Toby Amies is a filmmaker and broadcaster who specialises in making programmes about art, music, and travel with an emphasis on fringe culture and alternative perspectives. He is best known for his feature-length documentary '' The Man Whose Mind Exploded'' and his broadcast work on Radio4, MTV Europes's ''Alternative Nation'',

FilmFour Film4 is a British free-to-air television network owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms, it ...

, ''

Lonely Planet Six Degrees Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books. History Early years Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen and Tony Wheeler. In 1972, they embarke ...

'' and ''The

Rough Guides Rough Guides Ltd is a British travel guide book and reference publisher, which has been owned by APA Publications since November 2017. In addition to publishing guidebooks, the company also provides a tailor-made trips service based on customer ...

''. In addition, Toby is a widely published portrait photographer and writer.

Early life and education

Amies was brought up in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

and went to the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

and subsequently the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

, where he was awarded a scholarship in

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

. He declined the scholarship in favour of work in music TV in the UK at the Powerstation.

Career

Amies began his career on air with Chris Evans,

Boy George George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singe ...

, Steven Wells and Suggs. He started DJing in art college in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

(he was in the same class as British artist Tim Noble) and after leaving the UK he worked behind the decks in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

at top 40

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

KRQ alongside Jimmy Kimmel. He later worked at

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and then moved to work in the news department at

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly as MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV, a 24-hour music and entertainment TV channel that began broadcasting on August 1, 1987, as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initially, MTV serve ...

partly thanks to work/appearances with

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

and Traci Lords at MCA before moving to MTV. Whilst at MTV Europe he worked on the programmes ''Alternative Nation'', ''US Top 20'', ''Weekend Edition'', ''The Big Picture'' and was the co-creator of the programme ''MTV Hot'' which later featured

Paul Tonkinson Paul Tonkinson (born 1 August 1969) is a British comedian, radio presenter and television personality, best known for his presenting work on ''The Big Breakfast'' and ''The Sunday Show''. He was winner of the 1992 '' Time Out'' New Act of the Ye ...

Sara Cox Sara Joanne Cyzer (née Cox; born 13 December 1974) is an English broadcaster. She presented ''Radio 1 Breakfast'' on BBC Radio 1 from 3 April 2000 until 19 December 2003. Since January 2019 she now hosts the BBC Radio 2 drivetime show, Monday ...

and the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

actor

Christian Ulmen Christian Ulmen (born 22 September 1975) is a German entertainer, actor, voice actor and audiobook narrator. Career Ulmen was born in Neuwied. He started his television career in 1996 as a video jockey on MTV Europe. He is known for his creativ ...

as hosts. He also worked alongside Davina McCall. Amies later moved to MTV USA to host '' MTV Live'' with

Carson Daly Carson Jones Daly (born June 22, 1973) is an American television host, radio personality, Television producer, producer, and celebrity, television personality. Prior to 2003, Daly was a VJ (media personality), VJ on MTV's ''Total Request Live'', ...

. This show later became ''

TRL TRL or trl may refer to: Arts * Temporary Residence Limited, a record label * ''Total Request Live'', a former MTV show * TRL Awards (''Total Request Live''), an Italian music award Libraries * Tampines Regional Library, a regional library in Tamp ...

.'' He also hosted his own show, ''Countdown to the Ten Spot''. In 1999, he moved on to form the band Genius Steals with

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

photographer Brooke Williams, working with

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

Romanthony Romanthony (born Anthony Wayne Moore; September 5, 1967 – May 7, 2013) was an American disc jockey, producer and singer.Bush, John " Romanthony Biography, Allmusic, retrieved 2010-11-02 He is perhaps best known for his work with French duo Daft ...

, Darry Logan,

Jim Sclavunos James Sclavunos is an American drummer, multi-instrumentalist musician, record producer, and writer. He is best known as a drummer, having been a member of two seminal no wave groups in the late 1970s ( Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and 8 Eyed Spy, ...

and Matt Verta-Ray amongst others. At this time he also hosted the anarchic US Top 20, most famous for the show that attempted to measure the length of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. Since moving back to the UK he has covered film festivals for

, worked for Radio 4 and became the host of three series of ''

'' and two series of ''The Rough Guides''. In the Lonely Planet series, he teamed up with fellow British presenter Asha Gill to visit many countries. Amies presented programmes on Radio 4,

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

and

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

. He occasionally podcasts on podomatic. He now concentrates on filmmaking, regularly making films for Nowness, the Tate, Christie's and music videos.https://www.tobyamies.com/music-videos/ In 2022 Amies released the documentary ''In The Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50'' (formerly titled ''Cosmic FuKc'') about

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band King Crimson, to coincide with the group's 50th anniversary.

References

* http://www.philstar.com/travel-and-tourism/406551/rough-guide-toby-amies * http://reflectonfilm.co.uk/2013/07/03/the-man-whose-mind-exploded-dir-toby-amies-uk-2012-review/ * http://www.dgmlive.com/diaries.htm?entry=19384 * https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/may/23/radio.tvandradioarts * https://dgmlive.com/news/King%20Crimson%20-%20Celebrating%2050%20years * https://pitchfork.com/news/king-crimson-unveil-trailer-for-new-documentary-in-the-court-of-the-crimson-king-watch/

External links

Toby Amies Home site

The Man Whose Mind Exploded Film Site
http://thequietus.com/articles/14031-the-man-whose-mind-exploded-film-review]
Toby Amies Showreel

Toby Amies's podcasts

Toby Amies profile at the Lonely Planet website

Beat Mining With The Vinyl Hoover
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amies, Toby 1967 births Photographers from Worcestershire English television presenters Living people British VJs (media personalities) Alumni of the University of Exeter