I contributed to the long-defunct fortnightly free Dublin Event Guide (later to become The Event Guide) for almost two years from late 1987 until I got the Head 2 Toe gig in 1989.
Towards the end I wrote a regular TV column, looking at trends in the industry.
In fact it was one of these columns that lead indirectly to me getting to present Head 2 Toe.
I had gone out to RTÉ in late 1988 to interview Moya Doherty (now of Riverdance and Chair of the RTÉ Board, then a senior RTÉ TV producer) about She’s Got It, a six-part series where leading Irish female singers – plus Nanci Griffith – fronted their own shows, chatting and performing with their musical guests.
Half an hour after the tape recorder was turned off, Moya and I were still talking, the conversation having turned to the lack of a good music show on RTÉ television and the need for new young presenting blood.
To cut a long story short, in early 1989 Moya and I developed a music show proposal for RTÉ which sadly was beaten to the punch by an in-concert-at-the-SFX series, Seven Bands On The Up.
When we found this out Moya suggested I should instead audition for Head 2 Toe which after a year on air was being revamped. The rest, as you might know, is history.
