Here’s a bit of background on an event relating to what I could laughingly describe as one of my hobbies – making electronic music and radio and audio production. (But let’s be realistic here, as a creative independent, how much of your life is really hobby time? Do you count hobby as the bit you don’t get paid for, or even don’t strife for the same standards or dedication as professional work? That’s a bigger discussion!)
I’m very excited to be heading off on Saturday 1st March to the AV Festival in Gateshead (that’s Newcastle to the rest of the world), an international audio-visual art fest, to a day called Radiophonia, exploring the history of the genre made famous by the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Delia Derbyshire, Dr Who etc).
As well as a rare talk by Workshop Chief Dick Mills, my good friend and mentor Jean-Jacques Perrey will be giving an illustrated lecture, and no doubt telling many amazing stories of his invention of sampling (two decades before the sampler!) using tape-splicing technique adopted from musique concrete, and his friendship with Savador Dali, Walt Disney, Serge Gainsbourg, Edith Piaf, Jean Cocteau and many more!
To top it off, Jean-Jacques will perform with his American collaborator on current recordings, Dana Countryman, in an evening show, supported by two old familiar names from my Brummie days, Broadcast (DJ set) and Brian Duffy, a NESTA fellow of Modified Toy Orchestra fame.
And if that wasn’t enough to be my gig of the year – I have the great pleasure to be introducing Jean-Jacques’s afternoon lecture! It really is a huge honour for me. I first became aware of Jean-Jacques’s crazy, happy electronic music in 1998 while I was writing my university music dissertation ‘Space Age Music And The Moog‘, which looked at the history of electronic music in relation to Bob Moog and Jean-Jacques Perrey, and how analogue synthesis and lounge music had been reinvented by modern generation, including the Birmingham Lofi scene (Pram, Plone, Broadcast). In fact, this may be the first time Broadcast and Jean-Jacques have come together since my naive academic scribblings!
Then, I didn’t even know Jean-Jacques was alive as he was living in relative obscurity in France in the 1990s. I knew Bob Moog was around, but it wasn’t until years later in 2004 when myself and Bruce Woolley produced the Switched On Radio series for London’s Resonance FM that everything came full circle.
The series, celebrating the 125th anniversary of electricity, explored the history of electronic music and two of the shows we produced were in conversation with Jean-Jacques Perrey and in conversation with Bob Moog.
I made an epic trip to Switzerland one icy January in 2004 to record a six hour interview with Jean-Jacques. He is one of the most generous, insightful and genius people I have ever known. Not only did Jean-Jacques, along with Gershon Kingsley, have a heavy hand in transforming the sounds and production methods of popular music in the 1960s and 70s, but his humour and wisdom, from theories of embedding sounds of dolphins as a cure for insomnia, and creating ‘happy crazy loops’ of sound to bring a spirit of happiness into the world (we need it now more than ever), to countless amazing anecdotes incorporating some of the most important creative figures of the 20th century. Check out the interview.
I was almost as enamoured with my two meetings with Bob Moog in 2004 (read my short tribute to Bob Moog). Who would have know when we did the show about him in 2004 that this would be one of the last substantial audio inteviews of his life. I’m revisiting the inteview today as part of an academic piece I’m doing (the original tape was lost for some time, I’m going to make the full interview transcript available online very shortly – watch this space). It’s amazing also the insight and clarity Bob had of his legacy and the humility with which he viewed his place in musical history. At the end of the interview I ask if he has plans to retire. He says: “I haven’t thought that far ahead”. 15 months later, he died from a brain tumour.
They say never meet your idols, for you are sure to be disappointed. I disagree. Sure, I’ve met many idols (mainly from my teens) who have in later real life disappointed, but as an artist, or as a creative business, you need to be nourished and encouragement throughout your life in order to carry on. It’s so sad that Moog was almost bankrupt in the 80s, and Jean-Jacques was virtually ignored on return to his native France. Now they have reinvented their music and instruments with new, younger audiences. It’s so important to tell people to carry on, and what you like about what they do. Also as an artist, you need to have a mentor and feel a connection with historic legacy and to learn from the triumphs and failures of those before you. I’m so priviledged to have had, and to still have, two of the greatest 20th century musical figures as my real-life mentors and inspiration.
Hope some of you can make it on Saturday. If you’re there, come and say Hi.
