Archives for December 2008
And then there were three
| 10:06 UK time, Wednesday, 31 December 2008
So we're close to finding out which is the 'Best chorus ever'. We asked you to nomimate your best choruses. We had strings of suggestions. And nine of our presenters picked their favourites, based on your choices. Over the past three days you've whittled that list of nine down to three by taking part in a text vote.
Well, we now know which three songs have made the cut and are through to the final on January 1st.. They are 'All you need is love' by The Beatles, 'Delilah' by Tom Jones and 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush. From seven tomorrow morning you'll be able to vote for which one you think makes the best chorus of all time.
Two out of three ain't bad
| 10:29 UK time, Tuesday, 30 December 2008
We're getting closer to finding the 'Best chorus ever'. You'll remember that we got you to nominate the songs with the best chorus in. We had hundreds of suggestions. We got nine of our presenters to pick their favourite chorus. And then we asked you to vote for your favourite ones in three semi-finals. The first one was on Monday and 'All you need is love' by The Beatles came out top. Today 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush was the winner. And tomorrow the third semi final sees Bon Jovi's 'Living on a prayer' pitched against Take That's 'Never Forget' and Tom Jones' 'Delilah'. The three winners will all go forward into the Grand Final on January 1st.
Crackers.....and choruses
The only people who work harder than Father Christmas and the reindeer at this time of year are the people putting together the Breakfast programme.
Ok - maybe a slight exaggeration, but it does take a lot of effort to keep the programme going over Christmas and the New Year.
We are on air every single day - the only concession to Christmas is that on Dec 25 the programme doesn't start until 7am. Apart from that we are here, as usual, every morning.
Watch this trick very carefully
Magic tricks on the radio? Some would say it's ill-advised to try - however this morning we had a magician explaining how to avoid being caught out.
Emmanuel Faja has been recruited by Waltham Forest Council in East London. It has a problem with a street gambling - and this can involve people being encouraged to take part in games which are in fact a con, which they have no chance of winning.
Afterwards Emmanuel did a demonstration for our camera. Watch carefully - and see if you can spot the sleight of hand.
Upstaged by a donkey
This morning we featured the third update from our reporter on the road to Bethlehem, here's Hasit who produced today's programme to explain more:
"It was supposed to be a modern recreation of one of the most famous, significant journeys of all time, taking in the sights and sounds of a land that is still riven with conflict.
But our reporter Aleem Maqbool's trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem has been hijacked by a succession of donkey problems.
We'll keep following his journey every day, and hopefully he'll make it to the inn by Christmas, but we'll also keep a close eye on Cynthia, Donkey Oatie, and any other strays he manages to pick up..."
If you missed it, you can listen to the latest of Aleem's reports below.
He's also keeping a diary of his jorney on the BBC news website. Read Aleem's diary on The road to Bethlehem.
Still time to nominate the Best Ever Chorus
We kicked it off on Monday morning with our Entertainment Correspondent Colin Paterson explaining the rules and sharing the unique insight of Rob Davies, the man who helped write hits such as Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head and Toca's Miracle. Both great choruses, but are they among your choices? If you missed that chat you can listen again below
This morning he's once again been finding out the story behind the music and talking to the man who wrote one possible contender for the best ever chorus of all time, Mandy. Except it wasn't originally called that. Listen below to find out what it was called before Barry Manilow got his hands on it.
There's still plenty of time to nominate your favourite chorus - nominations run until midnight Tuesday 16 December. But it's by text only.
You can find out how to nominate and read the full terms and conditions of voting on our earlier post.
Strictly confusing
The decision on Strictly Come Dancing last night to allow all three couples entry to next week's final prompted howls of anguish and outrage from many listeners this morning.
"What a fiasco - what happens next week. It makes a complete mockerey of last nights show." Said Neil in Lichfield.
"STRICTLY COME STITCH UP !!! This is all due to the concerted effort to rid us of the talented John Sargeant. The show could been brought to a conclusion a week earlier...... Shame on you BBC . The license payer is cheated again ,let alone those people who made the phone calls" Cried Bryan White.
