Showreel

A brief idea of what I've been up to over the last twelve months with some bonus pre-BBC Surrey news reporting at the back.

If you would like to get in touch directly, twitter is probably the best way. If you want to speak to my agent, his name is Chris North and his email address is chris@northmediatalent.com

(if you can't see the embedded video in this post, the showreel itself is hosted here on youtube. Please contact Chris if you require a DVD)

Bank of Scotland investigation

First broadcast: BBC1 Inside Out South, 3 March 2014

Copyright: BBC News

Info: A transcript of the film as broadcast is available here. The version above has had minor edits due to time constraints.

If the embedded video does not appear above, please watch it via this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z0ZDT1gC8s

A wander round Liverpool

Look carefully and you can see Gerry Marsden being held captive on the bridge

I was filming in Liverpool on Thursday and finished relatively early, so I had a bit of time to myself before catching a pre-booked train to Euston. 

I studied in Liverpool and worked for twelve months at the Liverpool Students' Union (LSU), running the student radio station, Shout FM. I had good times there, but I've only been back twice in the last eighteen years.

St Luke's church

So at 4.30pm on a chilly spring afternoon, with a couple of hours before my train, I checked my suitcase into left luggage at Lime St station and took myself up Renshaw St towards St Luke's church (the bombed out one).

Caesar's Palace, an insanely cheap burger restaurant which opened when I was there twenty years ago, was still doing business. Hurray.

They've turned Grand Central Hall into a Liverpudlian Affleck's Palace, and I enjoyed a quick browse, staring at all the clothes I wanted to buy but couldn't afford in the nineties. Now I can afford them I am too old to wear them.

Then up Hardman Street to its junction with Rodney St. There were three places still in business that I remember from 1996, the chippie, the 10 til 10 offy and the Valparaiso restaurant. The Valparaiso was always too expensive for my student budget, charging around £18 for a main course - quite fantastical prices in those days.

(l-r) 10 til 10, chippie, another offie and the Valparaiso restaurant 

I saw it almost every day for three years and wondered if I would ever be able to afford eating there. I did eventually cross the threshold when taken there by my girlfriend for a 21st birthday celebration lunch. As a pair of scruffy students, we looked a little out of place. Unfortunately I had drunk so much the night before, when I took my first bite of complimentary hors d'oeuvres I realised I was going to collapse, or throw up, or both.

Aldham Robarts. Beware. Books.

My girlfriend had the job of explaining the situation, whilst the waitress (who assumed I had taken one look at the menu prices and was engineering some kind of fit) tried to tell us there was a cheaper fixed price menu on the blackboard.

Maybe it wasn't meant to be. I walked north along Rodney Street and up towards the Aldham Robarts library (where I should have spent a lot more time than I did) and the Liverpool Students' Union. 

There was no security on the door, so I went in and had a look. Externally the building looks exactly the same. Internally, they've had a lot of work done.

Liverpool Students' Union, once known as The Haigh

Main bar. Where is everyone?

The bar (which received more of my custom over four years than any bar had or will) has had a refit. The other bar, in which I once saw Bill Bailey do a turn, was almost unrecognisable.

Main bar, looking from Maryland St end towards the bar

Was this really the room in which Matthew Bannister, then Controller of Radio 1, had to pause his session at the 1996 SRA spring conference every 4 minutes because the water squirting from the automatic flusher on the stainless steel gents urinals was so loud he couldn't hear himself think? Yes, friends, it was.

The other bar. Note shiny, wipedown floor.

I was just leaving when I thought I'd go and say hello to the union president. I went upstairs and saw a floor plan for the building. On the first floor was... no... could it be... a student radio station?

Shout FM closed down in the late 90s. It lost a lot of funding and someone did over the studios. With no kit or cash, things were always going to be problematic, so that was that. Although I never made enquiries, I always hoped I might see an SRA awards entry from Shout FM or a rebranded Liverpool John Moores University version thereof. 

Shout FM (and Shout magazine, which gave the station its name) are dead. In their place stands a magazine and radio station I thought might be LOO-preville, before settling on Looper Evil. 

DJ Daniel Fagan on the ones and, er, computerised playout system

As no one had yet stopped to ask me who I was and what I thought I was doing, I decided to see if there was anyone at the studios, and regale them with tales of how it was all very different in my day.

The door to the studios was (thank god) locked, but I heard music and voices within. I knocked. A very shy, polite man called Danny Fagan opened the door. He invited me in, and being very polite, allowed me to see the new radio desk and let me tell him how it was all very different in my day.

He also told me it was LOOPreville, or as I had yet to notice, "Liverpool" backwards. Danny didn't know much about the radio station, other than it had been going for three or four years and now broadcast online. He apologised for there not being many people around, explaining that because he was a first year he got the early show. I looked at my watch. It was 5.15pm.

Danny was politely engaged in giving me the station manager's email address when a song began to fade out. "It looks like you might have a link to do." I said.

