Why vinyl matters blad

CONTENTS 6 8 16 20 30 36 40 46 52 58 64 70 76 80 84 90 94 100

Preface Introduction – Jennifer Otter Bickerdike Lars Ulrich – Metallica Fatboy Slim – DJ / Musician / Record Producer Henry Rollins – Black Flag Tim Burgess – The Charlatans Julia Ruzicka – Million Dead, Future of the Left Chief Xcel – Blackalicious Cut Chemist – Jurassic 5, Ozomatli Gaz Coombes – Supergrass Fat Mike – NOFX / Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Steve Hackett – Genesis Rob da Bank – DJ / Bestival Founder / Film Composer / Earworm Music Fab 5 Freddy – Artist / Filmaker / Rapper Clint Boon – Inspiral Carpets Maxi Jazz – Faithless, Maxi Jazz & the E-Type Boys Mike Ness – Social Distortion The Art of the pre-digital Album Cover

4

104 114 120 126 130 136 140 144 150 158 164 170 178 184 192 198 204 210 212

Peter Saville – Artist and Designer / Factory Records Alison Fields – Designer / Beggars Banquet Colleen Murphy – DJ / Event Founder / Classic Album Sundays Nick Hornby – Author Michael Kurtz – Record Store Day Co-Founder Making Vinyl David Miller – Record-Pressing Plant Manager Adam Gonsalves – Mastering Engineer Simon Raymonde – Cocteau Twins Karen Emanuel – Founder, Key Production Ben Blackwell – The Dirtbombs Portia Sabin – The Hissyfits Gered Mankowitz – Photographer Terry Currier – Photographer................................... Stephen Godfroy – Co-Owner / Director, Rough Trade Jeff Gold – Owner, Recordmecca / Author Mark Weinstein – Co-Founder / Co-Owner of Amoeba Music Thank yous Image credits page

5

CONTENTS 6 8 16 20 30 36 40 46 52 58 64 70 76 80 84 90 94 100

Preface Introduction – Jennifer Otter Bickerdike Lars Ulrich – Metallica Fatboy Slim – DJ / Musician / Record Producer Henry Rollins – Black Flag Tim Burgess – The Charlatans Julia Ruzicka – Million Dead, Future of the Left Chief Xcel – Blackalicious Cut Chemist – Jurassic 5, Ozomatli Gaz Coombes – Supergrass Fat Mike – NOFX / Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Steve Hackett – Genesis Rob da Bank – DJ / Bestival Founder / Film Composer / Earworm Music Fab 5 Freddy – Artist / Filmaker / Rapper Clint Boon – Inspiral Carpets Maxi Jazz – Faithless, Maxi Jazz & the E-Type Boys Mike Ness – Social Distortion The Art of the pre-digital Album Cover

4

104 114 120 126 130 136 140 144 150 158 164 170 178 184 192 198 204 210 212

Peter Saville – Artist and Designer / Factory Records Alison Fields – Designer / Beggars Banquet Colleen Murphy – DJ / Event Founder / Classic Album Sundays Nick Hornby – Author Michael Kurtz – Record Store Day Co-Founder Making Vinyl David Miller – Record-Pressing Plant Manager Adam Gonsalves – Mastering Engineer Simon Raymonde – Cocteau Twins Karen Emanuel – Founder, Key Production Ben Blackwell – The Dirtbombs Portia Sabin – The Hissyfits Gered Mankowitz – Photographer Terry Currier – Photographer................................... Stephen Godfroy – Co-Owner / Director, Rough Trade Jeff Gold – Owner, Recordmecca / Author Mark Weinstein – Co-Founder / Co-Owner of Amoeba Music Thank yous Image credits page

5

FATBOY SLIM DJ/ MUSICIAN / RECORD PRODUCER Norman Cook, better known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English DJ, musician and record producer/mixer. Cook first rose to fame in the 1980s as the bassist in indie rock band The Housemartins, known for their hits ‘Happy Hour’ and their UK #1, a cover of Isley Jasper Isley’s ‘Caravan of Love.’ After the band split, Cook formed Beats International, whose debut album spawned their signature hit, ‘Dub Be Good to Me,’ also a UK numberone. Cook adopted the Fatboy Slim moniker in 1996 and released Better Living Through Chemistry to critical acclaim. His subsequent albums, You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby and Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, as well as their associated singles, including ‘The Rockafeller Skank,’ ‘Praise You,’ ‘Right Here Right Now,’ and ‘Weapon of Choice,’ also met with both commercial success and critical praise. In 2012, Fatboy Slim performed a remix of ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics. He is the only artist to have played at 18 consecutive Glastonbury Festivals.

20

21

FATBOY SLIM DJ/ MUSICIAN / RECORD PRODUCER Norman Cook, better known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English DJ, musician and record producer/mixer. Cook first rose to fame in the 1980s as the bassist in indie rock band The Housemartins, known for their hits ‘Happy Hour’ and their UK #1, a cover of Isley Jasper Isley’s ‘Caravan of Love.’ After the band split, Cook formed Beats International, whose debut album spawned their signature hit, ‘Dub Be Good to Me,’ also a UK numberone. Cook adopted the Fatboy Slim moniker in 1996 and released Better Living Through Chemistry to critical acclaim. His subsequent albums, You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby and Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, as well as their associated singles, including ‘The Rockafeller Skank,’ ‘Praise You,’ ‘Right Here Right Now,’ and ‘Weapon of Choice,’ also met with both commercial success and critical praise. In 2012, Fatboy Slim performed a remix of ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics. He is the only artist to have played at 18 consecutive Glastonbury Festivals.

20

21

You aren’t sympathetic to these kids, then?

Most cherished piece of vinyl you own and why?

