![]() Old Tube episodes can be a tough watch as what’s featured is a bit more random – you may get some great live peformances albeit they often sound shit, and those will be interspersed with tedious interviews, comedy bits which have aged very badly and utterly inept presenting by Jools & co which may have been seen as charmingly anarchic at the time and is now just irritating. Old TOTP is still very watchable – whatever episode it is you get the music of the day and a very true reflection of what people were listening to whether it was Laurie Lingo & The Dipsticks or The Specials they can be a joy – and a very honest playlist if nothing else (and the brilliant Chart Music Podcast brings them to life in astonishing clarity – anyone reading this not aware- get in there now and subscribe!) I didn’t get the dream job but I did get a BBC presenting gig on the radio off the back of it and also presented a HTV Wales pop show called Rough Mix. I see him quite often round Cardiff and we always stop for a chat. I reminded him of the audition and he told me that the production team hadn’t really wanted a replacement for Jools in the first place. Years later I worked with John Gwyn both as a researcher and as a presenter on a Welsh language holiday show. It went to that kid who wasn’t even auditioned. Two days later, back in Cardiff, I was invited up to Newcastle for a screen test. He looked a bit stunned, then he asked me if I spoke Welsh. So, I said ‘if you don’t then I’ll tell the world that you- John Gwyn- were once the lead singer in a dodgy Welsh prog band called Bran’. Then they asked me the only question they asked everyone- ‘why should we give you the job of presenter on the Tube?’ Now, years earlier, I’d asked for John Gwyn’s autograph because he’d been in a Welsh language band called Bran. Gerrie immediately grinned and jokingly offered me a fiver. I quickly congratulated them on Jools’s New Orleans doc and told them it was one of the best thing I’d seen on telly. Anyway, when our turn came we were told to go through to a small room where Malcolm Gerrie and John Gwyn (two of the producers) sat behind a desk. One of the ones I remember clearly was a girl with a robot. We were given a little number and told to wait our turn. I arrived to find roughly 500-1,000 other applicants. There were loads of these taking place throughout the UK- I was based in Cardiff so Birmingham was the nearest one. Then I had a letter back (this was 1985 or so, pre e-mail) inviting me to an audition in Birmingham. I saw an ad in the paper advertising for the new presenter role so I applied, not really thinking much about it. And acts who seemed popular at the time (Carmel) being eclipsed by those who got a lukewarm reaction in the Tube clips (Madonna).įascinating stuff, not sure how long it will remain online … Jill Furmanovsky describing her approach to photography, Pete Frame saying he never gets bored with his rock family trees … and yet there is so much dross. The editor of the NME Neil Spencer responding to criticism of elitism. ![]() Interviews with unsigned bands such as the Bangles and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Series 4 Episode 5 for example has Elton John, a boring turn from the Young Ones cast, a Mark E.Smith/Brix interview with Muriel Grey, Prefab Sprout and something from Soft Cell then back to Elton to end the show. I had thought it was a platform for ‘new music’ but seeing the full shows in retrospect it reveals itself as very much a mixed bag. I’ve seen individual clips before but watching full episodes 40 years on is a revelation. Push the tube back onto the hearing by pinching the end of the tube and wiggling it onto the hook.Some kind soul has uploaded every single episode of The Tube from 1982-1987 to Youtube.Use the old piece of tubing to measure the length of the tube, and carefully cut with scissors or wire cutters.Using some scissors or wire cutters carefully cut the tapered end off, try and make sure this is a neat cut to avoid irritation in the ear.Try and pull the tube through until you get around a 90 degree angle, as seen below.Push the tapered end of tubing into the ear mould, make sure the tapered part is at the bottom and is pushed through in the correct direction as seen below. ![]()
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