This September saw the end of the legendary Mary Anne Hobbs rein at Radio 1. Looking back at what on wrote on the day it seems a bit harsh now so sorry if anyone was put out by it! Below are the heroes she brought in for the guest mixes on here final shows, with the most fitting finale of Burial and Kode9.
First published in full 8.9.10 here
Tonight marks the end of Mary Anne Hobbs show on Radio One. Don't get me wrong - I am a big fan and any criticisms I'm about to make must be balanced out with the fact that over the years she has introduced me to hundreds of great tracks I would never have heard anywhere else, especially in the years before the internet when I taped her show religiously.
I know her legacy will be for breaking dubstep to the masses and I guess that's definitely justified but to me there was a lot more to her shows than that - both for the better and worse. I don't really want this to be negative really so I'll keep this bit brief but, to me, she did have a few years lost in the wilderness after big beat died but before dark garage / dubstep came along. Some of the stuff she played and guests booked sort of from '99 to maybe even as late as '03 were either questionable (Sister Bliss and Faithless?) or instantly forgettable (hmmm..... nope, it's gone).
Some of my favourite memories are the night Roni Size made a new track live out of samples listeners phoned in (I tell you, kids don't know they're born these days!), The Wall Of Sound birthday parties (I think 5th and 6th - certainly when Jon Carter just took over proceedings), how much Mary Anne would go all school-girly whenever Richard Fearless of Death In Vegas came in, the night Suicide came back, the time she went on holiday and David Holmes and Portishead took over for a couple of weeks (this was when the show was still 4 nights a week), Steinski and Plus 1 back to back turntablism, the Tim Burgess set (if anyone has this mp3ed, drop me a note - its a classic in this household) but perhaps best of all - the fact you had to get the tracklists on Ceefax! (God, the kids these days etc etc...). I'm trying to think of mistakes / things going wrong / guests not showing up type tales but I must have forgotten anything like that over the years.
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