Mike Read
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- This article is about the broadcaster, Mike Read. For similarly-named people with the 'ei' spelling of 'Reid', see Mike Reid.
Mike Read (born 1 March 1951 in Manchester, England) is a British disc jockey and former television presenter.
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[edit] Broadcasting career
Read's broadcasting career began at Reading's Radio 210, where he co-hosted a show with Steve Wright, before joining Radio Luxembourg.
Read joined BBC Radio 1 in November 1978, presenting a Saturday evening show from 7:30-10:00 p.m. and made his TV presenting debut in the same year when he became one of the hosts of Top Of The Pops. In 1979, he took over the Monday - Thursday evening show from 8-10 p.m., then on January 5, 1981 he began a successful stint on the Radio 1 breakfast show, which he hosted until April 18, 1986.
Read's radio career was respected and impressive but largely uneventful until he played the Frankie Goes To Hollywood single Relax on his show in the morning of January 11, 1984, while running through that week's singles chart (it had climbed from number 35 to number 6). Finding out what the lyrics were saying and seeing the saucy imagery on the cover, he listened more intently to the song (which he had included to his show unheard) and took action, removing it from the turntable midway through, snapping it on air and branding it "disgusting". He even smashed the record on his desk, broke it and cut his fingers. His refusal to play the disc led to an all out BBC ban. The BBC backed up Read's stance immediately and the song was banned from all of its broadcasting outlets within hours, although it had already been played regularly on Radio 1 and been featured on Top of the Pops. Yet this led to huge public clamour and the song went to Number 1 for five weeks nevertheless in early 1984.
Following on from his five years stint on Radio 1's Breakfast show, Read took over a Sunday morning show in 1986, from 10 a.m.-12.30 p.m.. In 1987, he moved to Saturday Mornings from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., & also a Sunday afternoon show from 1-3 p.m., where he played classic tracks. In addition to this, Mike also took over Singled Out on Friday evenings from Janice Long. This is where musicians and disc jockeys would review the new single releases.
Read's Saturday morning show ended in September 1988 & his Sunday afternoon oldies shows finished in December 1988. This was when Alan Freeman rejoined the station to host an oldies version of Pick of the Pops.
From January 1989 to September 1990, Read presented a weekly show called The Mike Read Collection which went out on Monday evenings, and still remained on the Friday panel show Singled Out (which had now reverted to its original name of Round Table).
Read left Radio 1 in 1991 and moved to Capital Gold, (then a London-only station), presenting his Mike Read Collection, which went out on a Sunday Night, before taking on the Weekday Drivetime show in mid-1992, where he remained until he left the staton in late 1995.
Also in 1992, Read was heard on BBC Radio 2 presenting special shows looking back at Cliff Richard's career and playing his music. He claims that he wanted to host a regular show on Radio 2, but was rejected by the then controller Frances Line, who wanted a format more reminiscent of the old BBC Light Programme. He also claims that he has, in recent years, been congratulated by members of the public for his shows on Radio 2; in these instances he has clearly been confused with other former Radio 1 DJs (most likely to be his old Radio 210 colleague Steve Wright).
In addition to his Daily Show on Capital Gold, he presented a weekend show for Classic FM, and had a stint as the classical station's weekend breakfast presenter. He was then heard on various Classic Gold stations around the UK as presenter of the Breakfast show.
In September 1999, he presented the Breakfast Show on Jazz FM in the North of England, occasional & special shows on Spirit FM in the South of England throughout 2001 and in 2002, presented a Saturday Morning show on the Magic network around the UK, where he remained until 2004. As of 2006, he is the weekday morning presenter on Radio London, a revival of the 1960s pirate radio station. He has also done occasional stints on Talksport.
[edit] Television career
He combined his radio work with a second career as a children's TV presenter, hosting the popular Saturday morning programme Saturday Superstore, as well as the teatime music game show Pop Quiz, which featured rock stars answering music trivia questions. The show spawned successful board game and computer game spin-offs. The last ever episode of Pop Quiz in 1984 featured a face-off between New Romantic titans Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran. The score was close until the end, when the Birmingham lads (Duran Duran) finally bested their London rivals (Spandau Ballet). Additionally, he presented Top of the Pops on many occasions between 1978 and 1989, and hosted Yorkshire Television's children's series Pop Quest in the 1970s. Read's contribution to a Five documentary about Noel Edmonds caused Edmonds to dismiss him as a complete wanker.
When he was presenting Saturday Superstore Mike would often boast that he cut his own hair, a courageous admission in the style obsessed 80s.
[edit] Writing career
Read is a guitarist and writer in his own right, producing songs and poems. He wrote lyrics to Simon May's music for More To Life, which was recorded by Cliff Richard. The song was used over the closing credits for the BBC TV show Trainer. He has written music and lyrics for a selection of musicals and also some accompanying books. In 1979, recording as The Trainspotters, Read released "High Rise", a single based on his Mike Read, Mike Read, 275 & 285, Mike Read, Mike Read, National-Radio-1 radio show jingle.
In 2003, he married long time partner Eileen, an interior designer.
In October 2004, his musical about Oscar Wilde closed after just one night at the Shaw Theatre in Euston after a severe critical mauling. He has also staged a musical based on the songs of Cliff Richard, and is reported to be producing one about the Village People.
He was one of the founder editors of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, the best-known UK chart reference book, and also co-wrote many of the other Guinness music books. In his own right he is the author of Major to Minor: The Rise and Fall of the Songwriter (2000) and, with Richard Havers, Read's Musical Reciter (2004), a collection of tall tales from the music business.
Washing machine?
[edit] I'm a Celebrity
In 2004, Read was one of the contestants recruited for the jungle-based ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! though his stay in the Australian outback proved short-lived — he was the first celebrity to be evicted by the viewing public.
Read is one of many celebrities who have had trouble with stalkers. Read has been said to have a stalker who has changed her name to Blue Tulip Rose Read and believes that she is married to him. Rose and Read appeared in a 1996 channel 4 documentary as part of a fame theme night.
[edit] England My England World Cup Record
Mike Read has had a wide range of experience as a song writer, a fact many people would not commonly associate with the former Radio 1 DJ. Over the last several years Mike has worked with his band 'The Dead Poets Society', based upon a large number of famous poems brought to life in the form of music. After teaming up with singer Elliot Frisby they set about creating an album.
The first release coincided with the World Cup 2006 qualifications. This was after performing live, the best response was for a track based upon a W.E. Henley poem, England My England, which was recited by the British troops in WWI before going over the trenches.
| Preceded by: Dave Lee Travis |
BBC Radio One Breakfast Show Presenter 1981-1986 |
Succeeded by: Mike Smith |
[edit] Audio sample
- The Trainspotters - High Rise excerpt (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- An excerpt from High Rise by The Trainspotters
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.
