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“After Britpop, they wanted more people to watch Later and we struggled with that. We’re not really a celebrity show or a chat show, we didn’t change much and we didn’t grow much but equally we didn’t die” MARK COOPER, CO-CREATOR, LATER


“You can’t get tense when you’re playing music.


The people on the show help to create that atmosphere for the performers. “Artists have regard for the show because they


know the show has regard for them. It’s not like you’re this week’s star and then you’re spat out the next week. Yes, the lighting and the audience have improved things no end, but the unique atmosphere in the room has been created from the very beginning.” Weller’s powerhouse 1993 comeback


performance, the penultimate show of the second series, was one of Later’s first real water-cooler moments. It’s had countless more since then, provided by artists as wide-ranging as Mary J Blige, Amy Winehouse, Scott Walker, Elvis Costello, David Bowie and Adele. Indeed, the programme enjoyed a reputation- boosting flurry of them in Weller’s wake, as the increasing might and ubiquity of Britpop turned the public onto seminal live performances from Oasis, Blur, Manic Street Preachers, Supergrass, Radiohead and Pulp. Unfortunately, just like the music industry, this


success meant facing up to a comparatively fallow post-Britpop period of mainstream British talent. Later demonstrated very rare pre-Millennium signs of perhaps stretching too far in the name of populism – booking Spice Girl Mel C in 1999, for example, was something of a turn up. “Music itself maybe dropped off after Britpop


and the people who ran BBC Two in that era wanted it to be more successful - it was a time of BBC Two trying to maximise its audience everywhere,” says Cooper. “They wanted more people to watch Later and we struggled with that. We’re not really a celebrity show or a chat show. We didn’t change much and we didn’t grow much - but equally we didn’t die.” Since 2003, Later has ‘gone live’ in its main TV


slot, something which Cooper and his team believe has again given a new freshness to the format – especially in terms of linking with social media. The #laterjools hashtag has given Later’s fans – tastemaking, opinionated types – a voice and an interaction with the programme never before seen. Above all else, though, perhaps the biggest


factor in the programme’s endurance in the unloved genre of specialist live music TV has been the Reithian goals of the BBC – and the fact it’s stayed out of the internal firing line. “I think Later was allowed to grow and develop


without interference for long enough to establish itself,” says series producer Alison Howe, who joined the programme in 1998 from Radio 1. “It’s obviously always existed in the darker end


of the TV schedule and found a loyal audience that wanted to see and be introduced to a wide variety of live music. “In addition, it has great form in celebrating the established artists whilst giving many opportunities


Later’s competitive streak: Adele has admitted that she felt “winded” when first performing on the programme in 2007 because Bjork, just metres away from her, had just nailed The Anchor Song


“Later was allowed to develop without interference for long enough to establish itself. It’s always existed in the darker end of the TV schedule and found a loyal audience that wanted to be introduced to a variety of live music” ALISON HOWE, SERIES PRODUCER, LATER


to new and up-and-coming acts – plus of course the odd Bulgarian female choir.” The importance of Later amongst big-spending


consumers has obviously not gone unnoticed by the music industry, who understandably and loudly celebrate its importance. Not for nothing does Universal Music


Publishing Europe/UK president Paul Connolly say: “There’s no better platform on the small screen for great new music. Simple as that.” Martin Mills, founder of Beggars Group adds: “Later has been a brilliant platform for so many of our artists – and it’s a show they all love to play.” Occasional friction with record companies is to


be expected, however – after all, if labels suddenly stopped feverishly plugging new acts to the show each week, the Later exec team would know they had something to worry about. “It’s a responsibility for us to book new artists –


we love tastemaking, we love giving people a chance,” says Cooper. “We never book people on the grounds of, ‘Oh this is great, they’ll sell loads of records’. We put them on because they’re good. It’s not our job to market acts. “We probably do pick the underdog now again


and that’s probably very frustrating [for the labels]. We try and think musically and journalistically, not in a way that just follows industry diktats.


THE INSIDE VIEW THE DIRECTOR’S CUT


Director Janet Fraser-Crook has been with the Later crew since the very first programme aired in 1992. Here are her favourite recollections from 20 years in music television...


My memories of our first ever show Just scary. I’d come up with this 360° idea, all live music, no audience for the bands to react to, just a bunch of cameras, Jools at its centre... and it was actually happening! As the powers that be weren’t sure whether the show had ‘legs’, we recorded it on a Thursday, with the studio already staffed and up and running for The Late Show. We went live on air with Late Review at 11pm on the same night we’d recorded the first ever Later - which we got in the can by 10.30pm. No words can describe getting to the end of that first show - well, except “phew” and “magic”. We’d made it!


My FAVOURITE PERFORMANCE Leonard Cohen (right), in the very first series – that man has charisma in bucketloads.


Why WE HAVE ENDURED AND SUCCEEDED The show is true to itself – it is a collective of musicians doing what they do best, facing one another. Whether new or experienced they gather in one room, play their hearts out and we try and capture the moment.


ON JOOLS... Charming, a gentleman, always a constant. He’s just Jools - and that’s a compliment. Generous, flirtatious, plays a bit of piano... the ringmaster of ringmasters.


CROWN JOOLSWHY WE LOVE LATER


David Joseph Chairman and CEO, Universal Music UK “When Jools takes a new artist under his wing, you know you need to sit up and take notice. He’s helped launch countless careers as well as cherishing so many of the nation’s favourite musicians – the debt our industry owes him is incalculable.


“The most qualified curator of musical quality,


Later is a reassuring presence in a slot which has always deserved a nudge nearer to primetime. Artists love and respect any invitation to perform on the show, to play their music to their peers. Whatever else comes and goes, we know we can trust Jools to take care of all that’s good in music. Long may it continue.”


Dan Chalmers Managing Director Rhino UK/ADA/WMALS “It is an honour to work closely with Jools, he really is a music man through and through and I am proud of the great albums we have released with him on Rhino. As a celebrated performer himself, Jools understands how to entertain


and capture viewers’ imaginations, which is apparent on every single episode of Later.”


28.09.12 Music Week 27


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