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📚 The notes 📚
Everyone loves music… right?
At least that’s what I always like to think / pretend in a hopelessly romantic way whenever I meet someone new. Sadly, we’ve all met people who just don’t care that much about music, they can take it or leave it (but will happily tell everyone that they love it when asked).
I still love the feeling you get when you meet someone who properly LOVES music. Someone who LOVES music just as much… if not more… than you do. And that is exactly how I felt when I first met Jed.
Jed and I met a few years back at a place called Osea Island. A curious little place situated in the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, which over the years has hosted rehabbing stars, ravers and recording artists (so a perfect backdrop for our introduction). We instantly hit it off talking about our record collections, and shared love of music.
I grew up in a family where music was always a big thing. My mum and dad were (and continue to be) obsessed by music. My mum made a record in ‘67 with an all-girl Folk band called The Markells. The record ended up sounding a bit more Motown than Folk, but it was cool that they recorded something. My youngest sister was in a couple of bands, one of which experienced a little bit of success – achieving an 8/10 review for their debut album in the NME!
My three uncles on my mums side of the family were all prolific guitar players. However, it was my older brother who accidentally helped create the electronic loving musical nut that I later became (more on that in a bit).
I don’t make music. I just hoard it for safekeeping.
So, one of my new year’s resolutions for this year was to try and surface some of the old and new music that I love and own on my favourite medium… Vinyl.
To dig deep in to my record collection, and to share some of the analog love. This has evolved in to an ongoing vinyl mixtape series.
When Jed first agreed to me delivering a guest slot on his amazing project, I saw it not only as a as a total honor and a privilege, but also as a natural extension to my ‘sharing is caring’ approach to music.
There have been many clubs, nights, labels, DJ’s, record shops, albums, radio stations, festivals, gigs and people that have influenced / shaped my musical tastes over the years. Below is a little story from one of them.
Culture Shock was exactly that, a Friday night at a venue that was usually a cheesy 80’s night club in a suburban town in Essex. It started in 1992 with resident DJ’s Darren Emerson (from Underworld fame) and Simon Hanson & Laurence Nelson (from Gat Decor, Passion fame). Tony Grimley and Gareth Cooke became the resident DJ’s a little later in 1993, and then stayed on every Friday for 4 years. It certainly was a culture shock for a small market town like Romford to have DJ’s from the likes of David Morales, John Digweed, Andrew Weatherall, Sasha and every big name in between turn up and play every single Friday.
I started going there in 93, and the club had a huge impact on me as a teenager. It was my first proper introduction to live DJ’s and house music, and it was a gateway in to another world (or at least that’s how it felt at the time!).
I grew up in Hornchurch, Essex (just down the road from Romford) so being able to dance to some of the best DJ’s in the world, on your own doorstep, week in week out… was quite simply, mind blowing.
Prior to this, my very earliest memories of being introduced to house music were from the mix tapes that my older brother used to bring home from a London night club called ‘Naked Lunch’. Again, Darren Emerson, Simon Hanson and Laurence Nelson were all regular DJ’s there.
Unfortunately, I was a bit too young to make it that club, but the music from there certainly left its mark on me. And you can hear some of those influences in my playlist.
I write this at the end of a few weeks of tweaking and honing, compiling and re-compiling, and despite my best intentions I am already unpicking the whole thing, realising that I have neglected much loved corners of my record collection and remembering tracks that I should have selected for this set. Ah well.
I’ve certainly had a lot of fun assembling this little musical jigsaw. If you give it a listen, then I hope you have some fun too.
But hey, enough of my yakking. Whaddaya say? Let’s chill, let’s boogie, let’s dance!
Jed, thank you for everything you do, and for being an inspiration to people like me.
As always, if you’ve read to here, thanks for indulging me ❤️.
See you on the dance floor.
Love Will Save the Day |