Getting Lost Is Part of the Journey

1994. Steve Blame, presenter and news editor at MTV Europe, with a life, the envy of millions: His lifestyle resembles that of a pop star. He’s become one of the best-known faces of MTV. His job? Jet-setting around the world, interviewing celebrities. He’s become a celebrity himself and no one can tell him what to and what not to do: He’s become a part of pop culture, and MTV is in its heyday. He lives in the world of music television where the realities of the stars coincide with the dreams of the fans. In these days, it’s MTV that decides a musician’s fate. It’s MTV that determines who will become a pop star and who will remain a nobody. It’s MTV that decides what is in and what is out. And Steve is in.

After several years of this fast paced existance, and ignoring the effects of the excesses of the pop world, Steve still believes in his own indestructability. Looking for new challenges, he accepts an offer to set up VIVA 2, the new German music channel, and moves to Cologne. The following two years in Germany are a disaster for Steve. He lurches from one personal crisis to the next, and by the middle of 1996, Steve hits rock bottom. Slap bang in the middle of a drink and drugs binge, he realises that he has to change his life – urgently. Laced with irony, this humourous and inspiring biography is by someone who gave everything to achieve fame but in the process lost himself. Because as Steve Blame says, Getting Lost is Part of the Journey.

“Steve, your lawyer is lying in the Ring”. Although I had never seen this man before I knew immediately what had happened. I sobered up from a night of drug excess, grabbed Markus who was in the middle of the dance-floor. Todd Terry’s remix of Everything But the Girl’s – Missing still thumping in my ears. As I pushed through the crowd I could sense them looking around at me. Outside car horns were blaring, and traffic backed up along the street. In front of them all Eva, lying on her back in the ring, clasping a gin tonic in her hand. I turned to Markus. “We better take her to yours”, I said. Markus lived nearby. We both bent down to pick Eva up. She bolted upright. “As your lawyer I advise you …”, she said, then keeled back over onto the ground.