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Nicki Chapman sits in, joined by Bjorn Ulvaeus and David Gray

Nicki has a star-studded Friends Round Friday with Abba's Bjorn Ulvaeus and live music from David Gray.

Nicki has a star-studded Friends Round Friday with Abba's Björn Ulvaeus and live music from David Gray in the studio.

Björn talks about Mamma Mia - The Party, the success of the Mamma Mia! musical and the upcoming ABBA exhibition in London, while David is celebrating the 20th anniversary of White Ladder with live tracks from the album and a special cover of Streets Of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen.

Plus Jodie Whittaker calls from Cardiff on the set of Doctor Who to talk about covering Coldplay's Yellow for Children In Need's Got It Covered album.

Along with Tina Daheley on news, Richie Anderson on travel and Mike Williams on sport, Nicki and the team have the best start to your morning. With celeb guests, quizzes, headlines, tunes chosen by listeners and more music than you can shake a glitterball at!

There's also weather with Matt Taylor, Katarina Johnson-Thompson joins us from Doha after winning gold in the heptathlon at the Athletics World Championships and a Pause For Thought from the Reverend Richard Coles as Nicki entertains the nation with fun for the family!

2 hours, 59 minutes

Last on

Fri 4 Oct 2019 06:30
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2

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Nicki Chapman sits in, joined by Renee Zellweger

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Music Played

  • Philip Bailey & Phil Collins

    Easy Lover

    • Singles.
    • Rhino.

  • Craig David

    Do You Miss Me Much

  • Ed Sheeran

    Castle On The Hill

    • ÷ Divide.
    • Atlantic.

  • Freddie Mercury

    I Was Born To Love You

    • Never Boring.
    • Virgin EMI Records.
    • 4.

  • Dolly Parton

    Jolene

    • Million Sellers Vol.15 - The Seventie.
    • Disky.

  • Robbie Williams

    Rock DJ

    • (CD Single).
    • Chrysalis.

  • Lizzo

    Good As Hell

    • Coconut Oil.
    • Nice Life.
    • 5.

  • Madonna

    Material Girl

    • Finally Enough Love (Deluxe Edition).
    • Rhino.
    • 2.

  • Wax

    Bridge To Your Heart

    • American English.
    • Lemon Recordings.
    • 5.

  • Four Tops

    I Can't Help Myself

    • The Singles Collection.
    • Polygram TV.

  • Justin Timberlake

    Can't Stop The Feeling!

    • (CD Single).
    • RCA.

  • Basement Jaxx

    Yodel Song

    • CD Single.
    • XL Recordings.

  • Jodie Whittaker

    Yellow

    • Got It Covered - Â鶹ԼÅÄ Children In Need (Various Artists).
    • Silva Screen Records.

  • Sister Sledge

    We Are Family

    • Disco Fever (Various Artists).
    • Global Television.

  • Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott

    D.I.Y.

    • What Have We Become.
    • Virgin EMI.
    • 001.

  • ABBA

    Waterloo

    • Abba Gold (40th Anniversary Edition).
    • Polar.
    • 019.

  • ABBA

    Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)

    • Abba Gold (40th Anniversary Edition).
    • Polar.
    • 014.

  • ABBA

    Take a Chance on Me

    • Abba Gold (40th Anniversary Edition).
    • Polar.
    • 003.

  • ABBA

    Does Your Mother Know

    • Abba Gold (40th Anniversary Edition).
    • Polar.
    • 015.

  • ABBA

    Lay All Your Love On Me

    • Abba Gold (40th Anniversary Edition).
    • Polar.
    • 005.

  • ABBA

    Thank You For The Music

  • Emeli Sandé

    You Are Not Alone

    • Real Life.
    • Virgin EMI.
    • 03.

  • Taylor Swift

    Lover

    • Lover.
    • TS/Republic.

  • The Rolling Stones

    Jumpin' Jack Flash

    • The Rolling Stones - Remastered.
    • Abkco.

  • The Who

    My Generation

    • The Who Hits 50! (Deluxe Edition).
    • Polydor.
    • 004.

  • The Beatles

    Love Me Do

    • The Beatles - 1.
    • Apple.
    • 001.

  • Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus & Lana Del Rey

    Don't Call Me Angel

    • Charlie's Angels O.S.T. (Various Artists).
    • Island.

  • Donna Summer

    Hot Stuff

    • The All Time Greatest Movie Songs.
    • Columbia/Sony Tv.

  • Meck

    Thunder In My Heart Again (feat. Leo Sayer)

    • (CD Single).
    • Free2air.

Pause For Thought

Pause For Thought

From the Reverend Richard Coles:

ÌýI discovered last week that my conk has become an object of scientific interest; but it wasn’t to the Natural History Museum I took it - rather, to the University of London, to be tested at the Centre for the Study of the Senses, where Professor Barry Smith conducts world-leading research into smell. There I was presented with strips of white paper dipped in various fragrances; not the kinds you find in the perfumer’s workshop - bergamot, sandalwood and roses - but mown grass, charred meat, and creosote.

ÌýIt was the creosote that most affected me. One whiff, and I was transported to childhood, eight years old watching my dad paint a fence. It was so powerful I could actually see it, feel the autumn’s cold, and the conkers in my pocket.

It’s not unusual for people to associate smells with memories. Marcel Proust’s enormous novel Remembrance of Times Past, began with a few cake crumbs, and - boom - three thousand pages followed. For lots of people the smell of cherry bakewells, fresh bedlinen, or mothballs, is the smell of childhood; but for some those associations are quite peculiar.

ÌýOften, when I smell something, I hear a piece of music, and vice versa. Soul II Soul’s Back to Life for me summons a vivid smell of neatly folded knitwear. The piano music of Francis Poulenc smells of a street market at the end of the day. And one whiff of hot vinyl car seats and its ABBA’s Waterloo. This sort of crosswiring, if that’s what it is, is not unusual in musicians; as your earlier guests Bjorn and David will know, some see colours when they hear certain pitches.

ÌýBut I think it might be familiar to religious people too. Do you remember the Bible story when Moses is stopped dead in his tracks when he encounters a burning bush that talks to him? Burning, but not consumed, and from it God speaks.Ìý

A talking fire, that does not burn itself out? Impossible. But maybe the unlikely thing, seen out of the corner of the eye - just glimpsed and then it’s gone - can fire up our mental circuitry in such a way that profound insight follows, and truth, and beauty, suddenly light up?

Keep sniffing.

Broadcast

  • Fri 4 Oct 2019 06:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2