Merry Christmas!

I guess you're all well into the eternal hang-over that is the Christmas season.

Nowadays there are no office parties for me, no frantic shopping sessions, no 'Christmas number 1' nonsense (Thank God, so much crap gets released that time a year) and no Christmas tree.

We're in the middle of construction as we have to finish our new accommodation by the 28th. In the meantime, the resort is full & my babysitter is on holiday.

So what I'm trying to say is that there is little room in my head for music, blogging, etc. I will check in again after Christmas. Have a good one!

I'm having a bit of a Faithless day

Okay, I'll promise to stop going on about Faithless and 'To all new arrivals' after this. But I just love that being a parent has been such a muse to their new music. As a mum, I can totally relate to the lyrics on 'I hope' and the little kid's voice on 'Music matters' melted my heart. So big up to all the mums and dads out there! May we all be so inspired by this, the hardest job on earth. Enjoy your little angels!

Outrageous!!!

After reading up a little on Faithless today I was outraged to discover that MTV banned the video for Bombs when it came out last September. The video shows how war and violent images have become part of our everyday life. It is social commentary at its finest! So why was it banned?

So from being the ones to play Faithless when no one else would, MTV has now become the corporate giant that does not allow people to express their dissatisfaction with things like the war. All I can say is that I am happy that I was part of MTV at a time when it had a social and political conscience.



This video also reminds me of the old Damien Loeb paintings, which were actually the ones he was working on whilst I was staying with him years ago. They depicted pictures of beauty pageants and other cute images in front of explosions and other war scenes . Quite disturbing, but incredibly powerful.

Faithless

Yes, they've done it again. Rollo, Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz have produced another musical gem with 'To all new arrivals'. It really is a great album & something that is even playable in my serene jungle setting here in Belize (a lot of bands/acts that I used to listen to simply sound 'too urban' and chaotic here)


When Faithless released their first album 'Reverence' no one seemed to be particularly interested in them. I believe their label was even thinking of dropping them at the time (or am I getting confused with Moloko? I'd have to check with James now, I'm not 100% sure anymore)

Anyway, when James Hyman (my old Partyzone producer) and I first heard 'Reverence' we got incredibly excited. This was one of those albums that we phoned each other out of bed for. One of us would occasionally discover a track or an album at 2 or 3 in the morning and would instantly wake up the other as we knew that there weren't many other people who would freak out to the same level as we did about music, so this is something we shared with each other. We would virtually be screaming, jumping up and down and just generally be so excited that would not be able to go back to sleep. Being passionate about what we were doing with the Partyzone doesn't even do it justice, being obsessive about it is more accurate. We lived for this stuff. And we especially lived for 'discovering' gems like Faithless.

So we contacted the label, set up Faithless' first ever TV interview (on the Partyzone of course) and we even supported their first tour! And the rest, as they say, is history...

A few months later they flew James and myself out to Amsterdam to join them at one of their gigs as a 'thank you'.

To this day, my proudest achievement as a Veejay was playing a small part in the breakthrough of new artists to the mainstream. Acts like Faithless, Moloko, Prodigy, Tricky, Goldie, etc.

Some more retro moments...

Great track

I love this tune by Death in Vegas with Liam Gallagher, called Scorpio Rising.

It's funny actually, Death in Vegas have done some great music over the years, yet when I saw them perform live (many years ago, I admit) they were dull as hell. I hope their live shows have become a bit more interesting since. I assume they must have.

And Liam Gallagher, of course, is a great rock & roll vocalist and performer. But he is, without a doubt, one of the dumbest people I have ever come across. Shame really, as I always found him quite sexy. But he was (and still is, I'm sure) someone who constantly says the most stupid and rude things. The kind of person who joins a lively discussion, opens his mouth and brings everything to a dead halt. Simply because his comment was so brainless, no one knows how to follow it up. After a long silence, there will usually be an 'anyway' from someone and the discussion returns to where it left off before Liam butted in. Such a shame. Anyway, you don't have to listen to him talk, just enjoy his singing...

