Difference between revisions of "The Afternoon Show"
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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
| − | Beginning on Monday 12 October 1998, Chris Moyles was allowed out to play in daylight. Given a new, lucrative two year contract - partly to prevent Chris Evans from poaching him to go to Virgin Radio - Chris was promoted from [[The Early Bit]] to front the late afternoon show (originally called The Afternoon Bit), between 1600 - 1745. In 2001, the show's hours were extended to 1500 - 1745. | + | Beginning on Monday 12 October 1998, Chris Moyles was allowed out to play in daylight. Given a new, lucrative two year contract - partly to prevent Chris Evans from poaching him to go to Virgin Radio - Chris was promoted from [[The Early Bit]] to front the late afternoon show (originally called ''The Afternoon Bit''), between 1600 - 1745. In 2001, the show's hours were extended to 1500 - 1745. |
| − | Joined initially by Dave and producer Ben Cooper, the slot became home to Chris for over | + | Joined initially by Dave and producer Ben Cooper, the slot became home to Chris for over five years, and it was in the afternoons that he really established himself as a household name. |
In his first three months, Chris added 300,000 new listeners and helped Radio One to their best RAJAR results in two years. | In his first three months, Chris added 300,000 new listeners and helped Radio One to their best RAJAR results in two years. | ||
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==The Team== | ==The Team== | ||
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| Broadcast Assistant | | Broadcast Assistant | ||
| 2001 | | 2001 | ||
| − | | | + | | 2002 |
|- | |- | ||
| [[Aled Haydn Jones]] | | [[Aled Haydn Jones]] | ||
| − | | BB Aled/ | + | | BB Aled/Broadcast Assistant |
| 2001 | | 2001 | ||
| + | | 2003 | ||
| + | |- | ||
| + | | [[Rachel Jones]] | ||
| + | | Producer | ||
| + | | 2003 | ||
| 2003 | | 2003 | ||
|} | |} | ||
| − | == | + | ==1998== |
| − | + | ==1999== | |
| − | Moyles would begin and end the roadshows by performing a range of musical numbers | + | August 1999 saw the team travel up and down England on the last ever week of the Radio One Roadshow - as bosses had announced plans to rebrand the roadshows as “One Big Sunday” from the start of the new Millennium. They visited Middlesbrough, Cleethorpes, Hunstanton, Great Yarmouth and Brighton on their tour - with live guests including S Club 7, Hepburn, B*Witched, ''Coronation Street'' star and singer Adam Rickett and Chris’ favourite band of the time, Shed Seven. |
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| + | Moyles would begin and end the roadshows by performing a range of musical numbers. | ||
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| + | ==2000== | ||
Moyles helped Radio One see in the new Millennium with an extended Breakfast show from 8am on New Years Day 2000, but when the breakfast show was changed permanently four months later, it was Sara Cox and not Chris, who replaced Zoë Ball. A Radio One spokesman said of Moyles: ”His show is doing perfectly in the afternoons and his style is perfect for that slot. Plus he has said himself that he could not bothered getting up at that time”. Instead, the team had different plans. | Moyles helped Radio One see in the new Millennium with an extended Breakfast show from 8am on New Years Day 2000, but when the breakfast show was changed permanently four months later, it was Sara Cox and not Chris, who replaced Zoë Ball. A Radio One spokesman said of Moyles: ”His show is doing perfectly in the afternoons and his style is perfect for that slot. Plus he has said himself that he could not bothered getting up at that time”. Instead, the team had different plans. | ||
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As well as presenting various One Big Sunday events across the country, Chris took the show to the road in July 2000 for the ''One Big Belly'' tour: hitting Blackpool, Hunstanton, Paignton, Scarborough, Weymouth and Newquay. It was through the One Big Belly tour that Chris first got to know [[Aled Haydn Jones]], a member of the Radio One team who helped book bands and transport for the shows. Both shared a passion for Channel 4’s ''Big Brother'', launched in July 2000 - and by the end of the summer, the whole nation was addicted. | As well as presenting various One Big Sunday events across the country, Chris took the show to the road in July 2000 for the ''One Big Belly'' tour: hitting Blackpool, Hunstanton, Paignton, Scarborough, Weymouth and Newquay. It was through the One Big Belly tour that Chris first got to know [[Aled Haydn Jones]], a member of the Radio One team who helped book bands and transport for the shows. Both shared a passion for Channel 4’s ''Big Brother'', launched in July 2000 - and by the end of the summer, the whole nation was addicted. | ||
| − | Both winner Craig Phillips and | + | Both winner Craig Phillips and 'Nasty' Nick Bateman came on the show for subsequent interviews. The team also launched their own spoof parody ''Big Mutha'': featuring the strapline "10 DJ’s, 14 microphones and no jingles... This is Big Mutha". |
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| − | + | ==2001== | |
{{Schedule | {{Schedule | ||
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* 1800 Dave Pearce | * 1800 Dave Pearce | ||
}} | }} | ||
| − | In February 2001, Simon Mayo left Radio One after fifteen years with the station. This resulted in a schedule reshuffle, which saw both Chris and Jo Whiley given extended shows. Chris was given an earlier start time of 3pm - and didn’t disappoint. | + | |
