So it's exactly one year since the great man died. I had just taken a day trip to Hells gate national park near lake Naivasha by matatu, returning to stay with andy. It was whilst watching tv that he informed me that he'd heard that John had died.
Now I know there's loads of tributes and stuff going on, but i really think that this guy made a difference to my life, and i guess i'm not the only one to say that. Which is really something, i can't imagine any of the current crop of djs having such an influence - they seem more preoccupied with their own ego, but for John it was all about the music. I'm not saying that i enjoyed every show he did, sometimes there's a limit to how much german industrial techno you can take - but due credit for playing it in the first place. But john introduced me to some fantastic music, some of my favourite in fact, and those he didn't introduce me to, he inevitably played tunes by them.
I recall being a young teenager, recently into music, listening to the radio one sat evening and john was on playing a fantastic electronic tune, and i made an effort to get out of bed and scribble on a piece of paper "papua new guinea by future sound of london, dumb child of Q remix'. Sometime later, whilst at university i purchased that single!
Another peel highlight was whilst revising for my winter finals, a cold january evening reading my notes and in the background he played a song that made me stop and quickly place a blank tape into the recorder to capture this tune. It was pull the wires from the wall by the delgados. After playing it he said, i could play that again and again it's so good, but I won't, I don't want to overuse such a special track. It went on to top the Festive 50 that year. Within a fortnight of hearing that track i'd been to derby to hear them live for the first time. Amazing.
I think the last band he introduced me to were Architecture in Helsinki as he played a white label by them during a programme where the delgados were playing a session.
So thanks john for helping create my diverse musical collection
this list could go on and on...
Stewart Henderson, the bass player with the delgados, gave an account of the times he met the great man in his diary, read his 3 entries here, here and here. btw it's got swearing and stuff in it.
No comments:
Post a Comment