For those of you who understand German....

This must have been one of my last ever TV appearances before moving to Belize. The Harald Schmidt show. I always loved being on his show (I was there 3 times in less than 3 years) and was sad to hear that the show no longer exists. What does Harald Schmidt do these days? He was a great host.

Anyway, in this interview I talk about 'Popstars' and the band we formed on that show, who became the 'No Angels'. I'll blog about them in the coming weeks too.

Shopping in Mexico

It's 5.23 am and I'm the only one up so far. Just wanted to say (before we're off to Chetumal, Mexico on our shopping trip) that I have made my mind up about that Gwen Stefani track.

I like the sample of that Sound of Music track, but the song would have been much better if Gwen hadn't just sang the obvious over it (i.e. the original melody)

So, as far as I'm concerned, it's poor song writing. If she would have sung a completely different melody over it, something that had nothing to do with the Sound of Music, it would have made the whole 'joke' very subtle, where right now it isn't.

So, my verdict...6 out of 10 for that one.

Anyway, I better get my shopping bags ready : )

True to their name

Regardless of what style of music you are into, you have to go to Itunes (or where ever you purchase your music) right now and buy the 'All Angels' track 'Songbird'

I can't imagine that there is anyone out there that won't love this. It is just so beautiful and soothing. The voices are amazing!!!!

Go right now, buy it!

Actually....whilst you're out music shopping...have a listen to 'We used to vacation' by "Cold war kids' as well. That's another one that I love.

Great party tune

The Rapture, with 'Whoo!Alright, Yeah...Uh, Huh!' of the album 'Pieces of the people we love'.

I know that some of the tracks on the album where produced by Gnarls Barkley member and Gorillaz producer Danger Mouse, but am not quite sure if this was one of them.

And by the way, I love the band's bio on their website: 'Origin of the band. The Rapture. Formed in San Diego, moved to New York, slept under a bridge. More to follow...'

Well, that's indepth. A bit like this blog, really ; )




Oh and talking of Danger Mouse, I love how he went around British record stores replacing 500 copies of Paris Hilton's album 'Paris' last summer with spoofs albums with altered artwork and a 40 minute instrumental that contained various ridiculous statements by Paris.

I think that's funny. Admitting...she is an easy target, with plenty of dumb statements to choose from. Still, I'd love to hear what Mouse's version of 'Paris' sounds like.

And, I hate to admit it, but Paris' music debut actually quite surprised me. Her voice is not bad. I mean, she's totally unoriginal, with the video for 'Stars are blind' being a total re-enactment of that old Madonna video (damn, what was the name of that track again? That black and white video where she was plashing around in the sea with a mermaid boy and kept flexing her muscles...you know which one I mean?)

And when I first heard 'Stars are blind' I though it was a new Gwen Stefani track. Oops!

And, whilst we're on that subject, here's Gwen's 'Sound of Music' moment. Very weird indeed. I can't quite decide whether I like it's quirkiness or whether this is just too stupid for words. I think I'll stay on the fence until the track either grows on me or until it makes me want to pull my hairs out. I'll get back on that some day...

For what it's worth

During my time at MTV my music knowledge was pretty extensive. I took music history seriously & always kept up to date by reading the music mags and of course by watching tons of MTV. As soon as I entered any hotel room I'd switch on MTV and it played constantly in the MTV building as well.

My pursuit of music knowledge was nothing like James Hyman's obsessive compulsive thirst for fact, figures and obscure samples & I was no walking, talking 'music library' like Paul King, but still...I knew my s**t.

Then we left for Belize in 2001 and I completely stopped following what was going on. To be honest, I think that it was all too painful for me to see how everyone was still 'out there' doing their thing whilst I wasn't anymore. I mean, it was my own choice to move to the Belizean jungle, but I hadn't fully thought through what that was going to mean in reality, that it would mean the end of my career.

Anyway, after years of souls searching and deciding to make things work out here, I'm now very settled in this jungle lifestyle and feel blessed to be here every day. I am no longer envious of anyone else's life anymore & it no longer hurts to look at what's happening in the world of music.

