Claire Sturgess - Radio-DJ & Voice-Over Star, Winter 2000
By: Toby L
'... And you're listening to Xfm. The time's 5:30pm, I'm Zane Lowe for 'Music Response' and this is Soulwax...' He sticks a cigarette in his mouth before tapping a couple of buttons. Suddenly, as the rest of the nation listens to the pre-mentioned Belgian guitar act, the voice of the airwaves isn't as distinct as before.
He talks of the current Napster debate, where it's been asked whether artists' copyrights deserve to be infringed upon in the interest of getting their music to the people. Zane's voice isn't as vocal as maybe expected in real life due to the fact that there's no amplifier in sight booming out every word he says to a frequency that we can tune into. In fact, his southern hemisphere tones prove that he is a person after all; there's always been a misconception where the DJs we listen to on a daily basis are actually just robots, speaking of things in our interest and playing songs we tune in to hear. Who would have suspected that these characters behind the big mics were actually human? Claire Sturgess, a DJ for Xfm, guided us out of the studio before presenting the direction of the elevator, where we made our way out, exiting the Capital building where it's located, in London's Leicester Square. Previously, we had indulged in drinking coffees in a nearby café and chatting about her job, before a brief, but enjoyable tour around the studios in which she works.
Xfm has become a voice for a nation of music lovers, typically aged in their teens to mid-thirties, who crave for something different. Sure, pop music's harmless and fun, but when that's all that seemed to be on offer, where are you to turn for your 'alternative' kicks? Surely, you can't just live in your local independent record-store, waiting for the people behind the counter to rotate different new releases on a regular basis? Although this sounds fun, it's impossible because you've obviously got to live your own life where music can become your personal soundtrack, an important part of your being. For half a million London listeners, that's what Xfm has become.
But it wasn't easy. Its origins are legendary; journalists and current day record-company bosses used to spin records in its early status as a pirate radio station. It was taken off the air, however, before being relaunched with more funding and more appeal to reach a larger base of listeners in the UK's capital city. The original DJs at the time, such as Claire, became cult figures. The most infamous of all, though was Gary Crowley: a loose-talking, urban vinyl-spinner that always seemed to know what was going down if it was worth knowing about. Xfm was the alternative to the mundane in music, acting as a necessary, stark contrast to the often emotionless music others would pump out on their playlists, giving exposure to unsigned bands in peak listening time and guaranteeing radio listening that was just too edgy to ignore.
So, what happened? Well, Capital FM bought it. For those of you who don't know what Capital FM is, well, quite simply, it's London's most popular radio station. To become and remain that popular, its song lists consist mostly, of, well, pop - the exact thing that many people thought Xfm was fighting against. Naturally, this caused anger amongst London listeners, some of whom set up protests, rallying against what they saw as the potential closing and commercialising of London's only alternative radio station.
And in a sense it was. Unsigned bands didn't get airtime anymore during the day, Gary Crowley and most of the original DJ line-up disappeared (mainly due to choice, it should be mentioned), leaving Claire and almost only new arrivals. However, casually overlooked, as per usual, in such a story, are the benefits of being owned by new people. Xfm was now guaranteed a safe and secure future; before, there were rumours surrounding how much longer it could survive for financially, and they pointed to 'not long'. In addition, the audiences increased dramatically, allowing more people to enjoy the station's outlook on music. Xfm now had the power to do more than it could before and is now streamed live on the net. It still remains the coolest radio station in the capital. And it still doesn't play pop.
Claire is one of the last survivors since the Capital take-over, still loving her job, remaining as chirpy, though knowledgeable as ever whilst on air. But there aren't always perks in the work...
Your schedule as a DJ is quite demanding, working from Monday to Friday at late times in the evening... How do you find a social lifestyle with such a timetable?
