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'''Christopher David Moyles''' (born [[February 22]], [[1954]] in [[Leeds]]) is an [[England|English]] [[disc jockey]]. He currently hosts the [[BBC Radio 1]] Breakfast Show, entitled ''[[The Chris Moyles Show]]''. |
'''Christopher David Revie Moyles''' (born [[February 22]], [[1954]] in [[Leeds]]) is an [[England|English]] [[disc jockey]]. He currently hosts the [[BBC Radio 1]] Breakfast Show, entitled ''[[The Chris Moyles Show]]''. |
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==Career== |
==Career== |
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Features in his shows included 'Throwing sugarcubes at the studio clock', 'The ABC Game' and 'True or False'. Regular characters such as 'Agony Kid' (a young child creating spoofs of an Agony Aunt column) and a high-pitched 'Little Fella' also made appearances on the shows. Over the years on local radio, Moyles has had production talents such as [[Daryl Denham]] lending a hand in producing the goods before each show was put on air.{{Fact|date=January 2007}} |
Features in his shows included 'Throwing sugarcubes at the studio clock', 'The ABC Game' and 'True or False'. Regular characters such as 'Agony Kid' (a young child creating spoofs of an Agony Aunt column) and a high-pitched 'Little Fella' also made appearances on the shows. Over the years on local radio, Moyles has had production talents such as [[Daryl Denham]] lending a hand in producing the goods before each show was put on air.{{Fact|date=January 2007}} |
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Already known as 'The |
Already known as 'The Masseur' to his listeners, 'The Early Evening Tit', 'The Late Tit', or just the 'xxx tit', in general, were common names used for his shows on the various stations. |
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==Show format== |
==Show format== |
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Revision as of 08:55, 4 September 2007
Chris Moyles | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 22, 1954 |
| Occupation(s) | Radio and Television Presenter |
| Known for | The Chris Moyles Show, Contestant on The X Factor: Battle of the Stars |
| Website | Chris Moyles Radio 1 Profile |
Christopher David Revie Moyles (born February 22, 1954 in Leeds) is an English disc jockey. He currently hosts the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, entitled The Chris Moyles Show.
Career
Pre-Radio 1
Chris Moyles started his career in radio as a hospital DJ in Wakefield at age 14, later becoming a DJ for "Radio Topshop" (the in-store radio) at the Leeds branch of Topshop.[1] From this early experience, Chris went on to join Aire FM at the age of 16, where he occasionally served as a stand-in presenter. His success there resulted in a more permanent role as a presenter at RTL Luxembourg until its closure, where he was known as the presenter "Chris Holmes". Moyles went on to work at various local radio stations in the UK, including The Pulse of West Yorkshire, Chiltern Radio, Horizon Radio, Signal 1, GWR FM (Bristol) and, in 1996, joined London's Capital FM, where he presented a Friday & Saturday Evening show.
Radio 1
In 1997 Moyles was voted one of the Faces for 1997 by SKY magazine. Later in the year, on July 28, 1997, he joined Radio 1 as a presenter of the 4-7am Early Breakfast show. Within months, in May 1998, his work was recognised with the award of the Silver Sony Awards DJ of the Year, and within the year he was promoted to a Saturday mid-morning slot.
His next promotion came in October 1998 when he took control of the Drivetime show from 4-5.45pm. The show then went out from 3-5.45pm in early 2001.
Moyles took with him the show's writer and his sidekick David "Comedy Dave" Vitty. His show also included regular guests such as impressionist Jon Culshaw. He and his team soon attracted considerable attention and notoriety. After five years on drive time, on 5 January 2004, Moyles started presenting Radio 1's flagship programme The Breakfast Show, switching places with Sara Cox. He had been appointed to increase the ratings for the show and did so, putting on an extra 1,000,000 listeners to the audience in the first quarter of 2004. After a successful first year, Moyles was awarded 'DJ of the Year' by readers of The Sun.
