Twisted X

Biography

Twisted X was the brainchild of radio DJ Christian O'Connell and his sidekicks Chris Smith, Brian Murphy and Roque Segade-Vieito, when they hosted the breakfast show on London's XFM in 2004. O'Connell's mission was to produce a credible sinaglong song to support England in the Euro 2004 football championships. The name 'Twisted X' was derived from the concept of twisting the X from the XFM logo so that it resembled the English flag of St George (a straight red cross on a white background). Chri...

Twisted X was the brainchild of radio DJ Christian O'Connell and his sidekicks Chris Smith, Brian Murphy and Roque Segade-Vieito, when they hosted the breakfast show on London's XFM in 2004.

O'Connell's mission was to produce a credible sinaglong song to support England in the Euro 2004 football championships. The name 'Twisted X' was derived from the concept of twisting the X from the XFM logo so that it resembled the English flag of St George (a straight red cross on a white background). Christian and his crew held an on-air competition to find the song, with listeners to the show sending in demos. The ultimate winner, 'Born in England' was voted for by listeners, following a special programme featuring the finalists, though O'Connell clearly favoured the song from a fairly early stage.

Aside from the winning composers, J&D Wheatley, and the radio show team, the single featured members of Supergrass and The Libertines, along with Bernard Butler and actor James Nesbitt. The video was filmed with 500 listeners singing the chorus at the amphitheatre in London's Regent's Park. Proceeds from the single were donated to the charity 'Help a local child'.

Following the success of 'Born in England', O'Connell held another competition in 2005 called 'Rock School', featuring teenagers. The winners of this contest, Outl4w, feature on the 2005 release "Summer of Rock 'n' Roll", also credited to Twisted X.

In late 2005 Christian and the team were signed by Virgin Radio and left XFM, so the 'Twisted X' project effectively ended, though O'Connell repeated the football song concept at Virgin in 2006 releasing the song 'Hurry up England', a re-work of Sham '69 hit 'Hurry up Harry'. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.