The Essential Mix (Various)

Radio 1, the much-criticised 'trendy' station of the BBC, is actually, usually pretty bad, admittedly. Right? Yeah. Hour upon hour of mindless, disposable, interchangeable, mainstream pop malarkey can get very, very, annoying - particularly if you've just been woken up by the aural, er, delights of the oh-so grating nasal Northern whine of Sara Cox. Think you've gotten away with it? No such luck - that's just the beginning. And then, right through to 8pm is the eclectic, yet horribly conformist blend of everything mainstream, whilst just managing to cross genre boundaries to keep everybody happy. They're not happy. They're just bored. Honest. ...

The essential mix is broadcast from 2 til 4 on a Sunday morning on radio 1, it is a 2 hour none stop mix from a different guest dj each week. Some mixes come live from clubs around the country, whilst others are pre recorded in the radio 1 studios. Every week they welcome a different guest dj, from Paul Oakenfold to Air, the mixes are highly diverse so your favourite dj will be on there eventually. This show provides a great resource for people to keep track of what is being played in the nations clubs and as listings appear in Mixmag and on the radio 1 website then you can easily find out what that elusive track is. Without the annoyance of someone speaking over the top ...