This is the Thread where Canadians discuss MuchMusic in all its glory

See, there was something called MuchMusic but I think they changed their name to Fuse.

Does it have Dedicate Live?

Steve Anthony, Mike Williams, Erica Ehm, KCC, Simon Gallagher and the lovely Theresa Roncon, to name a few - those were VJs worth watching.

It's all a big joke and someday, maybe April 1, they'll spring a 'all you assholes got caught on Candid Camera!'

None of the VJ's, not one, have an ounce of charisma. I'd have more fun watching a cardboard box introduce another rap video than any of them. Rick the 'temp' - annoying alone for the fact he's about 4 foot 2. George - hmm, I didn't know 'hardcore' came in a package. Amanda - transparent, literally. I find myself focusing more on the broadcast instrumentation around her. Hannah - ...... oh, sorry, I must've dosed off.

Anyway, I live right near Toronto and would love to liven things up a little and add some real chutzpah to a circle of lackies, but I just couldn't deal with introducing a 'nickelback/tragically hip/tea party/our lady peace/i mother earth/etc/etc/etc' video.

Joy Division, on the other hand - absolutely.

Also, bring back Nam and Bradford. I miss them so very very much.

That is all.

First one to post a picture of J.D. Edwards in his white polyester suit wins a beer from me (or a lawsuit from CBS).

For obscurity sake, I'll just add that the best VJ ever anywhere was
Claude Rajotte on MusiquePlus, Quebec's version of MuchMusic.

Putting aside the fact that he looks sorta like Tom Noonan (bald, tall, thin), he had great taste in music and he had a fantastic dry / ironic sense of humor (kinda weird mix of Brit and French in that way ???).

The classic moments are legion ... his record review show was chock full of recommendations you could trust but no-mercy lambastings of true garbarge.

MuchMusic/MusiquePlus were live off the floor, no edits. One day, Claude had the pleasure of interviewing a hot band of the moment ...
Milli Vanilli. They are there in studio, in the middle of the interview, calling for their makeup people/stylists and ignoring his questions. He pauses, waits and then asks (something like), You know this is live, right?

Check it out

http://www.musiqueplus.com/fr/tv/vj/2

But Barry, both of these are GOOD things! Well, I can definitely see the bad side of Anthony, but Erica Ehm was so spinny that it was great...the fact that she wasn't a polished TV host was (to me anyhow) ultimately more endearing than annoying, because it was like she was a fan like us instead of some talking head. If she seemed a bit dumm...oh well.

I used to love the way Kim Clarke Champniss would pronounce "Blur album": "Bleahhhh ahhhhbumm!"

1) Christopher Ward had albums of his own, but achieved more success writing songs for others, including Amanda Marshall and Alannah Myles (who he also produced and I think managed).

2) Erica Ehm wrote a bunch of songs for Cassandra Vasik, but I'm not sure if she ever did her own albums.

3) Kim Clarke Champniss managed the band Images in Vogue, a band whose percussionist's side project was Skinny Puppy.

Znaimer believes the flaws of the would-be TV personalities were their strengths. He points to Erica Ehm, the first female video jockey hired by MuchMusic whose early on-air days were rocky.

"Everybody watching could imagine that they could be as good," Znaimer says. "We would get letters from viewers, and a typical letter would be: ‘My name is Cindy Sue and I am from such and such high school,’ and she would go on and complain about Erica. And there would always be the same last line: ‘If she can do it, then why can’t I?’"

Ehm found her way in front of the camera after a stint answering phones at the New Music, a Rolling Stone-style magazine program that pre-dated MuchMusic.

She was put on-air after Znaimer saw a demo reel she created with the help of John Roberts, now the senior White House correspondent for CBS News.

Despite her rough beginnings, she got better -- with a lot of hard work.

i like hannah and amanda quite a bit. and george is genuinely nice (remember the best rap videos of 2003 thing where nam and him kissed?? she wouldn't date him if he was really the snarky, black flag t-shirt-wearing guy that he tries to be all the time).

bradford and nam and rainbow -- where you at??

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Laurie Brown. She was a great VJ.

Steve Anthony was pretty funny when he first started on the channel.

Laurie Brown was also excellent.

Isn't he gone?

3) Kim Clarke Champniss managed the band Images in Vogue, a band whose percussionist's side project was Skinny Puppy.

He was also one of the children in the movie Village of the Damned.

Somebody should beat the smugness out of George.

Whenever I watch these days it's programming from a US station, or dressing up, or spotlights playing videos that are in constant rotation, or dedication shows playing videos that are in constant rotation. Musique Plus is vastly superior. Even though they're falling into the trap of showing "shows" instead of videos these days, they're request show is awesome. You see stuff you'd never expect to see in this day and age.

