Mary Anne Hobbs
Encyclopedia
Mary Anne Hobbs is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 DJ and music journalist
Music journalism
Music journalism is criticism and reportage about music. It began in the eighteenth century as comment on what is now thought of as 'classical music'. This aspect of music journalism, today often referred to as music criticism , comprises the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of...

 from Garstang
Garstang
Garstang is a town and civil parish within the Wyre borough of Lancashire, England. It is ten miles north-northwest of the city of Preston and eleven miles south of Lancaster, and had a total resident population of 4,074 in 2001....

, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

. She launched a new Primetime show on Xfm on 9 July 2011

Early career

In the 1980s, Hobbs lived on a bus in a carpark in Hayes, Hillingdon
Hayes, Hillingdon
Hayes is a town in the London Borough of Hillingdon, West London. It is a suburban development situated west of Charing Cross. Hayes was developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries as an industrial locality to which residential districts were later added in order to house factory workers...

 with the hard rock band Heretic before becoming a journalist for Sounds Magazine
Sounds (magazine)
Sounds was a long-term British music paper, published weekly from 10 October 1970 – 6 April 1991. It was produced by Spotlight Publications , which was set up by Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left "Melody Maker" to start their own company...

 at age 19. She later went to work for the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 before going on to help found Loaded Magazine
Loaded (magazine)
Loaded, first published in 1994, is a British magazine for men that is considered to be the "original lads' mag". Its motto is "For men who should know better".-History:...

. While with the NME she served as a freelance U.K. music news correspondent in Canada on CBC Radio One, filing a weekly report for a program called The Beat. This contributed to her big break in radio with BBC GLR
BBC London 94.9
BBC London 94.9 is London's BBC Local Radio station, and part of BBC London. Broadcasting across Greater London and beyond on 94.9 FM, DAB, Virgin Media Channel 930, Sky Channel 0152 and also online...

, working alongside Mark Lamarr
Mark Lamarr
Mark Lamarr is an English comedian, radio DJ and television presenter.-Early life:Lamarr was born in the Park South area of Swindon and has three elder sisters. His father is Irish...

.

She then worked at XFM
Xfm
Xfm is a brand of two commercial radio stations focused on alternative music, primarily indie pop, and owned by Global Radio.-History:Xfm was created in London in 1992 by Sammy Jacob, who later co-founded NME Radio in 2008. Xfm subsequently expanded to a network of four stations; there are...

 before being headhunted by BBC Radio 1 after a confrontational interview on XFM with Radio 1's Trevor Dann. She shot a TV series about global biker culture 'Mary Anne's Bikes' in Japan, America, Russia, India, and Europe for BBC Choice & BBC World in 2003, and presented the World Superbikes series 2005 for British Eurosport. She also compèred
Master of Ceremonies
A Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....

 the Leeds Festival
Reading and Leeds Festivals
The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm...

 between 1999 and 2003.

Radio shows

A fan of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, metal (and with a love of motorbikes) from an early age, Hobbs fronted the Radio 1 Rock Show and the experimental / electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 Breezeblock on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 for fourteen years. In September 2006 the Breezeblock name was dropped for the title 'Experimental'. Most recently, Hobbs has been a notable champion of the dubstep
Dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals"....

 and grime
Grime (music)
Grime is a style of music that emerged from Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily as a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop...

 genres. Her 2 hour special 'Dubstep Warz' on BBC Radio 1 in January 2006 is considered the global tipping point for the dubstep sound. She released a groundbreaking dark electronic compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 on Planet Mu
Planet Mu
Planet Mu is an electronic music record label run by Mike Paradinas . It was based in Worcester until March 2007, then moved to London and has recently relocated to Broadstairs, Kent...

 records entitled Warrior Dubz
Warrior Dubz
Warrior Dubz is a dubstep compilation released in 2006 on the Planet Mu label. The album was compiled by Mary Anne Hobbs.-Track listing:#Milanese vs...

in October 2006, drawing the sonic parallels between dubstep, grime, dark dancefloor, techno, d&b and hip hop. In June 2007, Hobbs curated the UK Dubstep showcase at the Sónar
Sónar
Sónar is an annual three-day music festival held in Barcelona, Spain. It is described officially as a festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art. Music is by far the main aspect of the festival....

 festival with Skream
Skream
Skream is a dubstep producer based in Croydon. One of dubstep's first and most prominent producers, he has played an important role in the genre's development. His debut album Skream! was released in 2006, and was followed up by Outside the Box in 2010...

