Hi and welcome to On The Turntable with me your host Jon! I'm just practicing my introductions for my new vinyl music show video called duh duh dah 'On The Turntable'. You might think I'd make videos about art for my first foray into being on camera but that's part of phase 2. I've been a music fan since I can remember, from listening to Fleetwood Mac & Tracy Chapman on family road trips to discovering my own favourite bands in the mid 90's and beyond. Music has played an integral role in my life, forming life long friendships based on the music I listened to sitting around in teenage bedrooms, checking out the latest sounds from Sonic Youth & Radiohead and seeing how my taste changed over the course of 25 years with the music that pumped out of the PA in clubs like The Palace, Origin and Snafu, all helping to rewire my brain to receive new sounds and pushing me to seek out new artists.
Over the years I've amassed a healthy record collection and I find it really interesting how music is shared and passed on from my younger days to now, from the mid 90s where we'd sneak our cassette tapes and walkmans into class (bulging pockets and headphones up the sleeve!), listening to the latest radio shows and the passing of mixtapes and CDs amongst friends to modern streaming services where entire catalogues can be shared at the touch of a button. But I really miss the analogue aspect, making a mix tape and having to record each track, pausing at just the right moment and hand writing the track list on the cover, even making some unique art work or laterally picking out songs and burning up mix CDs. Looking for music before Spotify & ITunes was also fun, heading to 'JeanScene' in the Trinity Centre where they had a special tape corridor lined with the latest rave and hardcore cassettes. Could you imagine walking into a clothes shop now and picking up some happy hardcore Scooter tapes!
When my older brother started to get into the latest indie bands like Oasis & Ocean Colour Scene my parents bestowed upon us their vinyl collection and really opened up the musical doors. New old sounds blasted from our speakers with The Beatles, David Bowie, Led Zepplin and Thin Lizzy all becoming firm favourites, even more so because these were the bands our favroutie bands liked but also leftfield artists like Billy Cobham and Steve Vai. I guess my parents kicked off a life long obsession with record collecting and seeing the beauty in the packaging and design of the 12inch format, many of which have cool lyric sheets and inner sleeve photo's. You can read many articles about record designers lamenting the 12inch canvas before the rise of the CD with its small cover. Certainly seeing an unusual record cover pulls me in more than a CD. Also the feeling of flicking through records, there's a certain quality to it, a tactility that clicking on a computer mouse and the digital experience will never match. Of course you don't have to worry about storing MP3's!
Over the last few years I've dipped into making vinyl mixes and podcasts the latest of which you can listen to above and via our Mixcloud page. My approach to these mixes varies, sometimes its a case of selecting 1 track to kick things off and then selecting records as I go or sometimes a song will trigger a connection to another track and ill plan it out in advance. My new year mix was the latter, spending the evening before going through records I haven't listened to in years and really just enjoying the process of rediscovery. It also started me thinking about the hidden stories and connections behind some of selections and also some of the people who inspired them. So I wanted to expand on this a little and came up with the idea for a new YouTube show. Being in various vinyl groups on Facebook I'd often find old dudes posting their Pink Floyd bootlegs with no real context or insight into what makes them special so I'm going to speak about what makes certain records and song special to me and highlight special people like my mum and dad.
I've always found it easier to work behind the camera but 2021 is going to be a year of trying new things, expanding on the blogs output while also honing in on more local artists and musicians and building and sharing our network. This is hopefully just the start of producing videos for our YouTube channel to be sure to give it a like and Subscribe to help us move things up a notch, it's much appreciated. Episode 1 of 'On The Turntable' features delightful music from Bird Sounds In Close Up Vol 2, Sigur Ros, C418, Bjork, Apparat, Shlohmo, Bones & Money, Todd Terje, David Shrigley, The Beatles, Fruit Bats, APB, The Little Kicks, Best Girl Athlete & Neil Young!
Tune in to our next vinyl live stream this Saturday (23rd January) where we'll be spinning records from 11am til 1pm, watch it live here.
