An understated role model
Scott Mills is anxious to avoid gay stereotypes.
Scott Mills’ earnest claim, “I’m actually quite shy, believe it or not,” was met by a cynical, “Ok then, not,” on my part. But as he suffixed yet another sentence with his 26th cautious “Do you know what I mean?” I began to think that he might just be telling the truth.
I always imagine that to be so high up the media ladder - for Mills has the second-to-top spot as DJ on Britain’s most popular station, Radio One - takes an immense amount of confi - dence, a considerable amount of arrogance and perhaps even a small amount of aggressive pushiness. Or, of course, the right contacts in the right places.
Mills is quick to point out, however, that, “While a lot of people who do this job at this level already know people in the industry who get them in, I just kept trying. My mum wasn’t an actor and my dad wasn’t a radio presenter or a producer. I worked my way up through local radio and just did it somehow.
Vague and modest explanations aside, how did he actually get where he is? 15 years ago, at the age of 16, Mills became Britain’s youngest professional DJ for Southampton’s Power FM, presenting a 1-6am slot. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that with the graveyard shift Mills gave up his life for radio. Moving onwards and upwards - from GWR FM in Bristol to Manchester’s Piccadilly Key 103 before moving on to Heart FM - Mills finally arrived at Radio One in 1998.
It seems that, despite his alleged timidity, he’s decidedly experienced, and professional to boot. Save a couple of nervous-slashpleasantly surprised laughs, he remains unfazed throughout the interview. And it’s the same on Radio One. Blunders such as last week’s ‘fuck’ which went out on air from a not-too-happy caller who had just been set up to prove she was cheating on her boyfriend are pretty disastrous with regards to innocent kiddies or, more likely, their complaining parents.
But Mills has a ‘shit’ - or rather ‘fuck’ happens’ attitude. “A lot of people get really stressed about it, throw their headphones down and put their head in their hands for half an hour, but what’s the point? If the moment has gone, there’s not much you can do about it. I tend to go, ‘Aww that was funny’, and then get on with the show.
It was a slightly different matter when he announced a news story about the Millennium Dome being robbed fi ve years ago, almost compromising the investigation. Justice was done though and they were proven guilty in the end. Scott Mills: adjudicator, rather than fighter, of crime. Though in general he’s an inoffensive guy, my brief survey of a (far from random or stratified) sample of students asking their opinions of Mills produced mixed results.
Most people said they liked him, one hadn’t heard of him, one detested him and a couple almost climaxed on mentioning his name. Yet when Mills said “I don’t think I’m a role model”, I was inclined to agree. After all, he hasn’t fought crime, saved starving children or rescued cats from trees. But he is an ‘out-there’ example of someone who has made it big on sheer hard work and dedication, in addition to a good sense of humour and a very relaxed radio personality.
So is it all an act? One Scott Mills for broadcasting - shy, retiring and conscientious - and another for ‘real life’? Not really. His gentle Southampton accent and diffi dent mannerisms say ‘relaxed, happy, but eager to please’. And it seems that he’s not alone in the world of DJs. Apparently Jo Whiley is too, and the hefty, outspoken northerner Chris Moyles is by no means incessantly extrovert off air.
Mills explains: “You go behind a microphone and speak to millions of people but they can’t actually see you. I think a lot of people who do radio - not just at Radio One - are larger than life on air and not always the most outgoing people at all. You just sit in your little box, kind of hiding away from the world, but talking to loads of people. It’s quite good.
Mills admits that, “TV freaks me out a bit,” but there is something about radio which not only allows for, but attracts life-size rather than larger-than-life fi gures. In the same way as he loves the anonymity of being just one of a crowd in London so he can walk around the supermarket in “rubbish clothes”, radio is the perfect medium for people with “good chat” who don’t want to make a big show of themselves.
Along the same lines, something that stands out about Mills, or, rather, doesn’t stand out at all, is his sexuality. Hands up who already knew he’s gay? Not everyone, for sure. He’s been out for years - officially, since an interview with The Guardian back in 2001 - but any hype at the time was minimal and relatively short-lived.
So how did he get away with it when stars like George Michael and Elton John, though admittedly much bigger than Mills, have been perceived differently in the public eye after coming out and still now owe a large majority of their identity to their sexuality? Scott Mills is gay; Scott Mills is a DJ. The two facts coexist without really impinging on one another, and there is no reason why they should.
Obviously not every aspect of his personal life is aired to millions of listeners 4-7pm on weekdays. But at the same time, you don’t get the impression that he is making a concerted effort to conceal his homosexuality by inventing girlfriends or the suchlike. It is not an issue and he certainly hasn’t used it as a tool to achieve fame.
While in true Mills style he is accepting of those celebrities who do exactly that, there seems to be some genuine frustration at the way homosexuality is portrayed in the media. “It’s cool because they’ve made a whole career out of it and are really successful, but to be honest it annoys me that there aren’t more people like me on the TV - people who are just there and don’t have to make a whole act out of it. Because that’s Graham Norton’s whole act.
People love him but I’d rather have it just there. It’s not like [my sexuality is] not out in the open, but you don’t have to go [puts on Norton-esque camp voice] “Hiya!” every day either. I think there are probably more people like me than there are like Graham Norton, but they’re the ones who are always going to be shouting a bit louder just because they’re the camp ones.” I must admit I hadn’t considered the subject in this light before.
Those who get laughs from mincing around on TV necessarily infl uence the image of the gay community in general, as the biggest and strongest voices are seen as representative of the minority group. As you grow older, this perception may change, but for the younger or more sheltered, this isn’t always the case. Mills talks of how he receives emails from many 16 and 17 year olds saying “‘Hey, I think I’m gay too.
Thanks for being there because I live in a really small village in the middle of nowhere and don’t know anyone else who is gay apart from the people I see on TV, i.e. Julian Clary, Graham Norton...’ “ It seems that, in the defi nition of ‘role model’ which encompasses noncrime fi ghting endeavours, Mills might qualify after all. He seems to have reached a balance between denial and the audacious camp.
He definitely has a laugh at the expense of wishful thinkers in the media who blatantly never listen to the show and have researched him up to the word ‘gay’ and no further. “I get asked to do TV shows quite a lot. They’re just like ‘Maybe you can go to San Francisco and interview some drag queens.’ I don’t want to do that; I’d just like to do a normal TV show, thanks.
Often I think they try to put me in a ‘You’re gay, so you must want to do that kind of TV programme’ group when I really don’t. I will do more TV at some point - I’m talking to some people at the moment - but I want to make sure it’s the right thing and me prancing around on TV being gay, it’s just not me.” What is clearly ‘me’ for Mills, however, is being himself and entertaining millions of listeners, all from the safety of the studio.
Students make up a large proportion of these listeners, but he seems faintly surprised by my suggestion that his shows are aimed at this group. He then hits on the possibility that they appeal to students because they, “deal with a lot of relationship stuff and a lot of stuff that students do - getting drunk, texting people, making mistakes.” Finding this stereotype slightly dubious and deciding to leave it there, it suffi ces to observe that Mills is no pioneer for anything.
But he is a genuinely nice guy. And, for times that are becoming increasingly accepting but arguably have not achieved full understanding of homosexuality, being a guy who just happens to be gay (rather than a Clary-style panto queen) is, like the DJ himself, subtly and understatedly important.
17th Nov 2005