11am, 11th November 2004 and we are holding two minutes silence - trying to plan how we are going to arrange the evening which lays before us. In just a few hours time we will be in the company of some of the biggest names in music spanning from the past five decades at the Hackney Empire. The UK has finally been granted it's own Hall Of Fame and a star-studded night has been planned at the thearte which will be attended by the like of Bono, Madonna and Robbie Williams. By the sounds of the it this was going to be a proper Remberance day!

Over the past six weeks Jamie Theakson manage to blag the role as the presenter for the Hall Of Fame series on Channel Four. Each programme saw him stand in a studio as dark as a bondage dungeon introducing ten bands/acts from a certain decade. Viewers were then given the opportunity to spend a quid on a phone call and vote for who they believed should join the five founder members in the first ever Hall Of Fame. The founder members being Elvis, Bob Marley, The Beatles, Madonna and U2. Providing the winners weren't dead, had other engagements, or in the middle of pedophile court cases they would be inducted into the Hall Of Fame at the gala night in front of those who had blagged a ticket, won a competition or paid £200 for a ticket! This was one of the hottest tickets of the year and producers of the show reported that they could had sold tickets six times more than they already had. Which hints that a bigger venue may be on the cards next year.

Making do with the small space the Hackney Empire has to offer, a venue which was falling on hard times a few years ago but was saved by comedian, Gryff Rhys-Jones, performers such as Queen, Robbie and The Thrills had pretty cramped dressing rooms which only had a black curtain separating one changing area from the next. We managed to meet Robbie before the show and the ex-Take Thatter wrote his sentence in the ABLE2 Book which he was aware of for a few months, he even made a trip around the venue to personally meet us despite the incredibly tight security in and around the venue. And we mean 'Tight!'.

The square outside the Empire was cornered off by the police as well as the roads which had posters warning drivers that the area would be out of bounds to the public until Friday morning. Despite being published that the event was actually taking place four day before the actual TV show reached the small screen stomachs from fans were pushed against the barriers either side of the red carpet where red ticket holders, mostly VIPs arrived. There were five different colored tickets which basically determined which door guests needed to enter the building and once inside each door leading to the auditorium could only be opened with a swipe card which even some of staff didn't have! The lift was out of use stopping guests moving to different floors and once you arrived at your seat there was no chance of leaving your floor until the end, this was partly to do with the TV recording and partly because of the A-List guestlist downstairs. To soften the blow of not being able to harass guests each floor had waiters with free booze. This was probably a good explanation of the stupid intoxicated sods who thought it would be a laugh to shout out worshipping comments to the stars when they collected their awards from the stage giving the TV company a small nightmare to the editing guys who had to cut out unwanted footage, such as Jamie Theakson's mistakes, ready for the TV show a few days later.

OK, it's time to tell you about the awards themselves and where better way to start then the era where your Grandad was probably getting off with a girl and Polio had just been diagnosed as a pretty nasty disease - the 50's. Johnny Vegas who made one of the most funniest award speeches ever on the night which will also have to be edited before transmission because of the hinted towards the sexuality of the winner. The Peter Pan of Pop, or as we like to title him 'The twat who tried to copy Elvis.' Cliff Richard managed to swing the publics vote. Normally its a disappointment when a winner isn't able to attend an awards bash, but the absence of the born again gay catholic, or whatever he is didn't really spoil the evening! Hang on, we will just stick the word alledgedy in there to protect us from any law suits and of course he may well be straight! Also pigs are taking flying lessons! The Hall Of Fame founder member was Elvis, who had a better excuse than Cliff for not turning up, because he was dead. so his former wife, Priscilla picked up the award.

Next up is the 60's, when revellers at the most famous festival ever held, Woodstock saw more drugs being taken then Danilla Westbrook could snort a nostril at. It was also the decade we lost Walt Disney through cancer and the same decade cigarette packets started carrying the hazardous health warnings - how ironic! With The Beetles already granted an automatic place in the Hall Of Fame (which was accepted by George Martin) it seemed only right that The Rolling Stones picked up the honourly place from the public. Ronnie Wood accepted the award.

Disco dominated the 70's thanks to John Travolta starring in Grease and Staying Alive. It was a time to get funky and forget about any worries you may have. Bob Marley, who has been granted the founder member in the Hall Of Fame to represent the decade had no trouble doing this thanks to the long thin funny cigarettes he used to take. Although Bob is now in weed heaven his wife, Rita was there to pick up the award. Speaking of death's that leads us quite nicely into who won the public's vote for the decade. Freddie Mercury may have left us, but Brian May and Roger Daltely accepted the prize from their tribute band known as The Darkness and even played a few hits on stage.

It was a bit of a surprise that despite sleeping with children and doing unprintable things with them that Michael Jackson won the hearts of the public giving him the place in the Hall Of Fame to represent the best of 80's music. Of course, he couldn't make it over because of the ongoing trial cases he is now facing and his announcement was given mixed feelings from the audience who chuckled when Theakson announced that Jackson 'couldn't get away!'. Our personal thoughts was that Jonathan King would had been a good choice to do a filmed speech from his cell on Jackson's behalf, or maybe Gary Glitter! Luckily Madonna was in the house to collect her award from Jo Whiley and her mates Stella McCartney and Gwyneth Paltrow pre-recorded a special message for her wearing Madge's most famous costumes.

Bringing us up to date U2 were given the founding member award by Dennis Hopper and Robbie Williams was awarded the place for the 90's and this gave him the opportunity to promote his new single 'Misunderstood' for the first time in front of an audience. The tune has 'hit' plastered all over it and could well enter at number One. Which just so happens to be the chart position Bono was told his band would be entering at this week. He revealed this when he returned to the stage to give a special award to Chris Blackwell. Chris was the founder of Island records which just so happens to be U2's record label.. Unfortunately three days ago Chris lost his wife and was unable to turn up.

The show, which incidentally was dedicated to John Peel, ended with Queen playing a rendition of 'All Right Now' and being joined on-stage by The Polyphonic Spree ( who also opened the show with The Beetles, Sergeant Pepper.) as the curtain fell on the first ever UK Hall Of Fame the lucky guests who had party invites made their across the road to the after show party.

Ocean is a fairly new live music venue and was an ideal setting for the Hall Of Fame party. The small distance from the Empire gave fans a fairly good hint where the 'secret location' for the party was being held at. The first celeb we bumped into was Gary Newman who we recently met at last months Q Awards. Gary didn't bother talking himself into the VIP area where The Darkness took over quite a bit of the small reserved space which was also had areas for Lennox Lewis and Brian May. Outside the ego area those who didn't feel the need to be corned off in a Groucho Club environment included The Thrills (who performed at the awards) and Shaun Ryder who looked remarkable 'normal'. He told us that he was living in London at the moment a few doors down from Bez and is thinking about becoming a lawyer!!

There was ample of food available from various spreads on tables ranging from pizza to kebabs and a good old chocolate fountain which has become a firm favorite on the celebrity party scene.The dancefloor became a popular spot to hang out and an adjoining bar made a welcome escape to those who had left their dancing shoes at home.The whole night was a music-lovers dream and paved the way for a bright future for more UK Hall Of Fame's. Although Peter Andre, if you are reading this - don't hold your breath mate!

Johnny Vegas

speech was so

damn long that

the producers

had to cut him

short with a

clip of Cliff

Richard

accepting his

award!