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Private Notes
The live celebrations continue as Madness perform more greatest hits to welcome in the New Year.
Petroc Trelawny is our host for this year's traditional start to the year with music from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. This year's concert is led for the first time by the German conductor Christian Thielemann, guiding the Vienna Philharmonic in an array of polkas, waltzes and gallops by the Strauss family and their contemporaries.
As always, the concert ends with the ever-popular By the Beautiful Blue Danube and the foot-stamping Radetzky March. The concert is transmitted to some 50 million viewers in over 90 countries.
This is the David Bowie story you don’t know. The story of how David Robert Jones became David Bowie, how David Bowie became Ziggy Stardust and how Ziggy became immortal, changing the musical landscape as he did so. The story that finally makes sense of one of the greatest icons of the 20th and 21st centuries. Part three of Francis Whately’s Bowie trilogy.
‘My subject is war and the pity of war, The poetry is in the pity, All a poet can do today is warn.'
Wilfred Owen, from the Preface to his Poems, inscribed by Britten at the head of the score of War Requiem.
Filmed over 12 months, with unprecedented access, this landmark film follows the English National Opera as they pursue the challenge of staging Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. One of the greatest British choral works of the 20th Century, War Requiem is seen by many as a true masterpiece.
The ENO are the first company to transform the work into a dramatised performance. Artistic Director Daniel Kramer engaged a team drawn from across the world including the Turner Prize-winning artist Wolfgang Tillmans: ‘By keeping War Requiem alive and relevant today, we will be able to remember the sense of urgency that people in the post war generation felt, a sense of never again.’
For Britten, writing a piece for the re-consecration of Coventry Cathedral was the opportunity he had been waiting for. The original building was destroyed during World War II. He wanted to create a powerful statement against the horrors of war, a piece that inspired reconciliation. The result was an emotionally charged piece that requires three soloists, a large choir, a children’s choir, a large orchestra, two organs as well as a chamber orchestra. Juxtaposing the traditional Latin Requiem Mass with the World War I poet Wilfred Owen’s powerful anti-war poetry, the overall effect is a powerful emotional journey.
The destruction of war is no less a significant theme now than when War Requiem was first performed. Daniel Kramer’s ambition in creating a staged version of the music was fostered by a belief that he could amplify Britten’s original intentions.
The film begins where the music itself was born – in Coventry. Wolfgang and Daniel explore the ruins of the old Coventry Cathedral before moving into the vast echoing space of the new cathedral. It is a
Flat Pack Pop: Sweden’s Music Miracle charts the remarkable rise of Sweden as a global music superpower. Journalist James Ballardie explores the uniquely Swedish songwriting formula created by record producer Denniz Pop, discovering how the biggest chart hits of the last 30 years have been inspired by the myths and legends of this Land of the Midnight Sun.
In the 1990s, an elite band of unlikely entrepreneur songwriters and producers became responsible for the most dramatic revolution in music since Elvis first shook his hips. What started out as an experiment on the Stockholm underground club scene soon blossomed into an entire genre of its own. These unlikely heroes of bubblegum pop surfed the wave of the dot.com boom, launching the careers of Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Westlife and many, many more. Hundreds of millions of record sales later, today they have a combined net worth of many billions.
Featuring interviews with key Swedish songwriters, plus producers and artists including Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, Ace of Base and Robyn, James’s search for the real lever-pullers behind today’s top tunes takes him from the icy streets of Stockholm to the barren plains of Kronoberg.
But why should Sweden – of all places – have become such a hotbed for hot tracks? Some say it’s the terrible weather and long months of darkness that created the perfect environment for Swedes to refine their craft. Others praise the stellar state-funded musical education programmes promoted by the socialist governments of the 60s and 70s. A Swedish love for simplistic melodies – harking back to the medieval cattle-herding calls that form the basis of Swedish folk music – is also a key weapon in the Swedish musical juggernaut’s arsenal.
Perhaps most impressive of all about Sweden’s musical miracle is the sheer duration of its success - with a streak of hits that has lasted longer than any of the classic songwriting factories that have define
Beginning a weekend of commemorating the 150th anniversary of the death of Berlioz, the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales open proceedings with a performance of Berlioz's monumental oratorio L'enfance du Christ, the first concert of a host of performances from the BBC Orchestras and Choirs and the Ulster Orchestra across the weekend.
