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Charlie Sloth says ARIAs Edith Bowman rant was “bants”, departs BBC two weeks early

By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 22 October 2018

Charlie Sloth has departed BBC Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra two weeks earlier than planned, after he made an impromptu appearance on stage at last week’s Audio & Radio Industry Awards to hurl insults at Edith Bowman. An incident he now says was “supposed to be a bit of bants” and not intended to be taken seriously.

It’s been said that Charlie Sloth ‘did a Kanye’ when he stormed the ARIA stage, not least by Sloth himself. Although, to be fair to Kanye, when he pulled his “I’mma let you finish” stunt at the 2009 VMAs, at least he was arguing that someone else – ie Beyonce – should have won something.

When Sloth got up on stage last week, he didn’t give the impression that he thought anyone other than himself should have taken the Best Specialist Music Show prize, which he’d just lost to Bowman.

“Edith Bowman, fuck your life”, he said. “I just wanna say BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra, Saturday night Rap Show. Fuck your life. God bless”.

Bowman received the prize for her ‘Soundtracking’ podcast, in which she interviews film directors about their music choices in their movies. She was seemingly not in attendance at the ceremony, so wasn’t able to immediately respond to Sloth at the time – although she did tweet to enquire about his hangover the next morning. However, immediately afterwards, Radio 1 was announced as the winner of National Station Of The Year.

Receiving that prize, Radio 1 boss Ben Cooper reminded everyone that Sloth had just resigned from the station, saying: “I’d just like to say Charlie Sloth has left the building and is leaving Radio 1 and 1Xtra. Apologies”.

On Saturday, Sloth returned to Twitter after a brief absence to explain himself, saying that it had all been a big joke that had backfired. “Soooo the ARIAs…”, he began. “It was supposed to be a bit of bants with me jumping on stage, starting with me saying ‘OK I’mma let you finish’. It wasn’t directed at Edith, I love Edith and, like I said, so does my mum. I’ve apologised to Edith privately. I’m sorry to anyone I upset”.

I’m not exactly sure when he previously said that his mum loves Edith Bowman, but whatever. In another tweet, he wrote: “I’ve decided not do the remaining the shows on the BBC that I initially agreed”.

Despite recently announcing his departure from the BBC, Sloth had been scheduled to continue broadcasting his Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra shows until the beginning of November. But now he’s “decided” not to. It’s probably not even related to the ARIAs. He probably just wants more time to chat with his mum about how much they both love Edith Bowman.

In his original statement confirming he was exiting Radios 1 and 1Xtra he mused: “I joined the BBC as a boy and I leave as a man”. No word on any amendment to that now.