| + | In February 2001, Simon Mayo left Radio One after fifteen years with the station. This resulted in a schedule reshuffle, which saw both Chris and Jo Whiley given extended shows. Chris was given an earlier start time of 3pm - and didn’t disappoint. 2001 is often thought to be one of Moyles' best years at the station. His new show began with a pre-recorded sketch, featuring Simon Mayo himself - and included new jingles and new features, including Secret Squirrel, The Great Receptionist Stopwatch Challenge, Dial-A-Mate and Car-e-oke. The latter almost saw a live arrest on the show later in the year, as contestant Lucy was told to move by the police whilst on the phone to Chris. | ||
On February 23rd, Chris was joined by some very special guests - the Popstars Hear’Say. It was their very first radio interview, highlights of which went out on ITV the following day. | On February 23rd, Chris was joined by some very special guests - the Popstars Hear’Say. It was their very first radio interview, highlights of which went out on ITV the following day. | ||
| − | Moyles went on to parody their debut single | + | Moyles went on to parody their debut single ''Pure And Simple''. Myleene Klass from the band, producer Will’s favourite, returned to the show in December to record a duet with him of ''Something Stupid'', which went on to be Christmas number one for Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman. |
| − | Other notable parodies this year included | + | Other notable parodies this year included Dave’s take on Ian Van Dahl’s ''Castles In The Sky'', all about the BBC losing their Premiership football rights. |
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| − | + | In March, Comedy Dave and Chappers embarked upon their Comic Relief Football Challenge - as they toured all of the Premier League clubs in England and Scotland within a week, to collect merchandise from each club which a listener could win. | |
| − | + | April saw producer Hannah depping for Will while he was on holiday, and she inadvertently produced one of the funniest moments of the year, with her drunken story about hitting (and making cry) Coby Dick, the lead singer of Papa Roach. | |
| − | + | Other new items launched on the show in 2001 included Dave and Will’s ''Camp Cops'' sketches - plus Challenge The Team, A Book At Tea Time, Guess Who, Mystic Horse and the legendary Sports Talk feature. This is where Will, who knows nothing about football, presented a spoof Five Live football phone-in show similar to 606. It would often feature Chris and Dave as callers on a time delay. The feature was dropped in 2002. | |
| + | ''Big Brother'' made its return to Channel 4 in 2001, won by Brian Dowling. Chris and the team went BB mad, with a number of ex housemates coming onto the show to talk about their time in the house. ''Big Brother'' presenter Davina McCall also made her debut appearance on the show this year. There were even daily updates courtesy of 'BB Aled' - [[Aled Haydn Jones]], a Big Brother obsessive who was at the time working on Dave Pearce’s Drive show on Radio 1. Aled was invited by Chris to give a one-off review of the first show, but it went down well enough for Aled to join the team. He would often provide eviction exclusives, plus audio from the Big Brother press conferences each and every Friday. | ||
| + | With the launch of another reality show later in the year, ''Pop Idol'', Chris responded in typical fashion. Spoof feature Pap Idol was then followed up by another, Bap Idol - won by Nikki, 19 from Essex. September 2001 also saw the launch of two classic features still mentioned to this day: Bang Will’s Head Against The Studio Window and Dizzy Lizzie. | ||
| − | + | The former involved Greyhead banging his head as many times as he could against the studio window in 30 seconds, whilst wearing a helmet. For some reason he didn't think this idea was very safe, so didn't bang his head particularly hard. The latter saw Lizzie put in a swivel chair and spun for 30 seconds whilst listening to nauseating music. She was then pushed off and made to carry an apple and orange. Both features were accompanied by almost identical jingles. | |
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| − | + | ===Big Blubber=== | |
| − | + | A new weekly feature which was introduced in 2001 was Big Blubber, as the team collectively launched a fitness campaign, with the help of their new personal trainer Gym Lady Jane. Each week Chris, Dave, Will and Lizzie would go out training with Jane, before she rated their performances individually on the air. The most hard working would then win the "Licky-licky Brown Nose" trophy and have to make a speech. The training sessions often took place in London’s Regents Park, surrounded by paparazzi, resulting in many appearances in celebrity magazine Heat and The Mirror’s 3AM Girls showbiz column. Chris’s on-going feud with the 3AM Girls escalated when they published his home phone number later in the year, although he subsequently claimed victory. | |
| − | + | Chris' greatest achievement from his training with Jane came a year later in 2002, when he completed The Great North Run in an incredible 1 hour 57 minutes, reaching his lowest weight since he was a teenager. | |
| − | + | ===September 11 2001=== | |
| − | + | On Tuesday 11 September 2001, the terrorist attacks in America occurred just before Chris was due to go on the air at 3pm UK time. A decision was made not to do the usual show. Instead, Chris played non stop music, interrupted only by regular news updates from Newsbeat's Claire Bradley. He was widely praised for his handling of the situation. The next three shows were much the same - featuring emails from listeners, stories from eye witnesses and the latest news from Newsbeat. | |