L'enfance du Christ marked a change for Berlioz, not necessarily in his writing but in the extremely favourable reception of the French public - which tended towards frosty. This reaction was probably due to the music, which Berlioz himself called 'naive and gentle', although he insisted that it was stylistically no different from any of his previous work. Although not himself a man of faith, the oratorio is steeped in his love of religious music, telling the story in three parts of the massacre of the innocents following the birth of Christ, the flight of Jesus, Mary and Joseph into Egypt, and finally their arrival and refuge in the town of Sais, all performed here without an interval.
Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, explores the greatest arias in the genre through a mix of workshops and archive footage.
Nothing pulls harder at the heartstrings than an opera aria – that pivotal moment when the action stops and the character draws us right into the heart of the drama, revealing his or her innermost feelings and thoughts. These are chances for the singers to show off, to wow an audience with some of the most famous music in opera. In this film, charismatic conductor and music director of the Royal Opera House, Antonio Pappano, shares his selection of some of opera’s greatest arias. Pappano’s choices stretch across the full 400-year operatic canvas and feature some of the most ravishing and famous arias in the repertoire - from show-stopping Baroque to heart-stopping Mozart, the full-blooded Romantics to blood-curdling Verismo via Bel Canto pyrotechnics and new 20th-century techniques. Along the way, he identifies the various functions that arias perform in opera – from entrance arias, soliloquies and arias born of crisis to breathless declarations of undying love. Combining hands-on workshops featuring today’s international stars - such as Joyce DiDonato, Lucy Crowe, Bryan Hymel and Lawrence Brownlee - along with glorious archive of operatic legends including Placido Domingo, Gundula Janowitz and Piero Cappuccilli, Pappano shines a fresh new light on the precise characteristics – vocal, musical, psychological and dramatic – that transform these great theatrical moments into timeless masterpieces.
What makes a film score unforgettable? Featuring Hans Zimmer, James Cameron, Danny Elfman, John Williams, Quincy Jones and Trent Reznor, amongst many others, Score: Cinema’s Greatest Soundtracks brings Hollywood's elite composers together for a privileged look inside the challenges and creative secrecy of the world's most international music genre, the film score.
Pascal Rophé conducts a triple bill of works by Berlioz in City Halls, Glasgow.
“Oh! How can I find her – the Ophelia, the Juliet for whom my heart cries! To intoxicate myself with the anguish and joy that is true love!” Lélio is a lover, a dreamer - and a composer. And if you think his name sounds a bit like Berlioz: well, we don’t want to give too much away about 'Lélio or The Return to Life' – the extraordinary autobiographical musical drama that Berlioz composed in 1831 at the height of an unrequited love affair. But it’s utterly unique: a delirious odyssey through the Romantic imagination, told in some of Berlioz’s most flamboyantly original music. Conductor Pascal Rophé brings all his sense of theatre to this rare full performance which also features actor Samuel West. ‘Lelio’ is proceeded by the composer’s Walter Scott-inspired 'Waverley' overture, and Karen Cargill in the sensuous and dramatic solo cantata, 'The Death of Cleopatra'.
This concert is part of ‘Berlioz - The Ultimate Romantic’, a celebratory weekend of live and specially recorded concerts showcasing the BBC Orchestras and Choirs, as well as the Ulster Orchestra, marking the anniversary of the remarkable composer, writer, and master-orchestrator Hector Berlioz, who died on 8 March 1869.
2018 marked the 40th anniversary of Soft Cell, one of the most colourful and charismatic bands in the history of popular music. To celebrate this landmark, singer Marc Almond and musician Dave Ball reunited for an emotional, sold-out, farewell concert at London’s O2 Arena that September.
With unprecedented access to Marc and Dave, this film follows the build-up to that gig and provides an intimate retrospective portrait of one of our greatest bands and most iconic singers. It shows rehearsals and preparations for the O2 show and footage from the actual concert itself, woven in with period archive and music videos.
The film covers Marc’s formative years growing up in Southport and Dave’s in nearby Blackpool and how the two met as art students at Leeds Polytechnic in the late 1970s. We filmed Marc and Dave in The Fenton pub in Leeds, where they went as students, and they perform an early Soft Cell song, A Man Could Get Lost, on Dave’s original keyboards especially for the BBC Four audience at The Warehouse Club where the band did their first-ever paid gig.
Soft Cell burned brightly between 1981 and 1984, after their gritty but stunning cover version of Tainted Love became a massive hit, the best-selling single in the UK of 1981 and a number one hit in 15 other countries, including the USA. Dave plays from the master tapes of that era-defining song for us.