, Oris Jay and Kode9
Kode9
Kode9 is a London-based electronic music artist, DJ, and owner of the Hyperdub record label. An MC, The Spaceape, is a frequent collaborator...

, taking the sound out of club environments and onto an international festival stage in front of 8,500 people for the very first time. On 7 February 2008 the "Dubstep Souljahs" documentary she made for BBC Radio 1 aired inside Pete Tong
Pete Tong
Peter "Pete" Tong is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is known worldwide by fans of electronic music for hosting programmes such as Essential Mix and Essential Selection on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for his record label FFRR Records, and for...

's In New Music We Trust show. Her second compilation album, Evangeline, was released on 16 June 2008 on Planet Mu records. This coincided with her second Sonar Festival Stage featuring Shackleton, Flying Lotus
Flying Lotus
Flying Lotus, is an experimental multi-genre music producer from Winnetka, California. His debut album, 1983, was released on Plug Research Records in 2006...

 and Mala from Digital Mystikz
Digital Mystikz
Digital Mystikz are a dubstep production duo from the South London suburb of Norwood. Along with Loefah and Sgt. Pokes, they operate the DMZ record label and host the influential bimonthly nightclub DMZ, held at the Mass club complex in Brixton, London...

. In 2009 she returned to the festival with Joker
Joker (musician)
Joker is a UK-based musical artist who creates music in genres such as dubstep and grime. He was named "2009 king of bass music" by XLR8R Magazine and was featured in the September 2009 issue of The Wire magazine. He has contributed to two releases produced by the London-based record company Hyperdub...

, The Gaslamp Killer
The Gaslamp Killer
The Gaslamp Killer is a Los Angeles-based DJ who releases material through Brainfeeder, the record label of Flying Lotus. Bensussen grew up in San Diego, California, where he began listening to Too Short, Jimi Hendrix, and Dr. Dre...

 and Martyn, and in 2010 again with Flying Lotus and also with new British producers/DJs Roska and Joy Orbison
Joy Orbison
Joy Orbison is a DJ and producer based in London. His style is generally accepted as a coalescence of dubstep, UK funky, UK garage, and house...

.

On 23 July 2010 Hobbs announced on her Myspace page that she was leaving the BBC. She spent a year mentoring students at University of Sheffield Union of Students
University of Sheffield Union of Students
-Aims:Its mission is to act in the interests of all our members and has a vision to be the outstanding student-led organisation in the UK. It was also voted best Higher Education Students' Union in the country at the first ever NUS awards ceremony in 2008....

.

Mary Anne Hobbs returned to radio in the primetime slot (7-10pm Saturdays) she always coveted on 9 July 2011, broadcasting from Xfm in Manchester. On 5 September 2011 she began hosting the relaunched "Music:Response" show across the xfm
Xfm
Xfm is a brand of two commercial radio stations focused on alternative music, primarily indie pop, and owned by Global Radio.-History:Xfm was created in London in 1992 by Sammy Jacob, who later co-founded NME Radio in 2008. Xfm subsequently expanded to a network of four stations; there are...

 network, Monday to Thursday from 8-11pm.

Hobbs is mentioned in the Half Man Half Biscuit song 'Nove On The Sly' from the album 'Trouble Over Bridgwater
Trouble Over Bridgwater
Trouble Over Bridgwater is the eighth album by UK rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, released in 2000. The title is a play on words, based on the Simon & Garfunkel classic, "Bridge Over Troubled Water"...

'.

External links

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