Rolling Interminable 6Music Daytime Canon

For those tunes that only a lamacq could love.

1. Pop Will Eat Itself - Def Con One

2. Haysi Fantayzee – John Wayne is Big Leggy

3. Sultans of Ping FC – Where’s Me Jumper

Does anyone like BBC Radio 6Music?

I used to think it was a lot of moody and / or stodgy alternative rock and I rather disdained it.

Then I started listening to it more. I found that it did include a lot of moody or stodgy alternative rock, but also a lot of other music. Today I have heard a lot of hip hop on it. Usually I hear a lot of reggae. I don't like any of these things, but nonetheless it does sometimes play music I like.

To a degree, I have also come to appreciate listening to the presenters.

Keaveney: unbearable
Laverne: likeable but a blatherer and somewhat ridiculous
Radcliffe & Maconie: I used to think this idea was preposterous but I have come round to it for its bathos and familiarity
Lamacq - preposterous
Riley - I don't listen, would not take him seriously - but he does support new acts; maybe some of them are OK?
Coe - seems not very different from a Freaky Trigger programme, eg if Tim Hopkins was on for 3 hours per night. Too much reggae for me but on balance I like the programme.

Weekends: mostly bad in various ways, from what I have heard.

This makes it seem like I think 6music is bad. Yet I still listen to it.

Does anyone else?

I suppose I am thinking: I quite often enjoy it for its preposterousness. Thus this thread with its Sultans of Ping reference above - not that I hear them specifically, but you can genuinely still hear Lamacq play something like The Wonder Stuff - which is like a time capsule effect which I perversely enjoy.

There is a lot of variation between presenters.

This is what I wrote about a year ago, have listened much less + found Tom Ravenscroft is probably better than all of these since then:

I have listened to too much BBC 6 Music recently. Here is my review of BBC 6 Music.

Steve Lamacq / Liz Kershaw - Cannot stand either of these people churning out the same boring old indie bollocks, will not listen at all. No idea what Liz Kershaw in particular is doing on this station.

Shaun Keaveny - A bit better than the above, but very much fitting the description of classic canon + new indie music, always end up tuning out

Mary Anne Hobbes - initially disappointing transition from radio 1, coming round to her now but still find her voice annoying.

Guy Garvey - Like a better version of Steve Lamacq, but ultimately not *that* much better. Everything he enthuses about ends up being a bit meh

Lauren Laverne / Radcliffe & Maconie - Fairly reliable, but still mainly canon + new indie. Basically I like them, so it stays on, It's daytime radio and probably would be silly to expect anything else.

Huey / Craig Charles - Always a let-down, same old selection of funk & soul records everyone has heard a thousand times before

Marc Riley - Always a pleasant surprise, lots of good new music, even if it is entirely indie or indie-ish. Clearly invests a lot of time & passion and it pays off.

Jarvis Cocker / Various others filling in - bit of a risk, but can be be the best things on.

Tom Robinson - Let's assemble music on a theme! But let's pick the most pedestrian choices possible! Why do I always end up listening to this when I hate it so much?

Cerys - I was never a fan of Catatonia, so surprised to say this is maybe the best thing on here. Genuinely left-field, genuinely wonderful discoveries throughout.

Freakzone - Should be my favourite, actually it's usually good but guess I'm a bit burnt out on it right now, he needs to explore in less expected directions

Live Hour - Anyone want to hear Oasis at Knebworth? Yes, apparently so, fucking hell.

Gideon Coe - This looks ok, but never heard it as it starts at 10pm on weeknights, I am not listening to the radio at 10pm

In summary - I want to love this station, but there is way too much rock canon (which I've heard too much already) and "new music" which is just "new indie" - it's like "you can have eclectic taste with old stuff, but now you are middle-aged and the only new stuff you are allowed to like is generic indie-rock." A lot of it seems to be aspiring to be John Peel, forgetting that the best thing about John Peel was that he would throw in some speedcore and thrash metal and never apologise for it, not try to tailor music for an imagined audience of middle-aged former indie kids.

I only ever listen to this when I'm driving the pool cars at work: Journey in the morning, Laverne - good stuff, knowledgeable and a wide range of music. Evenings on the way home, Lamacq: May as well be listening to an Evening Session c1996 - these drives last forever

"Lammo" and his bloody band t-shirts

Camaraderie -- was this on ILX? I could not see many threads about 6music.