But Soft Cell were always more interested in using their success to subvert the mainstream than in becoming pop stars, as they tell us in relation to Marc’s groundbreaking, androgynous debut on Top of the Pops. It was the beginning of a controversial career that deliberately defied and flouted convention. Soft Cell were influenced as much by punk as by Northern Soul and Kraftwerk, and refused to be pigeonholed by anyone, bringing a punk ethos to synth-pop while busting taboos along the way. In their heyday, even while refusing to compromise on their musical vision, the pair produced numero
Ardal O'Hanlon looks at what started the infamous showband era in Ireland, the people involved, and how it came to an end in the 1980s.
They defined music and popular culture like no other band ever will. But how did The Beatles make the journey from Merseyside teenagers to international pop stars in the 1960s? The Beatles: Made on Merseyside recounts how American rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues dragged post-war Liverpool into one of the most vibrant music cities ever with the Mersey Sound.
Featuring unique archive and revealing interviews from those involved in the early years of The Beatles in Liverpool and Hamburg, we discover the story of The Beatles’ previous band formations and why it took so long for them to achieve success. From school bands to colleges, Hamburg to The Cavern Club, The Beatles moved from skiffle to rock ‘n’ roll before creating their unique sound.
English National Ballet performs Akram Khan’s Giselle, the award-winning reimagining of one of the greatest romantic ballets of all time. The classic story of love, betrayal and redemption is retold by choreographer Akram Khan, with sets and costumes by academy award winning designer Tim Yip, and an adaptation of Adolphe Adam’s original score created by composer Vincenzo Lamagna and performed by English National Ballet Philharmonic. Acclaimed by audiences and critics since its premiere at Manchester International Festival in 2016, English National Ballet’s production has toured around the UK and been performed in Hong Kong, Ireland and New Zealand. This English National Ballet Production was supported by The Space and filmed live in 2017 at The Liverpool Empire.
Phill Jupitus and Clare Grogan want your stories, dedications and memories about a stack of classic BBC Music performances, around the theme of friendship from the likes of Carole King, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Tina Turner, Ed Sheeran, Oasis, REM and many, many more.
In Atomos, bodies, movement, film, sound and light are atomised into miniature shards of intense sensation. Taking creative points of departure from atomised film, music and biometric data, Wayne McGregor’s choreography is woven into an intense 70-minute film, performed by the incredible dancers of Company Wayne McGregor in his distinctive style - sculptural, rigorous, jarring and hauntingly beautiful.
Known for his unique, tenacious questioning across the interface of art and science and through the body and mind, multi-award-winning choreographer and director Wayne McGregor CBE has remained at the forefront of contemporary arts for the past 25 years. He is artistic director of Studio Wayne McGregor, based at Here East on east London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the creative engine of his life-long choreographic enquiry into thinking through and with the body. It encompasses his own touring company of dancers, Company Wayne McGregor, creative collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science; and highly specialized learning, engagement and research programmes.
McGregor is also resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet, and is in demand by the most important ballet companies in the world as well as for his choreography across theatre, opera and film (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Tarzan, Fantastic Beasts, Sing, Mary Queen of Scots), music videos (Grammy Award-nominated Lotus Flower by Radiohead, Wide Open by The Chemical Brothers), fashion shows (Gareth Pugh, London Fashion Week 2017), TV (The BRIT Awards’ opening sequence in 2016) and site-specific performances (Big Dance Trafalgar Square 2012).
Following a highly successful national and international tour of the original stage production, McGregor has extended and translated his acclaimed work Atomos into a unique film experience, directed by McGregor and long-time collaborator Ravi Deepres.
Atomos features a soaring score by A Winged Victory for the Sullen, dynamic
As Gustav Mahler contemplated his own mortality, he drew consolation and strength from the poetry of ancient China. 'Das Lied von der Erde' is the result: a symphony in all but name that distils every last drop of life’s sorrow and sweetness into six heartrending songs. Toru Takemitsu, meanwhile, looked west: charting a very personal musical path between western classical music and the philosophy and art of his native Japan to create soundscapes of unique, and haunting, beauty. Glowing autumn colours mingle with cries of longing in this wonderfully conceived programme from the BBC SSO’s hugely respected Conductor Emeritus Donald Runnicles, plus two singers whose unflinching emotional commitment has won international acclaim.
Recorded in City Halls, Glasgow.
In January 1956, a new pop phenomenon appeared in the UK charts: a British artist playing the guitar. His name was Lonnie Donegan, and the song he sang was Rock Island Line. Donegan’s rough-and-ready style was at odds with the polished crooners who dominated the charts. He played the guitar in a way that sounded like anyone could do it. Rock Island Line sounded like nothing else on the radio, and it inspired a generation of British youths to pick up guitars and begin a journey that would take them to the top of the American charts.
