APPLAUSE
Welcome to a brand-new series of Later.
Newies, legends, pop stars,
all sorts of wonderful music here tonight.
And now, with his new adventure, Saving Grace, it's Robert Plant.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Pour yourself another cup
# Another cup, another cup
# And wait
# I can't wait forever
# Live your life
# A stupid life
# It's a game
# Nobody does it better
# Breaking everybody's heart
# Tearing everyone apart
# Breaking everybody's heart
# Singing everybody's song
# All your dreams are waking up
# Are waking up, are waking up
# In space
# You can't live forever
# Every day you torture us
# You torture us, you torture us
# And say
# "Nothing stays together"
# Breaking everybody's heart
# Tearing everyone apart
# Breaking everybody's heart
# Singing everybody's song
# Pour yourself another cup
# Another cup, another cup
# Breaking everybody's heart
# Tearing everyone apart
# Oh-h-h-h-h-h-h. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Robert Plant!
Saving Grace. What amazing voices.
Tonight's show, we have amazing people.
Over here, from France, Jehnny Beth.
APPLAUSE
From Scotland and Sweden, James Yorkston and Nina Persson.
APPLAUSE
From Sweden and London, Joshua Idehen.
APPLAUSE
And now, from London, I'm delighted to welcome back
into this room Olivia Dean.
APPLAUSE
# Mm-mm-mm-mm
# Mm-mm-mm
# Here we are, back again
# Fighting what's in front of me
# There's so much to unpack again
# But if I come to Italy
# We could be nice to each other
# Nice to each other
# Wrong for each other
# Right for each other
# And rise to each other
# Rise to each other, mm-mm-mm
# Don't know where the switches are
# Or where you keep the cutlery
# And I'll probably crash this stupid car
# And make your life a misery
# But we could be nice to each other
# Nice to each other
# Wrong for each other
# Right for each other
# And rise to each other
# Rise to each other, mm-mm-mm
# Cos you know I've done all the classic stuff
# And it never works, you know it
# So can we say we'll never say the classic stuff?
# Just show it
# Now I know it
# Now
# Now, now, now
# Meet me on the mountaintop
# I'll be in the shallow wind
# And wait for you to call it off
# Cos I don't want a boyfriend
# We could be nice to each other
# Nice to each other
# Wrong for each other
# Right for each other
# And rise to each other
# Rise to each other, mm-mm-mm
# Cos you know I've done all the classic stuff
# And it never works, you know it
# So can we say we'll never say the classic stuff?
# Just show it
# Water, sunlight, talking all night
# Just enough to grow it
# Now I know it
# Now
# Now, now, now
# Mm-mm
# It could be nice
# It could be so nice
# Oh, it could be nice to Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba
# Oh, to each other Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba
# Mm-mm, it could be nice to Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba
# Oh, to each other Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba
# Mm-mm, it could be nice to Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba
# Oh, to each other Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba
# Mm-mm, it could be nice to Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba
# Oh, to each other. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you. The wonderful Olivia Dean.
Nice To Each Other.
One of her recent...
Just one, one of her recent top ten hits.
So we'll be chatting to her later at the piano.
But now, let's have piano-side chats with a great legend,
a man with an amazing voice,
it's Robert Plant!
APPLAUSE
Dear Robert, it's very good to have you here on the show.
Thank you so much. Always wonderful to welcome you back.
Because you're a person, for me, that exudes music,
because I know you go into music, or you study it.
You're here tonight with your latest musical adventure,
I think we describe it as that, Saving Grace.
Tell us who's involved in it and who brought it all together.
Well, I was enjoying myself in America, playing with Alison Krass,
I think we'd played a lot of shows,
and I was able to come back to the glory of the West Midlands.
And just sitting around, talking to people,
and I came across Matt Worley, we started discussing -
this gentleman here with a magnificent centre point
of the beautiful Puerto Rican instrument -
and we started talking about folk music, as such,
and what was folk music?
And it's such a vast, huge conversation.
He introduced me to...
I already knew Tony Kelsey there on second guitar there.
First guitar, second guitar, depends on what day it is. Yes.
And we just started talking about,
what could we do to excite ourselves?
And so it began, yeah. It sounds great. Yeah.
You've described the new album as a song book for the lost and found.
What does that mean, do you think?
Well, this...
In all these corners of entertainment,
there are songs that drifted past,
and maybe, you know, my...
I remember my grandmother singing strange songs in the Black Country,
songs with words that don't even exist
in the way we talk and communicate now.
