Record of the Day - weekly magazine 24 October 2024 Issue 1100 |
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Always On My Mind Zeztra Good Deeds Music out now |
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Zeztra are Dublin-born singer-songwriters and sisters Avril and Lorna Meade. They have been singing and creating music together from a young age. Inspired by a blend of genres, from pop, alt, rock, R&B, and Latin music, the duo honed their craft in writing and recording music during lockdown. Shortly after forming and releasing their first music, they caught the attention of Maverick Sabre, who invited them to open for him at the Academy Dublin. This led to them supporting him on tour across the UK and US. With its heartfelt lyrics, lush harmonies, and a '90s-tinged alt-pop production, ‘Always On My Mind’ is the gorgeous new single from the duo. Released last Friday (18 October), the track was recorded with producer John Reynolds (Sinead O’Connor, Passenger, Indigo Girls, Belinda Carlisle), who invited them to record at Big Tree Studios after watching them support Damien Dempsey. With its radio-friendly air, it's already made RTE1 Recommends playlist but we expect to hear this on more Irish Radio soon, and it would also sound good on 6 Music and Radio 2. Tastemaker support has so far come from OCC, Hot Press, and Breaking Tunes. All in all, it is a perfect introduction to a talented duo. |
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Back on 19 September, Mongrel whispered "Rumours are circulating this week of two former company heads' plans to run new labels through a very large company they left a few years ago." Today, Popbitch ran a story that Darcus Beese and Ted Cockle are "back together on a new label project." Could the two stories be in any way related?
There’s fighting talk today from Boom Radio co-founder Phil Riley, with some feisty quotes directed at Radio 2 bosses in this Mail online article. You might recall that Boom is the station that recently put a roadblock in the BBC’s path, leading to a major delay in the launch of a proposed R2 spinoff station that it hoped would be focused on music and archive programming from the 1950s to the late 70s. Boom weren’t happy and felt, rightly or wrongly, that their entire existence would be torpedoed if it ever came to fruition. The architects of the spin-off idea hope to overturn that view by assuring Ofcom that both stations could happily exist side by side without troubling each other, as they’d each be very different propositions on air. A final decision is yet to be made, but as far as Phil’s concerned “it is baffling that BBC bosses may still be considering spending millions of pounds more of the public’s money to launch a station aimed at baby boomers, despite knowing there is a fast-growing, successful commercial station already providing that exact same service and… the brilliant figures for Boom should be the final nail in the coffin for the BBC’s plans”. Boom have just posted a weekly listening figure that nudges them over the 700k mark for the very first time, which is indeed impressive for a small operation created during lockdown. However, when Mongrel looked at how many people there are in the UK currently aged 60+, it’s a whopping 15 million, or close to a quarter of the entire population. So, there’s still plenty of room for growth, and certainly enough of them to sustain a decent-sized audience on both services if they eventually co-exist. It’s also worth remembering that people turning 60 next year aren’t the staid old buggers many sections of the youthful media may think. Those were the teenage music fans who pretty much built the careers of cool crossover acts like The Cure, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Human League, plus many of the great post-punk/new wave bands in the early ‘80s, almost all which Boom Radio are yet to embrace.
Has next month’s Greatest Hits Radio Live event at the new Co-Op Arena in Manchester been quietly cancelled? It certainly appears so. Despite constant promotion on the station and ticket giveaways still happening as recently as last week, the purchase page on the venue’s website has become a ‘no results found’ site, and a quick search on both Ticketmaster and Aloud proved fruitless. There’s no word yet on why the 24 November gig featuring ’80s chart stars like Bananarama and ABC’s Martin Fry has been shelved, but the same venue will still host the Hits Radio Live show for Bauer’s sister station the day before with more contemporary attractions including Teddy Swims, Tom Grennan, KSI and others.
If you’d bought your first Kylie single when you were 13 in 1988, you’ll be turning 50 next year. And Mongrel suspects it’s those ’80s hardcore pop fans that still go out en masse and collect as many physical versions as possible of everything she releases to this day. As a case in point, she’s on course yet again for another no.1 album this weekend with almost 30k CD/vinyl copies of her new ‘Tension II’ album being snapped up already this week. Commiserations to Rag’n’Bone Man whose new album ‘What Do You Believe In?’ will have to settle for the runner up spot, despite closing in on a very respectable tally around 15k, which could have bagged him the top spot in many other weeks this year.
Sabrina Carpenter’s stranglehold on the Official Singles Chart continues with ‘Taste’ about to rack up a ninth week at no.1. A tenth is unlikely though, as ‘Sailor Song’ by Gigi Perez is the biggest song on UK Spotify in the last 48 hours, plus Sabrina’s ACR clock is ticking loudly.
