COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: Virgin
PERFORMER: Various artists
CATALOGUE NO: CDV 2948
WORLD 2001 is a shameless plug for one of the BBC’s hidden assets: hidden, that is, unless you can receive BBC London Live, because that is where to find Charlie Gillett, the doyen of world music presenters who must have been at it when Andy Kershaw was still in nappies.
His weekly broadcasts are an across-the-board session, still more upbeat and wide-ranging than Radio 3’s expanded coverage, and particularly strong on Africa.
The two-CD set is made from tracks that have made listeners get in touch, and it catches his foibles and quirks as well as his catholicity – unmissable listening for the parts that local radio doesn’t reach. Now will Virgin do the same for DJ Ritu’s Bhangra in Beds on BBC Three Counties Radio?