Bobby Friction

Paramdeep Sehdev (Punjabi: ਪ੍ਮਦੇਵ ਸੇਧੇਵ) (born 21 August 1971 in Hammersmith), better known as Bobby Friction, is a DJ, television presenter and radio presenter from west London. Sehdev joined BBC Radio 1 in 2002 co-hosting the Sony Gold award winning show, ‘Bobby Friction & Nihal’, and in 2005 joined the BBC Asian Network presenting the station’s Saturday afternoon ‘Album Chart Show’, before moving to ‘The Mix’, on Sunday afternoons. Sehdev also won his second Gold Sony award in 2005 for his BBC documentary ‘Vote Friction’, and then in 2006 he started his weeknightly ‘Friction’ show on the Asian Network. The show, seen by many worldwide as ‘the definitive’ Asian music show, won Sehdev his third Sony Gold in 2007 and in 2009 it won him "Best Radio Show" at the UK Asian Music Awards (UK AMA). In 2011 it won Best Radio Show again at the UK AMA.[3] Since December 2012 he presents a weekly radioshow on East Village Radio: Friction on EVR. In March 2016, he stood in for Jarvis Cocker on the Sunday afternoon BBC 6 Music show, Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service, during that presenter's absence.

Links To Peel
In the early 00’s, Bhangra, due to the increasing population of South Asians and the popularity of the internet, became more widespread in the UK, which influenced BBC Radio One to introduce a Bhangra show, presented by Bobby Friction and DJ Nihal in late 2002. The Bhangra show was first shown late night around 3am, which Peel once asked Bobby Friction to give a copy of his show to listen to, as he felt it was too late for his bedtime.

In 2003, Bhangra hit the UK charts with Punjabi MC’s Mundian To Bache Ke, hitting the top ten in the UK Singles chart. This led to BBC Radio One shifting the Bhangra show to a more appropriate timing in the evening, which ultimately led to Peel hearing more of the music: leading to Bhangra act Tigerstyle, getting their first Peel session in the spring of 2003. On his 24 December 2003 show, Peel felt he was still not playing enough bhangra music. However he gave his reasons as not having time to listen to many of them and also stating that those he heard in the year were mostly not good.

After Peel’s death, Bobby Friction on John Peel’s Day in 2005 paid the following tribute:
 * "During my first week at Radio 1, John communicated that passion to me in just a few days, and although he was name checking Nusarat Fateh Ali Khan, Bhangra Daytimers and Cornershop - he was even more interested in what the British Asian musical streets were saying there and then. 'I gave him some remixed Bhangra and straight away he said “give me something newer – I've heard this stuff..is there anything that sounds more raw. Even in the 21st Century he deflated my ego, made me feel great about myself and got me back to that place in my head I was at when I was a teenager. John Peel was 'The Truth’."