This programme contains some strong language
APPLAUSE
I'm on top of the world in Alexandra Palace.
And from the top of the piano,
I'm delighted to give you Gaz Coombes!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Long live the strange
# Well, I'm with you
# Oh-oh-oh
# So don't ever change
# Cos I love you
# Will my heart stop
# If we're just floating in the dark
# But it's all right
# You can start to dream
# And be yourself tonight
# Ooh-ooh-ooh
# Long live the strange
# Well, I'm with you
# Oh-oh-oh
# So don't ever change
# Cos I love you
# We'll not feel lost
# Just hang on and hold tight
# Cos it's a wild, careless dream
# So be your whole self tonight
# Oh-oh
# Ah
# Ah-ah
# Oh-oh-oh
# As we walked in the sunlight
# And out of our old lives
# Yes, come out from the background
# All these walls we can tear down
# It's the fate of the young ones
# Long live the strange
# Oh, shaking all the nightmares
# Well, I'm with you
# Oh, we all want to feel liked
# Don't ever change
# We want to make it, oh, yes
# Cos I love you
# And when I'm in a room full of misfits
# Long live the strange
# Oh, well, it feels right
# Well, I'm with you
# Cos it's a part of the new start
# Don't ever change
# A new start under the moonlight
# Cos I love you
# All right
# Long live the strange
# Well, I'm with you
# Auf wiedersehen
# Cos I love you. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Gaz Coombes!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The wonderful Gaz Coombes.
And who are our superb guests this evening?
From Leicester, we have Mahalia!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From Brighton, it's Royal Blood.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From Oak Park, Illinois, it's Kara Jackson.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
And now, from Mexico City,
the Grammy Award winning Rodrigo y Gabriela!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
A wonderful, hypnotic sound.
Rodrigo y Gabriela.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Rodrigo y Gabriela.
Now, over to this corner.
I'm delighted to welcome into the room
a woman who's previously appeared on the show
with the likes of Jacob Collier, the likes of Rudimental,
but now she's here in her own right.
