Sparks are about to kick off their UK tour in Glasgow.
 
They’ve shared a new track Check Out Time 11am which was previously available on vinyl only for US Record Store Day last year, a song that came out of the Hippopotamus album sessions but didn’t make it on the final LP.
 
They also just released a coloured double vinyl release of Exotic Creatures Of The Deep last Friday, 10 years after its release on CD and the Sparks spectacular in London where they played 21 albums in 21 nights, one album from their back catalogue in full per night.
 
AND they are part of a Radio 2 documentary The Birth of Sparks – From Beach Boys to Blighty.  Part 1 Sparks on Sunset is being broadcast on May 23rd from 9pm with Katie Puckrik talking to the pair about their formative years growing up on Sunset Strip in the late 1960s. Part 2 Sparks in London will follow on May 30th tracing their move to Britain and role in innovating art school sensibilities with operative spectacle.
 
2017 was a very good year for the brothers, Hippopotamus went in the charts at number 7 and the album was featured on numerous Album of the Year lists and received lots of brilliant reviews.
 
Ron and Russell Mael dropped by 6 Music HQ to chat to me for BBC 6 Music about the new song, the tour and being back on UK shores…

To mark the 15th anniversary of The Blue Notebooks I sat down with the legend Max Richter to discuss its vinyl re-issue with some added extras for BBC 6 Music.

The Rolling Stones No Filter tour rolls into London and they've taken over four windows of Selfridges London with a one stop shop of all the Stones merch you could possibly want, until June 3rd. 

I went down to chat to the brand manager to talk about what's going on and to discuss one of the most iconic band brands in the world and the currency of that...

Saxophonist and composer Donny McCaslin is playing this year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival alongside Kamasi Washington, Randy Crawford and Beth Hart.
 
Donny has recorded over a dozen albums as a bandleader in addition to many sideman appearances and was recruited for David Bowie’s final album Blackstar.
 
The festival takes place from 2nd-7th May. The first time he played it was 10 years ago and speaking to me for BBC 6 Music he shared  some other memories of that, detailed the new direction of an album he’s been making and spoke at length across two packages (below) about the experience of working on David Bowie’s final masterpiece…