Z

Just blogging this week to bring your attention and to show a few a bit of appreciation to some great show Ive watched on ITV Player and 4oD.

Firstly I discovered a great real life documentary I had never even heard of, 'My Family's Crazy Gap Year'. Such a great programme showing a rich family trekking around the world and the experiences they have. A genius piece of production as the family have to film some parts themselves, saving money.

Next want to show alot of love for the awesome David Attenborough, and his programme 'First Life', a two part documentary in true Attenborough style examining how life on earth began. We all know these documentaries are always brilliant and this one didnt dissapoint.

And finally Ive been watching alot of Come Dine With Me, which I still love and also the conclusion to Ramsay's Best Restaurant was epic. You will notice I have ignored X Factor and I want to keep it like that.

Bum, bum, bubidy, bum...bummm!

2010-11-04T10:59:00.001Z

Yesterday I went to watch Countdown be recorded at Granada Studios, which was a cool experience. Got to see how it is all made and filmed from behind the scenes. We saw three episodes recorded which happened to be the final, and semi-finals. I won't tell you who won they don't go out till December.

I really enjoyed the whole day, rekindled my desire to work in TV and probably put my mind towards studio as it seems to be so fast paced and fun. But the day hit a peak after the recordings were finished we got to head down and take pictures of the set.

Ofcourse none of our group solved any of the conundrums and we tried to play along although I got a bit bored. Look at the clock in the background! And as you can see we met the smoking hot Rachel (the letters and numbers girl), she is so better looking than Vorderman. And her banter with Stelling was hilarious.

But none of this compares to the fact that after we left the studio hearing that Jeff had made a break for the gates as he had a meeting to go to. We chased him through the car park and....

We got our picture with the legend that informs all men across the country every Saturday of how our team is getting on. He apologized for having to dash and signed an autograph and had the picture above at the gates to Granada Studios. A great finished beautifully!

Ok, time for my music and TV opinions:

- Enjoyed X Factor but quality was alot worse this week, except Cher who for the first time I thought was amazing.

- Enjoyed Ramsay's Best Restuarant but thought it was too long this week, with the heat attached to the sem-final.

- Caught the last in the series of 'Single Father' and I thought it was brilliant, wish I had watched the first episodes.

- Music: Loving listening to Radio 1 at the moment the current playlist is very good and love watching radio with access all areas.

Before I go I must tell you I went to see Ellie Goulding at the O2 Academy in Leeds, she was amzing, fantastic show and her cover of 'Sweet Disposition' by Temper Trap was beyond amazing. Also, some love for her first support group Bright Light Bright Light, reall enjnoyed their 90's themed tunes.

Coming up, Xmas shopping but considering after the New Year getting invloved with sport at LSTV. Thanks for reading!

Back to Blogging

2010-10-25T01:18:00.000+01:00

I don't know why at 1 in the morning I feel compelled to write my 1st blog entry in over a month (apologies) but some things have got right on my nerve recently and some have really pleased me.

UPDATE
I have moved to Leeds to study TV Production, loving it so far. Studying history of communications this semester, some is interesting some not so. Strangely enough I have been researching internet democracy for my 1st 2,000 essay that's due this week (dont worry it's pretty much done). Learning about Tim Berners-Lee and studying other academic works about the internet is surprisingly fascinating. Thomas Meyer wrote in his book 'Media Democracy; about ensuring only authentic voices are heard. So whether my voice is authentic enough for Mr. Mayer I will be continuing to blog, mainly because I enjoy it. Sadly, I have not kick started any work with the Leeds Student Radio or Tv yet (I know very unlike me) this is mainly due to me getting used to my workload and settling in. Most definetly, next semester. Last personal point the Institute of Communications Studies here at Leeds has a society and we are getting tickets to go and see the recording of the series finale of countdown...two words Jeff and Stelling!!!!!!!!!!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:

The C4 docudrama about Prince Harry being captured, fantastically well made and entertaining but also discussed an interest of mine, how the Taliban are utilizing the media to churn out their propaganda.
X Factor, pop culture at its best and I cant get enough of it, have to watch it on ITV player, no TV. But enjoying my Sunday night catch up.
Another C4 success that isnt getting the ratings blessing 'Ramsay's Best Restaurant', safely a huge national broadcaster as well as a chef now.
Music now, Bruno Mars love his music. And been reminiscing about V Festival with Paolo's 1st album and The Coral's singles collection, but also enjoying listening to The Script.
Wikileaks http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/wikileaks a site which could be flying the flag for a truly democratic internet or see the end of an uncensored cyberspace. I think this site is doing the right thing, freedom of information is the age we live in and although the stuff Wikileaks publishes is controversial we have a right to access to it.

The Bad:

One Direction on the X Factor, talentless kids!
The genre of dubstep that I am being exposed to at university, the intro to one song the other night actually sounded like someone falling down stairs.
Neg's Urban Sports was a quality part of Balls of Steel, but Neg appeared at Halo in Leeds last night and his antics were annoying and very short-lived.

The Ugly:

The Milliband documentary, made me hate them both even more and thought the composition of the programme was awful. Framing of interviews was so annoying and the acting was somewhat poor.

Ok then, random blog entry complete, I intend to maintain this blog better now. If you want to see my past work visit www.youtube.com/jonathandutton. Coming soon I hope to upload my essays after they are marked for you to read (if this is allowed). Going to see Ellie Goulding next month so excited and of course tickets depending I am going to see Countdown whoop!!

The Big Move

2010-09-13T13:09:00.000+01:00

Little entry just to let you all know what Im up to. Saturday 18th of this month I am making my big move to the University of Leeds to study TV Production. Very busy today....sort of. Started the packing process..quite a emotional job packing up your stuff and putting it into boxes. Im going to leave the clothes packing till later in the week.

So Im moving up north to learn about TV, but also I will be joining the Leeds student Radio station LSRfm and also LSTV the university's award winning TV station. So hopefully over the next coming months I will be blogging regularly telling you how you can hear me back on the airwaves and how you can watch TV programmes I hope to produce.

Its gonna be weird leaving my family behind but Im excited to start learning about the industry I want to work in after my 3 years at Leeds

I've Been Busy

2010-08-28T10:47:00.000+01:00

Once again I must apologise for the lack of blogging over the summer holidays were Ive been doing nothing. My excuses include a spontaneous trip to Spain to visit my Nan and trying to sort out things for university.

Great news..I got the grades I need to go to Leeds university to study TV Production...my journey in the media industry starts next month!

Other great news on Tuesday I made my TV debut on Granada Reports, although it was only for 5 seconds. Stemming from my work exp. with Andy Bonner, I was asked back to help out on a 2nd day of filming at Liverpool Airport where I was basically a filming assistant helping the cameraman and occasionally suggesting shots and giving my opinion. But following 4 takes with real holidaymakers using the 'jib', but obviously these people were in a rush. Andy asked me to star in a shot of me walking up to the check in desk. 3 takes later we had the shot that went out on air!

Hopefully that will be the first of many appearances on TV or at least involved with TV. So what are my plans for the coming year. I am hoping to join LSTV which is Leeds Uni's award winning TV station and I also hope to join the Leeds student radio station, so plenty more blogging here.

Thanks for reading!

The Best Trilogy Ever

2010-07-31T15:24:00.000+01:00

I have always loved the Toy Story films, great family films..with another terror and tension to keep you hooked, loads of toy related double entendres and great animation.

So ofcourse I was extremely excited yesterday to be heading the cinema to see the 3rd installment in 3D, which I am a huge fan of!

Firstly I have to say that cartoon at the beginning: 'Night and Day' was brilliant, set me up for the fantastic viewing experience I was about to have. Once again the animation was brilliant, the storyline was different enough although there was some similarities but I think they helped to hold the familiarities to the rest of the trilogy.

I thought the introduction of Ken was awesome, the one liners between him and Barbie were hilarious. I don't want to be too over excited becuase at some points towards the start of the film I was thinking to myself this isn't as good as the first two but it definetly got better as I watched.

Without a doubt my favourite part was Buzz in Spanish the camp dancing and subtitles were hilarious and had me giggling away with all the families present.

In complete juxtaposition to this the final scenes, were Andy leaves and hands the toys to Bonnie and that final play with them and the hugging scene with his Mum had me actually fighting back the tears, maybe because it bears some relation to me going to university in September..I think my Mum cried a little bit.

All in all a fantastic end to a fantastic trilogy, great voices as the main characters, enough villains and as always plenty of funny bits! I would definetly reccomend going to watch it in 3D as well just seems to make films more exciting.

Work Exp. with Granada Reports

2010-07-21T15:44:00.000+01:00

What a day yesterday was. Very kindly regular Granda Reports reporter Andy Bonner accepted my request for work experience with him. And I was granted a fantastic opputunity to shadow him for a day on a new strand for the programme he is working on.

I learnt so much from Andy and his cameraman Jim, it was amazing to hear how the programme I watch every night is made and put together in a short time span.

I don't want to reveal what Anndy was filming in case it gets me in trouble as it isn't airing for a while so I will just say we travelled to location and I got to see how creative Andy was at making things interesting, creating shots that put Jim's camera in danger.

But the best part of the day was visiting a certain building were I got to experience something many people would never get to see.

I asked loads of questions and learnt loads, probably too much but it was a brilliant day. Follwoing our location filming we said goodbye to cameraman Jim who also gave me his details as he said he may need filming assistants from time to time, possibly payed work. By the way Jim does filming on Come Dine With Me how cool would that be!!

Andy and I returned to the Granada HQ in the Liver Buildings in Liverpool, were I recieved a tour and got to see the system that keeps everyone at Granada in the know, the best part was seeing the script on the sytem that Tony and Lucy were about to read from.

A great day that was extremely helpful and Andy said he would be happy to show me the Manchester studios in the future and I promised I would visit him at Radio Clatterbridge!

Danny Morris and Guests 2010 at The Brindkley, Runcorn

2010-07-21T15:34:00.000+01:00

And I was the host. What a brilliant night it was! Saturday 10th of July, I returned to the stage with Danny Morris and 09 Management at The Brindley in Runcorn to host Danny's show which featured an awesome set by him, plus Peach and competitors from Halton's Got Talent 2010.

Just like last time I arrived at The Brindley very excited. After my final show on Ice Radio I had to head to Runcorn on the Firday for a tech rehearsal and to find out about all of the acts. Alot of sittng around waiting for people to arrive then some frantic moments were there was 10 different people I need to speak to.

The rehearsal was good though got to see a sneaky peak of brand new girl band's B-Desire's http://www.b-desire.com/ (who I had on my show on Tuesday) set and ofcourse Danny's http://www.dannymorrismusic.com/.

After getting all of the information I needed and feeling completely drained considering I had been up at 7 and in the radio studio at 9 I got a lift to the pub didn't get there till 9!

Next morning woke up and headed to The Brindley with Peach (who kindly gave me a lift) and despite many jokes we didn't get lost. We spent the entire 40 mins listening to Come Together by The Beatles as that was the finale song that we hadn't learnt.

On arrival in Runcorn we did a back to front run through of the whole show, which is always fun with an audience of 2 cheering you.

After a healthy tea from the co-op (yes Im still continuing with my health kick), we all got changed. Sadly B-Desire decided to come into our dressing room to use our mirrors, wow that was boring listening to them go and on about mascara and blusher and other cosemtic bull. Luckily they all looked good by the end of it so I will let them off.

The theatre filled up, and pleasingly to us all the audience was a 'good one'. Very cheery and enjoyed shouting. At 7:30 the show began.

I loved every second of it, I took a more professional style this time and minimized my cheesy jokes to one or two that luckily got a good reaction.

A highlight was introducing B-Desire onto stage who were all brilliant and the audience also loved them, and it was an honour to introduce Danny onto stage although I had to read a 3 minute intro for him, which I wrote the day before.

Also I actually starred in one of the acts, after introducing the winners of Halton's Got Talent Adam and Jessica who were dancing a contemporary Romeo and Juliet themed dance I ran off stage to read a monologue from the play, which despite messing it up dramatically in rehearsal I didn't make a mistake.

The whole night was brilliant and even better becuase some of my mates and family made the journey to support me, truly loved it and can't wait to work with Danny and his manager Paul again in the future.

Eclipse

2010-07-12T11:26:00.000+01:00

This is taking my blog entries slightly out of chronological order, but I wish to write about my show at the Brindley with Danny Morris from Friday and Saturday after I have some photos to upload as well.

So....Sunday afternoon I went to see th lastest part of the Twilight Saga..Eclipse.