By 2005, Moyles and his team had succeeded in vastly increasing the morning audience, with his programme's audience swelling to 6.5 million. This was coupled with an increase in the overall Radio 1 listenership. With 895,000 listeners in London in the third quarter of 2005, he succeeded in overtaking Johnny Vaughan to take the position of the capital's most listened to youth breakfast show. Moyles' listener count continued to increase each week, which led to him winning a gold Sony Radio Award in 2006 for best entertainment show. In 2007, as confirmed in one of the shows, the listener population rose to 7 million people.
With the release of the RAJAR listening figures on 3 August 2006, it was announced Moyles had added a further 470,000 listeners to the Breakfast Show, taking the average listenership up to 6.79 million. On 10 May 2007, RAJAR figures confirmed that Moyles had increased his listening figures to 7.06 million, breaking the seven million barrier for the first time. The station now has 10.55 million listeners overall.
Without co-presenters alongside in his shows, Moyles' unique style was more noticeable and was arguably more creative than in his current Radio 1 role. His usual mocking of callers and over-the-top phone-cutting-off sound effects were still heavily used.[citation needed]
Features in his shows included 'Throwing sugarcubes at the studio clock', 'The ABC Game' and 'True or False'. Regular characters such as 'Agony Kid' (a young child creating spoofs of an Agony Aunt column) and a high-pitched 'Little Fella' also made appearances on the shows. Over the years on local radio, Moyles has had production talents such as Daryl Denham lending a hand in producing the goods before each show was put on air.[citation needed]
Already known as 'The Masseur' to his listeners, 'The Early Evening Tit', 'The Late Tit', or just the 'xxx tit', in general, were common names used for his shows on the various stations.
Show format
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Features
Moyles's style of delivery juxtaposes fast speech with long pauses. Moyles's humour relies mainly upon observational material, although commenters have suggested the whole persona he portrays on-air may well be a 'character'.[citation needed]
Moyles uses team members (they are not actually co-hosts) and audience participation in games and quizzes as other sources of comedy. He is renowned for his sharp manner, quick temper and put-downs, which are directed at seemingly everyone in a constant barrage[1]. However, he generally accepts counter-attacks in the same manner and routinely derides his being overweight in the lyrics of jingles and directly, washing out any tone of sycophancy from his broadcasts. Moyles often makes light of complaints made about his actions on the show, even joking about Ofcom - "Good Morning Ofcom", the regulating body for broadcasters, immediately after breaching guidelines in his broadcast on October 9, 2006.
Regular competitions he has hosted include Viaduct (named by Simon Mayo, when he was asked for a suggestion about what to call the quiz when Moyles stood in on the breakfast show), which was based on a Two Ronnies sketch (itself based on Mastermind, with a specialist subject of "answering the question before the last"); and more recently Car Park Catchphrase, featuring voice samples from the Ulster comedian Roy Walker. This was replaced in January 2006 with a spoof on the quiz Blockbusters called Beep Beep Busters, which disappeared from the show during March 2006 without explanation. Car Park Catchphrase however returned in January 2007. His Saturday morning shows often contained slightly bizarre competitions, including one where Chris and Dave made predictions on how long people's marriages would last (entitled May Divorce Be With You).
Numerous other features in Moyles' shows include "Girls Going to Football", in which Comedy Dave predicts the scores of football matches to which female listeners are going; "Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz", where the team answers a selection of questions from a local pub quiz; "Frog Or Dog", where listeners had to do an impression of either a frog or a dog; "Guess Who", a Twenty Questions-style game, in which the team members try to guess the name of a celebrity spotted by another of the team; and many more.
The most recent addition, in February 2006, is "Celebrity Tarzan", in which listeners have to try and guess which celebrity is hollering like Tarzan, in order to win various prizes. However, this feature has currently taken a break.
The team
Moyles' show follows on from the likes of Steve Wright and Chris Evans in that it relies on a number of on-air contributors. Of these, Comedy Dave (see above) has worked with Moyles the longest; though since 2002 he has also presented a separate show alongside Mark Chapman. The current contributors are "Director of Comedy" Comedy Dave, news reader Dominic Byrne, sports reader and moyles' ex from yesteryear.Carrie Davis, producers Rachel Jones & Day Producer Aled Haydn Jones the gay one from wales; though Moyles's friends such as "Longman" and impressionist Jon Culshaw have also been involved.
