Exam Results

Noteorious at their Maida Vale recording sessionWell, Noteorious have enjoyed a good bit of airplay this week on Radio 1 – appearing not only at ungodly o’clock on Dev’s show, but popping up elsewhere through the days to promote the Masterpiece shows each evening. So, I think that means I passed the arranging test. And for those who have been sensibly asleep first thing in the morning, there are now some nice videos of them singing the arrangements on Dev’s website:


Daft Punk
The Clash
The Streets
Metallica
And an interview with clips of all four

The evening shows about the classic albums are also available on Listen Again for seven days after each broadcast, and I’d recommend them for a bit of weekend listening. It’s actually a rather Radio 3 approach to Radio 1 repertoire.* There’s a reasonably extensive documentary at the start of the show, putting the album into its context: where it came from in terms of music history and current affairs of the time, details about its making, and evaluation of its impact on later musicians. Then they play the whole album front to back without interruption – something that you just wouldn’t hear anywhere other than on the BBC.

Given that you don’t often hear pop in units beyond the single song on the radio, the scope and breadth of hearing entire albums feels not simply like the Radio 3 parallel of playing complete works (which they do all the time there), but more like the huge projects like when they played the complete works of Bach over a week or so a couple of years back. Anyway, I’m feeling like I’m emerging from this week better informed and culturally enthused than I started it. Lord Reith would be proud.

*Is that comprehensible to anyone outside the UK? In brief: Radio 3 is the premier classical music radio station, while Radio 1 is about pop.