Danny replied "Oh don't worry, I'll just play the next song", which he did.

"There's only three people listening anyway" piped up his mate.

"Yeah, true." said Danny pointing to the internet traffic screen mounted above the radio desk.

I thanked Danny for his time. I told him working at Shout FM was my way into the media, and he said he wanted a career in the media too. There are worse ways of going about it.

The Pilgrim pub

I tracked north into Pilgrim Street (home of the famous Pilgrim pub in which I had my 22nd birthday party) and west into Hope Place where I lived for two years, at number 10. 

10 Hope Place, second door from the right

We got lucky with that house and looking at the street today it's obvious we wouldn't be able to afford living there now.

The other side of the street in Hope Place - the Unity Theatre

I walked up the rest of Hope Place, turned right onto Hope Street and then took an immediate right down Rice street to get a shot of Ye Cracke, which is a proper lefty boozer, and apparently also home to a John Lennon graffito. It was certainly frequented by him.

Ye Cracke

Back onto Pilgrim Street I continued towards my favourite building in the world, Liverpool's Anglican cathedral. But first, a photo of some bins.

Liverpool is big on purple bins. Fact.

I paused to take a snap of my old faculty, the Dean Walters building, and trotted into the cathedral.

The Dean Walters building

It's such a vast building any photo I can take with my camera is not going to convey a fraction of its vaulting bulk.

Too big to fit in the ruddy camera hole!

Just to add to the effect there was a full choir evensong going on inside. It felt rude to take a photo of that, so here's one of a scale model of the cathedral in red Lego.

I know! Make it smaller. And redder.

It's a magical place and worth a visit to Liverpool just to see it. The cathedral. Not the Lego model.

With added sunlight. It looks like Nemesis the Warlock in this shot.

Giant neo-gothic building interior 1

Giant neo-gothic building interior 2

I started back towards Lime St station from the southern end of Hope Street, popping off a few photos along the way.

Hope Street suitcases sculpture

It used to be Casablancas nightclub. Now it's just called Casas. Note Bob Crow tribute banner.

Hope Street appears to be the smartest address in Liverpool nowadays and everything looks very spruce, including the recently refurbished Everyman theatre.

The Everyman Theatre

The Liverpool Catholic Cathedral. Known locally as Paddy's Wigwam, but not now that's racist.

I turned left at the Catholic cathedral, down Mount Pleasant and right along Clarence St to see what happened to one of my favourite pubs in Liverpool, Bonapartes.

The cream building used to be Bonapartes. That weird one next to it is new.

Bonapartes closed down in the late 90s, but if they can resurrect student radio stations they can do anything.

St George's Hall from the steps to Lime St station

With a hop skip and a jump I was back at Lime St, marvelling at the peerless St George's Hall and tripping on enough Proustian rushes to last me another eighteen years. Liverpool gave me the time of my life. All things pass.

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Inside Out Bank of Scotland investigation transcript

In the Caves of Financial Justice

Broadcast at 7.30pm on BBC1 South on 3 March 2014. Watch it here.

Copyright - BBC

LIZ WATSON: “It doesn’t make any sense. It just says notice of possession proceedings, well they were issued 5 years ago – why are….”

VO: Elizabeth Watson is about to lose her Bournemouth home. 13 years ago she went to the Bank of Scotland for a loan to invest in a scheme which promised high returns. She says she was told the scheme had the backing of senior people at the Bank of Scotland and the bank was keen to offer her 345,000 pounds secured against her house. But the investment turned out to be a huge fraud and we think the bank should have known that at the time.

LIZ WATSON: “I’ve become obsessed, the fight for justice is so enormous, I’ve been wrestling with the courts. I don’t know how to put it in words other than to say – it’s ruined my life. The biggest cost has been our health, our happiness, our family life. It’s wrecked my business, it’s wrecked my health, it’s wrecked my marriage. It’s been really, really tough. Really, really horrible.”

Liz applied for her loan before the global financial crisis, when banks seemed to want to lend money to practically anybody - and there were big bonuses for those who brought in the most customers. Having made a trial investment, Liz says the conmen directed her to a bank of Scotland manager Fraser Mackay so she could get a loan to invest more.  Mr Mackay was so taken by the scheme he even invested funds of his own. Liz says his enthusiasm meant she got other family members involved.

NW off camera: “Do you feel bad about introducing your family members to the opportunities that were dangled in front of you?

LIZ WATSON: “Terrible. I feel absolutely terrible about that, I was in such anguish over that I had a breakdown I suppose. At the time, I couldn’t function I became a recluse. I wouldn’t go out. I was crying all the time. I felt this terrible guilt, I felt this terrible burden – regret, remorse… I didn’t know how to put it right.”

Now, 13 years on, the bank is going after her home and that of her sister Rosemary. An aunt lost everything and Liz's parents lost their life savings. The whole family was cynically reeled in through a vulnerable daughter because of their apparent wealth.

