New series airs from Sunday 23rd July with Sparks featuring on first episode 

Absolute Radio welcomes back Tim’s Listening Party for a second series after a hugely successful first run. Each show of the eight-part series features The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess talking to a special musical guest, sharing stories and insights about their seminal albums. The new series begins with Sparks discussing The Girl is Crying in her Latte with Matt Johnson from The The on Soul Mining, Lloyd Cole on Rattlesnakes and Haim talking about Days Are Gone to come.

The concept originally became a sensation on Twitter during the Covid lockdowns, with musical guests including the likes of Paul McCartney, Michael Kiwanuka, Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon and Kylie Minogue and now Tim’s Listening Party has found a new home on radio.

Guests on the first series included Fall Out Boy, U2’s the Edge and Skin from Skunk Anansie with The Observer’s Miranda Sawyer commenting about the show that ‘any band would kill to get their LP played and treated with such respect.’ As a podcast, Tim’s Listening Party was the Number One Music Podcast in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Spain as well as being the Top Music Podcast on Spotify UK.

Tim Burgess said “The response to the first series of The Listening Party has been brilliant and it’s exciting to be back on Absolute Radio with series two. We’ve got some incredible artists and brilliant albums coming up and I can’t wait to share them with listeners.”

Absolute Radio’s Content Director, Paul Sylvester said, “We knew that Tim’s Listening Party would be a great fit with Absolute Radio’s specialist and storytelling strategy and the success of series one showed that brilliantly. The access to artists talking about songs and albums that are woven into listeners lives makes this show a must listen for music fans and we can’t wait to get series two out there.”

The series, made once again with Soho Studios Entertainment is available as a podcast from the Absolute Radio app and website, plus wherever else you get your podcasts.

Tim’s Listening Party – starts Sunday 23rd July at 10pm on Absolute Radio.