{"id":5294,"date":"2013-10-14T14:09:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T13:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=5294"},"modified":"2013-10-14T14:45:54","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T13:45:54","slug":"hey-dj-longjohn-jukebox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/hey-dj-longjohn-jukebox\/","title":{"rendered":"HEY DJ! \u2013 LongJohn Jukebox"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Hey! DJ<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

01. What were your early musical influences?<\/h3>\n

My earliest musical influences were my parent\u2019s record collection.\u00a0 There was plenty of Rock n Roll to be heard and I used to love playing those records as a child.\u00a0 My mother was also a massive Elvis fan and she also loved Connie Francis. \u00a0 I was also very familiar with Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash as well.\u00a0 I can also remember playing Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s greatest hits a lot especially \u2018The Boxer\u2019.\u00a0 So I would have to say those were my earliest musical influences.<\/p>\n

02. What sort of music do your gravitate towards generally?<\/h3>\n

All sorts of stuff these days, but I still can\u2019t help but lean towards the 1960s, especially The Who and The Kinks. I also adore the West Coast stuff like The Byrds, Love and Jefferson Airplane.\u00a0 I also really like the C86 stuff, and even more so after the \u2018The Scared To Get Happy\u2019 festival, which I attended in June.<\/p>\n

03. What have been the bands or sounds that have always been in your play-list or record box?<\/h3>\n

Stuff like Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young, Curtis Mayfield, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Gil Scott Heron, The Beach Boys, The Velvet Underground, 13th<\/sup> Floor Elevators, The Byrds, Love and the Kinks.\u00a0 I also have something of an obsession with The Who, and played with alarming regularity over the past 18 years.<\/p>\n

04. What about the formats available, your thoughts on Vinyl, CD and MP3?<\/h3>\n

Definitely records.\u00a0 It might seem materialistic but I still love having a collection of music that I can see and handle, and the artwork on an album is an important part of what makes records so special. I can\u2019t get my head around downloading music at all, and it seems I am not the only one as record sales have increased dramatically in recent years despite the cost of buying an actual new release on record.\u00a0 Thankfully there are people who still feel an emotional attachment to the format as opposed to the virtual world of music that appears on the computer screen and can quickly dissapear at the click of a button.<\/p>\n

05. Any current bands or acts that you feel seem to be producing the goods?<\/h3>\n

There is a female trio who come from Liverpool amusingly called \u2018Stealing Sheep\u2019. The album in question is called \u2018Into The Diamond Sun\u2019.\u00a0 I have listened to this a lot recently and it defies easy categorization, despite the attempts of some music journalists to put the album in the Folk Pop tradition as it were. They are multi-instrumentalists, and I love the clever vocal harmonies as well.\u00a0 I also wonder how they could ever possibly pull this album off live on stage, as there is so much going on in this album musically.\u00a0 However I have it on good authority that they did manage just that.<\/p>\n

06. What can we expect to hear on your show or during your Sets?<\/h3>\n

I will probably play stuff like The Seeds, The Byrd\u2019s, The Ramones, the Primitives, Echo and the Bunnymen, 1960s girl groups, some Motown. However, no night would be complete without at least 1 song by The Who.<\/p>\n

07. Anything that you really hate and why?<\/h3>\n

Well there are things that annoy me, however, I am sure it\u2019s the same stuff that annoys many others who are resigned to the daily grind and that occupational hazard otherwise known as work.\u00a0 Musically there used to be a lot that riles me, but I have mellowed to some extent.\u00a0 However, I still can\u2019t quite understand how those crap showbiz dancers like Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow have managed to drag out their circus act for so long.\u00a0 They really do belong with Bruce Forsythe on those variety programmes like dancing on ice, or is it Strictly dancing on air?<\/p>\n

08. What about requests?<\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t think I will entertain the idea of requests at all. Hopefully I will play at least 1 record that people will like ha-ha.<\/p>\n

09. Tell us what you are up to at the moment, where can we catch you playing out etc.?<\/h3>\n

The club that I and my pal Louie are about to start is called \u2018Juke Box 7\u2019s\u2019<\/strong>, which is going to be held at the Elixir<\/em> in Euston. We both think a somewhat open music policy, is more fun and hopefully it will stop us from playing the same records every month. Luckily we have got on board a couple of other friends who have a similar ethic to us. Hopefully playing stuff that will have a broader appeal as opposed to playing genre specific music to a niche crowd.<\/p>\n

10. Your thoughts on the future and things that excite you beyond music?<\/h3>\n

I started writing music reviews recently and it is very enjoyable to say the least.\u00a0 So maybe my future could be in that kind of direction.\u00a0 Beyond music reading is my other vice.\u00a0 I am currently reading a book by Thomas Wright, called \u2018Oscar\u2019s Books\u2019.\u00a0 This is in my opinion a very convincing attempt to map the life of Oscar Wilde by the contents of his library.\u00a0 Wright offers compelling evidence that Wilde\u2019s life and work was influenced by what he read.<\/p>\n

11. Have you met or worked with anyone Interesting<\/h3>\n

I have come across some famous people, mainly by accident or at gigs. Most recently I met Tracey Tracey and Paul Court of the Primitives. I vaguely recall seeing Mike Joyce (Smiths drummer) very briefly on the same night.\u00a0 So \u2018I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour\u2019.<\/p>\n

12. Top fave tunes right now and fave other current DJ?<\/h3>\n

The DJ\u2019s I like are all connected to the New Untouchables in some way.\u00a0 There were others as well from the RnB and Northern Soul days, and some of these are also friends.\u00a0There are too many songs to mention here, however, here are a few that have been on a lot lately.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Gil Scott Heron \u2013 Lady Day and John Coltrane<\/li>\n
  2. The Hollies \u2013 Postcard<\/li>\n
  3. Stealing Sheep \u2013 Genevieve<\/li>\n
  4. Billie Holiday \u2013 Gloomy Sunday<\/li>\n
  5. House of Love \u2013 Real Animal<\/li>\n
  6. Felt \u2013 All the people that I like are those that are dead<\/li>\n
  7. The Primitives \u2013 Dreamwalk Baby<\/li>\n
  8. Scott Walker \u2013 Montague Terrace (in blue)<\/li>\n
  9. The Velvet Underground \u2013 I\u2019ll be your mirror<\/li>\n
  10. Belle and Sebastian \u2013 Like Dylan in the movies<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Hey! DJ<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

    01. What were your early musical influences? My earliest musical influences were my parent\u2019s record collection.\u00a0 There was plenty of Rock n Roll to be heard and I used to love playing those records as a child.\u00a0 My mother was also a massive Elvis fan and she also loved Connie Francis. \u00a0 I was also …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":5360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,128,73,71],"tags":[838,121,792],"series":[539],"class_list":["post-5294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-djs","category-hot-plugs","category-interviews","category-music","tag-dj","tag-eyeplug","tag-longjohn","series-hey-dj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5294"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5375,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5294\/revisions\/5375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5294"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=5294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}