DENISE WINTON, LIZ’S MUM “It’s almost destroyed my husband because he can’t believe that he was… could ever have done so foolish a thing but then we just didn’t know… it upsets me to see him upset. I’m trying to help my daughters, both of them. I’ve written to all sorts of people – Theresa May, Mr Cameron, even The Queen saying the way I feel about my two daughters in danger of losing their homes. It’s something that I think any mother would empathise with.”

It all began with an accountancy firm formerly based in Nottingham and Leicester called Dobb White – whose partners Alan White and Shin Gangar targeted wealthy families with the promise of returns of up to 160% . The pair got close to one of the managers of the Bank of Scotland, Fraser Mackay – offering him hospitality at champagne receptions and football matches and introducing him to potential investors as the man who could sort out loans. There’s NO suggestion Fraser Mackay knew it would turn out to be a fraudulent scheme but there were plenty of signs that should have made him wary, not least the lies told and extraordinary returns promised by one of the fraudsters Shin Gangar.

LIZ WATSON “I mean total temptation - he made it sound amazing. He said we can generate returns on a best efforts basis, the main thing is your capital is safe – he said it’s risk free – and he made it sound watertight, he said that he had a fantastic new opportunity that was opening up a new area of the financial markets… And that he had the backing of Bank of Scotland and he had a fantastic relationship with them at board level, and that he could arrange loans to invest in this special bond underwriting scheme that they were running. He showed me lots of references from high profile people. He showed me a contract with Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Really Useful Theatre group saying that through the dividends and yields from this scheme that they’d enabled the funding of the Sunset Boulevard tour. I mean it really impressed me, you know...he said if you weren't happy all you had to do was give 30 days’ notice – and it’s a no brainer – he said you can take your money out.”

By promising fantastic pay outs and using names like Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Frost who had never been connected with the investment scheme, Shin Gangar set out to dazzle clients like Liz. 

NW PTC The reason SG was offering returns too good to be true was because he was a crook operating a fraudulent scheme which collapsed. He was sent to jail and the scheme’s investors were left hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket..

NW PTC That isn’t the half of it…Shin Gangar already had a criminal record and his dodgy accountancy firm had long been banned by the Financial Services Authority from handling client money. Fraser Mackay and the Bank of Scotland should have known this but they didn’t check.

Financial journalist Ian Fraser is highly critical of the Bank of Scotland’s actions both in making loans to invest in what turned out to be a fraudulent scheme and in now pursuing numerous victims of the fraud for their homes.

NICK off camera “So how would characterise the way banks were lending back in 2001?”

IAN FRASER: “It was insane, they were just lending to anyone with a pulse, virtually. They didn’t care if there was fraud, they didn't care if people made up the information on the loan application in fact they positively encouraged that – some banks including the Bank of Scotland. They basically wanted to put the money out the door and they did not care aboutall  the proper work that should have gone around that including authentication of documents etc.

IAN FRASER: “The whole attitude was a bit like the Wild West - we had almost like a Wild West situation in UK banking at that time where controls, where risk management, where credit checking where a lot of these things were wholly inadequate and we're now reaping the consequences of that.”

NW off camera: “Let me put this to you… this is what bank of Scotland is saying, they never endorsed the Dobb white scheme – all loans were issued  according to relevant processes.”

IAN FRASER: The BoS had an obsession with growth at that period, because it had just merged with Halifax and it wanted to really grow its loan book and was determined to be as big as other banks, like Barclays or HSBC or RBS. So it was going hell for leather as a lender – and it was lending in quite a reckless or cavalier manner, both on the corporate side, which is to businesses and on the retail side to individuals. It was so obsessed with growth it lost sight of fundamentals of banking which is can the borrower pay the money back…?”

NW PTC One of the risks of taking out a mortgage or a loan secured against your home is that if you don’t pay it back or the interest on it then the bank can repossess your property. To protect homeowners from making decisions which could leave them homeless, any lender has to be satisfied you have the means or capacity to pay back the money you are borrowing, aside from the equity in your house.

Under Fraser McKay, at the Bank of Scotland in 2001, the victims we have spoken to claim this was not being properly done. For many of them, their only real source of income was the returns from the Dobb White scheme. 

From what we have been able to find out at least 7 people lent money by the Bank of Scotland have had their homes repossessed or been forced to sell them to avoid repossession. Others have had to give the bank their life savings. To save their homes some victims signed a legally binding gagging order to stop them speaking out about how the bank has treated them.  

By talking to us even anonymously these people could be breaking the gagging order but they now realise staying silent means the story can’t ever get out.

NW: Why did the Bank of Scotland lend you money?

Mrs Y: “The only grounds it was given to me was on the grounds of the income from the Dobb White scheme because I had no other income whatsoever.”

NW: “And the bank knew that?”

Mrs Y: “Correct.”