WH Smith is selling vinyl again for the first time in over 30 years, with records set to be stocked in 80 of its shops — albeit limited to high street locations (full list here). Excited as Mongrel is to see more of the beloved format available in brick and mortar stores, we’re somewhat dismayed that we’re yet to be unable to go crate-digging whilst shopping for our annual beach read and giant Toblerone at one of WH Smith’s numerous airport stores… All in due course, right?
Since hearing WH Smith’s news, we were driven to YouTube to find this ridiculously groovy cinema ad for the chain, filmed in the early 1970s. Wouldn’t it be great to gaze lovingly at wall racks stuffed that full again? Although preferably with better titles available than budget-priced LPs like Andy Williams Greatest Hits.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post broke the news of a public call protesting against the unlicensed use of creative works to train generative AI models. Already counting 10,500 signatures at the time of its publication, including from Thom Yorke, Björn Ulvaeus and Billy Bragg, the initiative was masterminded by Fairly Trained’s Ed Newton-Rex, who’s emerged over the past year as a leading voice in the debate around generative AI in music. It’s a simple but effective statement that comes at an important moment, with UK Music currently lobbying hard ahead of a planned consultation on the country’s copyright regime. All the same, the timing was less than fortunate when Timbaland’s appointment as a strategic advisor to notorious genAI startup Suno (sued by the majors back in June) was then announced the same day. Let’s hope that the music industry can keep up the united front otherwise.
If award shows tend to leave you cold, you can count on AIM’s Independent Music Awards to thaw you out. Held at Camden’s Roundhouse, this year’s ceremony highlighted the best of the UK’s independent talent, and was flush with memorable moments. Innovator Award recipient Neneh Cherry paid tribute to the sector, reminding us old hats that “it’s better to be a pioneer than an old bag!” — well, we’re certainly trying. Artist attendance could’ve been better, with scheduling issues leading to UK Independent Breakthrough winner Barry Can’t Swim receiving his trophy in Amsterdam, and Jorja Smith accepting the award for Best Independent Album via video tribute. But double winner Sampha was on hand to deliver a moving live performance that almost made us forget we were dropping a small fortune on beer. Also performing was BEX, who enthused us with straight punk energy, and drum’n’bass MC OneDa (AIM’s One To Watch). Other appearances included the legendary Sparks, whose Outstanding Contribution to Music Award arguably deserved more fanfare, given their significant influence over the glam-rock/art-pop persuasion. Elsewhere, Mongrel was glad to see Totnes retailer Drift make history as the first winner of Best Independent Record Store — an apt nod to the importance of independent brick and mortar outposts. |
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RAJARS
The latest RAJAR official UK radio listening survey is, as ever, accompanied with the usual hyped-up press releases from all sides. We always like to try and cut through the spin and give you a more rounded overall picture of what’s going on. The 2024 Q3 period began just as Glastonbury ended, and ran right up until about five weeks ago, taking in the General Election, Paris Olympics and Paralympics, plus the annual school summer holidays throughout the country. People were away, deputies filled in for usual presenters, and talk/news stations saw their numbers increase. Generally, and despite all this, things are positive or at least steady for the most part, so let’s dive in.
Radio 1’s ship is back on an even keel. A year ago, their 7.773m figure was one of the worst on record. Now, it’s up 5% on where it was 2023 and stands at 8.179m, up on the last quarter too, and (as with all RAJAR numbers) is the total weekly audience aged 15+ who listen for at least 15 minutes at some point. If you add in school kids aged 10-14, R1 shoves just over 400k on top of that headline number, which’ll be very encouraging for the team there to see, particularly with so many other social media distractions pulling those youngsters with short attention spans away from radio listening. They’re the audiences of the future, so grabbing them and hooking them in pre-teen should prove habit forming.
Radio 2 remains the UK’s biggest radio station, ahead of all commercial rivals. It’s constantly in the spotlight with acres of column inches in the press and online news services devoted to its apparent demise, all of which are very much at odds with the real figures. 13.3m people listen every week. That’s almost a quarter of the entire UK adult population (23%, yet again, for the third quarter in a row), and those robust figures have barely changed since this time in 2023, despite a whole raft of new stations being launched elsewhere. Vernon Kay still has the biggest show on British radio, now with 6.8m listeners. Ken Bruce, his arch-rival (if the press were to be believed, that is) over at Greatest Hits Radio doesn’t even come close. He hits 4.019m between 10am and 1pm. But it demonstrates how much stronger mid-mornings are in UK radio as opposed to breakfast, which always was traditionally where the biggest audiences used to be pre-Covid. For example, LBC’s left-leaning host James O’Brien in the 10am-1pm slot was compulsive listening for news and General Election junkies during the summer, and he’s also posted his best stats to date with 1.5m.
