Jamie Woon will make you swoon

Jo Whiley lowered the curtain on her 18-year tenure on Radio 1 this weekend with a few sniffles, a visit from Dave Grohl and a special song by Dr Karl Kennedy off of Neighbours.

I know a lot of people are sniffy about Jo - usually the sort of person who thinks she "betrayed indie" by presenting a daytime radio show and playing Kylie - but I always found her a sincere, human presence on a station filled with braying gasbags.

The Live Lounge segment was born on Jo's mid-morning programme and it was a fitting tribute that her final weekend featured one of the best performances in a very long time. OK, it didn't quite scale the heights of Leona Lewis's first ever stab at Run, but it certainly erased the memory of Florence and the Machine's screechy, joyless rendition of Halo.

The session came courtesy of Jamie Woon, with his melifluous voice and his interesting facial hair. First up, he played his current single, Lady Luck. Following swiftly afterwards was an acoustic guitar revamp of Adele's Someone Like You (note that he reaches for the high notes in the chorus, which even Adele avoided in her spookily brilliant Brit Awards performance).

Both were smoother than a freshly shaved baby.






So goodbye, Jo Whiley, I will miss you. Except that you'll now be working in the same building as me and I'll probably spill tea all over you in the lift.

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Jo Whiley's last daytime show

About three hours ago, Jo Whiley wrapped up her last daytime show on Radio One. I know a lot of people couldn't stand her, or her taste in music, but I always found her a disarmingly warm and human presence in the middle of Radio One's never-ending parade of shouty bastards.

The fact that this talented broadcaster is being replaced by a girl whose vocabulary consists of 22 words, eight of which are "amazing", only makes her demotion all the more depressing.

The case against Jo seemed to be that she championed a great deal of indie drivel - from Badly Drawn Boy to The Wombats - but she also introduced me to The Killers and Gnarls Barkley and Lupe Fiasco, so it all evens out in the end.

In the end, her last show wasn't exactly the rousing valedictory I'd expected, partly because of the bizarre decision to play an hour-long Coldplay concert in the middle of it, but the presence of Jay-Z - who played basketball on Jo's driveway - was radio gold.

I've put together a two-minute highlights package in case you missed it.



Oh, and there were a couple of great new Live Lounge tracks for the last show. The Jay-Z ones in particular are worth 10 minutes of your time. Links below:

:: Jay-Z - Encore (acoustic live lounge)
:: Jay-Z - Roc Boys (acoustic live lounge)
:: Dizzee Rascal - Holiday (flamenco version)
:: Coldplay - Shiver (live lounge)

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