Rolling Interminable 6Music Daytime Canon

For those tunes that only a lamacq could love.

1. Pop Will Eat Itself - Def Con One

2. Haysi Fantayzee – John Wayne is Big Leggy

3. Sultans of Ping FC – Where’s Me Jumper

Does anyone like BBC Radio 6Music?

I used to think it was a lot of moody and / or stodgy alternative rock and I rather disdained it.

Then I started listening to it more. I found that it did include a lot of moody or stodgy alternative rock, but also a lot of other music. Today I have heard a lot of hip hop on it. Usually I hear a lot of reggae. I don't like any of these things, but nonetheless it does sometimes play music I like.

To a degree, I have also come to appreciate listening to the presenters.

Keaveney: unbearable
Laverne: likeable but a blatherer and somewhat ridiculous
Radcliffe & Maconie: I used to think this idea was preposterous but I have come round to it for its bathos and familiarity
Lamacq - preposterous
Riley - I don't listen, would not take him seriously - but he does support new acts; maybe some of them are OK?
Coe - seems not very different from a Freaky Trigger programme, eg if Tim Hopkins was on for 3 hours per night. Too much reggae for me but on balance I like the programme.

Weekends: mostly bad in various ways, from what I have heard.

This makes it seem like I think 6music is bad. Yet I still listen to it.

Does anyone else?

I suppose I am thinking: I quite often enjoy it for its preposterousness. Thus this thread with its Sultans of Ping reference above - not that I hear them specifically, but you can genuinely still hear Lamacq play something like The Wonder Stuff - which is like a time capsule effect which I perversely enjoy.

There is a lot of variation between presenters.

This is what I wrote about a year ago, have listened much less + found Tom Ravenscroft is probably better than all of these since then:

I have listened to too much BBC 6 Music recently. Here is my review of BBC 6 Music.

Steve Lamacq / Liz Kershaw - Cannot stand either of these people churning out the same boring old indie bollocks, will not listen at all. No idea what Liz Kershaw in particular is doing on this station.

Shaun Keaveny - A bit better than the above, but very much fitting the description of classic canon + new indie music, always end up tuning out

Mary Anne Hobbes - initially disappointing transition from radio 1, coming round to her now but still find her voice annoying.

Guy Garvey - Like a better version of Steve Lamacq, but ultimately not *that* much better. Everything he enthuses about ends up being a bit meh

Lauren Laverne / Radcliffe & Maconie - Fairly reliable, but still mainly canon + new indie. Basically I like them, so it stays on, It's daytime radio and probably would be silly to expect anything else.

Huey / Craig Charles - Always a let-down, same old selection of funk & soul records everyone has heard a thousand times before

Marc Riley - Always a pleasant surprise, lots of good new music, even if it is entirely indie or indie-ish. Clearly invests a lot of time & passion and it pays off.

Jarvis Cocker / Various others filling in - bit of a risk, but can be be the best things on.

Tom Robinson - Let's assemble music on a theme! But let's pick the most pedestrian choices possible! Why do I always end up listening to this when I hate it so much?

Cerys - I was never a fan of Catatonia, so surprised to say this is maybe the best thing on here. Genuinely left-field, genuinely wonderful discoveries throughout.

Freakzone - Should be my favourite, actually it's usually good but guess I'm a bit burnt out on it right now, he needs to explore in less expected directions

Live Hour - Anyone want to hear Oasis at Knebworth? Yes, apparently so, fucking hell.

Gideon Coe - This looks ok, but never heard it as it starts at 10pm on weeknights, I am not listening to the radio at 10pm

In summary - I want to love this station, but there is way too much rock canon (which I've heard too much already) and "new music" which is just "new indie" - it's like "you can have eclectic taste with old stuff, but now you are middle-aged and the only new stuff you are allowed to like is generic indie-rock." A lot of it seems to be aspiring to be John Peel, forgetting that the best thing about John Peel was that he would throw in some speedcore and thrash metal and never apologise for it, not try to tailor music for an imagined audience of middle-aged former indie kids.

I only ever listen to this when I'm driving the pool cars at work: Journey in the morning, Laverne - good stuff, knowledgeable and a wide range of music. Evenings on the way home, Lamacq: May as well be listening to an Evening Session c1996 - these drives last forever

"Lammo" and his bloody band t-shirts

Camaraderie -- was this on ILX? I could not see many threads about 6music.

No, on Facebook, to nobody in particular.

Re Lamacq: Everything he has ever done seems to be specifically designed to annoy me.

Partly agree with the summary above, but also differ.

**
>>> Shaun Keaveny - A bit better than the above, but very much fitting the description of classic canon + new indie music, always end up tuning out -- BUT YOU DON'T MENTION THAT HE IS A DREADFUL OBNOXIOUS 'PERSONALITY'

>>> Mary Anne Hobbes - initially disappointing transition from radio 1, coming round to her now but still find her voice annoying. -- YES, THE VOICE MAKES IT BASICALLY UNBEARABLE

>>> Lauren Laverne / Radcliffe & Maconie - Fairly reliable, but still mainly canon + new indie. Basically I like them, so it stays on, It's daytime radio and probably would be silly to expect anything else. -- BASICALLY AGREE

>>> Freakzone - Should be my favourite, actually it's usually good but guess I'm a bit burnt out on it right now, he needs to explore in less expected directions -- HAVE NOT REALLY LISTENED - IS PROBABLY TOO PROG / EXPERIMENTAL FOR ME

>>> Gideon Coe - This looks ok, but never heard it as it starts at 10pm on weeknights, I am not listening to the radio at 10pm -- STARTS AT 9PM IN FACT! YOU MIGHT LIKE IT, IS QUITE 'ECLECTIC'

>>> way too much rock canon (which I've heard too much already) and "new music" which is just "new indie" - it's like "you can have eclectic taste with old stuff, but now you are middle-aged and the only new stuff you are allowed to like is generic indie-rock." -- COULD BE SOMETHING IN THIS STATEMENT. BUT I THINK A LOT OF THE NEW MUSIC THEY PLAY IS NOT INDIE ROCK BUT EG: KINDS OF ELECTRONIC POP, HIP HOP. I DON'T THINK THE STATION IS QUITE AS INDIE-ROCK AS YOU SUGGEST.
**

(USING CAPITALS BECAUSE CANNOT REMEMBER ILX FORMATTING ETC AND WOULD PROBABLY GET IT WRONG IF I DID LOOK IT UP)

I agree with Dog Latin that Laverne is relatively eclectic. In fact if anything she is too eclectic for me, she plays loads of genres I don't really like.

The LAMMO thing seems to be to be 'beyond a joke' -- like a kind of comedy sketch at this point, rather than something serious to get annoyed by?

Gideon Coe I am fairly sure is the one that is genuinely closer to Peel -- though, as is rightly said, they all tend to appeal spuriously to an idea of Peel.

I suppose the difference is that Peel was responding to a YOUTH AUDIENCE, of as it were 16-year-old Smiths and Wedding Present fans -- those were the people making the Festive Fifty what it was, etc -- whereas Coe's audience must be quite difficult and is never in conflict with him; it's all very harmonious.

I would repeat that Coe seems to me very close to a Tim Hopkins radio programme (Tim Hopkins was a veteran poster on ILX in 2000s), though a bit more indiepop-friendly. In fact he is almost the only indiepop-friendly DJ on radio -- so is genuinely filling a unique niche.

I still keep accidentally tuning in to Tom Robinson's 'Now Playing @6music' on Sundays, it is absolutely the most infuriating thing on the radio.

Lammo just needs to be booted across to radio 2, they can deal with him there.

Is LAMMO, in a way, the new 'Fluff Freeman'?

not 'alf

That Robinson show would be slightly more bearable if he was a half-way competent radio DJ

and what you say, CAAL, about their harping on about Peel is OTM: it's like John Peel but without the dub reggae, happy hardcore, techno etc. i.e. most of the stuff that made Peel interesting in the first place

Xp It's a combination of his incompetence, the listeners lame suggestions and the producer who uses better songs as a bed, which still tricks me every time.

it's also a shame that some of the specialist shows they used to have at evenings & weekends have been done away with, e.g. an Andy Weatherall show on a Saturday night, or Bruce Dickinson doing a metal show. I think at the moment you have Tom Robinson on a Friday evening, party time!

Lammo just needs to be booted across to radio 2, they can deal with him there

They won't let him play his China Drum b-sides over there

tbh if you're listening to Radio 6 on a Friday evening maybe reconsider your life anyway

Disagree with the Pinefox in that the weekend shows are the highlight for me, especially Cerys Matthews who is in a way the closest thing to an heir to John Peel in that she regularly surprises and confounds with what she plays. My taste in music syncs best with Mary Anne Hobbs, but I find her 'hello trees' persona a bit twee sometimes.

XP I have two small children and therefore no social life to speak of, basically I am their target audience

Gilles Peterson on a Saturday afternoon is a combination of excellent and frustrating, but is one of the better shows, I think. Cerys also good, but she tends to use that awestruck tone that is the 6Music voice (Mary Ann Hobbs, Guy Garvey et al) which is as distinctive as the Radio 4 comedy show voice.

thank you for putting your finger on a thing that makes me grind my teeth

tbh if you're listening to Radio 6 on a Friday evening maybe reconsider your life anyway

― coombespair gaz prices (Noodle Vague), Friday, January 12, 2018 3:09 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is true, but it's also a case of is this the best they can come up with? Rave nostalgia is problematic, I know, but at least play something fun!

It's fair to recall that Peel was not only avant-garde but also suburban / comfortable / familiar -- as in a long-ago ILX thread debate about his Radio 4 programme, Radio Times column, etc. I remember some of his late broadcast work as being rather predictable -- always ready to host a big session with Camera Obscura, etc.

In that particular sense he is closer to eg Gideon Coe or other 6music than one might think.

The thread !!

Home Truths

re: the Radio 6 awestruck voice. One of the first threads I started on ILM was moaning about this exact thing: DJs you love to hate

Right now, LAMMO is starting his programme with 'Teenage Kicks'.

In many ways, it's in the spirit of the late, great John Peel.

lol

He then stated that this week has been 90s WEEK: with the theme: 'records from the 1990s that you never hear on the radio anymore'.

cue Shed 7

They are back!

it's like they never went away

Last time I heard Lammo he was interviewing the Senseless Things for like 4 hours or something. This was a couple of months back

you still suffering from those weird dreams then, DL?

