Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

Love is the Message returns from our summer break just in time for the Bank Holiday Weekend, which in London means one thing: Carnival. In this episode Jeremy and Tim cover the history of Notting Hill Carnival, the largest such event in Europe. They discuss patterns of Caribbean migration to the UK, traditions of carnival from Ancient Greece to Trinidad and Rio, and the particular story of Notting Hill, with its steel bands, dub sound systems, parade and party. They return to Lovers Rock, consider legendary stages like Aba Shanti, Good Times and Saxon, and interrogate how Bakhtinian and Deleuzian ideas can be applied to this unique expression of Black British culture. Plus: David Mancuso in Trinidad, and a young Jeremy tries to buy Pass the Dutchie. 

If you’re going to Carnival this weekend, enjoy yourself and take plenty of water!

Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
Loveisthemessagepod.co.uk
Produced by Matt Huxley

Tracklist:
Laurel Aitkin - Boogie in my Bones
Hells Gate Steel Orchestra - Ah Love It Here
Sir Coxson - King of the Dubb Rock
Louisa Mark - Caught You in a Lie
ASWAD - Concrete Slaveship
Smiley Culture - Cockney Translation
Papa Levi - Mi God Mi King
Ted Taylor - Ghetto Disco (Norman Jay Edit)
Cajmere - Brighter Days
Aba Shanti-I - Zulu Warrior
Moliy x Shenseea x Skillibeng - Shake It To The Max

We at LITM are still on our summer break, but while we’re away we wanted to share this interview on that most Northern of subjects, Mark E Smith of The Fall. Joining Jeremy for this discussion is Dr David Wilkinson. With reference to David’s essay ‘Mark E. Smith, Brexit Britain and the Aesthetics and Politics of the Working Class Weird’, the pair get into the weeds on Smith’s complicated politics, working class conservatism, the Weird, and the type of guy MES represents: autodidactic, contrarian, nostalgic, boozy. They relate The Fall’s work to pulp Modernism, loss and libertarianism, excavate the role of boredom in the development of the band’s sound, and ask: why should we care?

David Wilkinson is the author of the book ‘Post-Punk, Politics and Pleasure in Britain’. He is Senior Lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Thanks so much to David for sharing his time and thoughts. Tim and Jeremy will return together in the next few weeks.

Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk
Produced by Matt Huxley

It's just Jem this week, mopping up the last suds of our post punk mini-series with a series of British bands who ripped it up and started again. We spend time with The Slits fantastic dub punk debut Cut, shouting out the production of the great Dennis Bovell on the way, then drive up the M1 to explore the rich pickings of that great musical city, Sheffield. With reference to an early Human League single, Jem unearths the imminent possibilities of the crumbling Fordist world. We hear two tracks from Public Image Ltd, before digging into one of our host’s favourites - the Raincoats - to explore feminist aesthetics, Maoist China and an unlikely meeting with Kurt Cobain. We round out the piece with two classics from the mighty Clash. Not a bad haul for one year.
We’ll be away for a few weeks on various summer excursions, but will be back soon after with more music, dance floors, sound systems and counterculture. Tune in, turn on, get down!
Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
https://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/
Produced by Matt Huxley

Tracklist:
The Slits - Typical Girls
The Slits - Adventures Close to Home
Human League - Empire State Human
Public Image Ltd - Death Disco
Public Image Ltd - Socialist
The Raincoats - Fairytale in the Supermarket
The Raincoats - Lola
The Clash - London Calling
The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket

Books:
Audrey Golden - Shouting Out Loud: Lives of the Raincoats
Frith & Horn - Art into Pop
Reynolds & Press - The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock’n’Roll

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to join.

We made it: what started as a ten-minute conversation and became a six episode mini-series finally reaches it conclusion, with the 1978 release of Arthur Russell’s Kiss Me Again. Jeremy and Tim conclude the genealogy of this epic track, detailing it’s recording, dry runs in the club, how the record was sold to the punky Sire Records, and how the Arthur came to put together the players. Friend of the show Nicky Siano gets an extensive mention as the record's co-producer, and his club the Gallery plays host to its first outings. Tim and Jeremy compare notes on how Nicky’s aesthetic differed from David Mancuso’s, share the story of how Arthur came to begin dancing at the Gallery, and explore his queerness both in contact with the dance floor and with his friend and mentor Allen Ginsberg.
Elsewhere in the episode the guys ruminate on soft rock, spend a bit longer talking minimalism, and detail Arthur’s ill-fated trip to Italy to join Le Orme…

Tracklist:
Nirosta Steel - Lost in Music
Arthur Russell - Don’t Forget About Me
Allen Ginsberg - CIA Dope Calypso
Le Orme - Canzone D’Amore
Arthur Russell - Oh Fernanda Why
Barbara Pennington - Twenty Four Hours a Day
Desmond Child and Rouge - The Night was Not

We’ve finally made it - the pivotal Post Punk year of 1979. Well, sort of. It wouldn’t be LITM without a little extra detail, so Jeremy and Tim cue up our arrival with a couple of tracks from ’78 for good measure. They talk Tom Robinson Band, Undertones and the Only Ones, exploring ‘dole queue rock’, everydayness and the limits of politically self-conscious music of the period. Later in the show they tuck into a couple of indie disco staples to examine emergent New Wave, de-masculination, Manchester and the Iron Lady. Finally, for the first time on the show, the guys spend time on perhaps the most iconic post punkers of all: Joy Division. 

This is our last main feed episode for a little while - we'll be back in mid-August. Until then, why not become a Patron and explore our LITM Extra archive, featuring dozens of bonus shows?

Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk
Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:
Tom Robinson Band - Winter of ’79
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks 
The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
Blondie - Heart of Glass
Machine - There But for the Grace of God Go I
The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry
Joy Division - Disorder