APPLAUSE
I am thrilled and delighted, and honoured
to welcome from Austin Texas, Gary Clark Jr.
APPLAUSE
# Uh, they coming through
# Uh, and they're gunning for you
# Uh, we know the truth
# Uh, so we making moves
# Uh, while they beating the block
# Uh, we going straight to the top
# So we got to move
# In the same direction
# Move
# Yeah
# We got to move # Move
# Yeah
# Time for a new revolution
# Yeah
# We got to move
# Move # Yeah
# Move
# You can't stop the message
# Life's for sale, pay attention
# This just is so suspicious
# Don't want to be another victim
# So we got to move
# # In the same direction
# Move # Yeah
# Move
# We got to move
# Move # Yeah
# Move
# Time for a new revolution
# Yeah # Move
# We got to move
# Yeah
# Move
# Huh, it's time to deal with this trauma
# Turn trauma in together, rewrite the mission statement
# Regardless who's doing the shooting
# We got to stop doing ourselves on the pavement
# And if we don't get it ourselves
# Then we can't be mad when we don't receive the paper
# We've come too far for ourselves
# To look back and say that's the way it went
# That's just the way it went, huh
# That's just the way it went
# We coming, we coming, we coming, huh
# Hey
# Just tell them we're coming
# They coming through
# Uh
# They're gunning for you
# We know the truth
# So we making moves
# While they beating the block
# Uh
# We going straight to the top
# Uh
# So we got to move
# In the same direction
# Move
# Yeah
# Move
# We got to move
# Yeah # Move
# Uh, time for a new revolution
# Yeah
# We got to move
# Move # Yeah
# We got to move, yeah
# Move
# We got to move, yeah
# Move
# We got to move, yeah
# Now
# We got to move, yeah
# Move
# We got to move, yeah
# Now
# We got to move, yeah
# Move
# We got to move
# Move. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The wonderful Gary Clark Jr.
APPLAUSE
Who, you may ask, are the amazing guests we've got tonight?
From Deptford, we have Rosie Lowe.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From Birmingham, the fabulous Joan Armatrading.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From Manchester, David Gray.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Born in Ireland, raised in Spain,
we're so pleased to welcome Biig Piig.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
But now, from Manchester, Courteeners!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I fell in love with your band
# We were looking up at the sky
# Drawing lines in the sand
# It was perfect weather to fly
# So will you take me away?
# Back to beach on the edge of Marseille
# Both of us just ignoring the world
# For the day, what do you say?
# Because lately
# I've been running out of things to do
# And so maybe
# Make a reservation just for two
# I think I need it cos I've been daydreaming
# Of the Pink Cactus Cafe
# So save me
# I've been running out of things to do
# I need a rendezvous
# Driving back to your town
# I really like what they've done to the place
# My surroundings were bringing me down
# Needed to find a familiar face
# So will you take me away?
# Back to beach on the edge of Marseille
# Both of us just ignoring the world
# For the day, what do you say?
# Because lately
# I've been running out of things to do
# And so maybe
# Make a reservation just for two
# I think I need it cos I've been daydreaming
# Of the Pink Cactus Cafe
# And so save me
# I've been running out of things to do
# I need a rendezvous
# Because lately
# I've been running out of things to do
# And so maybe
# Make a reservation just for two
# I think I need it cos I've been daydreaming
# Of the Pink Cactus Cafe
# And so save me
# I've been running out of things to do
# I need a rendezvous. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Courteeners.
APPLAUSE
With the title track from their album Pink Cactus Cafe.
Next, we welcome the exquisite voice of an artist
performing a track from her latest album, Lover Other.
Please welcome Rosie Lowe.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I sit still
# And the grass grow
# Nothing's real
# Not impatient not resigned
# Got to let the slow days ride
# There goes the light
# Time slips and spills from day to night
# There goes the light
# No care, no fire to ignite
# My love wrote me a sonnet
# When we were lovers, told me a secret
# All of his drama
# I said I'd keep it
# Tell him I'm sorry
# There goes the light
# Time slips and spills from day to night
# There goes the light
# There it goes
# No care, no fire to ignite
# There goes the light
# Oh-oh-oh-oh
# Time slips and spills from day to night
# There goes the light
# No care, no fire to ignite
# There might be nothing, might be something
# Might be having one of those days
# Da-da-da-da
# Sometimes it's easier to smile and say
# Just one of those days
# Da-da-da-da-da #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Rosie Lowe. Wonderful band.
APPLAUSE
Now...
..I'm going to welcome at the piano somebody...
