| Terry Christian |
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EARLY LIFE One of six children to Dublin born parents Irish background, Christian was born in Manchester , England , he grew up near Brooks's Bar in Old Trafford and was taught at St Alphonsus primary school and after passing his eleven plus at St Bede's College, Manchester in Alexandra Park . His father was a shop steward in the TGWU for twenty-five years. Christian was spotted in 1981 on ''Devil's Advocate'', a programme made by Granada TV about youngsters on the Dole presented by former '' World In Action '' editor Gus Macdonald . Amongst the other kids on the dole along side Terry on Devil's Advocate was Johnny Marr of The Smiths . As a result of his appearances on the programme Terry was offered his own radio show on BBC Radio Derby called ''Barbed Wireless''. RADIO Christian gained plaudits and honours for his radio work for BBC Local Radio stations in the 1980s with his ''Barbed Wireless'' programme winning Sony Awards in the specialist music category in 1985 and again in 1986 , he also presented WPFM on Radio 4 for two years and contributed regularly to Saturday Live on BBC Radio One . He managed twelve piece Reggae band, from the Nottingham / Derby area, Junior C Reaction, who received airplay on John Peel and Janice Long 's show on BBC Radio 1 for their first independent release on Centurion Records a double A Side, "CryJahoviah", and "Love & Emotion". They were signed to Cooltempo, a Chrysalis subsidiary, and enjoyed a modicum of success with their first release, a version of the Delroy Wilson classic, "'etter Must Come", which was C listed on Radio One and Capital Radio at the time as well as playing a live session on Radio One's Saturday live. Terry also promoted regular gigs around the Derby and Nottingham area , promoting concerts by Pop Will Eat Itself, The Jazz Defektors , Nico (of Velvet Underground fame) Misty In Roots , The Naturalites, The Fall, and regular house nights at Derby's Twentieth Century club , where the resident Saturday night DJ was Graham Park, who left to join Mike Pickering at the legendary Hacienda Nude night. In late Autumn 1988 he joined Piccadilly Radio 's Key 103 FM presenting from 6-9pm weekday evenings and 2pm-5pm Sunday afternoon. Unusually for a radio presenter even then, he was given control of the music and other content and the show played a mixture of classics by everyone from The Beatles , Love , The Doors , Jimi Hendrix , classic Soul and Funk , plus Manchester favourites like The Buzzcocks , The Smiths , The Fall , New Order and Joy Division . He was also the first to start regularly showcasing the new raft of Manchester bands coming through at the time including A Guy Called Gerald , The Stone Roses , The Happy Mondays , Inspiral Carpets , Ruthless Rap Assassins , 808 State and a host of local DJs including The Hacienda 's Mike Pickering . Terry also wrote The Word page in the Manchester Evening News from September 1989, a page dedicated to the Manchester music scene, and gave the first press to a host of Manchester luminaries including The Charlatans , Oasis , The Doves (then called Sub Sub). He was sacked from Key 103 in October of 1989 for playing too much music by obscure artists, the same week that The Mondays, Roses and 808 State all appeared on '' Top Of The Pops '' for the first time. He then worked alongside British comedy duo Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne at KFM , Britain's first official indie music station. In 1995 he worked for Talk Radio for eight months until sacked in September 1995 from Talk Radio UK after a comedian on his show described The Pope as a "twat". Terry successfully sued them for Wrongful Dismissal and Libel . Christian currently presents the drivetime show every weekday afternoon from 4pm on BBC Radio Manchester and co-presents the ''Manchester Music'' show, with Bonehead from Oasis every Saturday night.Still on the cutting edge music wise , he's been responsible for first airplays for Cherry Ghost from Bolton , who after one play on Terry's show three years ago were immediately signed up by Doves manager Dave Rofe and then landed a recording contract with Heavenly records. He is also the presenter of ''The Final Whistle'' on TalkSPORT every Saturday between 5pm and 8pm, now officially Britain's most listened to after match football phone-in, alongside ex footballer Micky Quinn . TELEVISION Christian shot to national fame and notoriety in 1990 , when he was recruited to host the controversial and Cult ish Channel 4 youth show '' The Word '', named after his column in the '' Manchester Evening News '' and based on the format of his pioneering music magazine radio shows. The show regularly pushed boundaries of taste and legality. Christian remained its only continuous presenter until it was axed in 1995. He went on to present Carlton TV 's ''The Big City'', Sky One 's pop music show '' The Hitmix '' and ''The Football Show'' for Tyne Tees TV . He also presented two series of late night TV review programme '' Turn On Terry '' for ITV and five series of youth issues talkshow '' It's My Life '' for ITV. Recently, he has starred as himself in the young Wakefield band The Cribs ' video for the standalone single "You're Gonna Lose Us", which was made to look like an episode of ''The Word''. WRITING Christian has written three books: ''Brothers - from Childhood to Oasis'' - about Oasis , and ''Reds In The Hood'' - about growing up in Old Trafford. Both of which are now sought after collectors items A third book, ''My Word'', was published by Orion books June 2007 FOOTBALL Christian supports Manchester United and has been a season ticket holder since 1988 and attending matches regularly at Old Trafford since August 1969. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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