Lowe goes; Mac moves up: Radio One shuffles the evening

I never really thought Zane Lowe would stick around long at Radio One. I was wrong - he's been doing what-was-the-evening-session for twelve years now. That's as long as the entire Goodier/Whiley/Lamacq version lasted.

Not bad for a man who until then had been shouting on MTV2 for a living.

He's off now, though, into the wilderness ("to join iTunesU radio").

The good news, though, is that Annie Mac is going to take over the slot - which is an excellent decision.

The handover comes at the end of March.

Bono almost notices his positon

Bono was talking to Zane Lowe:

Bono has suggested that U2 are "on the verge of irrelevance".

He's right, but what he doesn't realise is which side of the verge he's on. To reach irrelevance would be a comeback.

By the way: Zane Lowe? Really? Isn't 'U2 release another album' more a Simon Mayo type of offering?

Glastonbury 2011: Was there a Zane Lowe thing?

Last night, watching Zane Lowe and Lauren Laverne wrap up after Beyonce had finished, it was mildly interesting to see someone on the BBC coverage say something other than "that was fabulous", but it took the Daily Mail to turn Zane Lowe's decision to watch something else into a point of national outrage:

Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe churlishly refused to comment on her set in a discussion with BBC 6 Music presenter Lauren Laverne - and caused outrage on Twitter.

Lauren had been saying why Beyonce was a great pop artist who'd put in a fantastic performance in the true spirit of Glastonbury and asked Lowe his thoughts.

But Lowe mockingly burst out laughing before simply saying rudely: 'I went and watched Queens Of The Stoneage. Here's Kool And The Gang.'

Is that rude? Is it churlish to say 'you know, with there being about seventeen or eighteen different bands playing, I chose to go and see something else; after all, my show on Radio One isn't really the sort of place you'd hear Beyonce so I figured it'd make sense for me to go and see the type of act I play on the radio instead'?

If Fearne Cotton had said something like that, maybe it'd be worth mentioning. Given that she has a contract which only allows her to say that things are "fantastic" and all.

But Zane Lowe having gone to see Queens Of The Stone Age isn't news.

He had been due to continue hosting the aftershow coverage on the channel - but when it became clear that Beyoncé was going to be doing an interview following her set, he made a rather see-through excuse that he had to leave the site.

BBC Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley then stepped in to do the interview with Lauren instead.

Is that true, though, Daily Mail? Of course it isn't. In fact, earlier in the evening, Zane Lowe had been complaining that he'd been told the aftershow interview was going to be an all-woman affair [1 hour 23 minutes in]:

"I just want to clear this up. When I started to talk about doing Glastonbury coverage on Beyonce day, I was told it ... it was going to be all about the ladies. I was like, Goddammit, that's sexist.

So, several hours before Beyonce came on stage, Zane Lowe had made it clear he wasn't going to be part of the interview team. On television. Still, why let the facts cloud a story, eh, Daily Mail?

Mind you, if you believe the subtitles, Lowe wasn't talking about Beyonce at all:

The Mail's picture captions even try to suggest that Lowe wasn't just not watching, but almost that he tried to ruin everyone else's fun:

Lot of love: Despite the likes of Zane Lowe, most people enjoyed Beyoncé's set even if they weren't massive fans

Yeah - I'd be really enjoying this set if I didn't think that at some point after the music is over, a television programme I won't be able to see might contain someone not saying that he enjoyed it in the way I am.

[Part of Glastonbury 2011 full coverage]

Glastonbury 2011: View from the sofa - U2

Strange scheduling on the BBC, who split U2's set across BBC Two and Four. Presumably the thinking here was that U2 were too big not to get live space on BBC Two, but not so big that Jeremy Paxman was going to make way for them. Or maybe the idea of jumping across channels midway was to offer a set-up for an easy I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Is BBC Four Further Up The EPG Than SkyLivingIt+1? gag.

I imagine if you like U2 then you would have been happy with the set they played. After all, if you still like U2 in 2011, you're not going to be overly worried about the actual quality, are you?

Kudos, by the way, to @hungoverdrawn for spotting the autocue.

Let's focus instead on the post-set interview, where the band shuffled in to be grilled by Jo Whiley and Zane Lowe.