NW: “Because if someone is going to offer you money secured against your home as a loan, there has to be a pretty certain source of income coming in”

Mrs Y: “That’s right. But that’s what I was offered and that’s what happened.”

NW: “Do you think you were being foolish? 

Mrs Y: “If you have a bank that is happy... to fund you and give you... an unlimited credit card, happy to give you an overdraft, an extra loan, all on the basis of income from this particular scheme. Why should I ask questions about the bank’s knowledge? If they are happy, then why shouldn’t I be?”

NW PTC When Shin Gangar’s investment scheme collapsed more than a hundred million pounds disappeared. Many people lost their life savings. Only a fraction of the cash has ever been recovered.

Mrs Y “The whole world collapsed around us. We just saw a big black hole. Just absolutely no way out. It was just… we felt… that’s it - everything we ever had all gone and lost… it was a matter of selling our house, selling our car, selling everything we could lay hands on and try to keep going…”

NW: “Having lent you the money for this fraudulent investment, what did the bank say when you lost everything?

Mrs Y: “Oh they wanted their money back, full stop. Absolutely. And the solicitors they put on to us to repossess the house were very aggressive.”

NW: How are things like now?

Mrs Y: “My credit status is zero. I’m in a rented house. I’m on state pension with pension credit. Nothing left…”

NW off camera: “The bank say first of all that they did not recommend this Dobb White scheme, secondly that the loans were issued correctly and thirdly if their customers can’t repay their loans, that’s not their problem and they’ve got to call in the money…”

IAN FRASER: “So the bank is saying they’re entirely justified in seeking to evict these people from their homes…[laughs] that’s… that’s… well in my view it’s wrong. They are in denial. They are trying to pretend that they’ve done absolutely nothing wrong and they’re trying to do it to preserve value for their current shareholders.”

We have been in phone and written communication with the Bank of Scotland for months now, but they haven’t answered any of our questions – such as whether it was right for their manager Mr Mackay to accept hospitality from Shin Gangar and whether they were aware that the Dobb White firm was under investigation by the financial authorities at the time of these so called investments.

NW PTC The Bank of Scotland have refused to give Inside Out an interview, but a spokesman, who wouldn’t go on camera, denied the Bank ever made any recommendations to customers about the Dobb White scheme and said that all loans were issued  in accordance with the relevant processes, before refusing to explain what those processes were.

NW PTC You might think a fool and their money are often parted. If something appears too good to be true, it usually is. But this isn’t some pub scam we’re talking about. Fraser Mackay was a senior manager at the Bank of Scotland. For the victims we spoke to he was the face of the bank and he was a figure of authority. His department’s willingnesss to loan them money to invest in Dobb White was, for them, was an endorsement of the scheme.

Since retiring from the Bank of Scotland Mr Mackay has led an active life - jetting off to places like Marrakesh, Moscow and Nepal - and detailing his adventures online.

We eventually tracked Fraser Mackay down. He was happy to chat to us at length off the record and said neither he or the bank had done anything wrong, but he suddenly went very quiet when we asked him to put his point of view on camera.

NW PTC Well we’ve had no joy from the phone calls, the texts, the letters or the emails that we’ve sent, so we’re going to try the direct approach. I’m heading up to Chester which is where Fraser Mackay retired to after he left the Bank of Scotland and we’re going to see if we can get some answers.

Mr Mackay told us he was back from his latest trip, so we waited for him to turn up at his home address…

NW PTC No response - again - we’ve been buzzing Mr Mackay’s apartment for the last two days and there’s been no sign of life at all, so it looks like he’s gone away, or perhaps he’s decide to lie low for a while.

Our expert believes the refusal of anyone from the Bank of Scotland to properly answer our questions fits a familiar pattern of behaviour.

IAN FRASER “In this case and in almost every other case that I’m aware of, the banks never admit that they’ve done anything wrong because they prefer to stonewall, they prefer to be in denial, the prefer to try to divide the victims - there’s various strategies which they and other banks have used over the years. And the hope is that they just stonewall for long enough the customers who have lost money will just go away… die… commit suicide or whatever so then the bank won’t have to pay anything back. It is just an astonishing… I’m not saying in this particular instance - but the banks’ behaviour since the crisis has been abhorrent - most banks have behaved in an abhorrent manner. They haven’t acknowledged they’ve done anything wrong, they haven’t admitted that they have made… well some have admitted they’ve made mistakes, but generally they’ve been in a state of denial believing they could just carry on behaving in more or less the same manner.”

DENISE WINTON: “These banks should be brought to task. A lot of them have spent… well they’ve just ruined peoples’ lives. And I don’t want them to… well they’ve ruined our lives in the sense that for 12 years we’ve had it around our heads. But, I don’t want to see both my daughters, who are still relatively young compared with me lose their homes, because they don’t deserve to.”