On the morning after the conclusion of ITV's X-Factor all the headlines belonged to Strictly and our audience were quick off the mark to tell us what they think.
Best Ever Chorus Vote
What is the best chorus ever? That's the question we are asking later this month. But to get the whole process started we need nominations - and so over the next couple of days people can text 85058 with the word CHORUS and then their nomination.
Nominations will close at midnight on Tuesday 16 December. And then we'll be voting on the 29th, 30th and 31st of December to find a final three - and we'll get an overall winner on our programme on January 1st.
What's the best way to tackle gang violence?
If you listened this morning you would have heard how a radical approach to tackling gang violence is taking place in Glasgow.
5 live has had unique access to a project being tried by Strathclyde Police who have adopted the 'Boston Strategy' to try and deal with the high murder rate in Glasgow.
The strategy is based on an American idea that first surfaced in the 90s when law enforcement agencies in Boston relentlessly pursued street gangs, cleaned up entire neighbourhoods, and reduced the murder rate.
The police in Glasgow brought together 150 members of 55 different street gangs and gave them a simple choice. They could either receive help to get qualifications, education and jobs or stay in a gang and end up in jail.
To find out more about the strategy we sent Phil Mackie to Glasgow and Boston. He spoke to Nicky this morning to tell us about the strategy.
Our reporter James Shaw was in the east end of Glasgow for us this morning. He gave us an idea of what the gang scene in Glasgow is like.
To discover how successful the strategy has been in Glasgow we spoke to DCS John Carnochan who is the Head of the Scottish national Violence Reduction Unit.
The Boston Strategy has also caught the eye of the Tories, they've said that when they get into power it could become a model for the way youth street gangs are tackled.
The European Capital of Culture revisited
Earlier this year on a cold January morning Shelagh, Nicky and myself got into Shelagh's reliable little motor and headed up the M6 on a road trip to Liverpool.
Nicky sang us his favourite Beatles hits and Shelagh was undefeated at I-spy (oh those were the good old days). If you don't believe us we took a video camera with us to capture the glorious moment and you can watch it here.
We were on our way to Liverpool to present the show live from the morning that the city became the 2008 European Capital of Culture. We met street performers, had a tour of the city and spoke to some of Liverpool's famous sport stars and musicians.
Well, in the past year 10 million people have attended cultural events in Liverpool. The Tate Liverpool and the Merseyside Maritime Museum reached the 1 million visitor mark and the Liverpool Echo Arena, which was built specifically for 2008 has already taken bookings up to 2014, plus the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year award will be held there this Sunday.
It's obviously been a very busy year for the people of Liverpool but is this the end of work to draw people to the city? To find out Shelagh spoke to the screenwriter and Creative Director of the Capital of Culture Phil Redmond and this is what he said.
Another day - another band that's reforming
Take That, The Spice Girls, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Boyzone, East 17 (sorry getting desperate) and now Blur.
That's just the latest in a long line of acts to reunite after pledging they wouldn't. And now everyone's favourite 1990's indie pop band Blur (not including Oasis) has announced it's to play a huge show at London's Hyde Park next summer.
It will be the first time Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree will have played together in public since 2000.
But what's motivating Blur and bands like them to make a return? I doubt it's money worries for Damon and his pals, they've all been busy since they were last together in a recording studio. Here's a round-up of what the members of Blur have been up to.
To try and discover what's tempting these bands out of their country retreats and back onto the stage we tracked down music promoter Harvey Goldsmith, who's made a habit of luring musicians out of retirement; he oversaw the return of Led Zeppelin last year and Pink Floyd at Live 8.
Here's Harvey telling us why our old favourites are retuning their guitars and who he's going to bring back next.
Personally, I think it's great Blur are are back on the scene, although this will mean a drop in production at bassist Alex James' Oxford cheese farm.
Let's just keep our fingers crossed that David Van Day doesn't try and bring back Dollar!