Woody Guthrie is one of America’s legendary songwriters. A voice of the people, he wrote hard-hitting lyrics for a hard-hit nation.
His is a tale of survival, creativity and reinvention. He is proof that there is always potential for change and even in 2019, more than fifty years after his death, he is challenging Donald Trump from beyond the grave.
With enormous influence on successive generations of musicians like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Billy Bragg, this film proves he has a true place in 21st-century culture.
In her first documentary for more than 35 years, the great British classical singer Dame Janet Baker talks more openly and emotionally than ever before about her career and her life today. With excerpts of her greatest stage roles (as Dido, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar and Orpheus), as well as of her appearances in the concert hall and recording studio (works by Handel, Berlioz, Schubert, Elgar, Britten and Mahler), she looks back at the excitements and pitfalls of public performance.
She tells the film-maker John Bridcut about the traumatic loss of her elder brother when she was only ten years old, and how that experience coloured her voice and her artistry. She explains why she felt the need to retire early some thirty years ago and discusses the challenges she and her husband have to face in old age. She also gives tantalizing clues to the question her many fans often ask: does she still sing today at the age of 85?
Among the other contributors to the film are conductors Raymond Leppard, Jane Glover and André Previn (in one of his last interviews before his death in March), the singers Joyce DiDonato and Dame Felicity Lott, the opera producer John Copley, the pianist Imogen Cooper, and the actress Dame Patricia Routledge. This feature-length film is a Crux production for the BBC, following the award-winning ‘Colin Davis - in His Own Words’ in 2013. John Bridcut has also made film profiles of Herbert von Karajan, Mstislav Rostropovich, Rudolf Nureyev and Jonas Kaufmann, as well as ‘Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70’ for BBC One in November 2018.
Marianne Faithfull has seen it all. Success and celebrity at 17. Life with Mick Jagger through the turbulent late sixties. Scandal, drugs, addiction and hitting rock bottom before rebirth, awards and artistic recognition.
Director Sandrine Bonnaire tells the incredible story of her thousand lives, her encounters with some of music’s greats and her extraordinary career.
Directed by Sandrine Bonnaire
A Cinétévé production for Arte France, acquired by BBC Music.
The story of the blues musician and his far-reaching impact on popular culture told in his own words and those of his family and closest collaborators. Born into poverty and racial segregation, he lived through a monumental time in American history, and interviews with Keith Richards, Van Morrison, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, and Robert Cray tell how an illiterate man from the rural and impoverished backwaters of the Mississippi Delta influenced their own musical journey.
Jazz 625 Live: For One Night Only is a special 90-minute live show paying tribute to the iconic 1960s BBC Two jazz show of the same name. Broadcast live from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and hosted by Andi Oliver, the programme will feature a house band and special guests including Gregory Porter, Charlie Watts from the Rolling Stones, Joshua Redman, Jacqui Dankworth and Cleo Laine. There will also be archive performances from the original series and interviews and features looking back at a classic time in jazz.
To celebrate Queen Victoria’s 200th birthday, historian Dr Lucy Worsley explores the character and legacy of the famous monarch in a way that has never been attempted before – through music. Lucy reveals how Victoria used music to transform the monarchy from a political power into a benevolent cultural force that brought the country together during a time of great upheaval and change. Lucy also examines the central role music played in Victoria’s own life - as a queen, a private person and in her marriage to Prince Albert.
Victoria and Albert also took an active role in reshaping the musical culture of Britain by establishing institutions like the Royal College of Music and the Royal Albert Hall. Together they laid the groundwork for a musical renaissance in Britain which saw a new generation of great British composers reshape the sound of Britain in the 20th century. To bring the story of Britain’s great musical revolution to life there are performances from Sir Willard White, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Black Dyke Brass Band and many more
Singer Ricky Warwick and DJ Ralph McLean go on a musical odyssey into rock ‘n’ roll history to trace the Ulster-Scots heartbeat at the core of the biggest cultural revolution of the 20th century.
The Planets is performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Each movement is introduced by Prof Brian Cox and set against the latest space imagery.
Northern Ireland’s finest purveyors of music return to Ward Park in Bangor. Snow Patrol perform a spectacular homecoming gig to local and international fans alike.
The band, who are celebrating 25 years in music, take us on a journey from early classics to their most recent album.
