So who do you ask to play in Maida Vale to represent the Asian Network and all it stands for?  You could put an old-skool Bhangra band in there, or use the opportunity to shine a light on the class of 2009.  The thing is though, you need someone who's reach is across all generations and who's music draws on 'all' the music played on the BBC Asian Network.  With that in mind I'm very proud to say Apache Indian will be playing a unique full live gig at Maida Vale next Friday which we'll be broadcasting live on air!

From 1990 onwards he has released six genre defying albums and represented the 'Asian Fusion' sound that even Bollywood follows now.  He's known across the Caribbean, the US, India, Pakistan and for many Brits he was the first true bonafide British Asian music star.

I still remember the first time I heard his first single 'Movie Over India'.  It was 1990 and I was a nervous fresher starting my degree at Nottingham Trent University.  I was staying in some pretty grimy halls of residence when my friend Gubs (one of only three Asian's on the whole campus!) asked me to listen to a tape he'd picked up in Leicester.  He pressed play and and for me music was never the same again!  You need to understand that the only Asian music we had access to then was either Bollywood or Bhangra.  The idea of an exact fusion of east & west done in English with the odd Punjabi word was revolutionary to me at the time.  I remember thinking 'That's my music....that music is me!'

Anyway, tune in next Friday for an Apache Indian Maida Vale special that I'll be presenting and listen to a British Asian Icon play 'our music'.