Peel slowly and see...

It's the summer of '89 and I'm lying in Darren McNeil's garden. College is over for the year and the holiday spreads out its expanse before us. It's hot, so hot that all the pretence of trying to do something with the day has dissipated. So there we lay, radio 1 blasting out from the kitchen and the sun creating dancing patterns on my eyelids when i heard the advert for that evening's John Peel show.

Now i knew who John Peel was. He was the Liverpool fan who always looked a bit older than the other DJ's on Top Of The Pops. He was also the guy who was supposed to have the really great radio show that the older kids listened to. So, i made a mental note to listen to it that night, which i did, but even better, i stuck a C90 in my system and taped the whole show too. As the nights progressed i started transferring the best tracks onto new C90's ad fin um until i had a bunch of C90's with, hand written on them, "The best of John Peel". I've still got about 20 of these.

The Family Cat, Spaceman 3, Pale Saints, Finitribe, Mudhoney, 808 State, Galaxie 500, A.R Kane, Sonic Youth, Lil Louis, Napalm Death, The Four Brothers. All these bands went from somebody i might have read about in Melody Maker and the NME to being the soundtrack of my life. And that was just the current artists he was playing, it was through John Peel that i heard mind and life changing tracks by the likes of Neil Young, Can, Kevin Ayers, Young Marble Giants, Captain Beefheart, Scritti Politti. The man was responsible more than any other in my life for breeding a wholehearted desire for musical eclecticism and the knowledge that no matter how much great music that i'd heard there was hundred's of LP's out there just waiting to blow my mind.

By the time John Peel died in 2004 i wasn't obsessively listening to his program anymore, he'd been shifted around so many times in the Radio 1 schedule that it was more a case of tuning into his show by mistake, but it was heartening to know that he was still there playing nosebleed techno before Ivor Cutler, going off into flights of fancy and putting records on at the wrong speed.

I got a phone call one night in 1997 from a friend, apparently he was playing a track from Magic Alex (Chica Chica). I ran to the radio but it was too late, if he had played it i'd never hear it, or hear his remark afterwards. This was the days before the internet (or certainly as we know it now) so there was no way i could 'listen again', but if he did play it i'd like to think that it wasn't the worst record he'd ever heard...

So here's three songs i heard that summer. Firstly i can distinctly remember that first show and one of the hightlights was this track from A.R Kane, Crack Up. Still gets a spin this one on the odd occasion, if the crowd seems in any way discerning.

13 Crack Up.mp3


Secondly, Can was probably the biggest discovery for me that summer and this song 'Dizzy Dizzy' was the first track i heard. Not my favourite, but every time i hear it i expect to hear John Peels voice at the end saying, "well that still sounds as good as ever"


Track No01.mp3


And lastly, it'd be quite obvious to post a Fall track here, but in all honesty i'd already got a fall album by that time in my life and anyway this Captain Beefheart track was the true soundtrack to those hot late nights.


05 - My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains.mp3


Till next time folks...

Son's Of Pioneers

So, after my first post, i got into a discussion with a dear friend of mine in regards to always trying to finding the musical source, or as he put it, "the original sauce." For example he wouldn't want to listen to Lonnie Donnegan when he could listen to Leadbelly instead.

And i understand. As an adolescent i was an obsessed with Japan and David Sylvian, but then i heard Roxy Music's 'Song For Europe' and felt a little silly for spending so much precious time on something that was quite frankly, pretty derivative.

A few years ago i got kind of preoccupied with working out who was the originator of certain styles of music, in fact there was a Magic Alex band joke that the Beatles invented everything (Helter Skelter - "This is where they invented heavy metal!" I Feel Fine "This is where they invented feedback!" Your Mother Should Know "This is where they invented musical post-modernism!"). But back further i went, pouring over Chuck Berry b-sides, Buddy Holly out-takes and doo-wop obscurities.

Now however, i'm feeling that, if it's good, it's good. i dont care if they were first or they were last. How does it make me feel? I know for example that whenever the opening bars of ELO's Mr Blue Sky begin i always feel about 150% happier than i did minutes earlier -and let's face it Lynne was no pioneer.

So, in the spirit of this here are three brilliant songs by wholly unoriginal artists.

First up, The Left Banke certainly weren't original, appropriating from The Beatles (you again!), Brill Building and The Byrds in equal measures. No matter, please do tell me if there's a more beautiful 3 minutes than Pretty Ballerina. Listen.

The Left Banke - Pretty Ballerina.mp3

Secondly, The Dovers, What Am I Gonna Do is, in my humble opinion the most underheard and therefore underrated pop single of all time. Like Phil Spector producing the Swinging Blue Jeans but 500 million times better than that sounds

dovers - b - what am i going to do.mp3

Lastly, the Perfect Disaster, what a band. Some would accuse Magic Alex of ripping off The Velvet Underground, but my god this band did it pretty much better than anybody else and B52 is as good as anything Lou and co put out.

07 B52.mp3

'Go, Bo Diddley. Go home"

Bye then...

Begin the begin

An experiment. A need to share. Self promotion. Ego.

There are a few reasons why i've chosen to do this. Post music that i think people may enjoy hearing. In 1996 when myself and John Mac started DJ'ing under the name of our band Magic Alex the idea was to embrace rampant eclecticism and in doing so create a place where people could come and dance with no expectations. Of course now this kind of musical free-for-all is the norm, but back then the idea of playing the likes of Lonnie Donegan, Lil Louis, The Upsetters, Sabres Of Paradise and AC/DC, The Impressions and Tom Tom Club back to back just DID NOT HAPPEN.

Some hipsters used to sneer that we were no more than Wedding DJ's because with absolutely no sense of irony we'd happily spin Shaggy's Oh Carolina or John Paul Young's Love Is In The Air whilst some joy seekers were confused by our love of all that was being released on Morr Music or our absolute need to play Neu!'s Hallogallo EVERY time we played. But, by the time we got a residency at Hospital Radio in North London circa 2000 most had cottoned on that the idea was to have FUN.

Ok, so let's post some Mp3's and see if this thing works.

First up a bloody fantastic, silly little sci-fi number by The Alan Parsons Project which i used to groove to as a 14 year old when everybody else i knew was digging into either The Style Council, Duran Duran or Howard Jones.

1 I robot.mp3

Second up is a song to get any party started, Vicious Rap by Tanya "Sweet Tee" Winley

103-tanya_winley-vicious_rap-ftd.mp3

and finally, the greatest piece of recorded music i've ever heard, The Flamingo's I Only Have Eyes For You.

flamingos.mp3

See you next time