| − | + | Friend of the show Jerry Springer was on the phone on the Wednesday to discuss events, as was Joe Grant from EMI in New York. Joe was an American listener who had phoned the show earlier in the year, when they were asking to hear from listeners abroad. | |
| − | Chris | + | Chris also did the final [[The Saturday Show|Saturday Show]] on the weekend after the attacks. He respectfully advised listeners that if they were not in the mood for laughter and jokes that they should not listen to that day's show. |
| − | + | ==2002== | |
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| − | + | The new year began badly for Chris, as he split up with long term girlfriend Ana Boulter. He spent the next few months complaining about being single, and asked hot women to ring up the show if they wanted to go out with him. | |
| − | + | Stringfellows lap dancer Bonnie Simon duly did, and the two hooked up at a London pub. A few months later Bonnie, who had left her job (not that we are insinuating anything) sold her story to the News Of The World. See it here in our News Archive. Chris never confirmed or denied sleeping with her. | |
| − | + | In February, Chris also got himself into hot water with the Broadcasting Standards Commission, when he offered to take Charlotte Church’s virginity on the day she turned 16. The complaints were upheld and Moyles forced to apologise. Despite this, Charlotte made several subsequent appearances on Chris' shows, with Chris even presenting his Christmas Day show live from her mum's pub in 2005. | |
| − | + | In October 2002 Moyles also got into more trouble, and was severely reprimanded for comments he made in August about Pop Idol judge and Capital FM DJ, Neil 'Doctor' Fox. As the pair continued their long running war of words, spread across the tabloids, Chris said "I'm gonna tear his head off and poo down his neck". According to Moyles' first book, the feud had begin when they both worked at Capital in the 1990s. | |
| − | + | Chris was also named Britain’s ”Most irritating DJ” in a 2002 poll. Listeners apparently didn't like the way he waffled instead of naming the records he played. | |
| − | + | 2002 was also the year that Comedy Dave finally (drunkenly) proposed to his then girlfriend Emma, after four years together. The £140 wedding ring was a major talking point. | |
| − | + | From 29 April - 3 May 2002, the team presented a week's worth of shows from America. The Chris Moyles US Road Trip came live from Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Chris, Dave, Will and Lizzie were joined by competition winner Paul Titley, who was from Cannock and best known for his huge sideburns. Each day "Titters" (as he became known) was set a task, including the time he had to get ''Starbucks'' by the band A played on US radio. Guests during the week long excursion included John Lydon, Noel Gallagher and Elbow. The team also visited Coachella Festival, Warner Brothers Studios and Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion. Producer Will and show exec Mick Meadows were also involved in a car crash whilst out there, but fortunately escaped unhurt. | |
| − | "Chris, | + | Jingle Justin, a rather odd but funny Irish fella, also started contributing to the show. He would ask celebrities bizarre questions like "What would you leave Chris Moyles in your will?", and once infiltrated the ''Popstars'' auditions (on air) to squirt a water pistol at Geri Halliwell. |
| − | + | Other highlights from the year included the time Chris pretended to be drunk during the World Cup, Dave and Will ballsing up a news intro in his absence - and an all time classic clip, where the team reveal to Chris that U2’s "live" performance down the line for his birthday a couple of weeks previously hadn't been live. Nor indeed for his birthday. It was from a Simon Mayo session a couple of years beforehand. | |
| − | + | In September 2002, Lizzie left the show to produce Scott Mills on Early Breakfast, effectively swapping jobs with Aled Haydn Jones (formerly known as BB Aled), who joined the team as broadcast assistant. Hear Lizzie “become” Aled here. For more on Aled check out his biography. | |
| − | On Sunday December 1st, Chris presented Radio One’s Official UK Top 40 as a guest presenter - celebrating fifty years of the chart. Highlights here. He was proud to introduce Top 20 success for Rikki and Daz, who he had supported on the show all year long, first under the name | + | On Sunday December 1st, Chris presented Radio One’s Official UK Top 40 as a guest presenter - celebrating fifty years of the chart. Highlights here. He was proud to introduce Top 20 success for Rikki and Daz [Sampson], who he had supported on the show all year long, first under the name "Blown Out". Jo Whiley said Chris "should have been kneecapped" for his involvement. Daz Sampson went on to represent the UK at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. |
| − | + | The year's best parodies included Chris' take on Puretone in Purefish’s ''Addicted To Plaice'', and the teams brilliant take on Big Brovaz in their Bigger Brovaz spoof. | |
| − | + | New features on the show included Freebies at Five, The Radio One Tea Table Update, FA Aled, Dave’s Telly Tips and his Tedious Link each day at half five - where he would tenuously link one classic track to another. On hot days Chris also started paying tribute to the 'Sunshine Sheilas', and the catchphrase of the time was ”I don’t drink, Chris Moyles rocks!”, as coined by a caller to a Five Live football phone in. | |