No. It’s pure nostalgia for something they weren’t even around for. But at the same time, if you buy into vinyl you are saying ‘I am making a commitment, spending money. In return, I can show my friends. I can put these sleeves on the wall. I am actually buying into this.’ It is kind of half right.

A Disconet copy – a legal Disconet copy – of Double Dee and Steinski’s Lesson 2. It was a hip-hop party cut-up that couldn’t be released back in those days [the 1980s] because it was James Brown-goesinto-‘Planet-Rock’ [by Soulsonic Force] goes-intoeverything. It was the first time I had ever spent two weeks’ wages on a record. But I was the only person in the whole of the South of England, as far as I knew, who had that piece of vinyl. It got bootlegged about six months later, but I had it sixth months before. Even after it was bootlegged, when I played it, other DJs would come up and go, ‘Oh that’s not the bootleg, that’s the original.’ It was great. It’s a wonderful piece of musical history because Double Dee and Steinski were the pioneers of cut-up. Musically, it inspired me. Also, as a DJ, to invest that amount of money in one piece of vinyl, and to have it pay off, was great. The second most cherished piece of vinyl would probably be my copy of London Calling by the Clash. It‘s very dear in my heart. Sampling the ‘Guns of Brixton’ for ‘Dub Be Good to Me’ – it launched a whole career for me. Again, a very sound investment, that record.

Thoughts on DJs who have never used vinyl and have only learned how to DJ via the computer / Serato? That’s like asking about people who can’t operate a pony and trap because the internal combustion engine was invented. There are skills that you don’t need to know. I don’t need to know how to use a mule to draw water from a well, because my water comes out of a tap. Vinyl was a very interesting part of music’s culture – dance music especially – but now you can do your own edits and downloads, going back to it [vinyl] is kind of beyond nostalgic – it’s archaic.

How does the vinyl experience both live and in the studio differ for you and how you want your music to be perceived? How do the ‘mistakes and fuck ups’ make or break a performance? I still have all of my vinyl, but I use it more as a vault – a reference library vault – than a working, living collection. It doesn’t really figure in making new music. Every now and then, there will be a tune I want to sample that I can’t find as an MP3 or a WAV. Then I may go and dig the vinyl out so I can sample it off that. Beyond that, about once a year, I DJ at a party or an event where they want me to play vinyl. It’s quite fun, but it’s like watching someone ride a penny-farthing around the room.

24

I really am a fan.’ You can’t even say that these days. Because everyone can say, ‘I have access to all of your records.’ Nobody can buy into that anymore; they only thing you can really say to tell people you are a true fan is, ‘I follow your every Tweet!’

rockers, rockabillys, psychobillys, goths; which one did you get on with? It was like, I will ride the next few out and get on that one. Kids just don’t dress up and join cults anymore. There is a theory that online cults come and go before you have time to invest in a whole new wardrobe! Like Pokémon Go: it had a shelf life of what, five weeks? Things happen so quickly on the internet, there isn’t time to invest in changing your hairstyle and buying a whole new wardrobe of clothes.

Is the resurgence of vinyl about nostalgia? Whenever I use vinyl, it’s for nostalgic reasons. Either I am trying to relive my childhood or educate my kids as to what I used to listen to. Or playing a party or a set at a club for people who want the DJ to use vinyl. Like I said before, it’s like knowing how to ride a penny-farthing when you have a smart car.

Every generation had its soundtrack and its cult religions or tribes. As fashion has become more disposable, people have become less passionate about belonging to a tribe. They don’t want to throw themselves whole-heartedly into it. The only people who really do seem to be the scooter boys. They come through here [Brighton] on their way to the Isle of Wight. They still keep the faith. I bet you they are still spending extraordinary amounts of money on Northern Soul records; I bet they still play vinyl.

Every six months or so, me and my ex-wife would say, ‘Look, we should play our kids some proper records and go through our record collections with them, and say, “Have you heard this?”’ We get the turntable out and we do it. Then you remember that you have to get up to change the record. It’s like when they first invented TV remotes: you were like, ‘How lazy must you be to not to get up from your sofa and walk over to change the channel; how lazy must you be?’ Roll on six months and you would sit and watch the wrong programme because you couldn’t find the remote. You just get into bad habits. The idea of sitting there by the record player and putting 45s on every two and half, three minutes – it’s not convenient at all.

Is vinyl’s return to vogue simply a trend, or will it be more long-lived?

Can the same thing happen today? Can you get the same cache and credibility from a rare record, or a trend?

I think it is a bit of a fashion, a bit of a trend. It came along around the same time as the hipster beard. I don’t know why I associate the two! I think they are both funny; in a few years, people will look back, and think, ‘What were we doing?’

I don’t know. Yes, that record gave you the credibility; but it was practical as well. It was like a really cool leather jacket: not only did it make you look really cool, but it kept you warm as well. I don’t know that there is a parallel today; I can’t see anything that kids really latch onto. I sometimes bemoan the lack of cult fashions and tribes. When I grew up, there was a new tribe seemingly every five months. During my teenage years, there were punks, skinheads, suede-heads, rude boys, mods,

I would love to think that this is the way it will go. But there has to be another way that people buy into the cults, the gangs, that is more suited to the 21st century. I suppose it’s like following someone on Twitter. It’s about the level of commitment you make. People used to come up and ask me for an autograph in the street – rather than a selfie. And as I was signing the autograph, they would say, ‘I have all your records’. i.e. ‘I haven’t just recognised you in the street, and I don’t just know your big hits;

Is there any piece of vinyl you are still chasing and why? The other day, I found a copy of Carpenters: Greatest Hits, sung by The Sessions Singers, on eBay. That was the Carpenters record I grew up with – this is how uncool my parents were! They did not even buy the original Carpenters: Greatest Hits, they bought one of those Ronco ‘Sounds Like’ things

25