I'm even getting to a point where I no longer feel embarrassed about my huge gap in recent music knowledge. I even think that it makes things more interesting in a way. What do I mean with that? Well, I now am an outsider looking in. I am not influenced by any hype, fad or scene that might be going on around me. I just see and hear things for what they are. I don't know what any of the recent bands or artists where up to a year or two years ago, I just witness where they are at this very moment.

And, even though I am outside looking in, I also know what things look like from the inside as I spent so much time there myself.

So, I guess it's quite a unique perspective and one that's hopefully going to result in some interesting observations and conclusions.

There has been lots going through my mind lately with regards to what I've seen and heard, I'll start sharing in the coming days...

Email from Ray Cokes!

I've been trying to get hold of Ray Cokes for ages now & am happy to report that I am finally back in contact with him. He's doing well and is promising me an update on his life to post here soon.

In the meantime, I am bugging him to start a daily vlog (video blog). Wouldn't he be brilliant at that? I'd watch it. I can just see Ray do silly stuff like this:





To see what other Vlogs are out there, check out the Vloggies Awards website & Rocketboom (just as one example of a daily vlog). I love all this stuff.

Ipod flashmobbers

This is just the funniest! I noticed the following article on the Daily Mail website:

Hundreds of flashmob clubbers dance in silence among commuters at Liverpool Street station

Hundreds of people descended on Liverpool Street station for the biggest ever turnout for the latest internet craze - mobile clubbing. Armed with MP3 players loaded with favourite tracks the "clubbers" arrived on the concourse just after 7pm last night. Students, business people and office workers danced in silence as they listened to their iPods among commuters listening to announcements about late trains.

Details of the time and venue were sent by email. The event is similar to the flash mobbing movement pioneered in New York which involved large numbers of people gathering to conduct bizarre activities.

One commuter said: "It was entertaining if strange to see all these people gyrating to their own beat. It was the Soul Train arriving at platform one."

Fantastic 'bastard pop' mashups!

You have to go check this out, this is brilliant! A site called 'Good Blimey' that features 2,747 mashup tunes (for you to listen to and even download).

Big up to James Hyman for finding this gem of a site.

Enjoy!

Moby & I

I am very confused about the new Moby video. It's for his track with Debbie Harry, called 'New York, New York'. The song itself is pleasant enough, but the video????? The reason I'm so confused it's that it's such a bad 'not funny!' video & Moby normally has a great sense of humor. I know, because Moby & I used to be very good friends. Sadly enough, we don't talk to each other these days. I think I broke his heart or just bruised his ego (to this day I'm not sure which it was). I'll go into the story in a minute, first have a look at the 'New York, New York' promo & make up your own mind...

So anyway, how/why did I break Moby's heart? Well, we used to hang out a lot. We actually made a great team, Moby and I. I stopped him from getting too uptight about things & he used to inspire me mentally-he's incredibly intelligent- and blow me away musically-he used to play my piano or sit and and play the guitar for me. We really loved hanging out together, the only problem was that he fancied me and I didn't fancy him.

Anyway, Moby got the wrong end of the stick and started hinting to people (the press included) that we were some kind of item. I had planned a trip to New York to stay with him, so I decided to let him know ahead of time what the deal was. He took it well and we both decided that I should still come to New York.

Once I got there it turned out that he was a bit peeved and had ordered his best friend Damien Loeb (an amazingly talented but struggling artist back then & a superstar painter now) to entertain me whilst he would continue his work in the studio. So during the day I would hang out in Damien's art studio/apartment and at night the three of us would hang out together. Visiting the three vegan restaurants in New York that were strict enough for Moby to eat in (yawn!) or watch crap videos like Pooh Bear in Apocalypse Now (Moby's choice of movie). After a while, Damien and I had more fun together and didn't really want to drop whatever we were doing during the day to suit King Moby.

