An Interview with: Jeremy Nicholas

Last week, Jeremy Nicholas took some time to talk to me about his West Ham views, Media Masters and more. Enjoy :)











After watching you interview top players on the last day of the season for many years, I always wondered, how does anyone go about getting the job of West Ham announcer?

Well, I always worked in TV and radio, and I used to present a breakfast show on GLR, which is now BBC London, and I always used to talk about West Ham a lot and one day they rang up and said “Do you want to be the announcer?” So I said yes! To start with I said no because I was a season ticket holder and I always used to shout at the players, and I realised that as the announcer I probably wasn’t allowed to do that.

So originally I said no, and then changed my mind because I had this dream that in the summer of ‘98 Rio Ferdinand was in the England squad at the World Cup, and I had this dream that he was going to score the winning goal at the World Cup final and I was the announcer on the pitch at the start of the season, so I said I would do it, and then as it happened Rio didn’t even get off the bench in the World Cup.

Do you still get a buzz being on the pitch at Upton Park, especially on the last day of the season?

Yes, well I interviewed Franco [Zola] on Sunday, and yes that was good because we’d had a cracking season. And Scotty Parker getting the Hammer of the Year was really good, because I thought he’d been awesome all season. The great thing about this year was I reckon there were probably about five people could have won Hammer of the Year, which in my 11 seasons, I’ve seen some desperate seasons where I thought that I don’t really think anyone deserves it. I remember one year when there was a move to the fans to be Hammer of the Year because nobody deserved it. This time round I actually voted for Herita Ilunga, and my wife voted for him as well. But Scotty Parker got it, Rob Green could have had it, I think Matthew Upson, he had a brilliant season, and Valon Behrami, I think he probably would have been on course if he wasn’t injured.

What about next season? Who could potentially win it next season?

Potentially, well Tomkins and Collison both looked awesome I thought coming through from the academy, so they would be in with a shout I would think. Robert Green, who knows, this time next year he could be established as the regular England goalie and then he’s suddenly gone from being England’s number 6 to being England’s number 1 with Davis James injured, so that might be quite good. I don’t see Scott Parker ever have a bad game so he would be in with a shout again I would think.

What about your predictions for West Ham as a whole next season?

I don’t really make predictions, but as a West Ham fan, we know we won’t win the title, but I don’t think there’s any disloyalty in that. I remember chatting to Trevor Brooking once and he said being a West Ham fan is all about being entertained, knowing you won’t win the league and just hoping you might get a cup. In my lifetime we’ve won the FA Cup three times, we’ve been relegated about four times, but it’s always more fun than being an Arsenal fan when know they won’t get relegated.

So I don’t really make predictions, but I suppose our best bet is that we might do something in a cup. It would be nice to qualify for Europe next season, I mean, we were so close this time round but just fell away at the end, I think after a few crucial injuries, but watching on Sunday with Carlton Cole back in the team we looked a more balanced side with him as a target man, so if he can stay fit with Dean Ashton and Danny Gabbidon, and Kieron Dyer looked pretty lively, if we had all our player fit again, we’d certainly be able to get into the Europa League.

So for a man that doesn’t make predictions, that’s my prediction!


To add to your many talents, you’re now an author. Tell me a bit about the book.


The book is insider secrets on how to do good TV and radio interviews. I co-wrote it with a guy called Alan Stevens who’s a professional speaker, and he’s actually the vice president of the International Federation of Professional Speakers, so he’s big in global speaking. We interviewed loads of people on what tips they would give ordinary people who suddenly had to be interviewed on TV and radio because you’d gone to a charity, or some organisation or something, or be a business person, and suddenly a TV crew turns up, how you are going to talk to them.

So it’s tips from people like Terry Wogan, Michael Parkinson and Michael Aspel, all TV people, and there’s odd one’s like Uri Gellar, the spoon bender. There are a couple of West Ham fans in there, Phil Jupitus the comedian, Iain Dale the blogger of West Ham Till I Die, and they all give tips. So Phil Jupitus, he obviously says jokey things quite a lot, and he says make sure that if you give an interview, particularly one that’s written down for a website or newspaper, that when you read it back in black and white it hasn’t been taken out of context.

Terry Wogan also says it’s not life or death so just enjoy it. Michael Parkinson says the camera is your friend so when you talk to it pretend you’re chatting to your wife or a family member so that you don’t get nervous. So it’s all little useful tips like that.

One really good one was Becky Adlington the swimmer, and I did her homecoming parade in Mansfield, so I was on the stage getting the crowd whipped up and introduced her on this open top bus in front of 50,000 people in this big square in Mansfield, and her tips were just to be yourself and don’t try and put on airs and graces, just be normal, and when you see her she is just the girl next door, so that’s a brilliant tip.

But there are loads of people who are suddenly on Breakfast News and they start changing their voice or losing their regional accent, or using words that they wouldn’t usually use, so just talk in your normal voice, don’t put on any airs and graces.

So it’s really aimed at anyone who suddenly has to be on a local radio station talking about a charity or organisation or something, and to find out what tips they can get.

And that’s available now?

Yes, in all good book shops and some bad ones as well.

How did you pick the contributors?

