Russell Spencer (born 1st March 1980) he is an English singer and television presenter.

Scooch

Originally formed in 1998, Spencer first gained prominence as a member of pop group

Scooch Scooch is a British pop group, comprising performers Natalie Powers, Caroline Barnes, David Ducasse and Russ Spencer. Scooch represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki with their song "Flying the Flag (For Y ...

who signed to

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

and gained four top twenty hits including their top five single "

More Than I Needed to Know "More Than I Needed to Know" is a song by British pop group Scooch. The song was written by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Steve Crosby and was produced by the former two. The song was released on 10 January 2000 as the group's second single from ...

", as well as the album ''Four Sure''. Worldwide, Scooch scored number one singles in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, although were dropped by EMI and disbanded after the disappointing sales of ''Four Sure'' in 2000. In 2007, Scooch reformed after seven years to participate on '' Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up'', a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

television contest to determine the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

's entry in the 2007

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. They were chosen as the UK's entry, beating, amongst others,

Justin Hawkins Justin David Hawkins (born 17 March 1975) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and YouTube personality best known for being the founder, lead singer, and lead guitarist of The Darkness. He was influenced by rock bands of the 1970s and 1 ...

and

Brian Harvey Brian Lee Harvey (born 8 August 1974) is a British singer from London. He was the lead singer of pop group East 17. The later incarnation of the band, E-17, had two top 20 singles on the UK Singles Chart between 1998 and 1999, with the album ' ...

. Russ co-wrote the song "

Flying the Flag (For You) "Flying the Flag (For You)" is a song performed by British pop music, pop/bubblegum dance group Scooch. The official single version was available from 30 April 2007 and was released as a physical CD single in the following week, on 7 May 2007. T ...

", signed to

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

and released the song to the UK chart. The UK Eurovision entry automatically goes to the final, where the song received only 19 votes, coming joint 22nd out of 24 entries. However, the single was the highest charting Eurovision song in the UK since 1997 when ''

Katrina and the Waves Katrina and the Waves were a British rock band widely known for the 1985 hit " Walking on Sunshine". They also won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Love Shine a Light". History Pre-history (1975–1980) The band's earliest inc ...

'' last won the contest for the country, reaching the number five position.

Television

Spencer has hosted shows such as the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

game show ''

Make Your Play ''Make Your Play'' was a live, interactive quiz show, showing in the UK on the ITV Network, from Monday to Saturday, beginning after midnight. The show was launched on Friday 29 September 2006 on ITV and ITV Play. The prizes were greater than u ...

'', and presenting three nights a week for ''

The Great Big British Quiz The Great Big British Quiz (TGBBQ), which ceased operating on 4 May 2007 was an interactive quiz based channel on which viewers where invited to phone in to solve puzzles in return for cash and prizes. It broadcast from studios in Battersea, Lon ...

'' on Channel 5. Other presenting credits include

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

Quiz Call ''Quiz Call'' was a late night/early morning phone-in quiz TV show, produced by Ostrich Media (owned by iTouch) for Five, Five US and Five Life. History Launch ''Quiz Call'' was launched as a standalone participation television channel ...

Quiz TV ''Quiz TV'' was a popular British television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmissi ...

and ''

Glitterball ''Glitterball'' is a live, late night, interactive television quiz show in the United Kingdom. It was broadcast under the ITV Play branding on ITV (TV network), ITV a few nights a week from around midnight (usually), and from 1.00am on ITV2. The ...

'' for

. He has also appeared on ''

Never Mind the Buzzcocks ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' is a British comedy panel game show with a pop music theme. It has aired on Sky Max since September 2021, having originally aired between November 1996 and January 2015 on BBC Two. The original series was first hoste ...

'', ''The Most Annoying Pop Moments... We Hate to Love'' and ''Generation X'' for the BBC. For VH1 he has appeared in ''Wannabe'' and ''Radio Ga Ga''. Television acting work includes guest roles in series six of '' Shameless'' on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and ''

Footballers' Wives ''Footballers' Wives'' is a British television drama about fictional Premier League football club Earls Park F.C., its players, and their wives, broadcast on ITV from 2002 to 2006. The show initially focuses on three very different couples, but ...

'' on ITV. Spencer starred in the E4 series '' Boys Will Be Girls'' where a new band was formed but the members had to pass themselves off as being female. Early in 2010, Spencer appeared alongside fellow ''Scooch'' band member and partner Caroline Barnes on the Channel 4 series ''

Coach Trip ''Coach Trip'' is a British reality game show originally broadcast on Channel 4 from 7 March 2005 to 30 June 2006. The programme returned after a three-year break, from 25 May 2009 to 9 March 2012. In early 2013, the show went into hiatus agai ...

''. They were red-carded on day 36, after 19 days on the coach, for having broken the rules by asking others to vote them off.

Theatre

Trained at

Laine Theatre Arts Laine Theatre Arts, sometimes referred to as Laines, is an independent performing arts college, based in the town of Epsom in Surrey, England. The college was founded in 1974 by former professional dancer and dance teacher Betty Laine OBE, and d ...

, Spencer's theatre work includes the original West End cast of "

Nine 9 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 9 or nine may also refer to: Dates * AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era * 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era * 9, numerical symbol for the month of September Places * Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...

', the UK national tour of ''

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl and Hughes, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel '' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'' (1964). The film stars ...

'' starring as 'The Child Catcher' alongside

Craig McLachlan Craig Dougall McLachlan (born 1 September 1965) is an Australian actor, musician, singer and composer. He has been involved in film, television, the music industry and music theatre for over 30 years. He is best known for appearing in the soap ...

. He created the role of 'Ricky St Clair' in the UK tour of Dave Simpson's ''The eXtra Factor'', and played 'Joe' in ''Santa Claus – The Musical'' alongside

Anita Dobson Anita Dobson (born 29 April 1949) is an English stage, film and television actress, and singer. She is best known for her role from 1985 to 1988 as Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders''. In 1986, she reached number four in the UK Sing ...

and

Roy Barraclough Roy Senior Barraclough (12 July 1935 – 1 June 2017) was an English comic actor. He was best known for his role as Alec Gilroy, the devious, mournful landlord of the Rovers Return in the long-running British TV soap '' Coronation Street'', a ...

at the Alexandra Theatre in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. He has also been in ''Wayne Sleep’s Explosive Dance'' and ''Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Birthday Celebration'' both at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

, and a world tour as lead vocalist with the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

Hawaii Symphony The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, formerly known as Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, was founded in 1900. It is the second oldest orchestra in the USA west of the Rocky Mountains. The orchestra now plays at Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall and the Hawaii The ...

orchestras. Numerous pantomime appearances include starring in ''Cinderella'', ''Puss in Boots'' and ''Snow White''.

Radio

In 2008, Spencer was a DJ on the

independent local radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

station 107.8 Radio Jackie.

References

External links

Russ Spencer official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Russ Living people 1980 births English television presenters English male singers Musicians from Bournemouth Eurovision Song Contest entrants for the United Kingdom Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2007 21st-century English singers 21st-century British male singers English people of Scottish descent Mass media people from Bournemouth