| − | + | As ever, Chris was named DJ Of The Year for 2002 by readers of The Sun. The year ended with the recording of the song parody widely regarded as Chris’s best ever - Stanta. A take on Eminem’s number one smash ''"Stan"'', Chris' version featured Santa Claus - and plenty of bad language. | |
| − | + | ==2003== | |
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2003 was certainly eventful for Moyles, if not anything else. The show lost 700,000 listeners, yet Chris still ended up with the biggest promotion of his career. | 2003 was certainly eventful for Moyles, if not anything else. The show lost 700,000 listeners, yet Chris still ended up with the biggest promotion of his career. | ||
| − | The year began with the arrival of Moped in February - officially Battenberg’s number one Scooter tribute band. MC LMNOP and his posse originally remixed Clocks by Coldplay for the show, but after Chris and Dave loved it so much, they continued to contribute various mixes throughout the year. Their back catalogue includes takes on Bon Jovi, Abba, Guns ‘N’ Roses and many TV theme tunes/special tributes. | + | The year began with the arrival of Moped in February - "officially Battenberg’s number one Scooter tribute band". MC LMNOP and his posse originally remixed ''Clocks'' by Coldplay for the show, but after Chris and Dave loved it so much, they continued to contribute various mixes throughout the year. Their back catalogue includes takes on Bon Jovi, Abba, Guns ‘N’ Roses and many TV theme tunes/special tributes. In fact in October, they even joined the team at One Live In Brighton for a very special performance, in front of Mr Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim. |
| − | Other outside broadcasts in 2003 included a trip to Sheffield to meet Justin Timberlake, followed by a visit to Knebworth (for Robbie | + | Other outside broadcasts in 2003 included a trip to Sheffield to meet Justin Timberlake, followed by a visit to Knebworth (for Robbie Williams' record breaking gig), and then finally a Christmas excursion to Inverness, where the team switched on the city's Christmas lights. |
| − | In August Chris also decided that with half of Radio One seemingly on holiday, and the other half in Ibiza, the team | + | In August Chris also decided that with half of Radio One's DJs seemingly on holiday, and the other half in Ibiza, the team shouldn't be stuck at home. They flew to Ibiza overnight for an impromptu show, hooking up with the “amazing” DJ Sammy. |
| − | + | Comedy Dave and Chappers embarked on their "Comic Relief Football Tour" in the spring, which meant a week of special celebrity guests joining Chris, Will and Aled in the studio. These included Gail Porter, Pete Waterman and ex-Radio One legend Tony Blackburn. More importantly however, Moyles raised more money than Scott Mills via text vote, which he was more than pleased about. | |
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| − | + | 2003 also saw classic feature Viaduct made a (brief) return to the show, before being binned again. Other new items included The Afternoon Mystery Sound, Dave’s Dictionary Definitions, Huey Lewis & The News, The Monday Surgery, Jonathan Pearce's Football Preview - and ''Celebdaq'' Updates courtesy of Paddy O'Connell, who presented the BBC TV show of the same name. The two funniest features of the year though were undoubtedly Fire At Will, which involved throwing cans of lager at Will 'Greyhead' Kinder, and I Look Like Wayne Sleep, Get Me Out of Here, which involved pouring pot noodle down Aled’s back, whilst he was blindfolded. | |
| − | + | New parodies included Chris' take on Christina Aguilera, Dizzee Rascal and Robbie Williams, with spoof phone calls courtesy of Big Brother's Cameron Stout also a regular feature on the show. | |
| − | + | Channel 4 star Avid Merrion started making regular visits to the studio (which were usually hilarious), and Chris also discovered the BBC internal phone system and the hours of fun it could provide. Perhaps the funniest moment of the year however came on 14 August, when Moyles presented the first half hour of the show as a cheesy, local radio DJ - with help from his wacky sidekicks Dave and Will. | |
| − | 2003 | + | On 23 August 2003, Comedy Dave tied the knot with his fiancée Emma Pontefract, at Tudor Barns, close to Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire. A "bidding war" had previously emerged on the show, with several contenders eager to get exclusive rights to those wedding pics (including us here at chrismoyles.net!). Heat Magazine eventually won out, and the copy including Dave's wedding snaps actually sold 30,000 more than the previous week's edition. He said his mum bought six of those. With Dave subsequently away on honeymoon, Moyles had only Will and Aled for company. It wasn’t long before Will was off too though. After nearly three years as producer, he quit the show to join Tiger Aspect Productions, a television production company based in Soho, London. His last show was on Friday September 26th 2003. You can hear pretty much the whole thing in our Sound Vault, with twenty two different clips archived - including his final moments. |
| − | + | His replacement was ex-[[The Saturday Show|Saturday Show]] producer [[Rachel Jones]], although Will soon returned to the show in an off air role. | |
| − | + | ===End of the show=== | |
| − | + | On Tuesday 7 October 2003, almost five years after the start of Chris' afternoon show, Radio One announced that it was to end. That's because bosses had decided to switch Chris with Sara Cox, and make him only the fifteenth regular host of their flagship breakfast show. | |
