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REBELLIOUS JUKEBOX
JONN PENNEY of NEDS ATOMIC DUSTBIN talks about the records that changed his life
1. THE BOOMTOWN RATS: "I Don't Like Mondays"
"THIS is the first record I ever listened to that wasn't about
flopsy bunnies and sunny days. When I saw the video, it scared the shit
out of me. Did I ever want to kill my parents? Not really, no. I was
a nice boy."
2. OMD: "Souvenir" (from "Architecture And Morality")
"THIS is when fashion began to occur to me - the first wedge haircut
came to my school and I had seven grandad shirts, loads of pleated trousers
and a pair of ox-blood, side-laced winklepickers. I suppose you could
say I was a bit New Romantic. I wooed my first wench to this record,
you know? Karen Guest her name was. She was mad about me. Until I started
wearing jumbo collars, that is."
3. DURAN DURAN: "Planet Earth" (from "Duran Duran")
"DURAN were the quality yardstick for pop in the Eighties. By this
time I'd become exceptionally fashionable. I was also in a classful
of New Romantic bimbos. Basically, I sussed out that while all the lads
were playing footie, I could get a John Taylor haircut and make myself
a lot more popular. Was I the class hunk? No. I'm sure I wanted to be,
but the football players were. I wasn't any good at football at all,
unfortunately. The one thing I excelled at was hiding."
4. JAPAN: "Ghosts" (from "Tin Drum")
"THIS was the first song I listened to musically, that made me
think, 'How the hell was that written? Where did it come from?' Plus
David Sylvian was the most handsome man alive. I joined the school band
around this time, a particularly unhappening and unhip bunch who played
keyboard-led electro-pop. We were trying to be OMD, I think."
5. COCTEAU TWINS: "Aikea Guinea" EP
"SOMEONE introduced me to this group at a party. What I thought
they said was 'Cocktail Stick'. The same person then proceeded to pour
Guinness down my front, for some reason. As with Japan, I'd never heard
music like this before and I couldn't work out how the Cocteaus did
it. I could never work out what she [Liz Fraser] was singing, either.
But this song still cheers me up no end whenever I hear it."
6. THE SISTERS OF MERCY: "Temple Of Love"
"WHEN I left school and went to college, another fresh fashion
disaster was looming on the horizon for me - Goth! In came the black,
crimped hair and sterility from all those tight jeans. The thing about
this song is that, if you were a Goth, you wanted to wear make-up and
spike your hair, but you were surrounded by homophobics - so the Sisters
became an outlet for people with Goth tendencies. I didn't wear make-up
for long, though. I fast realised that, especially with my dad questioning
me about my sexuality, it wasn't a particularly good idea."
7. ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN: "Bring On The Dancing Horses"
(from "Songs To Learn And Sing")
"SEEING The Cult at Birmingham Odeon and hearing Ian Astbury's
fake Yankee accent put me off Goth for life. Then I went to see Echo
& The Bunnymen and I realised there was more to life than black
eyeliner. Only a bit, mind. Echo were brilliant and this is just an
evergreen sing along album - it's like a Christmas album, where every
song is really catchy."
8. THE CURE: "On A Night Like This" (from "Head On The
Door")
"WHAT else are you going to listen to when Emma Peacock breaks
your heart? This is the one. The whole album says it all, really - it's
a survival kit for the brokenhearted. She chucked me, yeah, good and
proper. Twice. She just expressed her disinterest one day, and that
was it. But I still love her to this day. This was when I started writing
songs for the first time. They all had titles like 'Emma' and 'Peacock'."
9. THE WATERBOYS: "Trumpets" (from "This Is The Sea")
"I THINK if you really like this you've got to be a bit of a soppy
git, but I knew long ago that I was destined to be a soppy git. By this
time, the Neds were under way, and I had started writing lyrics and
singing for them. I sounded like a cross between Ian McCulloch, Wayne
Hussey and ... a halibut with scabies. This also reminds me of the days
when I used to see the Poppies and The Wonder Stuff in pubs in Birmingham
- real pop stars! - and I knew I wanted to be in their shoes."
10. SIMON & GARFUNKEL: "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her"
(from "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme")
"I LISTENED to this by accident one day and realised I'd been brought
up on Simon & Garfunkel - my mum used to play them to death when
I was a kid . This is the ultimate lovely pop song, and it's got the
sort of poetry you'd never live down if someone found you'd written
it. If you were caught writing this sort of thing at school or college,
you'd have to leave immediately. Leave the country, even. But this is
great. And I still haven't forgiven The Stone Roses for ripping them
off on their first album, Ian Brown, eh? What a twat."
11. JONI MITCHELL: "This Flight Tonight" (from "Blue")
"IT never would have occurred to me to listen to anything like
this, ever, but as soon as I heard this album I couldn't believe how
much I liked it. I listen to it a hell of a lot these days - it's on
my personal stereo every time we take off from Gatwick. I've always
preferred depressing music to yer average noisy racket - the kind the
Neds usually play. Will I ever release a solo acoustic folk album? No,
I'm not talented enough."
12. JULIAN COPE: "Not Waving But Drowning" (from "Peggy
Suicide")
"I'VE been a bubbling-under Cope fan for years, cos my brother
was always mad about him, but now I'm a serious Cope addict - ridiculously
obsessive. I've never met him, and I don't want to, either. He's probably
the last hero I've got left. This is the only concept album I can bear
to play all the way through. And this particular track is about someone
on acid falling off the back of a ferry. Not surprisingly, that's never
happened to me, firstly because I've never taken acid, and secondly
because I've never fallen off the back of a ferry. The chorus to this
goes, 'Sealink is here, then gone'. Thank you, Mr
Cope."
Next week: Michael Franti of The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy