Reluctant Spice World

When I began my tenure at Reuters in 1996, the Spice Girls appeared on the pop scene and, mentored by their manager Simon Fuller, sold the ideological premise of "Girl Power!" wholesale to the masses.

This equated to a license to print money and, whatever you may think of the Spice Girls musical oeuvre, there's no denying Fuller's conquest of the retail aisles! From CDs to posters and toys to sweets, the Spice Girls foreshadowed the arrival of Bratz and the brand dilution of Barbie!

Incidentally, Victoria Beckham (then Adams) AKA Posh Spice, allegedly auditioned for a Bournemouth University BAMP production prior to the Spice Girls! Please don't ask me for details as I don't have any further information!

In anticipation of their upcoming tour...

I’M RELUCTANT SPICE, MEL C TELLS GRAHAM NORTON THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW

10.00 pm, Thursday 25 October 2007 (repeated Sunday), BBC TWO

MELANIE ‘Sporty Spice’ CHISHOLM confirms she was slow to sign up for the Spice Girls’ forthcoming world tour when she joins GRAHAM NORTON this week.

‘I was Reluctant Spice’ she says, ‘I was the last to make my decision because it was a hard decision to make .. I was scared we couldn’t do it again. It was a weird time of my life, I had a lot of personal s**t to get over after the Spice Girls.’ But she denies press rumours that she was bullied; ‘I never said that. How can they quote you? I wasn’t bullied at all. .. I just love the British tabloids, they’re so imaginative! In America they’re more of a joke.’

About the forthcoming single she says they all share the singing honours; ‘We all sing the chorus, we all have an equal part in the song .. it’s a very ‘Spicey’ ballad, it’s lovely to hear all our voices again, I love doing that kind of stuff.’

Mel also comes out in support of troubled Britney Spears. ‘Poor Britney, I feel bad for her. She used to be looked after. Obviously she’s not happy, she really needs someone to step in.’

And she also reveals she’s been round to the Princes’ for tea; ‘I met them a while ago. We [the Spice Girls] were invited to Highgrove for high tea. Some of us didn’t like cucumber sandwiches and we made this known to our hosts, and we were made peanut-butter on toast by Prince William (but) the kitchen was rubbish, like MFI!’ she said.

Graham is also joined by Hollywood royalty JOSH HARTNETT whose latest blockbuster 30 Days of Night is released in the UK next week; and RUFUS WAINWRIGHT performs his new single Tiergarten live in the studio.

Watch the interview clip (iTunes required).

The Graham Norton Show is a So Television production for BBC TWO.

Dark Matter

Clym Dodds, a friend whom I met as an undergraduate at Bournemouth University and worked on December Duet (1996), wrote to me to announce that Darker Projects' latest audio drama, in association with Infected Books, is now available online!

Autumn, by David Moody, is a vision of apocalyptic horror.

Autumn Trailer (MP3)

A Word from the Composer

I have been a tremendous fan of Zombie "culture" ever since experiencing Romero's Dead series. I can remember a friend's reaction of horror when he learned I had not seen Dawn of the Dead – at the time I was a little cynical and naive about the whole thing – I didn't understand what the big deal was. "You have to f***ing see it!" he exclaimed violently. That night we put on the film and around the point of the Monroeville Mall and that line "This was an important place in their lives. " I was laughing with delight, but I also felt the abject horror creeping up on me. This WAS a delicious sort of existential nightmare emerging. There were (perhaps obvious in retrospect) wonderful societal commentaries as well – the idea of a consumer culture, gobbling up everything and everyone in it's path; our collective fear in discussing or really dealing with the idea of our own mortality, and unprepared and unable to let go of the ones we lose (you're going to have to let go, or they're going come and eat you!); I realized after the film that Dawn of the Dead was not a film for gore hounds, it was a film for intellectuals. Intellectuals unafraid of facing a slightly more morbid subject matter. And, of course, intellectuals with a dark sense of humor.

David Moody's 'Autumn' feels born from the same womb. It hearkens back to the intellectual horror old school - his book had me imagining in black and white movies (pictures like Night Tide, Carnival of Souls, and of course Night of the Living...) with atmosphere and subtext, less gore and more subtly building sensations of isolation and that skin-crawling, existential type of fear. I attempted to convey these qualities in the musical score, along with a few healthy doses of schlock horror music fun!

I must also mention the level of freedom and support provided by Paul Mannering and his Darker Projects team. It's lovely to be involved in something so close to the (now virtually obsolete) genre of Radio Drama - Bernard Herrmann's work for Orson Welles' Mercury Theater productions are personal favorites of mine. And I just love hearing people being operatic and theatrical without any distracting images or CGI effects to get in the way.

Devin Anderson
March, 2007

You can listen to the full episode over at Darker Projects and download the free eBook at Infected Books. Darker Projects audio dramas compare favourably with Dirk Maggs' productions and I can't recommend them highly enough! But, then again I'm biased!

Silver Nemesis

For me Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis' creation is second only to Darth Vader. The new droid-like Cybermen are instantly recognizable. The official BBC website welcomes visitors with a metallic klaxon. I can already hear the Earthshock score composed by the late Malcolm Clarke!



Will David Banks (Cyber Leader) and Mark Hardy (Cyber Lieutenant) once again be entombed in cyber armor? Rumor has it that this tale will hark back to the Patrick Troughton era.

The Snowman is an original story idea featuring a solitary Cyberman (see Marvel comics Doctor Who Issues 58-59 Junk-Yard Demon) whom is discovered, deactivated, in the grounds of a country house estate. I had intended producing an audio drama (Bournemouth University 1994) and am considering whether or not to release it as a podcast in the New Year.

My copy of Madonna's Confessions On A Dancefloor has arrived! As I listened to the new album for the first time, I was editing lines of html code and optimizing the blog template! The review will be published next week.

Disney's demographic channel

Reuters, my first employer following graduation from Bournemouth University, announced that the Mouse House is to soft launch the ABC brand on Freeview!



ABC1 bows in September. Launch lineup includes Once and Again, new Thirtysomething and Geena Davis Show. Bring on Alias series 4.

i'm lovin' it

Bournemouth University’s Alumni Association interviewed me for a special magazine feature focusing on graduates who are now successfully working in the media. The article was published in The Talbot (Summer 2004) magazine. Download the PDF here (13.9MB).

Point and click cinema

In the late '80s I cut my audio/video editing teeth on linear equipment i.e. three machine edit suites for video and 1/4 tape (chalk and cutting knife in hand) for audio. The mid 90's witnessed the advent, and rapid development, of non-linear, non-destructive workflows. It occurred to me that since that time all my editing has been Mac-based! In 2003 I revisited my production analysis written for December Duet (an original drama made during my final year at Bournemouth University). It is available as a PDF download.

Since the unveiling of Dashboard at the WWDC 2004 a debate has raged concerning Apple's alleged 'rip off' of Konfabulator. The following blog outlines the historical development of widgets, which found its genesis on the Mac platform many years ago.