| − | + | With the changes coming into effect from the start of 2004, it meant goodbye to Moyles in the afternoons, and a month of Breakfast pilots leading up to Christmas. Therefore, the last Chris Moyles afternoon show was broadcast on Friday 5 December 2003. | |
| − | + | Urged by management to look forwards and not back, there wasn't too much nostalgia during the last show. There was however a final handover with Mark and Lard, a final chat with long time news reader Georgina Bowman - and a special song to close. | |
| − | + | ==Features== | |
| − | + | {{Main|Features on The Afternoon Show}} | |
| − | + | When the show launched, features included ''Viaduct'', ''The Not'' and ''Our Tone''. Chris’ new catchphrase was "Hop On Baby!". | |
| − | + | ===Ghetto-Life=== | |
| − | + | In response to the huge success of new Irish boy band Westlife, the team had decided to form their own boy band - named Ghetto-Life, a pun on the phrase "get a life". They subsequently recorded their much hyped debut “You’re My Baby” at Abbey Road studios - with Chris on lead vocals, Rhys and Mel on guitar, and Dave in his rapper guise as “Choc Ice”. Lyrics included ”You make me laugh; you’re sweet and funny, You call me cute names like fluffy bunny”. Ghetto-Life sadly never got a record deal. | |
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==Show archive== | ==Show archive== | ||
Latest revision as of 00:17, 12 September 2015
| Radio 1 Daytime Schedule October 1998
|
|
The Afternoon Show was a radio show presented by Chris Moyles with Comedy Dave which ran on BBC Radio 1 from 12 October 1998 to 5 December 2003.
Contents
Background
Beginning on Monday 12 October 1998, Chris Moyles was allowed out to play in daylight. Given a new, lucrative two year contract - partly to prevent Chris Evans from poaching him to go to Virgin Radio - Chris was promoted from The Early Bit to front the late afternoon show (originally called The Afternoon Bit), between 1600 - 1745. In 2001, the show's hours were extended to 1500 - 1745.
Joined initially by Dave and producer Ben Cooper, the slot became home to Chris for over five years, and it was in the afternoons that he really established himself as a household name.
In his first three months, Chris added 300,000 new listeners and helped Radio One to their best RAJAR results in two years.
The Team
The show began in 1998 with Chris and his sidekick Comedy Dave, who had been working with him on Chris' early morning show. June 1999 saw a change of team with the departure of producer Ben to Jo Whiley’s show, and the arrival of his replacement, ex Mark and Lard producer Rhys Hughes (also a member of the Shirehorses). Other new arrivals on the show included the previously mentioned Simon Hollis as Broadcast Assistant, nicknamed "Melinda", because he used to work in a mail room.. ergo a messenger - and impressionist Jon Culshaw, who was working at the time with Steve Penk on Capital.
One memorable moment from the show during 2000 was the unforgettable team walkout, where everyone on the show bar Chris pretended to quit mid-link. However, they returned half an hour later.
In December 2000, Rhys left the show for real - to take up a new position as executive producer of Radio One’s specialist programming. He returned to the team full time as executive producer in 2005. Rhys’ place was taken by Will Kinder, former producer of the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. Will, or "Greyhead" as he became known, struck up an instant chemistry with Chris and Dave. Another change quickly followed before the end of the year, as Melinda also announced his intention to leave the show. His last show was the pre-recorded Christmas Day special, which went out between 6 and 8pm.
Melinda’s replacement as broadcast assistant, Lizzie Buckingham, joined the show in January 2001. Lizzie, then aged 24 from Southport, became the first woman to work on the weekday show full time since Jude in 1998.
| Name | Role | Year started | Year departed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Moyles | Main presenter | 1998 | 2003 |
| Dave Vitty | Co-presenter | 1998 | 2003 |
| Ben Cooper | Producer | 1998 | 1999 |
| Rhys Hughes | Producer | 1999 | 2000 |
| Simon 'Melinda' Hollis | Broadcast Assistant | 1999 | 2000 |
| Will Kinder | Producer | 2000 | 2003 |
| Lizzie Buckingham | Broadcast Assistant | 2001 | 2002 |
| Aled Haydn Jones | BB Aled/Broadcast Assistant | 2001 | 2003 |
| Rachel Jones | Producer | 2003 | 2003 |
1998
1999
August 1999 saw the team travel up and down England on the last ever week of the Radio One Roadshow - as bosses had announced plans to rebrand the roadshows as “One Big Sunday” from the start of the new Millennium. They visited Middlesbrough, Cleethorpes, Hunstanton, Great Yarmouth and Brighton on their tour - with live guests including S Club 7, Hepburn, B*Witched, Coronation Street star and singer Adam Rickett and Chris’ favourite band of the time, Shed Seven.
Moyles would begin and end the roadshows by performing a range of musical numbers.
2000
Moyles helped Radio One see in the new Millennium with an extended Breakfast show from 8am on New Years Day 2000, but when the breakfast show was changed permanently four months later, it was Sara Cox and not Chris, who replaced Zoë Ball. A Radio One spokesman said of Moyles: ”His show is doing perfectly in the afternoons and his style is perfect for that slot. Plus he has said himself that he could not bothered getting up at that time”. Instead, the team had different plans.
