This programme contains some strong language
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Welcome. It's Sunday night.
Everything's shut, so you might as well stay in and watch us.
And enjoy and welcome Wet Leg!
CHEERING
# Can you catch a medicine ball?
# Can you catch yourself when you fall?
# You should be careful, you catch my drift?
# Cos what I really want to know is can you catch these fists?
# Ah, ah, ah, ah
# Ah, ah, man down
# Ah, ah, ah, ah
# Ah, ah, level up
# I know all too well just what you're like
# I don't want your love I just wanna fight
# We're on our way to the club
# Stupid is, stupid does
# Limousine, racking up
# Ketamine, giddy up
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
# Yeah, yeah, man down
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
# Yeah, yeah, level up
# I know all too well just what you're like
# I don't want your love I just wanna fight
# He don't get puss, he get the boot I saw him sipping on dark fruit
# This always happens late at night Some guy comes up, says I'm his type
# I just threw up in my mouth when he just tried to ask me out
# Don't approach me I just wanna dance with my friends
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
# Yeah, yeah, man down
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
# Yeah, yeah, level up
# I know all too well just what you're like
# I don't want your love I just wanna fight
# I know all too well just what you're like
# I don't want your love I just wanna fight
# Man down. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
So pleased to have them back in this room. Thank you, Wet Leg!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
And who are our wonderful guests this week?
From South London and Colombia we welcome Sasha Keable!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From Italy, a great genius indeed, Ludovico Einaudi!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From Scotland, Brooke Combe!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
From Los Angeles, Annahstasia!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Now, also from Los Algenes - Los Angeles -
we're delighted to have in this room
Sparks!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Gonna run, gonna fly Gonna do things my own way
# Fall behind, bye-bye-bye Gonna do things my own way
# Feelin' right, feelin' tight Gonna do things my own way
# Got the fuel, broke the rules Gonna do things my own way
# Snooty twits Snooty twits
# Havin' fits Havin' fits
# Gonna do things my own way
# They wanna lunch They wanna lunch
# Don't wanna lunch Don't wanna lunch
# Gonna do things my own way
# Lookin' good, understood Gonna do things my own way
# Out the way, out the way
# Gonna do things my own way
# Feelin' cool, feelin' schooled Gonna do things my own way
# I'm Howard Hughes in Jordan 2s Gonna do things my own way
# Do things my own way
# Not a phase, all my days Gonna do things my own way
# Not a fad Not a fad
# It's not so bad It's not so bad
# Gonna do things my own way
# Unabashed, totin' cash Gonna do things my own way
# Unaligned, simply fine
# Gonna do things my own way
# Do things, gotta run Do things, gotta go
# Do things, gotta stay Do things, gotta play
# Do things, gotta run Do things, gotta go
# Do things, gotta stay Do things, gotta
# Saw the Pope, told him "no" Gonna do things my own way
# My guru, told him too Gonna do things my own way
# My advice, no advice Gonna do things my own way
# Roll the dice, roll the dice Gonna do things my own way
# Anywhere, any time Gonna do things my own way
# I don't care, I don't care Gonna do things my own way
# Gonna do things my own way
# Gonna do things my own way. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Sparks. How wonderful to have them back in this room.
I shall be chatting to them later over at the piano.
Looking forward to having, you know, a little piano-side chat.
My next guest has many, many fans, including the great Beyonce
and, of course, myself.
So, we're delighted to welcome Sasha Keable.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Baby, I don't know who you are any more
# So I don't know what you callin' me for
# Expectin' I was just bound to ignore
# All of your fuckeries, girl, we at war
# Hate that you took my kindness for weakness
# You burnt every bridge that's between us
# Not sure what's really left to be said
# It's simple
# If you loved me you would never hurt me
# That's to put it simply
# Whether we were lovers or just friends
# If you hurt me you would say you're sorry
# 'Stead you actin' cocky
# If you wanted to, you would
# Act right Act like you know
# To do better, really Not just for show
# Act right But, girl, we both know
# That if you wanted to, you would Oh
# Baby, too long I thought that you had everything
# Coulda gave your ass a wedding ring, girl
# You fuckin' with my head
# There's 'bout to be Murder
# You playin' games that I ain't never
# Heard of
# You was the one that's always doin' the
# Dirt up
# It's just simple, black and white
# Cos if you loved me you would never hurt me
# That's to put it simply
# Whether we were lovers or just friends
# If you hurt me you would say you're sorry
# 'Stead you actin' cocky
# If you wanted to, you would
# Act right Act like you know
# To do better, really Not just for show
# Act right But, girl, we both know
# That if you wanted to, you would Oh
# Do-do-do-do, you better act right, yeah
# Act right Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh
# You better act right, oh-oh-oh Act right
# Oh-oh-oh, act right Act right
# Yeah Act right. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Title track from her forthcoming EP, Act Right,
Sasha Keable!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Sasha Keable!
