Radio 1: as it is II

Jo Whiley, 10am-12.45pm

The oldest (42) and longest serving (14 years this month, six and a half in this slot) of the weekday team, Whiley may perhaps be the person upon whom your opinion of the station stands or falls. She gets the new music to daytime job and can make a band, but the ones she makes, while starting out with the best intentions (Roy Vedas, anyone?) have of late been of the rockist same as before but lesser methodology. Changing Tracks appears to have become a Noughties Our Tune, while the simpering over this month's Grazia-approved celebrities and TV imports could well put the listener off them entirely. And why does she have so many people getting in touch who a) start their texts 'Hey, Jo' and b) are on tractors?

Kaiser Chiefs - The Angry Mob
Mark Ronson - Ooh Wee ("fantabulous", apparently)
"What is your status today?" Do you see? Jo Whiley is down with the Facebook kids! Jo, being all new and that, gets three or four free plays a show but completely ruins the surprise by playing clips of them at this point. She does this a lot in varying ways, possibly to ensure the producer is earning their crust
Editors - An End Has A Start
"What cover do you think she (KT Tunstall, remember) will do?" This is the other thing that gets on people's wick about Whiley, the way she's taken the ironic live cover and run with it, the ultimate result being Squalid Schmindie Band Do A Pop Song But, Like, Meaningfully And Acoustically. When Arcade Fire did the Live Lounge they covered Maps and Whiley didn't so much as put it out on the air, leaving it for the online team. Again, just to completely ruin any sense that there may be an unlikely payoff, Jo states it'll be one of Take That's Shine, the Holloways' Generator (no chance), Plain White T's Hey There Delilah and Bloc Party's The Prayer. CAN YOU WAIT?
Rihanna - Shut Up And Drive
Lostprophets - Rooftops
M.I.A. - Jimmy
Maximo Park - Girls Who Play Guitars
News
Gym Class Heroes - Clothes Off
Jack Johnson - Upside Down
Seven Song Shuffle. It's not as good as Bits And Pieces, largely because we got one out of the seven chopped and diced clips. One. "Maybe it's easier than it has been" says Jo. Cheers.
Charlean Dance - Mr DJ (they still make records like this? And get them on the Radio 1 playlist?)
Clearly we're spending too long listening to this no-ambition indie schlock to recognise half the Radio 1 A-list (and Pearl Jam's Alive). Although Scouting For Girls actually sound much, much better at half speed.
Athlete - Hurricane
Kate Nash - Foundations (not actually playlisted until the week of release)
The Hives - Tick Tick Boom
Audio Bullys - Shoot You Down
Jack Penate - Torn On The Platform
Scissor Sisters - She's My Man
Changing Tracks. It's different, see, because it's over some sort of anodyne beats backing. Jo uses just as many light pregnant pauses as Simon Bates, that's what it is. Today it's a bloke called Calvin who tried to keep a girl and a boy going at the same time while at university, failing and wanting the girl, who split with him, back. This song's been picked as it showed him "I didn't have to conform to what people expected of me".
Embrace - Ashes
Hundreds and hundreds of texters tell Calvin to "be yourself". That's what gets so many people into trouble, of course.
Taio Cruz - Moving On
Lee Cabrera - Shake It (Move A Little Closer)
The Go! Team - Doing It Right
Jo seems to value "energy" above everything else in her live music. We suggest she never goes to see Spiritualized Acoustic Mainlines. "Quite a few people getting in touch because they watched Skins". See, these people walk among us. One texter is indeed on his tractor.
Razorlight - In The Morning
"Richard on his tractor" now. "Some good news - Joe Dempsey, who played Chris, is on this show on Friday". Then she talks about hating slugs for some reason.
P Diddy feat. Christina Aguilera - Tell Me
"I do hate them, on a par with egg whites" Jo continues as perhaps the unlikeliest intro news have ever had
Linkin Park - Bleed It Out
Freaks - The Creeps (do all dance records have to sound like Yeh Yeh by Bodyrox now?)
More slugs. Whatever floats the mid-morning nation's boats. Someone claims they couldn't see the cat's bowl for them the other night. Is that possible?
Jamie Scott and the Town - When Will I See Your Face Again?
Hard-Fi - Suburban Knights
Now we're onto leeches.
Eminem - Lose Yourself
Showbiz news. Athlete and Adam Brody say little of ultimate interest. Sienna Miller talks about global warming as patron of some charity or other. How this fifteen seconds, as opposed to the full minute about her love life, is meant to increase their standing lord knows. "Genuinely normal" is Natalie Jameson's verdict, presumably on the basis that she wasn't made out of newsprint.
Libertines - Don't Look Back Into The Sun (At the time this sounded ridiculously scrappy and half-formed. Now it sounds exactly the same as half the guitar records released in any given week.)
Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson and someone else - The Way I Are
The Hoosiers - Worried About Ray (Why were we not warned about the revival of soft rock production?)
KT arrives. Jo immediately butters her up so much she may consequently be unable to stand up. Tellingly, when Jo asks her who the most impressive person she's met is and suggests Justin Timberlake, Kanye West and Mary J Blige, Tunstall replies with Bonnie Raitt.
KT Tunstall - Hold On (Live Lounge)
Meck feat. Leo Sayer - Thunder In My Heart
Apparently KT's backing singers don't have names. She reveals she's recorded a Christmas mini-album, including Fairytale Of New York with Ed Harcourt and Sleigh Ride apparently in the style of the Beastie Boys. Sweet lord. So, did you guess right?
KT Tunstall - The Prayer (Live Lounge) (Done just about straight, which somewhat defeats the object of, well, KT Tunstall covering Bloc Party)
Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls (What a bizarre record this is, by the way. Why does that backing seem to be a WH Smith PA-style budget cover of Christina Aguilera's What A Girl Wants in an 80s soft pop style?)
The Zutons - Valerie
Sonny J - Can't Stop Moving ("you'll recognise this song", apparently. Does anyone else think St Etienne's Nothing Can Stop Us gone blaxploitation?)
"Check 'em out on Myspace" Jo somewhat inevitably advises
Kanye West - Stronger
There's something oddly unsatisfying about Whiley these days for someone painted as daytime Radio 1's emissary to the very soul of music fandom. She seems overkeen as a result to hitch herself to any potential youth cult going - indeed she's also going a bundle on Heroes - and at times seems to want to spoonfeed her audience rather than distract them. See you the other side of Newsbeat.