When I was 13, I decided that I wanted to present Blue Peter and carried this lazy dream for a number of years. When I was 19, I travelled to Glasgow to attend a TV presenter audition, but Holly Willoughbygot that job. I was pretty crap, I admit: years of practice in my bedroom and an overly scripted rehearsal in my hotel room the night before only provided shakes and stutters and a massive loss of dignity in theatre 4 at the Odeon. I also came across a lot of annoying arses which made me rethink my personality traits: instead of allowing my charm and wit to distill, I had to be instantly irritating, and at the time that wasn’t natural to me.
Almost ten years ago a school friend, Topher, filmed an audition tape which I sent off following an advert I’d read (possibly in TV Quick). I heard nothing, but I’ve since watched the tape and I wasn’t nay bad - if a little scripted.
I’d always pondered, though, on radio presenting. More mature, maybe, and less visuals. I applied to my local hospital radio around five years ago and heard nothing from them until about a year later (the reason being that the person in charge at the time was a bit useless. It wasn’t because of me!), by which point my burst of enthusiasm had sizzled out and I decided to go back to carving an ordinary life and hope that one day something would fall in my lap. Although…
Around the same time of applying to the radio, I bagged myself a month’s worth of work experience at CBBC. On my first day I casually remarked to one of the producers that ‘in an ideal world’ I’d like to go into presenting but floor management had caught my eye. And there was my label.
At the end of my stint I arranged a meeting with a CBBC executive to discuss my options. He happened to mention that he’d been told heard about my career aspiration. Not the mildly unrealistic one, but the unrealistic one. With inward panic and a massive smile I gave the answer, ‘Mr Executive. If you came to me and said, ‘Jade, we’ve come up with this programme that just so happens to be called The Jade Curley Show and we think you’d be perfect for it,’ I wouldn’t turn it down, but otherwise, I’m not gonna chase it.’ Mr Executive laughed and I narrowly escaped a lynching.
As I grew up I realised what a horrible career TV presenting would be and that being a wacky, krazy kat wasn’t where I wanted to go. Thank frig.
A couple of months ago, the hospital radio left me a voicemail asking me to contact them and have since left another four or five messages on my home answerphone. They’d want me to begin with fundraising for a few months (I just did the typo of ‘moths’. Please reread that bit with ‘moths’ instead) and then possibly move into radio production. It’s funny they should say that…
Four weeks ago, Topher contacted me on Facebook, having not properly spoken for a few years, bar the Facebook adding, catch up process. He explained that he and a friend are setting up a promotions company and were putting on a live rock night in Birmingham for unsigned bands. They were also discussing a radio show option and remembering my interest in frontline media, asked me to get involved. Years of sitting on my arse had finally paid off. What I didn’t realise was that I was being invited to feed from a very large silver platter.
It stayed quite quiet until last week and I have an slight inkling now, as to what it must feel like to be an X Factorfinalist. The night is due to kick off on the 29th of this month and the radio show on May 3rd. I went to meet Topher and Dave to look around the venue and Scarlet Harlots turned up too. That was a tad overwhelming but mainly exciting. We went for food to debrief and I was told that I’d eventually be hosting the night. In front of 2000 people. Christ. But it was a couple of days ago when we met again and visited the station that my head imploded…
They explained the depth and length they want go and that I would be the face of Angry Duck. May I say now, that these guys do not mess about. Both have exceptionally strong backgrounds in PR and the like and are highly successful in their own right. They want to make me a local celebrity and in 12 months time are hoping to have extended the show from one hour to three and take Upstagedon national tours and give my face national recognition. They intend to take it to the level of success that I’ll be poached from national stations. That all depends if I’m not shit. They’re fully aware of fallbacks and setbacks; I’m being given warning of the potential to check if I’m okay with it. I think I am! I’m also prepared for this to go nowhere and it just be bit of a giggle.
Naturally, my concern lies with my uni work. Come September, I’ll be starting my third year. I’ve been told not to worry and it will be dealt with at the time. They’ve used to the term ‘breed familiarity’ for times when I won’t be available and there’s also the possibility of a co-host.
The next week will have me in the studio getting practice and learning the ropes, as well as recording sound bites. It’s all go. I’m not as overwhelmed as I was on Monday, but I’m still feeling a little taken aback and I’m somewhat cacking myself. I’ll have to have a photoshoot for my online biography and I need an awful lot of mental preparation and relaxtion. Maybe now is the time to go for that full body massage I’ve been fantasizing about.
So yeah, any unsigned bands in The Midlands contact my bosses at Angry Duck and everyone else (as well as the unsigned bands) join the Facebook group for news andupdates.
Wish us luck!
