Bruno Brookes (born Trevor Neil Brookes in Stoke-on-Trent, 24 April 1959) is a British radio presenter who became prominent in the 1980s.

Early life and career

Brookes attended Bradwell and Seabridge High Schools. He became a disc jockey through youth club discos in his home town before he sent a successful audition tape to his local station, BBC Radio Stoke. He used to wash cars in order to raise money for buying equipment. He spent three years there before being recruited by BBC Radio 1, the national pop network, where he worked as a stand-in presenter for Steve Wright before taking over the teatime show from Peter Powell.

Radio One

This programme proved popular with younger listeners, as Brookes immediately began a career-long association with the UK Top 40 singles chart in 1986. At this time, the chart was still announced on Tuesday lunchtimes by Gary Davies but listeners unable to hear a radio while in education or at work had an opportunity to follow a rundown of the week's chart with Brookes on early Sunday evenings. From 4 October 1987 onwards, the Top 40 was revealed for the first time by Brookes in the Sunday afternoon slot, as new technology meant the chart took just hours instead of days to compile. Brookes briefly lost the chart to Mark Goodier in 1990, but then regained it in 1992, though there was never an element of tension or competition between the two men, and both were equally proficient at the programme.

In 1989, Brookes moved to the weekend breakfast show, co-hosting with Liz Kershaw, and also regularly deputised for Simon Mayo on the weekday breakfast show. Three years later he moved to the weekday early breakfast slot, where he remained until he was sacked in 1995 as controller Matthew Bannister continued his cull of older presenters. Brookes was referred to by Trevor Dann, Bannister's head of music as "bestriding the earth like a behemoth, the biggest dinosaur of them all", despite the fact that he was only thirty-six years old (other culled DJs had been in their forties or fifties).

It was announced by BBC Radio 1 in September 2007 that Bruno, along with former chart show colleague Mark Goodier, would return to the station for a one-off Top 40 countdown show on Sunday 30 September 2007, co-hosting the chart with the then-current presenters JK and Joel. This special show formed part of the station's celebrations of the 40th birthday of BBC Radio 1.

"Killing in the Name" controversy

The Top 40, under Brookes' helm, was known for its slick production and tight timing. However, it wasn't without its moment of controversy, as it was on this show that Brookes infamously played the full uncensored version of "Killing in the Name" by Rage Against the Machine in late 1992. The song contains 17 instances of extreme expletives. Brookes was not made aware of the language in the track and, as a new entry, included it in the broadcast. Unfortunately, Brookes also was working on the rest of the show with his studio monitoring headphone volume lowered and not paying full attention; it was only when his producer brought to his attention what was being broadcast that Brookes quickly brought the track to a fade and continued. By this point, however, it was too late and the station immediately received numerous complaints. This incident has been and still is referred to by numerous rock media, such as Kerrang!.

Television work

During his period at Radio 1, Brookes was on the Top Of The Pops host roster and also presented Beat The Teacher on BBC television, a popular teenagers' quiz where pupils would take on teachers in a general knowledge game based on noughts and crosses. He was the last of the shows three presenters, following Howard Stableford and ex-Manfred Mann singer Paul Jones. He also hosted the dating show Love At First Sight and the angling show Tight Lines on Sky.

He also appeared on the cult series Brass Eye when he was made to read a mock appeal against the fictitious drug, cake.

After the BBC

After Radio 1, Brookes worked for numerous radio stations, presenting a networked show called Bruno At The Millhouse, while hosting a daily mid-morning slot for Leeds station Radio Aire. He ran a DJ school in Newbury, and was Chris Moyles' manager for a while.

He was also involved in a public spat with ex-Radio 1 colleague Bob Harris, whom Brookes had lent money for a flat. When Harris lost his job and was unable to clear the debt, Brookes laid an unsuccessful claim to his extensive and valuable record collection.