Award-winning author Darren 'Loki' McGarvey reveals the history of Scottish hip-hop.
Looking back at over 30 years of culture, he speaks to the pioneers in music, dance and art, telling a story of young men and women in Scotland overcoming adversity to express themselves in often-challenging circumstances.
Exploring status in culture and language and how young people in the 80s caught on to a industry now worth ten billion dollars a year but are still relatively unknown.
Brothers Matt and Luke Goss look back on some of their most memorable moments as part of the band Bros, discussing the shows, music and films that have inspired them to become the artists and people they are today. The duo shares hitherto unseen moments from the filming of the recent documentary After the Screaming Stops, as well as reflect on how they have changed over the decades. Featuring exclusive studio content and a behind-the-scenes look at their preparations for their next shows in London, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Acid house is often portrayed as a movement that came out of the blue, inspired by little more than a handful of London-based DJs discovering ecstasy on a 1987 holiday to Ibiza. In truth, the explosion of acid house and rave in the UK was a reaction to a much wider and deeper set of fault lines in British culture, stretching from the heart of the city to the furthest reaches of the countryside, cutting across previously impregnable boundaries of class, identity and geography.
With Everybody in the Place, the Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller upturns popular notions of rave and acid house, situating them at the very centre of the seismic social changes that reshaped 1980s Britain. Rare and unseen archive materials map the journey from protest movements to abandoned warehouse raves, the white heat of industry bleeding into the chaotic release of the dancefloor.
We join an A-level politics class as they discover these stories for the first time, viewing the story of acid house from the perspective of a generation for whom it is already ancient history. We see how rave culture owes as much to the Battle of Orgreave and the underground gay clubs of Chicago as it does to shifts in musical style: not merely a cultural gesture, but the fulcrum for a generational shift in British identity, linking industrial histories and radical action to the wider expanses of a post-industrial future.
For three days in August 1969, half a million people from all walks of life converged on a small dairy farm in upstate New York. They came to hear the concert of their lives, but most experienced something far more profound: a moment that came to define a cultural revolution.
This documentary tells the story of the lead-up to those three historic days, through the voices of those who were there and the music of the time. It includes extraordinary moments from the concert itself, iconic images of both performers and festival goers, and tells how this groundbreaking event, pulled off right at the last minute, nearly ended in disaster and put the ideals of the counterculture to the test.
Live coverage of the Pet Shop Boys’ headline set at Radio 2 Live In Hyde Park. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are the most successful duo in UK music history. Having achieved 42 top 30 singles in the UK since 1985, there is no shortage of hits for them to choose from as they play their only UK gig of the year in front of more than 40,000 festivalgoers. Keep an eye out for a mystery guest artist.
Christine McVie is undoubtedly the longest-serving female band member of any of the enduring rock ‘n’ roll acts that emerged from the 1960s. While she has never fronted Fleetwood Mac, preferring to align herself with ‘the boys’ in the rhythm section whom she first joined 50 years ago, Christine is their most successful singer-songwriter. Her hits include ‘Over My Head’, ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Everywhere’.
After massive global success in both the late 1970s and mid-1980s, Christine left the band in the late 1990s, quitting California and living in semi-retirement in Kent, only to rejoin the band in 2013. In this 90-minute film, this most English of singers finally gets to take centre-stage and tell both her story and the saga of Fleetwood Mac from her point of view.
Funk Queen Betty Davis changed the landscape for female artists in America. She 'was the first', as former husband Miles Davis said. 'Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince'.
An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty arrived on the 70s scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion and outrageous funk music. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and the Commodores, and married Miles – startlingly turning him from jazz to funk on the album she named 'Bitches Brew'. She then, despite being banned and boycotted, went on to become the first black woman to perform, write and manage herself.
Betty was a feminist pioneer, inspiring and intimidating in a manner like no woman before. Then suddenly - she just vanished. Betty Mabry Davis is a global icon whose mysterious life story has until now, never been told. Creatively blending documentary and animation, this movie traces the path of Betty’s life, how she grew from humble upbringings to become a fully self-realized black female pioneer the world failed to understand or appreciate, revealing the mystery of her 35-year disappearance and her battle with mental illness and poverty. After years of trying, the elusive Betty finally allowed the film-makers to creatively tell her story based on their conversations.
The compelling story of the Chins - the Chinese-Jamaican family behind Studio 17 established above Randy’s Records at 17 North Parade in downtown Kingston.