So, to make a long story short...Damien and I started seeing each other. Moby was not too happy (obviously) and the whole thing became a bit of a mess for all of us. The relationship didn't last & I let the two best friends get on with mending their friendship.

It's a shame really. They are both such interesting characters. It would have been nice to have stayed friends with them. But there you go, love triangles are messy things to get into. I guess I should have known the trouble it would cause and never have gotten involved with Damien in the first place.

Anyway, that's all a long, long time ago. I'm just happy that life as a married woman and a mother is so much less complicated : )

So, just for old time's sake, a very melancholic live version of 'Go' from the Partyzone studio. Check out Moby and I cross-dressing in this clip too. We swapped outfits half-way through the show & continued the interview with me wearing Moby's jeans & T-shirt and Moby wearing my sparkly dress.

Will the real Richard D. James please stand up?

One of my strangest MTV moment was the following part of the Aphex Twin interview. Before the interview I was told by everybody that Aphex Twin (aka Richard D. James) was a complete freak, that he had simply taken 'one trip too many' and that he therefor made such bizarre music, drove around in a tank and performed live shows whilst lying down.

I thought that that was too simplistic an explanation. I was convinced that there had to be more to it. I mean, Aphex Twin is weird. Without a doubt. But I wanted to know what really made this guy tick. Why was he so weird? If what he said in this interview is true, it would definitely explain it all. Unless...it's all one big lie. You never actually know with him. So be ready to be sucked into the weird world of Aphex Twin.

Let me just set the stage: Aphex Twin had released an album called Richard D. James and had told the press that it was dedicated to his dead brother. No one knew anything more than that. So I asked him about it & here is his answer:

More good stuff...

Oh, the joys of online music videos. Still, they either of poor quality or take forever to download (for me anyway. Is it maybe 'cause I'm out in the Belizean jungle?)

I've decided to stick to posting the lower quality ones (Utube). Who can be bothered to wait for these downloads?

Anyway, what I've come across today...lots of crap (I'm sorry to say), lots of 'okays' and a few I really liked like these:

A very 'Partyzone' tune and vid. It makes my head bop. Nice! 'The knife' with 'Like a pen'.






Good track, powerful video. 'The Dears' and 'Whites only party'.

Some promos I've enjoyed in the last few days..

I can't help it. I'm just a sucker for pop, pop, pop videos....

Beck's 'Cellphone's dead'. My favorite Beck song ever.



Corinne Bailey Rae. Oh my God, what a voice. Beautiful.



And Mickey Avalon's 'So rich, so pretty'. Naughty and very rock & roll. I like it!

The music we like to play at our jungle resort

People often ask me what music I listen to these days. I always explain that at the Belize Jungle Dome it simply sounds wrong to play anything too 'full on'. So no underground dance music blaring through the jungle, but generally soothing sounds that complement our nature surroundings. A good example is Zero 7. We love playing their music whilst lounging in the pool. Check out their video for 'Futures'. It shows the composing and de-composing of foods, leaves, etc. Like Cliptip pointed out, rather hypnotizing...


We also love to play all kinds of Latin Grooves. A fun and poppy example of this is the track Millionaire by Plastilina Mosh. Directed by Punga Visual Consorcio from Mexico.

By the way, for those of you who love watching tons of cool music videos, go to the Ninja Tunes video page (great archive)

Podcast

I was interviewed by the American Composers Forum recently for one of their Podcasts.

Click here to listen.

One thing though, at the end of the interview I talk about maybe returning to Europe one day and getting back into music or television but, to be honest, I can't really see that happening. Our life here is just too good to swap for anything like that again. And anyway, I'd have to battle like a mountain lion to get back into the scene. I really can't be bothered to do that all over again. That stubborn teenage drive is gone.

I think I'll keep all future involvement (if any) online or do some stuff here in Belize. I'm getting more settled here every day. This tropical lifestyle really isn't a bad one ; )

Ray Cokes & Duran Duran on MTV's Most Wanted

This clip shows why Ray Cokes was and always will be 'Mister MTV'. His show 'MTV's Most Wanted' was totally unique. No one had ever made a television show as crazy as that. And the 'Most Wanted' crew became minor celebrities themselves as Ray included them in the show constantly. Many copied his presenting style (especially Chris Evans) & to this day I do not understand how Ray could have disappeared from the screens like that.

