Andy Kershaw's radio programme would switch effortlessly between musical genres. His show would begin at 9pm and end at 11pm, handing over to John Peel for a further two hours. Four hours of the best music on British radio during the 80's and 90's.
Andy no longer works for the BBC and times are hard for him. Being unable to find employment, he relies on his podcast for donations to survive. A disgrace that the BBC have turned their backs on one of the finest DJ's ever to work for them.
You can find Andy's podcasts on the link below: (currently there are thirteen, two-hour shows available)
This is an FM compilation of shows that were broadcast between 12 June and 21 August 1993 on BBC Radio One.
Andy Kershaw - Summer 1993
BBC Radio One FM broadcasts
01. Junior Kimbrough & Lost Soul Boys - Done Got Old
02. Zion Train - Follow Like Wolves
03. Van Morrison - Too Long In Exile
04. Bill Kerchen & Too Much Fun - Who's That Who
05. Robert Earle King - Just Blow You Away
06. Lucky Dube - Victims
07. Everton Blender - Create A Sound
08. Lesley Whiner (C) - John Says
09. Buddy Guy - She's 19 Years Old
10. Buddy Guy - Damn Right I Got The Blues
11. Ry Cooder & Vishnu Mohan Bat - Ganges Delta Blues
12. Terry Allen - New Delhi Freight Train
13. Fela Kuti - Viva Nigeria
14. Kanda Bongo Man - Billy
t1-6: Andy Kershaw BBC Radio 1FM - Saturday 12 June 1993 / 9-11pm
t7-10: Andy Kershaw BBC Radio 1FM - Saturday 10 July 1993 / 9-11pm
t11-12: Andy Kershaw BBC Radio 1FM - Saturday 23 July 1993 / 9-11pm
t13-14: Andy Kershaw BBC Radio 1FM - Saturday 21 Aug 1993 / 9-11pm
Compiled from four partial broadcasts by BBC Radio 1 FM. (thebasement67, May 2022)
1. Junior Kimbrough & Lost Soul Boys - Done Got Old
Produced by the late, great music critic Robert Palmer, who featured Kimbrough prominently in his documentary film Deep Blues, this live session is a clear-sounding, loose, and crazily energetic heaping of electric blues. Recorded in a rural wooden converted church in 1992, this is remarkably Kimbrough's debut album. He'd made singles since the late '60s, but until Palmer rediscovered him, his nuanced, detuned and heavily rhythmic guitar style (which lies somewhere between Fred McDowell and John Lee Hooker) was wholly obscure. Palmer thankfully preserves the "wrong" notes and amp buzz, making this the closest one can get to the juke joint itself. Backing band the Soul Blues Boys—electric bassist Garry Burnside and drummer Kenny Malone—hold Kimbrough up perfectly while he lurches atop a deep blues beat. It's an album that has fantastic material, a mix of charging, biting rhythms, intense slow blues, hollerin', stompin' and moanin'. The lack of studio polish is a big plus here and the energy is wonderful.
2. Zion Train - Follow Like Wolves
Multimedia acid-dub collective Zion Train comprised vocalist Molara, DJ/bassist Neil Perch, trumpeter David Tench, melodica player Colin Cod and trombonist Chris. Formed in North London in 1990, its members initially came together as a dub sound system; the acid house-inspired "Follow Like Wolves." was a follow up to the Studio One veteran Devon Russell's remake of his cult classic "Jah Holds the Key" which was Zion Train's most successful record to date; it garnered airplay throughout Europe and led to the release of their debut LP, the mellow dub outing Passage to Indica.