We welcome Mahalia!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Yes
# If you tell me lies
# You get three strikes
# There's no more coming
# There's no coming back, boy, please
# If you look at her, consider bridges burned
# You could call it petty, but see If you want to
# If you want the position, these are my terms and conditions
# Yeah, yeah, yeah
# Hey, hello, hi
# How you doing, boy? Yeah, I'm doing fine
# Said you want to be something in my life
# Baby, are you sure you want to cross that line?
# My girls got to vet it, there's rules in place
# If you don't want to play the game you don't get to stay
# My head is where my heart is My heart is somewhere safe
# This is how it has to be
# Look at what they did to me
# None of those late nights crying alone about you like that
# Like that, like that
# Exit strategy plan, I ain't afraid to use and that's facts
# I ain't afraid to lose you, that's that
# Oh-oh-oh
# If you want my love, then let's discuss
# The man you're required to be
# If you tell me lies, you get three strikes
# There's no coming back, boy, please
# If you look at her, consider bridges burned
# You could call it petty, but see
# If you want the position, these are my terms and conditions
# Yeah, yeah, yeah
# Fuck around if you want to see a magic trick
# One second I'm here, then poof, I'm gone
# You can think about it on the last train home
# Rest assured I ain't pressed, I ain't stressed about it
# Matter of fact I'm in a dress about it
# Ice cold with the step cos I iced you out of it
# You walking away and I like the sound of it
# This is how it has to be
# Yeah
# Look at what they did to me
# None of those late nights crying alone about you like that
# Like that, like that
# Exit strategy plan, I ain't afraid to use and that's facts
# I ain't afraid to lose you, that's that
# Oh
# If you want my love, then let's discuss
# The man you're required to be
# If you tell me lies, you get three strikes
# There's no coming back, boy, please
# If you look at her, consider bridges burned
# You could call it petty, but see
# If you want the position, these are my terms and conditions
# Yeah, yeah, yeah
# If you want my love
# Baby, if you want my love
# My love
# Don't you lie
# Boy, bye, bye
# Yeah, baby, if you look at her
# I won't say a word, no
# Don't you get it? I cut you off
# And I won't regret it
# Yeah
# If you want my love, then let's discuss
# The man you're required to be
# If you tell me lies, you get three strikes
# There's no coming back, boy, please
# If you look at her, consider bridges burned
# You could call it petty, but see
# If you want the position, these are my terms
# And conditions
# Yeah, yeah, yeah
# You could call it petty, but see
# If you, huh
# Yeah
# Terms and conditions
# Yeah, yeah
# If you want the position
# If you want the position, want the position. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Mahalia.
We'll be having chats later on over the piano.
Let's hear it for Mahalia.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
And speaking of chatting at the piano,
now we welcome for a piano-side chat,
I'm delighted to welcome Gaz Coombes.
Welcome back to the show.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Well, it's really great you can be back here.
It's lovely to be here. Do you like this new room we've got here?
I think it's gorgeous, yeah.
I mean, I guess over the years,
I've seen the different incarnations... Yes. ..of this show.
I think it's only right for me to say this is the best.
Thank you. This room or the show?
Well, this room. This set-up is great.
No, I agree. It's the most comfortable room I think the show's ever been in.
Now, I've been really been enjoying Long Live The Strange, which you opened with.
Great song. Thank you. What inspired that song?
I like strange things.
It's, you know...
It's about celebrating the weird and wonderful
and all of our beautiful differences.
Exactly. And kind of embracing that and yeah, you know...
Strange is great.
Strange is good. Yeah. Don't be frightened of the strange.
No, no. Embrace it. Yeah.
It's your fourth solo album. Yeah.
Turn The Car Around. Very good title. Thank you.
Is that a metaphor or an instruction?
It's both. I think it's both.
Yeah. You know, it's like a...
Like a reset, you know? Yeah. Erm, change...
..trajectory, you know?
And also not being...
It's never too late to readjust your thoughts
and your direction of travel.
And are you like a sort of mirror, signal, manoeuvre sort of person?
Or are you more spontaneous,
pull out when you feel like it and hope for the best?
I think it would be terribly irresponsible of me to behave like that.
Do you mean whilst driving a vehicle?
No, in life. Oh, God, yeah. Obviously I was using a metaphor.
Just generally, as things go.
Are we still doing the metaphor thing? Yes, sorry. Yeah.
I think, you know, when things are challenging
or when it's an unknown, I find that kind of exciting
and slightly thrilling, but sort of frightening
and I think all of those emotions make me feel alive in some way.
So, yeah, I think I can sometimes pull out without looking for sure.
Now, we thought we'd go back
and look at your first appearance on Later,
which, I couldn't believe this myself, was 28 years ago to the day.
Wow. Can you remember those times? Not very much, no.
I was only 11! Right. On this bit of footage?
On this bit of footage I was 11-years-old.
I started very young.
But, no, actually I do remember this performance
and it was definitely a huge highlight for us.
I mean, it was only six months, a year before that,
I was still working in kitchens washing dishes
and playing our demos to the manager
and saying, "Look, I'm going to be big one day, mate."
And then it all just sort of changed really quickly.
And then we came on your show and it was pretty immense for us.
Yeah, unforgettable. Well, let's have a look.
# We are young
# We run green
# Keep our teeth nice and clean
# See our friends
# See the sights
# Feel alright
# We wake up
# We go out
# Smoke a fag, put it out
# See our friends
# See the sights
# Feel alright
# Are we like you?
# I can't be sure
# Of the scene as she turns
# We are strange in our worlds
# But we are young
# We get by
# Can't go mad, ain't got time
# Sleep around if we like
# But we're alright
# Got some cash
# Bought some wheels
# Took it out across the fields
# Lost control
# Hit a wall
# But we're alright
# Are we like you?
# I can't be sure
# Of the scene, as she turns
# We are strange in our worlds
# But we are young
# We run green
# Keep our teeth nice and clean
# See our friends
# See the sights
# Feel alright. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Alright, 1995. All right, all right. Yes, it was all right.
