Welcome to the show, and we welcome the return of Franz Ferdinand.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I look forward to every day, oh, my
# Some days are just here to try
# Sometimes it's every day, oh, my
# Sometimes it's every night
# If I can be irascible or proud
# Then we can be predictable
# We turn to face each other
# We turn to test each other
# But we lean against each other
# Life's never gonna be easy
# But if you're living it with me
# We're gonna live it up, night or day
# Well, I wanna live a life with you
# No, life is you
# And I want it, night or day
# I look forward to night or day, oh, my
# Well, I'll never get, I'll never get
# I'll never get bored of you
# Or the thing that you do
# Cos everything, mm, everything
# Yeah, everything that you do
# Keep me addicted to you
# Life's never gonna be easy
# But if you're living it with me
# We're gonna live it up, night or day
# Well, I wanna live a life with you
# No, life is you
# And I want it night or day, yeah
# I look forward to every day, oh, my
# I look forward to every night
# Sometimes we'll be living it broke-style, oh, my
# Sometimes living it higher
# Life is never gonna be easy
# But if you're living it with me
# We're gonna live it up, night or day
# Well, I wanna live a life with you
# No, life is you
# And I want it night or day
# Well, life's never gonna be easy
# But if you live it with me
# We can live it night or day
# Well, I wanna live life with you
# No, life is you
# And I want it night or day
# Come on, night or day
# Yeah, night and day
# Night and day, yeah. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Franz Ferdinand.
Who are my other guests this evening?
Let's meet some of them right now,
because from Maryland, we have Jackson Dean.
Yes, with his marvellous songs.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE THROUGHOUT
From Nottingham, the superb Alt Blk Era.
Over here at the piano, some superb people.
From Wolverhampton,
Beverley Knight.
From Liverpool, Holly Johnson.
And from Brooklyn...
And from Brooklyn,
Cameron Winter.
From Bristol, Billy Nomates.
We welcome you back. And welcoming back now, from South London,
Joy Crookes.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Throwing hands and your hoops away
# Get far, but it's not by playing nice
# They got ice on their rosaries
# They so real, find capital in Christ
# I can't trust that
# I got a limp cos they stabbed me in the back
# Follow my mother's advice, "Find that ride or die"
# I know you'd kill
# That's why you shine
# Cut like a diamond
# Safe in your light
# I know you'd kill
# Girl, you burn bright
# Cut like a diamond
# Safe in your light
# I know you would kill
# Got a tongue like a razor blade
# Get cut, it's a fool in old-style coat
# Get rocked, like a lullaby
# I'm so smooth, cyanide, bad bitch in disguise
# No, I didn't mean to meet you with no violence
# Come on, baby, I'm a real tender tyrant
# I follow my mother's advice, "Find that ride or die"
# I know you'd kill
# That's why you shine
# Cut like a diamond
# Safe in your light
# I know you'd kill
# Girl, you burn bright
# Cut like a diamond Cut like a diamond
# I know you would kill
# Cut like a diamond Cut like a diamond
# I know you would kill
# Cut like a diamond Cut like a diamond
# I know you'd kill
# That's why you shine
# Cut like a diamond
# Safe in your light
# I know you'd kill
# And that's why you shine
# Cut like a diamond Cut like a diamond
# I know you would kill. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Joy Crookes!
With a song from her forthcoming album, Juniper.
More from her a little bit later,
but now, over at the piano,
I'm so delighted to welcome the wonderful, the sensational
Beverley Knight!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
So lovely to have you back... It's good to be here, Jools.
..at the piano.
And, yeah, just really lovely to have you back.
And you're starring now in a fantastic play,
a play with music,
called Marie And Rosetta.
Yes. What and who is that about?
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
was a gospel singer who played...
Well, I say played, she absolutely shredded guitars.
Yeah. Specifically Gibson Les Paul.
She was extraordinary in that the way that she played guitar,
her picking style, kind of introduced the world
to the concept of the guitar solo...
Yeah. ..in the middle of a song,
so she kind of led the way and was one of the architects
of rock and roll.
