Listeners to BBC Radio 2 are being asked to vote for their five favourite British groups.
It’s all part of the station’s Ultimate British Group feature to mark the annual all-day celebration of the album format.
A music panel, including Radio 2 presenters, have voted from a long list of nearly 100 bands to produce a final list of 54, which spans the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s.
The list has been compiled from the melodic music that is played on Radio 2 and the Most Successful British Groups on the Official Albums Chart.
The Top 30 most popular will be revealed in a countdown show with Mark Goodier on Saturday 19 October, 1-3pm, to coincide with National Album Day 2024.
An additional show, Your Ultimate British Group: The Extras, will be available in the BBC Sounds collection, which will feature (in no particular order) the bands which are voted in position numbers 31-50 in the chart.
Both shows are BBC Audio productions.
Plus, all music played on Radio 2 on National Album Day will be from Great British groups, from Sounds of the 60s with Tony Blackburn (6-8am) through to Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton (10pm-midnight).
The chairman of the panel who have selected their favourite groups to create the list of 54 to vote on is Radio 2 and 6 Music’s Head of Music, Jeff Smith, who is also the chairman of the Mercury Prize judging panel. Also on the panel, were Radio 2 presenters Jo Whiley, Sara Cox, OJ Borg, Vernon Kay, Scott Mills, Trevor Nelson, DJ Spoony, and Owain Wyn Evans.
Jeff Smith, Head of Music for Radio 2 said: “The UK has produced so many globally loved bands over the past seven decades, so I’m looking forward to finding out who our listeners will vote their favourite group.”
Jo Whiley said: “Such a tough decision to choose my favourite British groups of all time! Looking down the list, it was literally the soundtrack to my life – from the first music I ever heard on my mum and dad’s stereo, to being a teenager and saving my pocket money to buy my own records, and then so many groups I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing on my own radio shows, some of them from when they were unknowns to now being on this list of the best British bands!”
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