Chris Moyles

This article is about Chris Moyles as an individual. For his radio show, see The Chris Moyles Show.

Chris Moyles
Moyles signing his books in Waterstone's, October 2006
Born	(1974-02-22) 22 February 1974 Temple Newsam, Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Occupation(s)	Radio DJ, Presenter, Author
Known for	The Chris Moyles Show,
Partner	Sophie Waite (2002-present)
Website	The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1

Christopher "Chris" Moyles (born 22 February 1974) is an English broadcaster, author and DJ, who currently presents The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1, and his own show on Channel 4, Chris Moyles' Quiz Night.

Career

Pre-Radio 1

Chris Moyles was born on 22 February 1974 in Leeds and was educated at the Mount St Mary's Catholic High School. While at school, he began his broadcasting career at WBHS (Wakefield's Broadcast to Hospitals Service), a voluntary staffed hospital radio station in the West Yorkshire city.

He then started out at local station Aire FM as an assistant for DJ Carl Kingston. During this time, he was also a presenter on Radio Top Shop in the Leeds Briggate store. After hosting his own Saturday Evening Show on Aire FM (and occasionally serving as a stand-in presenter), he was then employed as a presenter at RTL Luxembourg in 1992, until the station closed.

In 1993, he got a job at The Pulse of West Yorkshire, presenting the evening show from 7-10pm. He remained here until early 1994 when he was dismissed for comments made about the station's previous programme controller. Moyles subsequently turned up at Signal 1 in Stoke-on-Trent - again presenting 'The Evening Bit' from 7-10pm. In 1995 Moyles was heard on the Chiltern Radio Network, presenting the evening show from 7-10pm, before taking on the late show from 10pm-1am. This show was simulcast on Horizon Radio, Chiltern Radio, Severn Sound and Northants 96.

In 1996, Moyles joined London station Capital FM, hosting his weekend show 'The Late Bit', which went out on a Friday & Saturday evening, and covering for other DJs. It was at Capital that Moyles fell out with fellow DJ 'Doctor' Neil Fox. After declining the offer of presenting the breakfast show on rival station Kiss 100, Moyles joined Radio 1 in July 1997.

Radio 1

Moyles was voted one of the Faces for 97' by SKY magazine and presented his first show on Radio 1 on 28 July 1997, hosting the 4-7am Early Breakfast show - soon called The Early Bit. Within months, in May 1998, his work was recognised with the award of the Silver Sony Awards DJ of the Year, and he was styling himself as "The Saviour Of Early Morning Radio". Within the year Moyles was promoted to a Saturday breakfast, then Saturday mid-morning slot from 10am-1pm.

After standing in regularly for Kevin Greening and Zoe Ball on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Moyles's next promotion came in October 1998 when he took control of the drivetime show from 4-5.45pm. The show was extended to 3-5.45pm in February 2001.

Moyles has been joined on the air throughout the years by different producers, broadcast assistants, newsreaders and from 1998, by his sidekick David "Comedy Dave" Vitty.

After five years on afternoons, 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 hugely 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's listener count continued to increase each week, which led to him winning a gold Sony Radio Award in 2006 for best entertainment show.

With the release of the RAJAR listening figures on 3 August 2006, 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 with the station having 10.55 million listeners overall. Moyles again increased his audience to 7.72 million as of 1 May 2008 slightly narrowing the gap between him and Terry Wogan, the current highest rated radio show in the UK. The station's overall listener figure is now over 11 million.

On 12 May 2008 The Chris Moyles Breakfast Show won its second Sony radio gold award for 'best breakfast show'. At this time he was given another half hour on his show going from 7am - 10am to 6.30am - 10am.

In April 2009 Moyles agreed to a one year extension to his contract, taking him to July 2010.

On 7 September 2009 Moyles became Radio 1's longest serving breakfast presenter, breaking the record previously set by Tony Blackburn.

Presenting style

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. It is this approach which most commonly leads to criticism of Moyles. It has also caused him to become involved in numerous controversies related to perceived offensive statements. In his show, Moyles generally accepts counter-attacks in the same manner and routinely verbally derides claims he is overweight and in the lyrics of jingles. Due to his fascination with radio, Moyles regularly discusses the process of making the show, often spoofing clichéd radio practices. Many of his show's features are homages to or exaggerations of other radio features.

Show format

Main article: The Chris Moyles Show

The Chris Moyles Show runs from 06:30-10:00. It includes longer periods of chat and discussion than most shows on Radio 1, with comparatively little music. Both permanent and temporary features are included in the show.