Jo, naturally, offered some soft questions delivered in a gentle fashion; Zane also had soft questions, but shouted them into Bono's face. It wasn't so much good cop, bad cop as good cop, good cop (but one with personal space issues).

You wouldn't have expected a roasting, but it seemed slightly odd that neither Jo nor Zane had any curiosity about the protests about U2's tax arrangements that had been focused on their Glastonbury appearance. Instead, Jo trilled about how she loved the way the rain had fallen on Bono's glasses.

Larry Mullen did appear for a long while to have been stuffed; when, eventually, he was brought into the conversation he was at least refreshing. While Bono had bored on about how spiritual everything was, and how brave they'd all been, and that the crowd had made flags specifically for U2, Mullen just grumped. He complained about how wet it all was, and how far away the audience had been from the stage. Neither Zane or Jo made much effort to engage him after that, but I warmed a little bit more to Larry last night.

He'd apparently missed the briefing that U2 playing the festival was to be treated as something akin to Larry Olivier doing a walk-on in Coronation Street, and just grumbled a bit about it. It was like suddenly finding a piece of honest gristle in a circle-jerk soup.

[Part of Glastonbury 2011 full coverage]

Oh, and goodbye MTV2, too

Unlikely to gather quite large enough a crowd for Ed Vaizey to throw his weight behind saving it, but MTV2 is being dumped.

In its place, a new channel called MTV Rocks. No, not in an ironic way.

Zane Lowe has said he's getting out of there as fast as his contract will let him.

BBC: We went U2 far

That eye-watering slew of U2 programming across the BBC back when No Line On The Horizon was released has been ruled as being frankly bloody embarrassing (I paraphrase slightly) by the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit:

The use of the mathematical symbol for identity in the graphic "U2 = BBC" gave an inappropriate impression of endorsement.

A pre-recorded interview between Zane Lowe and Bono of U2 was for the most part appropriate, but a reference to Radio 1 being "part of launching this new album" was not.

It turns out, though, that the ECU is only worried about the detail, and not the way that Bono's face loomed out of every screen and channel for what felt like three years:

Complaints about an edition of Jo Whiley (Radio 1, 27 February 2009) and a News Online report of the U2 concert on the roof of Broadcasting House were not upheld.

It's also worth pointing out that despite this blanket coverage and implied endorsement, U2 still only sold the record in disappointing quantities, so nobody came out of it well.

At the same time, the ECU has ticked off Radio 1 for providing links to ticket websites when promoting Coldplay gigs.

The complaints came from RadioCentre, the commercial radio body, who have probably ensured nothing like the U2 blitz will ever happen on the BBC again. Not quite sure if I ran a commercial radio station I'd be spending my time trying to make the BBC much more attractive, but it's quite generous of them.

Twittergem: Zane Lowe

It's hard to know exactly what the most soul-crushing part of this tweet from @zanelowe is, but I think it might just be "all of it":

Last time I spoke with Ed Vedder, he had just been surfing on the wake of a tanker in Puget Sound. It was impressive

Gordon in the morning: Threads

I think I must have missed this:

LIAM GALLAGHER turned the cagoule from the trainspotter’s choice into a fashion staple for any lad about town.

He did? Cagoules? Are you sure, Gordon?

So I imagine his Pretty Green clothing range will go down well.

Well, if they can still find people to buy Oasis albums, there's a chance.

The OASIS rocker’s designs go on general sale tomorrow, the day after the lads kick off their summer tour with a mega gig at Manchester’s Heaton Park.

"On general sale"? Why, have they been doing special sales only for the fashion-forward? And what exactly does "on general sale" mean?

In this case, it means they've switched the website on as, surprisingly, no shop that actually sells clothes has shown any interest in stocking them:

At the moment Pretty Green is only available online. We plan to launch an exclusive range in the top fashion stores around the world for Autumn / Winter 09. If you are a retail buyer please email us at wholesale@prettygreen.com. The wholesale collection will vary from the site and will include a premium collection.

That's from Liam's trouser website - the "if you'd like to sell my clothes, please email us" doesn't sound that desperate, does it? Besides, all those top fashion stores are on board for winter.

Sorry, Gordon: you were attempting to turn 'man switches on retail website' into a story hefty enough to warrant publication, weren't you?

I wonder whether Liam will set up a stand to hawk his clobber to gig-goers?

No, he won't.

