Ken Bruce

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BBC Radio 2 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Light Programme.

BBC Radio 2

Radio 2

Music: Classic Pop & Rock

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The best in music every weekday with Ken Bruce, with live sessions.

Ken Bruce: New Amy Macdonald plus Mavis Staples

New Amy MacDonald plus Mavis Staples

New Amy Macdonald plus Mavis Staples

BBC Radio 2 - Ken Bruce, New Amy Macdonald plus Mavis Staples

Amy Macdonald's first new song in 2 years - The Hudson - gets an exclusive first play.

Amy Macdonald's first new song in 2 years - The Hudson - gets an exclusive first play. Plus Mavis Staples chooses her favourite tracks in an interview first broadcast in 2018.

This morning Amy Macdonald's first new song in 2 years - The Hudson - gets an exclusive first play on Ken's show. Since making her breakthrough in 2007 with her single 'Mr Rock & Roll' and the debut album 'This Is The Life', Amy has sold an incredible 12 million records worldwide, including 6 million albums. 

Mavis Staples, American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, chooses the Tracks of My Years with music from Prince and Curtis Mayfield. The interview was first broadcast in January 2018 at the time Mavis released her sixteenth studio album 'If All I Was Was Black'. It was written and produced by Jeff Tweedy who features on the fourth track 'Ain't No Doubt About it'. At the time Mavis said her new album "...brings us all together as a people. That's what I hope to do. You can't stop me. You can't break me. I'm too loving. These songs are going to change the world." 

Born on the 10th July 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, Mavis began singing with her family, The Staple Singers, at local Chicago churches before signing with the gospel label Vee-Jay Records in 1953. The family put on a concert in Montgomery, Alabama, which Martin Luther King Jr. was attending. The group later had a number of soul hits and a No. 1 pop song with "Let's Do It Again," from the film soundtrack of the same name. Mavis has also established a successful solo career while working with a range of artists, from Prince to Natalie Merchant. 

She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2017. Ken also has the daily love song, record and album of the week plus PopMaster. 

If you'd like to get in touch with the show email Ken.Bruce@bbc.co.uk.

Amazing music. Played by an amazing line up.

Radio 2: Amazing music. Played by an amazing line-up. The home of great music, entertainment and documentaries

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