Sunday Sundae. Two words that have brought me more joy than any other double sonic phonic, although I’ll never say no to a DD. The club night that made me, that the took this sullen faced DJ and taught me to smile, to read a crowd, to love an anthem and appreciate the Sunday clubbers of my city. Whether a wet and windy winter session … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Simpson Tune
So here we go. Starting at the beginning. Raised on Motown, Bacharach, Nat King Cole, disco and Kraftwerk. Angsting it out to The Smiths and those Cocteau Twins, going electro with Japan and The Human League, dancing to Luther, Stevie, Northern Soul and Ms Summer. Loving with Marvin and Badu. Mending a broken heart with Al Green. Swishing to Salsoul. Losing it to Frankie Knuckles … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years
If there is one tune on this planet that captures being autistic it has to be Björk’s Hyperballad. Okay, I live on a hill and not a mountain but whilst view is beautiful there is no pile of car parts, bottles and cutlery at the bottom of our garden steps (although Hubbell’s keen on his collection of clothes pegs). Instead, there’s a pile of my … Continue reading 50 tunes for 50 years: Björk
We’ve all had our Bowie TV moment. You know the one. 1972. Arm dropped casually over Mick Ronson’s shoulder as he performed Starman on Top Of the Pops. Moments that made us feel we were no longer alone, that we were part of a tribe. I can’t sit here and claim that when I saw Frankie Goes To Hollywood on Channel 4’s The Tube one … Continue reading 50 tunes for 50 years: Frankie Goes To Hollywood
It was Guildford 1987 and I had heard a tune like no other, a tune I couldn’t get out of my head. A glorious man called Mark I had found myself house sharing with (responsible for enough gay life lessons to last me, well, a lifetime) was a disco devotee and always happy to confirm my first childhood love for the cowbell and strings. But … Continue reading 50 tunes for 50 years: Nitro Deluxe
Today I’m feeling a little under the weather. Lurgy incoming. So it seems only right that I head towards the warmth of Nat King Cole. The crackling 33 1⁄3 rpm of Love Is The Thing from my early childhood that brought charm and cosiness to those long evenings spent on my Nan’s black leatherette sofa as I battled the scratch and static on my tight … Continue reading 50 tunes for 50 years: Nat King Cole
There is nothing so important to me as being strung out. Right proper strung out. Thanks to a childhood of being raised on the good stuff, oh how I loved my Nan’s Mantovani vinyl box set, I soon became accustomed to wanting my tunes filled with strings. And with disco endlessly glittering with the most glorious of instruments on earth, my life was destined to … Continue reading 50 tunes for 50 years: Debbie Jacobs
So I kinda forgot to have kids. Making it to fifty years old knowing some poor soul won’t inherit these unique genes is, well, a blessing, I guess but in my world filled with the best of nieces and nephews (and honorary nieces and nephews), those days of regrets are few. But there is, of course, the other kind of family I have chosen to … Continue reading 50 tunes for 50 years: The Wannadies
Sometimes you need a tune to rage with. And nothing does it better than The The’s I’ve Been Waiting For Tomorrow (For All My Life) or has done for, well, most of my life. All the rage, all the anger, all the guilt, all the disappointment and despair. In a healthy five minutes and forty-six seconds. Forty-eight minutes if you count the rest of Soul Mining, … Continue reading 50 tunes for 50 years: The The
One of my favoured jobs as a DJ is the warm up. A real, proper warm-up. Seducing an a gently filling club into joining me on the dancefloor. Beckoning, teasing, ensuring the heads nod, those fine arses wiggle. When I started playing in house clubs all those disco moons ago you had to start at the beginning, the warm up slot, to earn you vinyl … Continue reading 50 tunes for 50 years: Chezere
Wildblood and Queenie 