Folk songs, you mean? Yeah, songs...
Yeah, which are handed...
The point of a folk song is that it's handed,
like, from family members or friends just orally.
But it's much more, it's so much more vast than that.
It's everywhere.
I've rung you sometimes, and you are in the middle of listening
to something, you're going back to the coalface like a...
You study it, and you can only do that cos you love it,
but you're going back, constantly looking for more and more. Yeah.
How does that manifest itself?
Does it come out in you, do you think,
by constantly going back into it?
I think, when we were kids in the mid '60s, early '60s,
we listened to American pop,
and we listened to black Mississippi blues
and the transition into Chicago, the city blues
that became real fancy
and influenced the whole era of British R&B.
And that was something that was such an infection for my generation,
it was magnificent.
We all played it so badly.
It was... Not all of us, but a lot of us
tried very hard and got it wrong.
But I never knew how much else was there behind the veil,
and how many other renditions of the same song
were sung by white miners in east Kentucky or wherever it was.
The whole panoply of music is so vast.
One song can live through so many different...
And indeed... I put people to sleep quite regularly giving... No, no.
I mean... No, but it is...
But you're right, cos I do that, you start looking
and you go deeper and deeper... Yeah.
..just one song or one artist. Yeah.
And now, of course, it's much easier to do this.
Because you love this music,
so you wanted to try it out with this sound,
playing some very unusual, small venues, I think,
in the Welsh Marches. Yeah. Where were you, what sort of places?
Bottom line was, look, I've been round the block
and I've met princes and kings and stuff,
but I'd never played in the Tourist Information Centre
in Bishop's Castle, in Shropshire. JOOLS LAUGHS
And I figured there's some places that still have to...
I just like the idea of adven...
We have a good time, don't we?
Yeah. I've been there, it's very good.
Very nice brochures about where to go. Yeah, yeah.
Exactly. You can follow Owain Glyndwr's path
all the way to Worcester, where he burnt it down.
Yes. It's just magnificent.
For a long time I've said,
"Done it. Let's just keep it tiny and have a wonderful time."
And a lot of artists have, of course,
been turned into biopics for the cinema.
Have you ever seen one that you really liked of a music artist,
one you believed?
No. I don't think I have either.
AUDIENCE MEMBER LAUGHS
I...
I mean, the worst thing in the world is that some artists who are...
I can't even go into it.
I mean, I met Elvis, I was part of that era of extraordinary,
extravagantory emotion and living,
and you find people who are spectacular characters
who have been demeaned, or the game is the game,
and...and then you go to the movies,
and you sit there with some Maltesers,
and you can't...you can't do that.
You must leave that, it's sacred ground.
Who wants to know all that stuff?
And the Dylan one, I mean...
So you don't want one about you? LAUGHTER
One about me? Yeah.
I've had a season ticket in Wolverhampton
since I was eight, so that's 69 years of sitting in one seat.
Yeah. It's a hell of a movie.
JOOLS LAUGHS
That's a great title for it - 69 Years In One Seat. Yeah.
You were talking about Elvis, though.
Is it right that you had an Elvis battle in Beijing?
How did you know that?
Somebody told me that. Yeah, yeah. I've done my research.
I don't just have a sleep in between coming here, you know.
Well, we've spent a lot of time together,
but I never told you that one. Yeah.
Yeah, karaoke in Beijing.
It was the month after the farewell to the Royal Yacht Britannia.
The guy from the government of Chinese Tourist Information,
who had to come everywhere with me
and told me some incredible stories about the Chairman Mao era,
he took us to one of those places where they put a machine,
turn the machine on and somebody starts singing.
And I was pitched against a guy from Taiwan.
I was doing the Elvis - shit, as usual, excuse me -
and of course he beat me hands down.
I have no idea what he was singing about, but he was very well loved.
Yeah. A lovely thought there.
What are you going to close the show with?
We're going to close the show with Higher Rock,
which is a beautiful piece,
and Suzi really takes the helm on that.
Got a lovely... Your voices go beautifully together.
Yeah, we're very lucky, cos it's happenstance,
it's just a magnificent curve in our adventure.
Sounds cheesy, but it works.
But it's true, you have a constant musical adventure
because you look deeper and deeper,
constantly looking for something else.
I love it. Yeah, exactly.
And that is the key, is love it and it'll be all right. Yep.
Thank you very much. Robert Plant! APPLAUSE
Thanks, Robert.
So, next, an artist who was last on the show with her band Savages
and now she is here with her second solo album - You Heartbreaker, You.