In recent years, Brookes has kept a low public profile but has been financially successful with his company Storm, launched in April 2000, which was the UK's first 24 hour internet radio station. Storm Radio was renamed Immedia in 2002, and the company floated in December 2003. Brookes' stake was valued at flotation at over £2 million. Immedia supplies instore radio for Lloyds pharmacies, and 2,300 other shops and newsagents. There are also initial services at IKEA, other leading retailers and the bank HSBC.

Brookes returned to the BBC with a guest appearance on BBC Radio Berkshire on Sunday 18 May 2008 and a further appearance on that station on Saturday 5 July 2008 and another appearance on Sunday 30 November 2008.

Personal life

Brookes appeared on the quiz show Through the Keyhole in the late 1990s as one of the celebrities whose homes were visited by Loyd Grossman.

Brookes is known as a supporter of the Conservative Party and is an admirer of Margaret Thatcher and Eric Pickles.

In 2007 Brookes revealed in an interview with Nuts magazine that he had a tattoo of a pirate on his left thigh. He acquired it during the 1985 Radio 1 Roadshow tour as part of a bet with his producer, who in return drank a pint of vinegar.

Brookes was romantically involved for many years with TV presenter Anthea Turner but in a twist of irony, she left him for Peter Powell, the man whose radio show had been taken by Brookes when he got his break. Brookes married model Debbie Brooker in 1994.

In May 2006, Brookes suffered a heart attack and was treated at St. Thomas' Hospital, London where he was interviewed by Nadia Sawalha as a patient on BBC One's City Hospital. In the interview he said he would try to give up smoking which he acknowledged as the main reason for his illness.

References

External links

Bruno Brookes' Company, Immedia

Category:1959 births Category:British radio personalities Category:British radio DJs Category:English businesspeople Category:Living people Category:People from Stoke-on-Trent

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Samantha Fox
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Samantha Karen Fox
Alias	Sam Fox
Born	April 15, 1966Mile End, London, England
Origin	London
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	Dance-pop, Freestyle
Occupation	Singer, Former glamour model, Actress, TV personality
Years active	1983–1998 (model)1982–present (singer)
Label	Jive Records (1982–1998)Ichiban Records (1998)
Associated acts	Stock Aitken Waterman, Full Force, Günther, Marc Mysterio
Url	www.samfox.com

Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox (born 15 April 1966) is an English dance-pop singer, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at the age of 16, she began her topless modeling career on Page Three of The Sun, and went on to become an enormously popular pin-up girl. In 1986, aged 19, she launched her pop music career with her debut single "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)," which became a Number 1 hit in five countries. She has since sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Fox has also appeared in a number of films and reality television shows, and has occasionally worked as a television presenter.

Background

The eldest daughter of the late John Patrick Fox and Carole Ann Wilken, Samantha Karen Fox comes from a family of market traders in the East End of London. She has a sister, Vanessa, who is six years younger, and a half-sister, Frederica, from her father's second marriage.

She attended St Thomas More RC School, Haringey and took a keen interest in the theatre from an early age. She first appeared on a theatre stage at the age of three, and was enrolled in the Anna Scher Theatre School from the age of 5. Her first television appearance came in 1976, at the age of 10, in a BBC play entitled No Way Out. Following on from this, she started at the Judi Dench Mountview Theatre School, near her home in Haringey, at the age of 11.

Interested in music from an early age, she formed her first band, with Richard Smart on guitar, Edward Gallagher on triangle and Bob Day on tambourine, at the age of 14. Her first record deal came a year later, with Lamborghini Records. However, both her theatre and music careers went on hold when her modelling career took off.

Modelling career

In early 1983, Carole Fox photographed her 16-year-old daughter in lingerie, and submitted several pictures to The Sunday People newspaper's "Face and Shape of 1983" amateur modeling contest. Fox came joint runner-up in the contest, had her pictures published, and was soon after invited for a test shoot for The Sun newspaper's Page Three feature. Her parents gave their consent for their daughter to pose topless, and on Tuesday, 22 February 1983, Fox's first Page Three photograph was published under the headline "Sam, 16, Quits A-Levels for Ooh-Levels".

