Playlist: 24th May

The playlist is out now.

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Frank Turner – The Way I Tend To Be
Frank continues a stellar year, which saw him play the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and headline Wembley Arena, with the next single from his 5th album ‘Tape Deck Heart’, which was released at the end of April. You can see the fantastic session he performed for Absolute Radio and a handful of lucky prize winners here.

Two Door Cinema Club – Handshake
New single from album ‘Beacon’ released last Autumn. Following a huge headline show at Alexandra Palace, and a South American tour, the trio from County Down are lined up to play at Glastonbury, T In The Park and V festival this summer.

Tracks by Muse and Editors move up to A list and B list respectively.

Miles Kane to Co-Host on Absolute Radio

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Miles Kane will take to the airwaves on Absolute Radio for a special music show amidst a busy touring schedule to co-host with regular evening DJ Pete Donaldson.

Miles will draw upon his extensive music knowledge to help Pete Donaldson anchor a programme dedicated to live sessions, music interviews, requests and a special ‘new album of the week’ feature. Donaldson’s show is all about supporting new music and providing opportunities and airtime for emerging artists as well as established acts.

This will be the first time the evening show has opened up to a guest co-host. The Breakfast show is no stranger to the notion however, with regular appearances from the likes of David Tennant and Noel Gallagher alongside Christian O’Connell.

The show will highlight the new LP from Kane which features co-writes with XTC’s Andy Partridge, Paul Weller, Kid Harpoon and the album’s producer, Ian Broudie. The new disc teems with the sounds of Merseybeat and glam-rock, and follows on from Miles’s acclaimed debut, 2011’s Colour of the Trap. Both the LP and his newest single ‘Don’t Forget Who You Are’ are out on June 3rd.

Miles Kane will co-host the Absolute Radio Pete Donaldson Evening Show from 8-9pm on Wednesday 29th May.

Read what Music News are saying about us here

Absolute 80s launches “Forgotten 80s” show

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Absolute 80s (which was recently named the UK’s biggest digital commercial radio station) is launching a new weekend show that will highlight hidden gems from the decade.

“Forgotten 80s” starts on Sunday 26th May at 7pm and will celebrate the 80s influence on popular culture. The playlist will go beyond the obvious hits and classics that everyone knows, and give airplay to songs that were big at the time but have been largely forgotten. Listeners will hear the songs on the radio again, just as they were 30 years ago.

The show will be presented by Matthew Rudd who joins us from Q Radio where he hosted a weekly 80s programme and developed a large cult following.

It will be interactive, with listeners involved in selecting the weekly playlist via Facebook (www.facebook.com/Absolute80s) and Twitter (@Absolute80s with the hashtag #forgotten80s)

Matthew will be joining a great list of fellow presenters including 80s legend Tony Hadley who hosts his own show every Saturday night.

See what RadioToday and Music Week are saying about our new show.

News: Absolute Radio Live 2013

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Absolute Radio Live 2013 will see us embark on another summer of exclusive interviews, live music content and ticket giveaways under the strap-line of ‘We’ll take you there’.

The campaign will be supported by added-value video and photos for mobile and desk-top supported by a digital marketing campaign to highlight appointments to tune in and drive logged-in listening, which helps Absolute Radio understand more about its audience than any other broadcaster.

As the official radio partner for the Isle of Wight Festival we will broadcast live from the Festival site on the 14th, 15th and 16th of June. DJs Pete Donaldson and Sarah Champion will present a series of outside broadcasts from the site across the weekend.

For listeners not lucky enough to have tickets to the Festival we will bring the legendary atmosphere to them with live and uninterrupted performances from Paul Weller on Friday 14th and Ben Howard on Saturday 15th.

Absolute Radio is also the official radio partner at Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time Hyde Park, the ten day festival from 5th-14th July. DJ’s Pete Donaldson and Sarah Champion will be backstage interviewing artists for a special Sunday Night Music Club show to be broadcast on July 21st. You can watch headline act The Rolling Stones talking to Absolute Radio about their return to Hyde Park here.

We will also be at Hard Rock Calling on the 29th-30th June with a live and uninterrupted main stage set from headliners Kasabian, and a show broadcast from the Hard Rock Calling site hosted by Pete Donaldson and Sarah Champion. Exclusive backstage content from Hard Rock Cafe’s VIP enclosure on site will also feature on a special Hard Rock Calling show on Sunday Night Music Club on Sunday 30th June at 10pm.

Bolstering our comedy credentials, we will also return to Cornbury Music Festival where we will programme and present the ‘Absolute Radio Comedy stage’ featuring Lee Nelson, Ed Gambler and Abandoman amongst others. Video content from the event will be available to users after the event.

Absolute Radio will also broadcast highlights of Muse live in concert on their North American tour at 9pm on the 23rd of May.

Absolute 80s headed to Lets Rock The Moor festival last weekend on 18th May, gathering artist interviews from the action packed 80s festival which returned to Berkshire for its 5th year. On-air interviews with Absolute 80s host Martyn Lee will be broadcast on Bank Holiday Monday 27th May at 9pm, as well as video and social media content featuring Tony Hadley, Bananarama, Howard Jones and Claire Grogan.

The live activity will be amplified with a digital marketing campaign including Twitter’s Promoted Products as well as Facebook’s Sponsored Posts and Mobile Install Ads to drive the station’s logged in listening and Player App downloads.

Read what Music Week are saying about us here

Opinion: ‘I Love Rock and Roll‘ by James Curran

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Two years ago rock music seemed to be staring into the abyss . In 2011, of the Top 100 singles only 3% could be classified as rock! That’s right – a miserly 3% . Rock was well and truly in the doldrums . And music journalists were queuing up to right off rock forever . Hold your pens boys and girls! 2013 has seen some very positive purple shoots .

In Q1 20% of all hits are rock . That is quite some turnaround. In a sea of pop and R&B we are once again seeing some genuine rock hits – a hit generally being any single track that makes the Official Chart Company’s Top 40 . Imagine Dragons , Bastille , Ben Howard , Of Monsters and Men, Kodaline , Tom Odell , Lumineers , 1975 , Haim and even old stalwarts Stereophonics have managed this year to broach the walls of the Top 40 Singles Chart.

Happily these are all artists that Absolute Radio has been supporting and our faith in the quality of new rock music is borne out in our new Pete Donaldson evening show , which together with Sunday Night Music Club and Unknown Pleasures will help to trail blaze on behalf of all those great new rock acts .

And there was further good news for rock in this week’s RAJAR results when rock stations like ourselves and XFM posted healthy results . So it seems the rock revival is genuinely on the cards and that is great news to all of us that were devotees of Joan Jett and her heartfelt proclamation!

James Curran Absolute Radio Head of Music