Projects

Moving the office archive recently I crossed paths again with numerous projects I’ve commissioned and worked on which are fading in my memory so I’ve decided to build a list here for posterity…

• My Healthchecker
• My Mindchecker
• My Molechecker
• Bedtime Live (2012)
• Healthfreaks (2013) 
• Every Object Tells a Story (2004)
• ORIGINATION (10/04)
• Origination: Insite (Culture Online) (Q1 2005)
• Lost Generation
• My Movie Mashup
• Germ (viral videos incl. ICA exhibition)
• The Human Footprint – a life in numbers (interactive module)
• PIXnMIX (Nov 2004) The Candy Jar
• TexTips 4Lovers, 4Karma, 4Mates, Islamic Inspiration, 4Change etc.
• Lust4Life / Ten Years Younger
• (Chancers) (urban talent search, Ras Kwame 12/04)
• Ideasfactory
• Omagh
• Digital Africa
• Time Team Big Dig
• (Big Roman Dig) (2005)
• (Jamie’s School Dinners)
• Jamie’s Dreamschool
• (New Shoots)
• Famelab
• Rolling Stock
• My Shakespeare (RADA)
• X (Q1 2005)
• Breaking the News
• Make Tracks
• Webit (Ideasfactory website competition for 13-19s 12/04)
• Interactive Christmas card (tangerine)
• The Unteachables
• 121 (2006)
• The Play’s The Thing
• Drugs SFV pilot (which came first)
• Sexperience
• The Sexperience 1000
• The Showbiz Baby Name Generator (10/04)
• Parents Screw You Up 
• Stephen Fry’s 100 Greatest Gadgets (6/11)
• Poll Vault pilot
• Bollywood Star (9/04)
• Big Art Project
• [Creative Archive Licence]
• Britain’s Big Share (pilot)

 

BBC Timeline

I’ve just been writing a concise history of the BBC (from a TV perspective) for Ravensbourne University and thought I might as well share the basic timeline online as it’s not easy to find on the web

• 18 Oct 1922 British Broadcasting Company formed by a group of leading wireless manufacturers (including Marconi)
• 14 Nov 1922 Daily broadcasting began in Marconi’s London studio in the Strand
• Jan 1927 BBC established by Royal Charter as the British Broadcasting Corporation
• Nov 1929 John Logie Baird tested television
• May 1932 Broadcasting House, Portland Place opened
• 2 Nov 1936 BBC Television Service launched
• Jan 1948 News added to the TV Service
• Jun 1960 Television Centre, White City opened
• 20 Apr 1964 BBC2 launches
• Jul 1967 BBC2 offers 1st full colour TV service in Europe
• Nov 1997 BBC News 24 Channel rolling news
• Dec 1997 bbc.co.uk launched
• Sep 1998 BBC Choice – 1st BBC digital TV channel
• 2 Mar 2002 BBC 4
• 9 Feb 2003 BBC3
• Jul 2007 BBC iPlayer

1953

This first BBC TV ident was designed by my graphic designer mum’s mentor, Abram Games in December 1953. It acquired the nickname the “Bat’s Wings”. It was created using an elaborate mechanical model constructed by Abram, centred on a tiny spinning globe, surrounded by two spinning ‘eyes’, with electrical/lightning flashes to either side. The contraption was temperamental and broke down shortly after it was filmed. But he got the money shot.

East Street Band

East Finchley has done pretty well on the music front in recent years with Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones, Ray Davies of the Kinks and Jon King of the Gang of Four among the local residents, as well as having the house called Fairport just down the road which gave its name to Fairport Convention. But the crowning glory is the little known fact that David Bowie played one of his first gigs, aged 17, in this (not very large) building in East Finchley High Street…

 

Finchley Youth Theatre

Here’s how the two shilling event was billed:

Sunday 26th June 1964

This was Bowie’s – or as he was then Davie (not Davy) Jones – second band. They mainly did RnB covers but had nevertheless attracted the attention of TV (BBC’s Juke Box Jury, ITV’s Ready Steady Go!, and The Beat Room on BBC2 [the third British TV station,  which had just launched in April 1964]). Their first and only single, Liza Jane, had just been released (5th June 1964), Bowie’s first ever record. It was recorded not far away at Decca Studios in West Hampstead.

Bowie left the King Bees shortly after the gig to form The Mannish Boys. Five years later, after struggling to break through, he released Space Oddity under the name David Bowie.

J.Y.C. stands for Jewish Youth Club. Beatles manager Brian Epstein was Vice-President of the club from 1964 to his death in 1967, and visited it at least once a year to meet the young members. The club was sent copies of all Epstein’s record releases the day they came out.

Davie Jones and the King Bees

jewish Chronicle 15th September 1967

 Brian Epstein signing autographs at the Youth Club in September 1965

Coincidence No. 202 – Kane

I finish watching ‘Citizen Kane’ for the first time in years, showing Enfant Terrible No. 1. I notice how the final scene in Xanadu with all his art and possessions boxed up must have inspired the final warehouse scene in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’. 

Two minutes after the film finishes a message comes in to me from an old school friend commenting on the stuff I’ve been finding today as I sort out the attic and sharing with our Whatsapp group of schoolmates:

Ad – I’m thinking of that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Ark gets stored in a vast warehouse. Based on what’s emerging recently, I’m assuming your attic is something like that.

Final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark

Final scene of Citizen Kane