No, on Facebook, to nobody in particular.

Re Lamacq: Everything he has ever done seems to be specifically designed to annoy me.

Partly agree with the summary above, but also differ.

**
>>> Shaun Keaveny - A bit better than the above, but very much fitting the description of classic canon + new indie music, always end up tuning out -- BUT YOU DON'T MENTION THAT HE IS A DREADFUL OBNOXIOUS 'PERSONALITY'

>>> Mary Anne Hobbes - initially disappointing transition from radio 1, coming round to her now but still find her voice annoying. -- YES, THE VOICE MAKES IT BASICALLY UNBEARABLE

>>> Lauren Laverne / Radcliffe & Maconie - Fairly reliable, but still mainly canon + new indie. Basically I like them, so it stays on, It's daytime radio and probably would be silly to expect anything else. -- BASICALLY AGREE

>>> Freakzone - Should be my favourite, actually it's usually good but guess I'm a bit burnt out on it right now, he needs to explore in less expected directions -- HAVE NOT REALLY LISTENED - IS PROBABLY TOO PROG / EXPERIMENTAL FOR ME

>>> Gideon Coe - This looks ok, but never heard it as it starts at 10pm on weeknights, I am not listening to the radio at 10pm -- STARTS AT 9PM IN FACT! YOU MIGHT LIKE IT, IS QUITE 'ECLECTIC'

>>> way too much rock canon (which I've heard too much already) and "new music" which is just "new indie" - it's like "you can have eclectic taste with old stuff, but now you are middle-aged and the only new stuff you are allowed to like is generic indie-rock." -- COULD BE SOMETHING IN THIS STATEMENT. BUT I THINK A LOT OF THE NEW MUSIC THEY PLAY IS NOT INDIE ROCK BUT EG: KINDS OF ELECTRONIC POP, HIP HOP. I DON'T THINK THE STATION IS QUITE AS INDIE-ROCK AS YOU SUGGEST.
**

(USING CAPITALS BECAUSE CANNOT REMEMBER ILX FORMATTING ETC AND WOULD PROBABLY GET IT WRONG IF I DID LOOK IT UP)

I agree with Dog Latin that Laverne is relatively eclectic. In fact if anything she is too eclectic for me, she plays loads of genres I don't really like.

The LAMMO thing seems to be to be 'beyond a joke' -- like a kind of comedy sketch at this point, rather than something serious to get annoyed by?

Gideon Coe I am fairly sure is the one that is genuinely closer to Peel -- though, as is rightly said, they all tend to appeal spuriously to an idea of Peel.

I suppose the difference is that Peel was responding to a YOUTH AUDIENCE, of as it were 16-year-old Smiths and Wedding Present fans -- those were the people making the Festive Fifty what it was, etc -- whereas Coe's audience must be quite difficult and is never in conflict with him; it's all very harmonious.

I would repeat that Coe seems to me very close to a Tim Hopkins radio programme (Tim Hopkins was a veteran poster on ILX in 2000s), though a bit more indiepop-friendly. In fact he is almost the only indiepop-friendly DJ on radio -- so is genuinely filling a unique niche.

I still keep accidentally tuning in to Tom Robinson's 'Now Playing @6music' on Sundays, it is absolutely the most infuriating thing on the radio.

Lammo just needs to be booted across to radio 2, they can deal with him there.

Is LAMMO, in a way, the new 'Fluff Freeman'?

not 'alf

That Robinson show would be slightly more bearable if he was a half-way competent radio DJ

and what you say, CAAL, about their harping on about Peel is OTM: it's like John Peel but without the dub reggae, happy hardcore, techno etc. i.e. most of the stuff that made Peel interesting in the first place

Xp It's a combination of his incompetence, the listeners lame suggestions and the producer who uses better songs as a bed, which still tricks me every time.

it's also a shame that some of the specialist shows they used to have at evenings & weekends have been done away with, e.g. an Andy Weatherall show on a Saturday night, or Bruce Dickinson doing a metal show. I think at the moment you have Tom Robinson on a Friday evening, party time!

Lammo just needs to be booted across to radio 2, they can deal with him there

They won't let him play his China Drum b-sides over there

tbh if you're listening to Radio 6 on a Friday evening maybe reconsider your life anyway

Disagree with the Pinefox in that the weekend shows are the highlight for me, especially Cerys Matthews who is in a way the closest thing to an heir to John Peel in that she regularly surprises and confounds with what she plays. My taste in music syncs best with Mary Anne Hobbs, but I find her 'hello trees' persona a bit twee sometimes.