But there has been some movement. Since Inside Out has been in contact with the Bank about this investigation they have written to Liz Watson offering to stop repossession proceedings by suggesting both parties sit down with an independent mediator to sort things out.

We have also been in contact with the Financial Conduct Authority, which has the power to issue multimillion pound fines to banks who break the rules. The FCA has taken a keen interest in what we’ve uncovered and promised to look closely at the evidence.

Meanwhile the Bank of Scotland continues to claim they did nothing wrong in depositing customers’ money with an accountancy firm banned from taking it nor would they comment on whether Fraser Mackay’s friendly relationship with Shin Gangar made the Dobb White scheme look legitimate. They also make no excuse or apology for going after their customers when that scheme collapsed.

NW PTC After all, if you end up losing your home because you took out a loan you didn’t have the means to repay… that’s not the bank’s problem - that’s just business.

ENDS

Inside Out South: Mon 3 March 7.30pm BBC1

Bank of Scotland HQ, Edinburgh

Just before Christmas I was asked by the editor at Inside Out South to look into a story which turned out to be complicated, legally fraught and difficult to shoot, but after a lot of hard work it is nearly ready for broadcast.

I can't say too much in advance of transmission, other than it concerns goings on at the Bank of Scotland shortly before it merged with the Halifax to become, in the words of Ian Fraser, "the worst bank in the world".

That was back in 2001. Why does it still matter? Because at least two people remain in danger of losing their homes as a result of decisions made back then, and many more people are living in severely reduced circumstances.

It also matters because you still own this bank, and money that could have been spent on making your life better has gone into propping it up.

So if you have a moment, please do watch Inside Out on BBC1 South (Sky 984, Freesat 961) at 7.30pm on Monday. If you can't watch it live, it will be available on the iplayer for 7 days after transmission.

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My top ten albums ever

Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual. The filthy pervs.

What’s your favourite album of all time? Is it really the best album evah? ‘Course it’s not, but all objective discussions about this are pointless because:

a) everyone has different tastes, thank god.

b) peoples’ favourite genres inform their choice of favourite albums.

c) you can only listen to what is available to you in the time you have available to listen to it.

d) your opinion changes, so what you think is your favourite album ever is only really your favourite album right now.

e) everyone believes the music they listened to when they were young forms a large chunk of the best music ever made, which tends to limit their choice to what they and their friends were listening to at that time.

Chances your favourite album is something you listened to as a kid. Much as nowadays I think Simon le Bon is a bit of a schlong who can’t sing, I still get a thrill when I hear the opening bars to any track off Duran Duran’s Rio, because at the time it was for me the most exciting pop record ever made.

Your choices for the ten best albums will not match any published list (unless you wrote it) because the records which mean the most to you are not really about the music. They’re about what that particular album opened up inside you, at a time when you were highly receptive to that happening. 

We all go through intense and emotional periods in our lives, but that stretch from the first blush of puberty to the age of nineteen or twenty, when the hormones are rushing round our bodies, and the very intensity of life itself is carving new pathways into our brains… that's when the music we love tattoos itself into our synapses and stays with us until we die. Very little of what we hear after that has the capacity to move us so profoundly. As we head towards our thirties and forties, music doesn't get to us in the way it did when we were young because our brains aren’t capable of letting it.

Which is all a roundabout way of saying you will likely disagree with/loathe/dismiss with contempt my top ten albums. 

I am going to tell you why they mean so much to me, and why I think you might get something out of them, but if you already hate them or the band that made them, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean we can’t get along.

Not all of them come out of the eighties/early nineties (my adolescent era). Not all of them have stood the test of time. I am not pretending they are the greatest records ever made. But they are all significant, and I still listen to some of the songs on some of those albums on a daily basis. 

If reading this persuades you to dig out any of the music I mention, and if by listening to those albums you discover, or re-discover something which comes to mean something to you, then this list has served its purpose.

I’ll put this up album by album. To help you guess what might be in my final ten, I have put together a list of also-rans: waving around in the higher branches, but not at the top of the tree. In no particular order:

The Real Ramona - Throwing Muses 

The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion - The Black Crowes

Hatful of Hollow - The Smiths

The Queen is Dead - The Smiths

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me - The Cure

Concert - The Cure

Disintegration - The Cure

Japanese Whispers - The Cure

It’s My Life - Talk Talk

Meat is Murder - The Smiths

Prince Charming - Adam and the Ants

Kings of the Wild Frontier - Adam and the Ants

Complete Madness - Madness 

The Life Pursuit - Belle and Sebastian

So Far So Good…. So What? - Megadeth

Tender Prey - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Wonderland - The Charlatans

Star - Belly

The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

Bug - Dinosaur Jr

Vertigo - Groove Armada

The Head on The Door - The Cure

Dare - Human League

Ritual de lo Habitual - Jane’s Addiction

It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back - Public Enemy

Attack of the Grey Lantern - Mansun

Furnace Room Lullaby - Neko Case and Her Boyfriends

Welcome to the Pleasuredome - Frankie Goes to Hollywood

A Pagan Place - The Waterboys

The Waterboys - The Waterboys

Hup - The Wonder Stuff

Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

In Rainbows - Radiohead

Surfer Rosa - Pixies

Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not - Arctic Monkeys

What have I missed? 

