Latest news with #KirstyMacColl
BBC News
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Results of Your Ultimate 80s Duet as voted for by BBC Radio 2 listeners revealed
BBC Radio 2 listeners have been voting on their favourite duets from the 1980s, and today we can reveal the winner is Fairytale Of New York, by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl (1987). Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie (1981) takes second place, and Islands In The Stream by Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers (1983) comes in third. The full Top 40 countdown, hosted by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, is available on BBC Sounds now and a two-hour special of the Top 30 will be broadcast on Radio 2 on Saturday 9 August from 1-3pm, produced by Platform Media. Listeners to BBC Radio 2, which is the UK's most listened to single radio station with a weekly audience of 12.6 million (RAJAR Q2, 2025), were asked to vote for up to five of their favourite duets from the much-loved era, with voting open from 7 – 21 July. The countdown forms part of 'Radio 2 Loves the 80s', a wider season of specials, which celebrate the iconic decade. Jem Finer, who wrote the song with fellow Pogues bandmate Shane MacGowan, said: 'A huge thank you from us to the Radio 2 listeners for voting A Fairytale Of New York your Ultimate 80s duet. It's amazing the song's had such a life, such longevity. It took a long time to come together with about three years of endless revisions before we successfully recorded it with Kirsty MacColl and it became the version you know now. Then it took much good fortune and actually got to be heard by enough people to find its way into the charts and onto enduring popularity. So, thanks to you all, thanks to everyone through the years, thanks for listening.' The full top 40 as voted for by listeners is: 1 The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York 2 Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure 3 Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers - Islands In The Stream 4 Aretha Franklin & George Michael - I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) 5 Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush - Don't Give Up 6 Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballe - Barcelona 7 Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes - (I've Had) The Time Of My Life 8 Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield - What Have I Done To Deserve This 9 The Communards & Sarah Jane Morris - Don't Leave Me This Way 10 Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson - I Know Him So Well 11 Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan - Especially For You 12 Meat Loaf & Cher - Dead Ringer For Love 13 David Bowie & Mick Jagger - Dancing In The Street 14 Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes - Up Where We Belong 15 Philip Bailey & Phil Collins - Easy Lover 16 Eurythmics & Aretha Franklin - Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves 17 Marc Almond & Gene Pitney - Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart 18 David Bowie & Bing Crosby - Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy 19 Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb - Guilty 20 Lionel Richie & Diana Ross - Endless Love 21 Tears For Fears & Oleta Adams - Woman In Chains 22 UB40 & Chrissie Hynde - I Got You Babe 23 Bronski Beat & Marc Almond - I Feel Love / Johnny Remember Me 24 Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville - Don't Know Much 25 Bryan Adams & Tina Turner - It's Only Love 26 Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder - Ebony And Ivory 27 Prince & Sheena Easton - U Got The Look 28 Gary Moore & Phil Lynott - Out In The Fields 29 Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald - On My Own 30 Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin - Separate Lives 31 James Ingram & Michael McDonald - Yah Mo B There 32 Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson - Say Say Say 33 Roy Orbison & k.d. lang - Crying 34 Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Stop Draggin' My Heart Around 35 Billy Preston & Syreeta Wright - With You I'm Born Again 36 David Grant & Jaki Graham - Could It Be I'm Falling In Love 37 Cherrelle & Alexander O'Neal - Saturday Love 38 Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney - The Girl Is Mine 39 Al Green & Annie Lennox - Put A Little Love In Your Heart 40 Michael Jackson & Siedah Garrett - I Just Can't Stop Loving You Songs needed to be two individual voices, united in song, and released as a single between December 1979 and December 1989, and made the UK Top 50. This vote is a part of 'Radio 2 Loves the 80s' a season of programming available on Sounds now and in August, and broadcasting across Radio 2 throughout the month. In Don't You Forget About Me: The Accidental 80's Anthem, Sunday 3 August (00:03 – 00:30), Jo Whiley tells the story of the breakout song from