The all-women club night Venus Rising did more than just thrill me in parts of my body I didn’t think existed back in ’91. It changed my mindset, putting me in a path that was to be Shameless and full of regal passion. And it made me fall for the oh so hot soul of house music, the divas that ensured the b.p.m.’s were filled … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Xi-Xi
Sometimes you need your disco saucy, sultry and oh so sweet. A groove so good all Fern can do is sing about it. And what a groove. One that’s had me hooked since I first dug deep into disco’s glittering underbelly (thanks it must be said to the boys of Horse Meat Disco), Fern Kinney’s Groove Me is an epic lesson in the joy of … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Fern Kinney
This one is a seriously indecisive choice. Because this one is more than one tune. It’s more like 50 times 50 tunes as I head towards that thing called the DJ box. Thankfully the finer DJs in my life don’t appear to share the red button terror I do, delivering instead sets that have wowed, charmed and made my life so sound. Be they Midland … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Various Artists Various DJs
“I heard zips, I heard zips!” the immortal words my mother screamed one night back in 1984 as this misfit made the first mistake of her teenage life. Not the snog session under the coats piled up in my bedroom, there would be plenty of time to sort that mistaken sexual identity later, but throwing a teenage birthday party. End of. What was I thinking? … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Shannon
It’s wrapped in seen better days paper and is seriously battered, but like fish and chips on Brighton beach, it’s beautiful. And it’s all about Queenie. One of those slices of 7” joy she digs out every so often and proceeds to lose it to big time in our big f***ing room. The goosebumps it generates tell you all you need to know about the … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Gonzalez
Day 26 and I could cross the finish line of my #50tunesfor50years venture with nothing but Bowie. Sound & Vision, Low, Hunky Dory, Young Americans, Station To Station, The Next Day, Blackstar – each masterpieces that hourly rotate at the top of my favourite Bowie albums. Ask me to choose one track and I would be equally reticent to declare, feeling a sense of unfaithfulness as … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: David Bowie Sweet Thing
It was 1977 and I had finally got my hands on my very own piece of vinyl. ABBA’s Arrival had, erm, arrived, its shiny-helicoptered pop stars starring out at me as I held a gatefold I would paw over for years. It would be a while before a Dare from Sheffield would supersede the Swedish superstars but until then I was devoted to Björn & … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: ABBA
Alongside the Garrad deck and Wharfedale speakers in the lounge, our dining room also had its stereophonic installation. And what an installation. A sideboard come radio come record player piece of furniture, its valves took an age to “warm” up. But once it finally burst in radio static filled life it provided our dining room and kitchen (thanks to its hatch, an ever-present 70s addition to … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Minnie Riperton
This one is for my little sister Joanne. The lass I rarely see, the lass life has kept from me but the lass who will always be. Chalk and cheese, we never saw eye to eye on much, mine an awkward life not suited to her confident Essex ways. She was the sweet, I the sour, she the popular, me the acquired, her 70s brash, … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Average White Band
All it takes for my heart to fall in love with a tune is a diva who knows her way to my soul. A tad of a tall order but something Lady Bird does within the first bar of this essential house track by Soldiers of Twilight. More uplifting than a crane driver on MDMA, this house beauty has accompanied some of the finest dancefloor … Continue reading 50 Tunes For 50 Years: Soldiers Of Twilight
Wildblood and Queenie 