With Zane Lowe leaving his BBC Radio 1 show after more than a decade to join Apple, he recorded his final broadcast Thursday and made it a relaxed free flowing two-hour affair revisiting some of the show’s favorite songs over his tenure.
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“Thanks for nearly twelve years of incredible memories, of feedback, of sharing this show, of sharing music with me, let’s do this one more time,” he said at the show’s start, speaking over The Streets‘ “Turn The Page.”
From there, Lowe went on to play selections of his own and the crew that puts the show together such as Arctic Monkeys‘ “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor,” The Killers‘ “Mr Brightside,” Kendrick Lamar‘s “Don’t Kill My Vibe,” Gnarls Barkley‘s “Crazy” and Queens of the Stone Age‘s “A Song For The Dead,” which closed the set.
Lowe told stories about the songs between each track, giving praise to each selection. Early on the show he said he and his staff would be playing records that “moved us” and “keep it free,” but the only song he actually wanted to choose himself was the closing number.
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“Now you could get emotional or you could just shake it out,” he said before introducing the Queens of the Stone Age’s A Song For The Deaf track, “A Song for the Dead.” “One band has been a constant for me through this whole journey, giving me more one-liners that are passed off as my own, giving me more great music than i could possibly hope to digest in a lifetime, and they’ve been kind to me too.”
Last week Lowe hosted Kanye West on his show in what became a memorable, tearful interview.
While specifics on Lowe’s new role at Apple have not been announced, it could mark a huge shift in programming strategy for the company’s streaming music products Beats Music and iTunes Radio by giving them improved mainstream appeal as a brand-name personality.
Listen to the full show here.