The team

Comedy Dave (Dave Vitty) has worked with Moyles the longest; and currently is the self appointed "Director of Comedy", news reader Dominic Byrne, sports reader Tina Daheley, producer Rachel Mallender (formerly Jones) and day producer Aled Haydn Jones; and to a lesser extent, Matt Fincham, though Moyles's friends such as "Longman" (Till 2007) , "Rob DJ" , former children's television presenter Andi Peters, impressionist Jon Culshaw and Davina McCall, albeit infrequently, contribute. Other contributors are Keith Chegwin and Roy Walker with the daily quiz show Car Park Catchphrase.

Parody songs

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 rap song) and proceeds went to Comic Relief. At the time of its release, it was the fastest selling download on UK charts.

Moyles has parodied several Kaiser Chiefs songs under the name "The Kaiser Chefs". These include "I Predict A Diet" (Parody of I Predict a Riot) and "Donny" (Parody of Ruby). Chris and Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs (both Leeds United fans) said they had accidentally given Doncaster Rovers fans an unofficial anthem with "Donny" after Doncaster Rovers beat Leeds United 1 - 0 in the 2008 League One Play Off Final.

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup 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 written on team manager José Mourinho's departure from Chelsea and was banned after Chelsea FC complained to the BBC (although subsequently played repeatedly on his show and on Radio 5 Live). He made a parody of "We Have Got to Zero Baby", a take on Enrique Iglesias's "Hero", which describes how his football team, Leeds United, managed to claw back a 15-point deficit in League One in only 5 games. In November 2007, he used Hoosiers - "Goodbye Mr A" for "Goodbye Mr. M" where he sings about the Ex-England football manager Steve McClaren being sacked.

Often Moyles will pick a track because of the silliness of its lyrics, for instance "Smile" by Lily Allen was parodied by Moyles's invention "Silly Allen", in a song called "Piles" and Natasha Bedingfield's "I Wanna Have Your Babies" written by Comedy Dave and performed in May 2007. In the same month, he performed a parody of Hellogoodbye's hit "Here (In Your Arms)" called "Beer In My Arms" in which he describes how much he really dislikes the song, calling it 'daft'. Moyles also covered Puretone "Addicted to Bass" with "Addicted to Plaice", which covers the subject of being addicted to fish. In September 2007, he performed "Suicidal" a parody of the UK number one Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls", in which he talks about how the song makes him feel suicidal and wonders why it reached number one.

Although of 2008, UK's chart no.1 Basshunter was renamed "Chuffhunter" in which he mocks the song and those that would buy it, Kylie Minogue's "Bow Wow Wow" and a re-write of the Estelle song "American Boy", named "Somerset Boy". In the past, he has parodied include Billie Piper's "Honey to the Bee" as "Guinness For Me", All Seeing Eye's "Walk Like a Panther", Will Smith's "Gettin Jiggy Wit It", and McFly's "All About You" as "He Don't Use Shampoo". Moyles has also written Baked Beans, a parody of Same Jeans by The View, and "Lunch in this Pub", originally the Usher single "Love in this Club". One of his recent parodies, "No Hair" - sung by "follicly-challenged" newscaster Dominic Byrne - is a cover of Jordin Sparks's "No Air (ft Chris Brown)".

Another two of Moyles' recent parodies are "Lorry Driver" which is a cover of Britney Spears' song "Womanizer" and "The Boy Does Plenty" by "Adrian Dixon", originally a song by Alesha Dixon, both of which are written by 'Comedy Dave' Vitty.

In March 2009 Moyles released a parody song called "Dreaming of Debbie McGee". The song was about a man who has recurring dreams of the assistant on the Paul Daniels Magic Show. Comedy Dave wrote the song, and Paul Daniels asked for it to be made into an MP3 file after hearing it on air. It was a parody of the Kings of Leon song "Revelry". In April 2009, McGee recorded a reply which was played on air and was a parody of the same song called Dreaming of Moylesy.

Moyles released 'Waterproof' in July 2009, a parody of the La Roux song "Bulletproof". This song has an approved record deal to be used on a parody album, should Chris wish to do so.

Moyles has released an album entitled The Parody Album. Recording began in September 2009, and the album was released on 23 November.

