Noisey UK Pays Tribute to Zane Lowe Before He Moves to America, the Greatest Country on Earth

This article originally appeared on Noisey UK.

Yesterday it was announced that Zane Lowe would be leaving Radio 1, ending his run of nearly 20 years in the UK as a radio and TV broadcaster. He’s leaving for a very nice sounding job at Apple, launching their new iTunes radio service.

Zane transformed the Evening Session, essentially a specialist indie show, into the flagship new music show for the whole of the BBC. His bombastic, and often parodied, style was completely original in British radio—setting a new high-octane pace for the entire station which has remained ever since. He was the only man who could make a new One Night Only single feel like the most important event in the world.

In the past few years he's pioneered a new kind of music interview: in-depth and nerdy, which has won him time with some of the biggest names in the world, from Kanye West to Rick Rubin. But perhaps his greatest invention was his Thursday night versus show in which he would clash with other DJs on the station, from Rodigan to Fearne Cotton.

He’ll be replaced on Radio 1 by Annie Mac, who started at the station as an assistant producer for Zane. This must have been one of the most obvious choices Radio 1 bosses could have had to make in recent times, as there is no one else on the station who champions such a broad spectrum of new music, while maintaining a broad, popular appeal. Christ knows how Annie will juggle it with her huge DJing career, launching a festival, a new Sirus XM radio show in the States, and hosting Launched but we’re sure she’ll find a way.

She'll be keeping her 7 PM dance show on Fridays, but leaving her Sunday night musical hot water bottle show which, as we’ve mentioned before, is the best thing to happen to both radio and our sanity. Phil Taggart takes over from Annie in that slot, so fans of Irish lilts needn’t worry.

Our head of music at Vice, Alex Hoffman, worked with Zane for years on Gonzo, his MTV Two show, so we got him to write some of his memories of the Zipper years…

When Zane’s Radio 1 show launched in 2003 he was uneasy with what was being written about him. “Why do they always have to say I’m enthusiastic?” he’d ask, looking at reviews. I would just look down at my feet. In a country where most radio DJs were former kids TV presenters still on a sugar rush or dour old NME journalists, Zane’s genuine fervor for music was definitely unusual. He was undeniably enthusiastic but the British press have a way of making that word sound pejorative. As if it means the opposite of credible.

He once told me about his first job in the UK, at a second hand record shop. He was fresh off the plane from New Zealand and was excited to meet new people. He bound up to his new colleagues and asked them about their favorite records and what they were up to at the weekend. Unsurprisingly to anyone who’s been into a record shop in London, he got nothing more than a grunt in return and when he still didn’t get the hint, his manager had to take him to one side and tell him to chill out. In short, he was too excitable.

The Radio 1 job was made for him. That slot had got a bit stale and it needed someone who could appeal to younger people but still had the musical grounding to know what they’re talking about, and bridge the gap from Chris Moyles to the station’s specialist shows.

He was humbled when the press compared him to his hero John Peel but the comparison wasn’t that useful. Peel played grindcore and gabber and didn’t care a jot about their commercial potential. Zane took his position as a gatekeeper to the mainstream for new alternative acts seriously, setting a template which will surely stay at the station for decades to come.

I worked with him for years on TV and took for granted what a naturally gifted broadcaster he was. Directing him was a misnomer as he rarely had any need for notes and knew more about the artists he was interviewing than the internet and often the artists themselves. When I saw him recording a live radio show, I started to realize quite how unique a talent he was. I’d grown up on Lamacq and Whiley and whilst they cheerfully summed up a moment in time, this was a different universe entirely.

Stood up in the studio, Zane is somewhere between a virtuoso conductor and a rapturous preacher. No one else has such a command of the show's production, the music, and the relationship with the listener.

Artists seemed to love coming in. Even as MTV’s star waned, we still had everyone from Bjork and Bono to Wu Tang and Sir Paul McCartney wanting to be interviewed by him.

Zane would sometimes have the accusation leveled at him that he kissed their arses but he just loved being around musicians. He is a massive studio geek and was a musician himself long before he became a broadcaster. It is only now that he’s really starting to be recognized as a multi-talented songwriter and producer as his appearance at last week’s Grammys as a nominee testifies.

So he’s off to the US, which may surprise some but makes perfect sense to me. Having put up with British cynicism for so long, he can finally be as enthusiastic as he likes without worrying about the impression it gives off. The British music landscape will be a poorer and quieter place and the fact that he’ll be a huge success in the States is unquestionable. I mean the guy managed to get Kanye to talk about fashion.

Still think he needs to chill out a bit though.

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