People use that word "legend",
but I think in this case it's absolutely true.
Somebody who has become a global phenomenon,
has always made amazing music
and I'm delighted to say is my dear friend, Joan Armatrading.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Lovely to see you here.
How Did This Happen And What Does It Now Mean
is the title of your new record.
Where does that come from? I have no idea.
No, I do know.
It's, erm...
It's really thinking about where we are at the moment in this world.
We're in a really weird place.
And it's all questions, no answers.
Erm...
How certain things that are happening are allowed to happen
and why nobody can stop it.
And, erm... It's just posing the question.
But I have no answers, unfortunately, I'm sorry.
Well, I suppose we have to start with the question, don't we? Yeah.
Before you can even think about having an answer.
But I'm going to get some answers, I hope. OK, go ahead.
You not only wrote the album,
but you also produced and engineered all of the tracks.
That's quite a thing to do.
Yeah. I've been doing that for a little while now.
I mean, I've always, ever since I started writing,
I would write and arrange my songs.
And then I would engineer my own demos.
And then probably about 1986,
I started to produce myself.
I mean, I produced myself along with producers anyway,
but I decided to produce myself on my own.
And then about 2003,
I thought, "Well, I'll just play everything anyway."
And so I started to play everything on the album from then until now.
And I do it only because I can.
Yeah.
LAUGHTER
Why not? Why not? That's what I say.
And also it gives you a unique sound.
But now with technology in studios...
I have a studio and I have to have engineers in
because all the technology changes and you can't keep up.
You don't find the technology diverts you away from the music?
No. The trick is to always be there when it started.
So I was very fortunate,
I wasn't really playing catch-up
because when it changed from whatever technology it was,
I just did that.
So, as I say, I'm not necessarily playing catch-up.
Do you think we should be frightened about AI?
No, I don't think so.
I think a lot of people say that, but I think, like any tool,
use it as a tool, you don't let it take you over.
And I think AI can...
As long as people kind of think,
"Well, I have an idea,
"can AI help me to move this along without taking it over?"
I think it's fine.
I'm not scared like other people are scared.
It's a tool.
I remember once, when I had my first synthesiser,
and a friend of mine came and saw me with the synthesiser and said,
"Well, that's it.
"It's all over now because
"that's all you're going to do is use a synthesiser.
"It's not you any more."
But of course it is. It's me.
I'm still writing the parts and everything.
So you just... It's a tool.
We're going to see, in a moment,
a bit of your new single, I'm Not Moving,
which is a great song. Thank you.
And a very powerful video, actually.
But what inspired the song?
Yeah, I just encountered a young person that was being...
Everything that it says in the song.
They were saying they're not moving,
they're going to sort people out if they try and move them.
They'd said things like, "Get the police," and, "Call security."
They said things like that.
As soon as I saw that happening,
I actually wrote the lyrics on the spot because it was just...
It was quite a powerful thing to watch.
And, you know, then I wrote the music.
I did one version that was a little bit calmer than it is on the single.
But that wasn't right because there was a lot of aggression there,
so I wanted the aggression to come through.
And I love the video as well.
You know one of the best parts about it? I'm hardly in it!
LAUGHTER
That's so cool. I spotted you!
Let's have a little look now.
# And I'm not moving
# I'm not moving
# I'm going to lay on the floor
# I'm going to kick my legs
# If you want me out of here
# Come and take my breath
# Cos I'm not moving
# I'm not moving... #
APPLAUSE
I'm Not Moving, which is a really great song.
Also on your album, there's lovely instrumental pieces,
but of course you're not afraid of songs without words at all
because you've written classical music, haven't you?
Yeah. I wrote a symphony.
I've always known that I would write a symphony.
And one day I was in my studio...
A little bit like the instrumentals that's on the album.
One day I was in my studio and I thought...
I didn't even think that, I just sat down
and started to write a symphony.
Nobody asked me to do it. I just wanted to do it.
And it was great and it was performed last year,
last November, by the Chineke Orchestra and that was fantastic.
Wonderful orchestra. It was really great.
And then the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
asked me to write a choral piece for them,
so I've written that and that will come out next year.
We can hear that next year.
Do you write that out by hand or do you play the parts in
and it prints it out for them? How do you do that?
Yeah, I play the parts. So when you hear...
Like when I did the symphony,
you'd hear the symphony as it is,
as the Chineke Orchestra played it.
And you'll hear the choral piece,
it was just me playing it.
The Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with a choral choir
is like a 100-piece choir.
