I’ve been working at 6 Music for almost a decade. My time at the station has taught me some amazing things. David Byrne talked me through his all-time Desert Island Disco floor-fillers (he relies on Frankie Smith’s ‘Double Dutch Bus’ to get the party started, FYI). Bootsy Collins told me what he learned from James Brown (in a 4/4 funk song, the beat should be ‘on the 1’). Laurie Anderson shared the three rules for life that she drew up with her partner, Lou Reed:
1 Don’t be afraid of anyone
2 Get a really good bullshit detector
3 Be really, really tender
In our time on air, Sir Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Smokey Robinson and Iggy Pop have all popped in to tell us the stories behind their songs. It is a privilege to have been able to winkle information out of so many of my music heroes, but on balance – statistically speaking – they aren’t the ones who’ve taught me the most. Not even close.
I can thank the 6 Music listeners for that. They are the smartest, funniest, most informed and forthright people I have never met. It’s a pleasure to share my mornings with them.
Daily conversation with the 6 Music family has taught me everything, from how to keep going when you’re rowing solo across the Atlantic (one listener, Tara, needed a seriously motivational soundtrack that she could stand to listen to for 70 days – plenty of Prodigy!) to what it feels like to hear music for the first time (Jo Milne, who had cochlear implant surgery just hours before the broadcast, experienced that live on air with us, and wrote about it in her book, Breaking the Silence). We’ve learned about the healing power of music from a father and daughter who repaired their relationship by trying to reassemble his lost record collection, and another listener who had to relearn everything about the music she loved when brain cancer robbed her of her memory.
As well as sharing their personal passions, our listeners are also a repository for fascinating information about every genre and era of music. They are knowledgeable and opinionated about the records they love and the cultural context around them, too. Film, art, books, fashion . . . they know it all.
Whether it’s floating a controversial-but-compelling theory surrounding the subject matter they claim unites the B52s ‘Roam’ and Toni Basil’s ‘Hey Mickey’, debating which precise lineup of the Muscle Shoals Swampers best represents the FAME studios sound, or telling you which brand of sunglasses Prince used to wear (his own, marked with his Symbol – our listener knew because she caught them when he threw them into the crowd) every day is a school day and a fantastic club night rolled into one.
My team draws on this knowledge daily. Each programme has a feature that invites our listeners to show off what they know on air. Over the years we’ve picked their brains to create ‘Peoples Playlists’ on topics as diverse as the Roland 808 drum machine, birdsong, archaeology, the solar system, insects, dystopia, utopia and the collaborations of David Bowie. They are interested in everything from club bangers to music theory. So whether you’re discussing Frankie Knuckles or Theodore Adorno they will be happy to contribute.
All of this makes working at 6 Music endlessly surprising, fascinating and wonderful, and is why we’ve produced this book, with 99 brain-palpating quizzes. The subject matter is as wide-ranging as our playlist, ranging from the classic to the current and touching on every genre the ‘alternative’ universe encompasses, from old-school rock ’n’ roll to disco, punk, funk, hip-hop, electronic and (way) beyond. We hope you’ll enjoy it and polish up your musical knowledge in the process. Perhaps you’ll get to share it with your friends and family, too. Like music itself, that’s what makes it even more fun.
Good luck, and thanks for listening!
Lauren x