Following on from his Christmas and New Year radio takeovers, Iggy Pop has been confirmed to be the new BBC 6 Music DJ, bringing a bit more punk rock to the radio station and another gruff voice to the airwaves alongside the existing roster of Huey Morgan and Guy Garvey. Apart from the odd terrible insurance commercial, Iggy hasn’t really been at the forefront of things for a while, but the weekly Iggy Pop Show will give him a springboard to make up for all that nonsense with the puppet.
The new show will see Pop taking over from Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday evening slot between 4pm and 6pm to bring a little of his own brand of cheer to the start of the end of the weekend. The announcement comes on the back of Jarvis taking a year long sabbatical from his own weekly show. We’re not sure what Cocker’s got planned for his year off, but we’re hoping it’s either to work on new music or to instigate a return for Pulp.
According to Iggy, he had such a good time working on his previous outings for the radio station that he jumped at the chance to get back behind the microphone, and in all fairness, who could blame him, the BBC Salford bar is class for post show drinks. In the announcement he said, “To be honest, commerce, critics, crooks, and creeps have conspired over time to knock the stuffing out of my soul as I become ever more removed from the joys of feeling music. The act of revisiting my library and memories to share the tunes I have treasured with a radio audience has relit a flame for me. So I was kind of hoping the Beeb would ask me to do some more. So I guess I did alright, because I’m gonna. Watch out for me.”
The Iggy Pop Show is scheduled to start on the 16th March 2014 and will air weekly every Sunday onwards until the end of the year, when we believe Jarvis will be returning. However, it’ll be preceded by a 2 hour special on the 9th March 2014 with Cocker giving us a final send off for the year with a look back at Iggy Pop’s career in music, dipping into the vast recesses of the BBC archive to showcase rare audio of the punk rock legend.
The first show will also get a post air nod at Pop’s influence on music with a 2 hour takeover of Now Playing @6Music between 6pm and 8pm on Sunday the 16th March 2014, hosted by Tom Robinson. Using social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, listeners will get to contribute live on air to a playlist inspired by his back catalogue and legacy to celebrate his contributions to punk and metal.
For anyone not massively familiar with Iggy’s work beyond the more recent insurance commercials, you should probably spend a little time to listen to a few of his tracks, read up on his career in music, watch at least one video of him live and spin Trainspotting through your betamax. If that’s not enough to make you want to tune into at least the odd one or two Iggy Pop Shows then you’re probably missing something along the way.