There's a disconnect between what the daytime presenters talk about and what they play, which I find irritating. Like Thundercat winning their presenters' album of the year poll, but before that win I'd never heard any of them play anything off that album ever. And at the moment there's a really simpering indie track that's just a knock-off of Fleetwood Mac on heavy rotation, and they're all going nuts over Shame, who just sound like Hard-Fi, so there's as much annoying playlisting going on as at any other mainstream radio station (obviously). The over-earnest quiet enthusiasm is definitely a house style, too, and I find it a bit sick-in-my-mouth most of the time even if I quite like what;s being enthused about.

And that's the thing, there isn't anywhere else where I can turn the radio on and be confident I'll get a favourable ratio of stuff I like to hear. I doubt I'd have heard Ratio by Floating Points on any other daytime station last year, for instance. Yes, they pander to 90s kids now in their late 30s and 40s by playing The Bluetones or Shed Seven every so often, but there is at least an attempt to broaden horizons too.

I feel like they should be bold and stop having a playlist entirely. The existence of one seems to go against the whole supposed ethos of the station.

I don't like that 'house style', but am unsure if it's really that common. Riley, Radcliffe, Huey Morgan (!), Iggy Pop (?!) don't do it?

I think for me it comes down more to M A Hobbs having a peculiar voice.

I tend to agree about 'playlist' stuff -- why do they need one at all? The repetitiveness of it is tiresome and it usually feels like they're promoting mediocrity; which they're not when they veer off it.

(G Coe doesn't play to any playlist.)

Last night Coe played 'coney island baby' - it sounded like a different version to me, the lead guitar was so elaborate - but perhaps it was just the same old version and it had never shone through so much. It sounded epic. I suppose it was a good use of radio, even though in theory I could have played the song myself.

TBF only LAMMO really plays old Bluetones + Shed Seven records! I think others would be too embarrassed to do that.

Guardian last week said SHAME are the greatest new guitar band. Have not heard but from the report, must be abysmal.

The playlist seems completely arbitrary, all these songs by minor indie bands with no wider impact at all being hammered to death while so much similar stuff gets ignored. I probably enjoyed more indie last year than I did in the last decade but I don't remember hearing Sacred Paws or Hannah Peel or the Weather Station on there at all.

I never put any radio station on at home but we have 6music on in the office and while there's a 50:50 mix of decent stuff and utter shit, the station as a whole is just insufferably smug and self-congratulatory. This sense of preserving the flame of "underground" and "new music" as defined by tastemakers in their 40s and 50s. At one point there was an ad with one of the Marks going "it's great that 6music still plays underground music because no-one else does", which was admirable for its sheer brass neck if nothing else.

xps I've not really listened to 6music in years so I didn't realise that the Mary Ann-Hobbs awestruck voice had become a house style, I always thought of the 6music house style as being the John Peel-esque wry mildly blokey northerner? I guess you can synthesise the two e.g. Professor Brian Cox

There was a time a couple of years ago when I used to turn on 6Music on a regular basis and I heard some bloody awful song by The Coral every time. It put me off listening to the station entirely. I find it hard to believe that presence on a playlist is not down to payola.

payola feels...unlikely?...on the BBC nowadays. whereas having some people with awful taste picking songs they think other people with awful taste will enthuse about seems more likely

It's also the increasing desperation of people who want British guitar music to come back as that prospect appears more remote than ever.

For the sake of convenience I'm overlooking the sort of rock music that gets played on Radio 1 than these guys wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

I'm honestly baffled what anybody sees in the sound of "British guitar music" post about 1990 but chacun a son gout. it feels like a small minority to get their own national radio station tho.

"sees in the sound" lol

I dunno it's just boredom use other noises please

I'm honestly baffled what anybody sees in the sound of "British guitar music" post about 1990

Post-1980 and I might agree with you.

I was being dead generous

I know how you all hate it when I talk about broad churches like they're just one thing

i'm not making any claims other than i don't want to go to church

6Music is basically about easing the slide into dementia - nice friendly nursey voices, music that takes you back to the happy days of your youth, stick to the familiar, don't confuse your patients with all this new modern stuff, keep away especially from new black music unless you want that one resident to go off on some awful racist monologue, you can play the old unthreatening stuff though, a bit of funny party music before we brew up some horlicks

Does every tedious Elbow single still get A-listed for some reason

I think this song by 'This Is The Kit' might be the worst thing I've ever heard, and I've heard that Belle and Sebastian single with the oboe solo.

lol half their Wikipedia page is about how much 6Music wuvs them

Re "Different/Unfamiliar versions"

They do seem to substitute a "Radio 1 Session" version for the "familiar/single" version whenever possible. I reckon its because they save on paying for "NeedleTime"...

I remember Jarvis playing something that turned out to be a weird session version and apologising afterwards - "we'll find the proper version and play it next week"

I find myself in the unusual position of wanting to defend 6music. Well bits of it anyway. Don't have a problem with MA Hobgoblin's voice and she plays some v nice stuff weekend mornings. Most recent playlist is pretty solid for a breakfast show I think (if you ignore RHCPs, Artic Monkeys) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09mhyr8

Everything but the Girl
Each and Every One

Sunflower Bean
I Was A Fool

Abul Mogard
Above All Dreams

Tom Waits
Back In The Crowd

The Pioneers
Long Shot Kick De Bucket

King Krule
Biscuit Town

Nas
The World Is Yours

Insecure Men
Teenage Toy

The Stone Roses
Waterfall

The Go! Team
Mayday

Sam & Dave
I Thank You

St. Vincent
New York

Nightports with Matthew Bourne
Exit

Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Zephyr Song

Nadine Shah
Evil

Warren G & Nate Dogg
Regulate

Baxter Dury
Prince Of Tears

Otis Redding
Hard to Handle

Kendrick Lamar & SZA
All The Stars

Hot Chip
Night & Day

Anna Calvi
Suzanne And I

Laura Marling
Don't Pass Me By

Billy Bragg
A New England

Beck
Dear Life

Pangea
Router

The Creatures
Miss The Girl

Arctic Monkeys
Fluorescent Adolescent

Boy Azooga
Face Behind Her Cigarette

Sly & The Family Stone
Everyday People

Sylvan Esso
Hey Mami

Jamie xx
Far Nearer

Gengahr
Carrion

Sylvan Esso
PARAD(w/m)E

Commodores
I Feel Sanctified

Basement Revolver
Bread & Wine

Jimi Hendrix
Purple Haze

Sunflowers
Signal Hill

Deftones
Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)

Ghostpoet
Many Moods At Midnight

Aukia
Colorado

Richard Hawley
Darlin'

Invisible Minds
Yo Mae Leh

Big Audio Dynamite
E=MC2

Etta James
I'd Rather Go Blind

.

I'd rather go deaf myself

lol

can't say I much approve of that playlist

Richard Hawley is one of those people who must have a stash of incriminating material on the DG, there's no other explanation as to why he still gets airtime (see also: Guy Garvey)

I was going to agree with Stevie T, then realized I actually haven't heard most of the things on that list.

But in principle I still agree with Stevie T.

DESERT ISLAND DISCO

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09l8dh2

Today's DESERT ISLAND DISCO is Mod / Northern Soul focused. I welcome this.

It is odd how people still think 6music is all mediocre rock.

It definitely does play mediocre rock.

But right now, before noon on a Friday, it is playing a long instrumental in some kind of experimental techno genre. The last two tracks were also instrumentals in some kind of related fields.

In fact LL hasn't played any 'rock' for at least half an hour or so.

Now it's a First Aid Kit session. Country?

Lauren Laverne has better and more diverse/interesting taste than most of them do. It's when you get to Radcliffe and Lamacq in the afternoons that it gets really bad.

I agree that they are different.

LL: 5 x 3 hours per week, + her 6music recommends slot = LL takes up a big chunk of the 6music schedule every week!

All daft blather at breakfast time this morning more than made up for by appearance of Make Me Believe In You by Patti Jo. And Pigs etc.

LL starts with Pavement 'Cut Your Hair' followed by an average playlist-heavy-rotation rock track.

Then 20 minutes of mostly dance-music-oriented records.

Then an archive session track from ... Death Cab For Cutie. A band I have never known.

It's quite good!

She is now playing a series of 'UK Garage Monday Motivators'.

> 3. Sultans of Ping FC – Where’s Me Jumper

this was the first track on friday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09mhw8q

BRYAN FERRY is talking to Lauren Laverne now about the origins of Roxy Music.

And about the role of RICHARD WILLIAMS.

She has been playing electronic music, acid house and funk.

Radcliffe & Maconie started with JESUS JONES 'international bright young thing' followed by Gaz Coombes.

did you enjoy the new Parliament single you said she played?

No - but to be honest I wasn't paying much attention to it. It probably wasn't my kind of thing.

but it has Scarface on it! wasn't he in Belle & Sebastian?

I haven't heard of that person.

JESUS JONES 'international bright young thing' followed by Gaz Coombes

how very apt

Maconie now playing 2nd of 2 tracks to open his programme.

Noel Gallagher, 'it's a beautiful world'.

I think this is on the playlist and gets played several times a day.

Lauren Laverne played Stereolab's 'miss modular', a record that I imagine people on ILM like.

At last it's not "She Bangs Pour Moi by The Vaselines"

xpost, obv.

I have not heard that!

aka "She fell, right under my spell" by NG

I think that might be called 'Holy Mountain'.

mmm...

LLOYD COLE is on at 2:30.

Radcliffe and Maconie are doing a lot of presenting separately.

It's as though they have fallen out.

is that why you p and k never speak to me anymore?

i quite like mark radcliffe tbh. dunno what his politics are or anything like that but he seems an okay sort from his radio programmes

i used to listen to him back when he was on radio 5

Radcliffe has a pretty good folk show on R2. On the debit side, he is in a pirate-themed novelty band called Galleon Blast.

He was on 5live ??

Surely Radio 1, Radio 2.

