Mark Kaye's music column

I never thought I'd say this, but I enjoyed Valentine’s Day this year… and it wasn't because I got a stack of cards and presents. Actually, I did get one card but I think my mum sent it as usual!

Valentine’s Day was special this year because I finally got to interview Bloc Party. Kele and Matt from the band came into the Xfm studios to talk about their new album and tour – they even let slip that they would be more than happy to play Glastonbury this year but were still waiting for the call! Their gig at the Academy that night was amazing despite a short break in the set due to technical problems. As technicians fixed the problems with Kele's guitar amp, Russell and Gordon kept everyone entertained with some cover songs and even managed to get a round of boos when they started playing a Razorlight song. Brilliant!

Talking of Glastonbury… there is just one week left to register on line if you want to stand any chance of getting tickets to this year’s event so get crackin'. For months everyone has been speculating about the headline acts, but now it would seem we know most of them thanks to Dave Keuning from the Killers. The band were in town last weekend to play the arena and Dave announced (unofficially of course) that they would be headlining the festival with the Arctic Monkeys and The Who. I can't wait.

Listeners of Xfm will know that there is a war being waged at the moment between my listeners and breakfast show host Jason Manford’s 6 o’clock army. A game of footie is due to be played between the 6 o’clock army and my motorway massive and it’s going to be a proper Manchester derby, as Jason is a Blues fan and needless to say I’m with the Reds… I can't wait! We are both recruiting on our shows for eleven people who can play the great game, so if you can run a little bit and can kick a ball get in touch on 83977 after four o'clock any week day.

Tonight I'm off to see the Producers at the Palace theatre which opened this week starring Peter Kay. A friend of mine went on the opening night and said it was brilliant so I'm looking forward to that.

On Friday my mate James Morrison is back in town to play the Academy, so if you’re heading down maybe I’ll see you there. His album sales went up by 300% after picking up his Brit award last week… not bad! But I still think he would rather have picked up Joss Stone. James also confirmed his appearance at the Isle of Wight festival this week along with Snow Patrol, Muse, Kasabian, Keane, The Feeling and Ash who, coincidentally, join me on my show tomorrow. Tim , Mark and Rick are back with a new album and are touring the UK so tune in to hear what they have to say for themselves tomorrow from 4pm. Tickets go on sale for the Isle of Wight festival tomorrow morning.

There are some quality tunes around at the moment, and one I can't seem to take out of the cd player at work is the new song from Biffy Clyro called "Saturday Superhouse". They are from Scotland and I only really started getting into them when they played Winter Wonderland for Xfm last year. This new song is brilliant and sounds a little like the Foo Fighters (which is not a bad thing).

Finally a word for Liam Frost who came into work this week - in between gigging with the Magic Numbers and writing a new album he managed to find time to make everyone at Xfm a cheesecake… what a star!

Mark Kaye