Steve Lamacq is acknowledged as one of the UK’s most avid supporters of new bands, and currently presents 4 – 7pm weekdays on BBC Radio 6 Music and a weekly one hour new music show 6Music Recommends.
In 2013 Steve celebrated 20 years at the BBC and he was honoured with the Special Award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.
He is now also a familiar voice on BBC Radio 2 through a number of landmark documentaries on British music (including The Digital Music Explosion, The Creation Records Story and the National Great British Music Debate).
Steve is also a regular contributor for Fighting Talk on BBC Radio 5 Live, a station that also allowed Steve to bring his love of both music and football together to host his show, Rock ‘n’ Roll FA Cup.
Steve came to prominence on BBC Radio 1 on shows including the influential Evening Session, Lamacq Live and one of their flagship In New Music We Trust shows.
Steve’s first radio experience was at XFM, where he presented the drive time slot. However, his background previous to this was in journalism.
Training at Harlow College before starting work as a junior reporter with the West Essex Gazette, he then moved to its sister paper, The Harlow Gazette becoming sports editor at the age of 21. He joined the New Musical Express in November 1987 as a sub-editor, progressed to news editor two years later and finally became live editor in 1991 developing a reputation for discovering new bands along the way.
He’s continued writing throughout his radio career and published his book Going Deaf for a Living in October 2000, detailing his career to date and notorious interviews with the likes of Nirvana and Oasis.
As a long-standing tastemaker Steve was at the centre of Britpop and has given a variety of artists their first ever radio play, including Coldplay, Bloc Party, Muse, Alt-J and Catfish & the Bottlemen who all received their first break on Steve’s shows.
In 2013 he was given a special award for his championing of new music by the Association Of Independent Music, presented to him by Richard Hawley.
Huw Stephens is a presenter, dj and host.
Huw joined BBC Radio 1 at 17, becoming the youngest ever Radio 1 DJ. He has broadcast live from Glastonbury, Reading Festival, Sonar, South by South West, Eurosonic on BBC Radio 1, as well as live from Radio 1’s own Teen Awards and Big Weekend. His passion for new music has meant he has been the first to champion countless new artists early on. He has contributed to BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, 6Music and presented on BBC Radio Wales, and presents regularly on the BBC World Service.
He hosts regularly, from corporate nights to world famous events including the NME Awards and the Bafta Cymru Awards.
Huw is the founder of the Swn Festival in Cardiff, Wales’ premier new music festival which he founded in 2007, and won Best Small Festival at the NME Awards in 2014. He curates the Lake Stage at Latitude Festival, which saw early appearances by the xx, Alt J, The 1975, Catfish and the Bottlemen and many more. He also comperes the main stage at Reading Festival. Huw has dj’d and curated at Green Man Festival, Festival no 6, Bestival, T in the Park and Glastonbury.
He djs regularly around the UK to thousands, and has dj’d around the world in Venezuela, Barcelona, Iceland, Norway, Austin Texas, New York, New Zealand and Patagonia. Since 2006, Huw Stephens Presents has been a monthly live music night in London’s The Social, playing host to new artists.
Huw presents a weekly show on BBC Radio Cymru playing new artists from Wales and the world. He champions new music and dj’s at the Eisteddfod, the National Festival of Wales. He founded two record labels; Boobytrap and Am Records, and has released two compilations on Wichita Recordings named Music Sounds Better With Huw.
Huw’s television credits include hosting the Glastonbury Festival on BBC2, the Topman CTRL series for Channel 4, coverage at Reading Festival for BBC 1 & 4, and voice over work for BBC3, Discovery Channel, and music campaigns for The 1975, Bombay Bicycle Club and PJ Harvey amongst others. He was nominated twice for Best Presenter at the Bafta Cymru Awards for his presenting on music series Bandit for S4C. In 2014 he presented a piece on Dylan Thomas on location in New York for BBC Worlwide Online.
He has an Honorary Degree from the Open University, and an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Glamorgan and Bangor University. He was inducted in to the Gorsedd of Bards of the Isle of Great Britain in 2012.
Ben Sheppard is currently the presenter of Capital Drivetime across the North West and North Wales, and until recently he hosted the local Capital Breakfast Show for 4 years.
