Ashley Hames talks about his experiences as a sex reporter
Ashley Hames
Ashley Hames is a freelance journalist, former sex journalist, and the author of Sin Cities: Adventures of a Sex Reporter. He is best known for a stint presenting Bravo’s late-night sex show Sin Cities. This summer he will be performing a stand-up show about his life at the Edinburgh Festival. He is currently writing a completely different kind of book, about the death of his father.
What made you become a journalist?
I knew from my late teens that I wanted to work in media. I thought I would end up as a sports writer, maybe a football journalist.
I liked the romantic idea of being a an old school Fleet Street hack, drinking lots, travelling the world, sleeping around and being creative. I kind of achieved that I guess. Apart from the Fleet Street bit.
Did you receive any formal training?
No. I learnt everything I know from first hand experience, asking lots of questions, using common sense and winging it.
How did you find your first job in the media?
I sent hand-written letters to every radio station in the U.K. From that I was invited to two interviews and luckily I was offered a job as a news reporter at Sunrise Radio in Bradford.
How did you end up being a sex reporter?
Well, I did the radio job for a couple of years but it was pretty heavy duty - very long hours, terrible pay and quite depressing subject matter. I needed a change and saw a newspaper ad for a research job making television documentaries at Live TV - at the time run by former Sun editor, Kelvin MacKenzie.
I moved from being a researcher to working on the news desk and then I became the station’s mascot - News Bunny - for a few months (that’s a long story…)
After my stint as a rabbit I moved on to the late night desk producing and directing Topless Darts. I did pretty well at that, and was promoted to Head of Sex (my favourite job title ever) producing all the sex-oriented stuff for Live TV.
When the station folded I fronted a late night documentary for Channel 4. I filmed this in Texas, alone but armed with a small digital camera. I came back with lots of footage of me being a naughty boy, taking drugs and hanging out with Playboy bunnies.
I then heard Bravo were looking for a new presenter for their late-night Sin Cities series (a show about sex) and sent them some of my more debauched moments and they invited me in to an interview.
It was not your average interview – it was basically me being whipped by a dominatrix and trying to ask her questions at the same time. Odd, but they seemed to like it and gave me the job.
What did the job entail?
Essentially, it involved reporting on all the main sexual activities in all the best known flesh-pots around the world. We would go to porn shoots, fetish clubs, swingers parties, orgies… all sorts of extreme and alternative stuff. You’re best off going to www.thesexreporter.tv and have a look at some of the clips I have put up there.
It was a lot of fun and I really just tried to find humour in most of the situations I was put in and to try and humanise the people I spoke to so they weren’t just labelled up as ‘freaks.’
How did you go about transforming it into a television show, and then a book?
The format for the television show was already in place so I just dived right in there and went pretty full-on with my own version of gonzo-style reporting.
As far as the book is concerned, the seed had been planted a couple of years before I started writing it, by a couple of people we met on the road who asked if I had written about all my experiences.
Then I found myself out of work, thought back to that moment, and decided to try and document everything I had seen and taken part in. I didn’t expect to get published - I wrote it for myself because my memory was clouding up and I liked the idea of being able to hand something down to my children once they came of age and say, ‘Your Dad was a legend.’
How did you find a publisher?
I got lucky - Stu from Tonto books was a big fan of Sin Cities and got in touch with my agent and asked if I fancied writing a book about the television show. At the time I was literally writing the last couple of pages so I wrapped it up, sent it off to him and he loved it.
Did you face much rejection initially? How did you deal with this?
No. But being in media means I have had plenty of rejection over the years. I just think ’shame’ and go and get drunk.
What will your Edinburgh Festival show be about?
There will be an element of stand-up but it will be more story-telling about what is essentially the life of a failed rock star who got lucky with a television show and a couple of groupies.
There will be clips from the shows to help illustrate some of the more bizarre experiences - many people would probably doubt they actually happened if I didn’t have the pictures to back it up.
What are the biggest challenges of the job?
Long stretches of unemployment are part and parcel of this industry if, like me, you haven’t broken into the mainstream. Sometimes I find that hard to handle. Having a big ego is a disadvantage too - you see people far more successful than yourself on television and think ‘why am I not there?’ It’s just jealousy though - you have to just stick to your guns and keep believing.
It’s also frustrating and difficult working with low budgets and with people who can sometimes be very inexperienced or just plain incompetent or lazy. It’s true: how many people work in television? About half of them.
On the writing front, like in television, there are compromises you may have to make so you have to bite the bullet and accept that your opinion may not be the best one. You have to have faith in other people and just hope they don’t let you down. And if and when they do, you have to be able to turn the other cheek and move on.
What are the biggest perks?
I feel enriched by meeting some of the most amazing human beings on the planet. That’s been nice. I feel like my horizons have been broadened and that anything is possible - we’re all just one lucky break away from fun times and a dream made true.
How do you adapt your style to suit different mediums and audiences?
I don’t really, I can’t be anything other than myself or else it’s all over - I’ve sold my soul. I guess I try not to swear so much if I’m doing pre-watershed stuff.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Getting my book published was a huge boost. I never thought I would ever manage to write a book let alone get it published, so to have done that and to have another one waiting in the wings is a big plus.
Also, being told by a lad in the army that the boys in Afghanistan would sit down regularly to watch Sin Cities together after weeks of fighting was a proud moment. I liked the thought I was, in some small way, helping them unwind.
What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?
To read a lot. To not give up but to keep the day job. To not worry if they block up…if it helps to know, I wrote nearly half of both my books in a month straight before finding myself somehow unable to motivate myself to write.
In both cases, I could do nothing for three months before getting back into it. The lesson for me was that it will come to you if you truly have it in you. You just have to be patient - the cliché is true: writing a book is like giving birth - you have to let it gestate, develop and mature and then it will just pour out when it’s ready.
What are you working on now?
I’m finishing off my second book, doing poker commentary for PKR.tv and preparing for my show at the Edinburgh Fringe. It needs to be a hit or else I’m finished.
For further information visit www.vivienneclore.com/articles/Ashley_913963_64.html
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