Singer accuses Radio 1 of ignoring UK songwriters

Radio 1 has been accused by one of the country's most successful pop groups and of discouraging young musicians from forming bands by ignoring British songwriters.

The Beautiful South's frontman, Paul Heaton, said the BBC's pop music station pandered to the tastes of 15-year-olds and only played songs that sold millions of copies.

Heaton said yesterday he had postponed making a new Beautiful South album because the music played on Radio 1 had become too narrow and commercial. "Radio 1 has a problem with variety," he said. "I think it should stick its neck out. As soon as it starts playing songwriters, good black rap music, and good this and that, everybody will start listening again."

The band joins a diverse line of stars, including Sir Cliff Richard and Status Quo, who have blamed Radio 1 for keeping their music away from the public. But the accusation by The Beautiful South is the most surprising. Unlike Sir Cliff and Status Quo, they are not far removed from the 15 to 24 target age-range of Radio 1. The band's last album, Painting It Red, reached number 2 in the UK charts in October last year, although two singles from that album failed to reach the top 20.

Heaton has just recorded a solo album, Biscuit Boy. A single, "Mitch", will be released later this month, but has been put on Radio 2's C-List, which means it will be played up to five times a week.

A Radio 1 spokesman refused to give exact reasons why Heaton's music was not played. "We cannot play every record that is released," he said. "And we play ones we think will appeal to our target age-range."