Always loved Erica--in fact, I interviewed her on college radio toward the end of her Much days. She had a sense of humour, she loved music, and was a huge (occasionally too gushing, which I'll take over drab anyway) fan; you always got the feeling she loved being on air, so naturally, she was great to watch (and cute too, obviously). She lacked some slickness, but didn't come across as an industry automaton. Unlike some of the others, she didn't sound like someone who was plucked out of an FM spot or who "once wrote a Top 40 single" for someone or other. Her lack of resume made her really appealing, I thought.

Steve Anthony was okay, though he came across as a little too bitter or something for TV and he was fidgety as hell which always annoyed me (he sounds right on radio--I know, who cares?--which I guess makes sense).

Michael Williams--ugh, one of the worst. The comment upthread about him not playing rock is just plain wrong (if memory serves, he even hosted a hard rock show at one point), but anyway, he was terrible on air, all fake bring-some-dignity-to-this-circus while at the same time doing his I'm-down-with-what-the-kids-are-listening-to routine. What really irked me about him was how he'd *always* wear the uniform to match the genre of the band he was interviewing (i.e., wearing a jean jacket with band patches on it and the sleeves cut off if he had to interview Bon Jovi--groan). Admittedly, that was probably an early Much (or even CITY) thing to some extent, but he just seemed so ripe for every occasion like that. Sorry--a complete industry shmoozer.

I also had little use for Laurie Brown and her faux-CBC act (in fact, didn't she end up there?), and Denise Donlon, the self-designated "conscience" of the Canadian Music Industry. I always prefer the goofballs, frankly.

[HaHa! Vic Funk's *Village of the Damned* comment is perfect!]

Also, Rebecca Rankin was the hottest VJ they ever had. Sucks that she only appeared on camera like, three times.

and george is the most arrogant talking piercing i have ever seen. even his gf has a hard time putting up with it.

anyhow, when i watch much i can feel myself getting stupider. i loved it as a young’in. but i was fairly stupid back then.

The absolute worst was Oliver, the guy who did Rap City in the post Mike Williams era. In the mornings he'd help out on Breakfast Television in his preppie clothes and then by 4:30pm he'd transform into his thug gear and affect a ridiculous "street" accent. His interview with Biggie Smalls at some pool hall was one of the most painful things I've ever seen on TV.

x-post

And does anyone else hate Sook Yin doing Definitely Not The Opera as much as I do? Everytime I listen to her I want to scream "YOU ARE NOT FUCKING FUNNY!@"

She just reminds me of that annoying girl on the busride home from school who'd talk about math tests and ponies.

http://www.scratchingpost.com/photos/philanddan.JPG

Gallagher also co-wrote the Canadian classic rock radio staple "Digging a Hole", by Big Sugar.

(x-post) Ed The Sock's CityTV show is one of the worst things ever. Even with the recent addition of frontal nudity.

It's almost as though Rick the Temp thinks that he's still 17. He has to be pushing 30; it's time to move on.

Hated Sook-Yin with a passion. I've never seen one person brutalise so many interviews. Can't stand the Sock.

he's a nice guy, though, and good when he's not talking about music.

grapeshine-- they all love music but they have to stay impartial. but they do have things they love. rick loves our lady peace and other sincere late-90s canadian rock and pearl jam. amanda likes poppy indie rock and the dave matthews band. hannah likes hipstery synthesizer music. jennifer likes pop and old school hip-hop (she's said a few times that she hates "gangsta and bling rap")(did you know she is in a breakdancing group and toured with le tigre??).

I concur.

She hasn't been at MuchMusic for almost 2 years - she's now the President of Sony Music Canada.

Williams actually had the guts to play Husker Du on the Power Hour metal show back in the mid-80s.

I never argued about Much's music selection or Michael Williams's taste in music (though I'm not so sure he should be credited with choosing any of those songs). I'm talking about him as a host, on television, introducing videos and interviewing rock stars. At which, he was embarrassing.

