50 Pound Note

Download full-size

The Beat Bash – 2 January 2014

DOWNLOAD (Right click and save – 256 AAC, 111 MB, 54:48)

Lover Come Back To Me by Dead Or Alive
I Need A Man by Eurythmics
Kooler Than Jesus by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Fine Time by New Order
Get Real by Paul Rutherford
Behind The Wheel by Depeche Mode
Helter Skelter by Meat Beat Manifesto
Jetlag by Severed Heads
Freemason by Boxcar
Left To My Own Devices by Pet Shop Boys

“I was faced with a choice at a difficult age…”

And so we begin. The story of The Beat Bash runs parallel to my coming out, in that I had some inkling, but didn’t fully understand things until I got to college, where some slightly older and more experienced friends gave me guidance. My eyes (and ears) were opened to a whole new world, and I embraced it fully.

In this first episode I tried to sum up what The Beat Bash was really like. Dead Or Alive was (original co-host) Brian Parker’s favorite band, so they appeared in almost every show. New Order and Depeche Mode were the biggest names in alternative dance music at college radio, and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult was representative of the typical Wax Trax! Records sound. The Beat Bash is where I first heard Severed Heads and Meat Beat Manifesto, who became hugely influential on my own music (I have a Severed Heads tattoo on my left forearm). There’s also my beloved Pet Shop Boys, who were wildly successful everywhere in the world but the US, where they were beginning to move back underground.