You’ll forgive me, I hope, that you’re not reading the latest edition of The Chain this morning, but I have some other stuff which I need to mark this weekend.
Today would have been my bestest mate and honorary little brother LlÅˇr’s birthday, and as regular readers will know, I like to share a tune and an anecdote which reminds me of him when this, and the anniversary of his passing comes around.
But first one of those “Please don’t be offended/complain” warnings that you often hear on old 60s and 70s television programs being reshown in all their uncut glory. But where they may warn of images, attitudes and language no longer considered acceptable, I’m simply going to say: watch out, this one contains a sentence uttered by someone from Neath.
A few years ago (by which I mean probably twenty, let’s say mid-2000s – I refuse to refer to them as the Naughties, although doubtless someone will now point out somewhere on these pages that I’ve done exactly that), our friend Mark decided to celebrate what was probably a significant birthday by hiring out a bar in Cardiff, getting some friends to DJ, and having a bit of a do.
Mark and LlÅˇr had done a couple of gigs DJ’ing together (I say a couple, I can only really recall one, but I’m sure there were more), and so, since Mark planned to get blotto on his birthday and didn’t want the responsibility of entertaining too, of course he asked LlÅˇr if he minded playing for a while. And of course, LlÅˇr accepted.
LlÅˇr was an exceptionally talented DJ, and didn’t get the opportunity to show what he could do as often as perhaps he should have. He had twin turntables set up in his bedroom, and I would often hear him practicing a particular mix between two tunes until he got it right; if not that, then he was goofing around with flavour-of-the-month mash-ups: Missy Elliot’s Get Ur Freak On over the Ghostbusters theme tune was one he often enjoyed showing off doing.
Anyway, as Llyr’s set progressed that night, he dropped today’s tune (but not this mix, which I don’t think existed at the time), Mark (he told me later, and I reported back to Llyr, who also found it funny) found himself chatting to one of his less-reconstructed buddies from Neath.
“Who’s this DJ’ing now?” Neathanderthal bloke enquired
“Mate of mine, Llyr,” replied Mark.
A pause, then the chorus kicked in, which prompted the following question:
“Poof, is he?”
Sylvester – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (Soulwax For Despacio Remix)
In case you’re interested, I picked that up after falling into a wormhole one day and finding myself watching this magnificent Soulwax gig on YouTube:
(And you’ll find some other tunes I pinched from that set cropping up in forthcoming editions of Friday Night Music Club.)
Happy Birthday, dude.
More soon.
A History of Dubious Taste