For BBC 6 Music I had the pleasure of speaking to ex-Wild Beasts frontman Hayden Thorpe about his new single and album Diviner. The record out May 24th on Domino Records was launched today, along with a new single called Love Crimes.
 
Hayden had left a bitter winter in the Lake District behind, where the decision had just been made for Wild Beasts to go their separate ways after over a decade, and he escaped to the perpetual blue skies of California to write new music.
 
Returning to London he continued to write on his piano and the album slowly came together… Here we are...

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY.

Super Women is a platform dedicated to giving women opportunities in filmmaking.

Created by broadcaster and DJ Georgie Rogers and filmmaker Alice Smith each short-form film follows Georgie and the crew on their travels to meet with trailblazers in a wide range of disciplines from music to motorsports, adventure to design and to celebrate their stories.

The first film of Series 1 is launching in May 2019.

With very special thanks to the Super Women: Elspeth Beard, Catherine Marks, VC London, Queen B Becky Evans, Tessa Metcalfe Jewellery and Leah Tokelove- The Hooligan with Pigtails.

To the band Medium Love for providing the music.

To our editor Ella Oliver.

To Nikki Scott-Powell at Recur Studio for the branding.

To Catalyst Cameras for kit sponsorship.

And to our fantastic team who captured this.

https://www.superwomenhq.com/

Follow our journey on Instagram:
​
https://www.instagram.com/superwomenhq/

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…