It was good. But that is as far as I will go. The first film was not to my taste, I loved the 2nd one and this one to me went back to the 1st one. Too mushy, lack of action that was included in the 2nd one and too many cringey discussions.

I went to the pictures with high hopes..I would go as far to say I was excited but I walked out feeling dissapointed and thinking about the new action epic the Expendables http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6RU5y2fU6s

I think maybe the director may have realised that although New Moon was better for the 'lad audience' it did not pull anywhere near as many lads in to the cinema as it would have liked. So for the 3rd installment the film went back to feeding the romance cravings of the predominantly female audience.

Therfore, minus the battle and a few witty remarks from Edward and Jacob the film alienated me and I couldn't give one about the relationship between Bella and Edward!

So there is my review short and sweet, I only want to see the last two films now because my girlfriend has read the books and told me what's coming. Hope Michael Sheen features more prominently in the next film!

The Last One

2010-07-12T11:11:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the lateness, my next two blog posts will explain what I have been doing that kept me so busy.

So Friday 9am til 10am on Ice Radio 87.7FM was my last visit to my 6th form and also my last radio broadcast for a short while I think. I loved the week, doing live radio again was so exciting and I can't wait to get back into it soon.

For my last show I counted down the top 3 one hit wonders of the noughties,

3) JCB Song - Nizlopi
2) Groovejet - Spiller feat. Sophie Ellis-Bextor
1) Babycakes - 3 of a Kind

Then I did my news and weather, playing some great music in the run up to that. I was joined in the studio by Estelle from BBC Radio Merseyside and my ex-media teacher Mr Fraser.

After the news I got the mic with Mr Fraser and we had a chat about media at Weatherhead and also I joked about his 'My Life in SOngs' show from last year and he previewed his film themed show.

I gave my Tune of The Week, 'New Shoes' by Paolo one final play before saying my goodbyes and playing 'Sexual Healing' for by footy buddies Joel and Scully.

Fantastic week broadcasting live on FM, hope to get the chance again soon, I have decided that after football radio is my fave hobby and I'll miss it until I start it up again!

Thanks for reading.

Playlist ICE Radio Friday 9th July 2010
1) The Way Love Goes - Lemar
2) For You're Entertainment - Adam Lambert
3) Groovejet - Spiller
4) Jcb Song - Nizlopi
5) Babycakes - 3 of A Kind
6) Love Don't Live Here - Bananarama
7) Talk Me Down - Westlife
8) Playing With Fire - N-Dubz
9) Secrets - One Republic
10) New Shoes - Paolo Nutini
11) Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
12) Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye

'A Bit messy'

2010-07-08T11:33:00.000+01:00

That's how I would describe my 4th show this morning on Ice Radio 87.7FM live from Weatherhead. A Bit disjointed...but sadly all my fault.

Arrived at studio feeling tired then went to collect my guests Danny Morris and his manager Paul, I think the main problem was we were having general chit chat throughout the show as well as doing the interview so I wasn't really concentrating.

Kicked off by introducing a competition to win tickets for Danny's show at the Brindley (https://brindley.halton.gov.uk/peo/show.asp) on Saturday all the listeners had to do was e-mail in with the name of Danny's new song which we both purposefully said many many times.

As always Danny and I had a laugh, but also a more serious chat about his career and his love for music and he commented on as long as he loves making music he will keep doing it whether his career goes well or not.

We chatted about the show I'm hosting on Saturday for him and about his last visit to Weatherhead when he wowed 400 screaming girls.

Then we talked about his new single 'Going Insane' which is available to download from Itunes as of Saturday night, then we played it.

Next we played a silly game of which X Factor judge was most likely to...the strangest answer was when Danny said Louis is the most likely to give a kiss.

We rounded up the interview with the music quiz as Danny aimed to beat B-Desire's score of 1/3, sadly Danny was just as poor and manged the same score, after naming a Bon Jovi song as a Frank Sinatra one.

I said my goodbyes on the air to Danny but he didn't leave we announced the winners of the competition then I did the news and weather whilst being tickled by Mr. Morris, which made it harder.

Danny and his manager satyed in the studio and we chatted whilst songs were on, this may have caused my major mistake I introduced Alexandra Burke but played Agnes, they thought it was funny.

I played my tune of the week 'New Shoes' by Paolo for the 4th time, the rounded off the show, plugging tommorow's. I have a very busy day tommorow got my show 9am til 10am on Ice Radio 87.7FM then I am meeting up with Danny for a rehearsal at the Brindley for the show on Saturday.

Off for a game of tennis now, thanks for reading.

Playlist Ice Radio 8th July 2010
1) Once - Diana Vickers
2) Going Insane - Danny Morris
3) My Name - Mclean
4) Rude Boy - Rhianna
5) Resistance - Muse
6) On and On - Agnes
7) New Shoes - Paolo Nutini
8) America - Razorlight

Midway Show

2010-07-07T12:10:00.000+01:00

This morning on Ice Radio 87.7FM was my 3rd show this week out of 5 between 9am and 10am. I think the best word to describe the whole show would be 'chilled'. I was very relaxed at all points in the show everything went smoothly and there was no stress at all, just simple features and great music.

Kicked off the show with a request for a friend who was listening and introduced the show explaining what was coming up and congratulating the Dutch on their semi-final victory.

After some great modern tunes I read out my unibiased review of England's exit from the world cup, it was fun reading out a big passage of writing, trying to make it sound interesting was quite difficult.

At 25 past 9 I asked the question once again, what are you up to? and encouraged my listeners to e-mail in at iceradio@weatherhead.wirral.sch.uk, got a fair few e-mails the best one was from Ana in Liscard who said she was throwing away her A level folders.

Then at 9:30 I did the news and weather which I prepared before cycling to Weatherhead, I had to be up at quarter to 7 to collate it all and print it off.

I had a chat about the infamous 'Jabulani' ball and how NASA are spending time testing it.

After that I introduced for the 3rd time my tune of the week courtesy of Paolo Nutini...'New Shoes'.

Before saying my goodbye I asked Kelsey about her show that was on after mine, we joked about the poor weather and the fact their show was a summer special.

Great show today, nice and easy, no problems and looking forward to tommorow's show with former Eton Rd. member Danny Morris, tune in Ice Radio 87.7FM across Wirral 9am-10am.

Thanks for reading!

Playlist Ice Radio 7th July 2010
1) Baby - Justin Bieber
2) Here Standing - The Saturdays
3) Hot - Inna
4) Closer To The Edge - 30 Seconds To Mars
5) I Am Not A Robot - Marina and The Diamonds
6) She Said - Plan B
7) Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart - Alicia Keys
8) Could You Be The One - Stereophonics
9) New Shoes - Paolo Nutini
10) Need You Tonight - Professor Green
11) Solo - Iyaz
12) Wake Me Up Before You Go - Wham

Day 2 in Ice Radio Studio

2010-07-06T10:29:00.000+01:00

2nd show of the week down on Ice Radio 87.7FM, really enjoyed it, played some great music and had four out of 7 of the lovely girls from brand new Liverpool girl band 'B-Desire' (www.b-desire.com) in the studio and had a funny and interesting chat about them as they set out into the world of pop music.

Kicked off the show at 9am with my intro, explaining who and what was coming up and introduced my 'What You Up To?' feature, where I ask listeners to e-mail to iceradio@weatherhead.wirral.sch.uk telling me what they are doing, few that I read out Terry said he was going shopping with his daughter and Ellie, Todd and Leanne from Wallasey said they wanted to go the beach.

At around 10 past I played my tune of the week which I'm playing everyday during the Ice Radio RSL, it's Paolo Nutini with 'New Shoes'.

After more great music I did the news and weather at 9:30.

The the B-Desire girls came in, Maria, Ashleigh, Sophie and Becky, we had a laugh during the interview as Maria plugged her dance studio on air and they told us about their aims with the band and how their lives have changed since the band formed last month.

Then we talked about their new single 'The Way You Love Me' which was written by my guest for Thursday Danny Morris (http://www.dannymorrismusic.co.uk/), they told me about how they differed from traditional girl bands as they all have equal parts in the songs.

We played their debut single which is available to download from Itunes on Saturday then returned to have a quick fire round about the band which caused a few mini-debates. Like who is the laziest in rehearsals and who has the worst taste in music.

The girls then took on the guest challenge, 3 questions to get a score which will go head to head with Danny's score on Thursday, sadly the girls didn't do very well. They only got 1/3 correct and also begged for clues and more questions. I think Danny will beat that on Thursday even though there was four of them.

We said goodbye to B-Desire, until Friday when I will be rehearsing for the show at the Brindley with them, I closed the show with a Kings Of Leon classic.

Really enjoyed it today, love doing live interviews, never know what's going to happen. Back in the studio 9am tommorow morning with me Unbiased World Cup Review.

Thanks for reading.

Playlist ICE Radio Tuesday 6th July
1) In My Head - Jason Derulo
2) For Your Entertainment - Adam Lambert
3) New Shoes - Paolo Nutini
4) In For A Kill - La Roux
5) Roll Away Your Stone - Mumford and Sons
6) No Limit - 2 Unlimited
7) You Used To Hold Me - Calvin Harris
8)The Way You Love Me - B-Desire
9) Talk Me Down - Westlife
10) Use Somebody - Kings of Leon

Return to Live Radio

2010-07-05T11:30:00.000+01:00

Listening to Florence as I write this. This morning I woke up bright an early collated the news headlines then cycled 6 miles to the Ice Radio studio at Weatherhead High School, for the first day of it's RSL and my first show out of 5 this week on 87.7FM!

It was brilliant being back doing live radio again, few mistakes but I loved it. My show will be broadcast across the Wirral on 87.7FM, every morning 9am til 10am.

I was joined for my show by a media work exp. pupil and media demonstrator Paul Gardener. I kicked off the show with an intro to the week, discussing what's coming up and which guests I have (Danny Morris, B-Desire).

I then introduced my interactional feature, I asked the public what they are up to today, got a fair few e-mails in telling me what they were doing thanks to Matty, Lorna, Terri-Ann and Paul for those.

At 20 past 9 I presented my tune of the week which I will be playing daily, it's New Shoes by my favourite artist Paolo Nuttini.

A little after the planned 9:30 I did the news and weather, which was ok except I wrote the wrong titles for two of my stories must have had something to do with the fact I wrote them at quarter to 7 in the morning.

After telling everyone who else was on air today I began my countdown of my top 3 world cup songs they were:

3) We're On The Ball - Ant and Dec
2) World In Motion - New Order
1) 3 Lions - Baddiel and Skinner

Following this I introduced Rach and Jodie who were taking over from me and said my goodbyes then played a strange request from Paul for Bill Bailey's german idea of the hokey cokey!

Really really enjoyed being back on the air again, I think it's gonna be a good week so tune in to Ice Radio 87.7FM.

I left the studio and cycled home, and now Im writing this, back at Ice Radio 87.7FM tommorow morning, cylcing there again but to be joined by new Liverpool girl band B-Desire (http://www.b-desire.com/) .

Thanks for reading!

ICE RADIO 87.7Fm Monday 5th July Playlist

1) The Way Love Goes - Lemar
2) Angel in The Night - Basshunter
3) Silence - Alexandra Burke
4) Don't Stop Believing - Glee
5) New Shoes - Paolo Nutini
6) Gravity - Pixie Lott
7) Candy - Paolo Nutini
8) Telephone - Beyonce and Lady Gaga
9) We're On The Ball - Ant and Dec
10) World In Motion - New Order
11) 3 Lions - Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds
12) Das Hokey Kokey - Bill Bailey

Health Drive: Day 4

2010-07-01T08:28:00.000+01:00

To add to my busy schedule since Monday I have decided to be healthy and try to lose a bit of weight and get a bit fitter...WOW it's painful.

Now into Day 4 and I don't know what hurts most: my morning exercise sessions including jog, sit ups and weights or the fact I am not allowing myself to biscuits or cake or any of my other favourite fatty snack foods.

Made a fruit sald yesterday, realised I don't really like mango but kiwi, apples and oranges are good. Ive also discovered a love for Kellogs Fruit n Fibre.

I will be going on my 4th jog in 4 days shortly but my calves are really sore, may need to stick to a flat or run today.

Next week to tie in with my ICE Radio 87.7FM presenting I will be cycling to the studio and home again, not sure how long that will take me yet, and whether I will be out of breath for the whole show is another story.

So there you have there is my exercise update, and if you are looking for music to jog to here are some suggestions:

For You're Entertainment - Adam Lambert
Foo Fighters
New Shoes - Paolo Nutini
ACDC
Chelsea Dagger - The Fratelli's

What Am I Up To??