Please welcome Jehnny Beth.
APPLAUSE
# I like to tell you all the things I see
# I wear you down and you get unhappy
# But I'm alive, so I guess
# You haven't found a way to kill met yet
# I'm no good for people
# I am too critical
# I got the feeling of feeling we're all right
# Get comfortable and say the things I like
# Until I see your face is turning red
# You haven't found a way to kill met yet
# I'm no good for people
# I am too critical
# You haven't found a way to kill me yet
# I'm still standing, I'm still standing
# You haven't found a way to kill me
# Ways to kill me, ways to kill me, ways to kill me
# I'm still standing, I'm still standing
# I'm no good for people
# I am too critical
# You haven't found a way to kill me yet
# I'm still standing, I'm still standing
# You haven't found a way to kill me
# Still standing, I'm still standing
# I am no good for. #
APPLAUSE
Thank you, Jehnny Beth.
How marvellous to have her in this room. Let's hear it again.
Jehnny Beth.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
That's what I love about this room.
Filled with contrasting artists,
you never quite know which direction I'm going to go in.
I don't know either
because there's always something wonderful in each corner.
I think in this direction we're going to find a wonderful
Nigerian artist, based in Stockholm, with his song It Always Was.
Please welcome Joshua Idehen.
APPLAUSE
This is for my friend Sarita, who I will I miss,
and her husband Will.
How long and dark this night,
but I know we will make it through, my friends,
as long as we have each other
and a little bit of luck
and a handful of courage.
# We will make it through the night and out to where the sun is
# Where the love is
# Manifest, all my brethren
# Bright face and beaming
# Backseat of the Mazda
# The world is loud, but we sing louder
# Pistol fingers through the window
# My joy is a whistle
# Loud in its belief
# After this, something good is coming
# My losses, they taught me how to win
# And maybe the reason I'm not that good at swimming
# Is cos I was born with wings
# And the answer's right here in our hands
# It always was
# It's all down to us
# In that much I trust
# My friends, what are we saying?
VOCALISING
# What's meant for me will find its way to me eventually
# Can I get an "amen"? Amen
# And a "most definitely"? Most definitely
# I see your dreams for you as clearly as I see my own
# And just as she spoke
# All the lights turned green on that road
# My friend told me as I hold them
# I wish I told them more often
# Artful Dodger through speaker
# The morning rose to meet us
# Sun on my skin like all of my sins are forgiven
# This is it
# This is how we win, my friends
# This is how we win
# And the answer's right here in our hands
# It always was
# It's all down to us
# In that much I trust
# My friends, what are we saying?
VOCALISING
# It's all down to us
# My friends
# What are we saying? #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Joshua Idehen!
New album's coming next year.
Now let's focus this way and have more piano-side chats
and adventures at the piano with the wonderful Olivia Dean.
APPLAUSE
Welcome back, Olivia.
It's so great to have you back here.
Pleased we're both matching, both in matching, very pale blue.
We've got... I know, it's like we planned it. Very, very great.
And it's so great to have you back on the show.
The first time you were on the show, it was, I think, 2023.
Since then, you've sold out four nights at the O2,
you've become the first British female since Adele
to have three singles in the top ten simultaneously.
I mean, this is...
I mean, amazing, fantastic.
APPLAUSE
And great, really great records.
I think we first met in a tiny little club in London. Yeah.
And back then, if you'd dared to dream of the future,
is this how you imagined it?
I mean, it's a bit much, all of that stuff.
I think... It's so funny, that gig where we met,
I wasn't supposed to play that gig,
and somebody dropped out last minute, and I thought,
"Please let me do it, cos I just want to come on Jools Holland,"
and to think about that person and the person I am now,
it's...it's really crazy.
I feel very grateful, but, yeah, it's quite wild right now.
Yeah. But your smile is telling me that it's great.
It's great, yes. Exactly. It's amazing.
There's nothing not to like.
And you're here with your second album, The Art Of Loving.
Sometimes people say second album syndrome,
cos the second one's harder than the first one.
Did you find that, or was it just a lot of fun?
I definitely heard people say that, and then I got scared. Yes.
And then I decided, well, what would it be like if I just ignored
all of that and just tried to have fun making the music
and stop worrying about the product?
Exactly. So I really focused on making the process fun
and just remembering why I love to make music, I love to write songs.
So, I actually... I loved making this album.
Very good title, The Art Of Loving.
Is there anything we should learn about the art of loving?
