22 June 2005
Independent
Tim Shaw has suffered for his art. During his career as a DJ he has forced pepper into his eyes, given his private parts an electric shock and bobbed for apples in his co-presenter's urine. All of it live on air.
But when he started making jokes that he was considering leaving his wife and two children after interviewing the model Jodie Marsh, he went too far.
Listening at home to his show on Kerrang 105.2, Hayley Shaw was outraged at her husband's flirting with the model and decided to hit him where it hurt by putting his £25,000 Lotus Esprit Turbo up for sale on eBay.
In one of the great acts of marital revenge she offered the black sports car for a price of 50p. "I need to get rid of this car immediately - ideally in the next 3-4 hours before my cheating arsehole husband gets home to find it gone and all his belongings in the street," read the posting on the internet auction site.
Unsurprisingly it did not hang around and the buyer, contacted by a local newspaper, asked to remain anonymous.
Kerrang 105.2, which is based in Birmingham, said yesterday that Mr Shaw was taking a few days off from his late-night show, Asylum, to talk things over with his wife. Mrs Shaw was still smarting from a stunt in July last year when her husband told listeners that he fantasised about his wife's sister while he was having sex. When Mrs Shaw, then heavily pregnant, rang up tearfully to berate him, he broadcast their conversation.
"When he said he would leave me and the kids for Jodie Marsh, that was it for me. He has two daughters. One of them goes to school. I am sick of him disrespecting this family for the sake of his act," said Mrs Shaw. "Maybe it was childish but I had had a few drinks that night and I just thought I would get him back the best way I could. The car is his pride and joy but the idiot put my name on the log book so I just sold it. I didn't care about the money, I just wanted to get him back," she added.
Domestic strife aside, Mr Shaw has only recently returned to work after another on-air "stunt" went wrong. He was suspended in February after staging a mock break-in at his boss's home in Sutton Coldfield and covering the walls in obscene graffiti. He claimed he was getting his own back on Andrew Jeffries, who had earlier told him on-air that his contract was not being renewed. But after being let off with a warning by police and receiving letters of support from his "army" of listeners, he was reinstated.
Last August he nearly choked to death during his show while imitating oral sex with a U-shaped sausage that snapped in two in his mouth. Paramedics were called and he was chastised by his boss for breaching health and safety regulations. On another occasion while working at BRMB in Birmingham he was investigated for pretending to be racing to save a suicidal listener.
But he has become involved in some good causes. Last November he backed a campaign to encourage men to donate sperm to Midland Fertility Services amid concerns over the loss of anonymity for donors. "It could make a lot of people happy," he said.
HC!