Some random Partyzone & MTV Dance clips

Over the years I've noticed that American TV crews nearly always use cue cards or auto-cue (where the text scrolls down in front of the camera lens, seen by the presenter, but not visible on television). Nothing they film seems to be spontaneous, everything is scripted. I've always hated that. Whenever I was forced to use auto-cue, I felt like a school teacher. I always preferred to improvise (even if it didn't look as 'slick') or else I would spend hours learning my lines. Anything to avoid cue cards/auto-cue. Have a look at this Jenny McCarthy clip & you'll see what I mean...




This next clip cracked me up when we found it in our archives. It was one of many bizarre and funny Ibiza moments. Sadly enough, it's not the clearest. The 'stun gun episode' had already started by the time the camera started rolling. Still, I like it.

And I believe that this clip is from that summer in Ibiza when Lisa I'Anson, Tania (who worked on the Partyzone) and I went 'missing'. Any of you from the UK may remember that moment. Lisa was meant to do a live BBC radio show from the island, but never showed up. So what happened in those missing hours???? Let's just say that things got slightly out of hand at the infamous Manumission Motel. You just can't help doing stupid things in Ibiza (just see this clip, if you don't believe me...)



One of the worst interviews I've ever done was my first interview with Underworld. Karl from the band treated me like dirt, he really did. I had never been treated so badly by anyone in my life. He wouldn't answer my questions, told me to look the answers up myself & was trying to get the other band members to be rude to me too. It got so bad that at one point I told the camera man to just 'stop rolling' (lucky enough, he only pretended that he did, so everything ended up on tape)

I then said something along these lines: "Look, do you think that I care about any of these questions? Do you think that I give a flying f*** about your stupid band? You're not doing me a favor, I am doing you a favor. I'm promoting your music here. If you can't be bothered to co-operate, let's just end the interview right here."

After that, he behaved a bit better.

I've never tolerated much bad behaviour by bands on my show. As far as I was concerned, they were on my turf. They had to play by my rules! I even once handcuffed a bad behaving guest (forgot his name) and told the Guns & Roses guys to go f*** themselves. Again, after that, they were nice as pie. Stupid rock & roll behaviour!

Anyway, here's Karl trying to apologize....

Celebrity blogs

Everybody seems to start a blog at some point or another, but not many stick to it.

Already fallen by the sideline are the blogs of:

• Flea (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
• Gwen Stefani
• Avril Lavigne
• Barbra Streisand
• Mos Def

(amongst many others, I'm sure)

So what's up then? Are these stars just too busy? Well, other celebs/musicians still find time for a steady stream of posts, so I guess there's no real excuse.

Check out the following blogs:

• Madonna (Brilliantly personal blog & I love the fact that she's a 'Blogspot' blogger too)
• Radiohead
• Moby (I've always enjoyed his ranting ; )
• Barenaked Ladies

I'll look out for others...

My favorite site this week!

I stumbled across an amazing blog. It's called Cliptip & it shows brilliant, high quality music videos. As a matter of fact, I've been coming across so many fantastic videos online. My God, if only there were that many great (dance) clips around back in the Partyzone days. We used to have to scramble around looking for half-decent videos to show and used to have to beg labels to please consider making them.

Very frustrating. Now all this great stuff is out there & now MTV only plays these stupid reality TV shows. I don't get it...

I mean, it's fine that you can find great clips online, but I really like the ease of having music videos playing in the background whilst I get on with my life. Am I showing my age here? Am I just not getting it?

And by the way, does anyone knows what would happen if I started to grab music videos off other sites and posted them here? Would I get sued?

The only ever Aphex Twin TV Interview! (part 1)

This was a very unique interview. I had been warned beforehand that Aphex Twin (Richard D. James) only answered questions with yes or no. If he answered them at all. Well, I had no problem getting him to talk. It actually became quite a revealing interview. Enjoy!

