James singer Tim Booth lashes out at ‘ageist’ BBC Radio 1

James frontman Tim Booth has accused BBC Radio 1 of being “ageist”, saying that older bands are not able to gain new fans because their music is not celebrated on prominent radio shows.

Booth, 63, the lead singer of the band best known for the hit Sit Down, said Radio 1 should be inclusive, particularly with Top of the Pops no longer on television.

James formed in 1982 and the band has continued to release music that is popular with its fan base – but Booth said it is harder to reach younger audiences.

Booth said the band’s material in the past few years is “as good as the music we made in the 90s, but we’re older now, so we can’t get on Radio 1, which is ageist and won’t have old bands”.

He added: “I think what I care about is that music had more value, and Top of the Pops is this kind of thing that you’d watch with your mum and your grandmum - that collective watching of all generations, and seeing all generations reflected on Top of the Pops and everyone having an opinion.

“That was a beautiful experience. It was a real family experience, and there’s a loss there, I think, where everything’s become more ghettoised.

“So I care about that because we’re making music for everyone. We aren’t making it for any particular generation and so there is a frustration in us.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “Each track is considered for the playlist based on its musical merit and whether it is right for our target audience, with decisions made on a case-by-case basis.”

James has sold 25 million albums, releasing its 17th studio album – Be Opened by the Wonderful – this week. The band’s greatest hits album topped the charts in 1998.

James also recently toured the UK supported by an orchestra and gospel choir and has had 19 singles in the top 40, with other hits including Sometimes and She’s a Star.

Sit Down has featured in Game of Thrones, while Liverpool football fans have adapted the lyrics in homage to star striker Mo Salah.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 alongside Booth, Jim Glennie, the band’s bassist, said: “We’re still hungry, we’re still wanting to push ourselves, wanting to be more successful, wanting to get our music to more people.

“We’re ambitious still, we still feel we’ve got something to prove.”

In 2019, Madonna described Radio 1 as “discriminatory and unfair” after it declined to play her new release Living for Love.

Radio 1 said Madonna’s age had nothing to do with its decision, saying it chooses songs on “musical merit and their relevance to our young audience on a case-by-case basis”.

“An artist’s age is never a factor,” it said in a statement at the time.

BBC Radio 2 has also been accused of ageism over the depature of veteran presenters including Ken Bruce, Vanessa Feltz and Paul O’Grady.

In an interview on This Morning following Bruce’s departure earlier this year, Feltz said she imagined he was feeling “some sense of ageism”.

“The music isn’t as appealing because they’ve changed it to appeal to a younger crowd they’re so desperate to get,” she added.

In 2021, internal documents revealed the BBC’s focus on “mood mums” – women aged between 30 and 45 who prefer 90s dance music over hits from the 60s.

Paul O’Grady, a former Radio 2 host who died in March this year, previously said in an interview with Metro that Radio 2 had “changed” and was “not what it was”.

However, Boom Radio – named to attract the Baby Boomer generation – doubled its audience after Bruce left Radio 2 and now attracts 635,000 listeners a week, according to Rajar, which monitors radio listening figures.

Boom Radio, which launched in 2021, has a reputation for hiring former BBC show hosts and commercial DJs of yesteryear – including David Hamilton, a former Top of the Pops regular, and Graham Torrington, a BBC veteran.

Radio 2 is still the UK’s most popular station, with 14.46 million listeners, but Rajar figures show its audience has fallen by 140,000 year-on-year.