On Sunday the 30th the BBC Radio One will be 40 years old. If you thought the BBC was older than that then your correct. British Broadcasting Corporation LTD was originally founded by a group of companies including Marconi & General Electric in 1922. It became the organisation we know and love in 1927 when it received a public charter, which is reviewed every 10 years.
However Radio 1 wasn't formed until 1967, after the BBC lost chunks of its audience to pirate stations. In fact its first DJs came from the newly outlawed pirate stations including Tony Blackburn(the first person to speak on the station) & John Peel. The first song played on the station was "Flowers in the Rain" by Move.
At first the station was only available on Long Wave and it wasn't until 1988 that it was allocated an FM frequency. Furthermore, on its 1st day, limited by the laws of the time it was only broadcast for 5 and a half hours. This was slowly expanded till in May 1995 Radio 1 became a 24 hour service.
Since then the station has went from strength to strength and so it should considering the BBC has the largest budget of any broadcaster in Britain (in 2005 it had an operating expenditure of £4billion). Surprisingly despite being the trendiest of the BBC's radio stations, Radio 1 actually has less listeners than Radio 2.
Anyhow enough history lessons and trivia. How does this effect us today?
Well to celebrate Radio 1 have persuaded a glutton of stars to perform covers from a range of songs played throughout the stations history. Some of the choices are quite unusual with a few rock bands covering pop music including covers of “Toxic” by Britney Spears by Hard-Fi and Justin Timberlakes “Like I Love You” by Maximo Park. Bucking the trend pop group Girls Aloud will be covering “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus.
The Kooks have have went for the surprising selection of Ace of Bases “All That You Want” which they described as "an undeniably great song, if a little bit cheesy".
While the Klaxons aren't exactly talking up their performance of “No Diggity” by Blackstreet saying the process involved "maths class for beginners" and "computer music for idiots".
Personally the covers I look most forward to hearing are:
“Too Much Too Young” by The Specials
Covered by Kasabian
It will be interesting to see what they do with this. Its an upbeat song with a much happier feeling than I would expect from a Kasabian song. Saying that the lyrics don't match the feel of the song, which basically slags of a woman for getting married and having kids too young including lyrics like:
Ain't he cute?
No he ain't
He's just another burden
On the welfare state
“Sound & Vision” by David Bowie
Covered by Franz Ferdinand
While I think the original song now sounds quite dated I can see it being a good match with Franz Ferdinand's sound.
“Lola” by The Kinks
Covered by Robbie Williams
While I can't say I'm a massive Robbie Williams fan I enjoyed his cover of George Michael's “Freedom” and look forward to hearing his cover of one of my favourite songs.
“All Along The Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix Experience
Covered by The Fratellis
A cover of a cover, this is a good band covering a good song, so my expectations are high.
“Cupid” by Johnny Nash
Covered by Amy Winehouse
Another song and artist that I think will merge perfectly.
“Teenage Kicks” by The Undertones
Covered by The Raconteurs
Jack White appeared on the John Peel sessions with White Stripes and for the celebrations he's covered one of Peel's favourite songs.
Speaking of John Peel at 10pm on Sunday the 30th Elijah Wood will be presenting a 2 hour show featuring the best of John Peel. If your wondering why they've chosen a”The Lord of the Rings” star to present a music show? Well he's formed his own record label, performed on co star Viggo Mortensen's album and commented on being asked to play a young Iggy Pop that “I'm scared to death of doing it, because I love him so much and I respect the music so much” so he does have some music credentials. He's also managed to get involved in a fracas with 30 Seconds to Mars singer Jared Leto. Very Rock 'n Roll!
The rest of Sunday will also feature a special line up featuring appearances from former DJ's Tony Blackburn, Zoe Ball, Bruno Brookes and Annie Nightingale.
Happy Birthday Radio 1!
