Gilles Peterson - Radio 1

Radio 1

From 1998 to 2012, through his BBC show Worldwide - which was originally produced by longtime collaborator Benji B, Karen P (Folded Wing), Ben Cave, Beccy Grierson, Alex Kenning and currently Dave O'Donnell - Peterson continued to present a wide range of music that may be new to its young audiences. The show always presented a combination of new, older and often very rare records from the late 1950s to 1980s. Every three months or so, Peterson dedicated a whole show to older vinyl releases in a special version of his show he subtitles as Brownswood Basement; two associated compilation albums with the same name containing older personal classics have been released on the United States label Ubiquity Records's offshoot Luv N' Haight. He has been associated with two Brownswood labels - the name comes from the road in north London where his house was located. This building is now primarily a place Peterson uses to store his huge record collection, and where he compiles releases drawn from his collection in the basement.

In August 2004 the show moved from Wednesday (midnight til 2am) to an earlier Sunday slot (11:00 to 01:00) with a spectacular live outside broadcast from The Big Chill at Eastnor Castle Herefordshire featuring Bugz In The Attic performing a DJ set, and interviews with house DJ Tom Middleton and Mr. Scruff.

One of the highlights of the new format BBC Radio 1 show was the special sessions from the BBC's Maida Vale Studios. These have included artists such as Roots Manuva, Björk and the Floating Points Ensemble.

Radio shows and DJing gigs continue to fuse hip-hop, jazz and soul with the newer styles of broken beat and nu jazz alongside the odd dubstep and drum and bass track. He has also released numerous DJ mix and compilation albums. Peterson is a regular at the Southport Music Weekender, and even curates his own annual music festival in Sete, on France's Mediterranean coast.

In September 2006, Peterson's show on Radio 1 was moved from Sunday night to Wednesday night (more precisely the early hours of Thursday morning), 02:00 to 04:00 (GMT). The first show included a live appearance from Lupe Fiasco. The show is currently broadcast live between 2am-4am on Wednesday mornings.

In 2002 he released a compilation album titled "Impressed with Gilles Peterson," featuring rare and forgotten about British Jazz from the 1950-1960s, that Peterson had collected over the years. This was met with critical acclaim and led to many of the records being re-released to a new audience. This in turn led to a series of concerts featuring some of the artists, including Stan Tracey, and a documentary about the history of British Jazz - Jazz Britannia. This series was so successful it led to further Britannia projects on Soul and Folk.

Annually, Peterson picks his favourite records of the year, known as his Worldwide Winners, which listeners of his radio show can vote on via the Radio 1 website to get down to a final top 10 list of winners. In recent years, from 2004 onwards, this has been expanded into the Worldwide Winners Awards with an event held at a London club venue; Cargo in 2004 and onto the bigger Koko in Camden in 2005, with full outside broadcast coverage by Radio 1, and expanded sections like "Best Clubnight", "Best Record Shop", "Best Compilation Album", and a special award called "The John Peel 'Play More Jazz' Award" given to an artist, often newcomer, who has displayed special noteworthy work over the year.

In late 2011 Peterson announced that after 13 years at the station he will be leaving BBC Radio 1, following his last show on Tuesday 27 March 2012 (more precisely early hours of Wednesday 28 March) 02:00 to 04:00 (GMT), and moving to a new show on BBC Radio 6 Music.