Sonic Boom Podcast

·S1 E7

Let's Change the Inflection

July 1
32 mins

Episode Description

Sonic Boom Podcast

"Let's Change the Inflection"

with Chris Hawkins & Chris Baldwin

Wednesday 1 July 2026 · All podcast platforms

Chris Hawkins hosts the BBC 6 Music Breakfast Show daily, is a patron of the Piece Hall in Halifax, and has been part of Sonic Boom since the very beginning. In year three, he's back on the main stage in September.

In this episode they talk about what it really takes to make a grassroots music festival work, why bringing world-class acts to towns outside the big cities matters, and what it means for Burton to be taken seriously as a music town. Chris Hawkins talks about the moment he first heard the idea and asked himself: can this actually work? And what he thinks now.

They get into the Piece Hall, Bearded Theory, fifteen festivals in 2026, Shed Seven always closing with Chasing Rainbows, the TURBO young people who cornered him for half an hour backstage, a band called 88 Miles that ended up on BBC 6 Music, and why he still thinks this is just the beginning.

The episode ends with a line that says it better than anything else could.

"I saw a great live act in Burton, not I saw a great live act in Burton." Chris Hawkins, BBC 6 Music
Sonic Boom Music CIC · sonicboom.org.uk · Believe in the Power of Music

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