About this item

Sticking out like a flower-patterned thumb amid the grey and brown hues of the serious boys in the early 2000s Cardiff music scene, The Loves soon established themselves as a band who categorically didn’t listen to Radiohead.

Their debut single (Little Girl Blues b/w She’ll Break Your Heart) soon caught the ear of John Peel, who invited them in to record a session for his programme. As the feedback echoed at the end of When My Baby Comes, he commented: “I bet they’re a riot live … maybe we should get them in for a live one?”

And so it came to pass that The Loves – led by the eponymous Simon Love – did indeed perform a seven-song live session for Peel. Broadcast from the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in September 2001, this provides the bulk of the first side of this, The Loves Live at the BBC album. Track eight is a cover of Queen’s You’re My Best Friend, also broadcast live from Peel Acres a bit later on.

The Loves went on to record three more sessions for Peel in an 18-month period, as well as touring with high-profile groups such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Cribs.

Over the next decade or so, The Loves released four smash-packed albums – Love, Technicolour, Three and Love You – plus several indie-hit singles like Boom-A-Bang-Bang-Bang, Xs And Os and December Boy, named 6 Music Single of the Week by Radcliffe & Maconie. Versions of all these songs appear on The Loves Live at the BBC.

They also recorded a lot more live sessions for Marc Riley, who does the honours on side two of the new album with eight songs recorded for his show, culminating in another cover in the shape of the Velvet Underground’s Guess I’m Falling In Love.

As the seasons changed, so did the membership of the group and by 2011, it was estimated they’d gone through 37 members and had played many gigs all over the world with such contemporaries as Darren Hayman, The Lovely Eggs and Comet Gain (to name but three).In 2024, they released a career retrospective vinyl double album, True Love – The Most Of The Loves.

Now the best of their live work at the BBC is collated on this new LP, which is released as part of the ongoing sessions series on Precious Recordings of London.

TRACK LISTING

1. Depeche Mode (Peel)
2. She'll Break Your Heart (Peel)
3. Little Girl Blues (Peel)
4. Boom-A-Bang-Bang-Bang (Peel) 02:39
5. Shake Yr Bones (Peel)
6. I’m Gonna Get Fucked Up (Peel)
7. Just Like Bobby D (Peel)
8. You’re My Best Friend (Peel)
9. Xs And Os (Riley)
10. Honey (Riley)
11. The Ex-Gurlfriend (Riley)
12. Sweet Sister Delia (Riley)
13. Can You Feel My Heart Beat? (Riley)
14. Bubblegum (Riley)
15. December Boy (Riley)
16. Guess I’m Falling In Love (Riley)