Yammer Music

I was a regular at The Record Club in its first few years in the Kirkgate Community Centre in Shipley, eventually becoming one of the organisers. By the time I left Yorkshire in 2014, we had regular attendance of around 20–50 people. Some people will go to any lengths to get off a committee!

Record Club had an unwritten ethos* that I admired: to encourage listeners to broaden their musical appreciation by the sharing of hidden gems. On top of this, it provided a space for music aficionados to nerd out on their favourite subject, in a sociable setting, once a month. People loved the club because it enabled them to discover new music in the company of fellow music nuts. I had this in mind when I decided to start a record club in the small seaside town of Swanage, in Dorset.

My first idea was to find a small group of friends who had more than a passing interest in music, and see if they wanted to meet in each other’s homes to listen to something they might not have heard before. It would be just like a book group, but for records. We tried this for a few months, and, although it was good, I felt that we needed to open it up to more people. And we couldn’t really do that in people’s living rooms.

So, I contacted a friend who just so happened to be the new Events Manager at the Mowlem Theatre (did I mention that Swanage is a small town?). I asked if they were interested in hosting a Record Club, like the one I enjoyed back in Yorkshire. It all worked out really well, as they already had the audio equipment to play vinyl set up semi-permanently, and a show bar which needed more business. All I needed to do was buy a couple of turntable styli and make sure that the gear was set up properly.

We kicked off in November 2024 with the first of a series of themed sessions, beginning with Time, and followed by Colours, Sea & Coast, Valentines, Ireland, Technology and Give the Drummer Some. Each session featured two albums, which were played from start to finish, as well as a couple of hours of tracks which matched the theme, brought in by the group. Last week, we had our first pub social. Next month, we are getting a time machine back 50 years to 1975.

It’s early days, and the club is evolving. I’m starting to hear the magic words “what’s that you’re playing?” more often. We seem to have a good number of regulars, and new people still appear every month. We are playing with the set up and the format, and people are coming forward, eager to curate monthly sessions or have a go at being DJ for 20 minutes.

If you live in Purbeck and are reading this, why not come along to a session soon? If you have some vinyl which fits with next month’s theme, bring it along to play. If you don’t have anything, just bring along yourself. If you love listening to music, you’ll be among friends.

Swanage Record Club: on Facebook; on Instagram.

[* No, not “you do not talk about Record Club.”]

It’s hard keeping up with the youngsters, the older you get. I used to pride myself in being fairly up-to-date with music, but latterly I have found myself slipping behind. Nowadays, festival line-ups read like Thai restaurant menus. Fortunately, I have a couple of musical daughters in their twenties, and they drip feed me with suggestions. Occasionally, they are successful, and I reap the rewards of tapping into a rich seam of new music.

So Medieval (Blue Bendy)

First off, I finally got to hear the new debut album by one of my recent favourite bands Blue Bendy, who I saw playing in Bristol last year (supporting Squid — result!). I loved their Motorbike EP, and I was looking forward to more of the same.

That wasn’t what I got though. They have clearly moved onwards and upwards since Motorbike. Their Cloudy single from the previous year was more of an indication of where they went next, with a broader range of compositions, styles and dynamics. It’s an interesting album of 21st century progressive indie, and I guess that this is what you get from six creative people pulling in different directions and then pulling together. No one idea is over-used, no song is any longer than necessary.

Tangk (Idles)

I probably wouldn’t have liked Idles if it wan’t for a series of random events. I’d heard them a few years back and moved on quite quickly, dismissing them as a shouty racket band. I’d heard Pop Pop Pop early this year in a random playlist, and it got stuck in my subconscious. So, when I saw the music video for the single, I realised that there was something cool going on here, and got hold of the album called, strangely, Tangk.

Tangk was co-produced by Nigel Godrich, otherwise known as the 6th member of Radiohead, and you can clearly hear the influence. Idles have been pushed to a new level of creativity and performance. Vocalist front man Joe Talbot actually sings as well as shouts, the guitars’ sounds are richer and more complex, we hear atmospheric keyboards, rumbling off-kilter bass lines and the drums crack with almost inhuman power. I soon realised that Idles hit the same pleasure centre in my brain that was inhabited by Killing Joke in the 1980s.

You’ll Have to Lose Something (Spirit of the Beehive)

The last album by Spirit of the Beehive (Entertainment, Death) was one of my most played albums last year (late to the party again). I love the way their music morphs throughout a song, changing form from one minute to the next. When I heard that their new “sweeter” album You’ll Have to Lose Something was coming out, I was actually worried it wouldn’t be as good. On first play, I thought maybe they had tried to make a softer, more accessible album, but like most good records, I discovered there were more layers waiting to be uncovered.

Despite the romantic break up of the longest serving core members (Zack Schwartz and Rivka Ravede) almost ending the band a couple of years ago, they instead changed and embraced the drama, writing about love and relationships in a new band dynamic, which continues their taste for sampling, chaos, morphing grooves, and adds delicate passages of subtle electronica and even classical instruments. This band has been on fire since the addition of Corey Wichlin five years ago. Long may they burn!