What a great.... I mean, it really was, that was also the sound
of that summer. That was the sound of that summer.
Can you remember where and when you wrote the song?
Yeah. I mean, I think we wrote it in the colder months
in the village over from where I lived as a kid.
Danny's folks lived in the village over
and we wrote the song on his mum's upright piano.
Yeah, I can remember just sort of standing at it,
kind of hammering out these chords.
Then we went to the local pub and sat around the table
and knocked out the lyrics.
I think probably in 20 minutes, over a beer.
Yeah, I had no idea really what it was kind of going to do.
You've got your band with you tonight, a great band,
and of course you've got the great backing vocalists
who we've met before, and they really are great.
Tell us about their name and where that comes from.
Yeah, it was on this show in 2019.
We came on the show and we played.
Nile Rodgers was also on that show
and I ran into him down the hallway after the performance
and he was very cool.
He came up to me and he said, "Your guitar sound was wild."
Which I thought... I was kind of beside myself.
Great compliment from a great man. I know, yeah, it's amazing.
And then Amy, Emma and Angela walked down the corridor
and he saw the girls and he was kind of like, "Hey, Roxy, Roxy, Roxy."
And then that's where their name came from. They became the Roxys.
Are you happy with your name, the Roxys?
We're very happy you're here and we can't wait to hear...
What are you going to play for us at the end of the show?
I'm going to play the title track from the new album, Turn The Car Around.
I love the title. I'm going to be getting it out the garage and listening to it quite a bit.
Thank you, Jools. Thanks very much. Lovely to have you here. Gaz Coombes!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Next, an artist who had the accolade
of being the United States Youth Poet Laureate.
And now we welcome Kara Jackson.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Damn, the dickhead blues
# When you're stuck drowning in someone else's lagoon
# Like a spoon drowns in a stew
# What kind of meal are they making of you?
# Thinking Cupid calls for you
# End up gum on someone's shoe
# Makes me feel like I don't have a clue
# My dilemma is always a dickhead
# Who's drunk on the daily news
# Like coyotes in culottes
# Clawing for coffee in open-toed shoes
# I'm no longer amused by losers
# Who find themselves losing me
# So that's why I choose
# I'm not as worthless as I once thought
# I am pretty top-notch
# I'm useful
# Damn, the dickhead blues
# When you're feeling as broke as a bottle of booze
# Damn, the dickhead blues
# It's like a soda straw strangling you
# Thinking Cupid calls for you
# End up gum on someone's shoe
# Makes me feel like I don't have a clue
# If I had a heart, if I had a heart
# I'd know where to start, I'd know where to start
# If I had a heart, if I had a heart
# If I had a heart
# I'd know where to start
# If I
# If I had
# I'd know where to start, I'd know where to start
# I'm not as worthless as I once thought
# I am pretty top-notch
# I'm useful. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Kara Jackson!
Beautifully done.
Beautiful words.
Now, let's enjoy, performing their new single,
we welcome back a band to the show
that have had three number one albums.
