He'll vend you umbrellas then go on his way singing toodle-oodle-oodle-oodle-ey...

Tucked into the latest batch of complaints investigated by Ofcom (they're like the Justice League of America, only they're British and have a mighty programme code instead of the ability to shoot lasers out their eyes) was a series of complaints from Charles Ejogo. He was the man who wanted to put umbrella vending machines on London Underground stations and sought the support of the rich, self-obsessed vanity gnomes who make up the panel on Dragon's Den. He was upset by what he took to be slights against him in last December's follow up show.

Amongst a number of complaints - dismissed, it should be noted, by Ofcom - was that he didn't like the soundtrack on his segment:

Mr Ejogo complained that the music played during his contribution portrayed a “cowboy-type” image of him.

Ofcom appreciates that a well selected soundtrack can both directly and indirectly communicate to an audience. It is possible for a lyric or tune, to evoke an emotional response and help the viewer interpret programme footage. Ofcom sought to determine whether the lyrics or music played during Mr Ejogo’s story acted to portray Mr Ejogo in an unfair way.

The following songs were played during Mr Ejogo’s contribution:

Artist Song
Moby : Run On
Coldplay : A Whisper
Supergrass : Coffee in the Pot
Blur : The Universal
Blur : To the end

After listening to the above song list, Ofcom was unable to associate any of the songs with a well known “cowboy”, “western” or in particular any negatively associated “cowboy-type” image. Added to this, the complainant did not provide Ofcom any supporting evidence that the music played during his contribution was associated with that of a “cowboy” theme.

Based on Ofcom’s assessment of the soundtrack, and in the absence of any convincing evidence from Mr Ejogo, Ofcom found that the music played during Mr Ejogo’s contribution did not portray a “cowboy-type” image and found no unfairness to the complainant in this respect.

We would have enjoyed seeing someone attempt to demonstrate that nice South-East schoolboys Albarn, Martin and Coombes were in some way actually country music artists; although to be fair, if anyone overlaid Moby on top of footage of us we'd be pretty sore about it. We would love to see To The End's Last Year in Marienbad video reworked as a Western, though.

music dragons den