Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
One of the more interesting periods of my life was when I worked on The Core magazine in Adelaide in the early 1990s. I spoke about that time on ABC Adelaide this week.
Continue reading “Talking “The Core” on ABC Adelaide”
OK, I lied. I have managed to find a hard copy of the Club Escape Perfect List from 1991.
As before, this is a list of the “best” dance tracks released in 1991, as chosen by the crew at Club Escape, the Adelaide-based dance music program on Triple J.
I wasn’t involved in Club Escape that year. I’d already gone on to The Core magazine — and indeed this list is taken from The Core issue 12, from 15 January 1992. So the people to blame for this list are producer John Thompson-Mills (â€JBâ€) and presenter Paul Kitching.
[Update 6 September 2007: I’ve linked to as many of these songs as I can find on YouTube. Some of them may not be the exact mix played on air, but you get that. Enjoy. And if you find any others, please let me know.]
[Update 27 January 2011: I’ve just updated all the links back to the songs on YouTube. So many had suffered linkrot over the last few years. Not all of the links will be to the same mixes that were originally played on the radio.]
Top 10:
1. De La Soul: Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)
2. Quadraphonia: Quadraphonia
3. The KLF: Last Train to Transcentral
4. Enigma: Sadeness
5. Rozalla: Faith (In the Power of Love)
6. T99: Anastasia
7. Crystal Waters: Gypsy Woman
8. PM Dawn: Set Adrift on Memory Bliss
9. LL Cool J: Mama Said Knock You Out
10. Sabrina Johnston: Peace (In the Valley)
Before The Core magazine, there was Club Escape, a dance music radio program on Triple J which went to air on Saturday nights in Adelaide during 1990 and 1991.
I had the very great pleasure of presenting this program during its first year, along with promoter Scott Thompson — who also ran the coolest nightclub in the history of the universe, Metro on Rundle Street.
Club Escape was created by John Thompson-Mills (“JB”) who, through anally-retentive production, made Scott and me sound like stars.
I know I only wrote about The Core the other day. But on Facebook today someone’s brother saw that I was a “friend” and asked him to ask me if I had the Perfect List from 1991.
I don’t.
Well, I might have the audio somewhere, but not the list of tunes. Actually, I do have it, see this post.
However I do have the Perfect List from 1990 — our choice for the best 50 best dance music tracks released that year. And here it is.
How many of these tracks do you remember? And which ones would you prefer to forget?
It’s two weeks since I posted the last thing from my deep past, the Script Challenge, and no-one’s solved it yet. So I’ll post something less cryptic, a little less demanding — an extract from The Core magazine, which I worked on back during the brief period when I was cool.
Plus it gives me a chance to reminisce about The KLF.
The Core dates from a fantastic period of my life. I’d been working for ABC Radio for a few years, and along with club promoter Scott Thompson — does anyone know where he is now? — I presented Club Escape, a dance music program on Triple J created by John Thompson-Mills that aired in Adelaide in 1990-91.
Club Escape was hot. We had 11% of the total radio audience on a Saturday night, which means we probably blitzed the 15-25yo demographic. Nightclub owners told us their venues were deserted until the clock struck midnight and we were off the air.
It Was So Much Fun.
But I was getting tired of the ABC.
Dance music enthusiast Acb Tyson griped that there wasn’t a local magazine about dance music, and The Core was born. The first issue hit the streets on Wednesday 23 October 1991, and I left the ABC in February ’92 to concentrate on it full time.
I’ll write more about The Core another time. I’m even tempted to put all of the content online, since it chronicles an important period in the evolution of dance music in Australia. But for now, here’s an article from The Core number 6, published 27 November 1991. Enjoy!
Continue reading “The Core: “The KLF: Genius or Gibberish?””
Exhausted. Long day. Dying server repaired. Annoying client’s website almost finished. Still wide awake. I’m afraid that blue LEDs are dangerous. Billy Law (who I wrote about the other day) did a cool photo of ’Pong. He’s good. A friend’s blog posting about Acid-Base Karaoke disappoints: not a great night out, just some thing for teaching chemistry to kids. At least my video of The KLF arrived from England. I have got to start work on my song idea. And I haven’t even written anything about David Hicks’ sentence or the NSW Election. At least Hugh MacLeod is more bitter than I am.