2010-06-29T15:25:00.000+01:00

Busy busy few weeks ahead for me:

This Friday (2nd) I am returning to my old high school 'Woody' to take part in a Farewell ceremony before the school moves to a new building. I am singing 5 songs, can't wait!

5th July - 9th July every morning 9am-10am live on Ice Radio 87.7FM across the Wirral, great music and guests on Tuesday and Thursday B-Desire www.b-desire.com and Danny Morris www.theoverloadtour.co.uk .

Who are both performing at my next outing 'Danny Morris and Guests' at the Brindley, which I am hosting for 09 Management on Saturday 10th July.

I will blog about all of these events as they happen, thanks for reading!!

BREAKING NEWS

2010-06-17T09:09:00.002+01:00

I will be live on Ice Radio 87.7FM across the Wirral (Live from Weatherhead High School) from Monday 5th July to Friday 9th July...everyday 9am til 10am! Playing chart tunes, along with an unbiased World Cup review, Jon's Tune of The Week plus interviews on the 6th with B-Desire and on the 8th with Danny Morris, tune in if you live on the Wirral!

Coming Soon

2010-05-26T09:44:00.003+01:00

A brand new thing for me, I am about to begin creating a 10 minute audio magazine show about Tranmere Rovers FC. It will be a weekly programme were I will be giving my opinions and also asking for listeners.

Keep checking this blog for the first issue:

http://thesuperwhiteshow.blogspot.com/

Huge Apologies

2010-05-12T10:33:00.002+01:00

A HUGE SORRY FROM ME.....for a serious lack of blogging, my show on Gravity Digital Radio looks to have finished after two weeks of technical difficulaties with the station, meaning that no-one could listen..not great for a radio show.

Anywho.....good news next, what have I been up to.

1) Tranmere Rovers survived a dramatic last day battle to remain in League One which made me extermely happy indeed, now for the Whites to sort out the side to improve our position next season!

2) Linked to the above I have been playing alot of football recently, I am seemingly trying to get healthy and less chubby is time for University in September. Returned to my position in goal where some are saying I am showing some signs of how good I used to be and others saying Ive lost it, I prefer the first groups opinion.

3) My good friend fromer Eton Rd. singer Danny Morris has been in contact with me again (well it was his manager) to host another show him at The Bridnley in Runcorn in July, featuring him and other guests..I can't wait, the last time I worked with them last month was brilliant and I can't wait to get back on the stage!

4) Exams coming up shortly (enough said)!

5) I leave college next week and Ive been asked to sing in two different assemblies in three days, first a Celebration assembly..Im singing Walking In Memphis mainly due to sentamentality as it was the first song I sung in college. And for the Leavers assembly next Friday I am singing With or Without You acoustically with a very talented gutitarist (member of Hippy's on The Hill) Craig Henderson.

There you go I think your up to date, thanks for reading and I promise to blog more often!

Technical Issues

2010-05-03T14:47:00.002+01:00

The anticipated start time of my new show 'The Sunday Session' on Gravity Digital Radio has been delayed til Sunday 9th May due to technical difficulties yesterday...make sure you tune in though this Sunday for the very first Sunday Session with me Jonathan Dutton by going to www.lovegravity.com between 2pm and 4pm!

New Logo for New Show

2010-04-27T16:46:00.001+01:00

MORE CHANGES

2010-04-26T23:26:00.002+01:00

Attention my show has changed it's name and style, tune into www.gravitydigitalradio.com this Sunday between 2pm til 4pm for.............

THE SUNDAY SESSION with me Jonathan Dutton

Check out my facebook group page for more information:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=109323305771382

The Show To Help You Recover From A Week of News About Ash

2010-04-26T16:48:00.002+01:00

This entry comes to you about Jon's Jukebox, my show which went out on air on Sunday 25th April which was yesterday. Writing this indoors when I should be outside in the sun but sadly I don't have a laptop.

The show went out between 2pm and 4pm as always on Gravity Digital Radio at www.lovegravity.com or www.gravitydigitalradio.com whichever you prefer.

Here is what went down:

DAY OF REST CHILLOUT TUNE
This week was e-mailed in by Mark from Edinburgh, and what a truly great suggestion for a chillout tune, he wanted us to play Train with their iconic tune 'Drops Of Jupiter', go to the 'Jon's Juekebox' Facebook page and see whether you have a better idea for a tune to help us all chill on a Sunday.

EXTRA CREDIT
Two songs by one artist is what we get from my Jukebox's extra credit feature this week we got the gorgeous Alexandra Burke with her hits Broken Heels and Bad Boys!

JUKEBOX HISTORY
Two useless fatcs..no I mean useless facts dug out of the Jukebox archives this week they had a family relations theme.
- Madonna, Gwen Stefani and Celine Dion are all distantly related. Gwen's great aunt's mother-in-law shares the same last name as Madonna (Ciccone) and an ancestor of Madonna's mother was married to a distant relative of Celine's dad.
- Liv Tyler, Steve Tyler’s daughter had no idea that the lead singer of Aerosmith was actually her father, until she went to one of their concerts, saw him onstage and without knowing why, felt a very strong connection to him.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON QUIZ: (Warning if you are going to use the 'Listen Again' feature of the Gravity website and take part in the quiz, stop reading now, the answers are included below! See show nice I am)

Read out a few of the scores from last week's quiz earlier in the show, now you can also add your Quiz scores to the 'Jon's Jukebox' Facebook Group Discussiuon Board.

This week's questions where:
1. ‘One From The Past’: Name the band famous for the songs, Sky Pilot and The House of the Rising Sun.
The Animals
2. Maths Teaser: Times the no. of members in Scouting For Girls by the no. of members in Girls Aloud, minus the no. of NO.1’s Westlife have had and add the number of letters in the name Jamiroquai.
11
3. Chart Question: Name the tune that was the UK Xmas No.2 .
The Climb – Joe Mcelderry
4. Name That Lyric: ‘And then I go and spoil it all.’
Something Stupid – Robbie W and Nicole Kidman
5. The Final Question: Which song played before we began the Sunday Afternoon Quiz?Run Out – Danny Morris

CHART PREDICTION:
New feature for this week linking up with the EXPAT Chart which comes after me with Spencer James on Gravity at 4pm. I read out the top 3 singles from the previous week's chart :
3) Gravity – Pixie Lott
2) Telephone – Lady Gaga and Beyonce
1) This Ain’t A Love Scene – Scouting For Girls

I then tried to predict what the new top 3 would be that would be announced at 7.

I went with:
3) Telephone - Lady Gaga and Beyonce
2) She Said - Plan B
1) This Ain’t A Love Scene – Scouting For Girls

Next week I will review my predictions against the top 3 from the EXPAT Chart and see how close I was.

That's all from this week's blog post (I'll put the playlist below for you), if you want to listen to my show you can listen live this Sunday 2pm til 4pm or you can use the 'Listen Again' feature up to 7 days after the orginal time slot.

Jon's Jukebox Playlist 25th April
1) Let The Bass Kick In (Miami Girl) - LMFAO & Chuckie
2) Hot - Inna
3) one Shot - JLS
4) Superwoman - Shontelle
5) Drops of Jupiter - Train
6) I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker - Sandi Thom
7) Number One Enemy - Daisy Dares You feat. Chipmunk
8) Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
9) OMG - Usher feat. Wil.I.Am
10) I See Girls - Studio B
11) Broken Heels - Alexandra Burke
12) Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke feat. Flo-rida
13) This Love - Maroon 5
14) Maneater - Nelly Furtado
15) Feels Just Like Should - Jamiroquai
16) Replay - Iyaz
17) Run Out - Danny Morris
18) Love Is A Hurricane - Boyzone
19) Guns and Horses - Ellie Goulding
20) Ignorance - Paramore
21) Telephone - Lady Gaga and Beyonce
22) She Said - Plan B
23) This Ain’t A Love Scene – Scouting For Girls
24) Carry Out - Timbaland feat. Justin Timberlake

Thanks for Reading!

Jon's Jukebox 18/04/10

2010-04-18T18:58:00.002+01:00

Settling In To My New Slot

2010-04-12T10:43:00.003+01:00

My show Jon's Jukebox went out on air on www.lovegravity.com yesterday, for the first time on it's new time slot Sunday afternoon's 2pm til 4pm. I have no idea why it was moved but Sunday has brought in a few new features.

Here is what happened on the show,

Then and Now:
Very simple part of the show where I take a look at a band in the past and what they are up to now. This week I looked at the Black Eyed Peas, and played there classic tune 'Where is The Love' and discussed their rise to fame then played there new..ish track 'Meet Me Halfway' and discussed their upcoming new album.

Day of Rest Chillout Tune:
With Sunday being the day of rest each week I have asked my listeners to e-mail in with ideas for a true chillout hit, I chose this week's it was Please Don't Stop The Rain by James Morrison. If your reading this and you have an idea e-mail in through the website now, I may choose yours.

Jukebox History:
I read out a few completely useless music facts, one which included that the first single Bon Jovi released was called R2D2: We Wish You A Merry Xmas...very peculiar, but I do want to hear it.

Extra Credit:
Two songs by one artist this week it was Mika, we played his first hit 'Grace Kelly' and 'Relax Take It Easy' which sounds unmistakeably like 'I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight'.

Sunday Afternoon Quiz:
This was like a live pilate for this idea and it didn't go well, luckily for next week I have edited the idea and it will be better, worst of all I only managed to get 2/10 quesions correct. Join in next week and e-mail in your scores.

A good show, enjoyed the references I can now make to Saturday nights out, if you missed the show and want to give it a listen, go to www.lovegravity.com right now click listen again and look for Sunday 2-4pm and my name.

Don't miss the show next week Gravity Sunday 2pm til 4pm, going to be counting down the Top 5 Talent show winners and we have the newly revamped Sunday Afternoon Quiz.

Jon's Jukebox Playlist 11/04/10
1) Starry Eyed - Ellie Goulding
2) I Need You Tonight - Professor Green
3) Gravity - Pixie Lott
4) Shake It - Metrostation
5) Gave It All Away - Boyzone
6) Where Is The Love - B.E.P
7) Meet Me Halfway - B.E.P
8) One Shot - JLS
9) Please Don't Stop The Rain - James Morrison
10) Spiralling - Keane
11) Word Forward - Foo Fighters
12) Tainted Love - Pigeon Detectives
13) Waiting 4 Ur Heart 2 Call - Danny Morris
14) Roll Away Your Stone - Mumford and Sons
15) Bubbles - Biffy Clyro
16) Morning Sun - Robbie Williams
17) Milkshake - Kelis
18) Saving My Face - KT Tunstall
19) She Said - Plan B
20) Grace Kelly - Mika
21) Relax, Take It Easy - Mika
22) Telephone - Lady Gaga and Beyonce
23) I Feel Better - Hot Chip
24) Staring At The Sun - Rooster
25) Love Don't Live Here - Bananarama (Plug Puller TRACK)

A Great Show

2010-04-08T21:59:00.008+01:00

Listening to the Glee Cast with Don't Stop Believing as I begin writing this entry, I will update you on the shuffling of what's playing on itunes as I write this.

That's the stage that I co-hosted the Hearts Variety Show 2010 from last night at The Brindley in Runcorn. The show featured former X Factor contestants Shaun Rogerson and my good friend and former Eton Rd member, Danny Morris.

The show was organized back in (song changed to Dirty Picture by Taio Cruz) 2009 by Danny's manager Paul to raise money for the HEARTS charity so some of the kids could go and dance at Disneyland Paris.

The show featured Danny and Shaun, kids from HEARTS, a select few from Halton's Got Talent and then me as co-host along with Gary Murphy.

The venue was totally sold out, and at 7 we kicked off the show. I loved every minute of it, speaking in front of 40o people, being backstage, having a dressing room with beer and snacks as standard, waiting for queues and ofcourse doing the interval raffle, which went relatively smoothly.

Embarrassing moment of the evening was the stupid idea that Paul and I had months ago that I should walk on stage in just a towel, and after some (song changed to Playing with Fire by N-Dubz) very good acting from Gary and me, we made it look like I wasn't ready to start the show and that I had come out of the shower. I beared my nipples to the Mayoress of Halton Borough and 399 other people, got some whistles and some laughs...can't complain.

The kids were all brilliant, all really professional and the stage and lights looked amazing. Notable performances from my point of view from the wings were Peach (great guitarist and singer), the HEARTS senior ballet dance and ofcourse Danny and Shaun. Danny's set with the dancers from Kirby and the fantastic intro video was all very dramatic and once again Danny had the building rocking with three of his own songs (which I will be playing on my show at www.lovegravity.com Sunday afternoon's 2pm til 4pm) and some more well known tunes like Forever by Chris Brown (song changed to Hollywood by Marina and The Diamonds).