This needs some more padding, doesn't it?

If he did, I’m sure Radio 1 DJ ZANE LOWE would be first in the queue.

Erm.... why?

It turns out that Lowe has said he quite likes Gallagher's music:

The Kiwi has named the frontman as his fave rock star.

Not that Liam has ever been unsure of himself.

He once said: “There’s ELVIS and me. I couldn’t say which of the two is best.”

Is it just me, or is this a bit patchwork? Three disparate elements stapled together in a clumsy way to try and make it seem like it flows? And not quite succeeding? Gordon isn't reporting any more, he's quilting.

10 - 9 - 8 - 7 oh, bugger it, 1

So, at the end of the countdown, at the end of the Zane Lowe show, it boils down to this:



That's Mercury, the new single from Bloc Party. Official video and everything.

Bloc-headed?

So, that big countdown on the Bloc Party website was leading up to... the announcement of an appearance on tonight's Zane Lowe show.

The NME reports that people are upset:

Fans have e-mailed NME.COM to voice their displeasure at the stunt. It was speculated that Bloc Party may give away new music when the countdown reached zero.

And where might they have got this idea? Stories like NME.com's "Bloc Party to release new music tomorrow?", by any chance?

Glaston the box: Day two, evening

Given the between songs stuff which the BBC have left in during the Winehouse set, you have to wonder what the hell they've been axing when you get a very obvious jump cut from song to song.

Much of the between tracks bits we've seen have been attempts to raise the status of jailed thug Blake to some sort of national hero - when the audience tried to object, Winehouse lectured them about "being rude". We're treated to a rambling reminiscence about how they met - "he hit me over the head with a cricket bat" she reveals, before realising that with his reputation, it's probably best to point out that this wasn't literal.

She's almost gone over a couple of times, too - once neatly saved by a backing dancer. You wonder if they're actually trained doctors, too; the insurance bill would be greatly reduced if the help is on stage rather than in the wings.

And is it worth it, this performance? Not really. Even if you didn't care for what she did, you couldn't deny that she did it well, but this version of her is more a demonstration of what she had. A Joe Longthorne version of Amy Winehouse. Sure, it's unquestionably a bloody impressive for a woman who was at death's door (or at least up the same street) this time last week - but that makes it sadder. Do we really need a spectacle of a woman apparently risking her life, and certainly teetering on the edge of disaster, to warm us up for Jay-Z?

She's dancing like a nervous geologist passing a particularly persistent parasite, too.

Winehouse has kicked off BBC Two's coverage for the evening, where things are helmed by Laverne and Radcliffe and, erm, an introduction where Andrew Marr suggests we take lots of underpants to Pilton.

Back over on BBC Three, earlier, we leaped into the middle of what we thought at first was an interview with someone from a previous series of Big Brother. Suddenly, we realised it wasn't - quite - but instead was Will Young. Even Young might have been surprised at how much screen time he got, indulging with Bowman in the creation of what a straight man might imagine a gay man's fantasy world to be. Something about Jay-Z being supported by Dale Winton, since you ask.

More surprising, though, was Zane Lowe's fawning in the face of Will, praising him as a "credible artist". It turns out that they were waiting for Hot Chip to take the stage, and so we were watching a bobbing boat clinging to a giant Will Young flotation device. We say this often, we say this each year, but: why not just slap on some recorded music in the lulls between live stuff?

Damn, though: it's spooky how close to Edwyn Collins Reggie Youngblood sometimes sounds.

[Parts of this post have been made possible through the generous assistance of the Mr Copper Foundation; part of Glastonbury 2008]

Glastobox: Watching from a safe distance

Were The Feeling doing I Thought It Was Over live? Really live? It didn't sound like it was coming from a stage in a unseasonally autumnal field.

BBC Three is currently being anchored by Edith Bowman and Zane Lowe - Lowe, surely, must be wondering if he's ever going to get any work from the BBC besides festivals and the Evening Session slot by now. Clearly, the City Of Domes that is modern Radio One means he can't do that forever, and it looks like he's attempting to slightly reposition himself enough to open some other lines of employment. Calmer, controlled, almost suave. But he's never going to get a National Lottery themed gameshow, is he?