'When I first started working for Xfm, I did the afternoon show, which was around the time of when it was first launched. That was just ideal for a social life and attending gigs, but when we moved here (to the Capital building), the shifts changed to the evening, at about 8 until 11pm. It was havoc in the sense that I couldn't get to any gigs and my social life was effectively over! However, it's been like it for a year now so it's been acceptable and I'm used to it. It seemed as if I had been to so many gigs that it became my past life! Obviously, things will probably change somehow and there will be the chance to see more shows... Hosting the 'Breakfast Show' would be nice as a change; that's a joke by the way! I would never do that; it would be a nightmare! 'It is tough not having a social life that was as exciting as before, but you've just got to be disciplined. It's strange having to discipline your life in a way, because, before, I would just go with everything that's happening. It's almost as if I have to say now (speaks in a dramatic tone), 'Don't anyone phone me before midday; the mornings are MINE!' However, I've recently been allowed Saturday nights off so I'm now entitled to that little piece of life on the weekend... I mean, come on, sometimes bands play on Saturdays don't they (she asks despairingly, fully knowing that the best UK gig night is always on a Thursday)?'
You didn't specifically train or want to be a DJ, did you?
'Well, I'm just trying to think of someone else who actually studied and trained to be a DJ, or who actually just wanted to be one! No one decides they want to be a DJ! When I was at college, I didn't know whether I wanted to work in fashion, or in beauty... I just didn't know what to do. Then I just decided that I wanted to live in London, but only by doing it through the proper way by getting a job first and somewhere to stay. It just seemed so big - remember that I did come from Wiltshire in the West Country. 'Anyway, I literally wrote to the BBC and said, 'Hello, can I have a job please?' They received my letter one day, replied the next and I was interviewed by them just three days later. They told me that there was a vacancy in filing bits and bobs in Wood Lane, where their TV studios are. The reason why I applied for a job at the BBC was because my friend had applied for a job herself and got one filing somewhere. I simply thought, 'Well, the BBC, it's a big organisation, it's respected, safe, unlikely to rip you off and it's my passport into London!' I didn't want to go to London without a job, and I was lucky enough to know two people there already. I slept on one of my friend's sofas for two weeks, got myself a flat, and that let me think, 'I'm in London, I've got a flat and a job, so now what do I really want to do.
'I stayed in the position for a year and then received a copy of an internal magazine that they have at the BBC. It had an advert in it, which was looking for a production assistant on Radio One and I was just on my way to my first Glastonbury Festival in about '89 or '90. I wrote off a job application, got an interview and then I went straight off to Glastonbury. I came back, bizarrely hadn't heard about anything, phoned them up and it turned out that I had got the job.'
What does being a production assistant involve?
'It entails doing a lot of things really: you're a secretary, you sort out the records for the DJs, you organise the shows' guests and you basically do what the DJ says needs doing! It was hard work; you'd get there at seven in the morning and leave for home at nine in the night. However, for me, it was a job in music so that's what the appeal was. Music was a large part of my life and I did really like the idea of working in it, even if it wasn't an initial idea. I was very much just seeing where life was going. For all I know, I could have joined up to work on an in-house BBC fashion magazine.
'Anyway, that was how I got the job at Radio One. However, I was working for Simon Bates and he used to put me on air, (jokily) God knows why. No, it was purely because he knew his producer, Fergus, was the dance music-meister and I was the indie chick, which would create interesting on the spot conversation. He would ask, 'Where were you last night, then,' and I would reply, 'Oh, I was seeing The Pixies,' or whatever and he would revel in the fact that the people working on his show were doing things different to what he was about. He became the first daytime DJ to play Nirvana - and that was because I made him do it! He was like, 'Yeah, cool,' and he was the one who got a gold disc for that!
'Mark Goodier at this point was doing the 'Evening Session' and he was asked to do the 'Breakfast Show' for a month so they got Steve Lamacq, Jo Whiley, me and Richard Easter to do the show for a week each. From that, I was offered to do the 'Rock Show' when (veteran disc jockey) Tommy Vance left, which was quite surreal. This was at the time of the Seattle explosion with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and the bosses just felt, 'Oh, Claire likes that,' and put me in the job. I just felt I couldn't turn the offer down...'
What do you think makes a good DJ?