the cult American 'brat pack' movie The Breakfast Club. Back in 1985 Don't You Forget About Me became one of the most iconic 80's anthems ever. Recorded for the film by the Scottish rock band Simple Minds, the song reached No 1 in the US Billboard Hot 100 and several other countries, catapulting the group to international stardom. Now, 40 years on, as it surpasses 1 billion streams on Spotify, frontman Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill talk about how they went from refusing to record the song to embracing it - even adding the distinctive 'La la la la' lines that audiences in packed stadia across the globe still chant today. The programme includes contributions from musicians K.T Tunstall and Billy Idol. Produced by The Big Light. Following last year's unforgettable night, BBC Radio 2 and the BBC Concert Orchestra return to Malta for a high-energy celebration of the greatest hits of the 80s, with 70 world-class musicians and four powerhouse vocalists, in Ultimate 80s: Live! Sunday 9 August (8-10pm). The host of Radio 2's Sounds of the 80s show (Saturday nights, 8-10pm) Gary Davies takes 80s fans on a journey through the decade's most iconic anthems, including show-stopping performances of classics from Madonna, Whitney Houston, Elton John, WHAM! and more, in a night of nostalgia and energy. Produced by Get On Media. Gary Davies returns to a revolutionary era for dance music, with four new Dance Sounds Of The 80s programmes, exclusive to BBC Sounds. The rise of Hip Hop and Synth-Pop, the evolution of Disco, the birth of House, the gay abandon of Hi Energy, the marriage of synths and Soul…it's all here. The Threemix is back – this time, highlighting the producers and remixers who kept us on the floor whilst crossing over into the charts, taking underground sounds into the mainstream. Listeners will be reliving their nightlife adventures on Dance Hall Days. Produced by Bengo Media. Other programmes that can be found on BBC Sounds under the Radio 2 Loves the 80s, include The Story of the 12' single with Jo Whiley, Sounds of 1985 – 40 Years On, and Live Aid: The Fans' Story. BBC Radio 2 is the UK's most listened to single radio station, with a weekly audience of 12.6 million (RAJAR Q2, 2025) and The Radio 2 Breakfast Show is the most listened to Breakfast show in the UK with 6.2 million listeners (RAJAR Q2, 2025). Vernon Kay is the most listened to radio show in the UK with 6.6 million listeners (RAJAR Q2, 2025). The network's presenters include Richie Anderson, Michael Ball, Zoe Ball, Tony Blackburn, OJ Borg, Revd. Kate Bottley, Rylan, Fearne Cotton, Sara Cox, Jamie Cullum, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Gary Davies, Paul Gambaccini, Mark Goodier, Angela Griffin, Bob Harris, Vernon Kay, Shaun Keaveny, Cerys Matthews, Paddy McGuinness, Scott Mills, Jason Mohammad, Trevor Nelson, Dermot O'Leary, Elaine Paige, Mark Radcliffe, Romesh Ranganathan, DJ Spoony, Liza Tarbuck, Jeremy Vine, Michelle Visage, Jo Whiley and Owain Wyn Evans. SVDG Follow For More
West Australian
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Coldplay are officially boring, according to researchers, with their new songs sounding like their old ones
There is no doubting their massive popularity and incredible longevity, but science has now backed up what critics have long taken issue with them over — Coldplay are boring. Researchers reckon the band's sound has changed little over their 28 years, having become less 'harmonically daring'. It's given music experts more ammunition to suggest that Coldplay's new songs sound a lot like their old ones. Durham University boffins compared the band's catalogue of songs with REM, Radiohead , Buddy Holly , Kirsty MacColl and Patsy Cline. They analysed variety and how songs differed over time, including rhythm, tempo, percussion, keys and chords. It was found that while REM were the least adventurous, Coldplay had become staid as their fame grew. Radiohead's albums contained more variety. 'Coldplay shows a downwards trend in their harmonic daring as they increasingly become part of the pop mainstream,' Professor Nick Collins wrote in journal Royal Society Open Science. 'Radiohead maintain a high diversity of harmonic language, while their timbral‐rhythmic variety also falls off a little.' Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has admitted in the past that the band — which also includes Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion — are 'very easy targets' with it having become a running joke that they're 'vanilla'. One hardly believes that the criticism, whether warranted or not, worries the band too much! Having formed in the UK in 1997, Coldplay have become one of the world's most successful band's of all time, selling more than 100 million albums and still playing to sold out concerts and topping charts across the globe. In November 2023, they played two packed out concerts at Optus Stadium in Perth as part of their Music of the Spheres world tour.
