SW
I would probably agree with this, the 2000 revamp wasn't very good but at least it was a proper attempt to move the brand along a bit, the 1999 revamp was just really boring. It was really strange, actually - I've said this before that I think the feeling in the Beeb at the time was that under Zoe and Jamie the show was skewing a bit too old and it was getting a bit hard to manage with them appearing in the papers all the time, so they considered it was important to aim it squarely at children again. That's a laudable aim, but they did it so badly.
It just seemed a really dull show. I suppose Steve and Emma looked alright on paper because, like Steve, Jamie wasn't that famous when he joined and Emma had been on MTV so she seemed quite cool like Zoe, but they probably tried to replicate the dynamic a bit too much so they were just like Zoe and Jamie but not as good. I suppose it's a bit like Nick and James replacing Trevor and Simon, they just weren't Trevor and Simon and so doomed to failure.
But the whole show seemed to just fall flat, there was no comedy team for the first time in over a decade and it didn't seem to have any kind of swagger. I don't know if there was a budget cut or anything but it didn't seem to be as much of a spectacle as it used to be. And there was probably some merit in them skewing younger, but they still carried on booking people like Elton John and Sting, so it was a bit of a weird mix that wasn't appealing to anyone. I think Chris Bellinger had also stood down as Editor, replaced by Angela Sharp, but she'd been on the production team for years and had vast experience so it shouldn't have been so bad. Maybe it would have been better if they'd got someone totally new in as Editor?
I'd been watching SMTV over the summer but still faithfully switched back to Live and Kicking in September (I was in my twenties at this point, of course), but it was so tedious I soon switched back. As you say, keeping it going over the summer was a masterstroke.
The 2000 revamp at least tried to do something different and not just replicate the old format to diminishing returns, but it just looked second-hand as it was so blatantly trying to just ape SMTV. And of course we already had SMTV doing that, they'd have been better off going for a completely different audience who wanted something a bit more involved.
Yeah, he'd certainly made a splash in his early days on Radio 1 - he was promoted to daytime very quickly and there was a period in early 1998 when he stood in on pretty much every daytime show in quick succession. He had a cult following very quickly.
I remember listening to Mark and Lard on the day, I don't think there was any mention until the 2.30 news and then after it Mark said "Well, in the light of that news we'll just be playing music for the rest of the show".
Jamie and Zoe's departure ended Live and Kicking as we know it. Steve and Emma in my opinion was the worst and worse than the 2000 reboot.
Live and Kicking tried to lure viewers back in January 2000 with supergirlie and the Simpsons repeats but when ITV gained rights to Pokemon (and Digimon too) all bets were off.
Personally I think that the 2000 reboot of Live and Kicking was fairly good but it was too late by then and like it as well as Smtv.
Live and Kicking tried to lure viewers back in January 2000 with supergirlie and the Simpsons repeats but when ITV gained rights to Pokemon (and Digimon too) all bets were off.
Personally I think that the 2000 reboot of Live and Kicking was fairly good but it was too late by then and like it as well as Smtv.
I would probably agree with this, the 2000 revamp wasn't very good but at least it was a proper attempt to move the brand along a bit, the 1999 revamp was just really boring. It was really strange, actually - I've said this before that I think the feeling in the Beeb at the time was that under Zoe and Jamie the show was skewing a bit too old and it was getting a bit hard to manage with them appearing in the papers all the time, so they considered it was important to aim it squarely at children again. That's a laudable aim, but they did it so badly.
It just seemed a really dull show. I suppose Steve and Emma looked alright on paper because, like Steve, Jamie wasn't that famous when he joined and Emma had been on MTV so she seemed quite cool like Zoe, but they probably tried to replicate the dynamic a bit too much so they were just like Zoe and Jamie but not as good. I suppose it's a bit like Nick and James replacing Trevor and Simon, they just weren't Trevor and Simon and so doomed to failure.
But the whole show seemed to just fall flat, there was no comedy team for the first time in over a decade and it didn't seem to have any kind of swagger. I don't know if there was a budget cut or anything but it didn't seem to be as much of a spectacle as it used to be. And there was probably some merit in them skewing younger, but they still carried on booking people like Elton John and Sting, so it was a bit of a weird mix that wasn't appealing to anyone. I think Chris Bellinger had also stood down as Editor, replaced by Angela Sharp, but she'd been on the production team for years and had vast experience so it shouldn't have been so bad. Maybe it would have been better if they'd got someone totally new in as Editor?
I'd been watching SMTV over the summer but still faithfully switched back to Live and Kicking in September (I was in my twenties at this point, of course), but it was so tedious I soon switched back. As you say, keeping it going over the summer was a masterstroke.
The 2000 revamp at least tried to do something different and not just replicate the old format to diminishing returns, but it just looked second-hand as it was so blatantly trying to just ape SMTV. And of course we already had SMTV doing that, they'd have been better off going for a completely different audience who wanted something a bit more involved.
My comment on his following was based on chrismoyles.net being around since he started early breakfast on Radio 1 (when it was called MoylesWorld) and the forum starting only a few years after that - indeed there’s a 9/11 thread on there and lots of downloads of full shows from around that time - but maybe saying he’s always had a
dedicated
following rather than a large one would have been more accurate.
Yeah, he'd certainly made a splash in his early days on Radio 1 - he was promoted to daytime very quickly and there was a period in early 1998 when he stood in on pretty much every daytime show in quick succession. He had a cult following very quickly.
I remember listening to Mark and Lard on the day, I don't think there was any mention until the 2.30 news and then after it Mark said "Well, in the light of that news we'll just be playing music for the rest of the show".