Originally from South Wales, Ben discovered his passion for radio at Nottingham Trent University where he presented on their student radio station, Fly FM. Shortly after he went on to win Best Newcomer at the 2013 Student Radio Awards.
Later that year, Ben kicked off his career at Capital FM in South Wales. This shortly lead to Ben securing the Drive time show on the newly launched Capital North West and North Wales. It was a little over a year and a half in this slot before taking over the Breakfast show in January 2015.
To date, Ben is the youngest person to present a Capital Breakfast show, and is the only person on the network to do so solo. He has also been heard across the UK’s major city sites, covering shows in Cardiff, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.
Ben has been regularly recognised by the radio academy, he was named on the highly respected Radio Academy 30 under 30 list and awarded the North West Newcomer Of The Year in 2015. He was also named in the 30 under 30 class of 2018.
However his talents don’t stop at radio. He has experience with on-screen presenting, as well regularly being invited to DJ at the biggest clubs in the North West and North Wales, often being used as the face of the event. He was also invited to support Olly Murs at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, alongside Louisa, and is often seen on the big screen at Chester Races. Ben has produced voiceover’s for clients including the Welsh Rugby Union, The National Assembly, The Wales Fire Service and Cineworld. He has also been asked numerous times to host a wide range of events, ranging from regional award ceremony’s to national festivals, often presenting for tens to thousands of people. In 2018 his presence in North Wales allowed him to become an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust something which he is very proud of.
Ben is also a keen sportsman. To date, Ben has completed numerous half Ironman and Ironman events across Europe, qualifying to race at the European Championships in 2018, The Three Peaks as well as taking the start line at a handful of half and full marathons.
In March 2018 Ben decided to take things one step further. He decided to attempt to run from Cardiff to Wrexham, for Globals Make Some Noise. Through grit and determination and with the support of his listeners who sent messages by the hundreds, Ben was able to complete the 150 mile, five day challenge and in doing so raised a load of money for an amazing charity.
It was also during this crazy challenge that Ben’s podcast ‘Why In The World’ was born. The Podcast launched in January 2019 and speaks to inspirational people that do incredible things in the name of sport as a job or just to challenge themselves. Ben also continues to practice what he preaches, in 2019 he has completed a 100 mile three day running challenge at Chester racecourse, a 50 mile ultra marathon and an 80 mile ultra race. He also began working for running company RunThroughUK and has hosted races across the country including at, Olympic Park, Aintree Racecourse and Hampton Court Palace.
Certainly a dedicated and focused individual, Ben is committed to working hard and strives to succeed, whether that be training for his latest challenge or working hard to create the best radio he possibly can.
Former Gatecrasher resident DJ Adam Catterall began his radio career in 2005 at Lancashire’s Rock FM. After a highly successful 18 months on 2 different time slots Adam was appointed the stations new breakfast presenter – a position which he kept for 3 and a half years. In this time he won several awards including an Arqiva for Commercial Radio Presenter of the Year and a nomination by the Radio Academy for Radio Personality of the Year in 2008.
In 2010 Adam decided not to renew his contract with Rock FM in order to chase his dream of presenting on BBC Radio 1. That dream was realised in April 2011 when Adam became a regular fixture on the network.
After a successful summer in 2012 presenting at the London Olympic Games Adam decided the time was right to pursue another dream presenting sport and accept the chance to cover Rock and Roll football on Absolute radio with Ian Wright.
Stepping back in to commercial radio caused interest from many radio stations but the offer from Key 103 Manchester was just to tempting to ignore. Adam re-signed for Bauer in January 2013 and after an incredibly successful individual Rajar year for him he quickly moved to their drive show.
TalkSPORT were soon to knock on the door and in February 2015 Adam began to present his weekly ‘Extra Time’ show. Bauer media also wanted to utilise his talent in sports broadcasting and offered the chance to leave Key103 Manchester for Radio City Talk Drive, a daily sports show for Liverpool.
His northern charm is highly engaging and very entertaining. His voice is synonymous with a range of well-known TV brands such as the infamous Foxy Bingo TV advertisement campaigns.
Adam also became the face of the National Lottery Scratchcard TV advertisment campaign in March 2012.
His previous voice work includes ITV2, ITV4, UKTV Home, SKY 1 and Sky 2.