It was amazing being back on stage and telling rubbish jokes in between great acts, I recieved some nice praise from members of the audience and from my Mum and girlfriend but they would say that.

Danny's new song is available to download now from Itunes or by going to www.dannymorrismusic.com where also available to buy is a commemorative programme of the show and also the DVD so you can all see my nipples!!

A fantastic night...I loved it, hope I get the oppurtunity again to return to the stage.

Tune in to www.lovegravity.com this Sunday at 2pm for Jon's Jukebox and see how you get on with the Sunday Afternooon Quiz...as I finish the typing the songs has changed to Ignorance by Paramore.

Moving Places

2010-04-05T20:23:00.002+01:00

NEWS FOR YOU: If you have been listening to my show: Jon's Jukebox on Wednesday Evenings on www.lovegravity.com my show has moved to Sunday Afternoon 2pm til 4pm as of this week, check the show out, for great music and this week 'The Sunday Afternoon Quiz'!

First Video Blog Entry...

2010-03-31T23:32:00.001+01:00

Jon's Jukebox 31st March 2010

1) Switch - Will Smith

2) Here Standing - Saturdays

3) Today Was A Fairytale - Taylor Swift

4) Starry Eyed - Ellie Goulding

5) Who Wants To Be Alone - Tiesto feat. Nelly Furtado

6) Riverside Let's Go - Sidney Samson feat. Wizard Sleeve

7) You Used To Hold Me - Calvin Harris

8) Believe - Cher

9) Sandstorm - Darude

10) This Aint A Love Song - Scouting For Girls

11) Human - The Killers (Extra Credit)

12) Mr. Brightside - The Killers (Extra Credit)

13) Hole In My Heart - Alphabeat

14) Let Me Think About - Ida Corr

15) Tik Tok - Ke$ha

16) Many Of Horror - Biffy Clyro

17) In This City - Iglu and Hartly

18) Memories - David Guetta feat. Kid Cudi

19) Use Somebody - Kings of Leom

20) I Need You Tonight - Professor Green

21) Wow - Kylie Minogue

22) My Name - Mclean

23) Vetigo - U2

24) Hollywood - Marina and The Diamonds

25) Telephone - Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce

26) Ignorance - Paramore

27) If We Ever Meet Again - Timbaland feat. Katy Perry

A True Disappoinment..

2010-03-31T19:31:00.002+01:00

Last night I went to watch Alice In Wonderland at the cinema, as I planned to do...

....it was a huge disappointment. Considering the amount of hype there has been and all the arguments between distributors and Cinemas the film was not good at all.

Dare I say it the Depp and Burton combo has not worked for the first time ever. They have taken a hugely successful film and made a re-make, but it isnt a re-make it's a different storyline (not a very good one) with the same characters but acted or voiced by famous people. For example Barbara Windsor and Alan Rickman, that is as good as it gets.

I think this fiolm my have failed in my eyes, because usually Burton likes to make things dark and wacky, but the original book and film was quite wacky and rather random.

The whole first hour is basically reminscing about the Disney film you haven't seen for a while, whilst you play name the actor with the voices.

Maybe the reason I was expecting more was becuase the film was not dark enough. I love Sweeney Todd, it's dark and brutal and very Burtonesque, whereas this film is quite diluted and not very scary more laughable. This I have decided is because of the PG rating, I believe if Burton would have made a 15 film with loads of blood and guts and the usual spin he puts on films, it probably would have alienated the original audience. This would have made the film less of a box office success.

I was definetly left disappointed by the film overall, and in the car my girlfriend and I sat in the car debating it's problems and saying we should have gone to see The Blindside. Whether 3D would have improved it..I dont no, but the world was quite stunning and the special effects and animation were good, but nothing in comparison to Avatar.

Children will love it I think but it's not for me and I will now go dig out my VHS copy of the original film and compare.

50th Blog Post..For My New Show

2010-03-25T14:35:00.002Z

The very first Jon's Jukebox went out on www.lovegravity.com last night between 6 and 8, was really fun playing out all the modern tracks with some great chart classics, my favourite being the first single I owned No Limit.

I have to admit the new format took me a while to get used to, but listening to it back there is some great music and I really enjoyed it.

The Extra Credit Artist this week was Lady Gaga we played back to back Gaga, in the guise of Poker Face and Bad Romance, new artist next week.

A certain gentleman by the name of Matt e-mailed in while on air asking for me to add If We Ever Meet Again to My Jukebox and I will Matt.

This week we launched our first investigation into Where Are They Now? This week we investigated (my Jukebox and I) what happened to 'Busted'. We found out they are all still attached to music with various other projects and Matt in particular is now a TV Star.

If you missed the show, click to www.lovegravity.com and then the 'listenagain' tab, click Wednesday and search for my name and you can e-mail in now through my profile with requests for next week.

Jon's Jukebox Playlist 24th March
1) Cry For You - September
2) Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) - Beyonce
3) Number One Enemy - Daisy Dares You feat. Chipmunk
4) Don't Stop Believing - Glee Cast
5) Fire - Kasabian
6) Poker Face - Lady Gaga
7) Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
8) Work - The Saturdays
9) Valerie - Mark Ronson feat Amy Winehouse
10) No Limit - 2 Unlimited
11) Million Dollar Bill - Whitney Houston
12) Angel In The Night - Basshunter
13) Right Round - Flo-rida feat. Katy Perry
14) Mr Brightside - Killers
15) Year 3000 - Busted
16) That Girl - Mcfly
17) Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke feat. Flo-rida
18) Once - Diana Vickers
19) Scream - Danny Morris
20) Bubbles - Biffy Clyro
21) Talk Me Down - Westlife
22) Spotlight - Jenifer Hudson
23) Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

Jon's Jukebox Starts Wednesday 6pm til 8pm

2010-03-21T21:52:00.003Z

Tune in from your pc's to www.lovegravity.com between 6pm til 8pm this Wednesday for my brand new show...Jon's Jukebox. My Jukebox and I will be queueing up the best of new RnB and Dance, current chart busters and ofcourse those unforgettable classic from the bast 20 years.

Along with music quizzes, Jukebox History and your chance to decide how to finish the show with 'Plug Puller', I know you will enjoy this show.

So please tune in this Wednesday 6 til 8 on www.lovegravity.com and get in touch.

The Greatest Film I Have Ever Seen

2010-03-11T14:17:00.004Z

Last night I went to see Avatar 3D at the Odeon in Liverpool One.....wow!!!!!!!!!

The best film I have ever seen, not just the animation or the awesome 3D effect or the fantastic acting by Sigourney Weaver and Sam Worthington or the directing of James Cameron. This whole film together was not just a simple cinema-going. For me it was an actual experience.

Seeing how film is about to progress is terrifyingly brilliant, one part of the film that blew me away tech-wise was when Neriti (female Avatar dude) has hold of Jake Sulley as a human at the end of the film and the contact between the animated character and Worthington is faultless.

The film actually made me want to go to Pandora, the floating cliffs looked so pretty and real, and the narrative that interwined the two races made it all seem real as well.

One fault is the storyline was fairly predictable throughout, but this does not take anything away from the film, it was a spectacle.

The 3D made everything seem like I could touch it at any given moment, can't wait to see more of the advancing technology in action. If this is what we can do now what will we be able to do in 10 years time.

Cameron seems to not like doing anything in half measures, with Ttitanic and now this to his name, I haven't seen the 'Hurt Locker' but it must be god damn good to beat this. It has hammered the box office records set partially by Cameron's last effort. Apparently 10 years in the making from plans to completion...it was well worth the wait and worth every penny of the expected huge budget.

One performance that I loved was Joel Moore's as a scientist, 'Dodgeball' is one of my fave films ever and I was surprised to see him take on such a serious role.

The greatest film I have ever seen, and I would recommend anyone who hasn't seen this to go now before you miss the chance for a fantastic experience in the cinema.

One word awesome!

Exciting Stuff

2010-03-08T11:15:00.006Z

Starting with this very post, my blog is about to get a tad more personal and alot more interesting, my posts will now reflect what s going on in my life related to media and of course reviews of how I think my performance within the media world has gone.

First bit of news, when my buddy Former Eton Road singer Danny Morris visited my show at Arrowesound in January http://jonathandutton.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html, his manager Paul (ex Mark Owen tribute singer) asked me if I wanted to host a show at the Brindley Thetare in Runcorn in April for The HEARTS Charity. Obviously I said yes, and I will be co-compering the show with pantomine man Gary on the 7th April, get your tickets from here.

I've planned some hilarious links betweeen the acts (some more embarassing and the rehersals are ongoing in Widnes on Sunday's this is all very exciting. When asked about special requests for the show I asked about one pack of Jelly Babies Paul turned this down :(.
http://www2.halton.gov.uk/thebrindley/

Next thing to discuss is the Oscars,

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Directing: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)

I have to admit I wasn't really surprised by 'The Hurt Locker' taking the most trophies as I think the OSCARS now want the winners to reflect society more, instead of blockbuster sci-fi films that rake in the dinero.

I really want to go and see the 'Hurt Locker' soon, it will probably come out in the cinemas, also on the cards is I want to see 'Alice in Wonderland' amidst all the debates about how long it will show for I want to go and see whether it is worth the fuss. But the formula of Depp and Burton never seems to fail...I don't expect it too now.

Before I sign off I must tell you the most exciting news to my ears from the last week (and I will be going on about it for a while) I have tickets for V Festival 2010 at Weston Park, I simply can't wait...Kasabian, Kings Of Leon, Paolo, Newton Faulkner to name a small few!!

Don't forget to tune into my show on www.lovegravity.com this Wednesday 6pm til 8pm, playing loads of great new songs from all genres and testing your knowledge wth a brand new music quiz.

JD On Gravity Wednesday 3rd March 2010

2010-03-04T13:18:00.002Z

Second show on Gravity, great brand new songs played tonight along with a high album review and some very opinionated listeners. To hear the show again follow this link
http://www.lovegravity.com/index.php

Gig Watch
This week I hand-picked gigs from all over the Uk that the listeners could go and see, whilst also bragging about me going to V Festival in the summer.

5th March: Lady Gaga – LG Arena, Birmingham
5th March: Lilly Allen & Dizzee Rascal – MEN, Manchester
6th March: Stereophonics – The NIA, Birmingham
9th March: Lynyrd Skynyrd – SECC, Glasgow
11th and 12th March: X Factor Live Tour – Sheffield Arena
13th March: Tiesto - Liverpool Echo Arena

Have Your Say: The Results
Last week I asked listeners to e-mail in with their opinions about 'Jedward' some were very opinionated, here are my favourite two:

I think it’s amazing how these two Irish boys managed to split the whole nation, I didn’t even watch X Factor but everybody knew about them, because of the papers.
Rachel, Aberdeen

I think it is genuinely ridiculous that they have even got near the charts, they are as talented as mops and as annoying as the crazy frog.

They can’t dance and they definitely can’t sing, I don’t even think they are fit enough for CBBC, they should disappear again.
Mark, Warrington

Rewind Record
Going back to 2005 for our Rewind Record this week for an iconic rock anthem from the Noughties. ‘Best of You’ is taken from the Foo Fighters 5th album and Dave Grohl said the song is about breaking away from the confines that hold you.
· Nominated for Grammy Award For Best Song
· Charted at 4th in the UK
My guilty pleasure is the Foo Fighters and I’m proud to play this hard rock head-banging song for you as my Rewind Record.

Album Review
This week I reviewed at length and with great excitement, Lungs by Florence and The Machine, I love Florence Welch and the album and decided to give the album top marks. My favourite song from the album is 'Dog Days Are Over'.

Jon’s Tune of The Week
Love Can Be A Battlefield – Florence Rawlings
The first single taken from this young singers debut album, ‘A Fool In Love’. Written by Mike Batt, the singer now has finished her A Levels and signed from Dramatico and is destined for great things as she takes on the charts with this song. The album was released last month and is available to download now. Such a great voice and such a powerful love song.

The ‘Muse’ (courtesy of www.music-news.com)

· Robbie Williams is giving up smoking to please his fiancee.The 'Angels’ singer has already cut his habit from 60 cigarettes to ten a day as he is keen to get healthier in order to start a family with actress Ayda Field.A source told The Sun newspaper: "Ayda is very keen to start a family and knows the damage tobacco can do to sperm. "It's hard for Robbie to say no to the woman he loves at the best of times. But it's even harder when, far from nagging him about smoking, she gives practical support and offers to be there for him when he's finding it tough. "He has promised Ayda he will crack it. Now it's just a matter of when he's ready." Ayda has banned Robbie from smoking cigarettes inside their Los Angeles mansion in a bid to make him reduce his habit even more.