But she was a gospel singer,
and Marie Knight was her singing partner
and also perhaps partner in life -
that bit's a bit ambiguous,
but it seemed to be an open secret that they were very much together -
and together they recorded dynamic duets,
and this play that I'm in, Marie And Rosetta,
erm...
..finds them in 1946,
we're talking a long time ago now,
discovering how they're going to work together,
if it's going to work or not,
and just the power of music, the celebration of music,
gospel music particularly,
but always with a swing and always with sass,
and that was what she was known for.
She got in trouble for it, but...
I mean, it had... Yeah. That music had a profound effect on me,
because my mother had a 78 of Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Yeah. And I put this on and I thought, "This is amazing."
And it's really when gospel music and rhythm and blues music
in the '30s and '40s, they had the same tone... Yeah.
..but they're singing about something different.
You grew up with church music, so hearing those two things together,
did you have a great resonance with Sister Rosetta Tharpe?
Completely. I mean, the parallels were crazy.
She grew up in this Pentecostal church background
and Pentecostal is, you know,
the kind of more charismatic churches,
for people who don't know.
So I grew up where the focus of church was the music
and the joy and the celebration and the ecstasy,
and she grew up in exactly the same way,
but found a home, or found herself more comfortable
with the sounds of R&B, for her, of her time,
and for me, certainly, the contemporary R&B that I heard
around me, as well as the old soul singers
who kind of led the way for me.
And Prince, cos I have to mention Prince,
cos I'm such a big Prince fan.
But that was my kind of rooting.
And she inspired lots of other people as well. Yeah.
Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash. Yeah.
Elvis. Little Richard opened for her. Yeah, yeah.
Chuck Berry said his whole career was a tribute to her.
She was a... She was an absolute force.
We've got a little bit of footage here of her,
which I'd never seen before.
It's great. It's on The Tonight Show in, I think, 1960-something.
Let's enjoy that for a moment. Yes.
# I want to tell you
# The natural facts
# That a man don't understand the Good Book right
# And that's all... #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
I mean, she so gracefully just...
The playing. ..plays and her...
It's like her voice, her guitar are just connected.
There was one, she does... All the same thing. Yeah, yeah.
It was... The guitar was very much part of her body, her being.
Yeah. And her impact is completely... Massive.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Now, the play is going to be in Wolverhampton. It is.
And it's the first time you've played in that particular theatre
since your career first began.
Yeah. Does that make you nervous, having to go back there?
Or filled with joy? Or which?
I'm really excited about it,
because, yeah, the last time I was there was 40 years ago.
I was 12, and I was in West Side Story.
So going back all those years later,
to this theatre, and standing on that stage at home,
is going to be wonderful and terrifying
at the same time!
Now, it's so great to have you here.
We've worked together before... Yes.
..and it would be a criminal offence
if we had you here, talking about Sister Rosetta Tharpe,
but not actually playing something.
Can we do something of hers now?
Let's do it. And you're the person who introduced me to
Sister Rosetta Tharpe all those years ago.
Blimey! You.
Blimey! So this is full circle. And my mum introduced me,
so the whole thing goes on, doesn't it?
There you go. There we are. OK. There you go. Shall we do it?
Yeah. Well, what sort of tempo would you like this at?
The tempo... Look at your foot.
Look at my foot.
We're going to be here.
JOOLS STARTS PLAYING Yes!
# Oh, I looked down the line
# And I wondered
# Oh, I wondered Oh, I wondered
# Oh, I looked down the line
# And I wondered
# Just to see how far that I was from God
# Oh, the line looked so sad and lonesome
# Sad and lonesome
# Sad and lonesome, yes, it did
# Oh, the line looked so sad and lonesome
# Just to see how far that I was from God
# Oh, I buckled up my shoes and started
# Oh, I started
# You know I started
# Oh, I buckled up my shoes and started
# Just to see how far that I was from God
# Oh, I looked in the grave and I wondered
# Oh, I wondered
# Oh, I wondered, I, I
# Oh, I looked in the grave and wondered
# Just to see how far that I was from God
# Oh-oh-oh, yeah, yeah. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Jools.
Lovely. Thank you. Thank you for bringing...