XP I have two small children and therefore no social life to speak of, basically I am their target audience

Gilles Peterson on a Saturday afternoon is a combination of excellent and frustrating, but is one of the better shows, I think. Cerys also good, but she tends to use that awestruck tone that is the 6Music voice (Mary Ann Hobbs, Guy Garvey et al) which is as distinctive as the Radio 4 comedy show voice.

thank you for putting your finger on a thing that makes me grind my teeth

tbh if you're listening to Radio 6 on a Friday evening maybe reconsider your life anyway

― coombespair gaz prices (Noodle Vague), Friday, January 12, 2018 3:09 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is true, but it's also a case of is this the best they can come up with? Rave nostalgia is problematic, I know, but at least play something fun!

It's fair to recall that Peel was not only avant-garde but also suburban / comfortable / familiar -- as in a long-ago ILX thread debate about his Radio 4 programme, Radio Times column, etc. I remember some of his late broadcast work as being rather predictable -- always ready to host a big session with Camera Obscura, etc.

In that particular sense he is closer to eg Gideon Coe or other 6music than one might think.

The thread !!

Home Truths

re: the Radio 6 awestruck voice. One of the first threads I started on ILM was moaning about this exact thing: DJs you love to hate

Right now, LAMMO is starting his programme with 'Teenage Kicks'.

In many ways, it's in the spirit of the late, great John Peel.

lol

He then stated that this week has been 90s WEEK: with the theme: 'records from the 1990s that you never hear on the radio anymore'.

cue Shed 7

They are back!

it's like they never went away

Last time I heard Lammo he was interviewing the Senseless Things for like 4 hours or something. This was a couple of months back

you still suffering from those weird dreams then, DL?

There's a disconnect between what the daytime presenters talk about and what they play, which I find irritating. Like Thundercat winning their presenters' album of the year poll, but before that win I'd never heard any of them play anything off that album ever. And at the moment there's a really simpering indie track that's just a knock-off of Fleetwood Mac on heavy rotation, and they're all going nuts over Shame, who just sound like Hard-Fi, so there's as much annoying playlisting going on as at any other mainstream radio station (obviously). The over-earnest quiet enthusiasm is definitely a house style, too, and I find it a bit sick-in-my-mouth most of the time even if I quite like what;s being enthused about.

And that's the thing, there isn't anywhere else where I can turn the radio on and be confident I'll get a favourable ratio of stuff I like to hear. I doubt I'd have heard Ratio by Floating Points on any other daytime station last year, for instance. Yes, they pander to 90s kids now in their late 30s and 40s by playing The Bluetones or Shed Seven every so often, but there is at least an attempt to broaden horizons too.

I feel like they should be bold and stop having a playlist entirely. The existence of one seems to go against the whole supposed ethos of the station.

I don't like that 'house style', but am unsure if it's really that common. Riley, Radcliffe, Huey Morgan (!), Iggy Pop (?!) don't do it?

I think for me it comes down more to M A Hobbs having a peculiar voice.

I tend to agree about 'playlist' stuff -- why do they need one at all? The repetitiveness of it is tiresome and it usually feels like they're promoting mediocrity; which they're not when they veer off it.

(G Coe doesn't play to any playlist.)

Last night Coe played 'coney island baby' - it sounded like a different version to me, the lead guitar was so elaborate - but perhaps it was just the same old version and it had never shone through so much. It sounded epic. I suppose it was a good use of radio, even though in theory I could have played the song myself.

TBF only LAMMO really plays old Bluetones + Shed Seven records! I think others would be too embarrassed to do that.

Guardian last week said SHAME are the greatest new guitar band. Have not heard but from the report, must be abysmal.

The playlist seems completely arbitrary, all these songs by minor indie bands with no wider impact at all being hammered to death while so much similar stuff gets ignored. I probably enjoyed more indie last year than I did in the last decade but I don't remember hearing Sacred Paws or Hannah Peel or the Weather Station on there at all.

I never put any radio station on at home but we have 6music on in the office and while there's a 50:50 mix of decent stuff and utter shit, the station as a whole is just insufferably smug and self-congratulatory. This sense of preserving the flame of "underground" and "new music" as defined by tastemakers in their 40s and 50s. At one point there was an ad with one of the Marks going "it's great that 6music still plays underground music because no-one else does", which was admirable for its sheer brass neck if nothing else.

xps I've not really listened to 6music in years so I didn't realise that the Mary Ann-Hobbs awestruck voice had become a house style, I always thought of the 6music house style as being the John Peel-esque wry mildly blokey northerner? I guess you can synthesise the two e.g. Professor Brian Cox

There was a time a couple of years ago when I used to turn on 6Music on a regular basis and I heard some bloody awful song by The Coral every time. It put me off listening to the station entirely. I find it hard to believe that presence on a playlist is not down to payola.

payola feels...unlikely?...on the BBC nowadays. whereas having some people with awful taste picking songs they think other people with awful taste will enthuse about seems more likely

It's also the increasing desperation of people who want British guitar music to come back as that prospect appears more remote than ever.

For the sake of convenience I'm overlooking the sort of rock music that gets played on Radio 1 than these guys wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

I'm honestly baffled what anybody sees in the sound of "British guitar music" post about 1990 but chacun a son gout. it feels like a small minority to get their own national radio station tho.

I think it's a bit "I'm just swept away by all of this wonderful music" which is admirable but starts to grate after a while, same deal but even more so with Mary Anne Hobbs.

I don't think I've heard gideon coe ever

seeing a potential audience here for creating a radio show with me saying between the songs that the music I'm playing is nothing that special really and there's no reason for anyone to get so excited

The anti-Zane Lowe

xp this was kind of John Peel's style? I mean, not really, because he was obviously enthusiastic about what he played, but he had that ironic, deflating tone, can't imagine him earnestly enthusing about his swept away by music, or at least only in an arch, indirect way.

I remember watching repeats of Revolver when I was a teenager, and I liked the way Peter Cook would slag off the music (which he genuinely disliked, apparently), I think DJs who openly loathe the records they're playing is the way to go.

The delating style was used by the dire Keaveney, and I think by Ravenscroft who plays on how monotone his voice is.

I think it's a bit "I'm just swept away by all of this wonderful music" which is admirable but starts to grate after a while, same deal but even more so with Mary Anne Hobbs.

― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Thursday, 13 April 2023 10:50 (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

some of the presenters on radio 3's 'eclectic' shows do something like this as well, and it seems to be creeping into the straight classical stuff as well, it annoys me but in a way where I worry that maybe I'm the one with the problem, particularly because it mainly seems to be women who adopt this style. But why are they trying so hard to convince me that they really love this music? It feels like someone trying to sell you something. I want the music to be introduced by a stern, formal academic type ideally.

stuart maconie does introduce music as if it were an open university module, but it's absolutely a bit

affecting indifference to downplay one's emotional connection to music def a traditionally male strategy yes. I do find breathless enthusiasm makes me cringe often but that's my problem. there's space for both I guess.

I don't think this is enthusiasm vs non-enthusiasm.

Laverne is enthusiastic and I don't mind her. Charles is enthusiastic about his soul and funk and that seems natural.

I just think it's particular tones. I think Alba was exactly right in saying that Hobbs sounds phoney even though she might not even be phoney.

Stuart Maconie: C or D?

So, did you ever like him? Still like him? Never liked him? Is there anyone else who's similarly annoying?

― John Davey, Thursday, July 5, 2001 bookmarkflaglink

I never heard of that son of a bitch!
― Mike Hanle y, Thursday, July 5, 2001

Good times.

are there any prominent male DJs who do the Mary Anne Hobbes awed wonder thing? Zane Lowe was mentioned above, and was relentlessly positive, but as far as I remember he didn't have the breathy wonder thing, he was too bouncy and yappy, like a hype-man or youtube vlogger. Not a DJ, but I guess this is Brian Cox's style in his documentaries?

the only time I find this style of presenting tolerable is when Mary Anne Hobbs does it, but I think that's mainly because of nostalgia

Hobbs’s enthusiasm strikes me as genuine (and infectious) but she does have an odd way of speaking, she sounds like she is constantly smiling
Keaveney is the nadir of a strategy I think of as “deliberate partridge” where you play up the banality of your chat. With afternoon djs this often goes along with spending 10-15 minutes on regular segments where the main joke is meant to be that the segments are bad. The problem is a) these ppl are never funny and b) irony is a useful tool for a skilled presenter but a disastrous shield for a bad one

Jack Saunders (whose name I had to Google) does the Mary Anne Hobbs thing. I only know him from presenting Glastonbury, never heard him anywhere else, but he's intolerable.