Fox's cockney background, bubbly-blonde looks, winning smile, and 36D bust made her an enormously popular Page Three model. After famously insuring her breasts for a quarter of a million pounds sterling, she won The Sun's Page Three Girl of the Year award for three consecutive years between 1984 and 1986. She also posed nude for several British men's magazines and was a UK Penthouse Pet, but very few full-frontal shots were ever published.

Fox retired from Page Three modelling in 1986, at the age of 20, by which time she had arguably become Britain's premiere sex symbol of the era. In 1995, aged 29, she made a one-off appearance in The Sun to promote Page Three's 25th anniversary week. After receiving an overwhelmingly positive reader response, she appeared in the slot every day during the anniversary week, with Friday's final topless picture given away as an A3-sized poster. In 1996, aged 30, she appeared in the October issue of Playboy magazine.

In September 2008, readers of The Daily Star tabloid newspaper voted Fox as the top Page 3 pin-up girl of all time. At the age of 42, she posed topless for the tabloid, her first topless appearance in twelve years.

Music career

In the late-1980s, Fox began a successful singing career on Jive Records, producing three albums in three years (1986–1988), and working with notable music producers such as Stock Aitken Waterman and Full Force.

1980s

She released her debut single, "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)", when she was 19 years old in March 1986. The single made the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic (#3 in the UK; #4 in the US). It also topped the charts in many countries, including Canada, South Africa and Australia. Her debut live performance came at Peter Stringfellow's club Hippodrome. Her second single "Do Ya Do Ya (Wanna Please Me)" also made #10 in the UK though fared less well in the US. The third release from the album, "Hold On Tight" managed to secure a top 30, placing in the UK singles chart (#26) while the final single, "I'm All You Need" just narrowly missed the UK Top 40 (#41).

Within a year, Fox had released her second album, Samantha Fox (1987), again on Jive Records. The first single released from the album, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now", enabled her to achieve her third (and final) top ten hit in the UK (#8), though it only managed to peak at #80 on the US Billboard charts. The track was produced by the legendary production team Stock/Aitken/Waterman. The second single release, "I Surrender (To the Spirit of the Night)", failed to match the success of its predecessor in the UK and peaked at #25 in the UK. The next two releases, "I Promise You (Get Ready)" and "True Devotion", both failed altogether to make the UK Top 40 singles chart. "True Devotion" was a substantial radio hit in Canada. The fifth and final single, "Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)", turned the fortunes of the album around and managed to secure a top ten placing on the US Billboard charts (#3), becoming her biggest hit to date in the US and scoring Fox another Top 40 hit on the UK singles chart (#31). The track was a different sound for Fox, being produced by the US hip-hop producers Full Force. They would continue to work with Samantha on subsequent albums and achieve similar success with her stateside, whereas her changed sound did not fare as well for her with European listeners, who preferred the Euro-pop sound of her earlier music.

The following year, Fox released her third album, I Wanna Have Some Fun (1988), also on Jive Records. The album was produced by various producers covering the Euro-pop sound. Two tracks, "Next to Me" and the title track, reunited her for Full Force, where another reunion with Stock Aitken Waterman saw her record a cover of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want to Be with You", and the SAW original "You Started Something". The first UK single released from the album was "Love House". The second single released in the UK, "I Only Wanna Be with You", managed to secure her her biggest hit in over a year, peaking in the Top 20 at #16. The first single release in the US fared even better. The title selection, "I Wanna Have Some Fun", produced by Full Force, managed to peak in the US Top Ten at #8 (although when released as the third single in the UK it only managed a #63 placing). The American release, as the follow-up, of "I Only Wanna Be with You" peaked inside the US Billboard Top 40 at #31. No further singles were released from the album.