Wow. So I am seriously excited to hear them singing it.
Because I usually use like virtual voices to make it.
Yeah, to hear the real thing. Would you conduct?
No. No, no, no.
I'm just the composer.
That's a special talent, you know.
We've all got our talents and that's not mine.
What's your view on this?
Somebody said to me, "The people that seem to live to a very old age,
"conductors and painters, you know,
"they all seem to live to 150,
"and they are doing this all the time."
Very good cardiovascular exercise. Any truth in that, do you think?
I have no idea. No. Thank you. Thank you for being honest!
It's wonderful to have you here. Joan Armatrading!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Joan Armatrading.
This next artist,
her debut album 11:11,
will be released early next year.
She's hear tonight with her new single, Favourite Girl.
Please welcome Biig Piig.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# You know I can make you feel something
# You just have to let it go
# There's a lot you want to say to me
# But there's a reason that you don't
# Cos I'll be your favourite girl
# I'll give them something to talk about
# You know I'll colour your world
# Everything you ever dreamed about
# Take, come take all my love
# Say you'll stay the night
# Take, come take all my love
# Say you'll stay the night
# Don't let time pass you by, hesitation
# If we just had tonight would you cave in too?
# We both know you've been playing it patient
# Just like you do
# Cos I'll be your favourite girl
# I'll give them something to talk about
# You know I'll colour your world
# Everything you ever dreamed about
# Take, come take all my love
# Say you'll stay the night
# Take, come take all my love
# Say you'll stay the night
# Cos no-one can make you feel like I do
# Like I do
# Take, come take all my love
# Say you'll stay the night
# Take, come take all my love
# Say you'll stay the night
# Take, come take all my
# Stay, come stay the night
# Take, come take all my
# Stay, come stay the night. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Biig Piig.
APPLAUSE
Now, let's cast our minds
back to the 5th of November, 1992.
If you tuned into the television that night,
you will have seen this artist on our very first series.
Since then, he's gone on to global acclaim,
frequently appearing on our show
and filling vast stadiums throughout the world.
Tonight, performing Plus And Minus with Talia Rae,
please welcome David Gray.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# You know the way desire is
# Always wanting something that it just can't have
# Turning love's picture to the wall
# Next moment there's no turning back
# The following report may contain scenes
# That some might find upsetting
# Look at me read what's written here
# This whole routine is getting old
# It's getting old
# You know the way the light is
# Always painting someone else's windows gold
# Fate sends a bottle spinning round
# Eyes steal a glance that stops you cold
# Remind me why we're doing this
# You know it's silly but I keep forgetting
# Darling, from where I'm sitting, hey
# This whole routine is getting old
# It's getting old
# So for the fire that gets lit
# Ooh
# And for the flame that regrets it
# As you were then plus and minus
# Sailing by like ocean liners
# Do you hear me, boy?
# It's getting old
# Stare into the dim and distant
# Where it used to be so different
# Do you feel me, boy?
# It's getting old
# You can give a man everything he wants
# Sit back and watch him disappear it, boy
# Now you know the way that time is
# Stretching out then like a circle turning round
# Suddenly that circle is a sun
# That's blushing red and sinking down
# The following report may contain scenes
# That some might find upsetting
# Look at me read what's written here
# This whole routine is getting
# So for the fire that gets lit
# Ooh
# And for the flame that regrets it
# Yeah
# It's getting old
# Yeah, it's getting old
# Do you hear me, boy? # It's getting old
# Yeah, it's getting old # Do you hear me, boy?
# It's getting old
# You can give a man everything he wants
# Sit back and watch him
# It's getting old
# You can give a man everything he wants
# Sit back and watch him disappear it, boy
# You know this whole routine is getting old
# It's getting old
# It's getting old. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Flying in the face of the rain
# Crash landing in front of you
# Looking for the left side of my brain
# When I'm standing in front of you
# Searching for honesty
# Does it ever end?
# Because it's always you under the new moon
# We're holding out for something special
# It's deja vu with your powder blues
# I look in your eyes
# And I hope that you stick around
# Where are we now?
# Because I want to be, want to be yours
# Where are we now?
# Because I want to be, want to be yours
# Where are we now?
# What am I supposed to see
# In this familiar masquerade
# And how is it ten to three
# Still staring at an accolade
# I'm just trying to fill the void
# Doing the long read
# It's always you with your powder blues
# I look in your eyes
# And I hope that you stick around
# Where are we now?
# Because I want to be, want to be yours
# Where are we now?
# Because I want to be, want to be yours
# Where are we now?
# I don't need any more friends,
# Another chat to leave and then make amends
# Kick the kerbstone, maybe it's a "no"
# But I look in your eyes and hope that you stick around
# Where are we now?
# Because I want to be yours, want to be yours
# Where are we now?
# Because I want to be yours, want to be yours
# Where are we now?
# Because I want to be yours, want to be yours
# Where are we now?
# Because I want to be yours, want to be yours
# Where are we now?
# Because I want to be yours, want to be yours
# Where are we now? #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Courteeners.
APPLAUSE
So, let's stride together over here
and enjoy welcoming back to the show
and having chats with David Gray.
