Mix tapes

I've loved the musical medium of the "mix tape" since I first got access to recording equipment in the early 1980s. In those days, it was the painful exercise of having finger poised on the pause button while record and play were waiting to kick into action to capture as much of your favourite track being played on the radio... in mono of course.... with half the track being spoken over by the egomaniac DJ. But you got some mixes of your favourite music that you could listen to on your Walkman.

Over the years, radio DJs haven't changed that much. I suppose they're presenters rather than DJs since they don't need any particular talents or musical knowledge to talk shite over music that all sounds the same while having their egos massaged by a side-kick who talks in the language of in-jokes and D-list celebrity gossip. At least in this time, music media have changed quite dramatically. Mix tapes now come in the form of playlists on digital music players and the music never really comes in a real format anymore - it's just a file on your PC that has been downloaded.

It's rare that I buy real music these days. This is a good thing since I really haven't got any room for any more CDs: it's so much more convenient to just download an album onto a hard drive. But if you think about it, there's something really nice about listening to music on vinyl, there's a warmth there that cannot be achieved with the cleanliness of the purely digital format. Ah for the start of Blondie's Parallel Lines, the crackle of the stylus on the record... thud, thud as it hits a minor scratch... dialling tone... I'm in the phonebooth, it's the one across the hall. I still have an original copy of this album from when it was first released back in 1978, I shall be playing it very loud this weekend.

But back to my mix tape. I do make mixes of things for my car's CD player and, when I started seeing Trump, she gave me some rules about making these things. Apparently, it's a mortal sin to put more than one track from the same artiste on a mix CD. I could've been Trump dumped within a week if she hadn't been so forgiving. Apart from that one rule though, anything seems to go and you can put whatever you like on a mix CD. It is without shame that I can proclaim that my latest mix CD contains the following tracks:

1. The B52's - Lava
2. Beyonce - Ring the alarm (thanks Tazzy)
3. Banderas - This is your life
4. Gnarls Barkley - Who cares
5. Sade - Paradise
6. Rainbow - Since you've been gone
7. George Michael - Too funky
8. Kate Bush - James and the cold gun
9. Michael Jackson - Rock with you
10. Duran Duran - Come undone
11. Jamelia - Something about you
12. Joe Jackson - It's different for girls
13. The Similou - All this love (thanks Tazzy)
14. Morcheeba - Let me see
15. Blondie - 11.59
16. David Holmes - Paper underwear
17. Soft Cell & Jimmy Sommerville - I feel love
18. GeekGirl - The Devil and the dolly
    

What an excellent mix, I think the world will agree. Who else could get away with such a mix of contemporary dance, 80s rock, and soul?

Rainbow eh? I challenge you all to hunt out an old Rainbow, REO Speedwagon or Asia song and have a good old listen with the volume turned up. Fantastic, that's what it is.


Drag up, wear wigs, throw glitter: VERY DISCO
On the subject of mix tapes, one of my favourite mix tapes EVER was the Off your tits mix, which was made for me in my second year at university. The first track on it was Sylvester's (You make me feel) Mighty Real. I loved it, mixed in with plenty of S' Express and loads of other shite, I almost wore the thing out.

I asked my friend David (who made the tape for me) why we never heard much of Sylvester anymore and he told me that he'd died. When I asked what Sylvester had died of, he told me AIDS. I wondered if Sylvester might have been gay, then I saw this:

I still had my doubts, right up to his appearance in the purple sequinned turban.

Oh hell, I can't fine Lana Pelay's Pistol in my pocket, so a bit of Divine will have to do instead. I love gay disco!




Move away from the chick peas
Going out for a curry tomorrow night. Not just any curry, it's an eat all you can for a tenner buffet thing. They do this lovely chick pea curry and I can't stop eating it. I could be in casualty by this time tomorrow night, having my stomach pumped with a Dyson vacuum cleaner and some industrial hosing.

And then you saw me diet.