Every weekday between 1 and 5pm we play tracks from our #spotlightartist. They’re an artist with a body of work which has stood the test of time. We’ll play the hits – but also some deep cuts. Listen ad-free through New Zealand via @tunein at https://goo.gl/VL6m3N
My brother introduced me to this prolific and influential Australian rock band in the late 1980s. Albums like Kick and Welcome to Wherever You Are are filled with classic tracks and were extremely influential.
Starting out as a covers band called The Farriss Brothers in 1977 they transitioned from New Wave to a harder pub rock sound. Michael Hutchence was the poster boy lead singer, with bassist Garry Gary Beers, the brothers Andrew Jon and Tim Farriss holding down guitarist, drummer and keyboard roles respectively, and Kirk Pengilly completed the initial lineup on guitar and sax.
Their commercial peak was in the late 80s and early 90s with albums like Listen Like Thieves, Kick, X and Welcome To Wherever You Are.
We’ve got some legendary tracks lined up this week- enjoy!
Passenger – Hell Or High Water
Lowell – No Talk
Liz Lawrence – Circling Numbers
pronoun – run
Mr Geoffrey Arnold Beck was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He played with a few bands before being recruited by The Yardbirds, replacing Eric Clapton, on the recommendation of Jimmy Page who joined the band the following year. This was an incredible stamping ground and Beck’s almost two year stint produced some incredible music. Listening to their 1965 album Having A Rave Up is incredible with the blend of solid blues numbers, and the incredible “Heart Full of Soul” which contains Indian influences (the Indian sitar player had trouble producing the sound needed so Beck produced a sitar-like effect on his guitar).
We’ve been looking forward to this album from this Glaswegian band for months since their promising early singles “Miracle” and “My Enemy” were released. Lauren Mayberry’s vocals are incredible, and the band’s synth pop sound continues to evolve. The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart gave some early inspiration. An interesting influence mentioned in an interview with Matt Waterman of Beats 1 was New Order’s track “Age of Consent”, with its loose, rough feel. They certainly have achieved a raw live feel with this great album. Can’t wait to play it to you!
A wonderful album name, and cover, this is one of the quintessential psychedelic albums, released this day in 1968. The Small Faces had already had some big psychedelic hits the previous year (e.g. Itchycoo Park). This album is filled with pounding beats and crunching guitars, and you’ll spot it on most “Top 500 Albums” lists. The Guardian told its story on its 40th birthday 
Marvin Gaye’s seventh album was released on this day in 1966 (23rd of May). His career was obviously well underway, and the plan was to establish the Motown singer as a strong album artist. He was interested in recording an album of standards but the sessions were unsuccessful. Six songs from this album were released as singles and impressively four reached the Top 40 on the Pop Singles chart. We’ll be playing some tracks from this album as our Classic Gold tracks each hour from 12pm.
Dave Dobbyn is an obvious artist to celebrate in New Zealand Music Month – because its obvious doesn’t mean its the wrong thing to do though. He has such an impressive body of work, and has been a big part of my life since “Slice of Heaven” was a triumphant singalong in the mid 1980s from the Footrot Flats film. Of course that wasn’t the beginning – later I got to sing along to classic party songs from his earlier career in Th’Dudes. Overnight Success was his first best of, released in 1999 and filled with cracking tracks. Wonderfully he has gone on to release further treasures since then. We look forward to listening to some gems this week, including a few lesser known tracks.
James Bay was the much hyped man in a hat back in 2014, the ex Brighton busker with the sensitive folk-pop acoustic leaning album The Chaos and the Calm. He could have done it again, but whilst ostensibly on a six month break he headed into a basement studio and emerged with what iTunes describes as “simmering funk-rock, taut alt-pop and folky electro-R&B”. At the risk of too much smooth male music (Charlie Puth last weekend released Voicenotes, next weekend Shawn Mendes releases a self titled album) we’re looking forward to checking out more tracks from this album. The tracklist:
Smith & Thell – DUMB
Beach House – Pay No Mind
Lake Street Dive – I Can Change
Rueben Stone – Something For You
R3hab & Conor Maynard – Hold On Tight