On Glan Clwyd Radio with Jo Fino
Last Wednesday I was interviewed on Glan Clwyd Hospital radio by Jo Fino.
It was a version of 'Desert Island Discs' so I had to select about eight tracks to talk about, and so selected not necessarily my favourite songs, but easy-listening music I thought most people might enjoy, and which also represented my life.
Under the Moon of Love - Showwaddywaddy (because one of them lived at the bottom of my garden when I was a child).
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman (because I remember listening to this soon after I got married).
American Pie - Madonna (because I used to listen to this when driving to work).
Me, myself, I - Joan Armatrading (because it seems to me to be about women and their different roles and fist starting to write my first novel alongside doing everything else).
Distant Shores - All Saints (exotic places and beaches in Greenland and my first novel for adults about Alfred Greenland).
Never was a Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos (my research into madness for my second novel for adults)
Men of Harlech - Welsh Choir (the Welsh in Patagonia novel research).
Nightswimming - REM (current research in China and swimming in the night in a pool in Hong Kong - something I had long wanted to do).
Jo, who is a writer too, hasn't been a volunteer at the radio for long, and I was her first interviewee. I thought she did a grand job. I enjoyed myself very much and hope the audience did too. Thanks for asking me Jo! (And thanks to Chris the Radio Manager who manged to find the songs I'd half-remembered).
It was a version of 'Desert Island Discs' so I had to select about eight tracks to talk about, and so selected not necessarily my favourite songs, but easy-listening music I thought most people might enjoy, and which also represented my life.
Under the Moon of Love - Showwaddywaddy (because one of them lived at the bottom of my garden when I was a child).
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman (because I remember listening to this soon after I got married).
American Pie - Madonna (because I used to listen to this when driving to work).
Me, myself, I - Joan Armatrading (because it seems to me to be about women and their different roles and fist starting to write my first novel alongside doing everything else).
Distant Shores - All Saints (exotic places and beaches in Greenland and my first novel for adults about Alfred Greenland).
Never was a Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos (my research into madness for my second novel for adults)
Men of Harlech - Welsh Choir (the Welsh in Patagonia novel research).
Nightswimming - REM (current research in China and swimming in the night in a pool in Hong Kong - something I had long wanted to do).
Jo, who is a writer too, hasn't been a volunteer at the radio for long, and I was her first interviewee. I thought she did a grand job. I enjoyed myself very much and hope the audience did too. Thanks for asking me Jo! (And thanks to Chris the Radio Manager who manged to find the songs I'd half-remembered).
posted by Clare Dudman at 8:52 am
6 Comments:
It’s an interesting selection and most of it evokes certain memories for me even if they might not have been the tracks I would have picked myself. The Showaddywaddy track for example could easily have been a Mud track or Darts even but it reminds me of the early seventies and I’ve always counted those as some of most favourite years ever. My track from that time would have been Gary Glitter’s ‘I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)’. Of course you could never play that on the radio these days which is a shame and Glitter’s fall from grace must have hurt Mike Leander’s pocket quite hard since he co-wrote most of the big hits. This was the first pop song that really grabbed me and his was the first pop album I owned . Up until then I really listened to just classical music and don’t blame my parents because they never even owned a record player and had to buy me one so I could borrow records from the library.
Tori Amos is my daughter’s favourite singer and I remember when she was wee dragging her round Hamilton looking for Tori’s first album. It was for me but she took up the flame once she became a teenager and she literally has everything she’s released and that will include her new album which she’ll get this Christmas from me.
I wouldn’t have included Madonna’s version of American Pie though. The original was so iconic all she could possibly do was ruin it.
I personally hate compiling lists like this because I can never settle for whatever the number is. When my wife and I were getting to know each other we used to do Top Ten lists and mine were rarely shorter than twenty-five entries.
Aha, we obviously come from the same era, Jim! Yes, I agree about Gary Glitter, and Id never thought about the repercussions of this before - good point.
I often find myself liking the music of the younger generation (like Tori Amos). It seems like a guilty pleasure.
I'm afraid I'm a bit of a Madonna fan, and I really like this version - I agree that the original is more iconic, though. This one just happened to be on the radio when I went to work, and I remember singing along to it in the privacy of my car.
And yes, very hard narrowing it down to just ten! Thanks Jim.
Podcast of the interview?
No, I'm afraid not, Marly. It's a pretty low tech operation, I think - and their equipment is too old to give a sufficiently good quality recording.
Tracy Chapman, Joan Armatrading, REM, and Tori Amos are all excellent choices.
Glad someone else shares my excellent taste, Paul! :-)
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