Franz Ferdinand covered Good Luck, Babe by Chappell Roan on Jo Whiley’s show on BBC Radio 2 (Monday-Friday, 7-9pm).
Ahead of the release of their new album, Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand joined Jo Whiley for a Sofa Session, live from the BBC’s Maida Vale studios. The BRIT and NME award-winning group are best known for their 2004 single, Take Me Out, and their eponymously titled debut album won the 2004 Mercury Prize and a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album.
Jo Whiley: You’re going to do a cover for us now…
Alex Kapranos: Yes.
Jo: Tell us about your choice and how you’ve come to this decision.
Alex: It’s just an amazing song by an incredible artist. It’s funny, you get some artists that have a moment, often it’s kind of divisive. Some people absolutely love them and some people hate them. But I’ve not come across anybody I know, none of my friends, nobody I know, who doesn’t like this artist. They’re just so good. This song’s incredible so we’re going to play it.
[They cover Good Luck, Babe! By Chappell Roan]
[…]
Jo: Who’s the most interesting person who’s been to one of your gigs?
Bob Hardy: Interestingly, my niece is now 16 and I’m suddenly cool to her because I told her that Lady Gaga broke her nose in a mosh pit at our gig when she was a high school student.
Jo: And this is a true story?
Bob: Yeah, true story.
[…]
Alex: We played in this amazing place called the Roseland Ballroom in New York. We had this tour around the States where we started off in the Roseland Ballroom and then went right across America then came back and finished the tour in the same place and did another gig there. And on the first gig, David Bowie came back and that kind of blew our minds. We thought ‘there’s nothing that can ever beat that, that’s the ultimate’ but it was beaten, because when we came back and played it the second time, he came back again, but that time he brought Lou Reed with him!
Jo: How were they? How was the conversation?
Alex: It was really good. Very surreal. But they hadn’t actually seen each other for quite a few years and it was about the time Bowie had been a bit ill as well, he’d had a problem with his heart and they hadn’t see each other for a bit. I think they had a wee bit of making up to do. I remember in the dressing room, they stopped talking and suddenly had a big hug with each other and yeah, we thought ‘oh gosh we should leave them to it!’
