UKNY for October 19

Ellur, real name Elle McNamara,  hails from Halifax, Yorkshire and her strong EP of earlier this year, God Help Me Now, was a pivotal release for this emerging songwriter, who comes from a musical family; she's the daughter of Embrace guitarist Richard McNamara.

This past summer, Ellur supported Supergrass and Sports Team at a sold-out hometown gig and her October 2025 tour in the UK has been mostly sold out. She has a brand new single written with members of The Snuts and on "UKNY" at 11pm, I'll kick off the hour with the song that Ellur calls a reflection on her own situation: working part-time as a cleaner, living with her mum, hoping to break through as a musician, while"making do with what you have."

Westside Cowboy just released their debut EP, This Better Be Something Great, earlier this year (produced by English Teacher's Lewis Whiting), and now the Manchester band is back with a new single from their second EP, So Much Country 'Till We Get There, out on January 16 on their new label, Island.

Speaking of English Teacher, the Leeds quartet have just released "This Could Be A Remix Album" in which their Mercury Prize-winning 2024 debut, This Could Be Texas, gets a second look from the likes of Fontaines D.C., Water From Your Eyes, Sherelle, Daniel Avery, and many others (including Lewis Whiting), all offering up some unique mixes.

As last year's Mercury Prize winners, English Teacher were north in Newcastle for the presentation of this year's awards ceremony on October 16 — and had some good advice for 2025 winner Sam Fender. I'll also choose something from his critically-acclaimed People Watching, as well as new releases from Alfa Mist, TEED (fka Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs), Courtney Barnett, Chalk and more.

That's "UKNY," Sundays from 11pm-midnight, on 90.7 FM, streaming online, and in the Archives after broadcast.