This Sunday (Sept 5th), at 9pm, you’re invited to share a listening session with some likeminded souls, wherever you might be. This can be experienced either alone or communally, and you don’t need to leave the comfort of your own home to participate.
This brilliant animation enhances these words of wisdom. John Lennon interviewed by 14 year old Jerry Levitan in Toronto (1969).
More than interested to recently hear that Liam Gallagher has acquired the rights to one of my favourite Beatles related books, ‘The Longest Cocktail Party’ (1972), and plans to make it into a film. Told from the perspective of ‘house hippy’ Richard DiLello, this wonderfully entertaining memoir aptly describes itself as ‘An insiders diary of The Beatles, their million-dollar Apple Empire, and its wild rise and fall’. What really sets it apart is that the books central character is neither John, Paul, George or Ringo, but Derek Taylor, the bands press officer who, alongside fellow Liverpudlians Brian Epstein, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, played key supporting roles as part of the Beatle inner-circle.
My intention from the off was that we should be celebrating the unique qualities of the British DJ in a way nobody has done previously, with the main body of those approached having helped cultivate this rich dance culture of ours via their own individual contributions, all essential to the rhythmic stew that’s been eagerly gobbled up down the years. We wanted pioneers and we got them, putting paid to the myth that Ibiza ’87 was some sort of year zero, but more the culmination of their previous endeavours, for these were the guys who laid the blueprint, some of whom are well-known names, others who’ve never received the props they deserve. Hopefully this will do something to help redress the situation and right a few wrongs.
The first Living To Music exceeded all expectations. Far more people participated than I’d envisaged, so it’s already ahead of itself in terms of growth, whilst the feedback has been exactly what I’d hoped for, with a whole range of insightful and honest perspective further enhancing the overall experience. Now the foundation is in place I hope we can gradually spread the idea a lot further, starting with the next session on Sunday September 5th (once again commencing at 9pm), when the album will be ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ by Pink Floyd.
Since we listened to Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ album, to launch Living To Music, I’ve found myself thinking about his ‘perfect partner’, Tammi Terrell, and the tragedy of her early death in 1970, aged just 24. Terrell, of course, will always be remembered for recording some classic Motown tracks with Gaye, including ‘You’re All I Need To Get By’, ‘Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing’ and, of course, the standard for all boy / girl duets , ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’.
I became aware of the Eclectic Circus when Adrian emailed me to ask if I’d be up for an interview, which has just been broadcast and has now been uploaded onto their SoundCloud page, where they archive their shows. It’s their second interview, their first being something of a coup – none other than the father of the remix, Tom Moulton.
Down the years, so many people have told me about how they got into dance music as a result of the Street Sounds Electro series, which had such a massive impact on a significant chunk of British youth, both black and white, following its launch in late ’83, but is bafflingly absent in so many accounts of UK dance history.
Almost halfway through this series of two hour selections, which will culminate in a full twenty-four hours of music from the 60’s through to the mid-70’s and is all about my love affair with the 7” single, which I grew up with in my pre-DJ youth. It’s not a mix, the tracks are included in their entirety, one following the other. The series was launched back in February to mark my 50th birthday.
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