Simon Mayo (born 21st September 1958 in Southgate, London) is one of the most recognised and respected voices of radio in the UK, currently presenting a daily afternoon programme on BBC Radio Five Live. (Redirected from 21st September) September 21 is the 264th day of the year (265th in leap years). ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Southgate is an area in the London Borough of Enfield. ... BBC Radio Five Live is the BBCs radio service providing live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries. ...

Early career

Mayo graduated from Warwick University with an academic degree in history and politics where he had been a presenter on the student radio station, Radio Warwick. He then began a four year stint as a presenter with BBC Radio Nottingham, before joining the national pop network BBC Radio 1 in 1986, presenting a two hour Saturday evening show. University of Warwick Motto: Mens agitat molem Logo © University of Warwick The University of Warwick is a world-class campus university which, despite its name, is located mainly inside the southern boundary of Coventry, England, some 11 km ( 7 miles) from the town of Warwick, the remainder of the campus... This article is about academic degrees. ... One of the most famous quotations about history and the value of studying history, by Spanish philosopher, George Santayana, reads: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Politics Look up Politics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Politics (disambiguation) Democracy History of democracy List of democracy and elections-related topics List of years in politics List of politics by country articles Political corruption Political economy Political movement Political parties of... Radio Warwick or RaW is the student radio station at the University of Warwick and winner of the 2000 and 2003 BBC Radio 1 Student Radio Association Best Station awards. ... BBC Radio Nottingham is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Nottinghamshire. ... BBC Radio 1 logo, 1967-1970 BBC Radio 1 logo, 1970-1974 BBC Radio 1 logo, 1974-1975 BBC Radio 1 logo, 1975-1987 BBC Radio 1 logo, 1988-1990 BBC Radio 1 logo, 1991-1994 BBC Radio 1 logo, 1994-1997 BBC Radio 1 logo, 1997-2001 BBC Radio... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Saturday is the seventh (sixth in some countries) day of the week, between Friday and Sunday. ...

In October 1987 he progressed to the weekend early slots and then became presenter of the weekday evening show in January 1988. Within five months his star had risen so much that he was offered the biggest presentation job in UK radio - the Radio 1 breakfast show. 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January is the first month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Waking the nation

Having become the host of the station's flagship breakfast show, Mayo's confident, mildly cynical style of articulate music presentation quickly earned him many admirers and the show soon re-established its hold on the waking audience. Cynicism was originally the philosophy of a group of ancient Greeks called the Cynics (main article), founded by Antisthenes. ...

Mayo spent five years waking up the nation and the programme remains arguably the most consistent breakfast programme which Radio 1 has ever had. Throughout his tenure, Mayo was joined by news anchor Rod McKenzie and went through a series of sidekick weather girls, including Carol Dooley, Sybil Ruscoe, Jakki Brambles and Dianne Oxberry. The show's producer was Ric Blaxill, though most mornings he would often pretend to be a celebrity acting as a 'guest producer', often without attempting even slightly to impersonate the celebrity in question. Broadcaster & journalist Sybil Ruscoe, began her career on BBC Local Radio, before teaming up with Simon Mayo on the Radio 1 Breakfast show in 1989. ... Jakki Brambles is a British television and radio presenter and reporter. ...

The programme became known for various successful features, including a throwback to Mayo's student days in the daily almanac On This Day In History, famously soundtracked by a looped version of George Michael's I Want Your Sex; and the long-running cryptic game The Identik-Hit Quiz, where Mayo and his cohorts would 'act' a short scene which cryptically led listeners to the title of a hit song. An almanac (also spelled almanack, especially in Commonwealth English) is an annual publication containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar. ... George Michael George Michael (born June 25, 1963) is an English-Cypriot pop singer/songwriter and gay sex symbol. ... I Want Your Sex was a single from both the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II and George Michaels Faith album, and first charted in July 1987. ...

He also patented his hugely successful Confessions feature where members of the public sought absolution for their "sins" (most of which were frivolous or humorous) and it became a moderate television success in later years. Mayo had already presented the dilemma show Scruples for BBC television, and had joined his Radio 1 colleagues on the host roster for Top Of The Pops. The word Confessions has several meanings: Confessions is a series of books composed by St. ... Sin has been a term most usually used in a religious context, and today describes any lack of conformity to the will of God; especially, any willful disregard for the norms revealed by God is a sin. ... 1. ... Top of the Pops is a long-running British music chart television programme shown each week on BBC Two and now licensed for local versions around the world. ...

Both On This Day In History and Confessions spawned successful spin-off books.

Thanks to endless plays from Mayo, several unlikely hit singles reached the UK charts, including Kinky Boots by Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman; Donald Where's Yer Troosers by Andy Stewart; and Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, sung and written by Eric Idle. For helping Monty Python have a hit with the latter (13 years after it first appeared on the soundtrack to The Life Of Brian), Idle presented Mayo with a model bare foot, in the style of the animated version which used to end the opening titles to the TV show. Kinky boots are boots which are intended for or by some people are connected to some kind of shoe fetishism and thus a form of fetish clothing. ... Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg on the cover of a 1994 reprint of an Avengers novel co-written by Macnee. ... Honor Blackman Honor Blackman (born in London, England on December 12, 1927, although many sources have listed her date of birth as August 22, 1926) is a British actress, and a very private individual who would probably not bother to reveal which birthday is the correct one. ... Andy Stewart (1933 - 1994) was a Scottish singer and entertainer. ... The 1990 reissue of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is a popular song written by Eric Idle which originally featured in the 1979 film Monty Pythons Life of Brian and has gone on to become a common singalong... Eric Idle (Born March 29, 1943) is an English comedian, actor and film director, as well as an author and accomplished guitarist/songwriter. ... The Monty Python troupe in 1970. ... Life of Brian is a film from 1979 by Monty Python which deals with the life of Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman), a young man born nearly the same time as, and right down the street from, Jesus. ...