1990s

In 1991, after a three year break, Fox released her fourth album, Just One Night, again on Jive Records. The first single lifted from the album, "(Hurt Me! Hurt Me!) But the Pants Stay On" was another Full Force production. However, the lead single failed to make an impression in either the UK or US charts. Second single, "Another Woman", originally produced by Ralf-Rene Maue, was remixed by PWL stable-mate Phil Harding for release and performed moderately on some European charts. A third single, the albums title track, was also released. A bonus track, "Now I Lay Me Down" (again a Full Force production), was featured in the film and on the accompanying soundtrack.

In 1992, Jive released Samantha's first official compilation, Greatest Hits, which featured three new tracks. Fox co-wrote and performed the track "Go for the Heart" for UK submission in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1995. It was performed as Sox featuring Cris Bonacci and Lorraine McIntosh. The song placed 4th in preliminary public voting and was therefore not selected as the representative track. "Go for the Heart" was a modest hit throughout some European territories.

In 1997, she released a new album, 21st Century Fox. It performed moderately throughout Europe and Scandinavia. Without a worldwide distribution deal the album suffered from little promotion and a staggered release schedule. Singles "The Reason Is You", "Deeper", "Let Me Be Free" and "Perhaps" made little chart impression (although "Let Me Be Free" was a Top 20 hit in The Netherlands) despite Fox making numerous television appearances to promote the album. In 1998, Fox released a single together with DJ Milano,"Santa Maria", which charted at #31 in the UK chart and was a TOP 10 hit in Austria and the Czech Republic. In 1999 Sam was cast in her first stage musical, Tayla Goodman's Virus, but she had to withdraw when the backer pulled his money.

2000s

In 2004, Fox teamed up with Mats Söderlund (alias Günther) in order to do a remake of "Touch Me", which charted #1 in Sweden and TOP 10 in other Scandinavian countries. In November 2005, Fox released her latest album, Angel with an Attitude in Canada produced by Joe Barrucco. It was reissued in Australia to coincide with the Countdown Tour and included a new version of "Touch Me". 2008 saw the release of "Midnight Lover", a Euro-dance collaboration with Greek production team Zante Dilemma. In the summer of the same year, Samantha Fox performed at Sopot Festival in Poland, during a concert dedicated to the music of the 1980s, alongside Sandra, Sabrina Salerno and Thomas Anders (ex-Modern Talking).

In September 2009, Fox was a guest vocalist on the track "Tomorrow" by Marc Mysterio and in October 2009 Fox's first three albums were reissued in the US with bonus tracks. In December 2009, her latest compilation was issued, Greatest Hits, both in single CD and double CD formats.

2010s

In 2010, Fox teamed up with trance superstar 4 Strings to release a new single, "Forever". Summer 2010 saw the release of a duet with Italian singer Sabrina Salerno in which they performed a cover version of Blondie's hit "Call Me". Released in Italy on June 15, the single peaked at #4 in the Italian Dance Singles Sales Chart on the first week of July.

Film and television

Fox's pictures and music gained her such fandom in India that she was invited to star in a Bollywood film Rock Dancer. This was written and directed by V. Menon, starring Shammi Kapoor, Kamal Sadanah, Ronit Roy, Sharon Prabhakar, and Johnny Lever among others. It also featured guest appearances from Govinda, and was produced by Subbir Mukherjee.

In 1989, Fox co-presented the BRIT Awards with Mick Fleetwood, which became notorious for turning into a shambles; Fox has asserted in interviews since that the autocue did not work properly that night, leading to utter chaos during the show's live TV broadcast. She spent a year in New York presenting pop promo videos for MTV, and she made other attempts at TV presenting, including an interview with Rolf Harris, which was ill-fated even before it started as Fox referred to her interviewee as "Ralph" on several occasions, although he got his own back by resting his beard against her neck and tickling her with it.

