Last week we looked at years gone by at the corner of Queen & John with the history of some of the more memorable Muchmusic VJ's.

But like a failed sexual experience...it was deemed "too short" and "missing the key points" to fully stimulate the Bite audience. So here it is, a further look at the land of Much and...HERE IT COMES!


MASTER T



You can have a million "Mr's" but there is only one master and ours was named Tony Young. Oddly enough, Master T was not even born in Canada (born in England),. He came to Kitchener, Ontario and was a huge voice on the Toronto music scene. T was one of those guys that everyone took notice to because much like George, had a ton of credibility (a word all the current VJ's seem to be allergic to) among viewers that made him a strong personality. I was never a big follower of the rap or the reggae scene but Master T was every bit as influential to that community as George was to the punk and rock crowds. Since leaving Muchmusic, Master T has produced an album for Sean Paul and recently hosted his own show on Z103.5. If for nothing else, he was the man that mixed all those mid 90's dance CD's and that, I was a huge fan of.


RAINBOW SUN FRANCKS



9 months and you come up with Rainbow? That's gotta be the worst name ever right? Wrong...try being his brother, CREE SUMMER FRANCKS! All I want to know is how much pot was growing out of his parents backyard and how much of it was needed to watch this guy as on air personality? Rainbow (as he shall be referred to in this piece) was the brief host of "Electric Dancer" from 2002-03, though probably would have fit in better as one of the dancers on the show. Rainbow is what I call the "balancing act" because for all the Bradford's and Rachel Perry's and J.D Roberts etc that went onto fame outside Much...Rainbow went to the Sci-Fi channel, where he has a bit role on "Stargate: Atlantis". He also had a rap group called "The Oddities". I didn't even know Golda and Kurrgan could rap. (If that joke was making reservations...it would be 'Table for 2')


AMANDA WALSH



Funny story...I actually dated this girl. I met her on the subway and she was asking me how to get to Osgoode station because the transit system wraps around at the bottom and I explained how she could just go west to St. George station from Bloor and then down south, she then joked that I really know my way around the city and whether I would like to show her where a fun place to go mini golfing is. Anyway that was my one date with Amanda Walsh.




That story was SO BULLSHIT! Amanda Walsh was the youngest VJ in Muchmusic history. Most people are still living at home and contemplating what to do with their lives at the age of 22. By 22, Walsh was quitting Muchmusic to "PURSUE AN ACTING CAREER", but in her case...she's actually found an acting career. I equate Walsh to a modern day Erica Ehm in that she was discovered in a bizarre incident (she was waiting tables in Montreal and a Muchmusic exec was there and said she was cute and should send in her video... what a pervert). Anyway that's how she got the job. My favorite moment with Amanda was when she was interviewing Shaggy who said he'd like to jump right through her clothes and the reaction of Walsh was priceless. Let's just the words "Ooh boy, I love you so..." weren't coming from Amanda. Walsh is currently set to star in the upcoming ABC show "Sons and Daughters" that debuts next Tuesday. Call me Mandy!


ANGELA DOHRMANN



Here is another blip on the Much map that did make it to a somewhat
successful run in the U.S. Dohrmann was a VJ in the early 90's but most hardcore TV fans will remember her as "Donna Chang" on an episode of "Seinfeld" as well as roles on "The Drew Carey Show", "Star Trek Voyager" and even on "Nash Bridges" (okay, no one watched that).


JENNIFER HOLLETT



A lot of people were not a fan, but I am not part of that group. I thought everything from her look to personality was something different and something I liked about all the VJ's (at the time) in that they stood out and were, dare I say PERSONALITIES. Hollett left Much last August and in her good bye letter to the fans (what I won't search out for my fans) stated please continue to support pop culture and music that matters. That's the stuff that inspires change in the world, clearly Much took that message to heart. That statement was reminiscent of Eisenhower giving his farewell
speech and warning Americans of the danger of making enemies with other countries and where the country was headed, which was BAD NEWS! Hollett left the station to travel around the world.


AARON STRATE



Name doesn't ring a bell? He was the 2002 Muchmusic VJ winner and wow did he bomb! Lasting only a few months, he didn't just get out of Muchmusic, but got out of the industry altogether. You can now see him appearing at all his college classes in Vancouver and answering questions with "No, you're thinking of someone else".


JULIETTE POWELL



When I think of "Electric Circus" this is the face and voice that most people associate with the show during its real boom in the mid 90's. Powell first gained fame in 1989 when she became Miss. Black Canada and later as a host of the MusiquePlus show "Bouge de la!", basically the French version of the job she inherited in 1996 while still attending the University of Toronto for an economics degree. She left EC in 1999 and moved to the 2nd floor of the building where she became a financial reporter for CP24 and did that gig until 2003 when she moved to E! as a correspondent in New York. Powell has done very well for herself and was able to make the transition from entertainment reporter to business reporter almost seamlessly.


RICK THE TEMP



"Rick the Temp", "The Franchise", whatever you want to call him he was Rick Campanelli and he was the guy most associated with Muchmusic and that brand arguably of all the VJ's. During his 12-year stint with the channel, Rick hosted all the shows ranging from "The Muchmusic Countdown" to "Much on Demand" and "Prime Time". Rick joined Much after winning the MuchTemp contest in 1994 at the age of 24 (yes that's right, he's 36 now). Rick left the station last summer to join the upstart "Entertainment Tonight Canada" show in a move that was smart on his behalf to get off the "younger platform" while they were still cheering. He is the only VJ to ever be featured in a video game (you can draft him as a free agent in NHL 2005) and was the only VJ to be the public announcer for a CFL team (the Hamilton
Ticats in '04 and '05). Outside of J.D Roberts and George, probably the most successful VJ to come out of that building and easily one of the most popular.

There we go, some of the best...and worst that Much has offered to us over the years! I will throw out the question of whether this year's VJ winner will be a Rick or an Aaron, but I think we know the answer. Hope you enjoyed this sequel to 15:01, I'll be back next week with the latest crap I've found underneath a rock somewhere.

JOPO