..the wonderful music of Sister Rosetta Tharpe alive.
Beverley Knight!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Next, a duo of Mobo-winning sisters
who earlier this year released their debut album,
Rave Immortal.
And now with the excellent My Drummer's Girlfriend,
please welcome Alt Blk Era.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# She's snorting cocaine every other weekend
# She's partly insane, she's my drummer's girlfriend
# My drummer's girlfriend
# Ripping up leaves
# On a city park bench
# She's never liked me
# But we've got the same friends
# And I wouldn't have thought to be nice then
# Cos she pretends I'm not, but I'm right there
# She's glaring at me
# But she's smiling at them
# She's always backstage with a couple rock bands
# She's always passed out with a couple blunt ends
# She's snorting cocaine every other weekend
# She's partly insane, she's my drummer's girlfriend
# My drummer's girlfriend
# Back to her place
# I'm an unwanted guest
# She's pouring up drinks
# But she's pouring one less
# Guess we're going out to a new place
# It's her excuse to drink on a weekday
# She said she won't sleep
# Till the music drops dead
# I never come round cos she's always a mess
# Banging her head in a gothic black dress
# She's snorting cocaine every other weekend
# She's partly insane, she's my drummer's girlfriend
# My drummer's girlfriend
# She's snorting cocaine
# Every other weekend
# She's partly insane
# She's my drummer's girlfriend. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
We love them!
Alt Blk Era!
Now, changing the vibrations again,
which is what we love to do in this room,
for the first time on British television,
we welcome a remarkable artist who started writing music
at the age of ten.
With Love Takes Miles from his dazzling first solo album,
Heavy Metal, please welcome Cameron Winter.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Love will call
# When you've got enough under your arms
# Oh, oh, mah-mah
# Love will call
# Love will make you fit it all in the car
# Oh, oh, mah-mah
# Something will take you by your pants
# And swing you over its head
# Something's gonna kick you back and forth
# Watching the bells, watching the lights
# What I want is far away
# Open the moon, flatten her down
# Sit her on the stairs all night, yeah
# She can wait, oh
# Lonely as hell, walking around
# Without even moving, I'm not here
# Oh, lonely as hell and I'm walking around singing
# Love takes miles
# Love takes years
# Left me, promising your shoes
# Mah-mah
# Saying I need, I need your feet more than even you do
# Mmm, mah-mah
# Yeah, I need somebody that's been sent down from the sun
# Talking to me the way that you used to
# Lonely as hell, feet on the ground
# What I want is on my mind
# Open the moon, flatten her down
# And sit her on the stairs all day
# Yeah, she's all right
# Oh, lonely as hell, walking around
# Without moving, baby, I'm not here
# Lonely as hell and I'm writing it all down, saying
# Love takes miles, love takes miles
# Love takes miles
# Love takes years
# You'd better start a-walking, baby
# Love takes miles
# You'd better start a-walking, baby
# Love takes miles
# Ooh, oh
# Ooh, oh, oh
# Ohh, oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
# Love takes miles. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Cameron Winter.
In a moment...
..I shall be chatting to the icon and legend that is Holly Johnson,
but first, let's plunge ourselves back into 1984,
and remind ourselves of his performance on Top Of The Pops
with Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
# Relax, don't do it
# When you want to go to it
# Relax, don't do it
# Ohh
# Relax, don't do it
# When you want to go to it
# Relax, don't do it
# Now's the time, it's party time Hey!
# Come. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
What a fantastic bit of archive.
And here I am with Holly Johnson.
Marvellous to have you back on this show.
So great to see you back here. Nice to see you, Jools.
And that clip of Top Of The Pops, 1984,
performing Relax, I mean, that's the song, really,
that propelled you into global stardom, isn't it?
Well, eventually. It took about another 18 months, I think.
We got a record deal, and that show was one of the reasons we did.
And it took ages for the well-known producer to produce it,
it took him three months to get it perfect,
the way he wanted it,
and it did OK. Yeah.
A huge sort of global phenomenon. Despite the BBC ban.
Well, the BBC banned it, that's right.
They did. I spoke to them and they're fine for you to come on now.