Well, the album is kind of a response to Bell Hooks's book,
All About Love, which I loved reading,
and really cracked my heart open, and made me rethink about love,
and how I love others, and how I let love into my life.
And I suppose it's a reflection on all of those things,
but you should really read the book.
And also, if you love what you do, then other people can love it,
which is what's happened here... Yes. ..in an enormous, global way
for you, which is great. Is it true that you described making your music
as "a good bowl of soup"?
SHE LAUGHS
I did say that once, yes.
I could see that, cos it is like a food analogy... Yes. ..with music.
What do you think.. What sort of style of soup or meal
would this album be, do you think?
I think it'd be more soup, and probably tomato or chicken.
I think I'm trying to just make something warm right now
and something that feels like a hug for your heart.
Yeah, lovely.
Now, I tell you what, you came on our Hootenanny two years ago,
I think it was, and you were so great.
And in fact, would you be prepared
to come on this year's Hootenanny with us?
I would be prepared to. You would. Yes!
Yes. Thank you.
APPLAUSE
I would love to. You heard it here. I would love to.
Just sign there. There's nothing to... OK.
Don't read the small print, there's nothing to worry about there.
When you came on the show before,
you sang a wonderful Carole King song. Mm-hm.
What a great songwriter she is. Yes.
Shall we keep the tradition alive? Would you like to do another one?
I think it's only right. Shall we do another one?
What would you like to do?
I would like to do You've Got A Friend.
All right. All right. Let's do it, then.
# When you're down and troubled
# And you need some love and care
# And nothing, nothing is going right
# Close your eyes and think of me
# And soon I'll be there
# To brighten up even your darkest nights
# You just call out my name
# And you know, wherever I am
# I'll come running
# To see you again
# Winter, spring, summer, or fall
# All you have to do is call
# And I'll be there Yeah, yeah, yeah
# You've got a friend
# Now, ain't it good to know when you've got a friend
# That people can be so cold?
# They'll hurt you, yes, and desert you
# Break your soul if you let them
# So don't you let them
# You just call out my name
# And you know, wherever I am
# I'll come running, running, yeah
# To see you again
# Winter, spring, summer, or fall
# All you have to do is call
# And I'll be there Yeah, yeah, yeah
# You've got a friend. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The wonderful voice and person of Olivia Dean.
CHEERING
See you on New Year's Eve.
So, now we welcome James Yorkston, a wonderful Scottish artist
who has made an album of songs for two of Sweden's top female voices -
Nina from The Cardigans and Johanna from First Aid Kit.
He's joined by one of them tonight.
So please welcome James Yorkston and Nina Persson.
APPLAUSE
# I love that tree
# Where we would park and
# Smoke and crease up
# Until your hand fell
# On top of mine
# One too many times
BOTH: # And silly young me
# How I messed that up
# And friendship flew out of the window
# And manners flew out of the window
# I guess I flew off the handle
# I did not think about you, oh
# Friendship flew out of the window
# Manners flew out of the window
# I guess I flew off the handle
# I did not think about you, oh
# Sometimes I looked you up
# And I see you've changed your name
# Isn't it so like you
# To change your name?
# And a beach encounter
# Sand in vodka
# Late that summer we were wearing our fashion rags
# We did not speak
# But I heard your laughter
# Soon after we passed
# And it cut me, as you knew it would
# It cut me, as you knew it would
# And friendship flew out of the window
# Manners flew out of the window
# I guess I flew off the handle
# I did not think about you, oh
# And I should've called you up Yep
# But I guess that things have changed
# Isn't it so like you
# Who, me?
# Mm, to change
# And it's early autumn
# Me and the boys in London
# Playing some church in London
# And you pop up like some candle flame
# It's early autumn
# Me and the boys in London
# Playing some church in London
# And you pop up like some candle flame
# And you ask me how I felt
# I would feel to have the friend I loved the best
# To push me away like all the rest
# And you ask me how I felt
# I would feel to have the friend I loved the best
# To push me away like all the rest
# To push me away like all the rest, oh
# And you know I looked you up
# And I see you've changed your name
# Isn't it so like you
# To change your name?
# And friendship flew out of the window
# Manners flew out of the window
# I guess I flew off the handle
# I did not think about you, oh
# Friendship flew out of the window
# Manners flew out of the window
# I guess I flew off the handle
# I did not think about you. #
CHEEERING AND APPLAUSE
James Yorkston and Nina Persson
with a track from their excellent album, Songs For Nina And Johanna.