I can see why Beyonce thought she's great.
Once again, Beyonce and I agree on everything.
So, now, at the piano, we welcome, really, music legends -
yes, it's Ron and Russell from Sparks!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Ron, Russell.
Russell, lovely to see you, Ron, lovely to see you.
So lovely to have you both here.
And congratulations, cos you're here with your 28th studio album, Mad!.
Does the title - Mad! - does it refer to where you are
in your place at the time, now,
or the band, or how the world is, or just being here tonight?
Uh, a touch of the latter,
but mostly a combination of where we are
and also where the world is.
I mean, both a bit insane and a bit irate at the same time.
And the world seems to have caught up with our level of madness.
But we're going to surpass that.
And am I right in thinking that French cinema,
New Wave French cinema, is an influence on your music
and the way you work? Yeah. It's always been something
that we've really liked a lot. We went to UCLA in Los Angeles at
university and studied film. And the French New Wave films,
Godard and Truffaut, were such influences on us.
And a couple of years ago - four years ago now, I think it's been -
we wrote our own movie musical
called Annette starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard.
And we were fortunate enough to have our dream
actually come through of winning a Cesar Award
in France - the place that, you know,
Americans shouldn't be getting awards, but we did.
For anybody to get a Cesar Award is a big honour,
but for somebody not French to do it is like sort of beyond anything.
Exactement. We hope they don't find out sometime.
JOOLS LAUGHS
No, and just to have a film directed by a French director
of such quality as Leos Carax...
And you've been making albums now for over five decades.
Is it easy to keep the sort of fire of creativity alight over that time?
THEY LAUGH
No!
LAUGHTER
No, it's always a challenge and, obviously, the more albums you have,
it becomes harder to do things that you want to have perceived
as not being from...sounding like they're a band
that's had a 28-album-long history.
And so we're really
proud of the fact that we kind of work really hard
to have things sound as provocative and as forceful
as they did back with the first album
that we did with Todd Rundgren.
Well, we're going to go back now, because almost 46 years to today
you performed The Number One Song In Heaven, your song,
on Top Of The Pops. Can you remember anything
from that period, Top Of The Pops...?
No. It was a really great period. It was really vibrant.
We were from Los Angeles, where we had zero following
and we went on Top Of The Pops and, all of a sudden,
overnight there's people mobbing you in the streets.
And it was the power of that show
at that time when there were only three television stations, I think,
in the UK, so more than likely
someone was going to be watching Top Of The Pops
and it had such an impact on us.
Let's have a quick look at Top Of The Pops from 1979.
# It's number one all over heaven It's number one all over heaven
# It's number one all over heaven
# The number one song all over heaven
# The song filters down, down through the clouds
# It reaches the earth and winds all around... #
APPLAUSE
Top Of The Pops, The Number One Song In Heaven.
You moved here, didn't you? Didn't you...?
No. We did. We had the kind offer from Island Records at the time
to kind of escape our obscurity in Los Angeles with two albums.
And...we were just amazed at how black and white it was
as far as reaction to the same thing that we were doing before.
People loved you in the UK, is that what you're saying?
Oh, no. Absolutely. And we couldn't see why they loved us
and they didn't like us there, but we didn't care.
Just "screw them", you know.
And I read that, upon your arrival, you auditioned band members
and I think that you put in the advert that the people in the band -
who you were going to audition - had to be beard-free and exciting.
LAUGHTER
But now I'm assuming that you've changed that, because your drummer -
who's very, very good - he does appear to have a beard.
I never turn around, I hadn't noticed, so...
LAUGHTER
But you let him slip through? I guess so, yeah. Yeah.
We eased the rules. A token beard...
And when you put the bit "exciting", how would somebody...?
If somebody came into the audition... You just know!
..how would they have to manifest that they were exciting?
You just know. You know, when they come through that door,
you go, "He's exciting!" Yeah.
LAUGHTER Yeah, he's exciting, no beard - win.
"You got the job."
And, of course, a lot of new bands - as an example,
The Last Dinner Party, who have been on our show, and lots of others -
they count you as an inspiration.
What is it about you, do you think, that continues to influence
new artists?
No, it's... I mean, it's hard to say.
We were really happy when we heard Last Dinner Party
doing a version of This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us
and it's just... I don't know, ever since the Edgar Wright documentary
about Sparks, we've gotten to see that, you know, kind of
unbeknownst to us, there's a lot of musicians out there that really were
listening to what we were doing and inspired by our work
and we're just so happy about it and that it continues to today.
Now, you're going to be doing another song for us later.