Good post from wins, agree about both Hobbs' permanent smile and Keaveney's way of being bad.

Hobbs has a maddening habit of using the wrong words too, she said something was "extrapolated" from an album yesterday when I think she meant "extracted"

(I'm clearly revealing the fact I listen to 6Music far too much, as well as being a terrible pedant)

I don't mind the enthusiasm when it's about the music, it's more when it's about 'my wonderful life' doing club shows and meeting "you lot" and "phone me about your awesome weekend" stuff.

You've just reminded me of the 10 worst words in the English language: "Amy Lamé is sitting in for Cerys Matthews this week"

Amusing !!

x-posts. I recall Peel playing the Echo and the Bunnymen version of "People Are Strange" and saying something like "That's a very collectable record. In fact, it's going straight to the second-hand record shop."

Just heard Cerys Matthews on radio. While not so keen on her, I can see how the eclectic roots music - blues, Trinidad folk, Cuban, Irish - is valued by listeners.

Stew's take

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/16/britain-is-a-dying-nation-in-need-of-new-curators

I quite like Lee's article, and it's nice to see public support for some good things, but I don't think his description of 6music or the role of those particular programmes is especially accurate.

cleeve hill represent

Jack Saunders' 'Glasto' presenting outfit was really something
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FWHpH10UUAIsSlP.jpg

oh that guy

The Leys School, Cambridge

Board & Tuition (From September 2022)
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Yeah, that's the guy. Completely vile. He's not yet on 6music, to be fair, but as the host of "Radio 1's Indie Show", he'll be heading that way in the end.

Oh shit, I went to that school!

Ok, so you're presenting Glastonbury soon?

(gotta love threads you can find by searching for a single word, as long as you know that word...)

New to the playlist 🔁 Here's what we will be giving a spin this week, with new music from...

👉 @PJHarveyUK
👉 Gabriels
👉 @SaySheShe
👉 @jungle4eva
👉 + MORE

Listen on @bbcsounds: https://t.co/Bg9I3EPwkD pic.twitter.com/irumoO7M48

— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) June 19, 2023

Nitin Sawnhey hacking the playlist by working with that one bloke

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0ftp7pt

The Rise and Fall of Britpop

Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq document the rise and fall of Britpop. Celebrating Blur, Oasis, Pulp and more with fresh interviews and unheard personal archive.

yeah, listened to it. it is exactly what you would expect.

christ

Trenchant

This analogy from Steve Lamacq on Blur vs Oasis is 🤯

Listen to The Rise and Fall of Britpop now on @BBCSounds https://t.co/nSVCi3wavk pic.twitter.com/8xn5Kt3Kro

— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) July 13, 2023

Thank god for that

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/steve-lamacq-bbc-6-music-quit-b2403761.html

Best news I've read all week (probably). The one current 6 Music show above all others that I absolutely cannot bear listening to.

I wonder how his family feel about it

I like Huw Stephens!

"Today is Steve (Lamacq)'s final daily weekday programme after 20 years on 6 Music."

Only just discovered that 6 Music has been scrobbling to last.fm since 2004. Kind of great to see what their all-time most played tracks are etc.

https://www.last.fm/user/bbc6music

Can also see every bloody instance of them playing Debaser

https://www.last.fm/user/bbc6music/library/music/Pixies/_/Debaser?date_preset=ALL

one woman, no black artists in the top 20 (stevie wonder at 21)

i'm seeing css, pixies, elastica, portishead in the top 10 of "all time", all of which are female fronted. and curtis mayfield at number 4.

1 Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above
CSS

2 Spinning Rock Boogie
Hank C. Burnette

3 Love Will Tear Us Apart
Joy Division

4 Move On Up
Curtis Mayfield

5 Waking Up
Elastica

6 Debaser
Pixies

7 A-Punk
Vampire Weekend

8 Time to Pretend
MGMT

9 Kids
MGMT

10 Glory Box
Portishead

Spinning Rock Boogie seems like a bit of an outlier. Is that used on a feature or something?

Apparently Steve Lamacq's play-out tune

https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mb6music/NF14107994?thread=7347589