Radio One Rant, page 1

Time for a rant!

What has happened over the last few years on Radio One?????????????????  

The late night music shows have seriously gone down the toilet.

Let's start with the Essential Mix.

Bag of mediocre nothingness now.

Seems to consist of shite commercial House DJ's and commercial or cheesy Electro/Dubstep sets. As in, not QUALITY Dubstep.

Plus the Swedish Cheese Mafia et al.

The 'Live' shows are a pale imitation of their former selves too. Not least because they are not covered 'live' any more. Merely captured live.

Pete Tong's show (Essential Selection) has varied over the years from rather good (90's) to okay (00's) to yawn-some pop-dance underpants in the last couple of years.

At least they used to have some DJ's like Eddie Haliwell, Jon O'Bir and more besides giving a wider range of music (not really my choices, but better than nothing).

Now it seems to be just 'Skream & Benga' and various other Dubstep specialist DJ's.

Even Judge Jules has been canned now.

Cheesy? - yes! but he played something different to Pete Tong's cheddar selections and the bass/beats ensemble.

Gilles Peterson has been shipped out to Radio 6. Seems he was too varied/eclectic.

Fabio & Grooverider out, in comes the continuously 'gassing'' over the music 'Friction'.

So they've messed up the DnB coverage also.

If they want to bring some Decent DJ's over from 1-Xtra, why not Bailey or Krisy Kriss? But no.

It’s commercial (yet somehow called the ‘sound of the underground’) Misterjam. Pffffffft.

xxxxxxSTOP THE PRESSxxxxxxx

They've sacked off Bailey as well now. Grrrrr.

This really wouldn't matter, but there is already a total Dub overload, made even heavier by Annie Nightingale dropping breaks (and anything else it seems) for - you guessed it - only Dubstep.

Kutski has been moved to 'The Residency' which is no massive loss in my opinion.
But he's been replaced with Diplo who is 'okay' and slightly varied in his style (still in the electro/dub zones though).

Why couldn't we have had a non commercial Techno or any other  specialist DJ brought in that plays something a bit different from the rest.
(If we must have only specialist DJ's in the evening slots.)

The Positive changes?

Benji B in for Mary Anne Hobbs. I didn’t mind the Breezeblock, but I find BB’s show to be better none the lees. The only shame is it was 3 hours on Radio 1Xtra, only 2 hours long on Radio 1.

Kissy Sellout has been canned. Phew.

The Residency has been brought back. Along with 'In New DJ's' it seems that this is the only place where you find anything such as decent Techno, Non-cheesy House or  Prog/Trance these days.
These shows are on rotation only though - so you only get to  hear a single DJ once a week, then he/she rotates - and so isn't back on the air for another 3 or 4 weeks.

Hmmm.

Seems like a rationing going on of anything other than Dubstep or beats.

I'm particularly hacked off now that Bailey has gone the same way as Fabio & Gooverider.

Crissy Criss is OK on 1Xtra, but Friction just isn’t as good as what he replaces. Thank God for Kiss FM.

Something else I noticed the other day, while Toddla T is trading house/electro/etc for Dub now (how original) ……

………at least when Jaymo and Andy George sat in for Pete Tong they refused to play his cheesy-pop-house garbage and actually put together a decent, generally not too commercial show for two hours.

Refreshing.

We really could do with those two on a Friday night, doing the Essential Selection, instead of Tete Pong.

So now, I find myself mainly using 6 Music with regards the BBC.

The 6Mix being my favourite show, they've had the like of Mathew Dear, The Orb, Erol Alkan, Dave Clarke, Derrick May, Tiga and Ben Watt on in the last year. Playing not just their tracks - as per a club set - but also anything else that tickles their fancy.

I would also recommend to you 'Across The Line - Dance Edition' on BBC Radio Ulster. I downloaded it via the iPlayer for years, but since the end of July they've  jacked that in too. Huh.



Rant over.

I loved the Mary Anne Hobbs, it was not the most upfront stuff but she got amazing guests on the breezeblock.

yes and she had VARIETY in the guestmixes too!

She's on XFM now, but for some reason I hardly ever get around to catching the show.

I miss fabio and grooverider. They got all the exclusives first!....Friction must wait a few weeks. Its like carl cox, he gets it all first.

Hopefully they will both (or either) do another show for someone else. Kiss or XFM or whatever.