A decade of 'The Dave Sweetmore Show' - Thursday 1st May 2025

2015 was the year in which the UK’s biggest-selling album was Adele’s third studio album ‘25’, and the biggest selling single was the huge Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars hit ‘Uptown Funk’.

In the indie music world, new albums were released by The Charlatans, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Cribs, Circa Waves, The Wombats, The Vaccines, Tame Impala, The Fratellis and The Libertines, and many new and unsigned indie bands were starting to break through.

It was also the year in which I presented the first ‘The Dave Sweetmore Show’ on a professional radio station, a show which I still broadcast weekly in a very similar format to as it was back then. The actual anniversary of the show is this May 3rd, and back in 2015, Sunday afternoons were when the show was broadcast. It’s now hit a milestone which I am very proud of, and not many people can say they have had the honour of being on-air for so long. 

Radio stations, bands, musicians, DJs, and radio presenters have all come and gone over the last decade, but the fact my weekly show is still so well supported is something I am forever grateful for.

Although I’d done bits of radio work before 2015, and have been a guest on many radio stations and shows over the years, it was in February 2015 when the Revolution 96.2 programme director Kev Bailey sent me a message asking if I’d be interested in doing a weekly indie and new music show on the station.

I had strong connections with the station from its time as a dedicated indie station, as I was DJ for many of its club nights. Credible Media had bought the station, and although it now had a much more generic music policy, now they wanted an indie show. 

Kev trained me for three months before he let me take the show live on air, teaching me valuable presenting skills which I still use to this day, I feel lucky and grateful to have had the training i received. 

My show was a simple format which I still carry on with today: indie anthems from across the decades, and the best in new local music. 

Laura Beth, my radio sidekick, arrived at Revolution on a work placement around two years after I had started my show. Alongside her work in the office, she was placed on my show to help produce, and since then has never left! 

Laura is now a huge part of the show, and I can’t imagine it without her. Sadly, in November 2020, money talked, and Revolution 96.2 Radio was sold to Bauer Media and instantly turned into part of the Greatest Hits Radio network. 

Another local station had vanished. Around the same time, Tameside Radio had been sold to the company who still own the station today, the recently-renamed Not Really Here Media Group. The station manager at the time was Andy Hoyle, who I had also worked with at Revolution. 

Several offers from stations came hoping to move the show to a new home, but Tameside Radio was the one we decided to move to. From December 2020 onwards, the show continued on Tameside Radio in its new and current slot of Monday night between 7pm and 9pm, and we remain unbelievably happy there. 

Over the years we have had some of the biggest names in music on the show, such as Stereophonics, Status Quo, James, and The Fratellis, to name just a few. We gave The Lathums their firs- ever radio interview, and have seen many bands come and go and still be rising in the music world to this day, such as Alex Spencer, Stanleys, Cobain Jones, and The Guest List.

All of the support and feedback we have had from listeners and fellow presenters has always been nothing but amazing. One of my favourite quotes was from the Oldham band Gardenback who said in an interview: “Dave is so appreciated by musicians, he gives all unsigned and local bands exactly the same respect he gives to some of the biggest bands in the world.”

That was a quote I’ll relish forever, as that’s always been the aim of the show. We have had bands live in the studio most weeks over the last decade. The number of bands who have joined us will be hundreds and hundreds, and I really wish I had kept a record.

The first-ever band was the iconic Manchester band The Space Monkeys, who still remain great friends with us to this day. We have also hosted several live nights over the years, the next one being on Friday August 8th at Whittles at Tokyo in Oldham.

The ‘Local Music Spotlight’ feature on Tameside Radio, which has now featured over 100 bands and artists, has always been based around my show, and is showing no signs of slowing down.

Alongside all of this, we have many loyal listeners and friends to the show who we are forever grateful for, and who are the reason we continue to do it fully live in the studio every week.

I could write a full book about the memories made on my weekly show, but the main reason for writing this article is to say thank you to everyone for supporting and being part of the show over the last decade. Thank you of course to Laura Beth, who continues to work on the show every Monday night, and also to Letitia Royle, who last year started joining us each week.

It’s been ten years of ‘The Dave Sweetmore Show’, and what a pleasure and honour it’s been. Thank you to everyone, and here’s to the next ten years!