Um, what does what MM pay their VJs have to do with anything? Am I supposed to end each of my posts criticizing a VJ with "but they're not paid very well, so it's all understandable"?!

x-post (fuck I hate saying that!)
Heap scorn on them? Take the s off and maybe you've got something there.

george: by far and away the best interviewer at much, which i suppose isn't saying much given the competition, but still. cloverland's otm re: his tendency to get a little high horsey on the news but i think part of it is in reaction to the fact that he's the only remotely political thinker on much's unbelievably partisan roster. plus i saw him going absolutely BATSHIT at dizzee and swigging hard on a bottle of water so, props.

hannah: i've actually emailed the new music about her. i can accept her pigeon-toed neologisms on muchnews but WHY sit her in front of honest-to-goodness musicians on tnm when she's only going to embarrass the entire show? granted, tmn has historically been hit and miss but when it was hit it was ON and old hannah is about as far away from a hit as rickyj. sample questions: to nick cave - "have you ever been depressed?", to supergrass - "so, do you believe in life on other planets?" (UGH) and to ladytron - "you only have two keyboard players and yet you bring more than two keyboards on tour...?" -> POSSIBLY THEY PLAY DIFFERENT ONES AT DIFFERENT TIMES HANNAH DID THEY NOT EXPLAIN THAT IN THE URBAN OUTFITTERS' CD SAMPLER LINER NOTES?!

rick: totally and completely a team-player, no opinions, steady, unthreatening, boring, always a bit late to the party but i guess i can see why they keep him around

rainbow: fired/quit for incompetency/lateness. made up for lack of personality with his ineffectual leechiness of other vj's schticks, namely bradford, which he aped at about 10% of the charm

sarah: new girl has nothing to say, but i guess we need to endure the growing pains for a while yet before making any judgement. she does that nervous tendency thing where she disguises her complete lack of content by restating already painfully obvious things in different ways, ie. on combatzone when voting tab graphic comes up: "britney's really kicking ass! wow, she's totally winning! yup, she's ahead of chingy right now..."

ed the sock: mildly funny in incredibly small doses, his ostensible puritan crusade against musical isms a convenient smokescreen for the fact that his is the most blatantly istic on-air personality at much

jennifer walsh: never, ever, ever been a fan, mostly because of her hamfisted 'political' sloganeering and her dorky haircuts. she tends to have this sad about to cry face on for about 80% of the time. the other 20% of the time she is reminding us that she is a b-girl and was in nelly furtado's video like three years ago but nobody recognized her cause her DORKY HAIRCUT was covered up.

Easy safe statement of the day from me: Donlon oversaw the MTV-ization of MM. Take that for what you will.

so what? MuchMusic should have concentrated on media-savvy, book-reading, cynical demo instead of "look, it's shiny!" demo?

Did this guy even have a shift of his own? For awhile it was like everytime I turned on Much Music, he would jump on camera. Ex, Ed the Sock does "Smash or Trash", Rainbow is in the line-up. Bradford is throwing to videos, Rainbow is peering over his shoulder.

Juliette Lewis has not been mentioned yet ... she somehow managed to host Electric Circus while still maintaining cred

Wasn't her name Juliette Powell? She used to be a Musique Plus VJ. I actually thought she was really good on Much, and unlike most French speaking interviewers doing English language interviews, I thought she sounded really good (sometimes I see English acts interviewed on Musique Plus, and I feel bad for the announcers who don't realise they're being made fun of). I remember watching the Woodstock 99 broadcast on MP, and she jumped over from the MM side and seemed so happy being back with her friends.

[Amanda] just reminds me of that annoying girl on the busride home from school who'd talk about math tests and ponies.

This is the bestest thing ever written on ILM.

They got to meet him, and Fred is so obviously tired and just pretending to be "yah, brah" with these kids and they talk for 10 seconds and then that's it. The kids were crying and trembling in excitement over having met their Jesus.

And Angela Who?

I had totally forgotten about Angela Dohrman. I remember her being sorta hot. Did she have shortlived CBC sitcom with a theme song by Bob Wiseman at one point? She was on Seinfeld once, I think. Erica Ehm was on Top Cops once.
I also met Natalie Richard once. I have no idea about her.
I wonder if the fact that the VJs used to be older than us and now they're (sometimes substantially) younger than us has anything to do with all this.

Now you know.

I meant the opposite actually - that he was probably encouraged to be (and ergo any hardness discouraged). Back then, in the Cosby era.

Not that this is a topic I feel especially qualified to slog through.

Didn't know that about Angela. Huh.

x-post. you can get fired for that¿ fuck¡

I'm pretty sure she didn't get fired for saying "fuck". A friend of mine showed me a video once of her saying "fuck" like ten times in a row to the camera, then being told she was on, then laughing hysterically because the floor director had been ignoring her so she had no idea. He said on the rebroadcast (this was back when Much did one 8-hour shift and replayed it twice) it was edited out.

Master T shed his whiteness whenever he interviewed a Jamaican artist. He'd suddenly shift into a patois dialect.

And let's stop the arguing once and for all -- Canadians ARE NOT RUDE. Conan said so on his show last night.

http://www.thecomedystore.com/images/mandell.jpg

x-post. wtf¡

best x-post evah

Though if you were to hold out a hat and not take a shower for three days and you might get some change in return.