When Mayo's wife Hilary, a producer whom he met at BBC Radio Nottingham, gave birth to their son Ben in 1990, Mayo took an extended period of paternity leave, becoming one of the first high-profile males to do so as the trend for fathers to spend more time at home with newborn children gathered pace. The couple have subsequently had two more children. This article is about the year. ... Parental leave is the right to take time off work, paid or unpaid, to care for your child or make arrangements for your childs welfare. ...

Presenters who covered the breakfast show when Mayo took holidays included Bruno Brookes, Gary King, Phillip Schofield, Nicky Campbell and Mark Goodier. Bruno Brookes (born Trevor Neal Brookes in Stoke-on-Trent, 25th April, 1959) is a British radio presenter who shot to fame in the 1980s. ... Gary King (born Stevenage, England, August 1963) is a popular British radio presenter who has worked for most of the countrys best-known stations. ... Phillip Schofield (born on April 1, 1962 in Oldham, England) is a British TV presenter and occasional actor and singer. ... Nicholas Andrew Argyll Campbell (born Edinburgh, Scotland on April 10, 1961) is a BBC radio and television presenter. ... Mark Goodier (born 28th June 1961 in Rhodesia) is one of the most familiar voices on British radio. ...

Mayo, like all of Radio 1's high-profile presenters of the time, would take his turn to spend a week in a coastal area of the UK during the Radio 1 Roadshows which occurred for three months of the summer. For a short while, he also presented an additional weekend show for the station - on a Sunday afternoon and provisionally titled O Solo Mayo - to cover for the absent Phillip Schofield, who was working in the West End. Phillip Schofield (born on April 1, 1962 in Oldham, England) is a British TV presenter and occasional actor and singer. ... West End is the name of some places in the world, including: The West End of London, England West End Theatre, is where many of Londons major theatres are located and premier cinema screenings take place. ...

Mid-mornings - then back to breakfast

Mayo officially gave up the breakfast show in 1993, though he had been on another extended period of paternity leave when the announcement was made, and his stand-in Goodier was confirmed as his permanent replacement. Mayo moved on to the mid-morning slot from 9am-12midday, and survived the huge cull of a long-standing presenters which Radio 1 underwent the same year on the arrival of controller Matthew Bannister and his wish to rebrand the station as younger and more cutting edge. 1993 (MCMXCIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Matthew Bannister is a British radio administrator and broadcaster. ...

Goodier didn't last long on breakfast and subsequent host Steve Wright, so long a mainstay of the afternoon slot, proved to be a big disappointment when he tried to regain Mayo's audience. Ultimately, it took three years and the arrival of Chris Evans before Radio 1 re-emerged as a force at breakfast time to compare with the Mayo era. Steve Wright (born August 26, 1954 in Greenwich, London) is a radio broadcaster in the United Kingdom. ... Chris Evans (born April 1, 1966, in Warrington, England) is a British celebrity. ...

Mayo, meanwhile, settled professionally and uncontroversially into his new show and stayed there for eight years, though briefly returned to the breakfast show when the maverick Evans was dismissed after one absence and argument too many. This short spell back on breakfast was seen by many as a breath of fresh air, but both Mayo and Radio 1 ruled out the possibilities of a permanent return to the flagship programme. On his first morning as breakfast stand-in, he read out an email from a man who had emigrated to New Zealand four years earlier and had arrived back in the UK that morning, and was "delighted to hear you're still doing the breakfast show". E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ...

5 Live

In 2001, after 15 years with Radio 1, Mayo announced he was leaving to join sister station Five Live to present an afternoon programme. His final record on Radio 1 was Ace Of Spades by Motörhead. 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Ace of Spades is a song by the heavy metal band Motörhead. ... Motörhead is an iconic British heavy metal band. ...

Mayo duly began broadcasting on Five Live every weekday from 1-4pm, and there he remains. He was on air when the 9/11 disasters occurred, and received huge acclaim for the way he handled the station's reaction to the atrocity. 9-11 can refer to: The September 11, 2001 attacks A collection of interviews of Noam Chomsky by a variety of European publications and individual interviewers during the month after the September 11, 2001 attacks September 11 (month-day date notation) 9 November (day-month date notation) The North American...

The programme generally combines topical debates, interviews and reviews. It comes live from Westminster each Wednesday for live coverage of Prime Minister's Question Time, with discussion and debate afterwards with political correspondents and MPs. The programme also features Mayo's old Radio 1 sidekick Mark Kermode waspishly reviewing the new movie releases each Friday afternoon. Westminster is a district within the City of Westminster in London. ... Sir Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, generally regarded as one of the greatest Prime Ministers A prime minister may be either: chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... Mark Kermode Dr. Mark Kermode (born 1963) is a British film critic who regularly writes for Sight and Sound magazine and The Observer newspaper. ...

Other projects

Mayo still keeps his eye in with music presentation by hosting the Album Chart show each week for BBC Radio 2. Radio Two is one of the BBCs national radio stations and is the most popular station in the UK. It broadcasts throughout the UK on FM radio between 88 and 91 MHz from its studios in Broadcasting House. ...

His TV work has been less frequent lately, though he did briefly present the BBC show Winning Lines as part of the corporation's National Lottery output. Winning Lines is a National Lottery game show produced by Celador that premiered on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 13 June 1999, originally hosted by Simon Mayo. ... A play here! sign outside a newsagent, incorporating the National Lotterys logo of a stylised hand with crossed fingers. ...

Miscellaneous

Away from his work, Mayo is known for his love of Tottenham Hotspur and his devout Christian faith. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is a North London football club. ... As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation Christ, which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. ...