What will you be doing?
We'll be doing a song that's called Drowned In A Sea Of Tears.
It's uplifting and happy.
LAUGHTER
We'll look forward to it. Thank you very much.
Ron and Russell, It's marvellous having you here as guests.
Thank you, Sparks. Great talking to you. Great to have you.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thanks a lot, Jools.
The next artist. She describes her sound as power folk,
and has just released her first wonderful album, Tether.
Please welcome Annahstasia.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Take it
# Take it back
# All that you left within me
# All the doubt and the lack
# And the knocking sense of insecurity
# Take it
# Take it back
# All the anger and the fury
# And I don't know where it hides
# Just before it rises up and cries for me
# Take it
# Take it back
# Oh, this one and only mentality
# You think you're some single judge and jury
# And you got this overwhelming sort of jealousy
# Take it
# Take it back
# This stone knife and memory
# I still hear your voice inside my head
# Say that I'm the villain of the story
# Take it
# Take it back
# All that you left within me
# All the doubt and the fear
# When love was always abundant
# For me. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The wonderful sound of Annahstasia!
And now I'm going to go to the piano
and chat to one of the great contemporary composers
of our age, who I'm delighted and honoured to have in the studio -
Ludovico Einaudi!
Great to have you here again. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Lovely to see you.
Now, not only are you a great composer
but you're also incredibly popular because you made history
recently as the most streamed "classical" artist of all time.
I mean, that's quite an accolade,
surpassing even sort of Bach, Beethoven, everybody.
Out of those people, by the way, who would be your favourite?
Who's your favourite classical person?
Uh, well, maybe Bach.
Yeah. Yeah, Bach... I could hear that in your music. OK.
What do you think he would think of streaming?
Of...
LAUGHTER
It's a good question.
I think he may...enjoy it.
I mean, at the time of Bach, music was heard just in Germany
and probably a bit in Italy.
Now you can hear it everywhere, so...I think he would be...
He'd be pleased that it went that far. ..happy. Yes.
And, of course, he never really left the little bit of Germany
he lived in, did he? He never really travelled.
Yeah, he... But you travel all over the world, don't you?
Yeah, I travel all over the world.
And I play... I was recently in Asia. I'm going to America.
Now I'm coming to England also. Exactly.
And now you're here tonight with your new record, The Summer Portraits.
What are The Summer Portraits?
What inspired them?
I think the inspiration came from memories of my summers.
I think summer for me was a very specific and beautiful moment
that I spent with my family, in the summer, with light,
beautiful food, friends.
And it was, compared to the winter when I had to go to school,
it was much better.
And in the summer you learn...
You are free to learn everything about your life, you experiment
and this is a beautiful reference point for the rest of your life.
And so it's based on your childhood summers?
Yeah, the first ten, 15 years of my life. Yeah.
And were you playing then? Is that...?
I was playing. I was listening to my mum - she was playing piano.
I learned some piano from her.
What did she play?
She played Bach, Chopin and Schumann.
But also she was playing records,
and she played the first
songs from the Stones - Satisfaction, I heard it from her.
Yeah, yeah. Now, you're going to be soon performing a run of
six consecutive dates in the Royal Albert Hall with your ensemble.
What sort of things can people look forward to hearing there?
I will play with a group of 12 musicians with me,
with strings, electronics, percussion.
And we are going to play The Summer Portraits
and also a lot of my previous music repertoire.
Now, the other thing, I have read about you talking about
how all the senses are connected,
whether it's the sense of smell, looking at colour with sight
and hearing, and they all connect.
But you've talked about music and colour representing
different things, so I think, for the first time on television
that I know of - which is visual but it's about sound as well... Yes.
..perhaps you'd come and join me and we could experiment...
Experiment something, yes, absolutely. ..what colours might be.
And it's always interesting to try
to transcribe something into music.
I mean, if I were to give you the colour grey,
what would the...?
The colour grey, maybe it could be something like that...
HE PLAYS VARIATIONS ON A CALM PHRASE
That is great. That's beautiful, isn't it?
How about blue?
Blue?
I would...
HE PLAYS MINOR PHRASES
That's lovely, isn't it? Wow, that's really nice. I mean...
Cos, of course, if I was going blue, I'd have to go...
BLUESY PIANO PHRASE
So I'd be bending the notes so I had a different style of blue.
Or what about something hotter? What about red?
Red? Ah, it could be...
SMOOTH, WARM, RESONANT NOTES
That's great.
So, finally, maybe we should try black and white
and try playing at the same time.
So maybe, if I were thinking black, maybe I'd be...
STACCATO NOTES
And if you are thinking white, where would you be?
HE REPEATS PATTERN OF HIGH NOTES
THEY PLAY TOGETHER
LOW AND HIGH NOTES INTERPLAY
That's really good. Thank you.