What’s going to be very interesting to watch though over the next six months is the gleeful media attention given to the Heart name when it inevitably usurps Radio 2’s topline figure, and just how much press spin there’ll be when it happens. Study those numbers closely. Global’s flagship station brand has 12.99m weekly listeners. They’re the no.1 commercial ‘brand’ by far. And you’ll note that it appears they’re only 300k behind the UK’s no.1 station overall. How’s it possible? Well, Heart’s network is a patchwork of local stations that have been rebranded under the same ‘turn up the feel-good’ ethos over many years and have been joined by spin off stations each dedicated only to 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s as well as Heart Dance. There are now a total of eight sister services alongside the main Heart network and Heart Scotland. Since September, Heart 10s has launched, along with Heart Musicals, and Love. Those new stations only need to pick up a new combined number of 500k per week to push the Heart name ahead of Radio 2. It's certainly achievable, and quickly. Oh, and Heart Christmas is additionally already running. With Global’s PR behind them, you can be sure they’ll all hit the ground running. For example, Heart 90s alone has grown to 1.3m this time around, which is their best figure ever, and Heart Dance now tops a million. We’ll see just how effective they’ve been in the next RAJAR Q4 survey. But remember this – you’ll be looking at the total combined weekly audience for ten/eleven separate commercial services, which clock up 5m+ between them all, versus just the one BBC behemoth, something that the anti-Auntie sections of the press will conveniently gloss over.
We’ve already seen that sort of spin happening time and time again ever since Ken left R2 for Greatest Hits Radio. GHR’s rise coincided with the launch of Bruce’s show in Q2 last year, when Bauer rebranded lots of their own local stations, using the same idea that Global did with Heart. Growth was stellar, press was gushing, and sentiment against the BBC was brutal at times. Recently though that growth has stalled, plateaued and reversed. Yes, it’s still officially the “UK’s most-listened-to commercial station” when you take in their total combined listening hours of 64 million, but both the Capital network (9.7m) and the Heart network (7.5m without all those aforementioned spin-off services) are ahead with the total number of listeners versus GHR’s 7.4m per week. And the audience share for the brand overall is down slightly from 6.3% in Q1 to 6.1% now in Q3. Their reach had dropped by 95,000 people. OK, so it’s not a huge fall, but it’s a sign that listeners are switching around more and more. We’ve seen PR today still trumpeting year on year growth of 14%, which is true. However, that Y-O-Y jump was 76% in Q1, so the brakes are well and truly on, and we expect that constant rising number will soon disappear in future. Bauer announced this week that GHR will become a fully national network with no local programming commitments as of next month, so we’ll keep tabs on how much that affects their ongoing numbers. Expect a large marketing ad spend in the coming weeks to announce the arrival of Kate Thornton’s new mid-afternoon show on the station.
Smooth Radio, owned by Bauer’s rivals Global, has again overtaken GHR in terms of total audience numbers. And Bauer’s Magic brand has taken a bit of kicking too. Smooth’s music went much more upbeat recently, and apparently Magic is currently going through a big shift in sound too, although when we looked at what’s been played so far today, it’s still a broad mix of all the usual suspects that are popping up like Robbie Williams, Lionel Richie, Queen, Take That, Spandau Ballet and ABBA to keep all late night mini cab drivers happy.
Elsewhere, it’s the dance and R&B throwback playlist on Kisstory that helps it retain its place as the nation’s biggest digital commercial station on 2.3m. Ahead of Kisstory though, 6 Music remains the UK’s biggest digital station overall with a reach of 2.725m per week in Q3. However, its overall share of radio listening is down to 2.3%. That’s its lowest figure since the current methodology came into play in 2021 and the pull down has mainly been caused by its small drop-in average listening hours from 9 to 8.7. We’ve heard a lot of on-air changes recently with presenters and music, all of which will unsettle long-established loyal cores like the press-dubbed ‘6 Music Dad’ brigade, but standing still isn’t an option when there’s so much churn going on throughout the entire radio landscape. 6 Music does a genuinely solid job in retaining listeners and keeping them broadly happy all day long, no question. But we think there’s a major opportunity audience that another station could potentially grab if those disenfranchised forty-something blokes are now on the hunt for familiar-but-cool rather than unknown-and-challenging. Maybe Radio 2 could step in with big weekly show to target 45-54 males who grew up with 6 Music since its inception but maybe feel like their personal tastes no longer chime with the more frequent and quirky daytime diversions, some of which could feel self-indulgent to the ‘indie guitar’ diehards.
Summing up, it’s a positive picture overall for UK radio across the board. The total audience of 50.9m adults per week is an all-time high. The total percentage is 88%. Commercial radio’s total listening share is 53.3% vs 44.5% for the Beeb. Every one of us listens on average to 20.5 hours per week, which is still remarkably high. Even the 77% of all 15-24s who listen to some radio station or other during the week are averaging 11.6 hours, so nearly an hour and 40 mins every single day. Of course, it’s those aged 55+ who are skewing the total average number higher, but it’s still encouraging to see under-25s haven’t deserted the medium just yet. The ongoing battle for both the BBC and commercial groups now is to keep them there and encourage growth for the future. We’ll find out how things are panning out next time when Q4 arrives on 6 February. |
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