The following summer saw the show take off to foreign shores, with outside broadcasts from the Euro 2000 football tournament in Holland and Belgium. Guests on the show included Noel Gallagher, Craig David and Melanie C, plus the team gained a temporary member in the form of Mark Chapman, aka “Chappers” from Sara Cox’s Breakfast Show.
As well as presenting various One Big Sunday events across the country, Chris took the show to the road in July 2000 for the One Big Belly tour: hitting Blackpool, Hunstanton, Paignton, Scarborough, Weymouth and Newquay. It was through the One Big Belly tour that Chris first got to know Aled Haydn Jones, a member of the Radio One team who helped book bands and transport for the shows. Both shared a passion for Channel 4’s Big Brother, launched in July 2000 - and by the end of the summer, the whole nation was addicted.
Both winner Craig Phillips and 'Nasty' Nick Bateman came on the show for subsequent interviews. The team also launched their own spoof parody Big Mutha: featuring the strapline "10 DJ’s, 14 microphones and no jingles... This is Big Mutha".
2001
| Radio 1 Daytime Schedule February 2001
|
|
In February 2001, Simon Mayo left Radio One after fifteen years with the station. This resulted in a schedule reshuffle, which saw both Chris and Jo Whiley given extended shows. Chris was given an earlier start time of 3pm - and didn’t disappoint. 2001 is often thought to be one of Moyles' best years at the station. His new show began with a pre-recorded sketch, featuring Simon Mayo himself - and included new jingles and new features, including Secret Squirrel, The Great Receptionist Stopwatch Challenge, Dial-A-Mate and Car-e-oke. The latter almost saw a live arrest on the show later in the year, as contestant Lucy was told to move by the police whilst on the phone to Chris.
On February 23rd, Chris was joined by some very special guests - the Popstars Hear’Say. It was their very first radio interview, highlights of which went out on ITV the following day.
Moyles went on to parody their debut single Pure And Simple. Myleene Klass from the band, producer Will’s favourite, returned to the show in December to record a duet with him of Something Stupid, which went on to be Christmas number one for Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman.
Other notable parodies this year included Dave’s take on Ian Van Dahl’s Castles In The Sky, all about the BBC losing their Premiership football rights.
In March, Comedy Dave and Chappers embarked upon their Comic Relief Football Challenge - as they toured all of the Premier League clubs in England and Scotland within a week, to collect merchandise from each club which a listener could win.
April saw producer Hannah depping for Will while he was on holiday, and she inadvertently produced one of the funniest moments of the year, with her drunken story about hitting (and making cry) Coby Dick, the lead singer of Papa Roach.
Other new items launched on the show in 2001 included Dave and Will’s Camp Cops sketches - plus Challenge The Team, A Book At Tea Time, Guess Who, Mystic Horse and the legendary Sports Talk feature. This is where Will, who knows nothing about football, presented a spoof Five Live football phone-in show similar to 606. It would often feature Chris and Dave as callers on a time delay. The feature was dropped in 2002.
Big Brother made its return to Channel 4 in 2001, won by Brian Dowling. Chris and the team went BB mad, with a number of ex housemates coming onto the show to talk about their time in the house. Big Brother presenter Davina McCall also made her debut appearance on the show this year. There were even daily updates courtesy of 'BB Aled' - Aled Haydn Jones, a Big Brother obsessive who was at the time working on Dave Pearce’s Drive show on Radio 1. Aled was invited by Chris to give a one-off review of the first show, but it went down well enough for Aled to join the team. He would often provide eviction exclusives, plus audio from the Big Brother press conferences each and every Friday.
With the launch of another reality show later in the year, Pop Idol, Chris responded in typical fashion. Spoof feature Pap Idol was then followed up by another, Bap Idol - won by Nikki, 19 from Essex. September 2001 also saw the launch of two classic features still mentioned to this day: Bang Will’s Head Against The Studio Window and Dizzy Lizzie.
The former involved Greyhead banging his head as many times as he could against the studio window in 30 seconds, whilst wearing a helmet. For some reason he didn't think this idea was very safe, so didn't bang his head particularly hard. The latter saw Lizzie put in a swivel chair and spun for 30 seconds whilst listening to nauseating music. She was then pushed off and made to carry an apple and orange. Both features were accompanied by almost identical jingles.
Big Blubber
A new weekly feature which was introduced in 2001 was Big Blubber, as the team collectively launched a fitness campaign, with the help of their new personal trainer Gym Lady Jane. Each week Chris, Dave, Will and Lizzie would go out training with Jane, before she rated their performances individually on the air. The most hard working would then win the "Licky-licky Brown Nose" trophy and have to make a speech. The training sessions often took place in London’s Regents Park, surrounded by paparazzi, resulting in many appearances in celebrity magazine Heat and The Mirror’s 3AM Girls showbiz column. Chris’s on-going feud with the 3AM Girls escalated when they published his home phone number later in the year, although he subsequently claimed victory.
