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Baker's Dozen

Coming Back To Beauty: Kevin Rowland's Favourite Music
Fergal Kinney , August 19th, 2020 08:16

Kevin Rowland guides Fergal Kinney through the songs that saved him, from self-discovery as a musician through the saving grace of music in recovery from drug addiction. Rowland portrait by Eliza Hill.

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The Bassheads - 'Is There Anybody Out There?'
There's a really powerful section in this, they sample Afrika Bambaata and it's just one of those tracks. If you don't feel that on the dancefloor then you won't feel anything.

I remember meeting Andrew Weatherall before acid house - he came up to me in a club in '86 or '87 and said "seen quite a bit in my twenty-three years", from 'Tell Me When My Light Turns Green'. You'd see him about. But then I saw him again in '91, and he was about to DJ and he told me just how much Dexys had meant to him, and I thought that was so nice to know. He really blossomed, he really did. He grew his hair longer and became so much more comfortable in himself. I wasn't close to him, but we'd be DJing at some of the same festivals in the last ten years. A really nice thing is that he remixed 'Grazing In The Grass' for us. He did it well below his normal rate, I said thanks he said “no problem, you can’t put a price on inspiration.” Very flattering. A good guy, man, he did some really good things. 

Anyway, for me, what happened after all of this is that cocaine took over. I'd go out to clubs occasionally, but I was too paranoid from the coke at that point.