Fatcontroller » event

U2 rooftop gig at the BBC

john ousby — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:41:12 +0000

U2 performed a few songs from the roof of the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London last night. Early activity on blogs, message boards and twitter ensured that there were some diehards finding the best vantage points for this “secret” gig from quite early in the afternoon. As it approached 6.45 the police closed off Portland Place and the band stepped out to perform ‘Get On Your Boots’, ‘Magnificent’, ‘Vertigo/Substitute/She Loves You’ medley and ‘Beautiful Day’.

There were several thousand people on the street and loads of disappointed people who all had the great idea that they would get to the top floor “heights” bar in the hotel next door for an amazing view. unfortunately the whole bar was closed off for a private do. I was lucky enough to get a view from my office.

Regardless of what you think about U2, (i’m not a big fan myself) this was an amazing spectacle. There was a great atmostphere with the sound of cheers, electric guitar and overhead helicopters mingling together. It felt like you were part of something special.

more pictures and some short video clips on my flickr site, and much more on the BBC website

Radio Reborn update

john ousby — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:17:40 +0000

OK, I admit defeat. cridders put up a much better revue of the recent radio reborn conference than i could have conjured up. so all i will do is pick up on one of the slides from the RCS pres. It was a pic of the now playing data being fed through to a billboard. It took me back to a possibly apocryphal story about the first instance of “now playing” data being publicly displayed in the UK. I heard that Heart hired out a huge billboard on the entry to the A40 westway out of london and had a live feed of tracks playing being displayed. How did they do this before the very clever GIMP from VirginRadio (which i launched )? well, as far as i recall, they had a couple of work experience boys encamped inside the hoardings with a radio and a playlist tapping in the tracks as they appeared. unethical? almost certainly. creative? without doubt.

can anyone confirm or correct this (very possibly) urban myth?

Radio Reborn

john ousby — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:03:53 +0000

moderating a panel tomorrow at “radio reborn” – a media guardian conference in London. Keynote panel has the potential to be interesting, with my ultimate boss (for now) Jenny Abramsky, Fru Hazlitt (GCAP for now) and Phillipe generali from RCS. just a shame there wasn’t someone from Global or Bauer there too… Will update tomorrow on how it all went.

Geekyoto 2008

john ousby — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:55:08 +0000

Ben Hammersley and Mark Simpkins hosting a day conference on technology and the environment in London on May 17th. Should be interesting, Gavin Starks is there to talk about his AMEE project