Category Archives: TIIF

On September 24, 1991, two albums that paved the way for 90’s Alternative Music were released – Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ and Red Hot Chili Pepper’s ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’. Nevermind would eventually reach the Number One spot in the album charts in early 1992, and both albums would sell well over ten million copies each. This week’s playlist includes tracks from some of the albums that were released in September (or thereabouts) 1991. What an amazing month for music!

“I just want to hear something I haven’t heard before.”

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft was born on August 30, 1939.  After living in America for most of the Sixties, he returned to England and landed a DJ gig on the offshore pirate radio station Radio London.  He became known as John Peel.

He played everything from Blues to Psychedelic Rock always with a view to finding things that were completely left of center.  In 1976, he received a copy of the Ramones debut album and it had a profound impact on him.  The record tapped into his overwhelming enthusiasm for music outside the mainstream.  In September 1978, the Undertones released ‘Teenage Kicks’.  The first time it appeared on a John Peel radio show he played it twice back to back.  He immediately decided it was the best record ever made.  He even claims to have burst into tears, when he was driving and heard another DJ playing it on the radio for the first time.  For the rest of his life it was his favorite record and his number one desert island disc.

This week’s playlist is just a sample of songs that he loved and played to death on his various radio shows.  He was a total legend.  A one-off.  And, one of my all-time favorite DJs.

On July 30, 2001, the Strokes debut album, Is This It, was unleashed in Australia. The sound of the record was described as ‘a band from the past that took a trip to the future to make the record’. Most of the songs were recorded in one take. The result was a raw, lo-fi album with very little studio production. It eventually took the world by storm at the the height of DJ culture and electronic dance music. All the cool kids sold their turntables to buy guitars. What followed was an exceptional few years of Indie music. This week’s playlist contains some of my favorite tracks from that period. I hope you enjoy it. Have a great bank holiday weekend!

This week’s TIIF has a bit of everything from Blondie to LCD Soundsystem. I called it the ‘Hooky’ one because Mr. Peter Hook features on two tracks. He plays bass on Aries and sings on Dreams Never End, which was on the first New Order album after Ian Curtis died. The group were struggling to figure out who they were, an no one wanted Ian’s old job singing. If you ask me, Hooky dies a fine Ian impersonation on the track.

This week I’m changing things up a bit with a ‘Thank Indie It’s Friday’ playlist, which features some top notch early 90’s Indie tunes. I’ve also extended the playlist for the long Bank Holiday Weekend. Have a great one and rock on…