Ben Howard worried he'll be spotted

Ben Howard joined Absolute Radio's Pete Donaldson and Sarah Champion backstage for an exclusive interview before he took to the Isle of Wight Festival stage.

He said "I was worried because when you put yourself out there people start hating you. I think I kind of shot myself in the foot at the Brits because people know what I look like now"

Ben spoke fondly of friends The Maccabees who had just been interviewed on Absolute Radio. The guys had nothing but love for Ben and he returned the favour saying: "The Maccabees are brilliant. They're completely void of egos, they're beauties those guys"

He promised new music for fans "New music is on the way. I've been doing some live demos and it's all sounding great. Some really interesting tracks in there. I'm really enjoying taking the music to different places"

Ben has been surfing more and more after being sponsored by a top surfing brand
"When I'm not playing music I'm surfing."

Howard spoke about his growing band "The band is really growing. We've gone from three to a six piece and it really adds to the dynamic. It gives us an option to strip it back or go bigger and play as loud as we can."

Absolute Radio are broadcasting live from the Isle of Wight Festival all weekend with exclusive artist interviews and live, uninterrupted stage sets from the star studded line-up. DJ's Pete Donaldson and Sarah Champion will bring you all of the latest backstage gossip, taking to the airwaves all weekend.

For those Absolute Radio listeners not lucky enough to have tickets to the festival the station will bring the legendary atmosphere to them with live and uninterrupted performances from Paul Weller on Friday 14th, Ben Howard on Saturday 15th and Bon Jovi on Sunday 16th.

There will be tons of added content and extra coverage for mobile and online too at www.absoluteradio.co.uk, Facebook and Twitter @absoluteradio with exclusive video interviews, news and more.