Ray Cokes
Encyclopedia
Ray Cokes is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 television presenter. His father was an officer in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, who was stationed at various navy bases around the world. At age 15 they permanently relocated back to the UK. At age 20 he had become a punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...

 and moved to Belgium, where he took on various jobs, including being a DJ in a club and on a local radio station. This led to a job as a music presenter on Belgian national TV channel RTBF
RTBF
Radio Télévision Belge Francophone is the public broadcasting organization of the French Community of Belgium, the southern, French-speaking part of Belgium...

 in 1982, where he presented the show Rox Box (in French) which featured alternative music videos and live studio performances.

His success led to additional music video shows on Sky Channel and Music Box. When MTV Europe
MTV Europe
MTV Europe is a pan-European 24-hour entertainment cable and digital television network launched on August 1, 1987. Initially, the channel served all regions within Europe being one of the very few channels that targeted the entire European continent...

 launched in 1987 he became a Video Jockey there. Arguably his most popular programme was "Cokes and Vanthilt", with co-presenter Marcel Vanthilt
Marcel Vanthilt
Marcel Céline Gerard Edgard Vanthilt is a Belgian singer and television presenter. -Early Life:Marcel Vanthilt was born on 24 august 1957, in Lommel, Belgium. After attending high school, Marcel studied at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and attained a bachelor degree in political sciences. He...

.

Between 1992 and 1995, Cokes hosted MTV Europe's cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

 live television series MTV's Most Wanted
MTV's Most Wanted
MTV's Most Wanted was a 1990s MTV Europe television series broadcast from London, England, presented by Ray Cokes. It ran from 1992 until 1995....

, an award winning daily show which soon became the most popular one on MTV Europe and gave a break to presenters such as Davina McCall
Davina McCall
Davina McCall is an English television presenter and actress, most notable as the presenter of the UK version of Big Brother up until its move to Channel 5.- Early life :...

. After it ended in 1995 Ray got a weekly 90 minute show X-Ray which was not as successful. He left MTV Europe in 1996.

In 1994, Cokes released a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 titled Simply Sexy! under the name Ray Cokes & The Sex Gods featuring Al Agami, the song's title referring to one of the catchphrases frequently used in Most Wanted.

Ray also presented Channel Four's hit 1990's TV Show Wanted
Wanted (game show)
Wanted was a British 1990s game show on Channel 4, although more similar to modern Reality Television than the classic gameshow format. Conceptually, it was similar to an advanced game of hide and seek...

.

Cokes' subsequent work includes presenting En Direct de from 1995, broadcast on the French television station France 4
France 4
France 4 is a french public channel owned by France Télévisions, dedicated to the entertainment. At first named Festival, the channel took its current name in 2005, to mark better its membership to the group France Télévisions...

.

Ray Cokes also worked as the compère
Compere
Compère can refer to:* Loyset Compère, a French composer of the Renaissance* Louis Fursy Henri Compere , a French general in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars...

 for the White Concert, a live concert recorded in Horsens
Horsens
Horsens is a Danish city in east Jutland. It is the site of the council of Horsens municipality. The city's population is 53,807 and the Horsens municipality's population is 82,835 ....

, Denmark, in November 2008 due to the 40-year jubilee of the Beatles' eponymous White Album.

In late 2008 he moved to Berlin and in 2009 to Antwerp, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, declaring that he would like to settle there permanently.

During the Summer of 2009, Ray Cokes and Jean Blaute co-hosted "Tournée Générale", a 10-part exploration of Belgian beer
Belgian beer
Beer in Belgium varies from pale lager to lambic beer and Flemish red. There are approximately 178 breweries in the country, ranging from international giants to microbreweries..-History:...

 around the world, on Flemish channel Canvas. A second 10-part series was aired in 2011.

In August 2011 Ray Cokes was part of a prank in which he was apparently kidnapped. The kidnapper posted a comment on the Minecraft branch of Reddit. The post stated that he was the godson of Ray Cokes and that he was to kill Ray Cokes if was not to get his "Minecraft Cape". Before the kidnapping occurred the phrase "Give me Ray Cokes" was shown on Minecraft.

In September 2011 Cokes hosts the Sunday afternoon show "Cokes calling" on "Classic 21
Classic 21
Classic 21 is a Belgian radio station based in Mons and it broadcasts across Wallonia and Brussels on the FM band....

", one of the radio stations of the Belgian RTBF.

External links

  • http://tourneegenerale.canvas.be/category/deze-week/
  • http://small-things.eu/?author=17 Ray Cokes´ Blog
  • http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=SO2QTBIA
  • http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/jnc2p/notch_ive_brought_you_ray_cokes_as_requested/
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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