3. Van Morrison - Too Long In Exile
Title track from the twenty-second studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. The album was produced by Morrison and draws on urban blues and soul jazz sounds, including collaborations with John Lee Hooker and Georgie Fame. Released in 1993 by Polydor Records, Too Long in Exile received positive reviews from most critics and reached #4 on the UK Albums Chart. It reached #29 in the US, Van Morrison's highest ranking since 1978's Wavelength (#28)
4. Bill Kerchen & Too Much Fun - Who's That Who (session)
Bill was one of the first to mash up rockabilly, country, western swing, honky-tonk, jump blues, jazz, boogie-woogie and even the “psychedelic folk rock” he played with the Seventh Seal, the band he formed while attending the University of Michigan. (MC5 manager/activist John Sinclair got them a dealon the ESP-Disk label, home of Sun Ra, but the band turned it down.)
Somewhere between steering Commander Cody’s “Hot Rod Lincoln” into a top-10 hit and scoring a Grammy nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance, Kirchen dubbed his sound “dieselbilly,” wrapping his fondness for country’s truck-driving song subgenre (as in big rigs, not pickups), its intersection with the Bakersfield Sound and his own name into one memorable moniker.
Kirchen’s right-place-at-the-right-time career has put him at the forefront of many musical movements, including outlaw country; Commander Cody’s 1974 album, Live from Deep in the Heart of Texas, recorded at Austin’s legendary Armadillo World Headquarters, made Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Albums of All Time list.
Robert Earl Keen, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter. Growing up, Keen was interested in music, sports, movies and writing. He attended Texas A&M University, and began playing guitar and learned to read and write music, basing his style on folk, country, blues and roots rock.
In 1977 he rented a house from landlord Jack Boyett, where his neighbor was a then-unknown Lyle Lovett. The two became friends and performed together on the front porch. This eventually grew into inspiration for a song entitled "The Front Porch Song", which both would add to their repertoire. In 1980, Keen graduated from Texas A&M, moved to Austin, Texas and began writing for a newspaper. Soon he was performing in Austin's nightclubs and live music venues, building a solid following. In 1984 he financed the recording of his own EP and distributed it regionally.
In 1986, He moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Discouraged by the polish of the new country sound and unable to land a recording contract, Keen moved back to Austin. In 1989 he released his national debut album, West Textures.
His 1993 release, A Bigger Piece Of Sky (from which this track was selected), gained wider acclaim, both amongst fans and critics.
South African star Lucky Dube keeps gaining more and more converts, and his newest release manages to ease him into a lighter, more commercial setting without diluting his message or sound. Dube is at his best on defiant, fierce material like "Soldiers For Righteousness," "Little Heroes," and "Different Colours/One People," although he does manage to sound an effective contrasting romantic note on "Lovers In A Dangerous Game" and "You Know Where To Fine Me." Not quite as dramatic as some past Dube albums. Andy Kershaw selected this title track from the album, which was released as a single.
7. Everton Blender - Create A Sound
One of Jamaica's most popular singers. Having recently returned to singing. Blender used to be known affectionately as "Bubbaru," where he honed his singing skills at local dancehalls, usually covering Dennis Brown songs. However in order to support his family, Blender took a break from performing and worked at odd jobs until his recent re-appearance on the Star Trail label. It is this reincarnation that has already spawned original hits like "Create A Sound," "Family Man," and "My Father's Home." His recent performances at Jamaica's massive Sunsplash and Sunfest week long musical festivals with DJ Kulcha Knox delighted the crowd and sent the word out that Everton Blender is ready for something big. Are you ready? The 14 tracks on 'Lift Up Your Head' will leave you longing to hear more from Jamaica's brightest new star....If you think these notes sound like liner notes you'd get on the back of a reggae album, you would be right, this single played by Andy, appeared on the 'Lift Up Your Head' album released the following year in 1994 by Heartbeat Records.
8. Lesley Winer (C) - John Says
Musician, poet, iconoclast, model, artist, enigma. Leslie Winer is many things.
Born to a teenage mother and sold for $10,000 in a black market adoption
when she was just hours old, Winer has always lived an uncommon life.
She grew up in Boston with a voracious appetite for music and the
written word and embraced the city’s lively jazz and folk scene in the
‘70s. Moving to New York for art school, she gravitated towards a
vibrant crowd of intellectuals, artists, and radical thinkers—or perhaps
they gravitated towards her.