She appeared on the sitcom Charles in Charge in 1990 where she played the role of Samantha Steele, a fictional rock star whose agent pushes her to romance Charles (Scott Baio) in order to get the paparazzi to print it in the tabloids.

Fox featured in the ITV programme An Audience with... Ken Dodd, during which she asked him how he liked to use his famous tickling stick, a multicoloured feather duster. Dodd responded by nonchalantly moving into the audience and letting the item stroke Fox's collar, before violently plunging down it her cleavage, making her scream and giggle.

Fox also featured in It's Been Real, written and directed by Steve Varnom and starring John Altman, and The Match, written and directed by Mick Davis and starring Pierce Brosnan, Ian Holm, Tom Sizemore, Neil Morrissey, David Hayman and Ilar Blair.

In 2003, she appeared in a reality television show The Club, competing against Richard Blackwood and Dean Gaffney by trying to run the most successful bar in The Club, which was full of celebrity guests such as Katie "Jordan" Price.

In 2008, Fox and her partner, Myra, took part in Celebrity Wife Swap, exchanging with Freddie Starr and his wife Donna.

In November 2009, she took part in ITV's I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here. She was voted out on the 16th day.

In July 2010, Fox took part in a celebrity episode of Come Dine With Me, appearing with Calum Best, Janice Dickinson & Jeff Brazier.

Other sidelines

In 1986, Fox was featured in a strip poker game (Samantha Fox Strip Poker) for Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MSX, BBC Micro, and Amstrad CPC.

She also appeared in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for Spring Break, where she sang her various then current hits to thousands of college students.

Personal life

Myra Stratton at the 2010 Fate Awards in Belfast]] Fox's father Patrick, a former carpenter, managed her career until 1991, when Fox hired accountants to trace over £1 million that she believed he had embezzled from her accounts. She then sued her father, who by then had divorced and remarried, and in May 1995 she was awarded a £363,000 court settlement. Patrick Fox died in 2000, at which time he and Fox had not spoken for almost a decade.

In 1994, it was reported that Fox had become a born-again Christian. That year, she played at the Christian arts festival Greenbelt.

In the 1980s she dated Australian confidence trickster Peter Foster and became involved in promoting a diet tea product that was eventually revealed as a scam.

Part of her reluctance to come out was due to fears of how some of her fans might react to her being in relationship with a woman, as she had already had to deal with obsessed fans and stalkers.

In August 2009, Samantha Fox announced her plans to have a civil partnership with her long term girlfriend and manager, Myra Stratton.

Charitable activity

Samantha Fox donated her favourite bra to a charity auction which allowed fans to buy a piece of celebrity clothing. Sense-National Deafblind and Rubella Association's Strip It Off three-day auction which began on 4 March 2008 saw members of the public bidding for stars' garments in order to raise money for the deaf blind charity.

Discography

1986: Touch Me

1987: Samantha Fox

1988: I Wanna Have Some Fun

1991: Just One Night

1992: Greatest Hits

1998: 21st Century Fox

2002: Watching You, Watching Me

2005: Angel with an Attitude

2009: Greatest Hits

References

External links

Official Website

Official MySpace Page

Category:1966 births Category:Alumni of the Anna Scher Theatre School Category:English dance musicians Category:English female singers Category:English house musicians Category:English pop singers Category:Freestyle musicians Category:I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! contestants Category:Living people Category:Musicians from London Category:Page Three girls Category:People from Crouch End Category:People from Mile End

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Liz Kershaw
Caption	Godiva Festival 2007, Coventry.
Birth date	July 30, 1958
Birth place	Rochdale, Lancashire, England.
Occupation	Broadcaster and journalist
Relatives	Andy Kershaw (brother)

Liz Kershaw (born 30 July 1958, in Rochdale, Lancashire) is a UK radio broadcaster.

