Radio 1's not top of pop pickers

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Real talent: An iPod ad, not Radio 1, launched Feist into the spotlight

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You've seen the ad and you've heard the song, right? That 1-2-3-4 single by Feist that's been on the Apple iPod advertisement. It's probably in the top 10 by the time you read this. It might even be number one. It deserves to be - it's a fantastic song.

The single was pretty much ignored by Radio 1, much like they ignored Kate Nash before the clueless buffoons who dictate the station's music policy finally realised that here was a great artist who was blowing up and they were miles off the pace.

Quite how they missed Feist is a little puzzling. She's cool, having played with Broken Social Scene, she's pretty and she makes truly magnificent pop music. She surely fits any criteria that a radio station that persists in employing the inane slogan, In New Music We Trust, should use to target new artists.

But no, they ignored Feist because they were too busy plugging Jam-alike nohopers such as The Enemy. Surely, people whose jobs it is to be ahead of the curve on new music can't be so fundamentally useless as to miss two or three major talents.

Then I read an item on a gossip website a few weeks ago that startled me. It seems that an executive at Radio 1 was hinting that labels on the verge of signing new acts should check with him first, just to make sure that he thought they had what it took to get played on Radio 1.

I investigated further. I had lunch with a couple of music business acquaintances and they confirmed what the website had suggested. It seems that the numpty at Radio 1, who is so totally cloth-eared that he can't spot great talent, is using his position, as a public servant, to influence the commercial activities of record companies. Whether or not that's ethical is one thing. The real question is why any label would take his advice. Given his record on spotting new music, surely it'd be akin to asking Britney Spears for some parenting tips.

•Email me on soundingoff @thelondonlite.co.uk

 

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