Randy’s Records was founded in the late 1950s by Vincent Chin and his wife Pat, who began by selling used records in a tiny shop. As Jamaican independence approached in 1962, Vincent Chin had the inspired idea of producing a record to capitalise on the excitement of the time. He approached the popular Trinidadian singer Lord Creator and produced Independent Jamaica. Jamaica was in the mood for celebrating its independence, and the song was an instant hit. Creator then went on to record Kingston Town, which became a huge hit for UB40 in the 1980s. The success of Independent Jamaica enabled the Randy’s shop to expand and add a studio of its own, known as Studio 17.
Studio 17 was where Vincent Chin and later his son Clive Chin as well as many other legendary Jamaican producers would create new tracks. Throughout the 60s and 70s many of the world’s most famous reggae artists recorded there, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, John Holt, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Carl Malcolm, Jimmy London, Augustus Pablo, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson and many more.
When the Chin family left for New York, some 2,000 original session tapes were left behind at Studio 17. It was believed they were all lost in the flooding and looting that followed Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 that left the studio unusable.
However, as part of a major exhibition on Jamaican music at Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project in Seattle, now renamed the Museum of Pop Culture, the tapes were rediscovered and shipped to New York, where they languished for some time in a basement. Tragedy struck in 2011, when Joel Chin, son of Clive Chin and A&R for VP records, was murdered in Kingston, Jamaica. Having encouraged his father to do something with the archive for many years, Clive h
Mark Ronson, hit songwriter and producer openly discusses his life and musical influences. With interviews from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Broadcast on National Album Day.
This year’s breakthrough pop sensation Lewis Capaldi performs the biggest headline show of his career at Croxteth Park in Liverpool, entertaining a sell-out crowd of 12,500. Accompanied by the 60-piece Manchester Camerata, Lewis delights the audience with hits from his platinum-selling debut album and a special surprise cover of a Beatles classic.
The K-Pop phenomenon is shaking up the pop world. For the first time ever, there is a serious challenge to the West’s domination of the global music industry. Leading the way is the biggest boy band in the world, BTS. But how has this happened?
Music Journalist James Ballardie travels to South Korea to uncover the secrets behind this worldwide success story and to find out how, in just 20 short years, the music industry in the country came from obscurity to become a major player on the world stage.
In the summer of 2019, BTS played two sold-out performance at the UK’s most icon venue, Wembley Stadium. Their catchy pop songs, bombastic beats, good looks and natty dance moves have captivated young pop fans worldwide, and sent them to the top of the charts in the US and beyond.
To try and understand this latest pop explosion, James heads to Seoul and goes inside the K-pop industry. He meets Soo-Man Lee, the Svengali-like figure who has helped shape Korean pop music for over 30 years and still drives giant K-Pop company SM entertainment’s vision today. He also catches up with some of the songwriters, producers, music video makers and the idols themselves, from the biggest names in the business to the newcomers. Among them are members of EXO, NCT 127, SHINee and WayV, all bands with millions of fans around the world. They are all part of a new star-studded supergroup, SuperM. Their success in Asia will be guaranteed, but can they replicate BTS’s global achievements? James meets SuperM as they prepare to be launched on the world.
Both Bob Dylan and Nick Cave have testified in song that death is not the end. But, not all stories from the musical afterlife are created equal. Death may have its obvious downside. However, in the world of pop, shuffling off your mortal coil could be a unique business opportunity.
In this documentary, Scissor Sisters star Ana Matronic goes on a journey into the afterlife of pop. Think of her as music’s pearly gatekeeper of making it big in the ever after. But here’s the rub: this isn’t about the music; no, this is about the many other ways dead pop stars earn a living when they’re gone. So join her as she books in with the agents, publicists, producers and families to discover the dos and don’ts of keeping the dream alive.
Using a combination of interview, archive and investigation, Get Rich or Try Dying peels back the complicated mechanics of the pop music industry, showing how it really works and who ultimately profits from it. Once the mansions, yachts, luxury cars, private jets and entourages are dispensed with, death ushers in a new cast of characters, not all of whom were party to creating the wealth in the first place, but all of them are interested in profiting from it.
