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1/ I was thinking about the music that I listened to when I was growing up. In my formative 12-18 years I was painfully shy. Music was my escape from a crap homelife.
2/ I had a Commodore 64 and got in to music listening to the chip tunes that guys like Martin Galway and Rob Hubbard did. I got a Sharp radio player so started listening to the top 40 and taping songs off it.
3/ I spent a lot of time listening to John Peel and Jeff Young on Radio 1. I lived in a northern town (this was late 80s) and it was pretty grim. Well, Grimsby, to be exact. I was white, the whole town was white, and it was all about the rock music.
4/ My whole life was ordinary working-class. My parents record stash had about 10 LP& #39;s: Who& #39;s Next, Aladdin Sane, some Arcade compilations, the Nolans. Pretty standard stuff. I wanted to discover worlds beyond all of this.
5/ And looking back on where I travelled musically it was all being fed by "outsiders". Black, gay, those marginalised, groups hiding from the masses who wanted to do things differently.
6/ The Hip- hop scene : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7uuEFvR6Jw
I">https://www.youtube.com/watch... had never even met a black person in our town growing up! It was life-changing. I played Public Enemy to my dad in the car in & #39;87. It really went well over his head. It was ace! Just the reaction I wanted.
I">https://www.youtube.com/watch... had never even met a black person in our town growing up! It was life-changing. I played Public Enemy to my dad in the car in & #39;87. It really went well over his head. It was ace! Just the reaction I wanted.
7/ The Industrial scene: : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31S7weQH8JA
Apocalyptic">https://www.youtube.com/watch... sounds that drove audio nails to our skulls. Heavy, driving, intense. Metal music that actually rocked more than rock music.
Apocalyptic">https://www.youtube.com/watch... sounds that drove audio nails to our skulls. Heavy, driving, intense. Metal music that actually rocked more than rock music.
8/ The New Beat sound. I imagined dark clubs where DJ& #39;s played slow, dense records to impossibly cool and unobtainable women. Not the goths down our local club or the Mandy& #39;s and Sharon& #39;s at Pier 39. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0TxvUxZk6I">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
9/ Hi-NRG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9-xBZxqQi0
I">https://www.youtube.com/watch... had certainly never met anyone who was gay. Or knew I had, anyway.
I">https://www.youtube.com/watch... had certainly never met anyone who was gay. Or knew I had, anyway.
10/ Chicago House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wDJ9OQZ4Ns
Music">https://www.youtube.com/watch... made by gay men to be played in gay clubs that took over the world. I had no idea it was made by gay men originally. Grimsby in 1988 was a pretty sheltered place and I was pretty clueless.
Music">https://www.youtube.com/watch... made by gay men to be played in gay clubs that took over the world. I had no idea it was made by gay men originally. Grimsby in 1988 was a pretty sheltered place and I was pretty clueless.
11/ Techno: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3QHj7lai9I
No">https://www.youtube.com/watch... idea the people making these sounds were black. It wasn& #39;t important to me. I just heard the music.
No">https://www.youtube.com/watch... idea the people making these sounds were black. It wasn& #39;t important to me. I just heard the music.
12/ Italo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvI-hwCtSoY
Sounds">https://www.youtube.com/watch... from Europe where people, to me, were just so fucking cool. It& #39;s preposterous but to this 16 years old and living the other side of an industrial estate this kind of shit was so fricking glamorous.
Sounds">https://www.youtube.com/watch... from Europe where people, to me, were just so fucking cool. It& #39;s preposterous but to this 16 years old and living the other side of an industrial estate this kind of shit was so fricking glamorous.
13/ All these sounds bouncing around my head. And looking back I was directed to the "outsider", whether they were black or gay or marginalised or part of a clique or scene that simply wasn& #39;t just British white people doing shit white, heterosexual things.
14/ I couldn& #39;t stand The Smiths. I was in to Frankie Goes To Hollywood. I didn& #39;t like guitars, I liked cheap synths and samplers. I liked non-stop repetitive beat music. And looking back, with 30 years having passed, this was an escape. Not a literal one, though.
15/ It& #39;d be years before I left the town for the big cities. But it was a mental escape from the grey, desperately dull crap I saw all around me.
16/ And now in 2020 I have to block family members from my social media because they are homophobic and racist and hurtful and pretty crap people. They don& #39;t understand anything that isn& #39;t within their frame of reference. I won& #39;t be bringing my girls up that way.
17/ I want them, as they grow, to find their own scenes, their own references. To head to the "outsiders" as they& #39;re always the most interesting types.
