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!