Steve Hobbs
Hobbsie’s Choice
Bimonthly, Saturday 6-8pm
Soul, Modern Soul, Crossover Soul, Northern Soul, Jazz
Hobbsie’s Choice will not just be about pushing new soul music and the balance will lean more towards retro; jazz related sounds will feature heavily alongside Modern, Crossover & Northern Soul. I’m very excited about working on this great station with so many diverse and talented presenters.
DJing exploits have taken me to some interesting places all over the UK and Europe throughout the years, spinning in the ‘once hallowed’ Soul Room at fifteen consecutive Southport Weekenders, being ever-present at the Prestatyn Midnight Hour Weekenders (2000-15), having residency status at all the Baltic Soul Weekenders (2006-date), plus all the Soul Cruisin’ events on the River Thames since they started 33 years ago. Probably the most bizarre gig I ever did was providing the sounds at James Brown’s after-party in Washington in 1994. I discovered that night that he liked to be called Mister Brown!
The radio career started as a pirate with Solar in 1987, Independent Radio, Q102, Starpoint, then in 1990 the first incremental licence was issued to London Jazz Radio (who changed their name to Jazz FM) and I presented the weekly soul show from the launch until the station had an unfortunate change in music policy two years later. After a short break I rejoined Solar in 1998 and still do a regular show today.
Journalistic exploits have also been a large chunk of my music life with a column in Blues & Soul Magazine reviewing new soul releases from 1992-2010.
It all started when I was around five years of age really. There was a shop in our village that sold just about everything, but I can remember the tall revolving stand that housed 7” singles. It was prior to the days of picture sleeves and major-label domination, and the only way these records differed was by the fascinating variety of different labels. I was hooked. Eventually, I was able to afford the occasional purchase, and from then on there was no turning back. My collection steadily grew and by the end of the sixties it comprised of many differing styles that I would have described simply as ‘good music’ but there was a clear bias towards the sounds emanating from black America. I’ve been an avid collector ever since.