Next we go over to this direction
and we welcome back not only a great actor,
she is an equally great singer and songwriter, Jehnny Beth.
APPLAUSE
# Broken
SHE SCREAMS
# Broken
# Emergency is evident Now wake up
# You're not listening Temper, temper
# Inner revolt Hurting the one you love the most
# We learn to breathe with a broken rib
# We learn to breathe with a broken
# You said I'd never dare
# Punch you in a broken rib
# Yeah, I gave you
# A broken rib
# From too much loving
# A broken rib
# That's how my heart feels
# Broken
# I feel the nerve that pinches now
# This is hate
# You're not yourself, no Not even one bit
# Inner revolt Hurting the one you love the most
# You said you'd never dare
# Punch me in a broken rib
# Yeah, you gave me
# A broken rib
# From too much loving
# A broken rib
# That's how my heart feels
# Broken
# Broken rib
# A broken
# Broken
# Broken rib
# Yeah
# We learn to breathe with a broken rib
# We learn to breathe, we learn to breathe
# We learn to breathe with a broken rib
# We learn to breathe, we learn to breathe
# Ye-e-e-e-eah
# You said I'd never dare
# Punch you in a broken rib
# Yeah, I gave you
# A broken rib
# From too much loving
# A broken rib
# And that's how my heart feels. #
APPLAUSE
# Talk to me, talk to me
# Hmm
# Looks like we're making up for lost time
# Need you to spell it out for me
# Bossa Nova on all night
# It's like a type of alchemy
# Introduce me to your best friend
# I can come and slot right in
# A satellite ain't even that far
# I kinda wonder where you are
# I already know I can't leave it alone
# You're on my mind
# And I already gave you the time and the place
# So don't be shy
# Just come be the man I need
# Tell me you got something to give I want it
# I kinda like it when you call me wonderful
# Whatever the type of talk it is Come on, then
# I gotta know you're meant to be the man I need
# Talk to me
# Mm, talk to me, talk to me
# Be the man that I need, baby
# Talk to me, talk to me
# Be the man that I need, need, need
# Talk to me, talk to me
# Be the man that I need, baby
# Talk to me, talk to me
# Be the man, man, man, man, man
# I'd like to think you feel the same way
# But I can't tell with you sometimes
# So, baby, let's get on the same page
# Stop making me read between the lines
# I already know I can't leave it alone
# You're on my mind
# And I already gave you the time and the place
# So don't be shy
# Just come be the man I need
# Tell me you got something to give I want it
# I kinda like it when you call me wonderful
# Whatever the type of talk it is Come on, then
# I gotta know you're meant to be the man I need
# Talk to me
# Mm, talk to me, talk to me
# Be the man that I need, baby
# Talk to me, talk to me
# Be the man that I need, need, need
# Mm, talk to me, talk to me
# Be the man that I need, baby
# Talk to me, talk to me
# Be the man, man, man, man, man
# Mm
# Mm-mm, mm-mm-mm
# Mm
# Mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The whole room has been enchanted with dancing.
Thank you once again, Olivia Dean.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
With her top two hit from her new album, The Art Of Loving.
Thank you to all of my wonderful guests here tonight.
Let's go over in this direction
and finish with Robert Plant and Saving Grace.
APPLAUSE
# Mary weeped over me
# Turned on a dime, said to me
BOTH: # "When you reach for the higher rock
# "Then you reach for me"
# Saul told Daniel Daniel
# "Come play for me"
# Saul told Daniel Daniel
# "Come pray for me"
# "Trouble in mind won't let me be
# "When you reach for the higher rock
# "Then you reach for me"
# Rock in hand, oh, won't let you be
# Rock in hand won't let you be
# It's the open hand will set you free
# When you reach for the higher rock
# Then you reach for me
# Coal man say he's got a deal for me
# That black gold a-chokin' me
# When you reach for the higher rock
# The you reach for me
# Shackle and chain, oh, won't let you be
# Shackle and chain won't let you be
# Been strung up on a dogwood tree
# Cos when you reach for the higher rock
# Then you reach for me
# Oh, yeah
# Gilded cage is a treachery
# Gilded cage Gilded cage, gilded cage
# Is a treachery
# Heart of gold Gold, gold, gold, gold
# That holds the key
# Cos when you reach for the higher rock
# Then you reach for me
# Cos when you reach for the higher rock
# Then you reach for me
# When you reach for the higher rock
# Then you reach for me. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I'm still standing
# You haven't found a way to kill me
# Still standing, I'm still standing
# I am no good for. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE