Hobbs was born in Preston, Lancashire but grew up in Garstang, a small town 10 miles to the north. In the 1980s, Hobbs lived on a bus in a carpark in Hayes, Hillingdon, with the hard rock band Heretic before becoming a journalist for Sounds magazine at age 19. She later went to work for the NME before going on to help found Loaded magazine. While with the NME she served as UK correspondent in Canada on CBC Radio, filing a weekly music report. This contributed to her big break in radio with BBC GLR.
Career
Hobbs then worked at XFM before being headhunted by BBC Radio 1 after a confrontational interview on XFM with Radio 1's Trevor Dann. She shot a TV series about global biker culture, Mary Anne's Bikes, in Japan, America, Russia, India, and Europe for BBC Choice & BBC World in 2003, and presented the World Superbikes series 2005 for British Eurosport. She also compèred the Leeds Festival between 1999 and 2003. In the early 2000s she narrated the CBBC science series Why 5.
Radio shows
Hobbs first joined Radio 1 in January 1996, as co-presenter of the weekly Clingfilm movie review show with Mark Kermode. A fan of punk and rock from an early age, she fronted the Radio 1 Rock Show 19992005. But her best loved show on BBC Radio 1 was the experimental / electronic show The Breezeblock she created during her fourteen years at the network. In September 2006The Breezeblock name was dropped for the title Experimental. Hobbs was an early champion of the dubstep and grime genres and hosted the legendary 'Dubstep Warz' special on BBC Radio 1 in January 2006. On 23 July 2010 Hobbs announced on her MySpace page that she was leaving BBC Radio 1. She spent a year mentoring students at University of Sheffield Union of Students. Hobbs returned to radio in the primetime slot she always coveted for electronic music on 9 July 2011, broadcasting from XFM in Manchester. In September 2011 she began hosting the relaunched "Music:Response" evening show across the XFM network. On Wednesday 31 October 2012, she announced live on-air and on her Facebook page that she was leaving XFM the following day. On Monday 3 December 2012 the BBC announced that Hobbs was to become the new Weekend Breakfast presenter for BBC Radio 6 Music. She now hosts a specialist show for BBC Radio 6 Music, 6 Music Recommends, broadcast Wednesday night into Thursday morning, midnight1am. In 2013 and 2014 she made documentaries for BBC Radio 4, and hosted Saturday Classics programmes for BBC Radio 3 making the connections between contemporary and classical music. On 9 August 2018 the BBC announced that Hobbs was moving to weekday mid-mornings, replacing Lauren Laverne. Hobbs first show in this slot was on 7 January 2019.
Live DJing
Hobbs has toured as a live DJ and curated events internationally since 2006. In June 2007, Hobbs curated the UK Dubstep showcase at the Sónar festival with Skream, Oris Jay and Kode9, taking the sound out of club environments and onto an international festival stage in front of 8,500 people. Her second Sonar showcase featured Shackleton, Flying Lotus and Mala from Digital Mystikz. In 2009 she returned to the festival with Joker, The Gaslamp Killer and Martyn, and in 2010 again with Flying Lotus and also with new British producers/DJs Roska and Joy Orbison. In 2011 she played solo to her biggest ever audience of 15,000 people at Sonar, and in 2012 she created a one-off collaborative Descent into Darkness performance with techno producer Blawan. She returned solo in 2013 for the festival's 20th anniversary.
Discography
Hobbs released a dark electronic compilation album on Planet Mu records entitled Warrior Dubz in October 2006, drawing the sonic parallels between dubstep, grime, dark dancefloor, techno, d&b and hip hop. She followed this with two more compilations: Evangeline in June 2008 and Wild Angels in September 2009.
Soundtracks
and Clint Mansell invited Hobbs to work with them on the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning film Black Swan. She worked with young electronic producers to create original music for the pivotal club scenes. The soundtrack was Grammy Award nominated. Hobbs is mentioned in the Half Man Half Biscuit song "Nove on the Sly" from the albumTrouble Over Bridgwater.