Bowman is laughing like a tractor sinking into a slurry tank; Rufus Hound is filling up acres of air time with those pointless roving reports that they seem to think are integral to the programme - Hound does 'em well, but it doesn't alter the fact the reason why most of us are watching on TV is we don't want to spend time with the sort of eccentrically-behatted types who clutter up the campsites like a wacky invading army, so we really don't want to hear what they have to say. Especially when, as the woman who was just on, it's "I have a different outfit each day, pink yesterday, multi-colour today... these are my friends from London, but I see them most weekends despite coming from..." Where? Wales? Scotland? Spain? Nope... "... Kent." Not all the way from Kent to London, a distance of less than no miles.

Lupe Fiasco has, somewhat optimistically, encouraged people to sing along "if you know the words." The audience tried, but thought the words were "polite cheer".

Edith and Zane are trying to talk up the Jay-Z set - "word has definitely got to him about the reaction to his set" suggests Zane, letting us into the secret we wouldn't have heard unless we had ears or eyes of some sort.

Editors were pretty good - you can see why people peg them as a bit like Coldplay - they even have the same wet beards, but it's like comparing a microwave curry with the proper deal in a restuarant. Yes, there's a sense of the flavours being similar, but only one offers a real experience of textures, and surprises, and satisfaction.

This year's entertainment value has been increased greatly by adding the Guardian's Great Lyrics booklets, allowing countless rounds of 'One song to the tune of another'.

[Part of Glastonbury 2008]

One gets shaken

Radio One is about to embark on a fairly large schedule shake-up, most notable for granting Chris Moyles an extra two and a half hours a week - or, in other words, time enough for him to play two extra records. They're now starting the show at 6.30 in the morning, and while we'd have imagined three hours of Moyles a day was enough for any man, the audience seems to eat it up, so this is presumably a ratings-driven initiative.

The extra half-hour for Moyles is being shaved off the 'early breakfast' show - although now that programme finishes so far before a winter's dawn, it's presumably going to have to change its name. This reduced fiefdom has been granted to Greg James, who's been doing little bits and pieces around the station for a while now. He has, you'll note, perhaps the most local-radio-dj name to have graced Radio One since Mark Page.

That strange arrangement where Zane Lowe's show is opted out of on a Thursday evening in the other nations is ending - now, all of England will be shouted at between session tracks from Albert Hammond Junior four nights a week; the national regions opt-out fandango gets shunted to midnights on Wednesday from where, we imagine, it will quietly disappear sometime after Christmas.

The In New Music We Trust strand is still there, unfortunately. But not part of the brave new world is JK and Joel, whose unloved double-actery is banished not just from early breakfast, but also from the Chart Show.

Before you get too thrilled by the idea of the Top 40 returning to a safe pair of hands, though - or two safe pairs of hands - it's now going to be presented by Fearne and Reggie. We're not sure when Cotton and Yates actually became a double act, but it seems to be fixed now. We're at a lost to the logic of giving the Top 40 slot to a pair who were part of the destruction of Top Of The Pops, mind.

The gap in weekend breakfasts opened by this promotion (they're also going to do a 'requests' show on Saturday afternoons - charts and requests; it's like someone doesn't trust them to pick their own records, isn't it?) is filled by Nihal, which is probably the only good idea in the whole spreadsheet.

Also getting demoted is Vernon Kaye - or, perhaps, "having his Radio One workload reduced in order to free up more time to remake Bullseye". His Sunday morning slot is now going to be taken over by... well, it says Dick and Dom here, but surely that can't be right, can it? Maybe three years ago... but in 2007?

The most horrific detail, though, is left for Sunday nights. Sunday Surgery - the long-running 'don't get the clap, and don't pickle your kidneys' slot is now going to be presented by Kelly Osbourne.

How did that happen? Did Radio One see her pisspoor performance on Project Catwalk and think "we should see if she's as bad presenting live radio as she is at recorded television, where - presumably - they must have reshot some of the pieces, surely?" and then looked around for something she could do? Or did they have a shortlist of likely presenters for the programme, and - after they'd all said 'no' - were reduced to thumbing through the phone directory?

Kelly Osbourne.

[Thanks to James P for the tip]

GlastOn TV

Sweeping The Nation has been watching Glastonbury on the BBC:

[A] lot of message boards seem to be bellyaching about the standard of the presenting but we see no real difference from any other year, and this afternoon Lauren was on rare form like we haven't seen her on prime-time telly for years.

