| Simon Mayo |
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EARLY CAREER Mayo graduated from Warwick University with an Academic Degree in History and Politics where he had been a presenter on the student radio station, Radio Warwick . He then began a four year stint as a presenter with BBC Radio Nottingham , before joining the national pop network BBC Radio 1 in 1986 , presenting a two hour Saturday evening show. In October 1987 he progressed to the weekend early slots and then became presenter of the weekday evening show in January 1988 . Within five months his star had risen so much that he was offered the biggest presentation job in UK radio — the Radio 1 breakfast show. WAKING THE NATION Having become the host of the station's flagship breakfast show, Mayo's confident, mildly Cynical style of articulate music presentation quickly earned him many admirers and the show soon re-established its hold on the waking audience. Mayo spent five years waking up the nation and the programme remains arguably the most consistent breakfast programme which Radio 1 has ever had. Throughout his tenure, Mayo was joined by news anchor Rod McKenzie and went through a series of sidekick weather girls, including Carol Dooley , Sybil Ruscoe , Jakki Brambles and Dianne Oxberry. The show's producer was Ric Blaxill , though most mornings he would often pretend to be a celebrity acting as a 'guest producer', often without attempting even slightly to impersonate the celebrity in question. The programme became known for various successful features, including a throwback to Mayo's student days in the daily Almanac '' On This Day In History '', famously soundtracked by a looped version of George Michael 's " I Want Your Sex "; and the long-running cryptic game '' The Identik-Hit Quiz '', where Mayo and his cohorts would 'act' a short scene which cryptically led listeners to the title of a hit song. He also patented his hugely successful '' Confessions '' feature where members of the public sought absolution for their " Sin s" (most of which were frivolous or humorous) and it became a moderate television success in later years. Mayo had already presented the dilemma show '' Scruples '' for BBC television, and had joined his Radio 1 colleagues on the host roster for '' Top Of The Pops ''. Both ''On This Day In History'' and ''Confessions'' spawned successful spin-off books. Thanks to endless plays from Mayo, several unlikely hit singles reached the UK charts, including " Kinky Boots " by Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman ; " Donald Where's Yer Troosers " by Andy Stewart ; and " Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life ", sung and written by Eric Idle . For helping Monty Python have a hit with the latter (13 years after it first appeared on the soundtrack to '' The Life Of Brian ''), Idle presented Mayo with a model bare foot, in the style of the animated version which used to end the opening titles to the TV show. When Mayo's wife Hilary, a producer whom he met at BBC Radio Nottingham, gave birth to their son Ben in 1991, Mayo took an extended period of Paternity Leave , becoming one of the first high-profile males to do so as the trend for fathers to spend more time at home with newborn children gathered pace. The couple have subsequently had two more children, called Natasha who was born in 1993 and Joe who was born in 1999. Presenters who covered the breakfast show when Mayo took holidays included Bruno Brookes , Gary King , Phillip Schofield , Nicky Campbell and Mark Goodier . Mayo, like all of Radio 1's high-profile presenters of the time, would take his turn to spend a week in a coastal area of the UK during the Radio 1 Roadshow s which occurred for three months of the summer. For a short while, he also presented an additional weekend show for the station — on a Sunday afternoon and provisionally titled ''O Solo Mayo'' - to cover for the absent Phillip Schofield , who was working in the West End . MID-MORNINGS, THEN BACK TO BREAKFAST Mayo officially gave up the breakfast show in 1993, though he had been on another extended period of paternity leave when the announcement was made, and his stand-in Goodier was confirmed as his permanent replacement. Mayo moved on to the mid-morning slot from 9am-12midday, and survived the huge cull of a long-standing presenters which Radio 1 underwent the same year on the arrival of controller Matthew Bannister and his wish to rebrand the station as younger and more cutting edge. Goodier didn't last long on breakfast and subsequent host Steve Wright , so long a mainstay of the afternoon slot, proved to be a big disappointment when he tried to regain Mayo's audience. Ultimately, it took three years and the arrival of Chris Evans before Radio 1 re-emerged as a force at breakfast time to compare with the Mayo era. Mayo, meanwhile, settled professionally and uncontroversially into his new show and stayed there for eight years, though briefly returned to the breakfast show when the maverick Evans was dismissed after one absence and argument too many. This short spell back on breakfast was seen by many as a breath of fresh air, but both Mayo and Radio 1 ruled out the possibilities of a permanent return to the flagship programme. On his first morning as breakfast stand-in, he read out an Email from a man who had emigrated to New Zealand four years earlier and had arrived back in the UK that morning, and was "delighted to hear you're still doing the breakfast show". 5 LIVE In 2001, after 15 years with Radio 1, Mayo announced he was leaving to join sister station Five Live to present an afternoon programme. His final record on Radio 1 was " Ace Of Spades " by Motörhead . Mayo duly began broadcasting on Five Live every weekday from 1-4pm, and there he remains. He was on air when the September 11, 2001 Attacks occurred, and received huge acclaim for the way he handled the station's reaction to the atrocity. The programme generally combines topical debates, interviews and reviews. It comes live from Westminster each Wednesday for live coverage of Prime Minister 's Question Time, with discussion and debate afterwards with political correspondents and MPs . The programme also features Mayo's old Radio 1 sidekick Mark Kermode waspishly reviewing the new movie releases each Friday afternoon. OTHER PROJECTS Mayo still keeps his eye in with music presentation by hosting the Album Chart show each week for BBC Radio 2 . On January 2 , 2006 , he presented ''The Ultimate Music Year'' for the station, where listeners got the chance to vote what there favourite year was for music. His TV work has been less frequent lately, though he did present the first and second series of BBC show '' Winning Lines '' as part of the corporation's National Lottery output. MISCELLANEOUS Away from his work, Mayo is known for his love of Tottenham Hotspur and his devout Christian faith. |
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