The Folk Show is quite good I think but I still think of it as MIKE HARDING.

the radio 5 show was called 'Hit The North'

Yeah, Radio 5 used to be a music and news station

No it didn’t

It had some music programming before 1994 but it was absolutely mainly news, current affairs, sport etc.

i quite like mark radcliffe tbh. dunno what his politics are or anything like that

Obligatory "he was in Skrewdriver" post

It was an odd station, I used to listen to the childrens stuff on there and found myself listening to some hugely varied and often wonderful stuff. Have a look at the programmes listed here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_5_(former)

you'll have to copy and paste that, ilx really doesn't like those closing brackets on urls

Extremely rare er occurrence of er Autechre on Lamacq last er night.

Obligatory "he was in Skrewdriver" post

holy heck, i did not know that!!

tbf it was in the Chiswick Records era, I was being flip, I don't think he was actually a nazi

what track, ledge?

Radcliffe's 'banter' is really, really sub-par at this stage, his music stage is beyond conservative and boring and he is really, really bad at feigning interest in what phone-in guests have to say. He should probably have been put out to pasture ages ago. Lamacq has been exactly the same for 20 years but at least he sounds like he still actually enjoys music.

Err music taste, not stage.

xxp er montreal er off amber

tbf i haven't actually listened to radcliffe since the 90s, it would probably drive me nuts if i had to listen to him now

xps Can't agree with you there Matt, I don't give a shit about what either of them play really and I usually wrench the dial around when Radcliffe's awful jingles start, but he does sound like he really cares about the music, especially the session acts. Lamacq's er banter and er listener/social media interaction are borderline Partridge.

I am enjoying Ledge's LAMMO impression.

I think I agree that Radcliffe is no longer very good.

I wouldn't say he was 'beyond conservative'. I would probably say he was quite settled in his tastes, having already built up a wide and extensive knowledge of popular and roots music.

I think it's true that Lammo still loves Mega City Four and Kingmaker. The passion still burns.

Programmes
Morning Edition
Sunday Edition with Barry Johnston
Five Aside
John Inverdale's Drive-in
Hit The North with Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley (featured the first ever radio session from Oasis)
Fabulous with Mark Lamarr/Johnny Vaughan
Fantasy Football League
Room 101, a later transfer to television
6-0-6 with Danny Baker/David Mellor
Formula Five
They Think It's All Over with Des Lynam, another transfer to TV
Cult Radio with Marc Riley
Le Top, a translated version of the chart show on Europe 1.
Across The Line, produced by BBC Northern Ireland
The Mark Steel Solution (first series only)
Rave with Rob Brydon
Sound Advice with Guy Michelmore, Daire Brehan and Liz Barclay
A Game of Two Halves with John Inverdale, Frances Edmonds, Caron Keating and Mark Kermode
The AM Alternative with Johnnie Walker
BFBS Worldwide
On Your Marks with Mark Curry

That is quite remarkable.

Rave with Rob Brydon !!

I don't think I really ever heard of Brydon till quite a bit later.

It is a good point about how much children's radio used to be on Radio 5, and how this was all sadly shelved.

A case for Inspector Carmody.

Radcliffe has a verbal tic that once you've noticed is very hard to ignore. Sort or "er-ber-ber" or "air-bear-bear", between words.

Lamacq played my mate's band yesterday. I'm dead chuffed for him but at the same time can't stand Lamacq and wish one of the other DJs had played him.

Anyway mandatory plug!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK5GGsX6kzg

6music still seems to play Noel Gallagher's single on every daytime programme.

I feel that we have surely got the point and heard this enough by now.

right now: Radcliffe & Maconie starting their programme with Shed Seven.

The crucial coveted keynote-sounding opening track slot.

'Going for Gold'.

Oh for gods sake!

ah, that's the reason I don't listen on the daytime.

6music should shed shed 7's music

6music should shed shed 7's music six

Now it's a palindrome.

the trick is to use iplayer and listen 15 minutes behind so you can skip over the crap (assuming they play 15 minutes of crap per show, like anything by the manics)

i have a nice bookmarklet that lets me skip 60 seconds (and back 15 seconds) easily.

Why on earth would anyone choose to iPlayer this particular show?

iPlayer etc etc

I think I tend to agree that it is more of a live experience.

But koogs' account of his listening practice is quite cogent.

i am listening 'not quite' live, via iplayer because it's easier than a radio in the office. am currently 52 minutes behind live. thurston moore has just expressed an interest in joining the ramblers.

What, as in "She's only a poor little sparrow" ?

Yes, I heard that also. Maconie was surprised to be asked about it.

I have now not heard Noel Gallagher's single on 6music for at least two days.

I try to recall it, but all I can generate is "We live in a beautiful world" by Coldplay..

It feels like it is designed to be played over a montage at the end of the next World Cup.

That Jade Fox track being played by Giles Peterson is delish.

Gilles*

Lot of shit-talking in this thread, not all of which I agree with, but any station that gives Laurie Anderson a platform during prime time is alright with me.

I wish they could just drop the playlist and Album Of The Day stuff though. Seems to try and foster a uniformity across the station which is not needed.

They've just gone from that interminable MSP single to a 10 minute Kamazi Washington track, which is kind of 6Music all over. A slightly schizoid need to occasionally go a bit "out there" while also being too cautious of alienating fans of mainstream indie shite.

that Bishop Nehru track they keep playing, Rooftops, is just someone talking, badly, over a record.

javascript:(function(){embeddedMedia.players.forEach(player => player.currentTime(player.currentTime()+60));})();

^ handy skip-a-minute iplayer radio bookmarklet

ooh!

(not my work. doesn't work in firefox.)

Big news.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45127611

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/6-music-announces-schedule-changes

I hate that Shaun bloke who does the breakfast show at the moment.
good riddance.

however, it does mean I can't pop 6music on in the afternoon as I have done from time to time.

Yes, he is appalling, unbearable. So I don't welcome his move to afternoon. 10:30-4 weekdays will be off limits for me after this.

I only listen at the weekends and will miss Mary Anne Hobbs' music, if not her presenting style.

I only listen at the weekends and will miss Mary Anne Hobbs' music, if not her presenting style.

Exactly the same people in a slightly different order is indeed huge news.

this is a calamity.

maybe MAH will go all Breezeblock in her new position. maybe i'll start iplayering more weekend stuff that i never hear.

I think within the context of actually listening to the radio, if one happens to listen to this station, it is a big change, because to me radio isn't like film or the way many people now watch TV - on demand, in their own time, etc -- it is one thing that still, for many of us, happens live and in the order that's provided, because it's a convenience, a background.

So the fact that LL is no longer on 10-1, the fact that the afternoon is off limits, etc, will have a real effect on my days, one way or another.

We had the all day rave thing on in the office and and I just kept wondering how long it would be before someone finally cracked and played the Stone Roses. Obviously it was Lamacq but they made it all the way to 5.30.

Extremely obvious that only Lauren Laverne has engaged with any dance music made after 1998.

the bore of the roses

so there was no mary anne hobbs show re the rave thing ?
would have thought she would have been top of the list to be honest.

She is only on at the weekend right now isn't she?

I caught the end of S*** K****** this morning and he had an interview with someone from the early days of Ibiza which led to some really good music.

top 30 rave-era tracks :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5ZF19S8FTX9WJcnr5j9JF3x/30-tracks-that-shaped-dance-music-over-the-last-30-years

xpost : no idea, but still, she should have been involved given her involvement/enthusiasm with the genre.

Mary Anne Hobbs and Chris Coco have the absolute worst speaking mannerisms. I enjoy the music they both play, but their announcing style makes me irrationally angry.

agreed.
MAH vs the whispering bob harris thing is insanely off putting.

Gonna need some explanation as to what the housemartins are doing on a playlist about style icons.

Explanation is that you are listening to Now Playing @6music and it's always this bad

Housemartins = pioneers of normcore/dadcore

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/91/238604903_23e39c38a0_z.jpg?zz=1

not sure one can be a pioneer of what is literally normal but ok.

I feel like the Housemartins didn't just look normal, though, they had a self-consciously normal *look*

Enjoying a lot of Alice Coltrane earlier.

nothing to make you appreciate radcliffe and maconie more than when chris hawkins sits in... still, good practice for next year.

get well soon, mark

radcliffe popped up on the show before christmas btw.

was looking to see when they started at the weekend, and found this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl65/2019/01/12

which currently says:

12 Jan 2019
07:00 OFF AIR
Programmes will resume at 13:00

Sigh, I see Keshaw is on at 1300. Suspect only reason Liz Kershaw hasn’t been punted is so when Brexiteers moan about Gary Lineker, the Beeb can say, yes but we have Liz Kershaw.

xp That is very strange indeed.

Maybe should give them a call and see if they need anyone to cover the shift

Most likely this is yet another problem with the stupid Sounds app.

koogs, it's updated now - https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl65/2019/01/12

"Brave New Dawn", funny.

am currently catching up on stuff i didn't get a chance to listen to over christmas and podcasts, so am not missing it at all. next week might be different.

The Liz Kershaw saga continues

When I sue this rag I will also include anyone who has abused me on here by swallowing their libellous misinterpretation of my comments this morning. Be warned https://t.co/J4QJKXs7v5

— Liz Kershaw (@LizKershawDJ) January 18, 2019

liz

babe

Watch the video, it's a work of art, the look in the hosts' eyes as they try to make some sort of sense of what she just said, her doubling down on digging this ridiculous logic hole.

I don't really look to 6music presenters for nuanced political commentary but she really does come across as remarkably dim.

saw one tweet that used the word 'loon' re this situation.
been years since i had heard that word.

currently talking about new releases on Steve "Lammo" Lamacq's show: Rick Witter, Andy Bell and some bloke from Cud

they all like the new Wonder Stuff record, Rick Witter says that Miles Hunt "knows his way around a melody"

Richard James "Rick" Witter (born 23 November 1972 in Stockport, Cheshire) is a singer, songwriter and frontman of the York-based Britpop band Shed Seven. He was educated at Huntington School, York. He used to buy his shopping at Tesco, Clifton Moor.

On this occasion Miles Hunt knew the route around the melody a little too well.

they were less keen on the FKA Twigs record, with the exception of Andy Bell

I think it was Neil Kulkarni in Melody Maker who viciously and hilariously made up that he'd met Witter and that he had really bad body odour. That's always stayed with me, longer than his dreadful songs actually.

hilariously

Yeah I can't stand Steve Lamacq's record review show, someone else was covering a while back and it was briefly just about listenable.

