Trevor Nelson talks to Viv Hardwick about his Newcastle show and how he’s started to listen to music all over again.

"I DON’T know why it’s such a secret,” says BBC Radio 1 DJ Trevor Nelson about his hush-hush show this Saturday in Newcastle, but admits he doesn’t know exactly where he’ll be broadcasting from either.

The 45-year-old says of the invited guest event, which is part of the In New Music We Trust Live broadcasts from today until Saturday: “All I know is that I’m doing my show from some location in Newcastle. This is just a bit of fun, not some kind of treasure hunt. I haven’t got a clue where it is. There is going to be two up and coming artists. They are not people who are big yet, that’s why we’re promoting them. One is a guy called McLean (his debut single, My Name, is out via Asylum Records on March 8) and the other is called Rox (who has a single called My Baby Left Me out on March 15). But I swear to God I don’t know where I’ll be. I’m coming up by train and I genuinely love Newcastle, even though I’ve not been up there for ages, and I did some really big parties there years ago.”

He wasn’t party to the Radio 1 decision to select the North-East for the live visits, which includes Sunderland’s Futureheads guesting on the Zane Lowe show tonight at the 02 Academy Newcastle, but feels that the region was overdue a visit from Radio 1.

“In all the years of being at Radio 1 I don’t remember us doing much up there apart from the roadshows early in my career. These massive weekends haven’t been on the map recently and we don’t really need to do that in London, Manchester or Birmingham,” says Nelson who laughs when I ask if that puts him under pressure to add even more into the event.

“I have far too much of a laidback image on Radio 1 for that. Putting on someone live is not something we do normally so that’s plenty,” he replies and admits he’ll be surprised if more than 100 are invited to be guests at his secret location.

“It’s not a club night, although I’ve done the big MTV and Radio 1 nights.

I’m more into the intimate side,” says the current MOBO Best DJ, who describes himself as a broadcaster rather than a DJ or presenter.

He’s that rarity of broadcasters who is still involved on Radio 1 and 2 plus the new digital stations as well as hosting club nights, a longrunning MTV show and appearing as a guest presenter on BBC1’s One Show and Five’s American Football coverage.

“I think, to be honest, I started off in music working with EMI as an A&R man and, although I’ve never had a career plan, I’ll always stay with music-related shows. I don’t like the thought of aiming for celebrity which tends to mean you aren’t good at anything,” he says.

“Being with Radio 1 all these years does keep me up to date. I’ve gone from being one of the youngest DJs on radio to being one of the oldest with a lot of older listeners. When I first started buying records for DJing I was buying old records but I was also importing records at one stage, I brought some of the first Public Enemy records into the country. I looked at my record collection the other day and I thought ‘I’m never going to be playing any of these records again’ because I have thousands of vinyls,” says Nelson who admits that he rarely listened to music at home until he put the bulk of his MP3 collection from his radio shows onto a Zeppelin iPod hi-fi system. “Until very recently at home I never listened to music. Then I bought this iPod dock. Now I’ve got it on shuffle and it’s changed my life.

I’ve got about 15,000 songs in my itune library and many I’ve never listened too. Now, every time I walk in I don’t put the telly on I put the hifi on and it plays everything from the Beach Boys to Dizzee Rascal. It’s brilliant. I was listening to a jazz singer called Diane Schuur on an album I bought 20 years ago and hadn’t played since. I’m the happiest I’ve been in the last 15 years and that’s partly to do with the fact that I’m overwhelmed by the success of British artists at the moment,” he says.

And his own future?

“I want to stay on Radio 1 as long as I’m relevant. You can spend far too much time worrying about your career and there will always be people snapping at your heels. But you’re not going to enjoy your time if all you’re doing is worrying,” says Nelson, who has invested in a second home in St Lucia.

So will he one day take up his idea of running a beach bar in the caribbean.

“One day I will, and I’ll have the maddest playlist,” he laughs, “The trouble is I’d never make any money.”

■ Trevor Nelson’s secret location show is being broadcast on Radio 1 at 7pm on Saturday.