The Guardian
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It was an I Will Survive for the 1990s': how McAlmont & Butler made Yes
I'd just left Suede and was living in a basement flat in Highgate, London, making music in my tiny box room. It was a lonely time, but a lovely summer and I decided to do something uplifting and joyous. There were a bunch of records I loved listening to on a sunny day – Dusty Springfield's I Only Want to Be With You, The First Picture of You by the Lotus Eaters, You on My Mind by Swing Out Sister, which has Bacharach key changes and strings. I wanted to make a piece of music that gave me the buzz those songs did. I didn't want to worry about an album or sleeve artwork or how the video was going to go. I just wanted people to hear the song and feel like the sun had come out. I needed strings for the demo and found a fellow who was advertising samples in Loot magazine – this was 1994, before you could get anything you needed on your laptop. I remember going round to his flat and waiting for hours while he copied them on to a floppy disc. There was never a plan to sing the song myself. I'd been writing with Julianne Regan, who was in All About Eve, so she was the first person to have a crack at writing a melody and lyrics. After she went her own way, Geoff Travis at Rough Trade played the demo to Morrissey, who asked for a meeting – we ended up playing pinball. A week later, I got a letter from him that just said: 'Dear Bernard, I'm sorry, I can't.' Then I spent an afternoon with Kirsty MacColl, who really loved what I'd done but still wanted to change everything. Someone suggested I go and see David McAlmont playing at the Jazz Cafe. During his first song, the drummer Makoto Sakamoto came on and started smashing the shit out of his drums – it was the greatest sound I'd ever heard. Then David started singing and I was like, 'Well, there it is.' I knew I needed both of them. I gave David a tape of the instrumental and two days later he came round to my flat with what he'd written. He only had words for one verse. I said: 'Just sing it twice. We'll worry about that later.' But we never got around to it and people don't seem to notice. I love the message of the lyric: it's a big 'fuck you', but delivered in the most positive way. We recorded the strings then spent a couple of days in producer Mike Hedges' chateau in Normandy. We set the drums up in the old stone cellar – Mako didn't speak English but I directed him with my arms and remember the room shaking as he produced that eruption you hear at the start of the record. David recorded his vocals in the ballroom – he seemed to find the key-change leap effortless. I was standing 10ft away thinking: 'This is going to be great.' Yes is my favourite out of all the records I've ever made. To make a song that people put on to feel good is just magic. Years after it came out, I was at a fireworks display with my kids. They always finished the night with a banger. That year, they closed with Yes. That just blew my mind. Knowing three artists before me had been given the option to do something with this great piece of music was very motivating. Bernard had evoked Motown, Burt Bacharach and Dusty Springfield, but he'd added a rocky thing. I wanted to try something simple. Initially, I came up with something quite T Rex but my flatmate said: 'It's a bit one dimensional, dear.' I remember sticking my finger into my vinyl pile, touching the soundtrack to Judy Garland's version of A Star Is Born, and thinking: 'What would Judy do?' Lyrically, it was such a punt. I'd been dating somebody who I really liked, but he'd just kind of ghosted me. I was thinking: 'What would I say to him if I became famous?' I just started singing: 'So you want to know me now?' It was delusional, really. Before Yes came out, a friend asked me: 'What kind of a song is it?' I said: 'It's an I Will Survive for the 90s.' I remember getting to the climactic point after the second chorus where the song builds and builds and I sing: 'I'm better, better, Ye-e-e-e-es!' I was thinking I was done, but then Bernard said: 'We need something for the end, a kind of refrain.' I thought: 'Smokey Robinson!' And I used my falsetto to repeat: 'I feel well enough to tell you what you can do with what you got.' The recording actually uses varispeed to pitch that part a semitone out of my comfort zone, so I was much happier performing the song with a live band on Later With Jools Holland than I was singing along to the backing track on Top of the Pops. Over the years, I've met women who have told me they left abusive relationships thanks to Yes. After our second Top of the Pops appearance, the sister of the show's producer came over to say she'd been unable to walk and the song had helped her to get up. It has a power I can't account for. After it had reached the Top 10, I went to see Jimmy Somerville live – and the guy who inspired the lyric was there. He said: 'Oh my god, David, you're doing so well!' I was standing there biting my lip, thinking: 'You have no idea.' Butler, Blake & Grant play Cambridge Junction on 6 June before touring the UK. Hifi Sean & David McAlmont's album Twilight is out now.