The documentary reveals how Elvis was the architect of the entire legacy industry and how his lawyers, working on behalf of his family, changed American law to permit the surviving family members to benefit from his rights of publicity. It shows Prince’s story to be a cautionary tale for those without a will, and ponders how Bob Marley has retained his dignity despite attaching his name to everything from bath salts to electric goods and Californian marijuana. Linda Ramone professes her love of ‘merch’ and explains how her dead husband’s influential but niche NY punk act, The Ramones, continues to stand for something way beyond their music. Finally, Frank Zappa’s son delves into the morality of hologram tours, as illustrated by his father’s, before the immacul
They defined music and popular culture like no other band ever will. But how did The Beatles make the journey from Merseyside teenagers to international pop stars in the 1960s? The Beatles: Made on Merseyside recounts how American rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues dragged post-war Liverpool into one of the most vibrant music cities ever with the Mersey Sound.
Featuring unique archive and revealing interviews from those involved in the early years of The Beatles in Liverpool and Hamburg, we discover the story of The Beatles’ previous band formations and why it took so long for them to achieve success. From school bands to colleges, Hamburg to The Cavern Club, The Beatles moved from skiffle to rock ‘n’ roll before creating their unique sound.
A revelatory, thrilling and emotional journey behind the scenes of Blue Note Records, the pioneering label that gave voice to some of the finest jazz artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. When German Jewish refugees Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff started Blue Note in 1939 in New York, the two Berliners allowed their artists complete freedom and encouraged them to compose new music. Their visionary and uncompromising approach led to releases that did not just revolutionise jazz; they left an indelible imprint on art and music, including hip hop. The present provides a point of departure from which the film recovers the past. Legendary artists Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter come together with today’s generation of groundbreaking Blue Note artists such as Robert Glasper and Ambrose Akinmusire to record an all-stars album. These reflections lead us back to the highly influential figures of the past on which the legacy of Blue Note has been built, including Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Miles Davis. Rare archival interviews and conversations with Blue Note musicians provide an intimate look into the creation and philosophy behind some of the most seminal tracks in jazz history. The film reveals the values that jazz embodies and that Blue Note has promoted since its inception: freedom of expression, equality, dialogue - values we can learn from and that are as relevant today as they were when the label was founded.
Elton John opens up about his childhood, stardom and battles with addiction in an exclusive interview with Graham Norton.
A celebration of the Eden Sessions that looks back at the first 18 years of concerts at the Eden Project in Cornwall, which began in 2001. One hundred live concerts, from Elton John to Gary Barlow, set against the stunning backdrop of the Eden biomes.
Introduced by Nile Rodgers, who headlined the 100th show on 23 June 2019, the programme features performances by a wide variety of artists. They include Pulp, who headlined the first ever Eden Session in July 2002, Duran Duran, Bastille, Muse, Gary Barlow, Van Morrison, Madness, Primal Scream and Lionel Richie.
Dazzling entertainment from the Man with the Golden Flute as Sir James Galway reflects on a television career spanning over 40 years. Following an extraordinary journey from the Belfast docks to principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Galway went on to cross all musical boundaries in the late 1970s to become a BBC TV superstar.
From Val Doonican to Top of the Pops, Wogan to Celebrity Proms, and Parkinson to Songs of Praise, Galway brought the sound of the flute to audiences of millions. With stunning performances of the great classics and iconic TV moments on piccolo, mouth organ and tin whistle, this is a journey full of fun and surprises.
The Chieftains, Cleo Laine and The Cambridge Buskers are just some of the musicians who feature in a wealth of BBC archive paying tribute to one of the best-loved entertainers of his generation on his 80th birthday.
We meet the passionate makers and players of cigar box guitars. Many of these craftsmen and musicians are from post-industrial British towns, and have created a self-identity through making these unique three-stringed guitars. Born from the blues, their simple, low cost, ‘no rules’ approach means anyone can try their hand.
These are the fervent advocates of the ‘cigar box guitar revolution’ who express their love of designing and constructing hand-made instruments, recycled from almost anything. The democratic, pro-recycling, local-production ethos of the movement inspires new recruits, while the emotional connection they feel for their instruments creates a unique and evocative sound that totally transports musicians and audiences alike.
Although the cigar box guitar has a long history in the USA, where it formed part of the culture of traditional blues music, it has only recently become popular with musicians in the UK. This film reveals how just three chords, played on their unique, DIY, instruments, hand-made from recycled materials, connect them to their truth
Gareth embeds himself in Watford General Hospital, enlisting the help of staff, patients and their families to stage a Christmas concert full of wonder for everyone to enjoy.
A landmark documentary that explores the extraordinary life and music of Dolly Parton.
Featuring incredible archive footage and exclusive interviews with Dolly and stars like Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, this film lifts the lid on the songwriting genius behind I Will Always Love You, Jolene, 9 to 5 and a host of other chart-topping hits.
