Broadcaster Ros Atkins will play a drum and bass remix of the BBC News theme during his debut Glastonbury set.
The BBC News analysis editor has swapped his day job for a DJ set at the Worthy Farm festival in Somerset this weekend.
After announcing his festival appearance, Atkins said there was a suggestion for him to remix the recognisable BBC News soundtrack and by “complete chance” he appeared on Radio 4’s The Media Show to interview the composer of the track, David Lowe.
A few weeks ago, I got a message on social media suggesting we do a Drum& Bass remix of the BBC News theme for the set I’m doing at Glastonbury. There’s an idea, I thought. First, I messaged @davidlowemusic2. Then @crissycriss. To my delight, both said yes… pic.twitter.com/IejKd2XHQC
— Ros Atkins (@BBCRosAtkins) June 27, 2024
“I messaged him a couple of days later, and I said ‘you can say no to this of course but would you be open to us looking at a remix of your theme’ and he just said straight away ‘yeah, that’s great’,” Atkins told BBC Radio 6 Music.
“But then of course, both of us realised neither of us had any experience of making drum and bass tunes.”
Atkins said he asked DJ and producer Chrissy Chris if he would like to be involved and he also said “yes straightaway”.
“So before I knew it, I was on a WhatsApp group with me, David Lowe, the composer of the BBC News theme, and Chrissy Chris, drum and bass heavyweight, and the three of us started plotting out what we could do.”
Atkins will play the tune during his Saturday set at the Stonebridge Bar stage, alongside other acts including Rudimental, Jamz Supernova and Idris Elba.
The BBC broadcaster said he had a “slightly crazy 24 hours” ahead of arriving at Glastonbury, having been in Nottingham for the prime ministerial debate on Wednesday, presenting from the spin room on the BBC News channel.
“I was on between 5pm and 8pm and then got back into London late on Wednesday night, got up very early on Thursday morning, drove here (and) was into the park area where we’re staying at about 11am.
“My main impressions are, and I know I’m not the first to say it, the scale of it.
“Until you see it, you can’t quite believe it, because when you’re watching it on the TV you pick up all the different artists and the different stages, but you perhaps don’t realise that there are also multiple other medium and smaller venues all at full tilt all of the time.
“So I’ve just been trying to take it in and also just try to not get lost.”