We welcome Royal Blood.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I'm a bruise you soothe
# In your dancing shoes
# I'm a ticking time bomb hooligan
# Come to light your fuse
# Twenty-four carat thug
# In a velvet glove
# Pining for pretty potions
# Down those holes you dug
# Bouncing off of your walls
# On the mountains at midnight
# Crawling out of my bones
# Until the break of the daylight
# Another rosy ruse
# Another shiver from my spine
# Crawling out of my bones
# Until the break of the daylight
# I'm the hidden draw
# Of what you were before
# I splice and play back
# Reels from the cutting-room floor
# And nothing gets me close
# To how I want to feel
# Try to suck it up
# But I still get the fear
# Bouncing off of your walls
# On the mountains at midnight
# Crawling out of my bones
# Until the break of the daylight
# Another rosy ruse
# Another shiver from my spine
# Crawling out of my bones
# Until the break of the daylight
# Bouncing off of your walls
# On the mountains at midnight
# Crawling out of my bones
# Until the break of the daylight
# Another rosy ruse
# Another shiver from my spine
# Crawling out of my bones
# Until the break of the daylight. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The extraordinary sound of Royal Blood!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Now, let's zoom. Come with me, why don't you?
We'll go to the piano and have chats with Mahalia.
Welcome, Mahalia. Lovely to see you.
Mahalia!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
It's great to have you here
and great to have you here in your own right
because each time you've been on the show before,
either you've been with Rudimental or with other people, on film or whatever.
But now you are here on your own right.
It must be feeling good.
It's very nice. It is very nice.
It's also just nice because, you know,
I've kind of now been making music professionally, let's say,
for 12 years.
So it's nice to be invited for the first time after 12 years.
I feel like that means I'm kind of doing something OK, which is good.
I think you've been doing everything perfectly OK. There's no complaints about that at all.
You performed Terms And Conditions. I did. I like that.
It's a great title, that. Thank you. They apply!
And you wrote it with Raye. I did.
Who we had on the show recently. Yes.
She's an extraordinary talent. How was it working with her?
Well, it was great.
So, long story short, I've known Raye since I was about 17
and I'm 25 now, so eight years.
One of my first-ever showcases in London was a show with her.
She was 18, I was 17.
We were kind of like these two little girls doing our first-ever real gigs together.
And we've kind of always stayed in contact, always been friends
and just never got the chance to work together.
So by the time we came to writing that song,
I'd kind of thought that I'd finished my album.
I was a bit exhausted and I didn't really want to be in the studio still.
But then I got the chance to meet up with her and we made it and it's kind of...
That's always been a thing for me, always the last song that I write
ends up being the first song that I release.
I love it and I feel like it's a good kind of intro
into what my next album is.
When do you think we can have the new album?
The new album, I'm not going to give you a date,
just in case it moves because you know how it goes.
We won't be holding it to you, holding you to it.
But it's definitely coming in July.
It'll be very satisfying to get a new album out at last. It will.
Now, I invited you to have a little rummage through my archives
and see if you could find some things that you liked.
Tell us what you've chosen and why you've chosen this artist.
I chose Corinne Bailey Rae, Like A Star.
I chose it really because I think Corinne was my first real intro
into being able to see a girl play the guitar and sing.
I think when I found Corinne I was probably, oh gosh,
maybe eight or nine.
She was the first CD that I bought. I had her poster above my bed.
And Like A Star was always very special to me.
It always felt like this kind of beautiful love letter.
And I think I just really relate to her.
She was a northern girl, she was of dual heritage, I was the same.
So... Well, I'm not northern.
Let me not offend any northerners, I'm from Leicester.
I am from the Midlands. That is totally not the North. Sorry.
But, you know, to Londoners I'm a northerner.
So when I saw that performance, I think that for me...
I think that was my favourite, just because it reminds me
of all the reasons why I started playing music.
And this is from 2005. Did you see her doing this on the show?
Of course not. I must've been... You were seven. ..seven.
Exactly. Were you not allowed... No, I don't think I did.
Although, all I remember as a child
was having your New Year's Eve show on every year.
I think that's the only time I was allowed to see you. You were allowed to stay up for that?
Of course. It's New Year's Eve. Very good. I'm so pleased you were watching.
Well, let's have a look. Here's Corinne Bailey Rae in 2005.
