If Diana's been dead for ten years, then you know Xfm's been on air for ten years too, not that the two events were linked, you understand, though those of us who listened in during that first week will remember the challenge the then fresh, new, rebellious alternative radio station faced arriving, as it did, to a city seemingly in mourning.
Anyway, as previously reported, Xfm is doing various things to celebrate its tenth, and among those things is a series of ten documentaries, each one about a different classic Xfm-friendly album released in each year of the station's history. They will be broadcast each Sunday at 5pm for the next ten weeks, starting this weekend.
Among the artists due to appear on the series are Muse, Dave Grohl, Kaiser Chiefs, Noel Gallagher, Mike Skinner, Franz Ferdinand, Josh Homme, The Beastie Boys' Mike D, Norman Cook, The White Stripes and Richard Hawley, while legendary producers like Steven Street, Jim Abbiss and John Leckie will also make contributions.
Xfm's Matt Everitt, the man behind the series, told CMU: "In its ten year history Xfm has championed and supported some of the world finest bands, and its great to go back and revisit not only ten of the albums that have shaped popular music, but also the incredible musicians who created them. What have I learnt? Mike Skinner and Alex Kapranos are smarter than you could imagine, while Ricky Wilson and Norman Cook are funnier, Muse's Matt Bellamy is utterly unhinged (in a very polite way) yet Fran Healy is very polite (in an utterly unhinged way) and Dave Grohl may be the nicest man in rock music, but Josh Homme is definitely the coolest."