Latest from Toby Amies

He's always been a great presenter, that Toby Amies. I loved him back in the days at MTV & he still cracks me up with this new showreel of his.

And he is one of the only people that I know who can get away with the writing the following sentence in an email:

"I have finally returned from Tasmania full of Antipodean vigour for 2007" (any idea what Antipodean means, anyone?)

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that the guy is not only funny, but extremely intelligent too.

And I remember him as one of the veejays that were very 'real', if you know what I mean. There was no bullshit with him, he didn't suck up to anyone. What you saw was what you got. A bit like Ray Cokes and Steve Blame. Actually, Kimsy and Enrico were genuine too, as far as I was concerned. Some of the other veejays became too big for their boots after a while. I won't mention names here as many of those affected surely will have come off their high horses since then, so I won't drag them through the dirt.

Still, Toby was one of the ones that I always liked and respected, even if we weren't the closest of buddies at the time. He was the indie kid, I was the little raver...we mixed in different circles.

Have a look at his showreel if you haven't done so already and let us know what you think:

http://www.moneymanagementuk.com/showreel.asp?showreel=Toby%20Amies

Toby Amies update, part 2

As part of my "where are they now?" postings, the latest instalment from another old MTV collegue of mine, the very unique, funny and talented Toby Amies:

Since being back in the UK I have done quite a lot of directing for tv, made a few pop videos, been presenting for Film Four and am on my third series for Lonely Planet TV.Also more and more people are asking me to make strange films for them. I have just done one about a Victorian seance that went horribly wrong, shown in a festival here with a live score.

Best of all though has been the photography which is a perfect way for me to make sense of what I experience, I find it too difficult to write that much and too inept to paint properly, but my pictures are the best way I have found to grab hold of time that flies by now and to see some more of life for what it is. I have had some exhibitions here by the sea and am getting published in magazines quite widely. I also make bits and pieces of art for group shows and so on and my piece "The Museum of Unfinished Projects" was in this year's Sussex Open.

With that in mind, I want to use the behind the camera work I do to train my storytelling skills to the point where I can make a really good feature film, in about 5 years time ideally.

Otherwise I am increasingly content, have a wonderful woman who has a delightful daughter, love to cycle and worry about climate change, totalitarian religions and oppressive governments, the principle concerns of champagne anarchists.

Don't smoke fags no more.
I still dress funny.
Still got back fat and some side fat too.
Still don't eat meat.
Still dance.
Still hate the man.
The best thing about me is my friends.

Mad love to you and anyone who knows me.
Toby.

Update from my old MTV collegue Toby Amies

Simone,
how nice to hear from you, it sounds like you have an extremely interesting life, I'd like to come and visit. Congratulations on the breeding and the blog!

He's handsome that Silvestrin isn't he?

So as far as VJ's reunited goes:
After being such an arrogant angry fuck at MTV Europe I moved to NYC to work at the Deathstar as we dubbed it, had a fairly unpleasant time at MTV US and in the process figured out that fame was not really my main interest in life, but being creative was.

Someone I met in a nightclub there was going to interview Martha Quinn, one of the first veejays ever and they asked me what question would be good and I said "Ask them if they think a person can ever be bigger than a brand?"

That said I must say the first year in NYC as "the British guy" was quite spectacular and there was more sex, drugs and rock and roll available than I had imagined and my appetite was already large on departure from London.

As well as doing a fair bit of deejaying I started a band, Genius Steals, your basic Gothic funk 2-piece supergroup, we made some records including one with New Jersey House legend Romanthony [the voice on Daft Punk's "One More Time"] and played some gigs to varying levels of acclaim, very much enjoyed it though. The band split due to "emotional differences" and together with comic genius Darry Logan I started doing the US Top 20 for MTV international in a punk rock style from my own studio, Sinister Construction, a chained-up shed in Brooklyn, in many ways though the music was pretty dreadful, this was some of my best work for the channel and props to Richard Godfrey for giving us the freedom to do what we thought best.

Darry and I also made some films and one won the Dali Award at the 1999 International Surrealist Film Festival.

I started work for Film Four and began to take photography seriously as my main creative focus. I lived in a Hassidic neighbourhood in Brooklyn and my landlord used to call me "the Picturemaker" and that pretty well sums up what I was doing and still do.

Pot smoking, a windowless environment, American capitalist immorality, Bush-led conservatism, a torn heart and the vile horror of September the 11th encouraged me to leave the States and come to Brighton, retirement community for ex-rock stars, London fugitives and lazy artists.

To be continued (part 2 coming soon)....