The Box

its_steve116 · 01-07-2024 02:37PM #1

After a good 32-year run, the UK music video channel The Box shut its doors permanently last night.

Have you got any memories of this channel from its heyday in the 90s and 00s?

Badly Drunk Boy · 01-07-2024 03:22PM

Kerrang is gone too, as well as a few others (Kiss, Magic, 4Music). Kerrang used to be metal but went more towards nu-metal/alternative and got stuck in that rut. Any time I turned it on recently, it was like going to the late 90s/early 2000s. 😄

its_steve116 · 01-07-2024 03:38PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122326539#Comment_122326539

For the last month of the five channels' run, they went into nostalgia mode as they took a look back at the history of the music played on the channels. The last "regular" video played on The Box, at the end of May, was "Prada" by Raye and D-Block Europe.

its_steve116 · 01-07-2024 03:53PM

The Box's first air date in the UK was the 27th April 1992 but I'm not sure what the first video played was. It certainly wasn't "Goodbye" by The Spice Girls, which was their last song last night - that didn't come out until 1998!

Insect Overlord · 01-07-2024 05:27PM

I remember we got a free trial of it at home somewhere around 1999 or 2000 and my mother tried to get rid of it as soon as she saw the video for "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)". 😂

I think "If Ya Getting Down" by 5ive is the song I'd most associate with it - the numbers for their phone-in song selections used to flash up on the screen and I used always look out for that one.

its_steve116 · 01-07-2024 05:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122327021#Comment_122327021

Do you remember when exactly they dropped the jukebox format and became a straight video channel?

There was a similar channel called "Starz" which had a similar format to The Box's original one, but that too has closed down now.

Insect Overlord · 01-07-2024 06:26PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122327103#Comment_122327103

I probably stopped watching it in the mid 2000s so I've no idea when it changed formats. Everything changed when I got to know lads who could burn CDs. 😄

gym_imposter · 01-07-2024 09:05PM

When we first had a satellite dish installed in 1995, There were two music channells, MTV and VH1

maybe The Box was on cable?

its_steve116 · 01-07-2024 09:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122327880#Comment_122327880

When I had cable in the 90s/early 00s we never had it.

gym_imposter · 01-07-2024 10:00PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122328214#Comment_122328214

I do remember getting a SKY digital dish in 2001 and a whole bunch of extra music channells being available

its_steve116 · 02-07-2024 02:00AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122328320#Comment_122328320

We still had cable into the late 00s and didn't get digital until autumn 2008.

its_steve116 · 02-07-2024 03:47PM

The station helped to launch The Spice Girls and not only were their songs heavily requested, but an interview they did was as well.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2tAZv8CZ8iI

Lewis_Benson · 04-07-2024 10:29PM

Signed by The Box.

They once had "I predict a riot" playing while being signed by some middle aged woman in a pink jumper, myself and the wife thight it was hilarious the way she was dancing and signing to the Chorus.

its_steve116 · 05-07-2024 09:16PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122341174#Comment_122341174

Just to clarify, this discussion is about the music TV channel The Box, which shut down on Sunday night...

Lewis_Benson · 05-07-2024 09:18PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122345274#Comment_122345274

Yes, and they used to have a show called "Signed By The Box"

its_steve116 · 05-07-2024 10:32PM

Googled it, turns out it was music videos with people doing sign language, and their sister station 4Music did the same thing, "Signed by 4Music".

its_steve116 · 05-07-2024 10:35PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122345598#Comment_122345598

Here is a signed video on 4Music's predecessor "The Hits".

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nF2n5_aa1Gc

Luna84 · 05-07-2024 10:37PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122327880#Comment_122327880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122328214#Comment_122328214

Cable where the hell are you guys from it was called 'The Pipe'.

its_steve116 · 06-07-2024 12:06AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122345606#Comment_122345606

I'm from Dublin.

Luna84 · 06-07-2024 11:01AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122345731#Comment_122345731

And you never called it the pipe?

Photobox · 06-07-2024 11:26AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122345606#Comment_122345606

Yes it was always called 'the pipe' too for me growing up in the south or 'piped' stations. Never used the word channel. It was always station.

Gregor Samsa · 06-07-2024 11:40AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122346486#Comment_122346486

No, we never called it “the pipe” in Dublin. It was provided by Cablelink, not Pipelink.

Luna84 · 06-07-2024 11:58AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122346589#Comment_122346589

I'm from Dublin too and it was always called the pipe. Not everyone had it and when talking to someone we'd ask do you have the pipe. My da used to steal the pipe. It ran along the facia of the house so you could hang out the window and connect it up yourself if you wanted. We didn't always steal it and when it was paid for and my ma wouldn't make a payment your man would come out and cut the wire at the top near the facia and down stairs at the sitting room window.