Chris' greatest achievement from his training with Jane came a year later in 2002, when he completed The Great North Run in an incredible 1 hour 57 minutes, reaching his lowest weight since he was a teenager.
September 11 2001
On Tuesday 11 September 2001, the terrorist attacks in America occurred just before Chris was due to go on the air at 3pm UK time. A decision was made not to do the usual show. Instead, Chris played non stop music, interrupted only by regular news updates from Newsbeat's Claire Bradley. He was widely praised for his handling of the situation. The next three shows were much the same - featuring emails from listeners, stories from eye witnesses and the latest news from Newsbeat.
Friend of the show Jerry Springer was on the phone on the Wednesday to discuss events, as was Joe Grant from EMI in New York. Joe was an American listener who had phoned the show earlier in the year, when they were asking to hear from listeners abroad.
Chris also did the final Saturday Show on the weekend after the attacks. He respectfully advised listeners that if they were not in the mood for laughter and jokes that they should not listen to that day's show.
2002
The new year began badly for Chris, as he split up with long term girlfriend Ana Boulter. He spent the next few months complaining about being single, and asked hot women to ring up the show if they wanted to go out with him.
Stringfellows lap dancer Bonnie Simon duly did, and the two hooked up at a London pub. A few months later Bonnie, who had left her job (not that we are insinuating anything) sold her story to the News Of The World. See it here in our News Archive. Chris never confirmed or denied sleeping with her.
In February, Chris also got himself into hot water with the Broadcasting Standards Commission, when he offered to take Charlotte Church’s virginity on the day she turned 16. The complaints were upheld and Moyles forced to apologise. Despite this, Charlotte made several subsequent appearances on Chris' shows, with Chris even presenting his Christmas Day show live from her mum's pub in 2005.
In October 2002 Moyles also got into more trouble, and was severely reprimanded for comments he made in August about Pop Idol judge and Capital FM DJ, Neil 'Doctor' Fox. As the pair continued their long running war of words, spread across the tabloids, Chris said "I'm gonna tear his head off and poo down his neck". According to Moyles' first book, the feud had begin when they both worked at Capital in the 1990s.
Chris was also named Britain’s ”Most irritating DJ” in a 2002 poll. Listeners apparently didn't like the way he waffled instead of naming the records he played.
2002 was also the year that Comedy Dave finally (drunkenly) proposed to his then girlfriend Emma, after four years together. The £140 wedding ring was a major talking point.
From 29 April - 3 May 2002, the team presented a week's worth of shows from America. The Chris Moyles US Road Trip came live from Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Chris, Dave, Will and Lizzie were joined by competition winner Paul Titley, who was from Cannock and best known for his huge sideburns. Each day "Titters" (as he became known) was set a task, including the time he had to get Starbucks by the band A played on US radio. Guests during the week long excursion included John Lydon, Noel Gallagher and Elbow. The team also visited Coachella Festival, Warner Brothers Studios and Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion. Producer Will and show exec Mick Meadows were also involved in a car crash whilst out there, but fortunately escaped unhurt.
Jingle Justin, a rather odd but funny Irish fella, also started contributing to the show. He would ask celebrities bizarre questions like "What would you leave Chris Moyles in your will?", and once infiltrated the Popstars auditions (on air) to squirt a water pistol at Geri Halliwell.
Other highlights from the year included the time Chris pretended to be drunk during the World Cup, Dave and Will ballsing up a news intro in his absence - and an all time classic clip, where the team reveal to Chris that U2’s "live" performance down the line for his birthday a couple of weeks previously hadn't been live. Nor indeed for his birthday. It was from a Simon Mayo session a couple of years beforehand.
In September 2002, Lizzie left the show to produce Scott Mills on Early Breakfast, effectively swapping jobs with Aled Haydn Jones (formerly known as BB Aled), who joined the team as broadcast assistant. Hear Lizzie “become” Aled here. For more on Aled check out his biography.
On Sunday December 1st, Chris presented Radio One’s Official UK Top 40 as a guest presenter - celebrating fifty years of the chart. Highlights here. He was proud to introduce Top 20 success for Rikki and Daz [Sampson], who he had supported on the show all year long, first under the name "Blown Out". Jo Whiley said Chris "should have been kneecapped" for his involvement. Daz Sampson went on to represent the UK at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest.
The year's best parodies included Chris' take on Puretone in Purefish’s Addicted To Plaice, and the teams brilliant take on Big Brovaz in their Bigger Brovaz spoof.
New features on the show included Freebies at Five, The Radio One Tea Table Update, FA Aled, Dave’s Telly Tips and his Tedious Link each day at half five - where he would tenuously link one classic track to another. On hot days Chris also started paying tribute to the 'Sunshine Sheilas', and the catchphrase of the time was ”I don’t drink, Chris Moyles rocks!”, as coined by a caller to a Five Live football phone in.
As ever, Chris was named DJ Of The Year for 2002 by readers of The Sun. The year ended with the recording of the song parody widely regarded as Chris’s best ever - Stanta. A take on Eminem’s number one smash "Stan", Chris' version featured Santa Claus - and plenty of bad language.
