The Radio Revolution Starts Here

One to file in the 'where are they now' pile, but on Valentine's Day in 1997, Reef were at the top of the UK album charts and doing a public appearance to launch the UK's first full time FM radio station where all output was produced by volunteers.

Oxygen 107.9FM was a lot of fun, produced some good radio (and a lot of very bad unlistenable stuff) and was nothing short of being a complete commercial disaster!

No matter.

We had fun, it proved a springboard for a number of media careers, and it was also the scene of the worst broadcast interview I have ever done.

Fresh from launching the station in the shopping centre (move over Tiffany) bursting a few balloons in the process (so rock and roll) - Gary, Kenwyn, Jack and Dominic joined me in the studio to chat about life, the universe, and everything.

Unfortunately they were more interested in sex, drugs and rock and roll. Or more specifically the sex. Refusing to answer many questions they simply started talking about lewd sex acts and generally playing up.

My co-presenter Rob and I ploughed on, when in retrospect we should have called a halt to proceedings. The only reason I didn't was that I feared it would be seen as a publicity stunt.

As it happens, their moronic stupidity, simply backfired on them, making them look unprofessional rather than cool.

Sadly no tape exists of this. Which is probably just as well. 

Ah well, you live and learn!