Great radio

All dance music lovers (especially old Partyzone fans) should listen to James Hyman's "The Rinse" on Xfm. It is a brilliant, trainspotty type of show that will surely introduce you to a gem or two. James Hyman, of course, was the main brain behind the Partyzone & when you listen to his radioshow you'll notice how similar it is, it's like the Partyzone on radio (See? It didn't really die ;)

"The Rinse
James Hyman presents a two hour eclectic mix, covering all genres of club, DJ and dance culture. Tune in for monster giveaways, guest mixes and interviews with key DJs, producers, remixers and artists, and offer up your shout-outs and requests.
The Rinse is on every Saturday Night (9pm-1am, UK time)"

Two clips I love

I have always admired those who can produce cheap & effective music videos. An interesting story or a good idea can carry itself. "Praise you" from Fatboy Slim was a good example of this and so are these two videos from Sick puppies and Ok, go. Enjoy!

Shaun Rider on poisoning pigeons

I love this interview with Black Grape, especially because it is so unique to get Shaun Rider interviewed whilst he is (reasonably) straight. The reason for him being sober was that the guys had just come back from somewhere in Scandinavia & had not been able to buy any drugs there. This whole interview is brilliant to watch. I'll make sure we'll digitize the rest of it in the near future.

Later on in the day, Shaun Rider came over to me and passed me an LSD (paper) trip with the Black Grape logo on it. He told me that if anyone ever offered me one of these, I had to tell him. He said "I designed them. I have the copyrights"

My plan was not to take the trip, but to keep it folded into the artwork of my Black Grape CD. Thought it might be worth something some day. Sadly enough, I lost the bugger. What a shame!



And my sincere appologies for looking like a dodgy drag queen in the following clip. Especially the wig is too bad for words. That must be why they brought in stylists for the veejays in later years ; )

Still, it was cool watching Junior Vasquez in action. New York nightlife always made for a nice change of scenery for me...

MTV's Partyzone clips

We've finally got the old Partyzone clips digitized. Here are two short ones. The thing that makes all these 90's MTV interviews even more special is that most of the MTV Europe footage from that time got burned down at a fire at MTV's library. Guess we were the lucky ones...

So on this blog in the near future, expect the following clips:

1. The only ever Aphex Twin TV interview (with a rather shocking revelation)
2. The tape that got me in trouble with Kylie Minogue many years ago (I never meant to upset her and did apologize afterwards)
3. Shaun Rider on poisoning pigeons
4. Looking like a drag queen with Junior Vasquez
5. Moby unplugged, plus Moby and I cross-dressing
6. Our mate Justin getting stung with a stung gun (on his own request no less!)

And much, much more...

So let's get started. Let's go back to the old school!

Ex-MTV veejay Kristiane Backer

I've been asking Kristiane Backer for an update for a while now, but she prefers me to upload her personal profile from her website (something I'm not comfortable with). Anyway, those of you who want to read about Kristiane indepth, check out the Kristiane Backer website.
She has become a licenced homeopath. For more info on that, go to her energy-for-health website.

Seeing as I don't have a proper update from her I'll just post her most recent email to me....

Hi Simone

Congratulations to your Valentines boy!Well done! Looks like you are having a fab life out there...

I have to tell you that I think the best and most personal profile is the one that I wrote for my own website. I have no other great news to report at the moment and would be delighted if you could just put up that very personal profile I wrote which explains how I got into homeopathy and also shows all my pictures lots of old ones but also some recent ones.

But right now I have nothing new to report except on the media front I am developing TV concepts and have landed a gig on QVC otherwise do voice overs and host galas/ award ceremonies. I also treat patients with homeopathy, it is extremely effective and has healed my hay fever- that is how I got into it as you can read.

Wishing you really well and if I have any spectacular news I shall let you know.

Take care and send some sunshine it is still freezing here in London.
Lots of love, Kristiane