Radio 1 book Harry Styles
A big booking and a great PR coup for the May return of Radio 1’s Big Weekend.
A great PR coup for Radio 1 today: Harry Styles, whether you love him or hate him, he's a man of the moment musically speaking. His Coachella performance has been talked about all over the place, his new track's on the Radio 1 A list, and he is exactly the sort of artist that Radio 1 listeners will want to see live in Coventry at the end of May. This comprehensively solves the dilemma of the Sunday line-up on the main stage looking underwhelming when compared to Saturday - you now have a name booked that'll blow things out of the water in terms of profile and be a massive draw. The interesting twist was Capital also announcing their booking of Harry Styles just ever so slightly before Greg revealed their booking on the breakfast show this morning: clearly a bit of one-upmanship going on there, and Harry clearly wants to do the festival circuit big time this year.
It seems that some tickets have been held back for diehard Harry styles fans: this is again great PR, not only do you have the local press in Coventry talking all about a humongous star coming to perform in their backyard, but now you have a draw for further interest in terms of a limited number of tickets going on sale again. The thing I hope they do, is bringing back Big Weekend competitions over the next month, giving people another chance to win tickets, while also being great promotion for the festival AND a chance to bring out a fun competition format along with some fun moments of listener interaction. Another thing I suspect they may do (and which I've seen mentioned on various forums) is a Big Weekend "replay day" on the the may day bank holiday to promote the upcoming festival yet further, is explained why he right now it looks like business as usual next Monday (except Katie covering for Vick) despite its being a bank holiday. We shall see!
Also today: I wanted to talk about James Cusack. I first heard him up on Capital Yorkshire, and my first impression of him on Radio 1 was that while he had more technique than some of the most amateur post Boxing Day newbies, he sounded very commercial radio and not very authentic. This impression held for quite a while: he did have things to say, it just felt more stalled and more stilted than you'd expect from a personality jock on R1. You do have to remember that when we first heard the likes of Jordan North or even Katie Thistleton they didn't sound that great; Jordan's first show made me switch off their radio, longing for the return of Matt Edmondson whom he was covering for.
Hearing James on Sunday, he's definitely improving. I don't think you can say for certain that he will be a permanent addition to the line-up when a vacancy opens, but I think that that is getting more and more likely by the day, and he was sounding pretty entertaining yesterday; it's still not as natural or effortless as Radio 1 sounds usually, but it's getting a hell of a lot closer, and you can hear him slowly developing as a broadcaster on the much more open and demanding format you have to work with on Radio 1, as opposed to the safe and comforting formulaic routine of Capital and commercial radio writ large. Hopefully we hear James on the station more, and see if he can work his way up to a position of getting a permanent slot - as of right now I'd say of all the people you hear that don't have a permanent slot, he's the most likely to make the move eventually.
Tomorrow: Dean and Katie, Vick and Arielle: how did Radio 1 sound today?