· V Festival kicks off its 15th anniversary celebrations by announcing a world class line up for this year's festivities on the 21st and 22nd August 2010 - to be headlined by Kings of Leon and Kasabian.The summer spectacular, held across two sites at Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire, will be crammed with the hottest names in music. Joining the headliners over the weekend will be favourites Stereophonics, Faithless, The Prodigy, David Guetta, Pet Shop Boys, Cheryl Cole, Paul Weller, The Kooks, Paolo Nutini, and 2010 BRIT award winner Florence And The Machine. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 5th March and festival organisers are advising fans to purchase them quickly to avoid disappointment, but only from official outlets listed on www.vfestival.com. Headliners Kasabian said: 'We can’t wait. We feel it’s the right time for us to headline a festival. We’ve been playing so many festivals for so long, years and years. I think the moment is right. It’s just a wonderful thing to be doing.

· The cast of Glee are gearing up for their first tour.The stars from the hit TV show will tour the USA from May 18 starting at The Dodge Stadium in Phoenix.Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz and Dianna Agron will take to the road to sing the songs they performed in the show.Sony Music has released two soundtrack albums from the first season of the show. No doubt a live CD and DVD will spring from one of the shows to replace their number 1 album, expect them in the UK soon.

· U2 have been named at the highest earning band of 2009, according to Billboard’s annual poll. Even though the Irish band’s latest release 'No Line On The Horizon’ had disappointing sales, Bono and the boys have still grossed more cash in US last year than any others.The magazine claim that even though the 360° Tour is one of the most expensive ever U2 still made $109 million, which works out at approximately £71 million.In second place was Bruce Springsteen with $58 million (£38m) and Madonna third with $48 million. Rockers ACDC came in fourth with $43 million dollars, followed by the Princess of Pop, Britney Spears, who earned $38 million dollars.

Have Your Say
This week's Have Your Say topic wass all about Cheryl Cole/Tweedy, I asked the listeners to e-mail in with their opinions on her music her private life and also what she should do in the future. The e-mails will be read out next week.

Playlist 3/3/10
1) Rock That Body - Black Eyed Peas
2) Licky - Shontelle
3) Down (Candleight Mix) - Jay Sean
4) Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
5) Happy - Leona Lewis
6) Could You Be The One - Stereophonics
7) Gravity - Pixie Lott
8) Under Pressure - Jedward feat. Vanilla Ice
9) Crawl - Chris Brown
10) Many Of Horror - Biffy Clyro
11) Did It Again - Shakira
12) The Best of You - Foo Fighters
13) Closer To The Edge - 30 Seconds To Mars
14) Dirty Picture - Taio Cruz feat. Kesha
15) Rabbit Heart - Florence and The Machine
16) You've Got The Love - Florence and The Machine
17) Broken Heels - Alexandra Burke
18) On and On - Agnes
19) Don't Stop Believing - Glee
20) Starstrukk - 3oh3 feat. Katy Perry
21) Where We Belong - Lost Prophets
22) Parachute - Cheryl Cole
23) Hole In My Heart - Alphabeat
24) Who Wants To Be Alone - Tiesto feat. Nelly Furtado

JD On Gravity Wednesday 24th February 2010

2010-02-25T14:15:00.003Z

Brand new show on www.lovegravity.com playing the best brand new tracks, providing great reviews and supplying all the gossip from around the music world.

Jon's Tune of The Week
This week I chose a new..ish release from one of my favourite artists: Paolo Nuttini. Taken from his critically acclaimed album 'Sunny Side Up' my tune of the week was '10/10'.

Gig Watch
This week I informed my listeners about the gigs on this weekend, they are listed below:

Thu 25 Feb 2010-02-25
Hadouken! Millennium Music Hall, Cardiff
Thu 25 Feb 2010-02-25
Hayseed Dixie The IronWorks, Inverness
Thu 25 Feb 2010-02-25
Lostprophets Apollo Manchester
Fri 26 Feb 2010-02-26
Dizzee Rascal Newport Centre
Fri 26 Feb 2010-02-26
Lostprophets Southampton Guildhall
Fri 26 Feb 2010-02-26
Ocean Colour Scene The Hexagon, Reading
Fri 26 Feb 2010-02-26
The Noisettes Brighton Dome: Concert Hall
Sat 27 Feb 2010-02-27
30 Seconds To Mars Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow

Rewind Record
My rewind record come from a man who is back in the charts again after his whilwind year, but we went back to 1995, Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl. I also stated my siding with him over his divorce...TEAM ANDRE!!!

The 'Muse'
My stories this week came from www.music-news.com:

Simon Cowell says the Oasis frontman could replace him but they may have to 'subtitle him' reports XFM.co.uk.Noel Gallagher could be lined up to replace Simon Cowell once he leaves American Idol at the end of the current season. Asked about possible new panellists, the high-waited trouser wearer told E! Online."Noel? Do you think people would [be able to] understand him?"When subtitles were suggested, he replied:"Subtitle him! [Laughter.] Actually I know Noel quite well, and I like him. He's quite funny and a brilliant songwriter. It's a possibility."Other possible replacements included celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.

The George Michael Australian tour started last night in Perth.The Aussie setlist has been trimmed back compared to the shows on the 2006 tour with songs like 'Jesus To A Child’, 'Shoot The Dog’, 'Kissing A Fool’ and 'Freedom’ deleted from the current set, at least for Perth.George will perform in Sydney on February 26 and Melbourne on March 3.

After a decade away from the spotlight making babies, Sade has returned with a first week sales figure that makes it look like it is still the year 2000.'Soldier of Love’, Sade’s first album since 'Lovers Rock’ in 2000, sold an incredible 501,000 units in the USA in the past week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.America has always love Sade. Her 6 albums have all been Top 10 releases in America.Led Zeppelin also had 6 consecutive Top 10 albums in America with their first 6 albums so Sade is indeed in rare company.

Pete Townshend’s hearing problems look set to bring the rockers future to an end.Forty five years of loud music have left Townshend with recurring tinnitus. Rolling Stone has reported that the band are considering calling it quits if guitarist Pete Townshend’s tinnitus becomes a problem again. The news follows a cancelled spring 2010 tour and an appearance at the Coachella Festival.'If my hearing is going to be a problem, we’re not delaying shows. We’re finished', Townshend told Rolling Stone. 'I can’t really see any way around the issue.' We understand a new in-ear monitoring system is being tested at the band’s Teenage Cancer Trust gig at the Royal Albert Hall on March 30. It is currently their only show this year, with many speculating that it could be their final show if the hearing device is not successful.

Album Review
This week I reviewed live on air the new complimation album by Blues guitarist 'Seasick Steve' it's called 'Songs For Elisabeth' it only has one new track on it sadly, and the fact that I don't think he will go mainstream I only gave the album a 2/5 rating.

Have Your Say
This week's have your say topic was 'Jedward', I asked my listeners to e-mail in and text in about their opinions about the annoying Irish lads, who split the nation whilst on X Factor. Next week we will read out some of the e-mails.

Playlist 24/02/10
1) One Shot - JLS
2) In My Head - Jason Derulo
3) Don't Stop Believing - Glee Cast
4) Where We Belong - LostProphets
5) Fireflies - Owl City
6) 10/10 - Paolo Nuttini
7) Number One Enemy: Daisy Dares You feat. Chipmunk
8) Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke feat. Flo-rida
9) Resistance - Muse
10) Mysterious Girl - Peter Andre
11) Memories - David Guetta feat. Kid Cudi
12) Tik Tok - Kesha
13) Riverside - Sidney Samson feat. Wizard Sleeve
14) Million Dollar Bill - Whitney Houston
15) Rock That Body - Black Eyed Peas
16) If We Ever Meet Again - Timbaland feat. Katy Perry
17) Many of Horror - Biffy Clyro
18) Playing With Fire - N-Dubz feat. Mr Hudson
19) 8 Ball - Seasick Steve
20) My Donny - Seasick Steve
21) Parachute - Cheryl Cole
22) Secrets - One Republic
23) Under Pressure - Jedward feat. Vanilla Ice
24) Hollywood - Marina and The Diamonds
25) Do You Remember - Jay Sean feat. Lil Jon and Sean Paul

NEW SHOW

2010-02-15T17:37:00.002Z

2 weeks after leaving Arrowesound Hospital Radio, Jonathan's NEW SHOW starts on Wednesday 24th February at 6pm til 8pm and will be on every week.
Jonathan will be bringing you the best new tracks, great album reviews and all the music news from around the world.

Tune in from your PC to www.lovegravity.com and get in touch with him through this blog or through his profile on www.lovegravity.com!!!

Monday Evening Mayhem 1st February 2010

2010-02-01T19:45:00.003Z

In the Arrowesound studio with work experience journalist Lizzie Johnson 5pm til 7pm with the 32nd MEM show.

Regular Content

The Shuffle
Lizzie chose the 90's decade for the shuffle machine and it picked out a song I sort of recognized, it was Kiss The Rain by Billie Myers.

Back To Back
This week we played Back To Back Spanish style singers, they were Do You Know by Enrique Iglesias and Shakira with Did It Again.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather
The main headlines concerned the Haiti eathquake recovery, Lizzie read the news (really well) then handed over to me for the sports which was a review of our local sides fortunes in football.

Jon's Tune of The Week
This week's tune of the week was the 'Help For Heroes' charity single by Journey South; What I Love About Home. Love it!!

2 Minute Chart
I read the even numbers and Lizzie read the odd as we read out the UK Top 40 singles in under 2 minutes, we completed on time.

Special Features

Guest Challenge
This week our work experience friend Lizzie took on the infamous five questions to try and top our leaderboard, she answered 5 questions and only managed to get 2 right.

At The Movies
This time I carried out a live unplanned review of new DVD 'The Proposal' starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.

MEM Playlist 01/02/10
1) Mirror, Mirror - Dollar
2) Are You Ready For Love - Elton John
3) Kiss The Rain - Billie Myers
4) Making Your Mind Up - Bucks Fizz
5) Secrets - One Republic
6) C'est La Vie - B' Withced
7) I'm Your Man - Shane Richie
8) Do You Know - Enrique Iglesias
9) Did It Again - Shakira
10) The Only Way Is Up - Yazz
11) Genie In A Bottle - Christina Aguilera
12) Scream - Danny Morris
13) Kiss From A Rose - Seal
14) Faith - George Michael
16) Truly Madly Deeply - Savage Garden
17) What I Love About Home - Journey South
18) Hands Up - Ottowan
19) Real To Me - Brian Mcfadden
20) Don't Stop Belivin' - Journey
21) Barbie Girl - Aqua
22) I Crashed The Wedding - Busted
23) My Way - Frank Sinatra

Monday Evening Mayhem 18th January 2010

2010-01-19T09:01:00.005Z

A very special guest joined me in the Arrowesound studio tonight, arrived slightly late as always, it was former Eton Road band member Danny Morris along with his manager Paul and his girlfriend Lyndsey, we had a great laugh and links will be added soon to MEM's Facebook group page for you to listen to parts of the interview.

Follow this link to the MEM Facebook page to hear parts of the show...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=app_2392950137&gid=237782121391#/video/video.php?v=1335620878723&oid=237782121391

Regular Content

Jon's Tune of The Week

Ofcourse with having Danny in the studio we had to have his new single 'Scream' as my Tune of The Week, available to download from Itunes now.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather

The main headlines were related to the Haiti earthquake, the entertainment headline was about the Golden Globe awards and I did a quick weather summary along with the local sports results.

2 Minute Chart

Unbeliveably to me, Danny and I managed to complete the entire Top 40 within 2 minutes reading odd and even numbers, top of the Radio 1 chart is still Replay by Iyaz.

Back To Back

This week we played Back to Back dance tunes starting with Basshunter and Please Don't Go and Take Me To The Clouds Above by LMC and U2.

The Shuffle

The shuffle machine was on form tonight by pulling out the most weird and wonderful song on our sound system, Orville's Song by Keith Harris and Orville.

