THAT FRIDAY FEELING, 1996
As the ‘laddish’ BritPop phenomenon reached its peak, ‘TFI Friday’ began its original five-year run on Channel 4 with host and executive producer Chris Evans, and sound and lighting from Entec. Launched on February 9th 1996 its format was inspired by David Letterman’s ‘Late Night’ show in the U.S., and became one of Britain’s breakthrough TV programmes, inspiring a new genre of Friday night entertainment.
This was Evans’ follow-up to his company Ginger Productions’ successful ‘Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush’, another key Entec project, aired throughout 1994 and early ’95, and spawning no less than 14 international versions.
Laying down the template, the first edition mixed star interviews, audience chat in the resident bar and jolly japes, with live performances from Ocean Colour Scene (providers of the programme’s theme, ‘The Riverboat Song’), future Entec client Skunk Anansie, Count Indigo and Shed Seven.
EXPANSIVE
Prolific TV lighting director Al Gurdon relied on an expansive rig and crew from Entec, while the company’s sound department supplied a JBL-based PA system and generous monitoring to cover the multiple stage set-up at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Along with the likes of John Roden, Dave Guerin, Nigel ‘Foggy’ Fogg and Chris Trimby, the head of stage sound, regular contributors to the audio effort included Steve Phillips, a former full-time Entec staff member who turned freelance in 1995.
Said Steve: “Having worked on ‘The Tube’, I could see that Entec channelled a lot of that experience into ‘TFI’, whose format wasn’t entirely dissimilar, with Chris Trimby playing his part with superb professionalism.
“My involvement with ‘TFI’ was really as an incoming engineer with bands like Suede and The Charlatans. Although it was a very chaotic show for most of the crew, I was largely shielded from the mayhem because I was tucked away in the Manor Mobiles truck, working with broadcast engineer Will Shapland, offering my input from the bands’ perspective.
“In rehearsals, we learned to expect curveballs being thrown into the mix, as Chris Evans came up with random ideas, and the crew would rush off to try and fulfil these requests.”
Despite the show’s unruly nature, episodes usually passed without a hitch, although as Steve recalled, the occasional blip was unforgettable. He said: “Foggy was doing monitors when Tina Turner performed [in 1999] and the 20dB pad button decided to unlatch itself from the desk and hit him in the eye. Naturally, it suddenly became very loud and Tina went spectacularly mad!”