Just want to say that I have been very pleasantly surprised by Lauren Laverne's breakfast show, partially because she is always keen to keep the indie rock as little as possible, but mainly because I now have an alternate to the Today Programme in the morning and it seems life is much better when I'm not waking up to that every day.

Thanks for correcting my typo

Shed Seven fan then?

i might be missing context and i wasn't so much having a go at you as at this hilarious Neil Kulkarni bit but it sounds weirdly like playground bullying rather than incisive satire

I guess. shrug. I thought it was funny when I was 15. It stuck with me is all.

More silver linings

Afternoon all. So I’m not going to be on drivetime for a while. I’m fine (for people who’ve asked), but spoke to a local doctor last week who advised me, for various reasons, to stay at home for now.

— Steve Lamacq (@steve_lamacq) March 31, 2020

Now do whatsisface

Why can’t I remember the cunts name it’s only been 2 weeks

thanks for reminding me things could be worse

Keaveny? xp

YES

When I worked in a north London Sainburies 20 years ago I once saw Steve Lamacq and we exchanged glances for a second and I felt like saying you find any shite bands here mate, it's the provisions area.

*won't*

Liz Kershaw seems to have disappeared from the schedule too. Mary Anne Hobbs played Lighting Bolt while I was having my lunch. Maybe this coronavirus thing isn't so bad after all.

I only ever pass R6 if I'm channel hopping and there is nothing on 3, 4 or WS and its always shit.

thanks to the mercy of digital radio i don't even have to hear the fucker

whatever gets people thru tho, peace

Its fine until lunchtime and then it is slow death

There is loads of good stuff on 6 music now, especially in the mornings.

Yes the terrible Kershaw seems to have gone, which means an extra hour for Gilles Peterson on a Saturday afternoon.

I only listen during the work day - as I say, decent in the morning but as soon as keaveny comes on it’s a bust

Worst thing I ever heard on it was that Maconie and some hippy pleb sidekick talking about "freaky music" show where they were trying to ruin stuff like Sun Ra.

You can’t ruin music by playing it luckily

If they just played it yeah

nah it's true i avoid a lot of heartbreak by avoiding idiots who like things i like liking them wrongly

The reason keaveny is bad is that there is not enough playing of music in between his interminable charmless awfulness. Then lammo comes on and its music-focused again but the music is all bad

yeah, number 1 DJ crime is not shutting the fuck up, i listen to a lot of milquetoast classical on 3 just because the ratio is better

Ravenscroft is sitting in for Keaveny at present, so 6 remains listenable for a while longer.

So today they finally announced they are getting rid of Liz Kershaw, after 17 years.

Then it turned out she's just being moved to Sundays.

They also announced that The Blessed Madonna is getting a weekly 9pm to midnight Saturday show, straight after Craig Charles.

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2021/bbc-radio-6-music-chedule-changes/

They play way too much middling old school rap. I know the audience is prob 40 year olds but if they really want to 'diversify'the playlist, there are many other black artists/better rap records they can play.

So many bad, complacent djs barely trying on this station.

Actually idk what the point of 6 music plus anymore when you can listen to nts for instance.

If my kitchen DBS radio could pick up NTS you would have a point, can't even get Radio 5 in there.

Saturday afternoons just won't be the same without Liz reading out callers boasts about gigs they went to in 1991

just get the NTS app on your phone and get some earphones.

6 music seems to basically be like radio 2 for aged indie kids.

that said, i have occasionally been alerted to a few good things, but during the daytime, they could play so much better stuff than they do. and newer stuff. i dont need to hear stuff that is only seemingly being played for nostalgia. then again, i might not be the right audience as i rediscovered jazz fm this week, and found i like more music on there nowadays than on 6 music.

no, I have decent radio player apps on my phone and good headphones but I also have a young family and walking round with headphones on wouldn't really go down well (anyway I listen to much less radio now as all my listening time is taken up with editing music for centuries of sound these days)

I made a big post up there somewhere about which 6 music shows are good and which are very much not good, agreed that the station has a lot of indie schmindie rubbish and should be overhauled almost entirely, radio 3 is still easily the best bbc station, radio 1 has been surprisingly good the last few years though.

cool, i will check out your recommendations.

i like lauren laverne as a presenter, but thats just cos she has a nice voice/manner.

i enjoy radio 1 on the whole, though it would be better with less george ezra.

quite happy with LL's breakfast show, only thing I regularly hear now tbh, she did the first play of the new Laura Mvula this morning.

6 music seems to basically be like radio 2 for aged indie kids.

they share a lot of staff and are produced from the same building

Now That's What I Call Sombre Music today on 6 music, radcliffe and maconie is just Radcliffe doing minimal links, on for 4 hours and playing the slowest, most miserable stuff in the catalogue.

This is kind of hilarious. It's pretty chill though, and always good to hear Big Thief's Mary.

Tried switching to the world service but it's all philip all the time there.

quite enjoyed the nils frahm, made a change from them prattling on about barm cakes.

A friend messaged last night to suggest that the misery-fest was if I was DJ-ing ...

listening to the bit after i gave up and there's a huge slab of Spiritualized's glides and chimes before the 9:30 news as well, which I'm guessing Jason would've never thought would happen. now it's some maudlin version of Vapour Trail.

Radio 3 playing some pretty robust sounding music earlier, surprising.

Think the Beeb are seriously overestimating who gives a shit about Prince Philip, less Record Store Day chat at least though

My local Co-Op has it's own radio station that usually plays 'Gimme Hope Joanna' and 'A Good Heart' on rotation was playing classical music today.

similar today by the look of things, 4 hours of Radcliffe this morning, 3 hours of Maconie in the freak zone slot.

Less chill out and back to the shout outs though.

yeah, i was basing that purely on the lengthened schedules (see posting time*). the actuality was much cheerier than yesterday.

(*does ilx use utc?)

(yeah, it's 10:49 but that's saying 9:49)

If it was sombre music only then I hope we got:
early Current 93
Diamanda Galas
solo Michael Gira
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

"Now That's What I Call Sombre Music" was a quote from somewhere in the 80s but i can't remember where. Spitting Image on the death of some russian leader perhaps?

(and timezone's a preference that i can change, hurrah)

tracklists:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v2b4
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vjcn

Air appear to be the big winners. Fleet Foxes i notice too. some things played twice within 4 hours.

lots of instrumentals too

It's been nice to switch the radio on when cooking dinner on a Sunday night and not hear Amy Lamé.

If only she were terminable.

Is it that time already?

Wtf is it gabba hour or something?

"Today 6 Music goes back to the 2010s"

nostalgia's not what it used to be.

(the 2010s were 2 years ago)

I never heard her 1Xtra show, but Jamz Supernova's recently launched Saturday afternoon 6Music show has become my favourite thing on the radio right now. It's guiding me through areas of music that were dauntingly unfamiliar to me before. A great addition to the Saturday line-up (as is The Blessed Madonna later on), and it makes perfect sense to schedule it just before Gilles Peterson.

hope they rerun some classic jingles of Guy Garvey reminding everyone he's in Elbow

I found jamz supernova a bit much for a saturday afternoon but I should probably be listening to magic or something instead.

I worked with Jamz when she was an aspiring assistant radio producer on other people’s shows and she was unfailingly friendly and polite - not qualities in surplus at most radio stations - she stood out

Yeah, that fits with her presenting style: natural, unforced, and communicating a clear love of the music she's chosen. A couple of weeks ago, she finished with a 30 minute Portuguese mix that maybe banged too hard for the time of day, but she dialled it back this week: there were a couple of times where she said "I'm just taking the tempo a little bit up", which helped you to acclimatise.

fuck off, liz

#BritAwards2021
And the winners are
(Except for @HAIMtheband - Congratulations!)
People posing rather than playing musical instruments
Dua Lipa
J Hus
Little Mix
Arlo Parks
Harry Styles
Billie Eilish
The Weeknd
Taylor Swift
Grim future for kids in bands and for @UK_Music

— Liz Kershaw (@LizKershawDJ) May 12, 2021

Christ, the replies are even worse. Gross.

she luvs Brexit too

Sh*un Ke*vney doing his last show today, let slip in the goodbye speech that he had been "let go" rather than quit.

Some people I follow on Twitter are furious and I am biting my virtual lip because his breakfast show was basically the reason I didn't listen to the station until a couple of years ago when they finally moved him to the afternoon, anyway this thread is a safe place to say "good."

He's being replaced by Craig Charles. Hmm.

Craig Charles every day? Are there not other non-celeb presenters they can use?

I turned the radio on today at work for the first time in a while and heard him talking about how it was his last show, it was so nice to change the station knowing I might never have to hear the unbearable cunt again

Oh noes!

https://i.ibb.co/BybPjh7/Screenshot-2021-10-23-14-58-46-975-com-facebook-katana.jpg

BBC should give up and launch Radio 2indie instead, it's all we deserve.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010xy0

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/640x360/p09z3qb7.jpg

wearing a Lego Feet t-shirt...

Good ol' Lammo's still there isn't he? xp

Lammo is helping to stem the tide but not good enough to soothe Kev’s great replacement anxieties

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001330q

there's a new music and it's called indie

Indie’s not dead

look where else will i go for my florence & the machine seguing into the kooks fix

is Top Shop still going?

I believe it now only exists as a tickbox in the filter menu of Asos. I've tried ticking that box so many times but does it ever play me The Killers seguing into Laura Marling? does it fuck

that indie programme is a subset of indie i don't really care for, based on the track listings for the two shows currently aired. i guess i am not the target audience (by about 20 years). i think i own about 3 from each, the early 80s bits.

i should start listening to the good 'introducing' bits again (but skip lamacq's one), might help with my 'i don't know what's new and good' problem.

6Music are doing "Nineties Day" on Thursday, how will anyone tell the difference etc.

it was 80s day this week. the three things i heard (radcliffe and maconie) were 'money's too tight to mention' and 'nothing going on but the rent'

(and something from Heaven Up Here)

Got stuck on the motorway over christmas with only 6Music to listen to - a Steve Lamacq playlist thing very like the one above. Just all horrible shouty "indie" bollocks with choruses that go OI! OI! OI!. Who thought "Nellie the Elephant" by the Toy Dolls would prove so influential?

there's a new music and it's called indie

Enjoyed that reference on a cold Monday morning..

