Artist · chart history
Broadcast
Band Birmingham Formed 1995 UK electronic band
Broadcast formed in 1995 in Birmingham. Broadcast has 9 chart appearances on 6 radio countdowns from 2 stations on RockLists, spanning 1996–2024. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Follow The Light”, which appears on 1 list with a best position of #39. The station that charted Broadcast most often is John Peel (BBC Radio 1), with 5 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2024.
Broadcast sounded like a transmission from a future imagined in some forgotten 1960s schoolroom. Trish Keenan, on vocals, keyboards and guitar, and James Cargill, on bass, formed the band in Birmingham in 1995 and fused the melodic lilt of 1960s psychedelic songwriting with primitive electronics and samples lifted from the strangest corners of the record shop.
Early songs like "The Book Lovers" and "Living Room" set out the mood, and Warp Records gave them a home. The Noise Made by People, in 2000, is their first full statement: Keenan's cool, faraway voice drifting through analog bleeps and woozy organ on songs like "Come On Let's Go", with Roj Stevens on keyboards, Tim Felton on guitar and Steve Perkins on drums in the lineup of those years. Haha Sound followed in 2003, with "Pendulum" giving it a harder, clattering edge, and Tender Buttons came in 2005.
By then the band had shrunk to the founding duo, which is how it stayed until 2011, with a collaboration with the Focus Group, Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, along the way in 2009. Keenan died in 2011. Cargill looked after the band's legacy from then on, and a set of demos, Distant Call, closed the book in 2024.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Broadcast on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Follow The Light | 1 | #39 | – | 2024 | |
| 2 | Come On Let's Go | 1 | #5 | – | 2000 | |
| 3 | The Book Lovers | 2 | #34 | – | 1996 | |
| 4 | Echoes Answer | 1 | #36 | – | 1999 | |
| 5 | The Games You Play | 1 | #357 | – | 2024 | |
| 6 | Living Room | 1 | #40 | – | 1996 | |
| 7 | Pendulum | 1 | #40 | – | 2003 | |
| 8 | Spirit House | 1 | #396 | – | 2024 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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