*********************

Top ten albums added so far:

Henry's Dream - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
This is the Sea - The Waterboys
Floodland - Sisters of Mercy
Rio - Duran Duran 
The Bends - Radiohead
Love - The Cult

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The Chris Cooke email to Ed Vaizey (and his response)

Four years ago I wrote a blog post called How my friend Chris saved BBC 6 music, the subject of which was an email exchange between Chris Cooke, the owner of Unlimited Media and Ed Vaizey, then the Shadow Culture Secretary.

In my post I linked to, without re-posting, Chris and Ed's exchange. When Chris mucked about with his blog, the link went bad and the original emails could not be read.

A few months later a senior journalist not a million miles away from BBC 6 Music read my blog and pointed this out. He asked me to ask Chris to put those emails up online again as they were now a matter of historical record.

I'm delighted to say Chris has re-started his blog, and one of the first things he's done is put up that email exchange. So now you can read it. If you have ever given a hoot about 6 Music, I would recommend doing so. 

Just in case Chris re-arranges his blog again, I have taken the liberty of posting the emails below.

*******************

AN OPEN LETTER TO ED VAIZEY FROM FEBRUARY 2010: SIX REASONS TO SAVE BBC SIX

Dear Ed, 

You don’t know me, but I sort of feel like I know you, because I’m something of a fan of Radio 4′s political output, and especially Sunday night’s ‘Westminster Hour’ where you, of course, regularly appear on the ‘MPs panel’.

I think the ‘Westminster Hour’ might be my favourite British current affairs programme, because it has the time available to properly debate the key political stories of the week, involving informed and intelligent journalists and politicians, most of whom seem able to speak their mind rather than sticking to their prescribed party lines. It also frequently puts current political stories into an historical context, looking back at similar events in the latter decades of the 20th century, and interviewing the politicians who were involved back then, who can now speak candidly with the benefit of hindsight and without the pressures of being in office. And I’ve always thought you came across particularly well on this programme.

But this letter isn’t about your own media appearances, though it is about a media story and it does involve the BBC. On Friday it was revealed that BBC bosses are seriously considering shutting one of the Corporation’s digital radio stations, 6music, as part of wide-ranging cuts to satisfy its commercial rivals and key players in your political party, and to prepare for an expected relative decline in licence fee income. The proposal, of course, is made in the leaked report written by BBC policy chief and former Conservative policy unit man John Tate.

In their coverage of these proposed cuts, The Guardian say that you called the proposal to shut 6music “intelligent and sensible”. I put it to you that this particular proposal is anything but. This is an area where I have some expertise, I write about the music industry and music media on a daily basis, and have done my own guest spots on Radio 4 talking about these industries. Given you often share insights about your world with me via the aforementioned ‘Westminster Hour’, I thought I’d share some insights with you into my world, to demonstrate why shutting 6music is neither intelligent nor sensible.

And as were talking about Radio Six, I will do so by making six points.

1. 6music isn’t a commercially viable service

Clearly one of the aims of the proposed cuts is to placate those in the commercial media – the ITVs, BSkyBs, News Internationals, Associateds and Global Radios of this world – who believe the BBC too frequently operates in parts of the market which are already satisfied by the commercial sector. Those who argue that the BBC uses its vast guaranteed income and public-funded archive to gain unfair competitive advantage over its commercial rivals in areas like magazine publishing, online and regional news provision, youth programming, and mass-market TV and radio output.

I’m always in two minds about such complaints. For starters, two decades of short-termist programming policies have caused most of the current problems in commercial radio, competition from the BBC has actually played a relatively small part. But then, as an albeit small-time media owner, if the BBC were to suddenly launch a music business news service or, more likely, an extensive Edinburgh Fringe review service, using its guaranteed source of income to out-perform my media platforms, I’d be mightily pissed off.

But 6music doesn’t operate in a part of the market already satisfied by the commercial sector, and it never will, because a service like 6music simply isn’t commercially viable. Global’s Xfm and IPC’s NME Radio operate in similar waters, but to be commercially viable must position themselves as cool youth brands, and go after the youth market and the advertisers who what to reach young consumers. While most of their presenters are passionate music fans, commercially speaking the new music these stations play is simply a means to an end, to reach young money spenders. 6music isn’t a youth station, far from it, it’s core audience are in their thirties. 6music is about music for music’s sake. And there’s no money in music for music’s sake. Absolute Radio might reckon they could make a go of 6music as a commercial operation. Absolute Radio are wrong.