APPLAUSE
That's really good. Thank you. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you. Fantastic.
How wonderful.
The wonderful Ludovico Einaudi.
Thank you, Ludovico. Thank you.
Thank you. A television first!
He's going to play a very beautiful piece in just a moment,
but the next artist, let's discuss her for a moment.
Because after seeing this next artist,
when you listen to her record it's worth remembering that
she recorded it onto old tape,
allowing herself only three takes per track.
But now let's hear her doing it all live.
Please welcome Brooke Combe!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# This town
# A land of its own
# Where nothing good ever really goes on
# Nothing around but faces and frowns
# I'm glad that I'm out
# Spice boy's thinking he's everybody's summer dream
# But he's just a D-plus
# Lads wasting your time
# Speak to yours, you'll speak to mine
# Now and then it's all too much
# I break the rules I'm making
# Can't stop myself from faking
# Must be the shit I'm taking
# Gotta get out of this town
# This town
# A land of the free
# A couple of deals down on every street
# Something to be said for the people you meet
# They're stuck in the scene
# Small-time short cuts
# Running in and out of luck
# Just another Saturday
# Lads wasting your time
# Speak to yours, you'll speak to mine
# But it's just a game we play
# I break the rules I'm making
# Can't stop myself from faking
# Must be the shit I'm taking
# Gotta get out of this town
# La la-la la-la la-la-la
# I break the rules I'm making
# Can't stop myself from faking
# Must be the shit I'm taking
# Gotta get out of this town
# La, la-la, la-la, la-la-la
# La, la-la, la-la, la-ah-ah-ah
# La, la-la, la-la, la-la-la
# La, la-la, la-la, la-ah-ah-ah
# La, la-la, la-la, la-la-la
# La, la-la, la-la, la-ah-ah-ah. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
PIANO NOTES
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you.
Ludovico Einaudi!
So I think let's go over this way.
Another song from their new album, Mad! -
please welcome back Sparks!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I didn't know how deep it all must have been
# Her greatest talent, she could keep it all in
# Whatever bothered her, I had no idea
# Or how big of a deal, or her lengths to conceal just how bad
# We'd go to parties and we'd laugh with our friends
# We'd have some drinks and that would help her pretend
# It all was going great, no problem at all
# She's the belle of the ball and she does have it all
# Have it all
# Drowned in a sea of tears
# Almost saved her, I was so very near
# Drowned in a sea of tears
# Though I tried, I couldn't ease all her fears
# But then she seemed a little down, little out
# I asked her what was wrong, it always works out
# That's when she told me - but it didn't work out
# Wish I had helped her out but I didn't know how, even now
# Drowned in a sea of tears
# Almost saved her, I was so very near
# Drowned in a sea of tears
# Though I tried, I couldn't ease all her fears
# Drowned in a sea of tears
VOCAL EFFECT: # La-la-la-la, la, la
# La-la-la-la, la, la
# La, la, la, la
# La-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la-la
# La-la-la-la-la, la, la, la
# We were ecstatic even though it would rain
# We were so frantic as we biked around Spain
# Were we romantic or just out for good times?
# Two of a kind
# Now I can see I was blind
# Drowned in a sea of tears
# Almost saved her, I was so very near
# Drowned in a sea of tears
# Though I tried, I couldn't ease all her fears
# Drowned in a sea of tears
# Drowned in a sea of tears. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you, Sparks!
And thank you to all of my wonderful guests this evening,
and now let's hear a lovely song from their super album Moisturizer -
and we finish with Wet Leg.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# I tied a rope around my waist
# I tend to get lost in your eyes
# I took a breath, jumped off a cliff
# Cos you told me to
# Is it love or suicide?
# Is it love?
# Put your mouth to mine and give me CPR
# Call the triple nine and give me CPR
# I try to run
# Head for the hills
# Are you a ghost? Then, oh, my God
# Oh, can you give me the chills?
# Ow!
# Is it love or suicide?
# Is it love?
# Are you the one, my ride-or-die?
# When I'm with you, I feel alive
# Is it fun? Is this a vibe?
# Is it love?
# Put your mouth to mine and give me CPR
# Call the triple nine and give me CPR... #
Hello, 999. What's your emergency?
# Well, the thing is
# I, I
# I, I, I, I'm in love
# Oh, I'm in love and you're to blame
# Put your mouth to mine and give me CPR
# Oh, I'm in love and you're to blame
# Call the triple nine and give me CPR
# R, R, R. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
# Do-do-do-do, you better act right, yeah
# Act right Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh
# You better act right, oh-oh-oh Act right
# Oh-oh-oh, act right Act right
# Yeah Act right. #