We rounded up Zane Lowe's Masterpieces tonight - with this classic.
I wasn't sat in the studio sadly but outside with the speakers on full blast, looking at the listener texts coming in - it made for an amazing experience... Some brought tears to the eyes (inevitable with an older album I suppose, so many people were switched onto it by people who have passed away) but a lot were simply about great, great memories. Also, an encouraging amoung of young whippersnappers - one of whom said 'why oh why have I never heard this album before'.
Hopefully we managed to replicate what I was experiencing... This was thanks to Sam's amazing reproduction of the artwork (so you can browse through it) and his self made text box that meant we could cut and paste text messages from the public and display them on the website, on digital telly and on DAB radios.
A common theme seen in the messages throughout the week was that people listen to these albums a lot anyway - but it was knowing that you were listening to them with so many people at the same time that made it exciting...hopefully seeing these messages from other listeners only compounded that. The team ended the show by announcing another series of Masterpieces next year - and played Radiohead's 'Airbag' to indicate the one album they have already decided on - priceless.
Air drumming to 'Four Sticks' with a couple of biros whilst reading these lovely texts didn't really count as work, let's face it...