# Just like a star across my sky
# Just like an angel off the page
# You have appeared to my life
# Feel like I'll never be the same
# Just like a song in my heart
# Just like oil on my hands
# Honour to love you
# Still I wonder why it is
# I don't argue like this
# With anyone but you
# We do it all the time
# Blowing out my mind
# You've got this look I can't describe
# You make me feel I'm alive
# When everything else is au fait
# Without a doubt you're on my side
# Heaven has been away too long
# Can't find the words to write this song
# Of your love
# Still I wonder why it is
# I don't argue like this
# With anyone but you
# We do it all the time
# Blowing out my mind
# Yeah
# Da-da-da-da-da-da
# Da-da-da-da-da-da. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The wonderful Corinne Bailey Rae. She is wonderful.
Chosen by Mahalia here.
And we were just talking about how you watched the Hootenanny.
Was your family musical? Is that where you first heard music? Very.
Very musical.
All of us were into music, but my parents really were kind of the reason why I started playing.
My dad is a singer-songwriter, plays the guitar.
My mum also sings and writes songs. They were always playing music.
Their own music, other people's music.
It was music everywhere coming out of every room at all times.
They're the things that have led you to where you are today as a great artist. Definitely.
You have been hosting a number of events - Mahalia Presents.
Yes. Tell us about those.
Mahalia Presents really is a night to just...
..A, to kind of just showcase talent,
but for me, I really wanted to create a live community,
just a space where young artists could come
and feel listened to and heard.
And I definitely make a point of screaming at anybody that makes any noise.
Like, it's very much a place
where we all get to just listen to music, maybe have some drinks.
Although, it's a Tuesday night so it's a school night.
But, you know, I...
I'm just really excited by music. I always have been.
And I think maybe as I got busier
and as things started to do better for me,
I stopped going to see live shows.
I stopped discovering music, I stopped finding out about new artists.
So maybe I selfishly wanted to create a night
where I could do that myself and be there every month.
And it's been in London for a year
and then last month we had our first one in New York City.
So we are starting to branch out, which is lovely. Great.
Well, maybe I'll have to come and join you. I would love that.
It sounds great. It's great to have you here.
We are looking forward to hearing the album when it comes out.
Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Mahalia!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you so much. Lovely to see you. Thanks for having me.
A pleasure. I hope you'll come back for Hootenanny. Yeah.
Now, with another song from their new album,
In Between Thoughts...A New World, inspired by Hindu philosophy,
we welcome Rodrigo y Gabriela.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Rodrigo y Gabriela!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you to all of my guests this evening.
Thank you for watching.
And we finish with Gaz Coombes!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Start moving
# It keeps turning
# Find a higher ground
# Well, if I could see you
# I'd come by tomorrow
# Impossible
# It's a mind fuck
# Turn the car around
# There's no reasons for it
# Our future's unwritten
# Oh, mother
# Nothing goes to plan
# Well, I wonder what you'd make of it
# So much change, so little fixed
# There's no other
# It's heartbreaking
# That you're not around
# Well, I know that it's behind us
# Those cold nights and fires
# But echoes find us when the hurt runs out
# Find your way
# No-one says you've got to stop letting pain in
# Cos it all works out
# When the love rides in
# And you don't have to be alone
# What sorrow
# The mind boggles
# Turn the car around
# Well, I know that I can see it
# And it's not too late to reach it
# There's no other
# It's heartbreaking
# That you're not around
# Well, nothing could ever risk
# How I feel about you
# Cos it's all written here upon my heart
# Find your way
# No-one says you've got to stop letting pain in
# Cos it all works out
# When the love rides in
# And you don't have to be alone
# So dance
# Across the solar waves
# And we can fall
# Like a star
# Oh-oh-oh
# Oh, mother
# Turn the car around. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# If you look at her, consider bridges burned
# You could call it petty, but see
# If you want the position, these are my terms and conditions
# Yeah, yeah, yeah
# You could call it petty, but see
# Yeah
# Yeah, yeah
# Terms and conditions
# Yeah
# If you want the position. #