It was a real privilege to present 6 Music's Music News live from the legendary BBC Maida Vale studios not once but twice this week, in honour of #6MusicLive. New Order brought an amazing week of live music to a close on Friday. You can watch the whole gig here, but here's a taster with True Faith. They were joined on stage by Elly Jackson, otherwise known as La Roux, who appears on their 10th studio album Music Complete and performed on two tracks at #6MusicLive - Tutti Frutti and People on the High Line. New Order frontman Bernard Sumner and Elly joined me fresh off stage for the Music News on Radcliffe and Maconie's show - you can listen to the interview below. Whilst I was a little bit heartbroken to miss The Staves' beautiful session on Wednesday because of other work commitments, I was lucky enough to start the week at Maida Vale, where Bloc Party (Mark 2) debuted some tracks from their forthcoming fifth album Hymns. You can watch their beautiful performance of This Modern Love above or see the whole thing on the 6 Music website. I spoke to founding members Kele and Russell not long after the set, when they joined me live for Radcliffe and Maconie's Music News. We discussed the new incarnation of the band (featuring new members Justin Harris and Louise Bartle) and that forthcoming new record. You can listen to the interview below.
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Foals might have missed out on the number one album spot to The Weeknd (well done to him for his first UK number one though) but What Went Down is definitely my favourite new album of the moment. I got to see them perform at Village Underground when they launched the album a couple of weeks ago and it was ELECTRIC. The band's music really comes alive on stage and new tunes like Mountain at My Gates, Knife In the Ocean and What Went Down already sound like classic Foals tracks alongside oldies like Spanish Sahara and Holy Fire's My Number and Inhaler. Fans were ecstatic, open armed and - as Yannis had hoped when he announced the show - very, very sweaty. I'm already itching to see them live again when they play Margate's Dreamland in November... Bring it on.
I got to chat to Yannis all about the making of the album for the BBC News website - and you can read the interview here. Or if you prefer to hear the man in his own words, you can listen to the best bits broadcast on BBC 6 Music below... Enjoy. I recently caught up with Faris from The Horrors for BBC Radio 6 Music. He was on fine form ahead of one of the band's last festival dates of the summer at Forgotten Fields, their penultimate UK show of 2015. Listen to the interview below for a progress report on their next album - which they're working on with super-producer Paul Epworth and Faris' take on their festival performances...
August has been ridiculously busy (hooray though, of course!). Earlier this month I spent a lovely couple of weeks holding the Music News fort at BBC 6 Music - something which is always an absolute pleasure. Highlights - apart from chatting to Mark and Stuart every day - included a plethora of music news interviews; from Foals to The Horrors, Norman Jay to Spiritualized and Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson in between - not to mention a trip to the wonderful Wilderness Festival where the most memorable encounters included P-funk legend George Clinton and Ibibio Sound Machine's charming frontwoman Eno Williams (both below) - as well as a swim in a real-life lake. Nothing to complain about here. Some of the interviews will be coming soon....
I might have missed out on that Glastonbury sing-a-long (not to mention the rest of Glastonbury, sob) but this week very happily involved a much more intimate Burt Bacharach karaoke session.
He was the 'surprise' guest at the opening night of new London show What's It All About? Bacharach Reimagined - a beaut of a tribute that features more than 30 of his biggest hits, and is heavy on the earworms. As the show ended he joined the (v talented) cast (and their seven ukuleles) on stage for a rendition of Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head. A bit cheesy? Pure Stilton - but a pretty 'magic moment' all the same (sorry, not sorry). The show is definitely worth checking out, not least for the Menier Chocolate Factory, a lovely little venue it only took me ten years living in London to finally get to. Get your tickets here. I got to chat to the legend that is Mr Burt Bacharach himself a couple of weeks ago, along with Kyle Riabko, the Canadian singer who co-created and stars in the show. You can read my interview here. I had the chance to get involved with a different kind of project to celebrate Father's Day this year, and it was an emotional and heartwarming experience for everyone involved.. We spoke to four new dads to hear about their experiences of fatherhood so far, for mental health website Men's Minds Matter - from conception to pregnancy, helplessness to mastery, bonding and back to work.
Read what they had to say. So this week Apple finally unveiled exactly what they've been beavering away on in a bid to rival Spotify in the streaming business. Apple Music was launched on Monday night in San Francisco, with an impressively shiny new video (sort of) explaining how it will work.... The most interesting bit of all this (for those of us working in radio anyway) was we got to find out what Zane Lowe had left Radio 1 to do.
He'll be one of three launch presenters on Apple's new radio station Beats 1, broadcasting from Los Angeles, with Ebro Darden in New York and Rinse FM's Julie Adenuga in London. I caught up with industry bosses and commentators to find out what they thought about Beats 1 - including Zane's former boss, the controller of Radio 1, Ben Cooper, who told me he was "very intrigued" but "not scared". Read the full story here. So Doll & Em is back! I was totally (and unexpectedly) charmed by the first season of the show last year, which is written by and stars British actresses and lifelong BFFs Emily Mortimer and Dolly Wells. It's set in Hollywood, where they play amped-up versions of themselves, as Doll becomes Em's assistant. The trailer had looked pretty average - even a wee bit annoying - but a couple of hours later I had accidentally binge-watched all six episodes. A funny and honest portrayal of female friendship, which is lovely to see on TV. I got to chat to them before it first aired in the UK, which you can read here. Season two kicked off last night - on Sky Atlantic instead of Sky Living this time - with a new round of celebrity cameos including Harvey Weinstein. If you haven't yet discovered it, I suggest you get involved! Disclosure. Featuring Gregory Porter. Genius. It's hard for me to describe my relationship with Disclosure's music without sounding like a massive tool. I recently met and interviewed their producer Jimmy Napes and tried and failed to articulate it to him, before we both agreed that it was something to do with them clearly being inspired by the kind of music that had soundtracked our prime early clubbing days, channelling those nostalgic late 90s and early 2000s house and garage vibes, while also doing something new and exciting. Yep. Not exactly a soundbite.
I probably started clubbing a full decade before brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence had even thought about 'having it', which should put me off, or make me feel old and out of touch. Except it doesn't. Instead, me and several friends of a similar age are relishing the prospect of putting our hips out at the Wildlife Festival Disclosure are hosting with Rudimental at Shoreham Airport next weekend. They'll be debuting their brand new show and plenty of their forthcoming second album, as they revealed to Radio 1's Annie Mac when she made Holding On her Hottest Record earlier this week. BRING. IT. ON. Except the putting-the-hip-out bit. I was joking about that. I've been a huge Hot Chip fan for years and their sweet dance music has soundtracked many seriously happy memories. There's not much more fun to be had than surveying a group of your nearest and dearest friends jumping about to Over and Over, acting out in unison exactly what a monkey looks like with a miniature symbol. That track even gained a top five place on our wedding disco playlist, that's how much Hot Chip are cherished in our house. If first impressions are anything to go by, their brand new album Why Make Sense? is destined for a similar fate - and the fact that each cover is a unique work of art, thanks to a clever bespoke printing system, means it will almost certainly end up adorning one of our walls as well as the sound system. Early favourites include the awesome Need You Now, which is making me actually ache for the summer. Started Right is another track I can't wait to hear live, ideally in a field at sunset somewhere soon. Find out what vocalist Alexis Taylor had to tell me about the making of the record, why they can never really take a break from Hot Chip and what inspired him to write a song about fried chicken. Read more.
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AuthorI'm Sarah Jane Griffiths, a freelance broadcaster and writer. Here's what I've been up to / binge-watching / listening to / getting angry about or even just loving lately... Archives
October 2015
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