Well because I’d never written a book before, I started by calling quite a lot of favours from mates, so Iain Dale and Phil Jupitus being West Ham fans for example. I called Russell Brand, who I’ve met quite a few times at West Ham and I’ve been on his radio show before, and he should have been in it, but then he suddenly got quite busy after the Andrew Sachs business. So I never did get Russell even though twice we arranged to meet as West Ham fans when I wasn’t an announcer this season, but I was in the Dr Martens Upper, and he was in the Dr Martens Lower and we couldn’t get to each other, and later when I was back being the announcer I just missed him in the players lounge.

Other times I’d be interviewing someone for TV, because I do TV reporting as well, and I just asked “can I interview you for my book?” Other people like Uri Gellar, I just had his mobile number from years ago when he was on my radio show on BBC London, and he did some mind reading where I drew someone, and he was on the other side of the room and drew something similar. He was so excited that he drew the same thing as me that he signed something for me and put his mobile number on the bottom of the page. So I just rang this number and he was in Holland doing a TV show and he said “ring me back in 7 minutes and I’ll do an interview”. I thought that was a bit odd, 7 minutes, but when I rang him back he gave me a great interview for about half an hour. At the end he said “sorry if I sound a bit out of breath all the time, but I’m on my exercise bike!”

So things like that really. We were just trying to get people from all walks of life, George Galloway, MP, some sports people, some business people, just so you get all the different opinions.

Now I mainly do after dinner speaking so when I’m speaking often I’m the compère and I’ll chat to whoever the speaker is, and depending on how good they are, I’ll ask if I can have an interview for my book. I just always go round with a little Dictaphone and if I see anyone interesting just say “oh can I talk to you?” I always carry a camera as well so each person in a book has a picture, and because I’m such a show off, I always stand next to them in the picture! So there’s me with Terry Wogan, me with Michael Parkinson, and Alan the co-author really likes photography, so he takes all the pictures of them, but I always like to be in it!

Would you consider writing another similar book but with different contributors?

Yes, in fact the publishers have already said they would like Media Masters 2, and so I’m already working on that. In fact this week I was working with Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram and it was a bit too rushed to interview them for the book, but I might get back to them and do some things. I did get a photograph with Steve Cram and an Olympic torch from the London 1948 games, so I’ve already got that!

What else have you been up to recently?

Well I’m the voice of the announcer on all of the EA Sports games from Fifa 06 onwards and I’ve just recorded Fifa 10. The guys come over from Vancouver once a year, and I go into a little sound booth in Soho for a day and record the names of all the new players in the world, because they do all the leagues from Spain, Italy, Germany, America. Croatia Division Two I did this year too. When there’s a goal you hear me in the background announcing it.

That must be quite surreal?

It is a weird job because I have to do all of the names of all the players very clearly so whatever happens in the game it will say “Goal scored for [team] by [name]”. It’s like a tube announcer with the intonation. People can play anything like England V Barcelona in Brazil so you’ll hear my saying “Welcome to [stadium name] for today’s/this evening’s game”. And the weird thing is, in the background every year I get to do about 10 announcements of my own that I can just make up, so this year I’ve congratulated my wife on finishing the London marathon, so at any point during the game you might suddenly hear that. I’ve done all my friends weddings over the years, I’ve done every car I’ve ever owned that’s left its lights on, my nephews are always lost children. So yes it is a really weird job.

In October I go in again to do all of the teams that are in the World Cup to record the special World Cup version

I’ve heard that there’s something interesting about where you got married. Tell me about it…

I did get married at West Ham, in the Carlsberg suite on November 11th 2006, which is Remembrance Day so I always remember it! I can never miss my anniversary! All the guests stayed in the hotel at the grounds and the reception was in the Bobby Moore suite.

So you had the whole day there?

Yes the whole day, the wedding, the reception, the photos by the pitch and then we all did a lap of honour round the pitch, but it’s quite cold in November. Me and my wife walked round, and all the guests followed us around the track.

Finally, you were once a journalism student. What advice would you give to anyone, like me, who’s finishing their degree now and having trouble finding a job?

Well my first degree was in engineering and I hated it, so I started doing student radio. I hated engineering so much because there was no creativity in it, and then as I got into my final year I started panicking thinking “I don’t want to be an engineer for the rest of my life”, so I applied to do a post-grad radio journalism course. But all the time I was doing it I was helping out on local radio stations, so I think that’s an important thing to be making links, and you’ve got to do the rubbish bits like answering the phones and making the cups of tea just to get in there. But I worked with Chris Evans for years at GLR and he started by being a tea-boy at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester for Timmy Mallet, and eventually you start finding a way of getting on just perhaps to do the What’s On guide or something.

Whenever you do anything, you’ve always got to keep a copy of it and put it up on your blog or Twitter it or something, and just build up a show reel.

The problem is there’s so many media courses now and they’re churning out so many people, and it’s also such a desirable thing to do, that it is quite tough really but if you really want to do it then you will do it.


Thanks very much to Jeremy for taking the time to speak to me. The book sounds great, and is available to buy now from Amazon.co.uk

Find out more about Jeremy at jeremynicholas.co.uk