Special Features

Danny Morris In The Studio

We had a good chat with Danny at the beginning of the show about his Xmas and New Year and then ofcourse we chatted about his new song 'Scream' were he explained the raunchy lyrics and told us about his upcoming album and about some of the tracks on it.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=app_2392950137&gid=237782121391#/video/video.php?v=1335620878723&oid=237782121391

Music Heaven and Hell Spelling Bee

Having Danny in the studio meant we had to challenge him, this time we hoped he wouldn't win like he did on the Guest Challenge, so we challenged him to spell 5 different artists in our own spelling bee the punishment for failure was a song to be played he hated, the words were:

Steps (correct)

Beyonce (correct)

Fratelli's (correct)

Dexy's Midnight Runners (incorrect)

Kajagoogoo (incorrect)

Danny chose as his idea of music hell and Michael Jackson as heaven, he only manged to get 3 right to we played JLS.

The Duet
Before the interview Paul, Danny's manager and I plotted that Danny and I could sing his new song live in the studio in a variety of different accents, it didnt go well, we got through many poorly performed accents.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=app_2392950137&gid=237782121391#/video/video.php?v=1335642759270&oid=237782121391

MEM Playlist 18/01/10

1) 3 Words - Cheryl Cole
2) The Only Way Is Up - Yazz
3) I Think We're Alone Now - Girls Aloud
4) Runaway - Corrs
5) Respect - Adeva
6) Waiting 4 Ur Heart 2 Call - Danny Morris
7) Scream - Danny Morris
8) Relight My Fire - Take That
9) Everybody In Love - JLS
10) Saving My Face - KT Tunstall
11) Bad Boys - Wham
12) Perfect 10 - Beautiful South
13) Always Look On The Bright Side of Life - Monty Python
14) Need You Tonight - INXS
15) Cry Me A River - Michael Buble
16) Take On Me - A-ha
17) Please Don't Go - Basshunter
18) Take Me To The Clouds Above - LMC and U2
19) Orville Song - Keith Harris and Orville
20) Love of An Orchestra - Noah and The Whale
21) Last Thing On My Mind - Steps

Monday Evening Mayhem 11th January 2010

2010-01-12T09:08:00.002Z

On my own in the Arrowesound stuido tonight from 5pm til 7pm, great music from the 80's, 90's and today but also we were celbrating Milk Day. Along with counting down the Top 5 Milk Adverts of all time I read out loads of milk related facts.

Regular Content

Back To Back
This evening's back to back artist was Micahel Buble, we played two of his songs back to back they were a fantastic live version of 'Smile' and also 'A Foggy Day in London Town'.

2 Minute Chart
Top of the chart was Iyaz with 'Replay', I completed the chart within 2 minutes.... just, I even managed to fit in information on some songs on where they had moved. The chart was the BBC Radio One Top 40.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather
The main news headlines were about the problems within the labour government and the sports news regarded Tranmere Rovers and their continuing fight for survival.

Jon's Tune of The Week
This week I chose a brand new track from Shakesper's Sister aka. former Bananarama singer Siobhan Fahey, I love this track it's called It's A Trip.

The Shuffle
The shuffle machine this week was ordered to pick a song from the 80's, it decided to choose one of my Dad's favourite songs: Souvenir by OMD.

Special Features

Top 5 Milk Adverts
5) Got Milk?
4) The Cows Want It Back
3) Oreo, Twist, Lick and Dunk
2) Out of Stock
1) Accrington Stanley

MEM Playlist 11/01/10
1) Millenium - Robbie Williams
2) Rhythm Is Gonna Get You - Gloria Estefan
3) Beautiful Day - U2
4) Gold - Spandau Ballet
5) Smile - Michael Buble
6) A Foggy Day In London Town - Michael Buble
7) You Get What You Give - The New Radicals
8) In The Morning - The Coral
9) Every Little Step - Bobby Brown
10) End Of The Road - Boyz II Men
11) Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke
12) So Macho - Sinitta
13) Roll With It - Oasis
14) Gives You Hell - The All American Rejects
15) Rock With You - Michael Jackson
16) It's A Trip - Shakespear's Sister
17) Birdhouse In Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
18) Dog Days Are Over - Florence and The Machine
19) I Got You Babe - UB40
20) Souvenir - OMD
21) Now You're Gone - Basshunter
22) Human - Pretenders
23) Wild Horses - Susan Boyle
24) 1999 - Prince
25) Since U Been Gone -Kelly Clarkson

Monday Evening Mayhem 4th January 2010

2010-01-05T16:29:00.002Z

First show of the new decade and 2010, we welcomed Ian Walker (my fully trained padawan learner to the studio) for his last appearance before he starts his own show and my girlfriend Nicci Hayes to the Arrowesound studio for the 29th MEM show!

Regular Content

Jon's Tune of The Week
This week my tune of the week was the new track from Noah and The Whale, 'Love of An Orchestra', love this track.

The Shuffle
This week the shuffle machine picked out the best yet, 'All These Things I've Done' by The Killers.

Back To Back
Back to back tracks from Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers this week, we played 'Autumnsong' and 'You're Love Alone Is Not Enough'.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather
Stories covered the Virgin train staff walkouts, a quick report on the happenings for our local teams in the football world and a bleak weather report.

2 Minute Chart
One of my favourite features returns, I completed the top 40 chart bang on two minutes although Ian wrongly argued I hadn't.

Special Features

TV Taster
New feature, were we examine what is on TV for our listeners, with info of when they are on and some personal opinions from me about why you should watch it.

What We Have On MEM This Year For You?
A quick look ahead of what is on MEM this year, including former Eton Rd. singer Danny Morris returning and the World Cup.

MEM Playlist 4/01/09
1) Just Dance - Lady Gaga
2) Don't Stop Believing - Journey
3) Country House - Blur
4) Love of An Orechestra - Noah and The Whale
5) Circus - Britney
6) Gold - Spandau Ballet
7) Life of Reily - Lightning Seeds
8) Super Massive Black Hole - Muse
9) All These Things That I've Done - Killers
10) Mysterious Girl - Peter Andre
11) Too Shy - Kajagoogoo
12) Autumnsong - Manic Street Preachers
13) You're Love Alone Is Not Enough - Manic Street Preachers
14) What About Now - Westlife
15) When The Going Gets Tough - Boyzone
16) Love of The Common People - Paul Young
17) Same Old Brand New You - A1
18) You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift
19) Even Better Than The Real Thing - U2
20) Land of Confusion - Genesis
21) Guilty - Blue
22) Ego - Saturdays
23) I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany
24) Sway - Swift
25) Everybody In Love - JLS
26) Pass The Dutchie - Musical Youth
27) Bodies - Robbie Williams

Monday Evening Mayhem 28th December 2009

2009-12-29T10:15:00.002Z

Show 27, Ian Walker joined me in the Arrowesound Studio for the last MEM show of 2009, a couple of features were brought back to celebrate MEM's first year on this earth. The show was 6-8 this week as I was supposed to be attending the TRFC game.

Regular Content

Back To Back
This week we played back to back Liverpool formed bands, firstly Let's Dance To Joy Division by the Wombats and Ob La Di, Ob - La Da by The Beatles.

The Shuffle
The last SHuffle of the year brought us a song both Ian and I know, Laura by the Scissor Sisters, but apparently Ian hates it.

Returning Feature

2 Minute Chart
For a one off, one of my first features on MEM made a return, I had to complete the reading of the chart in under 2 minutes, once again I completed it, the chart was the top 40 from this time last year.

Special Features

What Do We Have To Look Forward To In 2010
Ian and I discussed the World Cup, Celeb BB, Joe's debut album, Sunset at Thor's Rock and then we speculated about which band may make a return this year.

Jon's Tune of The Year
I asked my listeners to call in and decide which of my Tune's of the week was the best this year, the choices were,
Pencil Full of Lead - Paolo Nuttini
Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke
Remedy - Little Boots
Everybody In Love - JLS
Waiting 4 Ur Heart 2 Call - Danny Morris

My listeners decided that the winner should be Paolo Nuttini and we played my Tune of The Year at the very end of the show.

Jon VS Ian
In the abscence of Jamie Preston it was time for a different co-presenter to take me on, Ian and I both answered 5 questions each, his were on TV and Film and mine were on General Knowledge, sadly he got 4/5 correct and I only managed 0, so he won.

A Look Back At 2009
To close the MEM show for 2009 we took a look back at the big events that dominated 2009, they included the death of MJ, Joe being beten to No.1 by Rage Against The Machine, the splits of Oasis and Katie and Peter and also the birth of Monday Evening Mayhem.

MEM Playlist 28/12/09
1) You Know Me - Robbie Williams
2) I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - Proclaimers
3) Bailamos - Enrique Iglesias
4) You've Got The Love - Florence and The Machine
5) Stay Another Day - East 17
6) Where The Streets Have No Name - U2
7) I'm Still Standing - Elton John
8) Dirty Diana - Michael Jackson
9) Little Town Called Malice - The Jam
10) Hallelujah - Alexandra Burke
11) The Climb - Joe Mcelderry
12) 5 Years Time - Noah and The Whale
13) Everything Changes - Take That
14) Bonkers - Dizzee Rascal
15) Under Pressure - Queen
16) Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
17) Let's Dance To Joy Division - Wombats
18) Ob-La Di, Ob-La-Da - Beatles
19) Sweet Disposition - Temper Trap
20) Laura - Scisor Sisters
21) Picture Of You - Boyzone
22) Dilemma - Nelly and Kelly
23) Hold Up A Light - Take That
24) A Whole New World - Katie and Peter
25) Pencil Full of Lead - Paolo Nuttini

Monday Evening Mayhem Xmas Special 21st December 2009

2009-12-24T10:13:00.002Z

A fantastic Xmas Special, Tranmere Rovers defender Ash Taylor dropped in for a chat (the interview link will be uploaded when available), then Jamie Preston arrived to record MEM Does Band Aid was rather hilarious (the link to this will also be made available shortly). The show was extended til 8 to make it extra special and that last hour was only Xmas songs.

Regular Content

The Shuffle
This week the Shuffle machine pulled out a fairly unknown Boyzone track which both Jamie and I admitted to enjoying it was 'You Needed Me'.

Back To Back
This week to continue our festive show we played back to back cheesy Xmas tunes, they were Santa Baby by Madonna and Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer by Dean Martin.

Jon's Tune of The Week
Wasn't really very festive but I just love this song and video, this week my tune of the week was Peter Kay's Animated Children In Need Medley.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News
The stories covered the weather and travel problems along with sports news on Les Parry attempts to re-sign Zumo Bagayoko.

Special Festive Features

The MEM Advent Calendar Door 3/3
Behind the 3rd and final door of pur advent calendar was a 15 minute long Xmas Megamix which sadly carried some technical difficulties which we managed to overcome.

The Xmas No.1
Definetly not the song everyone expected and quite far from being festive, but the nevertheless your Xmas No.1 for 2009 was Rage Against The Machine with 'Killing In The Name Of'.

Top 5 Xmas Songs
As Decided By My Girlfriend
5) Band Aid 20
4) Last Christmas - Wham
3) Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
2) Fairytale of New York - The Pogues feat. Kirsty Mcoll
1) All I Want For Xmas Is You - Mariah Carey

MEM Does Band Aid
Jamie and I delegated the lyrics and live in the studio we recorded our version of Band Aid, it went well..ish and the link will be made available soon. Available to buy nowhere.

At the Movies Xmas Special
We had a look at the films you could go and see this festive season the options are as follows, Avatar, St Trinians 2 and Alvin and The Chipmunks The Squeakquel.

Best Moment: Our Band Aid recording it was really fun.

MEM Xmas Special Playlist 21/12/09

1) Merry Xmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens
2) There She Goes - The La's
3) Step Into Xmas - Elton John
4) Mirror Mirror - Dollar
5) White Cliffs Of Dover - Vera Lynn (Request)
6) I Wish It Could Be Xmas Everyday - Wizzard
7) Xmas Megamix
8) You Know Me - Robbie Williams
9) The Climb - Joe Mcelderry
10) You Neede Me - Boyzone
11) Rockin' Around The Xmas Tree - Mel and Kim
12) Tonight's The Night - Rod Stewart (Request)
13) Santa Baby - Madonna
14) Rudolf Red Nosed Reindeer - Dean Martin
15) Frosty The Snowman - Jackson 5
16) Fight For This Love - Cheryl Cole
17) Let's Party Xmas - Jive Bunny (Xmas Mix)
18) Last Thing On My Mind - Steps
19) Waiting For A Girl Like You - Foriegner
20) Killing In The Name - Rage Against The Machine
21) Wonderful Christmastime - Paul Mcartney
22) Everybody In Love - JLS
23) Lonely The Xmas - Mud
24) Driving Home For Xmas - Chris Rea
25) Peter Kay's Animated Children In Need Medley
26) Do They Know It's Xmas - Band Aid 20
27) Last Xmas - Wham
28) Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
29) Fairytale of New York - The Pogues feat. Kirsty Mcoll
30) All I Want For Xmas Is You - Mariah Carey
31) Winter Wonderland - Dolly Parton
32) Mary's Boy Child - Boney M
33) Saviour's Day - Cliff Richard
34) Do They Know It's Xmas - Band Aid

Monday Evening Mayhem 7th December 2009

2009-12-08T17:10:00.002Z

A very Christmassy show in a very packed studio, Jamie and Ian dropped in to see the first door opened on the MEM Advent Calendar.