Shutting the two newest and smallest BBC radio stations perhaps seems like a simple way to deal with concerns in the commercial sector that the BBC radio empire has got too big. But actually it addresses none of those concerns. Speak to the commercial radio groups and their problems are with Radios 1 and 2, not 6music. They would probably argue that the BBC should shut down (or, rather sell off) Radios 1 and 2 and use the money raised to fund non-commercial services like 6. I wouldn’t personally go that far, though I can see the merits of that argument.

2. 6music isn’t expensive

The other aim of John Tate’s report is obviously to cut expenditure. I have more sympathy with the commercial media barons when they moan about BBC excess. I’ve had a lot of insights into the workings of the BBC over the years, and I know for a fact that money is wasted left, right and centre. This is especially true in music radio. For starters, Radios 1 and 2 are vastly overstaffed.

Most music radio shows need at most one presenter and one producer, and most commercial stations even combine these two roles. While it is true most companies in commercial radio have downsized their programming teams far too much, all of the BBC’s national stations could easily shed a few team members (from across the hierarchy) without it having any real impact on output.

Personally I’d like to see those people deployed into new public service ventures within the BBC rather than them being shown the door. Though, that said, I also buy the argument that BBC bosses have been too willing to use the booming revenues of the 1990s and 2000s (which came as a result of near universal TV ownership and Worldwide discovering the easy cash to be made from the BBC archives and brand portfolio) to over-expand their workforce and over-pay their top talent and execs, rather than using those revenues to curtail or even cut the licence fee, so to pass the benefit of the new fortunes back to the licence fee payer. And perhaps to reverse that tendancy you need some job losses.

But, in the wider scheme of things, the size and cost of 6music is nominal – with a workforce of just 35 and an annual budget in the region of £6 million (a portion of which, presumably, goes to the artists and labels the station champions via PRS and PPL). Given the BBC’s total annual budget is something in the region of £1200 million, for just six of those millions to go to 6, given all the great things I am about to say about the station, seems like very good value. And, given the aforementioned excess across BBC Radio, I genuinely believe that £6 million could be saved elsewhere with little impact on output, and certainly without necessitating the closure of an entire station.

3. 6music is a fantastic marketing tool for digital radio

I am assuming that, given your culture brief, you are aware that a big issue in the radio industry at the moment is the slow uptake of digital radio services, ie DAB technology, which is making the 2015 deadline for digital switchover look rather optimistic. I don’t know where your party stands of this, but assuming you see the benefits of moving radio listeners over to digital, then you need to provide those listeners will compelling digital-only programming. 6music, for reasons I am about to explain, is one of those compelling services, and one that should be used more in convincing music fans that a DAB radio is something they might want to invest in. I don’t drive, but if I did my car would have a DAB radio in it for one simple reason, 6music.

4. 6music complements the internet

A friend of mine played Devil’s advocate on Friday while I fumed about the BBC cuts, and asked whether 6music was really needed in an age where all music is available at all times on the internet, via licensed streaming music services like Spotify and We7. And when people can discover new music via automated recommendation services like Last.fm. But, while Spotify-style services are a big threat to more conventional radio stations, no automated streaming or recommendation service will ever get close to good music radio: the sort of radio where it really feels like a mate has come round your house with some records to play just for you. Few radio stations offer that service any more, certainly not in daytime, which is why Spotify et al are a big threat. 6music is as close as you get to that kind of radio station, and that is something that we should be celebrating not cutting.

5. 6music documents British music

Sitting in the BBC archives – collectively owned by us the licence fee payers – are some of the most admired musical recordings of all time. I refer, of course, to the Peel Sessions. For any really credible band from the late sixties to the start of this century, while the first ever call to play ‘Top Of The Pops’ was career defining, it was the first Peel Session booking that confirmed you were doing something really special.

Since Peel’s untimely death and Radio 1′s subtle easing of Peel-style programming out of its schedules, the home of such sessions is 6music. Of course other shows on BBC radio and television feature live performances from bands, but none capture bands right at the start of their career, or in such intimate moments, as the 6music sessions do at their best.

The end of the John Peel Show brought to a halt an informal yet crucial documentation of new and alternative music in the UK, sometimes featuring artists on their way to being the next big thing, and sometimes acts destined to only ever be of interest to the few, but artistically important nonetheless. 6music took over this role. That is worth £6 million a year alone. In fact the BBC should be finding a way to make and enable 6 to record more of these sessions.

6. British music is bloody brilliant, and the BBC has a duty to represent that

I’ve been to many schmoozing fests where political types from all parties have stood up and told us how proud they are of Britain’s music industry, which is one of the most prolific and successful in the world. And while the more corporate end of the music business gets a bad rep (and sometimes rightly so), political types are right to be proud of the British music community. It’s made up of thousands of talented, imaginative, innovative, eclectic, erratic and sometimes frustrating people who together make brilliant, surprising and constantly evolving music, and who have generally, somehow, in amongst the madness and mayhem, found a way to do so while making enough money to not have to rely on the sort of tax-funded grants other creative industries demand. It’s all gone a bit wobbly of late, but together they’ll work something out. Basically, the British music community is brilliant.

