Paramdeep Sehdev () (born 21 August 1971, in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...

) better known as Bobby Friction, is a DJ, television presenter and radio presenter from west

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Early life

After studying Contemporary Arts at

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, Friction's career as a DJ started in 1997 with residencies at the ‘Swaraj' night at the Blue Note,

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. It l ...

, and the ‘Shaanti' club at

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

’s

Custard Factory The Custard Factory is a creative and digital business workspace complex, including independent shops, cafes and bars, on the site of what was the Bird's Custard factory off High Street, Deritend, in the Digbeth area of central Birmingham, Engl ...

Broadcasting career

BBC Radio 1

Friction joined

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance ...

in 2002 co-hosting ''Bobby Friction & Nihal Presents'' with

DJ Nihal Nihal Arthanayake (born 1 June 1971) is a Sri Lankan radio and TV presenter who broadcasts on BBC Radio 5 Live. Early life Nihal Arthanayake was born on 1 June 1971, to Theravada Buddhist, Sri Lankan parents. Nihal began his involvement in t ...

. In 2003 the show won a

Sony Radio Academy Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

in the Specialist Music category. In 2004 Friction and Nihal released a compilation album of music featured on the show.

BBC Asian Network

Friction joined

BBC Asian Network BBC Asian Network is a British Asian radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station's target audience is people "with an interest in British Asian lifestyles", especially British Asians between the ages of 18 and 34. The station has ...

in 2005, initially presenting the station's Saturday afternoon ''Album Chart Show'' and then ''The Mix'' on Sunday afternoons. In 2006 he began presenting a weeknightly show, ''Friction,'' showcasing new music by British Asian and South Asian artists. Friction moved to a daily drivetime show at the station in 2012, winning Best Radio Show at the Asian Media Awards in 2016. In 2018 his documentary ''Straight Outta Mumbai'' explored the history of Indian hip-hop.

Television

In 2004 Friction was one of the judging panel in Channel 4's series ''Bollywood Star''. He went on to present documentaries for the channel including Generation 7/7 and The Countryside Sucks''.'' He has also made appearances on The Wright Stuff (Channel 5), The Daily Politics (BBC2) and Sunday Morning Live (BBC1). In 2012 he appeared on

Celebrity Mastermind ''Celebrity Mastermind'' is a celebrity version of ''Mastermind'', a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. It began in 2002 as a one-off special, expanding to the current arrangement of 10 episodes, broadcast during December ...

, answering questions on the life and music of

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. ...

Other work

Friction presented ''Friction on EVR'', a weekly show on

East Village Radio East Village Radio (EVR), begun in August 2003, was an Internet radio station which broadcast from a storefront studio in the East Village of Manhattan, in New York City. Originally a pirate radio station broadcasting at 88.1 MHz, the st ...

from 2012 and has been featured on streaming service

Saavn JioSaavn is an Indian online music streaming service and a digital distributor of Hindi, English, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bhojpuri and other regional Indian music around the world. Since it was founded in 2007 as Saavn, ...

. He has made regular appearances on

BBC 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available only ...

, presenting a self-titled show, curating a tribute to

and sitting in for other presenters in their absence. In 2015 Friction presented an Asian Network Night at the BBC

Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

. He has presented documentaries for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

on topics such as pub culture in the West Midlands Punjabi community (so called

Desi pub Desi pub is a colloquial term used in the United Kingdom to describe a public house which is owned or managed by a landlord of Indian origin. These establishments generally serve Punjabi food while maintaining elements of the traditional British pu ...

s), the aftermath of the

assassination of Indira Gandhi Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9:30 a.m. on 31 October 1984 at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, ...

in New Delhi in 1984, and

filter bubble A filter bubble or ideological frame is a state of intellectual isolationTechnopediaDefinition – What does Filter Bubble mean?, Retrieved October 10, 2017, "....A filter bubble is the intellectual isolation, that can occur when websites make us ...

s in social media.

References

External links

*
''Bobby Friction''
(BBC Asian Network)
BBC Asian Network Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friction, Bobby Living people 1971 births People from Hammersmith British radio DJs English Sikhs BBC Asian Network presenters BBC Radio 1 presenters Alumni of Nottingham Trent University