Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Frontman of Pulp, known for 'Common People' and 'Different Class', later presented art TV series and scored a Harry Potter film.
On the island
Eight records
Theme from The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
It's the theme from the T V series The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, which always seemed to be on in the school holidays when I was a kid. I don't think I'd last very long on a desert island at all. I've not got very many practical skills. But at least if I had this song playing maybe I could, you know, act the part a little bit.
It's kind of post-punk, it it's from a couple of years after punk happened, but punk was a a very important event for me because I was about 13 and I was very kind of conscious that I didn't look normal and stuff. And then punk came along and said, Hey, it's alright to be different. So suddenly all these kind of gorky, messy bits suddenly became, you know, fashion features and plus points. So I kind of grabbed it with both hands and really got into it. And this record reminds me of that time.
This I mean this is I guess it's a novelty record but it's one of those records that for some reason I find quite moving. There's something about it, even though it is uh silly, there's there's something quite touching about it. Just before I left Sheffield uh to go to London there was an all-night cafe and they had a jukebox there. This record was on it and I often used to amuse myself by playing it.
this record of his, Ten Guitars, reminds me of that because there was a pub just down from this factory that I was living in. And this song, which I'd never heard before, was a big favourite there. And I saw some very interesting acts there. ... And so this reminds me of that. This pub is now closed and that kind of entertainment is kind of gone. And this, I think on a desert island, this would make me smile listening to this song.
Sunday had made a tape for me and I I I had flu and I was laid in bed and I was feeling very sorry for myself and I I put this tape on. I thought maybe I was had a high fever or something and and it was just the flu that had made me imagine that this music was so good and I I rewound the tape and listened to it again and and I've I've kind of uh loved his music ever since really.
I remember very vividly first hearing this record. I'd moved to London, I was living in this squat and I was trying to put a curtain rail up, which was uh I think it took me just about all day. And uh I was listening to the radio and it's one of those moments where you have to stop what you're doing and pay full attention to it. And I apologise to Dory that it will always be associated with with bad curtain hanging in my mind.
I think it's a very powerful song. The first time I played it to a friend of mine, he just burst into tears. Whether that's appropriate on a desert island where, you know, some of the other choices I've kind of thought, mm, let's have something to jolly me along whilst I'm there. Anyway, I think this song it's one of those that whenever you hear it it kind of grips you and um so I think it would have to be there but maybe I would only play it on special occasions.
Sailing ByFavourite
It's sailing by, which is the music that gets played in the shipping forecast. I've for many years used this as an aid to restful sleep. I find something very comforting about listening to it when you're laid in bed. And also on a desert island it'd be happy because it would well it would remind you of the fact that there are boats out there listening to the shipping forecast and some of them might sail nearby so you could get rescued. This would help me. This would be like something that could help me deal with that isolation.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:41How did you come to write [the song Common People]?
the song is basically about a girl that I met when I was uh at art college in London. We're having a drink one night. I quite fancied this girl. And she came out with this stupendous statement saying that she wanted to live like common people. She wanted to move to Hackney and see how common people lived. So it came from that and uh I embroidered the story to make the girl fancy me.
Presenter asks
5:47Why did [the Brit Awards incident] become such a big story, as if you'd done something terrible?
I suppose it's one of those things that aren't supposed to happen. I mean, I never thought that it would happen. ... And I just thought the the the hypocrisy of the whole thing wa was really getting me down. And I was just arguing with our keyboard player, Candidate, and she's saying, Well, why don't you do something about it? Stop complaining And so I said, Yeah, I am going to then and so then I started walking to the stage ... and not really knowing what to do. So, of course, when in doubt, uh wiggle your bum about uh in front of people.
Presenter asks
10:24Did [your father leaving when you were seven] leave a mark? Do you remember the day?
I suppose it it must have left a mark, but um I can't remember being upset. I'm sure it ha has had a an effect on me, but ... I have no sense of of of a loss or something like that. ... my father just disappeared. He he just went to Australia and I didn't see him again for twenty odd years. So it was just bang, he's gone and so now it's just me, my sister and my mum.
The keepsakes
The book
Richard Brautigan
It's kind of funny. It it's funny and sad at the same time, and that's generally what I go for. It probably in a lot of these songs that I chose as well, you know, that So there's something about that mixture that that gets to me in some way. I think life's like that, isn't it? It's kinda funny, but then it's it always turns out to be a tragedy'cause the main character dies in the end, you know.
The luxury
I think as long as you've got a decent night's sleep, you can kind of deal with things a lot better I think. If anything was going to help me get through this experience, I think that would be it.
Presenter asks
15:31What were you thinking [during the six years you stayed in Sheffield on the dole]?
I just thought that if you did something and it was good, then somehow people would discover it. And what I ended up was I ended up being on the dole. ... after that, you just got into the dole living by Fortnite's culture and kind of just wandering around like a lost dog or something. And I didn't want to end up like that.
Presenter asks
20:30Was [the window ledge fall] a life changing event, or was it just something else that happened to you?
No, that was quite uh a turning point for me because then it was then that I kind of decided that I needed to get out of Sheffield, I suppose.
“The basic things that drive people are are always the same things. And so if you manage to kind of no matter how specific the thing you write about, if you manage to kind of write about it properly, it will kind of connect with people.”
“I felt that the information that I'd been given from pop songs really didn't prepare me for the real world of trying to go out with girls and relationships and stuff. And so I consciously wanted to write pop songs that had the messy bits in and the the kind of awkward fumbling bits because I felt that I'd been sold short in some way and I'd wanted to provide a public service or something.”
“I was now the observed rather than the observer, you know. You lost your invisibility. The hunter became the quarry or whatever. And it just did me in”
“You should actually have to do something to feel good, rather than just kind of swallow something.”