Parody songs
Moyles is well known for his parodies of recently released chart songs, which have been a long-running feature on his radio shows. In October 2004, Moyles and the The Chris Moyles Show team replaced U2's "Vertigo" at number one in the UK Official Download Chart with their download-only charity song "Dogz Don't Kill People (Wabbitz Do)", under the name 'Mouldie Lookin' Stain'. The song was a spoof of Goldie Lookin' Chain's "Guns Don't Kill People Rappers Do" (itself a spoof) and proceeds went to Comic Relief. At the time of its release, it was the fastest selling download on UK charts. Also "Smile" by Lily Allen was parodied by Moyles's invention "Silly Allen", in a song called "Piles". During the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany, Chris organised a parody of England World Cup songs, to ridicule the number of songs there were out at the time. Listener favourite "Jose - The Special One" a parody of "Rosé" by The Feeling, was banned after Chelsea FC complained to the BBC. The newest of his parody songs is "I Wanna See Your Boobies" a take on Natasha Bedingfield's "I Wanna Have Your Babies". It was written by Comedy Dave and performed in May 2007 by Moyles. In the same month, he performed a parody of Hellogoodbye's hit "Here (In Your Arms)" called "Beer In My Arms" in which he signifys how much he really dislikes the song, calling it 'daft'.
Work outside radio
Television presenter
Moyles has also branched out into television. In 2002, his own Channel 5 show, Live With . . . Chris Moyles, was a flop in the ratings, with audiences as low as 200,000 viewers. Chris was soon replaced by Christian O'Connell, before the programme was shelved altogether. [2]
He and sidekick Comedy Dave also had a TV show, also entitled The Chris Moyles Show, which was aired between 1998 and 1999 on the now-defunct UK satellite and cable channel UK Play. Moyles also voiced the fourth and last series of Sky One show The Villa. He has also occasionally presented Top of the Pops and has worked for the Comic Relief and Children in Need charities on their telecasts. Moyles has also presented a number of episodes of Big Brother's Big Mouth and The Friday Night Project with Alan Carr and Justin Lee Collins.
Other television appearances
Moyles made an appearance on the BBC panel game show Never Mind the Buzzcocks in which he bore the brunt of presenter Mark Lamarr's sharp wit and harsh criticism. Rumours of a personal dislike of Moyles by Lamarr were further fuelled by his continuing references to "that fat cunt, Moyles" in subsequent editions of the show.
Moyles appeared more successfully on the ITV1 show The X Factor: Battle Of The Stars. He was voted out of the show on June 4, 2006 in the semi-final. Following this appearance, stories in the New Statesman and The Sun both reported that Moyles was looking to relaunch his television career.
Moyles has played himself in an episode of the drama Hotel Babylon aired on February 15, 2007, and he also appeared on a celebrity version of Dale's Supermarket Sweep that transmitted on the same day. Moyles has also appeared on Channel 4 shows Richard & Judy and The New Paul O'Grady Show respectively.
The Sun claims that he has been offered his own show by ITV. Moyles has spoken of a desire to transfer the format of his radio show to the stage, but otherwise has thus far stayed clear of a conventional TV format.
Moyles appeared on the ninth series of Top Gear being chauffeured by Jeremy Clarkson in his hand made Fiat Panda limo.
On the March 9, he appeared as a guest in The Charlotte Church Show on Channel 4, alongside Hilary Duff.
Moyles hosted the first 3 episodes of Big Brother's Big Mouth on Channel 4.
Moyles was also a guest on Channel 4 show The F-Word on Tuesday June 5, 2007 and also as the guest presenter for series 5 episode 2 of Channel 4's hit entertainment show The Friday Night Project, co-hosting alongside Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr on Friday June 8, 2007.
Autobiography
Moyles's autobiography, The Gospel according to Chris Moyles: The Story of One Man and His Mouth was released by Ebury Press on October 5, 2006. Despite official BBC impartiality guidelines expressly forbidding advertising, the book has received frequent plugs on his radio show since its launch.