There, Winer formed an unlikely friendship with writer and artist
William S. Burroughs and lived on-and-off with Jean-Michel Basquiat. In
London, where Winer began her musical ventures in earnest, she was a
regular at Leigh Bowery’s underground club Taboo, where she met many of
her collaborators, including filmmaker John Maybury, Kevin Mooney (of
Adam and the Ants), and Boy George, who once declared that Winer “might
just be the coolest woman on the planet!”
Winer’s striking looks also attracted fashion designers and
photographers. Throughout the early ‘80s, she was an in-demand
model—appearing in campaigns for Valentino, Christian Dior, and Yohji
Yamamoto, and serving as a muse for a young
Jean-Paul Gaultier, who later dubbed Winer “the first androgynous
model.” She posed for Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, and Pierre et Gilles,
and graced the covers of The Face, French and Italian editions of Vogue,
and Mademoiselle.
But music was Winer’s true passion and, at the turn of the ‘90s, she
would unknowingly help invent the massively popular genre known today as
trip-hop.
On her debut, Witch, Winer masterfully blended the uninhibited sampling
of early hip-hop with dancehall basslines and programmed beats, while
weaving mesmerizing—and coolly-detached—spoken-word vocals into her
ambient tracks. It was unorthodox in the most delicious ways.
The album was a bold experiment by the self-taught artist, who enlisted a
number of talented musicians in the sessions, including Culture Club’s
Helen Terry, Karl Bonnie of Renegade Soundwave, former Public Image Ltd.
bassist Jah Wobble, and Kevin Mooney, as well as Marco Pirroni and
Matthew Ashman (both of Adam and the Ants, among other acts).
While Witch was finished in 1990, it wouldn’t be released for three
years, due to the whims of Winer’s label. In the meantime, several
tracks made their way out into the world as early as June 1990, thanks
to BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who later referred to Witch as “the
definition of a hidden gem.”
Despite her fierce demeanor and steadfast focus, she was consistently
disregarded and typecast by the industry. Many of her early
collaborators failed to credit her work, while others simply overlooked
her influence. Witch, for example, was so delayed that by the time the
album saw the light of day (released under the pseudonym “©”, trip-hop
was gaining mainstream traction via acts like Portishead, Massive
Attack, and Madonna. Although Winer eventually gained wider
acknowledgment (prompting the NME to give her the dubious distinction of
“The Grandmother of Trip-Hop”), Witch initially went sorely unnoticed.
Following the disappearance of Witch, Winer continued to record,
undeterred by the elusive nature of mainstream success in the modern
music business. Her network of inspired collaborators continued to grow
and expand, yet her influence remained largely a secret except to those
in the know, such as Grace Jones and Sinead O’Connor, who would cover
her songs.
.......this is such a great track, that like me when I first heard it, you will be searching for the album, it really is a forgotten treasure.
9. Buddy Guy - She's Nineteen Years Old
10. Buddy Guy - Damn Right I Got The Blues
These two (of three) tracks were performed in session for the BBC. The first, a cover of a Muddy Waters song appeared on his current (at the time) album 'Feels Like Rain,' released by Silvertone Records. The latter performance of the title track is stretched to near twice its original album length, it was released in 1991, also on Silvertone Records.
11. Ry Cooder & Vishnu Mohan Bat - Ganges Delta Blues
Ry Cooder has long had an interest in other
people's music, from the blues and gospel of black America through
classic jazz and the music of Cuba. Even by this standard, his meeting
with Mohan Vishwa Bhatt is certainly a departure. He is neither a
serious student of Indian music nor in any way a master of its
intricacies. Yet on his improvised session (this album was recorded
without rehearsal in one evening), he and Bhatt truly collided musically
and created moments worthy of the world-music Grammy they received for
it. Bhatt is an iconoclastic character himself. He plays a modified box
he calls the mohan vina that is a hybrid of a classical Indian
instrument and slide guitar. He is long trained in the arduous classical
style, yet his work has always demanded a lot of freedom. His duets
here with Cooder are completely unique, liberating both artists from the
usual constraints and creating a new musical style that is unlikely to
be repeated or imitated. (Louis Gibson)
12. Terry Allen - New Delhi Freight Train
Legendary Texan artist Terry Allen occupies a unique position straddling the frontiers of country music and conceptual art; he has worked with everyone from Guy Clark to David Byrne to Lucinda Williams to Bruce Nauman, and his artwork resides in museums worldwide.