Rolling Interminable 6Music Daytime Canon

what a difference 18 months makes (ie none)

(I'm sure that's a reference to something, maybe a spitting image sketch about the death of a Russian leader, but the original post is the only got on the entire internet. which probably means I've spelt it wrong)

only hit

They're just played some pretty upbeat Fela (Nigeria 70, not Coffin for Head of State unfortunately).

more tv than radio, but i thought after Philip the decision was to not go so full-on with the cancellations but i guess this is also a much larger thing (and things are actively happening today). who'd've thought you could say so much about someone who's basically had the same job for 70 years?

(I'm finding it easy enough to avoid tbh)

I thought it was more "ok let's stop now, it's not like it's the queen is it?"

Schedule Change News 🗞

From Monday the 5th of June we’ll be launching two brand new shows on 6 Music.

— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) April 4, 2023

Bad developments in the 6music schedule.

The station is going to drive a lot of people away. Maybe it will also attract new people.

Attracting new people with a Marc Riley and Gideon Coe show?

No, attracting new people by giving more time to the other presenters and less to the older ones.

Usual complaints on that thread about Craig Charles which translates to "too much black music"

this is long overdue IMO, between them Riley and Coe had 5hrs every weekday evening to play a steady diet of indie rock

It feels like the ultimate end for the last couple of reshuffles is to turn 6 into a sort of 1Xtra with a hint of Radio 2.

My main evidence for the prosecution is Craig Charles on 6 days a week. A show that is so derivative it is rehashing its own features

— Paul Dengel (@PaulDengel2) April 4, 2023

Craig Charles belongs on 1Extra not 6 music.

I would love to see far less indie & rock however and a lot more electronic music.

— Mikey Bee (@Lord_Melchie) April 4, 2023

Not a massive fan, but Riley's show accounts for the majority of sessions on 6music, expect this is a factor here.

Craig Charles is fine IMO but belongs on Radio 2, along with about 50% of the 6music DJs. 50% of existing Radio 2 DJs can be relocated to the bin.

or greatest hits radio or w/e

Neil S: I am not personally interested in Riley and have no desire to listen to him. I would broadly agree that he has focused a lot on "indie rock". I would be happy for Riley to disappear, though many listeners would disagree.

On the other hand, the statement that Coe has played "a steady diet of indie rock" gives the impression that you have not heard his programme.

One of the bad things about the new schedule is that people who like Coe's eclectic programme will now have to hear Riley in that slot 3 nights a week. The quota of "indie rock" in those hours is likely to increase.

Right now

R3 > R1Extra > R1 >>>>> R4 > 6Music >>>>>>>> R5 >>>>>> R2

I think it's fair to characterise Coe's show as focussing on indie rock broadly construed, even though he might play some soul, reggae and rock 'n roll. John Peel it is not, or maybe John Peel with the inconvenient rough edges sanded off (happy hardcore, grindcore, techno etc. etc.)

R4Extra my favourite station!

4Extra is like I can listen to those shows on demand whenever I want to

“I just want white music please”

Craig Charles show is superb and not anything like what would he played on 1Extra which is generally rap/hip-hop/grime/drill - a totally different genre

— Curtis (@171494949494a) April 4, 2023

6 music listeners are honestly the blandest people on earth. Craig Charles' show is one of a handful of shows on there that doesn't make me want to cry with boredom. pic.twitter.com/3nOGUJ0wYl

— Pariah Carey (@misslucyp) April 4, 2023

Ravenscroft classic nepo baby, I didn’t make the connection with the name at first & wondered why this completely unengaging posh bloke had a career in broadcasting (I prob assumed he had been in some shitty indie band as is usually the case) and it wasn’t till quite a bit later I heard a trailer where he was like “come explore my family mansion as I play records from my dad John peel’s collection” & I was like ohhhh lmao

His voice (Tom R) is bad for radio and I don't find anything good about him.

I don't think it is good that he is being promoted more and more as key voice of 6music.

Gilles Peterson on a Saturday afternoon still manages to be fresh and enthusiastic. The other week when they were all broadcasting from Salford and had obv. been told to give the shows a local slant, he announced one track as "by one of THE ALL TIME GREAT Manchester bands....KALIMA!" and it made me laugh bcs which other DJ on the staion would even put Kalima in their top 20 Mcr acts?

He did a great tribute to Simon Booth last week which had Sade calling in.

Yeah Peterson is always a good time imo.

I've never felt old enough to enjoy Peterson.

there's always that feeling that he's been into everything for years before you even heard of it, but I think he's been DJing since he was about 15.

Part of me just thinks fuck this boring endless struggle that every media outlet has to bring in new, younger audiences while not pissing off existing ones. Give up. Just let your station's audience be a cohort that gets older and older, liking things just the way they are. Keep Steve Lamacq till he's 80. Bring back Liz Kershaw. For the younger listeners, launch a new station and let the old one decline into ossified irrelevance till its last listener is in the grave.

cannot even for rhetorical purposes allow the possibility of liz kershaw being on the radio sorry

I agree with alba actually.

in general yeah it sounds good, set up a load of stations for different people and let them age with the audience. right now for example there is almost nowhere to hear 60s music on the BBC. you know, that obscure decade nobody cares for or remembers any more.

Which is odd as the oldies stations growing up concentrated on the 50s & 60s then eventually added the 70s then the 50s was dropped and the 80s added..

Sounds of the Sixties, radio 2, er 6am on Saturdays (and on Sounds if, like me, 6am Saturdays is inconvenient)

(i wonder if TB keeps up the pretence that the show is an lp with two sides?)

that's the show I was thinking of

looking at the listings it's a very mixed bag. a lot of the sixties feels like the end of the fifties...

My Dad & I listened to sounds of the 60s via sounds app on alexa the other day. Lots of sweet soul music.

Sounds of the Sixties has now been going four times as long as the sixties themselves, I'm suprised there's anything left to play. Last time I heard it about 20 years ago Brian Matthew had started to include TV theme tunes. Perhaps soon even actual sounds: football rattles, steam trains, a Ford Prefect reversing...

There's lots of people who enjoy it still.

btw this is a good site for telling you a full list of what's been played on all the radio stations.

Here's the 6 music one

https://onlineradiobox.com/uk/bbcradio6/playlist/

oh no, 6music is ilmmusic Robyn is playing.
https://i.imgur.com/fEKIQzg.jpg

Sounds of the Sixties has now been going four times as long as the sixties themselves, I'm suprised there's anything left to play. Last time I heard it about 20 years ago Brian Matthew had started to include TV theme tunes. Perhaps soon even actual sounds: football rattles, steam trains, a Ford Prefect reversing...

tbf if this was how it worked Sounds Of The Sixties could now be playing yé yé, Caetano Veloso and enka music. I'd tune in!

If I was in charge of 6 music I would have them do a show that is just old tv theme tunes, also I would bring back 'The Organist Entertains'

https://www.tiktok.com/search?q=the%20organist%20encores&t=1680685175927

there are some pretty good viewing figures here, someone should get Nigel Ogden to set up a tiktok

They could bring Ted Heath back from the dead to present it.

he can be prime minister too while we're at it

I liked Sounds of the Sixties a lot when it was, as I recall, 8-10am. Gave up when it moved earlier, and don't really need Blackburn.

re Alba's comment, I think it's supported by the fact that the population - and certainly the population that thinks of itself as liking popular music - is ageing. Given demographic change, the notion of shunning the over-40s, over-50s, over-60s or whoever as an embarrassment doesn't make sense.

6music has never been perfect, from my POV it has always contained dross (Keaveney, 'Huey') along with things I quite liked (Craig Charles on Saturday evening, used to listen quite often), things that are frequent and adequate (Laverne), and some things that were actively good and valued (Coe). From my POV the latest changes are moving in a bad direction (less Coe) and the station will become much less a part of my life. Presumably someone at the BBC knows what they're doing and they don't need people like me.

My last comment was pretty ill phrased - '6music has never been perfect' a pretty poor statement, for whoever said it was?

My main point really is that for some of us, Coe has long been the best thing about the station, so cutting back on him means shedding a lot of listeners, presumably with the aim of replacing them (us) with younger ones.

The BBC Trust used to put out reports every five years that gave you some indication of the demographics of the radion stations. Since the Trust was dissolved, it seems very difficult to find publically available information on age of the listeners. I guess if you're a RAJAR subscriber you could see the data. The old BBC Trust reports seem to show the 6 Music audience ageing faster than the general population. Interesting, back in 2009, the Trust said both it and Radio 2 should particuarly look to serve needs of older listeners.

Thanks Alba. Typical of you to bring the facts.

6music clearly now doing the opposite of what they were then advised to do.

I do think much more generally than 6music that "chasing a younger audience" is a dubious strategy in practical as well as ethical terms, for the reasons given. The older audiences are more loyal to the old medium (radio more than podcast, tiktok or whatever; newspaper rather than online news; paying the licence fee rather than not; etc), and given current demographics they are not going to disappear as quickly as older generations once did.

Publically, radion - not bringing the language

I heard Coe talking about the changes on hiw show last night (see, I do listen to it!), and he sounded shall we say less than ecstatic about them, while retaining his dignity. He did say that he had done his dream job for 16yrs and not many people get those sort of chances, which is a philosophical way of looking at things.

pinefox the BBC considers your demographic to aready be "super served" by BBC Radio I'm afraid.

Commercial stations have the luxury of appealing to whatever demographic they think will attract advertisers, which tends to be older listeners with disposable income. An extremely serendipitous byproduct of going after older listeners is that 1) they grew up with a radio habit 2) they are not constantly on Tiktok and Snapchat.

The BBC doesn't have this luxury, apart from the stations that are explicitly set up for older listeners eg R2, R3, R4, er, 4Extra (there are actually quite a lot)! The BBC is supposed to try to reach everybody, which includes young people. I guess you could say they're served by R1 and 1Xtra, but that doesn't really cover all the things younger listeners might want, so the BBC tries to reach them in a number of other ways - with podcasts, with certain shows on R4, etc and yes, certain shows on 6M.

Alba I think those old service licenses from the Trust got kind of merged into one mega-license held by Ofcom, which is a bit less prescriptive but still has stuff about minimum hours of news and speech etc:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/107072/bbc-operating-licence.pdf

No demographic data in that though?

@BBC6Music Such an incredibly myopic strategy. Kids won’t want what you serve, as they never have on your music radio — your managements tried so often and failed to capture “youth”. Stop repeating the pattern. Let older people & outliers who still centre music have @bbc6music.