We've also seen a lot of people suggesting that the event is "missing John Peel", but to be honest, we never felt comfortable watching Peel presenting Glastonbury in the past; as he himself would admit, live TV wasn't really his thing and most of his links have off the air of a man who'd much rather have been stood quietly at the back of a tent watching music than throwing to the Stereo MCs set on BBC2.

Back in the present, the Manics turn up and show a hint of what the future might hold for Pete Doherty; the fire in the belly long since replaced with something more showbizzy, working the crowd instead of rousing the rabble. On those terms, the band are right on form at the moment, although watching middle-aged men performing in front of a massive picture of teenage girls in hotpants is a bit of a queasy moment; like some of the reactions to Jonathan in Big Brother, although it's an innocent gesture, it has enough of a creepy air to it to make you wonder if they thought it through.

The Rakes are doing 22 Grand Job, but there's an air of a band whose moment has passed about them. Maybe if there'd been a festival last year, they'd have managed to keep some momentum to build upon; even they seem to have know this is probably a wake.

Oh, look... here come people dressed as animals. It's Mika's set, and alongside the contents of a badly stocked Fancy Dress Store and the inflatable ladies, Mika is bouncing, bouncing, bouncing. He's trying very, very hard. But all the effort is visible, like whatever the opposite of a swan paddling under the water would be - a fish struggling in a net? He's trying to sell a sizzle, but can't disguise there's no steak there.

The Kaiser Chiefs fans seem to perk up the wetter and wetter their heroes get, although that might be because they get wetter as the set goes on, and the longer they play, the closer they get to their decent songs.

Surprisingly, Mark Ronson turns out to be much more fun to watch being interviewed than playing music. As he's talking to Zane Lowe and Edith Bowman (who's wearing her Ermintrude hat right up to the last), you find yourself thinking "this guy is really funny, and charming, and warm. Why don't we like his music?" Then, you swap to a stream where he's murdering The Zutons' Valerie, and you remember.

Glaston TV

BBC Three, then, seem to have had to rely on the delights of Zane Lowe and Edith Bowman to keep themselves afloat. Edith seems to have not been told that The Wurzels have pulled out, to judge by her straw hat/neckerchief combination; Zane Lowe has turned up wearing the same outfit - possibly the very same outfit - he's relied on for every TV appearance: black t-shirt and a shave which might be 'couldn't care less', might be 'grows back bloody quickly'.

How long has Peter Kay been playing drums with Kasabian? Actually, it's only when Ian Matthews looks excited that he turns into a dead ringer for Peter Kay. Kasabian - whose self-imposed target is low - manage to turn in a set that's pretty impressive by their standards; while, paradoxically, Arcade Fire try for something more stretching and, to judge by what the BBC have shown so far, fell a little short.

The Arctic Monkeys set has been interesting - it could actually be cut out of the programming and shown as a stand alone example of the Arctic Monkeys Problem: their flashes of brilliance come wrapped in a large amount of so-so and that'll do padding; watching them playing in real time, without the luxury of a skip button, that gets rammed home. As does the reliance of much of their work on a single sound motif, repeated more than it can stand, like territorial army marching tunes.

Mark Radcliffe's going to be chairing on BBC Four, apparently: wonder if he'll be doing it from the helicopter?

Things we didn't know

How could we be expected to know that Colin Murray, hereafter known as "the indie Adrian John", was a presenter on Channel 4's RISE?

We've never met anyone who watches the beleagured breakfast show, much less knew the name of its presentation team (is it a team? Or some woman they found presenting a second-string Beadle-type show on Sky and a couple of muppets?).

What's really funny is the way that everyone's behaving like Murray is the new presenter, rather than the bloke called in to piss on the fire while they wait for Zane Lowe to drive up in spring.

Evening Shuffle

In a slightly odd decision, Radio one have announced their choice of replacement for Steve Lamacq.

Because they want Zane Lowe to do the show, and he's not available until springtime, for a couple of months the show is going to be in the hands of Colin Murray.

Now, while we've nothing against Murray, we can't work out why Lamacq couldn't have been allowed to carry on until Lowe's XFM contract finished - after all, its not like Steve wanted to leave, and he's not even going from the station anyway. It smacks a little of botch-up to us.