FEATURE: Queens of the Underground: Part Two: Georgie Rogers

FEATURE:

Queens of the Underground

Part Two: Georgie Rogers

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WHEN I started this feature yesterday…

IN THIS PHOTO: Georgie Rogers recently interviewed Mercury nominated artist, Nao (she was shortlisted for her album, Saturn)/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC Radio 6 Music

I kicked off by talking about a fantastic D.J. and curator, Carly Wilford - and I am going to continue that into today. There is a lot to discuss when it comes to Georgie Rogers (as there was with Wilford) as she is getting busier and busier, it seems. There are a couple of reasons why I want to include her in this feature: for one, she is one of the best young D.J.s around and I love her work on Soho Radio and BBC Radio 6 Music – especially the latter. As stations like BBC Radio 6 Music remain fairly rigid with their personnel and talent, I do think there are great people like Rogers who could come to the station in a regular slot (maybe a late-evening position) and spin some tunes. I do like everyone who is at the station but I think she would add something fresh and exciting – and, I think, it would make her one of the youngest D.J.s there (it would help attract listeners from other radio stations and help bring more listeners in). That sort of decision is down to the bosses at the BBC but, as is always the way, recognition and progress takes a very long time! Go listen to Rogers on Soho Radio and you can also catch her on Beats 1 – a station, I feel, would benefit from Carly Wilford’s presence, as I argued yesterday.

PHOTO CREDIT: Georgie Rogers/Getty Images

Whilst she only occasionally gets to present the music news with Shaun Keaveny during the week – Matt Everitt is the regular presenter; Siobhán McAndrew also presents sometimes – it would be great to hear more of her on the station. Right now, Rogers has been interviewing the nominated artists for this year’s Mercury Prize. She has been chatting with Joe Talbot of IDLES and Nao (among others). There is a rapport and connection she has with interviewees that you do not get with anyone else which, as you can imagine, brings something out of them. Rogers has conducted some big interviews and, whilst it is great that she gets to talk with the Mercury shortlisted, hearing her on a more regular basis would be great. I often feel that, as there must be room at a station like BBC Radio 6 Music, there is a show in her; maybe something interview-based or similar to what she does at Soho Music. That might be a little way off but Rogers is one of the most dynamic and hard-working presenters around. A naturally warm and friendly voice, Rogers has something that many stations can benefit from. I think she is worthy of inclusion into this feature because her shows (on Soho Radio) are so memorable and I am always picking up new tracks and suggestions from her. It is not just Electronic music that Rogers is attracted to: she covers all the genres and is keen to promote and uncover the best sounds from all areas of music.

I have skipped forward a few steps and, really, I should have begun by introducing Rogers – or at least her do it:

“Georgie Rogers is an established broadcaster, music journalist, DJ and voiceover from London.

A tastemaker and new music champion, she regularly contributes her warmth, knowledge and personality to BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 2, Apple Music's Beats 1, Soho Radio and Monocle 24.
BBC 6 Music has been her spiritual home for the past 10 years where she works as a broadcast journalist after being scouted on the red carpet at the NME Awards. She continues to indulge her boundless enthusiasm for music, musicians, culture, art and fashion within a national news team who both value her work and respect her attitude towards it.

Hear her regularly bantering with Shaun Keaveny on breakfast, Radcliffe and Maconie and several other presenters on the network and her interviews and investigative pieces with some of the biggest names in music. She's had the pleasure of time with many of her heroes Led Zeppelin, Mick Fleetwood, Sir Paul McCartney, Cat Power, James Murphy and even Ryan Gosling!

Following an English and Drama Degree and early work at XFM and BBC 6 Music Georgie started honing her skills as a broadcaster presenting for Jersey's Channel 103, Diesel U Music, Strongroom Alive, Brighton Festival Radio and Amazing Radio, with her national DAB Amazing Breakfast being featured in The Guardian by Elisabeth Mahoney and again by Miranda Sawyer, as well as Cooler Magazine.

From 2012-2015 she spent four years anchoring shows on XFM (where she had interned and got her first paid job in radio six years previously) with her own Friday overnight slot, long stints on the weekday 7-10pm specialist evening show, John Kennedy's X-Posure and covering across the schedule.

Two years on Virgin Radio followed her time at XFM until the end of 2017 with Georgie presenting, curating and self-producing a Sunday night new music show Music Discovery. Testament to her character, contacts, dedication and passion for great music her guest list included Death From Above, Jessie Ware, Blondie, Formation, Boxed In, Pond, The Maccabees, Wild Beasts, Joe Goddard, Sylvan Esso, All Them Witches. She invited so many fantastic artists to play sessions from Aldous Harding, Nadine Shah, Fink, Zola Blood, Juanita Stein, Nick Mulvey, Flamingods and Tame Impala's Cameron Avery.

