Take 5

Sophie Ellis-Bextor knows how to fill a dancefloor. Across 8 albums, and a double indemnity hit in "Murder on the Dancefloor", she's made a name for herself as a pop-disco queen. When she’s not on stage or in a recording studio, Sophie is throwing a kitchen disco, hosting her Spinning Plates podcast, and publishing books. Sophie’s latest album Perimenopop takes stock of where she is today. The les...

From bucket list guests to Australian rock royalty and a disco queen, find out who Zan will be Taking 5 with in 2026.

Zan lets you know what's in store for 2026...

It's been a stratospheric rise for comedian, Aaron Chen. Getting his start in stand-up, he won a heap of fans starring in Fisk, and his charming stint on Taskmaster. But at the top of his game, he left Australia to start again in New York City. For his Take 5, Aaron shared one song from a pivotal time in his comedy career. Arcade Fire – 'Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)' This is one of the Best Bits fro...

If you grew up in Australia in the 1980s then you probably grew up with Young Talent Time. It was a springboard for so much talent, and one of its biggest stars was Dannii Minogue. For her Take 5, Dannii shared the one song she loves the most from her sister Kylie Minogue's epic catalogue. Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue – ‘Kids’ This is one of the Best Bits from Take 5.  You can hear the full...

What do Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Kendrick Lamar have in common?  Jack Antonoff. The decorated producer has made a name for himself shaping some of the biggest albums in the world.  For his Take 5, Jack Antonoff shared how he brings an artist's vision to life. Waterboys – The Whole Of The Moon This is one of the Best Bits from Take 5.  You can hear the full episode here: https://www.abc.net.a...

Irish artist CMAT has got it all: the voice, the songwriting talent, the charm. Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, (aka CMAT), has been shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize and counts Elton John as a fan.  Her Euro-Country songs capture heartbreak with a healthy dose of humour, which is why she gravitated towards country music in the first place.  Gary Stewart – 'She’s Actin' Single (I’m Drinkin' Doubl...

Savage Garden frontman Darren Hayes has lived quite the life. Hitting Number 1 around the world in 1997 with their debut album, he recently shared what was going on behind the scenes at that time, in his beautiful and devastating memoir, Unlovable. When he joined Zan Rowe to Take 5 back in 2024, he shared a whole new side of one of Australia's biggest stars. Peter Gabriel - 'Love To Be Loved' This...

Angie McMahon is the kind of songwriter who stops you in your tracks. With two albums under her belt, her most recent record Light, Dark, Light Again is about cycles and the patterns that repeat and renew throughout life. This concept of cycles inspired Angie's Take 5 theme of 'revolution songs' and she responded to it beautifully. Joni Mitchell - Circle Game (live at Universal Amphitheater, Los A...

It's not definitive, but here are some of the best moments from Take 5 this year: The legendary Richard Fidler threw back to the early days of the Doug Anthony All Stars. Gordi's brilliant third album Like Plasticine gave us an insight into her experience as a doctor on the frontline during the pandemic. Comedians Matt Okine and Denise Scott celebrated Season 2 of their much-loved TV show Mother a...

Hearing TV On The Radio talk about music is as fun as it sounds. When the New York band first emerged they were like nothing we’d heard before. A mash of genres and sounds and for many, the sound of tomorrow, today. 10 years on from their last album, the band are back on the road again. And on their first visit to Australia in a decade, they joined Zan Rowe to Take 5.  It’s the only interview they...

Do you remember the first time you heard Franz Ferdinand's 'Take Me Out'? The way it began, then completely flipped less than a minute in? It was such a thrill, one that has never dulled in the two decades since.  Six albums later, the Scottish band explore the thrill of living on their latest record, The Human Fear. How human fears drive us on, bolt us into action, give us a thrill. It was ripe f...

Trent Dalton is a master storyteller. His debut novel Boy Swallows Universe is an international bestseller, it was turned into a Netflix series and recently voted as Australia’s #1 read of the last quarter century, in Radio National's Top 100 books . A Walkley Award winning journalist, Trent followed this stunning debut with several other works of fiction, and a collection of Love Stories from the...

