Mary Anne Hobbs (born 16 May 1964) is an English DJ and

music journalist Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

from

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. She currently hosts on

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

. She is also a performer and curator of live events. In 2024 she created a ground-breaking collaboration with violinist Anna Phoebe for the 6 Music Festival. She's hosted the ALL QUEENS stage at All Points East festival for 4 years. In 2019, she created a radical live show, Queens of the Electronic Underground for

Manchester International Festival The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester and run by Factory International. The festival is a biennial event, first takin ...

and assisted

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Lynch was often called a "visionary" and received acclaim f ...

with his musical presentation at the festival, following her series of shows, "Dark Matter" at MIF 2017. She staged a BBC Prom with

Nils Frahm Nils Frahm (born 20 September 1982) is a German musician, composer, and record producer based in Berlin. He is known for combining classical and electronic music and for an unconventional approach to the piano in which he mixes a grand piano, upr ...

and A Winged Victory for the Sullen in 2015. She performs as a live DJ internationally, at events such as the opening of Switch House at Tate Modern and the Tate Britain re-hang celebrations in 2023.

Early life

Hobbs was born in

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston, Lancashire, City of Preston local government district. Preston ...

but grew up in Garstang, a small town 10 miles to the north. In the 1980s, Hobbs lived on a bus in a carpark in

Hayes, Hillingdon Hayes is a town in west London. Historically situated within the county of Middlesex, it is now part of the London Borough of Hillingdon. The town's population, including its localities Hayes End, Harlington and Yeading, was recorded in the ...

, with the hard rock band Heretic before becoming a journalist for ''Sounds'' magazine at the age of 19. She later went to work for the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' writing the notorious Nirvana cover story of 1991. While with the ''NME'' she served as UK correspondent in Canada on

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

, filing a weekly music report. This contributed to her break in radio with BBC GLR.

Career

Hobbs then worked at XFM before being headhunted by

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 Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

after a confrontational interview on XFM with Radio 1's Trevor Dann. She shot a TV series about global biker culture, ''Mary Anne's Bikes'', in Japan, America, Russia, India, and Europe for BBC Choice & BBC World in 2003, and presented the World Superbikes series 2005 for British Eurosport. She also compèred the

Leeds Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading, Berkshire, Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend ...

between 1999 and 2003. In the early 2000s she narrated the

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

science series ''Why 5''.

Radio shows

Hobbs first joined Radio 1 in January 1996, as co-presenter of the weekly ''Clingfilm'' movie review show with

Mark Kermode Mark Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter, author and podcaster. He is the co-presenter (with Ellen E. Jones) of the BBC Radio 4 programme ''Screenshot'', and co-presenter ...

. A fan of punk and rock (and with a love of

motorbike A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle steered by a handlebar from a saddle-style seat. Motorcycle designs var ...

s) from an early age, she fronted the Radio 1 Rock Show 19992005. But her best loved show on

was the

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

/ electronic show '' The Breezeblock'' she created during her fourteen years at the network. In September 2006 ''The Breezeblock'' name was dropped for the title ''Experimental''. Hobbs was an early champion of the

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

and grime

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

s and hosted the 'Dubstep Warz' special on BBC Radio 1 in January 2006. On 23 July 2010, Hobbs announced on her MySpace page that she was leaving

. She spent a year mentoring media students at the University of Sheffield Union of Students. On 9 July 2011, Hobbs returned to radio in the primetime slot (710pm Saturdays) she had always coveted for electronic music, broadcasting from XFM in Manchester. In September 2011 she began hosting the relaunched "Music:Response" evening show across the XFM network. On 31 October 2012, she announced live on-air and on her Facebook page that she was leaving XFM the following day. On 3 December 2012, the BBC announced that Hobbs was to become the new Weekend Breakfast presenter for

. In 2013 and 2014 she made documentaries for BBC Radio 4, and hosted ''Saturday Classics'' programmes for BBC Radio 3 making the connections between contemporary and classical music. On 9 August 2018, the BBC announced that Hobbs was moving to weekday mid-mornings, replacing

Lauren Laverne Lauren Cecilia Fisher (née Gofton; born 28 April 1978), known professionally as Lauren Laverne, is an English radio DJ, model, television presenter, author and singer. She was the lead singer and guitarist in the alternative rock band Kenicki ...

. Hobbs' first show in this slot was on 7 January 2019.

Live DJing

Hobbs has toured as a live DJ and curated events internationally since 2006. In June 2007, Hobbs curated the UK Dubstep showcase at the Sónar festival with

Skream Oliver Dene Jones (born 1 June 1986), known professionally as Skream, is an English electronic music producer based in Croydon. Skream has released records on several British record labels, such as Tempa, Tectonic, and Big Apple Records, and ...

and Kode9, taking the sound out of club environments and onto an international festival stage in front of 8,500 people. Her second Sonar showcase featured Shackleton,

Flying Lotus Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), better known as Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, DJ, filmmaker, and rapper. He has released seven critically acclaimed albums: ''1983'' (2006), ''Los Angeles'' (2008), '' Co ...

and Mala from Digital Mystikz. In 2009 she returned to the festival with Joker and The Gaslamp Killer, and in 2010 again with Flying Lotus and Joy Orbison. In 2011 she played solo to her biggest ever audience of 15,000 people at Sonar, and in 2012 she created a one-off collaborative ''Descent into Darkness'' performance with techno producer Blawan. She returned solo in 2013 for the festival's 20th anniversary.

Other

Hobbs owns an original

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive ep ...

, given to her by the artist for her birthday in the year 2000. It is an early prototype of his piece ‘Love Is In The Air’ and is currently on display at Manchester Art Gallery.

Discography

Hobbs released a dark electronic

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

on Planet Mu records entitled '' Warrior Dubz'' in October 2006, drawing the sonic parallels between dubstep, grime, dark dancefloor, techno, d&b and hip hop. She followed this with two more compilations: '' Evangeline'' in June 2008 and ''Wild Angels'' in September 2009.

Soundtracks

Darren Aronofsky Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969) is an American Filmmaking, filmmaker. His films are noted for their surreal, dramatic, and often disturbing elements, frequently in the form of psychological realism. His accolades include a Golden Lion ...

and Clint Mansell invited Hobbs to work with them on the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning film ''

Black Swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large Anatidae, waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent ...

''. She worked with young electronic producers to create original music for the pivotal club scenes. The soundtrack was

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

nominated. Hobbs is mentioned in the

Half Man Half Biscuit Half Man Half Biscuit are an English rock band, formed in 1984 in Birkenhead, Merseyside. Known for their satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs, the band comprises lead singer and guitarist Nigel Blackwell, bassist and singer Neil Cr ...

song "Nove on the Sly" from the album '' Trouble Over Bridgwater''.

References

External links

*
''The 6 Mix with Mary Anne Hobbs''
(BBC Radio 6 Music)
''Mary Anne Hobbs''
(BBC Radio 6 Music) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hobbs, Mary Anne 1964 births BBC Radio 1 presenters BBC Radio 6 Music presenters British radio DJs English women DJs English music journalists British women journalists English women in electronic music Musicians from Preston, Lancashire People from Garstang Living people NME writers British women radio presenters British electronic dance music DJs 20th-century English journalists 20th-century British women farmers 21st-century English journalists 21st-century British women farmers 20th-century British women journalists