Georgie is an entertaining host having compered and helmed festival stages, competitions or social media content for brands like Mixcloud, Vevo, Rolling Stones Exhibitionism launch at the Saatchi Gallery, Vevo, Fender, Barbour International at the Malle Mile, Record Store Day, Standon Calling, Festibelly, Youth Music, 7 Dials Soundtrack and The Selector for the British Council.

As a voiceover artist she has TV and digital campaigns with Avon, Mitchum, Pantene, Revlon, Wisdom, Film 4, BBC Four and 5SOS under her belt.

When it comes to DJing Georgie is well-versed at tearing up the dance floor. With a clear, uncompromising idea of what's popping. She was one of the small crew that put on successful deep house and disco club night Cat Lovers every month in Shoreditch for six years. It was a platform for breakout DJs and live acts booking the likes of Moxie, Monki, Wookie, TCTS, Strong Asian Mothers, Femme, Shura and Blaenavon.

Georgie's DJ credits include spinning tunes for Whistles, Facebook, Topshop, Crack Magazine, Mac Cosmetics, Hunter, Benefit Make-Up, London Fashion Week, Little Gay Brother and Dr Martens at venues like the V & A Museum, Meadows in the Mountains in Bulgaria, Field Day, Dalston Superstore, The Lake Stage and Collosillyum at Secret Garden Party, St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Rockness and the Ace Hotel.

Despite her rock roots and deep love of alternative music, her decks time is usually an opportunity to indulge in all things electronic. Georgie is right at home mixing an eclectic bunch of house, deep house, techno, disco, nudisco, progressive selections, world beats & exotic grooves. In her DJ bag you'll also find a far-reaching trove of tracks past and present; soul, funk, hip-hop, blues, R 'n' B, pop, anything that will make you get down, so wherever she's commandeering the decks she has all the tools to pull out all of the stop”.

I will move on to a new project Rogers has set up but, at the moment, I am minded to return to her interviews. When I talked about Carly Wilford yesterday, I discussed her interview style and how she D.J.s around the world; the fact she is a pioneer and businesswoman. All of these qualities can be applied to Georgie Rogers. Just listen to her interviews and there is, as I said, this natural chemistry that summons great answers from guests. Take a look at some of her other interviews and you get what I mean.

I think, for someone who has been behind the microphone for so long, it might be unusual for Rogers to give interviews herself. She is such an inspiring and evolving talent that I feel a few new interviews would be great; a chance for those who want to follow her lead to learn where she came from and how she got into the business. I want to bring in an interview she gave with We Are Mad to Live, where Rogers discussed her background and talked about women in the industry – and what she wants to accomplish in the future:

“How did you break into the radio-presenting and the DJ industry?

After internships at BBC Birmingham, Channel 106 and Virgin Radio I started a placement doing music journalism for XFM. That led to my first paid job doing red carpet interviews, writing articles and putting together music stories for the website. It felt like my calling, I'd done English and Drama at Uni and I loved music, bands and gigs. A break came writing the news for the website at BBC 6 Music after a chance meeting at the NME Awards. I was a full-time music journalist there for three years, learning reporting and broadcasting skills on the job. I've been there ever since, freelancing regularly and occasionally popping up on Radio 2 to do Ken Bruce's Music News.

Hosting my own shows came when I got the Breakfast Show on national digital new music station Amazing Radio in 2010. That then led onto Strongroom Alive, cover on The Selector by The British Council and later a return to XFM as a DJ at the end of 2012. I had my own show on XFM on Friday mornings,. This year I started on the newly launched Virgin Radio. DJing is something that started as my bit on the side. Getting people dancing and proving a release for them is a great feeling so once I started I got hooked.

How do you believe the female voice can be better amplified within the male-dominated radio-presenting/music industry? Is it important to do so?

Someone once said to me an excuse for there being less women on the radio is because some stats revealed that women don't like listening to women on the radio. What a load of BS!

Most of my favourite broadcasters are female. There's certainly more women on air these days and I'm so proud to work at a national station with Edith Bowman in the coveted Breakfast slot. Edith, Kate Lawler, myself and The Mac Twins are on air regularly, there's lots of female producers and broadcast assistants and I can only speak for myself but I feel we are counted and appreciated. At certain stations it can still be a boys club as with much of the music industry. Just last year Pitchfork's Senior Editor Jessica Hopper asked the people of Twitter for experiences in music where you felt you didn't 'count'. She got hundreds of replies, so many of them infuriating examples of sexism. Since I started it's encouraging to be surrounded by more women in radio production, music production, presenting and Djing.

