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BBC Radio 2 announces Beatles-only pop-up station
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 29 August 2019
BBC Radio 2 is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band The Beatles releasing their ‘Abbey Road’ album with a pop-up DAB station. Radio 2 Beatles will run for four days next month broadcasting live and direct from, yeah, you guessed it, Abbey Road Studios.
How will they ever fill four days with nothing but stuff relating to the band The Beatles though? Well, by finding some famous fans of the band The Beatles to present a show.
And it turns out there’s plenty of them. Gary Barlow will interview Paul McCartney about his memories of being in the band The Beatles. Dave Grohl, Jack Savoretti and Tom Odell will discuss how the band The Beatles influenced them. And the likes of Guy Garvey, Cerys Matthews, Katie Melua and Level 42’s Mark King will perform songs by the band The Beatles with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
There will also be special editions of existing Radio 2 shows focussed entirely on the band The Beatles. Plus Lauren Laverne will present a show called ‘Desert Island Beatles’, rounding up all the times guests on Radio 4’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ have chosen songs by the band The Beatles. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Basically, it’s as much as I could be bothered to list. But rest assured, there’ll be plenty more nonsense related to the band The Beatles airing over those four days.
“The Beatles are woven into the fabric of UK culture”, screams Head Of Radio 2 Lewis Carnie. “They inspired and continue to inspire artists of all generations and created some of the world’s most loved music. As their seminal album ‘Abbey Road’ is 50 years old, I am delighted that Radio 2 is celebrating the Fab Four with a four day pop up DAB radio station”.
Being both famous and the person who got to speak to an actual member of the band The Beatles, Gary Barlow also gets to provide a quote. He says this: “It was an absolute honour that Paul McCartney, one of my true heroes and a legendary songwriting genius, agreed to talk in depth about his work for my Radio 2 series ‘We Write The Songs'”.
Oh yeah, Gary Barlow is also doing a series of ‘Gary Barlow interviews other songwriters about songwriting and stuff’ shows for Radio 2. That’s the other reason he got a quote. But we’re here to talk about the band The Beatles! Stop trying to muscle other plugs in, Barlow! Now say something about the band The Beatles.
“I am THRILLED”, adds he, “to launch my first series on the network as part of Radio 2 Beatles, which sounds like it is going to be four days of unmissable radio”.
But when will you be able to try your best to miss this whole venture? Well, Radio 2 Beatles will air from 26-29 Sep somewhere on the DAB dial. Some stuff will also be simulcast on actual Radio 2 and the BBC Sounds app as well.
