VH1 Documentary on Ray Cokes
In
conjunction with the Still Wanted weekend on VH1 UK on june 23rd and 24th 2001
VH1 made a special and brand new documentary about Ray and how the Most Wanted
show came about.
The
documentary was a star-filled hour of behind the scenes, funny stories and lots
of flash-backs from the Most Wanted shows.
The documentary started out with a row of people paying tribute to Ray, which
is a cut-together of clips from the entire Most Wanted era - and maybe even a
few from "The Big Picture"?
Why
was Most Wanted, and Ray Cokes, so popular? According to Nina and Pat, he was a
fantastic live presenter. 
And
the show was like chaos, but "controlled chaos". Ray broke the rules
often, cause he knew how to break them (without getting in trouble for it. ed.)
Will
MacDonald, said: "Ray Cokes was a nightmare", but with an ironic
undertone - cause in reality he loved working with Ray. Because every show was
new and he never knew what happened.
According
to Big Boss Brent, the show was one big experiment - and it just happened to go
right! Ray adds that they were just 15 people in London - having fun! 
Nina
says: "It was also like a family affair - we were all very young", and
Pat adds: "It was all about us, wasn't it?! Ray always said it was crap, so
when you set your standards that low - it's easy to suceed, no?!" :)
The
reason for Rob the Cameraman becoming a character on the show, is, according to
Ray, that Ray was a bit nervous to be on live all over Europe (yeah, right? Ed.)
And it was easier if he could play some "ping-pong" with Rob, saying:
"You're not wrong Rob!" And Rob would reply: "You're not wrong
Ray"... 
In
this documentary we actually got to see Rob, and there was the story as seen
from his side. And as more and more people came to the show - like Nina - they
turned out to have a very strong personality, which could be used for the show. 
Ray:
"Nina is a very sexy, and naughty girl, if you really know her. So it was
easy to just take that and exagerate it a bit".
The
strenght of the show was, Brent says, that it was a pan-European show. Anyone in
Europe could feel like they were part of this intimate club. And to artists
coming on the show, it was a good opportunity to get out to a huge audience.
Nowadays they have to do stuff for several local MTV regions to get out to the
masses.
Also
Ray's very casual, and not at all normal, interview-style pulled some big names
to the show and made them relax. They didn't have to answer all the usual
questions, but were more like part of the family when they came to the studio. 
People
got to see a different side of the artists, and the artists got to do something
fun on tv. For instance the Bingo Wall of Death, were Ray would interview the
bands by using a bingo machine and a row of numbered questions. And because Ray
was so charismatic they would almost always go along with it, and answer.
Wicked Will, came about to take part in the show, but talking to Ray through
a speaker in the studio under the desk that Ray sat by. 
Often
Ray wouldn't listen, when Will told him stuff to do through his ear piece, so he
found out he could give Ray orders through the speaker - that way everyone could
hear it, and Ray couldn't just ignore him, or start arguing about it live on tv.
But it was all done in a good sense, of course, and it turned out to be a fun
addition to the show as a whole.
Twice,
Ray was speechless on Most Wanted. One time was when Bob Geldorf was on the show
to perform live. And Ray kind of belittled his new greatest hits album just
before Bob was to go on, and had a little ping-pong chat with Mr. Geldorf. And
it ended up with Bob Geldorf calling Ray a nasty name, live on air. The other
time Ray was speechless was not mentioned...
Ray single most favourite Most Wanted show was the big live show in Cologne,
where about 5-10.000 people had turned up to see him, Ray Cokes, the lengendary
MTV VJ.
Big Boss Brent: "I think Ray was a very important person in the kind of
tv he has done. And many presenters have copied him since, and have stolen quite
a few notes from the Ray Cokes book. The one that is mentioned as the biggest
copier is Chris Evans, who did the Big Breakfast Show on British TV. Chris Evans
would be nothing if it hadn't been for Ray...
On the last show they asked different big names in music to do a little video
greeting for Ray, and surprisingly they almost all agreed, and said: "Oh
no, is that show going off?". So it showed that Ray was loved even amongst
the artists, who loved coming on Most Wanted.
All
the crew agree that they had been very lucky to have been part of it, and they
didn't really see it as a real job - more like a lot of fun, and a lot of
playing around. But at the same time, they were making superb tv, that really
captured the feeling of a United Europe, that was the general feeling amongst
the youth of Europe in those days.
(Those vibes are still there - bring back Ray to bring Europe together once
again! Ed.)
All pictures on this page are clickable for a larger version.