Regular Content

Jon's Tune of The Week
This week's tune of the week came from the Manchester boys: Take That. With lead vocals from Mark Owen I love 'Hold Up A Light'.

The Shuffle
This week the Shuffle machine pulled out Feel Good by Phats and Small, none of the MEM team knew anything about it, although Jamie mentioned something concerning Vanessa Feltz.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News
I did the main news headlines, then Ian did the entertainment news which was ofcourse about the X Factor then Jamie did the sport and handed back to me for the weather.

Back To Back
This week we played back to back Cliff Richard Xmas Songs including Misteltoe and Wine and Saviour's Day.

Special Feaures

Ian Walker's 15 Minute Takeover
My trainee Ian took over again for 15 minutes, and played some great songs including S Club whilst informing the listeners of what's onover the festive period.

MEM Advent Calendar Door 1/3
We opened the first door of 3 on our advent calendar and uncovered the Festive Quiz Ian and Jamie went head to head in this quiz, which we asked the patients to play along with. Jamie won on both the main questions and the bonus round which was to name as many band aid members as you could from the original group.

(This was recorded and the link will be uploaded soon)

Best Moment: The festive quiz was hilarious, Ian thought Abba did Band Aid
Worst Moment: Playing Cliff Richard songs

MEM PLAYLIST 7/12/09
1) Merry Xmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens
2) Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke
3) Alive and Kicking - Simple Minds
4) C'est La Vie - B'witched
5) All I Want For Xmas Is You - Mariah Carey
6) Hold Up A Light - Take That
7) Before The Worst - The Script
8) Showing Out - Mel and Kim
9) Feel Good - Phats and Small
10) Crazy - Aerosmith
11) I Wish It Could Be Xmas Everyday - Wizzard
12) Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
13) Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble
14) Misteltoe and Wine - Cliff Richard
15) Saviour's Day - Cliff Richard
16) Fight For This Love - Cheryl Cole
17) Swing The Mood - Jive Bunny

Monday Evening Mayhem 30th November 2009

2009-12-01T16:57:00.003Z

5pm til 7pm Arrowesound had the pleasure of broadcasting my Monday Evening Mayhem show and myself. Ian Walker my padawan learner dropped in for some dual presenting. (Show 24)

Regular Content

The Shuffle
This week's the shuffle brought us Puppy Love by S Club Juniors are facts were both extermely basic.

Back To Back
This week I played back to back songs from James Morrison, they were Broken Strings and Please Don't Stop the Rain.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather
Main headline concerned the shooting of police officers in America. The entertainment headline was read out by Ian which regarded Subo (Susan Boyle), and the sports was about the derby.

Jon's Tune of The Week
This week's tune was from Spandau Ballet off their new album 'With The Pride' the song is called 'Once More'.

Special Feature

Top 5 Jungle Contestants
This week we counted down the top 5 I'm A Celebrity contestants of all time, and I played a clip from our top contestant from when I met him.
5) John Fashanu
4) Phil Tuffnell
3) David Gest
2) Katie and Peter
1) Joe Pasquale

Follow link below to hear my interview with Joe Pasqaule.
http://www.facebook.com/#/video/video.php?v=1261175097625

Best Moment: Playing 3 Words for Edina
Worst Moment: Reading out financial percentages in the news

MEM Playlist 30/11/09
1) Said It All - Take That
2) Take On Me - A-ha
3) Million Dollar Bill - Whitney Houston
4) Baby Come Back - Pato Banton and UB40
5) Heaven Is A Place On Earth - Belinda Carlisle
6) Puppy Love - S Club Juniors
7) Kiss From A Rose - Seal
8) Merry Xmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens
9) Please Don't Stop The Rain - Jame Morrison
10) Broken Strings - James Morrison feat. Nelly Furtado
11) Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N' Roses
12) Waiting 4 Ur Heart 2 Call - Danny Morris
13) Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke feat. Flo-rida
14) 3 Words - Cheryl Cole
15) Fairytale of New York - Ronan Keating and Marie Brennan
16) Dead Ringer For Love - Meatloaf and Cher
17) Once More - Spandau Ballet
18) Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
19) I Should Be So Lucky - Kylie
20) You Know Me - Robbie Williams
21) One For Sorrow - Steps
22) Do They Know It's Xmas - Band Aid 20

JD Live On Gravity 29/11/09

2009-11-30T10:08:00.000Z

My first show live on Gravity (For The Fun of It). And sadly my computer didn't make it easy for me at all. The first hour was riddled with technical difficulties but I manged to sort them out for the 2nd hour, and in the end the response on the e-mail was great, lots of positive comments and replies to topics.

If you wish to listen again to my show go to www.lovegravity.com now, but I would recommend listening to the second hour as due to the issues with my PC the first hour is mainly automated music.

Anyway my show will be broadcast live every Sunday 7pm til 9pm without any hitches, I play brand new music, and help out with your homework question and problems and you decide how we finish the show.

This week we had a few HWK Help responses on the e-mail including one from Paul regarding English Language.

I also played the interview I conducted with Joe Pasquale last month along with our Flashback Tune which was Gold by Spandau Ballet.

I asked listeners to tell me their views on the football derby weekend, we had some responses from fans from Birmingham and Everton and Liverpool.

I also played this week's number 1 single from the Expat Chart, which was 'Meet Me Halfway' by Black Eyed Peas.

And the song that the listeners chose to finish the show was 'Merry Christmas Everybody'by Slade.

Go to lovegravity.com to listen again!

JD On Gravity Playlist 29/11/09
1) Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke
2) Rain - Mika
3) Boys and Girls - Pixie Lott
4) Did It Again - Shakira
5) Shadowside - A-ha
6) Oopsy Daisy - Chipmunk
7) New York - Paloma Faith
8) Pencil Full Of Lead - Paolo Nuttini
9) Dirtee Cash - Dizzee Rascal
10) Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Bublé
11) Wild Horses - Susan Boyle
12) Sweet Dreams - Beyonce
13) Million Dollar Bill - Whitney Houston
14) Wheels - Foo Fighters
15) Good Girls Go Bad - Cobra Starship
16) Hold Up A Light - Take That
17) The Spell - Alphabeat
18) It's Not The End Of The World - Lost Prophets
19) You Know Me - Robbie Williams

NEW SHOW

2009-11-27T13:40:00.001Z

Tune in to www.lovegravity.com this Sunday and every Sunday 7pm til 9pm to hear me live with brand new music, a football roundup and even help with your 'Last Minute Homework'!!

I will now be blogging for both my show on Arrowesound and Gravity here, so keep reading to find out what is going on and thanks!!

Monday Evening Mayhem 23rd November 2009

2009-11-24T17:07:00.002Z

MEM live from Arrowesound Hospital Radio 5pm til 7pm, my padawan radio apprentice Ian Walker joined me for another jam-packed show.

Regular Content

Back To Back
This week I played back to back Green Day tunes, they were Time Of Your Life and the Saints Are Coming feat. U2.

The Shuffle
Ian chose the decade of the 2000's, we shuffled and got a vaguely familiar song Right Now by Atomic Kitten.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather
Top story covered the flooding, sports was about Tranmere and entertainment covered the not so sad loss of Jedward from the X Factor.

Jon's Tune of The Week
This week's tune of the week was 'Waiting 4 Ur Heart 2 Call' by Danny Morris.

Special Features

At The Movies Special
This week due to the fantastic films available at the moment I did a special review of 2 films I had seen last week, they were 'New Moon' which recieved a 9/10 and '2012' which recieved and 8/10.

Ian Walker's 15 Minute Hijack
Ian took over my show again for 15 minutes of X Factor gossip and great songs, all presented with his lively voice and quick subject changes.

Guest Challenge (Ian Walker)
This week Ian Walker stepped up to the Guest Challenge plate, he had to answer 5 questions about the world of radio to try and equal the fantastic score from Danny Morris...and he did 5/5 for Ian who goes joint top with Danny on the leaderboard.

Best Moment of Show: Playing some fantastic songs I had forgot about.
Worst Moment: Trying to pronounce foreign names in news.

MEM Playlist 23/11/09
1) Celebration - Kool and the Gang
2) Here We Are - Gloria Estefan
3) Listen - Beyonce
4) Saints Are Coming - Green and U2
5) Time of Your Life - Green Day
6) Million Love Songs - Take That
7) All Star - Smash Mouth
8) I Knew You Were Waiting - George Michael and Aretha Franklin
9) JCB Song - Nizlopi
10) Ignorance - Paramore
11) Right Now - Atomic Kitten
12) Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
13) The Only Way Is Up - Yazz
14) We Are The People - Empire of The Sun
15) Stand and Deliver - Adam and the Ants
16) Sing It Back - Moloko
17) Waiting 4 Ur Heart 2 Call - Danny Morris
18) Land Down Under - Men At Work
19) Lat Thing On My Mind - Ronan Keating and Leanne Rimes
20) Town Called Malice - The Jam
21) Search For The Hero - M People

Danny Morris @ Arrowesound 18th November 2009

2009-11-21T09:52:00.005Z

I stepped into unknown territory on Wednesday, because I was in the the Arrowesound Studio but not on a Monday broadcasting live.

The reason being we had a very special guest, Danny Morris formerly of Eton Rd. (who finished 5th on the X Factor in 2006) was due to arrive in the studio with his team.

I arrived at the hospital at about 4pm and went around the wards, getting people to listen and gathering requests, I met one boy on the kid's ward who I dedicated one of Danny's tracks to on air after he told me he was a huge Eton Rd fan, we also had a surprose for him later on.

At 5pm I went on air, hoping that Danny would arrive any minute, I played songs from other talent show contestants while previewing what was coming when Danny arrived.

I played all the requests and many ex-talent show competitor's songs when I got a text saying they were stuck in traffic coming back from Preston were Danny had been turning Xmas lights on.

At 6:15pm they arrrived and we commenced the interview starting with a chat about what he likes, then X Factor and what happened after the X Factor. Please view the link below to hear this section.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1281383362819

The next part of the interview we chatted about his solo career and also about his recently released single, 'Waiting 4 Your Heart 2 Call'. Please view the link below to hear this section.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1281399043211&saved

After playing Danny's ballad version of his new song we chatted about his future as a recording artist and also completed Danny Morris' Guest Challenge. Please view the link below to hear this section.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1281394483097&saved#/video/video.php?v=1281394483097

Danny was a fantastic guest and it was great meeting his manager and friends as well, they said they will return to Arrowesound soon, possibly to deliver a copy of his album which is scheduled for release in March, to read more about Danny Morris go to www.theoverloadtour.co.uk.

After we finished the interview I took Danny down to meet the kid who I mentioned earlier, Danny signed an autograph for him, I think we made his day.

Danny Morris @ Arrowesound Playlist 18/11/09
1) Forgive Me - Leona Lewis
2) The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson (Request)
3) Scream - Danny Morris
4) All This Time - Michelle Mcmanus
5) Best of Both Worlds - Hannah Montana (Request)
6) Everybody In Love - JLS
7) Sound of The Underground - Girls Aloud
8) Evergreen - Will Young
9) Colourblind - Darius
10) Run Out - Danny Morris
11) Nessun Dorma - Paul Potts
12) Sacred Trust - One True Voice
13) Me and Mrs Jones - Andy Abraham
14) Hero - X Factor Finalists 2008
15) A Night To Remember - Liberty X
16) Let It Be - Journey South
17) Against All Odds - Steve Brooksteim
18) Spirit In The Sky - Gareth Gates
19) I Will Always Love You - Rik Waller
20) Waiting 4 Your Heart 2 Call - Danny Morris
21) Bodies - Robbie Williams

Monday Evening Mayhem 16th November 2009

2009-11-17T16:50:00.002Z

Tonight, Jamie dropped in to conclude Jon Vs Jay and my girlfriend showed up to annoy me.

Regular Content

Jon's Tune Of The Week
This week's tune of the week was 'Pencil Full of Lead' by Paolo Nuttini.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather
Stories included Lib Dem Mp's proposal to scrap the Queen's speech and also news from our local football teams.