The official Moyles Parody Album game entitled Parody Island was released to help promote the album and allow players to hear snippets from his new album

The Chris Moyles Show was credited with the debut of the unofficial England World Cup Song, written and performed by Chico Slimani (Yousseph "Chico" Slimani) a parody of his hit single "It's Chico Time" and originally named "It's England Time. Slimani recorded the single after having a 'vision' that England won the 2010 World Cup and that in the celebrations, commentators made reference to his song. The single debuted, Monday 8th February, 2010.

Work outside radio

Moyles with Gabby Logan during a campaign to promote life in Leeds

BT Red Nose Climb 2009 and the BT Speaking Clock

Moyles was one of a team of celebrities who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Comic Relief reaching the summit on the 7th March 2009. He was joined by his show's producer, Rachel Mallender and BBC Radio 1 controller, Andy Parfitt. Also on the climb were Girls Aloud members Cheryl Cole and Kimberley Walsh, Fearne Cotton, Ben Shephard, Gary Barlow, Ronan Keating, Denise Van Outen and Alesha Dixon.

From 3 February - 23 March 2009, Kimberley Walsh, Cheryl Cole, Gary Barlow, Ronan Keating, Chris Moyles, and Fearne Cotton hope to raise money by lending their voices to the BT Speaking Clock. Dialling 123 is one of the ways BT hope to raise more than £300,000, as the company will donate 10p for each call received from a BT landline.

Television presenter

Moyles has branched out his work into television. In 2002, his own Five show, Live With Chris Moyles, ran 5 shows a week for 13 weeks. Chris was replaced by Christian O'Connell, before the programme was shelved altogether.

He and sidekick Dave Vitty (more commonly known as Comedy Dave) had their own TV show, also entitled The Chris Moyles Show like their current Radio 1 show, which was aired from 1998-99 on the now-defunct UK satellite and cable channel UK Play.

Moyles voiced the fourth and final series of Sky One show The Villa and has occasionally presented Top of the Pops and has worked for the Comic Relief and Children in Need charities on their telecasts.

Moyles has presented a number of episodes of Big Brother's Big Mouth. Daily Mirror journalist Rob Leigh once said of his Big Brother's Big Mouth presenting that "Chris Moyles may be Marmite for the ears on radio but never quite nails it on TV, even with his relative star power". He also presented The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 several times between 2000 and 2002.

Moyles launched a new show on Channel 4, called Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on 22 March 2009. The opening show received poor viewing figures attracting just 6% of total audience for the timeslot. It has however been renewed for a second series in January 2010.

Other television appearances

Moyles appeared more successfully on the ITV show The X Factor: Battle Of The Stars. He was voted out of the show on 4 June 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; rumours suggested that he had 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 played himself in an episode of the drama Hotel Babylon which aired on 15 February 2007 and appeared on a celebrity version of Dale's Supermarket Sweep that broadcast on the same day. He has appeared as a guest on numerous British television shows, including the ninth series of Top Gear, The Charlotte Church Show, The F-Word, The Friday Night Project, Richard & Judy and The New Paul O'Grady Show

Moyles made an appearance on Season 4 of the BBC panel game show Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 1998.

He has appeared on Channel 4's Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack TV programme as well as an appearance as a team captain on the Channel 4 show Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong. On 18 July 2008 he appeared on Jimmy Carr's show on Channel 4, 8 out of 10 Cats.

Moyles appeared on the 2008 Brit Awards to present the award for the best live act, and in May 2008 he appeared in the BBC documentary series Comedy Map of Britain.

On the 23 February 2009, Chris was the guest on BBC One's The One Show to promote the BT Red Nose climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. He appeared again on the show on 26 February 2010 to talk about and promote the second series of Chris Moyles' Quiz Night.

In July 2009, he featured in an episode of the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? on BBC One where he explored his Irish ancestry. He visited Ireland and Belgium, where his great grandfather fought and died in World War One. On the programme Chris found out that his last name means bald servant from the Irish "Ó Maolmanach".

Autobiography

Moyles's autobiography, The Gospel according to Chris Moyles: The Story of One Man and His Mouth was released by Ebury Press on 5 October 2006. By January 2007, the book had sold in excess of 2,500,000 copies.

On 4 October 2007 a follow-up book Chris Moyles: The Difficult Second Book, published by Ebury Press, was officially released. The Difficult Second Book was released in paperback on 1 May 2008. Stewart Lee, on his own programme Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle, commented that the title of the book suggests 'a degree of irony and self-awareness largely absent from the text itself' and then went on to deconstruct and mock the book's contents.