By January 2007, the book had sold in excess of 250,000 copies.[citation needed]
On 4th October 2007 he will be releasing a follow-up Chris Moyles: The Difficult Second Book, published by Ebury Press.
Miscellaneous
Moyles has provided his voice to a number of films and games. He featured in 24: The Game, as well as the films Wimbledon, War of the Worlds[2] and Robots.[3] In some of these films, his voice was only used on the UK version.
In 2006, it was announced that rugby league team Featherstone Rovers's ground would be named after him. Traditionally known as Post Office Road, it was renamed for sponsorship a number of seasons ago. From 2007, it has been called "Chris Moyles Stadium"[4][5]
On 7 July 2007 Moyles appeared as a presenter at the UK leg of Live Earth in Wembley Stadium in London.
Controversies
Moyles, following on from Chris Evans and American "Shock Jocks", sometimes teases listeners who enter the phone-in competitions he hosts. In his earlier days, he would sometimes ask female callers the size of their breasts, and has always made light of young lads with a strong South East England or Cockney accent. He remorselessly mocks people who he considers to have dull, repetitive jobs with obvious sarcasm.
When starting at Radio 1 on the 4-7am shift, he played soundtracks of passionate encounters in pornographic films, over which female newsreaders tried to read the weather forecast.
Unsurprisingly, he has had dealings with the Broadcasting Standards Commission and Ofcom. These have occurred during his time at both Capital FM (now Capital Radio) and Radio 1. For example, these regulatory bodies upheld complaints when Moyles threatened Dr Fox in October 2002 with the claim that 'I'm gonna tear his head off and poo down his neck';[6] also in early 2002 when he said he would take the virginity of Charlotte Church, when she reached sixteen.[7] Many of his fans claim that such jokes were made in obvious jest; indeed, he and Charlotte Church are now good friends and she has been a guest on his show several times. Moyles's Christmas 2005 show was broadcast from her mother's pub.
When he arrived at the station, John Peel took a dislike to Moyles and accused him of being a "DLT-in-waiting". Moyles retorted that Peel was a "Kenny Everett-in-waiting, because Kenny Everett’s dead and it’s only a matter of time before John pops his clogs".[8] Later, Moyles and John Peel became very close friends, with Peel appearing on his show a couple of times, and Moyles being one of the DJs to broadcast an emotional show on 26 October 2004, the day after Peel's death.
Accusations of sexism
In November 2005, when handing over to a female news presenter on his breakfast show, Moyles referred to the presenter as a “slut” and then went on to make other comments about her as he attempted to defend his comment. Four listeners complained that this was offensive.[9] In February 2006, Moyles apologised, along with the BBC, after swearing when speaking to a caller live on air. He made the outburst while teasing a mother-of-three from Newcastle during an on-air feature which her children had interrupted. "You've got three kids from some fucking...." he blurted out, before apologising profusely for his mistake. He apologised, and continued to do so for another minute after the event.[10]
The BBC issued six apologies, adding that such mistakes could occur during live broadcasts such as Moyles' show. The BBC was later cleared by broadcasting regulator Ofcom over the incident.
In July 2006, communications watchdog Ofcom found Moyles in Breach of rule 1.5 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code Rules for an incident in which he referred to female listeners as "dirty whores". A listener objected to an item in which the presenter discussed people who urinated in the shower. He considered that the presenter’s reference to women who did this as “dirty whores” was unacceptable at this time of the morning.[11][12]
Pay controversies
Alongside a number of other Radio 1 and Radio 2 DJs, Moyles crossed a strike picketline in 2005. BBC staff were striking over recently announced job cuts. Although Moyles claimed that he would be sympathetic to the strikers on his show, he made no mention of the strike.[13] This was followed a year later by claims in The Sun newspaper, which was given information that Moyles had signed a contract worth £630,000 + an extra £75,000 for every 150,000 listeners gained. — over twice that of the second highest earner on the station, Jo Whiley.[14]
Accusations of homophobia
Moyles was accused of homophobia in May 2006, when he rejected a ringtone by saying "I don't want that one, it's gay." live on air. This led to a number of complaints to the BBC. They argued that the use of the word gay in this context was homophobic. The BBC governors said that Moyles was simply keeping up with developments in English usage.
