BBC Radio 1Xtra’s DJ Ace has embarked on a huge new journey he has said could be the highlight of his career thus far: taking over the 10am-1pm weekday slot from Trevor Nelson.
We caught up with Ace to find out his plans for the show, his ambitions for championing UK RnB and the resurgence in combat sports in 2016.
Hey Ace, congrats on your new show!
Much appreciated, thank you very much.
I guess the first thing is, you’re taking over from a broadcasting legend, Trevor Nelson … how does it feel to be taking that slot?
If I’m honest I’m really nervous about it. It’s big shoes, he’s a legend. He’s probably like my favourite broadcaster ever, and he’s somebody that I looked up to – definitely a mentor. He’s somebody I’ve taken a lot of advice from, someone that’s super easy to speak to. It’s a good transition and I’m super excited. And nervous, it’s a bit of a mix.
What did Trevor say when he found out you’d be taking over?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOXBhiKjIzq/
D’you know what, he called me and I missed the call but he left me a message saying he was really happy for me.
I’ve been covering that show for a long time – I don’t know if I was the natural choice but I hope to think I was and I know that he definitely was one of the people that was singing my praises to management and stuff. He had my back.
Have you thought about making any changes to the show when you take over?
I’ve got to keep the Live Lounge – because it’s the flagship show for the Live Lounge – and RnB hour, which I think is really important because there’s not really a strong representation of RnB music on radio at the moment, so it’s definitely something that I want to make sure that I champion.
Especially UK RnB as well, there are a lot of singers and vocalists in the UK that just need a platform and I hope to be the person to help break them and put a light on the scene. So yeah, RnB hour is definitely going to stay.
I’m going to mix more, because it will be good to hear some mixing in the day. I’m going to bring a lot of the barber shop element because I know people know me as a barber shop guy – I always have a lot of barber shop references in my story. We’ve got a few features that relate to the every day barber shop experience.
My first live lounge in my new slot has just cancelled. I wont say who it was cos u lot will laugh me for thinking he was actually coming. pic.twitter.com/7ViDAy1RWm
— Ace ?? (@DJAce) January 2, 2017
There’s loads of stuff that’s going to happen, you’re just going to have to wait and see man. The vibe of the show will be different but hopefully we’ll be able to continue the legacy that Trevor had. By now you’ve had a long time with the BBC, done a lot, interviewed a lot of people. Who’s been the favourite interview so far? You’ve met Booker T, Will Smith, Anthony Joshua… One of my favourite interviews would definitely be Anthony Joshua because it wasn’t just a normal radio interview in the studio, we did it at my barber shop so it was a place I was very familiar with and a place he was very familiar with, because we get our hair cut at the same place. The environment made it more comfortable, I was amongst friends and it was more of a chat. It did really good numbers as well, and I watched a lot of boxing interviews that he’s done and it was probably one of the interviews where you got to see him at his most natural.
How old were you when you started at 1Xtra?I was 20. So what was that, eight, nine years ago?Naaah (laughing). You’re trying to get my age out. (laughing). I just turned 20, 19 going into 20, and it was in 2002 so you do the maths. We were the youngest DJs here, and it’s mad I’ve come all the way to now being one of the more senior presenters. It’s been a long journey, I think people have seen me grow up in this job. In 2002 UK music was in such a different place to where it is now, completely different, how do you think you’ll be able to reflect that in your show?
The station was a completely different station in 2002, which is a reflection of what UK music was like then because our scene was super underground then, and we went through stages where we were super mainstream and I think now it’s kind of going back to the underground. I think the rest of the scene is kind of taken care of especially on my station, it’s a home for grime.All the UK rappers have got their slots whether it’s Charlie or Semtex or MistaJam or Target – I just think UK RnB needs somebody to help push them and I definitely want to be that guy. Vis has been smashing it this year with Not For The Radio, are you looking to do anything like that with your interviews?https://www.instagram.com/p/BLiJ3-wDan1/What they do on NFTR is amazing, I watch it, I’m a fan, I subscribed. Vis has always been amazing at what he does in terms of interviews, even when we used to interview people together he was very strong at it. Vis has always been more visual than me in terms of cameras or being on TV. That was definitely his strength and my weakness. The AJ interview was called In The Barber’s Chair, we’re actually going to do a series, more in-depth interviews with people in the barber shop. We’ve got a list of some quite big names that are coming up. Are they all musicians? Nah they’re not, they’re not musicians. The first one is … I don’t even want to say who it is because it might not happen but … we’ve got quite a big actor that hopefully will happen soon.https://www.instagram.com/p/BI4XmsGgu86/I bet I know who that is! Because of timings… (Laughing) We’ll see … I definitely want to do AJ again in the barber shop before the Klitschko fight, so we’ll see what happens with that as well. Interview wise what NFTR do is totally different to what I’m gonna do on radio but I love what they do I think it’s sick. Moving on a bit, what do you think has been behind the resurgence in the popularity of boxing, and combat sports in general, this year? I think the boxers have worked out how to sell fights. I’m a wrestling guy, that’s my sport, I’ve been following that since I was young and I think UFC and boxing, now they realise that the money is in how you sell the fight. So these guys may not dislike each other but they know you’ve got to have a personality, you’ve got to be able to talk on the microphone, you’ve got to make people interested and draw people in so they want to see the end result.
You’ve just gotta look at the Dillian Whyte v Dereck Chisora fight. That was supposed to be the undercard but that was the main event, that’s all anybody wanted to see, because they knew how to sell the fight. Conor McGregor is just a guy that you never care about the opponent you just want to see him fight – because he knows how to sell a fight. It’s more about the personalities now than what happens in the ring. It was interesting watching Klitschko and Joshua’s press conference because they went completely the opposite way.I think they’re going to suffer for that, that was way too nice. I’d love to speak to AJ about that because I think people want to hear dirt! Even if they don’t really dislike each other I think somebody needs to step up and be a bit more cocky. So Joshua was your favourite interview, does that mean it was your career highlight as well or is that something different?I’ve had a few career highlights, when me and Vis won the Sony Gold award back in 2004, it was an award that we beat Chris Moyles for – that was definitely one of my highlights.
Even just getting this new show, for me, it’s been a highlight and it’s an amazing way to end the year because I had no idea. There was a time when I was on five days a week, then I went down to two days a week, then one, then I had no show at one point, and I’ve been able to come back and get five days a week again. For it to go full circle for me, right now I’m just the happiest I’ve ever been so I’d say getting this show for me is probably the career highlight so far.You were also part of the BBC’s Black & British month recently, do you think these are important conversations to be having right now? Definitely. I was very fortunate they asked me to be the voice of that on 1xtra, I think it’s something that we could have done ages ago and I’m happy that it came about. Off the back of it we’re going to do more I hope, there’s talks about it being maybe a quarterly thing, something that we do four times a year, because I don’t think they realised how much people had things to say.
It was something we didn’t really know what the response was going to be like, just to walk into that room for the second broadcast and to see a sea of faces, and to see people that had so much to say and so many topics to talk on. Even on that day I feel like we only scratched the surface, I don’t think we got to the root of anything. We need to have more of those conversations so I’m just really proud to be part of that.