I don't like how MuchMusic is trying to talk like the shittier variety of ILX posters these days with the random social criticism and snarky tone, it's a little weird.

Huckle-Buck, you're the stand-up guy, right?

Well, I thought she was hot. Also, I used to see her all the time in Yaletown when she was living there.

the mm enviro according to Much Narc 2004

erica ehm: ditzy but nice

michael williams: a bit of an egomaniac but cool

steve anthony: i can confirm that he was a major cocaine addict for much (pun intended) that ultimately got him laid off. lord only knows how he still works in this town as his reputation is shit. i always found him pretty funny and spent the summers of 1989 and 1990, when i was too old for camp but too young to work, waching much music all afternoon. i remember wanting hair like him for a long time.

christopher ward: awesome. super cool guy, knowledgable. charles camanbear (sic)... classic.

teresa roncon: sexy and sweet and an interesting juxtoposition for the leather bands she'd interview in dank dungeons.

natalie richard: my friend once met her and said she had "cottage cheese" on the back of her thighs.

kcc: he once shoved my sister into a wall during a much music tour.

dan gallagher: test pattern was ace. nice guy but he was so obese, you kinda knew he wouldn't live long.

jana lynn white: pretentious bitch but sexy

daniel richler: prententious bitch but swarthy.

avi lewis: see above

terry david mulligan: probably a bit of a dick in real live but i couldn't help but like his style. anyone remember this kids show he used to host called zig zag? it was later hosted by a couple of hacks called biff and barf/barth?. it was pretty hilarious, didn't make a lot of sense. barf was rick duncam or something... he played tom hanks' neighbour in "the burbs" and biff must've gotten into radio voiceovers because i hear his voice on the radio all the time. i'd pay cash if anyone had zig zag on tape

mike and mike: kinda liked this show for a while. it was cheap as hell but great slice of no-fi cancon poop.

monika deol: she alledgedly had a cocaine problem too which accounted for the fact that her nostrils were perpetually flared.

sook yin lee: she was ok but like a fish out of water. she always tried to prove her cred by saying dumb things on tv ("i don't have a driver's license'). nice lady though, she once shared her french fries with me at a beck concert at the concert hall. her cd's were ass although bob's yer uncle did some ok stuff.

bill welyncka: kind of a hack but nice fella. i think he started doing the country show "outlaws and heroes". definitely picked it up a notch when he cut that ridiculous hair.

diego fuentes: huh?

rebecca rankin: i remember when she did a milk commercial in the 1980's. my cousins went to school with her in north toronto and said she was a snotty bitch.

the guy with the long hair who does the between hour spots: y'know, there's one where he's a janitor and some guy comes into the washroom and tells him to shut the fuck up? this guy is hilarious. I remember there was once this 5-minute spot where he played a door-to-door interviewer that made no sense. a definite bright light in a grim late 1990's station funk. i saw him eating cake at future's bakery at younge-st clair many a time.

rick the temp: a consumate hack/dork in every sense of the word bu good for him because i'm sure he's a nice guy. not sure how's he's worked at much for 10 years without picking up a single shard of musical knowledge but whatever. his interviews with nsync were just terrible.

ed the sock: anyone remember the original program at newton cable in north york? i won't say too much because i know the guy behind the puppet but if anyone wants some interesting stories, email me

amanda: my friend says she looks like the joker because her mouth is always in a weird grin. very cute girl although doesn't know anything.

nam kwoewthdghksjrg: she was really cool but probably too smart to stick around. not sure why she's doing this basketball thing but whatever.

george s: really nice guy, fairly knowledgable but his ego is a bit of a put off. him and bono riding in a limo was total ass. met him when he was producing overnights at the fan 590 in the mid-1990's. definitely the best of the current crop and a good guy all around.

rainbow sun franks: a cunt. easy.

bradford how: just a total joke and a symptom of a dying station. exhibits the typical overcompensating, annoying personality of small town folk who move to the big fucking city.

hannah sung: the girl will fuck anything that moves yet masks it all with her boring persona. i know way too many girls like her.

sarah taylor: saw her eating lunch in yorkville about 2 weeks ago. seems kinda listless.

IF ANYONE WANTS TO TRADE NASTIER STORIES ABOUT MUCH PERSONALITIES, EMAIL ME. THERE'S A LOT OF STUFF I JUST DIDN'T THINK WAS APPROPRIATE TO POST ONLINE.

I think his name is Carl Armstrong - he works for Much / CHUM as a videographer / editor. Met him several times - VERY nice guy.