Like most people I know I grew up with the immortal words “turn that bleeding racket down”, my mum continuously shouting up the stairs as she failed miserably to end my addiction to the Cocteau Twins, the glorious “racket” that soundtracked my teenage years. On a mid-80s Binatone cassette player obviously. And yet regardless of the misery their effects-driven guitars appeared to infer, they were … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Cocteau Twins
Sometimes only Royksopp will do. Their warm melodies achingly cosy, wrapping you up as you face the world. Melody A.M. first came into my life in 2001 and since then has been sonically hugging me stronger with its plucked up strings, kooky keyboards and homely harmonies. And it’s always been there to remind me of a certain lady. A lady who will probably kill me … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Royksopp
Stick me in a room with a conversion therapist and I’d fight tooth and queer nail to kick that repressed hypocrite to kingdom come. Because every day, regardless of the bigotry I read of, occasionally experience and forever campaign against, I am so proud to be who I am. One butch dyke. With rainbows for blood. (As contradictory as my love for Streisand’s My Man … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Fire Island
I can still picture my mother’s net curtains dancing on the summer breeze as I returned home from school that hot afternoon in 1976. Stepping through our forever-open front door, the sound of a woman I would love all my life greeted me, singing her broken soul out as she remembers The Way We Were. What I learnt that day as the vinyl crackled through … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Barbra Streisand The Way We Were
Come Monday the 4th of February 2019 there will be a lot of talk about Brighton Pride. Who knows, they may even break the Internet again. But regardless of the headliner announcement, the controversies or the so-called principled objections to an event that some will argue is not the “Pride” they once knew and fought for, I’ll be rooting for the wonders bringing LGBTQ+ Pride … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: C-Mos
If you grew up in the 1970s you soon appreciated the importance of closing your eyes and escaping to another world. The clash of floral wallpapers, candlewick soft furnishings and cheesecloth tablecloths, Hornsea crockery and gaudy patterned carpets (in the regulation shades of brown demanded by the decade) ensured it was an essential activity, saving your optics from the visual overload. An eye survival lesson … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Kraftwerk
This is for the lovers of sparse house. The deep souls who need just the house basics to lose it, a simple bass line, a succinct sample and a kicking hook. This is for the warm-up and the afters. The anticipation and the appreciation. The glory of the night ahead, the giggles from the party just passed. HNNY’s Tears on Local Talk is a tune … Continue reading 50 Tunes 50 Years: HNNY
Considering I’ve spent over half my life with my Queenie it figures that she’s going rock up on my 50 Tunes For 50 Years a fair few times. We’ve shared way too many stacks of speakers, amps and record players for her not too. But when you consider our track record one would think that the tune that soundtracked the beginning of my greatest love … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: The Breeders
It was 1980 and all I wanted in the world was a Harrington jacket. To feel the tartan lining on my skin, the buttons by my neck and cruise the streets of Frinton on my, er, hand me down Raleigh Shopper looking the dogs. In my Stay Press trousers of course. Sadly the local jumble sales rarely saw a donation from a generous Essex mod … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: The Jam
Pencil skirts and crushes. Soul music and Sunday afternoons. Love and Luther. Giving me the reason to Stop For Love. It was 1986 and nothing, not even Luther, could save me from that first unrequited love, that first true heartbreak as my big brown eyes failed to deliver the results they later would and I grew certain that this “phase” would ever end. Not that … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Luther Vandross
Wildblood and Queenie 