Kira Mason - A surgical pioneer
This is Kira Mason, a survivor of the July 7th bombings in London.
After losing her arm in the London attacks she's become a surgical pioneer.
Kiera has helped surgeons develop a limb implant, a prosthetic arm which clips directly onto the bone in her shoulder.
Kira, along with her surgeons Norbert Kang and Steve Cannon spoke to Nicky this morning. She told him how the surgery has changed her life and how the limb was developed by studying deer antlers.
Listen to the full interview below.
You can see more photos of Kira's prosthetic arm below.
Flights grounded at Stansted
Flights at Stansted airport are disrupted this morning, after fifty environmental campaigners broke through security - and chained themselves to some railings next to the runway.
Protesters from the Plane Stupid group used bolt cutters to get through the fence.
It's obviously raised questions about how they were able to dodge airport security. But it's also prompted a lot of debate on our programme this morning about their actions. They say they were protesting against airport expansion in general.
One of the protesters - Lily Kember - defended their actions on 5 live.
"Drastic times call for drastic measures. We're facing a climate crisis and the government's not doing anything. So individuals will have to take actions."
Listen to the full interview with Lily below.
This group also climbed onto the top of the Houses of Parliament to protest against a third runway at Heathrow airport.
The end of the road for Formula 1?
The shock news I came into this morning (it was last night's story actually, but I was already in bed) was that Formula 1 had fallen victim to the global recession.
It was a sport that seemed untouchable. Teams employ hundreds of people and spend hundreds of millions of pounds trying to make a car go faster. However, it suffered a massive reality check - Honda's Formula 1 team announced that the current global financial situation has led to them having to sell or wind up their team.
Their results in this 2008 may have made the decision a bit easier. Honda were seen as one of the more financially stable teams in the paddock but their rate of return has not been spectacular - they picked up only 14 points this year after spending almost half a billion dollars on developing two cars, testing them, and employing two famous drivers (Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello ).
Out of the 9 teams that scored any points this year, they came 9th. They are hardly Driving Miss Daisy but they are not posing a major championship challenge.
We got the views of all the main people involved in this story this morning on Breakfast - Formula 1 Boss Bernie Eccelstone, FIA president Max Mosley but first the Chief Executive of Honda's Formula 1 Team Nick Fry who told us that being brought out was still an option.
The president of of the FIA Max Mosley was mocked by some teams for coming up with the idea of standardised engines and Renault driver Fernando Alonso even suggested that he could quit Formula 1 if this idea came to fruition. He may not need to quit, he may not have a car to drive.
New plea for jailed football fan
Three High Court judges will consider today whether the Justice Secretary Jack Straw has the right to pardon a Liverpool football fan jailed for the attempted murder of a Bulgarian barman. Michael Shields, 21, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Bulgarian court in 2005 - it was later reduced to 10 years after an appeal and he's also been moved to a prison in the UK.
On Monday night a "Free Michael Now" protest was staged, involving players and fans at the Liverpool game at Anfield. The actress Sue Johnston addressed the crowd before kick-off on Monday night flanked by Shields' parents, while fans in The Kop held up a mosaic appealing for his release.
His parents, Marie and Michael Shields, believe their son is innocent and have been campaigning against his conviction. A BBC Inside Out investigation in April 2008 looked at new evidence which may support the case for his conviction being overturned:
Inside Out - Michael Shields - miscarriage of justice?
They spoke to Shelagh and Nicky this morning about the case. You can listen to the interview below.
Should the NHS pay for botched plastic surgery?
Should people who have botched cosmetic surgery operations abroad have to pay for follow-up treatment back home ? Hundreds of these operations go wrong and the NHS is having to pick up the bill - sometimes with expensive surgery and intensive care.
The British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons thinks some patients should have to pay. Do you agree ?
Listen to what happened to Dawn when she had a tummy tuck in Prague:
Snow pix
You can text them to 85058 email breakfast@bbc.co.uk
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From Mark in Huddersfield
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