APPLAUSE
Great to see you here, David.
Now...
Nice to see we've both got suits on.
We've both made the effort with suits. That's right, we have.
Not everybody has.
Are you always a suit man?
I've got a good selection now of fine English tailoring. Yes.
That's the tradition that I'm upholding. Yeah, exactly.
You've got buttonholes and everything. The whole thing.
Five button cuffs. There is a lot of detail. Yes, very nice.
We haven't got that much time, Jools! No. Braces or belt?
Neither at the moment. Blimey.
It's got the side adjusters.
Wow. There you go, you see.
We've learnt a lot there. Thank you for joining us, David Gray!
LAUGHTER
So, I mean, let's start, earlier on you and Talia played Plus And Minus.
How did that song first come about?
That's actually an interesting one
because it was a chord sequence I had, like, 20 years ago
with a different song written on top of it.
And it just kind of wouldn't let me go and I kept going back to it
and eventually wrote a second melody
and then wrote the piano part that you can hear over it.
Sped it up a bit and it became something completely different.
And then sort of thought, "Hang on, this is a duet."
I thought, "This is a sort of man-woman sort of song."
It took a long time for that one to actually come to full fruition.
Very nice changes, if I may say so. Thank you very much.
Do you think... AI is part of a thing people use in music.
It can be very constructive. Is it something that you use?
I have used it, I've got to confess.
Sort of as a joke.
This very song, because I'd sort of imagined it as a duet,
it was in the news at the time
and I said, "Let's get ChatGPT to make us a female voice."
And I sang all the parts in a kind of falsetto style
and then got that to do...
But it couldn't pronounce its Rs. We called it Wihanna!
It was...
It wouldn't pronounce its Rs properly.
But it gave us an idea of what the song would be like
with a bit of back and forth.
So I guess it was constructive.
I think it's basically a giant sampler.
So when samplers and sort of dance music started,
people are very afraid of what that meant.
Sampling someone else's song, like the Beastie Boys or something.
But it's not like such a big deal any more.
I think it is musicianship.
You're taking a groove and you're just doing something else with it.
That's what it's out there for. That's the folk tradition.
That's all the traditions. So I'm not afraid of it in that sense.
But I think what frightens me is,
if you took the entire works of Nina Simone
and you fed it into this supercomputer and then you said,
"We'd like Nina to sing this song,
we are going to write songs for Nina Simone now."
I find that kind of... That aspect of it would be a bit freaky.
Your upcoming album is called Dear Life.
What sort of things can we expect?
Yeah, it's very front-foot and kind of melodic.
That's what I'd say about this record.
I think because of the Covid interruption,
it took a lot longer to make it.
There's been a lot of grist to the mill in my life,
lots of tumult and ups and downs.
And, erm...
I don't know why some records come out with a bit more pep to them
but this one has definitely got...
I'm really sort of facing the crowd.
I'm not kind of being interior.
I'm very melodic and outward with this record.
It's a real swathe of different production techniques.
There's a lot of drum machine,
but there's a lot of more sort of real stuff, I guess,
like takes and what have you.
So it's a right mix.
I'm very proud of it.
I think it's actually probably
some of the best stuff I've ever recorded.
It is great. Everything I've heard sounds great. Thank you.
It's almost 32 years to the day
since you first came on the show in 1992.
5th of November I think it went out.
It was on our first series.
In fact, you were on with Joan Baez and John Martyn. That's correct.
Do you remember anything about them particularly at the time? Yeah.
I'm a massive John Martyn fan.
And obviously Joan Baez, I was a huge Dylan fan,
so Joan was standing right there watching me do my thing.
It was quite amazing.
The whole thing was like a magic carpet ride.
I just got the call because
Gil Scott-Heron couldn't do the show.
And someone said "We need someone who can get here in 30 minutes."
And that was me! Hang on. Even I didn't know that.
So you were Gil Scott-Heron's stand in? I was his stand in.
