You may have already seen the video we put together in time for our first birthday celebrations. Well, it may only be 3 months on, but we’ve got another one to share with you guys. It’s got lots of new interviews we’ve done recently, as well as clips from David Tennant’s week co-hosting the breakfast show, Stereophonics session, and our exclusive Florence and the Machine gig at Abbey Road.
Watch, enjoy, and wait for the next one!
The new monthly streamed listening and podcast figures and engagement metrics are now available.
Absolute Radio is also including monthly data of podcast downloads across the Absolute Radio network.
Some interesting things to note:
• Video streaming: we had a total of 2,563,950 views of our videos in 2009 (1,591,516 on Youtube, 972,434 on absoluteradio.co.uk)
• Video downloads: our video podcasts were downloaded a total of 894,213 times in 2009
• Our most watched streamed video was Bruno at the London premiere, which received a combined total of 284,398 views in 2009
• Our most downloaded video was Green Day with Ben Jones, which received a total of 93,730 downloads in 2009
• Interestingly more than 50% of our most popular streamed videos were not music related and could mainly be attributed to showbiz interviews, red carpet premieres/awards ceremonies clearly cementing Absolute Radio as an entertainment brand as well as music radio station
• December 2009 saw a peak in video podcast downloads – a monthly total of 195,139 (due to Avatar, Twilight and Sherlock Holmes). This is higher than the December 2008 figure for all Absolute Radio audio podcasts.
• In 2008, the total number of streamed video views for Absolute Radio was around 23,000 (we only started putting videos online in August 2008). We therefore got more than 100 times the number of video views in 2009, compared with 2008.
• Audio downloads: We had 5.8 million podcasts downloaded in 2009. In 2008, the figure was 3.3 million. That makes 2009 74% higher than 2008
• Show podcasts increased 17% (from 3.3 million to 3.8 million)
The playlist is out now.
United Nations of Sound – Are You Ready? (29th March)
United Nations of Sound is the new project from Richard Ashcroft (The Verve). ‘Are You Ready?’ is the first piece of music we’ve heard – and it has a totally rockin’ lead guitar break. A further song, the first single, will be delivered to radio in mid-February – and the album, as yet untitled, will be released at the end of March.
Courteeners – You Overdid It Doll (15th February)
2010 is shaping up to be a very good year for Manchester band The Courteeners. They have a star-in-waiting in singer Liam Fray, a huge live following and initial reports on 2nd album ‘Falcon’ (22nd of Feb) suggest it could have the songs to bring the band further recognition.
Hurts – Wonderful Life: Arthur Baker mix (18th January)
Hurts are a new duo from Manchester whose atmospheric music and stylish monochrome press shots recall the 1980s of bands like Tears For Fears. They came #4 in the recent BBC Sound of 2010 poll, voted for by industry experts like our very own Head of Music James Curran. This version of the song gets a very limited release this week – expect to hear a lot more from Hurts as the year goes on.
When Clive and Tony said to me;
‘Brian, we’d like you to go and find some new talent for the station.’
I said
‘Great.’
Then they said:
‘Go out to the four corners of the earth and find us the next Christian O’Connell or the next Geoff Lloyd. It’ll be hard, but with a lot of effort and dedication we’re sure it’s possible.’
It’s at that point that I realised that the task would be a bit too much like hard work, so I settled on a guy who was described by the comedy critic of Wakefield Gazette as having:
‘Absolutely no wit whatsoever…’
Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Max Dickins to the station (no relation). He’s a 22 year old DJ currently studying Philosophy & Politics at Leeds University, but luckily for us he also has a passion and dedication for Radio which has won him numerous accolades at this year’s Student Radio Awards, including Bronze for Best male, silver for Best scripted and an entertainment nomination. The gold winners in those categories were sadly unavailable.
He was born in Putney, loves cricket, went to school with the bass player from Mumford and Sons, and I think with a little bit of hard work he could become a valuable addition to the station.
There. That’s it.
That’s all I have to say about him.
Oh and he’ll be doing weekend overnights for the rest of the month.
Just so he doesn’t surprise you round the building here’s a picture he gave me that he had taken by a fancy photographer:
But I don’t think it captures him very well ,so here’s one I found on the internet which I think is a much more accurate depiction:
Parliament was rocked by Absolute Radio last night as the national radio station staged the first ever gig to be held at the House of Commons with Scottish trio Biffy Clyro.
Singer Simon Neil admitted he had some pre-show nerves, telling Breakfast Show DJ Christian O’Connell: “You get a bit more nervous when you know the Speaker of the House of Commons is watching. If you went to Catholic school it’s like doing a gig in the head nun’s office”.
The band have been performing for over 10 years but confessed that the Palace of Westminster was the most unusual place they have played to date.
Neil said: “It’s incredible, we’ll wake up tomorrow wondering if this really happened”.
The half-hour acoustic gig was a celebration of the news that 50% of Absolute Radio’s national listening is now digital which was the target set out in the Digital Britain report last year. Digital innovation is core to the station’s business and Absolute Radio continues to lead the radio industry. The station recorded 51.5% of the station’s national listening on a digital platform, compared to the industry average of just 21.1%. The event was held in a marquee on the Commons terrace overlooking the Thames.
Breakfast Show DJ Christian O’Connell said: “I’m not sure how we got in here to be honest. Everyone is on their best behaviour in front of the Speaker of the House! It’s one of the most surreal and most brilliant gigs I have ever been to.”
Asked by O’Connell how it feels to be cracking the British music charts, Neil said: “We’ve always enjoyed what we’ve done at whatever level. We’ve been confident enough to think if people don’t get it, that’s not our problem. That’s not us being arrogant, we’ve always enjoyed what we’ve done so it wouldn’t have worried us if people hadn’t cottoned on because we would have stuck it out. We firmly believe we are a good band”.
Talking about the response Biffy Clyro get in their home town of Kilmarnock he said “even now we go home and people say ‘are you still in that wee band?’ before joking ‘wait till we tell them about tonight!”.
The 30-year old singer also revealed that if he hadn’t been a musician he would have loved to be a footballer. He told Absolute Radio listeners: “I love football. We play an hour and half every night, they play an hour and a half every week and get paid £100,000!”
The band are now about to start a European Tour which will come to the UK in May but fans can hear tracks from their gig at the Houses of Commons on Geoff Lloyd’s Hometime Show from 7pm on Tuesday 19th January and watch video online at www.absoluteradio.co.uk
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