Tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty, You’re listening to the boy from the big bad city pleasant coastal town this is jam hot. Welcome to the Artist Spotlight for Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Slim, AKA Pizzaman, AKA…..well a lot of acts. Thirty plus in fact. Starting in 1985 with The Housemartins. The Housemartins had 2 UK top 10 albums and a number 1 with their accapela cover of Caravan Of Love. They Split in 1988 with Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway forming The Beautiful South and Cook returning to his home town of Brighton and began working with the studio engineer Simon … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Norman Cook

Good Evening and welcome to another in the occasional series “Artist spotlights on Female Spanish language rappers who’ve recorded versions of ‘Eres Para Mi’ with Julieta Venegas. (I feel this could run and run) Raised in Seville, she became involved in the city’s rap scene in the late 90s , recording tracks with SFDK, La Gota Que Colma and several others. Her first solo record ‘ A Jierro’ was released in 1999. It was a simple, Latin American tinged track that attracted the attention of major labels and led to her signing with Universal in 2000. In that year she … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Mala Rodriguez

Hell and welcome to a spotlight on Ana Tijoux, an artist you may remember from such TV montages as Born in France to Chilean parents in exile from the regime of Augusto Pinochet , it’s no surprise that her music is cosmopolitan (She raps in Spanish , French and occasionally English) and frequently highly politicized. Tijoux returned to Chile in 1993 after the country’s return to civil power. She performed with several rap groups eventually becoming a founder member of Makiza. Makiza lasted 9 years , during which time Tijoux worked on several other collaborations with , among others, the … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Ana Tijoux

Hopefully a properly formatted spotlight on James from 1994 to now.o So, I left my James spotlight after the double whammy of Laid/Wah Wah. Which, when I realised it was more than 20 years ago, slightly horrified me. The band took a few hits after ’94. Guitarist Larry Gott left and they split with their manager Martine Mcdonagh (With whom the singer Tim Booth has a son) Tim Booth took a break to record an album with Angelo Badalamenti as ‘Booth and The Bad Angel’ For their next album, the band set up in drummer Dave Baynton-Powers house to record. Whiplash was … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: James 2 – The Re-Jamesening

Sit down while I write a little on my personal musical constant, the Manchester band James. They were the first proper band that I became a fan of. My friend’s sister played Strip Mine all the time when it came out and my 11 year old ears immediately loved it. g”> I got the flower t shirt, grew my hair and decided that I was an ‘indie kid’. I bought Stutter and played it until the cassette wore out. They were weird and different form anything I’d heard before. I think on Stutterthey were different from anything else full stop. What is that album? Pop? … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: James