An obvious replacement!
Of course, John Martyn came on.
I remember John Martyn showed me that song May You Never
and there was a chord I never knew in it.
It was this chord. Lovely. It was a nice chord, wasn't it? Yeah.
I've been using it ever since!
What a great memorable moment. That was nice of him.
Let's have a look at you on the show in 1992. OK, let's go.
# And without the courage
# To give a new thing a chance
# Grounded by this ignorance
# And the cat comes
# And we're just
# Birds without wings
# I'm talking to you
# We're just
# Birds
# Without wings... #
APPLAUSE
Birds Without Wings. It was a great song. I love that song, actually.
That was a great song. Thank you.
And then you went on and released White Ladder,
which is one of the big selling global albums of all time,
huge global success,
which is something people don't really have so much any more.
There must have been huge changes for you
and people like Adele and Ed Sheeran, Hozier,
have all cited you as a great inspiration.
I mean, do you like their music?
Yeah, I think they've all got a lot of soul in the way that they do it.
They're very committed.
I think you've got to be all in.
It's not like... You've got to get in there.
If music is your game, you've got to show everything.
The weird thing is, the more vulnerability,
the more openness you can bear to show,
the stronger the music is and the more protected you are in a way.
So it's like a little paradox.
Yeah, I think they all really sing like they mean it,
so that's a great compliment.
And who inspires you?
Too many people.
But I mean, most recently
there's an American songwriter called Bill Callahan.
Every time he puts something out,
I listen to that religiously.
So he's been a source of enormous inspiration.
And entertainment.
He's got that kind of deadpan Leonard Cohen,
Lou Reed kind of style and vibe.
So I love Bill. Good old Bill.
Great. Finally I'll ask you, are you a twitcher? Is that true?
Yeah. I'm a nature boy.
I wouldn't call myself a twitcher.
I've never travelled to see a bird,
apart from a spoonbill.
I was once told there was a spoonbill on a marsh
a few miles away from where I was and it was the first bird
in the first-ever bird book I had as a child.
So I did travel to see the spoonbill.
But no, it's whatever passes in front of me -
nature, butterflies, moths, insects, plants -
I love it all. So that's my gig.
I was going to ask what you wore when you went bird-watching but...
It's... Tweed? I'm slightly scruffier than I am now.
Just checking. No, it's not tweed. No, it's not...
Just checking!
It's been wonderful having you as our guest here this evening.
Thank you very much, David Gray.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Now, we're so pleased to welcome back Rosie Lowe.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I hope you can find your
# Peace there
# Something's got me stirring in the summer breeze
# I can feel the change
# Never mind if you don't like this side of me
# I'll do it anyway
# I was in my head
# Couldn't get it out
# Be such a shame
# If I could be without
# I was in my head
# Couldn't get it out
# Be such a shame
# If I could be without
# Some days my reflection is a shade of green
# My pocket's full of rain
# Never mind if you don't like this side of me
# I'll be it anyway
# I was in my head
# Couldn't get it out
# Be such a shame
# If I could be without
# I was in my head
# Couldn't get it out
# Be such a shame
# If I could be without
# If I could be without. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Rosie Lowe.
APPLAUSE
Thanks to all of the wonderful guests in this room tonight.
But now, with another track from his album, JPEG Raw,
which features the likes of George Clinton and Stevie Wonder,
yes, let's finish with Gary Clark Jr.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# What about the children
# Playing in the streets
# Dreaming of that good life
# But no shoes on their feet?
# Where is their mama?
# Where is their daddy?
# They need some badly
# We all agree, yeah
# Oh
# We can all agree, yeah
# It doesn't matter when life is shattered
# To honest people like you, yeah
# Honest people like you, yeah
# Come on
# What about the children
# Life ain't what it seems?
# What about the children
# And all their broken dreams?
# Every day's a struggle
# When your life goes down the drain
# No-one gives a damn
# Don't it make you want to
# Scream
# Don't it make you want to scream
# Yeah, yeah
# What about that good man
# Locked up from the streets
# Yeah
# Trying to make a dollar
# To put shoes on his baby's feet, now
# Their Mama's working from time to service
# They need somebody
# We all agree now, yeah
# We can all agree, yeah
# It doesn't matter when life is shattered
# To honest people like you, yeah
# Honest people like you, yeah, hey
# What about the children?
# What about the children? #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I was in my head
# Couldn't get it out
# Be such a shame
# If I could be without
# I was in my head
# Couldn't get it out
# Be such a shame
# If I could be without
# If I could be without. #