Back To Back
This week we played Back To Back songs from Phil Collins, Easy Lover and You'll Be In My Heart.

The Shuffle
Nicci chose the 90's and we shuffled and we got that fantastic classic tune, Patients of Angels by Eddie Reader. Neither Jamie nor I had ever heard it.

Special Features

Jon VS Jay
The score was 2-1 to Jamie in the best of 5 series as we returned to the quiz book, I needed this point or Jamie would win. Sadly Jamie won he got 2 questions right I got none.

I Want To Be A Celbrity Get Me In There
Jamie had to tell me about the 11 contestants in the jungle he knew about half the names then pitched himself as a celeb because he knew me.

Best Moment: Talking about the Xmas advert
Worst Moment: Losing the Jon VS Jay series.

MEM Playlist 16/11/09
1) Faith - George Michael
2) Chain Reaction - Steps
3) It Only Takes A Minute - Take That
4) You're All I Have - Snow Patrol
5) Pencil Full Of Lead - Paolo Nuttini
6) I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston
7) Bodies - Robbie Williams
8) Walk This Way - Run DMC & Aerosmith
9) Easy Lover - Phil Collins
10) You'll Be In My Heart - Phil Collins
11) Walkin' On The Sun - Smash Mouth
12) Jump - Pointer Sisters
13) The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson
14) Patients of Angels - Eddie Reader
15) Take Your Mama Out - Scissor Sisters
16) Roll With It - Oasis
17) The Land Of Make Believe - Allstars
18) Shout - Lulu
19) Sober - Pink
20) Blame It On The Weatherman - B'Witched
21) I Feel Good - James Brown

Monday Evening Mayhem 9th November 2009

2009-11-11T16:04:00.002Z

This week Ian Walker was given 15 Minutes live on air and Jamie Preston dropped in for round 3 of Jon VS Jay!

Regular Content

Back To Back
This week we played back to back songs from US superstar Beyonce.
Crazy In Love and If I Were A Boy

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather (5:30pm and 6:30pm)
This weeks news contained the story about Gordon Brown sending a condolences letter to the family of a killed soldier and spelling the name wrong.

Challenge Jon
This week's challenge was probably the most embarassing I will ever get, the challenge was for me to sing 'Walking In Memphis' but in a scottish accent for 1 minute. I completed the challenge meaning I have completed 3 and failed 1.

The Shuffle
This week Jamie chose the decade as 2000's, and the computer shuffled and pulled out Mcfly's Five Colours In Her Hair, Jamie's fact was genuinely interesting, so interesting I can't remember it and mine was rubbish.

Jon's Tune Of The Week
This week my tune was from the fantastic Alexandra Burke, chosen due to the fact I haven't stopped playing it, ofcourse it's her No.1 single Bad Boys!

Special Features

Ian Walker's 15 Minute Takeover
Ian got his first chance on his own to impress you the listeners with his exciteable style of presenting and his choice of songs.

Jon Vs Jay
Round 3: This week Jamie and I had to identify 3 songs each (randomly chosen), with the song and artist, Jamie managed to name one and I managed to name none. So Jamie is currently winning Jon VS Jay 2-1 and I must win next week to save my blushes.

Best Moment of Show: Arguing with Ian about 'Jedward'.
Worst Moment of Show: Having to sing 'Walking In Memphis' on air in a Scottish accent.

MEM Playlist 9/11/09
1) Everybody In Love - JLS
2) Hands Up - Ottawan
3) Supercalifragilisticescpialidocious - Mary Poppins
4)Angels - Robbie Williams
5) Crazy In Love - Beyonce
6) If I Were A Boy - Beyonce
7) My Hero - Foo Fighters
8) Mysterious Girl - Peter Andre
9) Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Michael Bublé
10) Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson (Ian Walker's 15 Minute Takeover)
11) Rockin' All Over The World - Status Quo (Ian Walker's 15 Minute Takeover)
12) Never Forget You - The Noisettes (Ian Walker's 15 Minute Takeover)
13) Candyman - Christina Aguilera
14) Walking In Memphis - Marc Cohn
15) Belive - Cher
16) Bad Boys - Alexandra Burke feat. Flo-rida
17) Machines - Biffy Clyro
18) Five Colours In Her Hair - Mcfly
19) Dirty Cash - Adventures of Stevie V
20) This Is The Last Time - Keane
21) Empire State Of Mind - Jay Z feat. Alicia Keys
22) Golden Touch - Razorlight

Monday Evening Mayhem 2nd November 2009

2009-11-04T22:34:00.002Z

After two weeks away I'm back in the Arrowesound Hospital Radio studio, 5pm til 7pm. This week I had trainee presenter Ian Walker with me in the studio who helped me out with the show.

Regular Content
Useless Facts of The Week
Tina Turner's real name is Anne Mae Bullock
The top of the Empire State Building was built to anchor blimps.
90% of the population has an 'innie' belly button.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather
Included the story on the flooding in Scotland and also David Moyes accepting the draw with Aston Villa due to lack of chances.

Challenge Jon
This week my Challenge was set by my brother who wrote down 10 countries on a piece of paper with Capital cities next to them. Ian read out the country and I had to get the Capital city. I needed to get 8/10 to complete my challenge I got 9.

The Shuffle
New feature, Ian chose a decade and I shuffled through the 10's of thousands of songs on our system and played whatever song come on. Ian and I had to give a fact about the song. The song was "Come Into My World" by Kylie.

Music Feature
Back To Back - I played two songs back to back by Oasis, Shock of The Lightning and Wonderwall.

Special Features
Jon VS Jay: This week saw round 2 of Jon VS Jay, with Jamie 1 point ahead I needed this point to level up, sadly Jamie was not there tonight so he asked Ian to take his place. What a mistake. The challenge was to see who could eat 10 marshmallows the fastest, Ian's time was 1 min 44 and mine was 1 min 34. So the score in Jon VS Jay is now 1-1.
Top 5 New Albums
With the amount of new music available currently MEM counted down our list of the Top 5 New Albums, we played a song from each of the albums.
5) I Look To You - Whitney Houston (Million Dollar Bill)
4) Once More - Spandau Ballet (With The Pride)
3) Reailty Killed The Video Star - Robbie Williams (Bodies)
2) 3 Words - Cheryl Cole (Heartbreaker)
1) Overcome - Alexandra Burke (Bad Boys)

Best Moment: Winning Ian in the marshmallow eating competition.
Mistake: Jamie allowing Ian to take his place in Jon VS Jay.

MEM Playlist 2/11/09
1) Who Do You Think You Are - Spice Girls
2) Funky Town - Lipps Inc.
3) Vertigo - U2
4) Girls On Film - Duran Duran
5) Mr. Blobby - Mr. Blobby
6) Sweet About Me - Gabriella Cilmi
7) Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jnr
8) Song 4 Lovers - Liberty X
9) If Ya Gettin Down - Five
10) Candy - Paolo Nuttini
11) Close To Me - The Cure
12) Me and Mrs Jones - Michael Buble

Monday Evening Mayhem 12th October 2009

2009-10-13T22:11:00.002+01:00

Back in the studio this Monday for the 18th MEM show live from the 2nd floor Arrowesound Hospital Radio Studio. This week's was cut short by 15 mins due to TRFC playing at home. This made the show even more jam-packed, this week Jamie Preston joined me in the studio along with our new trainee presenter Ian Walker.

Regular Content
Useless Facts of The Week
'It's possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs'
'The most common name in the world is Mohammed'
'The longest one syllable word in the English language is 'screeched'

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather:
Main headlines included expenses demands and a look ahead at Les Parry's 1st game in charge.

The New Tune
Bad Boys by Alexandra Burke

On This Day
1938 - Filimng began on 'Wizard of Oz'
1975 - Rod Stewart and the Faces played thier last show together
Birthdays: Pavarotti and Hugh Jackman

Challenge Jon
This week's challenge for me was to eat 3 bananas in 1 minute, Jamie commentated as I shovelled the bananas into my mouth (all of this live on air). Sadly I only got through 2 and a half, so far I have completed one challenge and failed one miserably I was genuinely dissapointed.

Competition
The Rumour Mill, my audience had to decide which one of these rumours is a genuine one:
1) Ronaldo to replace Beckham as Armani underwear model.
2) Tony Blair to join Lib Dem party.
3)Bruce Willis starring in a chick flick with Zac Efron.

Music Feature
Back To Back: We played 2 Robbie Williams' songs back to back....Bodies and Feel.

Special Feature
This week was the opener of Jon VS Jay, over the next 5 weeks the dynamic duo will be broken to see who is champion out of Jamie and I. This week we asked each other 5 general knowledge questions. Jamie only managed 1/5 correct answers, but that was enough to beat me. I didn't get a single answer. So Jamie takes a 1-0 lead into week 2.

Best Moment: Challenge Jon: it was just hilarious and thanks to Becky Kelly for the challenge.
Worst Moment: Getting beat by Jamie in Jon VS Jay

MEM Playlist 12/10/09
1) Hungry Eyes - Eric Carmen
2) Back To Black - Amy Winehouse
3) The Best Things In Life Are Free - Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson
4) Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word - Elton John and Blue
5) Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
6) The Way You Make Me Fell - Michael Jackson
7) Livin La Vida Loca - Ricky Martin
8) With Or Without You - U2
9) Ignorance - Paramore
10) Kiss Kiss - Holly Valance
11) Shaddap Your Face - Joe Dolce
12) Tell Me Ma - Shamrock
13) Baby Can I Hold You Tonight - Boyzone
14) Holding Out For A Hero - Bonnie Tyler
15) Sober - Pink

Thanks for reading, I am away on Monday the 19th but I will be back for the 26th!!

Monday Evening Mayhem 5th October 2009

2009-10-05T20:58:00.002+01:00

New look blog for my new sounding show, tonight was the first show of the revamped MEM, More Music, More Guests and More Stupidity. (17th Show)

Regular Content
Useless Facts of The Week:
'The accent that Mike Myers uses for Shrek was the voice his Mum used to tell him bedtim stories with'.
'Belle from Beauty in The Beast makes a cameo appearance in the Hunchback of Notre Dame'
'The song 'Happy Birthday' generates $2,000,000 a year in revenue for Warner Brothers.

Arrowesound Hospital Radio News and Weather:
Main headlines included suicide bombing in Pakistan and John Barnes determined not to walk out on Tranmere.

The New Tune
This week's New Tune was JLS' new song Everybody in Love.

On This Day
1999 - Prince released the song 'The Greatest Romance Ever Sold'
1997 - Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise were accused of being homosexual
Birthdays: Bob Geldof and Kate Winslet

Challenge Jon
This week's challenge was I had to grab someone off the corridor outside the studio and get them to come in and say 'hi'. Margreat Vickers was unlucky enough to walk past and she came in, introduced herself, so I completed my 1st challenge.

Competition
This week's competition was Guess Who? I read out 3 clues about a famous celeb, which was David Beckham, sadly we had no winner.

Music Feature
This week it was 'Back to Back' we played Papa Don't Preach and American Pie by Madonna Back To Back.

Special Feature
This week I counted down my top 5 favourite SFX on the computer in the studio they were:
5) Airpalne Noise
4) Family Fortunes Buzzer
3) Doctor Evil ('That's DR. Evil')
2) Pigs
1) Forrest Gump ('Life's like a box...')

Fave Part Of Show: Using Simon Cowell quotes to introduce songs.

Mistake: I played 'Stomp' while the news jingle was still playing.

MEM Playlist 5/10/09
1) I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker - Sandi Tom
2) Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
3) Country House - Blur
4) Stomp - Steps
5) Pray - Take That
6) Last Thing On My Mind - Ronan Keating and Leanne Rimes
7) Every Breath You Take - The Police
8) Perfect 10 - Beautiful South
9) Dance With My Father - Luther Vandross
10) Papa Don't Preach - Madonna (BACK TO BACK)
11) American Pie - Madonna (BACK TO BACK)
12) Angel - The Corrs
13) Everybody In Love - JLS (THE NEW TUNE)
14) Land Of Confusion - Genesis
15) 500 Miles - Proclaimers
16) Stop Me - Mark Ronson
17) Superstition - Stevie Wonder
18) Club Tropicana - Wham
19) Against All Odds - Steve Brookstein
20) Love Is All Around - Wet Wet Wet
21) Take On Me - A-ha
22) A Night To Remember - Liberty X
23) Candy - Paolo Nuttini
24) Let's Groove - Earth, Wind and Fire
25) Hush - Pussycat Dolls