From her humble beginnings to her global success, the film discovers how a young girl from the Smoky Mountains conquered Nashville to become the queen of country music.
The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, recorded at Glyndebourne Festival 2019. Directed and designed by Barbe & Doucet, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth, and sung by David Portillo as Tamino, Björn Bürger as Papageno, Sofia Fomina as Pamina, Caroline Wettergreen as the Queen of the Night and Brindley Sherratt as Sarastro.
Prince Tamino is on a quest to rescue the beautiful Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night, from her father Sarastro, who has abducted her. Aided by birdcatcher Papageno, he finds her and is drawn to the brotherhood led by Sarastro. Tamino submits to a series of trials to prove his worthiness to join their order and is rewarded with Pamina’s hand in marriage. Papageno is also rewarded with a wife, and the Queen of the Night and her forces of darkness are defeated.
A no-holds-barred look at the life of one of the most talked-about and charismatic artists of his generation.
A journey into the heart and soul of Michael Hutchence, internationally renowned lead-singer of INXS.
It’s been 10 years since Catfish and the Bottlemen uploaded to BBC Music Introducing and what a ten years it’s been. From throwing demos on stages, rocking up and performing wherever they saw a crowd to platinum sales and headlining festivals.
Watch the band in conversation with Radio 1’s Jack Saunders as they share their top 10 moments so far. Now selling out arenas and playing to millions of people world-wide, they show no signs of stopping and are on their way to becoming one of Britain’s biggest bands.
A 90-minute feature film that drills into the soul of this extraordinary, magical Island and releases the story of 3,000 years of Ibizan history. Julien Temple’s iconic trademark style sends its audience on the ultimate, emotionally exhilarating and groundbreaking time-travel ride through the psyche of this jewel of the Mediterranean. This is a story of extremes and the fight for the very soul of the White Island. A story of sensuality, hedonism, spirituality, ancient ways of life and new ways of living. An island, despite wave after wave of brutal occupation, whose free spirit of tolerance and acceptance of others has somehow managed to survive, absorbing, welcoming and sheltering people and cultures from around the Mediterranean and the world beyond. Ibiza’s bohemian heart now faces its strongest challenge yet: to continue to beat strongly in the face of the ever-growing annual invasion of wealthy socialites and the gentrification of the island in the name of progress. The film re-enacts, with cameo Hollywood performances, forgotten epic moments in the history of the island. From irresistible sirens who seduced and shipwrecked Odysseus with their honeyed songs to the Carthaginians, Romans, Vikings and Moors; from the refugees of Franco's civil war to the McCarthy blacklists of Hollywood; from the early hippy beat paradise of the 1950s to the pan-European free zone that is Ibiza today; from the sexual rites of the Phoenician love goddess Tanit to disco sunrises at super-clubs like Pacha, Space, Amnesia and DC-10, Ibiza has always been out there on the frontier of human experience. This island has seen it all and so will our audience. Adopted home of Orson Welles, Errol Flynn, Denholm Elliott, Sid Vicious, Joni Mitchell, Robert Plant, Terry-Thomas, master forger Elmyr de Hory, convicted fraudster Clifford Irving and, of course Elle, Naomi and Kate, Ibiza has always proved irresistible to celebrities on the run from themselves.
Joan Armatrading is one the most influential singer-songwriters in Britain. A national icon, she is known for her singular vision, both as a writer and as a performer. She has performed around the world to sell-out stadiums, releasing records and touring almost constantly from the early 70s to the present day.
In this documentary Joan talks about her self-belief and her unique ability to craft songs that have spoken to millions. Known for her reclusiveness, Joan has, for the first time, granted access to her life and music. Joan tells her story from Caribbean émigré to becoming one of the most revered songwriters of our generation.
Music documentary that traces the improbable journey of Charley Pride, from his humble beginnings as a sharecropper’s son on a cotton farm in segregated Sledge, Mississippi to his career as a black American League baseball player and his meteoric rise as a trailblazing country music superstar.
Pride’s love for music led him from the Delta to a larger, grander world. In the 1940s, radio transcended racial barriers, making it possible for Pride to grow up listening to and imitating Grand Ole Opry stars like Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff. Pride arrived in Nashville in 1963 with the city embroiled in sit-ins and racial violence. But with boldness, perseverance and undeniable musical talent, he managed to parlay a series of fortuitous encounters with music industry insiders into a legacy of hit singles, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Narrated by Grammy-nominated country singer Tanya Tucker, the film features original interviews with country music royalty as well as on-camera conversations between Pride and the programme’s other guests.