The programme complaints committee said that, “The word ‘gay’, in addition to being used to mean ‘homosexual’ or ‘carefree’, was often now used to mean ‘lame’ or ‘rubbish’. In describing a ringtone as gay, the DJ was conveying that he thought it was “rubbish” rather than “homosexual”. Moyles was not being homophobic". The panel acknowledged, however, that this use of the word “gay” in a derogatory sense could cause offence to some listeners and counselled caution on its use.
Subsequently in June, LGBT charity Stonewall marched with placards demanding the dismissal of Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles during Europride in London. According to Stonewall, “Chris Moyles is not helping young LGBT people struggling to come out through his comments.”[15]
Those defending Moyles have noted that Aled Haydn Jones, his show's producer who has worked with Moyles since 2001, is openly gay and that Moyles enjoys close friendships with people such as Scott Mills and Will Young.[16] However, he has also been quoted in The Guardian by Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill as saying (though obviously in sarcasm), "Yeah, I'm homophobic, I don't like the gays. Sorry, it just does my head in. We have a token gay on the show!"[17]
Moyles is quoted as defending comments labeled as homophobic by saying "It was just an act, it's what I do, it's entertainment" and that "I have a lot of gay friends; I'm not homophobic".[18]
Awards
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Moyles has won numerous awards from The Sun newspaper for best DJ as well as several from Loaded magazine.
He has also won Sony Radio Awards: Silver in 1998; Gold in 2006; nominated in 2007.
Arrogance
Private Eye featured a Moyles quote in an occasional feature called 'Modesty Blaise' - "I'm one of the greatest radio DJs ever. Along with Jonathan Ross, Chris Evans and Terry Wogan, the one thing we all have in common is that we're great storytellers who make a listener feel like we're talking only to them. We all have the ability to keep people listening longer than they indtended to. That's the secret of great radio."
Bibliography
- Moyles, Chris (October 5th, 2006). The Gospel According to Chris Moyles. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091914172.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
- Moyles, Chris (October 4th, 2007). The Difficult Second Book. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091922429.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
References
- ^ BBC Entertanment News (2004-01-05). "http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3368157.stm, January 2004". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2007-03-29.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher=and|title= - ^ Chris Moyles at the IMDB Accessed 28-01-06
- ^ Chris Moyles biography chrismoyles.net; Harris Chris, 2006; Accessed 28-01-07
- ^ Rooney backs Yorkshire schools Rugby League News; Accessed 28-01-07
- ^ Rugby fans baffled as ground is named after DJ Herbert, Ian; The Independent; 18-11-06; Accessed 28-01-07
- ^ "October 2002 Personalities: Chris Moyles". RadioNewsWeb.com. 2002-10-31. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "The Chris Moyles A to Z". ChrisMoyles.net. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "I'm no sexist lardy-mouth". TimesOnline.co.uk. 2004-06-22. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin #56". Ofcom. 2006-03-20. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "Moyles apologises for outburst". BBC News. 2006-02-21. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "Moyles could be taken off air". DigitalSpy.co.uk. 2006-06-13. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin #62". Ofcom. 2006-06-12. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "TV stars: why we crossed BBC picket line". Guardian Newspapers Limited. 2005-05-23. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ "Moyles signs record Radio 1 pay deal". DigitalSpy.co.uk. 2006-04-13. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^ ""Gorgeous" gay community fills London with EuroPride". PinkNews.co.uk. 2006-07-01. Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}: External link in|publisher= - ^
Lusher, Tim (07-06-06). "Straight talk?". The Guardian. Retrieved 30-12-06.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - ^
The Guardian (06-11-06). "Tide turns against homophobia". The Guardian. Retrieved 02-01-07.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - ^
Huddersfield Daily Examiner (04-07-06). "Chris Moyles, not that bad". icHuddersfield. Retrieved 30-12-06.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help)