It's so vital to show young girls that it is possible to make it your career”.

MOST OF MY FEMALE CONTEMPORARIES KNOW THE VALUE OF SHOWING SUPPORT, STICKING TOGETHER AND HELPING EACH OTHER OUT. BEING COMPETITIVE WITH EACH OTHER IS POINTLESS. LOOKING BACK AT MY PLAYLISTS NOW, IT'S AN UNCONSCIOUS THING BUT I FEATURE SO MANY FEMALE ARTISTS SO I GUESS I CAN DO MY BIT THAT WAY. WEBSITES LIKE THE POOL ARE DELIVERING INTELLIGENT CONTENT FOR WOMEN THAT NOT JUST ABOUT LIPSTICKS, BUT LIPSTICKS AND POLITICS, FEMINISM, FASHION, THE ARTS AND HEALTH. IT FEELS LIKE IT'S A BIG TALKING POINT AT THE MOMENT SO LET'S KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT.

What are your goals within your career for the future?

I'd like to continue doing it for a long time, for it to be my career. I've been filming some backstage videos with Vevo recently which has been so enjoyable so I hope to do more on camera bits next year. The daydream of presenting the Glastonbury BBC telly coverage doesn't seem to ever go away, or Desert Island Discs, but Kirsty's got that down for a good while and I'm in the queue of what... everybody else in music broadcasting!”

That interview was back in 2016 and, since then, a lot has happened for Rogers. I think there have been some small steps regarding women in radio/the industry – BBC Radio 2 made some big changes this year – and we have seen festivals, slowly, redress the imbalance on their bills. I think Rogers makes a good point when she talked about women not wanting to hear other women on the radio. Maybe that is true of some older listeners but radio is about personality and how you speak to the audience. If you are quite offputting or distant then, regardless of gender, that will be a fact. Some of the best female broadcasters of the moment are bringing in huge listener figures – from Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6 Music to Zoe Ball and Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2; Maya Jama and Clara Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1. I know some of those broadcasters are long-established but they continue to attract new listeners and are inspiring for women who want to get into radio.

I do think that all areas of music have an issue when it comes to recruiting women. Maybe they feel women are not going to be as commercial and connective; they might not have the same clout as men and things are okay the way they are – none of that is even remotely true! Created alongside filmmaker Alice Smith, Super Women is a new series that spotlights pioneering women – not just in music but across all areas of society. The most-recent edition (there have been two so far) featured the brilliant producer and engineer, Catherine Marks – who has worked with the likes of The Amazons and The Big Moon. The series is fantastic and it is a case of a pioneering and inspiring woman interviewing others; a concept that is long-overdue and shows why we need to demand faster equality across all areas of society. I have seen interviews of Rogers online but it would be great to see her interviewed and, Desert Island Discs-style, choose some of the records that define her; select some heroes and heroines and talk about her career so far – maybe it is something I should kick off myself; maybe a podcast that features strong and brilliant women in music?! That is food for thought and, as I go off to scribble some notes, I would urge people to check out Georgie Rogers’ work. You can check out some of her videos and have a look at her official website; check out some of her choice mixes - and throw her some love on social media (the links are all at the bottom).

Like Carly Wilford, I know Georgie Rogers is inspiring women in music and helping bring about change and discussion. I know she wants to have her own show on a big station and I think that will come. I do feel radio bosses need to open their eyes and ears to talent like Rogers; someone who can offer so much passion and variety. I love the fact she is a brilliant D.J. but she is also this champion of great women; someone who wants to bring about improvement and parity – exactly what makes her an underground queen. Like her BBC Radio 6 Music colleagues Lauren Laverne, and Mary Anne Hobbs, Rogers tirelessly looks out for the hottest sounds around. She is this curator and D.J.-supreme; a budding documentary-maker (I do think there are other concepts in her) and general all-round-legend.

Rogers is still very young and she has decades more to give the world but I think, as radio/music still needs to do a lot when it comes to acknowledging talented women, she has to be in the mix; she has a lot to give and I think she can add new life and nuances to stations like BBC Radio 6 Music. I shall stop pushing her to the bosses but, when it came to this feature, I wanted to highlight the remarkable work she is doing. Her recommendations have helped rising artists find exposure; her interviews are unique and essential and, as a D.J., there are few that bring so much joy, heat and personality. As I head off to plan my own podcast, I am taking inspiration from Georgie Rogers and suggest that she is a big…