Early career

The elder sister of fellow broadcaster and world music exponent Andy Kershaw, she began her career as a pop journalist for the Yorkshire Post before joining Leeds station Radio Aire, where her brother also worked for a time.

While in Leeds, she recorded a version of The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" under the name of Dawn Chorus & The Blue Tits. Liz was Dawn Chorus and TV presenter Carol Vorderman was briefly one of The Blue Tits, along with friend Lindsay Forrest. Andy Kershaw was also an occasional member of the group, who recorded a session for John Peel in 1985.

In the late 80s Kershaw worked for British Telecom helping to produce the telephone music line service called Livewire. Kershaw helped produce Radio 1 DJ Mike Smith, who recorded introductions to the records in a similar fashion to Dial-a-disc from some years earlier.

Her next move was to the BBC and local station Radio Leeds before the call came from BBC Radio 1 to present a music magazine show called Backchat. After winning a number of awards, she progressed to the evening show and then her best known slot, the weekend breakfast show which she co-hosted with Bruno Brookes. The two projected a 'love-hate' relationship on-air, and got their fair share of PR in the tabloids as a result, including Kershaw smashing a turntable live on air because she hated a Wet Wet Wet record being played on it; and the two pulling a stunt of getting married as an April Fools' Day joke. During this period they also made a charity record for the BBC's Children in Need campaign; a version of It Takes Two. They later made two more fundraising records featuring their Radio 1 colleagues and guest vocalists Frank Bruno and Samantha Fox, though only one charted.

She left Radio 1 in 1992 to present a weekly phone-in on BBC Radio 5 in its original form. She was part of the team which would later relaunch the station and give it its current name of BBC Radio 5 Live. At the same time she also went back to local radio for a spell, presenting BBC Radio Northampton's breakfast programme, and presented documentaries for the other 4 BBC national networks - Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio 4.

Recent career

In 2002, she was one of the original presenters on the newly launched, digital station BBC 6 Music where she presented the weekday afternoon show from 1-4pm, before moving to the weekend mid-morning slots in April 2004, from 10am-1pm.

In September 2005 Liz also became a weekday presenter on the BBC's BBC Coventry & Warwickshire radio station, where she took over the Drivetime show. She later presented the weekday Breakfast Show for the station and continued to present a show on BBC 6 Music, but on Saturdays only.

Liz and Bruno re-united for a one-off special on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire on Christmas Morning 2006.

In July 2007 her show was cited in a BBC phone-in competition scandal, with pre-recorded shows being aired as live, and members of the production team pretending to be members of the public ringing in to a competition which did not exist.

On 30 July 2008 the BBC was fined £400,000 (a record for the corporation) by media watchdog Ofcom. It was accused of 'misleading its audiences' by 'faking' telephone phone-ins. Amongst those affected were Kershaw's show on BBC 6 Music. Kershaw's programme had the biggest censure of £115,000 being penalised for 17 cases of deception in 17 months between May 2005 and January 2006.

Ofcom stated that the organisation 'deceived its audience by faking winners of competitions and deliberately conducting competitions unfairly.

Liz can currently be heard on BBC 6 Music Saturday lunchtimes 1-3pm and between 10am and 1pm on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire on Sundays. She left the breakfast show at BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on Friday 17 July 2009 when the management decided to change the hosts. She attacked the Local Newspaper when the decision was made but accepted the Sunday Slot to which she still hosts.

On 2 October 2010 she reprised her performance of The Undertones Teenage Kicks at the celebration of the reprieve of BBC 6 Music, 6 Fest with Damian O'Neill of The Undertones, and Doyle and the Fourfathers, a charity gig in aid of Nordoff-Robbins and the Chilean Miners in the C2010 Copiapó mining accident.

References

External links

Liz Kershaw page at BBC 6 Music

Liz Kershaw page at BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire

Category:1958 births Category:British radio personalities Category:Living people Category:British radio DJs Category:People from Rochdale Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds