Players

Rob

I’m a husband, dog walker, cat tolerator, University worker, ultimate frisbee player and former film, TV and music writer. I once turned down an invitation to go on TFI Friday with New Order.

Music I love

I started out with The Smiths, The Fall and Public Image Limited, and things have progressed from there in various directions. Mainly downhill. These days i’m a musical gadabout, flitting from noisy US post punk experimentation to stately alt-country via indie whimsy and shattered electronica. I’m happiest when there’s something not quite right about what’s going into my ears. It bothers me that I never seem to explore any new artist or record in the depth I used to when I was a younger man, but then my cultural and emotional life over the last 20 years has been a gradual drift towards the shallows.

Music I don’t love

I’m prepared to give anything a go and keen to be made to listen to new things. Jeez, that’s weak. Okay, I’ve always hated ‘Careless Whisper’ because it knocked ‘Two Tribes’ off the number one spot. And where the hell were those ropes dangling from anyway? Was he in a school gym? That just makes it worse!

More about me at www.monstershark.com.

Nick

I share my birthday with Brian Eno. I know a lot about the Hungarian World Cup team of the 1950s. I used to write about music for some websites and very occasionally some paper places too. I’ve been thanked in the liner notes of a number one album (it’s not a particularly good album, though).

Music I love

Orbital blasted me out of my Beatles and Stone Roses inspired indieboy safety zone at the age of 16, and I’ve been looking for music that bridges the gap between those three artists ever since, pretty much. The search has taken in Miles Davis, Beastie Boys, Sugababes, Motown soul, and a whole load of other stuff I can’t remember. I’m fascinated by the ways that people listen to music, the whens and wheres and whys of how they choose what to listen to. I’ve been accused of being militant about “sound”.

Music I don’t love

I’ve never got pop country, opera, or metal, but I tend to ignore them rather than actively dislike them. I have a low tolerance for hyper-compressed self-important modern mainstream rock. Beyond that my dislikes are extreme and unpredictable.

I blog at www.sickmouthy.wordpress.com.

Tom

My musical knowledge is vastly superior to my ICT skills but is still not up to much. Brought up in a sleepy village in the heart of Wurzel country in a house that contained one ‘pop’ LP, it is a miracle that my musical horizons go beyond Bix Beirderbecke and Brahms.

I have the following to thank:

The Beatles – Sgt Pepper’s was THAT album. Thank you Auntie Chris for foisting it on my ungrateful old man.

Boney M – Because on the other side of that Memorex C90 was Abbey Road and that was the record that taught me that if at first it sounds horrible but intriguing, it’s probably worth persevering with….and Boney M sounded great from the first listen…and I haven’t listened to them in a while.

That Petrol Emotion – Because on the other side of that TDK C90 was Candy Apple Grey (or Candy Apple & Veg – Roger Clotworthy’s writing was terrible) and Husker Du’s album made me realise that some of the records John Peel was playing at the time were actually fantastic…even better than Dire Straits….possibly.

The Melody Maker Xmas edition 1988 – MBV (at their Isn’t Anything peak…don’t lynch me), Pixies (at their Surfer Rosa peak), Nick Cave, REM, Cocteaus, Spacemen 3, Dinosaur Jr, House of Love (when they were good)..all these amazing bands I’d never heard of.

Pitchfork Xmas list 2003 – A casual glance and a xmas list that contained barely anything I recognised…and I thought I knew music! An epiphany.

….and Rob….of course.

Music I Don’t Love

Whitney, Tainted Love, most Hip Hop, most R ‘n’ B, Oasis, Phil Oakey’s singing, The Doors, Frank Zappa, Desire by Bob Dylan, U2, songs with too many notes, Four Tet gigs, bands with perms (apart from Leo Sayer of course), songs with too few notes, Pink Floyd, anything with Eric Clapton on it, jazz noodling, the empty rhetoric of The Sex Pistols, Thom Yorke’s whinging….in short: music that has had to be made as opposed to couldn’t not be made.

Graham

I’m only allowed to attend as part of a therapy programme to deal with post-traumatic hippy/proggy/indie/heavy rock syndrome.

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

I came along late in the day…..only joining in 2016.

Music I love I started out collecting punk when I was about 13/14 and gradually progressed (if you can call it progression) through shoegaze to dance and back to guitar again (I think there was a period in the early 90s when I didn’t listen to any guitar music). I have pretty catholic tastes where music is concerned, and I am easily persuaded. So basically I’ll love most things that the other DRC members bring along.

Music I hate Er, not so keen on Jethro Tull and anything that takes itself too seriously. Other than that I can turn my ear to most things musical.