This music harkens back to an era of Lubbock mostly gone by this point. The 1970's in West Texas was a convergence of so many cultures and a microcosm of the world getting smaller by the day. Terry Allen captures the spirit wonderfully as his music and lyrics represents the beauty and divinity of the landscape and people. One of the best tracks selected from the album Lubbock (on everything).
13. Fela Kuti - Viva Nigeria
This song was announced as still being relevant & timely in 1993 by Andy Kershaw. Himself a traveller to many war riven countries, working in those days as a BBC journalist. The song is as relevant today as then. According to Tejumola Olaniyan in his Indiana University Press biography, Arrest the Music! Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics, "Viva Nigeria" turned out to be the composer's "most politically scandalous and compromising composition".
Although
it is written in his trademark Afrobeat style, it is not a typical Fela
Kuti song. For one thing, he doesn't actually sing but talks
throughout, calling for peace, love, and the brotherhood of all
Africans, especially his fellow Nigerians. Running to only 3 minutes 45
seconds - very short for him - it was actually recorded in Los Angeles
in 1969 during the Biafran War, thus for the casual listener in the next
Millennium, its full significance will be far from obvious.
Dedicated to all people living in a war torn country and those displaced as a consequence.
"This is brother Fela Ransome Kuti
This is one time I would like to say a few things
Men are born Kings are made
Treatys are signed Wars are fought
Every country has its own problems
So has Nigeria so has Africa
Let us bind our wounds and live together in peace
Nigeria, one nation indivisible
Long live Nigeria Viva Africa
The history of mankind
Is full of obvious turning points and significant events
Though tongue and tribe my differ We are all Nigerians
We are all Africans War is not the answer
It has never been the answer
And it will never be the answer fighting amongst each other
Let's live together in peace
Nigeria one Nation Indivisible
Long live Nigeria Viva Africa
Let's eat together like we used to eat
Let's plan together like we used to plan
Sing together like we used to sing
Dance together like we used to dance
United we stand, divided we fall
You know what I mean
I hope you do
Let us bind our wounds and live together in peace
Nigeria one nation indivisible
Long live Nigeria Viva Africa
Brothers and Sisters in Africa
Never should we learn to wage war against each other
Let Nigeria be a lesson to all
We have more to learn towards building then destroying
Our people can't afford any more sufferings
Let's join hands Africa
We have nothing to lose
But a lot to gain
War is not the answer
War has never been the answer
And it will never be the answer
Fighting amongst each other
One nation indivisible
Long live Nigeria
Viva Africa."
14. Kanda Bongo Man - Bili
The long-reigning king of soukous
Anyone attempting to write the history of African music’s impact on British tastes during the late 1980s had better call Kanda Bongo Man. He’s a key protagonist in the story, a singer and bandleader who, championed by John Peel and Andy Kershaw on late-night Radio One, introduced the sizzling sound of soukous to delightedears. At that time, he was invariably accompanied by the equally mighty Diblo Dibala, the speedball six-string wizard who was arguably Africa’s greatest guitarist at the time. The Kanda Bongo Man sound, notable for featuring more guitar solos than their contemporaries,filled venues across Europeand beyond,as well as pioneering the ‘kwasa kwasa’ dance move that all soukous fans attempted to master. All these years later, Kanda Bongo Man is still the man –a consummate performer of style and energy. Come worship the king.