— Chris Thorpe-Tracey (@christt) April 6, 2023

What are typical Coe bands? Used to think his GLR show with Fi Glover was fantastic to wake up to ... but for some reason have never tuned in to his 6Music show.

(6Music has never really landed with me, for some reason).

FWIW, djh, two things about Coe are

a) he is the only DJ on radio who plays C86 [as in eg: original bands that were on C86, or bands that were around or could have been on it, or C86 type people who are still going now] - almost literally seems the only one who even remembers or cares what it was or is;

b) he plays reggae very regularly.

Neither of those things is for everyone, perhaps they're both niche.

I've just been listening to this programme from last week - but NB this tracklisting is NOT correct:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001kd0y

- and I actually came back here to say: the BBC could avoid so angering all the people who don't like this change, just by putting, say, 500 hours of old Coe programmes on BBC Sounds in perpetuity. Many people would be content enough just to go back and play them again. Perhaps there are technical or financial reasons they can't do that. Or perhaps they just don't want to create something that competes with the inferior new replacement programmes.

I broadly agree with Alba's tweeter, and again note that the population is ageing, so 'older listeners' are no longer a feeble minority who should be swept away or given an hour of Vera Lynn a week, but must increasingly be most of the audience; so wilfully alienating them doesn't seem rational.

Said tweeter goes on to have a dramatic exchange with a 6music staffer.

Well, I trust my source Tom and you don’t appear to be an insider by your bio — but you’ll note I was careful to include the possibility it was wrong in the original tweet.

— C J Thorpe-Tracey (@christt) April 6, 2023

I've still to read that c86 book.

The BBC only has rights to the songs it plays on the radio for 30 days after the transmission date. So any programme with music in it expires after a month.

I really am amazed at this idea that 6 Music is "too young", or angling that way. Let's look at today's schedule: Lauren Laverne starts things off with a playlist that includes Pavement, Ian Dury, Nick Cave, Moby, Nina Simone, The Specials, St Etienne, etc etc. Lauren herself first came to fame in an indie band that broke up 25 years ago.

Mid-morning we get Mary Anne Hobbs, always a little more dancey and forward thinking than Lauren, but she still finds space for The Fall, Beastie Boys, Four Tet, The National, Feist, Radiohead, etc. All pretty squarely aimed at the millennial and Gen X cognoscenti. About half the playlist became famous 20 years ago at least.

Afternoon we see Chris Hawkins sitting in for Craig Charles. Almost boomer territory here. Prince, Patti Smith, Sugarhill Gang, The Smiths, Cocteau Twins. An interview with The The!

As I type this Huw Stephens (formerly Radio 1) is sitting in for Steve Lamacq. Playlist includes Pavement, Japan, PJ Harvey, The National, Hole, Daft Punk, Eddie Grant, R.E.M.

I could go on. The idea that 6 Music is forgetting about older listeners just doesn't feel like it holds up. If the beef is that not enough specifically C86 music gets played, well, fair enough. Despite this post I don't actually know the schedule well enough to know how true that is, but you're probably right that it's a niche thing in 2023. And yeah, probably not tons of reggae. But pinefox if you want to hear reggae, 1Xtra has some fantastic reggae shows! Rodigan does two hours of it every Sunday! More here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/category/music-soulandreggae?sort=popular

I think a lot of this is a hangover from when 6music was launched as a station for "new music" (however you unpack that)

Epic trolling, Tracer.

Tracer: personally I haven't said that 6music is 'too young' at all. I think it has been, for some time, roughly as you describe.

The question, I think, is about trajectory and what is changing. Apparently it is aiming to attract younger listeners, and this seems to mean younger DJs. Maybe it will mean younger artists played also.

So this is a distinction between 6music past and future.

As far as I can see the tweeter quoted by Alba wasn't necessarily saying much different from that, though they're sounding more polemical than me.

I thought there would be a technical or legal reason that programmes could not be retained online for long, as you note. (Though tons of things are on eg iPlayer for ages that *contain* music - but that must be another matter.)

Another question on which I started to reflect was about the relation between audience and presenter ie: how far does the latter have to resemble the former, to be accepted by it? It seems that this is itself something that has changed. I think there is a kernel of truth in the idea that 'the audience will identify with someone who's like them'. But it's also true that eg: 35 years ago, John Peel was quite a lot older than most of his listeners - the ones who taped The Wedding Present off his programme and voted in the Festive 50 - and his difference from them wasn't seen as a disadvantage. He was 'avuncular' or a 'reassuring wise old head'. Maybe that category of appeal to youth is one that has gone.

Another odd instance: about 15 years ago (?) when Jonathan Ross behaved dreadfully and was taken on air, much talk was that 'The BBC needs Ross to appeal to its youth audience'.

As some people pointed out, he was already in his 50s!

It might even be that young vs old is not the most helpful frame (though it is easy to perceive and it's somewhat logical to use it). There are lots of older people on 6music I don't like. And I'm not going to say that we need to campaign to preserve Steve Lamacq - who for me mainly has comedy value only. Nor Hobbs, whom I don't like, let alone 'Huey' - etc etc.

In my own case it's mainly that I happen to value Coe, and I think when you have a good thing, removing it is a bad idea. In a way the question is no more complicated than that, from my own particular POV.

+ Tracer: I wouldn't dare to say that not enough C86 music (even broadly defined) gets played. It's a niche. It's not as if I think I can demand that Laverne, Charles or others must play it (they wouldn't).

It's more that when I do hear Coe play it, in some form or other, I feel somewhat contented and comforted, to think that the BBC does, despite everything, still serve people who like this music.

Clearly it's moving away from that. Presumably it will say it needs to appeal to other people. Fair enough. By the same token, it will no longer appeal to me.

Last night I was thinking something like: "Pinefox, you've posted all these posts to an ILX thread about 6music, and got into discussions about audiences, which were beside the point in a way, because all you meant to say was that you liked Coe's programme -- and do you even like it that much? You haven't listened to him from the start, you only started a few years ago, you don't listen to him every night or all of every programme, and he sometimes plays things you don't like ... maybe this whole campaign is OTT at best".

Then I actually turned on Coe, live, halfway through, and heard the usual mix of music, much more diverse than I would usually hear from other sources: African pop, Latin music, reggae, electronic music, rock & roll, blues, folk-rock, some tremendous old acoustic folk ... and amid this, remarkably, a song by 1,000 Violins which, despite knowing this band better than most people would, I had never heard before. It was delightful to hear it: a very average 12-string riff in C much like something I've come up with myself, an old BBC session track. An old 1,000 Violins session - I wouldn't even hear that by listening to my own music collection, let alone anywhere else on radio. It segued into an acoustic, atmospheric track, driven by ukelele, that sounded curiously like Magnetic Fields, and after a while I started singing a random Merritt vocal over the top. Then after a while it turned out it *was* Merritt, with a solo track I'd not heard in a decade and, again, wouldn't have heard again even by delving into my own music unless I'd deliberately delved quite far. This also was marvellous.

I concluded that I had not really overrated Coe's programme, that it's by far the best popular music programme on the BBC in any format, it's a public service, and they're wrong to cut it.

Do you listen to any of the other shows?

Sometimes. Over the years, quite a lot.

I used to play Craig Charles' Saturday night soul / funk programme regularly but have got out of the habit (I assume it's still going).

African pop, Latin music, reggae, electronic music, rock & roll, blues, folk-rock, some tremendous old acoustic folk

I will say that sounds like Giles Peterson's show as well, though perhaps with less folk.

gideon coe, i've never heard, but he's been very generous with his airplay to friends of mine in bands / with record labels

Gideon Coe is a sweetheart and plays a wonderful variety of stuff, I unfailingly catchup with his show first thing as my work morning ritual. I honestly don't think its really a question of the vintage of music 6 music plays in general so much as blandness and dearth of invention? the playlist dominates during the day and is frequently deathly, and the old stuff they'll play seems to be similarly reaching for the same worn out, uh, classics. The irony of axing Marc Riley's show is he plays overwhelmingly the newest and most youthful bands (albeit quite a narrow furrow) and god help them, they all love him cos he played in the fall...

... which means he knows their life more than most.

Riley / Coe are still playing some of the most interesting stuff you'll find on the station, new and old. though Riley's post punk bent is probably going out of fashion even among nostalgists and maybe it's pushing luck to have a teatime radio show that might play the Fire Engines in 2023.

the "new music fix" sounds incredibly cringe and with no individual stamp on it there's sure to be daytime playlist creep (more of the blandest part of the station by far). "the best new music" has always felt like such a lame attempt to get down, esp in an era where music from every decade is getting rediscovered and repurposed by the Kids on tiktok. look son I've got the newest music on my MP3!!

unfortunately the optics + mini Craig Charles dummy spit from retrograde elements of the listener base will probably have a lot of casual listeners believing that this is a necessary freshen up / diversifying clear out of the male pale and stale rather than a blandening and narrowing step. feels like a decision made on paper.

Not really invested in 6Music but the lack of sensitivity in dealing with Coe’s move just days after his father’s death stinks.

Woke up this morning to give my dad his tablets and I told alexa to play 6music and Funkadelic - Standing On The Verge Of Getting It on was playing. Happy days!

Then sadly they went and spoiled it all by playing something stupid like Where's Me Jumper by Sultans Of Ping F.C.

That was cited as a 6music staple (I think) in the 3rd post on this thread.

Agree with koogs that Coe is supportive to various musicians who can't make a living from music. Perhaps to a fault, perhaps too loyal to the same old names.

Agree very much with cw's post.

Agree with verhexen who is quite right about 'new music' and to say that bad decisions making the station worse will be obscured by misleading publicity that will make people think it's getting better.

I don't know the Fire Engines but Coe the other night played a quite good track that turned out to be by a band from Fast Product 40 years ago who had just reformed and made their first LP.

Agree with Dan Worsley about the personal aspect.

Nice discussion. Don't care about 6Music but imagine this:

"Keep Steve Lamacq till he's 80."

The way the country is going I can see it.

Going to assume that Lamacq consistently pulls in listeners and might be the most popular show?

Disaster if so. I assume it's someone like Laverne.

Of the residual old guard, Coe's my favourite and Lamacq's easily my most bad and hated: the one show I simply cannot bear to listen to. (It was the same with daytime Radcliffe and Keaveny, and I've basically been on board with all the other recent major changes until this one.)