LAUGHTER
But what effect did that have?
Well, it made us look very rebellious
and controversial,
which is a good thing for a rock-and-roll band,
isn't it, really? Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, we were like the new Sex Pistols or something. Yeah.
And I think it helped propel the record straight to number one.
Well, I think it got to number two first,
and then because Top Of The Pops wouldn't play it any more,
people wanted to hear it and then it got to number one.
Congratulations, cos it's over 40 years
since Welcome To The Pleasuredome,
and looking back now,
you were one of the first openly gay stars of the 1980s, really,
and I think you became an inspiration for a lot of people.
Were you aware of that impact at the time?
I was a bit of a stroppy young man at the time
and I didn't care what anybody thought.
You know, coming from Liverpool,
that is the attitude.
There was Jimmy Somerville in Bronski Beat
that came just after us,
and of course the amazing Tom Robinson... Yeah.
..who preceded us.
And Marc Almond, of course. Yeah, Marc...
Marc took a bit of coaxing out of... LAUGHTER
..out of the closet, shall we say?
But, you know, I love him dearly
and, yeah, it was a rare thing when Boy George was saying
he preferred a cup of tea,
and George Michael was swearing blind he was straight.
There was Frankie Goes To Hollywood as a port in a storm, so to speak.
Yeah. And it did, I think it helped a lot of people realise that they
weren't on their own, and stuck... Yeah. It was an inspiration.
And that you didn't have to be an absolute monster to be gay.
You know, you just lived your life.
You're going on tour to celebrate 40 years
of Welcome To The Pleasuredome.
What can we expect on the tour?
Well, we're attempting the full, 13-minute version of
Welcome To The Pleasuredome, which I haven't performed since 1987.
So that'll be interesting, if we can pull that one off.
I've just released something for Record Store Day,
a remix album of Blast, called Hollelujah,
in golden-showers coloured vinyl.
Oh, fantastic!
LAUGHTER
Please will you send me a copy of that?
I will try, but they're a very limited edition.
Yes. There's also an incredible exhibition in Liverpool,
and the main exhibit in the exhibition is you.
Because it is like those exhibitions they did of
the Rolling Stones and David Bowie and everything.
What can we expect to see in the Holly Johnson Story, as it is?
Well, basically, my story from being a little boy in Liverpool and
listening to the Beatles
and living around the corner from Penny Lane,
to forming Frankie Goes To Hollywood
and then a display of my solo career
and paintings that I've done and paintings that I've commissioned.
And you can listen to music,
you can listen to people speaking on a telephone about HIV and Aids,
and people talking about the '80s and the political situation then.
So the Museum of Liverpool have done a great job
with the exhibition, and I'm really proud of it.
It's an honour to be recognised by your hometown in that way.
Well, it's fantastic having you here and seeing you again,
looking so well, back here. Thank you, Jules.
The wonderful Holly Johnson!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thanks a lot, mate. Great to see you. Cheers, Jules.
Our next guest returns to the show with their third album, Metal Horse,
an album inspired by the image of a dilapidated funfair.
Please welcome Billy Nomates.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Hall of mirrors
# I do the wall of death
# If they can see us
# That's the test
# I know your next move
# And where you hide
# But in the rearview
# There's something else
# Hall of mirrors
# I do the wall of death
# And I get fearless
# When it pays my rent
# To know that I love you
# But I don't know how
# And so when I'm driving
# You know I can't come down
# I watch the world go by
# Quicker than a mile
# Yeah, hard as an engine
# A five-cylinder Roman invention
# Fly, watch the fire fly
# Can't look me in the eye
# Yeah, 16,000 diesel fountains
# Everything at once
# Hall of mirrors
# I do the wall of death
# Hall of mirrors
# I do the wall of death
# If they see us
# That's the test
# Hey
# Ha! #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Billy Nomates!
Wonderful to have her here.
And now we welcome a new star of country music.
He has beautifully decorated the front of his guitar and now
he's going to decorate the show with one of his beautiful songs.
Please welcome Jackson Dean.
CHEERING
Thank you, Jools.
