Ahoy! I went down to the Brit Awards to do the red carpet once again for BBC 6 Music and hung out with some super rad party people.

ENTER
Idles
Nile Rodgers
Pink (actual Pink)
Lily Allen
Sam Fender

In my latest Foundation FM show I welcomed the London band Haelos into the studio on her latest Foundation FM radio show out of Peckham Levels. They made some immense selections in 'Haelos Loves' as it was Valentine's Day picking James Holden's take on The Sky Is Pink by Nathan Fake (CHOOOOON) as a defining tune that got them into electronic music in the first place. Plus we go in depth about the new album which is coming out soon.

Listen back to the whole show. They joined me for an hour so there's a lot of Haelos love in this Valentine's Day love-in...

Let's hear from a serious guitar legend - Mike Campbell.

He played, produced and co-wrote with Tom Petty as guitarist in The Heartbreakers and last year it was announced he'd be joining Fleetwood Mac.

A new retrospective box set titled The Best of Everything is out on March 1st.

It spans the whole of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers career with all the tracks re-mastered and there are two previously unreleased songs. 

Here's Mike Campbell speaking to me for BBC 6 Music firstly about that, how they went about putting the set together and then we get onto Fleetwood Mac as he is on a mammoth tour with them this year...

HILARIOUS SUNDAY SPENT ON SOHO RADIO WITH SELF ESTEEM.

You might find this amusing. Self Esteem and yours truly talking about her new album Compliments Please via Diet Coke, Impulse body spray and Mr Blobby.

Full interview and show here:

The Beatles White Album celebrated its 50th Anniversary so I was part of an event alongside producer Giles Martin, Miles Kane, Felix White, Andy Bell and Dan Stubbs that discussed its legacy and whether it could have been made today.  The panel was hosted by Matt Everitt at the You Tube space in London. It was an honour to be part of it.

Stephen Malkmus of Pavement fame has been in the UK this week touring his seventh album Sparkle Hard, as Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.
 
Cat Power’s Chan Marshall was also in the UK the same week for her Roundhouse Camden show which Stephen went along to.
 
The Sparkle Hard LP came out back in May and featured Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon on a track Refute.
 
Next year will be Pavement’s 30th Anniversary but Malkmus has downplayed any chance of a reunion in interviews because of the Jicks touring and him having other projects going on.
 
We’ll hear more on those in due course in the music news - I checked in with Stephen Malkmus for BBC Radio 6 Music to see how it’s all been going on the road…

​A special run of gigs for Warchild have been announced with Jon Hopkins, Alexis Taylor and Everything Everything on the bill.
 
The three ‘Safe and Sound’ shows are taking place on the 25th, 26th and 27th November at Shepherd’s Bush Empire with all proceeds going towards Warchild’s Learn To Live campaign, raising money for children affected by conflict.
 
Jon has played a few charity gigs in the past few years for Help Refugees, Amnesty and the David Lynch Foundation and has Alexis Taylor and George Fitzgerald providing support on November 25th kicking off the trio of gigs.
 
The producer has had a huge year, releasing his fifth solo album Singularity in May, headlining festival stages including Wilderness, touring Europe and the next run is a huge UK tour.
 
I checked in with Jon Hopkins for BBC Radio 6 Music to discuss this charity show and how it marks the start of a different kind of live setting for his music…

We recently heard from Reeves Gabrels on his work on the re-versioned Never Let Me Down album coming out on the new Bowie Box Set Loving The Alien later this year.

He of course is also a member of The Cure and played with them at their British Summertime Hyde Park show earlier this month.

There’s no doubt about it, that show will be remembered in years to come.

In the midst of a heat wave, England had got through to the semi-final of the World Cup for the first time in many years earlier that day and the band played a storming set including many of their hits.

I spoke to Reeves for BBC Radio 6 Music to get a bit more insight into what it was like from the band’s viewpoint…

​Cat Power has announced details of her very much anticipated and rumoured new album, her first in six years. I for one am EXCITED ABOUT THIS VERY MUCH!
 
It’s titled Wanderer and will be released October 5th. The last album we got from Cat Power was Sun back in 2012.  Her fourth studio album from 1998 Moon Pix is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year.
 
Produced entirely by Chan Marshall her 10th offering Wanderer includes appearances from long-time friends and compatriots and guest vocals from friend and recent tour mate Lana Del Rey on the song Woman.
 
The LP was written and recorded in Miami and Los Angeles over the course of the last few years. 
 
Cat Power will be touring internationally from September 15th in the US, Europe with a London Roundhouse show on October 23rd. The album is available to pre-order now on baby blue vinyl.
 
Here’s Chan Marshall on the phone with yours truly (a genuine pleasure from start to finish) for BBC 6 Music, with one of her very first interviews about the new record….