Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Singer and writer; half of Everything But the Girl, solo artist, columnist and author, known for her subtle scrutiny of bittersweet subjects.
On the island
Eight records
My parents had that album. You know, there wasn't music on a lot in the house, but when it did go on it was slightly ritualistic. Often before Sunday lunch, mum would be in the kitchen cooking, dad would be in charge of the record player. And this would be what often went on. And so it just kind of seeped into my bones, I think.
I'm Still WaitingFavourite
I just remember thinking this song is about children but taking them seriously. You know, kind of implying that children's feelings can last and can be important. And when you're a young pop fan, feeling that you've been sort of referenced in a pop song is an amazing feeling.
When I first heard this, the opening lines of it blew my socks off. And then when I'd heard it a few times, I started joining in singing with her. And just sort of through accident, I do have a very similar kind of vocal range to Patti Smith. It's lowish. So I was sort of practicing at home singing along with her and that was pretty exciting.
Later that night, back in his student room, he played me this record. I think it was the first record he put on. And I hadn't heard it before. It's Solid Air by John Martyn. And it was quite a big moment in my life.
This is another track that is pretty much the sound of my childhood. This was the sound that used to come out of Keith's bedroom, and I really wasn't sure I liked this at all, but it fascinated me because I just thought, I don't understand this music at all.
This is for my sister, my sister Debbie, Shame by Evelyn Champagne King. She'll be leaping to her feet now going, yes, this is our song. We both used to like going to a disco together. Even through the years of getting into punk and joining bands, I never lost my love of going out for a dance.
I thought immediately, I must sing to my babies. That's what people do. They sing lullabies. But hang on, I don't know any lullabies. What do you sing to a baby? And this song was the first one that popped into my head that I thought sounds lullaby-ish. And I sat and sang it to my babies while they were still in the intensive care unit.
This reminds me of that period I was just talking about, I think, when the kids were small. Ben was working a lot as a DJ and running his label. So, you know, I lived this very domestic life, but one in which happened to a non-stop soundtrack of dance music. And, you know, the kids grew up with that as their soundtrack, so they all knew lots of these amazing records.
In conversation
Presenter asks
6:19Tell me about your parents. How did they meet?
They met during the war. Both my parents grew up in London and were teenagers at the beginning of the war, so both had the experience of living through the Blitz. Then my dad joined the RAF in 1944, I think he joined up and was posted for a while out in the Middle East. I think he was out in Jordan. And my mum went on holiday summer with a girlfriend and met his uncle at a hotel who said, I have this very lonely nephew who's in the forties and posted overseas and he'd love a pen pal. So they both wrote to him, enclosing a photo. And he chose my mum to write back to. So they wrote letters for a while, and then he came home on leave. And they met up, I think, at Hoban Tube in London. And as she always described it, he came up the escalator to her, sort of standing at the top of the escalator, looking very handsome in his RAF uniform. And he kept her photograph? He did keep her photograph. It was in his wallet when he died last year.
Presenter asks
7:30What was it like growing up in Brookmans Park?
Well, basically, it was great when I was a child. It was just countryside-y enough to be like living in a village. We lived in a little semi-detached house right by the shops, right by the primary school, and then there were fields all around. So, you know, I spent my childhood walking to school, walking to the shops, going for bike rides. That was great. I think when I hit my teens, I started to want a bit more excitement, as teenagers do. Well, you know, punk rock was happening. I got into that and wanted to go to gigs. And then living in a very conservative suburban small town was not ideal.
The keepsakes
The book
Leo Tolstoy
I'm going to be really corny and um take War and Peace, because A I've never read it, and B it's very long.
The luxury
I think being on a desert island without any lip balm would be a nightmare. But if I'm going to have some lip balm then I might as well have a little bit of colour in it. Because my lipstick is quite a big part of my life. Alla Dusty Springfield. Always reapply your lipstick before a lead vocal take. It's advice to live by.
Presenter asks
15:09By seventeen you were in your first band, so you were shy but you obviously wanted to be heard. What was going on there do you think?
Well classic ambivalence. I can look back and see that I was clearly very motivated and very driven by something. But it was about being heard. And I wanted to be part of it. I wanted to join in. I think that was one of the brilliant things about punk and post-punk and the whole sort of indie DIY scene. It was a moment when music wasn't just presented to you as something that you passively consumed or were entertained by. It sent out this message to you that you should come and join in. And I found that really exciting. I hadn't found another sort of hobby that I was mad about, so that filled that gap.
Presenter asks
32:59What was the impact of Ben's illness on you as a couple?
I think it it brought us closer together and it pushed us apart at a sort of very deep level. It it gave us that feeling of, wow, we've shared something really extraordinary, extraordinarily horrible, but nonetheless something extraordinary. But on the other hand, Ben especially had a lot of recovering to do, a lot of mental recovering to do, which meant he disappeared inside himself for a while. But for that sort of first year or so after he was recovering, I think we were both sort of recovering but in slightly separate spaces. And then what that led to was actually a sort of resurgence of that creative impulse. We were both I think a bit shell-shocked and in a slightly nerve-jangly state, which ironically was quite conducive to making more exciting music. It was like rediscovering that sort of febrile teenage state when you're living on your nerve ends and You know, can't wait to get your ideas out there.
Presenter asks
43:07What's the secret of your relationship, if there is one?
No, there isn't one, is the honest answer. I think it's very largely luck. There is something about us that suits each other. And through all the other ups and downs and the stuff you have to work on, I just think that that was a sort of lucky meeting.
Presenter asks
43:34What about the future for you? You've said 'I do things that are important to me.' What are they?
At the moment, you know, I'm lucky enough that I can juggle the two things of music and writing. And I do find music very uncontrollable. I can't make songs come. Often there's a gap of a couple of years or a few years in between records, and then you just have to wait for the next bit of inspiration to strike. Going out dancing has to be on the list as well because there was a tweet. I think about half past five in the morning, a couple of Saturdays ago. Right, that's fine. Um I can't read the actual tweet itself out on Radio Four at this time of the day, but the radio edit version is everything except going out dancing can get stuffed. Yes. May have been a little tired and emotional when I wrote that. And that was one of those classic accidental evenings where it started very sedately in a restaurant and ended up with some cocktails and before we knew it we were in a gay bar dancing, as you are. I don't do it all the time, but I absolutely love it. When when I'm in the middle of it, it's the most euphoric thing. And you know, perhaps as you get older, that's the the moments that are harder to find, those moments of real euphoria, and when they do come along. You just seized them by both hands. We were still there at the end when the DJ actually finished, played the last record and then it went quiet. And we were the ones on the floor going, NOOOOOO!
“I was looking for the vocal booth all that time, basically. I was just looking for a small enclosed space with my microphone.”
“I think it it brought us closer together and it pushed us apart at a sort of very deep level.”
“I don't want to do anything any more unless I'm absolutely desperate to do it.”
“No, there isn't one, is the honest answer. I think it's very largely luck.”
“Everything except going out dancing can get stuffed.”