If you’ve ever lost touch with a friend or been heartbroken by a platonic breakup, Stella Donnelly’s new album is for you.  Documenting the end of a friendship, it’s a brutally honest, heartbreaking, and hopeful record so many of us can relate to. And Zan couldn’t wait to talk with her all about it. Stella is one of the best songwriters around today. She has always shot from the hip, told it like...

Justine Clarke is a legend. For most of her life she’s been in ours; as a child actor who graduated to a lifelong career on the big and small screen and into an acclaimed theatre actor.  For the last 20 years she’s probably been entertaining your kids, as a regular on Play School and ARIA winning singer of many children’s albums. But running parallel to all of this, has been music.  Way before she...

Oasis are undoubtedly the biggest band to rise out of Brit Pop. And it’s hard to describe how massive their return is. For years, the public fighting between the Gallagher brothers suggested they’d never come back. And one day, they did. Oasis have been playing all over the world to stadiums of screaming fans, young and old. And as they finally return to Australia, we’re celebrating by sharing a T...

Get ready to laugh, cry, and go head-to-head with two of Australia's most loved comedians.  Denise Scott and Matt Okine are Mother and Son (the remix). And as the second series comes to a close on ABC TV and ABC iview, I roped them in to Take 5. A bit out of the ordinary, but oh boy, they embraced it. This is beautiful and hilarious Take 5, and you’re gonna walk away from it feeling all the richer...

Paul Kelly is a national treasure, who's written the soundtrack to our lives. Road trips, first loves, heartbreak, our very sense of identity; he’s explored it all over more than 40 years and 30 albums.  But who are the songwriters that tickle him? And what place do they take him to? That was the theme I gave PK, when I invited him to Take 5. And you’re about to dig  into an extraordinary conversa...

Jarvis Cocker has had a dream run. As founding member and lead singer of Pulp, he hit the highest of the highs during Brit Pop in the 90s, before embarking on a solo career that was just as celebrated.  A few years ago he published a different kind of memoir called Good Pop, Bad Pop, which visually catalogued his stuff and told his story through its memories. And within that was revealed the Pulp...

At the age of 16, Lorde went #1 across the world. She was catapulted from the suburbs of Auckland to the Grammy's stage, winning Song of the Year.  12 years and four albums later, she's continued to defy expectations as a pop artist and is one of the most gifted songwriters of our time. This is an episode of Take 5 that was filmed for the TV series, but this podcast is an extended edit - capturing...

You’re about to learn a whole lot more about Kevin Bacon. The prolific actor has been on our screens for more than 40 years. It was his breakthrough part as Ren in Footloose that got him attention, but he was just getting started. Acclaimed roles in Apollo 13, A Few Good Men, The River Wild, and Mystic River would follow. In fact his filmography and range is so broad he literally had a game made u...

You’re about to see a side to Aaron Chen you’ve never seen before.  You might know him as George in Fisk, or Guy Montgomery’s sidekick on Spelling Bee.  Maybe you cheered his win on Taskmaster Australia season 3.  He’s also an acclaimed stand-up comic. But when I sat down with Aaron in his new home in New York City, I got a totally different sense of what makes him tick. This podcast is a companio...

As one-fifth of the Spice Girls, she's one of the most famous people on the planet. But you wouldn’t know it. The Liverpudlian's down to earth beginnings define who Mel C is today. Take 5 is back on your screens for a fourth season on ABC iview , and we kicked off the series with Sporty Spice.  In a beautiful HIFI bar in east London, we unpacked her remarkable story… of a kid who daydreamed about...

The transgressive trailblazer celebrates 25 years since The Teaches of Peaches. A boundary-blurring blend of electroclash, sex-positive feminist themes, and fun.  It would become a defining album of the early noughties, and kick off a career that made our heads spin time and time again. Peaches has been pushing the boundaries and conversations around gender and sexuality since the beginning, and s...

Take 5 with Zan Rowe is back on your screens from Tuesday 9 September, and Season 4 is our biggest yet. Kevin Bacon Melanie C from the Spice Girls Lorde Paul Kelly Comedian Aaron Chen (Fisk, Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee) Pulp's Jarvis Cocker Across this new season, you’ll hear revealing, funny, and deeply personal conversations with some of the most fascinating artists around. Each guest...