BEATS OF LOVE 

178. Halucifuge (Freaky Chicken Peck) by Freaky Chakra

MEMORY CAN be cruel. Wincing as I reflect on my first failed attempt at DJing back in February 1994. 

It mattered to me coz I still recall the tunes I played to my imagined audience that sounded groundbreaking and brilliant.  Then the very same tunes in an actual Oldham boozer a week later with Jeff and Tim. 

Freaky Chakra's tremendous Halucifuge (Freaky Chicken Peck) shouldn't follow the mighty Augustus Pablo. It didn't, as I was so dumbstruck with nerves I had to tap Jeff on the head to cue it up. I ended on a sort of high with U-N-I (You And I) awe inspiring Don't Hold Back The Feeling (Key Trip Dub) but they did not ask me again.

They weren't perfect. Tim would play anything to entertain (i.e., Jeff's overplayed commercial records), whereas Jeff liked to play more credible tunes. When this partnership played the Wigan Pier with more than a smattering of record company freebies that Jeff got first dibs on by account of driving, tensions snapped. Tim measured his superiority in keeping more heads on the dancefloor than Jeff, despite having next to no records. Real DJs don't count heads they build relationships with their music. 

Real DJs sound like their home cities, apparently. If I'd at least sounded like a large town such as Oldham, I might not be wincing, picturing the puzzled expression on folk's faces.  

BEATS OF LOVE 

177. Human Love LP by E.R. Thorpe

HAD THE good sense to ask Emma to support Huw Costin with Torn Sail way back in 2013 after Paul suggested it. She didn't disappoint, her songs had a beguiling depth.

Only a lowly framework; stool and guitar hindered her. Now, amidst a Nottinghamshire renaissance, extra enthusiasm is at hand to broaden the framework and really prize open the textural depth of her creations. 

Hard not to get emotional hearing Red Dust and Dinner For One in this new light as songs that cradled me during tough times now sound even richer and more memorable. Brilliant players do that. They help realize her fullest potential, creating a  hell of a cohesive spin. It's truly important. We downplay the importance of life affirming music passed down through generations in our world of sound-snippets. But we need artists like Emma and long players like this more than ever. 

Pic - Joseph Eid

Reminded of Abu Omar who smoked a pipe, listening to gramophone records in his ruined Aleppo bedroom, refusing to leave the city despite the destruction. I expect he was listening to something truly enriching like this. Something that places life itself in better focus.

My favourite songs keep changing, which is always a good sign. It repays faith in Jim's production skills as he's handed back to her one mighty album. 

https://erthorpe.bandcamp.com/album/human-love-2

BEATS OF LOVE 

176. Reverend Black Grape by Black Grape

THE MISSUS was in Nigeria for Ma's funeral when Lent began. To compound my worries, I had her physical ID with me and couldn't get any clarification whether she needed it to travel back now that everything was digital, despite asking two solicitors. 

Attended as many masses as I could during Lent and what I thought would be a chore has strengthened my faith considerably. It was just under twenty years ago, on Good Friday 2006, that I went back to church. 

Unsurprisingly, I've got to know some parishioners since. If right wing dogma sits well with their religion, then this masterpiece, the last great TOTP moment, lampooning the hypocrisy of organized religion whilst sounding funky as hell, sits well with mine. 

The Jesus I know hates the commodification of religion, encouraging instead heart led relationships over rule led ones of obedience. That two self-confessed smack heads who had been all but written off could draw on their catholic and gospel heritages to subvert both the religious messaging and season while creating the finest comeback single bar, none is a testament to a wider corroboration. Danny Saber, take a bow. Heart led and unruly, the results are miraculous. 

Course the missus got back with just digital ID. My feverish Lenten prayers answered. 

BEATS OF LOVE 

175. Bolton Wanderers v Ipswich Town - April 21, 1979

SURE, I'VE witnessed some seminal moments; The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk at Bugged Out, Oasis in a big-top tent in Preston, and Nirvana supporting at the Poly, but none of them were as memorable or enjoyable as seeing this goal at Burnden Park in 1979 sat with my father. Celebrating it was our last shared moment of unadulterated joy. 

My abiding memory of the Oasis gig was watching the totally depressed and baffled looking spoken word poet Joolz try to make sense of their already forming cult, sensing they had hijacked the event. Fellow witnesses couldn't envisage how truly massiv The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk or Nirvana would become, either. 

In 1979, I liked flamboyant footballers who had lank hair and untucked shirts, and my father liked workaday ones who tucked their shirts in like Big Sam. However, in the April sunshine, Frankie Worthington fever finally gripped my father. Despite losing, he hung back, allowing me to wait in the car park with my candy-pink Disney autograph book. 

After a forty-minute wait, the great man finally surfaced, just to strut nonchalantly past us, which I thought was dead cool. Fast forward to the next day and I'm shouting at my father to watch his goal again during On The Ball, but he refused to lift his head out of the Sunday paper. 

Yeah, I saw one of the most graceful and skillful goals ever scored on British soil and all I have to show for it is a Paul Mariner autograph.