# Heavens to Betsy
# I don't know if you can hear me
# But up here, you're coming in clear as a bell
# Now, heavens to Betsy
# I finally quit the drinking
# Cos I hate that my demons put you through hell
# Now, I bet you're just as surprised as I am
# They'd ever let a sinner like me in
# Now, I know I didn't do
# Enough watching over you
# But I will, until I see you again
# If you'll let me
# Heavens to Betsy
# Blink twice if you remember
# Just skipping rocks on the river
# Weren't knee-high to a stump
# And they still haunt me
# Your pink rainboots in the driveway
# What kind of man would drive away?
# Just give up and run
# Now, I bet you're just as surprised as I am
# They'd ever let a sinner like me in
# Now, I know I didn't do
# Enough watching over you
# But I will, until I see you again
# If you'll let me
# Now, heavens to Betsy
# Now, I bet you're just as surprised as I am
# They'd ever let a sinner like me in
# And I know I didn't do
# Enough watching over you
# But I will, until I see you again
# If you'll let me
# Singing, heavens to Betsy
# I don't know if you can hear me
# But up here, you're coming in clear as a bell. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# 2%, smoke a blem, put your sneakers on
# Free ride cos the neighbour wants to take you home
# Y2K in your bell-bottom jeans
# True religion, you can make them all believe
# A predictable pattern can't help but be drawn to you
# Used to say that I'd never be fooled by the formula
# I reminisce on days we didn't have
# Now, what am I supposed to do with that, Carmen?
# I just want to pay you attention
# Any God would offer you Heaven
# Oh, I want to know what that's like
# I want to be wanted like Carmen
# Everybody's throwing their heart in
# Girl, you're such a beautiful problem
# I can't take you off of my eyes
# I want to be wanted like Carmen
# Brown-skin European with my London eye
# I get envious of that vanilla type
# You go classic like Coco Chanel
# Is it bad I want that for myself?
# Five on it, so stunning, go lightly, like you do
# Girl, I see it, goddamn pleasers, ain't no mountain you don't move
# Crash in, I'm the casualty
# What about me?
# When do I get to be Carmen?
# I just want to pay you attention
# Any God would offer you Heaven
# Oh, I want to know what that's like
# I want to be wanted like Carmen
# Everybody's throwing their heart in
# Girl, you're such a beautiful problem
# I can't take you off of my eyes
# I want to be wanted like
# Sportswear, no make-up, peng and affectionate
# Ten, no Photoshop, you got us signing up
# Why am I working double just for half of what you got?
# I, I
# I want to be wanted like
# Carmen. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Wonderful. Joy Crookes, her amazing band
and their new single, Carmen. Joy Crookes!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you to all of my wonderful guests in this room this evening.
Now let's finish with another track from their
superb album The Human Fear, thank you, Franz Ferdinand!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Now, here we go with riff, ah...
One, two, a-one, two, three, and...
# Did you ever get the feeling that there's something come undone?
# An unreeling in the seaming, the stitching gone
# So you rip a little harder till that rip becomes a run
# Feel the fabric of existence
# Come unspun
# But, hey, there, we don't care
# Could be standing way out where
# You're naked and freezing till you run
# Freeze or run
# So don't stop feeling audacious
# There's no-one to save us
# So just carry on
# And don't go blaming the neighbours
# You know they're the same as us
# We should just get on
# Get on
# With a photogenic hand in my hand
# The rain fell nowhere I was standing
# By the Holy Grail with an optimistic feeling and
# Hey, ho, you don't know
# Is it a joke? No, I said no
# I'm serious, more serious than I've ever been
# I've ever been
# So don't stop feeling audacious
# There's no-one to save us
# So just carry on
# And don't go blaming the neighbours
# You know they're the same as us
# We should just get on
# Get on
# Did you ever get the feeling that your world has come undone?
# No revealing of a reason to carry on
# When, hey, there, it's there
# Waiting just in there
# Ready any time to come along
# Along
# So don't stop feeling audacious
# The unknown and the famous
# They say just carry on
# No, there's just us to save us
# Forget any favours
# We should just get on
# Get on with it. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Yeah, that's the test
# Hey
# Ha! #