2003
2003 was certainly eventful for Moyles, if not anything else. The show lost 700,000 listeners, yet Chris still ended up with the biggest promotion of his career.
The year began with the arrival of Moped in February - "officially Battenberg’s number one Scooter tribute band". MC LMNOP and his posse originally remixed Clocks by Coldplay for the show, but after Chris and Dave loved it so much, they continued to contribute various mixes throughout the year. Their back catalogue includes takes on Bon Jovi, Abba, Guns ‘N’ Roses and many TV theme tunes/special tributes. In fact in October, they even joined the team at One Live In Brighton for a very special performance, in front of Mr Norman Cook, AKA Fatboy Slim.
Other outside broadcasts in 2003 included a trip to Sheffield to meet Justin Timberlake, followed by a visit to Knebworth (for Robbie Williams' record breaking gig), and then finally a Christmas excursion to Inverness, where the team switched on the city's Christmas lights.
In August Chris also decided that with half of Radio One's DJs seemingly on holiday, and the other half in Ibiza, the team shouldn't be stuck at home. They flew to Ibiza overnight for an impromptu show, hooking up with the “amazing” DJ Sammy.
Comedy Dave and Chappers embarked on their "Comic Relief Football Tour" in the spring, which meant a week of special celebrity guests joining Chris, Will and Aled in the studio. These included Gail Porter, Pete Waterman and ex-Radio One legend Tony Blackburn. More importantly however, Moyles raised more money than Scott Mills via text vote, which he was more than pleased about.
2003 also saw classic feature Viaduct made a (brief) return to the show, before being binned again. Other new items included The Afternoon Mystery Sound, Dave’s Dictionary Definitions, Huey Lewis & The News, The Monday Surgery, Jonathan Pearce's Football Preview - and Celebdaq Updates courtesy of Paddy O'Connell, who presented the BBC TV show of the same name. The two funniest features of the year though were undoubtedly Fire At Will, which involved throwing cans of lager at Will 'Greyhead' Kinder, and I Look Like Wayne Sleep, Get Me Out of Here, which involved pouring pot noodle down Aled’s back, whilst he was blindfolded.
New parodies included Chris' take on Christina Aguilera, Dizzee Rascal and Robbie Williams, with spoof phone calls courtesy of Big Brother's Cameron Stout also a regular feature on the show.
Channel 4 star Avid Merrion started making regular visits to the studio (which were usually hilarious), and Chris also discovered the BBC internal phone system and the hours of fun it could provide. Perhaps the funniest moment of the year however came on 14 August, when Moyles presented the first half hour of the show as a cheesy, local radio DJ - with help from his wacky sidekicks Dave and Will.
On 23 August 2003, Comedy Dave tied the knot with his fiancée Emma Pontefract, at Tudor Barns, close to Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire. A "bidding war" had previously emerged on the show, with several contenders eager to get exclusive rights to those wedding pics (including us here at chrismoyles.net!). Heat Magazine eventually won out, and the copy including Dave's wedding snaps actually sold 30,000 more than the previous week's edition. He said his mum bought six of those. With Dave subsequently away on honeymoon, Moyles had only Will and Aled for company. It wasn’t long before Will was off too though. After nearly three years as producer, he quit the show to join Tiger Aspect Productions, a television production company based in Soho, London. His last show was on Friday September 26th 2003. You can hear pretty much the whole thing in our Sound Vault, with twenty two different clips archived - including his final moments.
His replacement was ex-Saturday Show producer Rachel Jones, although Will soon returned to the show in an off air role.
End of the show
On Tuesday 7 October 2003, almost five years after the start of Chris' afternoon show, Radio One announced that it was to end. That's because bosses had decided to switch Chris with Sara Cox, and make him only the fifteenth regular host of their flagship breakfast show.
With the changes coming into effect from the start of 2004, it meant goodbye to Moyles in the afternoons, and a month of Breakfast pilots leading up to Christmas. Therefore, the last Chris Moyles afternoon show was broadcast on Friday 5 December 2003.
Urged by management to look forwards and not back, there wasn't too much nostalgia during the last show. There was however a final handover with Mark and Lard, a final chat with long time news reader Georgina Bowman - and a special song to close.
Features
Main article: Features on The Afternoon Show
When the show launched, features included Viaduct, The Not and Our Tone. Chris’ new catchphrase was "Hop On Baby!".
Ghetto-Life
In response to the huge success of new Irish boy band Westlife, the team had decided to form their own boy band - named Ghetto-Life, a pun on the phrase "get a life". They subsequently recorded their much hyped debut “You’re My Baby” at Abbey Road studios - with Chris on lead vocals, Rhys and Mel on guitar, and Dave in his rapper guise as “Choc Ice”. Lyrics included ”You make me laugh; you’re sweet and funny, You call me cute names like fluffy bunny”. Ghetto-Life sadly never got a record deal.
Show archive
Many edited afternoon shows are currently in the chrismoyles.net archive.
