Tom Ravenscroft

Hope Works // Saturday Rave - Room: Courtyard Anomaly // Set Time: 22:30-00:00

Thomas James Dalglish Ravenscroft, more commonly known as 'The Ravedog', is a British radio presenter and disc jockey. He currently hosts a BBC Radio 6 Music show featuring new and unsigned music.

 

In November 2005, to coincide with John Peel's (his late father's) posthumous induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame, Ravenscroft organised the production and release of a tribute single to him, a cover version of one of Peel's favourite songs, Buzzcocks's Ever Fallen in Love. Alongside the song's original vocalist, Pete Shelley, the record featured an eclectic line-up of musicians hand-picked by Ravenscroft, all of whom his father had played prior to their success and in some cases for the first time on radio. This line-up included Robert Plant of Led ZeppelinRoger Daltrey of The WhoDavid Gilmour of Pink FloydPeter Hook from New OrderAndy Gill of Gang of FourElton John and Jeff Beck alongside newer artists including The Futureheads, the Soledad BrothersEl Presidente and The Datsuns.

In June 2010, having previously appeared as a fill-in presenter for absent hosts including Tom Robinson, Ravenscroft took over the Friday night slot on BBC Radio 6 Music vacated by musician Bruce Dickinson. Paul Rodgers, then 6 Music's editor at the BBC, greeted Ravenscroft's appointment, describing him as "a great young broadcaster with all the knowledge, passion and articulacy that you might expect from someone of his lineage". Ravenscroft joined the station during a threat of closure, but an audience surge, alongside a campaign website hosted by the British Phonographic Industry, ultimately secured its survival. Since 2014 Ravenscroft has also hosted a weekly midnight slot as part of the nightly 6 Music Recommends show, which features new music edited by several of the station's DJs.

In September 2013, Ravenscroft curated a week-long series of new music events, In the Court of Tom Ravenscroft, at the MAC centre in Belfast. In October 2017, Ravenscroft DJ'd alongside Underworld's Rick Smith at a preshow event for an Underworld concert in the Passage of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.