I never listen to the radio but, among Radio 6 listeners I know, Coe seems to be the go to guy.

... I'm more familiar with his dad tbh!

The day they shift Cerys Matthews from Sunday mornings is when I'll get outraged. (Apparently, it's the "biggest single show on Radio 6, and the most listened to digital show in the UK" so I guess she's safe.)

Would venture that she probably plays more records from the 1920s than anyone else on the BBC right now.

ok that makes me want to check her show out!

Her show is a wonder. It's given me so much pleasure over the years. Sure, it's geared towards Sunday morning and errs on the gentler side (a plus for me tbh), but she ventures more widely around the world and through time than 99% of anything else that's ever been on the radio.

ILM fave O Superman is being played right now.

re Matthews: Not having listened much for years, I think what she does with musical diversity, and even other sounds and literature? - is creditable. I just don't much enjoy her own voice and persona. I once heard her interview the Irish Ambassador, which was quite exciting for me as I'd met him myself. And coincidentally I saw him on the 10 o'clock news last night.

Tom D: I know nothing about Tony Coe, but he died recently and I think Coe played an hour of records he'd been on. (I think the news of cutting Coe's programme came about 3 days later.)

re Lamacq, I wouldn't choose to listen to him, but I think his continued existence has comedy value. He will still have features like "listeners recommend underrated records from the 1990s", giving him a chance to play Kingmaker and Senseless Things. Music that didn't sound good when we were 19.

Oddly I couldn't bear Keaveney, finding his voice, delivery, persona unbearable, yet many people seemed to like him a lot.

Last night Coe stated that his programme will end on 11th May. Sooner that I'd imagined. It was a sad moment.

something we can all agree on then: Keaveney is/was terrible

Good to hear!

I didn't like Keaveney's voice much either.

For a long time I thought he was Vernon Kay. Then I saw a photo and thought he was Chris Moyles. My mine has never quite settled on a coherent conception of Shaun Keaveny. No need now.

Cerys Matthews' show is a delight. I don't really understand why her persona rubs some people up the wrong way. I think someone said they find it too homely or something? I love home I do.

I think it's a bit "I'm just swept away by all of this wonderful music" which is admirable but starts to grate after a while, same deal but even more so with Mary Anne Hobbs.

Alba, I share this sense of Keaveney. I thought he was young and looked like Kay. Then when I saw a picture, he looked older than he should have done. I find his delivery of speech intolerable.

(I have always hated Moyles so much, including at a time when people were saying, for some reason, that he was the most talented new broadcaster in the country. Dire.)

re Matthews, for me it's not 'homely' but it could be a certain kind of 'twee' (not the C86 kind fwiw), which includes tentativeness and often not quite knowing what she's talking about. But I don't thus mean to knock her music content - I can believe it's worthy.

Tend to agree with poster Camaraderie. There is something fake, or if not fake at least grating for this listener, about Hobbs' breathy yet also slowly ecstatic sense of wonder.

Prefer covid to keaveney tbh

In a way it’s remarkable that anything that boring and low energy could also be so irritating

I think it's a bit "I'm just swept away by all of this wonderful music" which is admirable but starts to grate after a while, same deal but even more so with Mary Anne Hobbs.

I don't think I've heard gideon coe ever

seeing a potential audience here for creating a radio show with me saying between the songs that the music I'm playing is nothing that special really and there's no reason for anyone to get so excited

The anti-Zane Lowe

xp this was kind of John Peel's style? I mean, not really, because he was obviously enthusiastic about what he played, but he had that ironic, deflating tone, can't imagine him earnestly enthusing about his swept away by music, or at least only in an arch, indirect way.

I remember watching repeats of Revolver when I was a teenager, and I liked the way Peter Cook would slag off the music (which he genuinely disliked, apparently), I think DJs who openly loathe the records they're playing is the way to go.

The delating style was used by the dire Keaveney, and I think by Ravenscroft who plays on how monotone his voice is.

I think it's a bit "I'm just swept away by all of this wonderful music" which is admirable but starts to grate after a while, same deal but even more so with Mary Anne Hobbs.

― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Thursday, 13 April 2023 10:50 (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

some of the presenters on radio 3's 'eclectic' shows do something like this as well, and it seems to be creeping into the straight classical stuff as well, it annoys me but in a way where I worry that maybe I'm the one with the problem, particularly because it mainly seems to be women who adopt this style. But why are they trying so hard to convince me that they really love this music? It feels like someone trying to sell you something. I want the music to be introduced by a stern, formal academic type ideally.

stuart maconie does introduce music as if it were an open university module, but it's absolutely a bit

affecting indifference to downplay one's emotional connection to music def a traditionally male strategy yes. I do find breathless enthusiasm makes me cringe often but that's my problem. there's space for both I guess.

I don't think this is enthusiasm vs non-enthusiasm.

Laverne is enthusiastic and I don't mind her. Charles is enthusiastic about his soul and funk and that seems natural.

I just think it's particular tones. I think Alba was exactly right in saying that Hobbs sounds phoney even though she might not even be phoney.

Stuart Maconie: C or D?

So, did you ever like him? Still like him? Never liked him? Is there anyone else who's similarly annoying?

― John Davey, Thursday, July 5, 2001 bookmarkflaglink

I never heard of that son of a bitch!
― Mike Hanle y, Thursday, July 5, 2001

Good times.

are there any prominent male DJs who do the Mary Anne Hobbes awed wonder thing? Zane Lowe was mentioned above, and was relentlessly positive, but as far as I remember he didn't have the breathy wonder thing, he was too bouncy and yappy, like a hype-man or youtube vlogger. Not a DJ, but I guess this is Brian Cox's style in his documentaries?

the only time I find this style of presenting tolerable is when Mary Anne Hobbs does it, but I think that's mainly because of nostalgia

Hobbs’s enthusiasm strikes me as genuine (and infectious) but she does have an odd way of speaking, she sounds like she is constantly smiling
Keaveney is the nadir of a strategy I think of as “deliberate partridge” where you play up the banality of your chat. With afternoon djs this often goes along with spending 10-15 minutes on regular segments where the main joke is meant to be that the segments are bad. The problem is a) these ppl are never funny and b) irony is a useful tool for a skilled presenter but a disastrous shield for a bad one

Jack Saunders (whose name I had to Google) does the Mary Anne Hobbs thing. I only know him from presenting Glastonbury, never heard him anywhere else, but he's intolerable.

Good post from wins, agree about both Hobbs' permanent smile and Keaveney's way of being bad.

Hobbs has a maddening habit of using the wrong words too, she said something was "extrapolated" from an album yesterday when I think she meant "extracted"

(I'm clearly revealing the fact I listen to 6Music far too much, as well as being a terrible pedant)

I don't mind the enthusiasm when it's about the music, it's more when it's about 'my wonderful life' doing club shows and meeting "you lot" and "phone me about your awesome weekend" stuff.

You've just reminded me of the 10 worst words in the English language: "Amy Lamé is sitting in for Cerys Matthews this week"

Amusing !!

x-posts. I recall Peel playing the Echo and the Bunnymen version of "People Are Strange" and saying something like "That's a very collectable record. In fact, it's going straight to the second-hand record shop."

Just heard Cerys Matthews on radio. While not so keen on her, I can see how the eclectic roots music - blues, Trinidad folk, Cuban, Irish - is valued by listeners.

Stew's take

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/16/britain-is-a-dying-nation-in-need-of-new-curators

I quite like Lee's article, and it's nice to see public support for some good things, but I don't think his description of 6music or the role of those particular programmes is especially accurate.

cleeve hill represent

Jack Saunders' 'Glasto' presenting outfit was really something
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWHpH10UUAIsSlP.jpg

oh that guy

The Leys School, Cambridge

Board & Tuition (From September 2022)
YEAR 9 TO SIXTH FORM
Boarders £37,740 per year £12,580 per term
Home Boarders £28,395 per year £9,465 per term
Day Pupils £25,260 per year £8,420 per term

YEAR 7 AND 8
Boarders £27,525 per year £9,175 per term
Day Pupils £18,240 per year £6,080 per term

Yeah, that's the guy. Completely vile. He's not yet on 6music, to be fair, but as the host of "Radio 1's Indie Show", he'll be heading that way in the end.

Oh shit, I went to that school!

Ok, so you're presenting Glastonbury soon?

(gotta love threads you can find by searching for a single word, as long as you know that word...)

New to the playlist 🔁 Here's what we will be giving a spin this week, with new music from...

👉 @PJHarveyUK
👉 Gabriels
👉 @SaySheShe
👉 @jungle4eva
👉 + MORE

Listen on @bbcsounds: https://t.co/Bg9I3EPwkD pic.twitter.com/irumoO7M48

— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) June 19, 2023

Nitin Sawnhey hacking the playlist by working with that one bloke

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0ftp7pt

The Rise and Fall of Britpop

Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq document the rise and fall of Britpop. Celebrating Blur, Oasis, Pulp and more with fresh interviews and unheard personal archive.

yeah, listened to it. it is exactly what you would expect.

christ

Trenchant

This analogy from Steve Lamacq on Blur vs Oasis is 🤯

Listen to The Rise and Fall of Britpop now on @BBCSounds https://t.co/nSVCi3wavk pic.twitter.com/8xn5Kt3Kro

— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) July 13, 2023

Thank god for that

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/steve-lamacq-bbc-6-music-quit-b2403761.html

Best news I've read all week (probably). The one current 6 Music show above all others that I absolutely cannot bear listening to.

I wonder how his family feel about it

I like Huw Stephens!

"Today is Steve (Lamacq)'s final daily weekday programme after 20 years on 6 Music."

Only just discovered that 6 Music has been scrobbling to last.fm since 2004. Kind of great to see what their all-time most played tracks are etc.

https://www.last.fm/user/bbc6music

Can also see every bloody instance of them playing Debaser

https://www.last.fm/user/bbc6music/library/music/Pixies/_/Debaser?date_preset=ALL

one woman, no black artists in the top 20 (stevie wonder at 21)

i'm seeing css, pixies, elastica, portishead in the top 10 of "all time", all of which are female fronted. and curtis mayfield at number 4.