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 and Robots. 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' 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".

On 7 July 2007 Moyles appeared as a presenter at the UK leg of Live Earth in Wembley Stadium in London.

Controversies

Moyles has had several dealings with the Broadcasting Standards Commission and Ofcom. These have occurred during his time at both Capital FM 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'; and also in early 2002, when he said 'he would take the virginity of Charlotte Church', when she reached sixteen.

When first arrived at Radio 1, 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". 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.

In September 2008, Moyles, along with other British radio presenters, was criticised for promoting drinking to excess on air.

Accusations of sexism

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 fuckin'..." he blurted out, before apologising profusely for his mistake.

The BBC issued six apologies, adding that such mistakes could occur during live broadcasts such as Moyles's 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.

On 5 June 2008, when former Spice Girls singer Melanie Brown visited the programme, much to his enjoyment, she consensually let him grope both of her breasts live on air, to which he gave a running commentary of the precise topography of each. It arose from his enquiry into whether her breasts had been surgically enhanced.

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. A report by the BBC Trust on 2 June 2008 revealed that Chris Moyles was paid £630,000 in 2007. However, Moyles revealed in September 2009 that he took a 20% pay cut three months earlier, quoting the reason 'I want to work at the BBC, which is trying to save some of its gazillions'.

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 Moyles during Europride in London. According to Stonewall, “Chris Moyles is not helping young LGBT people struggling to come out through his comments.”

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 homosexuals such as Alan Carr, Scott Mills and Will Young. He was quoted in The Guardian by Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill as saying "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!" It is worth noting that in Moyles's The Difficult Second Book he defends himself as being quoted out of context as he was responding to another article with sarcasm.

Moyles was censured by Ofcom following 8 complaints made after a broadcast on 20 January 2009 in which he told listeners it was the birthday of Will Young and then went on to sing Evergreen and Leave Right Now in a high pitched and effeminate voice, changing the lyrics to references on Young's sexuality. Ofcom stated that the language used could have been "interpreted by listeners as promoting and condoning certain negative stereotypes based on sexual orientation" and whilst acknowledging the intention was to be humorous in their opinion it could have been perceived as hostile and pejorative. The media regulator also said in their view that because of the show's breakfast time slot that attracts a young audience it had the potential to encourage children to discriminate against others based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation and ran the risk of being imitated on the playground causing "unnecessary distress".

Auschwitz controversy

On 20 January 2009, Moyles provoked controversy with comments regarding the family history programme Who Do You Think You Are? during his radio show. Referring to his recent trips to Ireland while filming for the programme, Moyles said "I went off to Ireland and other places to film and unlike a lot of the Who Do You Think You Are? shows I didn't go to Auschwitz. Pretty much everyone goes there whether or not they're Jewish. They just seem to pass through there on their way to Florida".

Celebrities featured on Who Do You Think You Are? including Stephen Fry, Jerry Springer and Natasha Kaplinsky, have traced their family histories back to Jews murdered during the Holocaust.

The BBC quickly released a statement: “Anyone who listens to the Chris Moyles Show will know he has an irreverent style...However, we regret that on this occasion his comments were misjudged and we are speaking to Chris and his team about them.”

N-Dubz controversy

On Tuesday 12 January 2010, N-Dubz appeared on the Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1. The show received a text message from a female listener saying that band member Dappy was "vile" and "a little boy with a silly hat" and that N-Dubz were "losers". Dappy secretly copied her phone number from the studio console and sent her threatening text messages the following day.

Moyles said of the resulting criticism: "I feel let down by him, I've supported them and said, 'Do you know what, N-Dubz aren't just a bunch of dippy chavs, they're really good'. So for him to go and do something like that is a bit rubbish.

Discography

Studio Albums

• The Parody Album (2009) UK Chart #17

Awards

Moyles has won several Sony Radio Awards: Silver in 1998; Gold in 2006; nominated in 2007: Gold in 2008; Bronze in 2009.

He has won numerous awards from The Sun newspaper for best DJ as well as several from Loaded magazine.

DJ № 192 in 2005 (DJ MAG)

In 2006 he was nominated and won "Bully of the Year" at the annual Stonewall Awards.

Bibliography

• Moyles, Chris (5 October 2006). The Gospel According to Chris Moyles. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091914172.
• Moyles, Chris (4 October 2007). The Difficult Second Book. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091922429.

External links

• Chris Moyles Page at Radio 1