But take a look at the telly pages in the Radio Times (other listings magazines are available). Try and find the TV programmes representing the British music community on BBC television. If it wasn’t for Jools Holland, there wouldn’t be any. Now look at the radio listings. Even on the music stations, we all know the daytime shows aren’t really about the music. And yes, Radios 1 and 2 have specialist shows, but they squeeze entire alternative genres into tiny time slots, mostly in the middle of the night. Surely the BBC has a duty to represent, showcase and celebrate this great British music industry of ours? Well, it does. Through 6music.

To conclude, 6music is to the music fan what Radio 4 is to the political community. The place where their passion – good music, new and old – gets the airtime it deserves, where informed and intelligent people can discuss the good, the bad and the ugly, and where the music of today can be put into its historical context. Is it perfect? No. Could costs savings be made? Probably. Should it be better promoted? Definitely. But to tell a music fan that 6music will close is like telling a parliamentarian that all of Radio 4′s political output is to be cancelled. Don’t worry, GMTV and TalkSport will pick up the slack.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, I’ve CC’ed the bosses at the BBC on this letter, but I don’t feel like I know them, because they never guest on the ‘Westminster Hour’. And as the BBC proposals that were leaked on Friday have been penned by an ally of your party’s leader, in part to placate you and your colleagues if and when you form government in May, I suspect you have considerable influence over this issue. So I urge you to retract your comments regarding the 6music proposal, and point out that in a bid to ensure the BBC isn’t straying too far from its public service remit, John Tate has, in fact, proposed culling one of the greatest examples of the Corporation fulfilling its reason for being.

And if you choose not to? Well, a warning. I shall personally call on Black Squadron to amass on Shepherds Bush and Westminster. And believe me, you don’t want to face down several thousand music geeks with pan hats and pocketed toast. You won’t know what that means. Nor will your colleagues, and neither will John Tate. And that’s why 6music is brilliant.

Do the right thing, help us save Six.

Yours, 

Chris Cooke, a music fan

ED’S RESPONSE

Dear Chris

Many thanks for getting in touch. I assume your e-mail was prompted by my quotes in The Guardian on Friday. As I have been cast as the man who wants to close 6 Music, let me put my remarks in context.

While you may not agree with my position, I hope it will at least show that it is slightly more nuanced than my quote would suggest.

First we all agree that we want a thriving and successful BBC. No argument there.

Second, however, you must be aware that every other media organisation in the country is concerned about the size and scope of the BBC – national broadcasters, national newspapers, local radio and local newspapers.  So, for example, local newspapers recently opposed the BBC’s plans to start a local video on the web service, as this would have harmed their own efforts in this area.

The BBC has undertaken a strategic review because it recognises that some of these concerns are legitimate. I have only read the leak in The Times, and perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut.  

Anyway, what struck me as “intelligent and sensible” was – a recognition that the website is causing problems for national newspapers, so a commitment to spend less on it and link from it to national and local newspaper sites; a cap on the sports budget, so that competitors like ITV and Channel 4 can get a look in; a reduction in investment in imported American programmes, again so others can bid for successful shows, and so that more money can be spent on UK originated content.

The Observer this week, in its editorial, notes “But since its natural habitat is expansion, it was probably wise of Mark Thompson to draw a line somewhere. Commercial publishers will be relieved…so will radio broadcasters”. 

So while The Observer wants to save 6 Music, it does seem to recognise that the BBC needs to reflect on the impact of what it does (anyway that is how I read the editorial).  

And of course Labour’s Culutre Secretary Ben Bradshaw is quoted as saying “I think there is a good reason to have a debate in the run-up to the next licence fee, which we shall have if we are in government, as to how big the BBC should be, how big the licence fee should be, even if we should continue to have a licence fee in the long-term as the best funding mechanism”. 

So again, there is recognition that the size and scope of the BBC is a matter of legitimate debate.

I decided to support the general thrust of the proposals in public because there are others who want the BBC to go much further in terms of reducing their service. I thought it would be helpful to the BBC to signal that their efforts – in trying to reduce the scope of some of their services  – were recognised.

Anyway, several things have happened since I spoke out. I am now an avid listener to 6 Music. I suspect that 6 Music has doubled its audience. I strongly suspect 6 Music will be saved.

I should emphasise that any decision on 6 Music is firmly that of the BBC and the BBC Trust. Also one quote of mine that was not picked up is that this is the beginning of the debate – there is no reason to assume that what is proposed is what will happen.

So to sum up – I had no strong views on 6 Music on Friday, I now know it is brilliant with a passionate and articulate fan base. Its future is not down to me.  

And I remain firmly committed to the BBC looking carefully at how its services affect its commercial competitors. 

Ed