Posts Tagged ‘Steve Lamacq’
Sunday Swoon for 6 Music
Today is 6 Music’s 10th birthday and my ears tell me I owe them a special dedication so this weeks Sunday Swoon is especially for all involved and the people with impeccable taste that fought so hard to save the station. I dread to think how many bands I may have missed out on, that have become integral to my life’s soundtrack, had it not been for this music station. A huge thank you and here’s to another 10 years.
1. The sense of community that 6 Music creates with its listeners is a huge part of the charm. Shaun Keaveny’s middle-aged shout-outs, Lauren Laverne’s memory tapes, Just having a text/tweet/email read out can make you feel instantly connected. There’s a great piece in The Independent today where the presenters are described as ‘radiating warmth’ and I can’t sum it up better than that. The people who do the talking in between the tracks play equal importance to the excellent, diverse, I can’t believe they’ve just played that, eclectic, makes your heart stop music.
2. Sometimes 6 Music burns a small, specific, joyous memory into your mind. New Years Eve 2010 the boy and I were sat in my flat necking champagne listening to 6 Music’s top 100 countdown of the year before heading to Kentish Town Forum to see Foals. Spanish Sahara was their number 1 as we predicted the further down the list they got without it being played. After we jumped in a cab to see them welcome in 2011 live. This song still gives me goose bumps. Best new years ever.
3. Sunday afternoons are no longer about roast dinners and Last of the Summer Wine, it’s all about lying in bed and having a Huey Jarvis sandwich. If you’re a sexy nerd then the mixture of these two starkly contrasting presenters (and lets not forget music legends) banishes all thoughts of Sunday blues. Adore the energy Huey gives me for Jarvis to then calmly talk me off the ledge.
4. When it comes to Steve Lamacq my list of thanks is exhaustive. He gave me Sissy & The Blisters. He told me about John Peel’s Shed (the play). I was lucky enough to take part in ”Good Day/Bad Day” last year where I chose Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Date With The Night. But, possibly above all those things, he once played this Stan Freberg track on his show. ”Lammo” was discussing songs you loved as a child, apparently he was obsessed with Sh-Boom. Now I am. This track has me grinning like an utter fool every time I put it on.
5. I think any 6 Music fan would place Adam & Joe in their top 5. There have been occasions where I’ve been close to wetting myself with laughter (see pom pom party and the Royal wedding song wars). Saturday mornings used to truly be my happiest of hours, I miss them. ♥
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A Tribute To John Peel
I recently made a plea for people to keep their ears open, how as a music lover I think it is essential to keep discovering new music. I want my life to be a constant soundtrack, ever-changing, ever-growing, sometimes heartbreaking sad, sometimes joyous and ecstatic, sometimes a precious secret, sometimes shouted from the rooftops. I hope it constantly evolves, taking me to places and down paths and through emotions like a trusted old friend.
John Peel will always be an inspiration to me. His faith in his music choices, his ear for picking out the next big thing at times years before they reached critical acclaim is a talent that I suspect cannot be taught but one I will always strive for. There are DJ’s working hard at keeping that legacy of supporting new music alive. Namely Steve Lamacq and John Peel’s son Tom Ravenscroft, who he must be immensely proud of.
I am sure many of you will be flicking through your well-worn copies of Margrave Of The Marshes this week, some of you may be catching John Peel’s Shed at Jackson Lane like lucky me. I guarantee all of you will be playing music he championed, maybe without even realising it. From PJ Harvey to Pulp via The Undertones and Nirvana.
As an oh-so painfully awkward teenager it was music I felt most connected to, spoke to me when I felt misunderstood, alone, gangly, spotty. John Peel brought me a lot of the music that saw me outgrow my acne, get a much fatter bum and find my confidence, my footing in the world.
So to him. Thank you. ♥
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October 17th Mixtape
This weeks mixtape is making me feel like I have multiple personalities, swinging from Indie to Pop to Reggae. I had the pleasure of speaking to Steve Lamacq a week ago today on his 6 Music show on an item called Good Day/Bad Day. He summed up my two choices (Yeah Yeah Yeahs Date With The night and R.E.M’s Nightswimming) as “wild abandon or melancholy meditation”. Dear friend Ms Mangetout, owner of the worlds coolest slow cooker, said that summed me up perfectly. Strange how your music tastes sub-consciously reflect elements of your personality.
I spent this weekend at our family home in Devon. My parents moved into the house when I came along (I’m the youngest in the photo below) and 33 years later its still a true haven for me. I took long walks along cliffs, beaches and through fields. I stuffed myself with so many vegetables at Riverford Farm that I am still full up two days later. I picked Sloes with my Mum in preparation to make barrels of gin whilst getting caught in brambles and stung on the bum by nettles. But what struck me the most this weekend is how my parents still teach and introduce me to new things, namely Therese Raquin, Bert Weedon and Knitting on this occasion. Their seemingly never-ending knowledge on almost every subject you can think of is something I’m very grateful for. That and the fact that they swear so I don’t have to mind my language!
If you’re a Spotify user click here to play the mixtape and if you’re a YouTube purist click here to play the videos. ♥
1. Shout Out Louds – The Comeback (When I first heard this band I thought they hailed from New York, they have that sound reminiscent of cool NY art students lurking around lofts. I still can’t get over they’re from Stockholm. This was always my favourite track of theirs).
2. Garbage - I’m Only Happy When It Rains (Shirley Manson is on my list of girls who look untouchable hot as red heads, she’d have been at the top until Karen Gillan came in to my life. Whenever I’m wandering down Britpop lane Garbage will be one of the first bands that get played).
3. This Many Boyfriends – Young Lovers Go Pop (Every now and again a song comes along that you know you’re going to love simply from the title alone. This is THAT track).
4. The Smiths - Girlfriend In A Coma (My sister & boyfriend have been together a huge amount of time, they have cited their reason for tying the knot based on the following. If one of them ever falls into a coma they want the other to have the right to turn the machine off. They are both Morrissey fans. It’s a very Morrissey reason. This song is for my sister).
5. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Over & Over Again (This track reminds me of living in Kentish Town, my beloved little corner of London, calling in sick after midweek gigs, bacon sandwiches at Mario’s Cafe, parties at The Pineapple. Like Talking Heads have chilled the fuck out).
6. Desmond Dekker – You Can Get It If You Really Want (Stupidly bright and sunny in Devon this weekend, I sat watching people swim down Breakwater beach, resisting the urge to hide their clothes. I listened to old hip hop and reggae tracks as I sat there, this sums up what I’m trying to tell myself constantly).
7. Devo – Whip It (From reggae to some classic 80′s. When watching the video for this last week I claimed that they wouldn’t be able to make videos like this anymore, in hindsight how ridiculous is it that I think that way when pop videos are so overtly sexual now?).
8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Hysteric (I have to restrain myself from putting a YYY track on my mixtape posts every week. Possibly my most consistently listened to band over the past few years. Karen O once described herself as always knowing she was “a volcano, waiting to erupt”. This track is a love song, the surprise of someone suddenly completing you, its stunning).
9. Florence + The Machine – Shake It Out (I have played this over three times a day the past week, everything about it screams & shouts to me at the moment for reasons too personal and EMO to bore you all with. From a purely musical perspective it’s so well produced. Lungs was brilliant but I suspect too many producers spoiled the broth so to speak. Collaborating solely with Paul Epworth on Ceremonials will no doubt have created something magical and more complete).
10. Lana Del Rey - Video Games (I’d heard this on the radio a dozen times but it was her performance on Jools Holland that connected me to it. Now I understand the hype, funny how sometimes I have to see a live performance to “get it”. Massive girl crush).
