A FIGURE who played a minor role in the history of popular music has sadly passed on, and 6Music are paying lengthy tribute. Can you work out who it is?
The DJ is discussing at length what a massive impact they had on luminaries including David Bowie, Fatboy Slim and Mark Ronson.
Well that could be f**king anybody. I mean no disrespect to Bowie but the man was famously open to influence even when he wasn’t blitzed out of his f**king mind which was the entire 70s. What else is there?
The DJ has put on a record which appears to be Jamaican dancehall, though it may edge over into dub.
Okay, a solid clue though one in a tricky area. They love Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry but I think he carked it over lockdown. King Tubby, was he still going? Augustus Pablo is a name I know? Are any of the Wailers alive to have now died?
The DJ is now interviewing another DJ about this ‘seminal’ figure ‘reconfiguring everything we thought we knew in the post-punk era’.
Right, that pins it down. So it’s someone eclectic and post-punk. John Lydon? No, they’d lead with the Sex Pistols. One of the Clash? Then again last time I fell for one of their breathless eulogies I thought it was Elvis Costello and it turned out to be the guitarist from Gang of Four.
The DJ is playing something which sounds like Brazilian funk with frequent use of whistles.
I know this! I’ve heard this. This is A Certain Ratio, that Factory band that never made it even in 1990 when anyone would buy anything with Manchester on it. It’ll be one of them! I’ve got it!
The DJ has referred to ‘unique musical genius evident from this recent Maida Vale session’.
Yes, ACR are exactly the kind of band 6Music invites to Maida Vale because New Order aren’t returning calls. My vast musical knowledge means I have correctly identified this obscure figure, if not their actual name. I shall now feel appropriately sad.
The DJ says ‘so if you’re just joined us, we’re mourning the loss of Jules Cook, the founder of the Indoor Fire label which brought us so many key no wave releases’.
Bollocks.