1 Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above
CSS

2 Spinning Rock Boogie
Hank C. Burnette

3 Love Will Tear Us Apart
Joy Division

4 Move On Up
Curtis Mayfield

5 Waking Up
Elastica

6 Debaser
Pixies

7 A-Punk
Vampire Weekend

8 Time to Pretend
MGMT

9 Kids
MGMT

10 Glory Box
Portishead

Spinning Rock Boogie seems like a bit of an outlier. Is that used on a feature or something?

Apparently Steve Lamacq's play-out tune

https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mb6music/NF14107994?thread=7347589

i'm seeing css, pixies, elastica, portishead in the top 10 of "all time", 

I was looking at artists, not artists of top tracks.

I looked at the last four years in case they got more woke - yeah it's a bit better.

changes at 6 Music

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2025/radio-6-music-daytime-schedule/

Nick and Lauren's new programmes will begin in February, while Mary Anne Hobbs will return later in the spring with a new show

Lauren Laverne joined Nick Grimshaw on the BBC Radio 6 Music Breakfast Show (weekdays 7.30am-10.30am) to announce that she has decided to step down after six years of presenting the programme, and that Nick will be the new presenter of the 6 Music Breakfast Show.

Lauren also announced that she would be returning to mid-mornings, presenting a new weekday programme, which will feature Lauren’s much-loved regular features including Desert Island Disco and People’s Playlist, as well as live sessions. Mary Anne Hobbs will be taking a sabbatical and will return to 6 Music later in the spring with a new show.

Nick and Lauren’s new programmes will begin in February. Nemone will present the Breakfast Show in the interim, from Monday 13 January.

Lauren says: “As listeners will know, I had a really tough 2024 and worried at times that I wouldn’t be able to return to the station I love so much. It has been a huge honour (and so much fun) to host the Breakfast Show for six wonderful years, but it is time to pass the baton on, and to set my alarm a little later. During my recovery I learned all over again about the power of music, the people you surround yourself with and the emotional support and joy radio can provide. I’m so grateful to be able to get back to doing what I love and sharing those things with our brilliant listeners every day.”

Samantha Moy, Head of BBC Radio 6 Music says: “It really is wonderful news that Lauren is feeling better and is ready to return to 6 Music. Like our listeners, we have missed her enormously and we can’t wait to have her back on air.”

Nick says: “I’ve had the greatest four months covering for Lauren and I can’t wait to continue waking you up on 6 Music. I want to say thank you to the listeners who’ve made me feel so welcome over the past few months and to Lauren’s fantastic team who have been imperative in making me so happy on air. 6 Music is a precious place, a station I love, I’m honestly honoured to be asked to work there and can’t wait to continue supplying the best new music from the world’s most interesting artists."

Samantha Moy says: “Since the summertime, Nick has hosted our Breakfast show and it’s been clear how much our listeners have taken him into their homes and hearts. He is one of the finest broadcasters of his generation and we are thrilled that he is going to become the brand new presenter of the 6 Music Breakfast show.”

Mary Anne says: “My agenda has been to change daytime radio at 6 Music. It was David Bowie who taught me that creative life is progression. Once the work is complete... stand at the edge of everything you know and ask a different question. I'd like to thank every artist whose music and ideas have illuminated the show. I'd like to thank my production team, my Queens, Jax Coombes and Zoe Mullord. And of course, I want to send boundless love to my listeners, my family, thank you for sharing your invaluable time with me, it’s been a joy and a privilege to live with you. My daytime show will end in February, and I'll return to 6 Music later this spring with something new... come with me.”

Samantha Moy says: “Mary Anne is the very best of us at 6 Music. As well as a DJ, she is a lover of art, the seeker of unheard sounds, fierce advocate, generous mentor and true friend. Mary Anne is a sheer force of nature, compelled to share her passion for music - in all of its forms - with the world. At 6 Music we are richer for it and we look forward to our wild horse’s return later this year.”

With a reach of 2.7 million listeners (Rajar Q3, 2024), 6 Music is the UK’s biggest digital-only radio station.

It was David Bowie who taught me that creative life is progression.

"now here's Supergrass"

sucks because i like Lauren a lot more than nick, both in presenting style and music choices, and I never listen mid-morning as am at work

Ditto on Lauren >> Nick, but for me a mid-morning Lauren will work better, and I've not been enjoying Mary Anne much recently: I commend her for eschewing the comfortable, but I don't want that level of discomfort before lunch either!

I like/love MAH's music choices but cannot deal with her breathless awe at any time of the day or night.

I'm more a John Peel radio program listener. 6 radio scope is pretty narrow in my opinion.

Not that I listen much but weekend shows > weekdays

So, some reflections on the changes at 6 Music:

I am predicting Mary Anne Hobbs will get a new slot, 11pm - 1am Monday - Thursdays

4 Nights a week, to shake up late night music radio in the UK.

The Show will focus on New Releases & Emerging Artists with Mary Anne's unique twist.

Music policy will be very diverse, rock, electronic, art pop, modern classical, hardcore rock, metal, techno and house, dub, reggae, hip hop, darkwave, afrobeats, uk bass, grime, jungle etc

There will guest mix dj slots to end the show.

There will be interviews with artists, bands and djs.

One show each week there would be 1 hour slots where djs, music writers with specialist knowledge will co present with mary anne hobbs where they would recommend new tracks.

listener recommendations would also be encouraged to create a listener community based show.

An ideal name from the New Show is "Night Time" with Mary Anne Hobbs, in honour of Killing Joke. Honour the Fire.

I will always rep for MAH for breathlessly describing me as a “young Bristol producer” after playing one of my tunes, despite being in my early 30s at the time and having recently sprouted my first grey hairs. Looking forward to what she does next.

from Mary Anne Hobbs bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/maryannehobbs.bsky.social/post/3lfchhzj4222h

bbc6 is good again

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0026kbh

6 Music's Forever Dark
6 Music takes you to the dark side with a playlist featuring the finest goth, electronic and dark pop tracks around.

that said, those episodes are part of the 80s, 90s, 00s thing they did in January and i don't know if it'll be ongoing. and if so they should concentrate on the 80s. i like that the tracks aren't all classic Goth (ed rush anyone?) but it could be a lot wider than it is (my usual 6 music criticism)

Ezra Collective, Mogwai and Kae Tempest to headline the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival 2025
https://radiotoday.co.uk/2025/02/ezra-collective-mogwai-and-kae-tempest-to-headline-the-bbc-radio-6-music-festival-2025/

BBC Radio 6 Music announces spring and summer programming
BBC Radio 6 Music reveals a range of upcoming programmes coming to the station this month and beyond
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2025/bbc-radio-6-music-announces-spring-and-summer-programming

only 2 hours per week for Mary Anne Hobbs !

Early June sees the return of Mary Anne Hobbs to 6 Music, who will present a brand new show on Sundays, 6-8pm, from 8th June. Mary Anne’s new programme will be home to a borderless world of music, featuring open conversation with some of the world’s most fascinating artists. Features will include Directors Cut – an invitation to musicians to create a specially extended version of an album track, exclusively for Mary Anne, and End of Days – in which artists select a piece of music for future generations.

Tom Ravenscroft leaves 6 Music

Tom Ravenscroft, who presents New Music Fix Daily with Deb Grant (Mondays – Thursdays, 7-9pm) and The Ravers Hour (Fridays, 11pm-12am) has made the decision to leave 6 Music at the end of May, as he moves on to a new chapter of his life. Tom’s final New Music Fix Daily show will be Thursday 29th May, and his final edition of The Ravers Hour will be Friday 30th May.

Tom says: “Argh man, this is a sad moment. It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to depart 6 Music but pastures new beckon. It’s been a blast, I’ve met so many wonderful people as a result of this job and will be forever grateful. Thanks to all the crew on New Music Fix Daily and Deb for the past two years in Salford, I think we did some cool stuff. Lots of love to the listeners and everyone who has ever sent me music. I will miss it all. Forever yours. Tom.”

Nathan Shepherd

Joining Deb Grant to present New Music Fix Daily from Monday 2nd June (7-9pm) is Nathan Shepherd.

I’ve been interviewed for 6Music about my book, by Craig Charles - it’s been pencilled in for next Wednesday afternoon. I have to say, he was absolutely lovely to talk to - we had a lot of fun doing it.

Tom Ravenscroft leaves 6 Music

Oh, thank fuck.

Aww fab. Will listen in xp

Tom Ravenscroft has a new weekly Rinse FM show 3pm - 5pm on Thursday's


starting today
https://rinse.fm/episodes/tom-ravenscroft-05-06-2025-1500

BBC Radio 6 Music autumn schedule includes Kate Moss and Beth Ditto

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2025/08/bbc-radio-6-music-autumn-schedule-includes-kate-moss-and-beth-ditto/

BBC Radio 6 Music’s autumn schedule features Kate Moss, Beth Ditto, and a new series dedicated to celebrating neurodivergent identity and creativity.

c-cha-changes...

Kate Moss will present Music Uncovered, David Bowie: Changeling, an eight-part podcast exploring Bowie’s artistic evolution between 1970 and 1975.

more info:

Kate Moss and Beth Ditto to present new programmes on BBC Radio 6 Music as autumn schedule revealed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2025/bbc-radio-6-music-kate-moss-and-beth-ditto-autumn-schedule

A new series dedicated to celebrating neurodivergent identity and creativity also features in the autumn 2025 schedule

BBC Radio 6 Music, the UK’s biggest digital-only radio station with 2.6 million listeners each week (RAJAR, Q2 2025), reveals new programmes for autumn 2025:

Kate Moss hosts Music Uncovered, David Bowie: Changeling, a world exclusive, eight-part podcast exploring David Bowie’s artistic evolution between 1970-1975

Beth Ditto joins the 6 Music family with a new series, Indie Forever Disco, and a regular spot on Nick Grimshaw’s Breakfast Show

In a 12-part series titled Grounding, four neurodivergent artists share their lived experiences: composer, DJ and radio host, 6 Music’s AFRODEUTSCHE, author and podcaster Blindboyboatclub, musician, producer and DJ Emma-Jean Thackray and singer, songwriter and musician Gary Numan

6 music really pushing things forward with stunt DJs who were in the zeitgeist 20+ years ago

tbf i guess they know their audience

40+ years in numan's case 8)

neurodivergent identity and creativity among the approved couple of dozen presenters and musicians they have on rotation anyway