'The way things have happened with me have just occurred naturally by chance, by being at the right place at the right time. When people write in to me saying, 'What makes a good DJ, what could I do to become one,' it's sometimes difficult to answer because radio stations look for different types and sometimes you just have to have a lot of luck. Sometimes there are born naturals who do it.
'I think someone like Zane Lowe is a natural communicator; he's very out-going whereas I'm not particularly like that, I don't think. I used to listen to Annie Nightingale and prefer her technique to other people because she almost seemed as if she was just having a chat rather than speaking at listeners. Nowadays, there are people in the business such as Chris Moyles and Dave Pearce who are very talkative and high-energy speakers. Therefore, I just think that there are different types all about and it's a matter of opinion what is good or not.'
How much input do you have in your show?
'Luckily, they've felt ('they' being, assumingly, the bosses) that the evening show should be a mixture of the playlist as well as new music. This means that you get a high chance of something different turning up quite a lot on it. I do get a bit of input about what I play. It is tricky though because I don't necessarily know if so and so likes something or other, but I do know that someone else will inevitably like it. Sometimes I'll hear a record I don't like and I admit to myself that I'm not the biggest fan of it, but then I'll get emails from people who obviously are the biggest fans of that record I've played! I can get really pissed off and bored of a song that I've heard too often, but then you'll hear from people that have only listened to it a couple of times, begging to hear more of it! You just have to cater for everyone's taste. 'Format-wise, I try to have not too many regular features, as I like to keep what's put into the show quite loose. Sure there are the 'Live Sessions' with different bands, but that's always popular anyway and I really like that. However, even then, we try to rotate the sessions every three or four months because, again, sometimes people haven't heard them the first time around.'
There's an element in your programme where you allow unsigned bands to have their songs played on the radio...
'It's really difficult doing an unsigned thing. This is because the amount of people out there making music, for a start, is amazing. The sad thing is that you know many of the people you listen to will never further their careers because of the sheer weight of others making music and there's only a small minority of people who ever get signed. Also, many of the bands that get signed may never make it too. It's weird, though, because you can receive some staggeringly awful demos, which may be down to the poor quality of the recording or because, simply, people just can't play their instruments, but the fact is that they're out there making music, which is great! I then think, 'But wait, I can't tell them that they're shit, I can't play God like that.' The fact is there are people in bands making music and enjoying it, which is what it should be all about. 'We do the feature twice a week on the show and, to be honest, with the amount of stuff we get, we could fill a week with unsigned bands! I don't claim to love everything that gets played, but if the quality's good then it's helpful because you want the band to sound good so if it's on a scrappy, little cassette, then it can't get played on the radio because it won't come across well. Most of the time, however, the stuff we receive is playable, and it's just a case of picking one to put on. It's tough, but at least we are doing it.'
Do you have plans to keep doing what you're doing or do you want to move on?
'Well, I'm kind of slack and not very ambitious; just seeing what happens as I said before. I'm enjoying what I'm doing now, but it can't last forever - of course it can't. At the moment it's great and I worry that I wouldn't be able to do anything else... Well, actually I can type... What else can I do? Oh, not much else actually! The point is I don't know what may happen; having no specific aim in life seems to work for me, but not for other people. If someone told me when I was in my teens, 'You're going to be a DJ when you grow up,' I'm sure I would have replied, 'Yeah, right, f**k off!'
It's safe to say that for someone like Claire, who's also presented legendary TV music show 'Top of the Pops' a couple of times, sporting with what she described as 'big hair', anything's possible. Well, except for another career in filing... Surely, one year in that was enough?
Whatever happens next, in the meantime, her radio show promises to continue being a shining example of the blinding diversity in modern 'alternative' music. Claire rates Annie Nightingale as the person she admires the most in what she does. There's no doubt that next generation's cult female DJ will be donning Sturgess with such a title for the influence her years in broadcasting will have cast upon the UK's airwaves. And now the Internet is with us, the rest of the world can hear what they've been missing out on.
Artists in this article: Claire Sturgess